Saitama

I started off my trip in Saitama. Way back in high school, I spent two months at a tiny, tiny Christian school in Saitama. Since I had some time, I figured I would go back and visit. The last time I saw my classmates/teachers was over 5 years ago. I emailed one of the teachers and she said they'd love to have me over and would invite some of the students and people from church. It's amazing how much everyone changed in 5 years. I could hardly recognize most of them. They laughed and told me it was nice to finally be able to communicate. Now they all speak decent English and I can speak decent Japanese. It was a fantastic reunion!

But it was a strange feeling. I lived there for 2 months over 7 years ago. Getting off at the same train station 7 years later was surreal. When I came as a high school student, I was so angry at God for bringing me there. I never expected to be at that station again. Things were so different. And I stood there for a while on the platform after getting off the train.

Grace.

I didn't deserve it after the way I treated God all those years (and even now). I didn't deserve to come back to that station, to those people. But it was a reminder of His grace in my life. A change in my heart that only He could have done.