Yo,
After writing a little, I went back here and would like to say: if I assume you’ve done something you haven’t or know something you don’t, you have 2… or i suppose 3 options. You can email me back and I will explain it. You can(best route), look it up or ask a nearby friend. You can(lazy route), ignore it and move on. All 3 are good options. But please don’t just complain to yourself you don’t know what I’m talking about and then move on with your life being an annoyed person. Thanks.
My mother asked for a novel. She is the only one that probably will read this whole thing so I guess I’ll write it as if it’s to her. That doesn’t change a lot but yknow. Also, I’ll start with the Q&A from my parents bc they know I won’t say enough if they don’t prompt it. Anyone else feel free to send me questions before next Saturday night and I’ll answer them in the following weeks email.
Mother Qs (well… prompt)
Last week was your first p-day in Japan and you send nothing about leaving the MTC, nothing about your flights/travel and nothing about your first thoughts and experiences in Japan
Yeah so… if you’ve ever been to another developed first world country you’d probably realize that, low key, not a lot is different besides the language on the signs and what the people look like. Literally 90% of things are the same if not just slightly better or worse versions of American stuff. I know that isn’t very helpful but it felt important to say.
Uhhh. First thing. MTC. Yeah, I was happy to leave it. It is weird bc, well I had emotional attachment to my district we all knew that was it. Life continues whether or not you acknowledge it.
The flights were great. I guess. I mean. If you’ve flown in a plane b4 then you’d kinda realize it sucks… but yknow… to each their own. The in-flight meals were… something. Better than I expected… but like what do you expect plane food to be. It was usually some kind of curry or something like that.
The planes were huge but like… I just slept the whole time. I did not enjoy traveling in a group though because the rest of the people basically just paired off but expected the rest of us to like how things turned out. It was fine tho. Life moves on. Also whoever says I manhandled my companion is crazy. I don’t touch my companions or anyone I meet with without express consent. Weird concept I guess for those who knew me in HS. I always thought I was rather tame though. (Editors note: touch in a general sense. Like in the literally denotation. I don’t even touch them on the arm or anything. I try to avoid anything that they might dislike and generally patting people on the back or similar things is discouraged)
Ah, last one. First thoughts and experiences. Well, my very first thought after landing was “oh boy, this is gonna be fun”. After that it was a mix of: why do people walk like snails(short legs?) and why are people trying so hard to accomplish something in such an inefficient way. But I quickly got over that and just chillaxed. The first day I spent in a random apartment and slept passed out on an ottoman. Apparently a large number of people in my mission that met me on the first days have pictures of me passed out on floors and random places. Fun ik. Anyway. We sat in Honbu(mission home) for the first and most of the second day. Random trainings plus we were waiting for a concert my trainer(Kamachi) was playing the guitar in. (Editors note: my mission loves music stuff. Somehow is is actually one of our best finding methods) We actually spent a 2nd night in Sapporo for the concert to be in the morning on my (3rd)ish day. Yeah. It was good. All English. I sang in the Choir because I went to all the practices on day 2. That was all very chillin. Then when we were heading back we took the train to asahikawa. Side note… Kamachi is a way better cook than me rn bc he’s been out so long working with Japanese ingredients. (EN(Editors note): he is also an older brother and cooked a lot for his siblings) Those tend to vary on availability. At home ingredients were virtually always available, thanks mom. Uhhh anyway imma go eat dinner. I’ll come back for writing part 2 of like 6. Also on the phone this email looks huge so I’m sorry for desktop people that don’t get the full experience.
Side note: Tyghe, you only got to the day you returned to Asahikawa(Saturday Night)
(EN, hahah, im not gonna remove this)
K, im back. So yeah, I got to Asahikawa. I attempted to try to save money at 7/11 by eating scarcely that night but as I have learned, if you buy groceries and do that for 2 of the meals then you could eat out at a cheap restaurant. 700 or 800 yen every night. We don’t do that though. It’s better to make dinner and make it big from groceries. We also just normally don’t eat breakfast or eat something light and then for lunch we either eat out or make something simple. As a new missionary they have me do like… 4 hours of studies and planning a day so we usually do from breakfast till noon and dinner till bed. Turns out 2 6ft white guys at your door after dark is scary. Lots of missionaries get cops called on them if they knock after dark.(EN: just elders I think) A little depressing but ig that’s fair. I asked Kamachi what he would do if he was a 5'4" lady and 2 big 6 ft+⁹ guys knocked on his door but he also made the good point that we are smiling, wearing nametags, and are dressed nice. But also yea, I get it a little. Ummm, oh yeah. So since then the routine is about the same. Pray every time we change activities. Same activities everyday, studies, planning, meals. We do finding, and we do lessons and it’s like… exactly how people described it but 2 degrees chiller. That’s probably bc Kamachi is so cool though. Half the people in the mission say I got the best trainer. Kamachi says he’s being glazed and he doesn’t like it but… idk ┐(´～`；)┌ it’s probably true tbf. Ummm yeah, my whole district rn is chill. 4 elders 2 sisters. Zone leaders are chill. APs are chill. The whole mission kinda just runs on vibes. The winter sounds sketch tho. Very much companion dependent. They have this things called happy lights in the apartments. They simulate sunlight to make you happy. I’m getting a little frightened. Some people basically stay in all winter. Some just knock doors. It all depends on mindset, attitude, grit, and craftiness. In Japan instead of Clubs they have like… they call them circles. It’s like clubs but for old people. Like… adults. Because If they didn’t exist then you would never see anyone outside except for work. The Nihonjin are a lonesome people. Finding is a little terrible here. Definitely didnt realize how many different ways you can say “get away from my house” in Japanese. Like. None of the nihonjin are inherently rude but like. Getting “kekko"ed(EN: this word has no English translation. The translation is the equivalent of “your transaction has been denied, leave the store immediately”) so often is crazy. And people’s biggest like… go away thing is saying they’re “bukyo” or Buddhist. Which is like…. not a reason to not take the flyer or be nice to us. But like… I digress. I think that was it for the prompt.
Side note: love biking here. The river paths are ((ﾉ∀｀)･ﾟ･｡ ｱﾋｬﾋｬﾋｬﾋｬ. I love it. I learned how to bike so well so quickly. Like. Ermagerbaderb. The wind is so nice. If you ever come to Japan. Get bikes. Using cars is overrated. The walking lights are automatic. There are all kinds of sidewalks. Brick, concrete, wood, you name it. Free butt massage sometimes.
Oh and Ig after Saturday was Sunday. Sundays are just one big study session. I have dictionary in hand for 2.5 hrs just looking up words, adding them to lists, and answering random questions that fly my way. It’s fun but tiring.
Ummmmmmm, k, Dad’s Qs now:
Ehhh, first, uhhh, congress chicken is usually normal but is this year going to be worse or will funding carry over enough? Also, uhhh, yes. I just shined my shoes today and I think I know when and how to shine and oil them now. I’m leaving them with the wood block shoe things for a day or 2 and even right now they look so much better after treating them right.(EN: I hope those babies last a long time bc they look so good, they apparently work as until December boots too. Just not snow snow boots)
Mbmb. Questions are:
What have you been doing for missionary work? I saw some slides from
the Stake president that seemed to indicate that lots of people are
reached through social media and members. Missionaries reaching out to
people directly did not seem to be very successful – especially in
Asia. What do you do to find friends? How much time do you spend doing
it? Who do you have in your teaching pool now? How many discussions
have you taught? How many friends did you have in church? What do you
do for food? Have you been to a 7-11 yet? Have you done anything fun
on P-day yet?
So, hahahahaha, you’re under the impressions missionary work is what it looks like on the outside. It is only somewhat. First of all, only the SML(Social Media Leader) can do social media. Facebook is banned in the Sapporo mission. We don’t do any of that. Also yes, missionary finding is terribly inefficient… I can’t say for all of Asia. But for all of my mission it is. They instead have to find alternate routes like circles and member contacts. In fact. In our ward the most effective way to get people to come to church is to bring active members to inactive members and teach a lesson with both and then hope they realize that church is a good thing. Members here are generally very very devoted. The YSA is actually really cool. Primary and YM YW is nonexistent to a degree though. Japan has only old people tbf. So yeah, we occasionally teach lessons but for real it’s rare. Any normal age adult spends copious amounts of time at work. And like… does not get weekends off really. It’s kind of depressing. Also with all of our studies that they insist we do and is actually quite helpful we only spend about 5 hours a day doing outside work. The rest is studies or planning. As a normal missionary they do 8 I think but as a new missionary they want us to study PMG and do more Japanese study, and more comp study, and like… yeah. More everything study. For my first 2 transfers atleast.(EN: Kamachi says that we actually just have enough friends/meetings it’s not the same as other areas, in his industry area they did a minimum of 4ish hours of finding a day. Up to like 8 or 9.) In our current teaching pool we have about 10ish people consisting of 2 Americans 4 Nepalese and 4 nihonjin. Along with our inactive member visits of all nihonjin. We basically just only get to teach people once every 3ish weeks(EN: circles are everywhere and that includes Eikaiwa and Jkaiwa) because they’re schedules are so actually bad. Finding is what consisted most of our working days. Lots of doors to knock and people to stop. But unfortunately the nihonjin are really good at turning people down. Us included.
Uhhh the other questions were…
How many discussions
have you taught? How many friends did you have in church? What do you
do for food? Have you been to a 7-11 yet? Have you done anything fun
on P-day yet?
I’ve taught stuff but like… the Nihonjin like flowery language. And I talk like a toddler. So like…. when I talk I say grammatically correct things that make no sense to the Nihonjin. Like I said, we run on vibes and the spirit. So like. Usually I’ll say something and then in more complicated nihongo my trainer explains in greater detail. But anyway. Most people don’t get that far and I only get to try to teach something every hundred doors or something. From a pessimistic point of view we are glorified flyer people. But, like I say, we’re not pessimistic and we are guided by the almighty so out we go. Effectively doing anything in Japan is a pain though. I get to hear a lot of cool stories though(EN: old people have lots of time to spare but not enough to really want to come to church.) If I wasn’t Christian and just wanted to learn more about a variety of stuff, the nihonjin love to talk but only about their passions. And only when they’ve deemed you worthy of their knowledge. Anyway, uhhh, we cook food. Mmmm, rice is as expensive as I thought though. 24$ish or 3500¥ for a 5kg bag. Very expensive. So we actually eat pasta and bread and potatoes a lot more. In fact… we kinda just like… eat meat and vegetables a lot. Like… cabbage and ground beef is pretty common for us(EN: ive been here for like… 12 days. Nothing is “common”). It’s chill though. I’m still the same weight as when I left home I think. About 168 lbs. My trainer says he lost 20 lbs on the mish over a year. Me thinks it was mostly winter that did that. Rn we eat good. Not expensive. But like, anywhere in the world if you buy your own groceries Is pretty cheap.
7-11 is great. We see them every 4 or 5 blocks, they are easy and cheapish places for a meal but not that cheap. Like… 5 to 6 bucks for a solid 800 calories(EN: if you splurge and get cool variety its about 900¥ for like… 5 items(1000ish cal)). Not expensive but not the cheapest. But it’s like… actually prepared food. Like buying stuff from a store here is like… iroiro … there is so much variety it is wonderful but stressful. I want to try everything but also like… space it out. We do get drinks but basically only to try new ones. Usually I just get whatever and if it’s less than a sen(EN:1000¥) I chill. We occasionally go out to eat with friends because nothing gets people out of work like also saying we’re getting food.
Ummm, last one, p-day… yeah so. I live in the middle of town and me and my comp agreed that I’ll wait till I live close to a mountain to hike one because we honestly live a good 40 minute intensive bike ride from anywhere cool and realistically we aren’t gonna hike a mountain and get back when we have other stuff to do on p-day. P-day is just shopping, laundry, family calls, and chill day but we usually have periodic stuff we have to go to so no running away. We have a plan to go to a bowling alley as a district next p-day but who knows if that’ll happen. Our schedules are half the time packed and half the time questionably empty. It’s chill though. I’ve heard people burn out at the beginning of their missions and the end and I can’t say much because I’m only a week(EN:12 days i think) in but it’s just like. .. chill. I tried natto, it tastes like what I imagine bad coffee flavor. I do love umeboshi though. It’s picked plum and very sour but I love it. There is a member who does it herself and has for like 20 years and she offered me some. 💕Pyett Shimai. She fed us dinner and oh man was it good. We get member meals like… never… just hers so far. It was so good though. Anyway, p-days we still do some dendou(mish work) but it’s spottier. We usually hang out with the rest of the district a little too. It’s fun. The YSA has institute and they eat dinner during it. I guess that’s a member meal too. And it’s Tuesdays and oh man. So fun. I didn’t understand more than a lick of what they say since they talk so fast but turns out explaining stuff to me through charades is sufficient. We played ducku ducku gusu and leap frog tag? That one was weird. And we played uhhh i don’t remember. Whatever this 8 or 9 yr old, taka-chan wants. All the YSA is chill with him and the YSA is kinda just anyone under 30, so like… I don’t know if he’s one of their kids or siblings but he is chill with everyone and so he’s the boss man. Anyway. Im tired. I typed a lot. I’ll type more tmrw. I started this the day b4 p-day in the evening bc we have 30 min b4 bed to prep for bed and write in journals and I figured this was very similar to my normal routine so I wrote a little in my journal and typed this so far. I’ll text the sibling FB rn for any Qs and answer those tmrw maybe or just tell a cool story. Idk ┐(´～`；)┌, 👋
(EN: editing is taking too long so anything after this point is unedited and I don’t remember what I said. If I said something wrong or bad just assume it’s a typo and my finger slipped. Thanks) The next day has arrived and the sibling Q&A begins. There was something I thought about saying this morning but I forgot… wait I think I remember. Ummm I weighed myself and it said 165 or like… 75 kg. So I might be like 1 lb lighter but overall no drastic changes. Anyway, questions 1: Zephram: what kind of food are y’all eating? Like… uhhh, Cereal for breakfast… well, it’s a way better cereal. Japanese cereal is much healthier and tastier than the American stuff. And that’s if we eat breakfast at all. For lunch we usually eat some tame form of a dinner, sandwiches, pasta, rice, etc. We sometimes just eat 2 big meals a day tho so sometimes we just eat brunch and call it good. Dinner is like… college dinners made fancy. Yesterday for dinner we had taco pasta. We had ground beef defrosted and just ate that with spaghetti and some oily lemon sauce. Idk ┐(´～`；)┌, we didn’t have any marinara and we had white sauce 4 days ago. Usually it’s like… a 1500 calorie dinner and that is most of our calories. At Pyett shimais house I think I ate like… 3000 calories of like gooooood food. Ramen, rice, natto, umeboshi, egg rolls, etc. She even had mugicha. Oh man was that good.
Next question:
Kezia: What do you do for exercise?
Well, as Kamachi says “we get up out of bed. It requires almost a full squat” But seriously, I “worked out” for the first 2 days and regretted it because we bike super far everyday and I hurt afterwards. Fortunately im better at biking on the weird Japanese sidewalks now and it doesn’t hurt nearly as much. So yeah, I get out of bed. Isn’t that enough?
Next 🌟:
Zeph: What methods do you use to make new friends?
I have friends? Oh wait… you mean those friends. Well. Like I said earlier, glorified flyer boys. But in all reality we just hope someone is bored enough or a nice enough person to crack their door open more than 10 deg and actually talk to us. My door approach is for sure getting better. On my very first finding day I learned you don’t give the ball away until you have to. Dont ask how their day is going or anything like that or they will immediately turn you away. Be concise and ask the right questions.
We also teach muryo(free) eikaiwa(english classes) and j-kaiwa(Japanese classes). Other than that, door knocking, street talking, and circles. As many interactions as we can really. Unfortunately getting a real interaction is so rare we usually get caught off guard and sometimes that makes it very easy to ruin the chance they give you. It’s a very frustrating game. The fortunate part is since im in a big city we will never run out of doors and people. I know whoever needs to hear our message will be guided to where and when it needs to happen.
次の質問:
Kez: Do you have a lot of member appointments in your area?
No. We are trying harder to see inactive members and bring active members to their house too.
I’ve met with active members outside church and circles like…. 3 times. But fortunately the wards have literally like… 5 activities for different groups of people a week and like 2 for everyone… so I see all of them a lot. Because the Japanese work schedule is so busy usually people only come to 1 of the 2 a week but over a week usually everybody makes it to 1 if not just to church. But like personally we don’t just visit members. The sisters in our area do that.
Zeph: Is it as cold as predicted?
It’s like… summer. So yeah. The weather everyday here has been short sleeves but not too hot im dying. It’s been perfect weather everyday so far. The winters are sounding worse and worse as time goes on though. The way that Toma Kaichou(mission pres) talks about the winter already now makes me incredibly excited and worried. Happy lights and the like are… not a thought I wanna imagine. I have a feeling I’ll personally like it a lot because my heart is dark and icy(これは冗談) but to each their own. I do have all the required winter gear already bc Mom and Dad. Thank you guys so much. It would have actually been more expensive to buy the boots and jacket here bc the size issues. Like… length would have been hard to find.
Kezia: What’s your favorite word you’ve learned in the field?
Kamachis favorite is: 握り屁
My favorite is simpler: 機会(kikai) it means opportunity. But the kanji broken down is where mechanisms meet. The first kanji being mechanism and the second kanji being meeting. This means a lot to me because as I am constantly thinking about on the mission, an opportunity is when a variety of machanisms line up. You can’t control have the mechanisms of an interaction. Only your mechanisms. You need to trust the Lord to guide the other half and sometimes more(especially the language part) because that is the only way an opportunity can truly be born. Also for those who didnt look up my comps or didnt want to look it up his word means: farting into one’s hand or cupping a fart. What a bro.
ZEPHRAM: Is navigation fairly straightforward or is it hard to find where places are?
well… im in the city… so there are blocks… and i can count… so yea? Plus I just follow my trainer cause he has the data and Google maps pulled up.
Low key we have Google maps and like, Anything we’d ever need for navigation. Street maps, the sun, compasses, sets of confusing directions, etc.
The only difficulty part is usually when we are given an address it the whole block and not a single house. That’s just how Japan is. But like, I think that’s cause we can’t read the address only the block number. It works out though bc we just house the whole block and maybe find who we’re looking for. Navigation isn’t bad though, just records. Also like I said, I love the river trails. We bike along the river a lot. If you look at a map of asahikawa it would make sense why we’d do that. Any direction we go besides nw and e have rivers.
Kezia: What’s the biggest culture shock?
People here are just… so short.
Or maybe that their coin counters are so efficient?
Uhhh, the weird shaped apartments. Like. They’re so nice but also just like… rotting and rusting and falling apart.
Ooooo, I’ve got it. Taking your shoes off in everybody’s houses. Let’s just say a lot of people like my flamingo socks. No one has told me they are distracting yet so I wear them a lot.
Either that or the vampires.
Next question is:
Zephram: How big is the ward/branch you’re currently at?
Uhhh, 3rd largest in Hokkaido. About 80 people. Really tight though. Everyone comes every week and such. Love em all so far. In Wakkanai(northern most city) they have 2 members and 4 elders. But apparently wakkanai is so bad that Toma kaichou literally in our first interview was like… “are you okay with going to wakkanai” and I was like… yeah. But tbf I almost fell asleep in that interview from jet lag that like… it was fair enough he didnt send me. Wakkanai is so windy no one ever wants to stop and talk. I feel bad. Most places have about 20 or 30 members here. Any less and they usually join over a zoom call to the nearest branch or ward.
Kezia: What do missionaries typically do for pday?
Sit. Sleep. Eat. Go to thrift shops. Go shopping. I clean the floor, do the dishes. He cooks, plans, we all chill.
Megan: Do you get fed by members?
We actually canceled a dinner appt with a member because we prioritize lessons and finding over members. But the senior couple went in our place which was good because at the dinner the member actually brought someone who wanted to learn more. I was a little sad but I feel like the senior couple handled it better than I would have.
Megan: How often do you have to cook for yourself?
Yeah. I don’t cook still. I lost all abilities at cooking across MTC and the ingredient disparity. I can cook but I usually just leave it up to Kamachi. But overall about 85%ish of the meals are home-cooked or cereal
Megan: How many missionaries are in Asahikawa?
Well… 8. 2 senior couples(their area closes this transfer. 2 sisters(last transfer they had 4), Payne(last transfer) and Cunningham(doki(same as me)), and 4 elders. Me, Kamachi(13 months), Calder(1 yr), and Itokazu(6ish months).
Kezia: What does grocery shopping look like?
Cart, put stuff in cart… scan it all. Bags are 5¥ a pop so we use our bags. Then you self checkout. Peak self checkout BTW. And then leave. Overall very good system. Most of the prices are 80%-110% of normal American prices. Some stuff is a lot cheaper 0.5x, some stuff(rice) is 5x the price.
Kezia: Have you tried any new foods?
Uhhh, ummm. Sure? Mostly new flavors same combinations or same flavors different combinations. Like Yuzu, or the yam, or like that. Idk ┐(´～`；)┌ the only way to explain half of what we eat is to eat it yourself. Make taco rice tho yourself. That stuff is gas. The convenience stores just have massive varieties of flavors. One thing I learned is bread is a lot less sweet here. I still like it tho.
Kezia: What’s been harder than you expected? What’s been easier?
This is 2 questions but 1 text. Uhhh. The harder than expected part is saying enough words when they open the door to be interesting but also being easy to understand and being personable. Trying to be personable and caring is hard when as soon as you give them the chance to speak they turn you away and close the door. It’s on the level where people will open the door holding a cat. Then we give our intro and instead of responding they are like “I gotta set the cat down real quick” then they shut and lock the door and go back to whatever they were doing. Fun ik. Kamachi def needs more encouragement bc by his point in the mission it’s expected they decline. That’s why I said we get caught off guard if they actually wanna listen.
Easier thing? Ummm, idk ┐(´～`；)┌, just like. Our schedules is mental tiring a lot more than physically tiring. Like… I ache for sure but not as much as when you feel like you wanna just sink into the couch. I just hurt mentally and emotionally. Probably mostly the language. I do like… 1000 flashcards a day. It hurts.
Anyway,
Megan: What was the food like on the “Queen of the skies”? Craig said he heard the food is really good.
Hahahahahahahahahahaha. It’s plane food. I would much rather have almost any meal you’ve cooked than eat what they gave us. But after MTC it was pretty nice. The best part of the “Queen of the skies” is that their was never any turbulence, the seats were comfortable, and the leg room was sufficient. Definitely better than a normal plane but still a plane. The food was amazing for plane food tho. But still plane food. Not fresh.
Megan: Bidets?
I mean I like em as much as the next guy. But giving your toilet a lap dance everytime you poop is a little annoying. To really get everything you gotta get the whole crack and that’s a little hard when the toilets are meant for midgets. We still have to use toilet paper most of the time. It’s also weird that the water is sooo warm. But I’ve heard I have to wait for the winter where the water is ice.
Anyways, that was all.
Spiritual thought will be quick bc I have to proofread this super long message 4 nephi 1:16. I love how this verse talks about how nice it’ll be. All the things that won’t happen. But I want to look at the flipside, well, not even the flipside. Verse 15. I don’t like how sometimes we focus on trying to have an absence of the bad. That’s all well and good but I want everyone around me to really be focusing on the live of God in their lives. Count your blessings one by one and we’d be here all day. Focus on the bad and you’ll just be depressed. There is a reason God doesn’t want ou to repent for the same thing over and over and over. Go out and do service, help others, even just show outwardly that you are happy. Smile at the door.
Thanks,
Sleep well,
Elder Tripp.
Elder Tripp and Sam Larsen (from Los Alamos)
Video received from Sam.