It doesn't seem like a year.

Today is the one year anniversary of the day we first met.

Yesterday, published simultaneously in our respective church bulletins was the public announcement of our engagement.

Hear ye, hear ye! Will Dykstra from Georgetown CRC and Aukje vandenBerg of Barrie First CRC are relieved to announce their engagement. It took some time for Sir William John to battle through the deep woods, but the knight in tarnished armour finally found his way to the fair Aukje.

It received good reviews.

School Kids in their natural habitat.

I regularly sighted groups of private school kids when I rode the tube. They can be distinguished by their matching uniforms and often their fairly bright colours. In the wild they often have a look of inquisitiveness, and tend to be fairly sociable within the pack but tend to be intrigued by yet wary of gaijin (foreigners).

The needy in Japan?

When ever my fiancee and I are in different countries we work through a specific daily devotional together, and e-mail our comments to each other (though at times this happens to be a little more sporadic than daily). Last year we worked through a fairly well known devotional by Oswald Chambers called My Utmost for His Highest. This year we have just started our second one called The One Year Walk with God written by Chris Tiegreen.

His August 22nd entry is based on Proverbs 21:13, If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.

In his devotional for the day he talks about how we should reflect God's grace and His attitude toward the oppressed. Chris says we should be intentional about seeking out the poor and the oppressed. God often meets people's needs through us.

All too often the evangelical worldview trivializes the plight of the poor and the oppressed, focusing only on the fact that they need to be born again, but I think that salvation is holistic involving body, mind, heart and soul, so all of these need to be addressed by us as witnesses of Christ's love.
This is one of the nagging items in the back of my mind about Japan. Every cross-cultural mission field I've ever been to involved the meeting of physical need as well as spiritual need, but in Japan physical need is largely taken care of. Perhaps it is one of the obstacles to spreading the gospel.
In my lifetime thus far I have been blessed to be able to go to the poor to help, being God's hands and feet in places like Honduras, El Salvador, Toronto or Mississippi, that really need help. So often when meeting these physical needs the spiritual side grows (both the giver and receiver) and even afterward continues to bloom.
In Japan the gulf between being poor in spirit and having material wealth is larger than any I've ever encountered.

HEP V Ferriswheel

This ferris wheel is sitting on top of the HEP V department store in Osaka. While riding the ferris wheel you can look out over the city and when the wheel nears the bottom, gaze at the shoppers on the upper floors of the department store.

My Fiancee

My fiancee Aukje is quite likely the most beautiful woman in the world.
Mind you, I'm probably biased.
She left for Japan this morning with a tear in my eye.

Retro Blogging

This is an entry I found on my computer, from before I started blogging. I didn't yet have a digital camera, so no pictures for this one.

April 13, 2004
Today Cherry Blossoms at the mint. The mint you say? During the Meiji reign the person in charge of the mint thought it might be nice to have cherry blossoming trees lining the street in front of the mint so it would be a nice place.
Culture in the carnival like walkway near the mint, since everybody from Osaka comes down to enjoy the week of blossom viewing, it is handy to have all those stalls nearby so they can hawk their octopus laden snacks, octopus being the signature food for Osakaians. I tried some octopus balls, ( somewhat like chicken balls) and something which would best be compared to omelette with octopus strips and onions and green pepper like strips fried into it. Not bad. Later a tiny orange that had been soaked in sugar. Hmm sweet. Back to the base for some Hiragana study.

A Ninja

A Kawasaki Ninja. A nice machine (from my perspective as a machine designer). Nuff said.
Well perhaps not. Motorcycles are plentiful in Japan, and there are many motorcycle enthusiasts to go along with them. This particular machine was often parked outside of the Pizza place. I think it belonged to one of the pizza delivery scooter drivers.

What up party people!

I was talking with my good friends Angela and Gideon and their daughters Summer and Shimmer. We were chatting about the funny english Japanese people come up with. Sometimes I wonder are they so good at it that they are doing it on purpose or is it always accidental? This is a picture of an actual t-shirt in Japan, straight from Aaron's k-tai (cell phone), (Aaron is busy trying to plant a new church in Osaka) to you via this blog. The website www.engrish.com is a site dedicated to Japanese English, tis good for a chuckle.

Debriefing

The following is the debriefing from my trip which I just finished for Missions to Unreached People, the organization I did my short term mission with.


Name: Will Dykstra
Dates of Mission Trips: Apr. 9 - June 30, 2004
Location/Missionary Hosts: Osaka, Japan. Dan and Karen Ellrick, Aukje vandenBerg.

1. What was your missionary assignment while overseas?

Fairly loose. Personally, my objectives were to determine if long term missions was something I could do. Did I have the tools and skills? Did I have 'what it takes'? Is it something God wants me to do or not to do? As I was flying over to Japan I also felt a real call to treat the entire experience as 'learning'. So that was my attitude as I first set foot in Japan.

2. What were your general impressions about your short-term missions experience?

It was positive, wonderful excellent. A 'would like to still be there' sort of experience. Exciting. Enjoyable. Adventurous.

3. Have you had a chance to read Back to the Future and Extending Your Trip and answer the questions that go with them?

Yes. Yes, quite helpful. There are some excellent suggestions and insight from experienced short termers.
One of the things suggested was keeping a journal. It is helpful to be able to recall the many different experiences and reflect on them from more 'normal' environs. But it is something that should be communicated beforehand.
I did work at keeping a 'blog', which serves the purpose of journaling, and it is also an excellent way of keeping in touch with friends and family back home (well those with internet access anyway).
If you are interested the address is http://www.sekime-photolog.blogspot.com/. Scroll through the archives for the blogs I wrote while I was in Japan.

4. What was the best/most memorable part of your short-term mission trip? How did God use this experience to teach you, direct you etc?

The best things for me were simply (or perhaps not so simply) learning about Japanese culture. Trying to understand how Japanese people think, how they understand the world, their worldview. I enjoyed the culture.
I feel that God has been growing in me a passion for Japanese culture.

5. What was the worst/most discouraging or difficult part of your short term mission trip? How did God use this experience to teach you, direct you etc.

There were times when I was when I felt utterly and absolutely inadequate. It was very discouraging when that happened.
I think God was trying to teach me that my skills and talents don't matter. He is the one to lean on. I should not be leaning on my own understanding. I know it intellectually, but I haven't yet learned to do it.

6. How did you see God at work in the lives of individuals?

As a leader of an Alpha group it was wonderful to see how often God was at work in our group. It wasn't so much a matter of what I was doing but how God was meeting people were they needed to be met, using the group as a vehicle to achieve what He had in mind.

In Team Dynamics?

Meeting and supporting Aaron. It was very fulfilling to be able to feel that I was used by God to help Aaron in his efforts to start a Bible fellowship. Particularly the first time we met, we had a long conversation, a time of getting to know each other, but of more importance a time of encouragement.
Also at the weekly prayer meetings, these meetings always struck me as meetings of great importance, even though at times they seemed to be a great expense, from an energy and time available point of view.

In You?

He was very near to me as I went about the things of daily life in Japan. For an example, I was riding the subway and I accidentally dropped my subway card. As I was about to exit at the gate a lady ran up behind me to give me back my dropped card.
That was a little thing but a typical example of how God was looking after me while I was in Japan.

7. In what ways will you integrate what you have learned on your short-term trip into your life at home? How will you make this a long-term change or how will it influence your decisions for your future?
I am going to continue with my weblog, using it as a platform to explore Japanese culture and further reflect on my experiences. I shall endeavors to pray and encourage those whom I met in Japan, and who continue to work at missions in Japan, and I shall explore what God has in store for me and my future.

8. Did you receive enough information and support from out home office prior to your short-term trip?

I got a lot out of the information you sent me. The articles I was supposed to read in the five weeks prior to my departure were interesting and quite helpful. Even as a seasoned veteran of short term missions experiences, there was some great food for thought there.

9. What could we have done better to help you plan and prepare, logistically, spiritually or mentally?

I think a little more integration with the missionaries in the field would be helpful. I'm not sure how to accomplish that but it seemed to me to be somewhat disjointed from office to field.

10. Would you be interested in going on another short-term mission with Mission to Unreached Peoples? Why or why not?

Yes. No reason to stop now. Though I think maybe more of a long-term commitment may be in order.

Coke Bus

Coca cola C2 made a huge splash while I was in Japan. This bus was in the Osaka castle lot when I was there.

Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi

On the weekend I took in the movie Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi in Japanese). It is a Japanese Animation released by Disney in North America. It is a movie about a young girl who has to rescue her parents from the evil spirit in charge of a bath house for spirits.
The word ‘spirit’ in this case is translated from the Japanese Kami which means god. So the English has already been changed compared to the Japanese for this case, and I sure there are other such discrepancies as well.
Nevertheless it was an interesting look into a portion of the Japanese worldview, in particular the Shinto religion, and it’s many gods. I didn’t have an easy time understanding the movie, though it is entertaining on different levels.
There are quite a few concepts that a person without Japanese cultural background has difficulty picking up. After watching the movie I read a review of the movie at hollywoodjesus.com and while I did gain some valuable insight, I don’t think they can quite grasp the worldview behind the movie either. The author of the review has written the review from his own Christian worldview perspective.
I enjoyed the movie and it gave me some interesting food for thought.

Temple Gate

Back to the mountain shrine of a few days ago...

This temple gate is close to that shrine.  This temple takes up a significant amount of space on the mountain.  This would be the destination of many of the climbers.  Temples and shrines are  often located on mountains and in out-of-the-way places. 

Redeemed Culture

In an article titled Can the Christian University Thrive, Chuck Colson writes: 
 

The real issue at Baylor is whether the price of academic respectability is the surrender of Christian identity. Is it true that “smart people outgrow God,” as secular critics insist? Or can Baylor provide an alternative, namely, a university that, in Dreher’s words, “can speak to the broader culture from an intellectually sound but morally distinct vantage point”?

 
This strikes me today as a crucial issue for North American culture as we find it in our current day and age.  If the "smart people outgrow God" forces win this battle and others like it then North America culture loses. 
 
It definitely contrasts Japanese culture, where Christianity has very little influence and the Christian world view can be incomprehensible to the average person.  The cultural basics that North American culture takes for granted, the underlying Christian ethics that the culture grew up on are still there. 
 
In Japan that Christian basis does not exist, so explaining concepts such as good and evil becomes very difficult.  It cause the newly landed missionary in Japan to completely rethink how to go about doing missions.  It causes frustration at how little progress seems to be made.  Japan needs to be redeemed.  It is crying out to be redeemed.  A lot of work needs to be done however at the very basis of its culture.

The hairdresser spectacle.

There are a mind-boggling number of hairdressing establishments along the streets of Sekime. I have no doubt that the phenomenon occurs throughout the entire city of Osaka as well. In spite of the heavy competition for the populace's hairdo dollar, it is very expensive to have your hair done. I think thirty dollars would be about the standard, and it is difficult to find something decent for twenty. Due to the typical Japanese affinity for service there are lots of hairdressers at each of these shops.
The hours are long, typically these hairdressers work all day and then after the place closes there is practice lasting as late as eleven or twelve o'clock. It seems implausible for them to carry on with such a pace day in and day out, but after having seen the Japanese work ethic, it doesn't seem so implausible to me anymore. On the occasions when a shop is not busy, and the hairdressers have nothing to do, they are required to stand in a designated spot near their work area.
I can vividly recall walking along the street in the early evening, and looking into a brightly lit but inactive shop and seeing four hairdressers lined up in perfect array chatting with each other.
Even so hairdressing remains a popular profession with at least as many males as females going to school to get into the industry.

Mountain Shrine

Most mountain trails involve shrines and temples.  Before hiking through the bamboo forest we happened across a temple and several smaller shrines.  Shown hereis  a torii (the concrete gate) with a small bridge and a small shrine on the other side.  Shrines can be put nearly anywhere.  The small ones like this often invlove worship of a rock or something similar, and usually there is a traditional story or some folklore associated with it.

The Slipper Phenomenon

I'm convinced the people of Japan have some sort of insidious slipper plot. I haven't yet figured out what it is designed to do or how it is supposed to work but here is a synopsis of what traditionally happens.
If you live in Japan and go home you would step into the door entryway, take off your shoes (without getting your feet dirty in the entryway) and step into a pair of slippers. The slippers are worn throughout the lower areas of the house. However if you step up into the rooms that have tatami (straw mats) then you leave your slippers and walk around in your bare or sock feet. As you go back out of the tatami room, you put your slippers back on. When you get to the bathroom you would of course take them off again and step up into the bathroom to brush you teeth or perhaps wash your hands or yes even bathe. Upon exiting the bathroom you again step into your slippers. If suddenly you had to go to the washroom you would hurry over to the small room with the toilet in it (which is separate from the room with the bath in it), remove your slippers BUT slip on another pair of slippers which are in the room with the toilet in it and specifically designed for such a purpose (even to the point of matching the decor). When you are finished in there, you would remove the "toilet" slippers and put the other slippers back on again. Whew! This is normal. A typical foreigner mistake would be to forget to remove the "toilet" slippers upon exiting the room with the toilet in it, and then romping all over the place wearing those slippers, reinforcing the Japanese opinion of how boorish and uncouth North Americans are.
Additionally if you were to visit a castle or go to a smaller church, there are an ample supply of slippers for all visitors at the front door. Again the visitor removes his shoes slips into a nice, comfy, non breathing pair of slippers which of course have been worn by many who have gone before, and you may then enter the castle building or sanctuary area in a refined and dignified manner.
Yes I concur. Bewildering.

Paul - Hitched

It is nigh on 2 am and I have to be chauffer of the airport "limo" at 4am. My younger brother is just married. I was the best man for the evening, now I'm back to being just another man. Paul, God's richest blessings for your marriage.

Bamboo Forest

On the same trip up the mountain near Kyoto, I had the pleasure of hiking through bamboo forests. After seeing a picture of a bamboo forest in the Lonely Planet guidebook, I had been wanting to see a bamboo forest for months. I finally got the opportunity. Bamboo is considered a weed in Japan and it has many weed like characteristics. But walking down the mountain trail with the bamboo forest sloping away on one side and more "normal" looking coniferous trees sloping down the other was quite impressive.

Looking over Kyoto

In the first few weeks I was in Japan we had a national holiday so I had the opportunity to climb a small mountain. Most of the populated areas in Japan are built along the coastal areas on the flat parts of the country, while much of the country is mountainous. We rode the train from Osaka for about a 1/2 hour, got out at a small station and went right up the mountain. There are many well kept trails that most often tend to lead to a temple or shrine of some sort. Here we can see out over some of that flat land and see a part of the Kyoto area.

The future of Sekime-Photolog

Being in Canada, I'm sure is causing many people to wonder about the future of the Sekime-Photolog. Has it been rendered obsolete, since the blogger is not currently living in Sekime? Perhaps he has lost his will to blog?
Well rest assured I am not taking the proverbial header into the abyss, there is more blogging to be done. Content of this blog for the forseeable future will consist of reminiscing, (I still have more photos to share), and also of examining Japanese culture, looking at societal underpinnings, wondering about what makes culture tick, unravelling some of the fabric of things Japanese, and in general trying to get a handle on how people who grow up within Japan think. So please continue to come back and see how things are going and perhaps you can add your two cents (or more if you feel so inclined) to the comments section.