mission.japan

I met Hideo, a former English student, during the first week of my stay here. Most of what I know about him comes from what Jeremy told me before he left.

Hideo is in his 50s and is a very outgoing, energetic person. He is extremely eager to take you anywhere, whether it’s to lunch or to see some famous part of Japan. On the 17th of April he met Jeremy and me early in the morning at the church and took us on an all-day tour of Tottori prefecture, which is the prefecture to the north of Okayama prefecture. We stopped first at Mount Daisen, the tallest mountain in this region of Japan, and then visited the Tottori Flower Park and the Japan Sea coastline along the north side of the prefecture.

Above all Hideo is very generous. During our trip last month I became fairly carsick (probably due to the early breakfast and the winding roads around Mount Daisen). I felt bad for causing so much trouble, but Hideo said it wasn’t a problem and bought medicine and water for me along the way. In some ways he was almost too generous, since every time we stopped he would offer to buy me a fresh bottle of water even though the one he had purchased at the last stop was barely half empty. I kept rough track of all of the expenses during the trip and estimated that Hideo spent around $200 for everything that day.

Since then I hadn’t seen Hideo until today, when we ran across each other by chance as I was on my way back from the city office. Apparently Hideo has been visiting the church for the last two Thursdays around noon to try to find me. As soon as we met this afternoon Hideo invited me to dinner this evening, and I accepted. I knew that Hideo would insist on paying for everything, which still tends to make me uncomfortable, but I’m slowly getting used to the fact that Japanese people will often insist on doing favors for you. I guess in any case it is encouraging that Hideo has come to regard me as a friend as he did Jeremy even though we only met last month.

Despite not taking any English classes anymore, Hideo is still working on learning English. He usually has an English conversation CD playing in his car and tries to express his thoughts in English before using Japanese. It’s sometimes difficult to understand what he’s trying to say (even his Japanese has a very thick accent), but generally with a combination of English and Japanese we can cover simple topics. Hideo travels a lot and is very interested in America, so comparisons between Japan and America typically dominate our conversations. Jeremy has explained the Gospel to Hideo a couple of times, but so far he seems only mildly interested. Along with several other people it has thus become my charge to carry on the work started by Jeremy in this relationship.

As he dropped me off at the church tonight Hideo insisted that I call him on Monday afternoon so we could go somewhere, perhaps to the castle or to Kourakuen Garden (he has said many times that he wants to show me many famous places in Okayama). I’m not entirely sure whether I will be able to talk with Hideo more about the Bible, but first I think I should concentrate on building a good friendship with him over the next several months.