We're back!

I'm sorry to all the loyal people that kept checking my blog last year. It was dishonourable of me to stop posting!

Anyway, I'm back, for a whole new era of blogging. Enjoy!

The Tour

This is me in Osaka with our bass player Chris, posing as takoyaki ('octopus balls' - the name says it all; essentially balls with octopus in them).

Well, finally got some photos to share with you. I mentioned in passing in the last post, but I recently had the privilege of embarking on a Youth Alive tour in Japan! (For those of you who are unfamiliar with Youth Alive, it's a Christian organisation that organise a lot of big events for young people, involving bands and such.)

This is Osaka Christian Centre (...in Osaka!). When we arrived, there were chairs all the way to the front, but that was too tame for us...we had them removed! Also, that big blue overhead projection behind the drums was big; so big that it shined in some of our eyes.

Anyway, we went to Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka. (If you can't imagine how far we travelled, Fukuoka is a thousand kilometres from Tokyo!) I was the drummer for the band, which was made up of members of our church band. Along with our pastor and some assistants, there were about 15 of us in all. We went by the famous bullet train ('shinkansen' in Japanese), which hits a top speed of around 270 kilometres an hour. As far as I know, the only trains faster than this are found in Europe. Despite the speed, it's a very smooth ride. It's not until you look out the window at the world whizzing past do you realise how fast you're going. Then, at the end of the trip, we returned by airplane, which is interesting because, when you look at the window, you see what looks like a map of Japan, and then you realise it's...Japan. It gave me confidence that I can trust those people that make maps for a living; they tell it like is!

There were a lot of interesting stories that came out of this trip, but I'll just relate a few. For example, in Nagoya, at the very end of the night, I was playing the drums and I... let go of the stick in my right hand! I watched that stick, as if in slow motion, fly forwards about 5 metres, and land off the stage. Luckily, one of the Japanese people in the crowd came and gave it to me within seconds, so I wonder how many people actually noticed...

This is everybody from the team, plus one of the local pastors and his wife (second and third from the right). I had the privilege of staying the night at their house, and to talk to them for a significant amount of time. I'm looking forward to going back one day and seeing how churches in Nagoya are advancing, not to mention the other cities we visited.

One great thing about Nagoya is that, when you're driving around the centre of the city, it feels like the centre of Canberra back in Australia. The roads are wide, lots of trees, and buildings that are low enough so that you can see the sky, and even the horizon (both very rare things in
Tokyo, nicknamed by foreigners as the 'concrete jungle').

This is me pointing in Osaka, as I like to do. This may mean nothing to all of you, but the JR (Japan Rail) signs are blue in the Osaka area; in Tokyo they're green. Anyway, some interesting observations: When people use escalators in Japan, there is always a slow lane, where people stand to one side and let other people pass them. In Tokyo, people who are not in a hurry stand on the left side of the escalator. However, in the Osaka area, for some reason people stand on the right. But, even though this is the convention, ocasionally there are people that stand on the right, so you end up with a gridlock on the escalator! Japan prides itself on high-speed escalation (if that's a word).

In Fukuoka, as a thankyou gift, not only were all 15 of us taken out to dinner, but we were also given the opportunity to go to a public bath. This means, in a word, NAKED. But don't worry, these public baths have separate sections for boys and girls. I was relieved at that; it was embarrassing enough! So, the idea is, you get a locker, put ALL your clothes in it, and take only your towel in. Then, you scrub yourself clean with the soap and showers provided. Then, once you're clean, you enter the bath itself. It is hot, my friend! But, strangely relaxing. But, if that wasn't enough, we were able to try the sauna as well. It's a weird feeling being clean and hot, to the point where you start sweating!

All in all, it was a tough five days, but a very rewarding experience. We played in front of over a thousand people in total, and were received extraordinarily well. In fact, everywhere we went, we were given free accommodation, and often even food! Good food too. Also, the locals that came to see us were very grateful; most Japanese people have never done church, let alone like this. I had this feeling that we were somehow making history on this tour.

This is where we played in Fukuoka (in front of some 600 people!). This is not us, but a local band that opened for us. They were great, and even featured two hip-hop dancers up front. It was an incredible venue. It felt like a space-ship...but with a hardwood floor. Also, when we were packing up, the entire stage sunk back to ground level mechanically. I was standing on it at the time, and when I looked up, I got a fright; "We're sinking!".

This is us in Fukuoka, trying the local speciality, tonkotsu noodles (basically means "pig-bone"; apparently they extract the flavour of the soup from bones...I'm glad we don't have to eat them!). It was good.

Anyway, please enjoy these photos. For time's sake, I have to stop, but hopefully I can bring you more stories soon, when my new digital camera arrives.

I forgot to update!

Hello everyone. I'm still alive! I haven't updated in a long time, so I'll give you the highlights.

In July, I climbed Mount Fuji! It's a whopping 3776 metres tall, and according to an Australian I know, you start climbing Mount Fuji at the altitude where you finish climbing Mount Kosciuszko! And, another thing that surprised me was, even though I left my mobile phone at the base camp, one of the people selling food at the top was using their mobile phone...at the top!
This is a picture from the top of Mount Fuji. It's high up, needless to say! We arrived at the top just in time for sunrise.
This is the crater in the middle. It's bigger than it looks; I heard someone say that it takes an hour to go around, so, naturally after our 6-hour climb, not many people felt like trying!
This was unexpected; there is a beach umbrella, of all things, at the highest point in Japan. It is summer, after all. There's also vending machine where you can buy a small bottle of Coke for 6 Aussie dollars...The slogan should be, "NOT always Coca-Cola."...
There is this big building on the summit, where I think you can pay to stay the night, but you can also buy hot food like noodles. According to some of the people that were with me that bought some, the food wasn't that good especially since it was expensive, but after this climbing experience, I've learned that all food tastes better when on a high mountain...

This is me with a friend from church (who is also skillfully holding the camera). I didn't take a beanie with me (stupid!), but an Australian friend from church lent me her beanie, as you can see. Isn't it beautiful?

Next is my first ever surfing experience.

After this picture was taken, I stood up a bit higher, before burying the nose of the board in the sand. I didn't even think I'd be able to stand up, but the whole lot of us were getting beginner's lessons from Christian Surfers Japan.
That's me in the front looking bored. (I was listening, I swear!) After the surfing, we went to this beach-house, veranda thingy and had a great barbeque lunch. Despite the fact that heaps of the people were Japanese, I felt like I was back in Australia. That did me a lot of good. The first thing I want to do when I get home is have a barbeque! (Some guys were playing cricket earlier, in the background of the photo. I should have gone and played with them! It's so rare for me to see a backyard, or anything that looks like one. In public parks, there's no grass...)
In this photo, we're listening to someone's testimony. (Actually he's the same guy that taught me to surf that day!)
The man with the red sunnies on the far left of the screen is our pastor, and the woman standing behind him is his wife.

Anyway, I'll have lots of new photos on the way: This coming week I'm playing drums on a Youth Alive tour! We're going to 3 cities in Japan...