My 2nd weekend in Tokyo

Spent the whole Saturday at home. Watched a bit of TV. Yah, admittedly keep watching FOX and AXN cos I prefer watching English shows. Ironically in Singapore, I subscribe to NHK on cable and now that I am in Japan, I subscribed to English channels. Humans humans, you always want what you cannot get. Now I am dying to read 8 days or something cos every magazine I see is in Japanese and it is really tedious to read through every page.

Thank God for Lihan who was so sweet to pass me a couple of DVDS that she burnt. Currently watching FullMetal Alchemist. Very interesting and thought-provoking. And full of issues on kinship and love. I like.

Went to Shalom on Sunday. Ps Elmer was showing the photos from G12 conference and I felt so proud of our church when he pointed out Ps Khong and the hall where we conduct our services. Felt really nostalgic seeing Ps Khong, Hall 9, Ps Christina, the familiar stage of Max Pavilion… Shalom is undergoing renovation so the worship that day was only accompanied by the piano and flute but it was amazing. I know God is going to do great things in this church and I sort of have an answer for my prayer.

Didn't have headset during the sermon because renovation is going on so i could only understand maybe 50% of Ps Elmer`s sermon. It was about Joseph and how he persevered to do God's will and was rewarded after enduring the tough times. And we all received the promise of the spirit, which provides guidance for us in times of need.

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Didn`t manage to sit with Kumi but got to know this lady who is a worship leader. Her name is Mika and she teaches English at a commercial school part-time. She was really sweet and even invited me to her place which is near Waseda Uni where Jel is studying.

After the morning service, went to meet two Indonesian classmates and brought them to JesusLifehouse. Felt happy that they enjoyed the service and I met up with Miyuki and Eri (from the LifeGroup) there. After visiting this church for the second time, I am even more sure of the church I should settle in. Managed to connect my classmates with 2 other Indonesia students studying here so I’m glad for them.

Sermon by Ps Rod was on fleeing and pursuing and he cited an example, also from a story of Joesph. We must be determined to flee from situations which we will be tempted and also flee from self-centredness. Doing either is not enough, we need to also pursue the dream that God put in us. Joseph RAN from Mrs Potiphar and continued to pursue the dream that God showed him when he was 17. It came true when he was 30. Are we as full of faith as Joseph?

My spiritual mummy and grandmummy will be here next weekend! I am soooo excited! *lala*

いい 天気 です！

The weather is turning warmer! Yeah.. still cannot get used to the japanese type comforter cos they are so rectangularish due to the stitching and my comforter keeps slipping off! *irritated*

Was actually able to wear a T-shirt to school today! But on my way home, there was a strong wind whipping my face all the way as i walked home for 10 minutes. Brrr! Still cold at nights.Sob. Was a nice sunny day, took this outside my home, along the corridor at 4.20pm. Check out the pretty Mt Fuji hiding among the clouds!

Woke up at 3.30am cos my aircon remote control fell to the floor. Noise woke me up and i was startled but pretty much fell asleep within 30 seconds again. Heard from classmate that that was actually pretty-scary shaking which caused my remote control to drop from my bureau. 2 hours, i was sitting at my table, updating this blog when my chair started to wobble and my intercom telephone`s cord was swinging (it`s attached on the wall). 10 secs later, it stopped. My first earthquake experience in my home! Got me giddy for a while. Not worried thoug'h i think i better go read up on some evacuation procedures.

Dinner was KFC while watching Ally Mcbeal on telly. The Fox channel in Japan calls the show 'Ally- My love', funny name. Reminds me of my JC days when Yanping first introduced me to the show. Yup, i am watching Season 1 Ally, 1998 production. That was like 8 yrs ago! Scary! It certainly doesn`t feel like 8 years ago. *shudders*

The KFC here is really professional. There is a KFC next to my building. 1 min walk away. And the food is wrapped so nicely in a paper bag with the name of the staff who served me and a time and date label so you won't die of food poisoning. How thoughtful of the Japanese to pay attention to little details like this!

Happiness is ICE-CREAM! La la! Sadly, limited edition Blueberry Haagen-Dazs fails to deliver. Will prefer good old Ben&Jerry's but they don't have it here in Japan :( Tried Dean&Deluca `super premium` strawberry but i prefer Haagen`s version. Japan is Dessert Heaven, i tell you. Yummy cheesecake from 7-11 that comes from premium confectionery is about S$3. *drool*

My first LifeGroup experience!

Met up with Miyuki and her cell group on Tues 18th April. Her leader is Maja (German name, pronounced as Maya) and she is from Australia too. She teaches English at a Japanese school and she is really friendly .They call their cell group LifeGroup and we went to this Asian restaurant called Oh Cha Cha at Shinjuku station.

Oh today I learnt in class that Shinjuku Station is the world’s busiest train station with an estimate of 2 MILLION passengers everyday! Cool bananas! My 3 classmates who squeeze with the other commuters daily as they make their way to school make up 0.0000015% of the people at this world’s busiest station. Haha!

Ok, back to the topic, ate not so authentic Cha-Kway-Tiao at the restaurant but hey, at least it offers some comfort seeing the familiar black oily stuff ;) Look-wise I say probably 9/10 but taste maybe 6/10..hmm… “ma-ma desu” as they will say in Japanese, meaning so-so only.

Here is a photo of the ladies, coincidentally the Lifegroup is homogeneous too. All the Japanese ladies could speak English pretty well and they were really sweet to me. Felt really blessed when they prayed for me when I told them I am currently praying for the right church to settle in. God will lead the way! Amen!

Pony ponders on *1 Samuel 15:22*

22 But Samuel replied:

"Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices

as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD ?

To obey is better than sacrifice,

and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

The First Samurai!

God is so cool! Was reading the Bible on the train en route to Kawasaki and suddenly, there was this Japanese lady who came up to me and said `Excuse me? Are you reading the Bible? Are you a Christian?` Imagine my surprise cos

1. Japanese are VERY polite and private people.
2. Only 1% of the Japanese are Christians.
3. Most Japanese don`t DARE or shall i say ATTEMPT to speak English.

The lady proceeded to invite me to her church, Jesus Lifehouse in Tokyo, which has bilingual services and is a contemporary church singing Hillsongs etc. I was pleasantly surprised and jotted down her mobile because I was alighting. Wasn`t thinking much about going because i thought i am already going to Shinjuku Shalom Church but I was glad the lady, Miyuki, took the courage to approach me. Made me realise: IT IS ALL ABOUT WILLINGNESS. Very encouraged by Miyuki.

That was Saturday noon (16th April). Ps Caleb, who was in Tokyo with Anne (Ps Christina`s network) called me and asked me if i wanted to join them for service at Jesus Lifehouse on Sunday. I GOT A SHOCK! It was like God was knocking on my door TWICE, asking me to go to the church somehow. Turned out that the pastor from Jesus Lifehouse went to watch MOL last year and Ps Caleb wanted to catch up with him.I was glad to have company so I decided to go take a look.

It was Easter Sunday, a day of celebration! The service was held at this Culture Centre near Ginza, kinda like the ballroom where we have our Encounter Weekends. The number of people is around there also, mostly young people, many foreigners too.The energy was very high, sang many familiar songs, everything was so alike to FCBC! The young people put up a skit of Jesus and his life and after that, they showed the part of `Passion of Christ` where Jesus was being crucified on the cross. i think the Japanese really enjoy acting cos i realise they like to put up little skits to demonstrate their points. Interesting though, think Singaporeans probably wouldn`t be so candid and creative. At least for me, I think.

Ps Rod, the Senior Pastor who is from　Australia and the interpreter. Both of them were wearing cotton kimonos that samurais wore in their daily lives.

The sermon by Ps Rod was entitled `The First Samurai`. A samurai is a warrior who serves a master. I thought it was cool to put Jesus in a Japanese context though it has not occurred to me before to imagine Him in a kimono. Indeed, Jesus was the true First Samurai for He was obedient even till death.

Jesus was not a samurai who died a noble death. His was a sacrificial death that broke the power of death. On this Easter Sunday, we looked at 3 declarations Jesus made at the cross:

1) A declaration of Forgiveness

Luke 23:34 Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

This verse never fails to move me. I cry when I read this verse because it speaks of GRACE, grace so BIG that it touches even the hardest of hardened hearts. Even as Jesus was suffering as He hung on the cross, He was interceding for us.

2) A declaration of Pain

Matthew 27:46 Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Jesus took the world’s sins upon Himself that God, in His Holiness, had to leave Jesus. Because of the pain that Jesus suffered on our behalf, we are REDEEMED.

3) A declaration of Victory

John 19:30 Jesus said, "It is finished."

This is one of my favourite verse! I always repeat this verse to myself when I am faced with a situation that I have no control over or is troubled about. Interesting, Ps Rod explained that this verse ‘It is finished.’ is translated from one Greek word ‘Tetelestai’ which means “It stands finished; and it will remain so forever.” It was a cry of victory shouted by Roman generals when they won a battle and surveyed their accomplishments. I didn’t know this!

Wow! That is so cool! And ‘tetelestai’ is used in the perfect tense which means the victory will hold forever. To read more on this, please go to http://www.fbch.org/pdf/ItIsFinished.pdf

Easter is meaningful to us Christians because we serve a living God who loves us so much, who demonstrates His love for us by dying and who rose again on Easter Sunday!

Got much revelation from the sermon, God must have wanted me to come to this service for a reason, to let so many things happen in my path. We also met Ps Caleb’s friends – Aunt Bea and Uncle Rephael at JesusLifehouse. They are Singaporeans living in Perth and they were here enroute to LA. Imagine, they were only in Tokyo for 3 days and all of us visited this church for the first time. God is amazing I tell you!

Had coffee together with this couple, learnt a lot from both of them, so God-fearing so guided by the Lord. Uncle Rephael worked in Tokyo for a year some time back and the first thing he told me was to never lose my identity as a foreigner in this land. It sets me thinking because I thought of becoming as close to a local as possible so that I can blend into the crowd but it seems wiser to retain my ‘foreign-ness’.

Another word of advice he gave to me was always hold on to my roots instead of trying to modify the roots to suit the environment. Grafting onto a weak foundation will eventually cause the grafted original branch to fall off. Chanced upon Romans 11:11-24 where there was a passage on ingrafted branches. Shall think about striking a balance between staying true to my roots while absorbing the good stuff I can learn from this land.

Outing to Kawasaki and Tokyo Tower

On Sat (15th April), woke up, did laundry for the first time in my life and met classmates in Kawasaki, which is a town between Tokyo and Yokohama, about 1 hr away from my place. We went to this Italian-looking shopping area called ''LA CITTADELLA'' （ラチッタデッラ). Charming! And there is this cool cinema that looks clean and new ;) Check out the big Pirates of Carribean 2 poster.. yeah, Captain Jack Sparrow is back, speaking Japanese this time *grin*

My new friends : Yihui (from class 20), Xinyi and Ken (from my class).

Yihui and Xinyi are from Taiwan and they are both younger than me. But we had lunch together since day 1. They are really friendly and i think i am going to come back with a Taiwan accent soon haha! Ken is a 19 yr old chap from Indonesia and he is really on about music and guitars! AM asking him to teach me to play guitar, and in return will teach him to read staff notes.

The other two are Ivana and Kenn, also from Indonesia, and they are Ken`s friends from the school dormitory. I am learning how to speak Behasa too. haha!

Check this out! There is a small chapel at the side of the shopping mall. It looks dreamy and romantic but ...

it is actually a commercial place for people to hold dreamy weddings! There is a big advertisment there... the chapel has an italiano name.... ???

Check out the cross. *sigh* The Japanese and their weird antics. Headless couple from Sleepy Hollow, anyone?

Went to Hamamatsucho after dinner. Walked like 10minutes to Tokyo Tower. Didn`t realise it is so near to Mielparque Hall, where Ps Khong did Magic of Love last September. We bought tickets to ride on the elevator to go up 150m (??) to the observatory.

360 degree view of Tokyo and supposedly can see MT Fuji in the day. See the green thing in the centre? That is Mielparque Hall.

Here you go! Wah, felt very nostalgic cos many memories in that building: selling merchandise, praying, meeting cute guys etc. haha!!! Think Ps Khong and his team coming back to the same place to do MOL this year.

This is the Rainbow Bridge at Odaiba that I went with Mum and Jel that day. It`s very cool, my friend was actually there when we were at the tower! We joked that we could have shouted to her from the tower.

Had lots of fun on my first weekend out with new friends! i thank God for each and every one of them!

God IS love.

Went to Shinjuku Shalom on 9th April. Youth Pastor preached on a new beginning and prayed for all those who are starting school because April is the start of the academic year in Japan. Was too shy to stand up *ha*

Am the only one using translation set and poor Kumi and Takako had to take turn to translate for me. Kumi later told me that she was glad to have a chance to do a real-time translation. It was her first time as Takako had been coaching her. But i felt kinda bad cos Kumi couldn`t sit and listen to the sermon and i was the only one who needed translation.

The practice for Shalom is they will usually have 30min after service to have cell group. But that day we only had 20 minutes cos there were too many items due to the start of the academic yr.

Here`s a quick sharing:

Michiko-san, Kumi`s spiritual mum, works in Shalom (i am not sure as what, not pastor, leader?) and she speaks good English. According to Kumi, she lived in US for a long time after she took her theological studies there. Not sure if this is the lady Ps Christina was talking about.

Anyway Michiko-san shared 1 Cor 13:13

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Wow! I was blown away! She spoke on a subject that was very close to my heart and she told us to meditate on 1 Cor 13:4-8, which is my favourite ` Love is patient, love is kind...` She went on to explain that God is love and (1john4:8) Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Now this is one new verse that i am mediatating on. And this love is AGAPE. Loving one another (John 13:35). Not by outward appearances, but by our actions and our hearts.

I learnt another new word, しんこ (shin-ko) which means faith. And we need to express our faith through love. Mind-boggling huh?
Gal 5:6 `...The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.`

As Good Friday and Easter draw near reminding me of Jesus` ultimate act of sacrifice, showing this VERY love, it sets me pondering on how i can be like Christ and display this kind of love.

First i thought i understood the `love is patient, love is kind..` and i was in the `Back to serve with love` after i came back from MOL Tokyo last Oct. Ha, now i realise i have a lot more to learn. But i am trying.

Someone whom i really love loves to talk about LOVE. Now i see the point. I am starting to get excited to talk about LOVE. Ha! You`re good!

Sighting seeing in Ueno and Hakone

from left: my aunt, her friend`s son, her friend, me and my mum @ Ueno Park, it is hanami season which means pple sit on groundsheet under the sakura trees and picnic. ha! no, we didnt do that. jus kept taking photos. ha!

The next day, we took a 2hr train ride and then change to ride for 1 hr on a bus to Hakone, near Mt Fuji, a very beautiful place, air is very fresh though i didnt expect to get bussick on the way round n round up the mountain.... *blue in the face*

Was enjoying the scenery despite being a shopping centre-lover rather than a nature-lover. This is the place Lihan wanted to come last year; I kept dissuading her because I thought it might be too far and boring. Gosh i am so wrong! Every few minutes, I will think of Lihan and guilt will wash over me. Decided that will bring Lihan here and explore every inche of Hakone to make up to her ;P

This picture is meaningful to me, cos we are in this forest full of cedar trees, it was planted hundreds of years ago for Kings to `escape` from the heat. (My english is deterioriating from lack of usage...hee) Was reminded of psalm 92:12-13 The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God.First time i see cedar trees leh! *excited* strangely, it is pretty cool while we were walking among the trees, i am not sure how but the trees can sort of regulate the temperature.

This is the beautiful Lake Ashi. Weather was perfect! This is Benjamin, who is a year older than me. He is my aunt`s friend`s son and i got to know him better through these day trips. He is under JET program and he teaches English in Iwazaki (3 hrs away from Tokyo by bus? i think). He is also a Christian and he plays for church. It was great to meet him, we even did the same major in NUS! Small world huh! Anyway my aunt introduced us to each other, so that we can help take care of each other, being fellow countrymen, hmm.. distance is not a problem? Ha! But it was great to see another Singaporean in foreign land.

Post-dated update about school

there is this big old tv at the back of the class. quite ancient looking cos the school is pretty old. my friend`s dad studied here in an era when pple rode BOATS to come study!!!!!!

here is a sneak peek at the chalkboard in my classroom, today got chosen to go to board to write out words while teacher dictate. Heng i studied last nite. quite xin fen to use chalk also.. havent seen chalk since primary sch. ha! but very dirty.. during break time, the teacher always clean off the words, Japanese are neat freaks i guess.. see if u can spot my red bottle. that is where i am sitting .20 pple in my class.

School update ;)

School has started, it is day2 and i am super stressed cos everyone is so mugger in my class! Am in intermediate class, we are starting from Lesson 6 (which according to my friend who was fr the same sch last yr, is quite intermediate) On day 1 ,　we have review testS to revise concepts liao. Arghh. And everyday we have homework and mini testS.School is from 9.10am to 4pm. Lunch break from 12-1.10 where i go out to buy bento or eat in sch canteen (havent try, super you verr and small).

Every hour, ie: 10-10.10 i have 10min break. Before lunch is this main grammar teacher, nice lady, after lunch is this auntie and another uncle teaching Kanji (Chinese words) and conversation. Have to lug 6 school books to and fro. WE are using chalkboard, can u believe it. My friend warned me not to sit in front cos will die from ingesting too much chalk powder, so sat 3rd from front. The seats are single in rows, like exams. V cold and wet recently. Fingers frozen when i reach school, teeth chattering like mad.

House is 10min walk, straight so quite easy. Made friends with this Taiwanese girl (born in1982 Jan) who sits in front of me. Eat lunch with her and her other Taiwanese friend who is in another advanced class (they met in the hostel).Most of my classmates are staying in the school hostel which is just beside the school. They have only 3 washing machines and 10 internet terminal (till 1 mth later, then their rooms get connected) so i thank God i am blessed with internet and wsahing machine. My classmates: few taiwanese, Indonesians, china, 1 nepalnese, 5 malaysians (Malay teachers sent by their MOE but all 20 something). i am the only Sporean in my class. havent meet the other 3 Sporeans yet.


**Pony ponders on Mark 10:27 **
Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."

Ta da! My very first post!

Yes! Finally! My blog. *Sigh* wasn`t too keen to get on the blogging trend (or is it over already?) but I decided that it will be easier to update everyone who cares so much about me via a blog.

So here you have it. Please don`t laugh at my attempt. My fragile little heart will break. *grin*

This is me at Mount Expo. Lovely memories.