St Ignatius Church, Yotsuya, Tokyo
Sunday 28th January 2007, In just a couple of hours I will be leaving back to Malaysia from Narita Airport. With the help of our friend - Ji Kong who stays in Tokyo we got to know about this church in the centre of Tokyo. Thank you so much Ji Kong.
We woke up around 8:30am and boarded Ginza line from Akasuka to Akasaka-mitsuke then Marunouchi line to Yotsuya. After getting out from the station, Stanley went on to ask the police about the where about of the church. Apparently, it is next to the subway or JR station. Unlike traditional church building, this church has unique building architecture and hence the reason we are not able to spot it as soon as we got out from the subway. Duhhh!!! Haha... In fact, it is just 100 meter. ;o
We attende the Japanese mass at 10:30am even though there is an English mass at 12:00pm as it is not allowed by our schedule. Guess what, sitting myself within the Japanese catholics community I actually felt much peace in me although I don't understand 99.999% of what they are saying. But, listening to them singing in Japanese hymms are really a good experience to have. This bring back my experience when I was in Hong Kong last month and I was at Methodist Church with my brother (A methodist christian) near Causeway Bay. The difference is of course the hymms are in Cantonese.... :) which I understand of course. :)
Sitting besides me is a 50++ man who came alone to the church. Next to Stanley was actually a young girl with her mother. She was so cute in church. I must praise that she is in fact very discipline as well. When we kneel down, she kneel down. When we stand up she stand up. She just follow through the celebration ceremony as the others although she is merely 5 years old. Unfortunately, I didn't take a snap of her.. or else I could surely share it here. :)
After the mass finished, the Japanese man started to talk to us in English. Although I could not really grasp what he said.. but roughly he was welcoming us to Japan and asked about where we are from and where we have visited. He even suggested that we should not miss skiing as he knows that Malaysia is summer all year long. It was in fact a very good and pleasant experience communicate with him. Whatever your name is.. I just want to thank you for your hospitality while Stanley and I were in the church.
One cool thing that I want to point out is the priest is actually a French and he speaks very good Japanese. He gave his homily preach in Japanese in a very charismatic way too. Super cool!!
Another beautiful thing that Ji Kong told us before is the build-up of the church. It has 12 pillars with lotus-flower like glass roof at the centre. Each of the pillars are accompanied by a long staint glass and at the 2nd floor of the church there is a huge modern organ where the choir team and organist lead the parishioners in singing hymms.
After the mass, Stanley and I walked around the church for photo shotting and eventually have a very homely Japanese food at the canteen. I enjoyed a bowl of beef-soup rice, a piece of Okonomiyaki (Flour+Egg+veggie pancake) and a cup of hot chocolate. It was merely 900Yen. The food tastes really good! Yeah! This is what I call fulfilling both spiritually and physically!!! :)
Sunday 28th January 2007, In just a couple of hours I will be leaving back to Malaysia from Narita Airport. With the help of our friend - Ji Kong who stays in Tokyo we got to know about this church in the centre of Tokyo. Thank you so much Ji Kong.
We woke up around 8:30am and boarded Ginza line from Akasuka to Akasaka-mitsuke then Marunouchi line to Yotsuya. After getting out from the station, Stanley went on to ask the police about the where about of the church. Apparently, it is next to the subway or JR station. Unlike traditional church building, this church has unique building architecture and hence the reason we are not able to spot it as soon as we got out from the subway. Duhhh!!! Haha... In fact, it is just 100 meter. ;o
We attende the Japanese mass at 10:30am even though there is an English mass at 12:00pm as it is not allowed by our schedule. Guess what, sitting myself within the Japanese catholics community I actually felt much peace in me although I don't understand 99.999% of what they are saying. But, listening to them singing in Japanese hymms are really a good experience to have. This bring back my experience when I was in Hong Kong last month and I was at Methodist Church with my brother (A methodist christian) near Causeway Bay. The difference is of course the hymms are in Cantonese.... :) which I understand of course. :)
Sitting besides me is a 50++ man who came alone to the church. Next to Stanley was actually a young girl with her mother. She was so cute in church. I must praise that she is in fact very discipline as well. When we kneel down, she kneel down. When we stand up she stand up. She just follow through the celebration ceremony as the others although she is merely 5 years old. Unfortunately, I didn't take a snap of her.. or else I could surely share it here. :)
After the mass finished, the Japanese man started to talk to us in English. Although I could not really grasp what he said.. but roughly he was welcoming us to Japan and asked about where we are from and where we have visited. He even suggested that we should not miss skiing as he knows that Malaysia is summer all year long. It was in fact a very good and pleasant experience communicate with him. Whatever your name is.. I just want to thank you for your hospitality while Stanley and I were in the church.
One cool thing that I want to point out is the priest is actually a French and he speaks very good Japanese. He gave his homily preach in Japanese in a very charismatic way too. Super cool!!
Another beautiful thing that Ji Kong told us before is the build-up of the church. It has 12 pillars with lotus-flower like glass roof at the centre. Each of the pillars are accompanied by a long staint glass and at the 2nd floor of the church there is a huge modern organ where the choir team and organist lead the parishioners in singing hymms.
After the mass, Stanley and I walked around the church for photo shotting and eventually have a very homely Japanese food at the canteen. I enjoyed a bowl of beef-soup rice, a piece of Okonomiyaki (Flour+Egg+veggie pancake) and a cup of hot chocolate. It was merely 900Yen. The food tastes really good! Yeah! This is what I call fulfilling both spiritually and physically!!! :)
Before we left the church to Akihabara again, we went into the church shop where I got a couple of Japanese souvenirs. As it was the last day here, as usual, I grab as many as my Japanese Yen allow for my church friends especially the church website team that I work closely with.
In fact the famous Malaysian blogger Lilian Chan is one of them and she actually posted the souvenir that I gave it to her in her personal Christian faith website : http://christian-journey.com/does-vincent-kor-kor-has-a-mummy/
Btw, Lilian, your toddler really has the children eyes where Jesus has repeatedly reminded us to have to see the Kingdom of God.
2 comments:
Hahaha, I thought you wouldn't know that I mentioned you.
Hahaha... I was searching for "elvinongbl" on yahoo search and somehow when I dig deeper then I notice that you mention about the card.... It was actually a meaningful card although it is just a simple one because it the Japanese version of Mother Mary and Baby Jesus. :)
I saw several nativity versions by different countries in Hong Kong last Christmas. I will post them soon..check it out.
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