Our new Friend, Sophia Toyota

Stephen and I made a new friend. Her name in Sophia Toyota. And we love her!

Ok, You've got me, Sophia Toyota is our new (to us) car. But we really do love her.

After some practice driving with the pastor's daughter, pastor's wife, and the pastor himself, the key's to their family's extra car were handed over to us to drive while we're working for their church.

Because Stephen's not covered under their auto insurance until his birthday (in two weeks), I am the only Borba allowed to drive her for the time being.

Let me tell you, driving in Japan is terrifying! In theory, it's the exact same thing as driving in the States, only on the other side of the car, and the other side of the road, and with Japanese street signs, and Japanese traffic rules. So really, it's a whole new ball game.

To date, I've driven 6 times, with no talking or radio allowed. And the whole time I am chanting reminders to myself. "Driver in the middle." " tightleft, tightleft, tightleft." " wiiiiide right, wiiiide right."

Look Ma, no hands!

Just kidding. I think there may be finger shaped indentations at 10 and 2 on the steering wheel.

But really, I was mentally prepared for all of that. So here are the top three things that have surprised be about driving in Japan.

3-The blinker and windshield wiper controls switched sides as well. It is quite funny when I try to turn on my left blinker and the wipers turn on full force in stead.

2-Everyone backs into their parking spots. EVERYONE! So far I have been blessed with the kind of spots that have two open spots facing each other. I've been pulling forward, yet there is no evidence of my lameness.

1-The center dividing line, you know the yellow line that tells you which side of the road to be on. Well here, that yellow line is WHITE. And not always solid white either! sometimes it is a white dashed line, like the kind that means both lanes of traffic go the same way, and feel free to cross over this lane into another, or possibly One-Way Road: feel free to drive on either side.

White-dashed line! Japan, why must you confuse me so?

lessons and pictures from Second Saturday Friends

Yesterday marked the first open house event in our home. Each month, we will make dinner and dessert and open our home to our students and friends. We had a blast last night playing and eating with our new friends.

Here are 5 things I learned last night, and some pictures as well.

1-Go fish is hilarious to play with adults who have never heard of it before.

2-We can fit more people into our apartment than I thought.

3-Card tricks and weird human tricks are universally cool.

4-Never underestimate the power of Betty Crocker Brownies and vanilla ice cream.

5-We are surrounded by awesome people!

Looking forward to next month!

Yet another reason we need to learn more Japanese

A lot of things can happen when you don't know a language. You might be asked up in front of the church to be introduced as the new missionaries, with no foreknowledge (so that's why our name was in the bulletin every week with today's date next to it!). You may spend all afternoon preparing for the Jr high boy who is coming to your English class, and be quite surprised when a 31 year-old woman walks through the doors instead. You might even find your self a member of the Easter Choir, even though you have no prior singing experience.

A few weeks ago, we were hanging out after church, just like every week. When a church member starts rearranging chairs and and states ".....masho," which means let's.... (I didn't catch the rest of the verb, so I had no idea when I was agreeing to.) Just nod and smile and follow their lead.

The church member, M, hands out a song sheet, "Lord I lift your name on High," and has me read the English portion for the group.

I'm more than happy to help out. I figure they are just practicing a song for next week, and want to make sure they are singing the English portion correct. So, I model the words and sing along after we've read through it a couple of times.

Then the weird part came. M started assigning parts. Wow, this seems like a lot of work for an English song in a Japanese church, but whatever. I keep singing and figure that since M is in a choir, he is just having some fun with us. cool.

It wasn't until the next week, when we not only didn't sing the song during service, but then after service, prepared the chairs and handed out the papers, did I realize this wasn't just some song for fun.

We got tricked into singing in the Easter Choir!

Check out Stephen struggling though. He didn't know when we were getting into either.

I must say, after the initial shock, It has been kind of fun. I am still not sure what the Japanese part is saying, or what note I am supposed to be singing. You mean I can't just sing it how I want? I am thankful that Japanese is phonetic. And that there are much better singers on either side of me, who sing much louder that I do.

The "Number 2"

There are basically 3 hair cuts in Japan.

(1)Long, (2) short and (3)REALLY short

1)

2)

3)

After my first trip to the hair salon, I am now the "proud" owner of cut number 2.

Now, I didn't walk into the hair salon with the intention of having 1/2 of my hair chopped off. Nor did I expect to have bangs when I walked out, but here I am.

After been in Japan for about 7 weeks, I decided I needed a hair cut. Nothing fancy, just chopped at my collar bone, with a few layers. I asked my English-speaking neighbor where I could get a cut. She pointed to a sign down the street that read "Ka-to" (cut).

The shop was very close. Less than a 2 minutes walk. Inside, the hair dresser was working on two ladies at once: one getting a perm, and the other just finishing up a hair cut. I was able to have a seat quickly and explain in my broken Japanese, and her Broken English, along with a lot of hand motions, that I wanted my hair cut to here (points to collar bone). "Layers?" She asks me. Horray, I was worried how I would explain that. "yes," I say emphatically, "a few."

As she is piling the hair on my head to begin, the lady who just stood up makes a comment about gaijin (foreigner) hair and comes over to feel mine.

Once she goes, the hair dresser and I start up a long converstation filled with short sentences like "I come from California. Where do you come from?" "I like to cook." "I teach English." Only in Japanese. Mixed with random English from her.

A bit later, she shows me myself in the mirror. My hair had been cut to the right length, but no layers. If she hadn't have suggested it, I would not have asked. "Layers?" I ask.

"Ok" comes the reply. And she proceed to lift up random pieces of hair and start chopping. My hair is getting shorter by the second. I work hard to mask the panic from showing on my face. When she is finished, she hands me the mirror again, and I notice I now have bangs (something I haven't had since I was 9!).

Thanking her, I paid and rushed home.

I am starting to appreciate my new hair cut, but am continuing in my montra of "hair grows."

I think I'll go back to her again, at least once more. But next time with a picture of what I want.

Enjoy the "after" photos.

Doctor and Dinner with "S"

For those who know, I have a very temperamental nose. With my sinus problems and allergies I have been sneezing up to 15 times in a row. I decided to go to the doctor to see if I could find some remedy, but alas so much paperwork and my Japanese is not as good as I want it to be. Luckily my friend who I had made on the bus last month was available. This kind old gentlemen "S" picked me up in front of my apartment complex and drove me to the Nishioka Hospital. He translated for me, while I filled out paperwork. Then my name was submitted and we waited.

The Japanese hospital visit was quite the experience. While we were waiting, a nurse stopped by my chair and handed me a thermometer. While "S" was conversing with the nurse. I almost put it in my mouth, how embarrassing would that have been... it turns out I needed to put it in my arm pit. I am hard of hearing anyway, so when "S" was trying to explain this to me, the nurse just started unbuttoning my shirt and stuck the thermometer in my armpit. The nurses were all business here.

The Hospital layout was very strange to me. Connected to the waiting room were the patient rooms that were numbered in Huge Print "1, 2, 3, and 4" on the Doors. It was like a game show, what was behind door number 3? Apparently my doctor was, in a tiny little room. I just had to hope and pray that "S" was accurately translating what I was describing. When the doctor asked me to lift up my shirt to take my pulse, my half second hesitation was obviously too long, and him and the nurse started pulling up my shirt for me. Now that's service!

I was prescribed some medicine for I hope the symptoms I told the doctor and I was out the door. On the way back, I invited "S" to join me and my wife for dinner at my apartment. He gladly accepted. At 6 o'clock we served chicken soup and garlic bread, which "S" was a big fan of. We talked about our experiences in Japan, and "S" shared with us about the Chinese writing system and how Japan adopted it. We were able to teach him the card game "Go Fish" which went over very well. He had some surprising moments when he was asked for the card he had been asking for, and was at first reluctant to give over his card. Lots of laughs.

He stayed over until about 11:00pm. The night had gone very well, with lots of laughter and sharing. Usually Japanese people are very time conscious, I think he did not want the night to end. "S" is a very kind man, and he was very helpful to me, I hope as I get to know him better that we can speak of spiritual things over the dinner table. Pray that God would open that door.

3rd Person P.O.V.

I haven't been posting nearly as much as I would like. ( I know, that is always my lament)

With the Earthquke & Tsunami, and now the relief efforts, I feel that I have no new information to give to the conversation. When I get a free minute, I am reading blogs of other missionaries, on the island of Honshu (where the "action" is happening), as well as news articles and I feel that all I can do is repost what they have already so eloquently said.

Here on Hokkaido (The Northern most island), life for the most part is as normal as it has been. There are people here who are trying to find family members, and there are small teams from various churches heading into the disaster zones to give relief, but for the most part life is normal. We are not suffering from lack of food or heat; we are not homeless; we are not fearing radiation; we are not having rolling blackouts to conserve energy.

That being said, there is A LOT going on in Japan right now.

A team from our mission is currently in Sendai, setting up base camps for relief work to be done, and distributing (90 tons of) supplies donated from Samaritan's Purse.

Our Tokyo missionaries are partnering with CRASH Japan, to help register volunteers. Once the main flood of relief from abroad is out of the spot light, organizations like CRASH will keep working in the shadows, making sure the devastated are being cared for with Christ's love.

Next week, our pastor and 3-4 college guys, are heading into Sendai to work with food for the hungry. Pastor Kaji has connections in Sendai through his denomination, and has been talking about going down to help them as soon as the tsunami hit.

Because, the best I can give you is a 3rd person point of view, here are some links to people far more informed than I.

The Asian Access Blog. This is updated frequently with articles from all of our missionaries and leadership. It's a great place to find out what is happening in Japan.

The Blog of one missionary family near Osaka. The Husband is on the team of our missionaries delivering aid to Sendai and preparing base camps.

The Blog of another missionary family near Tokyo. The Wife is volunteering with CRASH, and the family has connections to the Tsunami affected area.

CRASH Japan is the relief organization Asian Access is partnering with to distribute aid.

Food For the Hungry is the organization our Church in Sapporo is working with when they head to Sendai on Monday.

reflections on the Tsunami

Since the first earthquake on Friday, and the follow tsunami, I have been struggling to process the events. We've been getting many e-mails and facebook messages from concerned friends and family. I am so grateful to have so many people praying and checking in with us. My first job was to make sure everyone knew we were alive. Since that has been established, and we are finally back home, I feel I can finally process "out loud" as it were.

At first, when the earth quake struck, I thought it was a joke. I knew it was a real earthquake of course, but I thought it was fun and novel. Even though I am from California, I have never really felt an earthquake.

Then, it just kept going.

Then, it got stronger.

Yet, there was no damage done to our group, or the buildings.

It wasn't until we gathered around the news channel that the realness hit me. Reports of Tsunami, images of people gathered on roof-tops waving towels, cars floating down the road followed by fishing boats. This was major. Something had begun in Japan.

Our mission family, was glued to the news, watching the footage and praying for physical & spiritual rescue.

That next morning, at 4:02AM, we experienced another quake, this time from Nagano, the very same prefecture we were in.

I am not sure hoe many aftershocks there were that morning. I am sure my mind invented a few of them. Between the aftershocks and anxiety, I couldn't fall back asleep. My mind was racing with a thousand senarios all involving fleeing the building.

where were my socks, and shoes; could I get my shoes on fast enough to escape if there was another quake or should I run out into the snow barefoot; where was my jacket; should I get up and pack a bag; where's my waterbottle......

In my anxiety, I heard God say, "Put on your socks."

(Me) "What? Why? How would that even help?"

"If your socks are on, it will be easier to get your shoes on if you need to escape. If your socks are on, you can rest."

It seemed odd, but I grabbed my socks, put them on, and fell asleep within seconds.

God knew I would be safe, that the building would not fall, but that I needed something tangable to set my worries aside.

I've been reflecting on Psalm 46:1-3 these past few days.

God is our refuge and strength

an ever present help in trouble;

therefore, we will not fear,

though the earth give way

and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

though its waters roar and foam

and the mountains quake with their surging.

Selah (pause and consider)"

Although there is much turmoil here; God is our refuge, strength, and help.

There is much to be done here: much prayer, much labor. Yet, God is our refuge, strength, and help.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you are interested in giving to the relief work to be done, Asian Access is collecting funds to be used in the relief efforts for Japan, directing them through our local network of churches in the affected area where we have had ongoing relationships.

CRASH is also collecting donations.

We encourage you to give through one of these organizations, because we know the funds will be used to directly impact the lives of the Japanese people, through the local churches in Tohoku.