Merry Christmas

and a

Happy New Year!

This is the entrance to the Sensoji Temple in Asakusa which is close to downtown Tokyo. It is the largest and oldest temple in Tokyo. It is visited by millions of Japanese each year for worship and spiritual cleansing. Dating back to 645 AD, it has been an active temple except during restoration after being bombed during World War II.

It is common to see monks standing in public places collecting money; not just at the temple.

These little girls were at the temple to worship and we stood back and observed them as they approached the altar. With their parents; they walked up the steps to the altar, stood facing a statue of Buddha, clapped their hands twice, bowed briefly, and then backed away.

Inside the temple there was a large case that housed burning candles. We were told that when a Buddhist aborted a baby, they would sometimes purchase a candle to burn in order to recognize its spirit.
This week-end was the "Paddle Festival" in Asakusa. Legend has it that this was a game that young girls played during the new year celebration. It seems to be an earlier rendition of today's badminton.The loser of the game had her face smeared with ink.

This was just one of dozens of booths selling the elaborate and ornate paddles. I was standing next to a man who was negotiating (the first I've seen here) the price of two. They settled on the price of Y40,000 ($400)! His were probably two feet tall. The paddles ranged from about 10 inches to over three feet.

The shape of the character is made of padded brocade type material with intricate designs then glued onto a wooden paddle.

It's been a week of renewal and saying "good-bye". I'm going to work backwards through the week.
Our fall interns are leaving soon. Whitney left today, the 11th; Amy and Jude leave on the 21st. We got together for a dinner last night in their honor. This was my first experience of eating at a traditional Japanese table; sitting on a pillow on the floor.

This is my chicken dish; sorry I forgot to take a picture before I had eaten some of it. The menu: deep-fried marinated chicken, traditional miso soup, white rice, shredded cabbage, their version of potato salad, cooked onions served in dipping sauce, and cucumbers. It was a very tasty meal. We've adapted to eating with chopsticks, even at home in our apartment.

At the next table, this little girl and her family were also having dinner. She crawled over to our table to explore us. Her parents seemed amused at her curiousity; so were we. I think she reminded us all that babies are the same no matter what country they are from; a gift from God, and irresistable!

Our first house church meeting in Tachikawa last Sunday, was joined by the fall interns and two Japanese ladies. We wanted Whitney, Amy, and Jude to be a part of our first meeting since they had worked with us each Thursday in that city. It was a great night.

For the Georgetown folks: Do you remember Masa who was a regular at Georgetown Baptist Church during 2006? He lived in our community for one year while learning English and working with sudents at Scott County High School learning the Japanese language.
We had been in touch with Masa and were finally able to connect this week. He travels to Shinjuku every Wednesday for an advanced English class. From his town, it is a three hour bus ride each way.

He has fond memories of his time in Georgetown and kept asking about different ones of you. He told stories of how you had been kind and helpful to him while he was there. I will relate those to you personally as I have the opportunity.

I thought I had been zapped back to the Kentucky Horse Park, and their annual Christmas light display, when I first saw this. The picture was taken from the southern plaza in Shinjiku. We had gone there to visit a Christian book store and got this beautiful "light' surprise.

This was like walking through a winter wonderland.

How would you like to go Christmas shopping in this crowd? It's like this all the time! Just down the street is the Shibuya train station; where an estimated 4 million people pass through each day. At the crosswalk in this picture, over one million people cross the street daily.


It's beginning to look like Christmas when you see Colonel Sanders dressed as Santa. (Although you can tell by the date how long they have been advertising the holiday.) KFC is their choice of meat for their holiday meal. Each restaurant has a designated counter to place orders for a roasted chicken at a cost of $50.00. December 25 is just another working day in Japan. Their holiday centers around the Emperor's birthday which in on December 23; not the birth of Christ.

Another surprise for me was seeing poinsettias in Japan. Most of them have been reasonably priced.

Christmas is strictly a commercial holiday here. You will hear Christmas carols being played in the department stores, but for the Japanese they are just songs that go along with the decorations.

We've been told that the decorating for Christmas began after WWII, and especially since the 1960's. The commercialism of Christmas has grown every year since.

Jude, one of the interns, is a dependent of Air Force retirees; both mother and father. He took us to Yokato Air Force base to do some "Thanksgiving meal" grocery shopping at the commissary. While there, we enjoyed a meal at Chili's restaurant. Visiting the base was an interesting experience; it was like walking through a door leaving Japan, and entering the United States; plus the cost of the groceries was about a third of what it would have been at a Tokyo market.

Some of you have asked about our Thanksgiving. As you can see, we had a very nice turkey that was purchased at Costco.

This is at the home of Jeff and Kimberly, our team leaders. They had all of the team over for Thanksgiving lunch. They prepared the turkey and the rest of the team brought the other dishes. Martin caught me working on the deviled eggs.

Here we have sweet potato, green bean, and broccoli casseroles; and everyone's favorite- the dressing. Yum, yum, yum!

What do you do while waiting for everything to be ready? Tell silly Thanksgivng jokes.

"Which side of the turkey has the most feathers?" (the outside)

And, watch football.

Jeff and Kimberly are from Alabama and are big Auburn fans. So, we watched a DVD of an Auburn vs Georgia game that was played on October 31. Of course, Auburn won!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Chuo Line Tokyo Team!

We have much to be thankful for.

Our "sensei" (language teacher) suggested we visit the Tama Zoo on our next day off, so we did. This is the monorail we took from the Tachikawa train station out to the zoo. It was a beautiful ride, being up above the houses and streets below.

The zoo is laid out very nicely; rolling hills and many places to rest and view the animals while maybe having a snack. The zoo also provides a bus service that stops at all major attractions every ten minutes. If you get tired of walking, you can hitch a ride.

These are the red kangaroos from Australia. I guess I had known only one kind of kangaroo. I was impressed by the cleanliness and care for all the animals.

The red pandas from China were my favorites. They are about the size of a large raccoon and have a very long tail. It was interesting to watch how graceful they were in the trees. Their size, and build, would lead you to think they were clumsy; not so!

Watching these lions chase after a crane that had landed nearby, displayed their lethal predator instincts. As I watched, this verse came to mind: I Peter 1:8, "Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."

This laughing kookaburra was amazing to watch as he prepared to eat his dinner. (I'd better not go into the details here.)

Thanks, Omura-sensei, for suggesting this outing. We enjoyed being outdoors and marveled at how God created each animal to be so uniquely different and designed for its environment.

This week's pictures are of Tachikawa; second of the three cities Martin and I are responsible for on the Chuo rail line. I don't have any statistics, but Tachikawa seems to be a leader in doing what's best for its citizens, and sets the standard for surrounding cities; especially in the area of health. You can tell by this manhole cover that health is very important. All manhole covers on the sidewalks are colorfully painted. There are signs posted on most streets urging people not to smoke, and to live healthy.

The monorail shows another aspect of the city as being not only a leader, but innovative. This is the only one I have seen in Tokyo. From the train station, the monorail transports passengers to the outskirts of the city quickly, cutting down on pollution created by buses.

This is the entrance to Showa Koen (park). It has been one of our favorite places to go on the weekends. It is huge!! Up until last week, we had only gone to the front of the park. This is where we had our picture taken with the large pumpkin on our October 30 blog. Walking to the fountain, turning right, and it opens up to a massive area where I walked for an hour and still didn't reach the end of the park. Literally thousands of people visit here every weekend.

Inside the park there are two small lakes; this one offers paddle boat and canoe rentals. You can also rent single, or tandem bicyles for the day. The park also offers us lots of opportunities to interact with the Japanese; a friendly and gracious people.

This past Wednesday, Veterans Day was observed in the United States. Wherever we have lived in the world, there has always been a United States military presence; Japan is no different. This presence has always given us a sense of security while living outside the U.S. From Showa Park you can observe aircraft from the Yokota Air Force Base which is just a short distance away. Knowing some of our blog readers have served at Yokota, we thought of you on Veterans Day. Thank you for your service.

Today the Air Force has been especially busy; lots of air traffic. Our suspicion is, it is because President Obama is visiting Tokyo.

As many of you know, Martin and I were involved with the Ronald McDonald House in Lexington. This past Tuesday, our personal ministry day, we went to visit the Tokyo Ronald McDonald House. It is located in another smaller city about two hours away by rail. There are six RMHs in Japan and we learned during our visit that another one will open on our rail line in March of 2010. We are excited because it will only be 30 minutes from where we live, and we will have an opportunity to do volunteer work there. The house was very similar to the one in Lexington. You can see that some things are "lost" in the translation.

We thought it was cute how the slippers they had for us also had the RMH insignia on them. All guests remove their shoes at the door and wear these slippers inside the house. We were given a tour of the facility and found the house manager and staff very welcoming; just like Lexington. All of the houses in Japan have been built since 2001.

Today on our day off, we wanted to take advantage of the nice fall weather, so some of our team climbed the nearest mountain, Mt. Takao.

L to R: Jude, Sharon, Whitney, Amy, and us. Jude, Whitney and Amy are interns working here for 3 months. They arrived shortly before we did. We, and Sharon, are working as a team to establish a church in Tachikawa in early 2010.

Our day started out as a fun day outdoors, but having shared the same adventure, it turned out to be a bonding time for us.

On the way up to the 2,000 ft. summit, we came across an active Buddhist temple: leading to the temple were the "108 steps of sin" of Buddhism; each step representing a Buddist teaching.

I am thankful for a living and forgiving God that is with me at all times.

Fall festivals are the same no matter what country you are in; lots of food and huge pumpkins.

Some of you had asked about Halloween; if it was observed or not. Well, I'm not sure if they think of it as Halloween or just something to do in the fall . These jack-o-lanterns were hanging from a lamp post downtown Tokyo near the Imperial Palace.

Lots of trick-or-treat items are for sale. I've seen more in the department stores rather than places that would be comparable to Wal-mart. These items were for sale in Starbucks. I'm curious; those of you who frequent this coffee shop, have you seen these same items?

Krispy Kreme fans; you would be glad to know that you don't have to go far without getting your hot doughnut; they are favored by the Japanese.

The children don't go "trick-or- treating" as they do in the states. They dress up in their costumes and just walk around. Last night we saw a group of them on the street dressed as witches, the preferred costume, and having lots of fun. It does appear that they have modeled their observance after the U.S.

Our team covers the western section of Tokyo. Martin and I work in three communities along the Chuo train line that runs from central Tokyo to the west: Kunitachi, Tachikawa, and Hachioji. When volunteers come to Tokyo to work with the 5 minute English ministry, if they are assigned to us, we will take them to these three communities.

The pictures I am sharing with you this week were taken in Hachioji. This view from the train station, shows the downtown business district.

On the same overpass, there was a universal sight; Cub Scouts raising money. For your donation you received a small red feather.

The small street restaurants are fun places to visit. This couple is preparing tako yaki, a flour ball stuffed with octopus. They also make a delicious custard pastry that is shaped like a fish. The Japanese are very friendly and enjoy sharing their culture.

We really enjoy cantaloupe but decided that we would pass on this one. If you notice, the price says 4980 yen. With today's currency exchange rate, the cost is about $55.00. No more cantaloupe! This is certainly an affirmation that Japan is the most expensive place in the world to live.


In the states we have parking lots for cars; here is one of the many bicycle parking lots that you see throughout Japan.

The location of our apartment is about a 70 minute train ride from central Tokyo. As you can see in the pictures, the landscape in our neighborhood is quite different from downtown Tokyo. (that's Martin collecting our mail) Most of our team memebers live in the same apartment compound about an hour away, so we feel fortunate to have the opportunity to actually live in a unique community among the Japanese. Our building has 12 apartments with most of our neighbors speaking some English. They have accepted us into their building and have been very helpful.

I took this picture from the 45th floor of the Tokyo Goverment Building. Far in the distance is the area of the city where we live, Koganei-shi; a community of about 500,000. Our apartment is within walking distance of grocery stores, a shopping mall, restaurants, the train station, bus stops, and "McDonalds".

It's 4:45 AM and we are in Lexington checking our bags. We fly to Chicago and then on to Japan; a 14 hour flight. After we are picked up in Tokyo, we will be taken to our apartment.

Our new address will be: Martin / Julia Pinkston, 1-6-2 Honmachi, Koganaei-shi, Tokyo 184-0004, Japan. If you are in the neighborhood, stop by!!