We are headed home...

As I write this, it is 7:00 am Friday morning our time, 4:00pm Thursday US time. We are gathering our stuff together and are about to navigate through morning rush hour with a 4 year old and 6 suitcases. ARRRGGHHHH!! It will be worth it though.

We'll be home in about 24 hours and we are looking forward to seeing everyone!

For those of you that follow this post but will not see us over the holidays, I do hope that you have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Curtis, Deana, and Avery

What I like and dislike about Japan…

OK, we are coming home in a week and are preparing for that currently. Consequently, we don’t have a whole lot to blog about, so I thought I would take an opportunity and use this “blog” for what blogs were originally intended – rants and random opinions (at least I think that’s why they originated). Anyway, here are a few things that I have enjoyed during our short 3 months and a few things that grate on my nerves…

Enjoyable stuff:

History. This place is filled with it. I was riding my bike through a residential area yesterday and right in the middle of what seemed to be nowhere was a shrine. It was beautifully decorated. Probably hundreds of years old. This stuff (as you can see from previous posts) is EVERYWHERE. The age of these places just does not cease to be impressive. Considering that our country was founded in 1776 and I have actually touched things here that were built in 1540 (ish) is awesome.

Acceptance. I am yet to run across a person with a “why don’t you go back where you came from” attitude. Furthermore, people seem to try to speak MY language, not force me to speak their language. When I do speak some of their language – things as small as “thank you” or “may I pet your dog”, they fall over themselves complimenting me (and Deana and Avery) on our ability to speak the language of the country we reside in.

So often I have found myself looking at a Mexican or Asian or other nationality person trying to ask a question in Wal-Mart or some other store and I’ve thought “If you can’t speak English, what the heck are you doing here???” Those days are about done for me. I realize that we (in America) have a slightly different problem with illegal immigrants than the residents in Japan have, but this stay has at least forced me to see the argument from a different perspective.

Convenience. I have no means of transportation except a bicycle and public transportation (buses, trains, and taxis). With that being said, I have no problem getting to the grocery store, work, hardware store, souvenir shop, China Town, amusement park, beach, and so in one hour or less. ALL of those can be reached within the hour mentioned via bike (a.k.a. FREE). I have never spent this amount of time in an area that is SO convenient to everything. While it is annoying (see annoyances below) at the lack of personal space, it is super cool to be able to be practically anywhere in practically no time.

Not so enjoyable stuff:

Language. Japanese is HARD to learn! Deana and I are taking 2 hours of lessons per week and after the New Year, we will be taking 4 hours per week (or at least I will be). It is so terribly tough to learn and it can be extremely discouraging at times. Just when I think I am getting the hang of it, I try to carry on a conversation with someone at the convenience store or at work and I get reminded of how much I don’t know… It can be terribly frustrating at times.

Religion. What do you think of when you hear the phrase “Non-Christian”? If you are like me, you think of someone in dark clothes, maybe a hooded sweatshirt, grim-reaper-esc. maybe. Well, this country is largely non-Christian and it is full of super nice people. That’s tough for me to deal with. My religion says that if you don’t believe, you’re damned.
“Too many people suffer from an ignorance of God. When they die and come to judgment, they will not be able to plead ignorance. Ignorance will be no excuse. The Bible says we should recognize God "through what has been made." The Bible therefore says of all people everywhere, "they are without excuse" (Romans 1:20)”. (http://dailywisdom.gospelcom.net/archives/2008/06/29/index.html) REALLY?? What if I were born in Japan and worshipped Buddha because it was how I was raised? I’m going to Hell because I don’t know any better? I have a VERY hard time with that now that I have been in an area where MILLIONS of people don’t believe simply because they don’t know any better and they have never been shown any different. It’s one thing to CHOOSE not to believe…

Cost of living. Oh my word!!! Skippy peanut butter (the small jar) for $4.50? Really??? A six pack of beer (the cheap stuff) for $7.00? COME ON!!! It is insanely expensive over here to do anything except breathe (and bike :)). Deana and I have a tough time going out of the house sometimes just because it is SO EXPENSIVE… The tanking value of the dollar certainly doesn’t help…

Lack of space. I know, I just finished bragging about how convenient everything was, but I REALLY miss living in Tullahoma, where we had a 2 car garage and a big yard. Sometimes the compact-ness (is that a word?) of this place gets under my skin.

OK, that’s enough for now. I really could go on and on, but i won't. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest…

All that being said, we are REALLY looking forward to coming home this Friday. As all of you are surely aware, we only have about 13 days and have TONS of people to see and things to do. Please be understanding (I’m sure all of you will be). Our priorities will be seeing family, visiting our church (and small group), visiting friends (we’ve had some new additions that we HAVE to see), hunting (that one is just for me – Deana won’t be in the woods), playing soccer (another one for me), shopping (since the US is on meltdown mode, we intend to capture some deals), and whatever else we may have time for.

We’ll plan on seeing you in few days!

Curtis

Avery's Christmas Play

Deana and I had the opportunity to watch Avery and her classmates put on their Christmas performance. Thanks to the blessing of the internet and You Tube, you all can watch it as well. I experimented a bit with the download formats and video sizes because the first one I uploaded took FOREVER!! I hope it all turns out okay. The camera man is certainly NO professional, so try to keep complaints to a minimum please...

Enjoy!

Aunt Pat, you'll have to cart Masam down to your house this weekend so she can watch it. I'll post some photos below for those of you that don't want (or have time) to watch the videos.

Curtis

Avery and 3 of her classmates:

Avery, Mommy, and good friend Riko

Avery singing her Japanese songs:

Avery Playing her Christmas Instruments:

Santa's Helper and Rudolph:

YouTube Hyperlinks are below:

Playing Christmas Instruments

Singing Japanese Songs

The Christmas play (Part 1)

The Christmas play (part 2)

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

A Great Day for a Picnic

Well, this weekend was another beautiful one! We rode our bikes both Saturday and Sunday. Curtis was in the mood to shop this weekend so I jumped on that! Saturday we rode around and did window shopping. Sunday we went and tried a church in Yokohoma, Grace Bible Church. It is a fairly small church with a band and singers. All the songs were in Japanese but the announcements and sermon were in both Japanese and English. Many members of the congregation are Japanese with some foreigners. The preacher is from America as well. It was really amazing to me and Curtis how passionate the Japanese were during the song service and worship. They seemed to really soak in every word. We met some new people and overall enjoyed it. We are trying another church in Tokyo next Sunday.

After church we took our bikes to a pier for a picnic lunch. It was so nice and Avery was so excited about it. We then did more window shopping. See the pictures below.

Avery fell in love with this big bear sitting on the bench outside the Hard Rock Cafe Yokohoma.

Every Saturday, street performers do acts in the courtyard of the Landmark Tower and Queens Tower. This guy was pretty funny.

This is the view Yokohoma City on one side of the pier we picniced at. The pier was made of wood with grassy patches in the center.

This was the view of the Yokohoma Bay Bridge on the other side of the pier we had our picnic on.

This was a ship that was coming into port at the pier that was decorated for Christmas.

Curtis's head was getting a little cold, so he thought he would get himself some hair!!! He is now planning to join the Beatles.