First Entry

This is my first blog entry while I am in Japan.
....so I don't know where to start, but....
First of all-
There are crazy things here. Very different from the US, but what was I expecting? OF course I was expecting things to be different here! So after arriving and getting settled into the apartment (which is really cool by the way) I started exploring this city.
To me Fukuoka is huge. By far the largest city I have ever set foot in. There are several sub-way lines and train lines, and bus routes. And mopeds and motorcycles and tiny tiny cars. And building after building after building.
I live on the eleventh floor of my building. I can look out at the train yard next to the complex and every ten minutes a huge honking jet flies over the apartment. We're (us in the apartment building) right in line for the airport landing strip. The jets fly really low too. It's like that scene from Wayne's World where they are sitting on the hood of their car and watching the planes fly right over there heads. ...and it's about that loud too.

Next: Serious Part
Lost people. I don't mean lost as in "they can't find their way around." I mean lost as in they don't know Christ. Very simple, yet very sad. God has been breaking my heart for the people of Japan and never more so than when I am on the trains here.
Let me describe this to you-
I am putting yen into a machine to get a ticket so that I can go down to Tenjin, which is one of the shopping districts. I have been doing a lot of exploring lately and going to these districts has been good. I don't like staying in the apartment alone.
After I get my ticket from the machine I walk through the gate with about thirty other people then wait to get on the train. The trains are always prompt. If the sign says that it will arrive at 3:42 then it will arrive at that time are a few minutes earlier. We step onto the train and if I am fortunate then i will get a seat. I hate having women or older people stand when I am sitting down, so I always make sure that everyone has a seat before I sit down.
There is a young boy in his school uniform sitting across from me. He is dozing to sleep, probably because he only got four hours of sleep after school, studying, extra curricular activities, and time with his friends. He has his baseball bag in his lap. He obviously plays for his school team.
There is a young attractive lady sitting a few feet away. She is on her cell phone texting or playing tetris, or looking at photos. (Or even e-mailing. In Japan all cell phones can send e-mails, not just iPhones.) She looks up and stares out of the window. Probably hoping that she doesn't marry a salary man who will work himself to death before he is forty.
Standing next to the exit door, holding onto a pole, is a salary man. He is probably hoping that he doesn't work himself to death before he can pay off his car, or house, or his kids schooling. (Which is a normal, yet devistating cost.) He wears a weary expression.
Sitting a few feet away from me is a cute older couple. The man wears a jacket much like my grandaddy would wear and like much of the young people he is wearing a fedora on his head. (Though this is probably more for practical reasons than a fashion statement.) His wife sitting next to him is wearing a traditional Kimono. No one notices this as being different or out of place.
At the next station a group of about five girls not over the age of ten gets on the train. They don't have any adult supervision because Japan is a very safe country, and it is probably their quickest and only way to get to their home from school. They talk quietly amongst themselves and occasionally they will laugh with each aloud. They are all carrying bags that say "Kashii Handball club." Some of them have scraped knees from their practice.

Based on the percentage of Christians in Japan it is very likely that everyone i just mentioned is not a born again believer in Christ. This is what I see everyday now. A bunch of sweet, sweet lost people. God continue to break my heart for these people!
But as I lay in bed thinking last night, it dawned on me that it isn't much different for those of us in the states. As we get on a bus to school or walk around our campus, or malls, we probably are looking at a bunch of lost people. We need to be burdened for the lost more. I know I do. Sometimes I push away this thought because it's hard to think about.
But in everything give praise.
Next: Learning to communicate.