Over the past 3 years, we have made with an annual “Kansai Team” video with our Asian Access cohorts. It has been fun to channel our collectively weird and creative energies for the purpose of explaining what we are doing here.

This past spring, we made our third video, entitled Reality Bytes. Here it is for your (?hopeful) enjoyment. Special thanks to our Kansai partners…it really was a great team effort. If you would like to watch a clearer version with higher resolution, you can find this video (and other Asian Access videos and podcasts) available on iTunes filed under Podcasts and “Reality Bytes.” A search should bring it up.
Note: you are welcome to watch the two previous years’ videos at our currently out-dated website. Click here to the go to the movie page.

Lately Olivia (18 months old) has gotten into dressing up. She finds whatever she can, and finds a way to wear it:

It’s not Halloween yet, but she’s into her brother’s Power Ranger mask:

The other day, our friend Nina came over to play with the girls, and all three of them had fun dressing up:

Yesterday, I was as undressed-up as I could be. I was ALL ME. And it wasn’t pretty. I was tired, and I had run out of being patient with our kids. When Annie kept getting out of bed for her naptime, I let her know (and probably the neighbors too) how I felt about it. Between our house church, and the Gospel Concert event we had that evening, I had several short and not sweet yells at one child or another.

During the gospel concert, I was sitting there and remembered what our friend and psychologist Jack Anderson has said — that there are times when you need to pretend. You might not feel like showing love at the time, but if you pretend, and practice doing it, it can become real. (This isn’t an exact quote, but general idea). I wasn’t happy about who I was yesterday with our kids. There’s something about being real and genuine; but there’s also something important about the times when our real self can’t be loving but we can put on love, like Paul says:
But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. (1 Thessalonians 5:8)
The Message says, Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation.
I’m a lot more fun to be with when I put on love, even when I don’t feel like it. Hopefully it will become more and more real. Oh…I need to play dress up more often!

This week Eric has been gone for 3 days at leadership meetings up in Hokkaido. Picking up Owen at yochien (kindergarten) on Tuesday, my friend Atsuko came over with her daughter and said they’d love to get together and play. So they both came over on Wednesday (every Wednesday yochiens get out early, before lunch time). They stayed until 5:30 pm – playdates are SERIOUS in Japan. Because most Japanese men don’t return home from their jobs until very late — 9 or 10 pm, or even later — Japanese housewives don’t seem to start thinking about dinner until 6 or 7… so afternoons often stretch long.

I had shared in a previous blog entry (Golden Fasts) about the challenges of starting again in making new friends through Owen’s school…. I realized (through unwanted tears) that one afternoon that it will take time to know where each other’s spoons are kept in the kitchen, and more familiarity to be able to freely hunt for them without asking permission. I’m a pretty intentional person in relationships, but I recognize the importance of both time and shared experiences to deepen friendships to places of comfortableness.
(Below: Atsuko is on the right- another time that she and a friend came over for a play date)

On Wednesday, Atsuko and I were drinking diet Coke together and eating oatmeal cookies that the kids had made. She told me that her husband has recently quit his current English conversation class in order to begin studying with Eric at his Saturday morning men’s class. We were sharing photos from our recent family outings. I was holding Olivia, when Annie suddenly stood up on the living room floor and a FOUNTAIN of pee started pouring out of her big girl pants. Atsuko, herself a mom of two girls, quickly stood up, picked up Annie under her armpits, and carried her to the shower. While I cleaned up the mess before Olivia could have fun in it, Atsuko showered off Annie, washed out her pants, and had found some pants and re-dressed her.

While of course feeling slightly embarassed about all the mess, and thanking Atsuko for her swift help, I had to grin to myself. Finding each other’s kitchen spoons is NOTHING compared to showering down your friend’s daughter’s pee-pee. It’s happening. Silver friends…becoming more precious.

Today is a national holiday in Japan (Respect for the Aged Day), so our family took advantage of two free tickets we had received to go grape-picking. Owen had gone with his kindergarten sev
eral weeks ago, and brought home some of the most delicious grapes we’ve ever had. So today was our chance – we took our family and our friend Yasko, and thanks to our car navigation system we were able to find the vineyard about 25 minutes away.
We left just before lunch, so on the way we stopped at McDonalds’ drive-through and took our lunches with us to the vineyard. When we got there, we paid our admission fee and then sat on the outskirts of the vineyard and ate our lunch. Just as we were finishing, one of the staff came over and said that we should take our lunch into the vineyard and eat there. Since we were already mostly done, we packed up, threw out the trash and then started to enter the vineyard.
It was SO beautiful. Once we ducked our heads and started walking into the vineyard, I was so amazed at this new world that we entered. It felt like a surreal environment as we walked up the pathway with huge bunches of grapes dangling on our shoulders.

For our admission fee, we could cut, rinse and eat as many grapes as we wanted, but any bunches that we took home we needed to pay by the gram (one bunch cost about $4.00). Ooh- they were delicious.

The funny thing was realizing that everyone else was picnicking inside the vineyard- we hadn’t realized that we could have had such beautiful surroundings! We still enjoyed the grapes, but were sorry that we couldn’t have eaten our Happy Meals in the vineyard.

*****
Yesterday, our house church met at our home. The name of our house church is called “Vineyard.” We also had four Americans visiting on an Envision trip with Asian Access. They are exploring whether God might be leading them to longer term ministry in Japan. It was neat to have them with us, and hear one member share his story, as well as to have our friends Aiko and George share her story with the group. We all got teary-eyed as George shared about his recent salvation (see George’s story).
Afterwards, there was wonderful fellowship over lunch… and games (David is enjoying playing with Owen and his remote-control insects).

Today, as we were strolling through the vineyard with the sun flickering through the grape leaves and the huge clusters sagging on the vines, I could not help but feel so thankful for being part of the vineyard. Yesterday as we fellowshipped over crockpot pork it was such a joy to know that being American or Japanese wasn’t important – rather, we were all grafted on the same vine, made into one body by the master Gardener. Grapes – they really are a good thing.

There is a popular expression in Japan right now “My Boom.” It is spoken in Japanese when talking about something that is trendy or popular in your own daily life currently. Right now, for Eric and me, raw cabbage salads and dark chocolate are MyBoom. (see our friends, the Ryus, blog entry on this). So, if we were sharing, we would say, “My myboom right now is raw cabbage salads and dark chocolate. What’s your myboom?” A little redundant and strange sounding, but that’s how imported words often are in Japanese…

Anyway, unwittingly, we have created a myBoom in Sanda. The crockpot. Making a few meals for Japanese friends from church in our crockpot caused a stir. Several of these friends ordered a crockpot from an import order store. They started raving about crockpots (which aren’t normally found in Japan), and then seven of the ladies in my English class also decided to order them. We had seven crockpots delivered to our doorstep last week! We have just ordered two more for friends, bringing the total in the past few months up to about fifteen crockpots.

So, to help these Japanese friends know how to use American crockpots, we are going to do a crockpot party in two weeks. I’m going to give them all different crockpot recipes, and they will make the recipe the night before and bring their crockpot filled with a dish to the party. We’ll try the different menus and look at the recipes.

I NEED CROCKPOT RECIPES! Could you send me your favorite crockpot recipe? Either you can post it in the comments or email it to me. We have a few favorites, but I would like some other favorites for variety.

What’s your myboom?

There is a small, obscure temple behind our home, that gongs three times a day (6 am; noon; 6 pm). There are many temples in every town (and country) across Japan; they are marked on maps with an interesting emblem –it looks sort of like a backwards swastika. If you see a map of any city, you will see many of these symbols. Here is a map of our immediate neighborhood – the arrow is on the location of our home, and behind it to the left is the temple:

And some of the other temples in the Kansai (western Japan) region. When visitors come to Japan, usually this is where they go. Kyoto, the most famous city in Japan, located about an hour from us, has between 1200 and 1300 Buddhist temples alone (not including Shinto shrines). People go to temples and shrines on special days to pay money, buy talismans, and pray for special requests, such as entrance exams, marriage, children, health, etc. It’s often a cultural visit rather than a religious one.

Today as I was continuing an ongoing study of Genesis, I was looking at verses related to sanctification as my study was comparing Abraham’s sanctification and process of holiness to that of Lot’s. As I was reading 2 Corinthians 6, I was struck by the meaning of this verse:
“For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will live in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (2 Cor 6:16).
It must have been a huge shock to Paul’s followers, who had grown up with holy temples as places that you GO. Here, he says that holy temples have becomes places to BE. That WE are the temples now; God lives and flows through us and makes us into His temples. Wherever His people are…there is a temple.
The real map, then–in God’s Reality — does not have symbols for Buddhist temples, but it has temple symbols for the locations of where His people live. In neighborhoods across the world, God’s temples are where His people are living and worshipping and being changed by Him.
As I went out walking and praying tonight, I stood up on a bridge overlooking our neighborhood. I asked God – where does He want His temple to be? (We are hoping to rent a slightly larger home in our neighborhood). I asked God to make THIS temple more filled with His glory – a jar of clay shining His light. And as I stood in the darkness, I pleaded with God for there to be MORE temples here … more lights on the hill… more places of refuge for people to come who need hope, healing, and love.
Our home/apartment/room – it is God’s temple. Picturing your neighborhood map with the big X marked on it for God’s temple -really believing this – might just change how we choose to live.

Our friend Paul lives in L.A., but he more of an expert on some segments of Japan life than we are. He spends about 2 months a year traveling around Japan (see Hitchhiking entry). He recently sent us these photos from his recent visit. Often when he is in large cities in Japan, he stays in capsule hotels. After looking at the photos, Japan’s reputation for utilizing small spaces becomes more clear:

When you live in a foreign country, there are three categories for food: the good, the bad, and the ugly –or the really bad. Fortunately, the longer I’m in Japan, the more foods move towards the good category annd less in the bad. Last week in Tokyo I tried some whale sashimi (or raw whale). Ten years ago it would have been in the ugly category…last week, it certainly wasn’t worthy of being in the good category, but it wasn’t too too bad either.

But, no matter how long I’m here, there is one food that has remained in the ugly category: Natto. Natto is, simply, fermented beans (i.e. beans that have gone moldy). According to wikipedia: Nattō (納豆?) is a traditional Japanese food made from fermented soybeans, popular especially at breakfast. A rich source of protein, nattō and the soybean paste miso formed a vital source of nutrition in feudal Japan. For some, nattō must be an acquired taste due to its powerful smell, strong flavor, and sticky consistency. In Japan nattō is most popular in the eastern regions including Kantō and Tōhoku. (For the record, we don’t live in the Kanto or Tohoku regions).

The more you mix it, the more webby it becomes… and the more it smells. I have a strong sense of smell, and I can tell if someone within 100 yards or so is eating natto.

The problem is: Eric likes natto, especially its healthy factor. Because he likes it, Owen started eating it very young. And now Annie. Olivia liked her first bite. The other day at the food store, Owen started BEGGING for me to buy natto. Oh my. Here are some pictures of Owen and Annie enjoying their breakfast this morning:

By the way- one CAN learn to like natto. There is a website about two Americans in New York City who made themselves eat natto every day in order to see if they could learn to like the taste. After fifteen days, one of them began to enjoy it… after thirty days, it was actually enjoyable. I guess I could try, but -those first fifteen days might be a little too ugly…

P.S. – What is the good? Our very favorite “treat” when teh kids go to bed is: Diet A & W Rootbeer (we sometimes order it from Foreign Buyer’s Club in Kobe)…in a frosted mug that I bought for Eric at the A & W Rootbeer Stand in Okinawa. Aaahhh..

Today at Owen’s yochien it was grandparents day. They had a special saturday morning session in which only the students- and their grandparents- were invited. No parents allowed! We knew Owen would probably be fine without his grandparents flying in from Hawaii or New Jersey, but we thought it would be special to have our close neighbor friends, the Ishid*s, attend in their stead. We often comment on how they are very much like our children’s grandparents- they attend all of our family birthday gatherings, take Owen and Annie to the park, and really love on our children.

We asked Owen’s teacher if it would be OK for a non-relative to attend. She looked very surprised, and said she would need to get special permission. The next day she hesitantly said it would be OK, but made a point of expressing that this was the first time for this to happen!

This morning, Mrs. Ishid* borrowed my bicycle and spent the morning with Owen. Special activities were planned – they made a special bottle, which had Owen’s picture on one side and Mrs. Ishid*’s picture on the other side, both drawn carefully by Owen.

They sang songs, played games, and at the end all the kids gave their grandparents a back massage. Owen loved this- he kept calling his teacher over to watch him giving Mrs. I. his special massage. They came home on the bicycle together, both glowing from a special time.

I couldn’t help tearing up as I thanked her for playing this special role in our children’s life.

Also this morning, our good friend Keiko Saikawa left us, on her way back home to Tokyo. Keiko has been a friend in Japan for 18 years, since she and I were ministry partners when I first came to Japan for three years. Our family on numerous occasions have enjoyed her warm hospitality when we have been in the Tokyo area, so it was really special to have her stay with us for a few days.

Yesterday, we took her to our favorite Japanese tea house, a 500-year old thatched-roof building with delicious green tea and specialty rice dessert, warabi-mochi. In the car coming home, she loved listening to Olivia sing out as only Olivia can do (see Tone-Deaf entry). Keiko took lots of pictures of Olivia’s smile, and spent time back at home with Annie, entertaining her with the Totoro characters (both of their favorites). Our three children loved having Aunt Keiko visit.

Keiko was also able to participate with us yesterday in our missionary small group gathering. Our children LOVE the days when Auntie Claire, Uncle Bobby, Aunt Reiko, Aunt Wendi, and Uncle Peter come over. We all love these times of fellowship.

As I contemplated our visit from “Aunt Keiko,” Owen’s morning with “Grandma Ishid*”, and the ongoing family-like relationships we have within Asian Access, I thought of the special promise Jesus gave to his followers in Mark 10:29:
“Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age – houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions- and in the age to come eternal life.”
Being far away from loved ones will continue, for me, to be the hardest thing about being a missionary (see Golden Fasts), but how I thank God for His faithfulness in bringing us abundant family from our Japanese friends and our mission community. I can only imagine the age to come…

Owen started back to yochien (kindergarten) on Tuesday. So, on our day off – Monday- we decided we needed to do something to celebrate the last day of summer. We drove up to Mt. Rokko, the mountain that separates our part of the world and Kobe, the nearest big city.

There are two cable cars, or ropeways, that run up the mountain – one from Kobe. We ended up at the one that connects Mt. Rokko with Arima, a little town nearby very famous for their hot springs.

It was a fun, beautiful, twelve-minute cable car ride across a verdant stretch of mountains.

When we got to Arima, we had a picnic, walked a bit and came to a waterfall that was a great surprise.

We rode the same cablecar back up the mountain, marvelling at the beauty that is so near us.

While we were at Arima, Annie had to use the restroom. We went in the first stall, and I said, “Oh, it’s a Japanese toilet. Let’s try the next one.” (These are affectionately known to us as squatty potties, and are the traditional Japanese toilets still found in most public places across Japan). Here’s what they look like:

So, we went into the next stall, the kind of toilet you’re probably more familiar with:

Annie looked at it and said, “Phew, it’s an English one.”

It was a good day.