Unexpected hospitality in the rain

It's been months since I've been able to ride my bike to my favourite park south of here. After arriving back in Japan in early August we've had plenty of heat and rain and I've had plenty of work to fill my days. In the middle of it all, I was longing for a quieter day that coincided with good weather. Up until we got up yesterday morning, it looked like it was going to be that perfect combo! But somehow the weather didn't conform to those earlier forecasts! 

My only photo from the day, just after 
arrived home.

With stubborn optimism I rode off mid-morning into very light rain. From there it went downhill! Partway into the ride I pulled out my rain jacket. By the time got to the park about 30 minutes later, my glasses were wet, but my jeans weren't too damp.

Koganei Park is one of the largest parks in Tokyo. It's about 80 hectares (112 professional soccer fields or 80 400m running tracks; or to use a park in my hometown: more than three times the size of Queens Park in Toowoomba). It's a beautiful place, but there are only a couple of places that you can shelter if it's raining.

So, I headed for my favourite sheltered spot and discovered that a few others were sheltering there too. I wasn't surprised, but a little disappointed. I cruised past on my bike, but recognised a couple sitting in the shelter: two people from church. Initially I was going to find somewhere else to hang out and eat my packed lunch and read the book I'd brought, but something prompted me to change my mind and I circled back to say hi. They were surprised to see me, but welcomed me and we ended up spending nearly three hours together. We were all hoping that the rain would ease up while we talked, but it really didn't, it got worse, and chillier. So, in the end we departed, me, for my seven kilometre ride home and them, for a much shorter walk to their nearby house.

This time I donned my full rain gear, and covered my two bags with plastic. Nothing I could do about keeping my glasses clear, though, so I peered between raindrops on my specs and thankfully had a safe trip home. My rain gear did a pretty good job, though the cuffs on my jeans and flannie (US Eng: flannel shirt) both got fairly wet. It was a relief to get inside and dry off my face!

Hospitality

The sermon at our church on Sunday was on 1 Peter 4:7–11. Here's 8–10:

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. (NIV)

It's a rich passage with many concepts, but a couple are hospitality and loving one another. At lunch after church one man asked "How does hospitality look if you're an introvert?"

It so happened that that was the same man I encountered in the park with his wife. Hospitality is much a broader concept than hosting someone at your home for a meal or a night. In fact we have a whole industry using this name, an industry that encompasses providing food and beverages, accommodation, tourism, travel, and entertainment. 

I would venture to say that Christian hospitality is welcoming others, it's having a heart that is genuinely open to others. A heart that creates space (physical and otherwise) for others. I would also say that sitting and chatting to another person is a type of hospitality. 

When I arrived this man and his wife did practical things like shuffled over to give me a dry place to sit and offered a cloth to wipe my glasses. They also shared some of the food that they'd brought (something I forgot to do, but it's very Japanese to do this when eating together like this). They didn't dash off, they welcomed me into their conversation and we spent a few hours getting to know one another better. This was blessed fellowship and one that we would have missed if not for the rain (we probably wouldn't have met at the shelter except that we sought respite from the rain and would have left earlier if it hadn't been raining).

I'm thankful. I was able to share this story last night at our church's prayer meeting and another lady said she was encouraged by it. It reminded her that God has the power to make "coincidences" like this happen and encouraged her to pray for someone she occasionally encounters.

What other things would fit under the umbrella of Christian hospitality that we don't typically first think of?

Snippets from our camping trip last weekend

Last Friday we went camping for three nights with another family with three boys. Yes, that's right, six teenage boys for three nights (well actually our eldest is now 20, but...). By another almost accidental connection on Facebook, our pastor gave us access to a cabin he and his wife look after for a friend of theirs. You'll see later why that made a huge difference to our weekend.

From the start it was a bit complicated because our friends don't have a car or licences, so we borrowed another eight-seater van from other friends. Both "dads" had to work part of Friday at school, so the plan was for the mums and boys to leave early and set up what we could, with the dads following with the rest of the gear. Oh, and just to make things "worse" I decided that it would be fun to stop at Costco on the way (it was truly not out of our way to do this) and get a few supplies for our long weekend.

We had the usual sort of fun navigating with Google Maps, but got there in good time, though only beat the dads by an hour or so. In that hour, though, we managed to meet both the resident neighbours (there were several currently unoccupied houses nearby), clean up the cabin (including what seemed like hundreds of large, mostly dead ants), and get our two tents erected.

Here are some photos:

Such greeness can't be ignored by an Australian. We tried to explain to our
north American friends that the predominant green in our land is quite different
to what you find practically every time you leave any city at this time of year in Japan. 

Interesting fungi too. Yes, we planned a trip in the middle of a particularly wet rainy season.

Just down the hill was this little stream.

The view on our first day and second days. Actually in this case the cloud is hiding an ugly quarry that covers a lot of the side of this mountain across the valley. 

A bit to the right of the above photo, looking down towards the township of Chichibu (only about 50 km from our home in Tokyo).

Looking down at the tents from the cabin.

Looking back up at the cabin before the boys put the tents up.

Meeting the neighbours was an experience. Our pastor had told them we were coming, but I think there was a few more of us than they'd expected. I also don't think they had had much experience with campers...they wondered if we had any food with us! Town was about 10-15 minutes down a very windy road, so yes, we had lots of food with us. However, they brought this beautiful platter with freshly cooked potatoes over, along with a big cabbage. Later we returned the platter with some homemade baked goods that we'd brought with us and they followed up by giving us a loaf of bread. You can't out-give Japanese people!

First night sunset, and the only night we saw anything resembling a sunset!

The house in the picture is that of our generous and friendly neighbours.

 Wonderful hydrangreas in the "wild".

The stick insect the boys found and "played with" for a while. Nicknamed "Synestro" I think.

This camp turned out to be a level above our usual camping style. A coffee machine! I don't even have one of them in my house!

This cabin looks bigger than it actually is. There were two floors, upstairs was open and seven people slept there one night. Yes, one of the tents leaked and was evacuated at 3am Sunday morning. I was selfishly thankful that it wasn't our new tent! Downstairs contained a bathroom and toilet, small kitchen, and a room off the verandah that was our dining room and became the adult hang-out (or "reading room").

On Saturday there was rain forcast for later in the day, so we did some outside things while we could. I proposed a stroll, but that turned into a mountain climb! The photo below is of the easy bit on the road. We climbed the peak of the mountain we were camped on—only 200m higher than where we were situated—but a bit more than a stroll. We were definintely looking middle-aged when contrasted with these six young men!

Another view of the valley, looking back towards Tokyo. This land truly looks like God did origami with the ground!

After midnight on Sunday morning the rain really closed in, not super heavy, but constant. It rained for 24 hours, so on Sunday we were especially grateful for the cabin. 

We volunteered the boys to set up a roof over the balcony for the Sunday night dinner. Most of our meals we could cook inside, but what we'd planned for that night needed coals (in the absence of an oven inside). It worked really well and held up overnight until the next day when the rain stopped and we were able to get most of our gear dry before packing up to return home on Monday.

I didn't get any inside photos, but our friends brought a bunch of Lego sets that the boys spent quite a lot of time putting together upstairs. We also played board games, did puzzles, and read. 

Our families are similar in ages and our boys have been in a number of the same sports over the years, so we've gotten to know each other and spent many hours at events and travelling to and from events together. The mum of this family is the lady I travelled to Korea with in 2017 to watch our son's last high school competition. Our eldest boys both graduated together that year and have barely seen one another since then, so it was a great opportunity to catch up.

Overall it was a good weekend away. Quite different to a usual camping trip for the Marshalls, but overall very relaxing and a great getaway. 

We're now preparing for another getaway on Monday, this time for two weeks in a larger abode on our own. David and I have been looking forward to that for many months. The boys are not so convinced that it's a good thing. Hopefully they misgivings will be unfounded and we'll have a great time away recharging.

It was a big weekend

It was another big weekend! They seem pretty common these days, indeed we seem to lurch from weekend to weekend. 

Friday night we had our usual Scrabble date at a couple of local restaurants (mains at one and a cheap dessert at the other).

David and I playing travel Scrabble on Friday night.
We had two strangers say, "What a good idea!"

Queens Park in Toowoomba. Looking beautiful in
the springtime after the rain they've had these
last three weeks.

Saturday we got to sleep in, then headed up to my hometown after an early lunch (1.5 hr drive). It was delightful to see the difference that rain has made in the three weeks since we made this journey.

This is a portion of my parents' front yard. The top photo was taken at the end
d of September, the bottom one at lunch-time on Sunday. In the intervening
 three weeks, they'd had 80ml of rain (just over 3 inches)

We dropped the boys off at my parents' house and then spent 3 1/2 hours with friends I've known since I was 16. They asked great questions and the time flew by!

On Sunday morning we visited a traditional Presbyterian church. The congregation contained more than half a dozen people who I knew as a child in the church our family attended at that time. It was great to also meet others, afterwards, who've been praying for us over the years. Just before we spoke the pastor gave a testimony about two Japanese exchange students they had had at their home (and at the church). Both had become Christians through their experience in Australia and are both persevering in their faith back in Japan. It was a moving story and such an encouragement to hear.

We went back to my parents' house for lunch. During lunch, a storm came through that threw down 30.5mm in a short period of time. The wind was quite strong and they lost power. It was exciting to see the rain, there has been precious little of it in the previous months of our time in Australia.

Three galahs drying off after the storm.

We followed the storm east as we drove back home after lunch. I didn't have a great trip, though. I had a stomach ache and nausea, and an hour after we arrived home I threw up. Thankfully I felt better after that and there was no more pain. However, I took it as a warning sign that I needed to rest (I think the probable cause was stress). I spent the rest of the evening resting and a good portion of yesterday too.

An awkward selfie of me reading yesterday. My favourite way to relax
and favourite place to read a book.

I'd like to rest more today, but am also aware that I've got responsibilities to attend to. Trying to balance up those two things is definitely not easy! Also weighing on my mind is my trip to Singapore on Saturday afternoon and then on to Perth for deputation—a total of 16 days away. Preparation is needed. So...one day at a time I venture forth. Very aware of this:

He gives strength to the weary
    and increases the power of the weak.
 Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall;
 but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:29-31 NIV UK)

Photos of our city #3

Our street during a flash flood in August.

You might have been concerned after reading my last post about our city. We live very close to a river, actually two rivers run through the city of Higashi Kurume. Tokyo itself is on a flood plain and more than 100 km square of the plain are under sea level. Are we at a flood risk? 

The answer is pretty much no. We get flash floods on our street when rain dumps on us more than 50mm per hour, but they don't last much longer than the extra heavy rain itself and haven't come close to getting into our house.

The water came up over the gutter and into the carport, but not
up the three stairs that lead into the house.

Tokyo has built an incredible underground system of flood control and one of the major pieces of infrastructure is right here in our city. Check out this ABC video (12.37min) for some great footage plus explanations.

In the video at the 7 minute mark it shows a huge "surge tank". We have one of these in our city. But you hardly know it's there, except that there has been construction going on for some years now. We know it's there because we have friends who live just across the river from the entrance to this place and when they'd finished doing the underground construction they invited the locals to go and have a look.

This is all we can see of the underground flood mitigation  infrastructure. But from the photos we've seen (and the video) it sure is much more impressive down there than this photo might suggest. You can see bunches of dead plant material caught at the bottom of the grills, that was from a rain event during the summer when the river got up that high. In the background of the photo is the gym that I go to regularly to work out. This is only about 850m from our house.

Water

One of my sons saw my two most recent blog posts last night and was impressed that I'd written about food and then toilets. Today's might or might not be so impressive. As I look through my photos I'm struck by a lot of green, but also the prevalence of water.

At church this morning someone asked about our camping trip, especially noting that we got very wet. I pointed out that we really only had particularly two bad episodes with rain, at our first campsite and then our fourth. But water featured in other ways too, we camped next to water or in view of bodies of water several times.

But here is our 15-day camp from the viewpoint of water.

First day: stopped at Naeda falls

 Campsite one: Niigata ken, overlooking Joetsu city

This campsite had a great view, that included the Japan sea from this campsite, especially when it wasn't raining. Alas it rained quite a bit. Our tent leaked when a storm blew in within the first half an hour of setting up and our tarpaulin annex didn't hold up to the wind either. So we moved the tarp over the tent and shifted our kitchen to a more solid location.

 We also packed up in the rain at the end of that two-night stop.

Campsite two: Noto island. 

We drove through rain most of the day to get to this campsite. While setting up it was drizzling. We set up a wet tent because it had been raining when we took it down that morning. I mopped out the inside of the tent before we took our stuff in there. Thankfully we gradually dried out over the next couple of days and our bedding wasn't wet.

We had a water view here too, it's Toyama Bay, off the Japan sea.

We had a dry pack-up on Noto island and spent part of the day then driving around on the Noto peninsula. This is a spot on the wild west coast, again the Japan sea.

Campsite three: Kanazawa hinterland

It was a fairly dry set-up, though I'm pretty sure we had sprinkles at one point soon after set-up and the next morning we had fog. This was probably our least watery campsite, with no natural bodies of water nearby and no water views.

 There was water at the garden we visited in Kanazawa, though.

Beautiful water...

Campsite four: Lake Biwa

Gorgeous lake-side campsite. We gazed and gazed at the changing view. However this is the campsite that we got waterlogged on our first night. It rained hard and three of us were up at around 4am doing adjustments to tarps and bedding. Eventually David and our eldest son were able to stem the growing puddle under the tent, but not before most people got their toes wet inside the tent.

Campsite five: Kii peninsula

We went down this fairly remote peninsula to see Nachi falls, the tallest single-drop falls in Japan, but we weren't camped next to them. But another stream was close-by our tent, to the point where we couldn't tell if it was raining or not. It rained here just after we put our tent up as well! 

Nachi falls. Part of a World Heritage listing.

Campsite six: north of Nagoya

We again camped next to a stream. We also again encountered rain within the first hour of being set-up. This time it was a storm. Thankfully everything remained pretty dry inside the tent, despite a large amount of water being dumped on us in a short period of time. The stream was lots of fun to play in.

It was the rainy season after all...but we really didn't have that bad a time of it, not as bad as it apparently sounded!

Hydrangea season

It's hydrangea season. A local friend noted the other day that the hydrangeas seem to be even more glorious than usual. I'm not sure, but they certainly are amazing. I rode along the river earlier today and stopped multiple times to take photos with my iPhone (for this post). Just look at the variety and depth of colour!

They're everywhere. Alone like this.

In flower beds beside buildings (all the flowers in this photo are hydrangeas, just down the road from our house).

And crowded between houses and the bike path alongside the river.

Japanese shops do seasonal decorating. A couple of months ago it was cherry blossoms. Now it's hydrangeas.

It makes me feel better for how I ended up dressed today. It wasn't raining when I left, so I threw my "rain pants" into my bag. I put them on on my journey home because it started drizzling. But I ended up looking a bit like a hydrangea myself!