A single word to describe this place: multiplicity. I've never been surrounded by so much humanity in such a way as here. I've never encountered a city where every single building is mixed-use (even in the least dense areas, there is always a store or restaurant in addition to a residence). I've never walked less than ten minutes and encountered at least two McDonalds, three of the same kind of convenience store, or at least 15 vending machines (this place is obsessed with vending machines - so much so that it has started to influence building designs, especially parking garages). Nor have I ever been submerged into a culture where being two religions was seen as normal. Your typical Japanese person is both Buddhist and Shinto, but it is not uncommon to encounter buddhist atheists or the occasional ba'hai shinto-ist. Obviously people are searching here. And in the end, it really doesn't matter how many religions they are because they are still just religions and they're false. Many of their virtues and works are actually more in line with what Christ taught than what many churches in the US teach each Sun, but works without faith are dead.

I'm starting to think that there are as many Buddhas in this country as people. This is really interesting in light of a book I'm reading - The Tender Commandments. As I stood in front of one of the largest and most important ones in a temple complex yesterday in Nikko, I couldn't help but have this deep weight grip my heart. I wanted to scream to all these people bowing and praying that the thing is simply an idol. A good ol' fashioned golden calf just with clothes and multiple arms - it also happened to be about 45 feet tall. The part in Acts where Paul describes the Athenians as having an idol to every god, even one to any god they don't know of yet, kept playing in my head. In the US, we sit in our churches and listen to pastors speak about how money, fame, power, or whatever might be the idols that we have in our lives. Why did no one take the time to point out the more obvious? As small as the world feels at times with all our technology, it's really mind blowing to think about how big it really is and how many people fill it. The literal thousand or so people that I pass on the sidewalk and the metro everyday each have their own lives and homes and God knows their frustrations, failures, successes, etc. The world doesn't revolve around me and my immediate context. I'm not sure people can fully grasp this unless they are kicked out of their cozy little suburban comfort zones and then someone takes dynamite to that bubble.

On a somewhat similar note, I had a great conversation with a guy here last night when I got locked out of my room by my roommate who had gone to dinner with the key. We got a chance to discuss our views on relationships and a bit of our histories and backgrounds. It was really good and will hopefully lead to more indepth conversations.

Because I know most of you are probably coming to this site more for my pictures than for my ramblings, here are a few from the past couple of days. We went to the fish market on my birthday. A few statistics, the Tsukigi Fish Market has 1700 stalls in it. It is 54 acres, around 50,000 people pass through it each day, and around $15 million/day is made. The largest market in North American is the New York Fish Market - it only does about 10% or what this place does. Even at 11 am (auctions are at 5 am), it was still really busy. I've grown up at and around the beach and fish and I saw things that I've never even seen in books. It was nuts.

Yesterday, we went to Nikko. It was interesting, but it was a really long day. The rain just wouldn't stop. If you look past the japanese on the signs though it looked like any small town in Appalachia. We all really wanted and needed a warm meal. The Yakitori Lady provided :) And yes, those are rice paddies as seen from the train.