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kyoukai
Originally uploaded by aids_cruz.

Kyoukai is the japanese word for church...

If we only knew this word then our first trip to Church won't be a riot.

It was our first Sunday here. October 3 1999. Mass starts at 10 so we took off around 9:20. We asked our senpai (senior)for directions. They wont go with us that early because they have bikes and can reach the church in a breeze. "You'll find the church at the end of the river/stream" was the only direction we got. Okay we were kinda confused because rivers/streams usually end where the sea starts, plus I cant remember any sea near our place.

Good thing its already Autumn, a nice weather to take a walk. After 60 minutes (yeah we are late for church) of walking we saw a part of the stream under construction. They are filtering the river through gates like a mini dam. So we thought this must be the place. We looked around but we can't see anything that resembles a church. Hopeless we approched this family to ask where the church is. It was too late before we realized we dont know how to say church in japanese. So we said "Doko (where)..." and started gesturing things. I can remember making a cross with my arms, moving my hands (palms down) up and down like what people do when they are praising or worshipping. I can only imagine what's on this japanese head.... "These guys are crazy!". A friend even blurted "Doko e ikimasu ka?" (Where are you going?), a sentence he was trying to memorize as a pick-up line.

"They are definitely crazy!" you can see clearly on his face. We tried more of our gesturing after a hearty laugh. He kinda gets it when we said words like "sing" "cross". He said he saw a church 20mins back where we came from. After lots of Arigatou(Thank You) and Gomen Nasai(Sorry)we marched back. We found the church. There's a construction in front of it that's why we missed it. It's not like the typical church/chapel we have in the Philippines. It was more like a room. The mass was over and people were coming out. We spotted the senpai who gave us the direction... He was just smiling...Not a clue of the agony that awaits him...

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I'm really busy... but managed to blog this one :) Probably take ages before i blog the next one. I havent even played FFXI for 10 days!

Have a great week everyone!