絶望した！チッピチップスは絶望した！

For those of you who translate the titles of these posts, the word in the middle this time is 'chippy chips'. If you aren't aware of the significance of this wonderful phrase, you need to watch more British comedy metatelevision.

Since the last post, things have been chugging along with school. I'm getting along well with all of my teachers, including the ones that seemed a bit abrasive or tough to work with at first. It's a lot of focus on correct grammar and such, and I'm starting to get positive feedback from my instructors that I'm improving. That feels good, really good.

On the church front, I attended my first choir practice on Thursday night, and was received quite warmly. Not only were they happy to have a new member, but they were especially happy to have a new member who sang tenor. I have always been a tenor, and until further notice, I will always be a tenor. We're working on John Rutter's "Gloria", a three-movement suite that we'll be doing on the first Sunday of advent (first Sunday of December). We've got a full-day practice this upcoming Saturday, so I'm playing hooky (with advance notice) and spending the day singing my lungs out. It's a tricky piece, but working on it with this group is fantastic. The TUC choir is a bit smaller in membership than my choir back at SMBC in Houston, but they have just as much passion and enjoy the work just as much. I feel right at home with them. We also practiced on Sunday morning during the education hour, even though we had the week off from singing in the service. After the service, I went and joined the new members' class - an introductory course on the history and works of the church, accompanied by a great lunch. I am now officially an associate member of Tokyo Union Church - holding a membership here while retaining my membership at South Main in Houston. I'm already hooked up with a couple more groups - including a Theology Literature Group that's going to start meeting a week from Wednesday. We're reading "The Shack" by Wm. Paul Young - a book I've been wanting to read and one that has been recommended to me several times.

The other big news story happened directly prior to the composition of this post and is thus the basis for the title of this post. A very good friend of mine from school, Dana, has a membership at the Tokyo Costco, and she invited me to go along with her to do shop for oversized wholesale goodies. As she described it, the Tokyo Costco is "an American's playground." Boy, was she right about that one. If I didn't know better, I'd say I was right back in Oregon at the Costco in Troutdale. Same gigantic items, same Kirkland brand, same ridiculously low prices, same merchandise - including several things that I've been pining for but could not find elsewhere. I brought a decent amount of cash, figuring that this food would keep me going for a long time. I try to budget about 3500 yen (about $40) per week for food, and I found some things here that will last me much longer than a week. Among my purchases were such diverse items as:

Ground beef for burgers

Burger buns

Cheddar cheese

Tortilla chips and salsa (chippy chips!)

Asparagus

A 100+ serving box of Quaker Oatmeal (the real breakfast of champions)

A bottle of cinnamon sugar (to accompany said breakfast of champions)

Cashews

Chocolate-covered raisins

Cheese bagels and cinnamon raisin bagels

One bottle of Malbec wine (my favorite)

And all that sort of thing. Of course the beauty of Costco is in the price - all of this, which will easily last a month and a half (some things longer than that) all came out to just over 12,000 yen (around $130).

The last great thing about Costco in Japan is that for an incredibly low price, they will send your purchases to your home via post with two-day shipping. Since Dana and I had taken the train there, lugging multiple Costco-sized bags was not exactly a viable option, especially since rush hour was approaching fast. We each took some things home that needed immediate refrigeration, and the rest will arrive on Wednesday. Talk about great service!

Now I've got to press some patties to freeze for when I need them and study some kanji for two tests tomorrow.

絶望した！