On your mark.... Get set... WHEEL!

This past weekend was the 29th Annual Oita International Wheelchair Marathon. We have started taking a Thursday evening Japanese class. Last week class was canceled and we were invited to a dinner in honor of the Marathon participants. We met a few of the racers and ate and talked with them.

Race day: The weather was bad. Cold and wet! But once the gun fired, signaling the start, there was no time to whine. The racers started on their long journey up hills, across bridges and through the city of Oita. A long 42.195km race! The racers had trouble finding their grip on the wet surface but all managed to cross the finish line. We stood there waving our German flags, a girl scout had given to us. "GANBATTE!" we shouted to the racers, which means "Good luck!" or "Doing a good job!"
There was a gentlemen we had met, at the dinner, named Peter Hawkins. He had been paralyzed in a bad car accident at the age of 18. During his senior year of HS. After a party he was drunk in the back seat, sound asleep. His friend driving the car, decided to drag race another friend. They hit a bump and the car flipped twice. Peter was thrown out of the front window and woke up days later in the hospital. He has spent many years of his life giving talks to HS students around the states. "It would never happen to me! I was a football player, popular, muscular, good looking, ... I'm invincible!... But then it did." He tells kids that even it was not DIRECTLY his fault, his decisions caused him to be in his position.

After a trying 2 hours and 36 min, Peter Hawkins crosses the finish line exhausted in 75th place, tired and disappointed. We greeted him after his race and reminded him that it was the fact that he RAN the race and finished. We shared a smile and said our goodbyes.

That day we shed a few inspired tears knowing that these men and women are doing the best they can with their conditions and doing a GREAT job at it! For more info visit http://www.wheelchair-marathon.com/

Well, Saturday morning (Halloween) we head out to Hong Kong. We will be staying with the Kyle's, parent's of a friend from college and church. Will have pictures up soon!

Erika's 25th Birthday

Erika's day, Sept. 28th, started off as every day does. Get ready for school, ride bike to school, go to teachers room... On this certain day O'Hara Sensei (teacher) was not at school. O'Hara Sensei is the English teacher Erika works with the most. The VP of the school told Erika she would work with her today in O'Hara's place. (The Vice Principal is also an English Teacher) The day was going fine and normal. During the last class of the day the VP asked Erika, during class, "Oh, I left the tape and tape player upstairs, would you mind running up and getting it." Erika went upstairs to look for the left items. Unable to find them anywhere she went back downstairs. When she got to the classroom, all the children were gone. She slowly walked into the room, looking around. Then from out of a side room they all came walking out singing "happy birthday". One kid carried a fake guitar, another was wearing a sumbraro. They all gave her cards and gifts. The kids, on their own - without knowledge from teachers, had decided to use the weekend to get some gifts and make some cards for Erika. When they found out O'Hara was not going to be there, they asked the VP if they could use the last half of class to have a party for Erika. It was very special!

Erika came home to her amazing husband, Thayne, who had been running around ALL day, so busy he was unable to eat any breakfast or lunch! He had, ALSO, been planning a surprise party for her. Tina, a good friend, had agreed to let Thayne use her apt as the party site. That morning he picked up her keys from her and went to her house. Due to the fact that access to an oven was a no, Thayne had to come up with another plan. He decided to make a cake in the rice cooker. He did. Tina had made an awesome birthday sign for Thayne to hang. After many store runs and slaving over a rice cooker, Thayne did a few more errands around town, gave the key's back, and returned home with only 30 min to clean the house. When Erika got home from work there were flowers, chocolates, and a gift awaiting her arrival. After opening her presents she shared her day with her husband.

Thayne made dinner for them and they had a nice relaxing meal. They had planned on meeting Tina and David for cake at Tina's house at 8:30. Erika, Thayne, and David biked over to Tina's house and went in. Tina greeted them at the door and we all took off our shoes. Erika noticed the sign hanging in the kitchen. "Awww, how sweet!" She said. Then she noticed something else. Josephine crouching behind a table. "That's odd that she's hiding!" Erika thought to herself. Josephine realized she had been spotted and stood up. Then from the other room shouts of "HAPPY BIRTHDAY! SURPRISE!!" greeted her. Chloe, Alex, Chris, Sam, David, and Katie came out of the room. Some laughs, hugs, and gifts were exchanged. Just in time for cake, Tomek shows up. Yay, he made it.
Thayne was a bit apprehensive about the cake but it proved to be decent. It was a chocolate cake. It turned out to be VERY ... dense. Almost a brownie-souffle. Not bad for a rice-cooker cake. Tina made a delicious cream cheese frosting for the top. We had some snacks, laughed, and talked for a while. When it got late people left to go home.
Erika's birthday proved to be a memorable one. It was nice there were many people to celebrate with and enjoy the celebration of a magnificent woman, Erika Washburn.

Top(R-L): David, Katie, Chloe, Josephine, Chris
Bot(R-L): Alex, Tomek, David, Tina, Erika, Thayne, Sam

Thank-you to all the JETS that made this possible!
And a special thanks to Tina chan who let us use her place! Love you guys!

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