Hatanodai #5

YES!! we have entered section five of Hatanodai  In this picture you can see the entrance to a Shinto Shrine.  They were having a “Matsuri” or festival this day and had just finished giving everything a fresh coat of paint.  Later they would carry their “Mikoshi” or God box around the streets surrounding the shrine there would be music and lots of stalls selling “yakisoba” and other snack type foods.

Late August and September are a popular time of year for these types of festivals.  People dress up in their “Yukatas” or summer Kimono to participate in the festivals.

The Gods of these shrines are often animals and I think that this particular one is a dog but I could be mistaken…..

We did not stop at the festival however, but continued to walk the streets praying blessings over the hearts and lives of those living in this area of the city.

Parking Lot

Here is a site quite common in this part of the city.  A pay parking lot for just one car, sometimes there is one for two cars.  Space is very limited so this kind of thing is although at first unusual for us is now an everyday thing.  You can just see the Coke Cola vending machine on the right of the parking lot.

On the right is another of those kind of too narrow house that slips in here and there throughout the city.  Even though it is only one house there is a doorway on every one of the three floors.

Looking at this picture you can easily understand why many Japanese are unwilling to invite you into their houses even though  you may know them quite well.

In this picture, you can see the day care center that Claire, the   daughter of our co-workers  David & Maria attended.  There is a public park and community center that is a part of this complex.  While Claire now attends the elementary school her little sister Abbey is not yet old enough for the day care.

Even though we are still walking in the same vicinity not all the  houses are old or narrow.  This one on the right was so big that I could not get it all into the photos from the street.  Like the narrow house above this too is a three story building but there the similarity ends.

Introducing Gary

Yeah!  This is Gary from Liverpool.  It was great to welcome someone from my homeland.  Gary did his DTS in London attended university and volunteered for a mission trip to Japan with OMF last summer.  It was during that time that he got a heart to come back for a longer period to serve in this nation.   Gary arrived in Japan on the 2nd of September and joined our team on the 9th.

We have three new staff arriving this month and next month. They all bring a new dimension of culture to our team:  Gary from Liverpool, Carolina from El Salvador and Jae Hyun from Korea.

Gary  & I chatted many times during his application period and he even bought some proper English Biscuits for our family to enjoy.  It seems he really knows how to make a good impression on his leader.  Hee hee.

This picture was taken at the welcome barbeque we held to welcome Gary and introduce him to our team.

Hatanodai #4 Post 3

This section of Hatanodai caught us by surprise. The houses were very old, very small and the passage between them was very narrow.  This must be the oldest part of the area and is what I imagined Tokyo was like during the war, when much of the city was destroyed by fire.

You can see the washing machines for laundry outside of the houses in the street on either side of the lane.  We have seen a house here and another there in the other sections of Hatanodai but this is the first complete street filled with this kind of house that we have come across in Shinagawa City.

This is not a slum, the street is very clean; these people are not poor but these are the houses they have grown up in and the environment they have known all of their lives.  The washing machines are not old and you can see an air conditioner in the front left of the picture.  The crowded lifestyle of the people leads to many very creative innovations for using space and every possible space is used for something and crowded so that there is no room for anything more.  I sometimes feel that this is true of their souls too; they are so crowded that there is no room for God anywhere.

It was hard to  try to identify with this area and the people who live there.  It was beyond my experience and imagination.  But it is not the lack of space that they have to live in that causes me to cry but the lack of the love of God that they experience in their lives.

I think these contrasts are a little mind boggling for me and I would like to pretend that they are not real, that people do not exist in these small wooden units while in the same section of the city others are living in nice new apartments and houses.

In the picture on the right the pathway on the left is actually the walkway that I used as I passed along that day.

Now this is a nice house and surprisingly it is situated just one street away from those above.  It has a lovely garden and you can drive a car down the road in front of this house.  They are neighbours separated by only one street.

This is a very pretty and spotlessly clean park in the same section of town.  The parks are all small but very well tended.  They provide a safe place for the children to play and you will often see several mums and kids playng there during the day.

Here is the public bath.  I guess all of the people living in the first houses would have to use this daily.  You may notice that there are also washing machines outside so  you can get your laundry done while you are inside taking your bath.

This elementary school is attended by some of the children who came to the English camp that we held last month and appeared in a previous post along with the volunteers.

Well, we completed section four now and this is the local coffee shop we discovered in this section.  In this shop you can buy the beans, have them roasted to your taste and then ground ready for use.  The owner was very friendly and has traveled to many countries to pursue his love of coffee.

So here we are supporting the local economy and enjoying a freshly brewed caffe latte.

I think we might visit this coffee shop again.

Monopoly!

Well, this all began last month when the mailman delivered a large brown parcel addressed to me.  It also said it was a board game so, as Mary loves games, I thought that I should wait until she came home to open it.  Well,  Mary finally came home and we took off the outer wrapper only to discover that it was a birthday gift for me.

It turned out that David and  Tamara had ordered it while they were on honeymoon in  England.  As the company would not deliver abroad they had it sent to a friend in Brighton who then sent it on to me, hence the double wrapping.

So I had to wait until my Birthday to find out just what was contained in the package.  Yes.  As the title of the blog says it was a game of Monopoly.  The special part was that it was based on the cities of Brighton and Hove (I am from Brighton and go to church in Hove) So here you see Mary and me having waited for what seemed like forever finally getting to play the game.

Hatanodai #4 Post 2

Older Apartments

As we mentioned in the first blog on section #4 there are loads and loads of apartments in this section of Hatanodai.  In the first photo you can see a fairly standard older type of apartment building.  There are three apartments both upstairs and downstairs in this building.

In the second picture you will notice a much more modern look.  With parking space available at the bottom.

We are deeply aware of the number of people condensed into this section of our neighbourhood compared with the other sections we have already walked through.

Old Folks Center

Another reality of life in Japan is the ageing population.  By the year 2025 it is estimated that there will be two people in the work force for every person over the  age of 65.  In this picture you will see a centre for activities especially for the aged.  There are opportunities for volunteering at this facility which may prove to be another avenue for us in the area.  We believe that many of these older folks will be a powerful force in the kingdom when we find ways to bring the kingdom into their free time.

Young People Will Come

Finally while walking through the shopping street we noticed, hanging in the street for all to see, an amazing T-Shirt with the words “The waves will never stop coming”  For those who know how Loren Cunningham was given a dream of waves crashing on the shores and those waves becoming young people carrying the gospel.  This was an incredible exciting  affirmation of our heart to see many more young people come to work here in the city of Tokyo.