Food, Fridges, and Fellowship

Having arrived in Japan on Friday, my memories of these past three days are quite fuzzy. Physically I've been awake. But mentally? Most assuredly not always. I know I've done lots of eating - fried rice at a ramen house and at a Thai restaurant; edamame (Japanese soy beans), soba noodle soup, tempura shrimp, cucumber rolls, and "Mexican tortilla" rolls at a buffet-style sushi restaurant where one chooses from the food that passes by on a conveyor belt (quite fun!); and hot chocolate at Starbucks.

My buddy, C.G., who has been an Assistant English Teacher here for more than five years has been so great to help me start to feel comfortable in my apartment and with navigating the city. I've gone shopping to begin furnishing the homey touches to my apartment, since the apartment's three previous residents were guys whose tastes were more sparse than mine. (I wish I'd had my camera with me so that you could see the tricked out refrigerators that they have for sale here. I will be purchasing one since the one that comes with the apartment is a dorm-room sized cube, which considering the size of the apartment and the kitchen, is properly proportioned, I suppose. And the supplemental one purchased by a previous AET stands only waist-high.)

Although there is Japanese peanut butter, it is whipped and more like a dessert topping. So I was super happy when I found the natural peanut butter that I love at an imported foods store, considering that the traditional Japanese breakfast is mainly rice and natto (sp?) (fermented soybeans that one would hope taste better than their scent implies). However, buying a "loaf" of non-white bread constitutes three slices and a "loaf" of white bread constitutes eight slices. So peanut butter on toast for breakfast will be a treat; and oatmeal, thankfully supplied by C.G. and Costco-Japan(!), will be a regularity.

But the best experience that I have had so far was while worshiping with other Christians this morning. There is a large English-speaking group in the church, including people outside of the teachers from my AET program. So there is an English-speaking Bible class before the service; and the service is conducted in both Japanese and English. It was so amazing to see people of different backgrounds, nationalities, and languages united in worshiping God. At church today were native Japanese, African-Americans, Caucasian Americans, an Ethiopian American, a Honduran American, a Japanese American, a Canadian, and who knows what other hyphenated labels. Though we came from different places around the world, grew up speaking different languages, and may not have been able to communicate with each other without an interpreter, the realization that we all love God and were worshiping Him brought tears to my eyes.

Until next time...