Cheese, beer, coffee.

Three things that are important to me.

If you had to live with just one, what would it be?
(Substitute tea if that's your caffeine of choice!)

For me, it's becoming clear that it's coffee, and I fit right in here in Japan. Cheese is scarce, pricey and rubbish, as you'd expect in a largely dairy free country where milk costs more than petrol.

That's me, trying a HOT can of coffee from one of the vending machines that are EVERYWHERE over here. It was surprisingly good. I've had many a cup that was much worse (old ladies and staffroom mellow birds, EW!). They love their coffee here, they really do.

By contrast, if coffee is acceptable and pervasive, beer and pubs is a different issue all together. Over here, bars are for drinking, hard drinking. Not for the first time it strikes me that British pub culture to be cherished as a rare and wonderful thing! Both in North America and Japan, public bars are places you go to drink, where the socialising is a side issue. Back in the UK, indeed, if Switzerland and France are anything to go by, in Europe, Pubs bars and cafes are places you go to socialise, and the drinking is a side issue.  Part of me thinks it's because our beer is so bloody good and worth enjoying properly, but then again it seems to be true in France where that's far from the case. I'm far from being an expert, I just know that, for me, pubs are one of the truly great things about Britain.

Over here in Japan, just like when I went to Romania with St Georges a couple of years ago, I've run into dry Christianity. With drinking-culture being so different, so damaging and un-wholesome, Japanese Christians don't drink alcohol, as a rule, and not waning to stand out, cause offense or damage the reputation of the family I'm staying with, I have't either. It's been good to see that I haven't really missed it. Does one good to go without, every now and then. I know I'll really appreciate it when I get home!

Still, it does make me ponder what I would do, If i were over here long term. How important is it to conform to the world's views, or the local christian world's views. After-all, Jesus loved a glass or two of wine. Should we, as Christians, be demonstrating the joy that can be found in all parts of creation, or is that just the selfish drinker in me talking? I also want to say what huge respect I have for missionaries, who don't always know exactly what they are giving up when they answer the call. I really hope God only calls me to places with decent pubs!

George Best, a biblical role model?!

"I spent 90% of my money on women, drink and fast cars. The rest I wasted."

I have a lot of Time for Belfast's favorite son, and I like to think St Paul would have appreciated the sentiments of this much quoted line.

...(pause for sharp intake of breath)...

Yes, I am saying that St Paul would have approved of a man dedicating his resources whole-heatedly to chasing skirt, getting drunk and driving around in fast cars, absolutely he would!





Alright, I admit it, I'm joking, but only a little.

Check this out:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2Timothy 4:7)

So what's the point? Am I referring to St Paul's legendary athletic abilities? Is he particularly proud of his top ranked for age placing in the Ephesus half marathon? 

No.

Don't be silly.

Paul knew he was near the end of his life. He knew the gig was up, the executioners would be coming for him soon. He wasn't worried. Elsewhere in his letters he writes of how he was ready to go, to move on up to heaven and be with his Lord. Death held no fear for him (although I can't believe he didn't quail at the method he knew was in store!). 

I can kind of get my head around this. I'm not there by any means, but I'd like to be there and I can imagine that a few more years walking with Jesus will see me gradually closer to that fearless point of view. What truly impresses me is the self-confidence Paul shows here, the certainty that he has done the best he can. Just like George, Paul worked out what he wanted from his life and he went for it. I'm not saying he was perfect; I know he can't have been. His own words tell us that! It's just amazing that, as Kipling put it, Paul seems to have filled the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run.

I don't think I do better than  30 seconds most days.

It's perhaps a little embarrassing, that as Christians, we need George Best to show us what commitment to a cause looks like. Surely our cause, our faith, our saviour means more to us that booze birds and cars did to George? I know most of us would say yes, but I don't know many who can honestly say that they only wasted 10% of the only real resource their creator gave them, their time to run their race for and with Him down here.

I'm trying to do better.

How are you doing?

I don't know about you, but I'm awfully glad for Grace!

Don't worry, keep trying, and keep praying, keep asking for help!

A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not 

discovered the value of life. Charles Darwin

奇妙な (Kimyōna)

奇妙な (Kimyōna) is as close as I can come to 'weird' in Japanese.

Here are a few more of the things I have noticed in my first few days here, some weird, some cool, some just 'things':

Both Victoria and my mother in law have a thing about facing the 'wrong way' when travelling. Forwards or nothing for them. Backwards motion leads to nausea! Well, here in Japan they'd be fine on trains. As the first train from the airport towards the Sinkansen connection pulled in I thought "Hello, that's odd; all the seats face the same way. When we pull out, we'll all be facing backwards. Vic would hate that!" I put the thought to one side and watched as a team of cleaners descended and tidied the train. When I looked back up from my kindle, lo and behold, all the seats were the right way round! They all seem to be on little foot-operated turntables, so everyone can face the direction of travel, or if they are so inclined, go backwards and be sociable with the row behind. Neat! One of the first things that made me think we should do likewise in the West!

When this first train appeared I tried to embark but was shooed off by the team of cleaners. When they had finished I was positively welcomed aboard by a lady who seemed to take immense pride in a simple job well done. Nice work, and nice work-ethic, team clean!

The trolley lady passed and I fancied a drink to go with the sandwich my lovely wife had made that I had saved for lunch. I asked what a typical Japanese drink would be and she recommended either hot or cold green tea. Pushing the boat out, I opted for the cold for ¥150, hoping I wasn't being ripped off (Turned out to be CHF2 or about £1.40). Over in Switzerland I've rather taken to the iced-tea and fancied that such a sweet and caffeinated beverage would be just the ticket. How wrong I was; this beverage was nothing like the liptonice I have become partial to, it was just cold green tea. I pushed on, not one to waste a drink, and eventually came to quite enjoy it, but I have decided that I definitely prefer my tea hot, as a rule. I had another cup today, hot, and it was entirely pleasant.

Passed my first Pagoda. Wow! What an elegant and surprisingly earthquake-proof building! 

EVERYONE has been super helpful and seems genuinely delighted with my frequent "'Arigato's (thank you). There is much gracious head bobbing and a real sense of politeness everywhere, something we could perhaps use a little more of. Heather, my hostess, tells me a story of two gaijin chatting in a Japanese bar. One here for 20 months, one for 20 years. The first gets lots of attention and is welcomed everywhere, the second, despite fluent Japanese, feels excluded. I have yet to see the latter position ( suspect a 3 week visit will not be long enough!) but have seen plenty of the former. Everyone was amused and delighted at my first Japanese lesson on Tuesday night at my inability to sit on the floor for long and my not knowing proper toilet-slipper etiquette. It seems they like their foreigners foreign!

Slippers: there are rules people! 

1. NEVER wear outside shoes inside!
2. Shoes off IMMEDIATELY inside door, while on bare floor
3. Socks do not touch floor
4. Step into slippers on inside flooring (wood or carpet)
5. Place shoes on bare floor, next to each other and ready to be stepped into, facing door
6. Failure to follow (4) leads to hostess doing for one
7. Eventuality of (5) leads to shame, dishonour, castigation or ritual suicide depending on, I suspect, value and filthiness of shoes
8. These slippers will be provided by hosts
9. DO NOT WEAR THESE SLIPPERS INTO THE TOILET!!
10. There are extra slippers provided in the toilet, use these for duration of visit
11. Leave your house slippers outside the toilet
12. When finished toileting, leave toilet slippers just inside door facing the right way for next visitor

Some of these rules might be useful, it certainly keeps a house clean! Perhaps Vic and I should invest in a whole box of guest slippers?

Anyway, enough for today, these sermons won't write themselves. 

Sayonara

Rob

Konichiwa

So, here I am on day 2 of my trip to Japan, preaching with the Nelson's at Nirayama, in sight of the beautiful Mt Fuji. I pushed through until 9:00 last night and feel like I am holding the dreaded jet-lag at bay for now. As I made my way here on 2 planes (via Moscow!) and 3 trains I jotted down a selection of random thoughts on my journey so far that I thought I'd take this opportunity to share.

First tho; Mo news...
as you can see, this Movember's effort is coming on strong. Not sure what breed of Mo it looks like yet. Possibly 1950's bin man? I haven't set up a web page for sponsorship, I know too many people already doing it. I thought it made sense to redirect to them. This year I am urging people to give via the page of Steve Besford.  Come on people, dig deep. Some of us look proper silly! I refer you also to the pages of Matthew Arrowsmith and Giles Smith.




So, a beginning to some Japanese cultural differences as noted by a roaming Gai-Jin on day 1. I assume some of these 1st impressions will change as time goes on...

A significant number of people are wearing surgical masks. I first noticed a row of matching young ladies on the plane and some more at the airport. Once I was out in the world, I noticed some men too, but far fewer (would have covered up the magnificent moustaches!). Apparently this is to block in-bound germs (on the plane) or politely restrain out-bound germs when one is afflicted with lurgee.  Some of this makes a good deal of sense; the culture is still very family oriented and many families continue to cohabit. It's not unusual for 4 generations to be in the same home, exposing both elderly and very young to germs. That said, cleanliness seems to be something of a national obsession bordering on the compulsive. I am told that I need to sneeze gently (which will be a MAMMOTH effort) and leave he room to blow my nose. Wonder what else I need to leave the room for...

Anyhow, apparently I'm off to quarter the town to get oriented now (Pun totally intended!). More news and impressions later!

Movember looming

Well it's nearly Movember.

This year it's especially poignant, as just after last Movember drew to a glorious close, my papa was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He's now finished his treatment and we wait to see if it's been successful. It;s been a tough year, filled with not knowing how he was doing, conflicting reports from too many doctors and side effects that I won't go into today. Those of us around him have had to pull together and I think he's doing ok. We'll see.

For now, I know this: if there was the time and money devoted to man-cancer that there is to breast-cancer, this may well have been spotted earlier and treated more swiftly, with fewer side effects and a better prognosis. I don't want to take a single penny away from other any other cancer research; breast-cancer too has claimed friends of mine. I do simply want to raise awareness and cash to help the plight of men everywhere. Too many of us will eventually be glad that we helped.

This is my face on the last day of October. There will be regular updates. Keep the cash coming in by sponsoring any man you know growing a Mo. Why not show support by sporting a stick on one yourself, if you're too young or have the wrong chromosomes to grow one yourself.

Watch this space!!

My head hurts!

Well, eight weeks in and I am developing a new relationship with pain!

It's not because Mrs D is beating me regularly, or at least, no more severely than usual! No, it's the French language. I seem to bee making fairly good progress and have even begun the dreaded subjunctive, and the more I speak and listen the easier it gets. The biggest barrier to progress is a lack of practice; I just need more francophones in my life. What with tutoring happening in English and Victoria and I largely communicating in English, it's hard to get the French in. 

We have joined two churches, on in English in the evening and one in French on Sunday morning. I suspect Victoria, given a choice, would go exclusively francophone at home and church, but I'm just not ready for that. As much as it's satisfying to be making progress, and I can now largely make myself understood and keep up with the rigors of shopping etc, it's too frustrating to operate at a language level where I can't express complex ideas or, for that matter,  simple ones with the option of a more elegant turn of phrase. 

Anyway, my point is this. I find, regularly, that after a while submersed in French, my brain hurts. It's always the same pain, a kind of fizzing across the middle, very much akin the stress buzz I used to get at the thought of Ofsted visiting. The exact same feeling I called 'impending doom' whenever the headmaster called to me to his office, and which never went away however long I taught or high I wandered in the rankings of my profession, surely a sad indictment on my self-confidence.  It is a decidedly odd experience to have come to view this feeling as my friend. Whenever my brain starts ticking like that these days, I ascribe it (with no neurobiology to speak of, you understand) to neurons connecting, to synapses linking, to LEARNING HAPPENING! It's a delight! I seek it out, some of the time, when I am strong enough. At time's when I'm not it's proved a remarkable opportunity to lean on God, remembering that I believe He called us here, that there's something special for us to do here and that learning French is somehow adding to the kingdom. Standing in His grace helps me daily over here. If I get really stuck, I even pray in French! 

I'm off now to read an article on Michael Schumaker's retirement in French! A bientôt!

BTW: should you actually have some neurobiology, don't disabuse me of the notion that I can feel the learning happening. It's too motivational to lose.

An expensive word to learn!

Well, it's been a hell of a week. It's been utterly fab having some folks from home visit, one of whom brought her new beau for us to judge (sorry, meet!). What was truly special was having a part of our much cherished friendship group from Leeds come over; it really helped this feel like home and it's incredibly reassuring and comforting to know that we're still connected. At an hour and a half's flight we're MUCH less cut-off than we were in Rwanda or Calgary.

So, word of the week was " Une Amende," which means "A Fine." 

On Thursday I was coming home from a Sailing lesson I hadn't had as the sailing company had forgotten about me when Victoria called. Normally I wouldn't pick up when driving but I was making poor choices that day. 

The previous evening a colleague of Victoria's (we'll call her Jane) had been robbed at the entrance to her garage in Geneva, her hand-bag lifted off the passenger seat of the car by a ne'er-do-well while his colleague distracted Jane on the other side of the car. Being chivalrous and kind, Victoria lent Jane her husband so she didn't have to suffer through the rest of the evening unprotected and alone. Jane and I waited up for the RIDICULOUSLY expensive late-night emergency locksmith to come and let us in to her flat and replace her locks, and then we took a pleasant stroll through a raging storm to the police station in the middle of the red-light district, where she lives. By the time all this was sorted I got to bed in Geneva at about three O’clock. Now, you may well know that I'm not at my best in the morning, far from my usual cheery self and considerably farther from observant than usual, so when Jane's alarm pulled me from my slumber at 7.30 the following A.M. I was impressed that I managed to quietly leave her flat and get to the station, where I managed to buy the correct ticket and get a coffee. Sadly, having accomplished so much, I must have rested a little on my antemeridian laurels as I managed to get the only train to Lausanne that DOESN'T stop at Nyon. This put me an hour later back home than anticipated, which made me an hour late for my first meeting with a new tutee. At this point I was already quite stressed and bouncing through my morning on caffeine and adrenaline (with a little help from a delectable almond croissant. If one must be stressed in Switzerland, there are at least perks). It didn't help that being late for my first appointment necessitated a call to the parents of my second and third appointments to relate my sorry tale and apologise!

Eventually I got home and crammed in some lunch  before setting off to not have a sailing lesson. This cancellation was almost the last straw and I was going a bit out of my mind when I picked up the phone, which I knew was wrong but thought to be legal here as I had seen so many people on their phones while driving. This was a notion the policeman who pulled me over seemed more than happy to disabuse me of. He was even happy to take time to explain what was happening in broken English and sign language as he told me he was giving me 'an amende' of CHF100. 

Mea culpa, I know, and I make no excuses, but if every word I have to learn comes at such a price Victoria's salary won't go nearly far enough!!

Thankfully, I start regular French lessons on Monday, at a much more reasonable rate.