千厩

Earlier this month, I travelled up to Japan, to Ichinoseki city in Iwate prefecture to help out a friend with her volunteer work. Emiko has been working there for close to one-and-a-half years, having started off with CRASH and then moving on to the 3.11 Iwate Church Network when CRASH started downsizing and handing over their bases to local churches.

I had served at Ichinoseki base once, in mid-2011, when it was still housed at a camp up in the mountains near Murone village, and most of the work was focused on physically clearing up debris and cleaning houses. Now though, the focus of the former CRASH bases and the 3.11 Network is on community building and emotional support.

I got into Narita at about 9.30am on the 9th on a JAL flight (though the breakfast was strangely tasteless) and since I was supposed to meet Louis and Chris for lunch as well as get back my pre-paid SIM card, plus my luggage was kinda heavy, I decided to take the airport bus to Tokorozawa. Not a good idea though, as for one, I had to pay ¥3,000 for the ticket, while my rail pass would have given me a free ride on the trains as far as Ikebukuro, and two, because the bus got into a minor accident along the way, and the passengers had to wait for the next bus.

I got to Louis' place late, and after lunch and talking with them for a bit, was thinking of how to get to a Shinkansen terminal. Thing is though, I hadn't actually collected my rail pass, and I had to go to get it from one of the major stations. Unfortunately, the most convenient Shinkansen station for me, Omiya, did not issue the rail passes. So I had to travel back into Ikebukuro, and then transfer onto a Shinkansen at Ueno, which took up even more of my time. So instead of being able to meet Emiko in the afternoon, as I thought, I only got to Senmaya station at around 8pm.

After that initial rush though, things kinda slowed down. Emiko, along with a retired German missionary called Helga, were gearing up for a concert by former base managers Paul and Nina Mikaelsen. They had served for half a year in 2011 and had returned to Norway, but were back now to meet people and have the event. So the first few days, while I was trying to get used to the frigid temperatures, we went to the neighbouring towns to put up posters and stuff.

One of the places we did stop at was in Kesennuma city, which got hammered pretty bad during the Great Tohoku Earthquake and tsunami that followed. While most of the temporary housing units were set up to accommodate people, this particular unit was meant as a kind of shopping/bar district to help some of those who lost their shops to continue with their jobs. Can't remember what it was called, but it's right next to the Kesennuma port. A lady there who kindly agreed to help us with our request to put up the concert poster told us that while it had not been too bad, very few people would choose to go there in the winter as it was cold and got dark early, so business had not been that good recently. Still, she was happy to hear that people were still volunteering to help out in some way, and she was also quite happy when we bought some of the things at her store (she ran a small grocery mart). 

A picture I took while putting up posters in Senmaya town. That's Mt. Murone, which has an observatory and a hang-gliding spot up there. It was quite windy at the spot I took this, making it almost unbearably cold despite the sun, but one thing about winter is that the air is always clear and the sky seems exceptionally blue. When it's not snowing, of course.

As a small town, Senmaya's a rather quiet place. There are two convenience stores, a Lawson and a Sunkus, along the main road running through it, and it offers relatively few tourist attractions. But it does have this historical-ish place called Sake no Kura, which is a sake warehouse that is over a hundred years old. I wandered in one day, and there were some ladies who had rented the place for a function, and one of them, who also does work as a tour guide for the place, explained some of it to me. Or at least, she tried to explain it, considering my lack of Japanese ability.

The outside of the warehouse. 

The snow and low temperatures did take some getting used to, especially since I had come up from warm, sunny Singapore. I did get some Uniqlo heat tech, which helped (I have to admit, I used to wonder if the heat tech was indeed of any use, since I didn't feel very much warmer while wearing it. I only had to not wear it once though, to realise how effective it is at keeping warmth in). 

It snowed several times while I was there, and each time, it wasn't a light dusting of white that I was used to when I was in Tokyo, but rather, a rather sizeable amount of snow, though I'm guessing other places had a lot more snowfall then where I was at. 

But after each snowfall, the skies clear up and become the most amazing blue, and when the sun hits the snow on the ground, it sparkles. It really is quite a fantastic sight, but only if you've got on a good jacket and mittens or something.

One of the things we did get to do was to help shovel snow at a couple of the temporary housing units. Many of those who are in these units tend to be older folk, and while most of them are tough old men and women from a hardened generation, they did appreciate it when others came in to give them a hand in clearing up the roads.  The heavy snowfall meant it was covered up an hour later, but they still were glad we shovelled some snow. We also had a cafe while we were there. 

The scene just after we had the cafe and were heading back.

Marie came up on Monday morning. She had served at the base before and knew many of the people and places there, though I would like to think she came up for another reason as well. She brought a couple of the volunteers to several of the events she used to participate in, and was a major help all-around.

Another pleasant surprise was that Kohei Koyama stopped by on his trip. Kohei and his wife Linda were volunteers at Tono base who got dragooned into being staff members while I was there for three weeks in August 2011. They were travelling southward from Morioka, stopping at various volunteer bases to see where God was leading them to serve for a year. However, Linda's mom suddenly fell sick, so she had to head back to Miami. And I just realised I never really talked about my experiences at Tono base. I shall have to rectify that. 

Kohei is the guy in red. This was taken by Pastor Sasaki of the Kitakami church, who is a member of the 3.11 Network as well as a semi-itinerant pastor who takes care of a church in Kesennuma too.

 
One of the good things about serving at this particular base though, is that Emiko is a really well-known person around the area. When we were going around trying to put up posters, all we had to do was mention we were from a volunteer group and that we worked with Emiko... and the shop-owner's face would light up and they would go, "Oh Matsumoto-san! Yes we know her!" Even though she says she feels tired all the time, one of her great strengths is in building relationships with people around. She doesn't like getting photographed though. 

I also got to help out in an English conversation group that had been set up by former base managers. While the managers had already left, the ladies enjoyed the time so much that they decided to continue to meet up regularly. We got to join them for their monthly meeting, which is held in a church's meeting room.  

Paul and Nina Mikaelsen came in on the 15th, if I remember correctly, and apart from going around and seeing all the people they had met while serving there, they also got ready for their concerts. They were supposed to be doing three mini-concerts over three days, in Senmaya, the neighbouring village of Murone and then in Kesennuma, further down the highway. 

Quite a few people turned up for the first one, even though it was at 10 in the morning on a Friday. Several of them were people they had known from before, and a couple of local reporters also turned up to cover the event (it came out in the local papers the next day).  Their singing is really nice, and they showed a lot of chemistry on stage, which I guess comes about when you're a husband and wife team. While the acoustic guitar was the main instrument for both of them, Paul also used a pianika and a small taiko drum for accompaniment on several songs. They sang several English songs and one or two Norwegian ones, but it was the traditional Japanese enka that got the most reaction out of the crowd.

Paul and Nina at the first concert, held at the Senmaya Town Hall.

Here's one of their songs, 37 degrees, which they wrote by themselves, if I'm not wrong.

I helped out on that first day by making Bak Kut Teh, which many of them seemed to like. Thanks should be given of course, to Marie and Kazuma Miura, one of the base friends who had stopped by the night before. They both said it had tasted too light, so they added salt and pepper until it was nice. Unfortunately, I had run out of bak kut teh packets after that, and the logistics involved in doing food at the other concerts had seemed too difficult, so we did not cook food again for the other concerts.

We also got to work with the boys (and two girls) of the Kesennuma High School baseball club. One thing about these kids is that they were always energetic and very polite, greeting people they met along the way and stuff. Marie says this is cos they are taught to greet anyone they meet. At any rate, they helped Emiko by shoveling snow at a few temporary housing units, and then helped her buy daily necessities at a supermarket to help needy families under one of the 3.11 Network's projects (a church in Taiwan regularly sends them funds to buy food for people who really need it).

They also helped to set up on the last of Paul and Nina's concerts in the area. Whereas the lot of us took close to half an hour to set up for the concert on Saturday night, these boys finished setting everything up in 5 minutes flat, under the guidance of their English teacher/coach and their team captain.

Kesennuma High School baseball club.

And that was about it. Emiko dropped Marie and myself off at the Kesennuma station on the way back to the base, and we left for Tokyo soon after, where I got to spend a few more days running around meeting people, and spent a night in a capsule hotel.

If you're interested in praying for the work there, here are a few things you may like to pray for:

1. Pray for Emiko as she continues to be the key person in the work there. If you know her, you'll know that while she is game for many things, she sometimes gets extremely tired, caused partly because she has to travel fairly long distances for meetings and work. 
2. Pray for the pastors of the 3.11 Network, who are continuing to minister to their own flocks as well as the people who have been affected. It is easy for volunteers, who are there for a couple of weeks or months, but these pastors are looking at years of work before the region can get back to normal.
3. Pray for Kohei and Linda too. They are thinking of moving to Tohoku for a year, and are trying to see where God wants them to go. 
4. Pray for the people that have in some way or other, come into contact with Christians, that the Christians they meet would be a good testimony for Christ, and that they will be blessed, and in turn, bless others who need help.
5. Pray for the people there, who even after two years, are still not able to return to their 'normal' lives before the tsunami. 

Ok. That's it from me. Although the weather was cold, the people were warm and friendly, and it was a great experience over all.

Whoa almost missed another month there.

Here's a recap of November in pictures!

Marie came!

Marie left :(

I ate some apple pie.

We made Alvin Yap go diving.

We also made him go flying. We also made him go trekking about (actually, he ended up dragging our asses around cos he's a ranger and we're not) and had a campfire and cooked some stuff and ate it, but no pictures sorry.

Alvin got married. Photo credit (copyright?) to TouchStudios and Moving Pictures.

I got older. Alvin also got older, which was coincidentally (or maybe NOT!) one day after his wedding.

That's about it.

Time

This morning, I had to wake up extra early to make sure I got out on time to go meet the short-term team from my church in Singapore at the station, and then go with them and Steve to E-moms. Normally, I would have to wake up early whenever we have E-moms, but today I really had to make sure I woke up, because we had a tight schedule, and we really couldn't afford any delays. It doesn't help, of course, that last night, I was at Shinagawa Kai till pretty late.

But anyway, we all got to E-moms on time. Due to the presence of the team, there were enough English speakers to each pair off with one of the Japanese ladies, which allowed for a great deal more English conversation.

Steve decided not to do the usual studies, so instead, we were using these interesting Soularium cards to answer questions. Basically, he would ask a question, and then we would all pick a picture card that best represented our answers.

So along the way, I was talking to one of the ladies called Yoshiko, and the question was "how do you think your spiritual life has been changed?" or something like that. I think my brain hadn't fully woken up since it was really early in the morning.. about 10 am or so, so I can't recall the exact words of the question.

Anyway, the picture I picked out was of this guy standing still on a subway platform while everything around him was a blur of motion. And so I was telling her that the picture represented something that I had really learnt while in Japan.

See, I kinda enjoy photography. Maybe it runs in the family or something (my dad enjoys photography too, and my brother has been doing photography.. even my sister takes like a ton of photos wherever she goes). And so wherever I go, I try to make sure I carry my little Ixus around so that at a moment's notice, I can whip it out and snap a photo of whatever it was that caught my eye.

Images like this tend to catch my eye.

The problem is that when I take the shot, quite often, it can't quite capture the atmosphere of the shot. And then I'll start fiddling around with my camera's settings, hoping to find the right combination of aperture/shutter speed/lighting balance etc that would get me that 'perfect' picture. And I almost never was able to fully recreate the aura of that shot.

And then, I started to get a little obsessive. I would walk around, looking at the things I saw, and rating them on a 'picturability' scale. Simply speaking, I was analyzing the world in terms of how I could upload it to Facebook.

And so my mind would be going something like this: "Hmm, the view from this particular point looks pretty good.. if I could just catch the way the light hits the wall at a certain angle hmm still not too good.. maybe let's twiddle this button... nope nope, still not working out... maybe I should walk back a bit? The angles looked better from earlier on ehm.. feels the same.. actually this reminds me a lot of that other photo I took 5 minutes ago but it's always good to have another one in case.. hmm still not working out think maybe this one is the best so far ah! I'm gonna upload this to Facebook!"

It finally came to a point where I realized that all I was thinking of was pictures I could upload to facebook, and of the pictures that I missed the chance to take. My mind was always either on the future or on the past! So I finally decided, that I needed to put away my camera, and just enjoy whatever it was I could see. And in a way, knowing that I wasn't taking any photos, and knowing that I would not be able to re-live the moment, made the moment that much more wonderful.

So Yoshiko said that's quite a Japanese thing, where something fragile/that disappears quickly is even more beautiful precisely because it was so impermanent. Which is probably why watching sakura and fireworks are two such big events in Japan.

And it's true. If I was always thinking of how to take a picture of a cherry blossom, before I know it, it would have fallen, and I wouldn't have been able to really appreciate it.

And I think it's kinda like in our life as well. So often, we're always thinking of what we're gonna be doing next. We look forward to the next activity. We have packed schedules. We map out our steps to advance in life. It's a great thing if you're able to plan ahead. We are almost always gripped in a fever of the future.

At the same time though, we are often trapped within the prison of our past. We look back at our lives, and think, oh how we could have done better at a disappointing time. Or remember the good old days and long for a return to that golden era, when everything was going well for us. And for a Christian in particular, I always look back, and see the sins that I've done, and think, "Oh what a horrible person I am".

But then, God didn't make us to exist in the future. Jesus said in Matthew 6, "Seek first His kingdom (the kingdom of God) and His righteousness," and in the next verse, tells us, "...do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough troubles of its own."

Neither did He make us to live in the past, among our memories. No matter how much we may want to go back and do things differently, or go back and re-live our best moments, it won't happen. It's in the past. And if we are being bogged down by our past sins, we simply need to remember 1 John 1:9, confess our sins and we will be made clean.

We were made to live in the present, to spend our lives in the 'now', making choices that will honour God, and to enjoy the ride as we go along.

And I rather like presents too. hur hur.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Quote of the day, from the meeting we had earlier today:

"When they have a baptism service among the tribes in *** country, they have one picture showing 40 people getting baptized. Here in Japan, we have 40 pictures of one person getting baptized." -K. Weemes

Back in Japan

So I've been back in Japan for just over a week, and I'm happy to note that I have not forgotten quite as much Japanese as I thought I had, which is quite funny, since the first week or so back, I just could not get the Japanese-ness I had picked up out of me.

Like on a train, if I bumped into someone, or was trying to get further in the carriage, I would say 'sumimasen'. Or if I was at a food stall, trying to get the attention of the auntie behind the counter, I would say 'sumimasen', which is completely normal in Tokyo, but somewhat less common in Singapore.

At any rate, by the 2nd week I was in Singapore, I realized I had started to forget my Japanese, but on hindsight, I guess it was kinda like getting put into the storage area, instead of the common use area of my brain.

So the weather is ridiculously hot now. Still not the worse (I think that comes in August) but pretty close, and the humidity is pretty high too. Yeah, it's about 35 degrees about now, though it looks like s storm will be in for the whole of next week, which should cool things down a bit.

On the way in, there was one thing that I was really thankful for. See usually, when you take a flight, as the plane ascends or descends, pressure will build up in your ears. And you can usually alleviate the pressure by yawning or swallowing. Unfortunately for me, the past 4 or 5 flights I've taken, I've always had problems 'popping' my ears on the descent. Which usually leaves me with a dull pain in my ear for about half an hour after I disembark.

But this time round, I'm not sure why, but the pressure never got to build up fully. I guess I can thank God that this time round, He helped me through that little bit. (It might seem little, but it really irritates me when it happens).

I also went to a summer festival last Sunday at Hana-Koganei. While there, I managed to meet up with the Komai family (they live at Hana-Koganei) and talked to them for a bit.

Miru Komai. Last I remembered, she didn't like taking pictures, but maybe that's cos the other person was using a DSLR and I was using a titchy little IXUS.

Couple of prayer pointers, in case you don't get access to MW from my church:

1. T from Tokorozawa HC, has a new project and now must commute further to work everyday. He says he finds it hard to be enthusiastic about work, and finds daily living tedious. Pray that God will grant him joy in life.
2. LW formerly of Intercross, he went back to China to be with his father. His father's cancer has spread and it's taking it's toll not just on him but also his family. Keep them in prayer.

Ok that's about all I have for now. I really should get down to doing my assignments for my CMS course, but inertia is such a difficult thing to get over...

Cheerio!

The Sakura/Good Friday/Easter Edition

So the Holy Weekend went by just like any other normal weekend, since here in Japan, we don't get a holiday on Friday like those of you in Singapore... so I just had to read the Bible passage myself on Good Friday, and console myself with going to see sakura. At any rate, I shall recount my weekend over the next few paragraphs.

On Friday, as I mentioned, we had nothing much except for the hanami near Yasukuni Shrine that Koji had organized. It wasn't at the shrine per se, but there was a matsuri-style pasar malam there, and one of Koji's friends had set up a stall there, so we went there to eat some food first, then walked over to where the night hanami was, at the Kita-no-Maru park.

My first hanami ever in Japan

It really was quite pretty, since most of the trees were in full bloom, and they had set up lights to highlight the trees at night, which is why one was able to get shots like the above. Unfortunately, since I was also trying to co-ordinate with a friend of mine, that was the only shot I got of the Kita-no-Maru walkway area place that I got. Still, it was pretty good, and my friend, Yuki did turn up later. He had just started work the day before, and he rushed over as soon as he was allowed to leave.

It really was the Shinjuku HC that remained for dinner. (L-R): Liu Wen, Esther, Tim, Karen, Yuki

We went to eat after that, since those of us in the picture hadn't really eaten dinner and all, and we left at around 11 and reached home exceedingly late, but it was still cool, since Yuki was able to join us.

Saturday was kinda busy because we had quite a lot of things going on. It didn't help, of course, that since we had been out late the night before and all that, we woke up at 11. Anyway, we went to Rekiji's place for Bible study, and then after that we started to watch the SuperBowl, which Rekiji had taped, with another of Steve's friends, Kaz. I wanted to watch the whole thing, but even before the first quarter had ended, Tim and I had to leave for Shinjuku HC. The game reminded me of Madden '09 at Farand's place.

Shinjuku HC was er, kinda odd, since Karen had wanted us all to watch the Passion of the Christ, but unfortunately, 1) the DVD code for the DVD was different from her computer, and 2) the DVD must have really liked the computer despite the different codes, as it refused to come out. I had to leave for Watanabe's baptism, so I'm not sure what really happened, but last I heard, the DVD was still stuck inside Karen's Mac.

Now for those of you who don't know, Watanabe, or Wattsu, as he is called, is one of the regular guys at the Shinagawa HC. He's Catholic and so a few of us (Koji, Koji's fiancee Misaki, Shion and I) went to St. Ignatius Church to see his baptism. It was the first time most of us had attended a Catholic Mass, and I must admit that it was pretty impressive. They had a pipe organ, and a choir, and all the people knew what they were to sing, a bit like a Gregorian chant I guess.

As impressive as it looked and sounded, I must say that the one thing that really made me feel God's presence was from a deaf person that was seated in the section to my left. In the sanctuary, the left-most section had a person up front doing sign language for the people, and when we were singing the hymns/chants, there was this lady in the front row who was also worshiping using sign language. And I don't know why, but I thought that was way more thought-provoking than all the grandeur of the Catholic church.

The baptism was a bit different than what I was used to, since they do sprinkling, and not dunking. It didn't help that we weren't even able to spot Watanabe because he was being blocked by the other baptismal candidates. So, well, no pictures. But it was great that we could go there and join Wattsu in his baptism. Incidentally, he chose the baptismal name of John, and we were joking that with a name like John Watts, he could pass off as an Englishman.

After that, we went to a nearby Thai restaurant, which was cool because, 1) they had Chayen. 2) they had basil leaf minced meat and rice, and 3) they had Mango Sticky Rice. We didn't order number 3 (it cost ¥1200!) but the fact that they had it was pretty cool.

Sunday morning we had Tokorozawa HC as usual, but Miyako and Kenji had invited us to go to Koganei Park for hanami in the afternoon. It really was quite a beautiful place, just a pity that it was cloudy and so the pictures weren't that great...

Hanami at Hanakoganei!

Still, it was a really pleasant time. The weather was cool, there was lots of good food and drinks, and really good company, as besides Kenji and Miyako and the kids, there were Steve and Kathi and the Matsumoto family. Steve organized a short egg hunt for the Komai kids, and then told the Easter story using the eggs.

It really was stuff that was in the eggs, kinda like what my dad used to do for us as kids with Advent at Christmas time.

So each of the eggs had an item that represented one part of the Easter story, like a nail, a cross, a rock etc. The last one of course, was an empty egg, since Jesus did not remain dead in His tomb, but was raised back to life.

And sometimes, I know so much and have heard so much about the Easter story, but feel no emotional connection... like all head knowledge and stuff but not feeling it in my heart. But in the end, it doesn't really matter what I feel, as long as I believe in the Resurrection, and trust Jesus.

Hope everyone had a blessed Easter!

散歩

I never realized how gray it had been, until today I guess. The past week (weeks?) had been cloudy/overcast I guess, but I never really noticed it... or at least, I never really noticed the lack of sunlight until today.

See, what happened was that I had to wake up early this morning for E-Moms. It didn't help that last night was Shinagawa Kai, since that usually means I only get home around 11 (no nomikai this time, if not it'll be 2 am when I get home). So when my alarm rang, I dragged myself out of bed, which is even harder to do when you realize it's freezing outside the confines of your blanket. And yes, I meant that literally: it was snowing this morning.

So I stumbled about and finally found myself at Hana-Koganei, where I had breakfast at Mr. Donut, before meeting Steve to go for E-Moms. And after E-Moms, Steve had another appointment at Akitsu, so I took a lift from him over to Akitsu station.

Now usually, I would take the train back one stop to Tokorozawa station. But I was feeling kinda bored, and since it had stopped snowing, I decided to try to walk back to Tokorozawa. So I started walking, and found a bakery along the way.

Some stuff I found there at bakery.

It was kinda nice I guess, since it was still cold, and the air was dry, but it was still somewhat cloudy, until I had walked about halfway back, when the sun started to come out. And I don't know why, but as I told Sul, it made me almost psychotically happy.

In fact, it made me so unstable that I decided to spend the rest of my afternoon walking. So after eating lunch and doing some other stuff on the 'net, I went out to buy a map and compass (since as we all know, only the map and compass are correct; you're always wrong) and just started walking.

So I guess it's a little different than in Singapore, since in Singapore, it's kinda hot and humid and after about 3 minutes you get all icky, but here, it was really quite pleasant to walk about. Especially with the sun out and helping you keep a little warm (it is winter here after all).

And for my first checkpoint, I decided an easy course: to walk from Tokorozawa station to Nishi-Tokorozawa station. The easiest way would be to follow the tracks, but with my map and compass (which are always right, though I may be wrong), I cut through central Tokorozawa City and reached CP1 pretty easily.

And that's where I felt I hadn't gone far enough. So after consulting my map (which is right) on where to go to next, I decided to walk down towards the Seibu Dome area. And walking there kinda reminded me of walking about in Taiwan with my army buds. Halfway to my CP2 though, I saw an interesting road branching out to my right. It was actually pretty large, since it was the bypass that led to route 463 out towards Hanno. So since the theme of the walk was whimsicality (is that even a real word?), I changed CP2 from Shimo-Yamaguchi to Kotesashi station, and started walking that way.

Pretty decent view from the top of the bypass.

When I got to the crossing that would bring me to Kotesashi, I felt like I could go a little further, so I set up CP3, which was the next station: Sayamagaoka. And continued walking there. By the time I reached there, almost 2 hours had passed, so I ended my trip. Also, cos my map was for Tokorozawa City only, and details did not extend beyond Sayamagaoka station.

I'm not too sure why, but I found the whole trip rather relaxing and fun. I guess, it's all about going to somewhere new, which is really quite like having an adventure. I guess I felt the same way when I went to Hanno, or even the first time I went out to Ibaraki for housechurch. I also had that same feeling when we were in Taiwan, when we were left to our own devices to muck about in the hills. Just being able to explore somewhere new, to walk there and just see the place, was really nice. It helped too, that I was able to sense God walking with me, even though the trip wasn't really meant to be a retreat or anything.

And like I said before, sometimes, we do need to go out on a whim, just without any cares (ok, you need some care. And a map and compass, since they are righter than you are), and just to walk about as far as you feel like, stopping whenever you want to.

Hmm... 5 posts in one month.. what's with the sudden overflow of words? Maybe it's something I ate...

P.S. Sorry if you don't know where the locations are and all that. If you really want to, you can check up Google Maps or something.

Journey to the West

So I went to Osaka for a short personal holiday, just to get to see the Kansai area, but really, it was because I wanted to take the Shinkansen. Naturally enough, I was excited about leaving Tokyo to go out to another city, much like when I took the day trip south to Yokohama.

However, I started off a bit late. I had really intended to go to Tokorozawa HC in the morning, and then leave as soon as service was over to quickly get back home, pack (yes, I hadn’t packed yet), and then get out to the trains as fast as I could. After all, Tokyo station isn’t exactly near to my place, and I was pretty sure it would be crowded, and I wanted to try to get a seat on the side facing Mt. Fuji, and I was thinking that I should try and squeeze as much time at Osaka as possible.

Thing is, on Sunday, we found out that Tomoho-chan was leaving Tokyo to go back to stay with her family in Aomori. And so I felt it wouldn’t be good to quickly run off, especially since this was one of the few times she could stay around for lunch. So a few of us went to eat nearby. Of course, this meant I reached home at around 2.

It was 2.30-ish by the time I left my home, and I got to Tokyo station at about 3.30. Unfortunately, being the dope that I was, I wasn’t sure how to do the Shinkansen tickets at the turnstiles. Especially since they gave me a total of four tickets to use. So I got in, and since I didn’t want to rush for a crowded train leaving at 4, I went to the adjacent track to wait for the 4.17 train.

Making a quick assessment of the seating arrangement, I managed to get a neat window seat on the correct side of the train. That is until I realized I was sitting in the smoking section.

So of course, by the time I transferred to another car, all the window seats on the Mt. Fuji side were taken up. Fortunately, I still managed to get a window seat on the other side. I must have looked like an idiot tourist, taking photos all the time and stuff, but well whatever.

Because I was playing the tourist, I can get to take this sort of nice shots from the Shinkansen.

It was 7 by the time I reached Shin-Osaka station. And after bumbling my way around, I finally managed to reach Ishibashi station, which is where I met Philip, and later on, Ryan. Both these guys are working with Campus Crusades, and I got to know them through Yoshitaka, and I would be staying with them because they were willing to open up their spare room for poor missionaries like me who came by to visit.

Ryan, Philip and me. They are two cool guys who are Campus Crusades staff in Osaka. They've been here for several years already.

I went out soon after to meet my friend Joanne at Umeda station. I knew her from my LAJ classes in NUS, and she’s here in Osaka teaching English as part of the JET program. And she was kind enough to show me around on Sunday night. Not just around Umeda station, where she introduced me to this thing called negiyaki (pancake with lotsa spring onions, tastes like chai tau kway), but also to Namba town, which is kinda considered the heart of Osaka city.

Joanne from NUS/LAJ/JET. This was after two failed self-photos I tried to do. She realized it would be better to get a passerby to help us instead.

Next day I woke up late, and after eating lunch with Philip and Ryan, I decided to go to three places that sounded interesting: the Aquarium, Osaka castle, and the Umeda Sky Garden. I got to the Kaiyukan easy enough, but didn’t really feel like paying ¥2000 to get in, so I ended up taking photos around the place.

There’s this ship there that’s also supposed to be like one of the icons of Osaka called the Santa Maria, but it didn’t unfurl it’s main sail bother it all, so I couldn’t get a very nice shot of it.

The little ship that didn't... unfurl it's sail to let me take a nice picture of it.

It was kinda a gray day at that point of time too, which is why I really didn’t feel like staying around there too long, or taking the ferris wheel. So I left and went over to the castle.

Got this picture in the park around the castle. I's a good photographer.

The original castle was built by Hideyoshi (one of the 3 unifiers of Japan), but it was pretty much razed cos his son started to rebuild the defenses, something the Tokugawa Ieyasu had forbid him to do after the Tokougawa shogunate was in power. This castle was rebuilt relatively recently, and Wikitravel describes it as a museum that was built like a castle, but whatever. It’s still really awesome. Also because when I was there, the sun came out. And we all know that having good sunlight helps make good photos, and helps make you feel happier (generally. Let’s not talk about army route marches and SOC). And I’m kinda thinking, if a Disney movie was set in Japan, you could almost imagine a scene where the castle rises out of the forest and stuff.

It radiates awesomeness!

And since I had decided not to splurge the ¥2000 on the aquarium, I thought I would go in to the castle to see the museum and stuff. Unfortunately, I decided to go in at 5 in the afternoon, which if you’re guessing, is the time they close. Bother.

Got to meet Joanne again for dinner at a curry place she said she preferred cos it actually was somewhat spicy. Then I went to the Umeda Sky Garden.

Was up there at the top

I wanted to go there because I read online that the place offers a really good view of Osaka city. It should; after all, it is 173 meters up in the air. But as I was taking the lift up, and the lift shot out from inside the building to a transparent tube, and the ground started falling away at a rather fast pace, I suddenly remembered that I am absolutely terrified of heights. Of course, since I was with another couple and a family of four in that lift, I tried to act all nonchalant and stuff, but if you had looked, you would have noticed I was gripping the handrails much tighter. It didn’t help that my brain was telling me I was suspended over several hundred feet of air only by a lift cable.

But I got to the top safely, and managed to get some really stupendous shots of the city skyline. (Once there is a proper floor under me, I feel better). Here are some of them. Didn’t stay too long, and I didn’t buy any souvenirs from there, since they were all kinda tacky. But having my pictures was enough.

Osaka at night!

So anyway, as I was preparing to leave this morning, I realized I had this “I-don’t-want-to-leave” sort of feeling. The kind of feeling I had as a kid when my family would go on holiday and we had to leave to go back.

And I guess part of it was that I was begging to settle into the place. And I got to make two great new friends, and got to know an old friend better. I had reached a point where I was starting to get comfortable with being in Osaka, but hadn’t yet fully explored everywhere. And also cos I know I probably would not be heading back to Osaka anytime soon (OMF is based mostly in Kanto-Tohoku-Hokkaido, and I can’t really take or afford that many holidays).

But in the end, I have to go, since my job is in Tokyo.

And I can take solace in the fact that in the modern age of technology, there is facebook for communication, and also, that I have found out how much better takoyaki tastes in Osaka.

I actually wanted to tabao another packet for the train, but that would have just been greedy.

Cheerio!

Day Trip South

So yes, I know it's almost a week since I went down to Yokohama. But I was busy. Sort of.

Anyway, before I had the chance to go on a bit of sightseeing in Kanagawa prefecture last Friday, I went up to Ibaraki for the monthly "Support Ibaraki Housechurch" journey, though since Louis has gone back to Singapore, this time was with Yoshitaka and Kodaira-san.

Generally speaking, the trip was rather uneventful. It was the first time that Yoshitaka had gone up though, and I made the same remarks to him about how the place reminded me of Miyazaki anime, so he told Shirai-san (the lady in charge of the housechurch) that she could name the housechurch the "Totoro HC".

I bought some candy bars to eat in case we got sleepy (specifically for the driver [Yoshitaka] if he got sleepy), and put it in the car. On the way back, when he started to get drowsy, he asked me to help him get some eats out, whereupon I discovered that not one, but both packets of chocolate had become squishy.

I was somewhat surprised, since the day itself wasn't terribly hot. But then we both realized it was because I had left it at a spot in the car where the engine heat was getting to it. (Don't look at me like that. It's where people usually keep candy in the car. Between the two front seats!) Which of course, naturally resulted in this:

After refridgration, of course.

So anyway, back to talking about Yokohama. I woke up late and left home later, it was close to 12 noon by the time I got out of my house. I was considering going on another day, but then I felt that I had been cooped up at home for too long already (due to my overspending last month and the need to save money), so I toddled off to the station.

It was rather cloudy when I left Tokorozawa, and as I was heading to Ikebukuro, it seemed to get darker, which to me, was a bit of a bummer. It didn't look like it would rain, but when you go to a nice port city like Yokohama, especially if you want to see the sea and stuff, generally, you prefer to have sunny skies.

Fortunately, as I traveled further southwest, the weather got better and better. And I started to feel all sunny and excited inside as the train continued rolling along. I'm not sure why. Guess part of it was having been cooped up so long, and part of it was that it was sunny (the weather had been cloudy for close to two weeks already), and also part of it was that it felt like an adventure. Going to somewhere similar in Tokyo, like Odaiba, probably wouldn't have elicted the same emotions in me.

Following the recommendations of a guidebook I inherited from one of the Lau families, I did not stop at Yokohama, but went straight to Sakuragicho. Especially since I wanted to see the ocean. This is what growing up in a small island nation does to you.

View after stepping out from Sakuragicho station. Pretty. Plus, I like clouds.

The place, of course, is really beautiful. I guess the clear blue skies and bright sunlight affected my judgement as well. As I mentioned, Tokyo had been kinda gray the past few days. And being surrounded by buildings all this while (when not surrounded by the four walls of my room) made me forget just how... liberating it was to stand in the middle of an open plaza. Even if it was beginning to get a little warm.

So I started my little tour of the place, roughly following the coastline. And of course, with two batteries fully charged, I started doing touristy things!

There's something appealing about sailing ships...

Being the stingy miser that I was, I didn't go on board this ship, though I did admire it from a distance, and through my camera lens. Generally, I made sure I went to places where I would not have to pay entrance fees. And there were enough there to occupy me for half a day, so no complaints. The specter of my overspending still hung over me.

Pretty, oh so pretty...

Did I mention that the place was scenic? This pictures currently sits on my desktop. And it looks even better if it is like large. Like if it was on your desktop. The ferris-wheel-and-island also reminds me a lot of Odaiba, which is another place I enjoyed going to (haven't gone there yet this time). This is an artificial island, I think. There's a small amusement park, and a huge shopping mall. Didn't really explore the entire place, but one of the points of interest of the island are the old red-brick warehouses.

Looks European

They aren't used as warehouses any more, though they still stock lots of goods in the form of a shopping arcade. And a rather atas one at that. As you can probably guess, apart from admiring the place, I did not buy anything.

Spider!

Incidentally, this year is also the 150th anniversary of the founding of the city. So they have all sorts of fairs and attractions as part of the celebrations. One of the most iconic shows that is there is this giant mechanical spider. Think it was a rest period or something, so it wasn't moving. But I'm pretty sure you can find videos of it on youtube. Think I heard it was 15m high.

Reminds me of Singapore!

Next up was a visit to the roof of the International Passenger Terminal (Osanbashi). It kinda reminded me of Marina Barrage, with the large open air space, the grass on the roof, the view over the sea.. And you can get lots of good photo opps from here.

City skyline with waterfront... reminds me of Singapore too!

This was just one of the shots I got from the roof of the place. Admittedly, Singapore has many more skyscrapers, but I'm not the only one to think that there is a similarity. Yoshitaka thought so too. Maybe if I put up the nightshot I took...

Reminds me of Singapore!

...here. There, this does look a bit more like Singapore right? Ok maybe not really. But well whatever. Incidentally, the tall building on the left is the Landmark Tower, and is one of the tallest buildings in Japan. You must remember that Japan is earthquake prone, so unlike Singapore, they have to take that into consideration.

From the same place...

This is the other side of the terminal. The front part with all the trees is Yamashita Koen, which is good for taking night photos of the bay area, and famous as a lover's park. Many couples go there together, though it seemed like a normal park when I went walking through there. Maybe at night...

One of the five gates leading to the Chinatown

And of course, part of the reason I went to Yokohama was to visit the Chinatown. According to guidebooks, it's as old as the city itself, and is the largest Chinatown in Japan. It has a lot of history. Though I would be lying if I said I was going there for the history. As much as I enjoy history, I was really going there because they had char siew pau.

Reminds of Singa.. no this *is* from Singapore!!

I went wandering through the streets, and through several shops as well. There were quite a lot of food places too, serving Japanese style Chinese food. I must admit that although I was hoping to get nice Chinese food there, during dinner time, none of the shops appealed to me enough for me to go in. I did get my pau though \(^_^)/

So that's about it. I went back to the Osanbashi to take several nightshots, then went down to the Chinatown again for souvenirs before heading back home.

It was fun. Maybe funner with more friends but oh well.

Cheerio!

Mind-blowing events

Today, for the first time in my life, I ate natto.

It happened after I decided to attend Matsudo housechurch in Chiba prefecture. Usually, I don't go there, since my work here in Japan is centered mostly around the west side of Tokyo, that housechurch doesn't need me to go and help out (I really can't do a lot, but what little I can do is not really necessary), and it's really far.

Ok, so really far is not so much an issue as having to pay for the train fare, which can be pretty expensive. So I usually don't go that far. Of course, going there is also good, cos the people there are really warm and friendly.

So anyway, I was at Matsudo. And after the housechurch, some of us went to Ootoya to eat dinner. I had the good fortune of sitting with Flo (who's from Belgium), as well as Mr. and Mrs. Ichikawa. And the moment Mrs. Ichikawa heard that I had never eaten natto before, she made sure she ordered an extra bowl of the stuff so that I would have to get my baptism of fire.

Now, just a short background on natto, in case you do not know what it is. It is basically, fermented soy beans that is rich in nutrients and stuff. It's a really wonderful health food, just that the taste is polarizing: you either love it or hate it. It doesn't help that it doesn't really look very appealing either. Just for your info, here's the Wikipedia entry on it.

When it arrived, Mrs Ichikawa divided it into several portions. I think I got about a third the amount. And I ate one bean.

Honestly, if taken in small amounts, it probably wouldn't be too bad. Cos that one bean tasted slightly coffee-ish (a bit like barley tea, just not as strong), and didn't seem too bad.

So I thought to myself, perhaps this isn't quite as bad as Jan and JP make it out to be.

After several more beans, however, I started to realize I didn't quite like the taste of the stuff. So I started mixing it with various other foods I had in front of me. I ate it with the salad (the dressing helped to mask the taste for a bit), I ate it with some soy sauce I got with my fish (not quite so effective), I ate it with rice (not really a good idea, unless you like natto), and then, I found out that the miso soup pretty much washed the taste away, if you drank it after eating the natto.

That's when I made the mistake of thinking that eating it all in one shot and then drinking the soup would help me get rid of the natto.

I managed about two chews before my body tried to make me spit it out. Fortunately for me (and for Mr. Ichikawa, who was sitting opposite me), I managed to hold it down and use my soup to wash away the taste.

The taste of the thing is not terribly strong, like wasabi, and the smell is not terribly strong either, like smelly tofu. But I think I've discovered that I really am not a fan of natto.

Still, dinner with the Ichikawas is really fun, cos they may be about twice my age, but can relate to us like peers. And they are really good at keeping conversations going. Even with inarticulate gaijins like myself.

* * *

Yesterday, I also went to watch fireworks at Tachikawa. It was a combined outing between the Shinjuku, Shinagawa, and Matsudo housechurches, and our friends. I managed to get Shigeki, whom I last met in May with JP, and he was keen to join us that day. So most of us met at Shinjuku station, and then we all went to the Showa memorial gardens, where Karen had booked some space earlier in the afternoon.

It was really crowded over there. There were thousands of people gathering in the field, and this was just one part of the park. By the time I finally got out my camera, it was starting to get dark, so this was one of the few shots I got:

Told ya there were many people

Karen wanted to start by doing an icebreaker, but after only about 5 minutes or so, the fireworks display started, and so we all settled down and watched the show.

Happy firework!

Now, you probably can't see it from here, but some of the fireworks were really huge. They could easily have been several hundred meters in diameter.

This one was probably only about 100 m across, methinks, making it one of the average-sized ones.

In the midst of my trigger-happy mood, one of the things I noticed, is that if you go to a hanabi, and want to really enjoy a good show, you can't spend all your time taking photos, cos you'll miss out on the hanabi itself.

So pretty

The second thing I noticed is that all the pictures, and the videos I took of the event, did not do justice to what really happened there. The colours, though nice, are not as vibrant. And the atmosphere there creates a whole different sense of the event.

It's like my Japanese culture class teacher (can't remember if it was Prof Teow or Prof DuBois) used to say, part of the sense of the aesthetic, is that the beauty that you see is transient, the 'mono no aware' (物の哀れ). And I guess part of that beauty of the fireworks is that you can't really reproduce it. Or at least, not with my Canon Ixus.

Yeah. Really doesn't do justice.

A final thought that occured to me was that this was probably the best wide-screen show I've ever had. Ok, yes I know, we've probably become so accustomed to all these 'modern' techonologies that we now need to compare nature to it, instead of the other way round.

Circles within circles....

But seriously, sometimes, we are so impressed by what we have made, that we forget to see what God has given to us already. And while we go chasing after that 43-inch plasma TV or give effusive praise to the iMax theater, we fail to notice that great wide-screen expanse known as the sky.

And I'm glad that at least for an hour and a half on a clear Saturday night, I am reminded that not only is my God the God of love, but also the God of all creation.

Could be a rock concert. But it isn't.

And do pray that for some of our non-Christian friends who went, that they would realize that there is a Creator. That the icebreaker that Karen did with postcards about how Jesus loves us would speak to them. And that this event would help us in getting to know them better as well.

Ok, that's about it for now.

Cheerio!