Writing workshop Day 2

These last two days have included two main activities. Being taught about writing for publication and writing.

The first has covered topics like making your writing interesting, organisation, knowing your market, submitting for publication and writing in a Christian way.

The second has been more free choice. Most people here have one or more books they are currently working on. I do not. I do have a number of magazine articles I want to write. Some are stories I told while we visited churches on home assignment. So I’ve been working on those. I got a good first draft on two articles just today. Yesterday she asked us to write a story for quantity – so I wrote a 2 200 word true story in 1 ½ hours. I cannot remember the last time I wrote so many words on one day. I am not sure what I want to do with it now. But it was a fun challenge to write.

Last night our programme ended at 9pm, which is 10pm on my body clock, Hong Kong being an hour earlier than Tokyo. I was so pumped, however, that I didn’t turn my light out until two hours later. And only then because all room lights go out at that time. (This is a place they have youth camps and programmes at – a very useful feature, centrally controlled room lights, wish they’d had them at the campsites I was a leader at in Australia in my younger years). It is pretty usual for me to get wound up at conferences and camps. I am an extrovert after all. This writing business, though, gives a high that is quite impressive. I’m having a great time.

Tonight we have the option of doing a tiny bit of tourism, by way of a short break. We’re taking a ferry somewhere. It will be a lovely sight, all the lights at night. Hong Kong has amazing geography compared to Australia. Heaps of tiny islands and steep mountains. Like Japan most people seem to live close to the ocean. Unlike Japan most people seem to live in massive high rise buildings! Our accommodation is a bit up the side of a mountain. If the smog weren’t so bad it would be a beautiful view. But the darkness hides the murky atmosphere at night time and the twinkling lights on the tall buildings are magical. I forgot to bring the cable which connects the camera to the computer, so I cannot download photos for you to see. You’ll just have to wait.

So, while I’d planned to do some work tonight (our news/prayer letter, for example), I’ve decided to go on the trip. Other things will have to wait until later in the week. Breakfast is late, maybe I can squeeze some in before. Our rooms are light hours before breakfast, so I read for ages this morning before going and checking my email in the lobby (no internet in the rooms).

Now I rave. Good time to stop!

Short post on Day One in Hong Kong

I've run out of time to write this post, but I have been doing a lot of writing this morning. Uninterrupted writing, a real novelty.

But it is better than yesterday. Yesterday I got up without an alarm at 4.30 (I'd been awake most of the night) and caught my train, then bus, then plane and then three more buses. I got lost at most of the tranfers! But after a awful start to the day where I fought anxiety and nausea for more than two hours, I made it okay. My husband kept reminding me to expect adventures.

The biggest adventure was when I missed getting off at the correct the bus stop on the bus from the airport, but didn't realise it for about half an hour. God gave me some angels. Two ladies without English tried to help me, then a bunch of kids with a basketball took me on a merry walk, they guided me to another bus which would bet me back on track and I got to my destination not too much the worse for wear. The whole journey took just over 12 hours. Not too bad.

I slept fairly well last night in a strange bed and feel much refreshed this morning. And we've gotten down to writing. I wrote over 2000 words in about 1 1/2 hours this morning. It needs a lot of editing, but it is great to have unbroken writing time! Something I've hardly experienced for years and years.

It has been exciting to meet other OMF writers too. People, just like me, who are doing other jobs and trying to fit writing around those things. Two Aussie women are here too. Names that I've heard and read about, but never met.

Anyway, it is dinner time and I need that to keep going. More later...

Japanese women #2

I am travelling to Hong Kong today, but here is a post I prepared earlier. This is the second of a four part series on a book I've read recently about Japanese women. It is highly researched and has some good insights. If you go here you'll find the first post of this series.

Motherhood in Japan

• The home tends to pivot around the children, not the adults.
• Japanese mothers tend to spoil their children, boys more than girls are indulged.
• Behaviour in Japan is not necessarily principled action, but situation-appropriate behaviour. The job of teaching morals and values is something most parents leave to society and schools particularly.
• A good mother in Japan is measured by how much she does for the sake of the child. School demand mothers work closely with their children, especially in the early years of primary school. We experienced this at kindergarten too.
• Mothers tend not to promote independence and many Japanese in their early twenties appear immature due to a lack of training for independence. As more women work, this may improve.
• Men generally take little part in raising children, beyond providing the income for the family and being there at important events like graduations. 
• The number of children and therefore years of motherhood have been significantly decreased by contraception (this point is not just for Japan). At the same time life-spans have increased, resulting in a long period in a woman's life where she has no children dependent on her. Hence women these days have more time to do something with their lives besides be a mother and wife.

Feeling nervous

Tomorrow morning I travel alone to Hong Kong for a week-long OMF sponsored Writing Workshop. Strangely enough I am more nervous about the travel than the workshop! This is tomorrow:

5.26am I catch a train for three stops
5.40 Catch a bus direct to the airport

10.10am Fly out of Tokyo direct to Hong Kong
1.35 pm (Hong Kong time) arrive.
Catch the A41P bus from the airport to Shatin Hospital stop
Hopefully there will be someone waiting at the stop when I get there who'll help me catch the mini-bus up the hill to the site of our workshop.

Believe it or not, it was the first two of these that caused me pain at about 3am this morning. I had a dream in which I woke up tomorrow at 5.30 - too late to catch the train . . . and it all deteriorated from there. Catastrophising about anything and everything that could go wrong. Until I ended up in the little room with rumbling insides.

I'm praying that I'll sleep better tonight. At least I'll be able to get up early and get on with it. I hate nerves like this. They take over your body and mind. They get out of control and I hate feeling out of control of myself.

I'm sure that once I'm in that bus and even more, waiting to get into the plane, I'll be fine. If only I could skip these waiting hours.

Shopping on a bike

There are many things different between Japan and Australia. One of them is that you don't do a once-a-week shop in Japan. Shopping trolleys are smaller, storage in the kitchen is smaller and somehow the fruit is riper, so it doesn't keep a week anyway. I also feel a certain amount of peer pressure. I just feel uncomfortable standing there with loads and loads of groceries while I hold up the line of Japanese housewives who usually have about 10 items or less in their baskets.


The other reason why it is not good to buy lots is that when you shop at a local shop you usually don't take your car. It is faster, most often, to ride your bike. And many shops don't have car parks anyway. This is what happened today when I forgot momentarily that I had a bike, not a car outside the shop.

It took some juggling. The eggs survived and so did the ice cream, despite it being 35 degrees or so. The ride home is only 5 minutes. My bag rode slung across my chest instead of in the basket.

This is nothing for many in Asia. I've heard amazing stories of what can be carried on a bike. Including a mattress in Bangladesh. Usually you don't see such amazing heroics in Japan. Probably the most I've seen on a bike is a mum with three kids.

I'm not up to that kind of heroics. I get too wobbly. However it is an adjustment coming back here. Learning again to shop regularly. Mind you it is not such a time waster as going to a big Australian grocery store. The shops are small and turnover fast. You're there and back before you know it...unless you encounter a foreigner trying to buy a week's worth of groceries in one go and holding up the register.

New schedules to adjust to

Today we have staggered return times for the males of the family.

5 y.o. finished at 12
7 y.o. finishes at 3.30
11 y.o. finishes at 5.30
Husband comes home at something 9 or 10ish.

Both the first and last of these are unusual. Our youngest is in kindergarten at CAJ. They have a lead-in of seven days of early finishing times. From next Friday he'll begin having full days. 8.25-3.30.

My husband has a meeting at another school related to the interschool competitions that he 'coaches' kids for. This is one is a start of the year meeting, thankfully.

Our new middle-schooler has joined the school cross-country team and trains from 3.45 till 5.30 three times a week now. Sport here is more intense than it is for most schools in Australia. He'll have 'meets' most Saturdays from the 11th of September. His real passion is basketball, but that is not offered until the "winter" season. This will be good for his fitness, as well as a way to make friends. It is an adjustment for me to not having him home until so late. My child is growing up! I don't even have to go and get him. We live close to school and it is safe enough for him to walk home on his own.

Meanwhile my youngest have some "just you and me" time today and tomorrow. We have to go out and get him some more sandals and shorts. Three summers in 15 months has worn our boys' wardrobe down quite a bit. I'm so ready for some cold winter, I tell you!

First day of school full of unexpecteds for Mum

Today my boys started school again - for the second time this year. First in Australia in January and now here in Japan at the Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ).

Firstly it felt like any other day. We've been waiting for this red-letter day for a long time, but all was relatively calm (if you don't count our nearly 8 y.o. dancing in the hall at 6.30). In ample time we walked out the door and ambled five minutes down the road to school. Cool hey!

When we got there the boys didn't know what to do. So many kids in the playground. So few that they knew. So many parents milling around. I was overwhelmed at how hot it already was at 8.15! Thankfully at 8.25 the whistle blew (the playground is small enough that a bell isn't necessary at that time) and all children disappeared. Mine disappeared with hardly a farewell, so keen were they.

The next ten minutes were my surprise. Within moments I'd run into people I hadn't seen for a year or more. One family we knew from our church here but didn't realise our kids were in the same class. Another family we'd first met at our son's Japanese kindergarten five years ago, but are now at CAJ. I saw two special ladies with whom I'd shared deeply at a women's conference back in 2008. And an Australian lady came up an introduced herself to the apparently famous Australian on campus - me!

I'd realised that I had the morning (first day was a half-day only) to myself, so had planned to do some boy-free non-food shopping, but those plans were quickly changed when a Canadian friend asked if I was free now. She was busy inviting people over to coffee at her house to welcome a lady from her mission what had just enrolled her children at CAJ for the first time and was therefore new to the community. I said, "Yes, actually, I am free."

So I spent the morning with a bunch of other ladies. We sat around all morning, catching up, getting to know one another and sharing. We prayed too. It was fun and special.

The group itself was interesting - Taiwanese, Thai, Canadian, Brazilian, Australia, US and Japanese Christian women, all fellowshipping around a table. This is one of the joys of missionary service. We laughed. I also nearly cried a few times.

Somehow the whole day got a bit emotional - good and bad. Excitement at that my boys were finally all at school here in Japan. Shock at the realisation that I could suddenly change plans, if I wanted to, without discussing it with or explaining it to anyone. I shared about an issue close to my heart with a friend and became teary. I heard about a 7th grader whose Mum had been killed a couple of weeks ago by a car as she walked to the train station here in Tokyo and deep emotions began to rumble. My new middle schooler stayed nearly two hours after school for a cross country meeting and practise and coming home so excited his words wouldn't stop long enough to eat lunch at 2pm. My nearly 8 y.o. becoming close to hysterical with excitement midway through the afternoon.

Then the straw the broke the camel's back. My husband came home from school, rescuing me from death-by-crazy-children. Soon after he reminded me that we needed to call a special number in Australia to activate our new credit cards (replacements for expired cards). He did it himself and succeeded easily. I tried and failed dismally.

To confirm my identity I had to give them certain information - pretty standard stuff.  However we've moved and not a mere cross-city move. Before we left Australia we'd gone to the bank and changed all our details so that everything went to my parents' address. So I gave the operator the details I believed that the bank already had. Partway through the exchange I looked at the letter which came with our credit card and realised with horror that it still had our old address on it. Therefore, I'd presumably been giving her incorrect information.

Believe it or not, in the background of the operator there was a large amount of noise - more than in my house. Apparently her colleagues were celebrating something or other. So I found my self shouting over the noise and getting more emotional by the minute.

She couldn't, for security reasons, say to me, "I'm sorry, but you've given me the incorrect address." That simple phrase would have helped a lot! After a bit she advised me to go to my nearest branch to check my details with them!!!! I practically shouted at her, "But I'm in Japan." "Oh," she says and put me on hold again.

When she came back she said told me I'd have to hang up, check my details (in less polite language it would read - 'get your answers sorted out, you incompetent') and call back later. At which I burst into tears, hung up and raced to my room, sobbing. Gasping-for-breath type sobbing.

I could hardly fathom why I was so upset. Probably it was the insinuation in my mind that I was incompetent on top of an already fairly emotional, hot day.

Thankfully my husband eventually came up and talked to me, reassuring me that I wasn't incompetent, merely still under quite a lot of transition stress. Then he cooked dinner. I stayed lying down, reading until dinner time.

So, that was my day. Not your ordinary run-of-the-mill day. Thankfully!

Oh, and the boys had good days, from what I can tell. I asked people to pray for them. But forgot to ask people to pray for me.