mission.japan

No, I’m not kidding about Mr. Jones. There have been at least three separate Boss commercials featuring the actor in his usual gruff persona (each commercial with a different blend of coffee, I believe).

Typhoon #13 is rolling across Kyushu at the moment. NHK is dutifully keeping everyone informed. The numbers so far run at 8 dead, 1 missing, and 237 injured. Currently the epicenter is just north of Kyushu and predicted to track northeast into the Japan Sea. Okayama will see strong winds and perhaps some heavy rain during the next day or so, but will likely be spared the brunt of the storm. Still, an eerie wind has picked up outside, rattling things that are tied down and tossing those that aren’t. Reminds me very much of some of the storms back home.

A typhoon means no classes, but a typhoon on the particular Monday that is tomorrow is moot: since it’s a national holiday, we wouldn’t have held classes anyway. What remains to be seen is whether ill effects from this first threatening typhoon of the year will tarry into Tuesday, which I doubt. So for me the typhoon really doesn’t mean much beyond an excuse to stay home and play the hermit for a day.

Which is, incidentally, something I have done a lot recently. For the past eight days I have been consciously avoiding most people. I’ve never been the type of person that gets energy from being around people—in classic introvert fashion I replenish my energy when I’m alone. Up until last Sunday I had been making withdrawal after withdrawal from the energy bank—AC, the Summer Family Camp, Street Live—and I think the Udon Tour through Kagawa prefecture on the ninth was the thing that ultimately tripped the circuit breaker.

Granted, it was lots of fun to go on a day-long trip with seven other people. It was my first time to Shikoku, first time to ride the ferry from Uno Port to Takamatsu and back again, and first time to sample a variety of udon in the place where it’s arguably most famous. But at the end of it all I felt completely exhausted. Beginning with the following Sunday I sought to isolate myself as much as possible, which included skipping Pastor Goto’s birthday party on Wednesday. I didn’t want to miss the party, but I wasn’t ready to go back into that group environment yet.

On the plus side of things having a lot of time to myself has done wonders for my productivity. I was able to polish off some things for the kids’ English classes and then turn my focus to the church web site, which is looking better after a few days’ work. (Textpattern continues to irk me in some ways, but that’s another topic.) I nailed down some organizational tasks and have in general felt more motivated over the past several days.

On the minus side of the column is the fact that some people tend to worry if I avoid them. There almost seems to be an expectation to have the same level of participation as everyone else, so if you drop out for a bit you draw the concern of others. And I suppose in some ways that concern is merited, since being a recluse doesn’t seem like something a missionary should do. Socializing is an important part of the ministry, so I can’t get rid of it completely. In the end I guess that I just need to be more careful about finding the right proportion.