New Friends

Owen, Masa, baby Lisa, Jeff, Meg and Alison in front of the O club

Naval Hospital Okinawa has a Japanese intern program that lasts for a year. The interns begin in April and finish the following March. There are six interns who spend their days working hard to sharpen their English and western medicine skills in the hopes that it will help them enter a stateside residency program. This year Jeff is a sponsor to one of the interns and we are really enjoying getting to know him and his family.

Masa and Meg have an 8 month old daughter Lisa. They are such a sweet and hospitable family. They moved here from mainland Japan so Masa could participate in the program. Meg and I have had the opportunity to go out to lunch a few times and to go to the dragon boat races. It was such a blessing to have her along to be my navigator. She could actually read the signs that told us where to go. She and Masa also had our family over for a typical Japanese meal one weekend. The food was delicious! Both Alison and I ate our first sushi ever. Of course Alison ate it because it was pink (salmon and tuna) and she could dip it in soy sauce. She loves soy sauce! 

Our latest outing was to our church, Calvary Chapel Okinawa, and to the O club for brunch. We wanted to give them a typical American meal. They seemed to enjoy their time at both places. Our church is neat in that it translates the service and some of the songs into Japanese. 

We're looking forward to getting to know them better and learning as much as we can of Japanese culture and language while they are here.