Hello from a New Year!
First, sorry about the picture discrepancy between weeks, but I've
actually remembered for once, so there are a few this time. No
promises in the future though...
Anyways, even though I emailed last week after the 1st, New Years in
Japan is a three day event, so I've learned lots more! Starting with
the 2nd, we went down to Hofu to visit the Elders there and go to a
place called Hofu Tenmongu (I think) which is one of the biggest
shrines in the area. It was way cool to see the history, and granted,
I don't understand most of it, but these are rituals that have been
going on for centuries. As a matter of fact, when we talked about
Shougatsu at Eikaiwa, some of the younger generation doesn't even know
why they do some of these things. But nonetheless, it's amazing to
see. I believe the Tenmongu is a Shinto shrine, and people will go to
be cleansed and make goals. One thing that was crazy was just papers
hanging everywhere. I don't have a picture of them, but people would
write goals or things they wanted to improve on papers and cards, tie
them around a tree, and leave it there. Again, I don't know the
symbolism yet, but it's cool to basically see everyone doing it. From
what I do know, the New Year is a time of rebirth, of fresh starts, of
turning over new leaves, and most things tie back to that somehow. I
love the cleansing feeling that was around everything.
And, the New Year is a time to party! While in Hofu, we were in the
middle of street vendors selling all types of food, throngs of people,
and even a monkey! Almost like a carnival in the States, obviously
with a touch more meaning, but people were just out having fun. I'm
glad that p-day landed as part of it, because it was a blast to be out
and about in the middle of everything.
Besides our adventures in Hofu (which of course include Indo Curry),
Elder Osborne and I had a fairly standard week. A lot of people were
spending time with family, but especially towards the end of the weeks
we ran into amazing people and just had good conversations. For
example, Friday night we met a guy who wanted to hear about Christian
funerals and a guy wondering why there were so many Christian
churches, Saturday we meet Izumi-san, who is now going to cut our hair
because he had a Mormon friend once that taught him English, and
yesterday we meet people from Tokyo who had been baptized, and just
brought it up while we were talking in an ashiyu. If I've learned any
lesson from the past week, it's that even if things don't look bright
in the morning, or the 3rd hour, or the 5th, 7th, and sometimes even
9th, by the 12th hour, things will be resolved, as they need to. God
wants us to help people, He wants to help, but we aren't often going
to receive things on a silver platter. As we work and fulfill our part
of the bargain, doing our best no matter what, that is when we find
success, that is when we really get to know people. Last week was fun,
just by learning about different people and answering genuine
questions, learning about people that wanted to talk. It's a blast!
That's all the big news I have for this week, again, enjoy a few more
pictures than usual!
Love,
Elder Mitchell Woodhouse
First, sorry about the picture discrepancy between weeks, but I've
actually remembered for once, so there are a few this time. No
promises in the future though...
Anyways, even though I emailed last week after the 1st, New Years in
Japan is a three day event, so I've learned lots more! Starting with
the 2nd, we went down to Hofu to visit the Elders there and go to a
place called Hofu Tenmongu (I think) which is one of the biggest
shrines in the area. It was way cool to see the history, and granted,
I don't understand most of it, but these are rituals that have been
going on for centuries. As a matter of fact, when we talked about
Shougatsu at Eikaiwa, some of the younger generation doesn't even know
why they do some of these things. But nonetheless, it's amazing to
see. I believe the Tenmongu is a Shinto shrine, and people will go to
be cleansed and make goals. One thing that was crazy was just papers
hanging everywhere. I don't have a picture of them, but people would
write goals or things they wanted to improve on papers and cards, tie
them around a tree, and leave it there. Again, I don't know the
symbolism yet, but it's cool to basically see everyone doing it. From
what I do know, the New Year is a time of rebirth, of fresh starts, of
turning over new leaves, and most things tie back to that somehow. I
love the cleansing feeling that was around everything.
And, the New Year is a time to party! While in Hofu, we were in the
middle of street vendors selling all types of food, throngs of people,
and even a monkey! Almost like a carnival in the States, obviously
with a touch more meaning, but people were just out having fun. I'm
glad that p-day landed as part of it, because it was a blast to be out
and about in the middle of everything.
Besides our adventures in Hofu (which of course include Indo Curry),
Elder Osborne and I had a fairly standard week. A lot of people were
spending time with family, but especially towards the end of the weeks
we ran into amazing people and just had good conversations. For
example, Friday night we met a guy who wanted to hear about Christian
funerals and a guy wondering why there were so many Christian
churches, Saturday we meet Izumi-san, who is now going to cut our hair
because he had a Mormon friend once that taught him English, and
yesterday we meet people from Tokyo who had been baptized, and just
brought it up while we were talking in an ashiyu. If I've learned any
lesson from the past week, it's that even if things don't look bright
in the morning, or the 3rd hour, or the 5th, 7th, and sometimes even
9th, by the 12th hour, things will be resolved, as they need to. God
wants us to help people, He wants to help, but we aren't often going
to receive things on a silver platter. As we work and fulfill our part
of the bargain, doing our best no matter what, that is when we find
success, that is when we really get to know people. Last week was fun,
just by learning about different people and answering genuine
questions, learning about people that wanted to talk. It's a blast!
That's all the big news I have for this week, again, enjoy a few more
pictures than usual!
Love,
Elder Mitchell Woodhouse
No comments:
Post a Comment