One Day, Two Festivals

Japan is a nation of festivals! It seems that every weekend brings a new host of opportunities to celebrate a facet of life. Yesterday, we found two such opportunities (and I had 3!).

I began the morning delivering an invocation for a breakfast honoring our local military retirees. (There are a few hundred in the area–even a Coast Guard retiree!)

Immediately following the breakfast , I met my family and several young people at the Four Chaplains Center. From there we caravaned to a Garlic and Beef festival in Tacco Town. It was a 90 minute drive and we only got misplaced once. (I won’t say lost because I knew how to get home at all times! When we first arrived here we always worried about getting lost as Japan was very foreign to us. I since realized it is an island and it’s pretty much impossible to get lost for long.)

The festival was very interesting–we had pre-purchased tickets that, when redeemed, gave us a bag full of meat and vegetables. This food was designed to be self-grilled in a community grilling area. We had a lot of fun! A Japanese man dropped a bunch of bright red peppers on our grill. It took a little while for anyone to get brave enough to try one. Finally, an Airman and I decided to try one simultaneously–they were very good! (Not too hot at all.)

Since we didn’t get lost on the way to the festival, I decided to try my luck and take a different route home–through a very scenic area known as Oirase Gorge. We didn’t get lost, but we did get misplaced once–I tried to stop at the Tomb of Christ. (I found the correct road, but it would’ve been an additional 54Km and that would’ve been too much time, we’ll get there another time.)

We got home in time to rest for a few minutes and then off to the Base Club for Octoberfest! I’d been looking forward to it for awhile. We can get many types of cuisine in Japan: Chinese, Mexican, Thai, Indian, even Russian. The one I haven’t found is German. Even my German neighbor says her family always ate Thai when she was growing up so she doesn’t cook German food.

The food at Octoberfest was excellent! Plus one of my kids got brave and participated in some games on stage and danced up front. I’d never seen him so willing to get involved in that manner–he was pretty hyper earlier in the day so I’m sure his participation helped him go to sleep afterwards!

Four Chaplains

Recently, I’ve been very busy opening a center for our Airmen to use for character development. It’s been a lot of work! Finally, almost everything is ordered and many items have started to arrive. (We got most of our furniture today.) Best of all, we have a lot of young people gathering for Bible Study and other great activities!

The center is named The Four Chaplains Warfighter Center of Excellence. “Warfighter” is the best term to use as it denotes members of each branch of the military.

It is named the “Four Chaplains” after the chaplains of the USS Dorchester in WWII. If you aren’t familiar with their story, check out this video:

Also, here’s a local story about the center (Stars and Stripes has interviewed me and I expect a story in that newspaper soon also): News Article

UPDATE: Here’s the Stars and Stripes article! Article (Bonus: Anyone recognize the excellent commentary I’m holding in the picture with the article?)

All that and pulling together all the details of a visit by the author Gary Chapman have kept me busy!