Its been a busy two weeks.
I moved into the Noborito Ecclesia Church in Tokyo, Japan on June 29th, and since then I’ve had almost no free time, but in a good way. Most times when you move somewhere new you need time figuring out where places are or how stuff works, and its hit and miss, mainly miss. But when you move into a community, you are instantly doing everything that they have learned from adapting to their surroundings, and you must adapt fast yourself.
The first couple days I was at the church, a couple from Kentucky and a couple Canadians were here to help out in Iwaki. The 3rd day I was here a bboy team (breakdance team) from California came to do Christian ministry and put on some street performances. The team star, Jojo, was only 8 years old.... so they drew a pretty big crowd. They are called Break Free, and were constantly sharing the gospel with those they met. Really good ministry, and pretty good bboys too!
One day that week we went to the beach, and as Austin, (one of the Break Free team), and I were walking along the board walk, we were joking around and being noisy, and a group of about 10 Japanese guys on the beach heard us and started yelling at us. After a couple seconds were realized they were inviting us over to their barbeque for free beer and top grade Japanese BBQ. We ran over, and got some amazing free food... one of the guys owned a pretty successful meat shop, and the rest of the guys worked for him. When we told them we had to leave to meet up with other friends, they gave us some more meat to share with our friends. Just goes to show how open and friendly the Japanese are.
This past week a team from Seoul, South Korea were here, and they impacted the whole missionary team here daily. Really awesome people, very spirit led and we were blessed to have their help with FUSE and the outreaches we do. They prayed with insight only God could have given, and were always stoked to be doing what they do. They were the kind of people who in some ways remind me of how Christians are called to live.
So life in Japan is pretty crazy... soo many people everywhere 24/7. Tokyo is can be pretty grungy, I love it, and its parkour paradise. We take the Tokyo Rail system everywhere, and sometimes there are too many people on the train to move an inch.... they will literally have railroad guards come and push people in so that everyone can fit on the train. But at least its air conditioned, so people can breathe... at least us tall people can.
The clothing styles here are also super weird... its really popular for guys to do their hair up with a lot of product, to wear leather boots, and to carry purses. A lot of things that are considered girly in North America is normal here for guys... really weird to get used to. But because of this, girls in Japan can be ultra girly... they dress like 1700s styles... frilly lacy white umbrellas, frilly dresses with wiring (so they are always rounded), and lots of bows in their hair. They also have styles called “Hiker” and “Climber”, where the climber style would wear short shorts and climbing clothes, and hiker would wear really outdoorsy and hippy-ish clothing. Actual hiking and climbing in Tokyo aren’t as popular as these styles are though... I saw a magazine in a bookstore that was about hiking and ‘how to hike’, with diagrams on how to step over a log or walk uphill. Or course there are real hikers and climbers in Japan, but I feel like the busy youth in tokyo would rather dress the style and look cool then actually make time go out and do it for fun.
So far I have visited Shibuya, Harajuku, Machida, some other places I can’t pronounce, and Akihabara, which is also called Electric Town. Akihabara was definity my favorite.... the shopping area started in WW2 in the alleyways there as radio parts stores, so the military could easily get parts to fix all their mechanical gear. Now it has tranformed into endless blocks of computer parts, random electronics, and used video game stores. Japan takes its used game stores seriously... many random alleys even in small towns have makeshift shops set up with a few retro games and game systems. For instance in the town I live in, Noborito, there is an alley way that a man lives in the end of, (in a small house), but the alley way is only 3 feet wide and has a roof at about 7 feet... and is lined with PS and Gameboy games. (If you’ve ever played resident evil, its kind of like the merchant from that game...). In Electric Town there is a game store that is 3 stories tall, each floor about the size of a basic cd store, but they sell only used and vintage video games. But it is branched off of an alley way, so its really hard to find. Any video game system you could ever think of is there. Also in Electric Town the alley ways that were made for WW2 supplies now have electronic parts merchants, and you can buy virtually anything from quarter inch cable ends to components to build a motherboard. Here’s a video I found by a white guy in Akiharaba, he doesn’t go in the alley ways, but its still decent... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSeO0c4Q4Ac
So these past two weeks I have been helping getting the two teams around Tokyo, (but really mainly learning along side them, sometimes even I was the one following them), and doing ministry. By ministry I mean inviting people to our youth church, and just talking with people and making friends. In my free time I have been studying Japanese, and have been taking 2 free Japanese classes a week. Twice a week we visit ShenShuu University in Tokyo, and just practice Japanese and hang out with awesome people. Twice a week we play music on the streets, usually outside train stations. Mainly i’ve been playing acoustic and singing, but i’m also trying to master the Cajon. This past Sunday I also played electric in the worship band at FUSE.
Right now life has slowed down a bit... both of the teams that were here have left, and now I have the floor I live on to myself. So finally I can start a schedual, and now there is enough room in the fridge to start cooking asian style... although I do love eating out at ramen houses.
What I plan to do this month is to buy a cheap surfboard so I can get out more and possibly find a crew to surf with, start meeting with the Tokyo Parkour team , (TKPK), and hopefully use that as well to meet some proper people. Also i want to find some time to go help at Iwaki. I was originally planning on visiting Iwaki - the disaster area - once a week, but because of my schedual, the distance and train fares, I will now try to go for a week every month.
I love Japan, the people are always a good time, the architecture is amazing, and God has been teaching me a lot since coming here. Im stoked for this next year!!
