Fall in Japan

Along with our colleagues, Don and Carol Love, and courtesy of our good friend and her certificates for a complimentary stay at a local hotel, we headed off to the mountains northwest of Tokyo for an overnight retreat. Here's the view from our window just after sunrise.

Chichibu is a city dominated by the spiral slice carving of mountains (like a honey baked ham) to produce limestone to make cement.

It's also a place of vivid fall colours. Since the frost is not as sudden in Japan, the colours tend to be muted, but the Japanese maples known as "momiji" in a park by the river are fiery red, and a "Light Up" program at that park brought busload after busload of mostly retirees, who whip out their cell phones to take shots of the foliage.

Down by the river, there is a fleet of old style boats where two men dressed in traditional garb will pole and paddle groups of people down the river. The oldest forms of this boat were planks fastened together with strips of brass like fabric sown together. The current boats are planks fastened together and then coated on the outside with a thin layer of fibreglass.

We didn't go down the river on the boats, but did enjoy a lunch on an island in the middle of the river, and climbing one of the mountains.

We also ran into our American colleagues, the Kindervaters, who were up there for a night, so that was a pleasant surprise.

A good time away for us all. Now, we head into the Christmas season and all of its busyness and opportunities.

From Edmonton to Harumi

This Christmas we're having a short term team from Edmonton with us, and they'll be busy with Christmas events and with an English day camp for elementary, middle school and high school students.

3,000 of these flyers will be distributed in the neighbourhood, to get the word out.

60 at our BBQ!

This is our third annual barbecue in Harumi, and we continue to grow in size.

The people we have some kind of contact with are invited, so that would be parents of children in the preschool or kindergarten programs, those involved in the conversational English programs, those studying the Book of Mark weekly, our believers, and anyone else who cares to attend.

Japan has a strong custom of barbecuing, but the Japanese barbecue menu is much healthier than
the Western one. More vegetables, even noodles, and small amounts of meat, often marinated or dipped in sauce. Westerners could lose weight enjoyably by adhering to Japanese barbecue customs.

So, is that the way we did our barbecue? Of course not. Everyone enjoys the juicy hamburgers and hot dogs done the Western way.

It's easier to produce the volume of food that is required when it is a Western style barbecue, since there is less work involved in grilling. Flip the

burgers, turn the hotdogs, add the barbecue sauce, and serve.

And, let's not forget the S'mores for the children. We managed not to have any flaming marshmallows or accidents with molten goo this year, so that was good. There were a lot of gooey faces and hands, though.

What's an Infiorata?

It's flower petal art, originating in Italy, and celebrated annually on Harumi island on Tokyo Bay.

This is just a few steps from our apartment building, and it is set up for about a week. Lights illuminate it at nighttime, and people from some distance come to see the artwork done by community groups.

There are probably twenty or so of these works of art arranged along the walkway on the north shore of our island.

The fact that groups work together in harmony to make the infiorata is a very Japanese cultural thing. Long ago, everyone in farming villages worked together to plant the rice and then to harvest it. Modern industrial urban life has diminished the sense of community that was once a strength in every Japanese neighbourhood.

Of course, people who come into contact with a group of believers can find a sense of community that is unique, in that it is based on mutual love, rather than some form of mutual obligation. It's been the love and the community that have drawn many to learn more about Christ.

Coffee, English and Neighbourhood Men

Carol's been doing the Mother and Child program for neighbourhood women with preschoolers, an English conversational class for women, and a Kindergarten program for area mothers and their children.

So, it was time for me to connect with the husbands of these women. We had an English Cafe a couple of weeks ago, and six neighbourhood men joined Don Love and me for discussions on a variety of topics.

One thing I learned was that the men were neutral on the topic of the 2016 Olympics going to Rio and not to Tokyo, which would have put Harumi at the centre of attention. You can see my post earlier this month about the Olympics.

We're planning to continue the English Cafe in November and in December as well, with some special guests from Edmonton attending, and we're hoping even more men will attend.

The Lunch Crowd

While Carol often has friends over for tea, once a month the women studying the Gospel of Mark in English come over for lunch after their morning study.

As is the case when Carol's having tea with friends, this is my cue to move to my second office, which is a nearby coffee shop with internet access.

I can set up there and get my work done, while Carol is talking with the women about what they've studied and is seeking to go deeper in conversation about important things.

Not This Time...

Well, we won't be seeing this spectacular sight on the west end of our island, after all. Rio has the 2016 Olympics, so Harumi will not be home to the main stadium for Tokyo's 2016 Olympics.

Right now it's vacant land, so we'll be interested to see what the next proposed use for the land will be.