Everything from Sumo-san to Kitty-chan

This summer before I left for Japan as I spoke for various groups and at churches I would usually bring up sumo wrestling and show a picture that my brother had taken from his experience here in Japan. I spoke about the sumo wrestlers in relation to the theme of this blog with the verse from 1 Peter 2:9. I mentioned that God has called all of us out of darkness into his light, even people that may seem so different from us like sumo wrestlers. This Friday I got to see sumo wrestling live with my Japanese classmates!

It was a lot of fun. We went on the third to last day of the tournament. We got a sheet of paper with who the sumo wrestlers were up against today and their previous record. I circled the name of the sumo who won to keep track. Each match would take quite a long time because they would go in the middle, stare at each other, stretch their legs up, and then go back to their corners slapping their bellies to intimidate the other person. Then they'd drink some special water and throw some salt to purify the ring. They would do this about four times before actually wrestling and then the actual fight would take anywhere from 5-45 seconds.

I saw many other interesting things this week. On Wednesday it finally snowed here in Tokyo! I was soo excited! I guess last year it never snowed, so I'm really thankful I at least got to see some even though it didn't stick enough for me to have a snowball fight or make a snow-man. It was beautiful big flakes. Everyone was using their umbrella, which seemed so strange to me at first, but the snow was so wet that it was quite wise to do so. I didn't get a good picture of it snowing, but here is me in the rain in Ginza. This is on the Chuo Dori (Chuo Street) which on Saturday afternoons gets closed down for people to walk to all the big shopping stores, and places even set up many outdoor booths. It's pretty famous, and I enjoyed the five story Mac store the most!

In Ginza a different day I also saw some Hello Kitty flower arrangements! Hello Kitty is everywhere, you never know where she will pop up next. My Hello Kitty purchases so far have included a pencil case, a budget planner and a flashlight keychain.

Epiphany

Wow, this month is going so quickly! I am now in my third week back to language school after our winter break, and it feels like it's only been one. The pictures in this entry are from when I hiked Mt. Takao with some friends over our break and we saw Mt. Fuji!

I was thinking today about what the season of Epiphany means, and I realized that it really coincides with the season of my life right now as well. Epiphany from the greek means to have a revelation or manifestation. In the church we celebrate the manifestation of Jesus coming to us on earth as a human. There are many signs that we see in the season such as the stars which the magi follow and the dove and voice of God present at Jesus' baptism. This is a wonderful thing because we are sinful and in need of God's help!

Recently I have had some meetings with Yukie, the VYM director about my upcoming site placement here in Japan. On February 8th I will find out where I will be serving and living for the next two years. I was feeling a little apprehensive about where I would get put, and feeling like I had preferences about what part of Tokyo or Nigata I wanted to live in. Then, I had an epiphany. I thought back to all the other times I have been in situations such as this. Every time, even if God sent me somewhere I wasn't too excited about He has shown me time and time again that he knows what is best. It always reminds me of my confirmation verse as well...

For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. - Jeremiah 29:11

In other news, the weather has gotten much colder here in Tokyo, but nothing compared to the temperatures I hear about in MN. It has even been said that we may get some snow flurries here, but I am yet to see them. Yesterday I did see something pretty cool though...I went to Japanese Theatre to see Kabuki with my Japanese class. I had an english earpiece to translate the story which made it more interesting, and it also told information about the history of Kabuki. The set and costumes are so beautiful! In Kabuki all the characters are acted out by men. Also, all the actors had the last name Yogo because you must be born from that family to participate, kind of like royalty.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!

Why 2008 Will Be Great

Our God is so GREAT
so STRONG and so MIGHTY
there's nothing our God cannot do!

First seconds of 2008 at midnight...HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Here in Japan New Year's is the big holiday that everyone celebrates and travels to be with family and friends. I spent it with some other missionaries and a band that they have befriended over the years. They played music until 3am and then headed to the shrine. This is the one time of year that everyone goes to the shrine for their traditional rituals. They walk through in a certain path, cleansing with the water...
throwing coins in a box and clapping...

buying arrows which they will return the next year for a new one...and buying fortunes that they tie up to be answered prayers if they are good fortunes...
The lead singer in the band when we were asking about these traditions pointed out himself that they are quite meaningless. The more and more Japanese people I talk to the more they support the idea that today's people are not religious but keep doing some of these Buddhist and Shinto practices simply for cultural reasons.

We do not need to buy pieces of paper or arrows, throw coins or such actions to hope for something great to happen to us.
God sent his son for us at no cost! It may be a new and different year, spent in a new and different culture with new and different missionary challenges, but our God does not change. He is the same yesterday and today. He is God above all gods. Pray that in this new year many new people would hear this message and believe.

Seeing Japanese Life in Shirone

For four days over Christmas I got to experience Japanese life through homestays along the western coast of Japan in a rural city called Shirone. It was so fun getting to see the typical Japanese lifestyle in person rather than just reading or hearing about it. I was also forced to use pretty much all Japanese which was great practice and a lot of fun. I know I made some funny mistakes, and I'm sure there were more I didn't realize! The one everyone thought was the most funny was when my host family was asking me if I was able to sleep anywhere...and I said "hai, hai, dare demo" which means yes, with anyone! I realized my mistake and quickly changed it to a similar phrase, "doko demo" which means anywhere.

Here is the Shirone church sanctuary where up front the Christmas story is being told with moving picture panels during Kids Day. So many kids came, especially unchurched families from the community. After the worship time of the story and singing we played fun games and they got some presents.

The woman in the red sweater standing was one of my host mothers. Mrs. Makaguchi

Here is my host dad Mr. Makaguchi. He is helping make mochi. Every year around New Years is a traditional time to make mochi. Mochi is made by first heating rice to hot temperatures in a wood burning oven. Then you put it in the wooden bucket you see here with hot water and two people go back and forth slamming the big wooden mallet down on it. So, mochi is compacted rice. It becomes very sticky and chewy. We got to eat some of this mochi after we made it....delicious!

In between pounding it this woman would flip and rotate the rice so it would get evenly pounded, and add water so the wooden mallets wouldn't stick to the rice.

Here's me getting a turn!

I got to ride the Shinkansen for the first time on my way to and from Shirone. I didn't get to see snow except for in the mountains, but it was really beautiful. It was really nice to spend some time in the country after always being in the busy city, but I was glad to get back to Tokyo!

Some other things I got to do in Shirone were see the worlds largest kite museum, the famous kite contest spot along the river, a farmer's market in the morning, attend an organ concert with the second half all the Nutcracker, play trumpet and sing for the Christmas Eve Service, and meet lots of great Japanese people!