Japan's Cities, Towns & Villages
Respect-for-the-Aged Day is observed annually in September. While the Japanese worship of deceased relatives is essentially idolatry, their respect for all aged living relatives and neighbors has its origins elsewhere and is generally a commendable custom. Japan has a very layered social structure which is reflected linguistically as well. Depending on the age or position [...]
Utsunomiya is a beautiful city. Some days we go out and walk through our city and pray for the people to be saved. Recently as we were walking along the river that runs through our city and we noticed several very big carp, at least two feet long, swimming up stream. Sometimes we feel like [...]
Romans 2:4 – “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” I am often astonished at how well fear of being shunned and desire to conform work so well to keep a relatively safe and functioning society [...]
Recently B and P (ISC workers) decided to add to their strategy for helping Miss M go deeper with scripture. They were studying the story of Jesus being tempted in the desert. There are three clear statements made by Jesus in that narrative. They are important concepts in understanding who God is. “Man does not [...]
The other day we were driving through the countryside outside the city and noticed that the farmers have begun to harvest their rice. After the harvesting comes the burning of the chaff left in the rice paddies. As I watched the smoke rise from several rice paddies our city, Utsunomiya, I thought of John the [...]
As English Bible study time with FA (young mother) has continued, she has begun to see how the stories are all related. She sees the progression of how God keeps being willing to offer a “way out” for each Biblical character who does something wrong. She learned the word covenant when we began to learn together [...]
The name Shizuoka (pronounced shee-zoo-oh-kah) means “quiet hills” in Japanese. Shizuoka City is surrounded by luscious, green hills and the awe-inspiring Mount Fuji. This year has brought an unusually long rainy season to the city. Along with the rainy season has come a heavy fog that often blocks out the view of the mountains encircling [...]
Mrs. Iwa is a new believer who was baptized in April. She lives two hours away, so we meet early on Saturday mornings at a place half way in between our two cities. A couple of weeks ago, when we talked about who she might relate her new faith to, she mentioned the E family. [...]
Some places in Japan looks very western. There may be a McDonalds on one corner and a Starbucks on the other. Regional cities have several large malls much like the ones in America and other western countries. Music, clothing, technology all speak of westernization. However, in the regional areas, if you enter a home you [...]
I hopped on the bus that takes me downtown for language study. I often use the 30-minute bus ride to listen to Japanese language CDs, go over vocabulary, or pray that God would simply download Japanese into my brain. But this ride would be different. The first man on the bus, after me, was an [...]
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