Another unexpectedly unusual week

It's Friday and I have to say that this has been an odd week. Looking ahead to June last week, I didn't clock this week as being especially unusual, but it has ended up that way. Here's a few bits and pieces:

Music practice

As I mentioned last week, I'm playing the piano for worship at church this Sunday and also at conference next Friday. Hence, practise was needed. On Tuesday I took three trains across Tokyo to meet with others from our mission to practice for an hour...and then took three back again. Three hours of travel! Because it is such a distance, I usually try to combine such a journey with at least one other thing. This time I managed to snag a friend/colleague for lunch. Precious quiet moments in a tiny Tokyo cafe.

Piano: I've been playing since I was 
four...it's like another "first language".

I also spent an hour and a half practising at school yesterday (the easiest piano for me to access). David found a practise room and I had a great time. It took me back many years to my childhood and teenage years when I spent at least an hour a day practising and three hours a week at my teacher's studio, many times playing the piano in one of her two practice rooms. As I've eased back into playing these last few weeks, I've realised that playing the piano (and reading music) is like a first language to me. I still find it very easy to sight read (i.e. play from written notes without first hearing a piece)...much easier than trying to play chords (what guitarists use). And to extend the metaphor...much easier than trying to operate in Japanese.

Being stretched

This week I've had few stretching experiences.

On Wednesday I took seven trains (after six the day before). My day only contained two main things: I took three trains to met a colleague from one of my teams for a catch-up about work and how he's doing. Then I caught another three trains to meet another colleague who is moving back to Australia. She's newer in Japan and needed a hand with driving a larger vehicle to shift some of her furniture to another new family who live about 45 minutes away. My job was driving! Usually it's David who does things like this, but he wasn't available when they were, so I volunteered. The vehicle was a HiAce, a little bigger than our 8-seater vans that we've owned most of our years in Tokyo. But I managed. Between us we also managed to hire it from a Japanese company. This is no small thing when you struggle with Japanese . . . it wasn't pretty, but we did it. And I didn't damage the vehicle in any way, so that was a relief! 

The van we hired to do the moving. 

When we were done, I took one more train to get home. In contrast to the day before I never left western Tokyo, just took a big train circuit, and never more than about 15 km from our house.

Then yesterday I had my annual Japanese medical. It's pretty much funded by the government. It was not very comprehensive, but they did a urine and took some blood and asked me if I had any concerns. The doctor, nurse, and I danced around in two languages, but, I think managed the basics. I really struggle with starving blood test. Breakfast is mandatory for me to have decent brain function and going without my mid-morning coffee is a double blow to my capacity. Then, having to speak Japanese on top of that . . . it's definitely not pretty. I haven't yet managed to explain to a medical professional how difficult I find it to function in my (very second) language without breakfast or coffee.

My big mistake, yesterday, however, was trying to be efficient. I also needed more asthma meds, so I thought combining that with my medical would be a smart move . . . and it was, until I got to the pharmacy next to the doctor. What I should have done was go and have my coffee and then come back, but I didn't. The pharmacy didn't have enough in stock to fill my prescription. This has happened every time I've been recently, so I shouldn't have been surprised. But this time it seems there were greater difficulties that I don't understand . . . the lady appointed to deal with me spoke loud and fast, but didn't seem to have all the information that she needed. Our interactions (entirely in Japanese) were punctuated with something like "chotto matte kudasai" (please excuse me) followed by her rushing back to talk to someone else (the pharmacist?). 

This back and forth went on for some time. 

I was sitting like a blob on the waiting seats, with a pretty massive headache and brain fog so thick that thinking was hard. 

Eventually she agreed that they could sell me two then and they would mail me the rest of the script later. I had to throw more complications into the conversation as I explained that I was going to be in Sapporo from Monday for five days, then back here for four days, then in Australia (I didn't mention Singapore) from the week after for five weeks!

I think we sorted it out, but now I look back, I'm not sure why it was so hard. Brain fog and headache contributed, for sure, but I'm hoping that it wasn't contagious and that she didn't also have compromised brain function!

The "medical" actually only took around 30 minutes, but the end result was that I pretty much was incapacitated for the whole morning. It was only after lunch that I started to be able to do anything much of value. And then I had a piano practice and staff family dinner at school . . . so yesterday I didn't feel like I got much of value done!

End of year feel

At both school (where David works) and OMF JHQ (our mission's national base) I found an "end of year" vibe. Certainly at school, where the school year ended this week, that was the case. I wasn't ready for it at JHQ. It's not the end of the year there, but with our national conference next week, there is a lot of "get this done before conference". And there are cross-overs between the two organisations. One key leader in OMF Japan has kids at the school, so they are heading off straight after conference on a short home assignment, and so she's been handing over jobs to people to take care of during the months she'll be away. Also so there was an edge of tired frantic-ness (overwrought?) there that I wasn't expecting.

Additionally, in both places there are people leaving after serving in each place for a long time. So there's an edge of sadness to it all as well.

Ah, I'd better stop writing here and get back to the things I need to get done "before conference".

A week in the life of Wendy

I'm glad to say that I'm feeling much better. Which is good, because I've had plenty going on. Here are the more interesting bits: 

Friday gathering

On Friday I went to a prayer gathering in a Chinese friend's home. It's a gathering of expat and Japanese mums who have kids with special needs. Our kids range in age from 6 to 36, but it doesn't matter. These ladies understand the unique challenges of being mums to kids who don't match the norms of their peers and who have extra challenges to overcome. We shared, and cried, and prayed, and talked. We only gather six times a year, and it's always special. It was great to be back in person with them, in Australia I joined via Zoom a couple of times, but that was difficult. 

One of the questions that they each carry with them is what will the future look like for my child. It was great to be able to share some of the big successes we've had with our sons over the last year. One of the mums reminded me that last time I was with them in person I was a mess, it was the week we moved out of our old house. I was stressed and tired and was facing a lot of unknowns in the months ahead. I'm in a much better place now and we were able to praise God together.

After I got home I did some quick email checks and then hopped on my bike to get groceries for the weekend.

Saturday fun

Preparing our house for guests. A table cloth
on a folding table makes all the difference!

Saturday morning I hosted an online magazine team meeting with the express purpose of having fun together. It was the first of four meetings we're having this month as part of our annual planning process. And it was fun! I love the energy of these colleagues.

Saturday afternoon was also fun. This year there are four families from our mission living in our little city (12.88 square km). We invited them all over for afternoon tea and games. If everyone had been able to come there would have been 15 in our little place, but we ended up with only 11. And it worked! I feel like our place is a character in our lives and we're just working out how it best works for different scenarios (the previous week we hosted dinner for a family). I'm excited. This is tapping into the extrovert side of me that has been a little repressed in the latter years of our boys years at high school (and the pandemic, of course, had an impact).

Sunday

Church in the morning and video chats and games with our sons in the afternoon. It was a full, but good day.

Mammoth Monday

Monday turned into a 12 hr work day for me. I left in a car full of male colleagues at 7.30 am, we travelled to the other side of Tokyo for the monthly OMF Kanto prayer and fellowship day. All these guys are married, but none of their wives could come (and David had to work at school too). These are the same families we spent Saturday afternoon with.

It took over an hour to get there, and then there was lots of chatting and catching up with people before the meeting began at 10 am. The acoustics in this room are pretty bad which means that when a large group gathers and everyone is mingling, it's really loud. I didn't count, but I'm guessing that there were probably around 50 people there. We had to shout to make ourselves heard!

It was a good time of worship, pondering God's word, sharing, and praying for one another. After the meeting we stayed and ate lunch (again loud). Not long before 2 I left with a good friend to have coffee somewhere else that was much quieter. We spent about two hours together. It's the first time I've seen her in over 12 months, and though we've kept in really regular texting contact, it was wonderful to have the time to sit in person and ask the questions that don't get asked or answered otherwise.

Then I jumped on a train and headed home (the car that came from our city had long left). Four trains later and a 10 minutes walk, I got home around 5.30. David had dinner organised and we ate. At 6.30 we jumped into a Zoom meeting with a group in Australia who pray each month for Japan. We spent the next 45 minutes talking about what we do and answering questions. By around 7.15 I was fading and pleaded for mercy. They prayed and we logged off around 7.30.

Tuesday desk day

It took me some time to get going the next day after waking with a headache and general fatigue lingering from the day before. I did email and other desk work in the morning. After lunch I dashed out for some much needed grocery shopping and then had a two-hour meeting with the OMF Japan social media team. I love their enthusiasm and "youth", so helpful in this particular ministry! After the meeting I dashed off a few more emails pertaining to things we'd discussed or decided in the meeting.

Wednesday more desk work and an outing

I spent Wednesday morning and late afternoon at my desk, but after lunch I did some light cleaning (it takes 15 minutes to vacuum my little apartment) and then took the car to pick up the same friend I had coffee with on Monday. She was on our side of town meeting with other missionaries, and really wanted to see our new place. So I fetched her and we spent another 45 minutes together before she had to head home. So lovely to have friends in our place, especially when they're so pleased with how it looks!

Thursday

This is another desk day. No meetings or shopping. My only outing today will be walking after dinner. I enjoy these quiet home days in the midst of other busy days. It gives me a chance to get some momentum on various work that requires good thinking. I'll also take time over lunch to listen to a church service from home, my long-time habit to help with my nurturing my own faith because I regrettably (still) get little out of a Japanese-language service on Sunday.

It's been a good week. I'm still gathering threads of life after being away for 12 months. It's a significant period and stuff has happened in that time. But in general I'm getting into a good rhythm. Each week looks different. None of the above happen on a weekly basis (except Sunday)! Some weeks are busier than others. Home assignment often felt like we were treading water waiting for things to happen. I'm glad to be back here doing the things...and now I don't know how to describe it. We spent a year in Australia talking about what we're currently doing. It's good to be doing them now, not just talking and thinking about them?

Day 45: Teds Beach to Gordan Dam to Mt Field National Park

We got up and got going with reluctance the next morning. It was chilly and still grey and grim. But we had places to go and things to see.

First stop was "the end of the road" at the Gordan Dam. Built in the 60s and early 70s to generate electricity for Tasmania. It's the highest arch dam in Australia and Lake Gordan is also one of the largest in terms of volume (Lake Pedder is also one of the top 10 in volume in Australia).

It was misting when we arrived, but we rugged up with our plastic jackets and explored. There was a climb down a metal staircase to walk across the dam wall that we managed, though it was a little scary. The views were stunning. The photos only shows a glimpse!

Lake Gordan

It made me a little sad to think of all the beauty
that has been hidden by this artificial lake. The question that
hangs out there in many places in Tasmania is:
to harness (or use) or to protect?

More Lake Gordan

After that we drove back along the road we travelled the day before till we reached Tyenna where we had lunch in the van and then stopped for coffee/hot chocolate at the Swedish/Austrian/Australian cafe.

Our next goal was another national park, this time Mount Field. It's a very popular as it's fairly accessible to both Hobart and Launceston, but the one big plus for us was their campsite. You can't book it, but it's cheap and provides electricity, showers, and water. We drove right in and easily got a spot. Then we headed out on the walks. We ended up walking nearly 10 km and over 50 "floors". It's a gorgeous park. Like many places we've been it would have been good to stay longer and do more. Check out the photos of our walk, though!

Very tall trees

I think this is Lady Baron Falls

The annual shedding of bark seems to go on a long time.

The famous Russell Falls aren't hard to walk to

Coffee shop + general store + gift shop
It's been fun to go to coffee shops that aren't chains.

Perfect park in the city

Last Monday my husband and I attended an OMF meeting at our headquarters on the other side of Tokyo. On the way home we stopped for coffee at our nearest major commercial center (Tokyo has a number of these, this one is called Ikebukuro, and it houses the third-busiest train station in the world). It was a public holiday and the crowds were out in great force, which is a scary thing when you're talking about one of the biggest metropolises in the world. There was a lines to get a seat at the coffee shop, so we took ours with us and found a park.

Ikebukoro has a small park that you could easily miss. I've only been to there twice, even though I go through the train station a few times a month.

In the tradition of inner-city parks, it's surrounded by high buildings. According to my measurements (using onthegomap.com), it's about the size of a rugby league field. So it's really quite small (2 acres), compared to the likes of New York's central park (843 acres) and Sydney's Hyde Park (39.5 acres). 

But still, it's a bit of rare grass. Rare, as in almost no one has grass in Japan, not even schools. But the grass this country does have is often perfectly manicured. And so precious that this lot had a barrier around it, so no one could ride across it, or drive their prams on it either! Here's the "parking". There were "monitors". Not sure what you'd have to do to get their negative attention, though I suspect damaging the grass would be high on the list.

The view from where we sat, sipping our drinks (no we didn't sit on the grass). I was interested to see that a lot of the ladies were sitting cross-legged. We'd been indoctrinated that that is a no-no in Japan, that you are supposed to either sit on your feet, or sit with them to the side. Both of which, if you're not used to, are excruciating after a while. Perhaps that's another rule that's changing? Or if you're on grass, it's a different rule to if you are inside?

In Japan our work rarely coincides, so last Monday it was nice to be out and about together on our own on a work day without feeling guilty (the boys were home relaxing).

Some joys and struggles of the last 10 days

I've been busy this last week since I last wrote. Here's what's been going on in my on the edge of ordinary life:

But first a photo. Plum blossoms are just coming out. Next week the
Cherry blossoms are forecast to show themselves in Tokyo. Spring
is taking off and it's wonderful!

Monday 4th I did my usual grocery run and spent some time at the gym too. Aside from that, it was a home office day as I tried to get ahead before the rest of the week.

Tuesday 5th Was another home office day, alas a beautiful warm blue-sky day outside. I got a lot done, but it was heads-down all the way. Late in the day I rode to a new giant home store near us, especially to buy a couple of laundry accessories, but had a look around for a few other needs also. 

At 5pm I had a Skype meeting with a colleague in the UK who was just starting her workday. The meeting ran later than I'd planned and dinner ended up late (and me with a headache). Both boys had track and field training until nearly dinner time on Monday and Tuesday.

Love, love, love these missionary-women retreats!

Wednesday 6th I did some uncharacteristic baking mid-morning (usually I do this on weekends, or, at a pinch, late afternoon). It was in preparation for the Women in Ministry retreat that I left for after lunch, I'd volunteered to take some home-baked goodies for snack times.

After lunch, I met four other ladies at school and I drove us all out to far-western Tokyo for the two-night retreat, about a two-hour drive.

Thursday 7th and Friday 8th Yep, at the retreat. Times of worship, fellowship, eating, resting, and even crafting. On Thursday evening we also go to try out some Scottish highland dancing, a lot like Australian bush dancing.

More blossoms!

I had several retreat highlights:

• great Biblical teaching
• time spent one-on-one with a couple of good listeners telling about the challenges we faced at the end of November, early December last year
• a practical grief workshop
• feeling at home with other missionaries who don't need you to explain much between the lines to "get me"
• Scottish dancing
• worshipping in song and in English
• an enjoyable walk

Of particular note from the Bible teaching was:

• being reminded of the love of God, especially that God dwells in perfect love in the Trinity and his compassion towards us is constant.
• the Father-son relationship between Jesus and the Father is worth exploring in the Bible, it's a strong theme
• ministry is about serving (it's not a badge or a status) and it is just as valid to be called to be a faithful follower of Christ in the midst of the chaos or suffering of life as it is to have a recognised "ministry" role
• 2 Corinthians 4:1 tells us that ministry is a gift of God's mercy—what a remarkable way to view whatever it is that God's calling us to do right now
• there's an ongoing challenge to persevere through hardship and not lose heart 2 Cor. 1:7-12

On Thursday night, I sat for about an hour while the two worship leaders continued to sing after the formal session had finished. I just sat and soaked in the music, sometimes singing, sometimes not. It was a wonderful way to end the day.

Friday 8th Thursday was a rainy, cold day, but Friday was sunny and invited me outside. After lunch we were free to go home, but I asked leave of the six other people riding in my van, to take an hour for a stroll down to the river the retreat centre is located next to. It was a lovely bit of breathing space before diving back into the concrete jungle.

Saturday 9th Didn't end up being the day off that I'd envisioned. I spent the morning doing groceries and at the gym and the afternoon working on urgent office matters. David spent a couple of hours at school supervising a robotics team and then he and our youngest went to an end of wrestling season party.

This was me on the train on Monday morning.
Four people in this photo! Tokyo trains are
wonderful, but are also tiring. I've been on them
at least 1 1/2 hrs each day this week so far.

Sunday 10th This was also busier than I'd hoped. Church in the morning, and, though we're not responsible for anything at the church, Japanese worship still makes me tired. We had lunch with OMF colleagues and also a meeting to plan for a missions prayer meeting we're leading at church this coming Sunday. It was a lovely time together, especially seeing our children, who are very un-alike (they are two lower-elementary girls), interact so well.

Mid-afternoon after we got home we had a short (planned) conversation answering questions from a couple who are applying to come to Japan with OMF. Mostly it was about kids education.

Then we rested.

Monday 11th I jumped on a train not long after 8am to head to our monthly Kanto OMF prayer and fellowship day. I didn't know it, but I wasn't going to return home until nearly lunchtime the next day. Around lunchtime I became unwell. It seems now that I developed a rather nasty headache/stomach migraine. It would have been nice to jump in a car and sleep all the way home, but the idea of spending 90 minutes trains getting home was too much, so I ended up staying the night there, in OMF's guesthome. First time that's ever happened to me: not being able to return home because of illness.

This cuppa helped me get home on Tuesday after
a nasty headache the day before kept me from
travelling the 1 1/2 hrs home on trains.

Tuesday 12th I gingerly returned home and, after a bit of a midday rest, had a great afternoon trying to catch up on computer work that had been neglected for several days.

Wednesday 13th I worked at home in the morning and then met a friend for coffee (about an hour away by train). It was a delightful afternoon, but I have to admit that I'm still struggling under a bit of a headache cloud. Not so bad as Monday, but it's lurking, and sometimes clouding my thinking.

Well, that is already a lot and if I don't publish this soon, you'll just be getting an elaborate version of my daily schedule, which isn't my intention (I started this on Tuesday and now it's Thursday)!

This photo doesn't show well this cute little
building. One room upstairs and one downstairs.
It's a coffee shop. The sort that asks you which
coffee beans you'd like your coffee crafted from!

Camping adventure

It's time that I posted about our camping trip last week. We camped for two nights at a dam I'd never heard of: Teresa Creek Dam. It's about 20 km south of the small town of Clermont and nearly 1,000 km north-west of Brisbane (see map below). No wonder I'd never heard of it, having never lived further than 200 km from Brisbane.

It took about 2 1/2 hrs to drive there from my sister-in-law's house. We didn't get away till late because she was busy on the day we left (actually, she's generally very busy!) and ended up putting up three tents in the dark! Thankfully we'd brought a pre-prepared stew with us, so we didn't need to do that, but it still was quite late before we ate (late for these city-dwellers, anyway).

The four of us camped with David's sister and mum and our nephew. His brother-in-law was busy harvesting, so reluctantly had to forgo the trip. Also, our eldest son had uni that week, so was also unable to join us. We made the best of who we had. 

But we did get an open fire, a rare thing in Japan (and even Australia in these drought conditions).

View from our bed.

We were very grateful to be able to "piggy-back" in our sister-in-law's camping, because it meant that we didn't need to borrow or transport all the necessary gear (we don't own much camping gear in Australia).

Two of my favourite colours! And why I am no longer afraid to wear green and blue together.

Tuesday was our full day at the dam and we did little. Lots of relaxing—reading, snoozing, and some gentle wandering. The two youngest cousins swam for a couple of hours (you can see their heads in the centre of the photo).

It's a beautiful spot. Lots of bird life, a large campsite that wasn't overpopulated (advantage of being further from the main centres of population), and the showers and toilets were clean and well maintained. There wasn't even many insects (probably because it's been so very dry). The one drawback was the wind, which coated us and everything in the camp with a fine layer of dust.

Sunsets always capture my attention. It's fantastic being in outback Australia where you can see horizon for 360 degrees! The first night's sunset was even better than this because there were some clouds in the western sky, but I was busy trying to help set-up camp in the dark.  

This is what the countryside looks like. Typical Australian country: gum trees everywhere.  Pretty dry, though. The only green on the ground out there is close to the dam or has been watered. It's such a contrast to come back to the coast and see green grass in many places that haven't been watered.

This is another view of country we drove through. It's the most barren country we've seen in Queensland.

I'd been hankering after a camping trip and realised while we were there that it was nearly 12 months since we'd been able to get away under canvas. I'm so thankful for these couple of days away.

Last, but not least, the campsite had a cafe where they serve very decent food. We ate lunch there on the last day. The photo is of a steak burger. I chased my lunch down with what I thought was going to be an iced coffee, but turned into more of a coffee milkshake. Frappe, I think they called it. It was huge and a bit too much sugar, maybe I should have gone for their latte instead?

Random (interesting) photos from recent days

Here are a few somewhat random phone-photos from my life recently. Yes, a bit of cheat-post, but they are about my "on the edge of ordinary" life!

Here is a place I'd like to ride to next year. It's the park we were in on Saturday (see this post) farewelling friends. It's only a bit over 7km from here, so quite doable ride (if I can get my navigation working well enough). It's called Shakuji Park and has a long-thin lake as a main feature.

The streets near the park are a bit upper-class looking. It's typical in Tokyo to see people walking on the road.

Random! This is looking through our front gate. It's been a bit damp here these last few days.

Outside my local grocery store this morning. I'll miss riding here twice a week when we're in Australia. It's a peaceful place to shop and very often there's more bikes than cars outside.

The escape route at the gym I've been frequenting. Makes you almost want to create an emergency, just so you can try it out! Though I imagine it it quite dirty.

It's hydrangea season in Japan. This was the view from our second floor down to the garden behind our house a couple of weeks ago. I love the colours! i love it that I can see them from my work-station, dining, and lounge rooms. (Close-up photo on this post.)

Continuing with the random photos, I met a couple of ladies for Bible study about 10 days ago at Krispy Kreme in Shibuya. We were fascinated by this sight as we waited in line.

This is close to the above mentioned grocery store. A path along one of our local rivers. A gazebo here has fallen into disrepair and the solution was not to fix it, but to encase it in a green fence. I guess it's awaiting funds to fix or demolish it?

Our creative youngest found a cute bookmark like this in a book a few weeks ago and set about figuring out how to copy it. He then went on to make 30 of them for a fundraiser at school last week.

Before that, I scored my own personalised bookmark. Isn't it cute?

Strangely, there has been mangoes in our local grocery store. This isn't common—the store is small and a no-frills shop, so fancy fruit isn't common. David bought me one as he knows they are my favourite fruit, but alas it was quite crunchy, even after being left for many days. I'm looking forward to splurging on mangoes in Australia!