Coming from the Philippines, I’m used to a festive, loud, and bright New Year holiday. I grew up welcoming the year with fireworks, dozens of fruits, prepared meals that would feed us for a week (like maaanyyy delicious, tasty foods), and lots of jumping and shouting.
When I experienced Christmas Eve a few nights back, I knew New Year’s Eve would also be quiet.
It was quiet, yes. But it was fun and more than what I prayed for. I enjoyed the whole evening with missionaries here in Japan.
Game Night x Fellowship
We spent the evening in each other’s company. We ate Bento for dinner and had a good time chatting about 2024 and 2025. Some are in the midst of transition, some are preparing for a new season, some are settling down, and some are just floating. It is so cool to see how we are on the same journey but facing different seasons. God is faithful in each of those.
The majority of our fellowship was spent playing different games, at least for them. 😀 When I go back to the Philippines, I’ll carry this newfound hobby with friends. We don’t often play games there, aside from Uno, so it would be cool to introduce new ones!
Praise and Worship
I am so glad that Eugene and Kangsan went to the fellowship! Eugene is a worship leader and Kangsan is good with piano, guitar, and beatbox (or cajon, as they call it here :p). I joined in singing praise and worship songs after playing my 2nd game.
They taught me how to do basic cajon and hopefully I caught up with their singing. They didn’t say anything so I’m hoping it was okay! Haha.
My favorite part of the night was when we did the countdown together in a circle and greeted each other a Happy New Year. We ended the night with a praiseful prayer and singing a song to Jesus. God is a faithful God.
Japanese Tradition
You might be wondering what the usual Japanese would do on New Year’s Eve. There’s no fireworks here, unlike other countries.
Japanese people would usually go to shrines or temples at midnight. They’ll ring the bells for good luck and say a quick prayer to their gods. We prayed for them as we walked back home. It was spiritually heavy as we walked through these shrines, but all good. God will save Japan. Japan is in God’s hands and He will call all His lost sheep here back to His presence.
Catching The First Sunrise
I wanted to write a different blog about this but because I only got 3 hours of sleep to catch the first sunrise, I just slept after the video below.
Japan is called the Land of the Rising Sun for a reason. This is the best sunrise I’ve seen in my life.
What a sight to behold.
