Half a year in Japan

February! I’ve been living in Japan for half a year. What a brilliant half a year it’s been!

God has been kind, giving me a great church family to be part of and friends to share life with. Friends have been very generous towards me, and I’ve enjoyed some fantastic experiences as a result of their hard work. Thank you. I also want to pay tribute to folks back in England, who have been kind enough to pray for me, write to me, skype with me.

Of course, this half year has been challenging too and continues to be. Living in an unfamiliar culture, trying to understand what’s going on, daily commute, work, church planting, making new friends... it’s fair to say that I often feel overwhelmed and tired!

As for recent news, things are going well at GraceCity. We’re all feeling excited about the increasing numbers of friends of ours who have suddenly started coming on Sundays. We had a successful Christmas service and wonderfully, we’ve seen a number of guests and friends decide to continue to come in subsequent weeks. We are praying for breakthrough.

Personally, I can’t wait for the weather to warm up so I can go for long walks round Tsurumai park again, where I love to lay out all my thoughts before God and hear what He has to say. Sometimes I hear him and sometimes I don’t. I always come away refreshed. Somehow, walking outside in the freezing wind just doesn’t hold the same appeal.

Work is going okay. I have got to know some of the japanese english teachers better and we are working together better. I decided yesterday to compare my formula for planning a literacy lesson when I was at Stoke Heath, and my formula for planning a lesson here, teaching English in Japanese state schools. This experience is definitely adding something to me as a teacher.

Japanese study is moving along… slowly. The kids at school are great to try out new sentences on and I’ve recently started making more use of them. Today, in between classes, I learnt how to make “I have A so I have to / must do B” type sentences. For example, “Sorry I have to go now. Tomorrow, I catch the train from 7:00 so I have to get up early”, which I think is…あの、すみませんがもう行かなくちゃ。明日は７時から電車が乗るので早くおきなくちゃいけないんです. Japanese speakers, what do you think?

Keep well everyone. I’ll try and write again in March. God bless.

A little bit of everything

Hello everyone. This week, I’ve spent a huge amount of time at Starbucks, where my study of nihongo has been almost as rich as the delicious dark mocha frappuccinos that have fuelled my efforts.

Also, in an attempt to restore dietary harmony, I’ve made a push this week to start cooking. Unbelievably, it’s the first time I’ve made the effort since coming here. Pathetic, eh? Still, there is a plan in place so I am at least moving in the right direction.

In addition, on Thursday I stumbled upon what must be one the most technologically advanced toilets in existence, at Max Value supermarket of all places! With its impressive array of buttons and options, the experience offered easily rivals Starbucks for comfort and I would consider taking my textbook and studying in there in the future. My only regret was pressing the ‘Powerful Deodouriser’ button. Powerful it most certainly was. I nearly passed out and had to make a speedy exit.

This Sunday, we meet as a whole church for the first time in a couple of weeks. Having been away to Hiroshima too, it feels like long time no see. Looking forward to seeing everyone though. There’s a lovely vibe at church. One of my friends, Daisuke, summed it up well, ‘It feels like a family’, he said. With lots of visitors coming each week, this can only be a good thing.

Go back to work on January 11^th. This is the final term, since the school year here runs from April to March. At the end, I have a few weeks holiday so if any of you want to see Japan, to see the loos at Max Value, or for any other reason, be my guest!

Take care all.

P.S. Three cheers for England for winning the ashes this week and for my beloved football team, Leeds, who managed a fantastic draw against Arsenal today!

Hiroshima photos

Hello everyone. Happy New Year! I’ve just got back after spending three days in Hiroshima 広島市. I’ve attached some pictures for you to enjoy.

This is the famous Atomic Bomb Dome, one of the few structures that survived the blast and is now a world heritage site. The dome is a part of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, which was built around the hypocenter of the bomb. Also nearby is the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. We spent hours in the museum reading about the background, and looking at painful pictures, movies and objects, showing us the destructive power of the atomic bomb.

Now, Hiroshima is rebuilt and is a beautiful town famous for its sea food. Nilesh and I visited an oyster restaurant, owned by this man, and ate them after being barbecued in their shells. They were amazing! 

Another food highlight was eating Hiroshima okonomiyaki, a kind of layered pancake which typically includes batter, huge amounts of cabbage which is pushed down as it cooks, bacon, beansprouts and optional items such as squid, octopus, and cheese. Noodles (yakisoba, udon) are also used as a topping with fried egg and a generous amount of okonomiyaki sauce. It was a very satisfying dish!

Only a 5-minute ferry ride from the city is the beautiful island shrine of Miyajima, which is famous for the floating gate, a torii that appears to be floating in the water.

Reflections: Hiroshima is a really great city! I definitely want to go back someday.

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!