The Convenience of Japan

I was trying to switch off my stereo the other day and made about three attempts to get the right remote control to do so and then it hit me that I had a little too many remote controls. I think this is more a Japan thingy.. where things in life are made as easy and comfortable as possible. Most of my remote controls are pretty common actually.. you know, TV, DVD player, stereo, AC.. but among them, two stand out.. the one for the light and for my halogen heater.

It was a very nice surprise when I first found the fact that they have remote control for the room light. Of course.. why not.. it's nice to be reading on your bed and when the sleepiness hovers, just press the button on the controller right next to you. Or even better, you can set timer on it so that after 30 or 60 minutes it will switch off automatically (actually not so sure if it's better, coz sometimes I found myself suddenly reading in the dark). And as if that's not enough, you can also set the switch on and off time for every day use.
Anyway the room light itself already has a nice feature that is hard to find in other place in the world. It is common here that the light comes in 3 settings: strong fluorescent light, weak fluorescent light and the somber yellow light.

My room light and its remote control smoothly made it to the list of the things I wanna bring back to Australia if ever possible. Another point on the list of course is the heated and feature-full toilet seat:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilets_in_Japan
(This article is actually quite a nice read; it also mentioned and provided the picture of wooden toilet paper used in the old days *ewwww*)

Anyway, here is a snapshot of the remote controls I have.. (the room light controller is the second largest one)

The D Word

After the C word, now here comes the D word.. and hopefully I wouldn't have to blog every alphabet from here on. Anyway, this D word, in my own definition, stands for Depression. My writing was inspired by the sharing of my good friend HT-kun the other day. He just broke-up from his girlfriend last week and is going through a tough depression time. He shared that the main reason he's feeling depressed is because he has his girlfriend in his future plan and now that she's no longer in his life, he doesn't really know what to do next.

The story somewhat hits close home to me. Once upon a time (it feels like a loooong time ago, while in reality it's only 3 years+ ago), I actually got into depression for the very first time in my life. I didn't know it then, but looking back and after reading some books recently I realized that I was actually in deep depression. Things that I used to always enjoy were no longer enjoyable to me.. I lost my interest to do many things that I like doing.. lost my appetite (which is a big thing considering how I appreciate good yummy food), lost my weight about 5 kgs my mom was so shocked when she saw me that she made sure the very first few days at home I ate 6x a day. Home food and my family love did the cure a bit, but it was not enough to reach the depth of my sorrow. I felt as if I didn't know myself anymore and there was just this hollow inside me.. I couldn't pray and nor could I cry. It was truly the darkest night of my soul.

This happened during the second year of my stay in Japan. I was living alone for the first time in my life, working alone in a foreign place whose language I don't speak nor understand, plus with the new situation my work demand changed a lot and gave me lots of stress. In addition, I found that life in this country called Japan is so material-oriented and relationships between people are pretty cold. So it was during this time of loneliness that I fell in love hard with the wrong person, betrayed by a friend and received the news of the death of my dearest uncle.

My uncle was suffering from liver cancer and we knew it was serious, but I was planning to go back to Indonesia in about 2 months to tell him about Jesus face-to-face and offer Him God's salvation. His death shook me and my faith so hard.. how could God not give me the chance to save my uncle... and all at the same time, how could this Christian guy who seems to be the perfect one for me, yet some things are just not sitting right. I thought I've finally found the one and I had all my future dream filled with this guy, yet some of his behaviours are against values that I strongly held unto. And even yet, I found myself ready to compromise and let go of my values. It was like all the foundation of my life is shaken to the bits.

It took a long one year time, to rediscover myself slowly, at times I actually thought I would never be able to return to the me that I've always known. But I did. Time really heals. And it is true what the Bible says, there may be weepings at night, but joy comes in the morning. Along the way, I found the answer to my questions. God knows what's best for my uncle. The pain one suffers from cancer is beyond my imagination. Later on I heard that my uncle occassionally was just screaming at night from the pain he felt and all the while his wife and mother were often fighting while he was laying on bed helplessly. As for the salvation issue, I had one chance of talking to him on the phone and I told him about God and about praying to Him and he was really open to that. I heard also that he had a pastor from a nearby church coming to visit him too. So, I believe that my uncle is with the Lord now.

It took much longer for me to get over the unhealthy relationship, but I'm truly truly glad that it's over once and for all. That chapter of my life is closed and at the least I learnt the things that I want to have in my partner and what I should avoid. And I learnt that I am complete in God and I don't need anyone to complete me.

Depression is ugly. Although I had a talk with my pastors, I wish there was a Christian woman counsellor I could also talk to during that time. My experience enables me to understand what people are going through when they are in depression and to advise them to seek counselling and medication help. Sometimes counselling only is not enough. Medication might be needed to help us have a good rest and feel better. Otherwise, it would be just a vicious cycle..

True characters and faith come out in times of crisis and testing. It is easy to praise God when things go well. But when all things go wrong, it is very hard to be still and trust God completely and then still be able to say that He is good. Problems don't last always; God's deliverance will come eventually. It's just that it is necessary to go through them so that we grow once again. But then of course if you ask me, I would rather not to go through that again. Please Lord, just once is more than enough.

"Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth." [Psalm 46:10]

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=Mgob5afanUg

End of the Year Skiing

Happy New Year! Another year has just gone by and I couldn't think of a better way to close the year than going on a skiing trip.

It was a last minute, out of the blue decision. Was asked by N-kun last Sunday at church about going skiing the next day(!). I was so thrilled yet was also very disappointed because I had to work that Monday. Later on that night, he messaged me again saying that the plan has changed and they were going on Tuesday instead. I was virtually over the moon.

The trip was a day trip (typical Japanese). I was very excited because it was to be my first time to go on a one-day skiing trip (and it proved to test my fitness to the limit). The plan was to drive to the ski place all night, arriving in the morning, straight to ski, then drive back again in the evening. So efficient!

So there I was on Tuesday morning 1am, picked up by M-kun , then we went on to pick up F-kun and N-kun respectively. Our destination was Takasu Snowpark in Gifu prefecture (http://www.takasu.gr.jp), which would take around 4-5 hours to get there. Somehow it was difficult for me to sleep in the car, probably because of all the excitement. We got there around 5:30am, parked the car and everybody just slept in, waiting for the lift to open at 8am. Two hours later, we got up and got ready. 9am+ we were all on the snow! And boy it was wonderful! All the sleepiness and tiredness just faded away. The weather was great, the sun was shinning (for a little while). Later on the day, we had snow. Too bad, with my camera still broken, I could only capture some of the pictures with my mobile phone :(





I kinda forgetting how to ski for the first few moments, but once the memory came back, I was happily sliding down the slope, remembering why I love skiing so much and why I wouldn't want to trade it with anything else in the world.

Then around 2pm, the exhaustment creeped in. My legs muscles were aching so much and it hit me that I haven't done much exercise recently and how unfit I am (there goes another point to my new year resolution list). I had to take nearly an hour break, slept a bit and just enjoyed a cup of hot cocoa. From then on, I just took it easy, stopping by frequently at the side slope and just lying down there, enjoying the snow, the peace and the scenery.

We got together again at 4pm. M-kun basically covered all the courses (black, red, green), F-kun did about the same, while me and N-kun were staying on the red and green courses. All of us were just like a bunch of happy little kids. Tired, happy and can't wait to go to onsen to ease up the muscles pain.

The onsen! I must say it was one of the best one I've been to in Japan (unfortunately I can't remember the name *doh!*). It has outdoor bath and the timing was so right when we got there, it was in the evening, sunset time and it was snowing. The greatness was beyond words. While soaking in the hot water, the snow was falling around us and the surrounding trees were lit up with different colours. It was just beautiful!

It would have been a perfect day, but the traffic jam on the ride home spoiled it a bit. We were on the road from 6pm till 1:30am. Don't ask just how fast I jumped to my bed once I got home and how long I slept soundly for :)

The whole trip cost me around 15,000 yen. One day rental of ski set was 4,500 yen, one day lift ticket was 4,800 yen, shared transport cost was about 4,500 yen and the onsen was 700 yen (with discount ticket). It was definitely worth every yen!