Another installment of our Kag City vacation log... I got up early this morning and got some schtuff outta the way so I'm rarin' to go.
And we found out today, BTW, that Kaki will come to join us on 29 December! Yay!!! Anyone else who wants to take a long vacation and spend 24 hours traveling, you are welcome here. We've got a nice stretch of floor all ready and waiting. I promise you'll get at least 5 minutes of alone time in the bathroom too. That is an ironclad promise.
Later on Thurs night we hit a Korean restaurant w/ a friend from Kikai. Nearby the Tenmonkan district is what I guess is the nightlife section of town, w/ lotsa clubs, restaurants, and less savory establishments. It took us a while to find a Korean restau, since Aub wanted to go to the one where she had eaten 3 months before. We failed to find it but found another good one and had a good time talking in partly Japanese and English.
Friday was rainy rainy. But fortunately our friends had offered to drive us to nearby Chiran, which hosts really cool 500 year old samurai houses and gardens. Beforehand, Aub and I bussed into town and found a really neat French-themed restaurant in the Tenmonkan district. I had an Indonesian dish and Aubrey a Korean dish - go figure. But there were lots of cool picturebooks of France on the coffeetable, so we had some nice nostalgia time. We later arrived in Chiran and the rain relented a bit so we could take a long walk thru town. There were quite a few other tourists in the neighborhood, but it was still picturesque. Interestingly, quite a few of these houses seem either to be private residences (a few) or restaurants/tearooms (a lot), much like the buildings at the Sengan'en garden we had visited the previous day. It surprised me to see "historical landmarks" made into businesses. We actually took time to drink tea in one of these places, and this is recorded in pic form below - look for the bowl of green frothy concoction, which was green tea powder mixed into hot water. To its right is sthg that resembles a cockroach (thanks Troy), but really it's a crescent of green tea jelly w/ a little flower for ornamentation. Neither tasted all that good, but taken together they were less bad. But later this bad taste was redeemed by a visit to an English museum in the same town, where we purchased fruity herbal teas and apricot jelly. On the hour-long drive back to Kagoshima, we were still making Japanese/English conversation and I asked about politics. Which led for some reason to Mikoko's question: "You're Christians. You believe that Jesus punishes bad people, right?"
Now, let me ask a question of you Christians out there - do you know what you would say when asked a question like that? Give it some thought for just a second. It is a common MISunderstanding about Christian belief that "Jesus punishes bad people," and implication is yet more of a misunderstanding, that Jesus does not punish good people. But if you don't follow what the Bible has to say about it, you're a bit stuck.
At any rate, we thanked God for the opportunity and proceeded to share the truth of what Jesus came for (to save bad people, which we ALL are, every one of us) and such. No, our Japanese is not all that, but w/ dictionaries, a bit of English on the other side, and patience, we were able to make ourselves understood.
That night we got to do sthg that is sorely missed here in Kikai. We went out w/ the previously-mentioned Masumi to a quaint upstairs cafe for dinner and then to Tully's Coffee for late-night coffee. Ah, a late-night coffeehouse - it's a bit of a low priority until you can't go to one, I must say. I don't know why, I just gravitate towards it. Anyway, we had more fun and fruitful conversation, during which we ended up sharing "life slogans." We really felt freedom to share, and so had no fear to introduce Masumi to biblical ideas regarding her 2 life slogans, both of which stand in stark contrast to biblical teaching. Not surprising, but that's what we're here for.
Can't say, despite all the fun that was had, that we were full of energy once the night was done. Ooff. And I'm no longer full of energy for typing, so I'll take it up again soon.
And what were Matsumi's two life slogans?
ReplyDelete--Max
Masumi, my mistake.
ReplyDeleteHa! Indeed it might have been interesting/informative to share them (so of course I DIDN'T, until Max so kindly reminded me). I find the ideas contained in these life slogans to be highly typical of, at least, Japanese in the age range between high school and mid-30s.
ReplyDelete1) Time is on your (my) side.
2) Smile - something good is bound to come along.
I'm a big-picture kind of guy, and I have to admit, even if I leave aside any and all Christian ideas and presuppositions, I still can't see how these could be true.
At any rate, they serve as an excellent illustration of the image that the Japanese young person extends to everyone else. S/he may not really believe them, but will put them out there anyway, b/c that's what you do - you put on a happy veneer.
Max - do you see the same thing?
Many Japanese people seem to comfortably wear what I would consider "fake smiles." But it's possible that they really do mean it. I haven't figured out if they really believe it yet, my japanese isn't quite good enough to have a real "heart-to-heart." But all things considered, if you don't know what else to do, I suppose there are worse veneers to wear than "happy."
ReplyDelete--Max
I guess I can see what you mean in a way...
ReplyDeleteI would probably prefer "real," since we're on the subject of veneers.
I would not consider "real" to be a veneer. A veneer can make something look better or worse, but it's still something that is put on. In my experience, people wear masks for two reasons: to cover something up, or to make something up where they think there is nothing.
ReplyDeleteSo "real" may be best, but if someone doesn't know who they really are, it seems to me they at least make some small effort to define themselves. Even if the happy pill is not real medicine, if one thinks it is, it might work a little bit. Many people, deliberately or otherwise, search for their identity. I am inclined to think that many young japanese people feel especially uncertain of themselves, due to their particular form of cultural management and how it is changing, but again, that may be my mistake as a person from a different culture.
--Max
Hmmm . . . perhaps the misunderstanding is that there are "good" people out there.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I missed your point though. It IS Biblical to say that the unrepentant will experience God's wrath and those who come to Christ in faith will not. In that sense, He does punish bad people. He also saves bad people.
T & R,
ReplyDeleteYes, the issue was that there ARE indeed good people out there, not that Christ doesn't save bad people or doesn't punish them. Obviously, when someone asks "Does Jesus punish bad people," s/he means implicitly that there are good people who don't get punished.