Japan Diary: The first half of our trip!

On Friday evening, after we arrived, we were whisked off for team dinner with the Singaporeans who have been here for the previous week`s cycle. To bid them farewell and to share with us what their experience was like. A few Japanese businessmen who had heard about our project came along too. One of them, Junichi, is very round-faced and cheery looking, like a young Santa Claus! Hee... it was good fellowship and we had yummy tonkatsu (very thick pork cutlet with sauces)

On Saturday we were surprisingly free. For previous cycles Saturday was a work day, but when we arrived we were told that this week`s one was free instead. So Mel and I planned our day over breakfast. After breakfast we headed out to Omotesando Hills, where we had a fun morning taking lots of pictures and watching people pass us by and talking about them heh. No shopping cos the area is `taitai land` - all the high end brands like Gucci and LV and Bottega. But the buildings were very nice to look at - with the very interesting shop displays.

We spotted quite a few `tweens` as well. Tweens are the Japanese younger youth - around 10-13 years old, not quite teens yet. Here in Japan, they start getting fashion crazy/conscious from around that age, so you would see young girls dressed up in striped leggings, lots of eyeliner and very short skirts giggling in a group.

We walked and walked and walked the whole morning. By lunch we were exhausted.. =b But after a full meal we were ready to go! We spent the rest of the afternoon at Harajuku. Didn`t really shop much, cos it was SOOO crowded. But we did spend a fair amount of time in 100 yen shop. heh heh heh...

In the evening, we went to a church in Kichijoji. My friend Haramichi (who received Christ during my first mission trip to Japan) invited us for his church`s Christmas outreach party. It was SOOO amazing. I am so thankful to have had that opportunity to see him thriving in this church, and to watch all that unfolded that night.

They had put in a LOT of hard prep into the food, the decor, and the performances. It was a room set up with small tables and candlelight. .. and a beautiful white baby grand... Haramichi helped to serve food (and he said he also helped to buy the groceries) and all the people were uni students and young working adults. There were several items - a trio instrumental jazz carols session (flute, violin and piano), a dance by members from another church, and a very creative and thought-provoking msg by the pastor. After the message, each table spent time discussin their thoughts and just fellowshipping. really warm and friendly.

i met thsi girl there who`s from SIngapore. She`s called Olivia Ong, formally from the SIngapore girl band Mirai. Turns out she`s moved here for the past three years to record her albums. She`s only 21! Her second album just got released. pray for her... a Christian who`s in the secular music industry has much opportunity for impact.

Also had the chance to meet kazuko, the Japanese staff who had looked after my team the first year we were in Japan. WOW! I was so excited to met her, and we had a good time of catching up. She was pleasantly surprised to find out that i had joined staff! heh... Her sister, yukiko, was there too. Yukiko is a nurse, and has come for seevral of such church activities with Kazuko, but not accepted Christ. I hope to keep in touch with her, and you can all help by praying for her. =)

There were about 80 people in the room, and about 4-5 of them prayed to receive Christ!!! wow...

On Sunday we went to the Imperial Palace to enjoy the scenery and the lake and to take pics. We got to see a swan and a troupe of duckies swimming down the lake. So sweet...

After that we made our way to Otimachii to attend am ENglish service at New Hope Otimachii Church. The pastor is from Hawaii, and there was a lot of Hawaiin influence, from the decor to the bulletin etc. It was an international congregation, people from America, Japan, Korea, Africa etc. I found the message rather long =b but the worship time was a good reminder of who the focus of everything we do needs to be.

After church, we went with another Singaporean team member to Ikeburo for dinner. Lil, I tried to find what you requested at Tokyu Hands, but dun have... the only one they have is about S$40, which I thought cannot be right one lah...

Monday was the FIRST day of giving out CDs. We were at Shinagawa. It was icy cold, my fingers were numb throughout.. . but the response was not bad, considering that the team had also come here during the first week of Dec.

The Hong Kong team also joined us, so it was interesting to work together and see how different people approached the crowd differently. hee... anyway its qutie a tiring process to keep smiling and shouting Merry Christmas!!! in the freezing wind, so please pray for strength, joy and perseverance.

Today was also v cold, my hands got quite numb at times. (You can`t wear gloves and give CDs cos you can`t feel the individual CDs) But I had quite a few encouraging responses from people who zsked for more for their friend or who stopped to talk to me about what`s in the CD and were very happy to find out that it was a `free present of Christmas carols! hee...

Pray alsoi that we would not be discouraged or disheartened when people walk on by or give us looks. THank you for praying!!! We will continue to give out the CDs in different areas until Friday.

Personally, for me, whenever I felt discouraged by the response today, I was reminded of all the people praying for us, and that spurred me on to smile more!

After a verrrrrry brrrrrrrr cold morning, we enjoyed our hot bowls of ramen lunch. Right now we`re back in Ichigaya Centre, resting and waiting for Ohno to come by to meet us after his work.