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Published: December 23rd 2007
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Ima nanji desu ka? Christmas desu. What time is it? It’s Christmas.
Ok, I think that’s pretty close. We’re always practicing!
Christmas just isn’t the same so far from family. You don’t miss the other stuff here - just family. But, we’re doing our best to revel in the Japanese Christmas season, which consists of everything overwhelming and unnecessary about Christmas and none of the other things, ie: celebrating Christ’s birth. But, even John Lennon’s “Happy X-mas (War is Over)” and Wham!’s “Last Christmas” droning over stores’ sound systems have managed to spark a bit of holiday spirit in us.
Christmas here is really just a warm-up for New Year's, a much larger, more meaningful celebration. Christmas is a time for hanging out with same-age friends, while the New Year is a time for reflection, spirituality and family.
Anyway, since we don’t have any turkey (and we don’t like ham), I’ll be eating a little crow for the holidays.
It seems like many of the things we’ve (I’ve) focused on with this blog lately have been negative(ish). And while this isn’t a wonderland where everything pure and logical comes to live, the bad things are wholly
Silent Night...
It takes a lot of people to make our church work. Japanese translators rotate delivering the Japanese translation of the sermon, a process that works surprisingly smoothly. We sing songs in combinations of English and Japanese. It takes about a half-hour to transform the classroom into a sanctuary and a half-hour to return it to it's normal state. Both Danny and Suzy teach at the college, which actually has Christian ties, although I don't know all the details. outweighed by the good things. The truth is, many of the things that initially bugged us are making more sense as we connect the dots of this vastly different way of life.
Every morning we wake up and, when we’re brave enough to step outside, have a gorgeous view of majestic, fog-covered mountains. The neighbor behind us trims his immaculate bonsai/vegetable garden incessantly and we’ve made friends who really look out for us and are genuinely concerned about our wellbeing. We’ve talked about them before, but they continue to astound us with their generosity and candor.
Even the small things like being able to understand portions of conversations, introduce ourselves, speak about money and time, and take the bus and train confidently are hurdles that ease one’s mind. It lets you relax and get out of what we half-jokingly refer to as “survival mode.”
I think I’m enjoying that part of our relationships so far. We’ve gotten beyond that “I’m happy all the time, and you?” phase, so they tell us when they’re cranky, and they’re not afraid to correct us (me) or put themselves in vulnerable situations. That aspect of our situation is giving us a
Int'l Association Party
Had I known I was coming down with the flu, I probably wouldn't have been up in the kids' faces so much. Oops. Oh, I was Santa, and I did not do a very good job. I just didn't feel believable in the role. deeper look into the culture and the people here, which is interesting.
On top of all that, whenever Jessie’s students see us it’s like they’ve seen, well, I don’t know. I can’t imagine throwing that big of a fit over saying “hello” to anyone minus, well, maybe Favre. But even then, it’s like they’re seeing a movie star for the first time - except they see her all the time. The little girls want to be her and the boys regularly profess their love for her (when they’re in groups, of course).
She’s been groped and prodded and stared at enough for a couple lifetimes, but she’ll miss it when we leave. I, on the other hand, have avoided such things. Thankfully, the adults I teach respect my personal space.
On that note, we finally made it back to church Saturday night after a couple weeks of not making it. For those of you who don’t know, we’re attending an international church in Kofu where everyone is nice, flexible and engaged in the task of furthering His kingdom in Japan: a notoriously tough crowd.
Despite all the obstacles to Japanese becoming saved, a majority of the
Early winter in Yamanashi
Despite the cold, quite a few species of trees and plants here continue to bloom and produce fruit. It's quite odd to me, actually. Fruit is the most common gift for many occasions, and the Japanese really enjoy giving and receiving gifts year-round. It's a significant part of the culture. I was out for a bike ride; I think these are pear trees. Yamanashi means "yama = mountain" and "nashi = pear," so "mountain pear." church’s members are Japanese. With about 20-30 regular attendees and a small college lecture room for a church, we really feel fortunate to be a small part of a really neat operation Danny and Suzy Brown and their congregation have going here.
Without transportation, we’re lucky to be able to bum a ride from a 30-year-old graduate student named Hide who lives nearby and is a graduate of Jessie’s school. English teachers and Japanese come from all around Yamanashi for the service and fellowship every Saturday night. We go out to eat afterwards and just have a good time.
Last Saturday we had a Christmas candlelight service, which I thought was really cool. The pastor, Danny, does a great job of balancing the need to make concepts simple enough for all the new believers in the congregation, while also keeping things meaningful. Like I said: we’re very blessed.
Jessie had a couple slow weeks at school and she now has a couple weeks off to unwind and get ready for a new term. Teaching hasn’t been easy by any means - mostly I’m sure because she’s never taught before, and also because she’s in a country where even her co-English teachers know painfully little English. Still, she’s trying hard and they’ve been patient with her for the most part. (Yes, more blog entries about her job are forthcoming.)
Along with our work obligations - I’m now up to four separate private and small group lessons each week, which is about as much as I can do with our evenings as packed as they are - we’re also volunteering with the local international center to throw Christmas parties and the like. This past Saturday we spent most of our day dressed up like Santa and friends and did games and crafts with a bunch of kids. It’s fun stuff.
I made brownies the other day and brought them to our neighbors, figuring it was better late than never to formally introduce myself. It’s sort of my job as the shufu to be friendly with the neighbors. I haven’t gotten any feedback on the brownies but I left their houses with more than I arrived with, including kiwi, dried persimmons and a handmade, quilted tissue-box cover. Talk about a good haul!
We get so much fruit from our friends and acquaintances that we should never be sick. Unfortunately, I’m on my second sickness of the month. Looks like this one’s the flu, so I’ve been spending a lot of time in our Japanese bathtub soaking it out of me and eating lots of canned mandarin oranges and really good tacos, both of which are NOT local remedies, but they’re making me feel a little better.
Well, while we're keeping plenty busy here, we're also thinking about all of you - church people in Ames, work people in Marshalltown and family and friends mostly in Wisconsin but all the way to the West Coast. We miss you all, and while it would be great to be experiencing the ice storms and sub-zero temperatures of our hometowns, Japan will have to do for now...miss you all. Merry Christmas! Go Packers.
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jen + shaun
non-member comment
merry christmas!
merry christmas to you too! looking forward to seeing you via computer for christmas festivities this weekend! miss you! bringing in the new year can't possibly stand up to last year in marshalltown... ha... big hug (from shaun of course)...