Friday, November 12, 2010

October Recap: Part 2/2

Picking up where I left off in my last blog…

I have mentioned in a previous blog entry how my interest in Asia all began. It started when I lived in Milwaukee and went to an Asian emersion school and partially because of my friend Mariko. (Please read my blog entry from last December “Why Japan” for more back ground information) Mariko and I had lost touch, and shortly after I wrote a blog about that, I mentioned it to my students in one of my classes at Hongo. I then had an amazing student who helped me find and get in touch with her dad, and subsequently I was finally able to FIND HER!!!

So the day after Oktoberfest, my friend Scott and I went to go meet Mariko and her family in the Hamarikyu Gardens in Tokyo. Mariko’s current job has to do with designing space for events and graphic designing, and was hired to be in charge of the event at the gardens. The Tokyo Grand Tea Ceremony was being held that weekend and she was in charge of all of their graphics, so she invited us to meet her there and participate in the event. I was so nervous! It was weird to think that I was going to be seeing my friend whom I hadn’t seen in over 13 years. I’m glad I had Scott with me that day because I was a nervous wreck! He would ask me, “what does she look like?” and I thought to myself…I have no idea! But after a few phone calls and trying to figure out where we were suppose to meet, I saw girl running, and Scott asked me if that was her, and I replied YES! Mariko looked the same, and she said that I did too! How crazy is that?! It was such a great feeling to finally be able to see her again after all these years! I had always told her one day I’d live in Tokyo…and now I do. Crazy.

This was a rather eventful day in itself. I was reunited with Mariko; we participated in a tea ceremony, saw a Geisha performance, listened to a traditional Japanese instrument performance, walked around the garden, and then finally had dinner with part of the Mizumura family. Kyoko, Tsuneo, Mariko, and Ana joined Scott and me for dinner that night. It was great to catch up with old friends who have known me for such a long time. I haven’t kept in touch with too many friends from Milwaukee because I was only 10 when we moved, but Mariko and I managed to stay pen pals and have been reunited after such a long time. It was really a great day!




The following Saturday I had signed up to go on a retreat with another ministry site in Japan called the Lighthouse. The Lighthouse is a ministry that focuses on out reach to men in the Navy down on the Navy base in Yokosuka, about 2 hours south of Tokyo. I highly enjoy the people there as well as being able to be in an English ministry setting where I can finally be filled as well. The group was going on a tour around the Kanto area. We started off in Yokosuka, drove to Fuji, a beautiful lake in the area, Matsumoto Castle, and then drove up to Nagano where we saw many beautiful places and learned all about the history of Japan and Christianity in Japan. I had a blast with my new friends riding in the car for hours. We had some great conversations, and it was really nice to be around friends again; whether they have been friends for over a year, a few months or a few moments. It was also really fascinating to learn more about the Japanese context, history, traditions and it shed great light onto why some things happen and why some things within the church remain stagnant. Very educational.

After we returned to Tokyo from Nagano, I quickly made my way to the airport to pick up my friend Laura who was visiting from Hong Kong. Laura was my college roommate in Valpo; it was quite nice to have her staying with me again even if it was only for a few days. It was just like old times at VU. A friend to talk with, watch movies with, lay around and do nothing with, and of course we went shopping. Laura’s time was brief in Tokyo but it was enough to get a lot of sightseeing in and to give her the real Japanese experience, last trains and all. We went shopping in several different areas of Tokyo, took purikura pictures and of course played the Taiko game at the arcades…I think we did pretty well. Overall we had a blast. Most of all it was nice to have a friend visit who really knows me, and someone who I don’t have to act different around or speak slowly with. I’m really glad she was able to visit. Its funny how after I moved to Japan, it seems a lot of my friends from college are also migrating to this side of the world….a welcomed move. After six days of rommie reunion it was time for Laura to head back to Hong Kong and for me to get back to work.



That was the majority of my month of October, I might have left a few things out but with so much going on this fall its hard to write about everything that’s happening. These next two weekends I will be on retreats and after I return to Tokyo I will try to catch you all up on how those went!

Saturday, November 6, 2010

October Recap: Part 1 of 2

I closed my eyes for a minute and when I opened them it was November! Where in the world did October go?! The days are beginning to get colder here in Tokyo which is welcomed at this point, it was a long and hot summer and I am glad to finally be able to pull out my sweaters and cozy up underneath a blanket... or four, while drinking some hot chocolate! The leaves in Tokyo haven't turned color yet, but I think within the next few weeks they should start! October was definitely a busy month and keep me quite occupied. My classes at Katerina resumed on the 1st of the month, so my nights filled up again really fast, which means my sleeping took another hit, but that's okay. As I learned in college, one doesn't need sleep when you have Red Bull and coffee at your disposal. Allow me to recap my month for you:

The Tokyo J3's have Mondays off of work, to recoup from the work we do on Sundays. So the first Monday of the month, my co-worker, Matthew, and I along with a student (an adult student) decided to go sailing on Tokyo Bay. One of the joys of having older students is that they like to include us in their hobbies. Maruoka san enjoys sailing a lot and goes probably once a week. Matthew has been out sailing with him several times, but this was my first time to ever go sailing, and I must admit, I had a blast! Maruoka san highly enjoys having students come sailing with him as well because he doesn't have to do much. Matthew took care of all of the sails and tying them off while I manned the helm. I learned a few things about sailing but will be really excited to get back on the water again!



The following Saturday I participated in a Lutheran "youth" retreat in Nagasaki on the southern most island of Japan, Kyushu. The word youth here has a very loose meaning, and tends to mean, those who are marrying age, but remain single. The majority of the participants were college or graduate students, with a few older participants as well. The theme of this gathering was "We are the Peace Makers" and the gathering focused on peace, what this means to us, what it means living in the Japanese context and how we as Christians should apply that to our lives. It was a very interesting conference, partially because the entire event was in Japanese. I strained my brain trying to understand everything, but luckily for me many people did speak English so I had some help with interpreting some of the harder conversations.

Nagasaki was a great location to have this retreat because of the historical events that have happened there. We, of course, went to the Atomic Bomb museum and visited the historical sites from the war, the bomb epicenter, relics that have survived the war, a museum about the Japanese-Korean conflict and the China-Japan conflict, as well as the Nagasaki Peace Park. Going through the museum was a very interesting experience for me, although there were a few other Americans or at least Westerners in the museum, I was amongst a sea of Japanese people. On my day to day living, this is no problem...but being in this museum it seemed to carry a little more weight on me than it usually does. It was weird to think that my country was responsible for this, and at that particular time, in that museum I seemed to represent everyone from American history...funny how that happens, huh. I have learned the history from the America perspective, but have not really heard it from the Japanese perspective, until now. It was fascinating to watch videos of survivors and hear their stories about what happened that dreadful day. After walking through the majority of the exhibits, on the way out of the museum there is a final exhibit about nuclear weapons now. It showed what countries had bombs, who had used them in war, and who has been practicing and testing these bombs; it was interesting because of course America was number 1 in all these categories. We have the most bombs and we have tested these bombs the most (be it above or below ground). It was interesting for me to see this and to think about what Peace means for me, being a Christian, living in Japan, and being an American…now roll all those up into one A Christian American living in Japan.





Needless to say the entire retreat was very entertaining and I made a lot of new friends as well! Not all the topics were so heavy, we had free time at night where we stayed up and chatted about boys and the usual things girls chat about late at night.  We also enjoyed onsen and the beautiful scenery Nagasaki has to offer. I rode the shinkansen down there by myself and rode back to Tokyo with a new friend, so overall the weekend was a great success and I’m glad I was able to go!

As some of you may remember, back in May I attended Oktoberfest in Tokyo. Well considering this month is actually October, there was another Oktoberfest celebration, this time in Yokohama. A group of us from Tokyo decided to head down to Yokohama and take part in the festivities once again. This venue was much smaller than the one held in Tokyo, and subsequently we all consumed much less beer. But that is okay, beers can range in price from $20 to $35 depending on the size and which brand of beer you buy. Most of the beer on tap is imported from Germany which means its great quality compared to Japanese beer, but therefore is also five times the price. All for the sake of culture, right? After we had our share of beer and sausages, we headed to Yokohama’s Chinatown to catch a quick snack/dinner before heading home on the trains. It was a very successful night, always a good time with the missionary crowd!



Well this is about half way through my adventures for the month of October but I’m going to cut this entry off here since it has gotten rather lengthy already, and I will finish wrapping up the second half of October in my next entry!