Impossible mission
Status: Accomplished
For the last few months...like 6, i've been joyously and completely illegally careening around the streets of tokyo in my little car. i decided that the time had come, something must be done about this. i began to ask around, and found that it is indeed possible for me to get my american driving license "transferred" to a japanese one, provided i jumped through all the little hoops that japan seems to love so much. SO MUCH. i, the asker, was encouraged by the not-too-difficult sounding hoops the askee was telling me about. show up, take a written "test"- 10 true/false, and in english, no less- take a driving test, take a picture, get a license. no problem!
Not so, my friends, not so. in japan, they have these imaginary boundaries that liniate between "prefectures", which act and sound and smell much like the american version of "states". on a side note, in the near future i will further explore the very real possibility that these lines were created by putting a GPS tracker on the back of a drunk dog. while driving down the same road in a straight line, it is possible to leave saitama prefecture, thereby entering tokyo prefecture, then enter saitama again, then enter tokyo a final time. again, this is all while driving in a straight line. i am not making this up. *edit*- that link expired somehow...
At any rate, were i to have gotten the gumption to get this all taken care of while living in tokyo prefecture, all would be well. it would have been a pain to get my address transferred and to register at the city hall, but it would have enabled me to engage with a much more "forigner friendly" licensing center. not to mention one that was not on the other side of creation. but, since i did not get this all taken care of until the very last minute (my american license expired on the 4th, and you can't get an expired license transferred now, can you?) i would now have to deal with the dreaded saitama licensing center. i now know that this place is somewhat infamous in the american crowd for being impossibly difficult- far, FAR more difficult than its tokyo brother. it is also, as previously mentioned, very far away geographically speaking as well. not only that, but it was very highly reccomended that i bring a translator- which seems silly. if they're going to have a process to transfer foreign licenses, it seems they'd make it at least somewhat possible to do on one's own, especially with a degree of japanese under one's belt. however, at one point in my day, a nice-ish japanese man instructed us for well-nigh an hour on how to drive on the test course, all in japanese. and not just any japanese, but some of the most difficult, formal japanese that there is, to the point that not only was unable to understand the vocabulary, i was hardpressed to have any idea whatsoever as to even the subject he was talking about. let it be said that translators are not needed for the one in tokyo.
My translator and i got to the center at 8:30 in the morning, on monday, my day off. in order to accomplish this feat, we had to leave at 6:30 in the morning. this is a travesty. there are about 14 forms that i needed to bring with me (american license, official translation of said license, alien registration card, passport, proof of residence in america, etc.) all of which i had. or so i thought. as of 30 days ago, they started "cracking down" on a form that up to this point had been deemed "nice, but redundant". it now seems the powers-that-be had decided that redundancy is good as a hobby, on rice, on a boat, on a coat, in a car, both near and far...you get the picture. so this form was no longer negotiable. they had not bothered to tell anyone this, of course. this form took me about 30 seconds to get from my city hall- about long enough to write my address out. can a form this easy to obtain really be all that important? survey says: no.
That was the only hiccup in our carefully laid plans. by the time we had gone all the way back across saitama, spent 30 seconds getting the form, and getting back, it was about 1:30. i managed to take the written test and pass, although they never bother to tell you what your score is. if you get at least 7 out of ten, you go to the next hoop. if you didn't they send you home. it was at this point that the instructor talked at us for almost an hour in very technical japanese about what would be required to pass the driving portion of the test. becuase nobody on the real streets actually follows any of their rules, they have a 10-ish acre driving course, complete with traffic lights, train crossings, crosswalks, and even some of those rediculously tiny japanese roads.
This driving test was one of those tests where you are required to know exactly what the tester is looking for, and do it, in order to pass. it has very little to do with driving in the "real world", and very much to do with them having as much power over you as they want. for all that, my tester was a fairly nice man, and i did do my very best to pretend like i thought his way was the best way, but he still failed me. as far as i could tell, you get 1 freebie. make 2 mistakes, and you're out. i know what my first mistake was (not stopping far enough back from the stop line), but i'm not really sure what got me my second "batsu". maybe not being japanese enough. or at all.
So, i returned to the dreaded konosu licensing center this very last thursday to re-take my driving test. i showed up early, like they said i should, even though i had an appointment, i then sat around for 2 hours, which was 1 hour after my appointment. i then took the test, and passed it without a single mistake! (well, i did turn the wipers on instead of the blinkers, but it seems there wasn't a slot for that on his paper). all the "passers" were then herded from place to place, seemingly at random, for undisclosed amounts of time and for unknown reasons. i suspect that even though we had passed the test, they still wanted to break our wills. but, 6 hours after i walked in to take a 5 minute driving test, i walked out with my license. and nobody can take that away from me.
As long as they can't catch me, that is...
June 06, 2006
June 02, 2006
June 01, 2006
I have a tip for all those youth pastors out there, struggling to find a way to gain renown on the school campus nearest to you. this single, revolutionary idea has created and developed more of my relationships with high schoolers than any other single idea. i'll write a book about this someday, but for now, i'm content sharing my brainchild in this small, backwater arena. get ready and strap yourselves down, cuz this is gonna rock your world.
Date a teacher.
Seriously, guys. i hung out on campus anyways, just in general, but now all these kids want to be my friends because i'm their teachers' boyfriend, and my relationship with their english teacher is an easy, safe, and fun topic of conversation. also, due to my association with her,
i am invited not only to attend, but also be involved in, various student body activities. most recently, there was a mid-evil themed banquet, and the ladyfriend and i were asked to be the "king and queen". decrees were issued, knighthood bestowed, much merrymaking was had, and i am now in about 2,000 pictures- some of just the queen and i, or of various groups that thronged our thrones wanting their pictures with the royalty. all you youth pastors out there looking for a way to get known on the campus of a school take note!
In other news, just last sunday was the JAM end-of-the-year party. this is to celebrate the end of the school year, as well as to give the 5th graders a chance to come for their first time. it's a 4-hour long event, with pretty much no down time, which means it's a challenge for the leaders- we have to be thinking at least 1 event in advance so that everything will be ready when the kids are. we played all our favorite games, we had a time of worship, we had 8 costco pizzas, we had a sharing time, and we ended with capture the flag. this is only the 2nd time i've done this event (it's a once-a-year thing), and since the average weekly attendance has been less than last year, i felt pretty confident that this years' party would be about the same as last years- about 35 people total, which last year meant about 25 kids. this year, we had about 40 kids, and less leaders than i had last year. PANIC!! especially considering that i, and i alone, was in charge of a total of over 50 middle and high school kids. we had a great time, though.
My leaders really showed what they were made of- they totally stepped up and made sure that everything was running smoothly, that the kids were having fun and being impacted relationally. there were about a thousand details that were taken care of, and all i had to do was pull someone aside and give quick directions, and they'd get it done, even if i'd been unclear, or they had to be creative or change a few things to get it to work. basically, they are awesome.
If i may digress for a moment, i feel really sorry for any youth pastor that doesn't think that HS kids are capable of being responsible, role modelling, leaders. obviously, not all of them are (i certainly wasn't when i was a teen), but it's just amazing to see them step up to the responsibilities given them. it's not all cheese and crackers all the time, but i've found that if you trust the kids, they will prove that they are trustworthy. if you give them responsibiliy, they will prove themselves responsible.
either that, or they'll go down in flames! because of that, there is more risk running a youth group with teens as the main leaders, as well as more work on my part, but i consider them to be my primary ministry, and i'm convinced the middle school group is way better with high school leaders. i mean, come on. i'm old (almost 26!), and i don't see the MS kids much in the course of a normal day. So, Incandescence- I salute you: Blake, Emily, Maika, Josiah, and Amanda. you are proof that quality wins over quantity, every time.
Back to the party. rather than have a single person give the "message", we chose to each prepare testimonies, and invite the kids to share anything they learned from God, or ways that they grew, through the year. it was a little awkward for a while, and i worried that none of the kids would speak out, but once the dam broke (a tiny 5th grader was actually the first to go), they started lining up. very little is as encouraging as hearing the kids sharing. they talked about some obscure illustration from a talk during the year, and how it revolutionized their walk with God. they talked about how they grew in their morning small groups we orgainzed for them. one 6th grader shared, at the point of tears, how he had been reading how Timothy was telling people to be like him, since he was like Christ, and he wanted to encourage us- HE wanted to encourage US- and tell us that he wants to be like us because we are like Christ. i required all the leaders to go, too, and it was amazing to hear them put their own words and personal application on lessons, ideas, and talks that God has used me to put into their lives- ideas of spiritual disciplines, servant leadership, trust. it's humbling, and also scary, to see how i really do affect and teach them. don't get me wrong- i'm not trying to brag about what a great youth pastor i am. usually, in fact, i feel i'm doing a second-rate job. but this really showed me that God really can, and does, use me.
Here's some evidence of the JAM party. for the capture the flag game at the end, we used glowsticks to differentiate between the teams, since we played at night. made for some awesome pictures, and turns out that to middle school kids, glowsticks are hard currency, man. they might have been happier if we'd just passed out glowsticks and let them play with them for an hour, rather than use them to play a game. either way, it made for some pretty awesome photographic opportunities:
Date a teacher.
Seriously, guys. i hung out on campus anyways, just in general, but now all these kids want to be my friends because i'm their teachers' boyfriend, and my relationship with their english teacher is an easy, safe, and fun topic of conversation. also, due to my association with her,
i am invited not only to attend, but also be involved in, various student body activities. most recently, there was a mid-evil themed banquet, and the ladyfriend and i were asked to be the "king and queen". decrees were issued, knighthood bestowed, much merrymaking was had, and i am now in about 2,000 pictures- some of just the queen and i, or of various groups that thronged our thrones wanting their pictures with the royalty. all you youth pastors out there looking for a way to get known on the campus of a school take note!In other news, just last sunday was the JAM end-of-the-year party. this is to celebrate the end of the school year, as well as to give the 5th graders a chance to come for their first time. it's a 4-hour long event, with pretty much no down time, which means it's a challenge for the leaders- we have to be thinking at least 1 event in advance so that everything will be ready when the kids are. we played all our favorite games, we had a time of worship, we had 8 costco pizzas, we had a sharing time, and we ended with capture the flag. this is only the 2nd time i've done this event (it's a once-a-year thing), and since the average weekly attendance has been less than last year, i felt pretty confident that this years' party would be about the same as last years- about 35 people total, which last year meant about 25 kids. this year, we had about 40 kids, and less leaders than i had last year. PANIC!! especially considering that i, and i alone, was in charge of a total of over 50 middle and high school kids. we had a great time, though.
My leaders really showed what they were made of- they totally stepped up and made sure that everything was running smoothly, that the kids were having fun and being impacted relationally. there were about a thousand details that were taken care of, and all i had to do was pull someone aside and give quick directions, and they'd get it done, even if i'd been unclear, or they had to be creative or change a few things to get it to work. basically, they are awesome.
If i may digress for a moment, i feel really sorry for any youth pastor that doesn't think that HS kids are capable of being responsible, role modelling, leaders. obviously, not all of them are (i certainly wasn't when i was a teen), but it's just amazing to see them step up to the responsibilities given them. it's not all cheese and crackers all the time, but i've found that if you trust the kids, they will prove that they are trustworthy. if you give them responsibiliy, they will prove themselves responsible.
either that, or they'll go down in flames! because of that, there is more risk running a youth group with teens as the main leaders, as well as more work on my part, but i consider them to be my primary ministry, and i'm convinced the middle school group is way better with high school leaders. i mean, come on. i'm old (almost 26!), and i don't see the MS kids much in the course of a normal day. So, Incandescence- I salute you: Blake, Emily, Maika, Josiah, and Amanda. you are proof that quality wins over quantity, every time.Back to the party. rather than have a single person give the "message", we chose to each prepare testimonies, and invite the kids to share anything they learned from God, or ways that they grew, through the year. it was a little awkward for a while, and i worried that none of the kids would speak out, but once the dam broke (a tiny 5th grader was actually the first to go), they started lining up. very little is as encouraging as hearing the kids sharing. they talked about some obscure illustration from a talk during the year, and how it revolutionized their walk with God. they talked about how they grew in their morning small groups we orgainzed for them. one 6th grader shared, at the point of tears, how he had been reading how Timothy was telling people to be like him, since he was like Christ, and he wanted to encourage us- HE wanted to encourage US- and tell us that he wants to be like us because we are like Christ. i required all the leaders to go, too, and it was amazing to hear them put their own words and personal application on lessons, ideas, and talks that God has used me to put into their lives- ideas of spiritual disciplines, servant leadership, trust. it's humbling, and also scary, to see how i really do affect and teach them. don't get me wrong- i'm not trying to brag about what a great youth pastor i am. usually, in fact, i feel i'm doing a second-rate job. but this really showed me that God really can, and does, use me.
Here's some evidence of the JAM party. for the capture the flag game at the end, we used glowsticks to differentiate between the teams, since we played at night. made for some awesome pictures, and turns out that to middle school kids, glowsticks are hard currency, man. they might have been happier if we'd just passed out glowsticks and let them play with them for an hour, rather than use them to play a game. either way, it made for some pretty awesome photographic opportunities:
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