16/12/07AD Sapporo International Church and Shopping

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!

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:

1. When Japanese drink it doesn’t take much for them to go bright pink!
2. When they do drink it breaks down some walls for good conversation, they are no where near as boisterous as Australians when they drink
3. Despite there being 20 people there I never got the feeling that I felt out of place because I was *not* drinking
4. 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