Yakiniku party

After church, Tin joined the young people at Nishi Church for a yakiniku party at a nearby park.

The advantage of bbqs during summer in Hokkaido is that there aren't any flies!

Jazz @ the press café

God works in amazing ways.

Over the past three months, I've become friends with Shinji-san after he answered an advertisement I posted at university for a language exchange partner. Despite the significant language barrier, we got along well because we both share a love for jazz music.

Shinji-san has attended several meals put on by the fmZERO team, so it was really natural when an opportunity arose to see Shinji's saxophone instructor perform at the press café, a swanky soup curry restaurant in Otaru.


It was really nice to enjoy conversations with Maki and Yui over a delicious meal and to meet Shinji's musician friends after the concert.

Matt's Final Wednesday Night English Class

For Matt's final Wednesday Night English class, an invitation was given to his contacts through English teaching, language exchange and international lunch.

For those who were able to come, they heard a testimony (証) of how Matt came to know Jesus as his Lord and Saviour.


Japanese evangelistic resources:

Four Spiritual Laws - an easy explanation of Christianity
Link

God's story - video of key Bible stories
Link

International Lunch

Really thankful for the opportunities over the last three months in which Matt and I have made friends with Japanese students on campus.

Recently, I was reminded by a friend that in evangelism, especially in non-Western cultures, the character speaks louder than the words. It's through how you live that points people to the message of the cross. And people gradually "journey" into the faith rather than to make a once-off decision.

Hokudai Orchestra

Toshiki and Megumi both play the cello and are members of the Hokkaido University Symphony Orchestra. On Sunday afternoon they performed in a concert in Sapporo city.

Megumi wrote this about Tchaikovsky's Symphony no.1

It has a story of winter. 1st movement is a story of traveling in winter. Imagine you are a traveler and be in Russia in winter! 1st movement expresses snowing, warp slipping and so on.
2nd movement is a story of a lake. I imagine that the traveler went to a beautiful lake. 2nd movement expresses the misty and dismal lake from morning to night.

It's amazing how music can evoke imagery and different emotions. But what's even more amazing is when one ponders about the One who graciously provides us the faculties and senses to appreciate music in the first place...

Elderly suicides surge in Japan

BBC News, Thursday, 19 June 2008

The number of elderly people who killed themselves in Japan surged in 2007, government figures showed.

Suicides involving people over the age of 60 rose by almost 9% to 12,107, making up nearly 40% of all cases in Japan, the National Police Agency said.

Japan's elderly are increasingly concerned about money and rising health care costs.

Nationwide, the number of suicides rose by 2.9% to 33,093, the second-highest figure since records began in 1978.

Aging society

Japan has one of the world's highest suicide rates.

Last year ministers approved a raft of measures to try to reduce this, such as more workplace counselling and blocking websites that offer suicide tips.

But it appears that the measures have yet to yield results.

Recent months have seen a rash of cases where people killed themselves by mixing chemicals to produce toxic gas.

Police said that the main causes of suicide were depression, illness and debt.

But the elderly have been particularly hard-hit by issues linked to Japan's ageing society.

Health insurance costs have risen and people are increasingly concerned that the state will not be able to support them properly.

A recent scandal involving millions of lost pension records has exacerbated concern over social security issues.

And as the traditional family structure has changed, some elderly people are worried that there will be no family members to care for them in their old age.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7463139.stm

Kibo No Oka

1^st & 2^nd grade class: 4 boys, 3 girls (6-8 years old)

2^nd & 3^nd grade class: 8 girls (7-9 years old)

4^th & 5^th grade class: 1 boy, 4 girls (9-11 years old)

For the last two days, I've been traveling to Kibo No Oka church, in the southern district of Fukuzumi to teach 4 English classes to children between the ages of 4-11 - all non-Christian kids. I was so glad to meet Harumi Sawamoto-san, who has been reaching out to the community by teaching English and Chapel Time to children for over 10 years.

The Word in pictures: Are manga-style Bibles really inspiring?

By Tom Baker
20 June 2008
Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer

The Archbishop of Canterbury is not generally known for making comic book recommendations, but Rowan Williams, the current holder of that office, has been quoted as calling The Manga Bible "an exciting new venture, in completely up-to-the-minute style and speech. It will convey the shock and freshness of the Bible in a new way."

The Manga Bible (Doubleday, 218 pp, 12.95 dollars), by a British artist named Siku, is one of several Christian scriptural-themed works to appear in manga format recently. It condenses everything from Genesis to Revelation into one action-packed volume.

Manga Messiah (Tyndale, 287 pp, 12.99 dollars), written by Hidenori Kumai with art by Kozumi Shinozawa, is also a single volume, but it sticks to the life of Jesus. The right-wing Christian activist organization Focus on the Family endorses this book on its Web site, calling it "an edgy rendition of the Gospel accounts [that is] both compelling and highly engaging."

A third work, Manga Bible (Zondervan, five volumes and counting, 6.99 dollars each), has its origins in South Korea. Written by Young Shin Lee with art by Jung Sun Hwang, it aims to be much more comprehensive, covering almost all the major biblical events and plenty of minor ones, too. Researching this article, I read only Volume 1, which covers the books of Genesis and Exodus.

Each of these books marries style and content in ways that raise two big questions: Do they work as Bibles? And, do they work as manga?

In contrast to the religious raves from Canterbury, England, and Colorado Springs, Colo. (where Focus on the Family is headquartered), the books' reception on the artistic front has been lukewarm.

"I think the whole concept is really strange, since Japan is such a secular country," Notre Dame University Prof. Deborah Shamoon, a specialist in Japanese popular culture, told The Daily Yomiuri in an e-mail, noting that at least two of the books originated outside Japan.

"But I don't think these are aimed at a Japanese audience--they are aimed at U.S. teens who are manga fans...Christian publishing has become a huge industry in the U.S., so I'm not surprised the current popularity of manga in the U.S. has been reflected there as well," Shamoon said.

Roald Lidal, general director of the Saitama Prefecture-based New Life League, Japan, where the Manga Messiah project began, gave an explanation that matched Shamoon's theory. "We have seen how Japanese manga has conquered the world market, and we wanted to produce a series of books that tell the story of the Bible. While Japanese artists produced the artwork and the text was first written in Japanese, we decided to publish the English version first. While we want to see as wide a distribution in Japan as possible, our goal was and is the whole world," he said.

According to Lidal, there are 760,000 copies of Manga Messiah in print in six languages. "We are working on distributing 800,000 copies in Uganda alone," he added.

Manga critic Jason Thompson, author of Manga: The Complete Guide (Del Rey, 556 pp, 19.95 dollars), said in an e-mail that Manga Messiah "has better narrative flow [than Siku's Manga Bible], and I think it's the more engaging of the two adaptations. [However,] Manga Messiah is fairly bland, despite, or because of, including practically every one of Jesus' recorded acts. Simply put, Manga Messiah includes so much that no one event stands out; it reads as sort of a grab bag of Jesus-related information and stories."

As for artwork in the books, Shamoon pointed out that Lee's Manga Bible, coming from South Korea, is more accurately described as manhwa than manga. (Both words are written with the same kanji characters.) However, she deemed it a poor example of manhwa, finding it "quite boring. Each panel is square, almost the same shape, with just a bunch of talking heads, and little to no background."

Siku's dynamic, superhero-influenced artwork is the most varied and engaging among the three books, but Shamoon and Thompson both found his artistic style to be much more Western than Japanese. Other reviewers have rated his Manga Bible only "manga-esque" (The Honolulu Star-Bulletin) or "manga-ish" (Anglican Journal).

Manga Messiah has the most recognizable manga traits, but Shamoon said: "While there is no one way to draw manga, and there are many styles and genres in Japan, it's a lot more than just characters with big eyes and pointy hair--a lot of what makes manga distinctive has to do with pacing and transitions between the panels."

While Jesus and his disciples have that cute manga-character look, the Pharisees--members of a fundamentalist Jewish sect with whom Jesus, a fellow Jew, was often at odds--are depicted in Manga Messiah with bigger noses, jowly jaws, squinty eyes and spotty complexions.

"I think the representation of Jews is appalling," Shamoon said.

Thompson was more sanguine: "As an unsympathetic Christian reviewer pointed out, the 'bad guys' in Manga Messiah are drawn in a very cliched 'ugly' way, but I don't think this is anti-Semitism, it's just the standard manga stereotype that minor evil characters look ugly (or in the case of Judas, they look like androgynous bishonen with feminine features and earrings). It reflects a lack of originality and skill by the artist, not an ethnic or religious prejudice."

The same issue appears more subtly in Siku's Manga Bible, with the very word "Jew" rarely if ever appearing in the Old Testament section, and then popping up all over the New Testament--usually in a negative context.

Siku's treatment of women is even weirder than his treatment of Jews, as almost every woman in his book is a prostitute or a calculating sexual opportunist. While such characters do exist in the Bible, Siku has omitted more admirable biblical women, such as Queen Esther, who risked her life to save her people, and even Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Siku revels in the bloodier aspects of the Old Testament--and he has plenty of battles, assassinations, massacres and atrocities to choose from. But he also makes effective use of light comic relief, such as when the prophet Jonah, lost at sea, sighs, "Now what?" A moment later, about to be swallowed by a giant fish, he exclaims, "Sorry I asked!"

Manga Messiah employs much less artistic license, and sometimes feels flat, but it includes welcome touches of humor as well. In one example, a Pharisee who hates Samaritans (a distinct but closely related ethnic group), thinks: "Ugh! I can't even say the 'S' word!"

"The Bible has humor, and it is important that this comes through in the manga rendering," Lidal said. "The Bible is full of drama and conflicts, and it is important that the manga product correctly includes all of the different aspects of life and God's plan for humanity."

Lee's Manga Bible goes overboard, with corny gags on every page. Patriarch Jacob, for instance, celebrates the birth of his 11th son by remarking that he can now field his own soccer team. But some jokes are in poor taste, as when the plagues of Egypt are played as slapstick and plump sharks drool at the prospect of an "Egyptian buffet" as Pharoah's army drowns in the Red Sea.

According to a Web site promoting Manga Messiah: "A 2004 U.S. survey indicated that 2 out of 3 born-again Christians (64%) accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior before their 18th birthday. Clearly the period of life between puberty and maturity is a key time of development for young people, marked by questions of self-identity and world-view."

Just as clearly, the creators of manga adaptations of scripture hope to influence the developing personalities of teenagers.

But in Shamoon's view, "these [manga] are mainly preaching to the choir--I'm skeptical that these could be used to convert teens who were not already religious."

Three prisoners hanged in Japan

I'm surprised that execution by hanging still occurred in Japan. If you see the related news articles in the link below, you'll get an idea how often it occurs.


Three prisoners hanged in Japan
BBC News, Tuesday, 17 June 2008

Three death row prisoners have been executed in Japan, the authorities there have announced.

All three had been convicted of murder, a Justice Ministry statement said. One was a man found guilty of killing four young girls in the late 1980s.

The executions bring to 10 the number of people hanged this year in Japan.

It is one of the few industrialised countries to retain the death penalty and it appears to be stepping up the pace of executions.

A unofficial moratorium was in place for 15 months until 2006, because then Justice Minister Seiken Sugiura said the death penalty ran contrary to his Buddhist beliefs.

But the current post-holder, Kunio Hatoyama, backs the death penalty - and says the public support it too.

"We are carrying out executions by selecting the people whom we can execute with a feeling of confidence and responsibility," he told a news conference.

One of the three men executed was Tsutomu Miyazaki, 45, who was convicted of killing and mutilating four young girls two decades ago.

The case made headlines in Japan and sparked calls for tighter controls on violent pornographic material when a large collection was found in Miyazaki's home.

The other two men were Shinji Matsuda, 45, and Yoshio Yamasaki, 73, who were both found guilty of murder.

Nine prisoners were executed in Japan in 2007, and more than 100 remain on death row.

Human rights groups are critical of the secrecy surrounding executions in Japan.

Relatives are told only after the hangings have taken place and, until December 2007, the names of those executed were not publicly announced.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7458254.stm

English Classes at Nishi Church

One of the aims of fmZERO is to partner with evangelistic local churches in reaching out to the local community. The most obvious vehicle to do so is through English classes taught by a native English speaker.

Nishi Church has been my placement church for the last year, so it was a real privilege to be serving them through this ministry.

It's a little sad that today I had my last set of classes. I've had a lot of fun teaching English conversation, learnt a lot about how to teach the bible in simple English and made some new friends in the process.

Jingisukan party

Jingisukan (ja:ジンギスカン, Japanese transliteration of Genghis Khan), is a style of grilling mutton, which is also referred to as a type of yakiniku. It was first conceived 1931 in Hokkaidō, where it has ever since been a popular blue-collar dish, but has only recently gained nationwide popularity.

While the fmZERO team members held their Singapore Evening, I attended the English Speaking Society Jingisukan party (or Jinpa).

Having a meal together is always a good way to get to know people better.

Yosakoi Soran

Hokudai Festival

w/ guy in a chicken costume and Junko.

visiting the ESS stall

Sarah, Matt, Naoki and Alaric with their purchases from the food stalls.

Junko is an ESS member who is interested in Christianity. She is currently studying the bible with members of Kirisutosha Gakusei Kai (KGK), the evangelical Christian student group at Hokudai.