What's a Girl To Do?

One small thing that we have noticed in our time here is that there are very different cultural faux pas from Canada. For example, walking down the street and eating are considered by many to be quite rude. Picking your nose as you walk down the street is completely acceptable; however, one of the rudest things you can do here is to blow your nose in public. I recently read in the National Geographic Traveler Guide to Japan that of the three absolute non-nos in Japan, “nose-blowing is so frowned upon that you should try to sniff and dab discreetly with a handkerchief until you can retire and blow your nose in private.” Until now, this cultural taboo has been only a minor annoyance. Many times, students in class will sniffle the entire 40 minutes, and I would just like to tell them (very kindly of course), “it’s okay, go ahead and blow your nose….really!” But, yesterday morning, I woke up, feeling rather miserable and with my nose completely stuffed up. I have a little pile of Kleenex beside me as I am writing this. Yesterday, in one of my lessons, I had to pause the lesson three times to ask for a Kleenex, because I had left mine in the staff room. All that to say, it’s been a bit of a challenge going into classes and trying to maintain a “professional” appearance when all you are doing is sniffing and dabbing and wanting more than anything to blow your nose!

Merry Christmas!

May you truly celebrate our Lord's birth.

It's been a noisy few days!

This grand snow-storm of ours it has been quite the interesting experience. The Japanese people are some of the most prepared around. I have never seen so many people with snow chains in my life! Everything from buses and taxicabs to... yes, the microvans! It was quite the clickety - clankity day (I even saw one bicycle with what looked like a tire chain!) Check out this picture (of course it's a minivan, I am developing a fondness for them!):

A Few Trivial Events

Things That Made Me Happy This Week:
-waking up to a dusting off snow on the ground
-finding apples on sale (only 58 yen, as opposed to the usual of anywhere from 98 to 158 yen)
-making apple crisp (and eating it!)
-heated toilet seats
-our landlady: I seriously think we have the best landlady in the world! She took time off work to help us move in with her truck, she brought us cake when she came back from holidays, last week she randomly dropped by with some specialty tarts, and this week, with her bonus, she treated us to dinner!
-being able to try to learn Japanese and the generosity of our teacher!
-conversations with friends and family
-packages and letters in the mail
-biking everywhere! (although, sometimes in this weather it's a bit "fresh")
-having my bike parked right where I left it!

Things That Made Me Sad This Week
-missing the family Christmas gatherings
-seeing the commercialism of Christmas, but not even a trace of the real meaning of it
-not being able to celebrate my brother's birthday with him
-being too far away to have a cup of tea and a nice long talk with my mama
-the fact that our heater is on the fritz

Hardly a White Christmas

I was riding my bike to work today and noticed what looked like some dust...but then, a single snowflake landed on my jacket! It didn't last for more than 3 seconds, and there was certainly none of the fluffy white stuff on the ground, but it made my day. It is the only snow that I have seen here so far. Maybe I'm not as much of a winter-hater as I thought I was.

Seito and Kyooshi

The other day, I had my first Japanese lesson. Before you start thinking poorly of me for the fact that we have lived here for over three months and have not yet learned Japanese, consider the fact that first, while still in Canada, I checked books out from the library in an effort to teach myself. After that didn’t happen as well as hoped, we looked into actual lessons when we first came here: unfortunately the beginner lessons were only offered at a time when we both worked. So, having heard that there were volunteers who taught Japanese, we left our information, but were warned that our chances weren’t good, as volunteers like the students to have at least some language experience. So, back to the drawing board, and on to the internet, where I tried to teach myself Katakana: only to get part way through memorizing the alphabet before the site crashed and I was no longer allowed on.
With that as an introduction to learning Japanese, I was pretty excited to have an actual lesson. I have no expectations of being fluent in the short time that we will be here; however, it would be quite advantageous to know at least a few basics of communication. I’m sure I’ll be able to say much more intellectual and accurate things in a while, but for now, I have learned that in terms of learning this particular language, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that the tenses are quite simple: it’s either past or present/future. None of this had gone; was going; had been; was going to go; went; etc, etc. It just doesn’t exist! The bad news is that in terms of writing it, there are 3 alphabets used, and then mixed all together. Any regular sentence may use a mixture of Katakana, Hiragana, and Kanji. To add to the fun, there aren’t only 26 letters in each: it’s about twice that in the first two, and thousands more in Kanji (Chinese characters)!
And so, a little bit nervous and a little bit excited, I went to see what I could learn. It was great fun, and the lady was more nervous than I was (it was her first time teaching). I came away with the feeling that there was a strange mixture of things going on. In many ways, it is like returning to kindergarten, to the very basics, and learning to read for the first time (“What letter is this? What sound does it make?”). In other ways, the task itself is so totally overwhelming: the necessity of learning and recognizing and memorizing and writing characters, learning words, learning grammatical rules, counting, (there are different ways to count for different objects: people, long thin objects, thin flat objects, levels of an apartment, houses, small animals and insects, etc, etc)! Where do you start?? In other ways, it’s a bit like playing mad gab: Ra – do –ne –e (My own dear “Rodney”)! Or this one: Ra –su – to sa –mu- ra-i?

I Sleep With My Hairdresser

Last night, I cut Rod’s hair. And then, equipped with an old fitted sheet (as a cape), dollar store scissors, and a chopstick, he did the same to me.

Mount Shosha Musings

Recently, we, along with a friend, visited Mount Shosha, an entire complex of Buddhist temples with over a thousand years’ history on top of the mountain. Although it is a local tourist attraction in its own right, it has of late become more famous as the site of the filming of The Last Samurai. After taking a cable car up to the top, we climbed the rest of the way up. We were blessed with another beautiful fall day: the trees on the surrounding mountains were changing colour, the air was crisp, the sun was shining, and the trees on Shosha were some of the most brilliant I have seen in Japan.
Despite the day we were both left wondering at what we, as Christians, are to do in a place such as this. It is an entire mountain dedicated to that which we do not believe in. Are we somehow immune from the spirituality that exists in such places? Are the temples only fascinating architecture and historical buildings? Or are we to be aware of what they truly represent? And yet, through Christ’s death, He “disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Col 2:15). Having said that, it does not deny their existence: are we still to be conscious of these powers? Are we to show our respect in such places (such as take off our shoes)? Or is this an act of reverence that should be reserved only for the True God? Or, is it a sign not of respect for the religion, but for the people who follow it?
How then, shall we live?