nagoya
After our whirlwind tour of Kyoto, the next day brought us to Nagoya, only a little more than a half an hour train ride from Kyoto, at a distance of about 75 miles (you got to love those bullet trains). Our train bound for Nagoya left around 9:30 am, but given the previous day's activities, waking up and getting to Kyoto Station on time (only across the street) was a bit of a hurry. Nevertheless, we made it in time and found ourselves, a little after 10 am, in Nagoya, Japan's fourth largest city after Tokyo, Yokohama, and Osaka. Nagoya is also a historic city, featuring an impressive castle, which we, nevertheless, did not have the time to even pass by:
We were headed, instead, to visit a friend of mine from college, Michael Oh, who is one of the primary indivudals helping start up the Nagoya Theological Seminary, a Presbyterian seminary that is supported by my church here in Philadelphia. Michael, however, lives in the eastern suburbs of Nagoya, near Toyota City, about a 45 minute train ride from downtown on the local trains.
The primary purpose of my visit was twofold: [a] to give an informal and condensed version of my lectures on open theism to the seminary staff, and [b] to receive a report on the seminary, with accompanying materials, to convey back home to the church. After a bit of confusion about his phone number, we were able to contact Michael, who picked up us at the local train station and brought us back to current seminary office, which also serves as the home for the Wheatens, who are missionaries involved with the formation of the seminary:
After introductions and chatting with folks for a bit, Michael treated us to lunch at an area Yakiniku restaurant--roughly, what one would think of as a Korean barbeque, with grills set into the tables and, in this instance, all you could eat within an hour. Lunch was followed a return to the house where I took a picture of the members of team who were present:
Michael is in the back on the right. To his left is Masaji Nakayama, a native of Nagoya, who studied in the States at Covenant College and Seminary and who will be teaching biblical languages. Seated on the sofa on the far right is Jerry Wheaten, a Gordon-Conwell grad who teaches biblical studies and plans on completing a PhD in New Testament in the UK. Also on the sofa is a summer intern who worked on their website and produced some informational DVDs and, on the far left, Masaji's fiance.
When I had given my talk, we visited Michael's house where I caught up a bit with his wife Pearl (also a friend from college) and their three children, as well as viewing one of the informational DVDs that had been recently produced. After that, we headed over to take a look at the piece of land the seminary had purchased in order to build a classroom facility:
The land is located in between downtown Nagoya and Toyota City, where the suburbs of both are rapidly growing together. It also happened to be located right next to a good-sized bookstore. I had wanted to buy Claire a souvenier of my trip by getting her a copy of a familiar children's book, but written in Japanese rather than English. Fortunately, I found The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which she has virtually memorized in its English version:
Once I had purchased the book, we returned to the train station and headed back to downtown Nagoya in order to catch the shinkansen back to Tokyo. Since we had some time to kill before we left for Tokyo, we explored a bit of the area immediately adjacent to the train station, including the Japan Railways Tower, the fourth tallest building in Japan at 804 feet, even taller than any of the buildings in Tokyo:
From the partway up the tower, we were able to get a panoramic view of Nagoya at night:
Once we returned to Tokyo, we grabbed a bite to eat and a few beers at an Irish pub and headed home for some rest after a couple of very busy days of travel.
(continue to next post: chiyoda and edo-tokyo museum)
We were headed, instead, to visit a friend of mine from college, Michael Oh, who is one of the primary indivudals helping start up the Nagoya Theological Seminary, a Presbyterian seminary that is supported by my church here in Philadelphia. Michael, however, lives in the eastern suburbs of Nagoya, near Toyota City, about a 45 minute train ride from downtown on the local trains.
The primary purpose of my visit was twofold: [a] to give an informal and condensed version of my lectures on open theism to the seminary staff, and [b] to receive a report on the seminary, with accompanying materials, to convey back home to the church. After a bit of confusion about his phone number, we were able to contact Michael, who picked up us at the local train station and brought us back to current seminary office, which also serves as the home for the Wheatens, who are missionaries involved with the formation of the seminary:
After introductions and chatting with folks for a bit, Michael treated us to lunch at an area Yakiniku restaurant--roughly, what one would think of as a Korean barbeque, with grills set into the tables and, in this instance, all you could eat within an hour. Lunch was followed a return to the house where I took a picture of the members of team who were present:
Michael is in the back on the right. To his left is Masaji Nakayama, a native of Nagoya, who studied in the States at Covenant College and Seminary and who will be teaching biblical languages. Seated on the sofa on the far right is Jerry Wheaten, a Gordon-Conwell grad who teaches biblical studies and plans on completing a PhD in New Testament in the UK. Also on the sofa is a summer intern who worked on their website and produced some informational DVDs and, on the far left, Masaji's fiance.
When I had given my talk, we visited Michael's house where I caught up a bit with his wife Pearl (also a friend from college) and their three children, as well as viewing one of the informational DVDs that had been recently produced. After that, we headed over to take a look at the piece of land the seminary had purchased in order to build a classroom facility:
The land is located in between downtown Nagoya and Toyota City, where the suburbs of both are rapidly growing together. It also happened to be located right next to a good-sized bookstore. I had wanted to buy Claire a souvenier of my trip by getting her a copy of a familiar children's book, but written in Japanese rather than English. Fortunately, I found The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which she has virtually memorized in its English version:
Once I had purchased the book, we returned to the train station and headed back to downtown Nagoya in order to catch the shinkansen back to Tokyo. Since we had some time to kill before we left for Tokyo, we explored a bit of the area immediately adjacent to the train station, including the Japan Railways Tower, the fourth tallest building in Japan at 804 feet, even taller than any of the buildings in Tokyo:
From the partway up the tower, we were able to get a panoramic view of Nagoya at night:
Once we returned to Tokyo, we grabbed a bite to eat and a few beers at an Irish pub and headed home for some rest after a couple of very busy days of travel.
(continue to next post: chiyoda and edo-tokyo museum)
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