It finally happened — we had our first one-day camping excursion in Japan! We’ve been planning this for a long time, but then came society shutdown of 2020 and everything changed :). Now that we’re in July, enough of the restrictions have been removed to allow us to go camping nearby. And we had a blast — and did all this for cheap! We enjoyed the sights of Mount Fuji, local wildlife, fun parks and of course the staple of any camping excursion: the campfire. We even got hit with a rainstorm in the night that really kept things lively. We ended up pulling out of the campsite early because of the rain, but it didn’t damper our time. We had an epic one day trip!
So now we can’t wait to do it again — but July has done nothing but rain. In fact other parts of Japan have been hit so hard that major flooding has happened. Our hearts go out to everyone who has been affected — we know what it feels like to (almost) lose everything. We were threatened with flooding just last year during the massive typhoon that brought so much damage to our area.
This year has certainly been a difficult year for many reasons, and never before has it been so apparent our need for God, his love, his protection, his care and his peace in our heart. The love of God given through Jesus allows us have peace in the storm and special moments together give us a glimpse of what eternity with Jesus will be like — away from pain and destruction, away from fear and viruses, where we can get lost in the moment. God gives us glimpses of eternity in everyday life, but it’s easy to miss if we’re not looking for it. Where are those moments for you? Is it out camping? Out in nature? Is it while driving or walking? Is it while putting on some great music or reading a good book? Singing your child to sleep? There are many ways this can be triggered, but it all points to the eternal purpose we have in God.
Have you ever tried to learn a foreign language? If English is not your mother tongue and you’re reading this — congratulations!! That’s a major accomplishment! Learning another language broadens a person’s perspective more than perhaps just about anything else out there. And there’s nothing easy about it.
It took me about a year of full-time study of the Portuguese language before I had enough of a foundation to learn the rest by studying and using it on my own. The more I immersed myself in Portuguese with Brazilian friends, the better I did in Portuguese. When I moved to Japan I knew I was in for the same thing — only greater.
But that “greater” was even bigger than I thought. Coming from English, a language that is a mix of romantic, Germanic and Scandinavian languages, there was little in common. Kanji is new. The grammar is completely different. Verb tenses are different. Pronunciation is miles apart from English. Even English words, when used in Japanese, can take on a completely different sound. (How about “Kurisumasu” or “Sutahbukusu?” — Christmas and Starbucks!)
But as with anything, if you keep at it and never give up, even if the progress is little, there is progress. Future gains become bigger and bigger, and when things click into place, other things follow behind in a quicker fashion. This is the curve of learning any new skill. Lots of effort with little to show. But keep at it long enough and the curve turns around and with less effort, greater strides are made. That gets you to an intermediate level, where the curve begins all over again.
So if you’re working on a new skill — whether it’s learning a language, an instrument, a new skill or even starting to learn the Bible or a new culture — keep at it! Before you know it, you’re going to hit that curve that propels you to an intermediate level and be so glad you did.
I have to admit that I am very fortunate when it comes to finances. I grew up with an unfair advantage: my dad was a hard-working accountant who knew how to control money without being controlled by money. Not only did he know it, but he lived it and taught us to do the same from a young age. The only way I am able to afford living in one of the world’s most expensive cities with such a big family is not because I have a huge income — it’s because I was taught how to use the income I have.
I wasn’t handed a bank account full of money. My parents encouraged me to get a job and start earning money for myself. When I first started making my own money, it was mowing lawns of the neighbors around us. I got my few hard-earned bucks and Dad sat me down for the money talk. He taught me to put a percentage of my money away in savings, a percentage of my money to go to the church and a percentage I got to spend. Learning this from a young age, my dad set me on a course of staying out of debt, saving for the future and being generous with my money with God and others. And when you’re generous with your money, God is generous with you. With scholarships, hard work and some saving (from me and my parents), I was able to do college debt free.
In this week’s video Is Tokyo Affordable for Large Foreign Families? I talk a bit about how we make it work for us. There are places where we tighten our belt and other places where we splurge a bit. When all is said and done, we make sure we’re spending less than we’re making (even if it means we live in a house much smaller than what we would prefer).
https://youtu.be/iRoZ7vNqfU4
Now that I’ve been counting my calories to lose weight recently, I’ve been amazed by how much it lines up with finances. You have a certain income (daily caloric intake) that if you exceed, you gain weight that slows you down and makes you unhealthy (you go into debt), but if you’re able to closely count your calories that you consume (your expenses) and balance those against additional income (exercise) and that total is less than your income — you’re going to lose weight (get out of debt). Make sense? In both situations, the key is tracking what’s really happening and exercising self-control.
The process of putting a budget in place, or starting to count calories, is not fun at all. In fact the first implementation of it is time intensive and it feels restrictive. A total downer. But once in place and operating correctly, you’ll be surprised to see where your money really goes. And with enough time the results start to speak for themselves: a life much more full and free of weight, debt and unnecessary excess. It frees you to enjoy life on a whole new level.
What we eat is deeply tied to our customs, culture and the produce of the land we live in. Growing up in the midwest (known as the breadbasket of America) beef, pork and chicken were plentiful. The crops that filled our grocery stores were often grown locally, and those that weren’t were mostly grown in America. There was an almost endless sea of options before you at the supermarket, all at a good price.
When my wife and I moved to northern Brazil, our diet also changed. The variety of food that we enjoyed in America was replaced with Brazil’s staple food of beans and rice. Add to that the local manioc root called “farinha” and a side of meat, and you had yourself a meal. Many Brazilians wouldn’t even consider that they’ve eaten a meal unless they’ve had rice and beans! And the fish! Oh, the fresh-water fish from the Amazon River is second to none. Delicious and plentiful, I developed a deep appreciation for fresh-water fish in Brazil.
But there were times I longed for a good old-fashioned American burger with cheese, corn on the cob with butter and salt, and some apple cider to go along with it. Perhaps a side of potato salad! My mind would recall times enjoyed together with friends and loved ones in America talking and laughing together as the night slipped away. Ah! There’s more to what we like to eat than just taste. Often our favorite foods are our favorites for a reason: they remind us of a good experience — a beautiful view or a special time in life. A certain meal at a particular restaurant can remind us of when we fell in love, and other places can trigger nostalgia.
Now that we live in Japan, the rice and beans of Brazil have been replaced with the staples of Japan: sticky rice, seafood and ramen with a base of soy sauce. There’s a completely different taste to the palette of Japanese cuisine. If you didn’t grow up eating things like natto (fermented beans) or mugichya (tea), you might just gag your first time trying them. That is, until you develop the palette for it. Customs and cultures are as much like cuisine as anything else. What we grow up is normal to us — until we’re introduced to something else. If we keep braving the new experience until we are used to it, we find we have grown to appreciate a deeper aspect of life.
When we expand our experiences and appreciation for other cultures, foods and places — not putting them down or being closed off to them, but embracing the good parts of them — then we grow in our ability to experience joy and satisfying relationships with others on a deeper level. While 20 years ago I could have never imagined being homesick for anywhere but the midwest, now I miss America and Brazil! There are experiences, relationships and cuisine unique to both. And when I’m traveling away from my new home of Japan, I miss the people and food here, not to mention my family!
East meets West in this classic edition of Life in Japan, when I went to America for work while the family stayed at home in Japan.
My point is this: without forging out into the unknown, you can’t grow as a person. But growing as a person is the key to enjoying life in ways that you could never have imagined.
The Bible emphasizes the importance of family and fellowship with others by sharing meals and encouraging one another. This is key to being a healthy, well adjusted person. But what that looks like and just how it plays out in each and every culture is very different. Without a doubt, this diversity is special and unique and to be celebrated world-wide.
God’s promise is “Wherever two or more are gathered together in my name, there I am with them in their midst.” God’s Spirit is the Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control. When we meet together in Jesus’ name, the fellowship is more rich and meaningful than any other type of get-together. It is a central part of the experience that we call church, and it is bigger than any one culture. If you’ve never experienced that, it’s time to try for yourself. I’d like to extend an invitation to you to join us at Paz Church, or if you are not near us, ask around your area to find a local church that people recommend. The experience alone will expand you as a person and allow you to experience a joy you never thought possible. There are so many stories of people who, for the first time walking into church, began to cry because there was so much love and hope in the room. I want you to experience that too!
Our life is so rich now because of the three cultures we have come to love and appreciate. Each culture’s cuisine and interaction define a way of interacting with others that is rich, complex and meaningful. How much more rich will it become as the years go by? Enjoy this week’s Life in Japan: What we eat in Japan when we’re together. So many of the precious people in this episode are not only our family members in Japan, but our extended church family — the brothers and sisters that make our experience here in Japan so rich. Bon appetite!
As westerners living in Japan, the decision of where to send your kids to school can be a bit overwhelming. You want them to have the best education possible, and at the same time you want them to learn Japanese and fit into Japanese and Western cultures just fine. Upon arriving in Japan, while Becca and Anna (our oldest daughters) were still 4 years old, we looked into the different options.
We could send them to international schools where they would grow up learning in English. Some are even good Christian schools, which were very attractive to us. But at the same time we wanted our kids to learn Japanese and make good connections locally. These private schools were not local.
Also, we’d heard of the intense pressure Japanese students undergo and bullying which can be problem. These things were certainly red flags to us. The more we talked with others, we found out that the real pressure to perform begins when students prepare to go into Junior High School. They want to get good grades to place in the good schools. Then of course the same thing happens for High School and finally college. Once students get to college, it is perhaps the most free time in the life of any student in the Japanese system.
We wanted the kids to learn Japanese but eventually prepare them for university in English (most likely in America). We determined we could have our kids in local Japanese schools up until Junior High, at which point we could either home school them (yikes!) or move them to an international school that teaches in English. We’d heard of some other students that did it this way and it was very positive for them.
So for now we keep a close eye on our kids, always asking them about other students (or potential bullying), friends, teachers, etc. Many times they haven’t quite understood what all was going on, and we weren’t able to help them much in terms of the Japanese, but that’s where good friends really helped out. Several friends would help us make sense of the system and we even enlisted the older girls in after-school sessions that helped them with their school work.
Since the girls are in 5th grade, soon we will need to cross the bridge of what we will do for them in Junior High School. Until then, it has been a positive experience having our kids go to local Japanese schools.
