Recently I have been attending a Christian fellowship group on campus. Some times we do a Bible study and sometimes we have worship. Afterwards we can go to a Indian restaurant close to campus. They have curry and naan which is wonderful, if a little more than I can afford regularly. I have been enjoying the Bible study and singing. What is best is that I get to talk about God. I love talking about Him and His character. For the first half of the semester I had little to no interaction with Christians, so it is good to talk about Him.
Two weeks ago I got to encourage a Chinese girl to love the Lord and trust Him to work His will in her life. It is such a blessing for me to encourage others to the Lord. It is amazing to me how many Christians seem to think that the Christian walk is about striving to be God wants them to be. It is one of my greatest joys that I don't have to change myself. Firstly because I have found that I can't change myself, secondly because I don't really know how I need to change, but mostly because I get to rest in His sovereignty and loving care that He will work His will in my life if I will but trust Him. Of course, trusting Him is one of the hardest lessons to learn, along with learning to wait for His timing, which is really just an extension of learning to trust Him.
We are planning a Thanksgiving party for the Saturday after Thanksgiving. One of the leaders who is a teacher (who is not Japanese) at KG is going to do most of the cooking. I am going to be helping her. She feels that she has been called by God to Japan, but she hates it here. She has been here, in Japan, for around ten years. So we were planning the grocery list, and we got on the topic of a conflict that she had had, and it was impressed on me that she was exhausted and frustrated. I exhorted her that God loves her and that He is working in her life. I went of about it for a while(sometimes I feel like He takes over). She is struggling with Him about trusting Him to change her. Please Pray that He will draw her to him and teach her to trust Him. Also that He will give her the desire to love the Japanese people, and that He will manifest this love in her heart, and so glorify himself.
I think that I really love to be used by Him to encourage His people, it is such a blessing to me, and I hope that it is also a blessing to those He sends me. I can only trust Him that I am, I fear that I am merely an annoying busybody.
Something about Japan. The Japanese people are very ethnocentric, I suppose it comes of a homogeneous population that was cut off from the world for 200 to 300 years. This ethnocentric ism becomes discrimination against foreigners. I'm sure that it had vastly improved since the end of the Tokugawa era,when there was a greater portion of the population that wanted to eject all foreigners off of Japanese soil, by force if necessary. It continues to shows up in Japanese policy making. Foreigners are generally considered second class citizens(if you can even get citizenship, which is pretty much impossible). We are requited, if we are staying longer than 3 months, to register as an alien, and we get a card that we have to carry around at all times. We call it the Gaijin card. The police can ask you to show it to him. When a foreigner first comes he/she is something of a novelty, but once the novelty wears off they are merely difficult to deal with. Which I can understand, because if you can't speak the language you are almost a child. If you have a white face they assume that you cannot understand Japanese, and thus will say anything they feel like to your face with impunity. It usually isn't complementary. Mostly you get "Gaijin!" which being translated is "Look, mom, it's a foreigner! Sometimes it's nice not being able to speak Japanese. I have been informed by more than one longtime resident gaijin about how frustrating it is to always be the foreigner. Many Japanese people won't rent to foreigners, some places will even refuse service to foreigners. If you look at things objectively, you can usually understand why it is that way, but it doesn't make it very much easier to deal with on a daily basis. I think that I am somewhat insulated from most of this, but there is a sense of being used to practice English with. I wonder how I would feel if that was all it ever was, being used. I think I had a taste of that in Junior High. God uses me, but He loves me, so I suppose that's what makes the difference.
I think that if I were to live in Japan I would probably be rather lonely. The thing about being lonely is that I have often felt lonely, and this has, to some extent, developed in me a dependence on God for my identity. Not to say that I want to be lonely, it would be incredibly hard, but I think that, with His grace, I could handle it. I think that I wouldn't want to do it all by myself, though. What I want to do is to be an encouragement to His church. If that is in Japan then I am willing. Equipping the saints. I do not know what He has for me, but I am willing, and I believe that He will guide me.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Being Sick in Japan
So, sorry for not writing for so long. I've kinda lost my steam.
About three weeks ago I caught a cold. This is not unusual for me. I usually get three of four colds a year, so when I came down with one here, it was annoying, but not unexpected. It was a rather bad cold and I was miserable. In America I can just go to the store and buy what I want or need. Here everything is in Japanese (oddly enough!) and Japanese just go to the Hospital and get a prescription. That's right, you read correctly. Japanese people go to the hospital for a common cold. They have required health insurance here, and there is no deductible. So if they feel the least bit off they hurry to the doctor who meets with them briefly and then prescribes them some medicine. If you have allergies you go to the hospital. If your leg hurts you go to the hospital. So when I caught my cold all the Japanese people urged me to go to the Hospital.
Being American, I would never go to the Hospital to be told what I already know. As a matter of fact I probably wouldn't go unless I were bleeding profusely, had been ill for some time, or was in danger of dying. Needless to say I was somewhat shocked when being repeatedly urged to go to the doctor. My insurance has a deductible, I would have to pay for it myself.
My host mom got so worried that she called the School to have them talk to me. I was informed that I needed to get some medicine. Usually I will take some vitamin C, zinc, and Nyquil at night to help me sleep. Nyquil being illegal here I had to forgo it, then I will just suffer through the rest of the symptoms. I had been wearing a mask (as is expected in Japan) to prevent the spread of germs. (Masks are terribly hot.) I shared my view of the situation with the lady at the school, and she told me a story about a time when she had had allergies and had gone to the Hospital to get medicine so that her co-workers would not need to be discountanced by her sneezing. Her point being that my cold was inconveniencing those around me so I had better get some medicine to hide it. My response to that situation would have been that I was the one suffering and they should feel sorry for me, not annoyed. I was also required to return the next day to prove that I was improving, and if not improving I would be required to go to the Hospital. Being the good international student that I was I then determined to buy some medicine. I went to get some medicine at the drug store then realized that I didn't have enough money, Oops!
Fortunately for my bank account I was somewhat better the next day. I went to the drug store and got some cough medicine the next day. It was very effective, and when I didn't take the medicine some days later I coughed all day. I guess that I felt a bit miffed that I was the sick one and I have to be the one to think about those around me. It's selfish, I know, but it was how I felt. It seems to be to be a good attitude to have, but I am not sure that I want others to expect it from me. In Japan, I feel that there is a lot of behavioral expectation projected onto people. I find it a bit oppressive, a whole culture that guilts people into doing what is expected.
Hmmm.
About three weeks ago I caught a cold. This is not unusual for me. I usually get three of four colds a year, so when I came down with one here, it was annoying, but not unexpected. It was a rather bad cold and I was miserable. In America I can just go to the store and buy what I want or need. Here everything is in Japanese (oddly enough!) and Japanese just go to the Hospital and get a prescription. That's right, you read correctly. Japanese people go to the hospital for a common cold. They have required health insurance here, and there is no deductible. So if they feel the least bit off they hurry to the doctor who meets with them briefly and then prescribes them some medicine. If you have allergies you go to the hospital. If your leg hurts you go to the hospital. So when I caught my cold all the Japanese people urged me to go to the Hospital.
Being American, I would never go to the Hospital to be told what I already know. As a matter of fact I probably wouldn't go unless I were bleeding profusely, had been ill for some time, or was in danger of dying. Needless to say I was somewhat shocked when being repeatedly urged to go to the doctor. My insurance has a deductible, I would have to pay for it myself.
My host mom got so worried that she called the School to have them talk to me. I was informed that I needed to get some medicine. Usually I will take some vitamin C, zinc, and Nyquil at night to help me sleep. Nyquil being illegal here I had to forgo it, then I will just suffer through the rest of the symptoms. I had been wearing a mask (as is expected in Japan) to prevent the spread of germs. (Masks are terribly hot.) I shared my view of the situation with the lady at the school, and she told me a story about a time when she had had allergies and had gone to the Hospital to get medicine so that her co-workers would not need to be discountanced by her sneezing. Her point being that my cold was inconveniencing those around me so I had better get some medicine to hide it. My response to that situation would have been that I was the one suffering and they should feel sorry for me, not annoyed. I was also required to return the next day to prove that I was improving, and if not improving I would be required to go to the Hospital. Being the good international student that I was I then determined to buy some medicine. I went to get some medicine at the drug store then realized that I didn't have enough money, Oops!
Fortunately for my bank account I was somewhat better the next day. I went to the drug store and got some cough medicine the next day. It was very effective, and when I didn't take the medicine some days later I coughed all day. I guess that I felt a bit miffed that I was the sick one and I have to be the one to think about those around me. It's selfish, I know, but it was how I felt. It seems to be to be a good attitude to have, but I am not sure that I want others to expect it from me. In Japan, I feel that there is a lot of behavioral expectation projected onto people. I find it a bit oppressive, a whole culture that guilts people into doing what is expected.
Hmmm.
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