Sapporo Short Term Mission (Dec 2007)

20/11/2007AD - 11 Days and Counting

2008-01-31T08:40:00.000+10:00

Date: Tuesday, 20th November 2007AD – 11 days and counting
Time: 2:40pm
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Current Mood: Apprehensive

What happened:
Still preparing for the trip ahead. There is so much to do at the moment that I feel swamped. Picking away at the iceberg slowly today and has been fruitful – I’ve finally done up the prayer requests for our blog and Facebook friends.

Looking forward to:
…getting there! By then all the stresses of the things to do now can be dropped and we can focus on the upcoming mission.

Interesting thing I noticed today:
Have been reading through a booklet titled ‘Countdown to Mission’ by Keith Appelgate from Kenmore Baptist. He notes, with great insight, on the Day 14 devotion that the trip ‘seems to be galloping towards you’. That it certainly does!

24/11/2007AD - 6 Days to go

2008-01-30T07:30:00.000+10:00

Date: 24 November 2007 (6 days to go)
Time: 1:30pm
Location: Home
Current Mood: Tired

What happened:
Last night it dawned on us again how soon we would be leaving for Japan. In some ways I feel completely unprepared for the trip. I haven’t mentally prepared myself for the task ahead, nor prayed nearly enough about it.

I feel tired, and now I have to go and vote for the Australian Federal Election. There still feels like so much to do and so little time.

I also feel like I talk much about how I’m thinking things through, when really I haven’t been.

Looking forward to:
Getting all that we need to do done before we leave. Also looking forward to resting.

Interesting thing I noticed today:
Election day was quieter than I thought it would be.

30/11/2007AD - Liftoff!

2008-01-29T19:30:00.000+10:00

Date: 30 November 2007 AD
Time: 7:30pm
Location: Sydney International Airport – Gate 33
Current Mood: Tired

What happened:
At the Brisbane domestic terminal we met Brad’s family. Really good to see them and greatly encouraged that they would turn out to send him off – compared to the Asian families which left us at the front door and waved us off.

After an uneventful plane trip we touched down at the Sydney domestic terminal and quickly ran into Ivan Choe, who I understand travels to Melbourne weekly for work and flies ‘home’ to Sydney on Friday afternoons. He caught us as we were walking along and we had dinner with him.

Now have another few hours before the flight out and I’m feeling both tired, yet relaxed. My feet hurt and are sweaty thanks to the super-warm boots I have – which is a good sign for how they’ll handle in the coldness of Japan!

Looking forward to:
Touching down, getting some sleep, testing out the camera in the cold.

Interesting thing I noticed today:
Should have broken in my boots earlier…but oh well.

Interesting food I ate today:
In an effort to avoid anything Asian, Steph and I tucked into some ‘Red Rooster’. Mel also bought a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts which was a nice finish. I think they’ll also serve us supper and breakfast on the plane.

01/12/2007AD - Touchdown

2008-01-28T15:40:00.000+10:00

Date: 1 December 2007AD
Time: 9:40pm
Location: Ichikawa, Japan
Current Mood: Exhausted, but excited!

What happened:
The overnight flight was relatively uneventful. However, something in the meal they served didn't agree with me and made it's way back up. Not pleasant, but at least I felt better afterwards. Didn’t get much sleep either and was awoken around 4am for the QANTAS staff to serve breakfast. Attempted to watch ‘The Simpsons Movie’ but was cut short by about 30 minutes as the plane was 'preparing for landing'.

We landed at Narita Airport around 6am where we met Kenton Samuel for the first time. He looked remarkably different to the photo he sent via his ‘Japan Team’ email…probably because he no longer had small dreadlocks and also because he had glasses on. Kenton hails from Britain and has the same sense of humour as Aussies do, which means we get his jokes. We then met Steve Weemes who is an American and a little bit more forward in his comments, but I think that comes with the turf. Spent the next few moments waiting to meet the Sydney team who had lost themselves at the airport.

Packed our bags then took the train to our Ichikawa* residence. Train ride was approximately 1 hour long with some interesting scenery along the way – despite the windows fogging up 10 minutes into the ride.

Went through some basic orientation for the day including finance, emergency procedures, and general things about the OMF vision. Struggled to stay awake during the latter due to lack of energy and, as I found out later, the coffee I was having was decaf…

Highlight of the day was going on a Cultural Scavenger Hunt which lead us through the heart of Ichikawa’s district. It was a really great time to get to see the city for ourselves and make various observations.

Dinner was had at an Italian/Fusion restaurant chain which was pretty average, but cheap. Later that evening Brad, Jay and myself went looking for shoes for me (my boots were killing me all day) but this didn’t eventuate into anything unfortunately.

Looking forward to:

Getting some good rest tonight
Church service tomorrow morning
Dinner tomorrow evening at a nice Japanese restaurant

Interesting thing I noticed today:

Not all Japanese look the same – I was genuinely surprised at this (though I shouldn’t have been!). Japanese come in all shapes and sizes and I was surprised to seem some look alikes throughout the day (Mark Wee, Andrew Young’s sister, Steve Chong…)
Hardly anyone uses their car horns despite all the traffic on the roads – apparently a sign of strong self-control/face
Lots of people ride bicycles – including very old women and women in their mid-40’s who seem to be done up so well
Engrish is real and common!
Lots of vending machines with little cans/bottles (150mls), apparently it’s considered rude and lacking in self-control to eat/drink on the go. So the vending machines have small bottles designed for people to drink on the spot and throw away before walking off.
Lots and lots of recycling – three specific bins for ‘plastics’, ‘burnable’, ‘non-burnable’

Interesting food I ate today:
Goyoza – Japanese dumplings which weren’t as tasty as ones I’ve had back home in Brisbane
Teriyaki Burger – which consisted of a burger bun and teriyaki flavoured patty
Hamburg steak with crumbed shrimp – very average as the ‘steak’ was actually just a burger patty

*Ichikawa is situated South-East of Tokyo City, approximately 20 minutes by train from the city centre.

02/12/2007AD - Chapel + More Orientation

2008-01-27T20:15:00.000+10:00

Date: 2nd December 2007AD
Time: 10:15pm
Location: Ichikawa, OMF Guest House
Current Mood: Very tired

What happened:
So much happened today!
Breakfast in the guest house lounge was simple enough, coffee and toast. We then finished off our introductions from yesterday with prayers for each other then Kenton took us through some things regarding language and translation.

We then went to the 11:30am Chapel service which was interesting. The whole service was run in Japanese, but we had been provided with an English translation earlier. Service was quite conservative with the use of hymns and an organ. Lunch was served after the service.

We then went through some more orientation stuff – religions of Japan and language.

Dinner was at a local Japanese restaurant which was a little less traditional than we expected.

Back for more language and now here.

Looking forward to:
Seeing Sapporo, but have been informed that it will be very cold. Also looking forward to getting more good sleep tonight.

Interesting thing I noticed today:

Learnt a great deal of how Japanese have a very syncretistic culture/system of belief – pick and choose the best of each religion in a mish-mash of identity
The Japanese language does not have tones – it has expressions, but no tones as such – so it’s hard to tell when a sentence starts and when it finishes
The preacher was excellent, despite me not understanding a word he said – rarely used his notes and was quite energetic. The translation of the talk seemed solid, so solid biblical teaching is alive and well.
Church growth in Japan has been notoriously slow, and we got our explanation as to why:

Christianity was introduced during the 1500’s by a Catholic priest and spread quickly. However, Buddhist monks became alarmed that the Christians were growing in number and were, in a lot of ways, taking revenue away from their services. They asked the powers to get rid of the Christians which they did. The Tokugowa government at the same time instilled a ‘state of fear’ and closed the country to all outside contact. This created a foundation for the country’s people to be generally closed to relationships and opening up – since the Tokugowa government set up each community member to spy on one another. Only has the more recent generation moved away from this inherited baggage and are we seeing growth in the church amongst the youth
I am now addicted to Japanese flavoured rice crackers!

Interesting food I ate today:
Lunch: sushi triangles/sesame rice, deep fried calamari, potato wedge and boiled egg – more filling than expected
Dinner: sashimi, quality of the fish was excellent

03/12/2007AD - Ichikawa to Sapporo

2008-01-26T23:20:00.000+10:00

Date: 3rd December 2007AD
Time: 11:20pm
Location: Sapporo, OMF Guest House
Current Mood: Tired and excited!

What happened:
After a quick breakfast we met with various OMF missionaries from around Japan to pray for OMF and it’s work around the world. I had a chance to meet with a couple – Peter and Janet Dalmond – who will be working in Sapporo shortly (they come in a few days). It was a highly encouraging time of prayer and sharing and meeting others from around Japan whilst getting in on God’s work.

We then took our bags for a long ‘stroll’ to the train station: very tiring work carrying 20kg+ bags up stairs and on the train. Had a cheap lunch at the airport – chicken curry, which had a scant serving of chicken. Flight to Sapporo via JAL (Japan Air-Lines) was relatively unpacked. Slept for a bit and we landed around 4:00pm, but by this time the sun was already setting and it felt much later to us. Met Richard East and was surprised to see how young he was!

Moved into the guest house in Sapporo, which was recently acquired and we were one of the first groups to be using the facilities. Also met Stephanie, a girl from the UK also on a short-term mission (5 weeks) taking care of Missionary Kids, and Manuella, the daughter of Wolfgang (director of OMF in Japan). Manuella and Stephanie served us dinner of Ramen noodles with crispy bacon, boiled egg and seaweed – which was very yummy!

Later that evening we all piled into Richard’s van to head to the local supermarket. We practically bought out the whole store, but in reality the shopping carts only made it feel this way because they were tiny!

Showered, had some dessert, chatted with Mel and Jay for a little while, then went to bed.

Looking forward to:

Beginning our work doing some leaflet dropping tomorrow
Snow!
Meeting the people of Sapporo

Interesting thing I noticed today:

All the people on our flight had either khaki or black coloured jackets
There is a great sense of harmony and order to Japanese society – hard to pin down exactly what that is, but I don’t ever get the sense that things might go crazy at any given moment
When the temperature drops below 0 degrees Celsius, it all feels the same = cold!
Serving sizes for meals in Japan tend to be smaller than I’m use to

Interesting food I ate today:
Chicken Curry – airport food – expensive, but nasty
Ramen noodles with crispy bacon, seaweed and boiled egg - Sapporo is famous for Ramen, and even though this was an 'instant' variety it was still very delicious.

04/12/2007AD - Leaflet Drop

2008-01-25T22:00:00.000+10:00

Date: 4th December 2007AD
Time: 10:00pm
Location: Sapporo, OMF Guest House
Current Mood: Tired, relieved, overwhelmed

What happened:
Began the morning with devotions from Ruth 1, which I shared. I focused on God’s sovereignty despite the tragic circumstances and how Ruth reminds us that God is always at work. How this would prove so true later this evening.

We then went leaflet dropping around the Satsunae Lighthouse church. We were paired off and I went off briefly by myself at some apartment buildings. Richard met with me shortly afterwards and we hit another block of homes. I got to meet a few people and also handed them some leaflets.

Richard and I got back around 12:30pm and chatted a little whilst we waited for the other pairs to get back. Come 2:00pm and we finally headed off to the OMF headquarters to have lunch – which was a mix of packet soup, bread and goyoza. We then had more meeting and planning stuff to do. Felt extremely tired throughout the whole meeting.

Peter and Mary then went to dinner with Steve and Saeko Manders, whilst the rest of us went to a local Jap restaurant for dinner. It was like a canteen – pick up your food on a tray and pay for it at the end. I’m glad that I ordered the large rice, as my condiment portions were, again, rather small. After dinner we then went to a nearby 100yen store to pick up 'hand warmers' (little heat packs for our pockets), which would be used for tomorrow’s leaflet drop.

I also had a very scary episode of having lost my wallet, only to find it later in my computer bag. Praise God! My wonderful wife redirected my anxiety and annoyance back to the devotion from this morning. How truly wonderful she is :)

Looking forward to:
I am looking forward to getting some rest and doing something other than meetings and planning. We’ve had almost four days of just meetings and planning, so it was good this morning to get out, but want to do that more. I also have to stop thinking of this mission as a holiday, since we are doing work!

Interesting thing I noticed today:

I’m totally addicted to all the ricecracker snacks
Japanese people tend to eat a heck of a lot of processed foods – and consequently also have tonnes of wasted packaging
Japanese food sizing is also much less than I’m expecting or hoping for – I should drink more water to compensate

Interesting food I ate today:
Nothing really of note. I had a Katsu Chicken tonight which was alright, but nothing spectacular.

05/12/2007AD - Lost

2008-01-24T23:55:00.000+10:00

Date: 5th December 2007AD
Time: 11:55pm
Location: Sapporo, OMF Guest House
Current Mood: Tired but excited

What happened:
Another good morning’s devotion and prayer, people sharing their thoughts on Ruth and how great it is.

We then went leaflet dropping again for most of the morning. Brad and Richard and I got lost on the way to our designated 'drop' area and only found our way when we realised we were further North of the map than intended – this caused problems with the areas we were leafleting since we overlapped a little between the pairs. Lunch was from a Japanese equivalent of a ‘takeaway’ store, but of better quality than in Aus!

We then headed into town afterwards to have a coffee at the Radio tower in the middle of the city. Coffee was had at a restaurant which was almost metaphoric of Japanese identity – a grab bag of different things from around the world. We were, however, treated to a rather large coffee serving size as well as a great view of the Christmas lights as the evening light faded away.

We then took a brisk 20 minute walk to the Sapporo International Church, stopping by a ‘Lawsons’ convenience store to pick up dinner. We went to the SIC to help out with their English Corner type of ministry which included a bible study run in English. It was a highly encouraging time of getting to know new people, playing games and studying God’s word together. A timely encouragement in what has been a rather hectic couple of days.

Looking forward to:
Getting more rest and some time off together as a team. I’m also looking forward and getting excited about the Saturday night event (despite the concerns about rehearsals), and also excited about the possibility of returning to the SIC English speaking ministry.

Interesting thing I noticed today:

Whilst on our letter box drop, I noticed that hardly any Japanese people rug up to the extent as we did: jackets and scarves, yes – but hardly any beanies, no ear-muffs and there were plenty of high school girls wearing mini-skirts! Freezing!
Japanese people tend to look emotionless as they walk down the street. I have two theories for this – 1: The freezing cold weather has frozen people’s faces so it hurts to move or show expression. 2: most people feel a sense of hopelessness in their lives.
All the houses look the same

Interesting food I ate today:
Not much to report again: lunch was a beef katsudon – beef with egg and rice, which was nice and cheap.
Dinner was soba noodles from the convenience store with one morsel of pork, nice, but average.

06/12/2007AD - OMF End of Year Prayer Day

2008-01-23T00:00:00.000+10:00

Date: 6th December 2007AD
Time: n/a
Location: OMF Guest House, Sapporo
Current Mood: n/a

What happened:
Had a brief prayer session this morning as most of us started late, and we were to walk to the OMF HQ. Didn’t get to share my devotion on Ruth 3, but that was ok because I felt under-prepared.

Spent the whole day in prayer. Felt so tired throughout and was nodding off to sleep on many occasions. I didn’t have the energy to go through it.

Lunch was from a local supermarket, I had a bento box with karage chicken and rice, which was surprisingly filling. I also bought a bottle of Gatorade for 100yen!

Dinner was a home cooked meal and the evening was spent singing songs in rehearsal for Saturday.

Later in the night, around 10:30pm, Alex, Manuela and a few girls came around. Apparently it was a little noisy for the resident missionaries which was unfortunate, but it was a good time for the girls to meet.

Looking forward to:
Having some time off tomorrow!

Interesting thing I noticed today:

They warned us before, but it still felt strange, that in the supermarket the checkout chick was constantly chatting away - they apparently just tell you everything you've purchased and how much it costs (ie - you have on bottle of Gatorade which is 105 yen, two cans of tomatoes which are 50 yen each which makes 100 yen...etc)

Interesting food I ate today:
Nothing of note. The Bento was good. I should have taken a photo of it, but didn’t remember!

07/12/2007AD Engineers, English, Okonomiyaki

2008-01-22T21:00:00.000+10:00

Date: 7th December 2007AD
Time: 9:00pm
Location: OMF Guest House, Sapporo
Current Mood: Chilling

What happened:
A somewhat less hectic day today, which was fine by most of us!

We started off with breakfast and devotion. I woke up early to finish some photos and newsletter stuff, which was sent out later that morning. I also had the first of my two noodle bowls for breakfast, which weren’t too bad. Your average 2min noodles, but slightly nicer noodles.

We then headed to the OMF HQ for some orientation stuff. Whilst Jay and Melina went off to do some prep for their Sunagawa trip (an overnight inland teaching excursion), the rest of us sat through a lecture on how to lead a Japanese person through bible study. It was quite insightful and prepared most of us better should we end up leading a bible study with a Japanese person in the future. I felt tired throughout the session and had droopy eyes, unfortunately (and I think I was busted a couple of times!).

Lunch was simple sandwiches and some cupcakes. Brad and I then left with Alaric to Hokkaido University for an English lesson with some Engineering students. This was a fun time teaching and going through basic conversational English with the students. I invited a number of them to the upcoming Australian Dinner and they eagerly agreed to come. I was told later, however, that we should have asked for RSVPs instead to ensure their attendance. Oh well.

Brad and I were dropped off later by Alaric to the guesthouse, where we rested for a short time before Richard came to take us to the JustCo shopping centre. We had dinner at a funky restaurant which was Teppanyaki style. We had Japanese ‘Omelette/Pancakes’ (Okonomiyaki) which we mixed ourselves and cooked ourselves. A very fun experience all around!

We then spent an hour doing some shopping and I got some extra thermal pants to replace the ones I had previously bought from the 100yen store as they were too tight.

Back home now for a restful evening.

Looking forward to:

Tomorrow is a rather big day, so I’m looking forward to the events one by one. Also looking forward to hitting bed tonight!

Interesting thing I noticed today:

All prepacked sandwiches have their crust cut off
Japanese people are the most helpful and polite when it comes to service. I was purchasing a 'Mr Doghnut' and when the guy serving me understood that I couldn't speak Japanese he remained incredibly helpful whilst continuing his service. I never once got the impression that he was condescending at all.

Interesting food I ate today:
Dinner tonight – Okonomiyaki – do it yourself Japanese pancake. It was very yummy :) With fish flakes, ginger, BBQ sauce and yummy Japanese mayonnaise.

08/12/2007AD Sunday School, Carols, Testimony

2008-01-21T23:30:00.000+10:00

Date: 8th December 2007
Time: 11:30pm
Location: OMF Guest House, Sapporo
Current Mood: Buzzed!

What happened:
What a long day.

A relatively quick breakfast and Richard was around early to take us to Nishi church for their Sunday School celebration. Was given a short tour by Shim Sensei (Pastor Shim) and then we prepped quickly for our performance piece.

I had a short panic when I snapped the ‘b’ string on the guitar. Providentially there was another set of strings in the case so I was able to do some quick surgery before we began. The hosts played a game of bingo also and Steph, Mary and I won presents. We then took them through a rendition of ‘If I Were A Butterfly’ which I played on guitar whilst the others sang and did the actions.

Lunch was provided by the Nishi church, we had some DIY sandwiches and coffee. Then we rushed off to Moere Park to set up for our carolling.

The first session of carols went ok. I stuffed up a couple of times and the speakers weren’t really heard – so we mic’d them the second session and that seemed to work. Mike from Satsunae Lighthouse church helped to switch plugs because the amp we were using only had one workable socket for the guitar and microphone. The second session seemed to be sounding much better.
The afternoon light faded quickly and then we headed off to the Lighthouse Church for some rest before the youth arrived. Jay and I were dropped off at the local ‘Joy’ supermarket in order to pick up some mince for the hamburgers. It was a nice leisurely stroll back to the lighthouse church from there.

I spent most of tonight in the kitchen cooking up the hamburgers which were received well – despite some of the teens only taking a few bites. We had a few fun games including the Name/Animal game and Blow Wind Blow. I shared my testimony which seemed to come across ok, and also sang ‘How Great Is Our God’ which felt incredible whilst doing.

Packed up and cleaned up afterwards then headed back home. Off to SIC church tomorrow.

Looking forward to:
Sleep!

Interesting thing I noticed today:
Too many things happened that I can't remember!

Interesting food I ate today:
Nothing of real interest. Sandwiches for lunch, and hamburgers for dinner.

09/12/2007AD Sapporo International Church, Lost, On-Sens

2008-01-20T23:30:00.000+10:00

Date: 9th December 2007AD
Time: 11:30pm
Location: OMF Guest House, Sapporo
Current Mood: Relaxed, content

What happened:
Started off relatively late this morning – slept in till around 8:15am which is quite late. Had a quick breakfast and then Mel, Jay, Steph and I headed to the Shindo Higashi train station to catch the train into Sapporo Central and go to the Sapporo International Church service. We arrived around 5 minutes early and got our bags off and I changed my ski pants for normal pants.

The service was run mostly in Japanese with a translator in a booth translating the sermon on the fly. This was highly interesting as the translator had an Irish accent – so I was in a Japanese Church, with a Korean Pastor, hearing a translation from an Irish person. I feel a joke coming on… I felt quite tired throughout the service but tried to stay awake with the radio transmitters they gave us – which didn’t work all that well because there was quite a bit of static interference, probably caused by having four other receivers in close proximity. Met a guy named Jonathon, who was teaching English and came from New Zealand.

The sermon was on ‘offering’ and was ok. I found it mostly topical and lightly expository. The prayers at the end, however, were intensely passionate and also had a ‘Korean-esque’ flavour, where everyone prayers together. Unusual for a Japanese Church – which we were later told was not a very traditional Japanese church at all.

Lunch was a mapo-tofu combination with an interesting chilli paste which had a very nice kick. I found out later that the since the church had a very Korean influence the chilli was a part of that.

The four of us then went into town to do some shopping. I checked out the BIC Camera store which was ok and also later entered Yodobashi with Jay. I was looking for filters in both and both seemed to have prices similar to those in Australia.

As we entered Yodobashi there was this Monkey mascot parading around. I quickly snapped a photo with Jay and the Monkey, then the sales assistant asked for a photo for the both of us. I hesitantly agreed, not knowing what she wanted us to do (and if we had to pay for the photo), she took the photo, withdrew the SD card, popped it into a nearby printer, and printed a photo for free for us! I later purchased some blank DVD’s to burn photos.

Jay and I then purchased some pastries which were nice, and the four of us got lost on our way back to our station. Eventually we got to the right platform and had a horrible time dealing with a vending machine. I couldn’t get my drink in time, so we hopped onto the train back to our stop. When we got off I got myself a hot chocolate drink which was delicious.

We then got lost on our way home. Took a wrong turn to avoid the blisteringly cold winds, and ended up around 800m too far from the guest home. By this time I was thoroughly exhausted, but we still had an fmZero meeting.

To OMF headquarters were Alex shared some songs from his laptop, Brad led us through some thoughts on evangelism/missions, and we had cheesecake for supper. Brad’s sermonette was ok. It was topical and fell into the traps of most topical sermons. That said, I thought he also insightfully applied some of the passages he used in relation to the role of prayer in evangelism. After the main part was over I had a great chat with Richard and am continuously encouraged that his theology is sound – he mentioned he listened to plenty of Philip Jensen talk when he was a younger Christian.

Richard took us to a local Ramen noodle house, which was excellent. For 800 yen I ordered a ‘spicy ramen’ dish which wasn’t really that spicy. It was, however, rather salty! But delicious and a good value meal.

Richard then took us to a local On-Sen, a public bath area. Separate men’s and women’s baths with hot springs inside and out, a steam room, sauna, this area to walk between the cold and hot waters, and a freezing pond to cool down in. It was an experience and half being around all the guys in our team in our birthday suits. It was also incredibly relaxing and enjoyable, despite the nudity.

Looking forward to:

Sleeping in tomorrow morning
Having more time off

Interesting thing I noticed today:

The traffic light signals for pedestrians have a funny chirping noise, almost like a bird – and it echoes from one side to the other
Also, the pedestrian crossings for busier intersections have different sounding chirps to delineate which crossing is free
There are hardly any rubbish bins anywhere – probably an over reaction to the London Bombings (which were done in rubbish bins)

Interesting food I ate today:
For lunch – Mapo Tofu
Dinner – spicy Ramen noodles: these were probably my most interesting noodle experience and thoroughly worth the price (which wasn’t much at all). Very delicious.

10/12/2007AD - Hokkaido University and Exhaustion

2008-01-19T23:56:00.000+10:00

Date: 10th December 2007AD
Time: n/a
Location: OMF Guest House, Sapporo
Current Mood: Absolutely exhausted

What happened:
Had a bit of a sleep in this morning before heading out again to OMF HQ. We were already feeling tired, not good.

Met Alex at HQ then took a train into the city. From there we walked to Hokudai University for our first lunch meeting with some students at the International Student Lounge. Got to chatting to two guys – Tatsuya and Leonas. Leonas seemed into photography but left half way through. Tatsuya is an interesting character also, studying law and a bit of an artist in his spare time.

After lunch we headed into Sapporo train station to do some shopping around. I was totally exhausted at this point and didn’t really enjoy the walking around. Eventually we ended up again with Alex and had dinner at a local restaurant. My beef curry was fairly average, containing hardly any meat.

To overcome my exhaustion I grabbed a coffee from Starbucks before we headed back to Hokudai University for an English Lesson with some students. It was great meeting the students and going through some of the lessons with them, but I was fading towards the end and we still had to get home some how.

Alex introduced us to the ‘green’ train line which apparently stopped closer to the guest home. We made our way to the station easily enough and the train ride was shorter into the city – but the walk back home felt much longer. And we got lost.

I feel totally spent.

Looking forward to:
Getting some good rest tomorrow.

Interesting thing I noticed today:

Sapporo Station's adjoining shopping malls have hardly any stores for Men’s clothing
Icy streets are incredibly hard to walk quickly on, I don’t know how the Japanese do it

Interesting food I ate today:
Nothing of note. I finally had a ‘Pocari Sweat’ drink which tasted like a lime Gatorade.

11/12/2007AD - Rest day and the Aussie Dinner

2008-01-18T23:15:00.000+10:00

Date: 11th December 2007AD
Time: 11:15pm
Location: OMF Guest House, Sapporo
Current Mood: Pleasant

What happened:
Spent most of today off, which was a much need time of rest. Watched a few Top Gear clips with Jay and read my bible.

Lunch was sushi from a local supermarket, which was great. Then afterwards Steph and I headed to the 100yen store and Shoe Plaza to have a look around. I found some stationary items for myself and Bruce Chau and finally found some ear muffs. We also stopped by a local toy store to pick up a present for Lawrence – a small Gundam Wing figurine.

Tonight was our ‘Australian Dinner’. We served up pumpkin soup, damper, a Chinese salad and Pavlova. It was well received by the Japanese people who came. Jay gave his testimony which was such an encouragement to hear. Praise God for the way He sovereignly chooses sinners to repent and come into His kingdom!

Looking forward to:

tomorrow I have to write a bible study for the SIC meeting, which will be a good challenge
resting more

Interesting thing I noticed today:

Whilst there may be one vending machine for every 20 people in Japan, there aren’t many food ones, all drinks and cigarettes

Interesting food I ate today:
For lunch we had Sushi. It was a nigiri mix. The trout nigiri was especially good – with the trout having a salmon like texture but creamier flavour.

12/12/2007AD More Rest, SIC Bible Study

2008-01-17T23:00:00.000+10:00

Date: 12th December 2007AD
Time: 11:00pm
Location: OMF Guest House, Sapporo
Current Mood: Feeling good

What happened:
Again had most of this morning and afternoon off. Steph went off to a women’s meeting and I stayed home chewing on Matt 3 trying to do a bible study for the SIC English bible study.

Devotion in the morning was good. We finally finished Ruth and I finished it off by applying it through Christ and how we are included in God’s plans for salvation. It was great!

For Lunch Brad and I went down to the local Seicomart and picked up some pre-packed boxes. I had a rice noodle thing with some cheap popcorn chicken type of addition. Yum!

When Steph returned home we looked at the study together and decided to change things around – so we looked through Mark 1 instead. The shape of the study was quite different to what I'm normally use to. Instead of the more inductive styled questions and answers the study we were asked to write consisted mostly of comprehension type questions (ie - What gifts did the wise men bring to Jesus? How many gifts were there? etc).

A quick dinner of noodles that Uncle Peter had bought, and we headed off with Alaric, Brad and Fanny (a girl who arrived this morning) to SIC for the English bible study. The games and study went relatively well. There was plenty of discussion in our bible study group and I got into a very interesting discussion with Shota - a regularl non-Christian member to the SIC bible study - about the different meanings of various Hebrew words (ie, 'Bethlehem' = 'house of bread', 'Israel' = '(to) struggle with God'). I was glad to have spent some time meditating on the book of Ruth as I was able to get into this discussion in the first place! And prayerfully I hope I was able to point Shota back to Jesus Christ as the one who 'struggled with God' in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross, but was never disobedient - the true Israel.

Looking forward to:
Tomorrow is another relatively light day, though some of us will be cooking cookies.

Interesting thing I noticed today:

There’s hardly any homeless people on the streets – apparently most of them are in the middle of the middle island of Japan and are quite hidden away due to the shame factor
I learnt that there are hardly any food vending machines because there’s so many combini’s (convenience stores)!

Interesting food I ate today:
For lunch: rice noodle type of thing which had three prawns in it – then added some chicken stuff which reminded me of KFC popcorn chicken.
Dinner: packet noodles – which didn’t have a sachet for seasoning, instead you just add water! Was ok.

13/12/07AD - 15/12/07AD Cookies, Moving house, Snow-ball fights, Satsunae Family Christmas

2008-01-16T23:00:00.000+10:00

Date: Dec 13-15th 2007AD
Time: n/a
Location: OMF Guest House, Sapporo
Current Mood: n/a
What happened:

The growing sense of fatigue has meant I haven’t written in this journal for the past few days so I have some catchup to do.

The 13th was mostly a rest day for all of us. However the girls spent most of the time in the kitchen baking cookies (which were to be handed out at Hokkaido University with invitations to students to some fmZero events). I was assigned to take care of two young boys that Manuela was looking after – Caleb and Jonathan. They were awfully cute. Caleb wanted me to read him books the whole time.

I then went up stairs and started lunch – ramen noodles, goyaza and miso soup. An hour later it was all ready to go. During lunch we shared our thoughts on the trip so far and prayed a little through some of the things we’ve seen/noticed about the Japanese.

In the afternoon we had the weekly OMF prayer meeting which was an encouraging time. Dinner was from the supermarket – a variety of things. And the evening was topped off with some interesting TV viewing and a ‘Dandy’ – the ‘Dandy’ was a humungous icecream/wafer thing. On TV was a chef competition which culminated in the making of a 1m radius Christmas cake. To say that they were over the top is an understatement! We then attempted to watch ‘Sahara’ but it was dubbed into Japanese…

The 14th was also a bit o a blur. Our team was beginning its split.

Uncle Peter led a short devotion on how God works and will work through our time here. He then left pretty quickly for the airport back home to catch his son’s graduation.

Brad, Jay, Steph and myself helped to shovel snow in the morning, which was an experience in itself. It had snowed relatively significantly during the evening. But during the morning it started to rain softly, which now meant the rest of the day would be slushy.

We prepared to head off to the weekly OMF orientation. Richard dropped me off near the supermarket to pick up lunch for the team, so I had fun picking out through the varieties of food and trudging home through the sludge. I noticed that with sludge your foot slips differently.

After the orientation we had lunch with the part-time regional director, Mike McGinty. It was a valuable time of sharing as he gave us some thoughts about being a missionary in general and being a missionary in Japan.

Brad and I then left shortly afterwards for Alaric’s English class. All were present in the class, which made it more interesting, but was an otherwise ok affair.

Afterwards Brad was dropped off at the guest home and we picked up Steph. Alaric then drove the two of us to the Manders – a missionary couple our church supports. It was an encouraging evening of hearing about their experiences with Japan as well as thoughts on how to share this experience with others. Emily was a bundle of energy as well – hanging off my arm for most of the night.

The 15th was a tiring day.

The morning began as usual, only to realise that I was running pretty late to help Peter and Janet Dalmond with their moving. I scoffed breakfast down and ran out the door, realising I had put on my jeans when snow pants would have been more appropriate.

So Brad and I went off in a van with Janet to the OMF warehouse, located about 30km out of the city. It was pretty hard work. We spent the whole morning lifting and moving. The Dalmonds were moving into an apartment building very close to the Manders. But unlike the Manders, who were on the 2nd floor, the Dalmonds were on the 4th – which meant a lot of walking up and down stairs carrying very heavy boxes.

We finally finished around 1pm. Peter had provided some snacks for us and the Manders had made a few sandwiches. We headed back to the guest house where the girls had also made spaghetti for us! Too much!

Brad and I were pretty tired at this point. However, Richard wanted us to come and play in the snow with some of the teens from the lighthouse youth. We ended up in a snowball fight! Very fun. One of the boys threw a pretty large one at me and I wanted to run and tackle him – but I slipped on the pavement and crashed into the snow.

Richard then dropped us off at a local on-sen, which was a nice time of relaxation. This on-sen was quite different to the one we attended the other night – no towels or shampoos/soap were provided. And we had to pay 100yen for each item we wanted – towels (big and small), lockers for shoes and lockers for clothes. Bah! Then during the bathing someone took Brad’s one and only towel! Haha!

We then joined back with the Satsunae Lighthouse church for their Family Christmas thing. I was done before it even began, so kinda snoozed during the message given by Mike McGinty. The evening was generally ok, shorter than expected, which was good. They had a small supper thing afterwards which had a nice variety of snacks to have, but we ended up eating some of the rest of the spaghetti for dinner.

To bed early because we were so tired!

Looking forward to:
Sleep

Interesting thing I noticed today:

Onsens are more popular than I expected: which is kinda weird – even kids seem to enjoy them!

Interesting food I ate today:
Lunch/Dinner – Spaghetti with Japanesemade Italian ingredients. Was interesting, because it was slightly sweeter than expected.

16/12/07AD Sapporo International Church and Shopping

2008-01-15T22:45:00.000+10:00

Date: 16th December 2007AD
Time: 10:45pm
Location: OMF Guest House, Sapporo
Current Mood: Tired, sore feet
What happened:

I had weird dreams. Felt I was in the middle of the ‘I Am Legend’ scenario shooting vampires etc…not nice. Was awoken by trucks who were clearing the streets. It was snowing quite a lot when I got out of bed.

This morning was relatively slow for a church morning. But it ended up in a bit of a rush. There was some back and forth as well at the train station which had my patience running low.

SIC was ok. My earpiece was acting up so I didn’t really get to hear any of the sermon. That said, I wasn’t really saddened about it since I wasn’t overly sure about the quality of the sermon generally. I’ve noticed that expository preaching seems absent in Japan as I haven’t heard anything overtly expository as yet.

We then went off to Odori to do some shopping. We stopped by Sapporo station area first for some lunch where I grabbed a ramen/fried rice combo. It was alright, but I was thinking that it was a weird combo.

Shopping around Odori was slightly disappointing. There were some interesting floors and stores, but mostly upmarket and well beyond what we could afford. We ended up back at Sapporo area to do some shopping and were able to pick up some sweets for friends at home.

On the trip home we stopped by Ralse supermarket to pick up some chicken and stuff for dinner. Finally when we got home we were the first there – Brad had left earlier to head home but wasn’t there. Jay and Mel hadn’t come either.

I cooked up a makeshift chicken dinner dish and when everyone finally poured in we had a good evening just chatting.

My calves are killing me and my feet are so sore. Another long day tomorrow – but at least there’s a drinking party at the end of it all!

Looking forward to:

the drinking party tomorrow!
Sleep and good rest

Interesting food I ate today:
I had a ramen/fried rice combo for lunch. Was interesting.
For dinner I cooked up a chicken dish with broccoli – used oil, pepper and some soy/sesame dressing for the marinade and this other dressing put on afterwards. The second batch was better than the first.

17/12/07AD Hokudai Cultural Exchange and a Drinking Party!

2008-01-14T23:30:00.000+10:00

Date: 17th December 2007AD
Time: n/a
Location: OMF Guest House, Sapporo
Current Mood: Am exhausted and starting to feel sick
What happened:

Whilst the rest of the team had a day off, Steph and I headed to Hokudai University for our weekly cultural exchange lunch.

The morning started off with breakfast and a devotion led by Brad. It was an encouraging message.

The Hokudai Cultural exchange began slowly. We spoke to a ‘Kate’ from Boston and I had a brief chat to some other US students, one of which – ‘Mitch’ – seemed a little brash. They left soon enough and I joined Alex and Tatsuya, who I met last week. I had a chance to meet ‘Habby’ also and invited him along to the Wed night farewell party. We had an interesting discussion about the truth vs harmony and was surprised to learn that the Japanese are more interested in keeping harmony than sharing the truth.

Steph and I then went off to Sapporo and Odori to finish some shopping for gifts. This time we split off for a little while in order to purchase things for friend and relatives. It was a relatively better shopping experience than the week before.

We met again with Alex around 5:30pm at the central Starbucks to pray about the dinner ahead. We were going to join with a ‘drinking party’ and were praying for good conversations and wisdom/discernment when it came to drinking.

Onto the train and we hopped off thinking we were a stone’s throw from the Uni – but we were wrong. After getting slightly lost we found our way to the Uni after a 15min walk. The ‘bar’ we were going to was back along the way we walked (doh!) and ended up being a sit-down restaurant.

The meal started off slowly. Food was served, which was great (!), and the drinks flowed. Then, one by one, many people came up to us to chat. I had originally found myself in a table full of girls, with one spare slot next to me. Thankfully as the guys drank a little more they became more open and friendly and I had quite a few good chats. Japanese drunks are much more friendlier than Australian drunks.

We hiked home afterwards and as soon as I walked into the house I felt sick. Took a long shower and headed to bed.

Looking forward to:

to the day off tomorrow.

Interesting thing I noticed today:

When Japanese drink it doesn’t take much for them to go bright pink!
When they do drink it breaks down some walls for good conversation, they are no where near as boisterous as Australians when they drink
Despite there being 20 people there I never got the feeling that I felt out of place because I was *not* drinking
Because subways have a million exits, it’s very easy to lose your bearings

Interesting food I ate today:
- for lunch I had my obento lunch box again – yum!
- Dinner was a mixture of things including a glass of some sweet alcoholic mixer drink, it was very delicious all the way through

18/12/07AD Steph's Birthday on Mt Moire

2008-01-13T20:00:00.000+10:00

Date: 18th December, 2007AD – Steph’s Birthday
Time: 8:00pm
Location: OMF Guest House, Sapporo
Current Mood: OK, not as sick as I thought I would be
What happened:

Had a rough night. Woke up in a pretty bad shape, so slept in till about 10am. Stuffy nose and congested sinuses, sore/itchy throat. The cold weather and indoor heating are not doing me well.

After a quick breakfast I decided to join the team on an outing. I didn’t want to stay home alone and the idea of heading out for site-seeing and photo-taking appealed to me.
Richard drove us up to Mt Moire for some spectacular views of the city and surrounding mountains. We took a cable car to the top and a snow bus (with specialised ‘tires’/tracks) to the lookout and were treated to some great views. After a short snow-ball fight we had some coffee and cake in the lookout restaurant - Jay ordered an expensive (500 yen) but pleasant scoop of icecream.

Richard then took us to the most famous Ramen restaurant in Sapporo. The restaurant's interior was decorated with tiles signed by various Japanese celebrities who had visited the place. The Ramen was quite good also!

Afterwards we came back home and took a nap. I woke up around 5:45pm thinking we had to get ready for our trip to Ooasa Church. I came out all dressed and ready to go (since I didn’t get changed to nap!) but there wasn’t anybody around! Steph came out a little later to inform me that we had the night off, which was a pleasant surprise!

We had a simple dinner and spent the night watching TV and what not.

Looking forward to:

tomorrow night we have a farewell party, which I’m looking forward to
we also finish up our time in Sapporo on Thursday, which I’m both looking forward to and saddened about

Interesting thing I noticed today:

Japanese people are incredibly friendly and helpful – we were taking some photo outside the Ramen restaurant and one of the girls who served us volunteered willingly to help us take a group shot
Then one of the other girls came running out with Richard’s bag which he had left behind

Interesting food I ate today:
Old style Ramen – which had a slice of toasted bread (!), one very thin slice of char-siu pork and loads of noodles. A very-Chinesy tasting dish.

19/12/07AD - Sick, sick, sick

2008-01-12T22:00:00.000+10:00

Date: 19th December 2007AD
Time: n/a
Location: OMF Guest House, Sapporo
Current Mood: sick
What happened:

Woke up sick as a dog. Spent most of the day at home preparing a slideshow for the Farewell dinner. Looked pretty good in the end.

The Farewell Dinner was great. My voice was pretty hoarse through the whole night but God sustained me through it. We ran out of food for the night, but had enough to *just* cover for everyone. Steph’s testimony was great and the games and line dancing went well.

20/12/07AD Lost on our way back to Ichikawa

2008-01-11T21:00:00.000+10:00

Date: 20th December 2007AD
Time: n/a
Location: OMF Guest House, Ichikawa
Current Mood: very tired
What happened:

Woke up pretty tired again. The rest did some cleaning whilst I tried to catch some more rest. My head was feeling pretty heavy.

Richard came over around 9am and we had some last minute admin stuff as well as a short prayer and praise time. It was encouraging despite feeling like very under the weather.

Richard then dropped us off at Sapporo domestic airport where we checked in and grabbed a very quick (and salty!) lunch of hotdogs. Spent most of the flight sleeping.

Then we got lost :P We boarded a train to Sugano and ended up taking a very long one (which stopped at every station on the way). I was not feeling crash hot at all. Then during a change of trains we realised very quickly that we had boarded the wrong train - instead of continuing down the line it diverted and took us on a half hour detour. I can laugh at it now, but I was really dead throughout the whole experience :P

3 hours after boarding the train at the airport we finally made it and I stayed back in the room whilst the others went out for dinner. Steph bought me a bento box and I crashed soon after dinner. It was very good sleep.

21/12/07AD - 23/12/07AD Final Days before heading home

2008-01-10T08:30:00.000+10:00

Date: 21st – 23rd December 2007AD
Time: 8:30am QEST
Location: OMF Guest House, Ichikawa/Sydney/Brisbane
Current Mood: relieved
What happened:

Had a leisurely morning on the 21st with a slow breakfast and watched half of ‘Aladdin’ – since most of the other movies were dubbed.

Steph and I were then ‘debriefed’ by Steve Weemes – who I was surprised to see since I thought he was still in the states with his wife. It was a good time to share our thoughts on the past three weeks-ish, and a chance for him to hear and receive feedback on fmZero, which is a brand new ministry.

Overall I thought the missions trip was good. It was exhausting in a number of ways and the exhaustion led to illness and ungodliness on my part. That I learned and am seeking ways to grow in that in future.

The team gelled more and more as the days went on and it was a little sad in some ways that we had not departed together like the Sydney team had. What was built in our time together now feels a little fractured.

The afternoon/evening of the 21st was spent on the town. We got to see a small part of Tokyo and headed to the Government centres lookout which was vast to say the least. Tokyo is huge (!) and hemmed in on all sides by mountains. I learnt before we left that Japan is made up of 75% mountainous ranges – which is why the cities are so tightly packed.

But I wasn’t lasting long with this cold. I packed it in relatively early not having seen the ‘Electronics City’ that tempted Jay, Brad and myself. Steph accompanied me home which was a wonderful gesture on her part. We had a KFC dinner and watched ‘My Best Friends Wedding’ before heading to bed.

The 22nd was our last day before leaving. Brad was leaving around 12pm so didn’t have any big plans. Jay and Mel had a late start, so Mary, Steph and myself trooped into Ichikawa for some shopping at the 100 yen store for gifts for home. It was good, but again come 12pm I lost energy and made the slow trip back to the guest house myself. I purchased some sandwiches and bought a bottle of Hokkaido Wine to bring home.

On arriving back I caught Jay and Mel before they headed off into town. Gave them hugs and well wishes and then they left.

Took a short nap and was interrupted by Brad who copied some photos onto my laptop. Mary and Steph returned soon enough and we finalised our packing before Gareth helped to lug our luggage to Sugano train station (after a failed attempt to book a taxi).

The train ride was certainly long. We finally made it to Narita Airport – checked in, had some dinner, bought some more souvenir/gifts then boarded our flight. The taxi from the terminal to the runway took about 15-20 minutes but then we were off.

And into trouble. The plane’s airconditioning was wreaking havoc with my throat. I coughed and coughed and coughed all night, unable to feel any effect from the sleeping tablet I took.

We touched down in Sydney finally and I felt broken. Awaiting the flight back to Brisbane in 15 minutes.

Looking forward to:

getting home and playing with kitty
getting home and sleeping

Interesting thing I noticed today:
I purchased a KFC wrap for our last night’s dinner at the guest house – they put seaweed in it! Tasted funny