by Whitey | May 30, 2008 | Weekly Re-Cap
It seems like it was a pretty quiet week, but here’s a look at school and life here this week, such as it was…
School is moving along quickly, though. In fact, we’re getting into stuff I don’t really know that well and by the end of the week will be starting a new textbook.
This week we learned the “plain form” of Japanese speech — what you would use in daily, casual conversations with family and friends. You’d think that the plain form would be easy, but no, this is Japanese, so of course not. The plain form actually uses bits and pieces from various tenses and forms and so it’s not so simple after all.
Yesterday I almost missed my English Bible class. I was sitting in a cafe with some school friends, having just finished lunch, when I received a text message on my phone: it was from my student, telling me he was running late. Ironically, I’d completely forgotten we were meeting and had to rush out of the cafe and catch the train from Sakae Station to Nagoya Station, probably about 10 minutes later than my student. In spite of my forgetfulness and lateness — and thus unpreparedness — we had a good time together anyway.
Today my class — actually all 3 full-time classes — had a day out instead of a Japanese lesson. We went to the Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum to do pottery. It was fun, and I made a HUGE coffee mug, which will come in very handy on many early mornings.
And now it’s the weekend. And I’m glad. And that’s a wrap for this week.
by Whitey | May 29, 2008 | Thoughts
I didn’t begin pursuing a life of ministry in Japan because I thought I would fit in here. I fell in love with Japan because of having lived here. I also didn’t have a great sense that my personality or talents would lend themselves to ministry in Japan specifically. But, having already decided to follow God’s leading back to Japan, I had a lot of time to think about the future and where I might fit. And though I’m still figuring out the specifics, there are some things I’ve realized about myself that lend themselves to ministry in Japan.
In some ways, my personality lends itself to acculturation in Japan: I think I’m pretty flexible and willing to change, as would be needed if I moved to any foreign culture. But I also share some personality traits with what’s considered the “norm” here in Japan, such as my dislike of confrontation, or my friendly but generally-quiet and not-pushy personality.
I also have a desire to focus my ministry on youth and young adults — which, as it turns out, is a particular area of need in Japan. My talents and interests in comics are an asset, too — or could be in the future — because comics (manga) are such a big part of pop culture here (where the highest selling comic sells as many copies in a week as the highest-selling US comic does in a year). I also think the Japanese church is in need of some new ideas, and being a creative person in general could be useful.
On the other hand, there are sides of my personality that could be a problem (for me or others) sometimes. I’m a non-traditional, non-conformist person in a 4,000-year old, highly-conformist culture. I’m also working with a very traditional, conservative national church here in Japan. Will my new ideas be heard? Will I be able to use my talents and gifts to their fullest potential? Will I rub people the wrong way if I’m unwilling — or unable, or unsure of how to — adapt?
The potential is definitely there for me to feel squeezed into a mold that doesn’t fit me. The potential’s also there for me to offend or damage relationships if I don’t handle differences appropriately or adapt where I should.
But there is also a lot of positive potential if I’m willing to learn and adapt in the ways that I need to.
by Whitey | May 28, 2008 | Thoughts on Missions
I just realized that as of yesterday I’ve been back in Japan for FIVE months now! Time flies… Remember when you were a kid and you thought adults were weird when they talked about how time speeds up the older you get? Now that I’m grown-up I know what they meant…
I think about the future a lot. This is partly because my current missionary term is as an “intern”, meaning I’m here to learn and figure out where I fit so that I can have a more effective ministry in the long run. Recently, when thinking about the future I’ve come to realize something about my vision for ministry in Japan:
My vision is now both clearer and less clear at the same time.
I know that seems like a contradiction. Or at least paradox. So let me explain. My vision seems clearer in that I feel very strongly that I will be in Japan for the long-haul. There is such a great need, as well as so much opportunity, that how could I ever think of leaving? On the other hand, my vision is less clear in the specifics. There are so many different directions my life and ministry could take, so many opportunities to pursue and needs to address, that the questions of “what’s next?” and “what’s my role in Japan?” don’t have answers yet.
Funny how the same reasons — the needs and opportunity — lead to both clarity and lack of clarity.
by Whitey | May 24, 2008 | Weekly Re-Cap
It’s Saturday morning, and I’m taking it slow and easy. It’s been a full week, and it seems I’ve not spent a lot of time at home. Or when I was home I was studying. So today I’m staying in. All day. It’ll be nice to relax, but I’ve also got housecleaning and blogging to do. So here’s the blogging — a look back at some of what kept me so busy this week:
1. School — We’re getting into the stuff I’m not as familiar with. I also have some catching up to do on my vocabulary. You can say a lot with just basic grammar, but you need the vocabulary to plug into it.
2. English Bible study — Monday I met with my student this week for the first time in a while. We’ll be making some minor changes to the structure of our lessons to help him get more out of it. And to help me get more out of it, too, as he’s paying me by helping me with my Japanese. We’re planning to each do some writing (journaling) in the target language and then go over it when we get together. We’ll still be working our way through the book of Mark, too.
3. Tuesday the Watoto Children’s Choir was in town. Wow.
4. Wednesday I finally met my “boss” — GP Asia area director Romy Caringal. I took the day off of school to host him, show him around, introduce him to people, and get him to the airport on time. It was a good but busy day.
5. Thursday I had to stay late after class to take the test I’d missed on Wednesday. I think I did okay. I also had extra homework, of course.
6. Yesterday afternoon I met up with a friend to go see the new Chronicles of Narnia movie, Prince Caspian. I thought it was pretty good, and overall a good adaptation of the book. I didn’t think it was as good as the first movie, though, and it felt like they changed more from the book while at the same time not explaining a few things as well.
7. After the movie my friend and I went to the home of a family from our church, where several of us gathered for a dinner party. It was a good time, but with so much Japanese it was tiring too, and of course I missed a lot of the conversation. Still, it’s good to be building relationships here and being made to feel a part of things.
And that’s a wrap for another week. Happy weekend, wherever you are.
by Whitey | May 16, 2008 | Weekly Re-Cap
Here’s some stuff going through my head tonight, and in my life this week, in no particular order:
1. Now that I’ve been learning Kanji for a few weeks now, I find myself recognizing — and actually knowing the meaning of — kanji I see in the real world. It’s pretty cool to suddenly notice stuff that’s been there all along but I just didn’t understand.
2. Speaking of understanding, sometimes when trying to communicate with people here, I’m not sure if it’s them not understanding me or if it’s me not understanding them. It’s a little bewildering at times.
3. My friend just text-messaged me inviting me to go see the new Narnia movie with him this coming week. I’m stoked. But it may be a busy week, so it may or may not actually happen. We’ll see.
4. I’ve been debating for a while about getting an electronic Japanese-English / English-Japanese dictionary. Pretty handy — even necessary — if you’re studying Japanese. After some research, I opted to buy a Nintendo DS instead, along with their dictionary software, KANJI SONOMAMA DS RAKUBIKI JITEN — both of which I just ordered tonight from Amazon Japan. The system and the cartridge together cost less than a lot of the dictionaries you see around Japan. And of course the DS has the added bonus of game play.
5. My boss — GP Asia area director Romy Caringal — is coming to Japan this weekend, and I’ll finally get to meet him in person when he visits Nagoya next week. That’ll be cool.
6. This past Sunday, our church had our morning service outside — at a burial site. We were actually inside this big tomb thing where on the upper levels people’s bones are. It was a Christian tome, so rather unlike the typical Japanese one, but still seemed an odd place for a Sunday morning service. But that’s contextualization. As someone explained to me (as I understood it), in Japanese religious traditions there is a great deal of respect — even veneration or worship — for the dead, and a criticism against Christianity is a lack of respect for the dead and their tombs. These kinds of services are a response to that. Only unlike the Buddhist or Shinto versions, we remember — not worship — the dead. And we remember with hope, not mourning.
And that’s a wrap for this week.
