Help Wanted - Any Japaneese language useful!!!

I am off to Japan on Friday - I have a presentation to give at a conference. Its in Yokohama and I have been reliably informed that aparantly they don't speak english in the area (only in tokyo city centre). As you well know that can't be true and thus I do not believe my reliable source [I mean, come on, they should be able to speak english anywhere in the world], but just in case the former were to be true, any form of help with the lingo will be very well appreciated.

As in the majority of cases where I've been, when the locals find that you are trying to learn their language by speaking a few of their words, they tend to then reveal that they do actually understand some english.

You may ask, how have I been preparing for my trip? - well, thus far, I have taken some pictures of the taxi rank, a hotel, the toilet and the building I will be going to.

Any more ideas on other pictures I should have will be very much needed. I look forward to your coments. Many Thanks people.

Seriously though which is it - Your true identity

The title is quite ominous but I hope as I tell the tale the title will become a tad clearer. As I read xoxo blog it reminded me of this man I once met. I had met this refreshing looking guy a while back, very pleasant to the eye and it appeared that he had everything going that a young girl would want in a man she would like to date. He sounded ambitious, and was just finishing dental school. He intoduced himself to me - adeniran adegoke folusho omotayo tewogbade - or something on those lines. I smiled. Finally a nigerian, a nigerian I thought to myself; I grew up in the middle of nowhere where the population was mostly white, and it was refreshing to meet a go getter who happened to be nigerian. So I went on to ask him where he was from [you know ladies how you know the answer, but you still ask the questions] - I assumed he was going to say I grew up in Delaware but my parents are originally from nigeria or something of that nature - [you know how some nigerian youth are who grew up outside nigeria identify themselves] - so imagine my shock when the guy tells me he's from south carolina, originallyfrom Georgia. I pressed on to ask where his parents were from and he said something like New York. I was flabbergasted. I had been sure this black brother's name was nigerian and after he had introduced himself, he had left me confused. I later reconciled with myself with the idea that quite possibly he was a black american with a nigerian name. But all 5 names, that was it. The man had exhausted me with his answers and it was time I went on my merry way. So I said my goodbyes and that was that. I thought of other example like ...Taaayyyeeee Diggs... The actor who by his first name may lead people into thinking he's nigerian but may be a black american wanting to associate himself with africa. But in this actors defense he only has one name that remotely sounded nigerian. But the guy I met had five. As I walked along, I couldn't help but wonder, was he nigerian and not proud of his roots and desperately wanting to belong that he would sell his history, or is this the case of when in ROME behave like the Romans do. Interestingly this has taught me a huge lesson indeed, Just because he looks nigerian, acts nigerian speaks like a nigerian doesn't make him a nigerian.

Have a blessed wekend all.

Falling in public places - There could be worse

I am sure if you ask many what their worst fear is, they would all say falling with your entire body on the floor in a public place. But for me, falling is no longer an issue, as it appears that the majority of places I have visited I have tripped or fell face down on the floor. There is this particular occassion I would like to blog about only because it was the most recent. Like really really recent.

You know how it is ladies when you are travelling, and you try to look your best. For me there is no such thing as travelling light. Even if its for a few days, you need to have 3-5 possibilities of what to wear for each time of the day. For example evening wear, you might decide to go out on a nice evening out, a fish and chips takeout, or stay home and eat what I've cooked, either way, these are 3 events, and each has possible outfits. So basically, the long and short of it is I don't know how to travel light.

So on this particular day, I had waited a little while to get my excess loaded luggage, and it was a struggle to get it out of the baggage handler. Normally I feign lack of strength and others around tended to help, but this day no one did. There was no way I was going to try and lift it onto a luggage carrier; now that would have snapped my back in two (you see I am 5Ft. 3 inch, and the suitcase was almost as tall as I am), so I decided to roll it on its wheel. As I attempted to roll the baggage, my high heeled shoe got caught on the rollers, the case fell, overpowered me, and took me with it, exclaming "shame" as I fell, and there I was on the floor yet again. I knew people saw me, we had all just arrived on a fully packed international flight, so everyone saw me, but it was a normal occurence so I picked myself up, and brushed off the dirt, repositioned my case and was about to walk on when this black brother came to me. He didn't come to help, he came just to tell me he liked what he saw and gave me a card. Well, no award for telling you what came next. The customs people came quickly to ask me if I'd been given anything to bring, and insisted I opened my bag. Basically it was an experience and I wish I could say never to be repeated but knowing me you just never know.

Is it seriously the Jogging!!

A group of grad students invited me to join them in their saturday morning jog, on the huckleberry trail (where the loose criminal tried to excape a while back), anyways I wasn't interested and after they had asked for a "little while", I succumbed. The Joke was I hadn't remontely done anything befitting anyform of exercise, and we were going to jog 3 miles . So I woke up early, thanked the Lord for being alive and got picked up. I stretched so hard preparing myself for the work ahead and to my amazement I managed to jog nearly 2miles. You would think that's where the story ends, well I walked the whole 2 miles back (I was so proud of myself there was no need for any more excersise), got back very impressed with my meagre effort, and my joints have been aching since. So I am begining to wonder did the jogging have anything to do with my aching joints. You would think the muscles should be affected. Well its been quite difficult to get around, but I can't but think, maybe the stretching was excersise enough on its own.

Being Blessed

I just thought to blog concerning this as I just got off the phone with a friend at work, who asked me to keep her in my prayers and to ask the God that answers my prayers to answer hers. You see she just got saved and is struggling with all the random day issues such as tithing among others, and she is so convinced of how blessed I am that she feels that all I need do is pray on her behalf and all her issues will be solved. Anyways this got me thinking, I'm sat here, going through my issues, even though I spend time in fellowship with God it's still not enough and I'm dying for sunday just to be in the company of His saints. I began to feel a sense of dejavour, was convinced I had had the same conversation before. It got me thinking; I now recal a situation with a great friend of mine back in the UK, who is married and has been a blessing to me in more ways than one, and I remember her complaints back then, how people kept calling her blessed, "I mean how can I be blessed" she would say, and normally in bitterness of spirit. It got to the point where whenever this was said she took this as an offense. But now, she is an example of a woman who is blessed by God. I remeber reading Miguels blog and how he reminded me that the God that we serve is a God of order. I can't begin to explain how that rang in my spirit. ck was desperately sad but she hadn't realised that her blessings had to come in a certain order. You see she wanted a child, had no problems conceiving but the child was not coming fort. I realise now that the Lord had to settle her in a certain order. The Lord had to give them a great Job to afford the great house that they had just purchased, so that they had their own huge place to raise up a child, not just renting, but theirs. She is now an expectant mother; Thinking about this, I had to remind myself that the Lord had not forgotten me. Yes people will call me blessed because of my outward adornments but do they know what I'm struggling with. I'm struggling with the fact that I am blessed beyond my wildest imagination and still is ........

To New Jersey and back

My younger brother once made a comment on how God blesses useless people who never make use of their blessings. He was refering to me, and my visiting the US for a year. Aparantly I was boring, and prefered the familiar surrounding of home than say going for a hike or visiting other places. Anyways I began to pray for an adventure, and as you are all previously aware of my charlotte trip went bad (and I'm tecnically not fully back from my charlotte journey yet) an adventure is really not what is needed right now. Anyways a colleague of mine who is scared stiff of driving on the motorways (appologies - is it called freeways or pike or interstate - what ever it is she is scared to drive on them things), and asked if I could join her on her trip. I was so excited, I said to myself I will show """" who is useless. And so I called a great friend who lives in new jersey, that I was visiting he asks if it was definate I confirmed, he gets me booked in hotel pretty sharpish. Anyhows my good friend from philedelphia, then informs me how big new jersey was, and I realised I might end up getting lost again. It happened that I got my weekends wrong, the area my colleague and I was driving to was like Delaware sides, and my friend lived in new york sides --Drat!!! We couldn't get a refund, bless him he fogave me, I can be quite airy sometimes. OK my colleague decides to drive, she manages to get us to roanoke, I drove the rest of the way non-stop (7 hrs - raining badly the entire journey, didn't quite see the scenery), was pretty impressed with myself, with all that wrong side of the road "milake" - drove through -North Virginia - West Virginia - DC - Maryland - Delaware - Philedelphia - New Jersey. But still had no tale to tell. On the way back, did all the driving all 9hrs of it (with half an hr petrol stop), was dark, didn't see much either and no picture to prove my mini adventure. Maybe next time. So apart from the slow moving traffic or the lack of the movement), my journey was pretty uneventful. Next trip, going for a walk down the road. That should be exciting.