Today was my Church’s autumn bazaar!!

I was kinda worried in the morning, cause I was in Saga last week and didn’t know what was going on, but I managed to arrive in time for service! I should really have checked in with everyone yesterday, because apparently everyone was like “is Eustacia actually coming to help?” (answer: yes)

The set up this year is actually a little different from the last, because the pastor’s house is actually being used, so we had to move a lot of the things outside.

This is the 10yen corner. There were books, clothes, knick-knacks, everything going for 10 yen per piece! I took a look, but by the time I got there, the little house was already gone. I guess that’s a good thing though, because I do not need more things collecting dust in my house – it’s already messy enough!

And here, we sold little dishes. It’s called 惣菜 (そうざい; souzai) and there was a variety of dishes – beans, seaweed (konbu), daikon, etc. all going for 100 yen a pack! I helped out a little there, and it was amazing to see how fast everything sold!

On the left are the used clothes. It used to be indoors, like I said, we had to move some stuff out. It’s a good thing it didn’t rain while the bazaar was going on (from 11am to 1.30 pm), or it would have been really, really inconvenient.

So indoors was the food hall, and two more stands, more or less like last year. This one was selling hand made items like bags and balls, and something like the bigger version of the 5 stones bean bag?

All very cute and made by the aunties from my Church

And this was like, coffee and cookies and two types of Chiffon cake!!! Sorta like a dessert station XP

And then we have where I was stationed today (no pics though, was too busy once I started working): the main food hall. We had curry (400 yen – hailed as ‘top restaurant quality’ and it was that good) and oden (250 yen for four pieces).

Me in today’s work outfit. I was basically the waitress, in charge of getting the curry ready and serving it. It was hectic, but way fun. And one of the members gave me the oden ticket!! I bought my own curry ticket though XD

We started at 11:30 (that’s why I was able to help out at the souzai corner for a while), and from the time we started, there were quite a few customers. There was even this period where we had tickets and but didn’t know where the customers were. Eventually, we worked out that it was the other members of the Church, wanting their lunch.

And unlike the last two years, someone actually came! I asked my kouhai from TUFS to come visit, and he did. I’m really happy for that, especially since I apparently gave him the wrong address two times… I don’t even know how that happened. I’m gonna plead “too busy”. But yeah, he eventually got here, before the curry and oden ran out.

It was fun being able to talk in English at my usual speed (I’ve got a senpai I can speak in English too, but I need to slow down a lot when I’m talking to him), and to be able to check on how he’s coping. Since the kouhai’s in Ito campus, I don’t have the opportunity to run into him and make sure he’s settling in fine.

And that’s pretty much what happened this year. I’m really happy that I managed to recover in time to help with this.