The Harnation

After a crazy few weeks, Matt and I decided that we were going to take it easy Saturday morning before The Pettus Pie hosted a farewell dinner for our friends, the Smiths, that evening.

We slept in till eight, then got up and got the boat ready to take out on the water for the first run of the year (yikes! it's almost July and we're just now getting the boat out!!).  Matt did all kinds of mechanical wrench-type things to it and then got the life vests and other gear out of the attic.  I packed a light picnic lunch and changed into my swim suit.


We got out on the water around noon and dedicated the next few hours to a slalom/wakeboard/tube-free boat trip.  The only activities allowed were swimming, floating, and eating.  Just the two of us.  It was the most perfect and restful two hours I've had in months. 

Once we decided to pack up and head back home, there was one problem... the boat wouldn't start.  The battery had drained while we were floating and wouldn't turn over the starter enough to get us running.  About this time, Amanda called and asked what we were up to... their AC was on the fritz and she was starting to hyperventilate thinking about the 45+ people coming to her house in a couple of hours.  Unfortunately, I had no idea when we'd be able to get home and couldn't help her out.


Matt fiddled with the starter and battery for about forty minutes before Cliff Hill, a former local anchor-turned-lawyer, came and graciously gave us a jump start.  We headed back to the dock and hurriedly trailered the boat before letting the Pie know we were on our way home.  Amanda and Wade called all of their guests and told them of the party location change, and began frantically packing up all of their party supplies to transport to our house.


We got home an hour and a half before the going away party was to start.  Has anyone ever agreed to host a 50-person party an hour and a half beforehand??  The Pie had done all of the preliminary work/food prep, even gotten their house ready, but my house was decidedly not ready for company, let alone a party worthy of sending our friends off in an appropriate manner.  Not to mention the fact that neither of us had showered all day.



I have never seen four people on such a mission as the forty minutes that Amanda, Wade, Matt, and I spent stuffing laundry into closets, vacuuming hairballs, scooping dog poop from the yard (thanks, Manda), and piling papers on the dryer in the laundry room.  Matt and Wade ran to drop off two of the dogs (to avoid any toppling over of unsuspecting children) and pick up Wade's grill while I rinsed off and threw on some clothes at t-minus-thirty minutes.  I almost freaked out when a guest arrived forty minutes early, but Amanda just put him to work helping out.


Amanda chopped, Wade grilled, and I tried not to become the psycho that spends the whole party cleaning the house and running around like a mad woman (although I do admit to windexing puppy nose prints off the back door in front of 25 people before I realized I was fighting a losing battle). 


I don't think it mattered, though.  Everyone had a good time, the house was remarkably clean by 5 pm, and the kids loved the cornhole, sidewalk chalk, and croquet set the Pie brilliantly thought to bring and also absolutely loved playing with Tyson, the one dog allowed to stay home during the party.  The adults all seemed to have a good time too, and we were able to enjoy our friends Joel, Rachel, Abigail, Isaac, and Noah one last time before they head out to North Carolina.

Here's to my pie-baking, Body Pump/Attack-instructing, camera-toting, skort-sporting, well-tressed, snort-chuckling, artistically gifted, theology-debating, Roosty-obsessed, grammar rule-knowing (do I hyphenate these terms?), carpet-fire-setting, Wade-loving sister. 

Happy Birthday, yo!

For an incredible song and even better dance moves, bounce over to check out the latest post by the Heathermomster. EXCELLENT! I wonder if I can find that one on iTunes. Great find hc.



Those guys are even better than the Trololo Russian.



Matt

Please take a minute to say a prayer for my Aunt Terri.  She's in the hospital with a brain hemorrhage with extreme pain and the doctors aren't really sure what to do.  No one seems to know the cause, extent, or what to do about it.  She's been admitted and released a couple of times, only to have to return as things get even worse.

Terri, for those of y'all who don't know her, is my dad's youngest sister.  She's also the lady who shares my love of gardening the most out of my family.  She introduced me to daylilies and encore azaleas, and from there the obsession began.  

Japan is an extremely efficient, modern nation, and I was honestly amazed at all of the things they do exceedingly well, with seemingly no effort.
 
Walking through the congested areas of Tokyo, there are hundreds of people within a small space, all going different directions, and no one is running into someone else.  No one is stopping in the middle, backing up others (except for foreigners with luggage, of course :)).  Everyone goes where they need to without getting in someone else's way.  Everyone is accutely aware of others and does their best to not hinder anyone else.


Trains are almost always on time.  Someone told me that if a train is 30 seconds late, people start to get really nervous.  If people tell you that they'll do something at a certain time in Japan, you can take them at their word.

The Japanese do a lot of walking and also practice a longstanding tradition of self moderation in all areas of life.  As a result, you will immediately notice how skinny everyone is.  They teach that you should only eat until you are 80% full and never over-consume or be wasteful.




The Japanese are a very modest culture and I think I saw maybe one or two women wearing shorts without leggings underneath the entire trip.  You will see a few short skirts, but they stand out a lot because they make up perhaps 0.01% of the population.  It was kind of nice to not have to see anyone's cleavage, mid-drift, plumber's behind, or butt cheeks for two weeks!  In addition to dressing very modestly, they also go to great lengths to avoid UV exposure by wearing arm coverings, loose fitting long sleeves, and carrying UV protecting umbrellas.


They are also very conscientious about others around them and go to great lengths to avoid impeding anyone else in any way.  Just a day after our return, Matt and I were out running errands and caught ourselves sharply criticizing the apparent lack of self awareness displayed by our fellow Americans.  At Lowe's, one lady stood silently and happily watched as her children got in people's way and pulled one another in the car in the middle of the entrance to the store, blocking anyone from entering or leaving.  At a clothing store, the family in line before us waited until they got to the cash register before deciding to trade sizes for one of their items.  The father began checking out and paid the cashier before the mother and son returned with the exchanged item.  Instead of getting into the back of the line, she stepped up to the register with her extra item, looked at us and said, "Do you mind?", as if it were perfectly okay to make us wait on them.  The Japanese always put everyone else ahead of themselves in this manner while Americans are overall a very self-absorbed, me-first culture.


Of course, on the flip side, there are some consequences of being an extremely efficient, others-prioritized nation.  I spent some time talking with our friends and missionaries, the Wilsons, about this.  The Japanese are expected to always be on top of everything, to perform to the highest expectations and quickly.  As a result, fathers often spend all week working themselves to death, hardly seeing their families, and sleeping all day Saturday to recover from 18 hour work days.  I noticed that you almost never saw working-aged couples together, especially during the week.  We saw a few complete families on the weekends at the parks, but overall, you only saw groups of females or males together.  I saw one or two retired-aged couples traveling together and lots of college-aged couples, but no one from our age up to 60.  No couples on date nights or doing the grocery shopping together.

The pressures and expectations of marriage on the wives has resulted in many women never getting married.  This, coupled with the Japanese's hard-working culture, has produced one of the highest abortion rates in the world.  People are not getting married and starting families, and the government has succumbed to bribing people to have children by giving out cash and other incentives to families with children.


The sermon preached when we visited our old church, Senri Newtown Baptist, really hit home.  The Japanese pastor spoke of how the nation as a whole has no sense of self purpose and a lot of people have no joy.  With evolution taught as the unquestionable origin of our existence, people feel like they are here by accident, and without any reason.  Only after knowing Christ and learning that our gracious heavenly father designed us each specifically and with a purpose and that He loved us enough to send his only son to die in our place did Pastor Gorou find joy and direction in his life. Japan is not like the Deep South.  People don't know basic Bible stories, regardless of their religious views.  The Japanese Christians are a very small minority, and new Christians start out without any scriptural knowledge gained through general cultural exposure. 

So, I think I can learn a lot from the Japanese, especially putting others first in more aspects of my life, efficiency of time and efforts, and practicing moderation in lots of different things.  But, on the other hand, I'm also more thankful to have been born to a Christian family in a country with a long history of people striving to serve our Lord and to have had the opportunity to hear His Word from a very early age.

I promise to come back with more details on our two week trip to Nihon, but here's a quick run through after finally sitting down and spending 10 minutes quickly scanning through some of our photos.

Here's a quick tour and a little of what I learned those two weeks ...

 First off, I learned right away that we are freaking AWESOME (or insane, depending on how you look at it).  After some 30 hours of non-stop travel, we finally got to our hotel for a good night's rest before waking up bright and early to spend our first day in Tokyo doing an 18 mile bike tour of the city.  The Tokyo Great Cycling Tour was one of my favorites and highly recommended.  The best way to see the city. 

 As Matt put it, "There are Japanese people EVERYWHERE!"  It's a little intimidating at first when you realize how obvious it is that you don't quite fit in. 

 Y'all, my dad is hilarious.  Don't let his quiet, "shy" demeanor fool you.  He's a big goof and a whole lot of fun.  I think he's saying either "pea-su" or "word to your muthah".

Another thing about my parents - they are the model for what I hope my marriage to be.  The best example of a loving, Godly relationship that I can think of. 

It's not just my dad that cracks me up.  My whole family is made up of a bunch of goofs and kept me laughing for two weeks straight.  Like this kid.  He's another undercover jokester/prankster. 

 I like to think of myself of just above average when it comes to height, but next to my husband, I'm a shorty!  This is one of the reasons I like wearing heels. Too bad they didn't give Matt a sword to try on.  I think that would have really completed his outfit. 

Boys will pee just about anywhere...

We were rock stars over there.  I can't count how many school kids came up and asked for our autographs and to take photos with us.  It kind of sucks to come back home and not have people running up to you like this anymore.  Ahhh, back to the life of the commoner.

Castles are cool, at least the first couple that you tour.  After that, your feet start hurting and the white boys in the group start complaining about the bazillionth castle you've seen that day. 

I was so spoiled by the food there.  We went to the supermarket one night and got some of the best sushi we had on our trip.  And, it was cheap!  Publix don't have nothin' on their sashimi!

My family is always up for fun.  I really love this about them. Not only do they entertain me, but also all of the Japanese kids and passerby.  I'm glad we didn't get kicked out of the park, or told we couldn't ride down the slide like this anymore (like the 3 of us girls and my dad were told back in '97).

Thirteen years later, the whole fam back in Japan.  I'm so glad we were able to take this trip.  We've been talking about doing it for the last decade, and I think these memories will last a lifetime.