Japan Trip

Grace, mercy, and peace our yours in abundance from G0d our Father and our L0rd Jes-s Chr*s+.

After a week's vacation, I'm back on the job again, but I suppose that's the boring part. What I really want to write about in this post is how I spent my week in Japan. That is in my humble opinion, at least, far and away the most exciting thing that's happened to me since my last post. I'll try to show you what I can; I took over 700 pictures during my week-long vacation, and I plan to post only the best on this blog. Prepare to be amazed and astounded.

Brian Gephart, David and I all left from Wuhan, but before we got to Japan, we stopped in Hong Kong because a flight to Japan from Hong Kong is significantly cheaper than a flight from Wuhan. So we stopped and visited Andrea Steinbrenner, a former FoC Wuhan teacher, and her roommate Lyrica (one of our friends from Wuhan studying in Hong Kong). They were very accommodating to us; they let us stay at their place overnight, and they helped us see a fun time in Hong Kong. (As evidence, I submit to you the picture featured above on the right.) Unfortunately, our time in Hong Kong was very short; we were there one night on the way there and a night on our way back. We'll have to visit again sometime.

The following morning we had to get up early--very early, actually (before 5 am) to catch our bus to the train station. Our flight left at about 8:30, and we wanted to give ourselves time to go through security, not to mention that the bus took over an hour and a half to get there. Nevertheless, it seems that getting up at an unreasonable hour was a trend for us on this trip. Starry-eyed, we made our way to the airport, and shortly thereafter, we were on a plane to our own little adventure.

When we arrived at the airport in Tokyo, we were tired, and we had to get our railway passes. We purchased a week-long, unlimited railway pass to aid us in our travels. They did come in handy, because it allowed us to travel all around Tokyo and even take a fast train to and from Kyoto, our third city on the trip. Once we got on the train into Tokyo, however, we were shocked by how green the city was. There were trees everywhere, and even though it's the largest city in the world, we could see blue skies. It was literally a breath of fresh air compared to China. We saw roads out in the country and houses rather than just high-rise apartments (things that are absent in mainland China). We couldn't believe that Tokyo is the largest city in the world (by population). At first, we experienced nothing but awe and wonder at such an impressive city. In some ways, that never left, but fairly soon we figured out how expensive everything was...


Our first meal in Tokyo was ironically a Chinese-style Japanese restaurant. Everything was high-priced (my meal ended up costing me 900 Japanese Yen, which is equal to about $9 US), but we were hungry and wanted to try the food. I ordered a bowl of Kanto noodles, which is an authentic Japanese dish. I was amazed at the size of it; it was easily the size of my head. It had vegetables, noodles, and all sorts up little surprises hidden in the broth. Needless to say, we ate like kings for that meal.

Only later that night did we realize how huge Tokyo really is. We decided to go to Tokyo Skytree, the world's tallest tower, to get a better view of the city. We consented to paying 2000 yen (again, about $20 US) to go up, but in the end we didn't regret it. We get a much better view of the city, and everything we could see in every direction (and all directions were open to our sight) was city. Miles and miles just covered in city. We knew that had to be huge, because we were already some 350 meters above the ground, so our line of sight was extended. The only thing that wasn't city was the Tokyo Bay, but even that was covered in buildings. Our eyes were then opened, and we suddenly had an idea of just how vast the Tokyo area is.

The next day we had once again agreed to wake up early to go canyoning, which apparently includes such things as cave-diving, climbing waterfalls, hiking, etc. We caught the trains to our destination, and we allowed a little leeway in our schedule so we could arrive early, but Google maps told us it would take us only two hours to get there; even though we left half an hour early, we still arrived half an hour late, and by then our guides had left, and we had no way to contact them. We tried to use a payphone, but not even the local Japanese people could make it work for us, so we decided to visit a nearby shrine in the mountains instead. That left more of our day open for exploring the world's greatest city.

When we returned to downtown Tokyo, we got to see some more of the famous sites. We saw what has been judged to be the world's busies intersection, filled with people pretty much all the time. It has been made even more famous by the film Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. We visited Tokyo Tower and Ginza as well. We even made a stop to look for gifts that our Chinese friends had asked us to buy (to no avail). In the afternoon, we tried to visit the Imperial Palace, but it was entirely closed off during the duration of our stay.

In the evening we visited Tokyo Dome, and we happened upon the great fortune of a baseball game. We paid for standing tickets between the Giants and the Swallows, two Japanese professional baseball clubs. We were surprised to see Japanese girls running all around selling beverages with beer kegs strapped to their backs throughout the game. I suppose that would be a way to make a living, too, though.

We were hungry and didn't have a lot of time to linger; not to mention that we were a little nervous after sitting down in seats (that we didn't pay for) and watching security. So after three innings of waiting to be kicked out of our seats, we left. On our way out, however, I decided to pick up the free flyer that Brian and David had gotten, thinking that I should have no problem taking one, too. Security stopped me when I reached for one, and after they started talking to me in Japanese, I explained to them that it was okay (in English) and that I just wouldn't take one. I put it back, and then they seemed to try to gesture to me that it would be okay if I took it, but I had already decided I wouldn't take it. Unfortunately, the only souvenir I have from that night is pictures (and memories).

The next morning we left Tokyo to go visit Mount Fuji. We had to pay for train tickets to get there, but it was well worth it. We were around that area for parts of three days: we arrived in the afternoon on day 1, we stayed for all of day 2, and we left in the early afternoon of day 3. For the first two days, it was very cloudy, and on the second day it was rainy, so that added a dreary aspect to our stay, but we still managed to make the most of our time. We biked around the beautiful Lake Kawaguchiko on our first day. Unfortunately, the clouds obscured our view of Mount Fuji, so although we were only a few miles away from a massive mountain, we couldn't even see a trace of it. I took videos to record our search for Fuji, but unfortunately I don't think they'll fit here. We visited more shrines, caught the end of a B-ddhist service, and did a little nature hiking and caving. The first two days were less eventful, but we found the food was much cheaper there, and we had a good time still.

The third day was the magical day, however. We got up very early on our final day and ascended a small mountain that was a viewing platform for Fuji. We had seen the weather forecast predict anywhere from partly cloudy to mostly sunny, so we were anticipating our first view of the mountain. In the morning, Fuji was disappointingly covered in clouds; in fact, during our ascent, Brian was very nearly attacked by a monkey, and when we reached the top we were surrounded by them. After a few hours, the monkeys went away, but our mountain was still completely lost in the clouds. We had to check out from our hostel, so we were forced to descend. Discouraged, but not defeated, we hiked back down.

At the bottom we realized that we had been in the cloud. Fuji was still hidden in the clouds, but it was not nearly as enveloped as we had been led to believe. We decided to stay near the lake, and after checking out we started biking around the lake to try to find a good view. Just when I had begun to give up all hope of seeing the glory of that mountain, we noticed the clouds around it were moving rapidly, and the blue sky was heading straight for it. We stayed a little longer than we had planned, but we got our fair share of pictures of the mountain. It was perhaps the most beautiful mountain that I have ever laid eyes on.

In the afternoon we took a train to Kyoto, and we arrived too late to have any great adventures that night. We did, however, manage to eat a sushi dinner that night; I had some kind of fish that I don't remember the name of, and uncooked squid. It was pretty good, although once again, the price was a big factor for me. The next day we toured through the city, our only day there. We visited shrines and temples, a castle, and the old imperial palace. We had a guided tour of the palace (free of charge). We visited about as many places as we possibly could with the time we had. We visited a samurai training grounds, and watched some older men play baseball in the park around the old imperial palace. In any case, I think my pictures of Kyoto do the talking better than I can.

That evening we took another train back to Tokyo, and even though we arrived late we still visited Tokyo's Odaiba district to see the Rainbow Bridge. We didn't see as much "rainbow" in the bridge as we would have liked; it was lit up completely white while we were there (and last I checked, "white" doesn't fit anywhere in ROY G. BIV), but it was an impressive site nonetheless. It seemed like, at night, that area was better left for lovers, and the three of us guys were just there to see the bridge and explore. We did get to see part of the bay and the skyline, although Brian and David still find the Hong Kong skyline much more impressive. After we saw that, it was too late to do much else, so we retired to our hostel for the night.

Once again, we got up early the next morning, our final day in Japan, to see the world's largest fish market. A lot of it didn't open until 9, or we had arrived too late to see some of the more impressive things, but we just wanted a quick glance. It wasn't everything we dreamed it would be, but we had heard before that if we wanted to see the best things, we had to get there before 4 (and we definitely did not have enough energy to wake up that early). We saw what we could, and we moved on. We visited another big temple/shrine, and we walked along the Sumida River for a while. Then we visited a stable for sumo wrestlers. It was really more of a museum than anything else; apparently sumo wrestling was already out of season while we were in Japan. Still, we got to take some pictures and learn a little more about sumos before we moved on with our day.

We had our last lunch in peace and quiet. We had an amazing last meal for another 900 yen, but I got to enjoy some more Japanese noodles, dumplings, and soup, all with an added spice and teriyaki sauce. It was a great way to end our time in Japan, and a good note to end on.

 Unfortunately, it didn't quite end there. We had our plane to catch in the afternoon, and we waited for the right time to leave at our hostel (already exhausted from a week of non-stop action). When we left, however, I forgot my charger for my Amazon Kindle. I remembered when we made it to the nearby train station, though, and I ran back to get it. David and Brian tell me I was fast enough that we only missed one train (they come somewhere between every 5 and 10 minutes), so I got back in a flash. Then it was back to the airport, back to Hong Kong for a night, and back to Wuhan in the morning.

My blog posts tend to get rather long, but I have quit bothering to apologize. This is the full account of my adventure in Japan, and I think the details are what make it the most interesting. Since my time there, I've been back in the classroom and back to my daily life. Miss Ivy definitely has appreciated my return.

Pr@yers go out for all of you. Please pr@y for our work in Wuhan as well. The grace of our L0rd Jes-s Chr*s+ be with you all.

Back At It

Grace and peace to my fellow 美国人,

It's been too long since I posted on my blog, but until this week I have been unable to access the VPN, making it literally impossible to reach my blog. Now I've made it all the way to Mid-Autumn Festival, one of the bigger holidays in China, without even a single post. Still, I've managed to post within a month of arriving, so I take some pride in that.

Wuhan is exactly how I remembered it--crowded, full of traffic, polluted, dirty, and in desperate need of the good news. I've found that coming back this year has been a new kind of challenge because I have no illusions this time around. That is, jumping right back in, I'm already annoyed by traffic and a seeming lack of consideration for others. I suppose in a country of a billion people, waiting in line doesn't really get you anywhere...but it still bothers me. I think China has taught me to be more easily irritated because people will do the same thing to you if you don't do it first. I guess I simply need to pr@y for patience.

Getting back to work has been exciting for me, too. My first week back, I had an interview with a new school. I had to teach an hour-long demo lesson about the speaking portion of the ToEFL test. Apparently I did my homework well, because the students really liked me and the school really wanted to hire me. That might have been unfortunate, actually, because the school is over an hour away from my place, which would mean two hours of traveling (round-trip) every day I had to teach there, so I opted not to teach at that school. What's more, they never even considered that I wouldn't take the job, so I ended up teaching there for four hours as a gesture of goodwill. I taught speaking and writing to the same class of students for four hours, and they were really nice. I loved the students, but apparently I couldn't tell them that I wouldn't be teaching them for the remainder of the semester. It made me kind of sad, but I have to do whatever's in the best interest of His work while I'm here, and I think part of that is being a little more free with my schedule.

Now I'm back at work at Luo Jia College, Ivy's school, where I taught last year. I'm one lesson into the year, and I told them about summer and listened to a few of them talk about their summers. I was happy to see my students again. My freshmen have grown up into sophomores. Still, some of them don't like me, so I know this year will be a bit of a challenge as I try to make class both wholesome and exciting for my students. If anyone who knows how to teach has any suggestions, I would welcome any advice you have, as I'm really still an inexperienced teacher. I recognize my shortcomings, but I do love my students and want them to learn from me.

I have a new companion this year for my time in Wuhan. Ivy bought me a new back--or rather, an old bike. Nicole Lehman opted not to return this year, and Ivy bought her bike for me. I went to my favorite repairman, Mr. Zuo (means something like "Left" in English) to get a basket added on to the front. The bike isn't as fast as my old one, or quite as tall, but I do think it will require less repair work than my previous bike, so I'm thankful for the gift. Hopefully my new bike will keep me safer this year.

Last weekend I visited Changsha, the capital of Hunan province, which is just south of Hubei province (of which the capital is Wuhan). Ivy went there to take the ToEFL test, and I came along to meet some of her friends in that city and to provide her with support. The only problem is that we were both sick when we left. Thursday night she came down with some form of the flu, but I was at a men's study, so I didn't see her. It hit me Friday morning. We must have gotten it Thursday afternoon, and it hit her first, but it seems that it hit me worse. I rode my bike to school and was very weak throughout the day. After I rode my bike home, I needed to sit down for about 20 minutes. Then I packed, and our adventure started. I rode over to Ivy's place (which was probably a mistake, considering how tired I had gotten from riding that morning). After sitting there waiting for her for a bit, we went to the ticket agency to pick up our tickets. Ivy must have copied down one of the ticket numbers wrong, because there was only a return ticket for me and no ticket there. After getting very frustrated with the personnel from the ticket agency (because we should have been at the train station at this point) and yelling at them to help her, they let her use their computer for a minute to look up my ticket number. Sure enough, she had copied one of the numbers wrong. After that was taken care of, we took motorcycle taxis to the train station. When we arrived, Ivy couldn't find her ID card, so she decided to go back to the ticket agency to look for it there. She left her bags with me, and I found it about a minute after she left. I called her to come back, and we went through security to the waiting rooms only to find our train had already left. From there, we went to find out if we could change our tickets to a later train, but we found out that we had simply lost the money (it was less than $10 US each). I offered to buy the next available tickets that would get us there at reasonable time, which was a fast train. I paid a higher fee, of course, but it got Ivy to the test.

So we left that train station to go to the fast train station. We had to take a taxi, and I was already tired from all the traveling we had done. We made it to the new train station with plenty of time to spare, boarded the train with no problems, and arrived before our other train would have arrived--but in a different location. That meant we had to take a bus to get to where her friends were picking us up. Ivy found the bus, and we were on it for about 40 minutes. When we got to the final stop, Ivy realized that she had chosen the wrong bus. Apparently all the characters were the same except we had taken the one that said 南 and we wanted 西. That meant we had to take another bus for 45 minutes or more to get to where we really wanted to be, all this time while I was feeling very tired from being sick. When we finally met her friends, I wanted to go to the place where we would stay the night so I could go to sleep, but they took us out for supper. Since I had the flu, I was not hungry at all. I barely ate anything. Then they decided they should take me to check my temperature. I had a fever of about 101.5, and Ivy started to get really worried. When we got to Ivy's friends' place, I took some medicine with some tea and then went to sleep.

I slept pretty much the whole next day, with periods of wakefulness. Ivy was not completely recovered, but she took her test. We went out for lunch and took some pictures, but the rest of the day is pretty much a blur. We took the train the next morning to make it back in time for chrch.

And now the part you've all been waiting for. When I got back to China, I had a lot of gifts to give Miss Ivy, and we had a little photo shoot of her in her new clothes and such. Rather than talk about it, I'll try just to show the pictures.

That's the word from Wuhan so far. It's good to be back at the good work. We started our studies last week, and next week I will be starting CSI (essentially BIC) classes. I'm going to teach a short course on Law and Gspel. I'm excited for the opportunity and look forward to learning more about the subject as I teach it, too.

Pr@yers for all of you. Please pr@y for us here, also, that He would bless our work and open the door for more and more s0uls to come and know Him as L0rd here in China. I miss you all!

The grace of our L0rd Jes-s Chr*st be with your spirit!

Sleepless in Seattle

Grace and peace to you from Him who holds the seven stars in His hand and walks among the seven lampstands,

I suppose this post doesn't actually fit my profile as I'm no longer in Asia, but I wanted to get one more post in before I get home (plus I'm sitting in the airport for the next couple hours with nothing to do). I have made it to Seattle from Beijing, although it was quite a bit of work, not to mention a bit stressful. Hopefully all my things will be in order when I arrive in Chicago a few hours from now.

During my travel there have been a few things of note. I suppose our heavenly Father is trying to teach me patience. On the day I left I was in a bit of a hurry, rushing in taxis, buses, and motorcycle taxis to make it home from buying a few last-minute gifts, and then I rushed to the railway station in a taxi to leave. I would at this point like to thank Miss Ivy for putting up with me in the daze and confusion of it all. She has been tremendously helpful to me, even though I have certainly been a little impatient. She took me to the train station, and that was the last I saw of my Wuhan friends before I left.

It's been an emotionally draining time for me as of late. I know I will be going back to China soon, but it strikes me that I'm leaving some people there who are also very important to me. I know I want to come back and see my friends and family, but there are still things tying me down to China too. I suppose it's a good thing that I have decided to return in a couple months. It will be nice to see all my 中国朋友 again.I got to go out with Jerry, one of my close co-teachers, my good friend William, and the beautiful Miss Ivy (all on separate occasions) before leaving. We also had a last hurrah on Friday; we went to see the new Star Trek movie. A bunch of friends and I got together to see it. A few of my dearest students came to visit me at our meeting place on Sunday; I was very pleased to see them, too.

My voyage home was not at all uneventful, either. I took an overnight train to Beijing (and I heard all the Chinese people talking about how one person could need so much luggage; little do they know that I'm loaded with gifts for home). I arrived in Beijing Tuesday morning, then, and took the subway from there. I was on the subway for about two full hours (three lines with one line lasting over an hour), and then I finally made it to the airport. I still needed to check in, but seeing as how I was about 7 hours early or so, I figured I had plenty of time. I went to the kiosk for ticket information, only to find that, after waiting behind one person for over an hour,  I could not get my ticket there. They told me I could get my ticket at the baggage drop no problem, and I would have to wait until four hours before my flight left. In retrospect, perhaps it was good that I had to wait in line so long; it certainly helped kill time.

I had some brunch and waited to check in. I get in line early, but even so I was only the third person in line. I checked in and, at first, everything was okay, but then they checked my big suitcase and found my gift for Ben (a sword). They asked me if it was mine, to which I responded that it was. The security officer inspected it and decided that it was okay. (It's not actually sharp enough to hurt anyone.) So, Ben, I almost lost your gift. I was a little worried it wouldn't make it through Seattle, but it seems to have gone through just fine.

After that, I went through security and almost forgot my jacket (which had my wallet in in), but fortunately I remembered in less than five minutes and went back for it. It was still just sitting right there. From that point on it was smooth sailing until I boarded the plane. Aside from being on the same airplane for 13 hours with little leg space, my flight was delayed almost two hours, so we literally just sat there and waited for the weather to get better. It never did improve in my estimation, but they still let us fly out a couple hours later. That had me concerned that I might miss my connecting flight from Seattle to Chicago, but, as it turns out, my flight from Seattle has been delayed, too, giving me plenty of time. I can see no apparent reason that my flight here has been delayed--the skies are blue with only a few, ordinary clouds in the sky. I arrived in Seattle at about 2 pm (which is actually four hours before we took off from Beijing, having crossed the International Date Line), so it seems that I would have arrived on time to catch my flight in the first place, but maybe this is also from above. He works in mysterious ways.

Please pr@y for my continued safety, that He would lead me home, and that He would also bl*ss all I do this summer. Pr@yers go out to all of you in America, and to all my friends in China.

The peace of the L-rd Jes-s be with your sp+rit.

Overdue

Grace and peace to you from G0d our Father and our L0rd and S@vi0r Jes-s Chr*st.

I know this post is at least a month overdue, but I've been busy (I promise I've been up to know good--or something like that), so I have had little spare time to sit down and gather my thoughts into a blog post. Please accept (or reject, if you prefer) my sincerest apologies.

As I write this post, it's already 11 in the evening, but the temperature still feels like it's about 90 degrees inside and outside. It's getting hot in Wuhan, lending credence to its title as one of the three "furnaces" of China. As one of my Chinese friends told me this week, Wuhan has 6 months of summer, 3 months of winter, and 3 months to split between the other two seasons. I have been sweating bullets all day, but not to worry; I've been drinking lots of fluids to re-hydrate myself, too.

Last week I was once again privileged to join in ALSS classes. Our s*min@ry students studied homiletics for a week; I was able to study with them for a day and a half, and I think that even that was very beneficial for me. I wish I could have studied with them for the whole week, but I think a large portion of their classes were actually taught in Chinese, so I probably wouldn't have understood much anyway. Still, I think I have grown a bit even from my short time with them, and it is very encouraging for me to see my Chinese brothers who, like me, are preparing for the holy m*n*stry. For security reasons, I will not post any pictures of their classes online, but I would ask that you please pr@y for them. We currently have six young men training for the m*n*stry in the mainland, and they are all wonderful young men; two of them are from right here in Wuhan.

This week was Dragon Boat Festival in China. For Dragon Boat Festival the Chinese traditionally hold dragon boat races, which are literally just boat races in boats that look like dragons. David and I went out to watch the dragon boat races on Wuhan's East Lake along with Jess Gierach, another FoC teacher here in the middle of Wuchang (my section of Wuhan) and visiting p@stor Samson Wong (although I can't guarantee the spelling of his name is right) from Hong Kong. We took a boat out to watch the races up close. It was interesting to see that every boat had one person on the rudder to steer, one person on the drums to keep the beat for the rowers, and several rowers. Some boats were, naturally, more impressive than others.

We had visitors from America this weekend as well. Project Titus from MLS came to visit. I had the opportunity to meet a couple of the young men who came along as well as VP Kock, who pre@ched for us this Sunday. It was kind of neat to show them what China is like. I hope their stay can be a bl*ssing for them in the future.

This week was not all fun and games, however. On Monday I tripped and spilled milk all over my keyboard. I managed to wipe the greater portion of it off, but the keys were a little sticky. Later on in the week I discovered that the "f," "y," "q," and "esc" keys were not working. At first it seemed like it wasn't a big deal, but it quickly became frustrating after I realized how frequently I use the "f" and "y" keys. (Try not to read that last phrase too quickly, and definitely not out loud :P) I tried to unstick them, but it became pretty obvious by the end of the week that they weren't going to start working again of their own accord. I went to get my keyboard fixed, and I ended up getting a whole new keyboard for 100 RMB or about $15. Now I'm just happy to have a keyboard where I don't have to copy and paste every time I right words with "f" and "y" in them.

Recently I have also been finishing up my semester exams. Entering grades into the gradebook is tedious work and not much fun, but unfortunately it's necessary. Opposite of last semester (when I had many visitors to my class), this semester many of my students have skipped my class almost entirely. Since I am basing 70 percent of their score on participation, those students are sure to fail. (I don't think you can really participate without being in class.) Unfortunately, in China I have little to no power actually to fail my students. If the teachers don't fix the grades I assign to my students, they will simply let the families of their students know how much money they have to pay to receive a passing grade (kind of like a bribe), so these students may actually never learn. Either way, it's my students loss, not mine.

Speaking of class, this week will mark my last week of all my classes. The countdown is down to 14 hours of classes before I'm done for the whole semester. It's hard to believe that the time has gone by so quickly. Very soon, I will be returning to the States for two months. To me, this is a difficult concept to wrap my head around. I look forward to seeing you all again very soon. I hope to post one final blog post before I leave, but my track record isn't looking so good right now. We'll see how prepared I am to leave a week from now. For now, I have my final week of work ahead of me, and there's excitement in that, too. One of our good friends will be washed this Tuesday, and I'm very excited for it.

平安 (Peace)!

G0d's grace be with you all.