Yesterday we gathered with friends from our same organization up in this region for a day of prayer and worship.  

My friend Roberta picked out an old hymn, and as I started to sing it my voice quivered and I couldn’t get the words out for a few stanzas.

Eric and I had chosen this to be sung in our wedding – it is perhaps my favorite hymn of all times.  It is also the first hymn that i learned as a young girl in Rhodesia.  I remember sitting around the dinner table and trying to sing it.  Yesterday I kept thinking of my Dad, and how much he loves this song.

And then we got to the verse:

He speaks, and listening to his voice,
	new life the dead receive;
	the mournful, broken hearts rejoice,
	the humble poor believe.

And I sang it loud for my Nozomi friend T.  She had come to two of us after work the day before and asked us to pray for her.  Our normally cheerful dear friend was at wit’s end with challenges in her life…. as a single mother, living with her sister’s family… her children and her sharing a room with some of her sister’s children.  She wants to move out, but has to bear all of these decisions on her own.  My heart hurt for her.

But she wants to trust in God.  We prayed together.  She has a Maker who can heal the broken hearted and can help the humble to believe.  Her faith was so beautiful.  

T. plans to continue to meet with us after work once a week to study God’s word and pray together.  New life is being born, and I, too, wish for a thousand tongues to sing my Great Redeemer’s praise.  

Years of living in Japan doesn’t take away the mystery of various customs!  Here are three that I have thought about the past couple of weeks:

1) Hanging calendars in the bathroom (toilet rooms).  Why does every Japanese family in this nation hang one or more calendars in the toilet room?  I have asked a number of friends and still don’t have a good answer.

For the first time ever, i have conformed.  We were given a calendar that has a different Japanese historical fact on each day – I thought the kids may try and read and learn something while they are hanging out there.  (Really – if anyone knows – DO let me know!)

2)  New and old money.  Still learning about this.  In Japan it is common to take a monetary gift (called omimae) when you visit someone close to you in the hospital, when someone is injured and you are somehow involved, etc.  Unfortunately one of our children was involved in the injury of our friend’s dog, and so we took an omimae gift to that family.  One of our Japanese friends helped advise us on how to do this write, and Eric wrote out the envelope (he has much better handwriting than me!):

In the process of preparing this small gift, we rehearsed what we already knew of giving money and learned a few things as well:

–for a wedding you always give new, crisp bills  (we are always scrambling to get new bills on the day of the wedding!)

–for a funeral you never give new bills – you don’t want to seem like you had prepared for someone to die (!!)

–for omimae as well you do not want to give new bills (but not really old ones either)

–for study classes where you are individually taught, you usually want to give nice new bills (though for larger combined study classes  – like English, dance, etc. — this isn’t as important). Oops.  We haven’t really followed this one too closely….

3)  Photos with three photos:  Today is Coming of Age Day in Japan.  Young women and men who are turning twenty years old celebrate today with a ceremony that is usually done in the local city and/or at a local shrine, and then go out with their friends.  Most twenty year old women pay a professional to help dress them in a kimono and get their hair done at a salon for this.  Here’s a photo of our beautiful friend Sakiko who celebrated today with her parents:

Some young men wear traditional Japanese garb, or else they wear business suits.  Often sometime before the event they will go to a professional photographer and get photos done.

Today we were at a friend’s home and a mom proudly showed us the photo of her son’s coming of age day photo, taken with her and the grandmother.

I asked if the stuffed Minnie Mouse had significance.  She explained that you don’t want to take a photo with just three people in it — or the person in the middle will die soon – in this case, her son. So they included a fourth — Minnie Mouse!  Wow.  Completely new to me.  (See this article for more on superstitions in Japan).  I told Eric tonight and he couldn’t stop chortling.

There is much about this country that puzzles me;  some things that still drive me a little crazy, but I love Japan.  So thankful God has called us to live here among so many amazing Japanese people.  Still lots to learn.

Yesterday my third grade daughter and her friend both had to redo a winter calligraphy vacation homework assignment. Annie woke up early the morning of back-to-school to write hers out, but apparently she hadn’t done it on the right paper.  

I loved watching these girls write… carefully preparing their thick brushes with the black ink and then dragging it over the crisp white paper. Each stroke was added firmly, with deliberation, as they wrote out the characters that spelled “New Years.”  In the lower right hand corner they scripted their names.  Haruna remarked to Annie, ‘You are lucky that your name has a lot less strokes to write.” 

I guess we all start out in the new year with crisp white paper, waiting for our brush strokes.  Some of us start out with different advantages.  But we all get some re-dos.  Thank you God!  

“So teach us to number our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom…” Psalm 90:15

People change!  Sometimes we don’t see it as quickly in adults as we do in our children…

Olivia, our seven year old, did not have close girl friends during her nursery school/kindergarten years here in Sanda.  But there was one boy, Tomo-chan, who was just a good friend to her.  She would come home and talk about how they played together.  He was an only child, and his mom had lived in Australia for several years.  It was fun to become friends with them – she would practice her beautiful English on us.

We have stayed in touch through Facebook since moving two years ago.  When I called to tell her we were in town, she invited us to come right over!  Olivia and I drove over and met Tomo and Aki in the park.  Aki said that Tomo often asked about Olivia;  and I know Olivia couldn’t stop talking about finally getting to see him after our long absence since moving up to Tohoku!

We drove to the park and I got out of the car, ran over and gave Aki a hug.  It was wonderful to discover that she is 8 months pregnant – with another boy!  I realized Olivia hadn’t gotten out of the car.  I went over to see what was wrong, and she could barely move.  I had to coerce her out.  She was stiff as a board.  Tomo was hiding behind his mom.  They wouldn’t look at each.  We tried to get them to go play on the swings.  They went to opposite ends of the park.  The two BFFs from kindergarten had became like shy strangers!  Here is what happened when we tried to take their photo together:

After some more coercing:

And some big bribery:

Aki and I laughed a lot.  How our two kids had changed!  It could be the time and distance…but more likely it is that they have become more aware of cultural norms… in first grade usually the boys play with the boys and the girls with the girls.  They didn’t know how to “be” together anymore.

Coming back – I have sensed that a bit with some friends – trying to figure out how to “be” again.  Or who we are in relation to each other when the same neighborhood, english class, school is no longer a common denominator.  But in general it has been so wonderful to see how much love and fondness can carry friendship forward, even despite time and distance.  And in some cases, the very act of coming back and taking the time to call and visit friends opens new avenues of trust and friendship.  I was able to pray with Tomo’s mom for her and her new baby who is coming;  we found ourselves in tears together.  I hadn’t known her well before but suddenly our hearts were more knit together.  We will need to keep working on Olivia and Tomo so that Aki and I can continue our friendship.

Thinking a lot about what breaks – and makes — friendships.

We are back in Sanda for the New Year’s.  I lived here longer than I have lived anywhere else in my life.  It has been such an amazing gift to be back.  I cannot drive down a street without seeing the home of a family or a mom or a school child who is beloved to our family.  Each memory we hold is tied in to people who have been – and still are – so precious to us.

One of our “tricks” for flying is in using  the same credit card for most of our purchases and saving the miles for flying domestically in Japan.  It requires few miles for a round trip ticket anywhere in Japan (compared to the number of points for an international ticket).   Our family was able to fly from Sendai to Osaka for free on New Year’s day!  A great treat.

We were ready to go through security at Sendai Airport yesterday morning when I heard someone call my name.  Our friend from Sendai, Kumiko was running towards us.  (We are sort of one of those families that is hard to miss!).  I nearly cried.  We hadn’t seen the F. family in four or five years, even though we are now living just an hour from Sendai.  Since moving back up north our lives have been very full…turns out we were on the exact same flight to Osaka!

When Eric and I first adopted Owen, our first child,   our friends Greg and Lori living in the next prefecture called and asked if their friend’s sister could call us to find out more about adoption.  Of course!  A few days later, Kumiko called me.  They lived in Sendai, and had been wanting to adopt a child.  They didn’t know much about it, as it is very rare for Japanese to adopt children.  We told them we’d love to meet them, and talked about a time.  As we were hanging up, I mentioned that the following Sunday we were going to have a baby dedication at our church for Owen.  I tried to explain what that meant, and said of course they could come if they wanted.  Later I felt sort of stupid for inviting them – we hadn’t even met them yet and knew they were not Christians.

That Sunday at the dedication we were standing in front of the church sharing our little joy, and I looked out and saw a couple sitting near the back with tears streaming down their faces.  I knew right then it was Kumiko and her husband.  After church we sat with them for quite awhile, sharing together, with Eric and I praying for them at the end.  This was the beginning of a wonderful friendship!

Over the next year, we met together frequently.  Kumiko and her husband started studying the bible with us.  And we prayed about their adoption situation.  His parents were still opposed to to the whole idea (very typical in this country).  Finally, they agreed to allowing the couple to be foster parents.  Through a local city connection, baby Megumi  came into their family, and melted their hearts.  His parents, who live in Osaka, also fell in love with Megumi, and over time the parents agreed to allowing them to officially adopt her.  A few years later, her birth mother had a little boy.  The F. family now has Megumi and Kazu – and they are raising their wonderful children to love Jesus and follow His ways.  His family has not yet agreed to allow them to adopt Kazu (it is more complicated in Japan because he is the oldest boy grandson in the family) – but they are praying that over time this too will change.

Not having seen this family for several years, I was reflecting on the airplane how amazing God is!  He brought them into our lives at just the perfect time eleven years ago… when they needed guidance for starting a family in a way that is not easily understood in Japan;  and when they were open to learning about their Savior.  They are just an awesome family!

As we start the new year of 2014 surrounded by friends from our past (both Sendai and Sanda) who have been so significant to our family, I  come back again to one of the foundational values of my life — It’s all about relationships. I am excited about the friendships and relationships that God is growing in Ishinomaki.  But I am so thankful for the past friendships that remain important and remind us of God’s grace that is layers upon layers upon layers of beauty.  My mom used to have an embroidered picture hanging in our dining room:  “Make new friends, but keep the old;  one is silver and the other gold.”  We are truly rich.

Merry Christmas – today, on December 25th- we want to wish our friends and family joy, and peace, and times of abiding.  Here are the answers to our Christmas song Quiz (nice job, Carrie Myer!):

1.  

1.  Wii Three Kings of Orient Are

2. 

2.  Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree

3. 

3.  O Come, All Ye Faithful!

4. 

4.  Silent Knight

5. 

5.  Jingle Belles

6.  (This is the hardest — extra credit!)

6.  Ding Dong, Merrily on High  (It really is a christmas song – I had to find it on YouTube to prove it to Eric.  And those silver things are chocolate cakes called Ding Dongs (like Ho Hos) – for those of you who aren’t from that part of the country where they are sold.

Merry Christmas from the Takamotos!

For friends who haven’t received our Christmas card this year, here is your chance to take the 2013 Christmas card quiz from the Takamotos.  Please name the following Christmas songs:  (Answers to come in a day or so!)

1.  

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6.  (This is the hardest — extra credit!)

We are so thankful for God’s daily care in our lives and in the work He is doing here in Ishinomaki.   And thankful for the friends from different places around the world who have chosen to be a part of our journey with us.  

 Merry Christmas!