Note: An audio version of this post is available on Spotify, Google Podcast, and most major podcast services.
"I'll be posting one blog post per week." Well.. here we are, several months later and nothing… So, what happened? This is the story of how I was almost deported, had to leave Japan with less than a week's notice, dropped out of college, and lied to almost everyone I knew.
Are you hooked?
Then read on!
Okay.. fine… this story isn’t as exciting as I'm making it out to be. It's like when I play Two Truths and a Lie and I say something like, "I've punched a police officer," and everyone wonders about my criminal past when I say I didn't lie about that. The complete story is I was taking a self-defense class taught by the police. The final exam included fighting one of the officers dressed up in a red padded suit that made him look like Iron Man. So, yes, I have fought, punched, kicked, and elbowed a police officer but it was all legal.
Now that my conscience is clear and I've revealed that the title and the first few sentences were pretty much click bate, let me get back to the story.
I started hearing about COVID-19 in January. I usually don't keep up with the news but my host university had been emailing students updates. The main gist of those emails were, "We are aware of the novel coronavirus and are monitoring the situation. In the meantime, school will continue as usual." At that time, they were still deciding on a name. It would be more than a month before they started calling it COVID-19.
My eldest sister came to visit me over winter break and I don't remember COVID even being a major factor in our trip. The biggest factor when planning trips was the train schedule, not if businesses were open or if it was safe to travel to certain areas. After my sister left, I went back to school to finish up the fall semester. The fall semester was officially from September 27 through February 5. We had a two-week winter break during the last week of December and the first week of January. We had spring break from February till March (the equivalent of the American summer break) then back to school from April to July.
In February, my second eldest sister came to visit me. At this time, I was more aware of COVID-19 but the overall message of the emails and news was, "We are monitoring cases, stay home if you feel sick." However, things were still running as normal. The public transportation system was still running, businesses were open, and events were still happening as planned. My sister and I toured Tokyo then headed to Lake Tama, Hakone, and a few other places. She got to visit the church I was attending and take part in our afternoon Bible Study. Little did I know that that would be the last time I visited Tokyo International Central SDA Church. The following week we left for South Korea. While there were a lot of people wearing masks, there were still a lot of people who walked around without them. We wore masks the entire time, showered as soon as we got to our Airbnb, and sanitized our hands often. At this time, there were more cases in Japan than there were in Korea and travel had not been restricted. My sister would be heading home to the U.S. from South Korea. I would return to Japan, arrive around 10 PM, pick up my luggage, work my way through customs, catch the last train home (around midnight), shower, sleep for a few hours, and catch the first train back to the airport (around 5 AM), then fly to Okinawa. I was scheduled to be in Okinawa for four days with the other students from my study abroad program. In case I missed last train and had to stay at the airport overnight, I had already packed a second bag for the Okinawa trip and given a key to my apartment to a friend so that she could bring my bag with her and we would just meet up at the airport. I couldn't use the same clothes I had used in Korea because Okinawa's weather would be like summer and it was still cold and snowing in Korea.
I contacted our program coordinator, two days before I left for Korea to ask about luggage allowance in case I had to bring my stuff from Korea with me. She told me not to worry about Okinawa since the trip was going to be canceled. A few hours later, the official email went out that the Okinawa trip was canceled because a cruise ship that had positive COVID cases had docked in Okinawa. Our coordinator didn't want to risk students getting sick so the whole trip was canceled. A few days later, one of the taxi drivers in Okinawa tested positive.
My sister and I went to South Korea without incident. We attended church while we were there and that was the last church service I would be able to attend for several months. When I got back to Japan, the church I went to canceled all church services until further notice. The next few weeks were a bit difficult for me. My sister had just left for home, I didn't have the support of my church family, my best friend at the time was preoccupied with other things and I didn't want to impose. I spent Sabbaths stuck in bed. I listened to the service over zoom and slept for most of the day. I only got up to get food and use the bathroom, afterward I crawled back into bed. The next big disappointment was the cancelation of Youth Rush Japan. In 2017, Daniel Fukuda spoke at the GYC (Generation of Youth for Christ) conference. His topic was Youth Rush, a literature evangelism ministry where young people went door to door to spread the gospel. I had heard of this program before but hadn't been interested in joining. While the program was ordinally from the US, Daniel Fukuda's church started Youth Rush Japan. At this point, I was already interested in studying abroad. If I was going to Japan, I wanted to attend Youth Rush. But first, I had to do it in the U.S. In the summer of 2019, just before I left for Japan, I did Youth Rush in the South Bay/Simi Valley area in Southern California. It was one of the most difficult things I had ever done and also the most rewarding program I have ever completed. But to expand on Youth Rush and tell you why so it was so amazing, would take at least another three pages of writing. So, I'll save the Youth Rush stories for another day. The thing you need to know, dear reader, is for three years, before I even got accepted to my study abroad program, before I even took my first Japanese class, before I learned to write in Hiragana, before I fell in love with Japan, before, before, before… my desire to do Youth Rush Japan came before all of that. At the end of Youth Rush 2019, I attended iShare, the culminating conference where representatives from all the Youth Rush programs came to share their testimonies. One of the students who spoke was Kazumi, a Japanese international student who had volunteered her entire summer. Part of the donations we received during Youth Rush went towards our education. However, as an international student, Kazumi could not be paid. Still, she completed all 10 weeks of Youth Rush for no other reason than to bring the gospel to people. She was an inspiration to me. We would have reverse roles when I did Youth Rush Japan since like her, I would not be paid. In a way, I would be doing for her countrymen, what she had done for mine.
My first few days in Japan were spent at her apartment. I would later attend Setagaya SDA Church, Daniel's church. It was a Japanese church and Kazumi would often translate for me. When I filled out the application for Youth Rush Japan and later did my interview, Kazumi was the one who translated for me. She was a blessing to me in so many ways and an example of a true host.
I was so excited when I was told that I had been accepted to Youth Rush Japan. I would be assigned to a predominantly Portuguese area where most of the residents spoke English. For three weeks, I would be living with other Japanese students, having devotions in Japanese, learning to cook Japanese foods, and spreading the gospel. It was a dream come true. Then the notification that Youth Rush Japan had been canceled came in. A day or two later, my study abroad program's four day trip to the Kansai area was also canceled. We had a zoom meeting with the program coordinators back in the U.S. They were sympathetic with our disappointment but assured us that they would try to keep as abroad as long as possible. If the number of COVID cases did not spike in Japan, as in other countries, then the program would not be canceled. We were to stay in Tokyo and told not to travel to other areas. They had not yet canceled the South Korea and Italy programs and in my mind, if they hadn't canceled those then they wouldn't cancel Japan either.
I was wrong.
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