With a little help from my friends

This term in Japan, now in it's fourth year has been marked by new experiences and a distinct pushing of the envelope of what I was comfortable with. 

On Saturday morning I woke up with the most painful stiff neck in recent memory.  If I turned to face left I felt an electric like shock through the muscles of my neck and shoulder.  If I raised my head to look upward I was likely to have a similar reaction.  So, I applied all of the home remedies I had at hand, hot shower, ibuprofen, arthritis cream, ice, sometimes on their own, sometimes in combination, throughout the day,which included a bus to Soya for an English Class which lasted two hours and the bus trip back.  I switched to heat after that and though I slept well enough if I stayed on my left side I woke on Sunday with increased stiffness if no more electric shocks.  I canceled out of the IVIS bus tour to Kamakura. 

At church I mentioned my malady to a couple friends and by Monday morning my friend network was planning my strategy.  They came to an agreement on the clinic I should go to and one of them called ahead to tell them my situation and that I don't speak Japanese. I paid a visit to the doctor and was treated with several chiropractic techniques which were familiar to me from my days long ago in America when I suffered from lower back pain.  The doctor and I had some interesting exchanges in Japanese English and English Japanese and were both able to laugh at out own mistakes.  Today I'm better and have discovered that the chiropractor is the brother of the dentist that lives across the street from me.

May In Ichikawa

Recent weather has made me feel right at home.  The temperatures have turned distinctly warmer and a bright warm day can turn quickly in to a thundery rain storm and just as quickly back to sunshine. Recently there was a strong tornado in Tsukuba that appeared suddenly, some buildings were wrecked and there was one death.  For the next week or two everyone was on edge if there was any forecast of rain.  The weather services scrambled to find a way to warn people if the possibility of a tornado was present. This resulted in even more anxiety. For Japanese people the forces of nature are cruel, unpredictable and ruled by gods who don't necessarily care about what happens to people.

Trees are coming out in leaves of "fresh green" and the roses are starting to bloom. The hydrangea have buds. Natsumikan are the fruit of the season.  The name means summer tangerine.  They have thick skins, though and apparently are used for juice that can be made into drinks high in vitamin C.  I was given two by a friend and ate them by peeling them, then removing the thick membrane from each section and eating the insides. Having lived in Florida, I was not overly impressed by this fruit, but vitamin C is a good thing.

The sun is shining again, and the afternoon rain is dried up. Today's round of the May Sumo Tournament is on the television. It's great to have an afternoon off.

The Cherries Bloom Again

In Japan I have developed a new appreciation of the changing of  seasons.  I grew up with season changes, but 20+ years in Florida dulled my appreciation of this regular change of weather and nature. Here in the Tokyo area we have frost in winter and occasional snow in winter, in summer it gets about as hot as Tampa for about six weeks. In autumn we have brightly colored leaves on maple trees. But spring, that's the season when the cherry trees bloom. There are so many of them and you find them planted singly on otherwise barren school sports grounds and in ones and twos in many neighborhoods. Many towns have a street that is lined with cherry trees on both sides. Small streams and ancient castle moats make great settings for cherry trees with the blossoms reflected in the water. Often cherry trees are planted the grounds of temples.

Today after church my friend and I went for a walk that in this time of year is called "Hana Me" - looking at flowers. You can see all the pictures I took on the nearly 4 hour ramble through Ichikawa in my Picasa web albums. I include some  here to make you want to look at the rest.  (You can always click on on of the slide shows running to the right and when you get to my web album, click on the tab along the top called gallery or albums or something like that to see a collection. Let me know if you have trouble.)


Other things are blooming as well, and as the season progresses we know that soon we will see wisteria. Each kind in it's proper time.

Trudge Mode

I've been in 'trudge mode' for about the last month.  I get up in the morning and start the things that must be done.  When I finish one thing I move on to the next and trudge through the day till it's time to go to bed.  There are two consequences of this lifestyle: things on your to do list tend to get done, and if you're not careful, all the joy and spontaneity in life can be stifled.

Today marks a major change. Late this morning I will get on a train to go back to Olive No Sato Retreat Center in Nikko for the 2012 OMF East Japan Conference. I'll be gone till Friday. so I'll put in some pictures to entertain you till I get back.

Chapel

Building with guest rooms and dining room

The road beyond the camp

Nearby river

Evening Campfire

Only One Year

If you're connected to any kind of news source anywhere in the world you have no doubt heard something today about the year since Japan's Triple Trauma. Here we have had reminders in each of these 365 days.  My life no doubt looks much the same as it did a year ago, I live in a slightly different neighborhood and do a somewhat different job from a year ago. However, my life and the lives of countless others here were irrevocably changed March 11, 2011. When you can no longer even trust that the ground under your feet is a stable place to stand, it changes a lot of other things.

I would encourage you to continue to pray for the people of Japan. There are many who are still hurting due to personal loss and the others hurt for them in a way I have not experienced living in America. Pray also for those who are assisting in the rebuilding of lives. They have come so far in a year, but have so far yet to go.

If you know someone who is volunteering here or working with a Christian mission or relief agency, do what you can to support them.  Let them know you care about them.  Send them some tangible support if you can afford it. The cost of living here remains high. A word of encouragement is like gold. Please don't forget Japan.

Perseverence

It’s been relatively cold this winter in Tokyo.  It always seems cold to me I guess, but we have had a couple of months when the temperature hasn’t risen  much above 40° (F). It doesn’t get much below freezing either, but with wind and rain that can be a miserable temperature for a transplanted Floridian. And like Florida summers it sometimes seems to go on for a really unreasonable amount of time.

So, being basically an optimist, I am always on the lookout for change.  Today I was surprised by the sight of evidence that winter will end and spring will come. The plum tree is on the side of the building facing the alley and when I went to throw something into the trash, I saw two blossoms had opened, and many more are about ready to burst.

When I was researching kamon to put in my Japanese Memory Quilt I read somewhere that the plum blossom is a symbol of perseverance because it blooms when it is still winter. I liked that idea so much, I decided I would make block with a plum blossom kamon in the quilt.  It reminds me that I need to persevere; flower when it still seems to be winter, spring will surely come.

The WC

This week at OMF JHQ we had 8 toilets replaced.  They were the ones installed at the beginning and over the years have proved to be very inefficient.  Being of American manufacture it was more trouble than most people wanted to go through to get new flappers when they wore out.  They were also an early experiment in using less water per flush. They obviously needed to continue with their research.  They were also deemed to be the cause of a couple really high water bills.

The Japanese are really on top of the heap when it comes to toilet technology.  Not just the hi-tech seats with the sometimes amusing, sometimes shocking functions, but the flushing mechanisms.  These new ones are fast and efficient and take the minimum of water. In fact, when you lift the lid of the tank there is no water visible, just mechanisms. 

The other thing I was reminded of was the way Japanese workmen work.  When the toilet in my bathroom was being replaced I stayed in my office.  When they were done, there was no mess, no water drips, no footprints or fingermarks.  It was as if a new toilet had just grown in the place of the old one. So, I put the bucket and the plunger away.

Not being a fan of "toilet humor" I'm having trouble coming up with a punch line for this piece.  I have seen one high end model here in Japan that has a motion sensor, and when you open the door to the toilet stall the  lid rises for your immediate accommodation. What will they think of next?