Shopping!

    I will be the first to admit that I am not a shopper, at least when it comes to "girly" shopping of clothes, shoes, jewelry, etc. Being long-legged with big feet, it's never been easy to find things my size. I am more of a thrifter than a big spender.  After de-cluttering our whole house, I am hesitant to add back to the clutter. But I do have one weakness. 

    And it's NOT video game stores. But alas...I am in the 1/7 minority -- everyone else LOVES video games. I do have an appreciation for them. After all, if it weren't for video games, I wouldn't be in Japan right now (it has fueled both the desire and the finances to come). So I nod and smile and browse the merchandise and stand in line (literally 50 people in line at the Pokemon store last time!) and practice my Japanese with the workers and ask about when the Rhythm Heaven keychain will be back in stock.

    It took 43 years before Lucas made it to his first official Nintendo store. For awhile, there was only one in America; it was in downtown Manhattan, and we finally made it there on our Long Island road trip two years ago. And then in the last ten days, we've been to Nintendo stores three different times. One was in Tokyo, one in Osaka last week, and then again in Osaka this week because we were "in the neighborhood" and there was a new Zelda controller that had just released that day. It's kind of crazy to go from being 12 hours away from the nearest Nintendo store to being 1 train stop away.

    Our first attempt at hitting the Osaka Nintendo store was not without complications. It wasn't the first times that Google Maps has led us to a destination, only to have us scratching our heads at which building and where to go in and which floor. The first door we tried at the Lucua building didn't open until 10, so we went up some stairs to try a different entrance. And then we took some stairs and an escalator and walked to another side of the building. This entrance was open, but the elevator was not operational yet. So we took to the escalators. To the 13th floor! I don't think I've ever taken that many escalators in a row before! 

    On the 13th floor were stores for Pokemon, Nintendo, and Capcom, all video-game related. The boys were most interested in Pokemon plushies and figures. Lucas has had a near lifelong love of Nintendo, and his livelihood is in reviewing and writing about Nintendo as the Editor of Nintendo Force magazine. And then Lucas has dipped his toes into book publishing, where he has had two books officially licensed by Capcom. So yes, the 13th floor was geared toward the Thomas family!

    From there, we walked to a nearby store with a limited time pop-up for merchandise for another video game collection called Earthbound. 

So after all of that, it was my turn for my favorite kind of shopping -- books! Also nearby was a Christian bookstore.  There are some countries where Christianity is a persecuted religion, and Christian bookstores would not be possible. In Japan, however, Christianity is allowed but is rare -- less than 1% of the population is Christian. Still, with such a large population, this is still over a million people. I was thrilled to buy some children's books in Japanese, including one of my favorites that I gave to all my bridesmaids -- You Are Special by Max Lucado. I also bought a display with The Lord's Prayer in Japanese as well as some gospel tracts that hopefully I can hand out to strangers or friends.  My favorite purchase, though, is a Japanese storybook Bible in both Japanese and English. I have the English version at home. I'm hoping to improve my Japanese reading with these books, and I was happy to support this Christian bookstore appropriately named Oasis.

    There are also tons of secondhand bookstores in Japan called Book Off, similar to our Half-Price books (my favorite in America). I've already been to three Book Off stores, and I've also found secondhand books at a store in the mall and even down our shotengai near our house. Back home, I always check the Half Price bookstores for Japanese books, and the collection is always minimal (a few books here and there). So to be in a bookstore with thousands of Japanese books -- it's a bit overwhelming! I hope to one day read full mangas and novels in Japanese, but for now, I mostly stick with kids books and bilingual books. 

Calvin's End-of-October Reflections

CALVIN, age 12

Tell us about your experience in Tokyo. 

It was fun our house was very small but we made it work and I got some free Pokemon cards because I pressed a bunch of gacha machine coin return buttons then used them on Pokemon cards which was about 6 dollars and one of them was a super rare one.

What was the Mustard Seed church like?

Good, I haven't listened to an actual sermon yet since Chance was crying and being difficult so I went in his class instead of hearing it but then after there was a 15 year party. 

What do you like about Japan?

I like most things like all the stores and the Nintendo stuff and a lot of the food is really yummy and there is a lot to do. I also like walking around and looking at stuff.

What is different about how they do things in Japan?

I haven't really noticed the driving on the other side of the road but the main thing is how many people have bikes instead of cars I thought you either had a car or you walked another thing is vending machines there are hundreds of them there is one ten feet in front of our house!

What do you miss from home?                                                                                                      I miss our church, the Middle school retreat, my bed, and good internet.

Carter's End-of-October Reflections

CARTER, age 14

What was the church in Yokohama like?

It was interesting that it was on the eighth floor. In Japan's big cities they build upward, so there might be a massive building with very different things on each floor. When the people shared the announcements and message, one person spoke a sentence in English and another translated it in Japanese. It made the overall service longer, but I prefer it over one person speaking an entire sermon in English for 20+ minutes and then someone taking 20+ more minutes to translate the whole message. It was small, but very friendly, and a good experience to have. 

Tell us about your experience in Tokyo. 

The most populous city in the world used to be lots of different cities, but when they all grew they crashed into each other. Some areas, like the street where our AirBNB was, are less busy, but in other places, hundreds of people cross the streets at crosswalks at the same time. I enjoyed going to the Pokemon Center and Cafe, and my brothers enjoyed pressing the coin return buttons on gacha machines.

What do you like about Japan?

I like that the food at the konbini (convenience stores) is 4 to 5 times cheaper than in gas stations in America. You can buy really good snacks for less than 500 yen (about 3 US dollars) and these convenience stores (the major ones being 7-eleven, Family Mart, and Lawson Station) are everywhere in major cities.

What do you miss from home?     

Mostly just my home church, my friends there, and the events that I am missing. I would come back to Japan though, because there's lots of fun to be had here too!                                                                                             

Ministry Spotlight: Mustard Seed Christian Church

    One of the reasons we selected our AirBNB was that it was walking distance to a bilingual church that had been recommended by a sister of a friend of a friend. :-) Mustard Seed is a network of churches in the 12 largest cities in Japan.  We had hoped to visit the Mustard Seed Yokohama campus, but we were too late and ended up at another great church nearby.  We arrived in Osaka on Wednesday evening, and on Friday, we walked to one of the main shopping districts -- Umeda.  Since our church is on the way, we stopped by, but no one was there.

(you can see the Mustard Seed sign behind us. It's very visible from a popular train line. In fact, one of our new friends from church said that she started coming because of curiosity about the sign)

(the little trapezoid elevator)

On Sunday when we woke up, there was heavy rain, so we considered taking the train. But it was mostly sprinkling by the time we were leaving, so we decided to walk. The route takes us over a large bridge with a great view of the city skyline. There are also jumping fish in the water! It takes us about 25 minutes to get there.  We first went to the 4th floor where they have an English conversation group at 10 a.m. We had planned on helping with this, but there was a mission team in town, so there were already more than enough English speakers. I got to meet Amy, though, who has been in Osaka learning the language for the past two years. She also has a large family -- three girls and a boy, so she gave some helpful tips about feeding a large family in Japan.

    The service started at 11 a.m. Our first Sunday was a special one because they were celebrating their 15th anniversary as a church (the Osaka church was the 2nd one planted, after Nagoya).  There was a video with some highlights from the past 15 years. 

    For the singing, we'd switch back and forth between English and Japanese.  We would sing a verse and a chorus in one language and then switch to the other for the next verse and chorus.  On the slides, there would be the translation at the bottom for anyone who couldn't speak the language.  We've been to a few Japanese churches (in St. Louis and in Lexington) where they did this, but the Japanese portion was written in Romaji (Roman letters).  Here, the Japanese was written in Japanese with "furigana" to help pronounce the kanji characters. I was able to bumble along okay, but it was harder for some in our family.

    Two of the songs were familiar to me -- "O praise the name of the Lord our God, O praise his name forevermore" and "I can see You now. I can see the love in Your eyes" (Broken Vessels). Both of these songs are on a Hillsong Japan album.

    After the singing, the children were dismissed. Cooper and Colson went to their elementary class, but Chance had a hard time going to his class (which sometimes happens even at our home church). I don't mind peeling myself away from him and just letting him cry until he settles down, but there was only one volunteer at the time, and as someone who has volunteered for decades in children's ministry, I didn't want to do that to her.  So, I went back to the service to grab Calvin, who volunteers weekly in the preschool room back home, and he took Chance into the room and stayed to help. 

(Just like back home, we try to sit in an undesirable seat to allow others a better view!)

    The sermon was great! It was presented in both English and Japanese. Many bilingual churches do this, with a prepared sermon in one language and a prepared translation in the other language. Since I came in late after taking Chance, I didn't realize until about 20 minutes in, that the sermon was in Japanese with an English translation, instead of the other way around! Obviously, I wasn't paying very close attention to the Japanese. 

    This year, the Mustard Seed churches are encouraging everyone in their congregations to read through the Bible following the same reading plan. And then on Sundays, the sermon is based on the readings from the week. This means that the sermons cover the whole Bible, not just topically staying most of the time in the New Testament, like many modern churches. This week was on Ezekiel and the dry bones. There was a worship guide to follow along, and the flow of the sermon basically followed the process of a good Bible study -- Observation (what does it say?), Interpretation (what does it mean?), and Application (what does it mean for me?).  I don't know that I've been to a church that laid out this method so clearly during a sermon in a way that you could easily replicate at home.

    Another neat thing was that not only did the adults study that Bible story -- the elementary and preschool kids did, too! So the whole family was diving into the same Bible story in an age-appropriate format.

    After the service, it was picnic time! But because of the rain forecast, we stayed indoors in the 4th floor cafe space (the service is on the 3rd floor, the cafe and kids areas are on the 4th floor, and there's a unique trapezoid-like elevator to get there if you don't want to take the stairs!). Many people go to nearby konbinis (convenience stores but way different than the American kind) or bring a packed lunch. We also had lots of candy, and some kids dressed up in costumes.  Even when there's not a picnic, people often linger to fellowship after service.

    I met many people during this time. There was a mission trip team visiting from Nevada, and I met Cori from that team. She said there's usually a team from her church that comes on the anniversary.  And I met Elena who is from Texas (Russia originally) and is in Osaka for 3 months while her husband has a work assignment in Micronesia. She said, "We homeschool, so we decided to come." I said, "That's very much like us!"  

    I also met many Japanese folks. They were very friendly, and we had great conversations, mostly in slow English, but I tried to speak as much Japanese as I could.  Interestingly, I spoke with three Japanese people in a row in separate conversations who all have attended somewhat regularly for a few years, but who said they are not Christians. I was kind of surprised by this. Granted, I know that not everyone who attends church is a Christian, but in America, most people who attend church regularly for years would at least consider themselves Christians. 

    The younger three boys played and ran around. Calvin learned a Japanese yoyo game from another boy his age. Carter did his magic card tricks for anyone who would be his audience. I walked over while he was doing his tricks for a mom and her daughter. I ended up having a great conversation with Sachiko, and we ended up leaving at the same time. She lives at the station just north of ours, but since we were walking across the big bridge, her daughter Satomi wanted to join us. And since we were walking and talking together, I told them they might as well come over to our house. So they did! And when they left two hours later at dinnertime, five-year-old Satomi insisted, "STAY!!" We hope to have them over many more times over these two months.

   Also at church, we met Masumi, who also lives on our same train line. So later in the week, we met her at her station, and she showed us around that area.  Grateful for connections! Grateful for this church! And that it's within walking distance! Thank you, God!

Calvin's Cruise Reflections

CALVIN, age 12

What did you enjoy doing on the cruise?

I liked eating good food, getting ducks from the claw machine and playing games like basketball, Madden NFL 25, flip 7, and soccer.

 

What did you enjoy eating on the cruise?

Every morning I had a breakfast of two doughnuts two chocolate milk cartons and some bacon but later I would stop back to get another doughnut. For lunch I had either a burger and fries or just the first thing I saw if I wasn't very hungry. For dinner I always had strip steak and any other time I would get ice cream.

Who did you like to hang out with on the cruise?

Drew (North Carolina), Foster (Alaska), Jaziah (California), and Lovelle (Canada). All four of us played basketball, video games (Smash Bros and Madden), and ate together. Drew and I got a bunch of ducks from the claw machine and just finding them. I watched football games with Foster since his fantasy team is undefeated. I didn't spend much time one-on-one with Jaziah, but he was often in our group. I played pickleball with Lovelle while my parents were in Muroran.  The wind was crazy! Lovelle's little brother Azriel accidentally hit a ball into the slide because of the wind.

Which port was your favorite?                                                                                                       Shimizu because we went to a beach and we went on a ferry back and got to see Mt. Fuji. I liked finding bamboo walking sticks, and we found a jellyfish and crab.  Mt Fuji was cloudy, so we could barely see it.               

(there's Mt. Fuji in the background, peeking up from the clouds)

Here's his buddy Drew on our final morning

Here's Lovelle and Azriel. We disembarked with them and went to church together in Yokohama before parting ways. They're going to be away from home for the next six months!

Drew and Calvin with their massive duck collection!

Aster, Foster, Jackson, Calvin, Drew

Carter's Cruise Reflections

CARTER, age 14

What did you enjoy doing on the cruise?

Usually, I went to the Teen Room whenever it was open (10am-Noon, 2pm-5pm, and 8pm-Midnight). There were different events going on in there every day, like charades, guessing games, sports events on the sports deck, and more. You can also read and play games whenever an event isn't happening. Much of my time in the Teen Room was spent playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with other teens, and whenever I was by myself I made custom maps to fight in for that game. 

     

    I also enjoyed the elevators. There were 5 working ones on one side of the ship and 8 on the other, and I timed myself to see how fast I could set foot in all 13 of them (trying not to slow anyone down who actually needed to get somewhere.)

    I went to a few shows as well. There was a different show every night, so I didn't always go if it was something I wasn't as interested in. I found I was only interested in comedians, magicians, and game shows by the end of the cruise, but those shows were great, and I especially enjoyed the magician, who made a signed playing card appear inside a lemon. (I am now friends with him on chess.com.)

 

What did you enjoy eating on the cruise?

On our last cruise (Mariner of the Seas), I always ordered the Caesar Salad as my starter in the Main Dining Room, but I didn't like it so much this time. I ordered something I hadn't tried before almost every day, and I almost always loved what I ate. My favorite dinner was baked potato soup and lobster mac and cheese, and my favorite dessert was key lime pie. I often got a hamburger at the Windjammer Marketplace, and also enjoyed free pizza, tacos, quesadillas, and ice cream a lot.

Who did you like to hang out with on the cruise?

I enjoyed hanging out with everybody who also liked Smash Bros.. We played a lot of that game together, and ocasionally played other games. Some of their names were Connor, Aster, Alex, and James. 

Which port was your favorite?                                                                                                    We walked around Hakodate a lot, but I enjoyed tasting free samples of squid from the markets and seeing the main island of Japan from southern Hokkaido. I also enjoyed seeing Mt. Fuji (which sometimes looked like an island floating in the sky because clouds covered the base) in Shimizu.    

  

(He was pretty adventurous in trying new things!)

(This was when I spied him reading his Bible in the library)

(We went on a "date" to watch the ice skating show)

(Carter was thrilled to go ice skating with his family. Forced family fun! He much preferred the teen room)

(Carter often joined an adults-only group of fellow worldschooling families to get a break from sitting with us! I think this was before he realized he could order two desserts, which he did regularly)

(on the Hakodate ropeway)

Meet Hideko, our Japanese granny

(Look at that joyful face!)

Back in January, during my first week volunteering at Friendship International, I sat at a table of strangers-to-me who would soon become my friends. Never would I have guessed that nine months later, the mom of one of those new friends would be at our Osaka house on our first full day, helping me shop and cook our first Japanese dinner.

Nanako was one of the friends I met on that first day back in January. She’s from Osaka and speaks English well, so it’s easy to talk with her. When I asked for popular Japanese song recommendations, she gave me several that I worked on for months (and Japanese people, like our Uber driver in Hakodate, are impressed when I burst into song in their language!). (Note: here’s the bilingual singalong I did with some of those songs). We had park play dates with our kids. 

Her mom Hideko came to Lexington when Nanako was about to have her second baby boy. I saw Hideko multiple times—when they all came over for a birthday dinner for Nanako, when I dropped off a meal when Kaito was born, when I helped them on their moving day, and when we came over to celebrate Shohei turning two. She was in Lexington for three months before returning to Osaka (right before we arrived!).

(Hideko cooked okonomiyaki for us at Nanako’s new house)

(helping the boys learn to use chopsticks)

When we said goodbye in Lexington, it was a “See you in Osaka!” 

Well, we got to Osaka Wednesday night the 21st. I sent her a message that night, and she replied that she was off the next day. Would we need help with anything? Um…yes, please! I asked if she could come to our place to help me navigate the supermarket, answer questions about Japanese appliances, and help me cook dinner.

We live on a different side of town, but she was happy to make the trek, and I so appreciated her help. She met us at 5 (we were a little late after getting turned around in Umeda), and we got right to work!

First step: rinsing the rice! She showed me how to rinsing until the water was clear.

We didn’t have a measuring cup, so she showed me how to “hand measure” the water level.

Once the rice was cooking, we walked to the grocery store! We bought some supplies for the meal that night and also a milder, sweeter curry (since I randomly grabbed one that turned out to be spicy). We also stopped at a 100 yen shop (like our dollar store) for a measuring cup and cooking chopsticks.

She wanted to bring Carter along to help carry our bags!

The boys watched Japanese TV shows while we worked.

Here she is cooking the ginger pork.

and plating it with the cabbage and onions

We (she) also made miso soup

Itadakimasu!

After we were finished eating dinner and our ice cream treats, she helped with some dishes and started on the curry for us to eat the next day. She stayed with us for 3.5 hours on our first full day in Osaka! I’m so, so grateful for her willingness to serve us on her day off! I hope we can get together many more times while we’re here (and then we’ll see her the next time she’s in Lexington!).

 I asked her if we could call her “obaasan” which means grandma (or elderly woman), but she said we can just call her Hideko (after all, she doesn’t seem very elderly, huh?!). Still, I’m claiming her as our Japanese granny because she did exactly what grannies do—gave of herself, helped pass on wisdom, and cooked for people!

Grateful that back in January, I met the daughter of our Japanese granny. Thanks be to God!