ÿþ<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=unicode"> <title>connecting with the Kindervaters</title> <style> <!-- div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style> </head> <body bgcolor="#7C89A0" link="#000080" vlink="#64728B" alink="#800000"> <div align="center"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" width="520" height="1033"> <!-- MSTableType="layout" --> <tr> <td valign="top" colspan="2" height="82"> <!-- MSCellType="ContentHead" --> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="100%" height="100%"> <!-- MSCellFormattingTableID="1" --> <tr> <td bgcolor="#800000" height="5"> <img alt="" width="1" height="5" src="../images/MsSpacer.gif"></td> </tr> <tr> <td height="100%"> <!-- MSCellFormattingType="content" --> <table border="0" width="100%" height="100%" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td width="100%" height="100%" valign="middle"> <p align="right"> <font color="#800000"> <img border="0" src="../images/mtitle.jpg" width="116" height="44" align="left"></font></p> <p align="right"><b> <font color="#800000" face="Arial">K</font></b><font color="#64728B" size="2" face="Arial">onnecting with the </font><font color="#800000" face="Arial"><b> K</b></font><font color="#64728B" size="2" face="Arial">indervaters in Japan</font></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#7C89A0" height="5" width="100%"> <img alt="" width="1" height="5" src="../images/MsSpacer.gif"></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="95"> <!-- MSCellType="NavBody" --> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="100%" height="100%"> <!-- MSCellFormattingTableID="2" --> <tr> <td width="100%"> <!-- MSCellFormattingType="content" --> <table border="0" width="100%" height="100%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td width="84" height="100%" valign="top">&nbsp;<!--webbot bot="Navigation" S-Type="sequence" S-Orientation="vertical" S-Rendering="html" S-Bar="Tabular" S-Btn-Nml="&lt;A HREF=&quot;#URL#&quot; TARGET=&quot;#TARGET#&quot;&gt;#LABEL#&lt;/A&gt;" S-Btn-Sel="#LABEL#" S-Btn-Sep="&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;" S-Bar-Pfx="&lt;table&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;" S-Bar-Sfx="&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/table&gt;" B-Include-Home="FALSE" B-Include-Up="FALSE" U-Page="sid:1001" Tag="body" startspan --><table><tr><td align="center"><nobr><A HREF="../indexretired200907.htm" TARGET="">Home</A></nobr></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><nobr><A HREF="../prayer.htm" TARGET="">Prayer</A></nobr></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><nobr><A HREF="../news_main.htm" TARGET="">News</A></nobr></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><nobr><A HREF="../Kapsules_archive.htm" TARGET="">Kapsules</A></nobr></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><nobr><A HREF="../elemalbum.htm" TARGET="">Photos</A></nobr></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><nobr><A HREF="../Videotop.htm" TARGET="">Video</A></nobr></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><nobr><A HREF="mailto:sanbi4u-hp32@dvjapan.org?subject=from homepage" TARGET="">Contact&nbsp;us</A></nobr></td></tr></table><!--webbot bot="Navigation" i-checksum="4808" endspan --></td> </tr> </table> </td> <td bgcolor="#7C89A0" height="100%" width="5"> <img alt="" width="5" height="1" src="../images/MsSpacer.gif"></td> </tr> </table> </td> <td valign="top" height="932" width="425"> <!-- MSCellType="ContentBody" --> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="100%" height="100%"> <!-- MSCellFormattingTableID="3" --> <tr> <td height="100%" width="100%"> <!-- MSCellFormattingType="content" --> <table border="0" width="100%" height="100%" cellpadding="10"> <tr> <td width="100%" height="100%" valign="top"> <p style="margin-right: -1px; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="right"> <b><font face="Arial" color="#64728B">art of apology |</font><font face="Arial" color="#800000"> Kapsule</font></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right"> <font size="2" face="Arial" color="#800000">&nbsp;12/2/2004</font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left"> <font size="2" face="Arial">&nbsp;A friend relayed the following adventure on his trip to Japan. <br> &nbsp;<br> He had just moved to Japan and was now going to the port to pick up the boxes he had shipped by ship. When he arrived at the port, he found that he was supposed to have declared this shipment at the airport customs desk when he arrived. He hadn t. An easy mistake. <br> &nbsp;<br> The customs official explained the gravity of the mistake and told him what he must do. <br> <br>  You must explain that you did not claim these at customs. The official will ask you why you didn t declare them. You should answer that you didn t understand that you needed to. Then he will ask why you didn t read that on the forms. Then you should apologize for not being more careful and promise never to do it again. <br> &nbsp;<br> The customs official kindly modeled the entire conversation, allowing time for the foreigner to catch these phrases and memorize them.<br> <br> When the foreigner finally had it, he asked,  Where do I go to explain this? <br> <br>  Right here. The official replied.  To me. <br> &nbsp;<br> Apology is very important in Japan. It is an art. The simple apology sumimasen (Roughtly; I m sorry. Literally: There is no end) is repeated dozens of times daily  by just about everyone. Most of us foreigners have had to sign an  I m sorry letter at the airport or some city office. It s usually a form letter  you fill in your name and the specific transgression.<br> &nbsp;<br> It looks like we will have to write an  I m sorry letter to get into Japan. We found out today that Eryka s visa will be issued next week. That is a big praise! Everything has moved quickly.<br> &nbsp;<br> However, we also learned that an important paper needed to get our own visas has now expired. We HAVE our visas, so we didn t think we needed it. We were wrong. So, we will arrive, apologize, and pray that they don t put us on a plane headed for& . Pittsburgh. <br> &nbsp;<br> Thank you all for your prayers for the passport and visa. They were issued much quicker than we had expected. <br> &nbsp;<br> We would appreciate prayer that we will indeed be permitted into the country, despite the date on our form, and for housing once we arrive. It looks like we will be going in early January, though the date hasn t been set yet. <br> &nbsp;<br> I m sorry, if this was too long. Sumimasen. There is no end& <br> &nbsp;</font></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#7C89A0" colspan="2" height="19"> <p align="center">&nbsp;<font size="2" color="#C0C0C0">Serving with the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Japan</font></td> </tr> </table> </div> </body> </html>