You know in the cartoons when a character’s jaw falls to the floor in shock? I am sure that happened to me as I gazed out our back window one day. I had noticed an elderly lady arrive home. The driver carefully helped her out of the car, handing her a bag and walker. She then crept over to a bench and sat down, as if to catch her breath. I thought, “Wow, she climbs five steps to get to her apartment? It must be hard.” Since the car drove away, I continued watching, partially out of curiosity, partially because I could dial 119 if she fell.
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After a brief rest, she slowly began to climb the stairs. She reached the first landing and I thought, “Glad she made it. Wait. Why did she not go in the door?” I then stared in disbelief as her head poked up on the stairs again. She must live on the second floor! Slowly, she worked her way up. Again, she ignored the door and shuffled towards the stairs. Sure enough, her head crested the wall of the stairs as she continued upwards.
 At every floor I told myself, “She’s home, right?” Every time, this elderly lady defied my logic and continued up the stairs. Her home is the fifth floor, the top of her apartment building.
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​In our area, many people have lived in their apartments for decades. They have raised their children, watched them leave home, and then continued living in the same apartment. That lady has likely lived in her fifth-floor home for decades, walking up and down them carrying groceries, children, birthday presents, letters from friends, and bills to pay. Climbing five flights of stairs became part of her life.
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For me it was a great reminder that doing something hard can become a habit. Struggling to do hard things when we are young (or younger) can provide the habits and strength to continue doing it later in life. 

Life often takes shocking turns and living abroad definitely has provided many surprises. God has faithfully enabled us to live in Tokyo for two years now. As we reflect on living in Japan, a few things have stood out.

• Various unknown grandmas on the train may give your children gifts because they talked to her. At times those gifts may include fireworks she pulls out of her purse.
• Not knowing how to properly end a phone call makes conversations with delivery people awkward.
• Realizing that from down the street you can hear your child throwing a fit inside your apartment, even when the windows are all closed, is horrifying.
• Learning Japanese is difficult, frustrating, and time-consuming, but realizing that God helped you have an entire conversation in Japanese with someone makes it worth it.
• At other times, making an agreeable or “I’m listening” noise goes a long way in helping you through a casual conversation when you are struggling to understand the current topic.
• Trying a new restaurant or shop can be very intimidating, especially when you realize you are the only ones there, but it can be a terrific opportunity for developing a relationship.
• Mold grows easily on walls that face north due to condensation. In the winter. Inside the house.
• Giving gifts or even speaking English with someone may result in receiving a bigger gift in return.
• Love is universal, but how that love is communicated to others is sometimes different in Japan.
• Using American inch-based dimensions on Japanese metric-based printers can cause problems.

• Double check that the arriving train is the train you want. A train that arrives “early” may be a different train that takes over an hour longer to reach where you want to go. The same is true for buses.
• If everyone else gets off a train and no one is getting on, you should too, because you missed an announcement.
• The train station employees use long gripping tools to pick up wallets, umbrellas, or tickets that fall by the tracks.
• The words for “graduation” (sotsugyoushiki) and for “funeral” (soushiki) should not be confused.
• Neither should “South Korea” (kankoku) and “prison” (kangoku).

• In some places, including some churches, people will think a couple has a troubled relationship if they sit together.
• On rare occasions you might be asked, “Oh, you are a missionary? What percentage of the Bible do you have memorized?” (For the record, even if you memorized the entire New Testament, that is only 25% of the verses in the Bible)
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We have been told that it takes learning from a million mistakes to acquire a new language, and we guess that it takes another million mistakes to learn the culture. Sometimes it feels like God is having us get those mistakes out of the way quickly. However, we have seen Him with us each step along the way, which gives us confidence that He will faithfully watch over us for the years to come as well. Along with that, we are thankful that His faithfulness to us is yet one more example of His faithfulness to you, even if you briefly lose sight of Him in times of deep darkness.

“Wait... Didn’t the map say this was a short road?” While in Japan, we frequently scoped out our destinations and took pictures on our tablet to follow later; our trip to Kyoto was no exception. Each location, including our hotel, was ready for efficient travel with the help of our tablet. When our tablet decided to remain behind, apparently afraid of the night-bus we took, a problem arose.

We realized that our faithful companion stayed in Iwatsuki too late to retrieve it. A major inconvenience? Yes, but thankfully we had looked at the map enough to help us reach the hotel. With luggage in hand, we grabbed some breakfast and then set out for our short trip to the hotel.
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​In Japan, there are occasionally city maps along the walkways to help with directions. We spotted the general location of the hotel on one and counted four streets to cross before our turn. We strode down the street counting four roads and then turned. Twenty minutes later, we finally reached the block that curved the way we were looking for. “That seemed farther than it looked on the map,” we thought, but shrugged it off. We began looking for the hotel, but it was not there. We spread our search out a bit, but still came up short of either the hotel or a map. We finally broke down and began asking people for directions, yet no one knew of the hotel.

About an hour later, we finally found a security guard who was willing to search the internet. We learned that the hotel rested in a neighborhood about two miles south of our present location. We got specific directions, thanked him, and left to walk back. Confused at how far off we were, we finally arrived an hour later, luggage in hand, but exhausted.

Later we walked back to the station (this time only a ten-min walk), and tried to figure out what went wrong. Apparently, it was actually six streets between the hotel and the station, but two streets were too small to be on the city map. The moral of the story? Listen when your friend says, “Be cautious when using city maps.” Meanwhile, back in Iwatsuki, our tablet probably laughed.