Most of the emails that I had received from the US in the last two weeks have ended with the same line, “Hope you have a good thanksgiving! (You do have thanksgiving in Japan, right?)”

Well the answer is Yes and No. On November 23rd Japan celebrates a holiday of appreciation. It was previously the imperial harvest festival, but was changed in 1948 to be oriented toward the collective efforts of the Japanese workforce. As such, the best way to translate it would probably be Labor Appreciation Day, similar to Labor Day in the US. The fourth Thursday in November is just another day in Japan and most of the Christar workers did normal things like church activities and English classes.

That being said, the enterprising American is able to whip up a decent Thanksgiving feast, and most of us do. The hardest thing to find here is the Turkey. Japanese grocery stores don’t seem to sell anything whole (except fish) and so finding something to roast can be difficult. For people living in Yamaguchi prefecture, the best place is the Costco in a large city about two hours south. Our teammates had gone there for an event a few weeks ago and bought four turkeys to get them through all their holiday entertaining. There is also a fairly large Marine Corps air station about two hours north of us, and we recently found out that the KFC on the base also sells small rotisserie Turkeys.

Ready to dig in to our delicious dinner.

We actually ended up celebrating, not once, but twice. We had planned our own dinner with our teammates and some Japanese friends for this past Saturday, but were also invited to the home of some other Christar workers after we finished with our regular church activities on Thursday. It was nice to enjoy fellowship, some laughs about language learning, and, of course, the turkey with all the fixings.

We are thankful for all that God has done in our lives and how he has worked to bring us here and provide for us in many areas over the last nine months. We count you, our supporters and friends, amongst our many blessings!

Before we started full-time Japanese study, I had this subconscious mindset that if we spent X number of years in earnest language study, we would get to the place where we would be able to speak like a native speaker.  It makes sense, doesn’t it?  Once you do your due diligence, you are then able to open your mouth and (without much effort) out flows beautiful Japanese. Ah, the thought of it!

While that may eventually be true for the cross-cultural worker who has spent most of their life in Japan, speaking realistically (which we have been learning to do in addition to speaking Japanese), there is a lot more to learning another language than you would think and it takes a lot longer than most people would anticipate.  One reason I didn’t understand this was because (like most Americans), I had not done much foreign language learning. What little I did have was in a European language which (when compared to Japanese) are very similar to English.  Because grammar structures are similar, it might be easy to switch the words in an English sentence with the French or Spanish words and have a similar meaning.

Not so with Japanese.  Part of what makes it such a fascinating language is that the thought processes are so different from English.  I have literally had times when the Japanese sentence I’m working on is opposite in structure to its English counterpart.  For example, if I were to say, “The shirt I am wearing is from my friend”, I would say in Japanese, “Am wearing shirt, friend from received.”  Interesting, huh?

Colby and I were remarking today that one reason why we have trouble incorporating some of the new grammar forms we’re learning into our everyday conversation is because they sometimes don’t have an equivalent in English.  If they don’t have an exact equivalent in English, then our minds don’t naturally think in that particular form.  For example, in Japanese, whenever you want to explain what someone has done for you or what you have done for them, you always use the main verb and then one of the ‘to give’ verbs.  So, if you wanted to say, my friend washed my car, you would say “My friend my car washed gave”.  It’s essentially saying, “My friend gave me the service of washing my car,” which is understandable, but never used in English.

Amidst these language difficulties, I have seen how God has blessed Colby and me.  He has provided a wonderful Japanese tutor and helpers for us to study with.  We have found some really great language learning resources that we use all the time.  The Japanese people are very patient with us when we attempt to use new forms and words.  Most of all though, Colby and I enjoy learning Japanese.  Studying is usually interesting and encouraging, and we are able to look back and see how far we have come.  I really don’t know how it would be if we didn’t enjoy it and we count this as a blessing from the Lord.  Learning Japanese is a task that we will never be done with; we will never “arrive”.  There will always be more to learn, even after years and years of being here.

Thank you for continuing to pray for us as we study. Pray that we would be able to understand Japanese thought patterns and ways of saying things even when they are very different from English so we can communicate as accurately as possible and be easily understood.

After we passed our driving test, we were chatting with the traffic officer. “That was pretty good.” he said, “You only had to do it three times. That’s rather quick.”

“Oh, really?” I said.

“It’s usually 5 or 6 times. I think the most I ever had was someone who took it almost 30 times before they passed,” he replied.

Theresa and I had decided to start the process of getting our Japanese driver’s licenses a few months early because we knew it could potentially be a long process and we wanted to make sure we had them before our international licenses expire in February. In order to do that, we had an official translation of our American licenses made and then we went in for a pre-screening appointment to see if our documents from America would be considered valid here in Japan. “The paper test you should have no problem with – I’ve only had 2 people fail that in all the time I’ve worked here. The driving test, well…” the officer said, sucking in through his teeth and giving the often used Japanese understatement “that’s a little difficult.” The good news was that we didn’t need an appointment to take the driving test and could retake it as often as we needed to.

We arrived at the center at 8:30 AM the following week and began our processing. This involved going to various numbered windows where various things were verified or information collected, paying our testing fee, and purchasing official application photos (different from our actual license photos) at the on-site photo both. The Japanese government seemingly loves paperwork, which is done almost all by hand using rubber stamps. At one of the windows, our applications were stamped in no less than ten different places. The eye exam which was part of this process involved looking into a machine and then telling the traffic officer what color the ‘C’ was and which way the opening was facing (ironically, the letter “C” isn’t used in Japanese). Then we went up to the second floor of the center and waited until they called us in for our paper test. It was indeed quite easy, with questions such as, “When you’re tired, is it okay to drive?” and “If you get into an accident, do you still need to call the police?” Needless to say, we both passed and then started to prepare for our driving test, which was schedule for that afternoon.

In Japan, the driving test is administered with kind of a different philosophy. Japanese roads are narrow, windy, and often have many bicyclists and pedestrians (as opposed to most American roads, which are wide, straight, and comparably empty). The traffic laws in Japan are such that the larger vehicle yields to the smaller, going from semi’s all the way down to pedestrians. The Japanese driving test is less about your demonstrating your ability to handle a vehicle safely on real roadways, and more about demonstrating your ability to drive precisely and cautiously and observe the various traffic rules. The driving test is administered on a specialized course at the driving center, designed to simulate actual roads and conditions, only without other cars or pedestrians. There are certain procedures the testee must follow in order to pass. However, they must not just be completed – rather, they must be done perfectly.

The Yamaguchi Traffic Center driving course.

First, before you get in the car, you need to look underneath the back and the front of the car to ensure that there are no objects, animals, or children in the way. You also need look before opening up your door, in order to avoid putting it in the way of a passing vehicle (keep in mind we are on a fake road). If you go more than 30 kph (18 mph) for most of the course, you will probably be dinged for going too fast (although, as Theresa discovered, you can also be dinged for going to slow). Before making a left-hand turn (remember, they drive on the left-hand side here), you must look in your side mirror and out the passenger side window for any mopeds or bicyclists that might come up alongside you. With each turn, after looking left and right carefully (and exaggeratedly so that the traffic officer will know that you have actually looked), you may then proceed cautiously to turn.

The course includes a very narrow set of curves that look like an “S” and a right-left turn combination that looks like a crank handle. These are meant to portray some of the very old side roads in Japan that are both twisty and have houses close to it on either side. They are lined with wind chime like pipes on both sides of the road so the traffic officer will know instantly if you hit one of the hypothetical houses.

Upon return to the start point, the traffic officer will give you “driving advice” which is his list of all the things you didn’t do quite right. Each time we took the driving test, the police officer had different advice for us including:

• that we made our left turns (and also some right ones) too wide
• that we didn’t turn left correctly so as to check for and prevent hitting a moped or bicycle
• that we looked before pulling out into the intersection, but not a second time as we were going through the intersection
• and finally, that Theresa needed to go “just a little faster next time.”

You then go inside to await your fate, parting with the standard Japanese phrase (although especially pertinent in this case), “Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.” which means essentially, “Please treat me well.” After a little wait (which of course seemed like an eternity), an officer comes out and says gokaku or fugokaku (passed or didn’t pass). I passed on my third try and Theresa (having made only one error her third try, but a fatal one) passed on her fourth. After that, we paid the license fee, had our license photos taken, received our licenses, and were on our way – relieved that we are now able to drive indefinitely in Japan.

Theresa and I show off our new licenses.

Praise God that were able to get our Japanese driver’s licenses. Pray for safety as we travel on the busy roads of Japan.

Pictorial characters normally can be a challenge, but if you really want to test your skills, try doing it while whizzing down the highway at 55 MPH. Here in Japan, the local roads (i.e. state routes) and national roads (i.e. US routes) have numbers like their North American counterparts. However, the interstates are named, and – instead of using the north, south, east, and west – are designated as ascending (going toward Tokyo) or descending (going away from Tokyo). This past week, Colby and I, and another Christar worker, took a 12-hour drive toward Tokyo, as we headed to Shizuoka Prefecture for the Church Planting Institute conference.

We left at 9:30 PM on Tuesday night, drove through the night, and arrived at the conference center at 8:30 AM Wednesday morning. The reason for this overnight trip was not what you might guess. Normally, travel on the expressways is quite expensive here in Japan. The journey to Shizuoka would normally cost around $150 one-way. Like many states in the US, Japan has an automated toll collection system (like EZ Pass) and one of the things they have done for economic stimulus is to lower the fee on national holidays and weekends to just $10 no matter how far you travel. To get that rate, you simply have to enter or exit the expressway system on a weekend or holiday. Tuesday was a holiday, and so because we started our journey before midnight, we saved a lot of money.

Colby & I with Mt. Fuji in the background.

The Church Planting Institute (CPI) conference is held every two years and pastors and cross-cultural workers from all over Japan come for networking and to hear and present new ideas on church planting. The conference center is nestled in the mountains, in close proximity to Mt. Fuji, and so it is also a time to relax and take in some beautiful scenery.

It was a blessing to be able to be with so many people who have the same heart for reaching the Japanese with the message of the gospel.  It also was so neat to hear about the new exciting ways God is at work throughout Japan, especially when many of them are the same ways Colby and I feel God is leading us to use as we support church planting in the future. I think both of us came back home with renewed energy to continue with our Japanese study, both so we can quickly get to the place where we are able to begin working in earnest on a church plant, but also so we can have the best possible base of language in order to be as effective as possible.

We head back into our normal routine this week, with language study and English classes.  It was nice to have a change of pace from Japanese study, but we realized that we need to get back to study so we don’t start to forget all the things we are working so hard to learn!

Please pray for wisdom to know how God would have us apply all that we have learned at this conference.  Pray for wisdom as we continue to look for people to help us practice conversing in Japanese and seek to work with them as effectively as possible.

We have just arrived home from our first annual retreat with the other missionaries on the field.  Held each year for three or four days in October, it was once again located at a retreat center called Yuu Cho here in Yamaguchi Prefecture.  The weather was crisp and lovely and since the center was at the top of a mountain, we could see the ocean and other mountains in the distance.  We were there with five other couples and enjoyed the chance to get to know each of them better.

Part of our activities included a video and discussion study of Romans 12 and what it looks like to apply it to our lives.  The video contained a lot of good material and we usually had a lot to talk about when we broke up into our groups afterward.  There was plenty of time for games and chatting and everyone enjoyed themselves very much.  It was good to be away from our normal schedule for awhile and fellowship with the other missionaries in a relaxed setting.

Please pray for us and the other missionaries that as we go back to our regular schedules we would continue to think about the things we’ve learned at the retreat and seek ways to apply them.

Last night we had a “Youth Party” (the Japanese name for a youth fellowships) here at the church. They played the game “Upset the Fruit Basket,” and it was interesting that the term they use for the time when everyone has to switch is O-Arashi or The Storm. However, the real storm didn’t come until later that night when they announced “Minna-san, tabe masho.” (Okay, everyone, let’s eat.) and 24 hungry teenagers flooded the buffet table.

Chuck is thinking, "I wonder if there will be any food left for the adults?"

I guess that can be expected when you get youth groups together from two different prefectures. This youth party was different from the regular monthly events in that it was a joint endeavor between our church and another one in Hiroshima, about two hours north. Kids came from youth groups in two other cities in Yamaguchi prefecture as well. The Hiroshima church took care of the program leading worship and sharing the message and the Ube group provided the location and food.

One of the most interesting (and sadistic) games that was played was one where five members of each youth group were given item to eat, one of which was laced with something awful tasting (salted coffee, vinegar coke, a cream puff filled with mayonnaise, etc.). All five people had to eat at the same time and try not to react and then the opposing youth group has to guess which person had to eat the altered item. Even though I got lots of practice using the Japanese phrase for “I’ll just sit this one out.” I still got roped into playing, but was lucky and didn’t get the special item in my round.

After dinner, all the kids enjoyed playing in our newly renovated game room. This had previously been one of the storage buildings full of trash that you may remember reading about, but thanks to a lot of work on the part of our team leader and his wife, it has been totally transformed. They even outfitted it with some of the old construction zone lighting that had been left here by the previous occupants.

Pray for the various kids that attended last night. Because group identity is very important in Japanese culture, pray that events like these will help Christian kids to make friends and understand that they are part of the body of Christ. Pray that the unsaved kids who attended will be drawn to Christ by the positive example of the other kids.

As we continue to find out, the concept of the group is very important here in Japan.  Although we have only just begun to wrap our heads around this topic, I am able to see evidences of the importance of community to the Japanese in daily life.  I must admit this is such a foreign way of thinking to Colby and I since the West tends to value freedom and individuality.

One very prominent group aspect we have seen has been school uniforms worn by students.  Every day, kids and teenagers walk or ride their bikes to school; all wearing their school’s designated uniform.  This shows everyone what group they belong to.

Neighborhoods are also considered groups.  In Japan, houses and location are not demarcated by streets, but rather in increasingly smaller concentric circles. Every city is divided into districts. In Ube, they all have names. Ours is Nohara, which means open field. The districts are divided into neighborhoods or “chome”, each with a number. The neighborhoods are then further divided into numbered blocks. The ministry center is located in Nohara 1-7.

Today, we got a chance to see all the neighborhood groups in action as it was the biannual neighborhood cleaning day.  We received a notice in our mailbox a few weeks ago stating that today was the day to participate in “neighborhood beautification”.  Around 8 AM, donned in our work clothes with our weed sickles in hand, we headed out to the neighborhood meeting place (located in front of the neighborhood garbage receptacles) and joined our neighbors weeding alongside the road that runs through the center of our neighborhood.  An hour and many bags of weeds later, all was considered done, and we all bowed and thanked everyone for “tiring themselves out”.  Afterward, we paid our biannual dues (¥2,400 yen – about $24) to the block leader or “han-cho” (yes, this is where the word comes from). She gave us a small gift to thank us for our hard work and for being good participants in the system and we went home and got ready for church.

Theresa (kneeling center) helps weed alongside the road.

Yet another way I have noticed the importance of groups as of late is through how much time some groups seem to spend with each other.  There are 2 or 3 Bible studies throughout the week here at church and often the same people attend each of them.  What is surprising to me is how long they stay together afterward chatting with each other.  The Bible study may start around 2pm and go for an hour or so and the women will usually stay until around 5pm or so!  Most of these ladies are housewives and so they don’t have jobs they need to be at and so for them, this is their social time with the group they are a part of.  Another example of group social time in Japanese society is when business men eat and drink together after work.  These times, sometimes lasting until late at night, are often when Japanese men can “let down their hair” so to speak, and are very important for building relationships.

Please pray for Colby and I that we would continue to develop good relationships with the Japanese.  Pray that we would come understand the meaning and importance of the “group” here in Japan and that we would have wisdom as to how to participate.

Earlier this week, I got an email from one of the assistant scoutmasters for the Ube Boy Scout troop. I had gone to a meeting a few weeks ago and told them I would be interested in attending some of their activities to help where I could. The email invited me to participate in their “inekari.” In Japanese, “inekari” is the word for a rice harvest. Because it was written in quotes just as I have written in here, I figured they must be using it as a euphemism for some type of work day. I forgot I was living in the land where “meal” and “bowl of cooked rice” are the same word.

The scouts met at 9:00 and drove to a rural area about 20 min away. After we gathered our things from the car, we took a short walk up the road and sure enough, there was the rice field. A group of the leaders had arrived early and were already starting to prepare the field for the kids (scouting in Japan, like many other countries, is co-ed). Because this was just a small plot rented by the scout group, they didn’t use the big combines that would be used on industrial plots. Instead, they had a small walk-behind version that was similar in size to a snow blower. This machine would gather up the stalks, which had been planted in rows of clumps and chop them up and tie them in bundles. The kids would then carry the bundles over to the edge of the field where the adults were hanging them on bamboo poles to dry. From what I could tell, they would stay there for a week or two until they were ready to be taken to the machine that ground the shells off. After harvesting most of the field, they gave the kids small sickles and allowed them to finish cutting the remaining five or six rows by hand.

One of the scouts cutting the rice with a sickle.

See a video of the rice harvester in action
See a Google satellite image of the actual location

It was interesting to compare this rice harvest to the spiritual harvest here in Japan. At first, the thought of cutting all those plants seemed like a very difficult task. Indeed, rice cultivation is thought to be one of the most difficult types of farming in the world. But with the right technique and a lot of people to do it, it only took about two hours. The spiritual harvest here could be the same.

Pray for wisdom for many people (like Theresa and I) ministering here in Japan who want to strike out in new directions in order to find better ways of “harvesting”. Pray that we would have wisdom and discernment about the most effective ways to connect the message of the gospel to the Japanese culture. Pray also that God would send more people like this to the fields of Japan as well as raise up more Japanese people who share this vision.

Last week we had the rare opportunity to attend a Shinto wedding ceremony.  A Japanese couple that we are friends with invited us to join them at their son’s wedding in order to see a Shinto ceremony firsthand.  Because these ceremonies are usually only attended by family – and also because we didn’t realize that almost everyone wears black – we probably looked a bit out of place and were likely among some of the first foreigners inside the shrine.

Notice the dominant color. Supposedly only the bride wears white.

We got to the shrine at 10:30 in the morning just as the family was gathering for pictures. The bride was wearing a beautiful white kimono and specially styled and decorated wig for the occasion.  Around 11, we all entered in the shrine, the bride’s family sat on one side, and we and the groom’s family sat on the other.  The bride and groom sat in the middle and the priest stood in front of them.

As the ceremony began, the priest waved a pole in the air that had white paper streamers tied to it.  The purpose of this was to ritually cleanse the participants and attendees.  The priest then proceeded to the base of the altar and began to recite a prayer asking for blessing on the couple. To do this, he first clapped twice to signal the attention of the local spirit deity, then bowed, and began to recite the prayer.  The prayer was chanted in song, similarly to how Jewish people read the Old Testament.  We couldn’t follow all of it, but caught that he recited the full date, specific address of the shrine, and the bride and groom’s names.  In Japanese thought, the spirits are not totally omniscient and so this was presumably to make clear exactly which couple he was asking for blessing on.

The main part of the ceremony was the ritual of drinking sake, Japanese rice wine.  The bride and groom stood up and were given three special sake cups.  The two shrine attendants called “miko” (maiden) poured sake from a special pitcher that looked like a gold teapot on the end of a long stick.  Each time they poured, they would pour three small amounts of sake into the cup.  The groom then would drink the sake in three sips.  They repeated this two more times for groom and then did the same for the bride.  The number three is a symbolic number for the Japanese because it is indivisible and can represent unity in marriage.  The sipping ritual is repeated three times because three times three would be triple the happiness.  Afterward, the fathers of the bride and groom also repeat the ritual, the bride’s father drinking with the groom and vice-versa, showing that they were in agreement with blending the two families.  At the end of the ceremony, all of the family is given a sip of sake to drink together, showing unity and good will toward the couple.

The groom drinking from his cup.

Following the bride-groom sake exchange, the groom read a prayer of dedication to the sun god to which the bride added her name in agreement. They then presented a branch from a special tree as a ritualistic offering. Afterward the ceremony was officially closed and then the head of each family stood up and introduced the members of their family to everyone present.

It was very interesting to learn about this Japanese custom and we were very fortunate to be able to attend as many westerners living in Japan have never been to one. Please pray for the Japanese people that they would come to know the one true God who always hears, knows all things, and from whom come true blessings.

One of the questions I probably get asked more often than any other by Japanese people I meet is do I like Japanese food. I can truthfully tell them that I like almost everything. Yes, there are one or two things I haven’t cared for, but even those I am trying to develop a taste for (if you want to know, they are natto and umeboshi). Personally, I think it would be really tough to work and minister in a country where you didn’t like the food. America is a melting pot and the food is no exception. Think about quintessential America food and it’s hard to come up with one that doesn’t have some foreign influence (a burger and fries is the one notable exception). But the Japanese, like many other cultures in the world, have certain foods connected to their culture that they are very attached to. Due to Japan’s geography and influence from other parts of Asia, Japanese cuisine uses many soy and sea products. Because Japan is very modern, you can buy many western foods here, but they are a lot more expensive than eating natively.

Philly cream cheese available at one of our local supermarkets. Notice the price in red (approx. $5).

This past Sunday it was Theresa and my turn to make the lunch for church and so we decided to make an American dish with Japanese ingredients. We called it “Nihon-teki (Japanese Style) Spaghetti Parmesan”. We decided to make Spaghetti (you can only serve rice so often) but didn’t want to spring for American style spaghetti sauce. A few months ago, we had something called hayashi sauce (a tomato-ie beef gravy) that you can buy here in the grocery store. We figured it would make a good substitute. For a salad, we found a recipe that was strips of cucumber and wakame seaweed pickled in a rice vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce mixture. The Japanese eat a lot of seaweed. To them it’s just underwater leafy vegetables. We have found that we have really come to enjoy it. Along with the spaghetti, we made breaded chicken cutlets, which we flavored with the spice packet from ramen noodles (that’s not Japanese style, I just had a lot of them left over from our lunches). The Japanese don’t eat a lot of sweet desserts, but a fruit called Nashi (which look like an apple, but taste more like a pear) is very popular in the fall, so we just sliced and pealed some of those. All in all, it turned out pretty well and seemed to be well received.

(upper left) Our co-workers Chuck and Jan Burwell along with one of our deacons and his wife Makoto & Megumi Ono. Dr. Ono is especially enjoying the meal. (lower right) Hayashi spaghetti w/ chicken katsu(upper left) Japanese Nashi pear (lower right) the Hayashi box - it comes in little bricks that you add water to - along with the cucumber and seaweed salad

Praise the Lord that Colby and Theresa enjoy a wide variety of Japanese foods.  Please pray that God would continue to keep them healthy.