Rain Is In The Air

Wednesday, 15th July, 2009 in Camping

Konichiwa Everyone,

It’s already mid-July, and while you are half-way through your summer, mine hasn’t even really started! Since the summer season is really based on our school years, summer for Japan won’t begin until the end of this month when schools go on break for about one month. The summer break is only the end of the first semester in the Japanese school year, so while students are “away” on vacation [natsu yasumi] they have assigned homework to be completed before they return for second semester in late August. This does not even include all of the time especially middle and high school students will spend practicing with their clubs nearly every day of the week – sports, music, or studying for school exams. I will, of course, have the summer off from teaching at the the local elementary and middle school. For our last classes before the summer vacation I am thinking through what new kinds of games using English we can play. Duck, Duck, Goose always seems to be popular with the 1st and 2nd graders.

Karasawa Hut under Mount Hodaka

This time of the year is known as 梅雨[tsuyu], or rainy season. Typically, between mid-June to mid-July Japan is covered in rain-bearing storms. It is also the time for landslides due to the constant rain. According to the forecasters, yesterday was the official end to “tsuyu,” so hopefully we will no longer have five straight days of rain again this summer. The weather is clearing up for beautiful outdoor adventures, and we pray that it can be a season well spent in meaningful and deeply rewarding relationships.

Home Sweet Tent

Due to the rainy season, our springtime is a much more laid back time than our summer, fall, and winter seasons. This spring, I was able to do some pre-summer preparation by venturing into the Northern Japanese Alps where we plan to lead our summer backpacking trips called ALTITUDE [Adventure Leadership Training and Discipleship/Development] for middle school age through young adults. Although the weather was a bit cloudy, I was able to see a side of Japan I had not yet seen before – a place with few people. Only one day during my trip I had to turn around due to bad weather and an inability to find the trail through forest and snow. I’m sure I was praying every five minutes that God would help me find the trail again! After spending much more time than I anticipated hunting down the path, I decided the wisest move would be to head back the way I came and try a different route. It was a good, humbling experience.

From Karasawa Hut

After I was refreshed having seen a different side of life, we started our spring work and welcomed the new summer staff who came from the U.S. in mid-June. One of my favorite events of the year – the Norikura Run, Walk, & Eat – was held the last weekend of June. It’s the only time of the year that we get to dress up in costumes [I went in my 70's attire as Saturday Night Fever], run around local trails, and stop at the aid station for a large variety of local foods that change every fifteen minutes. You could eat fruit, fried fish on a skewer, multiple kinds of soba [buckwheat noodles], sandwiches, curries, and a drink bar of healthy and not so healthy beverages [I'm not so sure the coffee and Coke could really be good to rejuvenate tired muscles]. Whenever you were tired of running or walking for that matter, at the end of your six mile lap [or multiple six mile laps] you could ring a bell and the finish line would be opened for you to run through the banner completing your race. I’m fairly sure a man wearing a full monkey costume “won” the race – although there were no official winners – after he ran about 25 miles worth of trail that morning.

Climbing in Ogawayama

Before rainy season began, I was also able to take a trip to a place I have wanted to visit ever since I heard about it. It is the rock climbing mecca of Japan called Ogawayama – known as the “Yosemite of Japan” after Yosemite National Park in California. I was able to take two of our friends we are getting to know and another staff member for their first time climbing on real rock. Once we arrived in the valley, I knew it was going to be a popular place with the sheer number of cars and tents lining the roads, parking lots, and camping spaces. That definitely helped to make it easy to find what we were looking for.

After a little hiking and talking to some other fellow climbers, we were able to find a site suitable for some first time outdoor climbers. It was quite intimidating but an overall good experience to hang out with these friends. Although Kenji, my friend, confessed to being so nervous he nearly threw up, and after convincing my fellow staff member Michie she wasn’t going to get anywhere trying to slide herself up the side of the rock but to instead actually move her hands and feet, the views from atop the spire we climbed of the valley surrounding us was beautiful. I hope to go back again sometime. In the meantime, our friendship with Kenji and his wife Yuko have been growing since they also love to do outdoor adventure activities like backpacking. They have been the focus of many of my prayers.

Upcoming, we will have mountain bike groups and some road bike groups staying at NORTHSTAR nearly every weekend from now until November. We are also hosting a variety of camps and events during the summer such as a parent/child bike camp, a summer English camp, and backpacking trips. Please pray that we will be ready for the spiritual battles we are going to encounter as we live to intentionally impact our community, our friends, and Japan.

Without prayer there are so many impossibilities, but I know that we serve a God of possibilities. Please pray that God will turn the things that seem undoable and the people that seem unreachable into more than possibilities!

-Brad