Author: Nathaniel Reutter

No doubt about it, the blooming of the Sakura (or Cherry-blossoms) is the highlight that kicks off Japan’s spring, but this year it was anything but usual. For starters, the unusual amounts of warmth and sun we had early on in the year triggered the blooming of the Sakura in the Tokyo area 2 weeks sooner than normal. On top of that, usually when Sakura starts to bloom, it all turns very fast and goes full bloom — the pinnacle moment of the Sakura experience. This year it was a long, drawn out drama that intensified and played out before our eyes.

But on a personal note, what made this year so unusual was that we finally got to have Grandpa and Grandma with us again. It had been almost 4 years since they last visited — not because they didn’t want to, but because they couldn’t. They lined their trip up precisely to come when the kids were on Spring Break, and in amazing fashion the Sakura collaborated by blooming right as they came. It all worked together for a most memorable year of unusual happenings, one in which we could try to pack in 4 years worth of memories in one visit.

What we read in books and online, what we watch on TV and on the internet, and pretty much any kind of content created anywhere is curated to show exactly what the creator wants you to see. This goes to an extreme on social media, where the pictures and videos we share are the highlights of our life experiences. But real life is something that happens in-between all those moments.

What we refer to as quality of life is a product of our real lives. It’s what people don’t see that matters. Sure, you can take fun pictures together at amazing locations and project an image of having a great quality of life, but you would only be fooling others. Those images would do nothing for you to actually be experiencing a good quality of life.

So I’ve been wanting to make a special kind of video for a while. It’s the kind of video that’s challenging to make. Why is that? It’s my best effort to show you our “real life” — those everyday habits and things that make life full and rich and purposeful. While I did my best to show it, it is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what real life is really like. And yet, in some ways, this I feel is one of the most important videos we have ever made.

Happiness is not the goal of a family. If happiness becomes the goal, then we will be disappointed each and every time we face big challenges in our family relationships. Likewise, quality of life is not the goal of a the family. If that were the case, then we will be disappointed whenever someone else apparently has a better quality of life than us, and we will chase after whatever thing or experience they have.

The goal of the family must be based on something more enduring, at the heart of what family is and what it was made for. You’ll notice in this video that we center our life around our faith, and the bedrock of that faith is the Bible, the inspired word of God. From the Bible we can base our life on not just what we perceive to be important, but on that which God has shown us to be of utmost importance. And when we do that, God’s blessing is upon the family and the results are a life full of joy, hope, love, purpose, fun, etc.

We have our kids say declarations of who they are before they head off to school each day. These declarations are not just positive thinking aimed to get positive results (although I do believe they also work that way), they are first and foremost biblical truths of who we are when we are in Christ, and these truths inform us on our core identity, no matter what other kind of nonsense we might hear. Someone asked us to post these declarations, so I am posting them here.

I am the head and not the tail.
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
I have the mind of Christ.
The joy of the Lord is my strength.
I am beautiful/awesome inside and out, full of the Holy Spirit.
I am blessed to be a blessing.

These declarations are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to who we are in Christ, for the Bible is full of powerful truths the speak to our very nature. That’s why one of the most powerful things you can do, whether you are Christian or not, is to start reading the Bible each day. The Bible is no ordinary book — it is a compilation of extraordinary writings inspired by God over hundreds and hundreds of years.

I would recommend starting with the book of John and as you read, make a very real and heartfelt prayer to God to show you these truths. Then read some each and every day. If you do this, your life will never be the same.

Some people lament because their family is not like ours and they could never enjoy the same kind of results in their family. But it is not only possible, but it is inevitable if you practice these basics. The right foundations will give you the right results, even if it take time.

I can hardly think of a bigger life change than moving, especially if it’s to a new city or especially a new country, and in this last year Ruth and I and all of Ruth’s siblings and their families have moved. That’s a lot of change! But the most recent was Ruth’s younger brother Paul and his wife Pri, who just moved an hour away from us to the seaside city of Hiratsuka to plant a new Paz Church.

Moving is bittersweet. It marks a new chapter in life, and with it come new challenges and mountains to climb. Ruth is especially close with her family, so it’s hard to say goodbye to her brother’s family who have lived so close, even though they will only be an hour away.

But this is the life that we live. It’s full of comings and goings, hellos and goodbyes. This world is no one’s permanent home — no ones! So you learn to appreciate what you have when you have it and to let go when the time comes. The price of love is grief — grief when you lose what you loved. But for us we know that strong relationships grounded in love endure moves, changes, difficulties and even death itself.

Ultimately it’s only those things that have truly been grounded in Love that will endure. And that’s what makes big changes such a good thing — it helps us filter out all of the superfluous things that so easily entangle our lives and see in a clearer way the things — or I should say the relationships — that really matter. The more we focus on those things, the more meaningful each and every moment of our lives become.

If you would have told me about 5 years ago what Life in Japan would become, I wouldn’t have believed you. The initial concept was basic and foundational: videos about our family’s life in Japan. The naming and theme of the channel followed the conventions of several other established J-vloggers (those vlogging about their lives here), but instead we’re following a foreign family with 4 kids who are in Japanese schools. This is a family who is constantly adjusting to life in Japan!

After nearly 5 years on YouTube, we see ourselves at 146K+ subscribers and growing. And to celebrate our 200th episode, we took a walk down memory lane and asked everyone their favorite episode of Life in Japan so far.

But Life in Japan doesn’t come without its challenges. In fact many times along the way we’ve considered, strongly at times, stopping the YouTube channel, or at least giving it a break. But each time I feel stressed out about what ideas to film, or what new angles to pursue, of how I’m going to finish another video, I keep coming back to the original premise: our family’s life in Japan. And that takes the pressure of what to produce off my shoulders and I can get back to what it was originally about. Documenting this beautiful process that is adapting to a new place and culture and letting that process change you.

Yes, I know we haven’t navigated everything perfectly. We still often make cultural mistakes that we only find out about after posting a video. But by and large there continues to be a very positive outlook that people from different places and cultures can live together and see eye-to-eye and even learn to appreciate and respect one another. And seeing eye-to-eye is something the world could use a whole lot more of.

So in honor of the 200th episode of Life in Japan, let me ask you: what was your favorite episode?

We love our sushi. It wasn’t always that way — I mean Ruth has always liked sushi, but not me. It wasn’t until we moved here to Japan that we began eating sushi. I never choose it personally, but when friends and family would choose where to eat, we would usually end up at a sushi restaurant. Soon I found that not only did I not mind, but I looked forward to eating sushi!

Fast forward to this year. Our good friends John and Silvia invited us to try their favorite sushi restaurant with them, a place called Sushi no Midori. This isn’t a conveyor-belt sushi — this is tried and trued Japanese sushi prepared as you order by a chef you can watch work! And the sushi did NOT disappoint.

When you move to a foreign country, it takes a lot of adapting. First impressions can be deceiving… me with sushi for example. But the more you give something a try, and the more you work at adapting — whether it’s a new country, a new town, a new job — the more you might even find, like me, that you like it. Keeping an open mind towards life, even towards things we don’t initially like, is key to growing in life. I hope I can grow to like things like eel as well. Ha!