Japan Trip

How do you summarize a life-changing two-and-a-half week mission trip to Japan in a short blog entry?  It's going to be hard to do!  I shall try my best to be concise and only include the highlights.  But, be prepared for lots of photos!  I'll divide it up according to the 4 main places where we served.

#1.  Odawara

This is the place where Chandra lived twice.  The first time was from 1993 until 1995.  To think, 1995 was the year that Penny was born in Thailand!  The next time Chandra lived in Odawara was from 1999 until 2001, working as Director of Odawara Christian Center.  During her last year in Odawara the Katsumatas began pastoring Sakawa Covenant Church.  So, fastforward to 2018 and we partnered with Pastor Yoshinobu and his wife, Tomoko, Katsumata.  Penny and Chandra did a cooking class and shared our testimonies.

The next day Penny and Chandra explored Odawara while Jay got ready to sing a concert at O.C.C.

It was a great time to connect with old and new friends.  I was especially happy to see my friend, Ayako, who I had lost touch with.  That was the highlight of the night! Please pray for her since she painfully lost her mom this past year.

On Sunday we took the train to Chigasaki Covenant Church, where Jay and I sang and I gave a testimony in Japanese.  That afternoon we went out with the church ladies to go shopping for another cooking class that we would be doing on Tuesday at Chigasaki Church.

That night we took in a cultural experience that was very relaxing and helped us to get over jet lag... a Japanese hot springs bath in Hakone.

The next day, a Monday, we had a free day.  So, we took a day trip up into the Hakone mountains, from where we could get a glimpse of Mt. Fuji.

#2.  Chigasaki

 The following day we moved to Chigasaki Church, where we spent the next five days serving by doing another cooking class with an Easter theme.  Chandra also shared a testimony in Japanese.

Jay got to sing at an Elder Daycare Center right across from the church.

The highlight for Jay was having a 92 year old man, (the man in the white polo shirt sitting between Jay and Penny in the photo above),  tell him that hearing the scriptures and the songs that Jay shared made him so happy that it was the best day of his life!  The pastor of the church is a woman, named Yoko Hyodo.  She is a very humble woman who spent several years as a missionary to Mongolia before returning to Japan to pastor Chigasaki Church.  

Some of our English classes were at Akabane Chapel, which was a church plant of Chigasaki Church.  Please pray for this outreach point, because they have not been able to continue using it on Sundays, since they have been unable to supply a full-time pastor.  This is often a problem in Japan, where there is a shortage of full-time Christian workers and pastors.

There was also one free morning during our time serving at Chigasaki Church when we hung out with church members.  They accompanied us to Enoshima, where we visited an Aquarium.  That night one of the church members cooked a delicious dinner of Thai curry for us.

These two ladies  below are very special friends.  The friend on the left is Fumiko.  Fumiko is an English teacher, who volunteers much of her time to teach English to people at Chigasaki Church and Akabane Chapel.  She was the woman who helped us a lot to connect with the church. 

On the right side is Chihalu.  I remember her, too, from my earlier days in Japan.  She is a dear sister in Christ who is very bilingual in both Japanese and English.  She did much to help support us in coming to Japan and making our trip possible.  I thank God for these selfless ladies!

We had a wonderful experience spending time with our brothers and sisters at Chigasaki Church!  They made us feel right at home.  We even got to make ourselves at home by using their church kitchen.  Here Penny is washing dishes and placing them in an industrial drying machine which keeps an even temperature to help prevent mold and bacteria.

 While we were staying at Chigasaki Church, we also had a fun visit from an old friend of Chandra's, also named Tomoko.  We had first met when Tomoko was a college student in Sioux Falls, SD.  It was fun to see her, her husband, her sister and her two kids!

We enjoyed giving more concerts at the Elder Daycare Center...

And teaching more English classes, like this ladies' class.

The thing that I was most excited about during the ladies' class was that my friend, Ayako, who had come to Jay's concert in Odawara, came all the way to Chigasaki to attend this class, too.  She seemed to enjoy her time with the ladies.  And I shared about Easter traditions in America, as well as the true meaning of the Easter story from the bible.  For many of the ladies, it was their very first time to hear the Easter story!

We also taught some more classes for kids.  One of the classes had just one member.  Penny really enjoyed getting to know Suguri.  We all thought that the two of them could practically be sisters.

#3.  Kawasaki

The third place where we served in Japan was called Denen Grace Chapel, located in Kawasaki.  On Saturday, May 26th, we left Chigasaki to travel to stay at a hotel in Kawasaki.  On our way there we stopped off for a daytrip to visit Chandra's favorite place in all of Japan, Sankeien Garden.

 The next morning was our second Sunday in Japan.  We thoroughly enjoyed visiting Denen Grace Chapel, where Chandra's former classmate from college serves as the pastor/missionary. Below is a photo of us with Kevin Laverman.  Unfortunately, we didn't get a photo with his wife, Kaori, in the picture. We got to join their Sunday morning bible study.  And Jay got to sing a few songs during their morning worship service.

 

 

In the afternoon, we stuck around to join the Gospel Choir.  This is a great outreach to the community.  Most of the members have never gone to a church before.  But there is a great interest in gospel music in Japan.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the director of the choir turned out to be a former classmate from when I was in language school in Japan twenty years ago.  Below is a picture of Ken Taylor.  And he just so happened to be celebrating his birthday on that day!

The choir enjoyed having Jay share a few of his songs.  And we all got a chance to sing with the gospel choir, as well.  Chandra enjoyed translating for Jay.

Below we are posing with the assistant director of the choir.

#4.  Tokyo

During the last five days of our trip we stayed in the Tokyo area.  On Sunday night we stayed at an Airbnb which was right next to the busy Yamanote train line close to Shibuya station.  That was definitely a cultural experience, especially for Jay and Penny who were not used to living in such a big city!  Below is our tiny apartment and the few from the balcony.

That Sunday night, we met one of my former English students who had also attended our English worship service at Odawara Christian Center.  It was so fun to see Naoko, again, after almost 20 years.  She hadn't changed at all.  It was fond to reminisce with her about the past.  

We pray that our time together left a lasting impression.

The next day we did a little sightseeing in Tokyo and headed to our next hotel, which would be our last place to stay in Japan.  Below are some photos from Shibuya and Yoyogi and Shinjuku.

 

It was SO crowded everywhere we went!  Welcome to Tokyo!!!

That night we were excited to discover that one of our favorite restaurants, Sizzler, just happened to be a close, walking distance from our new hotel.

This is the view of the streetcar near the restaurant.

We enjoyed a nice breakfast at our hotel the next morning before picking up Chandra's friend, Catherina, to go to Rikugien Gardens.

 The next day was a special day.  After exploring the area around our hotel a little in the morning we went to Ueno Zoo.  Following our zoo trip we went to Jumonji High School to meet our former exchange student, Ayumi and her English teacher, Kaori, who had brought the Japanese students over to Colorado in 2016.

The view from our hotel.  There was a dollar store and grocery store right across the street!

Penny at the Thai gate, which was a gift to Ueno Zoo.

Penny and Panda Bear!

A highlight of our trip was getting to visit our former exchange student 

and getting a tour of her high school!

Our exchange student is in the back, in the middle.

A girl practicing for their Noh performance for their school cultural festival.

 The next day, Thursday, May 31st, was our last full day in Japan.  So, we decided to use this day to do some more sightseeing and shopping in Tokyo before packing up and getting ready to leave the next day.  We enjoyed taking a street car from Otsuka station to go to Ikebukuro.

The first place that we had to visit was the Pokemon Center, since Penny's cousin is a big fan and had asked us to buy her a few things while we were there.

Free Entertainment from Okinawa in the mall at Sunshine City in Ikebukuro.

Lunch at Subway. 

Chandra enjoying a sweet bean filled pastry, shaped like a fish.

Our favorite clothing store, Uniqlo.

We visited the Tokyo Municipal Building in Shinjuku, where you can go up to their free observatory.

We took the subway and a train back to our hotel.

Here are the gifts that we got for Penny's cousin.

That night we celebrated Penny's birthday, early, by eating out at a sushi restaurant and eating a cake in our hotel room.

The last day we had to pack up and say, "Good-bye" to our hotel and staff at Super Hotel Otsuka.  It was a great experience and we would highly recommend staying there if you're ever in Tokyo.  We even had a nice size room right next to the laundry room.  

We had the nicest staff ever working at our hotel!  They even let us borrow a knife to cut Penny's birthday cake!  So, we shared some cake with them.

We had a great trip, but it was a very long and exhausting trip back, especially when the TSA made us miss our flight in Calgary, since they pulled Penny aside for an extra security screening just as we were trying to board our flight.

So, after a long 30 hours of being up, we finally made it home.  It's taken me over two months to finally sit down and go through all of the photos and process our wonderful trip.

We are so thankful for this wonderful journey to Japan!  

We are especially thankful to all of the wonderful supporters who made this trip possible.

We pray that the songs and words of encouragement that we shared with others in Japan will have a lasting impact on their hearts.  We pray that more and more people in Japan will know how much they are loved by God and will know deep in their hearts that Jesus brings them eternal hope!