Yamagata Family

This past week we took a short break to visit with Kaori's home church and family. Here's a picture of the whole Fukase (and three Lavermans) family. Can you find the foreigner? Nothing can make you feel like a foreigner more than being amongst family and realizing you are wholly different. Thankfully, as the Apostle Paul wrote, we are one in Christ: "Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all."

Still, I must admit that several days in the "REAL" Japan (Tokyo is not "really" Japan), I discover parts of me that still stick out in this culture. After a few hours of sitting on the floor, my legs, bottom, and back begin to beg for a comfortable chair. And it's still a challenge to muster up the willpower to eat raw fish and salad for breakfast. Lunch or dinner, okay. But breakfast is still a sacred meal that I try to do more Western style when home. And my Yamagata accent listening skills are also in poor shape. It seems I've been spoiled by the "mainstream" Japanese in the Kanto area.

Well, those and many more things are still areas of growth for me in cultural adaptation. Thankfully I've still some years to work on it.