Waking up to White Roofs

It's snowing!

Off to Kobe today with Hong Yun, to visit Dawn, a British Japan Christian Link worker.

Ups and Downs

We've had our WEC meet-up day today, which consisted of a bring-and-share meal, a time of lessons and carols around a candlelit table, reflecting on the peace that God can bring us even in stormy times, and also a time of testimonmies of how God has been working in our lives, and games! My favourite game from my childhood was included - wrapping someone in toilet roll so they look like a mummy! Unfortunately our team didn't win, but Bee Chou looked pretty funny!

It's also been a time of some soul-searching on some levels. Unfortunuately a good friend lost her 3-month expected-baby/foetus, and although it doesn't affect me personally, as a friend I am sad and feel for them and this loss. I also had some frustrations getting to the day today, as I didn't organise myself in time and so had to take a lenghty transport route by myself. But saying that, coming back was worse, in the car, as it's such a long way that I felt very travel sick. So trains work better for me! Lastly, I've been a bit disappointed recently that still, despite Jesus saying that now there are no national barriers between us, someone has refused to offer me counsel and oversight as I am not the same nationality. This makes me sad - that I am not seen worthy of or precious enough for this oversight; that other barriers are seeming greater than our brotherhood in Christ.

What is good? Well I've been offered some bedding which will really help me. I was also given speakers when I first arrived, by the same people, and this has been brilliant. I have Edi who wants willingly and lovingly to help me where she can and where appropriate. I had a good chat with Louisa today and over the Christmas break, and as she is soon leaving Japan that has been good. I have some precious friends back home, plus Martin tries to be the best leader he can here. I have been valuing my own sister (and brother) which is a really fantastic thing. I delight that my brother has a new house, and such a lovely wife. And they care and pray for me!

So lots of good, and some discouragement.

Happy Christmas!

Christmas over! A British church-leaders' family here were very kind in having me over. We were ten: them, thier two children, plus another family they'd invited (Japanese wife, English husband, two kids), plus my friend Louisa who chose to have me over as 'her friend' for that special day.

My friend Chris from London-area was a star and sent me a CD of Christmas music she'd taken the time to put together. (She's off work at the moment so it's OK!) We had that playing over Christmas lunch and also at a christmas party at church the night before. BandAid20; absolutely can't beat it. Esp Lemar's rap in the middle bit! (unless you're over 35, and then of course you'll prefer the original 80s version).

So we saw the kids open some presents; we drank some wine and ate some nice things. Louisa and I went for a nice walk for quite a while in the afternoon. I even spoke to Mum, Dad and sister Soph in the evening.

Tokyo at night

Tokyo at night is pretty amazing. Thousands of lights, or as they say here, 'illumination'. I went up Tokyo Tower (taller than the Eiffle Tower but modelled on it) with a group of Hosei University girls and they loved it!

I felt very at home in my friend Hanae's flat. Hosei University (where I've had summer jobs looking after their students in Oxford for the past two years) have offered me a job, giving occasional lectures on their Interntional Relations course. Depending on what exactly is offered, I might be able to do that. It would mean I could visit Hanae more often and see some of the other students and staff too. Cos if missionary work isnt meeting with people (if you're a church planter or student worker at least), it is going in a funny direction.

I had an intersting time meeting with someone I met on skype; she has the same name as one of my friends so we met by 'mistake' in September. However when we went to the temple for sightseeing, she went up and thanked the deity for this 'chance' meeting. She recently returned from 3 years in New York, and is struggling to find her place in Japanese society. She much prefers the company of internationally-minded folk now. Likeise my two christian friends who started following Jesus in Oxford find churches here cold and unwelcoming, which is sad as that is all we have. But God lives on in them and takes good care of them, with the help of thier families too, and some caring people who write to them from England.

My highlights:
*going to the key shop and post office for Hanae in her district; I just felt like i was a resident there, esp when I bumped into two people I'd met the night before in Hanae's favourite cafe, and I love that feeling!
*seeing another friend from Oxford, who told me she is pregnant!
*the love of the Hosei female students for me, and esp Kaori, who is soft and vulnerable underneath her tough exterior and fashion exuberance. I just had a lovely email from her, sharing with me her dreams for the future! also when Hikari said 'i love you' when she said goodbye, that was lovely of her. I enjoyed seeing where she works.
*seeing Mayuka, another Hosei student, and getting to know Akiko, one of the staff. both really special and fun times.
* seeing Tokyo from Tokyo tower, which was quite a spiritual experince. Thought of my mum, dad and niece from the top, and also prayed for the as-yet-unborn babies of Sian and Mark, Sally and John, and Jo and Chuka. that felt special. it is an amazinf experience.* another spritual epxerience, quite breathtaking, was seeing Mount Fuji. rising up above, topped with a hat of snow.

Weird:
* being on the subway at 11.30pm/midnight, and it being packed like rush hour with businessmen returning home.
* it feeling 'normal' to be there, walking about, like I was in London.
* annoying that the station staff can speak very limited english.
* attending a Japanese party, but rather than people standing up and mingling with glasses in their hands, we were all sat down on the floor around a table with a hotpot on it! apparently thats what japanese people prefer.
* amazing bus up there, more like an aeroplane for service. blanket and slippers provided, only three seats per row of the bus with spaces inbetween and loads of leg room. Bus back not quite the same standard!

Church party tonight. Yuki had to withdraw, but Yo Shure and Choo from the house are hopefully coming. Lots of love and Merry Christmas!

Tokyo days

wrote this earlier in week but didnt realise it hadnt published! so here it is:

I'm currently staying in london with my friend Chris. Well actually that's not true: I am actually staying in Tokyo with my friend Hanae, but I FEEL like I'm in London again in Chris's house. I think because Tokyo is big, has subways, has people! I have been overwhelmed a couple of times. And because I am enjoying getting to know the new neighbourhood of an old friend.

It is LOVELY staying with Hanae. As I told her over breakfast this morning, she's about the first person not to complement me on how good my Japanese now is ... and thats a big compliment!! She doesn't want to just flatter me (when its not that true either). But despite never having spoke Japanese together, she sometimes just goes into it, without seeming to batter an eyelid.　She also lets me get on with my own thing while shes at work, and at night we sleep in her room side by side and its good.

One night I made a funny mistake. I thought I was meeting one friend, actually it was a different friend (with the same name) that walked through the subway gates. At first I thought it was co-incidence, that she just happened to be there too. Then I realised that I had obviously been emailing a different person, and had to quickly compose myself and get into a different mind set to adjust to my unexpected company! but anyway,I managed (I think) to hide my surprise, and we had a nice evening.

On the bus up I saw Mount Fuji. It was quite breaktaking to me. I am meeting up with the KGK office today (linked with IFES, where I worked in Oxford), and then with some Hosei students in the evening. The afternoon I will need to cart a suitcase of books I brought here last year from their storage place, to a locker in Tokyo station, ready for my return tomorrow night.

Two deep

Blimin' heck, I'm weary. It was the last day of classes today, except we didn't have class; instead we went to a lady's house where we dressed in kimono and learned a Japanese dance. It was very enjoyable. Photos will be posted on my photo link(see right panel) asap!

There's been a girl on my course who I've wanted to get to know the whole term. But it never happened; I was shy, she wasn't so forthcoming, she made another friend, and I made other friends. But we had a great chat walking back from the place (in fact I had a great chat both ways; I'll mention the other one in a minute).She is lovely, straightforward, quiet reserved and serious, but has lived in a few countries because of having parents of different nationalities; I think she has had a hard life at times. She has puzzled me on some occasions, as she is quite a tough cookie. I found out she is good at Thai fighting. It was a real surprise. I heard though that she'd taken it up to get over a trauma from when she was younger. I was impressed with her manner, her honesty, and yet carefulness in how she said things. I know she doesn't like sympathy, because I offered that once before on something and it wasn't so much appreciated. So I didn't offer any as such, but tried to connect in other ways. We also exchanged news of our brothers and sisters. She didn't know I was going to be in Japan for longer than the the average year. I told her I was wanting to listen to God for my life, for what he has for me; it felt right to say that, then.

My other chat was with another classmate, from Asia, as we walked to the kimono house. Often in class my Asian friend refers to the big TV she wants in the future, or the food she would like to eat. I thought she was only joking. but today we chatted and she said she wanted to tell me a Chinese story. It was about a man who was so in love with his beautiful, slender wife that he bought her so much food every day, as gifts. She then became very lazy, and in the end made a giant doughnut for herself which covered her face, so all she needed to do all day and night was lie on her bed, sleep, and then nibble from the doughnut with her mouth when she was awake. But one day her husband returned to find her dead. She had been too lazy to turn the doughnut around, and her mouth was out of reach of the unnibbled parts. She had died of starvation! Lyn asked me what I thought it meant. Afterward, I wondered if I should share a Bible parable with her. She said she liked scary stories, or romantic 'what happens after princess meets prince' ones. As I was thinking about it, she asked me which of the big houses we were walking past I wanted to live in. I said I wasn't bothered by big houses. She couldn't understand it. She said she'd be content to die having just watched loads of films in a big house. I told her if all we want is big houses, and watching films inside them, we don't look beyond the four walls and see the wider world and be involved in it. She asked me what that else could be involved in life, and I replied: following God's will, and serving and helping people. This was alien to her. She laughed every time I mentioned God or Jesus. It made me feel sad inside, as she's a good friend. It made me see there's a long way to go. But now I know she likes stories that have messages.

I feel that people don't know about the church, and what God can do to transform lives. I wish they did. I guess each Christian is a part of this representation though; what we show is who we are. It's fun having God with us; it's also a serious and meaningful thing, to have him in our lives and our very souls, transforming us from people of nature to people of another realm. It's amazing. And we're all in this together (ie we all have hurts to be set free from, lessons to learn). I want church to be a place of honesty, for where the spirit of the Lord is , there is freedom.

Some mothers do 'av 'em

Blimin' heck. This blogger has a lot of readers that leave a lot of comments: http://www.superherodesigns.com/journal/archives/000699.html

This entry (link above) was interesting to me for people's comments of what makes them scared in life, so it's worth clicking to see them. People are 'real' here.

But when I tapped on her home page from it, I saw her most recent entry had over 300 comments left!!

A few names and a few games

Just returned from big swanky party, curtesy of very amazing invite, and I feel like name dropping, so I'll get it over with quickly before writing some proper stuff.

The name is RICHARD BRANSON.

Well i didn't meet him, it must be said, but I was asked how he was doing tonight, by someone that has had dinner with him twice, and who owns the shopping mall in Kyoto where the Virgin store is located (hence the dinners). Of course being English, and therefore sharing Richard's nationality (and indeed his city for the past four years), I felt able to speak for him, and could vouch that he was 'doing alright'. Phew!

It was my friend Yuki's dad's gym's New Years Party (they don't do Christmas parties here, just New year), and lucky for me his gym is in one of the nicest hotels in Kyoto, and even better, I was invited. We dined in style, and enjoyed American-influenced entertainment of a cheer-leading dance show style, by the gym's fitness intsructors during pudding. Very enjoyable. I even took a video with my camera which i'll put on YouTube on Saturday if I can!

Yuki actually deserves a bigger name drop than 'Richard'. She might not be famous outside of the world of compartive studies of Scandanvian, Japanese and American care systems, and feminism conferences in Tokyo and Osaka.. .... and maybe some certain drinking establishments in Kyoto and Oxford and Stockholm... but that's pretty cool to me and I'm very proud of her. I have only featured in the latter one so its all good :-) Plus her and her family are very kind to me which always is a winner!

Now...

I did well in my tests: Grammer 89%; Reading 82%; Vocabulary 81%, Listening 64%; and Kanji, urgh, 43%. I therefore failed the last one. After christmas we have another test of 300 kanji (the little chinese characters).

My plans for 'fuyui yasumi' (christmas hols from my language school, although not from homework, got tonnes of it!) are holding up remarkably well. Simon and I are praying about whether he could visit me in January for a week or so. It depends on a cheque coming through. But before then, I have a bus ticket booked to Tokyo for Monday, leaving here 10am and arriving there 6pm (a long ride, but cheaper than the train and i'd like to enjoy the scenery en route). Hanae, an old friend, has offered to host me in her room, plus I have lots of dinner arrangements with loads of students I worked with the last two summers, plus some other special individual friends from Oxford days (Japanese friends).

I am off to Shiga ken for christmas day (Yuki has asked to come to our church christmas party on chrstmas eve too, fantastic, and surprising; trying to think whether to invite Rika and/or/neither Mirabelle to join us). Hopefully I'll enjoy a few days away with Hong Yun, a Korean Christian worker here, after that, before New Year. School starts back on 9 January. My birthday has landed on a national holiday here (8 Jan). It is also the day when all the 20 year-olds in Japan celebrate their 'turning of age' by getting together with all their high school friends for parties! therefore all the restaurants will be very busy. my birthday is party day this year!!

God is doing good work in me at the moment. I am being really blessed by now attending a church prayer time on wednesday nights, with Chang Kyu and In Sook. Our Sunday sermons are on being in touch with the Holy Spirit, and this last sunday was on 'silent prayer' (Forrester book esp). God spoke to me, and He is being just great. I am looking forward to walking with him over the next few months, and I am not there yet, but want him to be my very best friend.

Tonight, before I got to the hotel, a lady in a drink shop shoo-ed me off her pavement outside like I was a stray dog. I was sheltering there from the rain, with my bike, unsure which way to go, trying to study my map. If I hadn't been made aware of God's view of me it would have upset me. As it was, I wished she wouldn't have that attitude, however I still felt joyful inside. I am grateful for people like Debi Bartlotti (yeh, I had an email from her today!) and Naomi Gray who have helped to show me that God views us as special and that being 'in him' in this way affects our whole attitude. Long may it grow.

The List of 4s

An idea nicked from a friend or two.
four jobs i have had in my life:
1. IFES Development Officer
2. WHSmith customer assistant
3. Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Chamionships Security Guard
4. University receptionist

four movies i would watch over and over:
1. Hideous Kinky
2. Lost in Translation
3. Save the Last Dance
4. any about horse racing

four places i have lived:
1. Devon
2. Uganda
3. Swansea
4. Cardiff

four tv shows i love to watch:
1. Question Time (get me!)
2. Neighbours (I know, embarrassing)
3. Eastenders (I know, depressing)
4. My Family

four places i have been on vacation:
1. Kyrgyzstan
2. Italy
3. the Netherlands
4. Suffolk!

four of my favorite foods:
1. Prawn Cocktail flavour Walkers crisps
2. Biscuit Boost (boost boost, biscuit boost!)
3. Macoroni cheese
4. Mum's walnut icing cake

four places i would like to be right now:
1. hanging out with Yuki in some traditional Japanese restaurant in Schijo (down the road)
2. at a dinner party with Tom and Elaine, Sophie, Tim and Simon
3. at home with Mum and Dad, in the sitting room, with TV on and ginger tea and choccie biccie in my hands
4. in the Sahara, at night, under the stars, standing apart from the camp and the camels, as I did this once, and it was awesome

four books i'd read again:
1. Out of the Saltshaker and Into the World
2. The Naughtiest Girl in the School
3. Dicey's Song
4. Kings, in The Bible (love it! unusual i know)

four songs i listen to over and over:
1. Baby Can I Hold You (Tracey Chapman)
2. Hallelujah, Your Love Makes Me Sing!
3. Talking 'Bout a Revolution (Tracey Chapman)
4. Come, Now is the Time to Worship

four things i do (sometimes) which i shouldn't:
1. plan the seating plan for my wedding reception (never mind that i'm not nearly there yet!)
2. stay in bed in the morning for too long, esp when its cold!
3. allow myself to feel miserable or complain - which is a sin
4. feel like i bear the responsibility of a decision- which is wrong as God does if I let him

four things that motivate me:
1. praise and encouragement
2. Len Bartlotti
3. the great commission, to fulfill 'all peoples' on earth being part of the multicoloured singing congregation before God (as I picture it!!) forever
4. having things to do

four places i'd like to go:
1. Shanghai, overlooking the river
2. Chile, overlooking the lake with the mountains around
3. Fez in Morocco, an ancient stone city
4. a self-designed route of the trans-Siberian highway, including Uzbekistan and Nepal

four things i hate:
1. bad and slow customer service
2. being made to feel unimportant, (when God deems me important)
3. when people are over-Christian, and can't take compliments without referring to God's complete responsibility for the event, or who narrow down what is 'christian' enough to talk about in certain settings
4. feeling confused between choices in a decision

four random things i love:
1. autumn leaves
2. wrapping up christmas presents, knelt on the floor of my room
3. buying flights over the internet; such a buzz!
4. walking through the woods, chatting with a female friend I haven't seen for a while

tag. you're it. comment when you've blogged your own fours!

Today: J-League Football Game, followed by Macdonalds

Today I had a brilliant day; one of my happiest here :-)

I met with Rika at 1pm. she's the one i met two weeks ago in a cafe. I thought I was going to be late as I only left my house at 12.30, due to our continual washing machine problem (one between 16 people, in the same room as the only shower in the house :) But I managed to cycle to the PO to get money, then to the train station, then tie up my bike sufficiently far away so not to be in the police 'no bike' zone, then catch the tube to Shijo, then walk to our arranged meeting point, and find her, in time! She was there with her little daughter so it felt like I was back with Mikiko again last year, when I visited and stayed with her and her young son for my first 5 days, getting admiring glances from people on the train, and carrying pushchaires up flights of stairs.

We got to the stadium fine, with only a few tears from little one. It was such great fun. 9000 people there. Rika had been given free tickets from her friend, who we met there who was with her little boy and her brother (although her husband was sitting in the stand opposite, as he was a full-member! which I thought seemed a bit mean of him, although i didn't even meet him! he goes every saturday.) And it was Kyoto Purple Sanga (the city team here) versus Nagoya Grampus Eight (the city team in Nagoya, another city not too far away). It was the last game of the season, and the crowd gave it good. There was banner waving, with one stand that was continually jumping up and down and singing to the beat of a big drum (quite nice songs actually; I found myself singing along), and the rest of us were more sedately sitting on our benches on our platforms but clapping occasionally, to join in and keep warm. Brilliant fun.. have I said that already?! We lost though, and next season the team will be relegated. But hopefully I can still go and watch anyway as the lady who has access to these free tickets hinted as much ;) The manager got seriously booed when he tried to come on the pitch to make his final sppech. Hope the poor man doesn't suffer from any problems over that - I know that can happen in Japan: suicides from that kind of shame.

After that Rika and daughter and I went back into the city, and Rika phoned the duaghter's father and invited him to join us for coffee. This was one of thier monthly or twice-monthly meet-ups, as they are no longer a couple. We had a great time, chatting, and I really enjoyed it. Rika's father was a famous comedian here in Japan, and she talked me through an article in last week's main national newspaper, (Asahi shinbun), in which she and three famous people (two TV actors and a writer) reflected on his life, 7 years on from his death.

Next I went to MacDoanlds to meet with Masako, who I met in there about 1.5 months ago. I stayed from 7.30-10.30pm; we had a great time chatting; I managed to translate a whole letter that she had received from a lady she knows from Australia, which I enjoyed. She is so patient; a perfect conversation partner. and I gave her an advent calender, as my mum sent me one but in fact there were two in the packaging ... Traidcraft making mistakes lucky for me!

I might not see Masako again til after Christmas, as her studies finish next week, and so she'll no longer be going to study there on Sat evenings, as has been her routine up til now. So after Chrsitmas I will also have to change my routine, as the only reason I go there is to see her. However I do now like it; it's much nicer than the British ones - it's like my little warm haven and I can sit and study there for ages, with cool blues or chilled music on and orange lighting. She won't be doing anything for Christmas day - no presents even. She said 'Well we're not christians'; also Christmas day is a working day this year. However I was pleased to hear that her divorced husband will be coming round, as they share a son (a bit like the other couple I was with earlier in some ways).

I also had a great time with God once I got back. I walked and talked and was assured by him of the pleasure of following him. It really was an adventure. He also spoke to me about following close behind him - following him. Sometimes it will be like we (Christians) are an elastic band, being stretched back, but then we need to hurry to catch up with him again. Even it it means looking a bit foolish, running along with others seeing. He also said to me that sometimes he leads us on side routes, that are parellel to the main road, and as it was at the time when I was wondering about these friendships I'm making, I thought that it means that these friendships that I'm forming are my work for now, for this year and next etc, but that they wouldn't be my main ministry forever - that some point he will lead me to the mian road where I am to walk with equal pleasure in Him, even admist the busyness and maybe even the 'urban-ness'.

I also saw some kanji, which I knew I'd learnt, hanging up outisde a shop, and also one by a house. So it has encouraged me to dig into it afresh, as I will find a use for it, even though today I couldn't remember any of the meanings!

Bless you, readers. I appericiate you taking the time to read about my life, and your support is great.

My schedule - wanting to be disclosed!

I now have a busy life here. So thought I would share it with you, dear readers, but now can't upload the table I created in Word to do this.if i try and copy and paste it loses its nice (and essential) formatting. Shame! anyone got any bright ideas?

Anyway... today I had a very socialable and enjoyable day. After class... actually let's start with class first... I got 85% in the test I sat yesterday! They are very quick to mark things here! I was pleased with my mark; I had wanted around 90, but no more, in case I was shunted up to the next class, away from the people I'm getting to know in my current one! so 85 is a reasonably good mark :-)

Every Friday I have lunch with four girls; it's always something I now look forward to. We eat Chinese, as there's a great, large, quite cheap, Chinese restaurant near our school, plus they're all from China or Taiwan so appreiciate the food! after that, today we extended it with a trip to buy doughnuts (at which point i said my brothers nickname for my sister had been 'doughnut' as a child, which they found very strange.. and funny..), and my friend Lin bought a custard one (at which point I chirped up again - that I'd had a cat in Uganda called 'Custard') - at which point they were very eager to know what my nickname might have been! I agreed to 'Cream', seeing as I'd bought a cream doughnut, as I wasn't going to disclose any more!!

And after that I went back to the toshokan.. that is the library... and watched a Japanese film - very funny - that one of the girls had recommended in class the other day. Called Water Boys. Seeing as our library has free DVDs to watch on thier TVs their, wearing earphones, I'd like to watch one a week, to hear Japanese and get some familiarity with Japanese popular culture, as it is a little... actually a LOT ... different to Britain!

And then this evening I played football... in the cold.... and then after that Mirabelle and I went for something to eat, as she wanted something, and we had such a lovely chat and laughed so much, comparing stories from our language schools, and experiences of Japanese, French and English life! she lives with her auntie and cousins, as she's half-Japanese (but from Paris). We've arranged another get-together for Thursday night.

Ok, gonna go now.. I spend time on the computer as it's my way to 'feel connected', and be entertained, but finally there is a time for bed too, and I think 1am should do it for tonight!

Oh yes, very excited, as Hanae has invited me to stay with her in Tokyo over Christmas. I won't accept that, as need and want to be here then, but maybe before if that is also OK with her. she is also very excited - we haven't seen each other since she left Oxford about a year and a half ago. it will be LOVELY to see her... one of my little dreams for being here really...