Day 6

Today I started out helping with the kindergarten and playing with the kids.  After 1 hour Pastor Tanno and I went to the church's weekly prayer meeting.  It took place in one of the member's houses, which was a traditional Japanese style house.  I was introduced to everyone and then we sang a few hymns in Japanese.  Then Pastor Tanno gave a short message.  Afterwards we broke into small groups and prayed together.  When we were finished we had lunch served by the lady that owned the house and then all of the church members took turns asking me questions.  They also begged me to sing them something in English, so I sang Country Roads.  For some reason that song is huge in Japan and whenever I say I'm from West Virginia everyone starts singing.  Probably more Japanese realize that West Virginia is a state than Americans.  After I sang it in English they sang it in Japanese for me.  In the group picture, the one on the left is Pastor Tanno and the lady holding the picture is the owner of the house.  The picture is of her son who passed away, today was his Memorial Day.  Japanese custom is to make a shrine for passed loved ones in the house with their picture and some of their things and burn incense for them.  Afterwards Pastor Tanno took me around the area affected by the earthquake and tsunami 6 years ago.  Even though it was so long ago they are still recovering.  The photos show the construction where they are trying to rebuild the city so people can live there again.  The only problem is that everyone is afraid to live there now.  The port near the Fukushima nuclear plant used to be a very busy fishing port but is still not safe to use because of the radiation affecting the fish.  After that he took me to a Japanese hot spring and we relaxed for the rest of the evening.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3dKJWmYLfjGLTl3ekUwems2RG8

Comments

  1. Mary BethJuly 19, 2017 at 7:10 AM

    I have found that many foreigners have a good grasp of United States geography. And they usually apologize if they don't know where West Virginia is. So interesting that the Japanese like that song and know the Japanese lyrics to it.

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