From Strangers to Family | Tosados Field Journal

This was a busy week of helping wherever we could, and slowly the people we worked beside shifted from being strangers, to becoming family.

We ate our weight in leftover curry, baked cookies, gathered to discuss our devotional time, prayed together, recorded and edited videos, and slowly worked through organizing various closets, sheds, and storage spaces in preparation for a team that is coming in a few weeks to take on a new construction project.

We've been a bit too busy for pictures, but the week culminated in a day trip out to Tokyo and every corner seemed ready for the camera.

A red torii gate framing a small neighborhood shrine — Asakusa mornings.

A streetlamp against a pale morning sky — Asakusa mornings.

A covered market street, a shopper in white walking past — Looking for coffee.

A red bicycle parked outside a shuttered shop — Shops just beginning to open.

Vines spilling over the wall of a narrow alley — Nature reclaiming.

Potted plants and a bucket along a tight back alley — Quiet moments in back alleys.

A white door beneath a blue awning, crates stacked beside it — Quiet moments in back alleys.

A web of power lines above concrete apartment blocks — The signs of modern life.

The morning was spent in Asakusa, getting our morning coffee and then sushi for lunch. It was crowded and felt different from the last time we visited. After spending two weeks in the countryside, it was almost overwhelming.

A caged spiral staircase rising up a building — Small details.

The front of a pale green delivery truck — Small details.

An empty underground parking garage lit by fluorescent tubes

A lone vending machine against a mustard-yellow wall — A vending machine on every corner.

Shopkeepers arranging goods outside a storefront — Restocking the gatcha machines.

The glass dome over a shopping arcade — Vaulted market ceilings.

A man cycling past a shopping street on a red-paved road — Out for delivery.

Menu boards and signs along a covered shopping street — Morning walks.

A long, empty shopping street in the morning — The shopping street, still quiet.

A shopping street tangled with overhead wires — The shopping street, still quiet.

Bicycles parked along a narrow residential alley — Bikes waiting.

A small red shrine box set into a dark wooden wall — Tanuki shrine.

Pedestrians at a busy street corner beneath a stop sign

Trains were how we got everywhere. Sometimes we were even packed in tight with barely any room to breathe. Rush hour in Tokyo is unlike rush hour anywhere else. Dead silent, maybe the slight murmur of conversation, everyone either looking at their phones, a book, closing their eyes or staring straight ahead with blank looks.

A vendor showing woodblock prints from a wooden case — Art for sale.

Layers of escalators inside a station atrium — Mall escalators.

A glass building reflecting the buildings around it — Layers of the city.

A tiled subway passage with a yellow tactile strip — Underground.

Climbing the stairs out of a subway station — Rushing to the next train.

Commuters heading down a station staircase — The daily commute.

Passengers on a train, each looking at a phone — Drowning.

Two hand straps swinging inside a train car — Hold on.

Looking down over a busy intersection from a window — Shibuya Crossing.

There are so many people in Tokyo that it can be easy to miss the individual. But many of them stuck out to us in the crowd. We wondered what their names were and where they were going, knowing that our small group were likely the only Christians on the entire train.

In a city with so many people, it can be so easy to become invisible.

The crossing seen past a shoulder at the window — Watching the crossing.

A hand reaching toward a skylight — Dusty cameras.

White tiled wall beside an escalator handrail — Keep left here.

A yellow elevator call button in soft light — Emergency stop.

A man in black crossing a wide station plaza — Back into the light.

Riding an escalator up toward daylight — Up and out.

The same sidewalk a step later — The saleryman.

Even Tokyo has quieter sections that we felt drawn to. Narrow streets with music stores, thrift shops, and ivy taking over old buildings.

A tree-lined street of boutiques — Fashion stores on tree lined streets.

A streetlamp rising out of a tall hedge — Consumed.

A cyclist crossing in front of a glass office building — Always somewhere to be.

Looking up a faceted glass tower — Reflections.

A tower glimpsed through the trees — A shrine tucked between skyscrapers.

A red crane and a glass tower against blue sky — Cranes and construction.

An elderly man walking past a painted mural — The glare.

A white van and cars waiting at a wide crosswalk

The dark ribbed facade of a glass building

A crowd waiting to cross, an older woman turning toward the camera — A quiet conversation.

People waiting at a crossing in the late afternoon sun — Waiting to cross.

Silhouettes crossing a street into the evening sun — Silhouetted.

Rush hour approached and the streets filled up again. A sea of people droning through life not knowing that they were created with purpose. It only makes you love them more.

A man in a bucket hat walking through a busy electronics district — Passing through.

A famous scramble crossing seen from above, buses and crowds below — Order in chaos.

Shoppers crossing a neon-lit street in the evening — School is out for the evening.

Eventually the night led us back to the train, back to Tsukuba, which has become a place that feels more and more like home.

Passengers on a late train home — Keeping the mind distracted.

An old film projector in a dark room — Coffee roaster.

A dark doorway lit by a single lamp — What is it for?

A dark street back in Tsukuba — The lights come out.

Highway lights streaking past at night — Night walks to the train station.

Friends laughing together on the train home — The kid that captured our hearts on the train home.

At the very end of the night we encountered a little boy on the train. We barely knew any Japanese, but he had the biggest smile and kept talking to us even though we didn't know what he was telling us while he ate his snack.

He's definitely someone we're going to remember for a lifetime.

God is definitely up to something great.

Pray with us this week