Day 7

Prayer Request: For the care and keeping of KRC in the future, and for wisdom, strength, and perseverance for Carolyn and Larry as they manage the center for the next few months.

This morning we made breakfast for ourselves for the first time since we came to Japan. I figured out which buttons to press on the rice maker (all Kanji), and tried making some soft-boiled eggs. They turned out a little runnier than I had hoped, and I couldn’t figure out how to peel one without breaking the whites, but they were still pretty good. The restaurants here offer raw and soft-boiled eggs with some of their “meal sets”, so we thought we would go with the trend. 😉

KRC is full of little forest pathways.

After breakfast, we went for a walk in the area around the Karuizawa Retreat Center(KRC). Many of the roads right around the retreat center are paved with large, black, volcanic stone, and lined with waist-high rock walls made of the same. Our hosts told us that the walls are made by piling the rocks with rows that lean in the opposite direction of the row below them, and this makes them very sturdy. Of course, Rett and I then had to find a good specimen of the rock wall, where it was easy to see the style and take a picture.

Old Rock Wall

The architecture of the houses in the area varied between modern Japanese-style houses and old European-style houses. One of the legacies left by the early missionaries is the many “Vories” style houses, that have red-wood bark siding. William Merrel Vories was a Christian missionary who came to Japan in 1905 to teach English but soon began using his experience in architecture to design churches, hospitals, schools, and houses that were built all over Japan.

House of Vories Design

After we left the immediate neighborhood, we stopped by some of the local tourist areas. The Mampei Hotel is right next to KRC, so we stopped there first and saw some of the historical items they have on display. Next, we went to Union Church (also designed by Vories), which is still a big source of evangelism in the area.

Union Church

Only a few visitors were coming and going while we were there, so I had the chance to grab a hymnal and play the piano at the church for a bit.

After that, we walked up to the church built by Alexander Croft Shaw, the Canadian missionary who founded Karuizawa, kind of by accident as he was escaping the summer heat in Tokyo.

A “Yard” in the Japanese Mountains

We finished our walk back at the cabin, made some onigiri for lunch, and met with Ron, a missionary from a rural church plant near Karuizawa. We talked about the children’s and orphanage ministries he is involved with, but we mostly ended up talking about how we are processing the experience of visiting the ministries here. It was nice to try to put some of our thoughts into words, and Ron had some very helpful suggestions for questions we could ask the other missionaries we will meet during our stay in Japan.

After Ron and our fellow “Vision Trip” couple, the Schlakes, left, Rett and I helped out a bit around KRC. Rett got to climb up some basketball hoop poles, and remove the old splintering backboards, while I power washed 1.25 cabins and some lawn furniture. We didn’t do much more than that because it started to get dark (which was fine with me, as it was ~60 F and I was soaking wet!), so I got to go back to our cabin and soak in the Japanese style bathtub for a bit before dinner.

When the Shlakes returned, we wandered out to find Kelly (a missionary who has acted as our guide, while we are in Karuizawa), and walked towards the “machi” (a cute downtown shopping area) to get dinner. Because most of the other places were closed, we ended up eating at a very traditional Japanese restaurant that specializes in chicken. (Unfortunately, we didn’t get any pictures because we were too distracted by the Kanji menu…) We ended up having Yaki-tori (grilled chicken on a stick), Karaage (batter-fried chicken pieces), and Chicken-katsu-don (Breaded-fried chicken over rice). The excessive chicken was kind of funny but all very good.

After dinner, we all sleepily walked back to our cabin for a good night’s sleep after a busy day.

History of Union Church