My Japan experience

The flight to Japan

On Wednesday (14th of November), at 10:15 the plane takes of from Manchester. The estimated flight is around 15 hours.

I have wondered if I would sit near a Japanese passenger (to start practicing my language skills). Will it happen?

I am preparing to met interesting people and to have conversations on a wide range of topics :). Unfortunately (or fortunately) there was not much Japanese language involved.

On my way to Helsinki, I met James. We had a wonderful talk about many issues in today’s society, like having children, Brexit, Christian values, the concept of grace and its influence upon Europe (the idea that you can to give people second chances; to forgive people when they make mistakes and help them to do better).

This idea is unique to Christianity is not present in other religions. We take many things for granted here in Europe but this idea of grace (forgiveness and kindness,offering people a second chance a new beginning) is not present in other parts of the world.

Quick stop at Helsinki. It is cold in here.

I am on my long flight to Narita International Airport. Diane is my neighbour now. She has an interesting job as a speed skating coach and she is going to support her student at the Obihiro competitions.

Why do you want to win a competition? There are lot of possible reasons. Do you want to prove your ability? What is your motivation? What drives you to go forward?

Is it a selfish desire? Do you want to help others? Some athletes are a role model for the younger generation, a positive source of inspiration. They train and submit to all kind of rules to achieve their goals.

Their physical performances improve with training. What about the inner being, the soul, the invisible part? Is there a positive change to seek out?

Speed skating looks very competitive:

She was expecting that her student would give his best. It seems that Latvia did not win the gold:

href=https://app.isuresults.eu/events/2019_JPN_0001/competition/5/results

Learning to recognize others when they perform better than you is a good experience to go through.

Seeing the light

Thursday 15th of November

This first thing that struck after landing was the sunlight: bright light, powerful light, so refreshing. I activated my Internet sim on my phone (thank you Tak) and I was ready to explore. I bought a Suica card that can be used for local trains, the subway, for shopping (7-Eleven  stores) and some vending machines. This is how a Suica card looks like:

I took a local train from the airport to Asakusa area, where my hostel was. I have noticed a new type of building architecture immersed in bright sunlight. Yes, it was very bright outdoors. I loved it.

The stations are built to be very intuitive and are logically structured. The lines are color coded (red, blue, green, etc).  If you follow the right color path you’ll end up fine. Everything was very well organized. The staff at the airport and at the stations were ready to help you with directions.

Sumida river was a relaxing stop before reaching the hostel.

Agoda.com is an efficient website for booking. I arrived at my final destination.

Tokyo

Here, work is seen as the highest purpose in life. Family life is in the second place. This is detrimental, as work is not balanced with family time. In Europe, the work is (or it was) nicely balanced with family life: we were designed to enjoy family life and enjoy work. Two of the main purposes in life are family and work.

They don’t have the knowledge that we have in Europe (that comes from knowing about God, the source of the teachings that made human relationships flourish) so they guide themselves with what knowledge they had access to.

Living a life without purpose is detrimental to mental health. Confusion, frustration, and unhappiness take over.  An interesting note is that Science does not provide purpose – it just observes and explains in a limited way some characteristics of the surrounding reality.

An interesting fact about Japan is that religion and science go side by side without excluding each other. People believe in supernatural and enjoy a high degree of technology at the same time.

A minus in their religion is that they don’t have the concept of goodness that is gracious, that offers forgiveness; help in overcoming evil; second chances in life; new beginnings. Europe is realy blessed to have the concept of Grace (gracious goodness) so deeply embedded in thinking. People started to take this concept for granted as if we are born with it (some visits to Japan would be useful).

The main problem is that we think we are good; and that we are able to do good without a source of goodness. God commanded us to love: love God, love people, love your enemies. A Love that is aiming at three major directions. Without loving God (the creator of Love; the source of Love) we are not able to love people (imperfect people are to be loved). Love your enemies is like responding to evil with kindness. This is supernatural.

Our society started to reject the idea that we should aim to be good. I appreciate Japan: they try real hard (lots of effort involved) to be good by keeping the standards they have (although they don’t have the  source of  a goodness that is gracious).

People are very polite. Polite doesn’t necessarily mean ‘kind’. They love to share the sidewalk with others, they don’t mind living in flats (that is why the big cities are not overcrowded with tiny individual houses), they share food with strangers (including me). Education is good but is not enough.

You can be evil and polite at the same time. If politeness is not based on love and kindness I see it as useless or even a little bit dangerous: you may be fooled by appearances. A person needs a source of goodness in order to be good (there is a saying: you are what you eat; if you feed on goodness, results will follow).

Around tourist areas (with lots of places to eat) the sweet aroma of hot baked apple pies floats in the air. Actually, this is the common air fragrance surrounding the food in Osaka.

I discovered Melon Pan, one of my favorite snack in Japan:

Is like a fluffy sweet bread bun (bread roll).

Here it is how is made:

Near the Tennoji Zoo I found one of my favorites places to have lunch in Osaka. I really enjoyed the Wagyu beef lunch. They were offering free hot Japanese tea 🙂 I am starting to enjoy green tea 🙂

Have you heard of Amasake? A nutritional type of sake without alcohol? I recommend it: https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/health-benefits-amazake-1416.html

This is how a Japanese breakfast looks like (I tried one variety of Nato, but I didn’t match it with the right sauce :)):

Before eating they say ‘Itadakimasu!’, meaning ‘I am thankful for the food’. It reminds me of praying before a meal: having God’s blessing and taking the food with a thankful heart.

I was surprised when strangers shared their food with me. I was traveling from Tokyo to Osaka by train and the man next to me shared some nice packaged fried potatoes and welcomed me to Japan. On my way to Nara, I was stopped by two Japanese teenagers and shared hot cheese snacks with me. Do I look like Ronaldo, the football player? This is what they thought :). It was funny.

Sharing is a good thing.

It was a pleasant surprise to see parent-child affection manifested in a warm, natural way in public space. Sometimes, public display of genuine love and affection is like finding water in the desert.

While visiting Tokyo, I saw children going to school by themselves in a joyful manner. It seemed like they love school. While taking my morning walk :), I saw a child crossing the street (on the green light) joyfully (as if he was dancing and cheerfully humming a song at the same time).

Japanese families encourage children to go to school by themselves:

Many parents were riding their bikes with children in front (and sometimes in the back seat).

The Osaka (childless) bikers were brave, conquering the dark, some without lights and without reflective equipment, cutting their way through the streets and pavements, fearless.

My second major stop was Osaka. I really enjoyed the Nozomi train ride from Shingawa (Tokyo) station to Shin-Osaka Station.

The train was very clean and the ride was smooth. The person next to me showed me kindness and hospitality by sharing his food with me.

This is called Nozomi, the fastest train, because it has few stops, I remember a short stop at Nagoya.

If you use a Japan rail pass you can take the same train but it will have more stops (it will take more time to reach Osaka).

Osaka is to Tokyo as Manchester is to London, when it comes to people. In Osaka people are more friendly, more relaxed. The city structure is not as tidy as Tokyo.

There are many places to visit in and around Osaka: Kyoto, Nara, Kobe.

The average time to travel to any highlighted major tourist attraction is 1 hour by train.

I had a lovely experience at the

Everything was nice and clean. I really love the wooden texture. White goes well with wood.

This is how a kind of capsule room looks like. This is not a regular capsule hotel. It is more spacious. People were quiet at night, well behaved. Had comfortable sleep. Nice accommodation to book for solo travelers.

I have made new friends here. After checking in I had an hour conversation with a Chinese man in a work visit in Japan. He was excited to get married in the near future, having a longer holiday than usual. Westerners are envied here in Asia (China, Japan) because we tend to have longer vacations.

Here I met Jefer, from Columbia, and after striking a short conversation we met again in Nara where we went hiking on the mountain top.

I end this post whit a beautiful view of the Osaka Castle walls.

Before going to Japan I watched Ai’s story:

She was healed from a hole in her lungs and started a new life full of hope. For this reason I really wanted to visit Osaka Lifehouse Church.

I found friendly people at this church. They have a Language Exchange Group on Sundays and I was invited to participate. It was a joyful experience. There were people interested to learn English 🙂

Here, I heard a pro-family message delivered by a Japanese father who conquered his childhood autism by the positive power of faith in God.

New Hope Osaka church celebrated the decision of two women to be baptized.

At the end of the message, there are two testimonies: one about understanding the graceful kindness of God and one about leaving behind the past of domestic violence through the power of forgiveness:

My parents died when I was little and, after living with my grandma for a while, I continued my childhood in a bigger family at Joana’s House orphanage and then at Hand of Help orphanage.

I always knew that God had a purpose for my life, that was for me to discover. The main dream of my childhood was to was to study at University – I was praying for this to happen before even knowing what a University is (I heard that it was a good place to go to 🙂 ). Anyway, it was a good dream that came true. I am still thanking God.

When I was a child, I saw God as a set of rules, good rules. The bad part was that as I was growing older, I realized I was not able to keep all these good rules. I was selfish, self-centered, without power to love the people around me. I was struggling with some issues (bad things, sins) that I was not able to overcome. I was chained, seeing a future without hope. During my senior high school years, I manifested a rebellious behavior towards people.

During my first University year, I started to attend the meetings of a Christian student group. I was drawn by the way they interacted: they showed love and respect for one another; honor, friendliness, and dignity were the accepted common ground. It was not a theoretical goal, it was a real thing.

I wanted to change. Hope started to take root into my heart. The supernatural change came during an English Summer Camp (after my first year of University). After a hard year of studying, I needed some time off. A holiday in the mountains, learning English (I loved English) sounded refreshing. During that week, something supernatural happened in me: I understood that God is not a set of rules, but a source of love. At that time God, through supernatural power changed my inner nature to be able to overcome all the evil, the sins in my life. I was set free from my evil chains. I was starting a new life, with new hope, a new future, and a new heart.

It was like I was seeing life for the first time (as a child after being born) with a fresh, new perspective.

I received forgiveness and the unconditional love of God. Jesus words became reality in my life – I understood the sacrifice that He did, dying for my sins, and opening the way for me to receive new life from God.

My Lord and Saviour is Jesus Christ. He changed my life. I want to live as He did and He is supporting me in this learning process.

I am the light of the world: he that follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life – Jesus

We are starting the presentation with a happy giraffe, that gets fresh leaves and receives lots of attention from the passing visitors. Tennoji Zoo is an interesting place to see, with lots of noises from curious children discovering the beauty of nature.

Looking at the size of the giraffe made me rethink the size of Noah’s Ark 🙂

But, not anyone is happy here. The Lion is forced to have the Giraffe as a neighbor. If the laws of nature were to be followed, the hungry lion should have the giraffe for lunch. But his dream is far away from becoming reality so he has to cope with the placed regulations and fences. Maybe, one day he will show some friendliness to the giraffe.

Somewhere in the dark, lies the grumpy lion. You can hear his grumbling. He cannot overcome his nature. Do you think he will quit the idea of hunting for food?

If you want to feed some playful deer, Nara is a short train ride from Osaka. I am not sure if they come in different flavors, but deer biscuits are a must in deer’s land.

It is a nice place to enjoy nature in a relaxed environment with your family.

This deer reminded me of the thirst that I have in my soul, as the psalm says:

As the deer longs for streams of water,
    so I long for you, O God.

Streams of beautiful, clean water. This is what comes to my mind when I think of Kyoto. Reminds of the proverb that says:

Above everything else guard your heart,
 because from it flow the springs of life.

After arriving in Tokyo my first stop was at the Imperial Gardens:

It was very interesting to see on the entrance map that an area was dedicated to the mother-child special relationship:

There are wide alleys surrounded by refreshing vegetation. Lots of space for relaxing and walking.

These walls give you the feeling that is not an easy thing to have access to the King, the Emperor. It gives you the impression that you, as a commoner, are restricted to enjoy the fullness of life. You don’t have access to that special person that is located on the other side of the walls. You feel hopeless.

Interesting is the fact that the Emperor was seen as descending from gods. In this logic of thinking access to God’s presence would be impossible: there are walls that cannot be overcome.

Through grace, by forgiveness (Jesus Christ made forgiveness possible) any human being has the chance to have access in the presence of the almighty King of Kings, God. There is hope!

The sword making craft is part of Japan’s history. I met a native that wanted foreigners to be enthusiastic on other traditional things rather than swords. But swords are a part of Japan’s culture so I welcomed the opportunity to visit a sword exhibition at Kyoto Museum, after enjoying the outdoor of the Imperial Gardens.

There were lots of swords of different types and ages, with their own history and legends. A sword draws its power from its maker, the techniques used to create it, and its metal type.

These swords were used to do good or evil in the realm of visible reality. But, Japanese people do believe in evil spirits. How can you fight that? I am called to defend kindness, truth, and justice. In order to accomplish this nobile purpose, I am given a very powerful non-material sword, that is the Word of God.

Sorry, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the museum 🙂