Things Matt Ate This Week

This is not just a post about food!

That being said, here's a few unique cuisines I've enjoyed this week:

Going from left to right, top to bottom:

1. Here's some of those ramen noodles that I mentioned in my last post. This was "dipping ramen with full plate."

2. Vending machine coffee! It cost ~$1 and tasted as good as those Starbucks frapuccino's.

3. The Korean BBQ place was a lot of fun as 7 of us shared this little grill and cooked all our own pre-marinated meats. Also with great kim chi!

4. Udon dipping noodles, cucumbers with unrefined miso, and ...cow tongue??? The cow tongue was awesome.

5. I knew we couldn't go wrong with Indian food for dinner. A nice little bowl of Chicken Tikka Masala and a fresh-baked garlic naan the length of my hand and forearm!

6. And who doesn't like churros!!? Although, these Japanese churros are very different in that they're crunchy like a cookie and are meant to go with coffee.

The Indian place was pretty sketch. This was the tunnel stairway we took to the basement level restaurant.

Besides food, I was able to experience three very different aspects of Japanese culture throughout this week:

1. The Kamakura Temple

This temple was built by the first Shogun (or militant leader) to conquer the entirety of Japan with his army of samurai. His temple  is famous not only for its historical value, but for its beauty and scenery. I was only able to take a brief tour of the grounds, but every aspect was rich with historical and metaphorical value.

The gateway to the temple is a long path whose entrance is marked by two dog statues and the Torii gate. The dog on the right has an open mouth, which symbolizes life, while the dog on the left symbolizes death with its closed mouth. This is meant to reflect how we enter the world with an open mouth, hopeful and experiencing all things new; then we pass away with a closed mouth and at peace.

The Torii gates are all over Japan and symbolize a passing into a spirited or holy area.

The path actually narrows as you get closer to the temple, which gives the optical illusion of the path being significantly longer than its actual length. This was engineered by the first Shogun in order to deter and intimidate challengers to the Shogun position, as they would have to assassinate him in order to take over his role.

Before entering the temple, we performed some ceremonial washing at a small, but well-decorated, fountain. There was a whole procedure to follow, which I know that I completely messed up. I had to quickly pull out my 'American' card and speak English to the confused onlookers in case it wasn't already obvious enough that I had no clue what I was doing.

After this point, I couldn't take any more pictures due to being inside the temple. The scenery everywhere around the temple was absolutely gorgeous, though, and I wish you could all experience it someday, too. There were two small ponds that were installed by the wife of one of the many Shoguns to live by the temple. The pond on the right was filled completely with white water lillies, while the pond on the left was filled only with red water Lillie's to, again, symbolize life and death. Although the lillies were not in bloom, the ponds were both beautiful and very serene.

There were many other temples and shrines around the Kamakura area, all of which I hear are gorgeous places to visit. I'm hoping to spend a full day in that city sometime in the future.

2. Harajuku

As a city known for its fashionable and trendy shopping centers, Harajuku is crowded every weekend with Tokyo's younger demographic. There are hundreds of stores within a mile radius of the train station, most of which are stacked on top of one another as it is with most of Japan's buildings and stores. I saw many of the major American outlets like H&M, Gap, Nike, and Tommy Hilfiger, but also noticed a peppering of trendy Japanese stores. Their fashions and styles are very similar to what we have in America and most of them seem pretty hipster. (Btw, are expensive, used clothing stores existent in America? Have I missed them completely? There were a few of those here with ~$40 t-shirts that have clearly been worn.) There was even a whole street that was decorated to look like a shopping avenue straight out of NYC; every outlet advertised american-styled clothing.

Harajuku is also known for its cosplay-ing weekend visitors. I was only able to snap one decent picture of the costumed locals:

She was last in a line of various uni-coloured princesses. Many shops had girls advertise in front of their doors dressed to look like they popped straight out of an anime cartoon. Probably the weirdest advertiser was the one who wasn't a girl, but was a guy in a skimpy Snow White outfit. For obvious reasons, no pictures were taken of that disturbing character.

I also visited a rabbit cafe while I was in Harajuku, which is a place where you pay a few bucks to play with a rabbit for a certain amount of time. Apparently these cafes, along with puppy and kitten cafes, are becoming popular all over Tokyo due to the restrictions on owning pets for those who live in the city. I didn't pay to spend time with a rabbit today, but at least I now know where to go if I'm having a bad day.

3. Akihabara

Akihabara is Tokyo's famed electronics district. On the left in the picture was a large multi-row market that sold only and all electronic parts. It had a booth for any electronic component you could ever need: capacitors, transistors, screws, flukes, wire strippers, motors, computer fans, batteries, lightbulbs, etc.

Straight ahead in the picture was one of many several-storied arcades. These arcades are an epileptic's nightmare. As soon as I stepped through the doorway, I was greeted with flashing screens and gameplay noises from every direction. Almost all the arcade games were multiplayer arcades and most required trading cards that the players purchased separately and used to interact with the game. It was all very impressive. Though perhaps what was most amusing in the arcade was the bathroom! The urinal itself was a video game! As I peed into the receptacle, I racked up points by the mL and filled up two soda cans, about which the little anime character in the video game seemed pretty excited. I don't think I got a high score, though.

Akihabara is also known for its maid cafes where the waitresses are all dressed as french maids and serve you very eagerly. I only saw a few maids out in the streets advertising for their cafes, but wasn't in the mood for feeling like a huge creeper that night.

Aside from reports on my tourism, I should be moving into my new apartment in about a week! I'm very excited for a place to call my home and I'm really looking forward to living the city life for a while in Yokohama. This past week was filled with a 5-day, mandatory, training course on adjusting to the new culture. It was very useful and I'm glad I went through it (it provided me the trip to Kamakura!), but it took away valuable time from the paperwork trail that I have to hike in order to move in to my apartment. Nonetheless, the Lord has faithfully been blessing the details of the housing process, allowing me to find an apartment and schedule a lease-signing meeting much sooner than normal. I'm continuing to pray for this process as I continue to realize my dependence on the Lord for all my needs.

ロスト in Translation

Exciting. Adventurous. Exotic. Great food. Interesting food. Complete and utter confusion.

All excellent descriptors for my first few days here.

The journey began last week on Monday when I left Dallas for an overnight stay in Seattle-Tacoma Airport. I arrived at Sea-Tac in the afternoon with an early check-in the following Tuesday morning, so I decided to enjoy my day in downtown Seattle. To briefly cover my touristy wanderings, here are pictures of the two sites I spent my day enjoying. If you're ever in Seattle, I highly recommend these brief stops:

Chihuly Garden and Glass:

And the Seattle Central Public Library - probably the coolest library to ever exist:

The long flight the next day arrived Wednesday morning. I walked the town the first night with my sponsor and he introduced me to the area a bit, a very hospitable gesture that gave me the comfort of knowing how to get back to base.

Thursday night, I was eager to get lost in the town armed with my fluent command of all four of my Japanese phrases. 

Those four phrases aided by grunts, nods, smiles, and plenty of bowing allowed me to order myself dinner at a restaurant then, later, sign a two-year contract for a cellphone. The dinner was a large bowl of ramen noodles; and not american, cup-o-noodles ramen, but savory, filling, delicious, Japanese ramen. A must-try for my future visitors.

The phone I purchased was over 50% off with the contract and I'll be paying around $90/mo, so even though I'm sure I was duped several times into buying features I'll never use because I'm illiterate in Japanese and can't even read my own contract, the price seems expected and reasonable for a new smart phone. I've been trying my luck with not-Apple electronics these days, so I decided to buy a Sony Xperia UL instead of going with the new iPhone 5S. The learning curve for the Android OS took only a few days to hurdle, but was exceedingly steeper than it should have been due to - once again - illiteracy. The first few hours with my new phone are best expressed by screenshots of this cat:

Friday morning, I sat through a welcome-to-Japan housing brief, where I learned after an hour that this moving process is going to be about as easy as figuring out why that Japanese cat on my phone keeps disappearing behind his little banner. I'm now expecting the whole process to take about a month's time, which is about 29 days more than I was hoping it would take.

I went out to the city of Yokohama that afternoon to scope out the area where I'm thinking about living; it is a half hour's train ride from the base in Yokosuka where I'm temporarily lodged. The Japanese transportation system was an adventure that I was saving until my purchase of a phone, so having my Xperia gave me the confidence to leave Yokosuka. Riding metro's and reading subway maps are not new to me, but illiteracy, once again, made the simplest tasks most difficult. Fortunately, I have an app that tells me exactly which trains to get on, so all I have to do is make sure I'm on a train that correlates with my app's instructions:

It hasn't failed me yet.

This past weekend, I enjoyed a bowl of cheap, yet incredible Udon noodles:

As with most of my food purchases thus far, I had only a very small idea of what I ordered until I ate it, when I realized I had no idea what I ordered. I only knew this meal was Udon after I asked my real estate agent a few hours later what I ate and showed her this picture. Even while I was ordering the meal, I couldn't even describe what I wanted so the kind and patient lady running her little shop had to step out of her kitchen to watch me point to a picture of the bowl I wanted to order. She kept speaking to me in Japanese and I had no idea what she was saying so I kept nodding and saying 'hai', or 'yes', until I think I counter-confused her enough to just make something  for me that closely resembled the picture I pointed to a few minutes earlier in our 'conversation' (or 'confoundsation'?).

Another food-venture was at a Sushi restaurant here in Yokosuka - a new favourite of mine. I was ordering sushi from my table's touch screen menu as if I was trying sushi for the very first time of my life. I chose any sushi that looked new or enjoyable, impatiently waited for my order to roll up to me on the conveyor belt, then hungrily snatched it into my mouth. I loved it all. I loved the impersonal, yet efficient, ordering process. I loved the conveyer belt that carries delicious products to my table. I love trying new sushi! There was only one sushi I ordered that did not taste very good. Not coincidentally, it didn't look too appealing on the plate either:

I'm not sure what I thought it was when I ordered it, but after placing the order I figured out how to turn the touch screen to the English setting and learned it is called 'Whitebait'. It didn't take me long after tasting the dish to realize that I was eating fish that is typically only used to feed other, tastier fish. It was pretty gross. My situation reminded me of the time I tried eating grass as a little kid because cows eat grass and cows make for tasty meals. Grass is not tasty. Whitebait is not tasty. My illiteracy got the best of me again.

One final, noteworthy expedition I made this weekend was getting lost in Yokohama's Chinatown! Who would of thought there's a Chinatown in Japan?? Conversations in Chinatown were about as productive as my ordering of the Udon noodle bowl, but it was still a great afternoon spent feeling tourist-y and lost in China, instead of in Japan.

Even after only a few days here in Japan, I'm feeling more comfortable with my surroundings, feeling more comfortable with the conversations, and feeling more excited about my time here. Each day so far has been a new experience and a new learning opportunity.

I can't help but thank the Lord for all these new experiences, for the new people I'm meeting each day, and for blessing all of my plans thus far by working out the details for me - the details that I've missed or could never have planned for. These past few days have been a re-realization of my dependence on Him to not only be the One holding the plan for my life, but the One who works out the details to get me there.

All glory, thanks, and honour be to the One who is the Beginning, the End, and the means to the End.

"And [Jesus] said to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens:they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you."

- Luke 12:22-31

Pilot

Konnichiwa!

This blog is now officially established to update all those who want to follow me on my (mis)adventures in Japan. It will not, however, be limited to the unique experiences I'd like to share, but will also be a sort-of impersonal journal - an avenue for my thoughts and readings during the next two years that are worth sharing.

The inspiration for the blog's title is from a song I've learned recently on the guitar that made 'MatTV's Top 10 summer hits' for its catchy melodies and heartfelt lyrics:

The Precipice

The Classic Crime

I wish that I could play the violin.

I'd play till tears roll down your cheek and chin.

And if you sang along,

We could write the saddest song.

Sometimes I indulge my every whim

And piece by piece, I build the cell I'm in.

But I only stay here long

Enough to write the saddest song.

Chorus:

I dreamt I stood on a hill that I wish was a mountain

To look back on all my accomplishments,

Well they must have been small because I couldn't seem to find them

So I took a leap off of the precipice.

I wish I could play piano well.

I'd hit the keys that make your spirit swell

And if you sang along,

We could write the saddest song.

Bridge:

Whatever the cost

Whether it works out or not

Whatever the cost

Whether it works out or not

I'll follow you

I'll follow you

I'll follow you with all of my heart

The chorus and bridge particularly hit home as they express the artist's desire to follow the Lord's will, a desire I believe all us Christians express daily ("...Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven..." -Mat 6) and will wrestle with at multiple points in our lives. "Am I in the Lord's will right now?" "What is His plan for me?" "Among several life paths, which one does God want me to take?" As I sung the lyrics for myself, I couldn't help but make it my own prayer.

In the chorus, the artist struggles with the meaninglessness of all our personal achievements; so in his quest for purpose and significance, he takes 'a leap off of the precipice'. In other words, he gives everything away in hopes of gaining something of actual/eternal worth - just as Christ describes in the parable of the man who finds a treasure in a field and sells all his possessions to buy that field (Mat 13:44-46). This last line of the chorus poetically describes what we are called to do every day when we take up our crosses and follow our Lord (Luk 9:23). By our living lives of surrender, we unite ourselves to the One who is our purpose, to the One who tells us that His will is "to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth." (Eph 1:10)
So what is God's will for us? Unity. With Himself. And with others. We might stress ourselves with questions of the Lord's will: What will my next job be? What school should I go to? Who should I marry? While these are important life decisions, the results of them are many orders smaller in importance compared to our daily decision to follow Christ. The questions we should be asking are: Are we studying His Word with all our heart? Are we praying like our lives depend on it? Are we caring for those who can't help themselves, just as Christ did? Are we sharing the gospel like we believe Hell really exists?
I don't mean to belittle our big life decisions. Our life decisions still carry significance to God because He cares very much about the details of our lives - He doesn't create things He doesn't care about - but our daily commitment to His Word and His commandments has an eternal impact on our own souls and on the souls around us. This is His will. Our other big life decisions will simply become a manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit being worked out in our lives as we daily draw from His living water.

Now the bridge of the song explains what it's like to follow God's will; and the artist's prayer reminds me of my own. There have been times in my life where I'm so convinced that I'm acting out of God's spoken will for me that when the plans crumbled and failed, I questioned God's goodness instead of questioning my own intentions and assumptions. On a specific occasion, I pursued a certain path with the full confidence in my feelings of peace during my prayers and fasting, in the confirmation of God's Word, and in the validation of my close friends. And then it all fell apart. It was over a year later that I discovered my confidence was misplaced in the formula I created for determining God's will. I was confident in my knowledge. I was confident in my spirituality. I was confident in my heart's desires. I had a confidence that produced only pride and legalism.

I still don't know how to determine God's will in these life decisions, but I don't think it's a puzzle or a riddle that God expects us to figure out. And I think my accepted ignorance puts me in a good place. All I know now is that if I choose to follow God every day, He promises to always be with me in whatever I do and wherever I go (Rom 8:28). Because God has been faithful up to this point, I am confident that He'll let me know if I am acting outside of His plans for me. And while He may not speak to me face-to-face like He did with Moses, or give me dreams like He gave Joseph, God will align my desires to His desires as I pursue Him, and not His will.

I leave tomorrow for Japan and, more than anything, I'm excited for my new adventure. I have no idea what my life will be like a few months from now or even a week from now, but "whatever the cost" and "whether [my plans] work out or not", my choice will always be "to follow You with all of my heart."

This blog, more than it is about time spent abroad, is about the Precipice - that choice I make every day.