kobeintern

May 25th, just passed. It’s the 26th, and I’m at JFK airport getting ready to fly to Japan. 2:00 am is the departure time! I am beat from the day…before.

Monday started off with flight confirmation. Almost couldn’t locate my flight reservation that almost gave me a heart attack.

The rest of the morning was spent at MJM office (Metropolitan Japanese Ministry) troubleshooting the computer.

Then some shopping, then lunch, then finally off to long term parking in New Haven, at my apartment.

I also looked at my plot at the Div Farm. The radishes were ripe for harvest.

Others are just starting – maybe they’ll be ready in two months when I return! Thanks to Megan who is taking charge of the plot in my absence.

Then an uber ride to Union Station and a long two hour ride into Manhattan.

LIRR ride to Jamaica, Queens finally takes me to the AirTrain and into JFK, Terminal 7.

Noticed the beautiful sunset after three plus days of constant rain.

Got to the terminal by 8:00 pm, but the counter does not open until 11:00. Three hours standing outside where it’s cooler, then finally checked in my 50 lb luggage.

And here I am now waiting to board the plane. At 12:30 am.

My thought? It feels like the slow winching of the car up the rail on a roller coaster. What is about to happen is all unscripted: a microcosm of life itself, but of a life of two worlds, two cultures intermingling – that of American and that of Japanese, both residing in me.

We all like to be the on the “right” side – that our thoughts are always right. But for those who grew up in a multi culture setting, we learn that what is right in one culture may be wrong in the other.

We have the responsibility to ourselves to try to understand the weighted “right” in cultural issues we encounter, and perhaps if there are ears that would hear, to tell to others this newly discovered “right”. Isn’t that an exciting prospect? Wouldn’t it be nice if the same message is told in both cultures, and for us to come to a mutual understanding?

Hopefully there will be a lot to tell at the end of the next two months.

My internship at the Diocese of Kobe will begin on June 1st and end on July 31st. I will arrive in Kobe on May 31st but until then I will be visiting my dear friends in Tokyo.

I will try to report each day on what I did and learned that day, hopefully spiritually and as a person. Hopefully I’ll learn a lot more about how to control this Blog page and continue to make improvement along the way!