Japanese class.

All the new Japan missionaries have been taking a Japanese class courtesy of the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Association, but since I've already studied it I get individual tutoring twice a week. Every session starts with a reading from Yohane ni Yoru Fukuinsho, the Gospel According to John, in my new copy of the Shin'yaku Seisho, the New Testament.

Cutest New Testament ever?

These are stories I've grown up reading and hearing, but somehow reading and discussing it with my teachers in a different language than English puts everything in a new light. The Wedding at Cana, where Jesus changes water into wine for example--once in high school or college I heard a speaker say "Jesus' first miracle was to keep the party going," and he thus affirmed human fellowship and celebration--and good wine. It was a sentiment I held on to for years. But when I was discussing the story of the Kana de no Konrei with Morikawa-sensei, he explained, in Japanese, how he saw the miracle of the wine--the good wine--as foreshadowing the saving blood Jesus would later shed at the Cross. I'd never made that connection before. And then I noticed that the jars were for ritual purification (kiyome)--more symbolism! The Japanese Bible also takes pronounciations and place names from the original Greek and Hebrew, so some of the names and locations are unrecognizable at first glance--Kaferunaumu is Capernaum, Petoro is Peter. It's a gift. The words are no longer just a chant I've long been desensitized to.

Then after a break, we crack open my brand new Japanese textbook. It's intermediate-level, something I originally thought would be too easy for me. (This was before I was humbled by my rice cooker.) But what I neglected to notice when Morikawa-sensei picked out the book for me at Kinokuniya was that this thing is entirely in Japanese, with no precious glossary or translations to help me, either. After I stumble through a short essay and verbally answer questions about it, we go over grammar points and new expressions. Homework is leftover questions (more when I have a particularly "slow" day) or a weekly essay... which I have the bad habit of starting at 8pm the night before it's due. College all over again.

Essay on Thanksgiving, corrected by
Morikawa-sensei.

Morikawa-sensei and Narabu-sensei have been really great teachers, and I'm grateful to them for taking two hours out of their week to listen to an American girl stumble through the story of the Feeding of the 5,000 and a short essay on world food customs, and then teach her the appropriate use of the "(verb)-to (verb phrase)-yōde (adjective)-naru" construction. Narabu-sensei even prints out pages from guidebooks and gives me suggestions on where to go in Tokyo on my free time along with some insider info. (Did you know the founder of Panasonic donated the giant lantern at Kaminari-Mon ["Thunder Gate"] at Sensō Temple in Asakusa? His name is on the bottom of the lantern.) I really do love being a student... but the last class is this Friday and in a few short months I'll be a teacher myself. I hope I can have half the patience and positivity of my Japanese teachers here in Tokyo.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV)