Tohoku, We Love You

So yesterday our dear CA team departed our beloved Japan and headed back to the land of cacti and hot, dry weather. I managed to guide them properly to the correct location in Ikebukuro so they could catch their bus to the airport and waved goodbye until I could see them no longer. On the way back to Komagome, I was having a difficult time trying not to cry and boarded the wrong train from Ikebukuro station by accident. It ended up being a good thing, however, as I decided en route to journey to a beautiful garden in the middle of Tokyo where the irises are currently in bloom.

It was beautiful. The land once belonged to a feudal lord who designed the garden around eastern philosophical themes. I wandered around by myself for quite some time, just taking in the scenery (which was stunningly beautiful) and going over in my head the past 10 days. I had not really prepared myself for welcoming a wonderful group of high schoolers and leaders to the land I had just recently met myself. They surprised me by working their way into my heart and in the short time we were together, they became another family to me. As I sat in the garden, I found myself profoundly sad that they were gone but grateful to have been part of their journey to Japan. Lord knows that they were a huge part of mine.

The week before had been a difficult one, but one I wouldn't change for the world. We all traveled north to Tohoku (the larger area covering the earthquake/tsunami stricken area that encompasses Sendai and many other devastated cities) on Monday and returned Thursday night in time to debrief, pack, and send the CA team off the next morning. We really held together well those few days in Tohoku and in all of it, I can say that I'm deeply grateful to have been able to help those who have so little hope in this time. Here's the breakdown of our week :

Monday we loaded up the vans by 8:30 and were on the road by 10:00 to make the 6 hour drive up to Sendai. On the way, we got to see our first glimpse of Japanese countryside which was a welcome shift from the busy life in Tokyo. Tightly packed buildings gently gave way to endless rice fields punctuated by steep, green mountains that brushed the low, grey clouds with the promise of rain. Rivers ran between bamboo clusters and small clusters of houses clung to the bases of the mountains. We arrived in Sendai in the late afternoon and unloaded into the houses in which we were to stay. The guys all stayed in the local ICA church and the girls stayed in the volunteer center down the street. We slept on tatami (woven straw mats) in futon and ate breakfast at a low table on the floor of the volunteer center. In my head, I was geeking out since I had never slept on tatami before and was excited to experience such a unique part of Japanese culture. Tatami has a comforting smell that reminds me of straw and hay from a barn but also has a clean sensation about it.

I slept well and we all woke up each morning for group prayer at 5:45am at the church. Prayer lasted until about 6:40 and then we headed back to the volunteer center to eat breakfast before driving another hour north to Higashimatsushima where we checked in at the local volunteer center. For two days, we shoveled mud out of the rain gutters along the roads in neighborhoods around the center. It was hot, smelly, nasty work, but I loved it. The mud had to be shoveled into bags and hauled to a dump site which left us all exhausted but feeling fulfilled. Many of the neighbors came out of their houses to either help or talk to us as we worked. Some women came out with their children and they cheered us on. Although we could not communicate very easily, I expressed my gratitude to be able to do something small to help them in the massive efforts of rebuilding their houses. (Many of them in that neighborhood had lost everything on the lower floors although most of their homes were still standing.) Two little girls (2 and 4 years old) played in the street the whole second day we worked, giving us encouragement and splashing in the puddles. It is encouraging to know that we helped real people with real families even though it was just something small like cleaning out the rain gutters.

Later, after working to clean up a small part of the widespread disaster, we took a drive through areas closer to the shore that had been completely wiped out by the water. It is difficult to imagine, but these pictures were taken 3 months after the tsunami. According to those who saw it shortly after the disaster, these places have been 50% cleaned up.



I know it might be difficult to see, but in this picture there is a boat in front of that house. This kind of thing is all over the place in the affected ares. We saw a huge buoy (like 20 ft tall) being drug out of the middle of a rice field, cars sticking out of standing water, and tons and tons of debris. After three months, it still looks like this in many of the areas and in some areas, the houses are just flat gone. All that's left are the foundations and driveways leading up to empty lots. I tried to imagine what it must have been like but nothing in my imagination compares to what the real thing must have been like. Once you've seen the desperation in the eyes of the people who must now clean up and rebuild their whole lives, it changes something inside you. It creates a fire in you that wants to help, but you also come to realize that this is a huge mess. It spreads miles and miles of coast where things were wiped out. It will take years for this mess to be cleaned up and many more long years after that before people rebuild their houses again. It will take many people long hours of labor and huge amounts of money to see it restored. But through it all, God will be with them. God is already doing wonderful things in the midst of this chaos.

One man in particular comes to mind. His name is Mr. Sasaki and he has been living in the shelters for 3 months (over 100 days). He is trying to find a place for he and his family to live but housing is scarce these days. Through the grace of God, Pastor Shelley was able to make contact with him shortly after the disaster and supply him with some appliances he will need to outfit his future apartment. She introduced us to him outside the shelter on our way back to Tokyo and later we drove by his house... or what is left of it. The entire inside was gutted from a team who came to help a while ago. But the hollowness of what once was a beautiful home echoes in my heart even now. While we spoke with him, tears began streaming down Mr. Sasaki's cheeks. We prayed with him and offered words of encouragement, reassuring him that everything would be alright. I think that was just what he needed to hear to keep him going a little while longer. I walked away from that meeting with tears in my own eyes. I think that no matter what I do, I will always remember Mr. Sasaki when I think of Tohoku.

And now here we are. Finally caught up again. I'm sorry it took me so long to write this post, but to be completely honest, it was a difficult post to write. I hope you will continue praying for Tohoku and for all of Japan. For those who are concerned, we experienced an earthquake of 6.4 magnitude while up north, but what we felt of it was mild and nothing was damaged. Some of our team didn't notice it at all. I write all of this to say: quakes are happening all over Japan, but I pray every day for quakes of a different sort. The kind that shake the heart of Japan for Jesus. We will see it one day.

Pray for Tohoku. Pray for Japan.

With love,

Amanda

Catching Up

So, I've got some serious catching up to do! I'm deeply sorry I haven't been very consistent in my posts lately. With a team here from California, it's all I can do at night to get 8 hours of sleep!

I realized the other night that I never posted about how my adventure day went this past Monday. It's a good story, one too good not to post. See, here's the thing. I got horribly lost that day. Like 3 times. All in one day. And yet it was one of the best days I've had in Tokyo. Here's how it goes:

I left the house that morning at about 11:30 am to meet up with the IHOPU team who were going sightseeing around Tokyo. I had yet to explore much of Tokyo but I was feeling gutsy enough to try and find them and tag along as they traveled around. This plan was fatally flawed for one primary reason: I had yet to travel the trains by myself to an unknown location, much less traverse one of the biggest and most confusing stations and then locate an unknown building outside said station on foot. It was not supposed to go this way. But, after getting lost in Shinjuku for about 45 minutes (it was raining by the way) and asking for directions in Japanese several times (most of which I did not understand), looking at you-are-here maps of the area (more of which I did not understand), I finally managed to locate the building where I was to meet the team.

They weren't there.

They had moved on to another location while I was blundering around Shinjuku. Good times. Well, I called them (on my handy dandy Japanese cell phone) and they sent one person out to find me. Now, I'm a tall, white, curly-haired American wearing a neon yellow t-shirt in the middle of Shinjuku. You'd think I'd be easy to spot. The guy they sent couldn't find me! He was on a level of the street that was 3 stories down from where I was standing. We were literally on top of each other, but couldn't see each other. Finally, we figured it out and I found him on the lower level, went to meet the team, and walked around Shinjuku for another hour before I was scheduled to meet Amanda Fosburg, Liz Dunagan, and Tony Nicaud at Seikei University for Japanese class.

Now my challenge was to traverse Shinjuku station (in which I had already gotten lost before), make it to another station I had not yet been to, get on a bus outside that station, and walk to Seikei to meet the group in under 45 minutes. Foolproof plan it was not.

I got lost another 2 times before making it to Seikei. The first time was due to me getting on the wrong train (the right line, just going the opposite direction) and the second was due to me not knowing the correct bus to get on outside the station (but after talking with a policeman and two information desk ladies I found the right one). But, since I was 10 minutes late for class by the time I arrived and did not know the location of said class, I waited outside the building I hoped contained my friends for an hour until class was over and ate my lunch (that I had picked up at a conbini, which is Japanese shorthand for convenience store).

Eventually, class let out, I found the group, and we traversed the long hike back to the station to avoid paying the bus fare. (At that point I had been walking for 4 collective hours that day and was getting pretty tired.) Getting on the train back towards the middle of Tokyo, we managed to make it to Toudai Univeristy (AKA: Tokyo University, which is like the Harvard of Japan) in time for the Chi Alpha Bible study/goodbye party for the IHOPU team. We met in a small room that would comfortably fit about 15 people ... and fit about 40 people into it. It was a great time, let me tell you! We had almost no room to maneuver, so it was easy to make new friends! Liz and I made friends with a group of nursing students from another university who spoke a little English and had a great time trying to communicate cross-culturally all night. The music and the people were refreshing and by the time I made it back to Komagome that night, I was full in my spirit though empty of physical strength.

I made it through the day, and though I was exhausted and got lost quite a few times, it was one of the best days I've had here so far. Great memories were made and it was a great confidence booster to know that if I get lost, I can find my way back... eventually. :)

Here's the rest of this week in a snapshot: Tuesday, the team arrived, Wednesday was orientation and passing out tracts around the church, Thursday was our awesome day of awkwardness, Friday was sightseeing day (I have a ton of pictures to be uploaded to Facebook soon and another post to go along with it), Saturday was our English party for the students we met at the Jr. high and high school (which went smashingly, by the way and is also a good story), and Sunday (today) was all day church and Father's day! Whew!

While I still have more catching up to do, in the mean time, please remember to pray for our team as we leave for Sendai tomorrow to do relief work. We'll be leaving in the morning and returning on Thursday evening. I doubt I'll have internet up there, so my next post may be a week or so in coming. Just please keep us in your prayers and remember to pray for all of Japan, even the places not directly hit by the earthquake/tsunami. Thank you so very much! We appreciate all of your prayers more than you may ever know. Blessings!

Awkwardness Abandoned

Today was a day of awkwardness, there's just no way around it.

Well, first I should begin by telling you that since Tuesday, we've had a team here from Bishop, California who are just awesome. They flew into Tokyo on Tuesday night and Pastor Shelley, Pastor Bill, Pastor Carol, and I all went to go pick them up in Ikebukuro. We successfully managed to get them back to Komagome on the train (an amazingly engineered feat of skill), feed them dinner, get them to the JAG campus, and settle them in. Wednesday (yesterday), we got everyone to the church by bus (amazing again) and had orientation. Then, it was out for bentou lunch (Japanese lunch boxes) and then we began cleaning the church and tracting (stamping, folding, and handing out tracts in the neighborhood around the church. In Japan, it's not illegal to put things in individual mail boxes.). Wednesday ended well and early (praise God) with homemade chicken curry (made by Pastors Bill and Carol) at the mission house.

Now, on to today: the day of awkwardness. We went to a school. A Japanese Jr. high and high school. It was an all boys school. It was awkward. Firstly, it was awkward because we're white Americans in a school full of Asians. Secondly, it was awkward because we were the only native English speakers on the campus save for three English teachers at the school. That made us a rare and special commodity that turned us into a type of celebrity for the day. Thirdly, it was awkward because it was a school full of boys and I was one of three girls in our group. It was just an awkward day, guys.

It's probably sounding like it was an awful experience, but on the contrary; it was one of the best days so far! We got to go around the school from class to class and introduce ourselves to the English classes (in English, of course!). The students were all very glad to see us and had a great time talking with us and trying to say our names. After a while, we ate lunch and tried talking with more of them as we ate. Then it was off to more classes and finally we sat with two graduating seniors who spoke very good English and had some spare time on their hands. We gave everyone our names so they could look us up on Facebook and invited them to our English party on Saturday at ICA church. It's going to be an awesome time. Many of them really enjoyed talking with our high school students (the Japanese guys especially loved talking with the girls and taking pictures with them) and wished to have more time with them. So we're hoping and praying for a good turn out on Saturday!

After school, we were worn out. It was a lot of nervous, awkward situations (you try being stared at all day long by people who think you're fascinating!) but we made it through the day. Now, on to the evening. There is yet more awkwardness to come.

The leaders from the Bishop team who elected to stay back decided not to go shopping for dinner but rather have everyone go out for dinner instead. This turned out to be a fortuitous plan since we had decided to go to an onsen (Japanese bathhouse) later in the evening. It was still up in the air about who would actually go into the baths, but everyone ate together and then some of us went in to actually take baths. Let me tell you, I was more than a little trepidatious about it since I had never been to one before and heard stories from the other team about how interesting they can be if you don't read Japanese - like me. In case you don't know, Japanese bathhouses are totally separate for men and women - and totally naked. I told you the awkwardness was coming. It so happens that you go in, put your stuff and clothes in a locker, and go wash before getting into the bath. I was mentally prepared for this, as Pastor Shelley explained it all to me before going in. But it still was a shock for about the first 5 minutes. After that, it just became semi-normal and by the time I hit the hot water, I no longer cared about much of anything. It was too relaxing. There were various pools that had varying temperatures, a dry sauna, a misting room, and an entire outdoor area (walled in, of course) that opened up to a cool night sky with Japanese maples, rocks, and screens to separate the sections. It was beautiful. I felt the stress of the week just melt away and all the tension stored up in my neck and shoulders was eased off by the gently falling rain. I think I have a new favorite thing about Japan.

After the bath, there is another little room that connects to the locker area with hair dryers, brushes, and lotions so you don't have to walk out on the street looking like you just came from a bath. It didn't really matter, however, since it was raining when we walked outside. If anyone has seen the movie "My Neighbor Totoro" by Hayou Miyazaki, you will remember the part where they are waiting at the bus stop and the rain is falling on the umbrellas making noise. Walking home reminded me of that. It was calm, cool, and peaceful and I felt a peace settle on me.

I think out of all of the awkwardness today, it was well worth it to see the faces of the Japanese school boys and to experience the wonderful relaxation of the onsen. I would do today again, but tomorrow seems to be another day of interesting and exciting discovery as we go sightseeing and exploring with the California team. It will be a day full of pictures, I expect, and a lot more stories to come!

Keki o tabete kudasai!

Today dawned cloudy and humid, which is typical for Japan during the rainy season. We (Pastor Shelley and I) were picked up promptly at 8:10am by Pastor Bill and Carol to head over to Tokyo ICA church for the day of services and fellowship. During the Sunday school hour at 10:00am when the adults were praying, the kids and youth were feverishly making paper flowers, a card, and decorating a cake for Pastor Carol's birthday.

I, being versed in many things culturally Japanese, cannot make an origami anything to save my life. It took the patience of a 7-year-old boy 15 minutes to teach me each fold one at a time all the while berating me for my mistakes. Eventually, I produced a flower-looking object out of pink construction paper that was added to the growing pile of flowers, stems, leaves, and hearts for Pastor Carol's birthday bouquet. I did not tell her that mine was among the expertly crafted origami creations of the children. Needless to say, she received her bouquet, cake, and card with gratitude.

Later, the team from IHOP University came and did worship, prayer, and a skit for the GAP service at 4:00. It was a wonderful time of learning and seeking the Lord as Pastor Bill's sermon hit right on some topics that have been surfacing in my life. After prayer with the team and the pastors, everyone from Chi Alpha, the IHOP team, and some GAP people went out to the place that I'm going to call heaven on earth: Sweets Paradise.

In Ikebukuro, there is a place where cakes, ice cream, candies, soda, tea, and pasta abound. It is called Sweets Paradise, a dessert buffet that has some pasta to make you feel not so bad about all of the sugar you're consuming in one sitting. It has got to be the best fellowship I've had since coming to Tokyo. We scattered amongst ourselves and got to know one another over the best desserts I've ever tasted in my life. SEU people will remember the dreamlike days of Valentine's at Chartwells. This beats it, hands down. I had been going through sugar withdrawl since coming to Japan but this evening made up for all of it - with interest.

I think what made it so enjoyable was not the sweets but the company. We had some really great fellowship time getting to know one another and I honestly felt my emotional stress levels decreasing as we sat in each others' presence just laughing over silly things. Making connections with people and being able to laugh heartily was just the medicine my heart needed to feel more at home here in Japan. I have to say though, after hearing some of the stories from the IHOP team about the sentou (Japanese public bathhouse), it will be interesting getting a group of highschoolers to experience it when they arrive next week. According to one member of the IHOP team, it is a milestone experience in one's life. I'm looking forward to it with some trepidation, but I'm sure it will be an interesting cultural experience. Pray for me! Lol.

Tomorrow is our day off, so I have decided it will be adventure day. I'm off exploring to see if I can find more interesting places around our small town of Komagome. Then, I hope to be able to find Seikei Univeristy to attend a Japanese class. Finally, if all goes according to plan (lol), I will be at the goodbye party for the IHOP team who are leaving on Tuesday. Pray that they have safe travels and that my adventure tomorrow does not end in me getting hopelessly lost on the Tokyo trains.

I'll let you know how that goes. :)

Rodent vs. Missionaries

The trials and tribulations of missionary life are wide and varied. Perhaps greater than the cultural boundaries, the language barriers, or the spiritual warfare are the daily obstacles that can grate on the spirit in surprising ways.

For the past three nights, Pastor Shelley and I have been suspicious of a small rodent having taken up residence in the mission house. It was not a welcome intrusion. The bagels I purchased at our mighty COSTCO trip have been assaulted each night by this small visitor and the evidence left on the kitchen counter each morning.

Amanda was not a happy intern.

However, as I devised a cunning plan to hide my precious bagels from the small thief, it seems that Pastor Shelley and I have momentarily won this round of rodent versus missionaries. Rodent - 3, Missionaries - 1. We shall have the ultimate victory after Pastor Shelley obtains some rodent killer next week. Rest easy tonight, little vermin. Tomorrow, you perish.

On an completely opposite side of life, we have been feverishly preparing for a short-term missions team from Bishop, California to arrive next Tuesday. We will be in Tokyo for a few days before heading up to Sendai for 4 days to do some relief work. Today was the 3-month anniversary of the catastrophic event that killed thousands and has left thousands more homeless, jobless, and without a foreseeable future. The tv today recounted many stories of those whose lives were permanently affected by the earthquake/tsunami as well as the memorials being held in memory of the deceased. It was a sobering meal as Pastor Shelley and I watched the evening news while we ate dinner. Somehow, knowing that we go in a few days' time to that area of the country to help the people there recover from such a disaster seems like just a splash in the pool compared to the massive effort it will take to rebuild. But I have to remind myself that to those whose lives we will touch, it will mean the world. If we can reflect Christ's love into just one corner of that dark place, we have truly loved like Christ.

The team arrives next Tuesday. That following Monday, we leave for Sendai to return on Thursday night the 16th. Pray for those we will touch to accept Christ's love shining in our lives and for our team's physical, mental, and spiritual strength as we go into the darker part of Japan. Tokyo needs help. Sendai needs help as well. Pray for Japan.

Ahhhh....

After a day of weeding around the mission house and trimming up the bushes so that the team coming next week can get into the apartment upstairs more easily, I'm bushed! (lol) Dinner tonight was grilled fish we bought at the market on our way home with rice, miso soup, and edamame on the side. After dinner, it was time for a Japanese style bath (which I have decided is on my list of best things in the world) to relax my sore muscles from working outside all day. A pair of sweatpants and a square of chocolate later, Amanda was a happy intern.

Now it's 10:00pm and I'm sitting listening to the light rain out the window with the low hum of the washing machine and the dishwasher in the background. I think this is the first time I've sat down since 9:00 am, but I don't mind it at all. It was a relaxing day despite the hard physical work. My brain had the chance to relax and not worry about bustling people, unknown languages, and awkward situations for one day. I'm starting to feel more at home here and shopping the small streets and dealing in different currency. It is reminiscent of our time in Israel. How I miss shekels and falafel... Soon, I'm sure to have those feelings about Japan. I've already acquired a taste for fish and rice that is semi-Japanese. I have a lot of things left to try before I can make up my mind about Japanese food in general. But so far, things are looking in it's favor. :)

More on our weekend adventures later! Oyasumi nasai! (good night!)

Adventures in Food

This morning I woke up early to skype my family who were all sitting around the dinner table on their Tuesday night while I sat eating my breakfast Wednesday morning. It was a blissful, time-traveling morning. :)

After signing off at 9:00am, the three of us (Pastor Shelley, another Japan missionary named Catherine, and I) piled into Shelley's car and headed off to COSTCO, which is an hour drive from Komagome. Once up there, we divided into 3 carts (I had the responsibility of gathering items for the short-term team coming next Tuesday) and headed into the chaos. I'm sure most of you are familiar with COSTCO or SAM'S CLUB which are basically a large warehouse filled with items sold in large quantities. Well, in Japan, the same is true - with one modification. It is also filled with Japanese. I by filled, I mean traveling from one end of the store to the other might take you 15 minutes, given foot and cart traffic. After two hours of shopping, we managed to pay for our 3 carts (full of stuff), travel up the *escalator* (the carts locked on the the escalator track and we rode up to the parking garage above the store!), load it all into the back of the car (a challenge in and of itself), and head off for some lunch.

We walked from the parking garage to the mall right next to COSTCO called LaLaPort. This was a mall that was partially outside and partially inside, creating an interesting mix of aesthetics among the shops and restaurants. Lunch was at a natural foods buffet which served various healthy Japanese foods and drinks. I had fun at lunch. :) Things I now know I like: manjuu buns (small rice cakes filled with an - bean paste), chidashi zushi (a tossed sushi salad served cold), and cold soba noodles (buckwheat noodles eaten with a dark sauce and veggies on top). Things I now know I don't like: grapefruit juice (always knew, but had that fact reinforced today), hijiki (a black seaweed salad served cold that tastes like the bottom of a lake), and pickled radish (it's just a weird consistency... like the pickled cauliflower in Israel). Today was certainly an adventure in food, both buying and eating. I hope I get the chance to have more food adventures soon!

Now... off to put away all of this food from COSTCO.

The wheels on the bus/train/car go round and round...

So, the last few days have been a whirlwind of activity and I apologize for not updating as soon as I'd hoped.

Saturday found Pastor Shelley and I taking the bus to the church where we spent most of the day organizing and setting up a small office area. We ate packed lunches (I had peanut butter and jelly with warm vegetable croquets which are basically deep fried veggie patties with corn meal holding them together) with Pastors Bill and Carol Paris - the pastors of Tokyo ICA church.

Prayer meeting was held in the afternoon and I got to meet two people closer to my age - Yuri and Teiko who invited me to the XA (Chi Alpha) center later that night. There was an IHOP team there holding a special worship night and I agreed to go. To fill in time between, we went shopping in Ueno which was an experience indeed! To get there, we took the train, which was my first time on the Tokyo train system. Boy was that an experience! (With my bad balance combined with the train's speed, I almost fell into a couple of people but regained my balance by holding onto the handholds for dear life.) It was easy to navigate once I was on the train since there were announcements in both Japanese and English. The trick, of course, is getting on the right train in the first place! I'm sure it will become easier with practice but for that day, I stuck closely to Yuri and Teiko. At the XA center, I met Amanda Fosburg (I am known as the "other Amanda") who has been in Japan for 11 months and is planning to return to the states soon, and Liz who arrived in Japan just one day after me and is doing the same type of internship as I am with XA. We were both recovering from jet lag and had an interesting time relating to one other that night. :) I also met other wonderful and friendly people such as Hyunhee and Anna who helped make me feel right at home. Speaking of home, getting back to Komagome (where I live) from the center was interesting. The person I was originally supposed to follow home was not able to make it that night, so I was blessed to follow Tomohara-san, a Japanese woman, back to Komagome station. Between her little bit of English and my little bit of Japanese, we eventually made it back without trouble. :) Good times.

Sunday dawned bright and early at 6:30 am to get ready and leave for church by 8 am. We stayed at the church all day with services at 11 am and 4 pm and meetings, sunday school, children's church, and Starbucks (praise God) in between. I met a ton of people from other countries with ICA being an international church. Services are held in English with Japanese and French translation since those are the common languages. There are people there representing Japan, America, the Philippines, Singapore, China, Korea, and several African countries (where the French comes in). And everyone worships the same AWESOME God! :) I really enjoyed Sunday, but by the end of it, all the languages had my brain scrambled! The Lord is good and has really blessed me to be in a place of cultural crossroads where I can experience so many flavors of people (and food!).

Today is Monday and is our designated day of rest. I don't plan on doing much of anything today except head to a XA meeting tonight. Let's see if I can make it to the center by train without getting lost. :) Life is always an adventure when you're following Christ.

Peace,

Amanda

Only in Japan

My new favorite phrase is now "only in Japan." As I am beginning to absorb more and more of this fascinating and complex culture, I am struck by how unique this country is compared to all the other places I've been. Here is a prime example:

Yesterday, Pastor Shelley and I were doing some office work when we noticed some guys outside looking around the house, talking to each other, and pointing. Shelley stuck her head out the door and asked them in Japanese if there was anything she could help them with and if everything was okay. It turns out they were from the cable company and they were here to inspect the house for our cable installation - next Tuesday. The 4 men eventually were invited inside to do some investigative work in the walls which involved them asking a lot of questions (which I could not understand), opening up the switch plate on the wall behind the tv, and taking down a section of the bathroom tile ceiling so they could track where the wires used to be. After about an hour of searching, they bowed themselves out and circled the house one more time before departing. Shelley and I could do nothing but laugh. Only in Japan could you get 4 men to come out not only on they day they said they would come but also a week ahead of time to make sure the job could get done on they day they promised. Only in Japan. :)

Last night, Pastor Shelley and I were invited to another missionary couple's house in Wako, which is about 40 minutes from Tokyo by car. They are a young couple who graduated from Southeastern about 10 years ago and are now on their second term in Japan. They have a beautiful little girl, Bela, who sat on my lap after dinner as we talked and played cards. It is not often that missionaries get together and just fellowship and this was one of those rare occasions. For me, it was good to listen to their conversation and experience a small portion of their daily lives. This will be me one day, Lord willing, and I want to know what I'll be facing when I am in their position. God is good and these people are wonderful examples for me.

Today we get to ride the bus to the church (which for me will be the first time) and organize an office area for the church to use. Yesterday we went shopping at the large super market (which we had to drive to) and bought things to pack for our lunches today. I can't wait to be able to go shopping on my own one day... and maybe know what the signs mean, lol. My Japanese is severely lacking, but at least I have some foundation to go on. The Lord is good about keeping me on track with my learning. He is so good and gracious to me in all of my humanness. Today will be a great one, I can tell; and then tomorrow is my first church service! I can't wait!

Rain rain, go away...

Yesterday succeeded in raining all day long and thus kept us largely in the house. It was a slow and steady rain that did not drench so much as it pitter-pattered on the roof tiles, creating a wonderful background symphony to the overcast sky. I worked inside the house, rearranging and organizing my room so that I no longer have to live out of my suitcase. Pastor Shelley and I ventured out into the rain to ask the office ladies in the Japan Assemblies of God office about some unintelligible kanji and as we walked by the small fish pond in the middle of the campus, I saw dozens of little orange and black koi swimming near the surface, darting between the falling raindrops. It was a beautiful and peaceful day that ended productively with the house being better arranged and our dinner of fish and rice with spiced tomato sauce. I got some reading for my internship done and paperwork completed. Just the necessary stuff that makes up life. (No one thinks of a missionary having to do paperwork and laundry, but that's real life.)

Today poses to be an excellent day with the sun shining and our plans to go to another missionary couple's house for dinner tonight. I get to learn how to ride the bus today! (Secretly, I'm still really stoked for learning how to ride the trains.)

This morning as I was doing my devotions, I was feeling a little downtrodden. I had been preparing for coming to Japan my whole life it seems, and I feel so underprepared for what I need to know. But the Lord reassured me that I am exactly ready for this day and this time at this point in my life. Although I may not feel prepared, with my not knowing enough Japanese and all, I am here right now for a reason. I am needed. And that makes me feel like I can do anything - with the Lord's help, of course! Praise Him who always knows what I need. :)

Day 1: Around the Town

My first day in Japan was an interesting one. Pastor Shelley and I went out and did some errands in Komagome (our small section of Tokyo) in the late morning and I got to see more of my new home. Down the hill from our house and up the street to the train station, we got a phone for me to use while in Japan and a train card so I can ride the trains by just swiping it instead of having to purchase a ticket each time. After that, we visited the post office and then the grocery store to pick up some food. That was a fun experience! After bagging our groceries, we walked just a bit farther to a sushi stand and got some lunch to take back home.

After eating a wonderful meal, we got to unpacking some boxes and reorganizing the house. Packing peanuts and bubble wrap were everywhere! After a while, it was time for Miss Megumi's walk. So, we all went out for a stroll around the neighborhood and got to see more of Komagome. Smiling faces peeked out from behind fences and others out walking their dogs waved as we passed by. Every house it seemed had some small pot or container with flowers in it to add a bit of green to the cityscape. In the course of our walk, we went by the bible school and I got to meet a few of the students. Some of them spoke a little English and with my very poor Japanese, we made introductions. :) I was really happy to meet them and we made plans to practice English and Japanese soon.

I'm really starting to understand that this country is a lot more than I could understand through textbooks and reading. It is a country alive with organization and quiet happiness. I can't wait to see more of it through the lens of God's heart. We will do and see and accomplish more together than apart.