Jews in Japan?!?!

Where did the Japanese (the Asians, not the Ainus) come from? Korea? China? Israel? Arimasa Kubo, a Japanese Bible lecturer, has found many "similarities" between the Jews and the Japanese. According to Arimasa, after the collapse of Northern Israel in 722 B.C. and their exilement, a few of the Jews made their way eastward. (In fact, China, Afghanistan, India, and other such nations have ancient records of people that behaved similar to the Jews (following Jewish customs and such).) Why not Japan?

He gives many reasons why the Jews were in Japan: a Japanese festival similar to the story of Isaac (I say similar in the "hardly, vaguely, not-at-all" sense), the omikoshi ark things (same kind of similar), and the "similarity" between the Jewish Tabernacle and Shinto shrines (just oozing similarity, neh?). Full article is here.

What do we gather from this? Perhaps there were Jews in Japan. In Isaiah 43:5-7 and 11:10-12 the remnant of Israel is described as being scattered across the earth. But, in these same passages, God is talking of how He is going to draw back the Israelites from these far away places. If there were Jews in Japan, they probably went back to Israel.

Unfortunately, this is not the end of this "Jews in Japan" thing. Apparently Jesus didn't die on the Roman cross, as so many of us have been naively been lead to believe. It was Jesus' brother who was crucified, leaving Jesus himself to flee for Japan, where he married and lived to the age of 104-118 (full article at tofugu.com). But, this is completely wrong. But why so?

According to the Bible, there is one God who has created all things. Yet all people have rebelled against God, and have done things very grievous to God by breaking his laws. These bad things are called sin. The Bible says that all people have sinned, and all deserve eternal punishment in Hell. How can you know if you have sinned? Have you ever sworn? The Bible says, "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name." (Exodus 20:7) Have you ever stolen? The Bible says, "You shall not steal." (15) Have you ever coveted? The Bible says, "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." (17)

What can a person do to escape this eternal fate of Hell? Be good enough? No one is righteous. No one can save themself. But we still have hope! God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to the earth, so that all people could be saved from Hell. In order for God's justice to be satisfied, someone had to take the punishment for our sins. When Jesus died, he took all of the guilt of our sins and, afterwards, rose again that we may too have new life.

What can someone do to get this salvation? Repent of your sins and have faith in him to save you. God wants all people to believe in Jesus for their salvation, and will draw near to those that come to him. Please think on these things I have said, and consider if they are true.

日本の正月 (Japanese New Year)

(For clarity purposes, whenever I have Justin, he'll have a black stripe on his tail, and Keiji will be the only one with lots of hair :P)

In Japan, New Year's is a bigger (by far) holiday than Christmas. In fact, to the Japanese, it is the most important holiday, and therefore deserves extra paganitry, eh? :( But what exactally do they do during this important time? The Japanese have a great many different New Year's ceremonies, and I'll discuss just a few (I'm lame and I know no one cares).

First is the shimenawa, used for ritual purification (sounds really fancy but everyone knows it isn't...) in Shintoism, and for warding away evil spirits (unfortunately, it may do just the opposite...). The space bound by this is supposedly "sacred" or "pure," so I guess evil guys get scared of all that good (?)( no clue if that's the logic here)...

Another is the kadamatsu, which is used to supposedly bring long life (ya know, having a lot of long tube thingies right by your door just naturally lengthens your life). Pretty much just a fancy decoration.

When talking of holidays, you can't forget the food, and when talking of food, you can't forget the gods, right? This is where the kagamimochi comes into play. The name comes from two words, mirror (kagami) and mochi (mochi), [the meaning actually doesn't help in the understanding of the word since the origional meaning is lost]. Kagamimochi is placed on your family home for the gods. Symbolises the coming and going of years, ying and yang, the sun and moon, blah blah blah, other paganey crud. All that good stuff.

And, of course, we can't forget our forget-the-year parties, or bonenkai. These are not necessarily held on New Years, but they usually happen sometime in December. The Japanese are, suprizingly, a culture that looks kindly upon the drunk. Because of this, to escape the intense social pressures, many Japanese will drink regularly. New Years is just an excuse to do so, it seems.

And finally, there's Hatumode, or the first shrine visit of the new year. For the Japanese, "religion" (I use parenthesis to enclose this sloopy word) is a very small part of their lives, if a part at all. But why these visits to shrines? For most Japanese, visits are just little social dwitties. 'Well, I'm Japanese, and all good Japanese are going to the temples and shrines, and everyone I know is too, so I'll go.' They have no real spritual commitment to any belief, either eastern or western. They just go with the flow of everyone else.

In Japan, while people are much more "modern," more liberally and atheisticy, there is a definate want to keep the "old ways" around. Although it is a very shallow sort of thing, the Japanese don't want to let go of their old culture, and yet don't want to really be obedient to the religions themselves. They are a strange mixture of atheism and superstition. Rather sad, actually. But, because they are so lost, they may be much more open to hearing some sort of truth for their lives. Perhaps now, more than ever, Japan is ready for the gospel.