Unexpected surprise

A couple of my friends are making a J-drama like video for their final project for the core class that everyone in the EAP program is required to take. There’s a ramen shop scene so we went to the local ramen shop to shoot it. I’m the only one who can speak Japanese in the group, so I asked the owner if we could shoot in there and he said ok. We all ate dinner there, to express our gratitude.

While we were sitting there, I noticed that the owner was wearing a cross necklace. In Japan, it’s common to see people wearing crosses for fashion. I didn’t think too much about it until I saw a small porclein figure with Psalm 23 written on it.

I promptly asked the owner, “Ano… Christian desu ka?”

And he responded very matter-of-factly, “Ee, Christian desu yo.”

I told him that me and my other friend there were Christians but that none of my other friends there were Christian. He immediately said, “I have Bibles in English and Japanese. Can you ask if they want one?” So I did and they declined the offer, but I asked, “Is it ok for me to see one?” and he pulled one out of a huge box that he had. I guess that he hands them out to customers! So I was looking at it and he said, “You can have it.”

We had a short conversation about Christians in Japan. He gave the famous statistic that in all of Japan, only 1% are Christians. I told him that it’s rare for me to run into a Christian here but that at school, there were a lot. He then asked if he could play a couple of praise songs for us. So he whipped out his guitar and sang one song which I didn’t recognize but my friend did, then he played “What A Friend We Have in Jesus.”

He was telling me how there was an event for Christians (I forget what it was called @_@) and he was able to play a few songs and give a short message. When I commented, “Ee! Sugoi!” (Wow!) he said, “No, no… it’s God who’s great. I’m so small.” And when I told him that I went to ICU (a school that a lot of people know here… I guess it’s well-known?), he said, “Hallelujah!”

It was a very unexpected encounter with a Christian outside the context of church and school. Definitely going to hit up that ramen shop more often. The miso ramen was so good. All I could think about while I was talking to the ramen shop owner was being able to talk to him in Heaven! Imagine all the practice that I’ll get in Japanese then! Hahaha.

If anything, that totally made my day. Thank You, God.