An English Lesson

Over the past week, I've encountered more English than I originally thought I would prior to coming to Tokyo. I guess I was kind of looking forward to seeing Coca-Cola written in Kanji on the bottles- but Coca-Cola is written like you see it in America. English is actually very popular here, especially printed on shirts. Everywhere you go, you see people in graphic t's with English writing on it. Sometimes it doesn't make sense, sometimes it's just a phrase you wouldn't expect to see like, "Grateful to the Copycat" or "Give Peace the Chance." It's kinda funny, since most of the people wearing the shirts have no idea what it means, but still very cool- especially since I found a shirt that said "Sacramento Mountain" on it. I took a picture. 

One of the things we talked about before coming to Tokyo, and even here in BEST club, is some of the mindsets of Japanese- particularly among teenagers. Often they are of incompetence, of low self-esteem or self-worth, of loneliness, of fear.. not that all teens are like that, but it is something that is prevalent in this society. Anyways- walking through the University today, I was taking note of the fashion, of the graphic t's with printed English, and I saw a young man wearing a shirt that said "I wish I never had to hurt again." It kind of caught me off guard until I realized that he probably doesn't know what the shirt actually says, but it still got me thinking.

It made me a little sad because I wondered, if he did know what it said, would he still wear it?  He might. How many students have I already encountered that would wear that shirt? Maybe nobody- but maybe a few. Where does that hurt come from? Where do they find their hope? I wondered about the hurt and pressure that teens often face- in Japan.. in America.. it did make me sad, but it also reaffirmed why I'm even here this summer; to show that there is love, and grace, and truth, and a promise that there is more to hope for than just the transient things of this world. 

yeah.