Daily Life In Japan

We wanted to give you a little glimpse into our day to day lives in Japan. Ministry work is all about relationships! So, our work never really ends even though our day does.

Mondays are usually office work days for us and we spend time preparing for our English lessons throughout the week. However, Angie meets with these three ladies for an English Bible lesson once a month. Mrs. Komori, in the purple, lives right across the street from the Gateleys. We got to know her when we lived with them last year. She's very interested in learning English using the Bible and asked these other two ladies to join our group. All of them live near us in Okagaki.
PRAY for their continued interest in the Bible and they are able to attend our church or cafe some time.
Tuesday is the day that we take a 2 hour drive to a city called Nakatsu. There is a small church there that has always struggled in outreach ministry. The church has a history or missionaries and pastors that have worked there. However, there has always been a struggle to attract knew people in that area. Only God knows the reason. Our purpose is to attract unbelievers to the church through teaching English. Along with every class there is a Bible time. Although our classes have gradually gotten smaller there is still ministry to be done amongst the remaining students. PRAY that our current students keep coming until we leave this Spring. PRAY that the Nakatsu church has success in a different kind of outreach ministry when we leave.


Wednesdays are always busy! Nick meets with our friend Taiki, the one on the left, for a Bible study each week. He is truly seeking the truth about God. Although he is a very busy college student, he loves making time to study the bible with Nick at Star Bucks. PRAY that he continues his search for God and finds Him along the way.

On Wed. we also meet with our good friend Reiko for a Japanese lesson. She has been a long time friend of the Gateleys and has been very helpful to us while we've been here. PRAY that she makes a full commitment to Christ and decides to follow Him no matter what anyone else thinks.

Angie also teaches a class of elementary students each Wed.. Our friend Reiko runs an after school tutoring program. Angie meets with about 18 of these students and gets to share the Bible with them as well. PRAY for these kids to have open hearts and minds as they hear the gospel for the first time.
Thursday is another English teaching day. This day Nick teaches four conversational English classes at the church we attend in Kitakyushu. Angie makes cheesecake and gets ready for cafe on Fridays.
Friday is cafe day at Kitakyushu Bible Church. We open up the church and serve coffee and desserts. We offer a variety of activities that always draw a crowd. One of which...you guessed it...is English.
The top picture is of Nick's Friday morning English class that has been meeting for several years. The bottom picture is of Angie's children's English class that is taught in the evening. We also teach 30 minute English conversations during the time that the Cafe is open.

Many church members help at the Cafe. Surprisingly, it takes a lot of work! Many people are drawn to this place each week. Believers fellowship with one another while unbelievers learn what it's like to be in a Christian atmosphere. PRAY that the church's decision on whether or not to continue doing it. The Cafe is a great outreach ministry, but it may be a little more than this little church can handle.

Saturdays are usually our day off. But, it doesn't always work out that way! We take a break from English classes but not from relationships! Sunday is church day and it takes most of the day! So, that's our weekly schedule in a nutshell. PRAY that we can keep up this momentum until we leave.

Japanese Gardens

Japan wouldn't be Japan without it's bonzai trees and traditional Japanese style gardens. We've had the opportunity to visit many public gardens and private ones to get a glimpse of this kind of beauty. However, you can't find these gardens just anywhere. You can find some in your neighborhood amonst older...more tradtional style homes. Like this one...

Or....you can visit a world heritage like an old Samurai Village. We got to do this last January with Angie's family. Each home in the village had it's own garden with a theme. The Samurai garden below is designed after mountains and streams. Can you see it?

Another way to see these gardens is to pay money to see them. We've done this too! In our case the landscape was not so interesting b/c this garden mainly featured rocks and mounds of dirt! We remember seeing signs posted for the oldest mound of dirt in the park. This particular park also was famous for growning ground moss. We saw them sweeping the moss to make it more beautiful.

This man is trimming a bonsai tree. Underneath the tree is a blanket to catch the trimmings so as not to disturb the moss.



For those of you that don't know....not everyone in Japan knows how to trim bonsai trees! It's quite an artform, really. In fact, I always thought that bonsai trees were those very small trees that Mr. Miage trimmed in Karate Kid. But, it turns out that there are several kinds of these trees. The Japanese can't even recognize all the different kinds. AND there are more trees in Japan than just these! Japan has trees from evergreens to Palm trees!


And what is a Japanese garden without Coy Fish. They let these fish get sooo huge!! I've never seen anything like it!

The Japanese love any kind of gardening. Most gardens that you see are vegetable gardens. Once they start planting in June, after rainy season, you don't see them stop planting until February! Although most people don't have room in front or behind their house to have a garden. So, there is usually a plot of land in the neighborhood or any small space that is shared amongst neighbors. I assume there is rent paid to use the land. So...it's common to see many different small veggie gardens altogether. They're favorite things to plant in the local gardens is dikon(a huge radish), egg plant, lettuce, and sweet potatoes. I never see anyone growing greenbeans or tomatoes! Anyhow, I'd show you a picture but who hasn't seen a picture of a garden?

Another kind of garden that is popular in Japan are rose gardens. Once I went to someones house for lunch to see their rose garden and we ended up walking all over the neighborhood seeing quite a few! One house imparticular even had a small green house of roses! It was impressive.

It's always fun to see how the Japanese can turn any small space into a garden paradise!

A Great Time To Take An Onsen...a hotspring bath!

This time of year is great for going to a Japanese Onsen! There's nothing quite like sitting in a hot spring bath with nothing but your birthday suit on and feeling the cool breeze on your face! Most of the hot springs in Japan are located outside in a somewhat secluded area. Most of the locations have beautiful scenic views if you can get past sitting naked in a pool of hot water with strangers. It's great!

I recently was reminded of an onsen trip that we took this time last year with our friends Morrio and Yukiko Shiraishi. This is the same couple that we've had many adventures with including tromping around grape vineyards and visiting fire stations! Our onsen adventure was more traditional Japanese style! The picture below is a huge traditional style house that has been transformed into a beautiful "bed and breakfast."

Our room was outfitted with tatami mat floors and the ever to popular Japanese sliding doors!

We also got to wear a kind of Japanese Kimono called a Yukata. People wear these when visiting an onsen so that they can walk from their room to the springs. Sometimes there is more than one spring and you can wear this to walk from one to another. Yes, they are always to short for Nick!

Near the place we stayed is the same onsen that I mentioned earlier in my Interesting Signs post! The one that is described the water being so hot that it was like entering into Hell itself! Well, here are a few other amenities that they offered. As you can see there is mixed bathing...but of course we didn't participate in that one! Most onsens are separated male and female or you can share a private one as a family. There are not many left that offer mixed bathing.

When you visit an onsen town you can always see steam rising up from different places. Some people in the town actually use the steam in their houses.

I think this is a very traditional kind of steam sauna. But then again, I could be wrong!

We never miss the chance to cook some food with the steam from a hot spring. You'd be surprised how quickly some eggs and a few vegetables will cook!

Ahhhh! Japanese Onsens are just one of many things that we'll miss about Japan!