Sixth/Seventh day!

Hey all!

I still don't have pictures to post...I haven't been good at taking many, but today I have most of the day off so I plan on going exploring and taking more pictures! :)
So far we have finished most of all our training and this week we'll begin our regular schedules. We've done campus ministry, five minute English, park evangelism, and rainy day evangelism.
Campus ministry is simply going to a set university campus and simply meeting people there and talking to them. It's sort of weird because we basically all split up and go eat in the cafeteria next to strangers. We try to start conversations with them. I sort of feel like a creeper. :) But Japan is NOTHING like America. People here are so much more willing to talk to foreigners. Even if they hardly speak English they will talk. And they even apologize for not knowing more English! When was the last time you heard an American apologizing to a Spanish speaking person for not knowing more Spanish? NEVER. It's crazy how polite they all are. They don't look at me like I'm crazy (most of the time) when I try talking to them. Also, it's crazy how many have never heard of the Bible or Jesus! I can't count how many times I have encountered (or my team members have encountered) people who have no idea what I'm talking about when I mention Jesus or the Bible. I've just taken it for granted in America that everyone knows about Christianity; I don't think I've ever met or heard about a person not at least hearing about God or Jesus in America. Religion here is not so big. Many don't claim to have any religion. It's sad how lost they are and how much they misunderstand Christianity (if they know of it at all).
Park evangelism I think will be the most fun. The parks here are HUGE and full of trees. Basically we just find stuff to do with the Japanese!
Rainy day evangelism is not my favorite so far. It consists of us going into arcades and other places and trying to talk to people. Not so much fun, but it has to be done I guess!
All in all it's slowly starting to become easier and easier for me and it'll be a really good experience for me!

First full day

Today was my first full day in Tokyo. We had orientation in the morning and then went out to lunch. After lunch we split up and each group went to a different train station to do 5 minute English lessons which basically is us standing on busy street corners trying to talk to people. We hold signs that say free five minute English and then on the back has five questions for them to follow along and repeat. Our main goal is to make friendships here and just get to know the people. The questions are simple ones such as "what's your favorite movie?" and stuff like that. The last question is "what's your favorite book?" This is where we're supposed to bring the conversation back around to the Bible and Jesus and such.
Tokyo is huge and the public transportation system is sort of confusing. There are so many different stations and subways to take! My group had to go the farthest (about an hour or so ride) and we got on the wrong subway a few times so it actually took us almost three hours to get to our location so we only did five minute English for about an hour or so. Most of the people here speak very little English so it's sort of intimidating trying to speak to them.
Jet lag is still showing up and after walking around all day and being kind of 'thrown' into the culture right away I'm very tired and ready to sleep for a long time.
I'll try to post some pictures pretty soon.