Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Hello!

Firstly, thank you everyone for the Christmas cards, emails, letters and messages you’ve sent.

It’s been a busy few weeks. Sure it’s the same for all of you.

Last week, a group of us hosted a Christmas party for all our friends. It was a really great team effort and a very good party. Ros and Helen baked mince pies (they were absolutely fantastic!) and our apartment was absolutely full of people.

This weekend, we had our Christmas service. I think there must have been about hundred people packed in like sardines. This is about three times our usual number. Hopefully we see some of the visitors again in following weeks.

I also went to Mie Prefecture recently with some friends to see some impressive Christmas light arrangements. After, we had local beer and gyoza there. I was very happy! I’ve attached two photos below.

My holiday started today. I have two weeks off. I need it actually. Like every Christmas, I have tried to do too much in too little time and have burnt myself out a bit. Jimmy, Ros and their daughter Claire, a lovely South African family, have invited me and some others over on Christmas day. Then on Boxing Day, I am visiting Hiroshima with Nilesh for four days. I’m looking forward to getting away from everything for a bit and reflecting on the previous four months. I’ll also start studying kanji seriously during this holiday.

So, have a very happy Christmas everyone! Stay warm.

Hello!

Well, it’s turning all Christmassy here. It’s very exciting!

On Thursday I sat in Coco Ichiban and listened to Mary’s Boy Child whilst devouring Japanese curry. On Friday I was bemused to discover tiny plastic sushi dangling off the branches of what I think was a Christmas tree, sagging under the weight of various decorations. And yesterday I bought an actual box of mince pies from Kaldi. However, at nearly ₤7 for a small tray, it will be a rare luxury indeed. Not like when I lived with Matt and Stu. My goodness we used to eat a lot of pies during December.

This week has been a very quiet one at school. Students have been sitting more tests. In the mornings, I’ve been helping a teacher who is writing letters to immigrant families from Malaysia (who speak English) about all manner of things from student enrollment procedures to the complex terms and conditions of direct debit arrangements. She translates from Japanese to Portuguese, which is her first language, and then from Portuguese to English. By that point, I can’t for the life of me work out what she’s written so I end up just writing what I think the procedure probably is, based on my limited experience of these things. I’m sure it will be fine!

On Thursday afternoon we had a fire drill which helped to break up the monotony of the day. It was really good actually. They made a whole afternoon of it. It started fairly normally with the alarm sounding and over 1000 students marching out of the building. However, after that, we all sat down on the grass and a team of fire fighters raced into the middle of us and set a huge tray of flammable sustance alight. The blaze was fantastic. They demonstrated how to put it out using a fire extinguisher and then some of the students tried. After this, they disappeared off to smoke out a classroom and one by one we had to navigate our way through it. It was absolutely gripping! Do they do this sort of thing at secondary schools in England?

In my spare time, I’ve been enjoying watching the Ashes at a sensible time (sorry to all of you back in the UK who have to settle for the highlights program). On Sunday, Nils came over and whispered 319-1 to me just before the start of our church meeting. Suddenly felt especially inspired to worship God! We have our Christmas service coming soon. I’m really looking forward to it.

So, keep warm everyone and have a good week!

The blog is back!

Hello!

Thank you for your patience everyone. It’s been a busy few weeks, but I’m back!

Things are great at church. I’m looking forward to GraceCity Quiz Night, which was held for the first time last year and is happening again tomorrow. It promises to be a great event! Been swatting up on flags of the world in secret. Just need to make sure I get on the right team now.

The season turned very quickly here and the sudden change in weather has meant that most people have battled some kind of bug in the last few weeks. I would estimate that on any given day, between ten and twenty percent of people are wearing facemasks out and about to stop the spread of colds and other things. It’s not something you generally see in England. Some of the students I teach choose to wear it every day. I have yet to wear one, but so far I have managed to dodge being ill.

Google images

I’ve had a real push with studying language recently. Put my foot in it by telling a Japanese guy that his Japanese was very impressive. Having said that, he did introduce himself as coming from Thailand, which turned out to be a joke. Not very funny if you ask me.

At school, some of the students have been asking about music from Britain. So, I’ve taken on the delicious task of making a CD that represents Britain. I’m hoping that we can use it in lessons. Maybe learn the words to some of the songs and sing along, like karaoke. I’ve been trawling my music library thinking about what to include. I’m still not completely happy with it and feel I’m missing some essential names, but this is the final track list. Take care everyone.

1. U2 – I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For

2. Take That – Shine

3. Oasis – Wonderwall

4. Amy Winehouse – Love is a Losing Game

5. The Cure – Friday I’m in Love

6. Sex Pistols – God Save The Queen

7. Coldplay – Yellow

8. The La’s – There She Goes

9. Leona Lewis – Run

10. David Bowie – Starman

11. Spice Girls – Goodbye

12. The Beatles – Hey Jude

I'm an alien, a legal alien, I'm an Englishman in Japan

This week, I went to my school’s annual cultural festival where I watched, amongst other things, a Junior High School performance of the story of Peter Pan. It was actually really good, made all the more special by the addition of Pikachu as one of the main characters.

Also, an extraordinary sequence of events to tell you about. It started with me going to the Naka Ward Office to pick up my Alien Registration card (Yes, it really is called that), which is a card that foreigners staying in Japan must carry with them. It’s very shiny and official looking, but rather disappointingly confirms once and for all that I am definitely Stephen Morris and not a famous football icon. Not that kids need to know that of course.

Then on Saturday, Dave, Nils, Michael and I went to watch a really good 'folky-sounding' band play. Towards the end, the band played a cover of song by Sting, in which the chorus goes 'I'm an alien, a legal alien, I'm an Englishman, in New York', although the singer changed New York to Japan for our benefit.

Then lastly, today I was reading through part of the book of Ephesians and read ‘In Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ’ and a few verses later ‘So then, you are no longer foreigners or aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household.’ 

Crazy, huh?! Anyway, I was reminded that although I may be an alien in Japan and be far away from home, I am not far off from God. This certainly cheered me up and the timing of it reminded me of my favourite Proverb: A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.

Anyway, have to go now because Nils and I are about to catch up on Spooks. We’re on episode 4 and loving it! Take care.

PIKA…CHUUUUUUUUUU!

Kung Fu Handa

Impromptu judo fight in the corridor between a very large teacher and a plucky kid I have got to know called Kai. Very good fun. Noone batted an eyelid. I love Japan.

Happy Cow, Happy Steve

Back to writing again this week…

and with some very good news to share - Milka Happy Cow is currently on the shelves at the International Shop! SO glad that I dropped in before doing a big shop. This more than makes up for their stunt with the Weetabix last month.

So… I’ve been here a few months now. I guess that this is the time when my blog becomes in danger of dying. I mean, I can’t really just keep updating you with news about the latest item on sale in Calvis… can I?!

I continue to thank God every day for the opportunity to come to such a wonderful country to be involved with church plantning. That’s right, ‘plantning’. Actually, we’ve had a great time this weekend as a church. Peter Brooks came from Sydney to be with us for a few days and he served us brilliantly. In particular, he spoke really well at our men’s breakfast about ‘What Real Men Do’, where he addressed some of the silly ideas that are out there and encouraged us to take responsibility, show our emotions, be faithful to everyone, be kind and compassionate, and be people who pursue God…and then we all drank beer and arm-wrestled for several hours (joke). I was happy that a few of the friends I have made through playing tennis came along and seemed to really enjoy themselves.

I had a good day in school today. Was with the special needs class after lunch, which is always fun because it’s a very small class and you can really enjoy the kids in a way that’s just impossible with a class of thirty-six. Arrived early because I usually get a game of table tennis in with one of the kids before class starts. There were only three kids in class today because the other four were outside practicing for their sports festival. The teacher had asked me to show some pictures of England, which I did. After this, we played some more table tennis. There were more than enough bats for everyone and I wanted to teach them ‘Round the table’, but I couldn’t persuade one of the girls or the teacher to play. Wanting to squeeze language out of every situation, I tried to get the students to keep score in English, which they did reluctantly. After this, I went outside to see how they were preparing for the Sports Festival. During the brief period I was out there, about hundred students were working in groups of four, each group carrying one student up on their shoulders. Upon command, they all ran into the middle of the pitch and started whacking one another over the head, much to the joy of staff and students alike and to the bewilderment of me with my western brain. Everyday here is still full of mystery and surprise, but that’s all part of the fun!

So, that’s the main events of my week reported, and maybe that’s all this blog needs to do. I don’t know. Answers on a postcard…

Pictures galore...

Hello! Yesterday, I went to into town to watch the main parade for Nagoya's annual festival. Here are my pictures... 

And if that's not enough to satisfy you, I've also noticed that pictures of the barbecue are up on our church website, within the Media section. The link below should take you there.

http://www.gracecity.jp/index_en.php

Have a good week!

Boys will be boys...

Hilarious lunch time today. Was sat opposite a group of bold and brash teenage boys, all of whom were eager to practice speaking English. It wasn't long into conversation before one of the boys unveiled an electronic language translator and they began excitedly looking up the most unwholesome words the translator would permit. The whole scene was so predictable, but very funny nonetheless. Thankfully, their poor pronunciation allowed me to escape each time with my dignity intact and after many tried and failed attempts, they finally gave in and pummeled the poor boy with the translator.

It just goes to show, no matter where you are in the world, boys will be boys.

There are some nice pictures of the barbecue we had in the park on facebook. Just visit my profile page. Unfortunately, I can't post any here because the photos have lots of people in, so sorry if you don't have access to facebook. The weather was beautiful and many people came. We played cricket and ultimate frisbee and enjoyed plenty of good food and drink. In other news, I've started meeting people through playing tennis. I am playing three times this week, which makes me a very happy bunny, and at the same time I practice conversation. Long may the good weather last!

I have to go, but finally, I have had some very nice messages recently from different people, so thank you everyone (you know who you are!).

Oretachi o Tamashii!

Today I met a student who has recently moved back to Japan having lived on the outskirts of Liverpool for many years. He soon made it quite clear to everyone that I was definitely not Steven Gerrard. Felt quite disappointed by this news. Was starting to believe that I was.

On the subject of football, I had my first experience of a live game on Saturday, which was very exciting. Went to watch Nagoya Grampus win 2-1 against Vegalta Sendai at the Mizuho Athletic Stadium. Nagoya are having a great season this year and are now nine points clear at the top of the J-league. I’ve been told that in Japan, the city whose team wins the league celebrate by having a huge sale across all stores, on all items. Thought this was a very good idea.

In other news, we have yet another national holiday next week (oh, the hardship!). So, instead of going to work, we (GraceCity church) are holding an ‘English style’ barbecue in the park. Whether this English style tag means picking the wettest day of the year and all huddling under one umbrella remains to be seen, but we hope to gather lots of people and I’m certainly looking forward to it.

Hope you are all doing well. Speak soon.

Konnichiwa, toire wa doko desu ka?

Having had a few requests after last time for more than just stories about dodgy soups and spilt milk, I hope that today's blog entry satisfies people's curiosity.


I'm currently working in two Junior High schools, each of which has about 800 students, aged 13-15 or something like that. I alternate between each school every three or four weeks. So far, it's been a lot of fun! My role is simple: engage students in conversation wherever, whenever and however I can. This is easy because it's just so rare to meet a non-Japanese person in Japan, so students are naturally curious. Sometimes they get quite excited! The other day, I went into one class and a kid stood up, pointed at me and repeated over and over at the top of his voice 'Steven Gerrard! Steven Gerrard!' He probably carried on like this for close to a minute. Whether or not he thought I actually was Steven Gerrard (Liverpool and England footballer) is up for debate, but you can imagine the delight I took in introducing myself as Stephen, which sent him into a spasm.
I make my fair share of mistakes too. Realised today that I'd been reassuring whole classes of students that a quiz I'd made about myself was inexpensive, rather than easy.
Contrary to what you may think after the last story, I am studying Japanese fervently, particularly during free periods when I haven't any marking to do. I really want to be able to deepen my relationships with people that I have met, especially folk at church. Progress is slow when all you can say is 'Konnichiwa' and 'Where is the toilet?' Had a really nice day on Monday. It was a national holiday and our life group plus friends went to visit a castle and then went onto Japan's largest lake, where I swam. Also played football on Sunday night, which was a good time of relating to some of the Japanese guys without the need for any language.

So, I hope that's satisfied your apetite for information. Please keep in touch. I love getting your little messages and it also provides me with a welcome break from thinking in Japanese.

Lots of love, Steven Gerrard x

Weetabix and milk

Hello! I'm writing to you having just cycled back from the international shop, where I was dismayed to discover that they've stopped selling Weetabix. So, it's back to octopus-eye stew for breakfast again!

This week I've seen more soups and more sleepers. I've been caught in a lift, caught in a typhoon and caught out in a game of baseball. Managed to escape each time. No harm done. However, my time this week has mainly been spent at work and it definitely feels like I'm living here now and am not just a spectator. Of course, I still stick out like a sore thumb but sadly this is usually due to my own ineptitude rather than anything else. Like today, I managed to pick up my milk carton a little too eagerly and consequently sprayed the whole classroom. Teacher stared at me like I was insane. Went very red, but probably made some child's day.

Take care everyone. Miss you.

That's one bowl I definitely won't 'miso'.

Had my first near death experience today over a bowl of miso soup. Now, usually miso soup (especially Nagoya's) is fantastically oishii (delicious!) but I really do deserve a medal for finishing this particular bowl. To make matters worse, lunch was in front of a whole class of kids, who watched my face with absolute delight as I fought my way through every mouthful. They must have known what was going on and they loved every moment!
After lunch I had a few free periods so decided to do some work in the computer room. After a few minutes a man walked in. We exchanged greetings. He then proceeded to lie down on the floor. I wondered what on earth was going on and whether I ought to call for help. Anyway, within a few seconds he was curled up in a little ball and snoring like a trooper. Nilesh, my flatmate, joked that that would be me soon enough after all these early starts. He's probably right.

P.S. We had Vision Sunday at GraceCity this week. Had a wonderful time with everyone and am very excited about this new season.

Hi everyone,

I have been in Nagoya for exactly one week and so far, I love it!
Coming out of the station after taking a train from the airport, we were greeted by a giant mechanical crab, which waved its claws happily in our direction. Briefly imagined a world where crabs were top of the food pile and people were on the menu. Not nice. The weather here is brutally hot, but at least it's not raining. The flat is very spacious and although there isn't a friendly household robot that does all the jobs, Nilesh (my flat-mate) makes a good alternative. Missed church on Sunday due to a fever, so I am looking forward to meeting everyone properly this weekend. After this, I visit my Board of Education and schools on Monday and start work properly on Friday. As for the cake, it was delicious! I hope you are all well.

P.S. I will be online and on Skype on Saturday between 10:30am and midday, UK time. Would love to hear from you if you are not busy. take care.

Piece of cake? I think not...

Today, after a lot of sorting, I eventually folded away my life into two reasonably-sized travel bags. I was surprised at how difficult this was. Turns out I was wrong about being a minimalist.

Started by laying all my stuff in a line, from one end of the room to the other, in order of importance. I wondered for a while whether it was silly to have placed a Lyle's Golden Syrup Cake further ahead in the line than any clothes. Decided it wasn't. Managed to pack both in the end, but the cake is coming with me in hand luggage, which is just fine.

Fly tomorrow. Feeling great!

The blog begins...

Hi everyone. Hope you are well.
I'm moving to Nagoya on August 19 to join up with the lovely folk of GraceCity church. I'm expecting the first few months in particular to be like learning to swim - a lot of effort for not a lot of forward movement. Still, I'm feeling very excited about it all and I'll use this blog to keep you up to date with how I'm doing at splashing about!
Would love to hear from you...