raw horse meat is a popular food in japan (i havn’t tried it yet,,,i don’t think.)

japan’s literacy rate is 99.7% – a good effort

toilet seats in japan are heated during winter and play music while you do you business if you press the right buttons

there are around 1500 earthquakes in japan each year

men in japan sometimes shave their heads as a symbol of an apology. women in japan often cut their hair after a romance breakup as a symbol of starting fresh

when you move into an apertment you have to bring your own light fixtures

the streets in japan have no names

slurping noodles is polite, and also helps cool them down so you can eat faster

more than 60% of japanese adults smoke, and you can buy cigarettes from a vending machine

We were able to buy some the other day as we went to the super market close to opening time! Even if they were a rip off.

Phew!

Next month Ben and I are moving.

We’re heading to a town about 1 hour away from where we are now.

Gokasho.

11,000 people, maybe 1 or 2 foreigners, tons of temples, no church, beautiful mountains, snow, rivers with big fat fish, tiny shops and supermarkets, and a train station not in walking distance, rumors of cheeky food stealing monkeys…..

We’re heading for big changes.

About 4 months ago we felt God say to us ‘GO! this is where I want you’. So we’re following.

Even though we don’t really know the future (scary)…or what our life will look like after this month. We are really excited about what God will do.

We will continue on each day with our language study until at least September next year!! Hopefully by then we’ll be able to hold a conversation in japanese without switching into panic mode!

We’ll be joining in with Higashi Omi church, and perhaps also being able to do things to help out there.

We are praying to meet people in our new town who are searching for Jesus!

I read a book this week. Written by a Japanese man, non-christian, about japanese people….

Most interesting thing for me was this

he writes:

‘I believe that religion helps people deal with their anxieties, which come mainly from the condition of poverty. Japan has become adequately wealthy. It seems to me in Japan, there is no longer fertile soil to support religion’.

Well….what do I think? I think that in the countries where the people are poorer and less wealthy, Christianity is more readily accepted and more people come to believe in Jesus. Yes, I do see this. Christianity, GOD, does help meet the need of poverty, and gives people hope to survive through it.

The reality here in Japan: Japanese arn’t coming to Christ quickly. The land, and hearts are tough and hard and rocky!

True.

But… I also look at Japan and see a people group in desperate need of a saviour. Who despite being wealthy, and having lots of ‘things’, still arn’t satisfied with life.

People who, in general, lack hope, have trouble understanding their purpose and find it difficult to look beyond themselves.

SO… the question running through my mind is this: what need CAN Christianity meet for these people…how can we present the gospel in a way that meets the need and touches the heart of people who have all they could ever want materially, but have empty hearts?

I still dont know the answer… But i see God revealing more and more to me about these lovely people each day as I understand more of the language and life here.

I have heaps of ideas for evangelism and ministry that come to me during my dreams at night. Will God use these ideas and will they become a reality?

My prayer is this: Oh Lord many your kingdom come in Japan. Use me in whatever way you see fit. I’m yours.

I saw the most bizarre things while flicking through some magazines in our local convenience store.

There was a section on dieting. They had two women who had tried this specific diet for 2 months.Drinking milkshakes instead of eating real meals.

The womens STARTING weights were both around 44kg! (obviously they thought they were in need of a diet???)

The womens finishing weight after the two months diet were 35kg and 37kg! wow. I was so shocked I read it twice! They were tiny and looked about 12 years old after their diets.

These women were in their 20’s, beautiful and slim and had no reason to need to be any skinnier.

It really shows me the place and importance of image in Japanese society. It means a lot to look good, wear the right clothes and be the right size… this magazine was just one example, but often on TV there are diet shows with women losing weight who are already at a healthy BMI, and then they reach a non-healthy, underweight BMI and advertise this as ‘the way to go’ for all their viewers and readers.

Also recently Japan is having a banana drought… all because in September someone invented the ‘Morning Banana diet’ and on national TV claimed that be eating a banana only for breakfast and whatever else you want during the day you can lose a ton of weight.

Now there are no banana’s anywhere to buy (

I miss them! I wonder how long this fad will last?

Bring back the banana’s!