Christmas Mass

Our story from Christmas Eve.

Because we wanted to do presents on Christmas morning and have a nice Christmas brunch we decided to go to mass on Christmas Eve. Our coach and his wife belong to a Carholic church here in Toyama and let us know that mass started at 8:00. My coach also gave us directions after practice on the 24th so we would know how to get there (at Toyama castle, go south on main road # 41 for 7 stop lights. Then take a left to get off the main road and immediately take another left onto the side street that will take you to the church). Coach said mass starts at 8:00 and we should get there early as there will be a lot of people.

No problem

We share a car with one of the other Americans on our team and his fiancé. They picked us up at about 7:00 and we were on our way. The drive to where we were going is only about a 20 minute drive so we were good for time.

When we got to the castle we turned south and started counting. When we got to 7 stop lights we turned off the main road and onto the little side street. Coach said we would be looking for a church (it will actually look like a church) and there will be Christmas lights on it. Here in Japan only 1% or so of the people are Christian so there aren't that many churches. Based on these facts: few churches, Christmas lights on the church and a service that starts at 8:00, we thought it would be easy to find. Well, we drove down the side street to the dead end and no luck - no church, no Christmas lights. We thought we had counted wrong so we checked the GPS and sure enough we went 7 stop lights. 

No problem. Since the directions were given from memory we thought maybe there was one too many/few stops lights so we went back to the main road and went to the 6th stop light and turned off. We found the side street and down just a little ways we found the church (that looked like a church) with Christmas lights.

When we checked the clock it was 7:25. We thought it was a little too early to head in so we sat in the warm car. Haven was sleeping so we let her take a short nap. While were sitting in the parking lot we didn't see too many people coming. We didn't see anybody actually, but didn't think too much of it as we couldn't see the front of the church. We knew coach and his wife said a lot of people would be coming so we thought we just must not be able to see them. At 7:40 we got everyone out of the car and headed towards the door. By the entrance there was a sign with the times for mass on the 24th. It was in Japanese so we couldn't read it but there was something listed at 7:00 and something listed at 8:00. We figured they must be doing 2 masses. As we walked in we could see many people in the pews. Coach and his wife said they would save us some seats and as the very nice lady by the door ushered us to only empty spots in the church we looked for them but didn't see them. The church wasn't that big but of course the seats were right in the front. As we sat down we could tell the priest was giving his sermon. We guessed that there must have been 2 masses and this was the mass that started at 7:00. We figured they were just seating us early for the mass that started at 8:00. (The sign outside had something listed at 7:00 and at 8:00 and we knew coach said mass was at 8:00). The priest spoke for 10 minutes or so, all in Japanese, and then finished. Then there was a little kneeling (on individual pads that they passed down the aisle from a stack at the edge of the pew). This made me think twice about where we were in the progression of mass though as coach said this was a Catholic church. Then we all stood up and sang Gloria. The nice people around us offered to share their music booklets when we started to sing. It was all in Japanese so of course we couldn't read a thing but we thought it was still pretty nice that they offered. We sang 4 verses. We did great on the chorus as we knew that by heart (although our accents were a little different for some of the words) and then mass was over.

As soon as we were finished some people stood up and started pushing the pews off to the side. As these individuals worked the rest of the congregation headed up towards the altar and started assembling themselves in lines, like you would do for a picture. Then sure enough, right in the center of the main aisle a man erected a pole to which a camera was attached to the top. Before we had the chance to wonder if we should leave or hide in the back, the people were calling to us and waving for us to come up on the stage. So we joined them and smiled pretty. Hopefully we made the bulletin or their Christmas card :) 

As soon as the picture was over they started clearing some tables in 2 little rooms back behind the pews and filled them with sandwiches and other yummy snacks. We had multiple people tell us to please sit and have something to eat. We let Myla grab a sandwich but felt a little guilty about showing up with the last 15 minutes of mass and being in their Christmas photo that we didn't think we could eat their food too. We did have a chance to talk to the pastor and he told us that he was from Kyoto and he came for the 24th-26th just to say mass. He said that there is no pastor in Toyama right now and he came to help out. He also told us that this was an Anglican/Evangelical church. So, even though were almost positive we were in the wrong place he confirmed our thoughts. For all of us, this was the first time we had ever been to this kind of service but we all said we will have smiles on our faces when think back on it.

When we left we wanted to drive to find the Catholic Church so we could have some piece of mind of knowing the church actually existed. All we had to do was go one stop light shorter. It was down the side street at the 5th stop light. And sure enough it looked like a church and had Christmas lights on it too. 

What are the chances. 

We could see there were people standing in the back of the Church through the window of the door as their mass was in service. We thought about going in but decided not to as it was 845 and we had already been 45 mins late for one Christmas mass. We didn't need to make two.

Our night turned out a lot different than we thought it was going to when it started. But for some reason I feel we were meant to go to that church. It's a Christmas story we will always be able to tell and one that will always put a smile on our face.

Thank you to the kind and inviting people of the Anglican Church we shared Christmas Eve mass with and God bless.

Click here to see the Christmas Photo from the Church

Drive to practice

Here's a picture from our drive to practice the other day

Snow

Here in toyama there is a lot of snow. According to Wikipedia this place gets about 12 feet of snow a year. The temperature though hovers right about 32 degrees (freezing) so once we get snow it usually starts to melt within a couple days. That 12 feet of snow doesn't continuously accumulate throughout the winter and leave snow banks impossible to see over. I think it would be kind of cool if the snow was that high but it doesn't stick around long enough to form a magical white wall that even Elsa of Frozen could be proud of.

The last few times we have gotten snow we have gotten more than just a dusting. Two days ago in the morning it started snowing and snowed/sleetied pretty much continuously until the middle of the day yesterday. I am not sure of the exact amount but We got at least 14 inches of snow in this time period.

(My shoes are size 14)

Of course today though it has started to melt as it was about 45 degrees (7 degrees Celsius). So even though we got a lot of snow and everything looks great with a white covering I don't think it will take too long to melt if it stays this warm. The girls enjoy the snow and with the melt on we will just have to wait another week to get a good snowfall to go and play again.