Settling into Koenji

Hey all!
So much has already gone on in the first two days that we've been here. My team of about 16 and I arrived in Tokyo Saturday night. We're 13 hours ahead so it was early, early Saturday morning back home. We flew in on Singapore Airlines which is just WONDERFUL! There are TVs with movies and video games in each headrest and we were given 2 meals and hot face towels and drinks and all sorts of things. I played Kirby and Mario a bit then watched Shrek, A Night at The Museum, and some other one I forgot.
Oh, anyway... when we got in, we had our first train ride which took us into Koenji (pronounce "Co-in-jee") where we have our appartment. The guys got 3 apartments and the girls got 2. I'm in an apartment with Joseph, David, and Chad (who's also called "Sugar," but I'm still not sure why). A lot of the members on the team come from USC, the University of Southern California, so they all already have known each other for a while. Despite that, they have done an EXCELENT job in welcoming us into the group without acting exclusive or anything even in the least.
Yesterday (Sunday), we were introduced to the Malaysian team who are also going to be working on some of the camuses during our time here. They'll only be staying for three weeks but are also trusting that God will use them in mighty ways.
Today (Monday), we were assigned our campuses that we'll be visiting and our campus teams. I'm on a team with Gen, Cheri, Christina, and Kris. We'll be going to Gakusyuin ("Gak-shoe-in") and Waseda ("wah-say-da"). We were scheduled to go to Waseda today but it was closed due to an outbreak of measles or something like that so we went to Gakusyuin, which was actually a good thing, as we were able to talk to a guy in the cafeteria who really seemed open.
Later, our team did some "team bonding" activites set up by the leadership in the city of Shibuya ("She-boo-ya") so we ran around the city and went in interesting stores and ate interesting food and such before we met up with the rest of our whole group and went to a sushi place for dinner. It was one of those conveyer belt places and was really cool! You HAD to have at least 7 plates of sushi (which contained only 2 small pieces each) and each plate was about 105 Yen.
Oh, yeah, also we converted like all our money into yen when we got into the airport. The rate we got was about 118.5 Yen / 1$USA and is fairly good for the past few years. We were given a food stipend for each week of 14,000Y so that's like $20 a day which is really reasonable.
I was also assigned to the "Heritage" group. That means that me and Kris (the other guy on the team) to find a way that we'll all be able to remember this trip. One idea was a group photo DVD (which I like) or make a group T-shirt (which I also like). We were given a fairly large budget so we'll see what we can do!
Oh, wow! So much has already happened in such a short time that I've gotten a bit overwelmed! Here are some things that you can pray for:
1) That the team would continue to be able to bond and work well together. We know that there WILL be conflict, but we need to make sure that is resolved quickly.
2) That God will bring people into contact with us who are open to receive the gospel.
3) That we would be bold in proclaiming the gospel with the people that we meet.
4) That we would all get more accustomed to the people, the culture, and the food! Nobody seems to have that much of a jet-lag problem (hey, we're all spirited, young college students!) but prayer never hurts.
Um, well, that's pretty much it! Once again, I'll try to post some pictures as soon as I can.
-Russell C.