IT'S SOME SORT OF NORMAL, SOME SORT OF EXCITING
It was a full weekend. It was a fruitful. Yet, in light of all the weekend's I've ever had, nothing so extraordinary in itself.
I started getting into the weekend spirit in my last class of Junior High students cause it was the last class of their school year, last class as Junior High students. I jumped on my bike as soon as class was over and got to the station in quicktime to catch the semi-express train into the city to meet Debs and Godfrey so tha we could meet the rest of Chloe's party at the Osaka Hep-5.
Initially I didn’t think I would make that much out of the night but when it started to get obvious that I was not going to enjoy my time in the city or make the most out of the train ride if I had to catch the last train, I decided to miss my last train and wing it. And what a ball I had when I decided to make the most of the night! I finally am getting that when you live so far out of the city, you want to make the most out of the time you have when you do go into it. And that, living out of the city and having to make the last train was in the early evening of 11:25pm would be a sheer dampener. Why, stay out all night and party anyway! Then, if you have to catch the first train home in the morning. But I didn't have to do that. It felt SO good to be in the city at night and to feel its pulse, see the bright lights. That's the beauty of cities, the phenomenon isn't as thrilling in the day as it is in the night. Part of a reality I hadn’t been in for awhile.
Karaoke place was quite different from the one I went with my colleagues in Shikoku. This was a very upmarket joint with a lot less sleeze. (Thanks to Mitsubishi Corp.!) I put on Take That’s Relight My Fire and Shania Twain’s Man, I Feel like a woman! The latter being a very appropriate Friday/Saturday night song and decided forget inhibitions. That was only to get in my way of making friends. I was going to let my hair down and let people know some part of me. So I grabbed the mike and shook my tushie in time with Shania and Chloe. I think it brought on some laughs for Laura, Sarah and Debbie. But I had fun anyway and didn’t care too much as long as I made the most of it.
I only got home at 10am on saturday, still a little weary though I had caught at least 7 hours of sleep altogether betweeh Chloe hospitably putting me and Debs up and the train ride home. But watched The Pianist over lunch and then napped for two hours (an hour more than I had intended). It was too beautiful a day to waste in bed so I went for a bike ride around my neighbourhood. There was not much to explore... nothing exciting I could find. But I’ve found a near(er) supermarket on the other side of Goido and a hardware/Garden-ware type store which sold cheap shopping bikes and a DVD rental place in the next town...
After fudging for a little bit more and salvaging some dinner from the freezer over CNA’s Malaysian Election broadcast I biked again to get to the station on time so I could catch the train in time for Soul Sistas. To be honest, I didn’t know how it was going to turn out and was a little cynical/detached/wary. But it was a beautiful evening to hear all our voices praising God and that teeny insight into the Japanese girls in church. I did feel sometime a little empathetic toward the single japanese lady...
After fellowship, at Laura’s invitation, I decided to join her and Debs for a stayover and a F.R.I.E.N.D.S. fest after a midnight snack. I didn’t need much persuasion at all. What else was I to do on my own? What would I have lost? The opportunity to work out a friendship had no cost - (actually, 2 cds and 1 DVD rental overdue.. .but thats a different matter). It proved to be a chance to share our thoughts, feeligns and opinions on Japan. Debbie said sometimes she doesn’t like talking about it cause its being negative. But being able to talk about it helped me get it off my chest and out of my head and know that I wasn’t struggling on my own. That support of empathy... Laura was helpful as she was encouraging. She’s quite affectionate too which was so good. Cause that’s so lacking here. Physical contact, hugs, tickles, pats on the head, tugs of the pony tail.... little things like that. It’s almost as if one was emotion-less here. Little touches like that, are signals that you do exist in someone elses’ physical and social world here. I knew I was going to miss affection, but I didn’t realise how much I had missed it. It was so good that these girls were so open to having me join them.
Late, lazy, Sunday breakfast of cereals, French toasts, sunnyside eggs with soldiers, english tea with milk and honey, lasted maybe an hour or two and then we had more FRIENDS to watch and rushed to church. Service was not grand but Laura had explained that with most of the Japanese, they are considered a young christian circle, so, what could I expect. I decided my benchmarks were unwarranted and that so far fellowship was proving encouraging and supportive. Dinner table conversation was far more stimulating but I suspect that was possible only because the gaijin all congregated on one end of the table and the locals on the other so we were comfortable throwing out ideas in english. They started talking about spiritual warfare things and how they were more probably in an idolatrous hotzone like Japan and that gave me the anxieties. Laura was quite caring which was such a nice change to have.
Thank God for a good, fruitful weekend. For the fellowship. Help me to focus on now and not worry myself what will happen to the social and fellowship in the months to come. Help me be an encouragement to them as they were to me. Bless them with a good week.
Audio:Perfect by Simple Plan on Radiostorm.net
Biblio: Bushido: The Soul of Japan by Inazo Nitobe.
Cerebrio: It's not all fun. But it is different!
I started getting into the weekend spirit in my last class of Junior High students cause it was the last class of their school year, last class as Junior High students. I jumped on my bike as soon as class was over and got to the station in quicktime to catch the semi-express train into the city to meet Debs and Godfrey so tha we could meet the rest of Chloe's party at the Osaka Hep-5.
Initially I didn’t think I would make that much out of the night but when it started to get obvious that I was not going to enjoy my time in the city or make the most out of the train ride if I had to catch the last train, I decided to miss my last train and wing it. And what a ball I had when I decided to make the most of the night! I finally am getting that when you live so far out of the city, you want to make the most out of the time you have when you do go into it. And that, living out of the city and having to make the last train was in the early evening of 11:25pm would be a sheer dampener. Why, stay out all night and party anyway! Then, if you have to catch the first train home in the morning. But I didn't have to do that. It felt SO good to be in the city at night and to feel its pulse, see the bright lights. That's the beauty of cities, the phenomenon isn't as thrilling in the day as it is in the night. Part of a reality I hadn’t been in for awhile.
Karaoke place was quite different from the one I went with my colleagues in Shikoku. This was a very upmarket joint with a lot less sleeze. (Thanks to Mitsubishi Corp.!) I put on Take That’s Relight My Fire and Shania Twain’s Man, I Feel like a woman! The latter being a very appropriate Friday/Saturday night song and decided forget inhibitions. That was only to get in my way of making friends. I was going to let my hair down and let people know some part of me. So I grabbed the mike and shook my tushie in time with Shania and Chloe. I think it brought on some laughs for Laura, Sarah and Debbie. But I had fun anyway and didn’t care too much as long as I made the most of it.
I only got home at 10am on saturday, still a little weary though I had caught at least 7 hours of sleep altogether betweeh Chloe hospitably putting me and Debs up and the train ride home. But watched The Pianist over lunch and then napped for two hours (an hour more than I had intended). It was too beautiful a day to waste in bed so I went for a bike ride around my neighbourhood. There was not much to explore... nothing exciting I could find. But I’ve found a near(er) supermarket on the other side of Goido and a hardware/Garden-ware type store which sold cheap shopping bikes and a DVD rental place in the next town...
After fudging for a little bit more and salvaging some dinner from the freezer over CNA’s Malaysian Election broadcast I biked again to get to the station on time so I could catch the train in time for Soul Sistas. To be honest, I didn’t know how it was going to turn out and was a little cynical/detached/wary. But it was a beautiful evening to hear all our voices praising God and that teeny insight into the Japanese girls in church. I did feel sometime a little empathetic toward the single japanese lady...
After fellowship, at Laura’s invitation, I decided to join her and Debs for a stayover and a F.R.I.E.N.D.S. fest after a midnight snack. I didn’t need much persuasion at all. What else was I to do on my own? What would I have lost? The opportunity to work out a friendship had no cost - (actually, 2 cds and 1 DVD rental overdue.. .but thats a different matter). It proved to be a chance to share our thoughts, feeligns and opinions on Japan. Debbie said sometimes she doesn’t like talking about it cause its being negative. But being able to talk about it helped me get it off my chest and out of my head and know that I wasn’t struggling on my own. That support of empathy... Laura was helpful as she was encouraging. She’s quite affectionate too which was so good. Cause that’s so lacking here. Physical contact, hugs, tickles, pats on the head, tugs of the pony tail.... little things like that. It’s almost as if one was emotion-less here. Little touches like that, are signals that you do exist in someone elses’ physical and social world here. I knew I was going to miss affection, but I didn’t realise how much I had missed it. It was so good that these girls were so open to having me join them.
Late, lazy, Sunday breakfast of cereals, French toasts, sunnyside eggs with soldiers, english tea with milk and honey, lasted maybe an hour or two and then we had more FRIENDS to watch and rushed to church. Service was not grand but Laura had explained that with most of the Japanese, they are considered a young christian circle, so, what could I expect. I decided my benchmarks were unwarranted and that so far fellowship was proving encouraging and supportive. Dinner table conversation was far more stimulating but I suspect that was possible only because the gaijin all congregated on one end of the table and the locals on the other so we were comfortable throwing out ideas in english. They started talking about spiritual warfare things and how they were more probably in an idolatrous hotzone like Japan and that gave me the anxieties. Laura was quite caring which was such a nice change to have.
Thank God for a good, fruitful weekend. For the fellowship. Help me to focus on now and not worry myself what will happen to the social and fellowship in the months to come. Help me be an encouragement to them as they were to me. Bless them with a good week.
Audio:Perfect by Simple Plan on Radiostorm.net
Biblio: Bushido: The Soul of Japan by Inazo Nitobe.
Cerebrio: It's not all fun. But it is different!
posted by The Chilibuddy @ 1:54 am ::
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