Sophie's last post

I am now participating in the last leg of my Japanese CARP adventures. Having seen five different CARP centres I cannot emphasise enough how wonderful it is to find that they’re all so different but still fundamentally the same. It shows the adaptiveness of the CARP lifestyle.

Sometimes I was able to see what makes the centre work and how the people are so happy, but with the peach you get the stone, I also could see things that perhaps hinder the members or make the atmosphere uncomfortable. One thing that has stood out to me that truly has a positive effect on the members is living the concept of ‘One family under God’. Where the CARP leader is involved in everyone’s life as a father and everyone feels completely comfortable to be absolutely themselves; a place where true love is flowing from all angles.

To achieve this of course requires mountains of effort and I am astounded by the Japanese members continuous positivity despite any hard times. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting so many people with unwavering faith who are able to speak sincerely and freely about deep topics which creates pure surroundings to live in. On some occasions they were asked to give messages on the spot and I was blown away with what they said. I think the Japanese culture has contributed to the speech skills of the members.

I’ve learnt so much whilst being on this trip including how to brew good ocha, speak a little Japanese, bowing etiquette, witnessing techniques and much more. Skills which I hope will come in handy in the future.

An experience that was important to me was witnessing. I was privileged enough to see a person through the first few stages of their spiritual growth. And although with some of the people we approached I felt I couldn’t say much or involve myself, with this one girl I really felt connected and able to talk to her and contribute, I felt needed. It was amazing to see how people joined the church in this modern age.

I’ve been so lucky as to have seen so much of Japan; the city lifestyle, where people are flying in and out catching tubes meeting guests etc and the countryside where although it is equally busy, it feels calmer and the members feel a little more relaxed, enough to have a cheeky afternoon nap or reading etc.

Another treasured experience I had was the 5-day guest workshop that we attended. We as kitchen staff were providing fuel so they could concentrate in lectures etc, we also did occasional birthday cakes or performances and decorations (^^) it felt like a family and I hope that came across to the guests!

I’m amazed at how well we did since we had almost no sleep and little experience in cooking. However, it was only in our faces that tiredness could be seen, everyone else looked happy and bright and still had a gicing, loving attitude. This I really need to learn how to do! J

The formalities of Japanese meals were to be endured but it was lightened by the gratitude and ‘cuteness’ of the participants.

I want to thank Masa and Il Kook for being such good brothers and friends throughout. They made each day interesting even if we were just sat on a climbing frame in the park.

And especially to Masa for his brilliant and eloquent translation, without whom I think I’d have had half the experience!! (Sanks!!)

I also want to say a mahusive thank you to each CARP centre I stayed at for the love they gave and the experiences I had ther however large or small. For example in one centre, I was sat talking with one of the sisters by the open window and a large majestic heron flew past close enough to hear the flap of its pearly blue wings!

And thank you for teaching me Japanese culture and the various openings to meals!!! <3

Sometimes I’d be watching the members witness or hearing their deep prayers or talking with the CARP leader and I’d think this would never work in Europe, its too Japanese or too ‘cutesy’, and in some ways it is, but I can now say after hearing it countless times from almost every Japanese CARP member, that with God we can do anything.

Il kook's last post

Switzerland, Zürich

Japan experience

Hallo guys!

Japan is over, sadly. I‘m now back in cold, rainy Switzerland and i need to sort out a few things like study, sidejob and of course „digest“ my time in Japan.

But my thoughts are still in Japan with all the other European BC‘s who are at their relatives place by now or are sightseeing and with all the japanese members i was lucky to meet. Japan was, to say it frank, the best time of my life, so far. The things i liked most wasn‘t japanese food, like sweetdrinks, icecream and snacks (allthough i loved it), not the nice tempel, shrine and gardens ( they were totally awesome) and the packed cities of Japan like tokyo, kyoto or hiroshima ( they were so huge and soooo many people!) but all the special people i met there, Japanese and Europeans, can‘t wait to see them again!

well, to keep it cronologically, after the workshop in tschiura we stayed at tsukuba carpcenter for two weeks and after that, in the last week we went sightseeing. First two days in tokyo carpcenter, two days in kyoto/nara carpcenter and finally hiroshima for two days. it was like that for yoshiko, sophie and i because we had to leave to different places earlier than the other bc‘s from europe, so we three were together whereas the other guys were still enjoying the carplifestyle. they went the other way around a week later than us. first hiroshima, (we met them there and toured around hiroshima all of the „westners“ together), kyoto/nara and then tokyo.

in the two weeks in tsukuba we got to know the carpies there and how taff their life is. after studying for the day, they go witnessing or fundraising and work parttime, they don‘t really have any time for themselfs at all. it was taff life but they still had fun, like tanji laying silly on the floor like a dead frog or shimon making funny faces. i respected them a lot for keeping up with that kind of schedule.

there in tsukuba we had to go everywhere by bicycle because tsukuba is countryside, was really fun. we also had some trouble, like somebody riding into a wall but luckily it was nothing really serious.

we met guests as well, potential 1. gens. once we got stood up but another time we played gesture with the guest and with some of the carpies, it was a heated game and the guest‘s team won, so that was good. she even went to a 2 day workshop after that, so we felt a bit of accomplishment.

we went for dendo( witnessing) quite a few times and not just like before from dorm to dorm but also in front of shops. it was hard because sometimes the people would just ignore you flat out but you just have to get over it and go on. some people are also nice and talk for quite a while. one guy almost told his whole family history but the only thing i remember from him was, that he played shamisen, cool instrument!

well, for sports we played soccer and matanage. japanese aren‘t that great at soccer but quite good at matanage but they are to friendly to each other, they allow second tries if something was unclear and that really happens often there. well, it was very enjoyable each time we played.

the testemonies we heard were one of the best things i experienced in japan. it was really inspiring to hear how the 1. gens joined this movement. some went from 2day ws to a 4day ws and then straight to a 40 day ws and joined the movement just like that in maybe less then 2 month. a guy had to be bothered a few times until he said yes, he would come once to a meeting and then he stayed at the carpcenter until this day. even though there was this one strange charakter in tsukuba, all of the people there were great and so friendly. they took us into their home and excepted us as one of their own. we ate with them, we went dendo with them and just had a great time together! we gave them a good bye picturebook and they performed for us a song and a dance that was amazing! these two weeks in tsukuba were definetly worth experiencing!

so after a great time of getting to know the carpies and the carpculture in tsukuba, we had finally time to travel and see japan! yet at another carpcenter in tokyo, we had the pleasure to meet more japanese carpies and finally see yoshiko, alban, keishin and mariam. almost all of the europeans together, only the hiroshima guys missing. we had time to chat and tell each other how it was at the different carpcenters.

the next day we went sightseeing. well, tokyo is a huge city and there is to much to see, so we had to narrow it down to harujuku and roppongi hills for the first day and on the second day we went for ueno, asakusa and a tall government building in shinjuku from where you have a great view over tokyo. we, yoshiko, sophie, paula from canada, alice (my sister in laws sister), hitomi(my other brothers wife) and i haven‘t really had that much of a idea how to do things so we just went like that into the big japanese metropole. did a lot of walking and shopping, it was so exhausting. at some point we made photos in a japanese photobooth and the pictures were just hilarious! the eyes are bigger then normal on the pictures and you can write things on them, so we had our fun with that and after sightseeing we had a good bye party from the japanese carp members for yoshiko at the carpcenter. funniest michael jackson imitation i‘ve ever seen!

after tokyo we went to kyoto with the shinkansen. at the kyoto trainstation, we got picked up by kunikazu and satomi-san. the kyoto people are just to friendly. felt at home the moment i walked into the carpcenter. the atmospere there was just special. the carpies there just got along so well with each other and two guys from there have been to switzerland once, so there was a instant connection. i don‘t know, somehow they think switzerland is a paradise or so, it is nice with all

the mountains and the lakes but not that great, maybe i‘m just to used to switzerland that i don‘t notice... well met some great new people in kyoto and sightseeing was phantastic, kyoto is the place for sightseeing! went to the golden tempel, saw a castle and the otowa no taki. we also went for a mieko (geisha) hunt but weren‘t lucky at all but we had time to chat with the kyoto people. the second day we saw a giant buddah and went through a tinny hole that leads suppossedly to nirvana, a big american dude got stuck. ^^ saw also some reindeers. they weren‘t shy at all, you could touch them just like that but if you gave them food, hundreds of them would come and try to eat you alive! scary stuff. well, that was it for kyoto.

hiroshima was great as well. finally we were together as a group! saw seijin, rose and yoshi for the first time. already at the first day after arriving in hiroshima, we went sightseeing. ate some okonomiyaki first and then we went to a huge red gate on a island with a farry boat. again not shy reindeers, looks like they are everywhere. after that i saw one of the biggest hanabi (fireworks) and so many people dressed in kimono and yukata! the next day we cleaned up a park for a service project and went to the hiroshima doom ,memorial and museum. didn‘t feel a thing at first but after seeingand hearing of all the tragic individual testemonies of the a-bomb, i felt really sad after that, and so did everyone else i guess, didn‘t do much talking after that for a while. we ate lunch dinner early at coco‘s and although food was good i‘ll probably never eat there again because you just pay to much and get not as much as you expect! well, after eating we talked about our experience in japan. couldn‘t take my eyes off of the one person talking at the moment because it was so interesting to hear what they had to say especially because we went through the same things but at different places, so i could anderstand pretty well what they were talking about. it went on for about 2 hours but it didn‘t feel that long at all. we ended the talk because i had to catch my train back to tokyo, i was the first to go, sadly. my time there was so short, it went so fast, it really felt like a dream. everything good has an end to it i guess but i‘ll go again for sure, wanna dream the japan dream again!

if you ever want to experience something similar in japan, let me give you some advice:

-Testemonies: if you ever go to japan, get to know the people, ask friendly for a testemonie and they will be happy to give you that, because that‘s how they are, rearry, rearry friendly! and the testemonies will be great to listen to, i can garantie for that!

-Western card: even though you will be able to pull of the „western card“ for a while (western card as in, you are knew to the place so you don‘t know all the rules yet, so they tolerate a little ignorance from your side), you shouldn‘t overstretch that card and you rearry don‘t want to use it that often, because the japanese carpies are so kind, you don‘t want to exploit their friendlyness at all, but sometimes a little oversleeping is a necessity because the japanese carp schedule isn‘t easy to follow! they sleep for 4-5 hours and study, go witnessing or fundraising for the rest of day and that‘s it! they don‘t do anything else except two times a week they play soccer and that‘s it for sport. of course they also have some leisure time on sundays and playing with guests are also welcomed changes of schedule but that‘s it with funtime! so getting used to the carp schedule is really hard but after a while even a lazy bum like me could get used to it, so can you, if you are thinking of going to japan for a carp experience.

-Diary: let me warn you, that you will go through so many things at once and experience to many things to remember, so start a diary, that‘s what i did and it helped me remember so many things i had forgotten.

-Tourguide: never underestimate the power of a tourguide! we have been to tokyo without one and it was most of the time pure stress! in kyoto we had local people who knew sightseeing places an they have been there as well, so we didn‘t get lost at all and it was chilled, we could enjoy our trip.

well that‘s it! „Ma hal ki ta“ guys!

ilki-kintaro-iruki