I am very thankful to have this opportunity to be in Japan this term. The new semester has begun and this is quite unlike anything I have ever done before. I am quite stunned that I haven’t felt any fear in the process of completely suspending my life at home where the people and places I love are to come and be in a whole other country and culture. perhaps homesickness will come, but I’ve never had it before so… I don’t know.
From Narita airport I had been told that it was cold outside and that it would raining, I know what rain can be like in Japan so I was anticipating a very discouraging start, although I also know what umbrellas are like and being big translucent domes compared to what we use in the UK I would have been happy to begin my time here with a Buzz Lightyear experience. I managed to arrange to get my luggage delivered to the OMF guesthouse so I didn’t have to lug that around with me as I navigated the Keisei trains. Anyway, It wasn’t raining, it was quite warm and sunny outside, just as it was in the UK when I took off.
At the guesthouse a prayer and praise meeting was well on the way as I arrived, a range of OMFer’s serving all over the Kanto area had gotten together as I hear they do every month to just share stories and pray and praise God. which is great! great encouragement for me. and I got to meet a lot of English speaking people who have been living here for various amounts of time who do whatever missionaries do!!
After deciding that I was actually very disorientated from flying and not being able to read anymore I was taken upstairs to the offices to be reorientated. we went through the handbook which I has gone through many times before and the floor was open to discussion which gave me the chance to ask questions and the whole afternoon was good, I feel like I know what’s going on for now and I look forward to spending the next day or two here in the Kanto area to adjust. I’ve been given a cell phone and train pass and other useful things. My thanks to Rosanne and Phillipa for their time spent reorientating me.
During the prayer and praise meeting I did get to attend one talk about discipleship in an animistic culture, It was very interesting and I feel bad for being so tired because I could have listened to the guy talking about it all day. One thing which should definitely be noted is that animism is not necessarily about animals. The Japanese are very open about spirituality here, i guess it looks like they are very superstitious people. they believe that there is an unseen universe alongside our real life of which there are sometimes physical consequences for spiritual actions and vice verse – and this is typical thinking even of the Japanese atheist. Something to think about!
I’ve had some Japanese Food and I’ve been for a stroll though the Ichikawa area and my clear thoughts right now is that it is nice to be back in Japan. oh, and I stick out like a fat red thumb being this tall and hairy.
From Narita airport I had been told that it was cold outside and that it would raining, I know what rain can be like in Japan so I was anticipating a very discouraging start, although I also know what umbrellas are like and being big translucent domes compared to what we use in the UK I would have been happy to begin my time here with a Buzz Lightyear experience. I managed to arrange to get my luggage delivered to the OMF guesthouse so I didn’t have to lug that around with me as I navigated the Keisei trains. Anyway, It wasn’t raining, it was quite warm and sunny outside, just as it was in the UK when I took off.
At the guesthouse a prayer and praise meeting was well on the way as I arrived, a range of OMFer’s serving all over the Kanto area had gotten together as I hear they do every month to just share stories and pray and praise God. which is great! great encouragement for me. and I got to meet a lot of English speaking people who have been living here for various amounts of time who do whatever missionaries do!!
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| I’m somewhere between Saffron City and Cerulean City |
During the prayer and praise meeting I did get to attend one talk about discipleship in an animistic culture, It was very interesting and I feel bad for being so tired because I could have listened to the guy talking about it all day. One thing which should definitely be noted is that animism is not necessarily about animals. The Japanese are very open about spirituality here, i guess it looks like they are very superstitious people. they believe that there is an unseen universe alongside our real life of which there are sometimes physical consequences for spiritual actions and vice verse – and this is typical thinking even of the Japanese atheist. Something to think about!
I’ve had some Japanese Food and I’ve been for a stroll though the Ichikawa area and my clear thoughts right now is that it is nice to be back in Japan. oh, and I stick out like a fat red thumb being this tall and hairy.
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"Animism isn't just about animals". Very nice!