(ad)mission: complete

It's been a while since I published my last vlog. To be precise, the last time was when I moved into my new accommodation. And so was the time before that.

So in continuing that tradition, here is my fourth vlog, about… you guessed it. I'll let it do the rest of the explaining.

Sapporo Trip

A friend from Australia graduated from UNSW last year, just like me. Unlike me, Nina studied commerce, and will be commencing her job at a firm in Sydney around June. Until then, she is in Sapporo, Hokkaido, on short term mission with OMF. I thought I'd make the most of this golden week break and drop in for a visit before she left. Selina also came to visit in the same period. This is the document of our Golden Week adventures.

(Note, I don't show pictures of others on this public blog without express permission. I've included links to these pictures which have other people in them on Facebook (kudos to Selina for taking and uploading them all!), so if you have permission to view them, you can.)

Departure and Arrival

Strange weather

Sapporo wasn't as cold as I expected. Everyone kept saying that the weather there is not receptive to visitors outside summer, but I walked around with a shirt and a jacket (two layers) and it was quite comfortable. Upon initial observation, it appeared all the snow had melted from the roads, but I saw quite a few piles of snow around the place which suggested they cleared the snow manually.

  

Something very strange was that the cherry blossom trees in Sapporo had not yet started to bloom by the end of Golden week this year (which was when I was there). Japan has a unique obsession with cherry blossom trees, which they commemorate with an annual celebration called Hanami. I'll get around to writing more about Hanami at a later time, but the main feature that makes the cherry blossoms beautiful to the Japanese is its brevity. These trees flower once a year, and the flowers drop off in four or five days. Flowering season in Tokyo is supposed to be early April, so I should have arrived in Japan on time (April 1) for the peak flowering period. But due to strange weather patterns, the cherry blossoms well before their usual time, so it means I didn't make it. This time in Sapporo, the cherry blossoms didn't bloom till after their expected season. Very strange weather patterns - I'm disappointed I didn't make in time for hanami this year :( There's always next year I guess.

Sapporo beer museum

In front of Sapporo Beer museum (Facebook)

The first stop on tour guide Nina's itinerary was the Sapporo beer museum. We had the visit placed on the afternoon I arrived, but due to the arrival time of my flight, by the time we got there, the museum had closed :(

We still got something out of it though. Sapporo is famous for Genghis Khan. Not the war general; he's Mongolian. In Japan, ジンギスカン (jingisukan) is lamb BBQ on a hot plate.

There were a number of specialty Genghis Khan restaurants at the Sapporo beer museum, so we went there for dinner. The service there was really good - they gave us plastic bags to cover our coats and bags. Why, you might ask? Let's just say I didn't want my bag to take BBQ lamb back home as a souvenir. I enjoyed our Genghis as thoroughly as our clothes smelled of lamb at the end of the night. And no better compliment to the succulent lamb than a hearty pint of Sapporo beer. And Nina, thanks for your generosity in shouting us - you really didn't have to, and we are deeply indebted to your hospitality.

All ready to eat! (Facebook)

Cheers! (Facebook)

Visiting Hokudai

The next morning, Nina showed us around Hokkaido University (北大 hokudai), where she had spent most of her time in Sapporo. I didn't know Hokudai had such an interesting history. It's best known as one of Japan's national universities, but I don't think it's widely purported that its founder is a Christian. According to Nina, the Christian staff workers at Hokudai told her that apparently one of William Clark's demands was that he be permitted to teach Christian theology on campus. His article on Wikipedia certainly suggests he fought very hard to have the study of thelogy approved in what would have been a country largely unacquainted with Christianity, and the current motto of the university, "Boys be ambitious", was quite possibly originally "Boys be ambitious for Christ". I'm certainly impressed by the missionary efforts of Clark, and what he achieved inspires me to be ambitious for Christ also :)

Picture of us and William Clark's bust (Facebook)

Taboo numbers?

I noticed something very strange about the room numbering on my floor. What I discovered takes superstition to a whole new level. Level 6 to be exact. (because that's the level I was on when I recorded this video).

Sapporo International Church

On Sunday, we all attended Nina's regular church together, SIC. It was a service conducted in Japanese, with real-time English translation provided via an earpiece for those who wanted it. The pastor was actually a Korean OMF missionary, and not a Japanese native, which is really surprising, since Japanese churches usually preference Japanese pastors. I suppose it shouldn't be too surprising, since this church is more internationally orientated. Aside from a very slight accent, his Japanese was native anyway, so that wasn't an issue.

The sermon style was also quite different to the customary three-point sermon from a reformed evangelical church. It was difficult finding one major theme that ran through the sermon, though. I guess I'm not used to that sort of preaching style yet. It would also have helped in retaining the anecdotes if I had understood more Japanese.

Mount Moiwa

We took a ropeway up Mount Moiwa, a 531m high mountain with an excellent view of Sapporo city.

Photos from Mount Moiwa (Facebook)

Sapporo Ramen

We tried the ramen at the most renowned ramen shop in Hokkaido. How do I know that it was the most renowned? Well firstly, this shop has been running now for three generations. Secondly, both the owners and their huge flashing sign outside say that it is. But most interesting of all, was what was on the wall inside the shop:

(click to enlarge)

These are signatures from renowned people who have come to eat here. They are almost all Japanese though, so you might not be familiar with many, but I reckon most people know AKB48 (rightmost framed canvas, middle row). I also recognised Aqua Timez. You might be able to find another artist you recognise. The restaurant owners told me that they have more signatures from visiting celebrities than they have room in the shop to display. I believe them.

Between the three of us, we tried their salt butter ramen, soy sauce butter ramen, and miso butter ramen. Personally, I liked the soy sauce butter ramen best. But I just simply love ramen full stop ^^

Marimo

Some friends here in the dormitory asked me to bring back Marimo as a souvenir. At that time, my response "was what on earth is a marimo…?" It turns out that they are apparently quite well known. Have you seen or heard of these before?

According to Wikipedia, aside from Hokkaido colonies are only found in Iceland, Scotland and Estonia. Also according to Wikipedia, they are considered a type of plant. So apparently they will grow bigger, but only apparently about a millimetre per year. I guess we will see, assuming my one doesn't die before that.

Trick(ed) art museum

We heard that there was a trick art museum exhibit being hosted in Sapporo, specially for the Golden Week break, and I was interested. Selina had to catch her flight, so we said goodbye to her first before Nina kindly acted as guide one more time. What we didn't consider, was the waiting time to enter the exhibit. I thought the exhibit might be popular, but to be honest, I didn't expect the wait to be 90 minutes long. It seems I wasn't the only one who was shocked by the wait time. Since there was about 3 hours before my flight back to Tokyo, in order to allow for the train back to the airport and check in time, we thought better than to risk missing the plane. Slightly unfortunate, but on the flip side, we got to have Okonomiyaki instead :D

This was my first time eating Okonomiyaki, and it also happens to be my first time making it too. Nina learned how to during her time in Hokkaido, so she taught me how. The flipping part was the hardest, but more or less it remained intact. It wasn't too shabby, if I say so myself! By not going to the trick art exhibit (which is available in many places anyway), we got to eat a hearty lunch, and have fun doing it :) An exchange worth making.

Even the walls have Okonomiyaki. (Facebook)

Interesting street architecture

Despite less than two hours remaining of my time in Sapporo, the eventfulness doesn't end here. We happened to walk in the opposite direction to the train station on our way back, and did so for 10 whole minutes. Why did it take so long for us to realise? Well here's a screenshot of the street layout of the centre of Sapporo. What do you notice?

The streets are virtually all at right angles to each other. The grid-like street architecture is further accentuated by the street name designations - "kita" means north, "nishi" means west, "minami" means south, and "higashi" means east. It was pointed out to me by a friend back in Tokyo that it quite resembles New York street architecture (and naming).

Anyway, we were supposed to go to Sapporo station, so making our way to the equivalent grid co-ordinates of 7 North, 1 West, but instead we went in the opposite direction (i.e. VERY north). The street names don't change very much, so it didn't dawn on us till we got to somewhere around 20 North. A note of caution for anyone going travelling in either Sapporo or New York.

Needless to say, it took us quite a bit longer to make it back. I ended up taking the last train I could without being late, and checked in at the airport 1 minute before the check-in counter closed. Human failures let us down again, but God was good to us as He has been always.

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Big thanks to Nina who organised the whole weekend, despite her busyness both before and after our visit. Prioritising being a good host over (a long overdue) sleeping in, you showed great hospitality :) Praise God also for your willingness to serve Him in a foreign country, sharing the good news of Christ with those who don't yet know Him. God bless in your future ministry, wherever God takes you :)

Final destination [vlog #3]

NOW I've reached where I'm supposed to. In the brief few hours I had yesterday between the recording of my vlog and when I slept (at around midnight), I made a few friends, both first years (like me) and upper years, just taking a walk around the place. One particular guy I met had just finished at the language school where I'll be studying at this year, and he was figuring out how to fit a Mac desktop that he found into his luggage case, and carry it to his new campus Saitama University. He gave a few insider's tips as he attempted to shove an oversize desktop computer into his bag.

One such tip, interestingly, was study hard. Apparently he was only granted his second preference of place of study - first being Tokyo University of course. I myself hope I'll be able to give my Japanese studies decent attention, because that was one of my main aims coming here to begin with as I mentioned in my first vlog. Another tip was to make friends with as many people here as early as possible. That's something I've been telling all the first years at UNSW over the past three years to do, and I'm glad he reminded me of the same thing in my time of disorientation. Something tells me we're going to get along well. The people living in my residential building aren't just first years on a scholarship like me - there's also full fee paying international students, and upper years specialising in language and arts subjects, and I won't know who's who till I ask them! His third tip was interesting - it involved finding your way back inside the building without the key card we were issued. Very handy! - who knows, it might save me freezing to death if I ever get back late one night and I happen to forget my key card.

Eventually he (amazingly) fit the baggage he needed to carry all around the seriously huge and heavy mac, and was on his way. Hope he gets there safely. He said he'll be back yet, so it won't be the last time I'll see him; as long as there's free food and parties here, he has a reason to return.

So in light of that, please pray I'll take my studies seriously while I'm here, as an investment into building relationships in Japanese. At the same time, pray I wouldn't let my current limited language ability get in the way of getting to know people and building relationships. In all that, pray that my identity in Christ would shape the way I interact with them, and that Christ would be known among them too.

Touchdown! [vlog #2]

So I've finally arrived! Tired, hungry, and slightly in need of a shower, but so keen. The vlog can speak for itself. Here I'll explain how in the world I ended up at my dad's place.

So I got off the plane at 5pm Japan time, as planned. The plane trip was excellent, and I read everyone's farewell cards in that time, as I hoped to. However, the line at customs was massive, so it took the better part of one hour before I got to my luggage. By that time, the remaining few unclaimed bags from my flight had all been relocated to the information desk - that's how late I was. Anyway, so I got my luggage and exited via the arrivals gate, hoping to nab a picture of the man holding a sign as I promised I would. I envisioned someone with a distinguishing mark from TUFS (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies) or JLC (Japanese Language Centre) standing outside the arrivals gate. Unfortunately, that never happened because… there was no one there waiting for me. After having inconspicuously circled around all the other people holding up signs for a full twenty minutes, and one of those people proactively approaching me to ask if I was the person they were waiting for (surprise surprise, I wasn't), I concluded that whoever it was supposed to be, they weren't there. That meant that either something happened on their way to the airport, or that simply no one was coming to pick me up. So I asked at the airport help desk whether they saw anyone waiting for an Australian undergraduate Monbukagakusho scholarship student. My hopes were piqued when they said they recalled someone holding up a flag with TUFS on it earlier that day, but after a bit of inquiring, I found out they had already departed for TUFS - without me. I was very sad. When I rang the number for the TUFS office, what they told me was that they were expecting a Lee Gu from Australia… tomorrow (i.e. today, the day I published this post). Which means, there was definitely no one expecting me today. Which means I had to either figure out my own way of getting to the university (which I wasn't prepared to do with all my luggage) or to seek the help of another, which is where my dad comes in.

By the grace of God I have a dad working in Japan. By no means was it ever an option for me to stay at my dad's place whilst I completed my studies, because to my best knowledge, his house is not near any university campus by any measure. And specifically from TUFS, it takes one and a half hours by public transport, which I wasn't prepared to take every day, particularly since I was effectively given a free dormitory room on campus, since the fees are included in the scholarship money. Having said that, for those who didn't know it before, yes, my dad is living in Japan. He work in the field of IT, and his company assigned him to Japan because he can speak both Japanese and English (and Chinese, but less important for his job description), so it was kind of necessary for him to stay there while he worked. Aside from coming back to Australia for Golden Week (Japan's week-long series of public holidays, explained in a future post) and Christmas, we make do by keeping in touch via Skype.

Anyway, he certainly was expecting a call from me that day, but what we both intended to happen was a heads-up call telling him that I'd arrived at the university safely. Instead, he got a "can I stay at your place for one night?" request. And true to my dad's unceasing commitment to his family, upon my phone call he came directly from his work place for my sake, and arranged for a taxi to take us both back to his place, which was a good hour and a half again from the airport.

The next day, he assisted me with finding my way to the TUFS campus, but not all the way! - in the best interest of myself, he was determined that I do what I came to Japan to do, which was get by independently, after having made sure that I was able to make my way on my own (to a place I was never required to commute to by myself in the first place). He even called me while he was on the train home (it's social taboo to make phone calls on the train in Japan) to check I had arrived by the time I was supposed to.

At the end of the day, it is mutually accepted by us both that I am here independent of my dad's help, to study in university and to take care of myself. Having a family member in Japan is a mere circumstantial benefit, and it played no part in my ultimate decision to accept this scholarship. So as I had intended to do long before this incident, I still intend to have monthly catch ups with dad, to make use of this circumstantial opportunity. I hope this post explained it clearly! Let me know in the comments below if I missed something crucial in this recount.

FAQ#1: "Why am I going to Japan again?" [vlog #1]

Hey guys, sorry for my temporary hiatus. It has (still) been a crazy week, since the end of my two farewell events. Some of the more notable events include promoting my university Christian group, Campus Bible Study (CBS), at UNSW O-week, from early in the morning well into the afternoon, from Monday to Thursday. O-week is one of the most conducive environments in which to do walk-up evangelism, since everyone is in their most open mindset to being approached by strangers each trying to promote their own thing. I had the privilege of experiencing the whole array of responses to Christianity, from upfront immediate rejection, to open eagerness, to the boyfriend of one girl I'm tutoring, to uninterested people who felt too awkward to say no, to intense hour-and-a-half conversations about God, Jesus, the Bible, humanity, sin, heaven, hell, resurrection, and more. What better way to spend my remaining time in Australia than to see God gather a harvest through me and fellow CBSers (Matthew 9:37-38).
Praise God for truly bringing in a harvest, with around 600 expressions of interest from people wanting to learn more about Jesus! Thank God for the hundreds of Christians who took time out to get to know the new first years, and for their desire to share the news of God's resurrected Son with them. Pray for those involved in follow up process that they would phone call, email, and meet up in person with genuine love for their contact and a desire to see them believe in Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Also pray for those being followed up, that they might continue to attend CBS hosted events throughout the year, so that they might be taught from and transformed by God's word.

I attribute the delay in my second post to exciting interruptions like the one mentioned above, which have led to the delay in the editing and the release of this video log (or "vlog" for short). So without further ado, I present my first ever vlog, shedding a little more light on the five year adventure I'm about to embark upon. *edit: upgraded video resolution; the in-video text is now legible yay :P

I'd love to hear any comments or suggestions from you on what I can improve for my next vlog!