Reutter's Life in JapanA few weeks ago we tried out this restaurant that is, hands down, the most incredible restaurant experience we’ve had. Imagine that Disney met with Ninjas from ancient Japan and got together with some great modern Japanese chefs to collaborate on a restaurant, and this is what you would get. When I recently asked the kids what was their favorite Life in Japan episode, a number of them said this one. And when you see it, you see why.
Recently I had a lifelong dream come true — I went skiing with my kids. You see, growing up I have amazing memories of skiing with my family. Since we lived in Illinois, possibly the flattest state in all of America, we had to drive several hours just to go skiing. Our favorite trips were ones that took several days to make it all the way out to Colorado. On those trips, we would ski our legs off, and boy was it fun. We were young and fearless, and soon we could tackle any ski course you could throw our way.
Fast-forward to this year. Rebecca and Anna went on a two-day ski trip with their junior-high school class, getting lessons and a lot of practice in. They came back chomping at the bit to go skiing. I knew my good friend John takes his boys skiing at least once a year, so we planned a special one-night family trip, him with his boys and me with my girls. I was very curious to see how well the girls were doing. And the girls were ready for a vacation! Little did I know just how special this trip would be for all of us.
You see, skiing is great, but it’s what skiing does that’s truly important. Learning to ski is a big challenge. Every bit of progress takes determination, a positive attitude and overcoming fear. But as progress is made, you start to believe in yourself. That you can do this. That you can conquer your fears and the challenge. The experience becomes an incredible bonding experience. And with my girls now teenagers, it’s so important to constantly be connecting with them.
I know that a ski trip is not exactly an educational or spiritual trip so to speak, but being able to connect with my teenage daughters on a deep level, learning new skills and making memories — that to me is absolutely priceless. It’s these kinds of moments that give you relational credit that will help when you get back to everyday life.
Life is wonderful, but it’s easy to lose sight of how wonderful it is. My prayer is that I don’t lose the wonder of life, and I don’t lose sight of how purposeful a life lived well can be. But a life lived well will certainly result in a healthy family with good relationships. No amount of success is worth losing any family members over. Things like work and school are temporary. Even the longest careers will at some point end. But family doesn’t end — it goes on and on. Even after we are gone, our family and descendants live on! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the most important work there is is family.
And here I set out to write about a ski trip. But it’s not about the skiing after all.
Things have been busy here in Japan, at home and at church. Here are some highlights from the start of the year… did you miss any of these?
We’ve not just been dreaming of a great 2023, but we’re planning on it. We can’t change much of what is happening in the world, but we sure can plan on making the most of it. And one of the keys to doing that is to not just imagine the future you’d like to see, but visualize it and write it down.
Perhaps one of your future goals involve coming to Japan? Well in that case we have a number of tips for coming to Japan, whether to visit or to stay, that can make the difference between a mediocre trip and a great one. You don’t want to travel before seeing what’s on this list!
Once you’re here, there’s an overwhelming amount of places to go and things to do. How do you narrow it down? Well, if you’re a Nintendo fan and you’re in Shibuya, then you might want to check out the world’s first official Nintendo Store. First opened in 2019, this is quite a unique experience.
While Nintendo may only be interesting to some, eating is interesting to everyone. And when you’re in Japan, you absolutely must try conveyor-belt sushi! It’s a fashion of some of the best aspects of Japanese culture.
People sometimes ask “what kind of things do you do at Paz Church? Can you make a video about that?” Well, even though we have made a number of videos about that, the best way to see what we do is to subscribe to our Paz Church channel, because it’s full of awesome content that won’t just entertain you, but has the power to change your life! Take for example this exciting song we recently produced.
I’ve helped produce loads of fantastic music videos with Paz over the years, but one of my favorite things to do is to preach. Nothing has the power to change us like the Gospel — nothing! So whether it’s having a happy family, good relationships, planning for 2023 or just trying to live happy, how do you actually change? Well one of the names of God has to do with this — you don’t want to miss this video!
So now you have to do us a favor — visit us at Paz Church. And if you live and Tokyo and have not yet visited us on a Sunday at Paz Church, what are you waiting for?! Here’s your invitation! Each week we meet people for the first time and have a blast getting to know our online family, and we’d love to meet you! Now tell me, what would you like to see for your life in 2023?
Entering into a new year is always a special time, and that couldn’t be any more true than it is in Japan. We enter into a new year with lots of hopes and expectations (good and bad) about what the year to come will bring. Only at the end of the year can we truly look back and see the year for what it really was. And when we look back at 2022, what a roller-coaster year it was!
But when you talk about the New Year in Japan, you have to consider the fact that it is one of their biggest holidays. People go back to their hometowns to spend the holidays with their family. They eat special traditional meals that are full of meaning. In many ways, it reminds me of Thanksgiving in America, and shares many of the same aspects. This new year we tried the traditional Japanese meal, or Osechi, for the first time. The results were interesting.
In this video, we unintentionally did the major no-no in Japanese culture, which is passing food via chopsticks from one person to another. The reason? The only time you do that is at a certain type of funeral in Japan! And such is learning a new culture. You will make mistakes along the way, but the important thing is to learn from your mistakes and keep on learning!
We’ve lived in Japan over 8 years, and just in this short time we’ve seen Christmas grow each year, which is great because we love Christmas. Months before Christmas comes, we start planning the celebrations that we’ll have: Paz Candlelight services, family coming into town, Christmas decorations going up and big meals. It’s all a part of our holiday celebrations in Japan.
It’s only been a couple of months since our move, and we’re still getting settled into our new life here in the apartment. But Ruth made our place look like a million bucks by decorating it all for Christmas. With us settled in, it was time to finally do our official tour of our Japanese apartment, decorations and all.