I am head over heals for Thailand. I love the beautiful faces of the children; I love the lush green mountains, and the kindness of the people. I thought for sure that no place on the Race could best Thailand…well I was wrong. Along comes Japan, a country that I had zero expectations for and a country that’s been called a missionary graveyard. We’re the first World Race squad to ever go to Japan, we’re pioneers paving the way for future teams and missionaries to experience all the greatness and beauty that is the Land of the Rising Sun.
1. Bathrooms: Let me paint you a picture of a Japanese bathroom: As you sit down your derriere is met with a carpeted seat so as to keep your buns warm. No more icy cold porcelain seats for me, thank you very much. There is a TV in every stall to keep you occupied during your business, and a sound machine where you can choose different sounds to play such as ocean waves or other white noise to mask the sound of things better left unheard. To top it all off when the business is finished your rear end gets sprayed with a deodorant. Why hasn’t America thought of this? Granted this isn’t every bathroom but I have yet to find one that doesn’t have heated seats.
2. Heated Carpets: Japan (and most of the rest of the world) doesn’t believe in keeping your entire house a balmy 90 degrees during the winter. Instead you heat only one or two rooms and only when you’re in said room. But when your toes are about to fall off just head on over to the heated carpet, it feels just about as good as lying on a warm sandy beach in Hawaii.
3. The Hospitality and Honor of the Japanese People: We can’t go one day without a kind Japanese person giving us free food or coming home and finding our fridge stocked by the members of the church we’re staying in. Anywhere you go someone is offering you tea. I have never been so blown away by the kindness of humanity till I came to Japan. I didn’t realize people actually could be this kind to one another. A lot of what they do is about honoring each other too like bowing when you meet each other and giving your guest the best of what you have.
4. The Insane Cleanliness and Order of Everything: I’m not kidding when I say you could lick these sidewalks and your mouth might actually be cleaner than before you licked it. Japan is pristine. Everything has a place and trash has no place but the rubbish bin. I feel like I never have to shower here because the air might actually be cleaning me as I walk around.
5. Every Morsel of Delicious Food: I can’t even describe the amazing-ness that is the Japanese food. The cheap rotating sushi bars with their octopus, squid, and every seafood imaginable would cost probably 10 dollars a plate in America while only a dollar here. Even the McDonald’s tastes better in Japan.
6. You Can Drink from the Faucets: It’s been 5 months since we got to drink from the tap without fear of getting a million parasites…or dying.
7. The Gorgeous Rolling Landscape: Japan looks like Colorado mixed with New England. All the houses are practically on top of each other but the Japanese still have a huge respect for nature. Everywhere you look there are hills in the distance. It is such a quiet and serene environment to see God.
8. The Holy Spirit is So Evident Here and Ready to Work: I don’t know who has been calling this a missionary graveyard but they are wrong. It’s just that there are not many missionaries here. From my short 2 week experience here I have seen people hungry for their Creator, I can see the Holy Spirit moving in the lives of the few believers here, and I can feel that this land is on the brink of a big revival for God. And I’m so grateful that God has allowed me to be part of it even for a short while.
9. It’s So Easy to See Christ in Everyone: I’ve always wanted to be someone who saw Christ in every person I met but sometimes it’s just so dang hard. But in Japan it isn’t hard at all to see each and every person how Jesus would. I can’t even place my finger on why, maybe it’s an attitude shift that God is doing in me, or maybe it’s that it’s so hard not to love everyone you meet here because everyone is filled with such genuine love and kindness towards us. Either way I hope I never go back to seeing people any other way than through the eyes of Christ.
10. Japan is so Quiet: Get on a subway or train and you could hear a pin drop. The cars are mostly all eco-friendly so you never hear revving engines. Even though we’re in a big city it feels like the countryside and it’s a beautiful thing.
