talon article
the features editor requested penelope and me to each write an article for the newspaper at OC about our experiences thus far in Japan. this is what i wrote:
Sometimes it takes a complete separation from familiar surroundings to see the One with whom we should be most familiar. I am a foreign exchange student at Ibaraki Christian University and will remain here until December. My past few months in Japan held the normal ups and downs of life but with an Asian twist. Living in a country completely foreign to all my previous life experiences widened my view of the world, my faith, and God. This has been my renewal, my time of change. He has stretched me more than ever before.
If laughter is truly good medicine, I will never be sick for there is always something humorous. My walks between classes provide me with much amusement when reading the “engrish” on the shirts of the students. I have recorded some of the most memorable t-shirt sayings: “Happiness is a warm puppy,” “Hasten Slowly,” “For the love of buffalo,” “Keep flapping your feelings,” “I have a kitten in my heart,” and my personal favorite, worn by a suave, college boy, “Grandmas…They’re not always this sexy!”
The differences between life here compared to life in America are extreme. Children learn to play the accordian, ride unicycles and dance the Tennessee Waltz in elementary school. They also garden and cook lunch for each other. When I teach there, I take off my outside shoes, replace them with indoor shoes, walk down the hallway and take off my indoor shoes outside of the classroom. I can do all of my grocery shopping and pay all my bills at the local 7/11, which is not connected to a gas station. I must buy special sacks for different kinds of garbage. There are so many rules, so many things that offer no explanation or reasoning. Questioning these matters proved fruitless, and I stopped asking “why?” a long time ago. In a culture laced with respect and formalities, personal distance is wider than in America; yet, onsens are very popular and often frequented by all ages. An onsen is a bath house where people of the same sex bathe together.
Behind the entertaining diversity lies a darker side of Japan, the Land of the Rising Sun. Whether going to work or church, the train is always my mode of transportation. Sometimes the trains fall behind schedule due to what they call an “accident”, which often means someone, intent on ending their own life, has thrown themselves in front of a train. I read in a newspaper recently that on average there are about 30,000 suicides every year in Japan. A vast majority of those suicides are children, children whose souls have been crushed by the demands to conform to society. A common saying, “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down”, is carried out at school, in the workplace, at home and elsewhere. This sheds light on the reason it is very difficult for the Japanese to give their lives over to Christ, to become the minority. Many do not understand they can be both Christian and Japanese. If only my friends could look past their family traditions and prejudices to see Christ and believe in him. I am discouraged at times, wondering if it is in my power to bring these souls to God. Sometimes I wonder if His truth will reach or convict their hearts. I feel the pressing darkness in a place that doesn’t witness to the True Light. But in this dark place, I have seen Him brighter and clearer than ever before.
Sometimes it takes a complete separation from familiar surroundings to see the One with whom we should be most familiar. I am a foreign exchange student at Ibaraki Christian University and will remain here until December. My past few months in Japan held the normal ups and downs of life but with an Asian twist. Living in a country completely foreign to all my previous life experiences widened my view of the world, my faith, and God. This has been my renewal, my time of change. He has stretched me more than ever before.
If laughter is truly good medicine, I will never be sick for there is always something humorous. My walks between classes provide me with much amusement when reading the “engrish” on the shirts of the students. I have recorded some of the most memorable t-shirt sayings: “Happiness is a warm puppy,” “Hasten Slowly,” “For the love of buffalo,” “Keep flapping your feelings,” “I have a kitten in my heart,” and my personal favorite, worn by a suave, college boy, “Grandmas…They’re not always this sexy!”
The differences between life here compared to life in America are extreme. Children learn to play the accordian, ride unicycles and dance the Tennessee Waltz in elementary school. They also garden and cook lunch for each other. When I teach there, I take off my outside shoes, replace them with indoor shoes, walk down the hallway and take off my indoor shoes outside of the classroom. I can do all of my grocery shopping and pay all my bills at the local 7/11, which is not connected to a gas station. I must buy special sacks for different kinds of garbage. There are so many rules, so many things that offer no explanation or reasoning. Questioning these matters proved fruitless, and I stopped asking “why?” a long time ago. In a culture laced with respect and formalities, personal distance is wider than in America; yet, onsens are very popular and often frequented by all ages. An onsen is a bath house where people of the same sex bathe together.
Behind the entertaining diversity lies a darker side of Japan, the Land of the Rising Sun. Whether going to work or church, the train is always my mode of transportation. Sometimes the trains fall behind schedule due to what they call an “accident”, which often means someone, intent on ending their own life, has thrown themselves in front of a train. I read in a newspaper recently that on average there are about 30,000 suicides every year in Japan. A vast majority of those suicides are children, children whose souls have been crushed by the demands to conform to society. A common saying, “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down”, is carried out at school, in the workplace, at home and elsewhere. This sheds light on the reason it is very difficult for the Japanese to give their lives over to Christ, to become the minority. Many do not understand they can be both Christian and Japanese. If only my friends could look past their family traditions and prejudices to see Christ and believe in him. I am discouraged at times, wondering if it is in my power to bring these souls to God. Sometimes I wonder if His truth will reach or convict their hearts. I feel the pressing darkness in a place that doesn’t witness to the True Light. But in this dark place, I have seen Him brighter and clearer than ever before.
posted by kayla janell at
23:03
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