Hi all,
Back in the 70's my Mom came here to Japan to visit. She asked me if I wanted to come with her but I didn't want to.... not interested in major cities, crowds, pollution, etc. Well, yesterday confirmed my decision decades ago... But on a deeper level.
Tokyo has 26-27 million people. NYC only has 19mil.
There are on average, 100 people committing suicide every day in this country
One of the train station in Tokyo we visited had over 1.5million travelling through it each day.
We had an opportunity to just watch people in this train station for several minutes. The team split up and we all walked as individuals through the station observing. I purposely stood along a wall of one of the main hallways. I just looked at people's faces and into their eyes..... I've never felt such an emptiness in such a mass amount of people before. I was on the verge of tears within minutes.
Granted this was a train station and most people do "check out" while in transit, but this was deeper than anything I've noticed, felt in any US train, bus or lightrail station. People in the US at least look at each other and acknowledge their existance. This place was cold, robotic, deep sadness and even deeper emptiness. I'm on the verge of tears just writing this now...
To me, it was what I can imagine what hell would be like... dead, walking, endless, hopeless, no purpose, striving to temporary "feel goods", and lack of heart.
Needless to say, I didn't like Tokyo one bit. Besides the people and the emptiness, the aesthetics were nothing to note. I think I took a couple of pictures but that's it. We visited a government building and the main intersection that you've all seen pictures of and a few other places. But to me it was all cement buildings, pollution, silver car after another silver car, people smoking cigarettes and all the usual stereotypical stuff.
Sorry to be a downer but I feel this way after yesterday. But we're now in Yokosuka which is much nicer - a suburb of Tokyo, right near the ocean, the naval station a few miles north of here. So I'm feeling better now that I've been removed from "IT" but my heart still is breaking over what I saw and felt yesterday.
I just want to start our VBS and meet and teach the kids...
janis
The 2008 Team
Friday, August 1, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
my own eyes tear up as i read your comments, janis. i can sense the loneliness, isolation, emptiness of the living who are empty tombs without christ in them. my heart, as Christ's, yearns for them to know the light of the world. as p. nancy said earlier, thanks for sharing in ways that show us how to specifically pray for you all. to Him be all glory, and to you, His power and might to work in and through you to those in your path...
celia
You are in my prayers as you venture through Japan. This is a nation that needs to know our Jesus and how exciting that you and your team will be a part of His plan! You have such a precious gift to share! Mom and I were there four years ago and I identify with the feelings of being among the masses...and thankful that we do not have to live that way in the U.S.
Post a Comment