Almost home...

I love travelling.

Since coming to Japan, I've travelled quite a bit. Tokyo, Miyagi, Gifu, Toyama, and lots of places around Fukushima. But one of the best things about travelling is coming home, returning to familiarity, knowing your way around, the comfort of your own bed, your own shower...

So when we come to think about it, life is one big trip. We're on a business trip; our business - to bear the light of the One who saved us, to make His Name known to the world, to celebrate His accomplishment on the Cross..

...and ultimately, the home we're heading to - heaven. If coming back to our (earthly) homes feels so safe and familiar and comfortable again, how much more amazing of a home do we have to look forward to! Heaven, eternity, to be with the One who created all, the One whose love for us is deeper than anything beyond our brain capacities can grasp...

That's really something...to look forward to.

Girls on a Grandma tour

It was a painful, regrettably early 5:45 a.m. start on the 18th Oct. We joined the bus tour at the bus stop at 6a.m., and thus embarked on our 2-day, 20-hour-bus-bound 'grandma tour' through 2 prefectures.

On the first day, after 8 hours on the bus, we finally got to Unazuki 宇奈月 in Toyama 富山 prefecture. After a short walk around the little village and refuelled with some sushi-type things and freshly steamed manju from this lovely lady (who gave all 4 of us free daifukus!), we got on a little train ride around the famous Kurobe Gorge　黒部峡谷, saw the dam, saw a few red autumn leaves just starting to appear.. it was beautiful. This was especially special after a weekend in Tokyo, surrounded by buildings, shops, technology, and several thousand perfectly decked-out youngsters roaming the bustling streets of Shibuya or Ginza. The contrast in this country is incredible, yet never uncomfortable or awkward.










After that, we were chauffeured off to our hotel in Tonami 砺波 (still in Toyama prefecture).

Day 2, again an early morning set off to Shirakawago 白川郷 in Gifu prefecture 岐阜県. This place is actually a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and I'm glad it is. Although a few too many tourists, tour buses and souvenir shops about, its serenity and outback/rural/valley-village-ness was still (kind of) there. The perfect weather helped as well. We really want to come back in the winter, to see the traditional houses in several feet of snow; surrounded snow-capped hills and what were once rice fields.

Then Takayama 高山 also in Gifu. Apparently it looks like a mini-Kyoto, with old shops/restaurants/booze stalls along the narrow streets. Again, tourist overflow, but still fun trying Soya Sauce Ice Cream; beef sushi; roast beef on a stick...which lined our stomachs for the 9-hour bus ride home...

Right. I'm tired of typing.

A Passion Renewed

...and so does Jesus!!

I went to Passion Tokyo on Monday as a conclusion to my Tokyo-long-weekend, and was utterly blown away. Passion Tokyo, part of the Passion World Tour 2008, was a concert/conference event where young adults got together and worshiped God and heard the Word of God at the CC Lemon Hall in Shibuya, Tokyo. I had been waiting for this event for weeks, and it was nothing short of what I expected. It was a thousand times better. Because God was there.

At 5pm sharp (because this is Japan), it started. And one minute in, tears were already gathering on the corners of my eyes. The event opened with a powerful slide show, of sentence after sentence about the Glory of God in Japan, about Jesus loving Tokyo, about lifting up His Name in this country...and it was all in Japanese. And even though I only understood some of it, I was overwhelmed and in awe, just looking at the words such as grace (恵み) and glory and forgiveness and love and Jesus is alive flashing on the huge screen on stage, with the crowd erupting as thousands of young adults cheered and agreed and woshipped and got excited about the same God, the same Jesus.....it was incredibly moving. It was incredibly touching. The Holy Spirit's presence was so strong from the start it was immense. I haven't experienced it for a long time, yet it was so familiar, so refreshing, so divine.

And then Chris Tomlin & band led worship with a load of songs I haven't heard for ages and again tears were still rolling down, as I raise my voice and hands to praise the one true God, along with 2000 others pouring their hearts and lives out to the risen Saviour.

Matt Redman & band and the David Crowder Band also led in more amazing worship.

I was just incredibly blown away by the fact that I was with a family of 2000 in a jam-packed auditorium IN JAPAN, all individuals melted into one heart, one mind, one goal, living and singing for Jesus. The Passion of Christ and the Passion for Christ isn't just an idea or theory or 'something nice' anymore - it became so real, so powerful. Such a powerful reality.

And not just in Japan - during the night we were shown a video of all the people in SEOUL praying for Passion Tokyo - watch this ------>
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=y1IxCG9wzgA

And I think by this time half the auditorium was in tears.

The whole thing was simply amazing. It was a full 4 hours of continuous amazingness. I was so encouraged. I was given so much that night. And now its my turn to give. To work to not let this renewed fire dim. To be steadfast in holding on to the faith and courage, to shine His light and let the whole world see. It's so easy to be fired up in one event and then forget about it within a week. But in God's strength, with prayer and feeding on God's Word, I'm gonna let this fire burn all the more brighter and louder and bigger.

Hong Kong, we're praying for you!

unless my eyes were fooled...

unless my vision was obscured by the bright morning sun, i could swear i saw a woman walking a big fat white cat down my street....it was odd.

Something heavy, something small...Something bright, something tall...

This weekend was suicide.

After rushing home from school and cramming an overnight backpack, I got on a bus to the train station, got a train, and got to Haramachi (原町) where Mari picked me up, had dinner, and drove us back to her town, Iitate (飯館), for the night. After a sleepless night and a 4:50am village alarm (its a daily thing) as I was about to doze off, we set off for Fukushima City (福島市) at 6:20am, met Billy and friends, and took a train up to Iizaka (飯坂), and thus began festival number one of october 4th...

# 1: Iizaka Festival
Shortly after arriving Iizaka, we got dressed in a happi (tradional festival shirt thing) along with a bunch of other foreigners (JETs and foreign exchange students), posed for photos, and set off with our omikoshi (portable shrine - お神輿) on a parade down the streets of Iizaka. We represented the Iizaka Rotary Club. This omikoshi, small and beautiful, but surprisingly heavy, was mounted on a frame of wooden bars, and was carried around the city for a good four hours, stopping at old-people's homes, hotels, behind other omikishis. the sun was beating down. it was ridiculously hot. the omikoshi was ridiculously heavy, but with me being quite short my shoulders never touched the omikoshi; yet holding it up with my arms was no less painful and tiring. Nonetheless it was fun and very amusing! and i'm sure very amusing for the locals as well, seeing a bunch of foreigners and local japanese tycoons yelling 'WASHOI WASHOI!!' all along the way all around the town. Although beer was provided along the way to ease the distress and pain....

After a good four hours or so of hard labour, we were treated by one of the Rotary men to onsen (温泉) in his massive hotel, and an alcohol & food-filled 2-hour welcome party (this was 3pm). At this point, I was so relaxed and gastronomicly satisfied I almost couldn't bear the thought of having to get up and show up to another festival later in the evening...

#2: Nihonmastu Lantern Festival (二本松提灯祭り)
...but this was so good I wouldn't miss it for the world! A train back to fukushima city, and another train to Nihonmatsu, we found ourselves getting into what was the 3rd largest and 3rd best lantern festival in the whole of Japan. And it was magnificent!! Gosh if this was the 3rd largest what's the largest like!?!?

The streets were packed with people, and as any Japanese festival, lined with stalls selling festival food - yakisoba, takoyaki, yakiniku, toffee apples, chocolate bananas...

and then along came the parade: on each float, a giant omikoshi is mounted on a giant wagon-type vehicle, with a large frame enveloping the omikoshi, and loads of small lanterns hanging from the frame. They were amazingly magnificent, 7 tall and bright mikoshi-floats, manually pulled and pushed by young japanese men, whilst musicians sat inside the wagon playing taikos (big drums) and flutes. It was amazing. A crowd of young japanese teenagers usually followed at the back, yelling "washoi washoi!!" to cheer the mikoshi-bearers on.

It's just mysteriously exciting to see such an old tradition, probably several centuries old, supported by so many young japanese adults & teenagers of the 21st century. It's so easy to generalise 21st century teenagers as simply sofa-hugging, nintendo-engulfed, fashion-seeking leechers of society. It maybe in some cases. But definitely not here. Stereotypes were definitely broken. A 360 year-old century, sustained eagerly by youths of a country considered technologically far far forward than anywhere else. Simply amazing. and beautiful.

Festival count

1. Iwaki bon odori - August 8

2. Uchigo bon odori - August 15

3. Sendai Jazz Festival - Sept 13

4. Moonlight Festival at Iritono - Sept 14

5. Horseback Archery at Hachiman Shrine - Sept 15

6. Iizaka International Festival - Oct 4

7. Nihonmatsu Lantern Festival - Oct 4