March 11th is the anniversary of the Great Eastern Earthquake that caused a tsunami to hit Japan. Please say a prayer for those that have lost loved ones, those still suffering, and for those that continue to rebuild.

Making real friends here is probably the hardest thing in the whole wide world.lol. I can make friends with the foreigners (by foreigners I mean people not from Japan…that’s right…I think I’m turning Japanese I think I’m turning Japanese I really think so.lol) okay…sometimes. Some of them really grind my gears sometimes…but that’s another tale.lol. Japanese however are very difficult to make friends with. Sure I have a bunch of acquaintances, but no one I’d really call a good friend. It just hit me this last week. I got super lonely, but I didn’t know why. After thinking about it, that’s my conclusion, as to why. I’ve started going to random club events to try and meet people. Most everyone thinks I’m nice and a trustworthy guy, and apparently I have a number of girls who like me, but Japanese are usually very reserved. Not being fluent in the language is a big factor. Everyone praises my Japanese , but it’s no where near perfect, and that makes communicating very difficult. I’ve found that there are two types of Japanese you run into when you’re having language problems. The people who try to understand even though they might not understand perfectly and the people who just don’t really care. It makes me think of my time in America, was I like that with foreigners back home, was I the uncaring individual to someone lonely and far from home. It’s also led me to reading the Bible more, especially Acts. Looking at the missionaries and prophets  throughout the Bible and then thinking about how difficult it must have been for them. They didn’t even have a slightly common language, so they didn’t even have a random chance of finding someone that understood a bit of their language. You see them in a different light once you’ve lived overseas… I just feel comforted that I have the Lord to fall back on…and  it saddens me to know that there are some many here that can’t say the same.

Well hello again. This is going to be a little bit about a conversation I had in one of my classes about the end times. I brought up the whole 2012 end times foretold by the Mayans thing in class. Then I asked them what they thought about it and what they thought about end times. I nearly fell off my chair. They said that they thought the Mayans were just wrong and that there was no such thing as an end times. I guess most Japanese believe that the world will just go on forever and ever. Half of the class never even thought about an end times scenario in the first place. They thought that it was common knowledge. They asked me what I believed about the end times. I told them the basics. At the end of the world, Jesus would come back to judge the world, and there would be a new Heaven and new Earth…that was a doozy.lol. Luckily for me, one of the students in the class is a Christian and could explain some of my points in Japanese, when they didn’t understand my English. Talk about a tough crowd.lol. It’s hard talking about end times when you share the same language. Needless to say, it wasn’t received too well, but got a chance to plant some seeds or at least make them think. In Shinto, there is no concept of an afterlife. When you’re dead, you’re dead. Some are Buddhist too, so some will believe in reincarnation. So I’m glad I got to give them the “what if there is an afterlife” factor.

I had to open my big mouth, didn’t I…? The weather here is becoming more and more ridiculous… Since my last post, we’ve gotten like 2 meters of snow…and a few inches of rain… WHY!? It’s crazy. And they don’t believe in real plow trucks here either. I saw one, close to real plow on the main roads, but the side road by the church got plowed by a backhoe the other day. They’re not very good at it though.lol. They only plow enough space for one car to get through, so if I’m walking and a car starts coming, I better run to a driveway or something cause otherwise I have to jump into a snowbank. I guess it might be unique to Niigata, but there’s thunder and lightning during snowstorms sometimes. I almost crapped myself the first time I saw it. I was walking home from church, and all of a sudden, BAM! It was like a flash bang went off. It didn’t stun me, but my entire vision went white and I had my head down because of the snow. CRAZY!  But it still rains sometimes.lol. I helped push out a ladies’ car the other day. She was doing everything wrong.lol. She just kept spinning the tires. When I got by her she asked for help and commenced to shovel a little bit of snow IN FRONT of her tires.lol. I tried to explain rocking the car out, but that didn’t work, so I just did it with my pushing…after I made her straighten her tires…lol. Hope all of you are well with your Wisconsin weather, and that it’s just cold, not with mixed emotion weather like it is here. God bless.

Nathan told me told that people are interested in the weather.lol. Never really thought about that one.lol. Japan has pretty much every kind of climate, except for maybe arid, depending on where you are. When I got here back in March, there wasn’t really any snow. It was cool, but not what I would call very cold. Normal temperatures in mid to late March. Summer here SUCKED!lol. It was SUPER humid ALL THE TIME! It was hot, but it sounded like summer this last year was just a hot. You would take a shower and come out sweating, between the humidity and the heat. And the humidity never went away. Like in Wisconsin, before it rains, it gets pretty humid, but then when it rains, the humidity goes away. Not so here, it’s still humid when it’s raining! Terrible. I always heard people back home that stupid saying, “Well at least it’s a dry heat.” I always thought that was a bunch of bunk, but now I realize how wise those people were.lol. Now the weather is dumb. It’s cold, but not Wisconsin cold, only it feels colder. Let me unpack that.lol. The lowest temperature during Winter in Niigata City is supposed to be -5 C (23 F). However, Japan architecture is different from America. Old traditional buildings and “mansions” (mansions are what Japanese call apartment buildings made out of cement, apartments are made of wood and less appealing because of the thin walls) don’t have insulation. They don’t wear shoes in the house, no matter what (most of the time slippers in the house). Some traditional homes have “tatami” rooms. Tatami are flooring panels that are made from rice straw. You don’t wear slippers on tatami, let alone shoes. The heating is not central heating. You have a space heater, or an air conditioning set that also spews heat. In Japan, you do a lot more riding bike or walking outside than you do in home, not everyone has a car like we do in the States. So all of these things contribute to it feeling colder than back home. Somehow there is still no snow that sticks for more than a few days. It’s snowing right now, but it won’t stick, and will probably turn into rain later. It rains in winter here! This is really crazy because half hour out of town, the cities have like 2 meters of snow and in the mountains they have like 5 meters. Niigata City’s climate has a very unique climate, that is very different from the rest of Niigata Prefecture. It supposedly has to do with being on the coast, and pretty much semi-circled by mountains. Hope it for real snows…

Was in my office today, when I heard someone yell for assistance (the Japanese that he used wasn’t really for help). Went downstairs and there was an old man sitting on the couch. He got up, looking a bit surprised and asked me something in Japanese as he showed me his hand. It looked bloody, so I thought he wanted to wash his hand off and get a band aid or something, but he looked confused when I took him to the bathroom. I couldn’t understand his Japanese, it was super husky, so I called Miyazawa sensei and explained what I knew. I asked him to say something, the old man told him something, but then he couldn’t hear Miyazawa sensei’s reply. Miyazawa sensei told me to take him to the clinic down the road a ways. I walked him there and I guess everything went fine. I figure he just got lost on his way there, and thought this was the clinic. That was definitely a first for me…lol.

Well, mom suggested writing about everyday life…a while ago, so I figured maybe I should do it.lol. It all seemed normal to me…but then I’m here and you’re there.lol. I kick off this segment with a “Western” style wedding I went to. The leader of the service (if a truly ordained minister I would burn half my paycheck) was French. He spoke French, Japanese, and English. The bride is from America and the groom was Japanese. They asked him to say the vows in English, but he refused (probably hadn’t memorized those lines). 2/3 of the service was done in Japanese and about a 1/3 was in French. It was a pretty fast service, for all the fanfare. There were a couple of Japanese women that sang songs in broken English, but their tone and rhythm were good. The bride is kind of a spunky girl, so when he asked her if she took this man…say I do, she answered in English. The people that knew he had refused the English version, giggled at that. I certainly didn’t get the memo about a dress code, but I figured it out pretty quick. Wear a suit, and it you don’t wear a suit, wear dark colors. So of course I showed up in khaki colored slacks and a bright blue shirt. Who would have thought that you’re supposed to dress like you’re going to a funeral every celebration other than Birthdays? Heaven forbid we wear bright happy colors to happy events…*sigh* So I looked super out of place, not just because I was the biggest person there (both senses of the word.lol). Even the women wear muted colors. When I asked about it afterwords, they said that you dress in dark colors so that the bride looks more bright and beautiful. Then instead of individual pictures, everyone gets together and they take a professional group photo, with everyone that went. All of the ceremony and the pictures took an hour. Why? Because you pay by the hour, that’s why. Kinda have a sense of what it’s like getting married in Vegas now.lol. Then most people go to the nijikai, which is their version of a reception. Only you have to pay to go to the reception…which isn’t cheap, but it was cheaper than having to pay the bride and groom like $300 for asking them to your wedding. Heard about that little tid bit the Japanese do. Closer relatives pay more. It’s ridiculous. It was nomihodai (all you can drink) and tabihodai (all you can eat…in this case as long as the platter that they had lasted.) for 2 hours. There was a DJ, but nobody danced…Japanese don’t dance…it’s embarrassing to dance in public, unless it’s a club (2 out of 3 senses of the word) event. The foreigners got up and danced for like half a song, but our hearts weren’t in it.lol. Then they had a little speech, and like at all parties (weddings, Birthday parties, the occasional get together at a karaoke bar) a guy stripped down to his underpants (today’s event was tighty whities). He then challenged the groom to a wrestling match. The groom used to be, literally, the number one wrestler in Japan. He got injured, otherwise he would have gone to the Olympics for Japan. He decided to retire and became a wrestling coach and that’s where he met the Mrs. Anyway…the groom accepted and promptly stripped down to his underwear (silky Superman). Of course he won. It was pretty funny. And that’s a “Western” style Japanese wedding. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.lol.

明けましておめでとうございます！ Happy New Year Everyone…a little late.lol. I hope that everyone is well, and that you’re all still sticking to your New Year’s resolutions.lol. Japanese people don’t do that, by the way. New Years in Japan is quite different from America’s. New Years is family time in Japan. And it’s not just the one day either. There’s another holiday on the 2nd, and a bunch of people even get the 3rd off. This New Year celebration was in Muramatsu, at the Takizawa’s house. Two of the Takizawa’s grandkids were there too. They weren’t very exciting though, classic Japanese girls always on their cell phones.lol. “We” “played” Scrabble. I put these words in quotations because they had no idea what they were doing, and even when I helped them with their first words, so they understood, it was basically me making words for them until they got bored and wanted to quit.lol. They knew very little English, but the grandkids said, “Let’s play そり(sori) tomorrow!” We had just played Scrabble, so I thought we were going to play the board game Sorry…oh was I mistaken. Sori is Japanese for sled. So when they told me that I needed my coat, I was a little confused, but I went with it. The ping pong table was in a shed outside, and I had played Mr. Takizawa earlier. He was SUPER good, it was something else seeing a guy in his early 70′s almost beat me in a game. Anyway, I got the idea when they grabbed some sleds. Their house is at the foot of a mountain, so we climbed up a little bit and went sledding. It has been a day or two since I’ve done that, let me tell you…but it’s just as fun as it was then.lol. Then we had a “snowball fight” after building forts. There was a flag in the middle of the three forts that we were supposed to grab. If you got hit with a snowball you had to return to your fort. Those poor Japanese girls didn’t know what they had got themselves into when they challenged a boy from Wisconsin…lol. I lost once and won three times. My fort was probably the size of both of their’s combined.lol. The food that Mrs. Takizawa mad/laid out (osetchi is a traditional box lunch that Japanese eat on New Years day. Technically you’re not supposed to cook on New Years day) was the most delicious food I’ve had in a long time. At midnight, they don’t have a ball drop. They don’t really have anything.lol. Traditionally you eat Toshi Koshi Soba. Soba is a long thick noodle. You start eating it before midnight and finish just after. It’s 2 year Soba (toshi=year koshi=over). By doing this, it’s like you’re wishing for long life, because the Soba noodle is long. Also, at midnight, Buddhists start ringing a bell at their temples. They ring it 108 times! It’s because in the Buddhist religion, man has 108 worldly desires. So the ringing of the bell is to get rid of those desires for the new year.

Well I STARTED your Christmas Eve if that counts.lol. Merry Christmas everyone! My Christmas party/caroling turned into a flop…pastor came and no one else. The weather was pretty bad, and the time was not good. Asked pastor a good time, but in hindsight people are normally working during that time. Mah…you win some, you lose some. Just got back from Christmas at church. I was part of the choir and we sang at the Christmas Eve service as well as today. I had a solo, As the Deer. Not really a Christmas song in my mind, but whatever.lol. Also, Christmas in Japan sucks.lol. Japanese Christmas is boyfriend/girlfriend time as apposed to family time. So people go on dates Christmas Eve and might go to a Christmas service for fun the next day. So it was pretty sweet going to the Christmas Eve party last night single and seeing all the couples…*sigh* I suppose I could have gotten a Christmas girlfriend (Japanese will sometimes become boyfriend/girlfriend for the Christmas season and then break up), but I didn’t feel like that was very Christian. There were a few single women at the party, and it was kind of scary, cause they were definitely on the prowl.lol. There are only a couple of Japanese traditions for Christmas. One is eat Christmas Cake. Some kind of cake, usually strawberry shortcake, that’s decorated with a Christmasy theme. The second, believe it or not, is eating KFC. That’s right, getting a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. I learned today that you have to make reservations, because all they do on Christmas is pick ups. Gretchen went a week in advance and they said that she couldn’t order one, because I guess they had reached chicken making capacity or some such nonsense. Missing home a lot right now. Hope every one is well, and I’ll update you again soon. Blessed Christmas!

It’s almost time for my Christmas vacation. Next week is the last week of school for a couple of weeks, so I will have real time to update everyone. Yesterday I was part of an interesting meeting. It was the English School meeting we have every month. At the meeting, I suggested going caroling. It’s a good and easy form of outreach. They thought it was a great idea, and asked me information about it. That’s when I said that that’s what I wanted to get from them.lol. I wanted to know if there were actual factual Japanese Christmas songs, so we could use those, or if they were all just American Christmas songs translated into Japanese. Also, I wanted to know what Christmas songs most Japanese would know. Then they said they wanted to know where we would do it. I also asked for suggestions about that, and what they recommended as transportation, because I knew I wanted to make the Niigata Train Station one of my stops (not inside the Station, just around the entrance or one of the walk ways). There would be many people there to hear and hopefully we’d get some questions about who we were and why we were doing it. After I suggested that, everyone looked at me like I had suggested going to Station and expose ourselves. “But that’s a public place!” they said. Of course I said, but then they told me that we couldn’t do that. I was VERY confused. Doesn’t public place mean that it’s free to the public to do things? Guess not in Japan. Miyazawa-sensei told me that because there are a lost of Buddhists in the area, that if a monk saw us, he would call the police. Then the police would come and ask us if we had permission to sing there. I don’t really understand, as I’ve seen other people singing/playing instruments at those places, and no one seemed to have a problem (none of them had ever seen anyone do so). Oh well. They said, we could go around the close surrounding area and sing ass we walked and maybe stop at a couple of the church member’s homes (literal couple of homes). I suggested singing five songs and they looked like I was daft, how could we sing five songs? So it’s going to be a very short and not as exciting as I had hoped, but we can still do it…maybe.lol. After that, we had to decide on a day. I wanted to tell my students in class and have it on Christmas Eve…but then they started saying that it was too soon and that no one would go, that we couldn’t do it because there was no time, that they would all be together (me telling them in class, giving them the information, would not be good enough apparently). So I “volunteered” my house for a Christmas party/Open House (so they could see my new apartment), so that adult class and/or church members were together and we could have a fun time and then after the short party, ask them if they’d like to join us caroling. The party will be on the 22nd. So I’m still telling them in class, and with shorter in between time, but it’s okay now. *eye roll* Japanese culture for you… So now I have to get my house slightly decorated (finding real Christmas decorations will be a chore) and cleaned up, prepare for the party, and organize a caroling list of Christmas songs translated into Japanese (because that question got completely sidestepped.lol). As a side note, normal size Christmas trees that you would put in your house in America cost somewhere around $500 in Japan. Yikes. I’ll update again before Christmas, could be tomorrow, could be Christmas Eve, but I’ll have a chance to catch everyone up before the New Year. Blessings.