Hi Everyone!
I am thrilled to announce that I will be serving at Hongo Student Center in Tokyo for the next two years. I am super, super excited about this!!! I still don't know too many details, but I will be moving from my current house to an apartment elsewhere in Tokyo sometime in late March. Actual teaching (bounce bounce bounce) will begin in April. Here are some of the reasons I am really excited about Tokyo:
-I will get to teach a Christianity Today class every week and also offer the message (in English!) at the English service at Hongo Church sometimes.
-I get to teach *adult* people English!!! Yay for teaching English again!!!
-I will get to continue helping out with various camps and retreats that happen around the Tokyo area
-I get to be around to support the new VYM and J3 folks when they come to Tokyo next fall
-There are exciting prayer things happening in Tokyo
-Tokyo is a really cool city
-It's easier for me to be visited by family and friend type people from the States if I am living in Tokyo
-I am much more connected to the support systems I've built over the past few months here
-The people I'll be working with at Hongo *rock*.
-The students at Hongo *rock*.
So...yeah. Excitedness!!!
Love you all! Thanks for your support, good thoughts, and prayers!
Pamela
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Thursday, February 8, 2007
A Good, Fun Day
Today was a break from Japanese class! We got to go visit a Lutheran school in Urawa, which is in northwest Tokyo. It meant waking up at something like 4:45 this morning in order to get ready and catch an early enough train, but it was all worth it. We got to observe and help out with a bunch of different classes. The school we visited has seven class periods in a day and was a combination elementary school, junior high, and high school. When we first entered, all the elementary school kids were in chapel in the gym. We entered from behind, and a sea of almond-eyed faces turned around to stare at this odd flock of white people. Throughout the day, we got to help out in a wide variety of classes. We helped fourth graders read and answer questions such as, "What do you want for dinner?" and in the 9th grade oral communications classes, we were interviewed and then introduced by the students to the class. I was asked the priceless question, "Do you have a child?" I told them 'no', but the way they reported this back to the class was, "She does not have her child." Which caused much confusion among those with a good understanding of English. :)
The kids in the school were super friendly, and it was so nice to be around kids again. During lunch break we went to "go mingle" with the elementary school kids in the corridor. I was approached by two young girls who stood about three or four feet away from me and backed up if I got any closer. They told me their names in soft voices, giggled, and dashed away. Later, I saw them again, and they tripped over each other hiding behind a wall where they could peer around the corner at me. :) For the most part, though, the kids were very willing to come up to us with huge smiles and practice saying, "Hallo!"
I did meet a couple kids who completely verified the "all Japanese kids are too smart for their own good" theory. One fourth grader had some advanced English homework that was talking about "antecedents" and "superlatives". I'm pretty sure I hadn't heard the word "superlative" until high school and that I didn't know what it meant until college Latin or linguistics, but here is a Japanese fourth grader reading about them. Another fourth grader had written her name in romaji (the Roman alphabet) instead of Kanji. I praised her for this, and she just looked up and told me, "That's because I lived in California for three years." Oh. Sheesh. Here she is, practicing lines like, "What do you want for dinner? I want rice" when she's already lived in the States for three years???
One part of the day was a little bit disappointing. We had just been introduced to a class and the teacher, a Christian, decided it would be a good idea if we shared our faith. Now, as missionaries, you'd think we would have been ready for that. And, truthfully, some people in the group were. It is so difficult for me to be concise in moments like this, though. Especially when I have to use simple English. I also have to think a lot about what I should share and what I should be gentle about. This time, I think I erred on the gentle side.
A very encouraging part of the day was that the missionary who was leading us around the school was very awesome. I knew I liked him right away, and that was only confirmed by when he had us all pray together before leaving. Yay for group prayer! He also got points from me because he has done things like bring his wife and kid to work with him, showing his coworkers his priority and why he leaves after the afternoon teacher meeting instead of staying long into the evening working like the other teachers often do.
I also had an amusing translation experience today. I was asked to explain the J-3 Program in front of all the teachers, and then thank them for having us that day on behalf of the group. I thanked them with a typical for me detailed explanation of how we had enjoyed talking with their students and their students smiles, and just the chance to have a day seeing the school. This was all translated: "Arigato gozaimasu." (Thank you.) Hmm.
Thank you to those of you who have sent me emails and the like recently. You will be getting individual replies, but for now, it is late and tomorrow I am leaving for Kyoto for our ELCA Missionary Retreat. So, there is not time now. But *hugs*. You are all so special to me. Thank you for the extra love and attention you have shown me recently. It is one of the big reasons that I am back to smiling and bouncing and happiness today.
The kids in the school were super friendly, and it was so nice to be around kids again. During lunch break we went to "go mingle" with the elementary school kids in the corridor. I was approached by two young girls who stood about three or four feet away from me and backed up if I got any closer. They told me their names in soft voices, giggled, and dashed away. Later, I saw them again, and they tripped over each other hiding behind a wall where they could peer around the corner at me. :) For the most part, though, the kids were very willing to come up to us with huge smiles and practice saying, "Hallo!"
I did meet a couple kids who completely verified the "all Japanese kids are too smart for their own good" theory. One fourth grader had some advanced English homework that was talking about "antecedents" and "superlatives". I'm pretty sure I hadn't heard the word "superlative" until high school and that I didn't know what it meant until college Latin or linguistics, but here is a Japanese fourth grader reading about them. Another fourth grader had written her name in romaji (the Roman alphabet) instead of Kanji. I praised her for this, and she just looked up and told me, "That's because I lived in California for three years." Oh. Sheesh. Here she is, practicing lines like, "What do you want for dinner? I want rice" when she's already lived in the States for three years???
One part of the day was a little bit disappointing. We had just been introduced to a class and the teacher, a Christian, decided it would be a good idea if we shared our faith. Now, as missionaries, you'd think we would have been ready for that. And, truthfully, some people in the group were. It is so difficult for me to be concise in moments like this, though. Especially when I have to use simple English. I also have to think a lot about what I should share and what I should be gentle about. This time, I think I erred on the gentle side.
A very encouraging part of the day was that the missionary who was leading us around the school was very awesome. I knew I liked him right away, and that was only confirmed by when he had us all pray together before leaving. Yay for group prayer! He also got points from me because he has done things like bring his wife and kid to work with him, showing his coworkers his priority and why he leaves after the afternoon teacher meeting instead of staying long into the evening working like the other teachers often do.
I also had an amusing translation experience today. I was asked to explain the J-3 Program in front of all the teachers, and then thank them for having us that day on behalf of the group. I thanked them with a typical for me detailed explanation of how we had enjoyed talking with their students and their students smiles, and just the chance to have a day seeing the school. This was all translated: "Arigato gozaimasu." (Thank you.) Hmm.
Thank you to those of you who have sent me emails and the like recently. You will be getting individual replies, but for now, it is late and tomorrow I am leaving for Kyoto for our ELCA Missionary Retreat. So, there is not time now. But *hugs*. You are all so special to me. Thank you for the extra love and attention you have shown me recently. It is one of the big reasons that I am back to smiling and bouncing and happiness today.
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Wow
So, I got slightly sad news on Saturday. The VYM girls got their site assignments for after orientation, and it turns out that one of the girls that I have been closest to has been assigned to Niigata. We had been told at the beginning of orientation that all of them would be in the Tokyo area, so it was a sad surprise to learn that she will not be. Not that I even know for sure that *I* will be in the Tokyo area yet, but still...
So, I was feeling a little lonely today. Or, not so much lonely, I guess, as kind of alone. This will be the sixth time in my life that either a best friend has moved away from me or I've moved away from them. I feel really ready to throw away even pretending stability is possible for me. And it seems like realizing that no person can make me feel stable is to realize that I am alone.
However, in the past 48 hours, I have received no fewer than four emails all from friends or family members back home just as random 'I'm thinking of you' sorts of emails. I don't usually get random 'I'm thinking of you' emails. It was just really cool...none of them knew I was going through anything. So, though I am still feeling cynical about the prospects of having a best friend who sticks around for longer than five years (let alone six months), I am not alone. Yay for random reminders of that!
So, I was feeling a little lonely today. Or, not so much lonely, I guess, as kind of alone. This will be the sixth time in my life that either a best friend has moved away from me or I've moved away from them. I feel really ready to throw away even pretending stability is possible for me. And it seems like realizing that no person can make me feel stable is to realize that I am alone.
However, in the past 48 hours, I have received no fewer than four emails all from friends or family members back home just as random 'I'm thinking of you' sorts of emails. I don't usually get random 'I'm thinking of you' emails. It was just really cool...none of them knew I was going through anything. So, though I am still feeling cynical about the prospects of having a best friend who sticks around for longer than five years (let alone six months), I am not alone. Yay for random reminders of that!
Thursday, January 4, 2007
Annual Report--2006
A Quarter Year in the Land of the Rising Sun
A long time ago, in a nation far, far away, there was a girl named Pamela. She was a college student. But that time has long passed, and she landed in Japan under cloudy skies one fair September the thirteenth. Three months passed. Therein, she was subjected to the study of a strange and foreign tongue. Her senseis were patient and glowed with happiness and praise at the progression of their students, but Pamela, though brave and true, remained quite ignorant of the native tongue. She now could, however, participate boldly and valiantly in such activities as telling threatening train conductors that she had used the wrong train pass, and her language skills withheld their most fearsome attacks and the transaction was completed.
She did venture out of school into a place of native worship, and with those of almond eyes did raise her voice to the most high. She did not understand the words, but their hearts sang to Him together. They learned to speak in smiles and to serve each other when words failed them. Time passed, and they learned a few words, and their friendship became deeper. Hand in hand, they retold the story of that time, two thousand years past, when that which is too joyous to fully understand happened and He who is Most High was swaddled by human hands. The fair church folk wrapped Pamela's shoulders in an embroidered cloth and placed a graduation cap atop her head, marking her as one of the three wise ones in the story they told. She raised her voice in the strange tongue with the other two, and they proclaimed the mystery and gifted a small babe with the brightest gold, sweet smelling frankincense, and bitter myrrh.
And Pamela did continue to move among the people of the Land of the Rising Sun. She wandered the narrow aisles of the food markets and felt a child again, unable to identify those foods which had sustained her stomach through all the days of her youth. For the calligraphy was foreign to her. But each return trip to the food market increased in ease, until she could venture to the market and home again without even the smallest frustration.
She tried to live as light, and among a people clothed in clothing all of black, those working in bitter labor and with faces sometimes without hope, she donned a cloak of bright orange as a symbol of that light and hope which comes from life with Him who is awesome and great. She heard the cries of the hopeless who thought to throw their lives before a great beast of metal and she shed tears for them and lifted them to the arms of the Loving Father. And through the lifting up, she did feel hope for those in chains, and she walked in the light that is Hope.
And she continued to move among the people as a stranger. She saw them with a stranger's eyes. She heard tales of the most ancient days of the brave Japanese, she heard of honor and of shame, and they told her the tales of those who had risked being pounded down by proclaiming the name of the Messiah. Like any stranger, her ways often fell into error. But Pamela lived her mistakes in laughter. And the people of the Land of the Rising Sun were kind and forgiving of her faults. In both an eternity and no time at all, the first year of her time in that land came to an end. She walked the streets as the bells tolled the midnight of the first New Year, and she knew that it was good. For the Land of the Rising Sun had brought change inside of her. A stranger she would remain, but a stranger now at home in Japan.
A long time ago, in a nation far, far away, there was a girl named Pamela. She was a college student. But that time has long passed, and she landed in Japan under cloudy skies one fair September the thirteenth. Three months passed. Therein, she was subjected to the study of a strange and foreign tongue. Her senseis were patient and glowed with happiness and praise at the progression of their students, but Pamela, though brave and true, remained quite ignorant of the native tongue. She now could, however, participate boldly and valiantly in such activities as telling threatening train conductors that she had used the wrong train pass, and her language skills withheld their most fearsome attacks and the transaction was completed.
She did venture out of school into a place of native worship, and with those of almond eyes did raise her voice to the most high. She did not understand the words, but their hearts sang to Him together. They learned to speak in smiles and to serve each other when words failed them. Time passed, and they learned a few words, and their friendship became deeper. Hand in hand, they retold the story of that time, two thousand years past, when that which is too joyous to fully understand happened and He who is Most High was swaddled by human hands. The fair church folk wrapped Pamela's shoulders in an embroidered cloth and placed a graduation cap atop her head, marking her as one of the three wise ones in the story they told. She raised her voice in the strange tongue with the other two, and they proclaimed the mystery and gifted a small babe with the brightest gold, sweet smelling frankincense, and bitter myrrh.
And Pamela did continue to move among the people of the Land of the Rising Sun. She wandered the narrow aisles of the food markets and felt a child again, unable to identify those foods which had sustained her stomach through all the days of her youth. For the calligraphy was foreign to her. But each return trip to the food market increased in ease, until she could venture to the market and home again without even the smallest frustration.
She tried to live as light, and among a people clothed in clothing all of black, those working in bitter labor and with faces sometimes without hope, she donned a cloak of bright orange as a symbol of that light and hope which comes from life with Him who is awesome and great. She heard the cries of the hopeless who thought to throw their lives before a great beast of metal and she shed tears for them and lifted them to the arms of the Loving Father. And through the lifting up, she did feel hope for those in chains, and she walked in the light that is Hope.
And she continued to move among the people as a stranger. She saw them with a stranger's eyes. She heard tales of the most ancient days of the brave Japanese, she heard of honor and of shame, and they told her the tales of those who had risked being pounded down by proclaiming the name of the Messiah. Like any stranger, her ways often fell into error. But Pamela lived her mistakes in laughter. And the people of the Land of the Rising Sun were kind and forgiving of her faults. In both an eternity and no time at all, the first year of her time in that land came to an end. She walked the streets as the bells tolled the midnight of the first New Year, and she knew that it was good. For the Land of the Rising Sun had brought change inside of her. A stranger she would remain, but a stranger now at home in Japan.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Sumimasen, hablas Espanol?
Happy Advent, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
Another month in Japan, another email from your friendly wacky missionary friend! Or, for some of you, this is the first email from your friendly wacky missionary friend. A warm welcome to Leslie, Jen, Ernie, Rich, Sarah E., Katrina, Haidee, Jenae, and Cassie!
We'll start out with some terms again. :-)
LLI: Lutheran Language Institute. The place where I learn Japanese and where many of my more missionaryish activities take place.
Kanji: the Japanese alphabet based from Chinese in which each symbol loosely stands for a word. Actually, many of them are still only parts of a word. So, the word sensei, for example, is two kanji. "Sen" comes from the kanji that means "previously" and "sei" from the kanji for "live" or "birth", so, sensei (teacher) kind of literally means "one who has lived before".
Hachioji: My assigned church that I attend on Sundays. It's a nice congregation with about 30 people on a Sunday. We wear slippers inside, so it's always hard for me to remember that I need to be more concerned with what socks I am wearing to church than what shoes.
The holiday season in Japan is very busy. And for we missionary types, there were many opportunities to reach out to the community in the name of faith, turkey, and Santa Claus. I had three different Thanksgiving dinners over the course of one week at the end of November. The first was a massive dinner that was prepared by my missionary friends and served as outreach to many of the church members and English students at LLI. My housemate disappeared to help cook for about two days preceding the dinner and finally returned, exhausted and smelling of garlic, the evening the dinner took place. Many of the forty some people there were Japanese, and I admit it was vindicating to have multiple Japanese people asking "What is that food?" about things very familiar to me, such as cranberry sauce. After our kids' day from the first month we were here where there were only two kids, it was amazing to see how many people were there. In addition to the dinner, a Japanese man led a praise style worship time. That gave us the opportunity to do some fun singing and to be crazy. We taught the Superman meal prayer and performed our own version of the Humble Thyself / Awesome God medley with Sarah on the piano and Haidee on the guitar. I'm over here with some really talented ladies!
My second Thanksgiving dinner was on Thanksgiving Day itself, and it involved a very special pizza dinner with some of my friends. Cheese is next to non-existent here, or at least very expensive, so the dinner was a big treat. The final Thanksgiving dinner was at long-term missionary Dave's house and was comfortingly familiar and fun.
Non-holiday life in Japan also continues to be amusing. I have officially become the founding member of the Orange Jacket Revolution here in Tokyo. So far, it is a one girl revolution, but it feels strangely productive. Especially on the trains going to LLI in the mornings, there are a ton of people wearing black. I had purchased a black jacket the first couple weeks I was here, and it finally got to the point where I couldn't wear it. What can I say? I've always been something of a non-conformist. So, I went out in search of a new jacket. At first, I was looking at my normal favorite choices of blue or green, but then I saw the orange ones. I'm kind of in a mood right now to be as bright as possible. So, now I wear my orange jacket all over the place and feel a strange affinity with all the other people I see wearing orange or yellow or red.
One of my orange jacket's first experiences was a lovely hiking trip up and over two mountains. Rest assured, dear Wyoming readers, these were not Rocky Mountains, but it was still a very long hiking trip. Sarah (my housemate) and I accompanied two members of my church youth group. It is probably worth explaining that youth groups are a little different in Japan than in the States. I am the youngest member of my church youth group here in Japan. :-) It was a good, bilingual and bicultural day. My Japanese friends introduced us to Kushi-Dango, which is three rice dumplings on a stick with a sweet soy sauce drizzled over. We introduced them to trail mix.
Another fun youth group activity at church was making puppets. Koji, one of my good church friends, asked me a couple weeks before Christmas if I would help him make puppets after choir practice that Sunday. I agreed, and headed up after practice, assuming that we would be making sock puppets or something of the sort. When I arrived, however, I was handed a sphere of clay and shown a model of a sculpted face that I was to imitate. The experience showcased the communal aspect of Japanese culture very well. Before I had finished sculpting, I showed the head to one of the other puppet makers and kind of joked via gestures that the nose was too big. The head was immediately snatched away from me and the woman began adding little bits of clay here, scraping some off there. I felt myself getting offended. I hadn't even been given the opportunity to finish my best shot and here it was already being 'fixed' as though I hadn't done a good enough job! But then I remembered how much the focus is Japan is not on one individual person's work but on what the group could do together. Once I had given up my individual hold on the project, it was much easier to look at the assistance from other people in the group as assistance and not as corrections to a job I had done inadequately. I have to admit that the finished project was much better because there were multiple people involved.
In terms of language, there have been many big explosions since my last email. In class, we started learning kanji, which is the third and final alphabet that I will learn. Of course, where as the first two alphabets could be learned in a matter of weeks, even Japanese people cannot read all the kanji. The really big explosion, though, has been understanding. I can often get the gist of what people are saying, even if not the fine details. Sometimes this is bad, because I'm getting used to not understanding a lot of things. I had a meeting with a Japanese person about playing handbells, and in it I sat down and just started nodding and listening. The longterm missionary who was with me, eyebrows slightly raised, told me to let him know if I wanted things translated. It was only then that I realized I was only catching about two words a sentence, so I let him translate. ;-) I suppose speaking Japanese is getting much better too. Intellectually I know it is, because I gave a speech a couple weeks ago in which I talked for five minutes about St. Olaf in Japanese. But there are still many things I wish I could say but can't. Occasionally, my brain comes up with ingenious statements like "Sumimasen, hablas Espanol?" (Excuse me (in Japanese), do you speak Spanish (in Spanish)?) But my brain is gradually separating the languages, even if only by murdering my knowledge of Spanish.
Talk about language leads me to Christmas time. The five minute aforementioned speech took place on Speech Day, which was also a big Christmas party and our second (or third?) time to lead Holden Evening Prayer at LLI. I announced the Holden Evening Prayer part of Speech Day in Japanese at Hachioji Church, and then I was in trouble because everyone in the congregation knew I spoke Japanese. I was approached after church by one of the people who had been making puppets with me. She showed me the completed puppets and explained, completely in Japanese, something that involved "puppets" "Pamela-san" "Japanese" and "acting". There was little to do except say, "Yomimaska?" (Am I reading?). And I was, therefore, enlisted as a member of the cast of our Christmas pageant.
At LLI, we had another kid's day for Christmas. I got to help teach a handbell version of Away in the Manger to 24 little guys. Let me tell you, Japanese kids are talented. We only played the song once and it had a couple notes where you had to know octaves or flats and there was not a note missing. The day was such a miracle! Having that many kids was super energizing and fun! We even had a family from the local French school who contributed by teaching us to sing "O Christmas Tree" in French. It was an awesome day.
Christmas as a member of a Japanese congregation is a marathon sort of affair. At Hachioji, we started on December 23rd with a children's day of our own. This was the day that I was to be in the puppet show, but it turned out that I wasn't really a puppet but a live person who would interact with the puppets. In particular, I was Wise Man B. My church friend Koji had taken my script and written it out in nice, big Hiragana (the phonetic alphabet) in place of Kanji. The church members had lovingly decked me out in a decorative scarf, almost tunic, and small graduation cap. It almost went really well, until the woman with the line right in front of mine forgot her line and we started improvising. Or, rather, they started improvising while I stared at the script in rapt concentration waiting for it to return to any Japanese I recognized. Luckily it wasn't that formal of a performance, so our little bloopers just added to the fun.
After the puppet play I had my inaugural appearance as Santa Claus. Somehow, all the kids instantly knew it was me. I'm not really sure how...couldn't have had anything to do with my bad Japanese. ;-)
The next day at church was Christmas Eve. We had a morning service at 10:30, lunch after that, various Christmas presentations (gifts given to the oldest members of the congregation, a second showing of our Christmas pageant, and a wacky English solo from the resident missionary (I'm still not sure how they talked me into that one.)), and then a break until the evening candlelight service at 7:30. The evening candlelight service was a serious candlelight service. None of that only lighting the candles for Silent Night at the end. The candles stayed lit for almost the entire service. For those of us in the choir, that made things very interesting, because we were all sitting VERY close together in the front and juggling a bulletin, a choir folder, and a lit candle. But I am happy to say that there were no repeats of my childhood experiences of nearly burning down churches during candlelight services (which was my little brother's fault anyway... ;-) ).
I was very thankful for no church on Christmas day, and also very thankful for technology. My family and I were able to be "virtually" together on Christmas morning by using webcams. That definitely made the first Christmas away from home more bearable.
This past weekend was New Years, the big holiday here in Japan. I was asked more than once if this would be my first New Years away from home, which I suppose it was, but it was hard to explain to some of the Japanese people that it was Christmas, and not New Years, that I was concerned about. I was in a convenience store buying a sandwich when the New Year started. The Japanese teller wished me a happy new year in English with a big, embarrassed grin on his face. It is rare for a teller to say much more than "523 yen" or "thank you for waiting". It made me smile.
Amusing Gaijin Error of the month: While attending a Christmas party, a Japanese guy approached me and introduced himself. Except he used a lot of words to introduce himself. I had my dictionary with me and, determined to have some idea what he was saying, I picked what I believed was a key word and tried to look it up. He tried to dissuade me first by saying that it wasn't in the dictionary, and then finally said "That's not a word, it's my name." Oops. Lots of bowing on Pamela's part followed.
I hope that the holiday season is ending well for all of you, and that all of you had a chance to rest amid the festivities.
Blessings and peace!
Pamela
p.s. I now have pictures up online! I sent an email to most people on this list about the first album, but now there is a second album as well. The website is: http://picsbypamela.shutterfly.com/ The online pictures are not quite caught up with the emails, though.
p.p.s. I have absolutely loved getting little emails from those of you who have sent them. Sometimes I have been busy and not managed to respond, but I always read them and they are a wonderful treat and gift. I am sorry, though, for those of you who have not gotten a response. I am trying to get better at responding.
Another month in Japan, another email from your friendly wacky missionary friend! Or, for some of you, this is the first email from your friendly wacky missionary friend. A warm welcome to Leslie, Jen, Ernie, Rich, Sarah E., Katrina, Haidee, Jenae, and Cassie!
We'll start out with some terms again. :-)
LLI: Lutheran Language Institute. The place where I learn Japanese and where many of my more missionaryish activities take place.
Kanji: the Japanese alphabet based from Chinese in which each symbol loosely stands for a word. Actually, many of them are still only parts of a word. So, the word sensei, for example, is two kanji. "Sen" comes from the kanji that means "previously" and "sei" from the kanji for "live" or "birth", so, sensei (teacher) kind of literally means "one who has lived before".
Hachioji: My assigned church that I attend on Sundays. It's a nice congregation with about 30 people on a Sunday. We wear slippers inside, so it's always hard for me to remember that I need to be more concerned with what socks I am wearing to church than what shoes.
The holiday season in Japan is very busy. And for we missionary types, there were many opportunities to reach out to the community in the name of faith, turkey, and Santa Claus. I had three different Thanksgiving dinners over the course of one week at the end of November. The first was a massive dinner that was prepared by my missionary friends and served as outreach to many of the church members and English students at LLI. My housemate disappeared to help cook for about two days preceding the dinner and finally returned, exhausted and smelling of garlic, the evening the dinner took place. Many of the forty some people there were Japanese, and I admit it was vindicating to have multiple Japanese people asking "What is that food?" about things very familiar to me, such as cranberry sauce. After our kids' day from the first month we were here where there were only two kids, it was amazing to see how many people were there. In addition to the dinner, a Japanese man led a praise style worship time. That gave us the opportunity to do some fun singing and to be crazy. We taught the Superman meal prayer and performed our own version of the Humble Thyself / Awesome God medley with Sarah on the piano and Haidee on the guitar. I'm over here with some really talented ladies!
My second Thanksgiving dinner was on Thanksgiving Day itself, and it involved a very special pizza dinner with some of my friends. Cheese is next to non-existent here, or at least very expensive, so the dinner was a big treat. The final Thanksgiving dinner was at long-term missionary Dave's house and was comfortingly familiar and fun.
Non-holiday life in Japan also continues to be amusing. I have officially become the founding member of the Orange Jacket Revolution here in Tokyo. So far, it is a one girl revolution, but it feels strangely productive. Especially on the trains going to LLI in the mornings, there are a ton of people wearing black. I had purchased a black jacket the first couple weeks I was here, and it finally got to the point where I couldn't wear it. What can I say? I've always been something of a non-conformist. So, I went out in search of a new jacket. At first, I was looking at my normal favorite choices of blue or green, but then I saw the orange ones. I'm kind of in a mood right now to be as bright as possible. So, now I wear my orange jacket all over the place and feel a strange affinity with all the other people I see wearing orange or yellow or red.
One of my orange jacket's first experiences was a lovely hiking trip up and over two mountains. Rest assured, dear Wyoming readers, these were not Rocky Mountains, but it was still a very long hiking trip. Sarah (my housemate) and I accompanied two members of my church youth group. It is probably worth explaining that youth groups are a little different in Japan than in the States. I am the youngest member of my church youth group here in Japan. :-) It was a good, bilingual and bicultural day. My Japanese friends introduced us to Kushi-Dango, which is three rice dumplings on a stick with a sweet soy sauce drizzled over. We introduced them to trail mix.
Another fun youth group activity at church was making puppets. Koji, one of my good church friends, asked me a couple weeks before Christmas if I would help him make puppets after choir practice that Sunday. I agreed, and headed up after practice, assuming that we would be making sock puppets or something of the sort. When I arrived, however, I was handed a sphere of clay and shown a model of a sculpted face that I was to imitate. The experience showcased the communal aspect of Japanese culture very well. Before I had finished sculpting, I showed the head to one of the other puppet makers and kind of joked via gestures that the nose was too big. The head was immediately snatched away from me and the woman began adding little bits of clay here, scraping some off there. I felt myself getting offended. I hadn't even been given the opportunity to finish my best shot and here it was already being 'fixed' as though I hadn't done a good enough job! But then I remembered how much the focus is Japan is not on one individual person's work but on what the group could do together. Once I had given up my individual hold on the project, it was much easier to look at the assistance from other people in the group as assistance and not as corrections to a job I had done inadequately. I have to admit that the finished project was much better because there were multiple people involved.
In terms of language, there have been many big explosions since my last email. In class, we started learning kanji, which is the third and final alphabet that I will learn. Of course, where as the first two alphabets could be learned in a matter of weeks, even Japanese people cannot read all the kanji. The really big explosion, though, has been understanding. I can often get the gist of what people are saying, even if not the fine details. Sometimes this is bad, because I'm getting used to not understanding a lot of things. I had a meeting with a Japanese person about playing handbells, and in it I sat down and just started nodding and listening. The longterm missionary who was with me, eyebrows slightly raised, told me to let him know if I wanted things translated. It was only then that I realized I was only catching about two words a sentence, so I let him translate. ;-) I suppose speaking Japanese is getting much better too. Intellectually I know it is, because I gave a speech a couple weeks ago in which I talked for five minutes about St. Olaf in Japanese. But there are still many things I wish I could say but can't. Occasionally, my brain comes up with ingenious statements like "Sumimasen, hablas Espanol?" (Excuse me (in Japanese), do you speak Spanish (in Spanish)?) But my brain is gradually separating the languages, even if only by murdering my knowledge of Spanish.
Talk about language leads me to Christmas time. The five minute aforementioned speech took place on Speech Day, which was also a big Christmas party and our second (or third?) time to lead Holden Evening Prayer at LLI. I announced the Holden Evening Prayer part of Speech Day in Japanese at Hachioji Church, and then I was in trouble because everyone in the congregation knew I spoke Japanese. I was approached after church by one of the people who had been making puppets with me. She showed me the completed puppets and explained, completely in Japanese, something that involved "puppets" "Pamela-san" "Japanese" and "acting". There was little to do except say, "Yomimaska?" (Am I reading?). And I was, therefore, enlisted as a member of the cast of our Christmas pageant.
At LLI, we had another kid's day for Christmas. I got to help teach a handbell version of Away in the Manger to 24 little guys. Let me tell you, Japanese kids are talented. We only played the song once and it had a couple notes where you had to know octaves or flats and there was not a note missing. The day was such a miracle! Having that many kids was super energizing and fun! We even had a family from the local French school who contributed by teaching us to sing "O Christmas Tree" in French. It was an awesome day.
Christmas as a member of a Japanese congregation is a marathon sort of affair. At Hachioji, we started on December 23rd with a children's day of our own. This was the day that I was to be in the puppet show, but it turned out that I wasn't really a puppet but a live person who would interact with the puppets. In particular, I was Wise Man B. My church friend Koji had taken my script and written it out in nice, big Hiragana (the phonetic alphabet) in place of Kanji. The church members had lovingly decked me out in a decorative scarf, almost tunic, and small graduation cap. It almost went really well, until the woman with the line right in front of mine forgot her line and we started improvising. Or, rather, they started improvising while I stared at the script in rapt concentration waiting for it to return to any Japanese I recognized. Luckily it wasn't that formal of a performance, so our little bloopers just added to the fun.
After the puppet play I had my inaugural appearance as Santa Claus. Somehow, all the kids instantly knew it was me. I'm not really sure how...couldn't have had anything to do with my bad Japanese. ;-)
The next day at church was Christmas Eve. We had a morning service at 10:30, lunch after that, various Christmas presentations (gifts given to the oldest members of the congregation, a second showing of our Christmas pageant, and a wacky English solo from the resident missionary (I'm still not sure how they talked me into that one.)), and then a break until the evening candlelight service at 7:30. The evening candlelight service was a serious candlelight service. None of that only lighting the candles for Silent Night at the end. The candles stayed lit for almost the entire service. For those of us in the choir, that made things very interesting, because we were all sitting VERY close together in the front and juggling a bulletin, a choir folder, and a lit candle. But I am happy to say that there were no repeats of my childhood experiences of nearly burning down churches during candlelight services (which was my little brother's fault anyway... ;-) ).
I was very thankful for no church on Christmas day, and also very thankful for technology. My family and I were able to be "virtually" together on Christmas morning by using webcams. That definitely made the first Christmas away from home more bearable.
This past weekend was New Years, the big holiday here in Japan. I was asked more than once if this would be my first New Years away from home, which I suppose it was, but it was hard to explain to some of the Japanese people that it was Christmas, and not New Years, that I was concerned about. I was in a convenience store buying a sandwich when the New Year started. The Japanese teller wished me a happy new year in English with a big, embarrassed grin on his face. It is rare for a teller to say much more than "523 yen" or "thank you for waiting". It made me smile.
Amusing Gaijin Error of the month: While attending a Christmas party, a Japanese guy approached me and introduced himself. Except he used a lot of words to introduce himself. I had my dictionary with me and, determined to have some idea what he was saying, I picked what I believed was a key word and tried to look it up. He tried to dissuade me first by saying that it wasn't in the dictionary, and then finally said "That's not a word, it's my name." Oops. Lots of bowing on Pamela's part followed.
I hope that the holiday season is ending well for all of you, and that all of you had a chance to rest amid the festivities.
Blessings and peace!
Pamela
p.s. I now have pictures up online! I sent an email to most people on this list about the first album, but now there is a second album as well. The website is: http://picsbypamela.shutterfly
p.p.s. I have absolutely loved getting little emails from those of you who have sent them. Sometimes I have been busy and not managed to respond, but I always read them and they are a wonderful treat and gift. I am sorry, though, for those of you who have not gotten a response. I am trying to get better at responding.
Monday, January 1, 2007
Happy New Year!
Looking back, 2006 may very well have been the most significant year of my 22 years. Being an adult is cool that way...cool to be in a place where my responsibility is to the world and not to professors. Which isn't to say that I don't take the opportunity to act like a kid every chance I get. :)
Anyway...notable events from this year!
-Spent a month in South Africa.
-Helped plan and lead one of the most fun (if stressful) SCA events I've ever been a part of
-Realized that I don't just like to dance, I *love love love* to dance.
-Traveled to Seattle for spring break to finally meet a friend in person
-Survived the hardest semester to be academically focused of my life with, ironically, one of my highest college GPAs.
-Somewhere along the line began considering myself a mainline conservative Christian instead of a mainline liberal Christian.
-Went to a bar with friends for the first time. Still holding off on ordering more than one drink. ;)
-Said goodbye to four of the most lovely friends I have ever had.
-Became a college graduate.
-Began a process of completely rethinking the way I look at peace.
-Began doing real drawings every once in awhile.
-Successfully threw away something like 20 billion boxes of things I'd been hanging onto and didn't need.
-Moved to Japan
-Met some really incredible new friends.
-Read the book Intercessory Prayer and completely changed the way I pray.
-Began a prayer assignment to end suicides on the Chuo Line in Tokyo
-Learned that, if one wishes to have a nice social time at a pub, telling even one person in the pub that your group is made up entirely of missionaries who are out to celebrate Martin Luther's birthday is not the best way to do it.
-Bought an orange jacket. Traded the desire to blend in for a desire to be a bright force in the world.
-Bought a Mac. (Still slightly in shock about that one, but happy.)
-Spent my first Christmas away from home
-Went from knowing no Japanese to being able to read two new alphabets and to give a five minute speech about St. Olaf.
My first event of 2007: I wanted into a convenience store at about 12:02am this morning to buy a sandwich. The streets were pretty much deserted (I had just arrived home on the last train) but the sounds of people ringing large temple bells could be heard from at least three directions. Typical to Japan, there were three tellers standing behind the counter to serve a completely empty store. But when I came up and bought my sandwich, one of them said, "Happy New Year!" with a big, embarrassed grin on his face. It was one of the only times in Japan I have had a store employee say more to me than "Thank you for waiting", "do you have a point card?", or tell me the total cost of my purchase. It was such a nice change after Christmas, when I told a woman working in a bakery Merry Christmas and she said nothing in return. Definitely left the store smiling last night.
Anyway...notable events from this year!
-Spent a month in South Africa.
-Helped plan and lead one of the most fun (if stressful) SCA events I've ever been a part of
-Realized that I don't just like to dance, I *love love love* to dance.
-Traveled to Seattle for spring break to finally meet a friend in person
-Survived the hardest semester to be academically focused of my life with, ironically, one of my highest college GPAs.
-Somewhere along the line began considering myself a mainline conservative Christian instead of a mainline liberal Christian.
-Went to a bar with friends for the first time. Still holding off on ordering more than one drink. ;)
-Said goodbye to four of the most lovely friends I have ever had.
-Became a college graduate.
-Began a process of completely rethinking the way I look at peace.
-Began doing real drawings every once in awhile.
-Successfully threw away something like 20 billion boxes of things I'd been hanging onto and didn't need.
-Moved to Japan
-Met some really incredible new friends.
-Read the book Intercessory Prayer and completely changed the way I pray.
-Began a prayer assignment to end suicides on the Chuo Line in Tokyo
-Learned that, if one wishes to have a nice social time at a pub, telling even one person in the pub that your group is made up entirely of missionaries who are out to celebrate Martin Luther's birthday is not the best way to do it.
-Bought an orange jacket. Traded the desire to blend in for a desire to be a bright force in the world.
-Bought a Mac. (Still slightly in shock about that one, but happy.)
-Spent my first Christmas away from home
-Went from knowing no Japanese to being able to read two new alphabets and to give a five minute speech about St. Olaf.
My first event of 2007: I wanted into a convenience store at about 12:02am this morning to buy a sandwich. The streets were pretty much deserted (I had just arrived home on the last train) but the sounds of people ringing large temple bells could be heard from at least three directions. Typical to Japan, there were three tellers standing behind the counter to serve a completely empty store. But when I came up and bought my sandwich, one of them said, "Happy New Year!" with a big, embarrassed grin on his face. It was one of the only times in Japan I have had a store employee say more to me than "Thank you for waiting", "do you have a point card?", or tell me the total cost of my purchase. It was such a nice change after Christmas, when I told a woman working in a bakery Merry Christmas and she said nothing in return. Definitely left the store smiling last night.
Monday, December 18, 2006
Speech Day and Church "Fun"
So, I've been more or less away from home for something like six days now. But! I am now officially on Christmas break, which means that I only have church and other sorts of activities and no language class.
Friday was the ever so "looked forward to" Speech Day. Earlier in the semester, we were assuming that this meant we would give a speech in front of our class and the teachers would give us a grade and write down little things we'd done incorrectly. But no. In fact, Speech Day is an afternoon 'event' in which all the new missionaries are initiated by being made to give 3-5 minutes speeches in front of about twenty Japanese people. In addition, we had to make food and provide music. All in all, it went quite well, though. I made rommegrod (my favorite Norwegian food!) and people seemed to like it. That may only be because the Americans in the group are in Cream of Wheat withdrawal, though... ;)
Sunday was yet another day at church. I was elected to play one of the wise men in our kid's puppet play for Christmas, and I decided (very wisely, I might add) to play the one who only has five very short lines. After going over the puppet play, one of my church friends pulled me into another room and had me sit down in preparation of something he was going to ask me. He was so serious about it that my brain began coming up with possible scenarios, such as that he was going to propose to me completely out of the blue. Thankfully, nothing like that happened, but he finally got to the matter at hand. "Two years ago...the J3...John...at the kid's Christmas party...(long pause)...he wear the Santa suit." I managed to repress my sigh of relief. "You're asking me to wear a Santa suit for part of the Christmas party?" He bowed very low. "Onegaishimas." (Please.) I happily agreed. His next request was that I sing something for the Christmas party, which I slightly more reluctantly agreed to. By this point, he was down on the ground bowing to me in thanks. ...never quite know what to do in a situation like that.
I trekked out to the other side of Tokyo after church for a nice relaxing "We've survived the first half of orientation!" sento trip with the VYMers. It was lovely. Haidee and I were talking about how it would be a great activity for junior high kids, because you actually get to see that even the skinniest women carry fat in the same places.
Tomorrow we are going to go see the Messiah and get all dressed up for it. We are having Bible study in the morning and it is my turn to lead worship. I am seriously considering making the group do interpretive dance. *evil grin*
Friday was the ever so "looked forward to" Speech Day. Earlier in the semester, we were assuming that this meant we would give a speech in front of our class and the teachers would give us a grade and write down little things we'd done incorrectly. But no. In fact, Speech Day is an afternoon 'event' in which all the new missionaries are initiated by being made to give 3-5 minutes speeches in front of about twenty Japanese people. In addition, we had to make food and provide music. All in all, it went quite well, though. I made rommegrod (my favorite Norwegian food!) and people seemed to like it. That may only be because the Americans in the group are in Cream of Wheat withdrawal, though... ;)
Sunday was yet another day at church. I was elected to play one of the wise men in our kid's puppet play for Christmas, and I decided (very wisely, I might add) to play the one who only has five very short lines. After going over the puppet play, one of my church friends pulled me into another room and had me sit down in preparation of something he was going to ask me. He was so serious about it that my brain began coming up with possible scenarios, such as that he was going to propose to me completely out of the blue. Thankfully, nothing like that happened, but he finally got to the matter at hand. "Two years ago...the J3...John...at the kid's Christmas party...(long pause)...he wear the Santa suit." I managed to repress my sigh of relief. "You're asking me to wear a Santa suit for part of the Christmas party?" He bowed very low. "Onegaishimas." (Please.) I happily agreed. His next request was that I sing something for the Christmas party, which I slightly more reluctantly agreed to. By this point, he was down on the ground bowing to me in thanks. ...never quite know what to do in a situation like that.
I trekked out to the other side of Tokyo after church for a nice relaxing "We've survived the first half of orientation!" sento trip with the VYMers. It was lovely. Haidee and I were talking about how it would be a great activity for junior high kids, because you actually get to see that even the skinniest women carry fat in the same places.
Tomorrow we are going to go see the Messiah and get all dressed up for it. We are having Bible study in the morning and it is my turn to lead worship. I am seriously considering making the group do interpretive dance. *evil grin*
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