Australia - the land of the free car park

Even after nine months I am still a little shocked to find so much free parking in Australia. In Japan we paid to park our bikes at the train station. We paid to park our car to go to church (church has no car park). Our doctor had a tiny free car park, but half of the time it was full and I had to go to a paid park up the road.

Last weekend in Canberra we went to three big tourist destinations - all of them had free parking and only one had an entry fee! I never have trouble finding a park at the doctor here and I don't think we've met a church without a car park in Australia (though possibly there are some in inner city areas).

We're enjoying this land of wide open spaces. A house where we can let visitors park out the front of our house or in the driveway - where they can park with no fear of blocking the road. Amazing!

Why Japanese don't use clothes dryers.

On a post I wrote last week about Japanese washing lines, Mrs Q asked this:

"I wonder why there are not many dryers? Is it lack of space to store a dryer?"

The answer to the second question is no. Our Japanese 'made and bought' dryer sits on a stand directly above our washing machine, so it doesn't take up any extra space. You can even by 2 in 1 machines now that both wash and dry.

I asked the first question of my Facebook friends (quite of number of whom are Japanese or are married to Japanese or live there). Here are a few representative answers:

"It's just not worth the cost. Too much electricity being used on too little clothing."

"Japanese homes have good places to hang out clothes, even if it rains."

"With 4 people in the house now it's tempting to get one...especially on rainy days like today it'd be handy. But then again winter is so dry, hanging up wet clothes inside adds some humidity to the air. We go with the "the sun and wind are free so why bother with one" crowd."

"A lot of Japanese homes I have stayed in (including future in-laws) hang dry things in doors in bad weather...  If they aren't drying well, they take them to the coin laundry to finish them up..."

I wonder if there is something of a traditional angle on this too - we've always hung it out, so we'll continue to do so? Japanese homes and apartments are certainly (almost) always built with a place for hanging stuff outside.

I'm even wondering if Americans will be forced to start hanging stuff out again, due to the expense and cost to the environment?

Left-handed pencil pretty cool

I got my Yoropen pencil in the mail last week. I mentioned previously that it was coming courtesy of Simply Lefty in exchange for writing a review of the pencil.

My first reaction after the excitement of it arriving in the mail was disappointment. But only because it was not a mechanical pencil (like a Pacer), but instead has leads in little plastic holders that you switch around. I hate blunt pencils and these kind go blunt fairly quickly. The refills can only be bought from the company itself. At $3.00 a per package of refills plus postage, it is a little expensive.

But putting that emotion aside, I tried it out and it was pretty cool. With a straight wrist I could see a word or two previous to the one I was currently writing. As a left-hander I've never experienced that before! I can only imagine what it might be like to learn as a child to write this way - many stereotypical left handed hooks might be prevented.

The rubber grip is comfortable and not too restrictive. Some grips force you into a specific grip that some person has decided is the best, but it rarely is. This one is a basic triangle in shape and very nice. The only difficulty is that instead of grabbing a pencil up and writing straight away like I usually do,  I have to check out that the tip is pointed the right way.

I let two of my right-handed sons (10 and 4) road test the pencil and they both thought it was pretty cool. They had no problems using it.

I might be interested in trying out their pens. Certainly I'd consider recommending it to a left-handed child who was struggling to see their work and developing bad posture as a result.

Unusual conversation opener

Today's classic conversation opener:

(After looking me up and down) a lady addressed me with, "You wouldn't have much trouble buying clothes in Japan, would you?"

She had me speechless for a short while. She obviously had inside knowledge. Just recently she'd met friends of her son, who've been missionaries in Japan for 17 years. One of their difficulties is buying clothes in Japan. I'm only 156cm (about 5"2') and not large in proportions. This family is much taller(and broader?), so they struggle to find clothes. I find that I'm looking on the upper size level (LL for t-shirts, for example, when I buy about loose 12 here), so I'm not surprised.

Funnily enough it turns out that we've met this family. Their daughter and our son were in the same kindergarten for 1.3 years in Sapporo in 2003-4. Small world?

In addition to this, I was greeted at the church door by a Scottish gentleman in his kilt and started the morning with a short conversation about how good Japanese pipers are!

After the service I had conversations with a Japanese man who grew up in Canada but has now settled in Australia with his Australian wife. A Korean lady doing her PhD on something like Westerners in Korea early last century. She's also married to an Australian.

I refreshed the memory of a man whose learning to count to 10 in as many languages as he can - including Vietnamese from his green grocer. Not bad from someone who appeared to have some limitations in his intellectual and physical abilities, but none whatsoever in his social skills (he was incredibly polite).

A nicely multicultural experience for the fine city of Canberra.

Tonight we present something of a cross between of our informal Japan evenings and an informal church service. It'll be interesting. The Japanese man's wife is making sushi for the bring and share meal beforehand - something to look forward to.

Going to the Bank

Today I have a guest post by one of OMF's church planters in Japan, Lorna Ferguson:

 

Today David went to the bank. No big deal, you may think. But going to a bank in Japan usually involves a lot of queuing, a lot of form-filling and a lot of waiting. The other day David had to go to the local city office to make some minor changes to personal documents - and it's the same story there. The wheels of bureaucracy turn very slowly. Interestingly, for a land where everything is hi-tech and mobile phones can peform almost any function, there is still an affinity with doing things the old way - forms, paper, photocopying, double checking by the person sitting at the next desk. At banks the ATM machines can do all sorts of things at the push of a few (actually sometimes quite a lot) of buttons. But if you need to do something the ATM can't do, then you need to battle with the forms and the waiting. The staff though are always very cheery and helpful. Maybe there is a parable in there somewhere. The Japanese love to embrace gadgets and technology. Yet there is also still a holding on to the old-fashioned ways. Tradition matters here. There is a rich and complex culture. The surface looks modern and hi-tech - and it is. But beneath that veneer of gadgetry, the traditional way of doing things, and doing and saying and thinking things in the right way is highly valued. We need patience and grace and a teachable spirit to understand the culture and the people and then be able to share the good news of Jesus in appropriate ways.

Bargains

We went shopping in-between doing other things today and got some bargains. 50% off skirts at Katies, 20% off tops and pants at Target and cheap stuff at Lifeline, like this tent (for our camping trip at Easter), which we got for $15!! It is only missing the poles for the front canopy. I think that is a pretty good bargain.

We live fairly frugally, but it isn't hard. Particularly if you ignore luxuries like manicures, this year's fashion (go for classical instead) and eating out a lot. Many publications these days have hints for saving money. We laugh at most of them, they are so obvious! The rest we could have written ourselves.

Nine months gone. Three to go.

Today it's nine months since we left Japan. That means we're 3/4 of the way through our home assignment. Phew! It's gone fast. When we were leaving Japan friends were saying, "A year is a long time to go away." Yes, a long time, but also a short time. Time is a relative thing, really. It has passed quickly because we've striven to pack a lot into it.  That has been evident in recent weeks when we have been able to accept no school friend's birthday parties or able to help at our church's working bee.

Now people are saying, "You're going so soon!" Especially people with whom we're only just building relationships. This is tough. You meet new people, develop new friendships and then you're off again. In a sense it is easier for us than them. We have something we're going to, but they will just have our absence when we leave.

But longer term friends too. Nearly every time we've visited good friends, our boys say - "When can we come back to visit them again?"  In many cases - it'll be four or five years!

So, as the last 1/4 of our home assignment arrives, we've very aware that goodbyes, tough goodbyes, are just around the corner. But thankfully hellos are close too - we have many we miss from Japan and look forward to saying "Hello" to them again.