Like Christmas, for example.
This was my first Christmas with just my hubby... no family, no screaming kids excited for their presents, no tree, no sausage-cheese rolls my mom makes every holiday. It didn't feel like Christmas.
But don't take my tone for downtrodden and depressed. Today was a pretty amazing day.
We visited the local baptist church (yes, "the"... there's not a church on every street corner like in the states.) They had Bible study in English, but the sermon was in Japanese. Luckily, they print out the sermon notes in English, so we were able to follow along.
The hymns were extremely interesting... Ray & I sang in English while the rest of the congregation sang in Japanese, and God understood us all at once!
Afterward, they had a potluck lunch- talk about amazing. It was like the who's-who of Japanese cuisine on my plate. I don't even know what I ate, but I loved every bite of it. I should have taken a picture.
A few things struck me today... quite a few, actually.
Imagine living in a country where Christmas isn't a holiday. Sure, the holiday has become commercialized and "mainstreamed" to the point that even those who don't recognize Christ's birth as an actual event still celebrate it in some way.
But here, if Christmas falls Monday through Friday, everyone still goes to work. As a believer, that's a pretty tough pill to swallow and shows not only how lucky I am to be an American, but how sheltered I am from the realities of the world.
Not only am I sheltered, but I may just be dissociated completely. I ate lunch with a room full of people whose lives have been completely devastated in the last year.
One Japanese woman shared how different this Christmas felt to her because of the things she endured during the earthquake and tsunami because she was lucky to be alive. One man, who is an Australian living in Japan, shared in great detail the events of that day and how difficult it was to decide to stay. Another man, Japanese from Osaka, lost his wife from the tsunami. She didn't die, but left him and their young son for her home country of China because she couldn't bear to live in Japan any longer for fear of future quakes.
They had over 800 aftershocks in the months following that quake. Over 500,000 jobs disappeared. Yes, lives were lost, but we heard about that. Then we stopped hearing about it because our taxes might be raised and Air Jordans are inciting shopper violence. But imagine living for months-perhaps years-waiting for the next 7+ magnitude convulsion to jolt you from your bed and to the backyard in the freezing cold, because it's inevitably going to happen. Or imagine not being able to find work because half a million jobs just vanished not just because the economy suffered, but because the resources and materials no longer exist to produce what was once your source of income.
When was the last time any of us heard about the need for relief efforts in Japan after the tsunami and earthquake? I hadn't for months until today. Sure, we're all worried that nuclear vapor will some how beat all odds and travel more than 5,000 miles and reach the California coast.
But what if the 130 people who have read this blog donated $10 to the relief efforts. Text 90999 if you feel so led.
Somehow my Christmas blog has turned depressing?
Birds on sticks. That always cheers people up.
Nope.. we skipped KFC this year. Yes, I know... "How could you go all the way to Japan and miss out on the Christmas festivities?!" Well, Mom, because we upgraded.
Yakitori (焼き鳥/やきとり/ヤキトリ) is essentially meat skewers that are grilled. But they are amazing and not to be confused with "yuckatori." I don't know what that is.
We went to the restaurant Torikichi, which is this little hole-in-the-wall bar a block down from our apartment. (Yes, I'm taking ownership of Ray's place.) It literally looks like a shack from the outside but is cozy within. We sat at the bar and had sasami and sutamaina... which is what the English menu said and not reflective of the Japanese names whatsoever.
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| Menu |
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| "Sasami" - grilled chicken breast w. sauce |
"sutamaina"- slice garlic and chicken
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| A mystery dish... it was our "Merry Christmas" dish they surprised us with, but the server didn't know the name. Amazing, but spicy. |
I am also "reforming" my previous statements about the Japanese knowing English. I'm running into a lot of people who know a great deal of English. Not a ton, but enough to get me around.
I know I've made a million observations that have escaped me by the time I sit down to write my post. Perhaps they will come to me eventually. Tomorrow, we hike the twin peaks of Mt. Tsukuba.. if it turns out to be a clear day. Would be a shame to hike 3 hours to the top of a mountain and have no visibility.
I'm excited to be on a "normal" time schedule. It's 11:30 here and bedtime, which means I most likely won't be waking up at 5 am (or 12 am!) but at a normal hour for a normal human being on vacation. I get excited about the little things.
Merry Christmas to one and all! I hope your day has been filled with warmth and family and friends and blessings and, most of all, the reminder that Jesus is the reason for the season! It is his birthday, after all!