Seven years on and recovery that has happened

Today, seven years ago Japan was hit with one of the largest earthquakes recorded, which triggered an enormous tsunami, and which also flooded a nuclear power plant and caused it to overheat. A triple disaster. A day that thousands died. And thousands more have died since March 2011 due to post-disaster stress.

It's not a day that we're likely to forget in a hurry. Here's a post I wrote the day after the earthquake. We received no damage here, but the psychological effect of being in the same country as such a disaster is not to be ignored. You see a little bit of that in this post 11 days after the earthquake and this one about unexpected emotions.

There's a part of me that doesn't like the way media dwells on past disasters, but I can see how this comes about. We don't want to forget those lost, indeed forgetting a disaster like this is dangerous because it leads to bad decisions about the future. However, recycling the horror of that day isn't necessarily helpful.

I'm glad, therefore, to be able to show you the following video, about hopeful things that have happened in the disaster zone. This is not a video about the hope that Christians have brought to people in the area, though there is also plenty of that too. 

Praise God that as people across the world prayed for this nation in 2011, God called some to serve here, both in the short- and long-term. It's now not unusual to hear the triple disaster included in the testimony of how someone has come to serve in Japan in the last few years.

Praise God that his name has been heard by many in the area who had never heard of him before. 

How do you solve a problem like...

I am merely going to post a video link today. My emotions are a bit raw for good writing today. This music video (How do you solve a problem like Maria) relates a difficult meeting we've had this week at school regarding one of our sons. I just hope it all turns out in the end as well as the movie did (Sound of Music). 

Stories of Japanese people meeting Jesus

Here is a six minute video with many Japanese and other Asians telling briefly how they met Jesus (most are between 20 and 30 seconds long).

Excellent CAJ video

The Christian Academy in Japan or CAJ is a big part of our lives, as you will know if you've read my blog for a while. It's where four out of five of us go every school day. My husband

teaches high school maths and science and occasionally other things like coaching wresting and Brain Bowl (trivia competition). Our eldest son has been attending there since 2007 and the younger two since 2010.

It is more than a school to us, it is a ministry and a community of likeminded international folk. Our boys love it. It was what they missed most about Japan while we were in Australia for a year.

So it's pretty cool that two of our boys are in this really well put together video about the school (no wrestling, though!): http://www.caj.or.jp/about/video.php

What's your image of a typical missionary?

Probably not this South American colleague of ours in Japan:

Or these?

The importance of having people who pray for you

Here is a video by one of our colleagues in Japan and he touches on the importance of missionaries having people who pray for them. Really good! (Just over four minutes.)

http://vimeo.com/112811754

Two Random Surprises

Here are a couple of random things that have come up in these early days back in Australia.

Punctuality

Not much starts on time in Australia. We've not noticed that before, but have been a bit shocked with our punctual Japanese hats still on!

Japanese accent? 

Someone new I met the other day pondered why we didn't have japanese accents. I pointed out that we really did, when we spoke Japanese words like kimono or origami. Or when we say place names like Tokyo or Sapporo.

But in general we haven't picked up Japanese accents in our English (although you might here some Japanese expressions come out occasionally). This comic video might explain why:

By the way, good internet is still a couple of weeks away, sorry for my lack of blogging, it's not easy to get the basics done online, let alone blog posting!

How come you're coming to Japan?

I love hearing the stories of how people end up coming to Japan as missionaries. I had two friends pry my story out of me this week and today I've been editing the story of someone who came a few decades ago. 

Here's another one, this one is more recent (he's coming next month). Levi's been helping me with editing this month and it will be great to meet him. This link goes to his blog and shows him telling how he's ended up coming to Japan.

Commonwealth Games Wrestling Preparation Camp Video

I am, unfortunately, still feeling pretty rotten with a cold (including blocked Eustachian tube, dizziness, and my old friend asthma). 

So, as a follow-up on yesterday's post about Australian wrestling, I'll give you this one today. This is a video at an Australian wrestling preparation camp for this year's Commonwealth Games.

Sons of Korah fans

My boys have become firm fans of an Australian band—Sons of Korah. I must say I'm a bit mystified as to why, but I'm not unhappy.

This is what the band writes about themselves on their website:

Sons of Korah is an Australian based band devoted to giving a fresh voice to the biblical psalms. The Psalms have been the primary source for the worship traditions of both Judaism and Christianity going right back to ancient times. With their unique acoustic, multi-ethnic sound Sons of Korah have given this biblical songbook a dynamic and emotive new musical expression.

They do have a unique sound and it obviously resonates with my boys. We had two albums that have been played repeatedly for months now, so over the weekend I bought another, "Rain" and that is also now being played repeatedly. I love Psalms, they are such great material, so raw and honest and full of emotion, so it is no hardship to listen to these again and again.

Here's my favourite Psalm (139), which appears on "Rain".

We have two ancient iPods and an old CD player, so both boy-bedrooms have access to all the music that we own as a family. It's been great, actually, to see them move on from "children-specific" music to musicians like Michael Card, Jars of Clay etc. They're not taking on classical music so much, but that's okay.

Here's a video of a live performance of Sons of Korah (Ps 117), some impressive guitar playing here:

Interesting Japan-related media

Interesting Japan-related "media" I've seen or read recently:

1. This is the testimony of a Japanese career woman who came to the Lord, primarily out of
her dissatisfaction with her lifestyle.

2. An article about a film made by and about people who have one Japanese parent and the other parent a different nationality. The film director, Megumi Nishikura, said, "People treat me like a foreigner, Japanese people look at me and say, 'You don't look like a Megumi.'"

Such experiences inspired the half-Japanese, half-American documentary maker to join forces with Laura Perez Takagi, a half-Japanese, half-Spanish documentary maker to create “Hafu,”touted as the first feature-length film about persons of mixed-Japanese descent.

3. A joint testimony of a Japanese couple who divorced, yet both came to the Lord and got back together again, more than a decade later.

4. An inflatable concert venue. An innovative response to a lack of live music venues in Japan's disaster zone.

5. This video is about giving ex-prisoners a fresh start in employment:

Humour Differences Aren't Often Funny

I was out all day the other day, mingling with a bunch of Christian women, many Americans, some Japanese, and some from other nations like Finland, Scotland, Canada, Germany etc.

Humour is often challenging in an international environment like this. It isn't just that not
everyone speaks English as their first language, but that our senses of humour are culturally defined.

For example, several years ago I made a casual comment to an American teacher who was leaving Japan and would therefore miss teaching my child the next year, that she "was lucky to miss him". She was highly offended and proceeded to tell me so: that she was indeed competent to handle challenging children and that she was shocked that I should be of such a low opinion of my son. I suspect an Australian would have just laughed. Her reaction was a big surprise to me!

I do find I'm drawn to some non-Aussies more than others because their humour matches mine better than others. I guess that's personality too, but someone suggested today that American-New England humour is closer to the British-type humour that we Australians enjoy. And that the ribbing they give each other is sometimes misunderstood by other Americans. Interesting.

In any case, I did a little internet research about Australia, British, and American humour (not indepth, mind you, I'm no expert!)

I found this link by the Australian Government, intended, presumably to inform/warn visitors about Australians.

In general, Australian humour is closer to British humour than American humour. If you're interested in the different between British and American humour, here are a couple of Youtube videos.

In the first video (4:19 long), the main point the speaker makes is that British comedians tend to be failures and flawed (self-deprecating humour) and make that a big point, but American comedians tend to be heroes. Australians major on self-deprecating humour too.

(Warning: there is a little bad or crude language in both videos).

The next one is a bit long (7:14) and amateurish and is by a New Yorker (which, I now know because I just looked it up, is not a New England state, but is close to there). He does give some good examples of British humour and explanations of some of the differences and how British humour is perceived in the US.

One of the things we love about hanging out with other Australian and UK expats is the humour that we can indulge in.

Politics and a Rescue in Japanese News

Today we really began the "I'm bored" part of summer holidays. Both David and I have more than enough to keep us busy, but the boys are being challenged to find their own fun. It's not very tempting to take them outside because it's humid, though not as hot as it could be (it's only about 30 here). We woke up sweating. I looked at the temperature at 2am and it was 29 degrees in my bedroom! We'll go out later when the sun isn't quite so high in the sky.

In the meantime, here is some news from Japan.

An election
We had an election on Sunday. Now don't ask me to explain Japanese politics to you in great detail. Here's what I understand. The election was for the upper house of parliament. Prime Minister Abe has been in power since December last year. His party, the long dominant Liberal Democratic Party, holds the power in the lower house. Now, they hold power in both houses.

It was an important election because the last time one party held the power in both houses was 1989. That's meant that it's been hard for any one to "get stuff done".

The other reason why it is important is that we're not sure what "stuff is going to get done". Probably there'll be changes in defence, and economy. Changes in the constitution are also possible. Here's a link to an article that explains things fairly well: http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2013/07/21/election-2013-why-it-matters/?mod=WSJBlog

And another that explains things in a little more details: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/world/asia/governing-party-appears-headed-to-lead-japanese-parliament.html?

For something a bit fun, here is how Japanese politicians have used the social media for the first time in this campaign (including game apps):



A rescue
Going around the news and social media today is a photo of a train rescue effected by the Japanese public.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/22/tokyo-train-passengers-rescue-woman-trapped

Impacting Media

So many great links going around my Facebook feed at the moment, not junky ones, but insightful ones. It's too bad to just leave them on FB, I want to share them with you. Here are three of them:

This 15 minutes video is about the decreasing birth rate and increasing elderly population situation in Japan. Some insightful comments in interviews (and the reporter is Australian, which is another bonus).

This is a blog post about the impact the mobile lifestyle missionaries live has on our children's thoughts about relationships and the seeming inevitability of goodbyes. It has implications, not just for MKs (missionary kids), but all TCKs (including military kids who haven't left their home country), and adults who live this mobile lifestyle also.

This one is funny, but in a sad way. It is a humorous look at what must be a frustrating problem for those who have Asian looks, yet were born in America (or whatever Western country you'd like to name). Because I'm white, I don't know if this is as bad a problem in Australia. I certainly remember growing up with Asians and just accepting them as Australia, especially if they had an Australian accent. Are people really as rude as this?

So, 

• Japan's decreasing birthrate coupled with a lack of desire to increase immigration.
• Inevitable goodbyes and how that impacts our relationships
• Judging a book by it's cover: making assumptions about people because of the way they look.

Which of these impacted you the most?

A Hope Story by a Japanese surfer

We're off camping (in the rain) this morning. But I thought I'd leave you the link to this wonderful "Hope Story" video by a Japanese female surfer.

Another controversial video

Yesterday I posted a somewhat controverisal video about Americans. Today I give you a wider view of the person who made that video.

I'm really flipping the camera back onto Japan and the ignorance* that is here. He is coping a lot of flack (yes, death threats too) for a video he posted about racism in Japan and how little his Japanese high schoolers know about it. Check out the Washington Post article for more details about it.

He says:
 “If I should have anticipated something, I should have anticipated the netouyu,” he told me [the author of the Washington Post article], referring to the informal army of young, hyper-nationalist Japanese Web users who tend to descend on any article — or person — they perceive as critical of Japan.

Here is the controversial video:

* Ignorance noun
the state or fact of being ignorant; lack of knowledge, learning, information, etc.

Ignorance on display

I saw this video yesterday and was shocked. It shows 10 young Americans on a beach answer questions about Japan. Their ignorance is cringe-worthy. I especially couldn't believe their answers to "Which country had a nuclear bomb dropped on it?" and "If you went there today, what would you see Japanese wearing?"

Mind you, I'm not American-bashing here. I'm sure that there are many Americans who'd do better at answering these questions than these people do. But I'm also curious as to how young Australians might answer these questions.

Some eye-opening links about Japan

There have been some good links about Japan out in the cyberworld recently. Below are some interesting  places to go and look at.

Some photos of how Japanese people saw in the New Year.

The scary admission that Japanese police rely heavily on confessions, not evidence. Hence there are probably more innocent people behind bars in Japan than in some other countries.

Captions of these photos tell more of the true story of Japan than the photos. People sleeping in internet cafes, laundromats and train platforms, family members who've lost loved ones from suicide due to over-work etc. These aren't images that the world generally associates with the formerly booming Japan.

And here is a longer one about the problems Japan is facing with its growing aged population and shrinking working population.

But now I must get on my bike and do some more grocery shopping for my hungry household of boys.

STOP IT

Today is another full day of Thrift Shop preparation, though it tends not to be quite as busy in the afternoon, I'll still be tired this evening. So I'll post this before I go to school this morning.

The following video we saw at the coaching workshop I attended a couple of weeks ago. It it is both hilarious and a tiny bit scary at the same time. If you ever summons up the courage to go to get some mental-health advice from a professional, you certainly don't want to meet someone quite as insensitive as this fellow. 

On the other hand it makes me want to say "STOP IT" more often to my boys! Enjoy.

Cool vocal percussion

Through this blog, I've discovered the Australian a capella quartet "The Idea of North".

Boys are so noisy (at least mine are) — always walking around making some kind of noise or other. So my boys were very impressed with the "vocal percussion" in this piece. Check this out: