Kumamoto life begins.

It's been a while since I've posted--over a month!--and for that I apologize. The past several weeks have been full of ups and downs, and several times over the past few weeks I've settled in to try and write a blog post only to erase the whole thing in frustration when I realized I had no idea what to say.

Near Kumamoto Lutheran Church.

Culture shock is probably the biggest culprit. They told us at orientation last July that it would hit about three months in--and they weren't kidding. Unfortunately it's not something you can really prepare for. For me it's manifested itself as an annoying brain fog, a general melancholy mood, and a tendency toward pessimism. It's especially apparent when I do things like go out to buy more toilet paper and realize painfully that the only other non-Japanese women downtown are the models on the sign outside the lingerie store. I've been watching much more American TV lately. (Thanks, iTunes! But I'm kind of running up a bill there now.)

Also, poor Caroline has been struggling the past few weeks after a one-two punch of a virus followed almost immediately by the dreaded flu. Both rage in Japan this time of year, they say. Several homerooms at my school have actually been sent home for a few days because of the high proportion of ill students. Caroline's been doing much better lately--fever-free for a week now!--but after almost a month of illness, she has to take things slow for a while. We're all just thrilled she can leave her apartment.

So here's a peek at what we've been doing in the past four weeks, and what our life in Kumamoto is shaping up to be like.

The city.

It's about a two-hour flight from Tokyo to Kumamoto.

Kumamoto City, population 734,000, is the capital of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu. It's the eighteenth-largest city in Japan, and famous for its castle, unique dialect, and raw horse meat, a delicacy known as basashi that I have yet to try. It's actually quite a bustling metropolis, and the street I live on now is busier than the street I lived on in Tokyo--I've been woken up by sirens from passing ambulances a couple of times, which never happened in Tokyo.

The densha.

But there's a much more local feel around here. There aren't too many tourists, aside from the castle and the park, and I think shop owners have started to recognize us. We've had several encounters with students downtown--and we haven't even started teaching yet. Gone is the 882-station, 121-line spiderweb that was the Tokyo train system; in its place is a charming streetcar system which so simple that we just call it the densha ("train") and everyone knows exactly what we're talking about (though occasionally we have to specify Line A or Line B). There's also a city bus system that's quite a bit more confusing, but at least I know exactly which routes stop at my school. Speaking of which...

My school.

My school, illustrated in a much prettier season.

Starting in April, which is the beginning of Japan's school year, Morgan and I will teach conversational English at Kyushu Luther Academy, established in 1926 as an all-girls' high school but now coed and with its own junior high school plus a college. (Caroline will work at the confusingly-named Kyushu Academy, a.k.a. KyuGaku, established 1911, of which Luther is the sister school.)

I'll be coaching for stuff like this a lot.

I will be team-teaching with Japanese English teachers, and most of my students will be the equivalent of American high school juniors. I will also be correcting tests, coaching for speech contests, orientating students preparing to study abroad in Anglophone countries, and a host of other things. I'm honestly a little bit terrified, but Ally, Allyson, Christine, and Patrick, the J-3s who have been here for a year or two have been incredibly kind, reassuring, and helpful. And Katie, who came here as a J-3 twelve years ago and still works as an English teacher at Luther, has gone above and beyond in helping orient all three of us both to school life and to church life. The best part is, none of them get mad when I ask the same question two or three times without remembering that I'd already asked it a week ago (I blame it on the culture-shock brain fog). And watching them take joy in their work has been incredibly inspiring.

Both schools are of course very much tied up in the history of Lutheran missions in Kumamoto and of the J-3 program itself, which I'll talk about in future posts, hopefully. It's a fascinating topic. Did you know that the J-3 program dates back almost 60 years? I had no idea of the legacy I was stepping into when I signed up for this job last April. I have very large and well-worn shoes to fill.

Church.
Truth be told, I don't have one yet. Kumamoto City has five Lutheran churches, and at the end of March Caroline, Morgan, and I will each choose one to be attached to for the rest of our time here. I've had the opportunity to visit all of them for their Sunday morning services, and it's going to be incredibly hard to pick one, I can tell. I have been welcomed everywhere with smiling faces and, more often than not, delicious food.

Kumamoto Lutheran Church.

Also, every Sunday evening at Kumamoto Lutheran there's an English-language international worship service run by the Lutheran missionaries and J-3s here in town. (I will likely be taking an active role here, too.) I had no idea how much I missed hearing the Word and singing hymns and praise songs in English until I went to this for the first time last month. Learning the Bible in Japanese has been an incredibly valuable experience, and I do enjoy experiencing Japanese-language church services. But sermons in Japanese still sail straight over my head, and at the international service we sing a lot of the same songs I used to sing at camp. I think this will be one of the highlights of my week.

Recent activities.

The top of Mount Hanaoka at 6:30am on January 30. It was cold!

Along with our regular Japanese classes, we've been given multiple opportunities to experience the culture and history of Kumamoto. Naturally, our instruction has put a special emphasis on the Christian history of the area, so our first "big" activity was waking up at 4:30am on January 30 to ride a bus up the narrow, winding road to the top of Mount Hanaoka (elevation 434 feet) outside the city and commemorate the 137th anniversary of the so-called "Kumamoto Band," a group of students from the Kumamoto School of Western Learning, who climbed to the top of Mount Hanaoka in 1876 and declared their commitment to Christ even in the face of heavy persecution by their families.

Nowadays, of course, Christianity is no longer violently persecuted around here, though it's also not common. But it was still quite a powerful experience to be on top of a mountain as the sun rose, singing hymns in Japanese while dodging the sparks coming from the huge bonfire everyone was gathered around. The news media (who brought cameras and photographers) said there were about 300 people these that morning, ten times the size of the original 1876 group.

Another highlight was last Friday, when Morgan, Caroline, and I were invited to the home of a member of a local church who also happened to be a tea master for a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. But first we were outfitted in lovely kimonos by our sensei and a group of her students. After being ambushed by three or four church ladies at a time carrying various kimono parts, of course we had to have a photoshoot.

My mother is going to be passing this photo around for the next two years.

I have no idea how they tied those bows.

Sitting seiza next to a doll display for Hinamatsuri, or Girls' Day, coming up next month.
Note the crucifix display in the corner; a Christian adaptation of the traditional Japanese household shrine.

Then we were treated to a tea ceremony in the old Kumamoto style, called Higo after the old name of Kumamoto Prefecture. We entered the tea room, did the traditional acknowledgements of the instruments of the ceremony, and finally sat in seiza style (seen in the above photo) around a boiling teapot that sat over a small charcoal hearth set deep into the tatami straw mat floor. We were first served traditional Japanese sweets (wagashi) before being served a chawan full of hot, frothy tea made from matcha (powdered green tea). (They say the sweetness of the wagashi counterbalances the bitterness of the tea.)

Every bit of the ceremony is ritualized and traces back to ancient China, though the Higo style dates back "only" 400 years. It also has connections to Buddhism, though I noticed that one of the tea cups (chawan) in this Christian home had a cross on it. I was reminded of a lecture we attended back at the Lutheran seminary in Tokyo wherein the the tea ceremony was compared to the ritual of Holy Communion. (They have a surprising number of similarities, especially in the purification rituals.)

After a couple attempts at mixing our own tea ourselves, Sensei's students joined us as we snacked on strawberries and apple slices with their peels cut in the shape of rabbit ears. We chatted for a little while in our limited Japanese/their limited English before we got up, stretched our aching legs, and went back to the changing room to get back into our yōfuku (Western clothing). It was a lovely afternoon.

The people.
Always the best part of every place I go in this country. Always.

I have met missionaries, teachers, students, pastors, church people, and even local English teachers (mostly with the JET Program) and have had a blast with every one of them. Birthday parties (celebrated mine last month), feasts at church and local restaurants, board game parties... there's been lots of good fellowship and the start of what I hope will turn out to be great friendships.

An assortment of Kumamoto J-3s and missionaries.

We J-3s have been watched over quite well here in Kumamoto, as well. I am so grateful to all the missionaries, teachers, pastors, and church members who have taken time out to guide us through the bureaucracy of address registration; show us around town; plan cooking lessons, craft lessons, and tea ceremonies; orient us to our new jobs; and take us to places we need to go. I really have no idea what we'd do without them.

As a bonus, last week a couple of dear friends from my old Tokyo church were able to make it down here for a few hours. We grabbed dinner at a local Chinese restaurant and talked and laughed for hours while I showed them the very few parts of Kumamoto that I know. (It's an interesting experience to be a foreigner showing people around their own native country.) It was the perfect cure for my loneliness and culture shock.

Morgan, Caroline, and I are just a little over a month away from the beginning of our "real" J-3 duties. Despite all our orientation, I really have no idea what to expect. But maybe that's okay. God's done amazing things in this country, through J-3s and missionaries and ordinary people alike. I'm excited to be serving Him in this community.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
Ephesians 2:19-20 (NIV)