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Japan’s Rainy Season

Growing up in the heart of America, we had 4 distinct seasons, and each one had their extremes. The heat of the Illinois summer really cooks, but on the opposite extreme the cold of the winter was enough to get frostbite if you weren’t careful. The weather in the prairies of America is volatile — you can get huge temperature swings in the same day, and the most ferocious thunderstorms in the summer.

Compare that to Brazil, when we lived there, and there were only two season. 6 months of rain broken with super humid heat and sunshine, followed by 6 hotter months of pure sunshine. That was a huge adjustment to make, but by the time I had lived there 7 years I was adapted.

Now Japan is different from all of those. We have 5 seasons in Japan! Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring and Rainy season. I guess officially it is only 4 seasons, and within those four seasons, the fall, winter and spring are much more mild then I was used to further north in Illinois.

But before you can get to the summer, you have to go through several weeks of constant rain. This rain is not like the thunderstorms of Illinois or the broken clouds and downpours of Brazil. It is typically days on end of endless rain, sometimes broken by a slight stop that then resumes again. It drags on and on and makes you wish for some sun. When the sun does come out, it blazes away before things cloud up again. Yes, this is Japan’s rainy season, and it’s in full swing.

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The Ikea Bed Construction Nightmare

We like IKEA. Most of our furniture comes from there. When we first moved to Japan, we spent over 3 days just assembling all of our Ikea furniture! For us, it was nice having an option to save some money and do the assembly ourselves.

Recently we wanted to update the kids’ room, and were shopping for a second bunk bed. That’s when it happened. Ruth came across a sale item at Ikea, a bunk bed at a great price. It looked perfect, so she bought it. Little did we know it would turn into the Ikea Bed Construction Nightmare.

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A Taste of 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!

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Japanese Fashion for Kids

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.

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Born to be Loved

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/.