7:30pm Friday Sept. 15
\wow, this keyboard sure is weird. There, now I've found the Shift Key. I:m typing this on a Japanese computer here at a "minshuku" (think "hostel") run by Tsukuba City. But let me back up to yesterday afternoon.
Back at the TEAM Center (near the Mitaka station) yesterday evening, we were talking about how to get here to Tsukuba and so on. A quick survey of the situation revealed that we had too much luggage. Too much to drag through town, too much to have on the chuo/sobu line train from Mitaka to Akihabara, too much to lug down the stairs/etc at Akihabara into the "bowels of the earth" to get to the starting point for the Tsukuba Express train, and too much to fit into the Lynches' car.
Well, I said, let's send the extra bags to the airport by Yamato-bin. If you've been to Japan, you have probably seen trucks with stylized pictures of black cats:
Some people don't know this, but they can take your bags to the airport. I went to our local Family Mart and asked them, "If I bring some bags tomorrow, can you send them to Narita Kuukou (airport) in time for Sunday's flight?" Well, that would probably work. We ended up taking three bags there last night at about 8:30pm. While I was still talking with the clerk and he filled in his portion of the form, the kuro-neko delivery man showed up. I asked him, "Are you taking the bags now?" Yes he was! That gives them over 60 hours to take the bags across town to the appropriate terminal at Narita. No worries. Thank you God for that timing!
This morning, we enjoyed the old standby chipped beef on toast, except it was pork chops. One of the guests asked our hostess, "Did your husband tell you what we used to call this in the Navy?" (I'm sure the answer was "SOS" but I wasn't going to say it!) We had a laugh about that and enjoyed some good conversation around the breakfast table. The ex-Navy guy mentioned that church growth has almost followed what he called the "military model" - charismatic leader (think Patton, or maybe Henry V) rallies the troops, etc. When The Purpose Driven Life was taking off, you'd go to pastors' conferences and everybody was dressed like Rick Warren! Anyway, we wondered what made for "success" in Japan. Our host interrupted the conversation to offer the morning devotional reading from somebody named Jeremiah. David Jeremiah or Peter Jeremiah or something like this. The essay was about being a soldier for Jesus. I thought that a minor confirmation of the "military model" point.
The appointed hour came and we were almost ready to go, except we were missing one key. What to do? Our hosts told us to just go; it would turn up or we could send it or whatever.
So off we went. Yesterday I had talked with the guy at the "midori no madoguchi" (JR ticket/etc office) about getting our deposit back on the suica JR cards. These are pretty cool cards. They're smart cards I think, and keep track of your purchase history [etc]. You buy them for 2000 yen, 500 yen deposit and 1500 yen usable train fare. When you pass through the wicket (or fare gate, "kaisatsuguchi"), you place the card within about 1cm of the reader, and it remembers where you entered, debits fare based on where you're exiting, etc.
Bottom line, I took everybody's cards, bought tickets with them, and got our deposit back. So on today's expense report, I showed us spending a negative 1000 yen on JR tickets.
We got to Akihabara without incident (about 40 minutes on the local train -- "norikae" is a bust when you're toting massive luggage) and were just about to get onto the Tsukuba Express train when Sheri called. Carol had called earlier, asking them for a call back. They had been out at dinner (Thanks Dave and Sudeep!!) so it was late and Sheri had only had a brief time to talk. She's having a couple of exams "today" (Friday in California) so we prayed about that, and we asked her to call in a prescription refill for Carol. The email is down at home for some reason -- boo hoo! -- I'll have to figure out what went wrong when we get home.
Anyway we got onto the Tsukuba Express, which took about 45 minutes via "kaisoku" (or "rapid") train. Stu appeared as if by magic, and directed us to an elevator. We went to his van -- our bags fit without trouble, but it probably would have been impossible if we hadn't sent those bags ahead. We had a nice drive up the mountain, and got to this here minshuku... some time after 3pm I guess.
Initially, they were going to put us into two rooms (one for men, one for women), and then Rob pointed out that he snored a lot. Could we have 3 rooms? Sure, no problem! Six people then?
No, Stu told them, he wasn't staying. The guys behind the counter looked puzzled. Five people, why would they want three rooms? Somebody indicated that Carol and I were "fuu-fu" (husband and wife) and wanted to be together. Now the guys behind the counter said, "sabishii, na" -- how sad for the guy who has to sleep by himself in that lonely room.
Now there's a cultural difference.
Hot springs! Enter the bath any time you like, he said. Stu brightened up -- me too? Sure, the guy behind the counter said. Normally 300 yen, but for you? sa-bisu (sounds a little like "service" -- it means a freebie) probably because he's the one who brought the five of us up here. I ran up to the room then got my stuff together and joined Stu and Rob in the bath. I don:t want to spend a lot of time explaining this, so take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onsen in wikipedia. We had a nice relaxing conversation.
Dinner was wonderful. There was fish, there was takuan (is that spelled right?), hijiki salad, spaghetti with a little chili powder, a bunch of other stuff I can't remember, soup, and of course rice. A bottomless bowl of rice.
OK, I've been writing almost an hour now, sometimes fighting with this Japanese keyboard, and it:s time to stop. Ha - there I lost out to the keyboard.
Tomorrow, Stu picks us up, we have lunch with one of the local pastors, and a debriefing time. We'll get to spend time with the whole family at dinner, too.
Our prayer/vision trip is coming to a close soon. I think we've all learned a lot about the church in Japan. Some of us have been feeling a stronger pull to come back here to work with the church and to help missionaries. What will happen, and when? God knows...
Back at the TEAM Center (near the Mitaka station) yesterday evening, we were talking about how to get here to Tsukuba and so on. A quick survey of the situation revealed that we had too much luggage. Too much to drag through town, too much to have on the chuo/sobu line train from Mitaka to Akihabara, too much to lug down the stairs/etc at Akihabara into the "bowels of the earth" to get to the starting point for the Tsukuba Express train, and too much to fit into the Lynches' car.
Well, I said, let's send the extra bags to the airport by Yamato-bin. If you've been to Japan, you have probably seen trucks with stylized pictures of black cats:
Some people don't know this, but they can take your bags to the airport. I went to our local Family Mart and asked them, "If I bring some bags tomorrow, can you send them to Narita Kuukou (airport) in time for Sunday's flight?" Well, that would probably work. We ended up taking three bags there last night at about 8:30pm. While I was still talking with the clerk and he filled in his portion of the form, the kuro-neko delivery man showed up. I asked him, "Are you taking the bags now?" Yes he was! That gives them over 60 hours to take the bags across town to the appropriate terminal at Narita. No worries. Thank you God for that timing!
This morning, we enjoyed the old standby chipped beef on toast, except it was pork chops. One of the guests asked our hostess, "Did your husband tell you what we used to call this in the Navy?" (I'm sure the answer was "SOS" but I wasn't going to say it!) We had a laugh about that and enjoyed some good conversation around the breakfast table. The ex-Navy guy mentioned that church growth has almost followed what he called the "military model" - charismatic leader (think Patton, or maybe Henry V) rallies the troops, etc. When The Purpose Driven Life was taking off, you'd go to pastors' conferences and everybody was dressed like Rick Warren! Anyway, we wondered what made for "success" in Japan. Our host interrupted the conversation to offer the morning devotional reading from somebody named Jeremiah. David Jeremiah or Peter Jeremiah or something like this. The essay was about being a soldier for Jesus. I thought that a minor confirmation of the "military model" point.
The appointed hour came and we were almost ready to go, except we were missing one key. What to do? Our hosts told us to just go; it would turn up or we could send it or whatever.
So off we went. Yesterday I had talked with the guy at the "midori no madoguchi" (JR ticket/etc office) about getting our deposit back on the suica JR cards. These are pretty cool cards. They're smart cards I think, and keep track of your purchase history [etc]. You buy them for 2000 yen, 500 yen deposit and 1500 yen usable train fare. When you pass through the wicket (or fare gate, "kaisatsuguchi"), you place the card within about 1cm of the reader, and it remembers where you entered, debits fare based on where you're exiting, etc.
Bottom line, I took everybody's cards, bought tickets with them, and got our deposit back. So on today's expense report, I showed us spending a negative 1000 yen on JR tickets.
We got to Akihabara without incident (about 40 minutes on the local train -- "norikae" is a bust when you're toting massive luggage) and were just about to get onto the Tsukuba Express train when Sheri called. Carol had called earlier, asking them for a call back. They had been out at dinner (Thanks Dave and Sudeep!!) so it was late and Sheri had only had a brief time to talk. She's having a couple of exams "today" (Friday in California) so we prayed about that, and we asked her to call in a prescription refill for Carol. The email is down at home for some reason -- boo hoo! -- I'll have to figure out what went wrong when we get home.
Anyway we got onto the Tsukuba Express, which took about 45 minutes via "kaisoku" (or "rapid") train. Stu appeared as if by magic, and directed us to an elevator. We went to his van -- our bags fit without trouble, but it probably would have been impossible if we hadn't sent those bags ahead. We had a nice drive up the mountain, and got to this here minshuku... some time after 3pm I guess.
Initially, they were going to put us into two rooms (one for men, one for women), and then Rob pointed out that he snored a lot. Could we have 3 rooms? Sure, no problem! Six people then?
No, Stu told them, he wasn't staying. The guys behind the counter looked puzzled. Five people, why would they want three rooms? Somebody indicated that Carol and I were "fuu-fu" (husband and wife) and wanted to be together. Now the guys behind the counter said, "sabishii, na" -- how sad for the guy who has to sleep by himself in that lonely room.
Now there's a cultural difference.
Hot springs! Enter the bath any time you like, he said. Stu brightened up -- me too? Sure, the guy behind the counter said. Normally 300 yen, but for you? sa-bisu (sounds a little like "service" -- it means a freebie) probably because he's the one who brought the five of us up here. I ran up to the room then got my stuff together and joined Stu and Rob in the bath. I don:t want to spend a lot of time explaining this, so take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onsen in wikipedia. We had a nice relaxing conversation.
Dinner was wonderful. There was fish, there was takuan (is that spelled right?), hijiki salad, spaghetti with a little chili powder, a bunch of other stuff I can't remember, soup, and of course rice. A bottomless bowl of rice.
OK, I've been writing almost an hour now, sometimes fighting with this Japanese keyboard, and it:s time to stop. Ha - there I lost out to the keyboard.
Tomorrow, Stu picks us up, we have lunch with one of the local pastors, and a debriefing time. We'll get to spend time with the whole family at dinner, too.
Our prayer/vision trip is coming to a close soon. I think we've all learned a lot about the church in Japan. Some of us have been feeling a stronger pull to come back here to work with the church and to help missionaries. What will happen, and when? God knows...
posted by Collin at 7:35 PM
1 Comments:
Hey Dad! Glad to hear your trip is still going well. I keep praying!
Email is not actually down. It is just Sheri's screen that has died. Completely.
Looking forward to having you home on Sunday!
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