What I learned

• Japan definitely has its own culture. Just because I'm asian and they are asian does NOT mean we are exactly the same. Actually, I saw much more differences than I was expecting. Not just different ways of doing things but also different norms and personalities. For example, compare Koreans and Japanese. To me, Korean churches and Christians are much more outwardly expressive than Japanese ones.
• Eline made a comment that I've been thinking about. Just in talking about the different denominations of Christianity, she mentioned that sometimes certain Christians can have some differences of beliefs in some of the more minor doctrines of Christianity. When you are in a country where less than 1% of the people are Christians, it becomes even more important not to 'major on the minors'. I realize people have different views on what they see as minor. It seems to me that time spent maturing as a Christian can help with knowing how to distinguish 'major doctrines' from 'minor doctrines'.
• cf the other posts - I embedded some more lessons I learned in the other posts