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November 3, 2009

Last week, the VYM missionaries normally spread throughout Tokyo and across Japan came together for the annual Fall Conference. Since our sites are pretty spread out, we rarely see each other. The gathering is actually broken into two parts: business meetings, and a weekend retreat.

During the first portion, we stay in Tokyo (or come to Tokyo, for those placed in Niigata) and sit through meetings for a few days. We take care of normal business items, like reports about our sites, in addition to hearing special announcements and listening to guest speakers. The evenings are often spent hanging out with people we don't normally see very often.

The second portion, a weekend getaway, is called a "retreat." However, I kind of feel like that's a misnomer. After all, a retreat generally means running away from a battle. And we are in a battle. As C.S.Lewis puts it, "There is no neutral ground in the universe. Every square inch, every split second is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan." So we're on the front lines. All of us.

In Japan, it's often easier to see, to feel the battle. Christianity has a strong history in America (and most Western countries), but that base isn't here in Japan. Satan has had centuries to get s firm hold on these people. It's sometimes said that Japan is both the most religious and least religious country in the world. The culture is so saturated with traditions--buying a lucky arrow at New Year's to bless one's house, or talismans for safety, or for love, or for you name it; taking children to a shrine for a blessing when they are born, and for their 3rd, 5th, and 7th birthdays; attending the frequent festivals often held at temples; observing cultural taboos stemming from Buddhist burial rituals...the list goes on and on. However, my understanding is that the average person only does these things because they've always been done, not because he or she believes that there's any meaning to them.

Being on the front lines (or, as some people say, the "green growing edge") of the Church is often hard. We often think about what it would be like if (or what it will be like when) the Japanese really embrace Jesus Christ. These people could change the world. Naturally, Satan doesn't want that. So these people are constantly under attack. Depression is almost an epidemic, and suicides are very common. Idolatry, in the form of Buddhism and the traditional Shinto religion, runs rampant.

It's hard to find the right balance. How can I tell my students about my beliefs without alienating them, and maybe causing them to leave the class? Most of my students are really open to hearing about my beliefs, which is a great blessing (in some countries, sharing the Christian faith is illegal). But it's mostly an academic interest. I really care about these people, and it's very hard for me to think that they may never accept this message. It's very difficult sometimes.

...

It's true that the VYM community occasionally "retreats" into the mountains, but it's more tactical. Everyone needs a break now and then, and that's what the retreat is often about. It's a time to rest and recharge with our brothers and sisters, to strengthen and be strengthened. Then, when it's time to head back to the city, we're fresh and ready to go. Now that the "retreat" is over, it's time to go back to work.

October 13, 2009

The hot, muggy Tokyo summer seems to have released its hold on us, and the days are finally cooling off. Peter (the newest V-er) is here and settled in nicely. I've also met the 4 new J3s (the ELCA equivalent), and all of them have started Japanese classes. Ah, how nostalgic...

A pretty major typhoon recently took a tour of Japan, but it seems like there hasn't been too much damage. The main storm missed Tokyo by a fair distance, but we still saw some serious rain and lots of wind. Many of the trains were forced to stop because of the wind, and several schools were canceled. All in all, not a bad day for my first typhoon/hurricane.

Last Saturday was a big, annual VYM event (for the Tokyo area, anyway). It was Discover Tokyo Day. We gathered at Center with the new missionaries, and students from several different churches. The day's mission? To discover something new about Tokyo. It brought back some serious memories of last year, and the fact that 4 of my current students were in my group last year (and of course I had no idea). Anyway, my group went to Asakusa (which I'd seen before), and then took the "waterbus" (which I'd heard about but never done) to a pretty famous park (which I'd never heard of). It was a lot of fun, just like last year. Other than a rain-shower around lunchtime (which we conveniently waited out inside a restaurant while we ate), the weather was wonderful.

As far as classes go, it's pretty much the same as normal. I keep having really interesting discussions with one class (tonight we spent most of  class talking about word origins and astronomy), some of which involve very strong Christian ideas. Since neither of them are Christians (and both profess to be strong Buddhist), it makes for some fascinating dialogue.

Naturally, as a Christian and a missionary I'm hopeful that these and many other conversations (with several other students) will bear Fruit. It's hard sometimes, because it's easy to get discouraged when you see how close some people seem to be. It sometimes feels like they're on the threshold, and one right word, one good point, is all it would take. But we have to remember that (to quote a friend) "change take a very long time here." These people, the ones who seem so close, may have been making the journey for years, if not decades. Every missionary that's come through, every teacher they've had, has walked with them for a short time, trying to lead them down the right path. To me, it may seem like one easy step to take. But to them--with centuries of traditions, competing/conflicting beliefs, and often family pressures--that one step may still be years away. All I can do is continue walking with them, building on the foundations of those who came before me, and hoping that someday they'll be able to make that leap of faith.

Finally, I wanted to share a video with you. Josh (the photo guy for LCMS World Mission in Asia) came last Christmas to collect footage and interviews. This video has been in the works for about 9 months, and I think it turned out wonderfully. It describes the VYM program well, as well as highlighting many of the things that are becoming routine for me. Enjoy!

VYM Japan 

September 23, 2009

Yes, mother. ^_^

My mom's been here in Japan with me for a little over a week now, and she keeps reminding me that yes, people do actually read my neglected blog. Translation: I should write more often...

Well, here's a stab at doing just that.

Saturday the 12th I was actually the "leader" of the Key event of the week: game day. (Refresher: Key is the bi-lingual fellowship group that meets every week.) Although the turnout was small, we had a great time. We actually had a bi-lingual group that week: myself and Carol (my site partner), as well as a few Japanese guys. We played Apples to Apples, which is a great game for English-learners, provided you take out most of the pop-culture references that only Americans know. We also taught them 2 of my favorite card games: Kings on the Corner and War.

It was also kind of exciting, because a few new people stopped in. One of them even came to the English worship service that church holds on Sunday nights.

The next day was our monthly Kanto Cluster, which is a meeting of all the V-ers (plus alums and sometimes a few friends) in the Tokyo area. We get together to catch up, talk business, and worship together (in English ^_^). We've started having them at different people's houses, and this time we had a big pasta dinner party. Yay! We also listened to a worship CD/DVD one of the alums had. I heard my first English sermon in...I don't even know how long...

Then the next day...

Mom came.

It started as a normal Monday for me, except I didn't Skype with Mom (since, you know, she was in mid-air at the time). But right after Japanese class I went to pick her up from the airport. Class gets over at 3:30 or so and her flight wasn't due in until 5, but it takes at least an hour and a half to get there. As it turned out, I would have had plenty of time. Due to a delay in Atlanta (about 3 hours), her flight was pretty late. But she got here safely, and we lugged her two gigantic suitcases back to my apartment. (I have to give her kudos, because even with serious jet-lag she was pretty alert and able to talk. And she lugged one of her bags up the narrow stairs to my place. And she stayed up until 10:30. I crashed by 9 my first night, and even that was a stretch.)

Now, before you shake your head in disbelief, those two huge bags were not full of things she needed for herself. My pantry is now thoroughly stocked, I've been able to share Wisconsin cheese curds (ah, a taste of home...) and chocolate with my students (which both went over amazingly well), and she played delivery girl (woman?) for a few V-ers who had requested US goods, as well as for her Bible study group, who sent me a wonderful care package full of fun things. Plus, I have an absolutely humongous stack of birthday cards from church members to open (Which, incidentally, she showed me on the first day and has forced me to wait for. >.<). Specific numbers to come in a future post...

Due to a jet-lag induced headache, she ended up missing my first class on Tuesday morning. At first, I'll admit I was disappointed. However, it couldn't be helped, and it actually worked out really well. Although she couldn't see them in class, my students wanted to meet her. So they're taking us out to eat tomorrow. That means that not only will she get to see them outside of a classroom setting, she'll also get to meet some students who only come once every 2 weeks, who she wouldn't have otherwise met. The rest of that day went really well. She interacted well with my kids class, and had some great conversation with my adult classes.

The next few days were quite a whirlwind, but tons of fun. I don't have class until the evening, so we had most of the morning and afternoon to go sight-seeing. (I'm used to sleeping in and being lazy...) The first day we went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum near my apartment. I'd heard about it, but hadn't yet gone. It's full of life size replicas and scale models, in addition to artifacts and the normal stuff. We both love that kind of thing. ^_^

That evening, she met more of my students and sat in on our Bible study. One student in particular got very excited when we asked what his favorite movie was (the evening's ice breaker). It turned out to be some Christian film from years ago that showed Jesus' resurrection. He was apparently very surprised when Jesus rose on Easter morning. (PS-he's not a Christian yet, but comes to church and Bible study regularly. He's what we'd call a "seeker.")

Thursday morning we went to the Imperial Palace and East Gardens. You can't see much of the palace (for obvious reasons), but the gardens are open to the public and beautiful to walk around in. You can even see the foundation of the original Edo Castle (Note: Tokyo used to be called Edo).

That afternoon I just happened to have ocarina class, so she sat in on that also. I was afraid the other students would be nervous, but it didn't seem to bother them at all. She also learned her first Japanese words: ichi, ni, and san, from the counting the teacher kept doing (1, 2, 3, for reference).

Friday was another class day, so she followed me to Omiya: about an hour away by train. Classes went great, and she made such an impression that one class requested that she come back the next week (my Center classes are off for Silver Week/Semester Break, but Omiya's not). So we'll be having a little party and cultural presentation: their homework is to prepare something to teach her. One of my kids classes will be interviewing her, too.

Saturday we were on the trains again, this time bound for Nikko. Nikko is a huge national park, with several famous temples, shrines, waterfalls, carvings...etc. For example, the famous "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" monkeys come from a carving on a stable in Nikko. There are also carvings of elephants made by an artist who had never seen an elephant, a 5-story pagoda, and beautiful paintings and carvings adorning every building. The trip was bitter-sweet, since the buildings were all made for the worship of false gods, and the people who visit often "pay their respects" to these sight-less, life-less creations, praying to them and buying fortunes and other shrine/temple goods.

Back in Tokyo on Sunday, Mom got to see a Japanese church service. What did she have to say about it? "It's very Lutheran," was the first thing she said after the service, I think. And she's right. Worship at Center is very traditional Lutheran. There's sung liturgy (strange for me to get used to, but nice), candles and ushers, offering and communion (which is also pretty normal, except for the "fresh bakery bread" part). The songs for this week included several well-known Lutheran hymns, too. And yet, it's all in Japanese, so it's very different at the same time.

After church, many church members stay around for either tea or a meal, depending on the week. It's a great fellowship opportunity, and a really neat part of this church. (We got out the last of the cheese curds to share. ^_^)

For the next few days, we moved at a slightly slower pace. Ever since my trip to Japan 3 years ago, I've wanted to visit Hakone. It's a region west and a little south of Tokyo, within sight (on a clear day, which we didn't get >.<) of Mount Fuji. There's a special 2- or 3-day ticket you can buy that includes the round trip fare to the region (by train), as well as most transportation in the area. And here's the fun part: it's high in the mountains, so the transportation includes a switch-back train (which literally zig-zags up the mountain), a cable-car, a rope-way (think Rocky Mountain ski-lift), most of the buses, and a cruise ship on a mountain lake. But even that's no ordinary ship. It's completely made up (masts, rigging, and all) to look like a pirate ship, albeit one with a motor. There's even a statue of a pirate captain to pose with, and a lookout with a telescope hanging from one of the rails.

Other features of the area include eggs boiled in the sulfur pools (they turn black, and the region is famous for them), an open-area history museum chronicling a checkpoint (border control) on an ancient highway, several art museums, and an amazing hot spring resort called Yunessan.

I learned about this resort 3 years ago, and it's one of the main reasons I wanted to come, although everything else was absolutely amazing. It has both the traditional Japanese onsen (hot spring), and an area where swimsuits are allowed/required. Mom wasn't too sure about the traditional style, so we stayed in our suits. ^_^

The area we saw was vaguely waterpark-style, with a few water slides and swimming pools. But the neatest part are the specialty baths. At this resort, you can bathe in coffee, red wine, green tea, and sake (rice wine). The real stuff, too, although it's pretty diluted. And that's not to mention several other special pools and a seasonal bath (which, right now, is a cool bath with a popular "ice candy," which is like a Popsicle.)

Every now and then, they come and add more coffee and wine to those respective baths. (The special Popsicle bath gets a giant (think small garbage can-sized)  Popsicle.) We happened to arrive at a great time, right before they added more coffee. They brew it right there, in a giant coffee-maker right by the bath. Then they pour it in, with lots of jokes and presentation. Since we were the only foreigners in the bath (and consequently stuck out like 2 sore thumbs), we were singled out for our own bucket of fresh coffee--poured right over our heads. ^_^

We meandered through the different baths and pools for a good portion of the day, then started making our way back to Tokyo. Coincidentally, we met Carol and another friend from Tokyo, who happened to come out to Hakone for the day.

The slower pace I mentioned, although we still saw a lot, came from the schedule in Hakone. Even though it's a huge tourist area, pretty much everything closes around 5pm (the buses, etc. run until 7 or so). That means that whatever we did, we had to be finished pretty early. So we'd head back to our room early, hang out for a few hours, and usually be asleep well before 11. Our mornings were nice and relaxed. We never set an alarm, but we were still up by 7:30 or so. That gave us plenty of time to eat and get ready before the attractions opened around 8 or 9.

And that pretty much brings us up to today. Tomorrow (tonight by now, I suppose...) we'll do a little more touring around Tokyo, then meet my students for dinner. Friday we'll be back in Omiya, and on Saturday it'll be time to say goodbye, and make the long trip out to the airport again.

It's been a busy time, but I've loved having my mom here. She's seen my life here, as well as a few of the sights Japan has to offer. Along the way, we've also managed to make many memories that won't soon fade away.

September 9, 2009

Yeah, I've been slacking on my blog. Sorry. But I had to write about tonight's class, because it made me laugh so much.

But before that, a quick summary of the last...two months? Wow, I really have been slacking...

Anyway...

The last half of July flew by pretty fast:

--We had a Coffeehouse at Center, which was small but fun. A former V-er was in Japan for a visit, and he was able to stop in for a little while.

--I joined Takenotsuka Church for their annual beach-cleaning event at Enoshima, a beach/town a few hours south of Tokyo. I had a blast, but was once more reminded that I need to wear sunscreen when I'm outside for that long, even if it's a completely cloudy day. >.<

Then we were into August, the month-long summer break built into the VYM schedule. Several V-ers went back to the States for a visit, but I stayed around Tokyo for most of the time. I enjoyed several short camps, one of them in Niigata, which is on the opposite side of Japan and about 8 hours away by local train (that was an adventure ^_^) (1-2 hours by Shinkansen, and 3-4 hours by bus). (See the August issue for more info on the camps.)

One particularly noteworthy thing: I had the privilege of seeing a few professional Japanese baseball games this summer. Let me just say it: wow. (Baseball has been an important part of Japanese culture for a long time, since the end of WWII, I think.) In Japanese culture, the norm is to stay cool and collected, almost unemotional sometimes. That all goes pretty much out the window at baseball games. I haven't been to many major league games in the States, but if they're anything like the minor league games I've seen, the fans are usually pretty tame.

Not so, Japan. The fans create, spread, and memorize cheers (think full-out songs) for their teams, and seem to be singing almost constantly. Both games I've been to had a full pep band sitting in the stands (ie: they were fans). When it was time for their team's songs, the musicians stood up and played. At other times, at one game, it seemed like one entire side of the stadium was acting together. Everyone had an umbrella--some kind of symbol or something for their team--and as one body they would periodically open them, hold them up, and sing a chant.

Needless to say, I'll never think of baseball the same way again.

Moving on...

The rest of summer was a lot of relaxing and watching some TV shows online (seeing as I don't have a TV). I also spent a fair amount of time hanging out with a few friends who stayed in Japan.

Before I knew it, it was time to get back to class. Usually coming back from a vacation or break is kind of hard (since we're usually not ready to come back...), but the first week back was really great. My students were just a lot of fun to teach, and it seemed like I was always happy (I think another big part of my mood was the resolution of one potentially huge issue in particular--more details later in another post, hopefully.)

That whole first week I had the chorus from Shine (by the Newsboys) stuck in my head. I couldn't figure out the reason for this (still can't), since I hadn't heard the song for months. But I finally made a decision that I would try to keep that line in my mind and remember that I'm trying to live as a light to all people, all the time--even when I'm not feeling particularly "shiny." For the last few months God's really been speaking to me through specific Bible verses. This song, while not exactly a word-for-word Bible verse, nevertheless reflects an idea I'm trying to live by: to be a shining light, a candle in the dark. So I'm trying to remember that I'm called to be a light, even when the sky is gray, even when the weather is hot and muggy, even when I have a lot to do and not nearly enough time to do it. I'll be doing my best!

And now for the story that finally convinced me to get myself in gear and update my blog (or "And now, for our feature presentation..." ^_^):

I haven't been a teacher that long. I'm still, essentially, learning the ropes. But I've picked up on a few things--sometimes being told by other teachers, and sometimes realizing it for myself. I'm not sure where this one came from, but I've certainly found out that it's true.

Many of my students have been studying English for a long time. A really long time. Furthermore, I have several classes which have had the same students (at least in part), for a decade or more. Needless to say, they know each other pretty well. They've no doubt done introductions and interviews with every teacher they've had, and probably several with visitors as well.

And yet, so many books have the students interviewing each other. It's a good activity, but not very interesting when you know pretty much as much as you care to know about the other person.

My solution?

Create new identities.

I've done this twice now, and both times it's been great. The first time, I created the alter-egos myself, and let them each pick a person. It went great, and they even improvised some details and personalities that I never would have imagined from Japanese businessmen.

The second time was tonight's class. There are two men in this class. They're among my lower-level English classes (which is still pretty high, compared to other sites), but they seem to love the class and have fun learning together. It's one of my few classes where the students not only do the optional homework I assign, but over-do it and really put a lot into it.

Basically, they're great and a lot of fun to teach.

So I thought I'd make the "new identity" for the next task a homework assignment. I never, ever, in my wildest dreams could have predicted what I'd get.

We started class like normal, talking about their weekends and what they'd been up to since last class. Then it was time to turn to the book, and do the task at the end of the chapter. They both got out their notes (did I mention the over-doing thing?), and I sat back to listen to an interview.

Their new identities?

Barack Obama and Ultraman.

I'm pretty sure you know the first guy. The second is a popular TV series hero, first appearing in the 1960s. I've heard from a few people that the creator was a Christian, and Ultraman's trademark attack seems to fit: he makes a cross with his arms.

The first student had printed off what I'm pretty sure is President Obama's entire life story, in Japanese. He didn't use it very much in class; he'd memorized most of the pertinent information (although he had to look for the name of the president's dog--Bo, if you didn't know). He was slightly thrown off by a question about "his" favorite place in Japan, but quickly smiled and answered "Obama-town." (There happen to be several towns named "Obama" in Japan, since it simply means "little beach" and Japan has lots of seaside towns with...well, little beaches. One in particular used the name to its advantage, launching an "Obama for Obama" campaign during the election and increasing tourism in its little neck of the woods.)

The first interview over with, it was time for Mr. President to interview Ultraman. I have to say, the president is a little brisk in person. ^_^ Early on in the interview, "Ultraman" went on a (relatively fluent) tangent about how he came to Earth. Once he'd finished, "Mr. Obama" said quite clearly and with a bit of annoyance (feigned, I think...), "I didn't ask about that."

Suffice it to say, I was desperately trying to hide my laughter for most of the exercise. I was covering my mouth almost constantly. It was a wonderful way to end my week at LLI. (I still teach tomorrow, but at Omiya.)

I think this will be one of those classes I never forget, among the first of (hopefully) many more to come.

July 9, 2009

Well, let's get caught up a little be, ne? The weekend after my last post was English Weekend (see the June newsletter for more details on that). Last weekend was pretty packed full of stuff!

Saturday, I joined Key for a 4th of July barbeque. We had a blast, even though the "barbeque" part never happened. Instead, we boiled brats and corn inside on the stove, and took them (along with the rest of our sizable feast) up to the roof of Hongo Center. The weather was pretty nice--not too hot or windy, and no rain (in the rainy season here, that's kind of a big deal ^_^). I had a lot of fun, even if it was my first fireworks-less Independance Day. (I was here for the 4th of July the last time I was in Japan, too. But one of the other counselors surprised us with a bag of fireworks.)

On Sunday, I had an Open House at my apartment. My goodness, I don't think I've ever seen so many people crammed into such a small space. Well, unless you count rush hour on the trains, I suppose. I invited Center and Omiya church members, my students, and my karate classmates. (Of the group that came, the karate class actually made up the biggest percentage. It makes sense, I guess, since most of them live right here in Koiwa--while the others would have at least a half-hour train ride.) I had so much fun, even if I was busy playing hostess. One of my students came, with her mother and younger sister. Her father is actually the owner of my favorite restaurant in Iidabashi (the ward where Center is)--Sultan's. They brought a huge pan of his restaurant-style tandoori chicken and things like it. Amazing. ^_^

Another of the great things about events like this are the connections that are formed. The people who came would rarely (if ever) meet on their own. At my Open House, they met and had a chance to get to know each other. I heard a result of this yesterday in class, when one of my students said she'd seen another party-guest on Monday, at work of all places. These relationships can be very important. I've often heard stories of people who (for example) met ua church member outside of church, became friends with them, and eventually started coming to church themselves and getting baptized. My prayer is that the relationships formed (at my party and in normal, everyday life) can and will be used to show God's love to people who wouldn't otherwise have any close contact with Christians.

Also, yesterday we had a new student observing the classes, and she'll be starting next week. Carol and I are both really thankful for the new student, and I think the other woman in the class is happy, too. Now she won't be the only girl. ^_^

I can barely believe it's July already. It's just over three weeks now until summer break, and then just a few weeks after that I'll have been here for a year already. As they say, truly, time flies.

June 20, 2009

"This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:24)

You know, I actually didn't know that the words of the song were directly taken from a psalm. I wrote them out (reason coming in a moment...), then decided to find out what verses inspired the song. Psalm 118 really is a great poem, reminding us that even though times may be tough, our God is in control and won't let us fall.

Anyway, "This is the Day" was one of the songs we sang at Center/LLI's Family Day this afternoon. The overall theme was "Growth." It marked a somewhat momentous occasion for me: I gave the "Bible talk." Technically, it wasn't a first for me. I've been helping my mom with her Sunday School class since my confirmation (after which I didn't have classes of my own to attend). I've also taught one summer of VBS, helped out with several others, and been on mission trips where we had to teach/talk. But for some reason, I was pretty nervous about this one.

As usual, my nerves were completely unfounded. The day went really well. It was a small group--just 2 families other than the people helping out. Nevertheless, the "message" went over well (despite the fact that probably the only kid in the city who actually likes carrots and brocolli showed up--more on that later, too), the game was a blast, and the craft was really cool.

Like I said, the theme we chose was "Growth." Since the classic "growing" message (seeds + soil + water + sunlight = growth) had been recently used, we took a little different track. For the message, I prepared 2 plates, one with vegetables, and the other with candy. I started the activity with a blindfolded tasting activity. The only "good" reaction I got was from the red pepper, thanks to the afore-mentioned veggie-loving kid. But the message came through anyway, I think. The idea was that we need vegetables to grow and stay healthy, but candy tastes really good. We'd often prefer to eat a candy bar instead of a carrot stick. But we need both. It's the same with our lives. We need challenges and trials to help us grow into healthy, non-spoiled and fully-formed people. But most of us would prefer to live on an un-healthy diet of "sweet things" like sunny days, pay raises, and constantly wonderful health. The verses we chose were from I Thessalonians 5:16-18--"Rejoice always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (I'll be the first to admit that life's "vegetables" get me down sometimes, and it's often hard to "give thanks in all circumstances." But I'm working on it. ^_^)

The game was borrowed from another VYM church: a giant, life-size version of Candyland* (*name used without permission.) Basically, we made a giant game board/rainbow trail on the floor, using construction paper. There were "candy" spaces (after landing on/passing one, the players took one of the designated candies), and bridges/warps to send you back on the "board" (never forward-no shortcuts in life!). It was a great lesson in itself, actually. Several people (myself included), kept getting sent back. But, that also meant they/we got more chances to pick up candy. ^_^ So you had some people who quickly finished the game, and others who took a long time, but came out with a huge stash. Being sent back was actually a good thing.

So, that's pretty much a summary of today. It was a lot of fun. Now, let's see... What else has been going on?

I'm definitely getting used to teaching. For one thing, it doesn't take me nearly as long to prep for my classes.

It's starting to get hot and muggy here. As far as I can tell, we should be in rainy season now, but it's kind of holding off. (Which was a good thing today, since I was doing laundry. ^_^)

I found a karate-dojo at a local elementary school, and I've been going for a week or two. It's kind of strange, taking class with a bunch of kids, but it's a lot of fun, too. It's really different from the taekwondo that I'm used to. But the instructor is excited to have me. He's even asked me to teach some kicks, which is amazingly difficult to do, considering I can't speak much Japanese and the kids can't really speak any English... (Random fact/note: karate focuses on hand techniques like punches, while taekwondo is known for a wide range of kicks.)

Also, a really cool semi-side note about karate class: it's something completely on my own, not part of church or school activities. So it's the first time I don't have the...shield?...of my "missionary" title. But so far, my faith has come up in some way at every class, either talking to the instructor or the moms who stay to watch. I constantly pray that I'll be able to be a strong witness in this place, where the people may not have any other contact with Christians.

May 18, 2009

I'm writing this from my apartment, for the first time in a long time. What does this mean? I finally have Internet again! It's kind of funny, actually, that in a country known world-wide for being on the cutting edge of technology, it takes more than a month to get an Internet account set up. >.<  But now it's taken care of, and I can write once more from the comfort of my...tatami floor. ^_^

Seriously, I love tatami. I have a desk and a few chairs, but it seems that I choose a cushion on the floor more often than not. The only thing that's kind of irritating is that tatami needs to be vaccuumed all the time. It collects/creates a lot of dust. Oh well. I still love it. ^_^

Anyway, I thought I'd share a little bit about the Game Day last Saturday. It was the first English school event at Omiya since Matt, Cassie, and I started tag-team-teaching. (Since we're short on V-ers, we each teach at the school one or two days a week. I'm there on Fridays.) We decided an unstructured, informal get-to-know-you event would be a good idea, since none of us had done events at Omiya before.

In my opinion, it went really well. We had 6 kids show up, and many of the moms stuck around and joined in. 6 kids might not sound like a good turnout, but it turned out to be just right. I'd picked up some prizes to hand out, and it just so happened that every kid left with a prize, with no leftovers.

During the event, we pretty much just hung out and played some games. Twister was a big hit, along with Guess Who and Jenga. A few surprise contenders also had good followings, among them an old pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey game. We were even serenaded by a "blind" pianist (Matt was the demo-person for pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, and managed to find the piano. ^_^).

All in all, I was very pleased. I got to have a lot of fun, which actually surprised me, since I was the "leader" for this event. I was expecting to be constantly looking around and evaluating, trying to make sure everyone else was having a good time.

I can't believe we're already more than halfway through May, though. Does anyone know where the slow-motion button is?

(On a random side note, the address of my webpage might change soon. I made it last summer on Google Page Creator, which was apparently a testing area for a new application, called Google Sites. Now that testing is over, they're switching everything over to Sites, and Pages will be shut down. I'm not sure what this really means for this site or its URL, but as soon as I find out, I'll spread the word. Also, at that time, I might decide to move my blog to a blogging site (probably a lot better organized), and link it to my new site. Not sure yet, but I'll keep you posted!)

May 12, 2009

Neglected again. I'm really not good at this... Oh well.

A lot has happened (again) since my last post. Golden Week has come and gone, and I'm back into the swing of teaching. (For a run-down on Golden Week, see "About Japan" in the April newsletter).

During Golden Week (technically right before), I got to go to Kyoto with my site partner, Carol. We had a great time--I got to see several of the sites I missed the last time I visited Kyoto, as well as Himeji Castle (about an hour and a half away by train).

But my main reason for posting tonight is what happened in one of my classes today. It's a company class, and although they have a textbook, they really don't like using it. So we typically spend the time talking about various topics (practice speaking is what most Japanese people need/want, anyway).

We started by talking about what they'd done during Golden Week. One of them had been to a planetarium, so we started talking about random constellations and things. The Big Dipper came up, and that line "Follow the Drinking Gourd" popped into my head and wouldn't leave. From there, we started talking about the old slave songs, and I guess that led pretty naturally into a nice, long discussion (complete with questions; it wasn't a lecture by me!) about the Exodus, the Passover, and the Lamb. I'm still not sure how it all happened, but I got back to the office after class, and pretty much collapsed (ask Carol...). I felt more drained than I ever have after class, even after the week of firsts, in the best way possible. (Of course, I had another class 10 minutes later... ^_^)

Anyway, I'm not sure what it means, if anything. It's probably (hopefully?) just one step on the journey to Christ for these two men.

April 23, 2009

Heh, another 2 weeks between posts. At least this time I have a reason, if not a real excuse...

In the general chaos of moving, we had to change the Internet account at my apartment into my name. To do that, first we had to send in the router/modem box. (For some reason, they can't just change the name on the account. >.<) Now I have to wait for the new one to come, but that won't be for another week or two. *sigh* Oh well. It's a little irritating, not having Internet access at "home" (again...), but I'll live.

My first few weeks of teaching went really well, in my opinion. Naturally there's still room for improvement (always will be), but I didn't crash and burn. I absolutely love the returnee classes I have on Fridays. Returees are students (kids, in this case) who lived in the States for a few years, and now they're back in Japan. In general, their English level is really high, and the focus is more on retaining than learning.

I'm also leading (at least co-leading) 3 Bible studies now, which is a new thing for me. It's an interesting change, another way I've gone from the student to the teacher. Of course, I'm not a Bible expert, and every class I learn something new myself. Take it from me, you really don't have to know everything about a subject to teach it.

Actually, that brings up another kind of interesting point. Shocking as it may be, I didn't major in English. In fact, I only took one English class in college. But let me tell you, I will know English grammar so much better than I ever wanted to by the end of this. I have to teach things like adverbs and Present Perfect Continuous form, which means that I have to have at least a basic understanding of the concept. And since many of my students like to know the reasons for why we say this and not that, I've already found myself stumped in class by student questions. Fortunately, they're patient and let me look it up for them. ^_^

Let's see...what else has been going on?

The Easter Kids Day went well, despite a pretty major glitch: the eggs to be decorated came half an hour late! So we stretched the singing time and message as much as we could, and then (thanks to Carol) had the kids "design" their eggs on paper first. It worked pretty well, actually. Carol's message was great: she used 2 plastic eggs first, asking the kids what they thought was inside. (Nothing in the first one: the empty tomb; A little paper chick in the second: new life.) Then she moved to the four big pre-made paper eggs on the wall. Each one was hiding an Easter message, and she had the kids guess what they were.

Oh, I did end up having a mini-Easter dinner party the next Monday. It was really impromptu, but it went really well. I made some ham with an experimental orange glaze (thank you, Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook), and my friends came bearing gifts of basil-garlic mashed potatoes, fresh bakery bread, chips (real Cheetos!), and strawberry salad. It was a feast fit for a risen King. (Sorry, I couldn't resist. ^_^) There was even chocolate fondue for dessert!

What's coming up in the near future, you ask?

Well, thanks to 4 national holidays falling very close to each other, Japan celebrates "Golden Week" every spring. Usually, all 4 days fall in the same week. This year, however, they actually fall over a 2-week period, so we have a surprisingly long break - LLI has 2 full weeks off. If all goes well, I'll be taking a sight-seeing trip with Carol (and maybe a few other people) the first week, and relaxing/organizing/exploring the second week.

We'll also have a Kanto Cluster meeting this Sunday. That's when all the V-ers in the Tokyo area (on the Kanto plain) gather to reconnect, worship, and just hang out.

Actually, that's about it. And I have to get ready for my next class, so that's all I have time for right now! Have a good rest of the week and weekend!

April 9, 2009

Well, it's official. I'm a teacher. Today will be my third day  teaching, and so far it's going surprisingly well. Tuesday was my debut. Normally I'll have 5 classes, but 2 classes won't start until next week. It was a great way to ease into the teaching role.

My first class was an off-site company class. Since I hadn't been to this office before, 2 of my students (that's kind of fun to say: "my students") met me at the train station and showed me where to go. This first week I'm going for a less structured/more relaxed get-to-know-you atmosphere, in part to help me gauge the students' levels and practice talking at a speed they can understand.

My students so far have been great. They're excited about learning, and fun to work with. I've presented the idea of "optional homework" to my adult classes, and for the most part they've been very enthusiastic (one student in particular declared very clearly that he is not at all interested, but in such a way that it became a joke for the remainder of the class--to give you an idea of the relaxed mood).

I started my kids' class by having them "sign in," something they haven't done before (a suggestion from the previous teacher). They really seemed to like it. The next lesson in their book was a great first-day lesson, though: birthdays! So I found a birthday crown, drew a cake on the board, and used a picture of a birthday gift to teach the greetings and phrases.

And it's definitely a week of "firsts." In addition to my first week teaching (and all the "first class" experiences), this Sunday will be my first Kids' Day (with a planning/leadership-type role). We'll be dying Easter eggs (classic, but oh-so fun), and "cracking open" some paper eggs with Easter messages.

It will also be, incidentally, the first Easter that I haven't spent with family. I'm considering inviting a few people over for a mini-Easter dinner, but since Easter just happens to be a huge church event, I have a feeling most people will be busy. Maybe I'll aim for Monday...

April 2, 2009

It's been a good couple of days. Yesterday I met a Japanese friend for a movie. I was expecting it to be in Japanese, since it was based on a Japanese TV series. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be in English. (There were Japanese subtitles.) Afterwards, we went to a park (the same one I was at on Saturday) for hanami (cherry blossom viewing). Since there were just 2 of us, we didn't have a picnic. We just walked around and explored different areas of the park. There were more trees (and different trees) blooming, so I'm glad I got to go back. I'll get some pictures up soon. (Look for a massive photo-post in the near future...)

I spent most of today with Katrina, the V-er I'm "replacing." First she helped me change my foreign resident's and insurance cards to show my new address. Then we went to Center, and she helped me plan my first week of lessons. I really appreciated the help, since 1) my pre-class butterflies are starting to show up, and 2) she knows her students a lot better than I do, so she was able to tell me what kinds of activities would work best for each class.

At the office, I found a letter from my stepsister. Her class is doing a Flat Stanley project, and she sent her Stanley to me. Basically, it's a paper cut-out that students send to people they know around the world. (Based on the book Flat Stanley.) So for the next few days, I'll be showing Stanley around Tokyo a little bit. It's a pretty good time for this, since I still have a little time off before classes start...next week. It'll also give me an excuse to explore a little more. ^_^

Oh, and I planted a "garden" yesterday. Katrina left a few packets of seeds behind, and I thought I might as well use them. Since I don't have a yard, I tracked down a few flowerpots and I'm trying to keep them in sunny places. I don't have a very green thumb, despite my love of plants and green-growing-things. So hopefully they can survive my "loving care"...

March 30, 2009

Well, not much to mention today. I did finish unpacking. Other than that, it was a pretty lazy day.

Alright, time to rewind the clock a little bit and revisit a past event. Back, let's see...two and a half weeks ago, I guess. Wow, has the time really gone that fast? I suppose so. ^_^ Anyway, March 13th was our last day of Japanese class. Instead of our normal classes, though, we presented a skit for our friends and several church members. "We" in this instance included me, the other O-Vers, the new J3s, and another missionary couple who've also been taking classes. We had to write it, prepare the props, and memorize the thing. I really wish you could see it, but the last I heard, the file was too big to post. If I ever hear that it gets up, I'll let you know. It was hilarious.

The title/theme was "Daydream." Basically, it was a scene from a "normal" Japanese class. Occasionally (prompted by the "teacher" and the "lessons") one of the "students" would start daydreaming about something, and we'd go into a mini-skit. Each one had significance to one (or more) of us. The first skit, and apparently a Skit Day classic, was sumo. But we added a twist: instead of the normal sumo fight, the "fighters" did their posturing and the face-off, but then jumped into a casual tea-party-like conversation. For most of the conversation, we used phrases from the "shadowing" we did in class. "Graduated" students who were watching laughed so hard. ^_^

The second daydream was about food. This one was a restaurant scene (I was the server). Each customer was played by 2 people: one the head and body, the other the arms. I guess there's an SNL skit that uses this gag, but we learned that it's also a classic Japanese comedy routine. (The traditional haori coats have openings in the arms that make them perfect for this kind of thing.) The customers drank water, ate mikon (small mandarin-like oranges), and tried to eat ramen. I think this one was the crowd favorite.

Next was a music scene: a crowd at a Trash Box Jam performance. Trash Box Jam is a street band that counts several V-ers among their fans. It was pretty straightforward.

Last but not least, we had a "Super-missionary" skit. This one was the simplest of all, but it got some good laughs, too. Instead of dismantling the classroom, for this one we just "froze" while the dreamer imagined a letter he was writing home. He mentioned things like leading a Bible study that's so popular he had to rent TokyoDome (a huge stadium), meeting with the Japanese prime minister and solving the homeless problem in Japan, and seeing the number of Christians in Japan skyrocket thanks to his efforts. At the end, he stood up and "tore" his shirt open (it had snap-buttons), to show a Superman-esque shirt underneath...with a great big "M" for "Supermissionary." Completely realistic, right? ^_^

After the skit, there was a formal-ish ceremony where we each got diploma/certificates for completing Japanese classes. It was a great way to end our formal Japanese education here in Japan. Plenty of friends, fun, and food. Three wonderful blessings, and a day I won't soon forget.

Peace!

March 29, 2009

It's amazing to me how utterly exhausting it is to unpack. I mean, I didn't have to carry my bags and boxes upstairs, and I didn't even start until around dinner time, when the delivery service brought them. But now, several hours later, I'm absolutely beat. I'm not even done. >.<

Okay, enough of that. I am having a great time deciding how I want my apartment set up. I'm looking through the things Katrina left behind, and collecting ideas of how to use things in interesting/creative ways. I don't have too much left, so I'm hoping to have everything unpacked and organized by lunch time tomorrow.

This morning, I went to church at Center, and joined the church members for lunch afterwards. That's one of the things I love about many of the churches in Japan. After the service, most people stay around for a time of fellowhip and a meal (or at least tea and snacks). I love that these people, despite insanely busy schedules during the week, still take some time on their day off (sometimes their only day off) to hang out with other church members. It really makes each congregation feel like a family.

Since I couldn't access the Internet last night, I didn't write about my afternoon with Key. Come to mention it, I haven't really talked about Key much at all. Well, let's fix that! Key is a biligual Christian fellowship group that meets on Saturdays. The idea is to give Christians in the Tokyo area a regular time when we can come together for informal fellowship and support. It's held at a J-3 site, a student center just off campus (reminds me a lot of my campus community ^_^). This isn't a VYM program, although it seems like the V-ers are among the most regular "members."  In addition to the V-ers, there are several J-3s, and few Japanese guys that come pretty often. Since it's a new group (started just last summer, I think), it's still growing and developing. Prayers for wisdom and guidance on that front are appreciated!

The name, actually written "木Key," emphasizes that we're a bilingual group. The Japanese character (also pronounced "key") means "tree," and symbolizes the cross and its importance to Christian faith. The English component ("Key") focuses on Jesus as the "key" to salvation.

So there's a capsule description. If you'd like more details, send me an email--and get the distinction of being the first entry into the Q&A/FAQs section! ^_^

Last Saturday, we went to a park to have a cherry-blossom viewing party (a huge pasttime in the spring in Japan). Basically, it's a pot-luck picnic under the cherry trees. We had a great time, although the trees are blooming really late this year, so there weren't all that many to see. I'll actually be going back to the same park with a friend this Wednesday, so it'll be interesting to see if a few days makes a difference. I'll make sure to post some pictures for you. ^_^

Well, I'm signing off there for the night. God bless!

(Sorry, delayed due to technical difficulties (i.e.-my Internet was down).)

March 27, 2009

Praise God, that I've been counted worthy of a minor test of faith.

Random way to start a post, but that's what tonight has felt like. Today started off just fine, and most of the day went really well. I met Cassie and Matt in Omiya this morning to organize our shared classroom space and do a little bit of planning. Afterwards, Cassie and I joined our third BASIC partner, Jenae, for a night of games and semi-homemade pizza. My trial began as we were leaving...

A little after 10, Cassie and I left Jenae's place, so we could get home at a decent hour. As we were walking, we (somewhat randomly) started singing a few praise and worship songs. I thought it was pretty cool, actually. The walk was nice enough, but when we got to the train station, I discovered that somewhere along the way I'd managed to drop my wallet, complete with my ID and train pass. I know, I know. I was careless, and I paid for it. But I figured I knew where I'd dropped it, so I backtracked, hoping (and praying) to find it. I didn't find it by the time I'd almost gone all the way back to Jenae's so I called her, and stopped at the local police box (like a mini police station--they're everywhere) to see if anyone had turned it in. Still nothing. So I filed a report (with Jenae's wonderful help), and we set off to look some more.

Now, at some point my prayers had turned from "let me find it intact" to "it'd be nice to find it intact, but as long as I get my cards back, I don't really care about the money." I didn't have much cash at the moment anyway. But canceling/replacing all the various cards I carry would have been not only expensive, but very irritating. Well, let me just say this: be careful what you pray for. When we got back to the station, we checked at the office there, and wouldn't you know, there it was. Sans cash, but with all my cards intact. Naturally, I'll be watching my accounts for awhile, but everything seems to be okay. Wallet in hand (and on a tight leash), I said good night to Jenae and got on the train.

So, that was the first half of my night. The rest was more a test of trust than anything else. Now, the trains in Tokyo don't run all night long. They usually stop a little after midnight or so. I didn't realize how long the wallet fiasco had taken until I was several stops away. It was 11:45, and I was still almost an hour from "home." At my first transfer, I discovered that the next train was the "last train" of the night--and I still had two more transfers to go. Being prone to worry and anxiety (like most humans), I called Jenae and had her check my route, to see if it was even possible to get to my apartment yet. It was, but for the first time, I was chasing last trains. Several times during my "race" home, I caught myself going into my "what-if" panic mode. I had wrestle myself back under control, and remind myself that whatever happened, I would make it through.

As it turns out, I got back just fine. Tired, experiencing a bit of an adrenaline crash, but otherwise fine. I've also been reminded of the very practical, very present power of prayer. Now it's definitely time for bed.

March 26, 2009

Well, I'm settling in to my first night in my "new" apartment. It's small, but nice: 2 tatami rooms, a kitchen and a bath. I'll try to get a photo-tour up soon. And since it's my first night in a new place, I figured I'd try out a new routine. I'm going to try to post something every night. We'll see how long that lasts...

Anyway, on to tonight's post.

Moving Day

It's probably obvious, but today was moving day. Actually, it was a pretty easy move for me. Since my new apartment is already furnished, there weren't any big things to move. All I really had to do was pack. Most of my stuff was shipped (it'll get here in the next day or two), but I brought a few things myself (mostly stuff to live on until the rest of my bags get here). It'll take some time to figure out how I want to use the space I have, but I'm looking forward to it. I also can't wait to explore this new neighborhood.

Tokyo Marathon--Sea of Faces

Other than that, I wanted to write about the marathon last Sunday. It's a really big race (30,000+ runners), and it snaked through much of Tokyo. I'm not really a runner myself (at all...), but I knew at least 4 people running. Part of the route went right through Iidabashi, where I worshipped that morning. I had time before church, so I stood on the sidelines (I mentioned that I'm not a runner, right?), to take in the view and try to spot my friends.

And now, to the meat of the post. Iidabashi wasn't very far from the starting line, so the runners hadn't had much time to spread out yet. I heard that it was even worse right at the beginning, but...wow. I stood there on the sidewalk for almost an hour, and there was virtually no break in the runners. Try picking out faces you recognize when they're mixed in with 30,000 others, and running past you so fast that you get tired just watching them. About 10 minutes in, I started thinking how well a certain Kutless song applied...*hums* "Lost in a sea of faces..."

Well, mostly just that one line, although I really like the whole song.

With that on my mind, and my eyes still scanning the runners racing by, I suppose I started getting reflective. Then (once the really serious and fast runners went by) I started to see some pretty crazy runners. Now, I'm not sure if there's some kind of contest, or if they just do it for fun, but...well, here: Among the runners, I saw Santa and Mrs. Claus, cows and clowns, cops and robbers, tutus and tuxedos, superheros, cartoon characters and cross-dressers. There was a man "riding" an ostrich, and a man running in a bathtowel (complete with rubber duck). There was a guy in a full-size cello suit--his face was the hole--complete with a moving bow. But the first costume I saw was very simple: a man had made a big, bright red arrow, and pinned it to a hat. It "floated" above him, pointing down at him. I suppose that made it easier for his fans to find him in the crowd. It was very entertaining.

Well, wait. Maybe there's another reason that so many runners chose to wear these crazy outfits, and it goes back to that song. There were so many people, it was really easy to get "lost in a sea of faces." Knowing this, they decided to do something to try to stand out.

I think think this also applies to the "human race" as well. There are so many people in this world that it's really easy to get "lost in a sea of faces"-- or feel like it anyway. So we do things to stand out, make ourselves memorable. But--to return to the man with the arrow--we're pointing at ourselves. We shouldn't live to bring attention to ourselves; rather, we should live to display the Light living in us. That isn't to say we shouldn't stand out; throughout history God's people were set apart, made to stand out in the world. As Christians, we should live the love that we feel, make known the mercy we've been given, show the salvation of our Savior.

But it shouldn't be a special occasion thing, either. I'm sure the runners with all those crazy outfits took them off after the race (some shed their gear during the race, I think). Instead, our Christian lives should be ingrained in who we are, knit into our very being--not like a piece of clothing you put on or take off as the occasion calls for it. It'll take work, sure. But we have a great Coach to help us every step of the way.

And I think we'll end there for now. Heh, maybe writing at night isn't a good idea after all. It looks like I wax poetic with the moon...

Anyway, good night and God bless!

March 20, 2009

Spring Sunshine

God has ways of reminding you to take a break and relax. Maybe there's a good movie playing or your favorite show is on TV. Maybe your car/tool breaks down, forcing you to wait for it to be fixed or replaced. I've heard several V-ers say that a particularly bad cold or illness was, ironically, just what the doctor ordered when their lives got too hectic or they got too stressed.

Today turned out to be one of those days, for me. No, I'm not sick. No, I don't have a car that can break down. And--since we don't have cable (or its satellite equivalent)--no, I didn't find something good on TV. No, my break today came from a visit to Kawasaki House by Yukie (my "boss") and a Japanese couple who were planning to move in after we left. (They have sinced changed their plans, but still wanted to come over to see the house.)

Now, a little bit of background: Japanese class ended last week Friday, but that hasn't reduced our schedules by very much. On Wednesday we went to the home one of our Japanese teachers (actually her sister's house, I think), where she showed us how to perform the traditional Japanese tea ceremony (sado), and dressed us in kimono. Thursday we went back to a group home/workshop (where the residents taught us to make pottery a few weeks ago) to paint the projects we'd made. Afterwards, I played tourist with a few other V-ers, and visited the Studio Ghibli museum.

These activities in themselves were very pleasant and a lot of fun (look for a post on the tea ceremony, especially). What's made this week pretty crazy is the fact that next week we'll be moving (meaning I have to pack my stuff and clean Kawasaki House), and this Saturday (aka tomorrow) there will be an engagement ceremony for Justin and Katrina (fellow V-ers, engaged in December). So in addition to packing, I volunteered to make cookies for the reception. A lot of cookies. I've been baking pretty much all week. (The oven and I finally understand each other, I think. ^_^) By the time this morning arrived, though, I still had 3 batches of cookies to make, in addition to the company we were expecting.

Back to the "title" of this post...

The weather today made me feel like I was back in Wisconsin. Contrary to what I've grown up with, I've noticed that the weather here in Tokyo usually stays surprisingly constant all day. If it's a clear day, it'll most likely be clear all day. If it's raining in the morning, there's a pretty good chance that it'll rain all day long. So when the big, fat raindrops woke me up this morning, I expected to be listening to them all day (which I don't really mind...just ask my mom or dad ^_^). Since I had a lot of work inside to do, that didn't bother me too much. But, of course, as soon as I think I have something figured out, it changes.

Our company was coming in the late morning, so I spent most of the morning doing a little cleaning. By the time they arrived, the rain had slowed a little bit, but was still falling steadily. We gave them a tour, then sat and talked for a little while. Eventually we decided to go out for lunch, and left the house to find an absolutely gorgeous, warm, sunny day. After a very nice lunch, ice cream was suggested. No one disagreed. So we walked in the beautiful sunshine a little more. After stopping at Cold Stone (yes, Cold Stone ^_^), we sat in the sun and watched families enjoying the holiday (including a toddler who somehow managed to lose his shoe in a shallow pool without falling in--don't worry, mom was right there).

Eventually, we made our way back to the house, and our guests went their way. I proceeded to become a mini-cookie factory for the remainder of the day (and have since decided that I'm quite finished baking for a while, thank you very much!).

If we hadn't had visitors today, I think there's a pretty good chance that I would have spent most (if not all) of the day inside, doing work of some kind. Instead, I was lured away from my Martha-like activities to just bask in the glory of the Lord and enjoy the wonderful day He made.

And to top it all off, I finished everything I'd wanted to do today with enough time to write this. Thank our Sabbath Savior for sunny days, and the chance to enjoy them, even when I didn't think I had time to. ^_^

(More sneak peaks:

Tea ceremony

Spring Retreat

Our visits to the group home

I'm going to try to get all caught up before classes start in April, I promise!)

March 17, 2009

Yikes... It's been almost 2 months. I'm really sorry. I don't keep a journal or anything, so remembering to write on a regular basis is hard for me.

Well, since it's been so long since my last post, there's a lot to talk about. Instead of doing a massive, book-length blog entry, I think I'm going to try something a little different. I'll write shorter, more managable entries on specific things until I get caught up. The list below are the things I want to write about, a sneak peak, if you will. As soon as I finish one, I'll open a link to it.

• Tokyo Lutheran Center (site of Japanese classes and one of my future teaching posts)
• Omiya Zion Lutheran Church (my second future teaching site)
• My trip to Niigata
• Site Training
• Skit Day
• Key (a Christian fellowship/youth group)

I'm also setting up a few new areas on the site. I'm adding a prayer corner, where I'll post specific prayer requests as they come up. I'm also putting in a FAQ/Q&A area, where I'll make comments and answer any questions that come up. (This was inspired by the Sunday School at my home church, but I'm not sure if they know it yet...) For that reason, I'm collecting/asking for questions from you, my loyal readers. I'll do my best to post your questions and answer them, either by drawing on my own stores of knowledge or by asking people who might know more than I do (believe it or not, I hear they exist--shocking, right? ^_^). So if you have questions about me, about Japan, about VYM, about God or Jesus or anything else, feel free to email me (kim.sherwin@lcms.com).

January 26, 2009

It's the end of another busy weekend, and I have a little time to write. So, here goes...

The weekend started with a Japanese class "field trip" Friday afternoon. After an abbreviated class (one hour compared to two or three), we took the trains to Ryogoku, sumo capital of the world. Now, I'll admit I wasn't really looking forward to watching sumo. I mean, these guys don't really look like the trim athletes I'm used to seeing, and they wear a lot less clothing. (Sumo wrestlers are actually very fit and very strong.) But it was a lot of fun. We got to see one of the last days of this year's Emperor's Cup tournament, and one of the matches of the wrestler who ended up winning the Cup (he won 14 out of 15 matches). When we saw him, he was still undefeated, and we got to see him win. It was exciting. It was also really funny to watch my Japanese teacher really getting into it. She got to see her all-time favorite wrestler, and she joined the crowds to cheer him on. She even rolled her program into a make-shift bull-horn. ^_^

The rest of the weekend was filled with different church events. I made the comment at one point that because of all the events, I've been at every VYM site in Tokyo this week.

Saturday there was a Coffeehouse at Omiya. Only three nationals came, but it was still a lot of fun. We drank lots of coffee and tea, and enjoyed many wonderful snacks. We also talked a lot and played Skip-bo. It's always really cool to see a national that seems really shy and quiet in the beginning really open up while we're talking or playing a game.

Sunday there were two events. I started my day with worship in Takenotsuka, and then hung out until the early afternoon American TV Event. We watched four different shows representing four different decades in American media: Bewitched, Full House, Smallville, and What I Like About You (which I'd never even heard of...). It gave us a good opportunity to talk about different aspects of American culture and several slang terms. It was also kind of fun to see how sitcoms have changed through the years.

As soon as the TV event ended, I went over to Center, where another Coffeehouse was in full swing. There was live music (courtesy of several V-ers and Japanese nationals), a lot of goodies, and a lot of tea (there might have actually been some coffee, too...). When I got there, there was a group playing Quiddler, which is a great game to play with English learners. (And it's fun for us native-speakers, too.)

So that was my marathon weekend. Earlier this week I observed some kids' classes at Suginami church. I saw everything from a single 3-year-old to a group of junior high school girls. I just hope I can remember some of the tips I got for handling classes full of very genki (energetic) children... ^_^

Now I'm heading back to Center. Today I'll be having my first experience with a Japanese dentist. >.< Hopefully it'll just be a normal cleaning and check-up...

January 15, 2009

Last night was a momentous night for Lauren and me. We finally got our cell phones. The boys splurged for phones a few months ago, but we decided to wait a little while. Yukie took us to the cell phone store after work, and we spent a long time talking to a representative about different features (mostly which phones were bi-lingual...). The phone I ended up choosing is the most high-tech gadget I've ever owned, and it's even a model that didn't cost anything extra. In addition to normal calling and texting, the thing can also take pictures and video, access the Internet (thus I can also email from my phone), and pick up Japanese TV shows. It has an infrared data sharing program, mostly to be used with other phones, but it can also be used to scan the bar codes included on many advertisments here in Japan for special promotional offers and extra information. For an extra cost, I could have also used it to play music, like an iPod. Sheesh. A favorite saying in VYM is to "remember the 5% rule," meaning you need to be 5% smarter than the thing you're working with to get it to work properly. With this phone, I think I might be in trouble...^_^

On Tuesday, I went to one of the VYM sites to observe an English class. We're encouraged to visit as many sites as we can, observing as many classes as possible, to try to prepare us for teaching (since most of us, myself included, do not have formal teaching experience). The class was interesting to watch, and I picked up a few ideas for my own classes, but the most meaningful part of the class, for me, was a tidbit I gained during the free-talking/discussion time in the beginning. Since it was the first class since December, we talked about what we did to celebrate Christmas and New Year's. In Japan, it's traditional to visit a Shinto shrine on New Year's, to pray for good luck in the new year. 2 of the students said they went to a shrine, but they both left before they actually prayed. At the shrines, you stand in front of the main building to offer your prayers, and since it was New Year's, most shrines are really crowded. Visitors had to stand in line for an hour or more to get to the shrine to pray. Instead of standing in line, they just left.

I thought it illustrated in an interesting way the attitude many Japanese have toward religion. Many actions and rituals are performed simply because they always have been (i.e. going to a shrine on New Year's); there's often little belief behind it (meaning they don't mind leaving without praying). For me, the idea of going to church on Easter (or even just Sunday), for example, but not staying for a worship service or even a prayer seems...very strange, to say the least.

January 14, 2009

As part of our language and culture training (aka Japanese class), we occasionally go on "field trips" to see cultural events. A month or so ago, we got to see a bunraku play. Last Tuesday (our first day back "in class") we again walked to the National Theatre, this time to see a kabuki play. Kabuki is another style of traditional theatre, known for its distinctively exagerated acting and elaborate costumes. Kabuki shows are known to be very long, often all day events. We arrived at the theatre in the late morning, and by the time we left it was early evening. It's the first show I've been to where we were given a half-hour lunch break in addition to several intermissions.

In reality, what we saw wasn't just one play. There were 3 separate stories performed. The first was a contest-of-strength story featuring a scheming political man against a rough and wild wandering samurai. The story surrounded the fearsome "monster" which had been released and was wreaking havoc on the countryside. The identity of the beast: an elephant, given to the emperor as a gift. The highly stylized fight scenes in this show were a lot of fun to watch, and the elephant (played donkey/horse-style by two people) was surprisingly realistic.

The second "story" was a dance dedicated to the current emperor, celebrating the 20th anniversary of his reign. It included a traditional musical ensemble, with drums, a flute, and two traditional stringed instruments. The characters/dancers for this portion each represented a different type of tree. According to the myth/storyline, a pine tree is said to blossom every 100 years. After blossoming 10 times (every 1000 years), it bears fruit. That momentous occasion had arrived, so all the other trees were dancing and celebrating. The coolest part about this "story" was the fact that half of the actors were related. Kabuki is traditionally a family occupation, meaning boys born into these families usually become kabuki actors themselves. In this story, the pine tree was played by a well-known kabuki actor. His son and daughter played the bamboo and peach trees, respectively. The bamboo actor's three sons (13, 11, and 7) also danced very well as the "children of the trees," aka saplings.

The final play in our day of kabuki was an action/romance kind of story. It featured samurai and feudal lords, in addition to a "common" firefighter.  It was filled with conflicting duties, manipulative plots, and a mostly happy ending. It was very well done and I thoroughly  enjoyed the entire kabuki experience.

January 9, 2009

Not far from Center (where our Japanese classes are held), there's a fairly good-sized park. We walked through it once shortly after we arrived in Japan. In the last few days, I've felt myself drawn there several times. I'm especially looking forward to this spring, because the park is full of cherry trees, which are famous for their yearly blooms. The park is also home to the Budokan, where many martial arts classes and tournaments are held. (It's also used as a concert hall.)

On one of my recent wanderings through the park, I stopped at the Budokan office/information center, mostly out of curiousity. With surprisingly little difficulty, I was able to get a schedule of the various martial arts classes that would soon be re-starting (aka, they started today). I also found out that I could come watch the classes, if I wanted to.

For those of you who don't know, I fancy myself a martial artist. I studied the Korean martial art of taekwondo in college, and earned my black belt shortly after graduation last spring. So I was pretty excited that I had an opportunity to see a Japanese martial arts class.

Today, despite a cold rain that has been falling all day (>.<), I walked over to the park in hopes of seeing a class. According to the schedule I'd picked up, there were 2 classes starting in the evening: children's judo, and children's kendo. Judo is a bare-handed art, similar to wrestling or grappling. Kendo is learning Japanese swordmanship (using special bamboo practice swords).

Well, I got to the park to find a huge line forming in front of the Budokan. Apparently there's a big concert there tonight, in addition to the martial arts classes re-starting. After several unsucessful attempts, I managed to explain to security what I was looking for, and eventually found the 2 practice rooms, conveniently right across from each other.

I'll admit I got a few strange looks as the kids and their parents came in for class, but I'm kind of used to that by now. (Being one of the only people in the country with blue eyes and light hair does that...) Eventually, the kids got down to class, and I had a few laughs with the parents. (Mostly about seating. There were 2 rows of chairs set up. I sat in the front row, most of them chose the back. Eventually we all ended up in one row.)

The class I watched most was kendo. It was really fun to watch the kids running through their warm-up exercises, then suiting up for practice. There was one little boy, maybe 6 years old, who was really energetic about it. He didn't have pads or a helmet, but that sure wasn't stopping him.

Anyway, that was my little adventure today. I've been really interested in kendo for a while now, but I've never actually seen it. As a side effect, though, now I want to learn it myself...

January 4, 2009

Ah, sumimasen! I'm sorry that it's been so long since my last post. My only explanation is that this season continues to live up to it's reputation. I've been busy. I was doing pretty good for awhile, too...

Anyway, this'll be a long post. I apologize, but I hope you enjoy it. I'm including a few pictures in with the stories this time, too.

Speech Day

The first "semester" of our Japanese classes ended on December 19th with Speech Day. Basically, everyone learning Japanese at Center had to write, memorize, and present a short speech (~5 minutes) in Japanese. It was the 4 of us new V-ers, the 3 new J3s, a couple from Finland, and a few V-ers who have continued taking lessons on their own. It went well, as far as I can tell. No one fainted, and the speeches sounded pretty good, to my non-native ears. ^_^One of the guys began his speech in a very unique way. He got up, faced the (surprisingly large) audience, and took a picture of them. He got a few good laughs, and probably relieved a lot of tension. I'll have to remember that technique...

Speech Day...

Anyway, classes won't start again until January 13th, and on that day we'll be going to see a kabuki play. Kabuki is a famous, traditional style here in Japan. So I have a pretty long break.

Site Christmas Parties

As an O-V-er (orientation volunteer), I don't have a specific site that I work with. For that reason, I have time to go to the other sites, attending events and helping where help is needed. Other than helping with the Suginami Kid's Day (see last post), though, my role was primarily attendance and miscellaneous minor supports. I was able to make it to 2 English school Christmas parties: Takenotsuka and Omiya.

The theme for the Takenotsuka party was "Christmas around the world." There was a huge potluck meal, complete with the ever-present Japanese sushi and sashimi platters, cookies and sweets, and a curried potato dish from India. After the meal, mountains of Christmas tree-shaped sugar cookeis (homemade by one of the site V-ers) appeared, with colored frosting and tons of sprinkles.

Hey, you adults! Who says decorating cookies is just for kids? The concentration and attention to detail during cookie decorating really amazed me. The kids had a blast, no doubt. But the adults were gathered around the table as well, painstakingly using hashi (chopsticks) to "paint" details on their cookies. There were strings of garland, heart-shaped ornaments, and even a Christmas-tree cookie with a face (that one was a kid's masterpiece). Then came the sprinkles. All I could say was "Wow."

Once the artists were satisfied, it was time for the candlelight service. The songs included familiar carols, but there weren't 2 in the same language. There was Japanese and English, but also Spanish, German (which I was privileged to lead, despite a cold that had robbed me of my voice), and an instrumental presentation of a French carol. Earlier that evening, there had been a pinata (a donkey painted like a candy cane). It really was "Christmas around the world," and it reminded me that no matter where we are, whether we get a day off or not, the Baby born on Christmas all those years ago was born because we needed Him.

The next week, I attended the English School Christmas party at Omiya. The kids sang Away in a Manger for their parents (in English), and there was a Christmas tree decorating contest. The catch: there weren't actually any trees. Each of the 3 teams "elected" a Christmas tree.

Decorating one of the "trees."

Finally, the V-er at the site gave a message (in Japanese!) about the meaning of Christmas. To drive home her point, the service ended with a gift exchange. Everyone was asked to bring a small gift, and we drew numbers to see who got what. Contrary to most exchanges I've been to, however, we claimed the gifts we'd brought. The whole point of the V-er's message had been basically: "Christmas is Jesus' birthday; we should be giving gifts, not recieving them." So as we called each number, the person who had brought that gift came forward, and presented it to the person receiving it. Really simple, but it struck me, especially as the kids got so into it. They were so excited to give their gifts away.

Church Christmas

I alluded to it a moment ago, but Christmas isn't much of a holiday here in Japan. Oh sure, the stores out-do themselves with decorations. You hear Christmas songs playing everywhere, even Christian carols. But no one gets off of work. Except, ironically, the pastors. Since no one has the day off, there usually aren't any services Christmas Day. For that reason, Christmas services take place on a Sunday. I celebrated at Omiya once again, and had a great time. A pair of musicians played some beautiful songs, and there was another potluck and gift exchange afterward. Seeing the interactions in this community is really cool. There's such energy, such passion. I pray that whatever the future holds for this church, they continue to live their faith, not losing their passion.

Christmas Eve: Candlelight Service

There might not be services on Christmas Day, but I was able to worship Christmas Eve, candles and all. Deciding where to go was hard (one hard thing about not having an assigned site...), but I eventually chose Center. (I was really close to chosing Omiya, since that service was set to include 4 baptisms. But I just felt like Center was the place to go that night.) I went to both services (2 churches use the building: one English, the other Japanese). The services themselves were pretty similar, but each unique in it's own way. For one thing, the lights were dimmed really early for the Japanese service, well before the individual candles were lit. For that reason, I had some good reflection time during the sermon. (I tried to pay attention, really. But it's kind of hard to follow sermons in Japanese...) Then there was the English service, which reminded me a lot of home.

Center, Christmas Eve

Christmas Day: Ice-skating and Movie Marathon

Since most of us don't have families here in Japan to celebrate Christmas with, there's a developing tradition within VYM. We meet at Yokohama, walk through Chinatown for lunch, go ice skating, and then camp out at someone's apartment for a Christmas movie marathon. Now, Tokyo doesn't get that cold. It doesn't usually freeze or get snow (much to my regret). So when I heard that we were going ice-skating, I naturally assumed it'd be an indoor rink. Imagine my surprise when I learned that the rink really was outside. After wandering through Chinatown, we walked over to the same area where Octoberfest had been held. Some cooling system under the ice kept it mostly frozen despite the day's warm temperature (it was in the high 40s). There was even a Zamboni (not that brand, but you know what I mean) that kicked us off the ice 5 minutes after we got there. ^_^

Eventually tired ankles and empty stomachs convinced us that it was time to go. We took the trains to Becky's apartment, which had been offered as the site for the movie marathon. On the way we stopped at KFC for Christmas chicken (really popular here, actually).

A little visit with Colonel Santa

Once we got to Becky's place, we settled in for a long night of "Christmas" movies. The only requirement for the movie to be shown: it had to have Christmas in it somewhere. We watched classic Christmas shows like A Christmas Story and A Charlie Brown Christmas, newer classics like Elf, and even P.S. I Love You (which has a Christmas scene).

Camped out at Becky's

During the course of the night, several of us were able to use Skype to contact our families, who tended to be in the midst of their own celebrations. It was a long night (we crashed at about 5:30am), but so full of food, fun, and fellowship that there was no time to think about being homesick.

Family Christmas at Okutama

Going with the theme of celebrating our Lord's birth with my new family, I joined most of the other V-ers, several J3s, and a few other folks for the Christmas retreat, aka Family Christmas. It's held at Okutama Bible Chalet, in the mountains outside Tokyo. I finally got the "white" Christmas I've been missing. Sort of...

My "white" Christmas

Unlike Fall Retreat, which had a definite schedule and lots of team-building activities, Family Christmas is meant to be more like a vacation. We were expected to show up for meals and devotion times, but other than that we were completely free. Still, we ended up doing a lot of things together, which shows how much like a "family" we've become. It was especially nice to spend some more time with the 3 girls working in Niigata. Niigata is several hours away by bus or train, so we don't see them very often.

We did do 2 gift exchanges, one serious and one "white elephant." The white elephant exchange had a theme: Animal Wrap. Whatever we found to contribute, we were supposed to wrap to look like an animal...somehow.

Our zoo.

I tried for a tiger; we had an owl, a hedgehog, a monkey, a flat skunk, a camel, a rooster, a frog, and yes, even an elephant... So many creative gift ideas. Between the 2 exchanges, there were a lot of great gifts, too. I think the most entertaining for the group at large was a book of mistakes made among people learning Japanese, intended to be a learning guide. There were so many hilarious blunder stories, like mixing sara (dishes) and saru (monkey), resulting in a man who explained to a co-worker that he worked his way through college washing monkeys.

(We also had some...excitement? anxiety?...right after Family Christmas, when one of the V-ers got really sick and ended up spending New Year's in the hospital. But all's well that ends well; that person was released on Friday and is doing fine now. Praise God.)

New Year's Celebrations

Contrary to the minimal attention to Christmas, Japan goes all out for New Year's. It's the biggest holiday of the year, and the entire country essentially shuts down for 2 or 3 days. To prepare for the event, the (traditionally) women prepare enough food for those 2 or 3 days, so they don't have to cook at all. I spent Christmas Eve communing with God, and met Becky shortly after noon on New Year's Day. We then spent the afternoon at a Japanese friend's home, grazing on the food her mother had prepared and just hanging out. When we had eaten as much as our stomachs could hold, our friend and her mother decided it would be fun to dress us in kimono. (Hopefully pictures of that will be coming...I didn't have my camera.)

Wine and Cheese Party

Not quite New Year's related, but the day after New Year's our "boss" had a gathering of her own. She's attended universities in Switzerland and Canada, and visited France. If she'd been born in America, she probably would have been a Wisconsinite. She knows more about cheese than anyone I know. So she hosted a wine and cheese party for us. Who would have thought slices of cheese and apple would be so delicious? We sampled goat cheese, sheep cheese, 2 kinds of real Swiss cheese (at least), and a really cool (French?) cheese that was "sliced" with a cool crank-shaver...thing. It came off in little curled pieces that looked like flowers.

Last but not least...

So that pretty much brings us to today. Since this was a "free" weekend (meaning we could choose where we worshipped), I tried a new church. Tokyo Lutheran, not a VYM church, also has both English and Japanese worship each week. One of the guys knows the pastor, so I thought I'd check it out. It was a nice church, and I enjoyed the services.

Thanks for reading. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year's and God Bless!

December 17th, 2008

Last weekend was crazy busy, but a lot of fun. Friday night I went to a Christmas party at Hongo, one of the J3 sites. (J3 is the ELCA equivilent of the VYM program.) It was a lot of fun to hang out with the church members, and we played a few games that I won't soon forget. One, heralded as a winter version of sumo, pitted 2 people at a time in a kind of tug-of-war balancing act. The players sit facing each other in 2 chairs, each balancing a mikon (basically a mini-orange) on their heads. They each take hold of one end of a towel with one hand (and only one hand), and try to get the other person's mikon to fall. So simple, but oh so entertaining. (I didn't fare too well myself, but there's always next time!)

Saturday there was so much going on that I had to pick and choose. In the morning, I joined a group of V-ers and Japanese nationals for a round of Christmas caroling. After a warm-up/practice session, we sang in a hotel lobby, the main strip of a local shopping area, and in front of an area business. During the warm-up, I noticed that one of the Japanese women was singing a very confident alto line. Since I prefer to sing alto myself (especially for a lot of Christmas songs, which seem to enjoy stretching the upper reaches of my range), I introduced myself and we were singing buddies for most of the morning. Adding in the men's bass line, and a few of the other V-ers who picked up tenor, we had a sweet thing.

The songs varied between English and Japanese. I think my favorite song of the day was actually a new (for me) Japanese song that we sang in a round. It's kind of strange to say, but it's actually a lot easier (usually) to sing Japanese than to speak it. (My theory is that the songs are usually slower than spoken language, so my mind has more time to process each character.)

After caroling, I took the trains to Suginami to meet Jenae for the kids event. At first it seemed like the preparations would be for nothing, when by 2:30 (the start time) not a single person had arrived. But, as if to remind us that His schedule is not ours, we soon had a full room, with six children and nearly as many parents. We watched a Christmas movie (Storybook Cafe, which was actually really cute and funny), and then it was my turn. The craft went over really well, as far as I can judge. Even the adults got into it, and by the end we had a full host of angel ornaments to proclaim Christ's birth in homes around Japan.

After the kids event wrapped up, I had to decide what to do. Center's Christmas party had started at 3, and I could have caught the tail end of it. At 5, there was going to be a candlelight service. Afterwards, a group was heading to the Christmas market in Roppongi, which had started that day. On the other hand, Suginami was also having a movie night for the adults that evening as well, showing The Nativity Story ("Maria" in Japanese). I really wanted to do everything, but since I haven't quite figured out how to be in multiple places at once, I had to pick. (Incidentally, if anyone has figured out how to do that, please let me know. ^_^) I decided to stay at Suginami for the evening, in part because Center was a forty-five minute train ride away. So I just hung out with Jenae, along with Heidi (the pastor's wife) and her young son. I can check out the Christmas market some other time (it's going on until Christmas), and there'll be other candlelight services. Basically, Saturday was a great day with a ton of stuff to do.

Sunday (still the same weekend), we got up early to catch a train to Hanno. This site doesn't currently have a V-er, but has in the past. The church is small, but strong. The people were very welcoming. After the service, the pastor and his wife invited us to lunch at their home. We had a delicious beef stew and a lot of great fellowship. After while, we left for Takenotsuka, where the final activity of the weekend was taking place.

Cassie (a V-er) was having her own Christmas party/open house. By the time we got there, the party was in full swing. Cassie's little apartment was filled almost to bursting with church members, English students, and V-ers. There was more food (potluck-style) than Cassie's little kitchen table could hold. We played a few games, but mostly just talked and laughed together. It was really cool to see so many English students, who weren't necessarily church members or even Christians. My fervent prayer is that many of the non-Christians in the group were able to see the wonderful fellowship, and also catch a glimpse at the true meaning of this holy season.

December 12th, 2008

We had our weekly group devotion/worship time at Center yesterday morning, but then I had the afternoon off, as usual. I spent the day doing a lot of random things, like laundry and cleaning. I walked to the Daiso to get supplies for the craft on Saturday with Jenae. The "dollar" stores here in Japan are absolutely amazing.

Yesterday was also a baking day. I made cookies (Peanut Butter Blossoms, my personal favorite, besides the classic chocolate chip) for Cassie's party on Sunday, and they turned out pretty well. I'm really thankful for the oven at Kawasaki House, although I still haven't worked all the kinks out of it yet. For example, although I always set the timer for the same amount of time, it seemed like each batch of cookies needed longer and longer to bake. I didn't really mind too much, probably since I was snacking on the extra Hershey's kisses the whole time. ^_^

The weather here in Japan has turned warmer again. For example, it's the second week in December, and I didn't wear a coat to the store yesterday. In a lot of ways it's nice, but I already miss the snow. Apparently Wisconsin had a snow storm this week (on top of all the snow they already have), so they're looking at 2 feet or so of snow. I told my mom she should put some in a shoebox and send it to me. ^_^

December 10th, 2008

A lot has happened in the last month, and as Christmas is just around the corner (hard to believe, huh?), things will probably be pretty busy for a while yet. For example, this weekend looks absolutely packed with great activities. Saturday morning a group from Center is going caroling (which is a big stretch for Japanese people). After that, I'm helping Jenae with a Christmas family event at her site. I'll be leading the craft, which so far looks like a tissue-angel ornament type thing. It's cute. Then that night (all in one day, of course) there are more Christmas events at Center. The next day Cassie is having a Christmas party. And that's one weekend. There's a lot going on, but I'm really looking forward to it.

Family Concert

Since my last posting, one of the VYM sites here in Tokyo held a family concert, and several V-ers were enlisted to perform. There were a lot of musical talents displayed, mostly vocal and guitar. However, there were also some very nice piano pieces, and one man played a ukalele and harmonica. I participated as an "active audience member," since my musical talents basically consist of singing along to the radio and singing in a choir.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was really great this year. I volunteered to help out, and ended up making 2 pumpkin pies and a fruit salad. The day of, I had a blast decorating the room with one of the Japanese women who were helping out. There were glitches, of course (there usually are), but I thought everything went beautifully. The lounge was packed when we turned on the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special. The turkey (which had been roasting for about 5 or 6 hours at this point) arrived just in time. Since there's no oven at Center, it was prepared off-site, and carried over by Justin.

There was so much food, and amazing deserts, and all of it was delicious. There was a lot of laughter, too. One of the V-ers found a bag of the candy-corn-like pumpkins, and they went out on the desert table. I heard so many of the Japanese guests wondering what they were. My favorite guesses were erasers and candles. But once they realized the sweets were edible, they seemed to enjoy them.

The evening ended with a Thanksgiving trivia contest, with the dining area divided into 2 teams, with Americans and Japanese on each side. Some of the questions were really tricky. For example, for one question each team was given a stack of paper with foods written on them. They had to decide what foods were eaten at the first Thanksgiving. "Corn on the cob" was one of the options, but according to the source we used, it was not one of the dishes at the first Thanksgiving. Who knew?

Kanto Cluster

Every month, all the V-ers in the Tokyo area get together t connect and take care of business that's come up. (Tokyo and the surrounding area lies on the Kanto plain, hence the title.) The December meeting was a lot of fun. Matt and Josh (Asia Volunteer Coordinator and Asia Communications Specialist) are in Japan for a while, so they came, too. Every meeting has an ice-breaker, as well as a devotion/worship time, prayer time, and business/announcement time. For this month's ice-breaker, Matt brought M&Ms and a lot of chopsticks. Everyone took 10 M&Ms, and the task was to use the chopsticks to eat as many M&Ms as possible in 1 minute. Now, I'm pretty good with chopsticks. But M&Ms are hard and slippery, and just generally difficult to pick up with chopsticks. Never the less, I was pretty proud to only have 4 left when the minute was over. For the ice-breaker part, we had to tell the group something new about us for each M&M we had left.

After the meeting, most of us went out to eat. We walked to Suidobashi, the next "neighborhood" and the location of the TokyoDome stadium. There's a lot to do in the area, including a rollarcoaster that runs through a few buildings (Ihaven't ridden it yet, although the guys have. They say it's a blast.). In the shadow of TokyoDome itself is a food court area with a fountain-pool. Every hour or so there's a "water symphony," which is a choreographed fountain/water-jet show set to music. Since it's the Christmas season, the music had holiday cheer.

Messiah Concert

The following Monday, we had the opportunity to see a performance of Handel's Messiah, put on by a Christian school in Tokyo. 2 of my highlights of the night came before the show even started. First, the entire auditorium (in Tokyo, Japan-a nation with a very low percentage of Christians) was led in prayer. Such a simple thing, but it blew me away.

The second came as the crowd was growing restless, waiting for the show to start. A man walked on stage to a round of enthusiastic applause, only to grab the microphone stand that was used to lead the prayer, and take it off stage. It took us a few moments to realize that we had just greeted a stage hand as if he were the conductor. Not a bad thing by any means, but very entertaining none the less.

Bunraku performance

As a cultural field trip, our Japanese classes were taken to see a performance of bunraku, or traditional Japanese puppetry. The performance began with explanations and demonstrations, which were very interesting and hilarious at the same time. 

The puppets themselves are beautiful and complex. Each major puppet is controlled by three people (minor characters usually only had one handler), and the dialogue of the show is performed by one person, who altered his voice for each character. This person is accompanied by a musician on a traditional Japanese stringed instrument called a shamisen, similar to a guitar or lute.

The actual puppet show didn't begin until half-way through the performance. While the story was hard to follow (being entirely in old Japanese) and very sad (one of the children died...), it was amazing to see. I hope that I'll be able to enjoy this art form again in the future.

November 13th, 2008

Looking at my last entry, I realize that I really have to update my blog more often. I'm now coming up on the two-month mark. My daily routine is pretty well established, although there are usually new things each week. Yesterday we went to the bank to open bank accounts. A week or two ago we finally got our hanko, or our name stamps. In Japan, hanko are used much like signatures in the United States. For most Japanese, hanko have the kanji (Chinese character) of their last name. Since we don't have kanji. our hanko have our last names written in katakana, the Japanese script used to write foreign words.

Time is absolutely flying by. I can't believe that Fall Conference was already almost 2 weeks ago. I summarized the Conference a little in my newsletter, but I'd like to give a little more detail here. Fall Conference happens once every year (in the fall, believe it or not), and brings together the whole VYM team. All the V-ers were there, from the group in Tokyo, to the Niigata team, and even including Matt, the LCMS East Asia Volunteer Coordinator (our regional boss). It's made up of two main parts: business meetings, and a retreat.

During the business meetings, site reports made up a big portion. For a site report, we each had to write a few pages (a page or two, for us new V-ers) about our assigned site, including Japanese staff, regular activities, and personal reflections. For me, since I'd only been in Japan for a little more than a month, my site report consisted of basically "Kawasaki House is nice, Japanese class is kind of hard but fun, and I'm adjusting well to living in Japan." Of course, when I gave the actual report, it was slightly more embellished...

While we stayed in Tokyo for the business meetings, there were some differences from our normal routine. For one thing, we had to come in to Center earlier every day, which meant that we couldn't avoid rush hour. I'd heard stories about rush hour in Japan, but experiencing it firsthand is another thing entirely. There really are workers on the platform with white gloves who push people onto the tr ains. It didn't really phase me too much, although it was a relief to get off the trains those mornings, and breathe in a breath of clean, cool air. Lauren, however, who grew up in very small town, found the experience quite unpleasant. And Justin came in super early a few mornings, to avoid the rush. This meant he was on the trains right when they started in the morning, around 6am. He'd get to Center and sleep on the couch until everyone else got there.

One night some of us also went out for pizza and karaoke. Now, I'm not a huge karaoke fan. I love to sing, don't get me wrong; but hearing my own voice amplified--not really my thing. Even so, I enjoyed the evening. California Pizza Kitchen has amazing pizza, and it was a lot of fun to hang out with the group and listen to them sing (and sing along with the songs I knew, of course. ^_^ I may not like the mike, but I still love to sing!). The boys sang a version of Bohemian Rhapsody that will not soon be forgotten. As a tribute to Halloween, we also sang Monster Mash. All in all, it was a very memorable night.

The next day (Friday), we took a bus to Yamanaka-ko, one of the five large lakes surrounding Mount Fuji. We spent the weekend at a small Christian camp facility about a 15 minute walk from the lake. For the most part, the weekend was for relaxation and an escape from the city and our often crazy schedules (mine, not so much...yet). We also played some team-building games and other retreat-like activities.

One task in particular was really cool. We paired up with our site partners (most VYM sites have at least 2 people), and one person was blindfolded. Then the blindfolded person was handed a string. All the strings were tied to a ring, and on the ring was an egg. Our task was to manouver the egg through a tire swing without dropping it. The catch? While the blindfolded person could touch the string, they (for obvious reasons) couldn't see. Their partner could see, but wasn't allowed to touch the string. No one could touch the egg or the tire (or the rope the tire was hanging from). As a team, we all had to either lead our blindfolded partner, or follow the instructions of our sighted partner. We did manage to break one egg early on, but after that we did pretty good. It apparently took us two hours, but it sure didn't feel like it. It was actually a lot of fun. (Of course, I wasn't blindfolded. I might have a different opinion if I had been...)

There were a few blocks of free time, when we could just hang out at the retreat center, walk through the forest of changing leaves, or walk to the lake and explore the town. Saturday afternoon, I joined a group that visited a local onsen (hot spring). Although many people find the idea of communal bathing uncomfortable, if not downright disturbing, I personally am very fond of it. My first experience (in 2006, on an early trip to Japan) was somewhat nerve-wracking, but I was really looking forward to the onsen this time around. And sitting in a natural hot spring in the brisk fall mountain air, looking over the hills covered in blazing reds, oranges, and yellows, with Mount Fuji in the background...it was a great experience.

One final note on the retreat (and traffic in Japan): The bus ride to Yamanaka-ko on Friday took about 2 hours. The ride home on Sunday evening took about 5 hours, even though Monday was a holiday. It really made me appreciate the trains, because--even when they're packed--they're fast.

Since Fall Conference, life is back to "normal." We're back in class, and still visiting a different church every week--although last Sunday I was able to make a repeat appearance at the Center church. Last Saturday Yukie (our VYM boss) had a crepe party at her house. It was a great time, and we had a pretty big turnout. I think most of the Tokyo area V-ers were there at one time or another. I'm hoping to get some pictures put up soon (of both Fall Conference and the crepe party), but I have to find a better way to do it. While the Kawasaki House tour (see the Photos tab) worked well enough, it took really long.

Last Sunday I went to the Roppongi Youth Group, where we made ribbons for AIDS day (coming in early December). Afterwards, a group of us went to a supaa-sentoo (like a hot spring) for the evening. We had a great time unwinding and enjoying the sentoo's food. This particular sentoo had a new feature for me. It was kind of like a sauna, but the air was much drier. You went in and laid on a towel on the floor (some were gravel beds...didn't try that...), and basically just sweat all the toxins out of your body. There was an "ice room" outside that you could sit in for a while if you got too hot. Temperature: 5C (~41F).

This coming Saturday there's a "family concert" at Takenotsuka, one of the VYM sites. Basically, I think it's like a variety/talent show. Lauren's playing her flute, and I think one or both guys are playing guitar. I really don't have any performing arts (other than singing in a choir...), so I'm going as a professional, active audience member. ^_^

Until next time, God's peace!

October 22nd, 2008

It's hard to believe, but I've been in Japan for almost a month already. I'm starting to settle into a weekly routine already. My mornings are pretty open most days, although we have a group devotion/worship time on Thursdays. Even that doesn't start until 10am though, so my alarm clock isn't getting very much use. Not that I'm complaining at all...

I have class on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. The others have four days of class each week, but since I'm alone (and private lessons are more expensive) I only get three classes each week. Class itself is going well. The concepts I'm learning aren't overly complicated, although it's a little harder to speak. I have a test in class today, so we'll see how much I've actually understood.

After class I usually either hang out with the other V-ers for a few hours, go shopping (for groceries or other, more fun, stuff), or head back to Kawasaki to do my homework or other chores around the house.

We finally have the Internet hooked up at Kawasaki House, right in time for my computer to die. So I'm in the market for a new machine right now, and at the same time praying that all the data on my hard drive (for example, all my pictures from the first 3 weeks) can still be salvaged somehow. Everyone's been really helpful, though. Several friends here in Tokyo helped me find the Dell support line here in Japan, and my mom has been talking to computer techs back home to try to figure everything out. Even the darkest raincloud has a silver lining...

There have been some major highlights in the last week and a half, too. Monday the 13th we attended Passion Tokyo, the Japanese concert in the Christian world conference tour. It was amazing to see the over-capacity crowd packed into the CC Lemon Hall.

Last Saturday we also got to see a little more of the city, compliments of Discover Tokyo Day. Small groups of our Japanese brothers and sisters showed us around a few areas of this huge city. My group took me to Shinagawa, to see the Aqua Stadium (a very impressive aquarium) and a few of the other sites.

Also coming soon, I'll be attending the VYM fall retreat next week. It's held once a year, and it gives the whole group a chance to come together, break away from the daily grind, and praise God for everything He's doing here in Japan. I'm looking forward to it very much.

Anyway, I need to run. Class starts in a few minutes. Peace!

Japanese Class

On Tuesday we had our first Japanese class. Matt and I took a placement test, since we've both had some experience with Japanese. Next week I'll start one-on-one classes, but for this week I was with the whole group. The class is very small. In addition to myself and the new V-ers, we were also joined by the three new ELCA missionaries (aka "J3"s) (total class size: 7). We learned/reviewed the two basic Japanese alphabets, hiragana and katakana, in addition to a few other basic things like numbers, greetings, and telling time.

Since so many of us have September birthdays (myself, Matt, and Justin, to name three), the office ladies had a small celebration for us on Tuesday after class. They served tea and cake, and we got to blow out the cutest candle I think I've ever seen. It was a birthday cake. Really. I'll put up a picture of it as soon as possible!

One of the more experienced V-ers here at the Center showed Lauren and me a Christian bookstore, right here in Japan! It's on our train route, so it doesn't cost us anything to get there. My favorite find: someone had the bright idea to put the Bible in manga (comic book) form. So far, they have Gensis/Exodus, Jesus' story (Messiah), and Acts. Right now the only one available in English is Messiah, but the others are supposedly on their way.

The First Few Days

Thursday: Jet lag hit us the next morning, when we both woke up well before the sun. After trying to spend a little more time in bed, we finally got up and had breakfast around 6. After that we sat around waiting for our luggage to be delivered, chatting and getting to know each other.

Our bags came around ten, but unpacking was put on hold for a short time when Becky stopped by to see how we were doing. She’s a V-er who’s been in Japan for a while, and now teaches at a school nearby. She helped us figure out the shower, and showed us around the neighborhood a little. After lunch at Subway (I had a “roasted chicken cheese” sub with avocado), Becky left for her school, and Lauren and I went back to the house to unpack.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. We did meet a few of our neighbors, but we went to bed pretty early.

Friday: Still battling jet lag, we were up early again Friday morning. We didn’t have too long to wait, though, since Yukie picked us up around 7:30, and took us to the Center to meet the guys. We met the staff at the Center and got a tour of the building, including the sanctuary, which is on the historic register as one of the buildings that didn’t get bombed during World War II.

After we’d looked around a little, Yukie took us to the local municipal office to register for our foreign resident cards. The card will serve as identification while we’re in Japan, so we don’t have to carry our passports around.

After applying for our cards, we went back to the center and were free to leave. Lauren and I had been on the trains a few times by now, and our commute (with one transfer) isn’t too complicated. We figured it wouldn’t be too hard to find our way home.

Yeah. We got to our transfer station with no problems at all. Once there, we found the line we needed just fine. The only problem was, we weren’t quite familiar enough with the stops along the way. So…we got on the train going the wrong way. We sat on this wrong train for a long time, trying to recognize the stations we were passing. When the train finally stopped and didn’t move on, we realized we’d gone the wrong way. We’d gone all the way to the other end of that line. From there, it wasn’t too hard to find a train going the other way, and we got home just fine. This un-anticipated train tour of Tokyo was a harmless lesson learned: make sure you get on the right train, and make sure it’s going the right way. ^_^

After all that “excitement,” we were quite content to stick closer to home that night. We made spaghetti with Japanese sauce (heavy on the garlic, but good), and tried to stay up a little later, hoping to sleep in the next morning.

Saturday: Saturday still dawned earlier that I would have liked, but it’s getting better. Later that morning, I made my first phone call in Japan, to Carol and Katrina, who were going to show us around Kawasaki later that day. But first, Lauren and I got a special treat: some of their students were participating in a Sports Day at the school, and we were able to go and watch. After stopping to buy a convenience store bento (lunch box) and (successfully) riding the trains to the Center, we walked a few blocks to the school, where the festivities were well under way.

Sports Days in the US and Japan are similar in many ways, but also very different. There were relay races and sprints, tug-of-war and contests of skill. There was also a pretty big audience. I don’t remember our parents coming to watch our Sports Days, but the school courtyard and balconies on the upper floors were nearly filled to capacity.

Also, Sports Days in Japan include far more than simple track and field exercises. There were traditional drum demonstrations, acrobatic displays, and an audience-participation traditional dance. I saw the largest human pyramid I’ve ever seen, and it was done by elementary school kids! The drum students were so completely together that sometimes I was amazed that there was more than one drum playing. The only thing that gave it away was the tremendous sound that filled the entire courtyard; a sound that couldn’t have possibly come from just one drum.

The event wrapped up around mid-afternoon, and we headed back to Kawasaki (this time with guides ^_^). Carol and Katrina showed us more of Kawasaki, including a grocery store with an international foods section, the biggest ¥100 store (dollar store) I’ve ever seen, and one of the many malls in the area. They showed us the local sentō (public bath), and where we need to take our garbage (no curbside pick-up here!).

They also showed us a food court nearby, where we ate dinner, before we went back to the house. It was a busy day, but a lot of fun, too.

Sunday: Sunday morning we attended both the English and the Japanese worship services at the Center. Both were very small—only about 25 people attended each service—but we were thankful for the opportunity to celebrate with our new brothers and sisters.

Attending a service in Japanese was interesting. It followed the same order of worship I’m accustomed to, so I was able to understand what was going on, if not what was said. My limited Japanese instruction paid off during the songs, as they were typically slow enough that I could sing along. The speaking parts—not so much. It’s still way too fast.

After each service we introduced ourselves, and had a little time to talk to people. A welcoming committee from the Japanese congregation even had gifts for the four of us: Japanese songbooks. I haven’t been able to look through it too much yet, but I did find the Doxology in Japanese, which I was very excited about.

After worship the four of us went out for lunch with Yukie and Kanako (one of Matt’s friends from college), then for a walk in a park near the Center. At one exit we could see the East Imperial Gardens (a public park on the grounds of the Emperor’s Palace), but we didn’t have time to explore them. I plan to go back in the near future, to see what I can see.

The rest of Sunday turned into a sight-seeing day. Kanako and one of her friends showed us around Roppongi and Shinjuku, two well-known areas in Tokyo. We stopped at a café for tea (and a few other drinks, like Justin’s iced green tea smoothie), then wandered Roppongi a little. At one square, there was a huge sculpture called “Maman,” which was apparently a spider. At another (and I just had to take a picture), there was a life-sized statue of a dairy cow, complete with a bucket and rubber milking-demonstration udder.

We saw an ad for the “Sky Aquarium,” and figured it might be fun. Located on the 52^nd floor, it turned out to be an artistic fish tank exhibition that was pretty cool. Anything and everything that could hold water became a beautifully decorated home for a variety of sea creatures (including, believe it or not, the kitchen sink).

The evening ended at a Japanese restaurant, an experience that was inevitable and memorable. Dining communally, Yukie and Matt (who spent four months in Japan studying) ordered more food than I can even remember, and more than half of it I’d never seen before. There was raw chicken in a few different forms, some very good cooked chicken dishes, squid and octopus, liver, pork, mōchi (pounded sticky rice), and ramen. I tried some things I don’t intend to eat again, and a few that I did enjoy, even if they looked very strange.

Lauren and I practically rolled home after all that food and collapsed into bed. We take the trains for long distances, but we still walk practically everywhere in Japan. For someone who’s used to maybe a 10 minute walk across campus, it’ll take some getting used to. But even though my feet hurt pretty bad at the end of each day, I’m thankful for the exercise, and the chance to really look around while we’re moving from place to place.

Monday: Our day off. I did laundry in the morning, which is currently hanging all over our “office,” because it’s raining and we can’t hang it outside. After lunch, Lauren and I took the train to Akihabara, one of the stops between Kawasaki and the Center. The neighborhood (also called “Electric Town”) is known for its many electronics stores, which cover entire blocks. Imagine, if you will, shops selling TVs, computers, gaming systems, cell phones, and any number of other gadgets, next door to each other, across the street, stretching seven or eight stories high. It was intimidating for someone who doesn’t use text messaging and uses a laptop that’s going on five years old.

We explored a little bit, then came back to Kawasaki. I’m already starting to feel pretty comfortable here, although there’s still a lot to get used to.

Tomorrow will be our first day of Japanese classes. Matt and I will be taking a placement exam, since we’ve both had some experience with the Japanese language already.

Arrival in Japan

It seems as much as I prepare for traveling, it’s never actually real until it happens. Even the day before, as I finished packing my bags, it still hadn’t clicked that I was leaving for 2½ years.

The morning of my flight, my dad, stepmom, and stepsisters stopped by to say goodbye before I left for the airport. A short time earlier, I’d done the same with my other sisters, before they left for school. My mom took me to the airport to drop me off and help me check in my bags (which I appreciate all the more now, after I had to carry all of them through the Tokyo airport myself >.<).

It wasn’t really until the plane was taking off, as I looked down on my city, the city I grew up in, that it finally dawned on me how long I’d be gone. I saw my mom’s house, and my dad’s. I picked out my high school and the buildings my parents worked in, the mall, the parks, and all the familiar landmarks laid out below me. For a little while, I just watched as the world I knew disappeared.

The flight out of Appleton didn’t leave too much time for introspection, though. Before I knew it, we were already landing in Chicago. It didn’t take very long to find my next gate, where I met up with Matt and Justin (the other new V-ers). After grabbing a bite for lunch in the airport, it was time to board the next plane.

I’d like to say this just once: thirteen hours is a long time to be in an airplane. Even so, the flight to Japan went well. Turbulence was almost non-existent, and the food was fairly decent. I was sitting next to a family of four, in particular a five-year-old girl who kept the flight very interesting. I also got my first official happy birthday as we crossed the International Date Line halfway across the Pacific Ocean.

We finally made it to Tokyo, where I realized just how difficult it is to carry two carry-ons and 3 checked bags. Matt was kind enough to find me a luggage cart, once he had ensured that his guitar made it through the flight unscathed. Yukie (the VYM field director) met us at the airport, and arranged for our bags to be shipped to our respective homes. After meeting up with Lauren, whose flight came in shortly after ours, we left the airport for the ~2 hour trip from the airport to my new house, with a stop at the church office to meet up with Pastor Imoto, who took the boys to their rooms in the seminary dorms.

Lauren and I got to our house (yes, house) around 7 o’clock that night. Yukie showed us around (and tried to explain how the shower worked), and then we pretty much crashed. It had been a long two days, and I was quite ready for some rest.

T-minus 5 days...   (September 18, 2008)

Hmm...

It’s been a long time since I’ve written here. I guess I’m not used to keeping a journal.

Anyway, time has certainly been ticking away. Since my last entry, Faith (my home church) had their brat fry for the EAA pilots. The brat fry went incredibly well, despite a lot of noise from the aircraft nearby and pretty strong winds. I was able to help out a little bit one afternoon, and it was a lot of fun watching all the airplanes coming through during the few lulls we had. For the first time, profits from the brat fry were split between two causes: my Japan mission and the Mexican orphanage project. According to the organizer, the booth was busier than it’s ever been. Praise God for providing for our needs so well!

When I was in St. Paul for training in June, I received a Solemn Appointment from the Synod for my service in Japan. Last weekend the church I grew up in took on another important role for a missionary: I was formally commissioned as a missionary during all five services. It’s really encouraging, knowing I have so many amazing people in my life supporting me.

Also last weekend, a small group of friends and family gathered to celebrate this opportunity. While it turned into mostly a family affair, there were a few cherished friends also in attendance. Not knowing exactly how many people to expect, my mom went all out, preparing hot beef and turkey, cold ham, calico beans, desserts, and all sorts of other treats for the party (including the cheese platter, of course ^_^). My stepmom brought her homemade salsa, giving one of my sisters quite a surprise (she wasn’t expecting it to be that spicy).

Keeping the theme going, this coming weekend I’ll be driving over to Peace Campus Center in Stevens Point for a similar service to the ones at Faith last weekend. Although it won’t be a commissioning service per se, the community where I first learned of the VYM program will also send me on my way with plenty of fellowship.

I’m well into my last week in the States, and my suitcases are…well, about half-packed at this point. It’s an interesting challenge, trying to fit everything I need (and want) to take in the regulation 2 checked bags and 2 carry-on bags. There’s the normal things (like clothes), but also some pretty unusual things (like my little mini-Christmas tree and other decorations, if I can manage!). Of course, I can always mail extra things, but I’m trying to carry it all with me. We’ll see how well that goes...

I’ve had a lot of people ask if I’m getting nervous, facing such an extended time away from home. To tell you the truth, though, my experience traveling seems to be helping to calm any nerves that surface. Every now and then there’s a moment of “What on earth am I getting myself into?” But then I remember that I’ve had butterflies like that pretty much every time I’ve traveled, and every time the experience has been absolutely amazing.

Brat Frys and Newsletters (July 13, 2008)

It's been a whirlwind of activity around here. Last Sunday I had a brat fry at Festival Foods in Appleton to raise a little money. It went very well, better than I expected. The weather was beautiful and I had a lot of amazing help. My entire family was there for most of the day, and several people from Faith came by to either work the booth or buy a brat. Also, my a lot of my sister's friends were around throughout the day. All in all, it was a long, hard day, but well worth the effort.

Faith will also be having a food booth later this month at MaxAir in conjuction with the EAA convention in Oshkosh. It'll be at the Outagamie County Airport, for the pilots who fly into Appleton. They've pledged a portion of the profits from the booth to me (the rest will help build an orphanage in Mexico--another great cause)!

I've also finished and posted my very first newsletter (June 2008). I've never used Publisher before, so it's been quite an experience learning how to create a newsletter, and then convert it to a PDF file. In fact, right after I first sent it out, I realized a pretty significant typo (somehow the "S" in "LCMS" got cut off). But now that's fixed, and I'm starting to understand how it all works.

Stateside Orientation (June 15-27, 2008)

I just got back from Stateside Orientation at the Concordia campus in St. Paul, MN. For two weeks, I spend time getting to know the LCMS World Mission staff and other new missionaries, and attending a lot of sessions.

There were new missionaries from all over the United States, going all over the world. I met the other two new Japan missionaries, Matt and Justin. In addition, I met people bound for Africa (South Africa, Uganda, Togo), Latin America (Peru, Panama), Asia (Macau, India, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam), Eurasia (Turkey, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Latvia, Poland, Hungary), and the Caribbean. Needless to say, there were a lot of new friends to meet.

The first week focused on general missionary information. The "classes" taught us about such things as personal safety, how to share our faith naturally, communications, and finances/fundraising. About half of the group left after the first week, because the second week focused on teaching EFL (English as a Foreign Language, similar to ESL). Only those of us who will be teaching had to/got to stay.

Our days began very early (for me). Breakfast was at 7am every day. Throughout the morning and afternoon, we had a lot of "classes," interspersed with times of prayer and praise. We ate most of our meals in the campus cafeteria, although we did attend the Multiplying Disciples Dinner hosted by the Oswald Hoffman School of Christian Outreach (also, as a matter of fact, in the cafeteria...).

The sessions were all very different. Several of them were lecture-style, meaning we sat and listened as specific things were explained. A few sessions were more interactive. My favorite by far had to be an activity called BAFA BAFA. I won't go into too much detail here, although I'd love to talk about it. I wouldn't want to ruin the activity for anyone who might have the opportunity to participate in it someday. Suffice it to say it was an incredible experience that seriously impacted how I think. I highly recommend it, if you ever have the chance.

One of the details I learned at orientation is my departure date. I'll be leaving the States on September 23rd, to arrive in Tokyo on the 24th (my birthday!).

Orientation was a lot of fun, and a lot of work. I came home with a rather long list of things to do, which I'll be working on in the next few weeks as I prepare to leave for Japan.

Another highlight for me actually came on the plane ride home. I was sitting next to a woman on her way to a wedding, and we spent a good portion of the flight talking about our faith and my upcoming journey. We exchanged contact information, and I promised to keep her updated. I thought that was pretty much it, but God had a big surprise in store for me. She found me again while I was waiting in baggage claim, and gave me a check with a significant donation. Praise the Lord for new friends and unexpected surprises.

In the beginning...

Okay, I won't go back quite that far. But I thought I'd outline how this all started, for anyone interested. I've been drawn to Japan for as long as I can remember, but I never really thought anything would come of it. After all, lots of people have hobbies they lose interest in, or dreams that don't come true. By the time I got to college, I had pretty much become resigned to the fact that my interest in Japan was purely that: curious interest.

My first exposure to the LCMS World Mission program came at the beginning of my sophomore year. Laura Reindl was commissioned at my campus church (Peace Lutheran) for the Volunteer Youth Ministry (VYM) program in Japan. My interest was piqued. Here was someone who had combined her love of the Lord with her interest in Japan. But back then, both my faith and my character were immature. Moreover, I had dropped the education major I started school with. Why would I, who had decided I didn't want to teach, sign up to teach English? So that was that. Or so I thought.

My university years flew by, and before I knew it I was a senior. Graduation loomed. It was time to answer that age-old question: What will I do with my life? Once I crossed that stage, I had to enter the fabled "real world." Not having any particularly strong ideas of where my major would take me, I started looking around. There were a few internships and school-to-work programs, but nothing seemed quite right. Then I heard about the JET program. JET is a program run by the Japanese government to bring native English speakers into the classroom. It consists of one year of paid teaching in Japan, as a teacher's assistant.

At this point, time had dulled the pain of my dropped major, and I was willing to consider teaching again. In addition, here was a way to integrate my career and my interest in Japan. So I set out to apply for a position with JET. I requested several references, had my transcripts printed, and generally collected a book's worth of papers and forms.

During the JET application process, I mentioned to my campus pastor (Carl Selle, aka PC) what I was doing. By this time, the VYM program I had learned about as a sophomore had completely faded from memory (a testament to all the other information crammed into my head). PC reminded me of the opportunity to serve the Lord in Japan. This time it didn't seem so impossible. For the next several months, I tried to decide which program was the right fit for me. In the mean time, I sent in applications to both programs.

This is where the cool stuff comes in. In addition to praying my little heart out about the situation, I was talking to my family and friends about the options. At first, my mom was especially hesitant. $15,000 is a lot of money to raise, and two and a half years is a long time to be overseas. My friends were cautiously encouraging in the beginning. As time passed, I began to feel God's call in my heart. My friends soon became dedicated supporters, encouraging me often. Even my mom go into the act, after her co-workers encouraged her to encourage me. She realized that if this was what God was calling me to do, then this was what I should do.

Despite all this, I hadn't really decided yet. In the end, with the Spirit's help, it was my own decision to make. As I waited to hear back from the two programs I had applied to, my mind began to consider the options.

• First, I might not be accepted to either program. Both of them recruited internationally, and were fairly competitive. If that happened, I didn't really know what to do. I'd have to go back to the drawing board.
• Second, I might be accepted into one program and not the other. I decided pretty early on that if that happened, I would take it as a clear sign from God that that was what He wanted me to do.
• Third, I might be accepted into both programs. In this case, I still had a decision to make. Where did God want me to go? I knew He had a plan, I just didn't know what it was.

Having identified the possibilities, I focused on the question raised by the third option. I really didn't expect this to happen, but the huge task the first option presented was not appealing to me (so I ignored it, for the time being). I was praying for the second option, which I saw as a clear sign (what I call "God's 2x4"--blunt and hard to miss). Nevertheless, I meditated on that third option and began to sort out the feelings in my heart.

I like the security offered by the JET program. I would have a stable salary, and I know exactly what I'll be doing. I don't know very much about the VYM program, and raising that much money is kind of scary. But serving God in such an active way appeals to me. They also give me six months of intensive training, including language training. I've always wanted to learn Japanese. But that's more than two years! And what if I can't raise the money I need?

This is just a sample of the twists and turns my reasoning took during my time of contemplation. Essentially, by the time I heard back, I had already made up my mind.

On a Thursday afternoon in the spring of 2008, I was hard at work at my part-time job. I worked in an office, and had been sharing my journey with a co-worker (a member of the full time staff). Having recieved an e-mail that morning from Erin (my VYM recruiter), I had my cell phone with me and was expecting a call from her. When my phone rang with her number, the butterflies in my stomach started to flutter around. Here was my answer. It had been several months since I'd heard anything from JET, so I didn't think that was an option anymore. Did VYM want me, or was I back at square one?

Erin commenced to chit-chat for a while. I'll admit it was pretty hard to concentrate on her when my butterflies had moved on to corkscrews and loop-the-loops. Eventually, she moved on to the business of the call. She explained the process my application had gone through, talked a little about my interview, and finally asked a question: Did I want to join the mission team?

There it was. After one final dizzying finale, my butterflies settled down. Erin asked if I needed time to pray about my answer, but I knew right then that this was where God wanted me to be.

So that was that. Erin and I talked for awhile about the next steps, and I went back to work (sharing my news with my co-worker, who had been involved for some time).

(On a somewhat humerous note, I heard back from the JET program that very same afternoon, almost exactly as I was talking to Erin. The email said I had made the "alternate" list, and might still be able to go, if one of the first-picks dropped out. But I had already said "yes" to Erin, and besides, I would have chosen VYM anyway.)