01/12/2007AD - Touchdown

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:

1. 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…)
2. Hardly anyone uses their car horns despite all the traffic on the roads – apparently a sign of strong self-control/face
3. Lots of people ride bicycles – including very old women and women in their mid-40’s who seem to be done up so well
4. Engrish is real and common!
5. 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.
6. 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

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:

1. 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
2. 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
3. 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.
4. 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
   
   
   
5. 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

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:

1. All the people on our flight had either khaki or black coloured jackets
2. 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
3. When the temperature drops below 0 degrees Celsius, it all feels the same = cold!
   
4. 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.

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

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

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