Mid Year Seminar, Retreat and Birthday Weekend

Life in Japan has been busy and a lot has happened since my last post!

Last Friday I went to a mid year seminar meeting with all the Ibaraki ALTs and JTEs from different schools. The main purpose of these seminars is to hear different perspectives from the ALT and JTE point of view to work towards a better understanding of issues that come up at school. We broke into small groups and had discussions about team teaching, discipline, how to use the text book and other topics. It was similar to a professional development day, but more discussion based. It was interesting hearing other Jets' view on their situations at school. Many of them were in similar situations as me, at low level schools with discipline and motivation problems.

It was difficult to get input from the JTEs and it was mostly the ALTs speaking. One question that was brought up was about the ALT's role regarding discipline in the classroom. Almost all the JTEs said it was their responsibility to handle discipline and not the ALTs. It was interesting though because it seemed like many of the JTEs that we work with do not enforce discipline in the classroom and thus it is an ongoing problem. One of the JTEs talked to my friend and I during the break and said that many of the JTEs do not know how to discipline or are not proactive in the classroom. It seems like there is no training or professional development offered on classroom management for these teachers, which is a huge problem! Overall, it was an interesting day, but I feel like there is still a lot to learn about the 'Japanese way'.

Friday after the seminar I went to the town of Ushiku to sleep over at a friend’s house. We were going to take a bus together to the Jet Christian Fellowship retreat Saturday morning. It worked out because I carpooled with some other ALTs and was able to bring my luggage to the seminar. Deborah, the friend I stayed with, use to be a JET about 10 years ago and is now a missionary in Japan. I first met her at the Jet Christian Fellowship table at Tokyo orientation and found out that she lives in Ibaraki too, but at the opposite end. She’s helped me find churches in my area and I’ve talked with her on facebook a few times. She is very passionate about missions and has many stories about how she's seen God work in Japan over the past 10 years.

She met me at the train station and another JET, Bethany also slept over. Bethany flew in from Hokkaido- the Northern tip of Japan to go to the retreat! It was nice hanging out with them and we watched a movie with hot chocolate and popcorn! We left around 9am Saturday for Tokyo. We got to the bus station in Shinjuku and met some other JETs going on the retreat. The bus ride was about 2 1/2 hours and on the way had a great view of a snow covered Mt. Fuji!


We stayed in two story cabin called Torchbearers near Lake Yamanako. There were about 40 people at the retreat from all over Japan. Bethany came from Hokkaido (North), others came from Kyushu (South) and various prefectures in between. I met people from Jamaica, UK, Canada and different parts of the US. I was also excited to meet the girls in my skype bible study in person! Janelle is originally from the west side of Chicago and also taught in CPS before coming to Japan. Erin is from LA and is 5th generation Japanese American and a 2nd year JET. During the retreat I met a girl who went to Moody Bible College and a few other ALTs that taught in the states before JET, small world! The group was made up of mostly Christian ALTs, but there were also Japanese students and teachers and a non Christian present.

My skype bible study- Janelle, Erin, me

We had great worship sessions throughout the weekend. The worship team consisted of several singers, pianist, flutist, trumpet, drummer and guitarists. It was so awesome to worship in English with other believers! The speaker for the weekend was Pastor Inafuku, originally from Hawaii. He is fourth generation Japanese and felt God calling him to Japan about 21 years ago. His church is in Tokyo in Shinjuku, near the red light district. The topic he spoke on was finding God’s calling. I really enjoyed his messages and passion for missions.

We also had small groups throughout the weekend and I found out the Thursday before the retreat that I would be a small group leader. The week leading up to the retreat had been an especially hectic and stressful one, so my heart was not really in it to be a leader. But, I prayed that God would change my attitude and help me be a good leader. There were three other girls in my small group. Sarah had joined our skype bible study for the first time last week, so I knew her a little. Keli was the retreat coordinator and Jen was a non believer who was invited by another Christian JET to the retreat. What are the odds that God would place Jen in my small group? We introduced ourselves during the first small group and talked about our calling, passion and dreams. I was more of a faciliator and asked the follow up questions to Mr. Inafuku's talks. It wasn't until the second small group time that we discovered Jen was not a Christian. She had been hesistant about telling us at first because she was worried about being judged. She shared that it wasn't until she came to Japan that she had started thinking about Christianity. Her mom is Catholic and forced them to go to mass on Easter and Christmas, but never explained why to Jen. Jen had a lot of questions and her friend told her she should come to the retreat to meet and talk to other Christians.

My small group- Keli, me, Sarah, Jen

Our small group had really good discussions for the third and fourth meetings. We let Jen ask her questions and many of them weren't easy ones to answer! For example, she asked what is the difference between Jesus and God. Sarah, Keli and I tried our best to explain it in a way Jen would understand, but it was difficult because even we have a hard time grasping the trinity! We also had the opportunity to share the gospel with Jen and talked about everything from salvation, heaven, grace, legalism and prayer. She was very open minded and seemed to take in everything we were saying. I was really challenged in my own faith through these discussions and thank God for being able to use me despite my initial feelings about being a small group leader. Even though Jen didn't accept Christ this weekend, at least she heard the gospel and I can take comfort that a seed was planted!

Whew, ok so moving on to my birthday.. My small group found out that my birthday was Sunday, so everyone sang happy birthday to me at breakfast. We had free time during the afternoon and I went to walk around Lake Yamanako with a bunch of people. We stopped at a hammock cafe on the way to get some coffee and played around in the hammocks.

It was pretty chilly near the lake so we didn't walk around long. Some people headed back to the cabin, others went off to study Japanese.. I decided to go to an onsen with Sarah. An onsen is a hot spring and they are all over Japan. Many Japanese people go to onsens to relax. I was hesistant about going to an onsen because I knew you were basically in your birthday suit with other people of the same sex in the hot spring, no bathing suits allowed! But, Sarah had convinced me that I would really like it, so decided I would try it since it was my birthday. It was one of the nicer onsens in the area, more like a spa. Overall, the experience was very relaxing once I got over seeing so many Japanese women in their birthday suits! Before going into the actual hot spring you must be clean, so you wash up at these shower stations complete with soap, shampoo and conditioner! The onsen place had 2 hot spring baths outside and that's where we stayed for most of the time. If it had been a clear day we could have seen Mt. Fuji from the onsen! We only stayed about an hour because we were getting overheated! The part I didn't enjoy was how crowded it was. It was extremely crowded because there was a dog competition in the area and it was a 3 day holiday weekend. After the onsen we met up with some other people and ate dinner at an Italian restaurant overlooking the lake. After dinner we headed back to the retreat center for worship, speaker, small groups and fellowship. The retreat center was really nice- very comfortable, warm and the staff cooked us great meals! It was a weekend full of fun, meeting new people, new experiences and challenging messages!

The JCF leadership team