Shower mold comes in two varieties. (Subtitled: Where has my lost bread gone?)

4/19

Did I tell anyone that we moved? Well, we got to Imabari and the
apartment was a leettle dirty. F. Shimai said "Sorry. We just
moved." At least, that's what I thought she said. In reality, she
said, "Sorry, we're moving." So, four days after I saw my new
apartment, we got another new apartment. Which is really good, because our
travel time to the church went from 30 minutes by bike to 4.

The new apaato (apartment)! (Bah, this keyboard only has one shift key, and it's
on the left side.) The new apaato is really fun. The layout is
fantastic but a little crowded for two huge senkyoushi desks. I found
a hole punch while we were pulling stuff from the chouroutachi's (male missionaries) old
apartment (we don't have chouroutachi anymore *distant look*), and an
Arabic Book of Mormon. So that was fun.

...We lost our bread in the chaos. I'm a little hesitant to say this
over email, but did you know rice mold is blue? Banana mold is white.
Shower mold comes in two varieties: bacteria burgundy, and a
well-cultured nori green. Kiwis can actually reach a foaming point.
I've learned so many things on my mission, but I already know the
color of bread mold. ...I'm so sad. Where has my lost bread gone?

On that note, Japan has excellent cleaning supplies.

Anywho. my kappa (rain outfit) is three times my size. I look like the Michelin man
every time I pull it on. But it's a pretty good feeling to lose 150
pounds every time you step out of the rain.

My three-gear Mamachatti's rocking the Imabari terrain.

My incredible companion still seems to think I'm amazing, which I must
say is  an incredible feeling. Let's see how long I can keep fooling
her...

The water pressure in our new apartment is exemplary. The plumber I'm
fairly sure must have been a retired fireman. Three times in the ofuro
(the bathtub/room), our movable shower head (it's not actually
shower-head-style, but it's about the size of the head of an American
kitchen sink with a rather long, unretractable hose that I really
like. Anywho, the shower head) actually achieved liftoff when I placed
it in its holder. Did you know that if you hose down the ceiling of an
ofuro, the effect is very similar, if not identical, to a heavy
rainfall? If not properly squeegeed, it can continue for, say, the
entire duration of your shower.

My hair... there was no time to cut it, but an appointment has been
made for today. Goodbye, hair. I'll miss you, but only as a mosquito
shield. No bug bites though, in the past few weeks. No complaints
there.

Humidity? everything seems pretty futsu (normal) here. Not nearly as
bad as Louisiana. That will probably change, though, with the seasons.

The Easter Egg Hunt went really well, although they only used like,
seventy eggs for the fourteen children that came. Me and Y. chourou
were like: :| But it was really fun, and the kids had a blast. We
played a bunch of games at the beginning and the mom I found with
S. Shimai showed up. She's so cool.

We've also met this positively adorable little obaachan (grandma) with the cutest
voice and no teeth. Every time we've come, she's given us orange juice
and a banana. She's so cute.

Cute to ieba (speaking of cute), this area has a thriving kodomo (child)
eikaiwa (English class). I... ... There are actually no words to
describe my euphoria. Imagine standing in a room filled with adorable
Asian children who are singing the alphabet. Any creature with a pulse
would be reduced to a quivering puddle of goo.

I don't know what color goo mold is. But futon mold--

Anywho. This email probably seems a little scattered. That's pretty
much how I feel. Oh, I can look at emails any time of the week. Desu.
Yeah. I'mma send this one off and check to make sure all the questions
were answered.

Oh, conference was fantastic, by the way. It was a really fun
experience. The branch president bought me a pair of earphones (like,
airplane earphones), and I plugged them into the iPad and listened to
and read the English as I watched the Japanese. It was really really
good. Although there was once or twice when I couldn't get the timing
right. That was distracting. But all the talks were really, really
good. Definitely a good use of a Saturday and Sunday morning and
afternoon.

Imabari's great. Pray for me that F. Shimai and I'll be able to
make it even better.

Love,
Sanzu Shimai