Sunday

"What are your plans for today, Kelley?" Host mom asked on Sunday.
"Actually I'm going to church this morning." I said.
"Oh really? YOu found a church? Are you sure it's not a wedding chapel?" She laughed.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure." I said. I was a little hesitant to go all by myself to an unknown church, but (with a little encouragement from Jasson) I went anyway. It was a short train ride from my home.
Needless to say, at the entrance the two greeters were pretty surprised to see me. I suppose it's not every day a girl with curly hair and a nose the size of Mt. Fuji arrives at the church door. "Is this your first time? Do you have friends here or did you come alone? Your Japanese is really good, where are you from? America?? TWO WEEKS AGO?? Sugoiiiiiii desu neee!"
I had arrived at the church a little late, and was seated in the middle of worship. Boy did I feel like a gaijin. There were about sixty or seventy people there, almost everyone Japanese. A cute little boy, about three years old, would stand in front of me and just stare at me with a smile.
The church was small but nice, with a cross at the front, a small stage, a pulpit and a little stained glass window above the cross. The worship band consisted of two singers, a guitarist, a pianist and a drummer. The lyrics were projected with PowerPoint, and since they were mostly in hiragana I was able to sing along even though I didn't understand what I was saying.
I was very happy to hear that the songs sounded very similar to the ones we sing at home. People sang surprisingly loudly (all that karaoke practice, I guess) and a few people raised their hands slightly. We also sang the Japanese version of this song:
Lord I give You my heart,
I give You my soul,
I live for You alone.
Every breath that I take,
Every moment I'm awake,
Lord have Your way in me.
Later we also sung some more traditional hymns. After worship people greeted each other (lots of "konnichiwa" all around), and then the pastor gave a message. Though it seemed very interesting, his sermon was a little too difficult for me to understand, so I occupied myself with trying to locate the Japanese Bible verses on the screen in my English Bible. If I remember my Shogun movies correctly, Christianity was first brought to Japan by the Portugese. Thus the Japanese word for "Jesus" is not, as you might guess, "Jiizasu" but "Iesu." The books of the Bible also have Portugese names, and I was pretty proud of myself for figuring out that the Japanese spelling of "Johannes" meant "John" and "Petros" meant "Peter." Go me!
After church quite a few people seemed eager to meet me, including the pastor, and I had to go through the "nihongo ga ojouzu desu ne/iie, mada mada desu" routine several times. Several people had been to the US before, and one had been a visiting professor at Chico State, of all places. One fellow gaijin walked up to me and said "hi!" in an Australian accent. He teaches English and runs Bible studies in Japan. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming. Next everyone had lunch together in the church. After watching me attempt to do as the Japanese do and eat my hamburger patty with chopsticks, someone brought me a fork. Not go me. I had a really good time and will probably go again, being sure to bring a dictionary next time.