Sometimes two trains will run right alongside one another. When they are parallel, you can't see anything in the train, it's going by so fast - but then the tracks split and one train begins to pull away. I like to scan the faces of those in that train pulling away - it is rare to see a smile. It is the same most places in the world, you catch people in that moment alone and there is just an emptiness in their eyes. Routine living can drain a person's joy, and it must be hard not to slip into a routine here in the city.
This week we started campus ministry at Todai and Waseda. Tuesday we had LOGOS Bible study at the University of Tokyo. The campus is really pretty and very old. There is a lot of gothic architecture and massive trees. I love it. Anyways, day one at Todai we went to LOGOS first. They are studying the Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. It's cool, because the room where we meet is just partitioned off from an area where people sit and eat or study, so everything we say or sing can be heard on the other side of that partition - who knows what a person outside might catch? I pray it draws some of them in. After LOGOS, we ate lunch downstairs. We got to eat with a Chinese student from the Bible study Zhe Ye. He was really cool, and we had a pretty awesome conversation at lunch. Todai is mostly made up of third and fourth year students and graduate students, so these students are a little more serious about school and are looking for jobs already. It's vastly different from Waseda, but we'll get to that in a minute. After lunch, we prayer walked for awhile and looked around the campus. Todai has a Starbucks...so that was good news! Robert came back to Kita with me and Susan after we left Todai then we all ate dinner at McDonald's! Shrimp burger, anyone?
Wednesday, we went to Waseda and ate lunch at the cafeteria. After that, we did a little campus tour and did some praying. Waseda is a liberal arts school, so the atmosphere is totally different. Todai is beautiful, but if I lived here - Waseda would be where I wanted to be. It's just fun. We watched some hip hop dancers on one side of the campus, were mistaken for international dancers (yeah...I don't know how that French guy came to that conclusion...) on the other side of campus, and found a lot of really cool places to hang out and meet people. WEBs Bible study was at 6, so we met our British accented Korean friend Praise and then headed to the meeting area. Robert and I shared our testimonies, then Praise and Aiyumi also shared - it was so good just discussing how good and powerful God has been in our lives and how He saved us from the path we were on. It's hard to imagine who I could have been...what if I wasn't in Japan right now? Crazy. God is so good. After WEBs, it was definitely dinner time. We went to Seven Blessing Ramen Shop and ate real ramen and some amazing gyoza. It was a lot of fun, and we are pretty sure a famous baseball player was sitting at the table behind us! Oh, Tokyo. Oh and I ate some kind of squid snack at Bible study...it was interesting...kinda sour?! Hmm...
Robert and I went back to Todai on Thursday. My first time solo on the train! Woohoo! I actually really like the trains, even though they are often crowded and the stations are confusing - it's like a small victory every time I remember where I'm going. So, we made it there - no problems. We ate lunch with this awesome guy Yuta who offered to take us sightseeing when he gets a chance. Pretty cool. We prayer walked after lunch, I got some coffee and Robert met some people at Starbucks then we just hung out in the park for a bit. It was there that we met these really cool guys who were studying English. They really enjoyed my Japanese phrasebook and we all took pictures together and hopefully they'll come to the LOGOS party at the end of the month!
Today was my day off, so I stayed around the apartment this morning then I went to get some lunch and explore a bit. I found a really awesome street past the station that had some cool stores and places to eat. I had fun looking around there - sampled some green tea, bought some bread and a C.C. Lemon drink. Shortly after I got back, I left with Debbie to go look at some curtains in this other shopping place. We took the subway to the next station and met some of her friends, Chisako and her son Yuta! He is such an adorable little boy. Anyways, there were so many amazing stores down the street she took us to. I wanted to look everywhere! Debbie found some curtains she liked and I went to my first 100 Yen shop. It's like a dollar store, only waaaay better. It was a really good afternoon.
I changed and stuff when we got back for my big night out in Shinjuku with Susan, Yuri, Praise and Hikari! That place is huge and there are all these designer stores and nice restaurants. It's very big and very bright and very busy. It was pretty exciting. We went to movies, which in Japan cost approx. an arm and a leg. Ok, just $18. Luckily I paid student price which was only $15 - but it's pretty cool because you can bring any kind of food you want in there and they don't care. It's really nice, too. Hikari says we went to the best theater in Japan. I believe it, it was pretty cool. So, we watched Star Trek and it was awesome.
I survived Shinjuku station at 11 pm, so I'll make it to XHOP prayer at the student center tomorrow evening. I have a lot to pray about. As exciting as Shinjuku is, there were a lot of things there that broke my heart. Like any big city, there are the vices that come with big city life. Addiction - drugs, alcohol, gambling, pornography. Here, it's not as hidden as it is in the smaller areas of the city. Full blown nudity in advertisements, you can smell alcohol everywhere, the pachinko slot machines are loud and people are waiting outside to get in. Most people are just looking for escape. When will people realize that real joy can't be bought with money?
It's about 1 a.m. Tokyo time and I'm exhausted from all that running around I did today! It's so much fun though, and I'm learning and experiencing so much. Keep praying for the team and for Chi Alpha in Japan - thank you!
Oyasumi-nasai!
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