Category: Shimonoseki ’08

Today was a blast!  Samantha and I were invited by Hanae to go travel through Moji for shopping today.  It ended up being an all-day adventure.  Today (4/29) is a national holiday commemorating the former emperor’s birthday! so everyone was off work…unless you work in retail and food…of course.  But it was very nice.  We took a bus from Shimonoseki Station to Karato, and then a ferry across the Kanmon Strait to Kyushu island…a completely other island of Japan.  It’s kind of funny, because it’s a big deal to us outsiders, but to the natives of Shimonoseki and Kitakyushu, they don’t really care.  Anywho, we went around shopping and checking out some places and then stopped for food.  We saw a guy doing stunts, like juggling flaming torches on top of three boards separated by kitchen glasses and balanced on a round thingy…and then he ate one of the torches.

I found some great postcards, and a little pottery piece in which I can grow mini-sunflowers.  I have named it Sophie and cannot wait for the 20 days for it to bloom!  I love sunflowers!  We ate a very nice restaurant called Mermaid Cafe and then went up the top of the observatory tower and checked out the area from a heighth of 30-stories.  It was great.  We soon countered the heighth with a depth of 14-stories and walked a tunnel stretching underneath the Kanmon Strait (yes, under the Pacific Ocean), between the two islands…but first we walked along the coast promenade and were nearly blasted by the waves of ships passing by. 

After a full day of walking around the area, we boarded a bus back to Shimonoseki and parted ways as Samantha and I decided to go to Green Mall for dinner.  It’s a street that is full of Korean shops and restaurants.  I really wanted bulgogi and Samantha wanted some Bi Bim Bop.  We went up and down the street looking for something we might recognize, and came across a shop called Finally Ghetto…on the awning is all this writing saying, “The Lord is my Strength” and “The God of Elijah, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob”  Of course, mystified, we went inside.  It’s owned by a man from Nigeria who has been here for 15 years…had the shop for that long.  The clothing and accessories were definitely of the urban style and so funny to have both things in the Korean section of a Japanese city.  We were amazed.  We told him about International Cafe and he was excited to hear about it so I’m going to take him a flyer when we get it printed off.

Not to mention that as we were looking for a restaurant we stopped in front of one place looking at the pictures.  A young man stepped out from beside the building and I asked him, “bulgogi?”  Samantha is so funny because she sometimes thinks I can’t communicate with anyone since I don’t know Japanese well at all yet, but I have fun just asking people on the street for help.  It gives me a good experience, and something for them to laugh about afterwards.  It’s the only way I can start building relationships with people here…by meeting people.  In the clearest English I’ve heard in a while, he said, “Oh, you like bulgogi?  You can get it here.  I work here, come in.”  After a while, his English kind of faltered, but he was a faithful attendant as we ordered and figured out what to do.  They turned on a grill right on our table and brought out my seasoned beef raw for me to cook myself.  It was interesting.  We told him about International Cafe too, and he was excited to know that we are English teachers.  His name is Tetsu, you can pray for him.  He says he’s at work a lot, but he wants to come down to the Center to talk with us sometime. 

We came back and unloaded from the long day.  I poured Sophie’s soil and planted the seeds, and loaded up the pictures from our adventure.  The link is below, please enjoy!!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=107691&l=49ac3&id=500635206

  As promised, I went to Brasserie Quixote for lunch yesterday.  It was great.. Samantha was supposed to go with me, but we misjudged the time and she had a class starting at 1 so she couldn’t go with me.  So, I went by myself…which was still a blast!  I started off from the Center and went to the traffic light to cross the street.  As I was walking up, I saw a man drive up next to the little restaurant, park and get out.  He waved at the woman walking up to the crosswalk and she waved back and then he went inside.  I figured she knew him, so I said, “Konichiwa” and motioned to the restaurant and asked if it was good food (through English and hand motions…I’m not that good at Japanese at all yet).  She looked at me then nodded and said yes.  I motioned that I was hungry, and the light turned so we started walking.  She had several bags in her hands, but continued on to the door of the restaurant.  She motioned for me to come inside, and we were the only three people in the place.  It was slightly bigger than the other restaurant, but not really that much bigger. 

  She said something to the man/owner, and he grinned and motioned for me to have a seat.  At this point, I kind of froze.  I didn’t know what to do.  I sat down with my back against the wall so that I could keep my eyes on the restaurant…I wanted to be an active observer if a lot of people came in.  No one else came in, though…the whole time I was there.  He asked me what I wanted to eat, and I asked if he had udon…which he said no.  I froze again.  I had my Japanese phrase book out and began flipping frantically through the menu listing in it.  He came over to the table and was looking at the book…I still didn’t have any idea.  Every time I mentioned something, he said no.  So, I showed him my book, and asked him to look through the listings.  The menu had both the hiragana/katakana and the romanji (english transliteration), and then the English translation.  He then pointed at an egg omelette with fried rice (omuraiss) and asked if that was ok.  I nodded quickly and he was off behind the counter to start cooking. 

  While I was waiting for my food, the woman came over and began to talk with me.  I think she felt bad that I was sitting by myself…but neither of us had much understanding of each others’ language.  We picked through some random comments and phrases…and got our names settled, and even our ages.  I asked if the owner was her father…at this point he had come back and was watching us talk and would add his name and age and whatnot as the questions rose up.  He had pretty good English…much better than the woman…and much better than my Japanese.  Turns out that he is the conductor for the Shimonoseki Wind Ensemble and Shirayama plays the clarinet.  I was so excited…since music, more than anything, is my second language…so I asked when the next concert was.  It’s June 15th at 2pm, and I told them I want to go.  It’s a free concert and the man is going to bring my ticket down to the Center for me once they’re cut.  Shirayama has a solo for that concert too, so I’m excited to go and hear!  I was really sad that I didn’t get to hear the Cincinnati Symphony before I left…so I’m excited to be able to listen to a large instrumental group play while I’m here.  They were excited that I play violin too.  They were really interested in it.  I’m not near as good as the Japanese violinists, but it did provide some great conversation for us in the next hour and half that I was there. 

  By the way, did I mention that the Cranes, another family on our team here, used to work for the Cincinnati Symphony??  David was concert master and I forget what Marcy did, but I talked with David about the directors and guest instrumentalists…he has met Joshua Bell!  and Jesus Lopez-Cobos, and Paavo Jaarvi, and Erich Kunzel.  I was soo jealous…I mean…Joshua Bell and Paavo!  I would love to meet either of those men…but just to hear them in concert is enough.  I’ve seen Paavo conduct the CSO several times, and Erich…but I have yet to see Joshua Bell perform.  That would be a dream come true.

  So, back to the restaurant..I’m very excited.  I’m going to frequent that place.  I have been praying for God to give me a focal point, and to give it to me quickly, so that I can be the most productive with my time here.  He has, in my student Mika and her friend Hiroka, and now in this restaurant.  I’m hoping to be able to build some good relationships with these people.  Yesterday Mika stopped by the Center to give me some special udon noodles.  Her parents were in the car waiting for her, so I went down to meet them and they were very nice.  I’m very glad that I got to meet them and they can see who their daughter is spending time with.  It’s very hard to meet Japanese families, and you are seldom invited into their homes, so I’m glad God provided that opportunity for me to meet them. 

  On another note, the ladies on my team met up today for a prayer time.  I am so excited that I get to serve with these wonderful women.  They are great, and I feel like I am going to learn so much from them.  Aki said today that it seems I’ve been here for such a long time already…she has to remind herself that I’ve only been here for a few weeks.  She said I fit in perfectly.  Isn’t that how God works?  🙂

Well, it’s been a week since I’ve sent out an update by email, so I thought I better get one out to you all.  Yes, I’m still alive and loving it out here.  I haven’t had any culture shock, although the reality of what a year means, and halfway around the world, sunk this this week more than any other since I’ve been here.  It brought pretty much a day of heartache, but I have the peace of God that He knows what He’s doing and why I had to be separated from you all for the next year. 

After International Cafe, I have felt much more at ease with my teammates and with my Japanese.  I’m actually starting to remember the names and faces I thought I never could!  Ha.  🙂  I feel more comfortable in my classes and with lesson planning, so things all around are just going great.  I haven’t explored any new restaurants yet, but Samantha and I are planning an excursion this afternoon for lunch and a haircut (for her…I’m not that brave yet!).  There’s a whole in the wall restaurant just a block down from the Center called Brasserie Quixote…a strange mix of language in Japan, but I have always loved the story of Don Quixote the Man of La Mancha, so it’s been my desire to go for some time now.  I’ll post the results in my blog.  🙂 

On other notes, Pastor Tony is on a month-ish long retreat through the US, speaking at Liberty University and a couple churches, and then going to his parents’ 50th wedding anniversary in…Montana, I believe.  Please pray for him and his son Titus and the handful of Japanese church members who are with them.  On another pastor note, PT, I was able to bring up your sermons on the computer in the main office!  No worries, I will still be able to learn about the Beatitudes!  Heh.  It was great to hear something from home, I really enjoyed listening to the past few weeks, it made me feel like I was almost back at FFBC. 

Yesterday, Ihad both my best class and my worst class. The best class, my Super Kids 1 class, is made up of 4 1st grade boys and 1 girl.  They are so great!  I just want to eat them up whenever they’re in class.  Yesterday, I was trying to get them to understand “Stop!”  I made a motion with my hands, moving down and out from my body at my sides.  Without even blinking, Hayato made the same motion and yelled out, “SAFE!”  From then on…whenever they finished something…be it the stack of cards to learn numbers, or the cards to learn colors, or even coloring the crayons on the pages…they all yelled out “SAFE!”  It was the most amazing thing I had seen in a while.  My other class…my Super Kids 2 (aka Super Demons), finally caught on to the whole potato chip rewards system. As promised, they only received one potato chip each this week…and they were so distraught over it, the played Rock Paper Scissors to decide who ate their chip first.  With the goal of a whole bag of chips for next week, they were absolutely perfect.  Playing Hangman with them was another story…we’ll have to work on that concept. 

Yesterday I looked up Shimonoseki on Wikipedia and was sad to see that they only list about 10 notable sites for the region.  There is so much more to do around here than just go to the Wharf, the Aquarium, the Kaiko Messe Tower, Castletown and the Akama Shrine.  Me being the easily amused person I am can think of dozens of great things for the city.  I was sad.  It would be like saying the joys of Cincinnati are restricted to Newport, the Great American Ballpark, the Zoo, and the Museum of Natural History. 

On my way to church today for my Saturday morning class…I passed an eldery woman with blue hair.  Like she had taken a blue marker and run it all through her hair.  I’m learning so much here!  🙂  Keep me in your prayers, this ministry, and the leadership here.  There are some amazing people here and I’m so glad that I get to work with them for the next year.  Also, you could start praying now for God to raise up English teachers for the Center. After July, I’ll be the only one truly on staff…and then someone else should be coming later on, but it’ll be tight.  Pray about it, maybe God is asking YOU to come out here.  (It should be a single lady…as long as I’m living at the Center…but after I’m gone, it can be two single guys.) Regardless…if you ask, they are sure to be willing to work with you.  I appreciate your prayers and your emails.  They are a joy in my week.  God bless ya!

In Him,
Sarah ><>

Well…not literally…well…it is raining here, an awful lot, which always brings down spirits.  Today has been a strange series of events…which have no collective meaning except that they provide some musing for me this evening.  This morning we had our cell group Bible Study.  We decided that we are going to read through 1 Timothy sequentially several times throughout the week and then discuss what we got out of it in our group.  We couldn’t find the CDs for the worship songs, so we did most of them acapella with me leading, poorly…but then I got up the nerve and offered to sit at the piano and play around for some songs.  It was great…and when we got down there, we found the CDs, but decided to stick with the piano for a couple songs.  I enjoyed it, and they seemed to enjoy it as well, despite my pitiful piano playing skills.  Aki couldn’t make it to cell group because she and Taka were at the doctor’s getting their first sonogram!  The baby is now 10cm long, and they said it was moving around a lot, and you could see its spine and some features.  Very cool.  I’m still pretty sure I don’t want one…but I love hearing about it for others and getting excited for them.

Today I got to write and mail a letter that I was thoroughly excited to write and mail.  I’m really enjoying walking down to the post office to mail my letters off.  It’s pretty fun.  They know me in there now and we don’t exchange much conversation…but as I pick up on the language, I hope that will change. They’re really nice.  On my way from the train station to the church, I passed several groups of kids who had just been released from school.  One cluster of jr high girls walked by and one said, “Hello!”  and when I said hello back, they giggled all the way down the street.  It was a long street…and I think I giggled just as much as they did.  It’s kind of fun being a celebrity-of sorts.

Classes were a little more difficult today.  The women in my Wednesday class are so much more reserved and stand-offish.  I have such a hard time getting them to open up.  The two women are school teachers, 3rd grade, I think.  The other is a college student…so they are all pretty busy.  Here in Japan, at the younger grades, the teachers visit the families of their students.  They get to know the families and what the child’s daily life is like.  Pretty interesting…and I think maybe something that might be helpful for our own classrooms back home.  So, Miwa had spent most of the afternoon and evening visiting families, in the rain.  I did not envy her.  She’s doing it all this week.  She’s the one whose son killed himself a few months ago.  We’re still not sure of the circumstances or the timeline, because they are very weird about death here.  They don’t talk about it…especially when it’s suicide.  It’s probably the biggest shame a child can put on their parents, to die before they do.  I believe her son was in his late 20s, maybe 30s..I’m not sure.

Misa, brought in an article on the G7 meeting on the economic stability of the US.  It was so strange to hear her reading through all this economic jargon and then ask me to explain it to her.  How do you explain a crisis that reverberates throughout the world?  Very carefully.  She seemed to enjoy my examples and illustrations.  We never do a Bible time in her class…so it was neat to be able to talk about world peace and whether we think it could ever be.  I didn’t feel an opening to say that only with Christ can there be world peace, and He will make it so in the end.  But I left it that people are too selfish all around the world and therefore could never be at peace with each other.  She agreed.  So strange, discussing politics and whatnot in Japan…I rarely do it in America.  🙂

A great travesty befell my little domicile just moments ago – I discovered that I cannot view LOST or The Office on my laptop while i’m out of the country.  Something like they know I’m in Japan, and the shows aren’t released here yet…soooo, I’m stuck!  How terrible is that??!  I don’t think I’m going to know what to do with myself.  It’s like a whole piece of my life has just been ripped away from me. 

On a more enthusiastic note, the Bible Times went really well in my classes today…at least I think they did.  Brian handled the little kids class…but I do the ladies’ class myself.  They have a pretty good handle on English, but I also have Nakayama-san (our Anna, of Luke 2) in there to translate what little she can and explain the Bible Stories if there is any confusion.  Today, we read through the Easy Reader’s Bible story of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin.  They are small stories, but really hard for them to understand.  I remember when I was in China, the first one to come to Christ did so after going through these stories and the story of the Prodigal Son.  They have always meant something special to me and I was so excited that we were at the point to cover them.  The ladies had a hard time…one was Tomoko who had come on Saturday to International Cafe.  I found out that she works for a bank here in Shimonoseki, and lives in Chofu.  She and Reiko-san were very interested in my activities during the holiday break we’ll have in a couple weeks.  But, back to the Bible…we went through the story, connecting the dots between the characters in the parables and the events in heaven.  Nakayama-san had to do extra work in explanation, but I ended it by saying that at one time I was a lost sheep, I was a lost coin.  But I’m so happy that God cares enough about me that He went out to find me.  And he cares about you that much too.  It was really neat.  I’m praying that they think about that over the next few weeks.  I won’t see them again for three weeks.  Reiko-san will be doing a special tea ceremony in two days at a shrine near Karato and the big bridge.  It’s a beautiful shrine…but it makes me wonder how much religion is connected with the tea ceremony.  I almost wish that there wasn’t this semi-permanent ban on visiting the shrines, because I would love to see the ceremony and learn about it. 

Also, Rinka, in my Tues Super Kids class, could not keep her finger out of her nose.  You all would be proud of me, I did not freak out.  I simply motioned for her to remove it and then watched in horror as she licked her finger.  Surprisingly, I still love that kid.  🙂

I had such an educational day today.  For one, we have some visitors from a church in Virginia called Cherrydale Baptist.  They are supporters of the church here in Shimonoseki, and the new missions directors, Ed and Kathy Grudier, decided that over the next several years, they will be making the rounds and visiting all the missionaries the church supports so they can raise awareness and support for them back home.  It’s an amazing project they have and I’m so jealous!  They are going to be able to go all over the world to visit these missionaries and meet with the body of Christ in so many different countries.  I would love it!  They were formerly missionaries to Turkey themselves, and so they had some interesting stories to share with us as well.

They came to the joint service here at the Center yesterday, but today was a more intimate meet and greet with them at Kawanaka.  Taka and Aki came by the Center to pick up me and Nakayama-san to travel over and meet them.  Even though Monday is my day off, and I live and work at the Center, I still have such an obligation to be at as many church events I can make it too…they are, after all, forking over money for me to be here and live in their facilities.  I owe it to the congregation for them to get to know me and fellowship with each other as much as possible.  The most exciting part about this meeting was that I got to hear how a lot of my Japanese brothers and sisters came to Christ.  It was so neat.  Some of the stories were incredible.

Many of them are from Buddhist backgrounds, and while the Japanese are not violent when it comes to converting to another religion, like the Muslims, they have a rigid social structure which persecutes in its own way anyone who would deviate from the norm.  There are lot of similarities between Buddhist and Muslim cultures that I wasn’t aware of before today.  Some of the churchmembers said that their families were horrified that they would want to become a Christian.  It would make them a traitor to their family, to their ancestors, to their house.  One woman was going to church regularly, but couldn’t get over that fact.  She decided to leave the church, but couldn’t get it out of her head that there was still Truth in Christianity.  She was having problems compromising what her ancestors would think and what she should do.  Tony showed her exactly what her ancestors were thinking, by showing her the story of Lazarus and the rich man.  After the man complained about his own condition, he cried out for his family to be told the truth before they ended up in the place he was in. (Luke 16:19-31)  She accepted Christ right there.

We also went through the attributes of God that were most dear to us.  I’ll just put a list here for you:

Absolute Truth & Love
Forgiveness of Sins
Marvelous Power of God
Accessibility
Faithfulness and Patience
Unchanging Love
Unconditional Love
The Way, the Truth, and the Life
Trinity of God & John 14:6
The Ministry of the Holy Spirit
The Cross of Jesus
Peace of God
Guidance and Leadership
Mercy & Gracious Forgiveness

It was a beautiful morning to hear the life stories of those people, the different trials they went through prior to finding how much God loved them.  Another educating moment for me was that I was sitting there with all the people around me gabbing in Japanese…and I felt completely content.  I have known it before, that wherever I am, I am at home, because my heart is with Christ and He is with me always.  I am travelling in the whole world as a stranger, as an alien resident for only a moment, even in southwest Ohio.

Oh, I’ve been picking up some more Japanese…I can listen in on conversations and pick out a few words that I know.  I shared my adventure with Tony today about going to get lunch last Friday and he was really pleased.  I guess no one else has been really that adventurous so early in the game…so I was pleased.  I’m still a little bummed that the rest of you back home felt an earthquake before I did though!  But I have heard that I have no worries…I should feel one soon enough.  🙂  Thanks for the messages recently from everyone!  They are really encouraging to me!  God bless!

PS.  I would encourage all of you to find the soundbite of David Crowder Band from A Collision CD.  The track is called “The Story of Marty Stuart and the Rather Understated Jacket”.  It’s fairly amusing.  🙂   Oh, and the song “Above All Else” by Wendy O’Connell is a new favorite of mine.  You should check it.

Ok…translation…yesterday, I went to Karato.  🙂  Another one: to no shi mi ma sh’da.  Translation…I liked it.  🙂

Yes…I learned some Japanese tonight!!!  And I learned it from my Chinese friend, Sakura.  I, personally, like her Chinese name better than her self-given Japanese name, but what can I say about it.  Her name in Chinese means, Golden Swallow…like the bird.  Isn’t it pretty?  I think so.  We went to Karato tonight…but first, let me start earlier in the day.

It was gorgeous today!  Absolutely lovely…a little on the chilled side…but that’s ok.  I had a letter to mail out, so after doing my lesson plans for the day, I walked over to the post office and dropped it off.  The girl at the counter kind of laughed at me wearing short sleeves.  I just smiled at her and said, “yeah…”  heh.  I think I defy their conventions at times…with my short sleeves and flip-flops.  They all point them out whenever I’m out.  It’s kind of funny…I’m known for it here…makes me feel at home.  Hah.

After going to the post office..I just kept walking…and walking…and walking…and I eventually crossed the little waterway to Hikoshima.  It’s not far…maybe a mile from the Center, but I kept walking…taking a right once I crossed over, and then I decided I was hungry, being that it was 12:15p.  So…I grabbed my handy dandy phrasebook which the Davis’ were soooo kind to give me.  I started skimming through some of the phrases I could use to find food.  I found one I thought was pretty good, and I passed a man and a woman standing on the sidewalk.  I turned about and said, “watashi wa yu don ga i dess.”  which means, I would like rice noodles and soup.  I had no idea how to ask where I could eat yu don…but that didn’t matter  The man understood and motioned right to the building next to us.  He said, very good.  So, I walked in, to a four-table restaurant…maybe 10 ft x 8 ft as the room dimensions.  It was tiny, and four people were already crammed into the space.  I soon realized that the man outside was eating there as well and knew the owners personally.  He ordered my noodles for me.  I was much obliged.  I looooove hole-in-the-wall restaurants…and Samantha is kind of frightened by them.  So, with my extremely limited Japanese, I began to eat my $5 yu don with chicken…and loved every minute.  The man’s wife (introduced to me as, “My wife!”) gave me a rice ball with nori on it…it was yummy as well.  After a while, the man and his wife left, and wished me the best…well, i think that’s what they said…I’m not sure, but I did catch sayonara.  Three women came in and sat at the table across from me.  After eating for a little bit, I felt something.  I looked over and discovered that they were all three staring intently at me.  One made the motion for chopsticks and said something, and I said I didn’t understand.  Another said, “very good”.  Since I only have a handle on a few nouns, that’s all I could tell them.  “watashi eigo sensai” “I english teacher”.  I said where I taught and they knew what it was…making the shape of the cross with their hands.  It was fun.  They all waved goodbye to me as I left.  I was thoroughly pleased with my experience.  And the noodles were extremely yummy…and a good price.  i’ll have to go back again sometime soon. 

This afternoon, I had my super demon class.  I told them I’d bring potato chips next week if they were good.  They weren’t, so they got a mark on the board…and if they had three marks by the end of class, they wouldn’t get any chips.  They ended with two marks…and were so glad that they would still get potato chips.  I’m going to give them chips, but only one each…since that’s all they earned really.  One each.  I hope they take me seriously.  They’re third grade and such.  I wanted to strangle each one.  I hope their parents don’t read this. 

Tonight, Sakura dropped into the Center and sat with me as I finished dinner.  Then, we decided to go get puri-kuri done (photobooth pictures).  Then, she surprised me and asked if I wanted to go to Karato, which had an amazing view, especially at night with all the lights.  I said, sure…and 25 minutes later, we were down by the aquarium and Shimonoseki Bridge, looking at the Kamon Strait.  It was so much fun.  I got a picture of the largest plate in the world, according to Guinness.  Yep…I saw the world’s largest plate.  Feeds 500 people.  Weighs 250 kg.  In 2.5m in radius.  Pretty amazing.  Ok..I think that’s it for my day.  It was very neat.  I have to do a lesson plan.  Later!!