Reutter Life in Japan

One day we’d love to travel all around Japan and visit all the different prefectures. We could go to some by car, others by train, others by boat and others still by plane. But one thing for sure: with kids in school and daily lives well fixed here near Tokyo, it may be a while until we accomplish the whole thing.

Maybe we can’t travel to all those places in Japan yet, but recently we got an opportunity to get a taste of them all! Our new friends at Bokksu reached out to us to sponsor a video of us trying their hand-selected snacks and teas from all over Japan. Their subscription service sends you a box each month with different themes, snacks and tea pairings for you to try out even before you ever get to travel there in person. They even ship for free to many places, including the United States!

Whether you want a subscription or just one box to give as a great and unique gift from Japan, you can order your own Bokksu. Get 10% off (save up to $47!) your own authentic Japanese snack box from Bokksu using my link:  https://bit.ly/35eebtg and code LIFEINJAPAN10. Then enjoy!

Anyone who has lived in Japan knows the unique sense of fashion that they have here. There is a mix of ancient and modern, of exquisite and simple. Here, the style from western nations is certainly different. So when ZenMarket contacted us about sponsoring one of our videos so that we could try some of their Japanese kids clothes, we were very intrigued.

To say that our kids liked the clothes would be an understatement. It was one of the easiest videos to do because the kids liked the clothes so much. The moment the clothes are washed and dried, the kids want to put them on first! What makes them unique? Check out our video to see more. And if you’d like to check out their fantastic lines of kids clothes, cruise on over to http://bit.ly/zp-kids and while you’re there see the other great authentic Japanese items that they sell and ship worldwide.

Did you know you were born to be loved? Not everyone experiences the kind of unconditional love that a healthy parent has for their child, but the amazing thing is that God loves us perfectly. Don’t believe me? Just look at Jesus. He was sent from God as a light into the world. He famously said “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son (Jesus), that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.” Perfect love moved God to send His most precious son to get us back from the effects of a fallen world.

It seems like the only news we get today is bad news, but it doesn’t have to be that way. The word Gospel means “Good News,” and it is truly the best news of all. You can’t just ignore bad news or be oblivious to the suffering in the world around you, that would just be cruel. But you can shift your focus to the Good news of the Gospel and let that hope shine out for others. Good and evil and not like ying and yang (two equal opposites). Good is infinitely more powerful than evil. A little bit of good can drive away an entire lifetime of evil, just as one candle can dispel a whole environment of darkness. One righteousness man (Jesus) dying on behalf of humanity is enough to redeem (or buy back) all of humanity!

So no matter what your situation is, no matter how dark your life seems, know this: God loves you and wants you to experience this love that transforms your life. Yes, the world can be a terrible place, but God’s power to redeem any situation for the good is bigger yet.

If you’re interested in more, you can follow us at Paz Church. We have a large selection of messages and music that will lift your spirit up and help shift your focus. If you’d like to chat with someone, you can reach one of our trained chat coaches at https://chooselife.jp/.

The Japanese school bag, or Randoseru, is the staple of elementary education in Japan. Kids get one robust randoseru and use it from the time they enter 1st grade to the day they graduate 6th grade. They are one of the most unique features of the Japanese education system.

But the love for the Randoseru doesn’t have to end with elementary school though, as companies such as the Hako have begun to make these unique Japanese backpacks for adults too. Stylish and beautiful, we got to try them out for ourselves and see if they fit into our daily lives. Here it goes — we’re trying out some Randoserus for grown-ups on Life in Japan!

If Corona has taught us anything, it’s the art of living, working and adventuring in (or close to) home. And while many types of tourism are struggling, there are some that are thriving. For instance, take camping. The very fact of being off by yourself in nature somewhere is something that (for the most part) works very well in an era of “social” distancing (which is a terrible name — it should be called physical distancing).

We had plans early in 2020, before COVID changed the world, to do some camping. So we bought a tent, got camping supplies and geared up for the camping season. We were fortunate to get some camping in, but something very unexpected happened. When shutdowns became the norm, people everywhere turned to camping as an outlet for their vacation woes.

It was no different over Golden Week. We had planned on a great camping trip, but due to the high amount of reservations made way in advance, we had trouble finding a camping ground. One full place led to another, until we decided we would do the next best thing: camp at home. Here’s our home camping adventure!