Familiar Places- Japanese Culture
We moved to Japan last week.
I know. It sounds crazy right? This is one of the many blessings military life affords us. A dear friend of mine repeatedly asked how I was feeling about the move as our departure date approached. Every time she mentioned it, I lightheartedly laughed, thinking she must be talking about someone else. Move to Japan? That’s nuts, but for the next four years or so, Japan is home. A tear-stained home, reverently prayed for.
God just keeps showing himself so faithful. From a unit, right next to Ben’s work (Ben’s request) to a room with a view (my request). Our 7th floor dreams were exceeded and met.
Outside of the obvious newness, jet lag and uncertainty, this place feels oddly familiar. I hoped to find a quote to express the comfortability and familiarity I’ve found here. What I found instead was quote after quote in the disdain of the familiar. After much digging, this quote encapsulates some of what I am feeling:
“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow”
-Lin Yutang
Lin Yutang, unsurprisingly, was a prominent Asian linguist, writer and inventor who served as a major cultural bridge between the East and the West.
The West has lost its way. Not only has it lost all sense of the familiar, of tradition, of kindness but it exploits itself as knowing, confident, arrogant and brash.
It’s refreshing to be in a place where there is general common courtesy and respect of the other. I recognize some of the shame-based roots of the society we aim to integrate into and don’t claim to know the dark shadows that inevitably reside in Japan as well. Every society holds blemishes as fallible humanity aims to lead. Regardless, as anticipated, I’m finding refreshment for my soul here.
Family Roots
My late Aunt Nancy married my Uncle Dick at a young age. He had a bit of a dark, but not unusual story, as to how he came into military service in the Navy. It was not, and still is not, uncommon for the military to attract troubled youth as it affords a stability familial lines don’t always provide. Nancy and Dick spent much of their time in service overseas.
Upon arrival to Yokota AFB our family stayed in temporary lodging. Everything about our room echoed my Aunt and Uncle’s shadow of the home I grew up visiting regularly in Colorado Springs, Colorado- the hand towels, the dishes, the pans, the hospitality, the community. It voiced, you are welcome here. We thought about you. Your needs will be met here. We thought ahead. We were expecting you.
As a military family, this is a feeling that can be foreign to our more recent American experiences. In fact, the reverse can often be true. The places in which we sought hospitality, expectation inevitably took over. It has been remarkably kind to have a people receive us without expectation.
But How are we Really?
I get this question a lot.
People want to know how we are feeling not always what we are doing and while I appreciate that, the doing right now is as exciting and new as the being. We are well. We are slowly finding our way to refreshment, integration, assimilation and cultural appreciation. While our schedules will inevitably increase our hearts are full and our minds at rest.
We hit the ground running.
In the first week we’ve found housing, purchased a car, got international driver’s licenses, joined the enlisted club, maximized on-base transit, walked to our first praised convenience store (7-11) for international snacks, experienced our first 7th floor earthquake, and we’ve rested, rested, rested. We still wake at four to five a.m. and go to bed around nine p.m. because our internal time clocks are still significantly off, but we are more than delighted to be here. As one of our new comer briefing speakers stated, many people save their whole lives to come visit Japan for a couple of weeks and we have the luxury of living here for years. We plan to maximize that. As Numbers 6:24-26 so beautifully states,
The Lord blesses us and keeps us;
the Lord makes his face shine upon us
and he’s gracious to us;
Lord turns his face towards us
and gives us peace.
Lin Yutang was onto something, the beauty of travel in foreign places rests in the familiarity of where our head hits our pillows at night. Our heads are landing softly in Japan (and we don’t even have our pillows yet)!
Our hearts are resting easy here and our posture is one of gratitude.
Kansha Shiteimasu.