So this is Christmas.

I've always struggled with the saying "Jesus is the reason for the season." Many years ago I heard that the early church appropriated a winter pagan holiday and renamed it Christmas so that Christians wouldn't feel badly about celebrating alongside their neighbors or so that those neighbors might become Christians. I've heard sermons preached that explained how Jesus had to have been born on December 25 as well as how He couldn't have been born on December 25, let alone in winter. And I don't think it's unfair to say that the commercialization of the holiday has distorted the remembrance of Jesus' birth in the collective American Christmas experience, even that of Christians. So since I've never found a Scripture that mandates an annual birthday party for Jesus and I remember His birth (and, more importantly, His life, death, and resurrection) on a more-than-once-a-year basis, I've always viewed Christmas as a holiday to be spent enjoying time with my family. Thus, when it became apparent back in November that I was going to be in Japan for Christmas, I didn't have much optimism for how my first Christmas away from family would be... especially once I learned more about the Japanese celebration of Christmas.

One of the things I am most passionate about is learning about other people's languages, cultures, and histories. So my ethnocentrism level is typically very low. As two very minor yet related examples, when I learned that some German families hang a pickle ornament on their Christmas trees, I found this to be intriguing rather than weird. And I really want to know what Christmas is like in the Land Down Under, since Aussies celebrate Christmas in a season when there's not even the slightest chance for snow. (Does Santa wear a tank top, Bermuda shorts, and flip flops?) But when I heard about Christmas in Japan I became saddened, for Christmas here, though it has an appearance that is familiar to me, is substantially different. (Yes, I know why that is. No, knowing why didn't help me think more charitably toward Christmas in Japan.) Christmas lights decorated the station road. A few of my students had Christmas trees in their homes. And Christmas music played rabidly in the stores. But Japanese Christmas is a kind of Sadie Hawkins' Dance/MORP holiday in which women ask men out on dates before they head to KFC (no lie) for dinner. So can you see how I was having difficulty getting into my kind of Christmas spirit, even though I knew I wouldn't be spending it alone? (For an even more detailed posting about Christmas in Japan, see Kelly Osato's Christmas 2008 blog post.)

Thankfully, my actual Christmas celebration turned out to be far better than my imaginings had led me to fear it might be. I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with eight other Japanese and North Americans at the missionaries' house. On Christmas Eve, we enjoyed each others' company over yummy snacks while talking about anything and everything and watching White Christmas, although I can honestly say I have never seen that movie since I fell asleep as it was starting. On Christmas Day we ate a German-style breakfast, opened stockings, exchanged gifts, played all kinds of games, listened to Christmas music, shared in cleaning responsibilities (even the guys!), had an amazing Christmas dinner, and ran out of hot water, which reminded me of so many family holidays when something would go wrong with the house. So while I was sad to be away from my family during the Christmas holidays, I am so happy that I had an amazing Christmas with great friends here in Japan. If this next school year is my last year to be in Japan, I most likely won't go home for Christmas 2011 since I'll be returning to the States just three months later. But I won't dread that since I know now that I can have a wonderful Christmas here in Japan.

Until next time...

Kombini and The Boy Who Lived

Like in U.S. convenience stores, at a Japanese kombini one can purchase snacks, drinks, meals, magazines, and all sorts of last-minute needs such as hosiery, medicines, etc. (The only thing one can't purchase at a kombini is gas, as apparently gas stations and kombini can't play nicely together over here. One can't buy kombini items at a gas station either.) But I don't know of any convenience store in the U.S. where one can pay utility bills as one can at a kombini. And this weekend, I discovered the most remarkable thing about kombini -- I can reserve purchases at online retailers such as Amazon Japan and indicate that I will pay for the purchase at the kombini of my choosing rather than enter my credit card information online. Then, once the online retailer receives notification from the kombini that I've made my payment, my order can be shipped to the kombini for me to pick up so that I don't have to play the failure-to-deliver game with the delivery company / postal service.

Having had limited baggage allowances for my move here in April, I was able to pack only three books, two of which are Bible study books rather than fiction novels. And as an avid reader, I've been feeling very bereft without something to read at night. So perhaps you can imagine what my first Amazon Japan purchase was. And for those who know me well, maybe you know exactly which books I ordered -- the complete works of Harry Potter. My apartment started to feel a little more homey tonight once the boxed set of The Boy Who Lived was sitting on my bookshelf. Sadly, there's not enough time to get them all read before I see movie 7a with friends in two weekends. But I will certainly do my best (ganbatte)!

Until next time...

Being a Christian in Japan

At the spring retreat for the foreigner population at my church, our minister shared with us that Japan is a nation of approximately 127 million people. Of that 127 million people, only one million people are considered to be Christian, with Catholicism and Protestantism evenly represented at around 500,000 followers each. Doing the math, you can see that fewer than 1% of the country's population is Christian. And of that one million person Christian population, only 1,000 or so are on the same branch of the church tree as I. And those 1,000 people are distributed over approximately 60 churches served by 30 to 40 ministers. So when I had the opportunity to go last week with some members of my church to a small church about 90 minutes away from where I live, I was eager to go, as I wanted to see what it is like for these Christians to worship together on Sundays.

During the drive to this small church, I learned that it has three members - a husband and wife and another man. During the drive back from the church, I asked the minister and missionary how these three people receive teaching on Sunday mornings. Do they take turns sharing something they've learned from Scripture? I was told that different churches from our prefecture will take turns visiting this church once a month to encourage them. However, often it is only the minister from these other churches who visits. During the other Sundays of the month, the members will gather to sing together, take communion together, and listen to sermons on tape. It was fear of this very thing that caused me to not come to Japan all those years ago. I was afraid I would find myself living in a town with either no church or such a small church and that my faith would be negatively effected. And so I was struck by how blessed I am now to be in the city where I live, for I worship at the second largest church of my denomination in Japan.

To be a Japanese Christian is not an easy path to follow. Often a Japanese Christian is the only member of his or her family who is Christian. So sometimes family members are hostile toward him or her because of his or her faith that isn't keeping in line with the family values. And Japanese Christians may get blamed for any calamity that befalls the family, whether a logical connection can be made or not. So many Japanese Christians are secret Christians,  from their friends and neighbors and sometimes even their own family members.

I was amazed that the three Japanese members of this church have been able to remain faithful in a country where so many people have no faith or have lost faith. While I don't know how large their church was at its peak, as recently as last year it had five members. So their church is dying, which also is the norm in Japan. It astonishes me that the married couple goes to a church building on Sundays when they could just as easily worship together at home. I can only imagine that the Japanese collectivist tendency (focus on the group rather than on the individual) and/or compassion for the one man are what prompt them to leave their home each Sunday. And I imagine that for the one man, the time he spends with this couple each week is crucial to helping him maintain his faith, for if he has a family, it doesn't appear that they are believers.

I've tried to end this post a few different ways; but I'm having difficulty writing exactly what I want to say. So I'll just say this. Whether you are a Christian in a small or large church, please give thanks to God for the physical and spiritual blessings present in your church, lean on Him to help you strengthen your faith, and pursue meaningful relationships with your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Until next time...

Are you sure this is Africa?

Did you know that when you step foot in an embassy technically you're stepping foot on the soil of that country? Well, when one of my AET friends, A.T., who is Ethiopian-American, invited me a few weeks ago to attend a Japanese-Ethiopian culture night celebration with him and his wife at the Ethiopian embassy, I was more than ready to go. I wouldn't get a stamp in my passport for walking through the doors. And the scenery would look a whole lot more like Tokyo than Addis Ababa. But I'd be attending a state party in Ethiopia!

When yesterday arrived for our 12-member party to travel for the event, we had to make the decision of whether or not to go due to an incoming typhoon. Many of us would have preferred to stay home. But A.T. was so excited to share his country's food, music, and dancing with us that none of us could tell him no. So we piled into two vehicles and took off for Tokyo at 1pm Africa time, which means that while we were supposed to leave at 1pm, we actually left at 2pm. Unfortunately, that late departure was an unknown-at-the-time foreshadowing of how our travel to the party would go, for when we finally arrived at a metered parking lot that was as close as we could get to the embassy, A.T. told us that the party wasn't at the embassy at all but at another location instead. After another hour of cell-phone-GPS consulting, hailing a cab whose driver couldn't find the building, and pulling one of two Ethiopian guys who were walking on the street into said cab to lead us to our destination, we arrived completely frustrated. But thankfully the event was very enjoyable and most of us were able to forget about the stress of our travel during the course of the evening.

The event was attended mainly by Japanese people, naturally. However, there were several Ethiopian expatriates at the party. And A.T. introduced our group to the ambassador from Ethiopia. Unfortunately, I only got to see him rather than meet him.

The Ethiopian food that we ate was good but very spicy. Having become accustomed to much milder food this past six months, I don't know if I would have found the food to be so spicy if my U.S. palate were still intact. But my mouth was on fire with just a few bites and I was unable to finish my meal.

The Japanese dancers doing both traditional Japanese as well as traditional Ethiopian dances were quite good. But the best part of the evening was when the people attending the party were invited to join in with the dancing.

H.V. and N.N. dancing on the sidelines, although H.V. earlier in the evening had been one of the people to get up and perform with the dancers.

Ethiopian dancing heavily involves moving the shoulders, which the two Ethiopians in this picture were able to do quite well. J.M. couldn't quite manage the shoulders, although he would have been more than happy to show us the hips-driven Latin dances that he learned while growing up in Honduras.

I never made it to Africa last night. So I guess I'll just have to go at some point in the future. But at one of the traffic lights on the way home, I saw what is surely the world's smallest liquor store (and its bored-looking employee). If I'd wanted to lie down on the floor to measure the store's width, I would have touched the exterior wall with my head and the interior wall with my feet. (Please don't fail to notice the store's name.) When you live and work in a city as crowded as Tokyo, you make the most of every square inch.

Until next time...

Agape Ministry

The foreigner population at church has been studying the Gospel of Mark since the beginning of September. In our study each week, we read through one chapter eight times and reflect on that day's reading using the lens of a different question, e.g., Where did Jesus go?, What did Jesus do?, What did Jesus see?, etc. Along with independent reading and small group discussion each week, we also have a discipleship challenge to correlate with something from that week's reading that was particularly noteworthy. For this week's challenge, my discipleship group decided that we would help with the Agape Ministry at church.

Once a month, some members of my church join with some members of the Catholic church to serve curry and a short Bible message to the homeless of the city. I don't know why the homeless in the city are homeless, since Japanese families typically live multi-generationally under one roof. And I don't know the ministry's long-term goal regarding the homeless of the city. But I'm very glad that my group decided that we wanted to help with the short-term goal of meeting physical needs this week. It was rather awkward, since I can't speak Japanese, to work alongside strangers (especially when it came time to introduce ourselves and I was the first non-Catholic in the serving line to do so and didn't know how to say anything other than my name, which none of them had been saying!). And when I reflect on the fact that Jesus not only gave food to the hungry but actually ate with them, I feel that my curry-dishing skills weren't enough. But after living here for almost six months, I've come to expect that I will have numerous awkward encounters and that I won't be able to do what I'd like to do as a result of the communication barrier. Regardless, partnering with members of the Catholic church, when there often is still religious tension between Catholics and Protestants in the U.S., in order to show love in the name of Jesus, was a wonderful experience. I hope to be able to be involved in this ministry on a regular basis.

Until next time...

Park Week

You know how the Discovery Channel hosts "Shark Week" every year in July or August? Well, Japan must host "Park Week" every year in October, for I've been to three different parks with three different groups on three different occasions this past week. And outside of going to the park where my brother played his baseball games every summer when we were growing up, I can't remember ever going to a park three times in one year, let alone in one week.

For those of you familiar with Let's Start Talking (LST), my church here in Japan has begun this year's English Bible Class (EBC), which is similar to LST. For those of you unfamiliar with LST, it's an organization that equips Christians to go into non-English speaking parts of the world to teach English by using the Bible. EBC has met twice thus far, and will continue to meet twice a month through March. I'm so excited to be able to do the EBC program, since I had such great experiences with my readers when I did LST in Japan during that summer after college graduation. But EBC experiences are for a different post. So let's get back to "Park Week".

On Saturday, approximately 40 people went to the seaside park that I wrote about being unable to visit back in May. The group was a mixture of EBC teachers (who are many, but not all, of us AETs), EBC readers, church members, and friends from our schools. The park is beautiful; and we spent four hours there, roaming around to look at the autumn foliage, having obento (the Japanese version of a brown bag lunch), and enjoying each other's company.

I tried my first chestnut at this park. The first bite was unremarkable. The second and third bites tasted like roast beef. And the rest of it was once again unremarkable. I assumed that a chestnut was something like an acorn, since you roast them over an open fire at Christmas and the drawings that I've seen of them since arriving here make them look like that. But did you know that a chestnut's exterior looks like a super spiky, bright green kiwi? And why in the world would it taste like roast beef? (Now I could really go for some Cracker Barrel.)

**On Tuesday, I joined my third graders for a trip to Kasama, the (un-)official (?) ceramics capital of Japan. (Not all AETs are allowed to go on field trips with their students, so shhh!) There we had the opportunity to make a cup or a plate, visit a ceramics museum, eat obento in a park that had cooler artwork than the museum, and play on the most amazing playground I've ever seen. But the word "playground" doesn't do it justice. The slides are amazingly huge - think a couple stories tall and a hundred or more feet long - and are connected to a decking system with numerous play stations shooting off from it that most definitely required an engineering degree to design. (My seven-year-old nephew would love this park!) Unfortunately, I was too busy having fun sliding to take pictures from my ride on it.

**At the bottom of the second slide, shortly before I took this photo, I was caught in a pile up with a bunch of students and teachers from my school as well as from other schools. After trudging up the huge hill two times, my first time to slide to slide became my last time to slide.

**This air dome is WAY more fun than a trampoline, although one of the many rules for using it is don't jump on it. (What else is it meant to be used for? And what kid can resist jumping on an air mountain?) I was asked by one of the students to play on the dome with her. But I thought I was too big or old, take your pick, and was noncommittal. Later, when I saw how much fun they were having, I decided that I could be a big kid at heart and play on it with them. I'm so glad I did, since they told their teacher that I'm so fun!

**This zip line looked like it was a blast for the kids to ride. So after watching them on it for several minutes, I decided to give it a try. Only, it wasn't as fun for me as the slide or the air dome since my legs are so long that they dragged along the ground and slowed me down.

On Wednesday, I arrived at my one-day-a-week kindergarten and was surprised once again with that day's plans - no English classes and a trip to a park. I'd been told we'd walk to the park because it was close. But once we arrived at the park, I can't believe we dared to undertake the mile- or two-mile-long trek with close to 100 four- and five-year olds, even with ten moms to help with the outing. (There's no way that would be allowed in an American school.) But the amazing thing was that not one of the kids complained or got hurt on the way there or back. Once at the park, we spent the next two or three hours sliding down the hill on cardboard boxes. (So fun!) Since I'd expected to teach English that day, I didn't have my camera with me as I'd had at the other two parks. But suffice it to say that from the top of the hill, where I spent much of my time as a pusher, it looked like I was bowling with kindergartners!

Japan is a beautiful country; and now that the life-sapping heat and humidity of summer are gone, I hope to be able to enjoy more of it's scenery.

Until next time...

**UPDATE (11/22/10): Photographs containing school children have been removed per the instruction of the teachers' consultant.

Almost Famous?

Today I went to McDonald's for breakfast before school. As the cashier was placing my iced coffee on my tray, she said, "Rebecca?" I've never met this person in my life; so I was a little taken aback that she somehow knew my name. (This is a cash society. There's no such thing as a debit card. So she didn't get my name off of anything that I gave her.) When I confirmed that, indeed, I am Rebecca, she told me that she is the mother of one of the elementary school students whom I teach. After having another one of my students tell me that his mother delivered a package from my mother to my school several months ago and then they discussed it over the dinner table, I guess I should have remembered that being a gaijin (foreigner) in a small town in a homogeneous country like Japan doesn't allow for anonymity. Maybe the next time I venture out I should take a tip from Ke$ha.


Until next time...