There’s a trend in Japan of attaching the prefix hatsu- (“first”) to various things around this time of year. For example, hatsuyume for the first dream of the new year. Today was Okayama’s turn for hatsuyuki, the first snowfall.
Although you couldn’t tell by now (it’s all melted), Kids Adventure and the first service today were held while swirls of the fluffy white stuff wafted down from the overcast skies this morning. For a while it was quite a show, but it tapered off during the second service and afternoon sunshine pushed what little had accumulated into the invisible oblivion of evaporation.
It was still particularly cold today, with or without snow. There are two kerosene heaters in the church, and only by running both could we approach some level of comfort in most of the room. I think my trips to the nearby Shell to refill the kerosene reservoir are going to become more frequent.
Tonight was the first Praise Night in quite a while—since December 17, to be exact. It went rather normally, with me interpreting Pastor Goto’s message for Matt, Stephanie, and Canada David. I can understand practically all of the messages, but I still can’t interpret in real time. It’s hard enough listening to one thing and speaking another, but Japanese often has the verb (among other important things) at the end of sentences and fragments (in a manner generally opposite of English), so I usually have to wait for him to finish a sentence before I can really start saying anything. And by then I’m already behind, so it’s easier to just gather the main points from a few sentences, interpret in a summarized form, and then gather the next set of sentences. Makes me wonder how the professionals do it.