文化の経験 (An Experience of the Culture)

Today was our chance to develop our understanding of the culture in Japan. Meeting with Steve who was leading us through the dos and don'ts of being respectable in this highly reserved culture. The Japanese are very particular about cleanliness and hygiene so there were lots of points about this, such as taking off shoes were entering a house and resting feet on furniture. At this point the two guys from Los Angeles had joined up with us, but we were still waiting on the four from Canada who had their flight delayed overnight.

Lunch again resulted in going to a local convenience store for bento and onigiri, though this was the result of a lack of time having overrun. Whilst we ate lunch the Canadian group arrived with their lunch and joined us and the cultural scavenger hunt began.

The hunt required us to locate 24 examples of where Japanese culture differs from our own. The had us walking into supermarkets, locating the price of noodles and coffee at a restaurant, the floor for foreign exchange at the bank and observing people at the station. This was particularly helpful for the American and Canadian teams who had not been around the city yet.

We then returned and chatted about our own cultural and regional differences mainly mocking the serious differences in British accents, even though it is such a small country. We then continued the learning with information about the religious culture in Japan.

A brief basis in the religious culture of Japan.

Two major religions, Shinto and Buddhism, though if asked a Japanese person would not say they actually believe in the gods. However their cultural practice doesn't demonstrate this, as they will often practice beliefs and events which occur within the religious calendar, New Years for example.

Christianity was introduced, by westerners, to Japan in 1594 and gained a small following, but due to the oppresion from the Tokugawa shogunate was almost terminated until Japan opened its borders in the 19th century. Now and for the last two hundred years the percentage of Christians has stayed the same; less than 1%. Japan really needs people with a love for the gospel to come over and energize this country, so I would ask you all to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send workers to this field.

Those of you who would like to learn more about Christianity in Japan should go to this site: http://www.omf.org/omf/japan/about_japan/christianity_in_japan

Finally, please pray that each of us on the team might just really have such a heart for the Japanese people, that we might be able to display the love of Christ in our lives and that He would just work in the hearts of the people we meet and give them a desire to want to know and love Him. Please also pray for the current church in Japan that it might become really energized with a reliance on God to do all the work needed for it to grow.

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