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It’s 10:54. My train from Matsue has just pulled in after huffing from station to station, veering aside when the sleeker express trains come whipping past. I stuff my empty donut bag and grapefruit juice carton into the appropriate bins on the platform, give my orange chip of a ticket to the now familiar stationmaster and fall into the sunlight of Sunday in Izumo. It’s a short walk from the station to the department store and an even shorter stroll from the south entrance of this building to the Yomiuri Cultural Center on the north end of the 3rd floor. Yet I find myself distracted by the surrounding sights and activity: a display of remarkably fragrant strawberries, a particularly energetic broadband internet salesman, racks and racks of new spring clothing. Already late, I stay the course, up the stairs past the second floor of binging video games and print club machines until I see the huge display for the movie Troy. Brad Pitt looms large. In the doorway of the movie theatre, the proprietress, a stylish obasan in black stilettos and mini-skirt, greets me in her warm and touching way. But this is only a brief stop. I round the corner and, through the sheer curtains of a windowed room, I see the shadows of standing bodies. Singing drifts out the door.
Although situated in the bustling department store located on the equally bustling Route 9, not many know that above all the Sunday shopping and game playing lies a place where hymns are sung, sermons are preached and prayers are offered. This particular shopping center is like so many pastries here in Japan: the outside is often no indication of the inside.
Izumo International Evangelical Friendship
Church−the only non-denominational, bilingual church out of roughly
50 churches in Shimane−found its home in the unlikeliest of places:
a shopping mall. Led by Tim Van Loh (a former Assistant Language Teacher
and current English teacher at Shimane University School of Medicine)
and his wife Naomi, a group of Japanese and foreign Christians set
out on their own journey of spiritual internationalization in July
of 2000.
Church services are held in a room that, on weekdays, serves as a dance studio. Mirrors and dance bars line the walls. Three wooden crosses sit on the front table; a huge placard shows the theme for this year: love. A soundtrack of keyboards, pianos, guitars and occasionally flutes fills the florescent-light-filled room. A small movie screen is pulled down and on flashes announcements, hymns and bible verses.
Bringing their mid-Western charm to the small city of Izumo, the Van Lohs have been molding a church with a strong sense of family for the past four years. Friendship Church’s bilingual flavor has provided a spiritual home and extended family for both foreigners and Japanese from as far east as Yonago and as far west as Oda. Besides a contingent of foreign English teachers and university students, a mix of Japanese doctors, teachers, policemen, engineers, housewives, secretaries, factory workers, businessmen and musicians make up the attendees. Until recently there were members from eleven different countries spanning four different continents. In a country of homogeneity, Friendship Church is a bubble of diversity.
The church is not only diverse culturally and socio-economically but also in the reasons why people attend. Because “Friendship Church was created to assist foreigners, Japanese returnees and Japanese interested in English/internationalization in their spiritual journeys,” on any given Sunday a mix of Christians, curious non-Christians and non-Christians interested in English comprise the motley congregation. For each of these groups, Friendship Church provides a different experience because, like the stores below, it offers a wide selection from which to choose. Those seeking English practice can attend a 40-minute English conversation class before the service, hone their listening skills during the service and chat with native English speakers during tea-time after service. For non-Christians seeking a better understanding of Christianity a basic theology class is provided. And for Christians, Friendship Church affords a warm atmosphere for singing, praying, and strengthening their faith and fellowship.
 Friendship Sunday, as the service has been dubbed, ends the same way each week?a joining of hands, a circling-up. The last song is sung, as all are, in a medley of Japanese and English. Some, who know the song by heart, close their eyes and lift their heads heavenward. Others look into the faces of their friends and family. And some crane their neck to read the words on the screen. No matter what reasons brought them there, each is now the recipient of the complimentary free gift of connectedness. On Sundays, the busiest shopping day in Japan, Friendship Church is filled with people doing a bit of their own shopping. The spiritual kind.
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