Sunday, February 24, 2013

Sunday the 24th of Feb. 2013

Nothing was so special about today, yet I think that maybe is a special thing.

Things that were different today than regular Sunday were...

The manga writer, brother Akio Asuka, visited my home ward, Kasugai, and held a fireside. He calls himself a science entertainer. He has published more than 100 books and comic books. He picks topics that are world wonders and connect to church doctrines.
In order to see him and listen to him, about 70 people (most of them were not member of the church) came to church. They seemed to be accepting what brother Asuka was saying. I talked to one of the lady there and she told me, "it was my first time coming to a church but I heard that what's-so-called Baptism was needed for me to be saved." I was just astonished the power of fame. How it can work for good. I briefly explained to her about what getting baptized mean and why we need the church.

So today was a long day at church from 10 am to 6 pm.

When I got home, my neighbor friend gave my daughter a gift. Those are dolls for the girl's day, coming up March third. 
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She was a one happy girl. She was excited to get the dolls but probably more for snacks that were in there.
Today, she did not cry to go to the nursery and played and played. She even told me what she did, which were "ju-ju (juice)," "cracker," "nurinuri (coloring)," and "anpanman (her favorite character)." She is a doll! 

Sunday, February 3, 2013

節分

Setsubun, the day that demons come, was today the Feb. 3rd this year.

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I had never seen Yuna got so scared.


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Poor Yuna was so scared that she started to put all the beans into her mouth. We stopped her to avoid choking but she cried till the demon ran away.


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We threw soy beans, shouting "Demons out! Luck in!" How popular is this event? It is so popular that every pre-school in Japan would do it so as families with little kids.

As I grew up, my dad shouted aloud, throwing soy beans to unseen demons. So I never got scared with it. My discovery was that the kids at that young can still recognize what's scary.

After the event, she remembered the word of demon in Japanese, Oni. Unfortunately, it sounds similar to her favorite food, onigiri (rice ball), in which she calls "oni." So I got really confused this morning if she wanted a rice ball or was still scared of the demon.

She is recovered well and right now she says "oshimai" (I'm done with that talk) whenever we talked about the demon and shakes her hand.


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Thanks, Mika, for getting the costume from your kindergarden, and being the demon of the day!