A lot has happened in the last two weeks (both here in Japan and in the US). I am happy to say that I am writing this post from our new apartment, but more on that in a bit…

First, our week in America.  As Colby wrote in the last post, we arrived safely on Saturday night (although I was scrutinized by airport security because of having too many bobby pins in my hair).  The next day we joined our sending church for their annual Sunday School picnic.  We had beautiful weather, delicious food, and some neat opportunities to share about what has been going on here in Japan, particularly some of the language intricacies we’ve faced.  Later on in the day we met up with my parents who had come down from Maine to see us and had an enjoyable evening reconnecting with them.  The next day they took us to Colby’s parents’ house in central PA where we made everyone a Japanese lunch consisting of cabbage pancakes topped with mayonnaise, barbecue sauce, roasted seaweed, and shaved tuna flakes.  Some people loved it and some not so much…  Oh well, I guess the important thing is that Colby and I like it, since we are the ones that eat it on a regular basis (it’s actually one of our favorite dishes).

We spent the next few days at Colby’s parents’ house picking up some things to take back to Japan with us, visiting with family, and helping Colby’s sister with wedding preparations.  When we first arrived, I had asked her how the wedding plans were coming along and she said that she thought that there wasn’t too much that still needed to be done.  On Wednesday night, we decided to sit down with her, Colby’s other sister, and the maid of honor (who became our grand marshall) and make an event timeline and a list of tasks that needed to be done for the big day. Let’s just say that some of us were surprised at what still needed to be done!  Thankfully there were plenty of people around to help out and in the end the wedding went off without a hitch.  We had beautiful weather, Colby’s sister looked wonderful, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

We left early the following Sunday morning to come back to Japan.  Thankfully Colby checked the status of our flight from Harrisburg, PA to Newark, NJ and found that it had been bumped back by about an hour and a half, which would have us arriving half an hour after our plane to Tokyo departed!  We made a last minute change and Colby’s parents graciously agreed to drive us to Newark instead of Harrisburg and we were able to board our plane to Tokyo with plenty of time to spare.

I had previously thought that on the flight to the US and then on the one back to Japan I would try to do some language study.  Ha!  Not only was I not motivated, but I also had our teammates and our language tutor both tell us that we needed to “yasumi” (take a rest) from Japanese for the week.  And so with that in mind, and with the wide variety of movie choices in the entertainment system in our seats, I very happily chose to “yasumi” from Japanese.  Even though I am very glad to have had the week-long break from Japanese, I can tell now that I have truly forgotten some things!  It is so true that if you don’t use it you lose it.

We arrived back in Japan late last Monday night and realized that the next day we needed to hit the ground running in order to finish the renovations on our apartment before we needed to move in.  We ended up spending much of last week staining, putting up shelves, attaching trim, cleaning (things were really dirty from the construction), and then yesterday afternoon (Sunday) the church people helped us move our furniture over.  We really appreciated their help and enjoyed chatting with them as we relaxed in our newly furnished apartment. Needless to say, after a week like that, we were thoroughly exhausted.

At this point, we have all our furniture in and arranged in the apartment.  We have some of our necessary items here in boxes and tonight (and the rest of this week) we will work on packing the rest of our things from the house, bringing them over, and getting them organized in the new apartment.  Colby and I were saying to each other last night that it is hard to believe that the renovation on our apartment is finally done!  Our team leader asked us today if there was anything else that needed to be done and we were happy to say we couldn’t think of a single thing!

Thank God with us that the apartment renovations have been completed.  Please pray for strength as we get our stuff moved over while we continue with language study.  We thank God for the good week we had in America.  Thank you for your prayers for our safety.

Chuck, our team leader, says that when he does orientation for short-term teams that come to Japan, he always makes sure to remind them that if they encounter something they find odd or frustrating, to remember that it’s not wrong or stupid, it’s just different. Well in our travels today, I found a number of things that were quite “different,” but in our case, it made me say, “Send me back to Japan!”

Let me illustrate. When we made our transfer at Newark Airport, we had to go through security. For some reason, Theresa kept setting off the metal detectors (she thinks it was her bobby pins) which caused the TSA personnel to have to do increasingly thorough inspections, culminating with a full wanding and pat down. The fact that they did this was fine (I understand the need for security), it was the how that was unpleasant. If any of you have been through airport security, you know it is a little chaotic, especially if you are carrying a lot of stuff. The instructions from the TSA personnel didn’t come in the form of polite requests, they were curtly barked out orders & or corrections (which usually came after she hadn’t done what she was supposed to do – even though what that was wasn’t always made clear).

Now go back to when we boarded our flight this morning in Ube. We were running a little behind heading to the airport and I forgot to put my keys (with my little Leatherman keychain) inside my check baggage. When we got to the security checkpoint and I emptied my pockets to go through the metal detector, one of the workers noticed it and very politely (and almost apologetically) explained that I would not be able to take it on the plane. She then proceeded to explain that if I would like to go with her back to the check-in counter, she would have it checked and I could pick it up in Tokyo. She proceeded to escort me back down to the check-in counter, waited while the airline staff put it in a small box and checked it under my name, and then escorted be back up to the checkpoint and walked me through to where my bags and my wife were waiting on the other side. During the whole time, the only trouble I had understanding was due to my lesser skill with Japanese and I never felt like she was annoyed or like I was putting her out. Her job was to help people navigate through the security checkpoint and address any problems that arose and she was happy to do it. Was this due to the fact that this was a local (and thus maybe more personable) airport… that this was a Saturday morning and volume was low… no, it’s really just the way the Japanese are. This was only one example from the day. I won’t bother going into differences in the upkeep of the airports or the demeanor of the airport and airline staff.

So, am I becoming anti-American? Well, not really. There are different things that I don’t care for in Japan compared to the US (For instance, the way that paper forms and official stamps – lick and stick as well as the good old fashion ink kind – are still the rule of the day in a country where you think technology would be king.). I guess it goes to show that culture stress can go both ways, even when it’s your own.

Praise God that (with relatively few hitches along the way) our luggage and we have safely arrived back in the US. Pray that we would have a good time of relaxation (on our team leader’s and Japanese tutor’s insistence we left all of our study materials back in Japan) and that our minds would be refreshed and ready to start study again upon our return.

We have been unusually busy these past couple of weeks with more of the usual – Japanese study and ministry center renovations.  We are excited to say that the apartment is nearing completion as we have put up most of the tile in the kitchen, done pretty much all the painting, and only have a couple more doors to cover with Japanese-style paper.  It has been neat to see it and the church on the first floor take shape these past few months and now it’s hard to remember what they looked like beforehand.  We hope to be ready to finally move in and get settled in another couple of weeks.

Mrs. Tamura shows Colby (and me) how to clean a freshly caught fish.

Last night our friends, the Tamuras, came again for our weekly Japanese/English conversation time.  We usually have fun comparing Japan and America with them and this time was no different.  Partway through the evening, one of Mrs. Tamura’s friends came to drop off a box of freshly caught fish (yes, heads and all) for Mrs. Tamura. As would be typical in Japan, she offered us some.  When Colby told her we didn’t know what to do with them in that state, she asked for one of our knives and promptly started to show us how to cut and clean a whole fish.  Until now, we had just seen the many types of whole fish available to buy at the store, but we didn’t ever want to buy them since we weren’t sure how to cook them.  Now that we know, I think we may try it out again!  We ate our fish for lunch today and (although the bones were kind of a pain) it was some of the tastiest fish we’ve ever had.

Our completed Japanese "paper doll" - kind of redefines the term doesn't it?

Some of you may know that every week we have been attending a craft class where we learn to make Japanese-style decorations out of paper.  While we are by far the youngest people in the group (and Colby is the only guy), it has proved to be good listening practice and an enjoyable experience.  We have become very familiar with words such as ‘bend’, ‘fold’, ‘attach’, and ‘tear’, all the while making some very creative pieces.  This morning in our class, we finished making our doll (above) which we have been working on for a number of weeks.  Carefully following very precise directions, we made her, fingers and toes and all, almost entirely from paper, cotton stuffing, and lots and lots of bondo (the Japanese term for craft glue).  Often we had to measure pieces down to the millimeter (yes, the good old metric system) in order to accurately create a geisha on a miniature scale.  While it was a lot of fun, often Colby and I were glad there were two of us – one to hold the doll and the other to put the bondo or paper on.  I’m not sure how the little, old grandmothers did it all by themselves!

This Saturday morning we head back to the US for Colby’s sister’s wedding.  While we’ll only be there for a short time, it will be nice to spend some time relaxing with family.  When we return, we’ll have a busy week as we readjust to Japan time, put in our 30 hours of study for the week, and hopefully get ready to move into our apartment!

Please pray for safety as we travel this next week.  Pray for smooth adjustment when we come back as well and that we would have adequate energy to do all that needs to be done.  Praise the Lord for all that has been done on the apartment and for what little there is left to do!