Rambling Notes from Japan
Here are some blog posts that we hope will make you feel a part of things, and help you understand how to pray better for us and Japan. Please see our external blog in Blogger, if this page does not display correctly.
My Wife's a Blockhead!
June 2, 2009 08:48
| Blockhead, Family, Neighborhood
| Permalink
It's true. She's a blockhead. But let me hurry to explain. Kaori recently accepted the responsibility of head of our block, or "chounaikaichou." Japan is broken down into ever smaller circles of government. The prefectural office -> the city office -> the ward office...and so it goes. At the end of the food chain is the neighborhood group. Within the neighborhood groups are individual blocks of, say, a dozen houses or a couple small apartment buildings. This becomes the "chounaikai" or block group.The block group is responsibility for caring for the many somewhat smaller matters that concern these households. For example, policing the garbage pile, cleaning up the street trash, requesting the replacement of burned out street lamps, posting neighborhood announcements, collecting various donations and dues, and so forth. The head of the block group, the blockhead, is rotated amongst the households from year to year. This year it became Kaori's turn.
She's taken to the new responsibility eagerly. The awesome power certainly has not gone to her head. Quite honestly, she the nicest blockhead I've ever met.
Seriously though, it is a nice way to get around to meet the neighbors and get to build relationships. And that is always step one in personal evangelism. So...we are grateful to God for the opportunity. She might just want to stay Mrs. Blockhead for awhile! She quick to remind me, though, that this makes me Mr. Blockhead.
New Neighbors
January 14, 2009 10:19
| Culture, Housing, Neighborhood
| Permalink
We're getting some new neighbors. About 7,500 of them to be more specific. We continue to marvel at the new city-in-a-city called "Rise" being built just a few minutes from us. Its three towers rise some 30 and 40 stories above the rest of the neighborhood. It's slated to be completed by April. This is just another in the trend of major construction projects around us. Just last year "Eden" opened. It's massive towers of concrete and steel hardly do justice to its name. More than 8,000 people live in that tiny footprint of land. And more such construction projects are in the works in our immediate area. Our easy access to points in Tokyo makes the Denentoshi rail line a desirable place to find housing for commuters. But we wonder if this massive urbanization is really sustainable. Talk about population density!
On the other hand, 7,500 new neighbors means 7,500 new evangelistic opportunities. Thank you, Lord, for bringing those opportunities our way!
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We serve with WorldVenture, an evangelical faith mission. Our sending/home church is Cornerstone Church of Lansing, Illinois.