Before going out to my second viewing of the Arashiyama Hanatouro, I went into Kyoto Station to look for some Christmas Presents. While I was there I checked out the Christmas decorations in the Kyoto Station complex. This tree was the centrepiece of the decorations, one thing you might notice is that it says "x'mas" rather than "Christmas". Around that time I received a Christmas card from a friend in Australia that said "Put Christ back into Christmas", and I whole heartedly agree in sharing about Christ at this time of the year (and all other times of year) and the difference he's made to my life to those who are seeking. At the same time I realise (and this might upset some) that we can't force our beliefs on others including trying to make our nation, or organisations, etc, promote so called "Christian Values".
It seems to me that people waste a lot of time arguing about whether it should be "Christmas" or "x'mas" is OK since "x" is "chi" in Greek and thus short for "Christ". Others who would argue we shouldn't celebrate it at all since "mass" is an "Evil Catholic Church" wrong concept. Others still refuse to celebrate it because it possibly has "Pagan" or "Witchcraft" origins. People get passionate about arguing for there particular point of view and forget the main message of Christ that "we love one another as He loved us". It's as my old boss in Australia would say "stop arguing (about) the toss (of a coin) and get on with (playing) the game" (words in brackets added for clarity, Note: in Australia many sports begin with a toss of a coin, the winner of the toss chooses the direction of play).
Note (14/06/2010): Many of you may have noticed that I hadn't posted anything to my pbase site for about 5 months. The main reason for this is the business here got extremely busy in what was supposed to be our low season (February to April), got even busier after the golden week holiday in May. At the same time I've been writing a new workbook for the Kindergarten students, which I just finished today. So some things in life had to be put on hold for a while and pbase was one of them. Now, that I've finished the workbook I'll start catching up with the "Mission Japan BLOG", hopefully about an entry a day (6 months to catch up!). I'll also start commenting on others photos again. I'm also planning a few updates to some other galleries and lots of new galleries, but I just see how it goes with the BLOG first. Finally, a big THANK YOU to those who sent me messages to see if I was OK, your well wishes were very much appreciated. - James.

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