|
Trust (1)
By
Kokoro
Throughout my life, Lord's blessing surrounds me. The Lord knows what I enjoy most in my life and often makes my dreams come true. For instance, I like traveling, and the Lord gives me many opportunities to do just that. My husband is a professor. He often gives lectures and does research abroad. Therefore we not only travel everywhere, but also have chances to live abroad for a longer period. There we make friends, observe their culture and eat variety of foods. These are just a few of the benefits from traveling abroad.
In 1999, we had a chance to live in Japan for five months. It was such a good opportunity that we decided all children should join us in Japan. The plan was for the whole family to go to Taiwan first and then go to Japan for three weeks during the Christmas holidays.
There were some challenges in our daily life while we lived in a foreign country, especially when not many Japanese could communicate in English. Many Japanese learn English, but somehow they were too shy to speak. Looking back, I found that the Lord is with us all the time. I would like to share with you just a few experiences during our stay over there.
My husband, Tom, worked at RIKEN, Institute of physical and chemical research, a national laboratory with more than two thousand employees, located at Wako city, about thirty minutes by subway from downtown Tokyo. Every year, there were many international scientists and students visiting the institute. There were more than ten international apartment buildings to accommodate those visiting foreign researchers.
We stayed in Apt G, No.109. In the master bedroom, we had a king size bed and a bureau for clothes. The second bedroom could only take one single bed and one tiny study desk. The TV set and the loveseat took up most of the space in the living room. A dinette set was in the breakfast area. And only one person could work in the kitchen area. The bathroom was a mini one. The apartment was very compact and cozy, just good enough for two or three people. When our children came in Christmas, it would be impossible for six adults to stay there for three weeks. Especially, sharing one bathroom would be a big problem. Patience and courtesy might be necessary.
Actually, Lord already made some arrangement ahead of time for us. There was a young post doctor chemist from Oxford, London. His name is Johnny Woodward. He worked in Tom's laboratory. Johnny and Tom were the only two foreigners in that research group. They became good friends right after Tom joined the group. Johnny stayed in Apt. G, No.310, just two floors above our apartment. When Christmas holiday came, he went back to London. So two of our children stayed in Johnny's apartment during that period of time. Johnny came back to Japan on the 7th of January, just one day before we went home on the 8th of January. So there was only one night, the 7th of January, that our whole family of six adults, squeezed in our tiny apartment. If Johnny is an oriental, he might not go home for the Christmas holiday. And if he stayed in any other international apartment outside the campus, it won't be so convenience for us. What a perfect timing! What a wonderful arrangement the Lord has made for us. Thank you Lord.
After visiting Taiwan for a few days, we, the whole family, flew to Japan on 26th of December. From Narita airport to our apartment, we had to transfer three times in different kinds of trains.
Every one of us had a backpack, one big luggage and one small one. It was always very crowded in those train stations. So I was very conscious all the time, stayed behind the group to check and made sure everyone had his own belongings. Thanks Lord. The journey went smoothly.
We arrived at Wako city around 2:00 p.m. Just fifteen more minutes of walking, then we would be home. After we got out of the station, I checked everybody's belongings again. Oh no, nothing was on Tom's shoulder. Where was his backpack? Then he realized that he left it on the train. Because he was too busy to helping Natatia's heavy luggage when we got off the train, that he forgot his own backpack. And the train already left the station. Where could we find that backpack? We were in a panic. We need to unload our belongings as soon as possible, because Robin and Emily were flying to Okinawa to visit friends there within two hours (not Narita airport, but Haneda airport in opposite direction). So we went home and let Tom stay there to deal with the problem. Luckily, we took a few Japanese classes when we were there and learned a few words of Japanese. But to communicate with those non-English speaking employees in the station was really a challenge for Tom. (part 1 of 2, to be continued next week...)
|
