Science, Sakura, and Pizza

Welcome back everyone to another blog post that is about two weeks late! I appreciate all of your patience and, with that, I will just dive right in.

March 27, 2013
Today was Wednesday, which has quickly become one of my favorite days of the week due to the different events that go on. This particular Wednesday was no exception to that rule. The Center for Japanese Studies sponsored a field trip to the Nagoya City Science Museum, where we would view a presentation in the planetarium before we were left to our own devices. We took a bus from Nanzan and we arrived at about 1:30pm or so. As soon as I walked into the museum I knew that I was in for a wonderful time. This museum was absolutely massive. It was one large complex with two sides that could be accessed via a bridge or stairs. Outside of the museum they had replicas of a space shuttle as well as a train. When I walked in I saw a very large engine, I believe it was a jet engine, in a glass case on display as well as long lines of people waiting to get in and see everything. We were all able to get right in and head up to where the planetarium was. When we walked in the planetarium I felt the same feelings that I did when I was an elementary school student walking into the planetarium for the first time. I was amazed at the technology and just how cool it was to be able to sit in one of the most comfortable reclining chairs that I have ever sat in, and watch a presentation. The presentation itself was very well put together and was fairly easy to understand, even though it was conducted completely in Japanese. We were shown the position the sun appears to be to us during the different seasons and the time of day, as well as the various constellations. I was overwhelmed with a sense of awe and reverence for the immensity and creative power that God used when He created the universe. I was absolutely amazed and blown away by the greatness of my God. Suffice it to say that God truly impressed me today. :-) After the presentation, Nick, Lindsey and I went to explore the rest of the museum. There were all kinds of wonderful things there such as examples of the 6 simple machines, exhibits on the anatomy of the human body, and a periodic table of the elements that contained actual samples of the nonradioactive elements. They also had a deep freeze laboratory, which we were unfortunately unable to go into because there was a wait to get in and we didn't have that kind of time. As I was walking through the museum and seeing great examples of operational, here and now science, I just felt like I just wanted to jump and shout in praise to God for His creative works and how continues to uphold His creation today. The good examples of operational science and the results they produced even more strongly affirmed that this universe and mankind could NOT possibly have gotten here by random, natural processes that lack the intelligence necessary to create something so beautiful and complex. Wow! I'm getting so fired up just recounting all of these emotions that I had while observing all of these things! As we were finishing up we encountered an artificial tornado that was being used to demonstrate how real tornadoes form during a storm, which was absolutely fascinating and cool to behold. All in all, I would say that this was one of my favorite field trips of the semester. The best thing about this field trip was that it rekindled my love for science and, in particular, biology. I have always loved biology and I do miss it very much because for the longest time, I truly believed that it was the only thing that I was good at. I have resolved to stay as current as I can with what is happening in the creationist science and good operational science world so that I can fight even harder for the truth that is in God's Word in Genesis. What a glorious day this was indeed!

March 30, 2013
This Saturday went much like many other Saturdays in that Nick, Lindsey, and I went to Sakae to do some shopping and wandering around Sakae. However, this time we decided to stop by Tsurumai Park on the way back. Now this was pretty much the peak time for something called Hanami, which I will now explain. As many of you know, Japan is known all over the world for the beautiful cherry blossoms that bloom in the springtime. Hanami is one of the ways that these beautiful flowers are celebrated throughout the country. Hanami is basically when family, friends, and coworkers get together to have a picnic and party beneath the cherry blossom trees, while admiring their beauty. It is something that unites people and the entire nation together to admire something beautiful. With that in mind, we went to Tsurumai Park, which proved to be one of, if not the most popular Hanami spot in Nagoya. There were people absolutely everywhere and it was so crowded. We also looked around and saw all kinds of food and beverage carts lined along the walkways of the park as well as live performances being conducted at different spots in the park. I will tell you all one thing, I don't recall ever seeing so much alcohol in one place. There was literally beer stands all over the place and many people were walking by carrying a large case of beer with them. That is another defining characteristic of Hanami, people like to get extremely drunk. Anyway, we walked around admiring the cherry blossoms in pink and white. They were truly beautiful to look at, especially considering they would die in another 5-7 days. This concept of the transient beauty of things is called "Mono no Aware" and is one example of Japanese aesthetics. As we were admiring the blossoms we found a large fountain in the center of the park where many couples were standing together watching the water. I was filled with strong feelings of longing for Jamie to be there to share in the beauty of the cherry blossoms and the park with me. It was at this time where I started to feel alone, but, I remembered that I was not alone and I still am never truly alone. I decided that I just needed to take the situation for what it was and accept the fact that I couldn't change it, so there was no reason to relinquish my joy. We stayed for a little while longer and then decided to part ways and head back. This was a wonderful experience in seeing how something so simple as a cherry blossom tree can unite an entire nation. It made me realize and feel sad about how, back in America, we are more divided now then we have been since the Civil War. There is so much hate an evil going that it's truly sad to behold. However, I am by no means saying that Japan is better than America or vice versa. All I'm saying is that Japan has something truly special that many of us Americans have forgotten about. The US needs to return to Jesus and His Word and love God and love one another. Even so, this was an experience I'm glad that I had.

We have created a tradition of sorts in my dorm room. My roommates and I have decided to have pizza parties in our room on a weekly basis as an opportunity to have fellowship with other people in the dorm and, of course, to enjoy the American staple food that is pizza. I can say that outside of Sunday, pizza days are probably my favorite day of the week. I've had such good conversations with people and have made quite a few new friends as well. It has also proven to be extra practice for me in regards to my Japanese speaking. I still feel a lot of nervousness when I speak Japanese with native speakers, especially women for whatever reason, but, it is getting a lot better. I've been able to get a lot more comfortable and I feel like my Japanese is much improved. This just goes to show that pizza is very amazing in so many more ways than just one.

At this point, there are some things that I have come to realize since I've been here that I would like to share. First, I've realized beyond the shadow of a doubt that my place in the future is in the United States of America and not here. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Japan and I'm so thankful for the opportunity to be here, but, I feel like I'm being called to something very important back home, including keeping my family in the States. I still have a heart for the Japanese people but not quite in the way I thought. I feel like I will be able to minister to Japanese people but quite possibly in an indirect way through the translation of godly materials into Japanese. I feel as if this is something that the Lord may be calling me to and I would love to pursue that. Secondly, I have realized that even if I were to stay here for a long period of time I would never be truly accepted by the Japanese. The Japanese students have just began their new semester at Nanzan and that has created some uncomfortable situations. One day Nick and I were looking for a table to sit at during lunch but it was very crowded. We went to one of the cafeterias in an upper level and looked for a seat. We saw open tables that had table tents on them that were, of course, completely in Japanese. I tried to read it to see if we were allowed to sit there or not but when I looked up there was this table of Japanese girls that were looking at us and laughing. I became very uncomfortable and told Nick that we should look for a seat somewhere else. The next day I went to Lawson to get some ice cream and when I came, again, there was a table of Japanese girls that were staring at me, laughing and kind of whispering to each other. Long story short, I feel very much like an exotic specimen here and I don't like it. You can tell when some people look at you that they are thinking, "Why are you here? You don't belong here." For that reason and others, I know that I would never be truly accepted here and I couldn't live here like that for an extended period of time. However, I realized also that I will never be truly accepted by the US or the world in general either because I'm allied with Jesus Christ. I will not truly fit in this world because it's not truly my home. My true home is with the Lord and I look forward to that day. With these two things in mind, I'm very interested to see where God will lead Jamie and I in the future and what He will call us to do.

Thank you guys once again for reading and being patient with me as I have been a little slow with my posts. I really appreciate all your love, patience, and support. :-) I'm hoping to get another post up by next weekend at the latest, outlining this past week including my birthday, but I will make no promises since next week will be very busy with tests and end of semester papers and the like. However, you can rest assured that the next post will be very exciting and action-packed! So thanks again everyone and I'll update you all again soon! God bless and take care! :-)