Flat3D

Over halfway done…

The kids gospel team is over halfway done. We have finished preparing and successfully run one week long programme at Yotsukaido Family Church and had a street concert on saturday and a performance for parents on sunday (check out the web journal in the scrolling link in the title, its slightly behind but catching up all the time!)

This time around I was able to get much closer to the kids and Japanese people that the last time 2 years ago, mostly having more of an idea of what was going on, being more used to the culture and having a homestay at Yotsukaido, which we didn’t have last time. Also having been there before made me feel at home almost straight away.

I will really miss the kids and church members.

Next we are doing a programme at Ichikawa’s Chapel of Adoration. I can only hope that it will be as much fun and as smooth as at Yotsukaido.

Please keep praying for us, there are lots of points almost everyday on the web journal.

Kid’s Gospel Team

So we started. We orientated last week ending on Saturday, then prepared two songs to perform at the Church on Sunday morning. We performed, ate with the church leaders and then headed off to karaoke as is the seemingly yearly tradition with the KGT.

This week sees preparations for the week long clubs and then we start into them. But for today we have a day off. It’s been an interesting day off… I began by filling in my debriefing forms and then being “interviewed” by Bryan about my year etc as my associate time is, practically, ending and I am joining a short term team. It was interesting to reflect on the year and think about lessons learned and experiences experienced. Just thinking about it reveals just how much God has taught me and even used me in Japan over the past year. Lots of little things coming together and lots of small tasks that added up to be of some use to Him and His Church here. It’s refreshing and rewarding (and even relieving) to think about it and see Him working, often at the time its easy to overlook many things thinking on a worldly sphere, but God does work in many ways and in awesome ways even through the smallest things.

Thats about it for today. Please someone go to the KGT page (scrolling link in the title) and leave a comment in the guestbook to prove I am there! I’m not in the photo because I wasn’t at the briefing. I don’t yet have a profile on the page because of overworked IT staff in the UK. And I only have one little mention in the diary!

Waiting…

So right now I am in Ichikawa and waiting… In the next hour or so the Kids Gospel Team will arrive and we will have lunch and then the torture of jetlagged orientation begins… for them! This time I’ll be well adjusted and perhaps I can actually learn something at orientation.

I think the rest of the week is due to be spent orientating, then next week we prepare the materials and stuff for the two week long campish-event-style-things.

If you want to keep up to date you can come back here, or probably more usefully you can click “Kids Gospel Team info” in the box under the photobar…

Kyoto III

And the final installment of Kyoto… For tomorrow I leave to go to Tokyo for the Kids Gospel Team.

Yesterday I went to Osaka for a poke around and to meet up with my ex-japanese teacher (no longer my teacher, still japanese).
So I went around midday (I’m on holiday!) and poked around Osaka castle and some other sights for a bit before going to a MASSIVE bookstore to meet up with him. Once I met him at 5:30 I followed him through a maze of shopping malls and streets and through a door and up to the 6th floor of the elevator. When I looked at the sign in the elevator for the 6th floor I was horrified (slightly) to see it was a pub called “The Blarney Stone”. BUT horror was not awaiting. The Irish Pub had one irishman in it, the rest were all ex-pat teachers and workers who wanted some english chat and something cooked and not fish and rice to eat. So I was able to actually order my food and know exactly what would come AND I was able to eat proper sausages! I actually felt like I was in belfast or someplace, not because of the decor or anything, but simply the lack of Japanese,　everything was written in English and I could understand what people were saying around me with ease!

So all in all a good time.

I have put up 3 new pics, one of Osaka castle, one of Yoshi in the Blarney Stone and one of a machine at the “drink bar”* in the hotel’s adjoining restaurant.

*A “drink bar” is simply an all you can drink thing, like at pizza hut only you get it yourself, kind of like at Subway only much, much better. This picture gives an example of how it is better, this machine takes some of the beans from the top, grinds them, brews some fresh espresso, steams some milk and makes you one of various kinds of coffee, all at the touch of a button, no barista required!

Kyoto II

So I’m still in Kyoto. I’ve been sightseeing most of my time, on Friday I went up to the west of the city and saw the shiney Kinkakuji temple gold plated from the second storey up, yesterday I went to Inari and walked down the torii lined path of the Fushimi-Inari Taisha… I went to see the old Imperial Palace gardens (need special permission to get into the palace) and went to look for geisha at Gion (didn’t see any)… All round an interesting and very beautiful city.

But today is Sunday, and as I realised late on Friday night, I don’t know any churches in Kyoto. I have only seen one, the modern looking Catholic Church I walked by downtown last night. So I emailed Ruth quickly asking if she could put some word out on Hey Everybody, the OMf mailing list, but as she had left for the weekend she probaby didn’t get my email. So, through fault of my own, this morning I didn’t have a church to go to, which was probably a good thing as I didn’t wake up until 12, all of this walking is taking a toll! So in church’s stead, I spent an hour at lunch reading and praying and folllowed it by listening to a lecture from Veritas (as recommended by Laurie Elliot) while wandering around a serene garden (Shoseien, a little north of the station, so not far from my hotel).
Now I am in the internet cafe killing some time out of the 30 degree heat (with 80+% humidity) and later I plan to head to the cinema and watch MI:3, providing I can find the cinema and there are still spaces left…
Tomorrow I am heading to Osaka for the day, hopefully I can get up a little earlier than today and spend the day there seeing the sights (apparently it’s not the best, kinda likt Tokyo only a bit smaller) and doing some window shopping. Then in the evening I am going to meet Yoshi, my old Japanese teacher who has moved to Osaka.
Tuesday is as yet unplanned, I had it in my head that Tuesday was the 12th, but in fact it is Wednesday… So I have an extra day to spend!

One of the things about getting to be online that bit more is I can catch up with people from home who I haven’t seen in 10/11 months. It seems everyone is growing up and buying houses and stuff! I may end up feeling a bit left behind when I get home, but at least there will be lots of places o go hang out, that is if anyone has enough time left to hang out…

Here are a few pictures from Kyoto: