GOOD BYE Euphrosynos Cafe!

[rightbyyou]

Wow. I honestly did not know that... very funny when you think about it. Learn something new everyday I guess...

There are plenty of Orthodox Churches in Japan too. I know - I 'm Japanese Orthodox. (If you are stationed in Okinawa though, I don't think there are any Churhces....). if in Yokosuka, there are Churches not too far away in Yokohama, and the main Cathedral in Tokyo, a very short walk from Ochanomizu Station. my advice - make an effort to learn Japanese. So many American soldiers there learn little more than how to say inane things like "Beer please", or they learn it off their girlfriends and end up talking like women!

This is so true. Japanese has a male form and an feminine form of speech. One of the university students went to Japan and learned Japanese from the women, then he came back to America and embarrassed his Japanese male friends because he was using the feminine forms.

[George]

I think it is true in pretty much every language - after all there are ways of speaking, or choice of words in English that would be more feminine than masculine, but the difference between male and female speech is a bit more pronounced in Japanese than in English. I know it is wrong to laugh at others, especially if they are doing something through ignorance, but it is truly funny to hear a big burly type speaking like a sweet little girl in pink skirts and ribbons!

I should say that one of the great things about the Church in Japan is that it is the Japanese Orthodox Church, and while the majority of people at Church are Japanese, there is (in Tokyo) people there from all over the Orthodox world. A far cry from western countries where there can be heaps of different Orthodox Churches, even Bishoprics in the same city representing different ethnic groups. I think it can be a big problem when a Church begins concentrating on preserving its 'ethnicity' rather than its Orthodoxy.

[Maria]

I think it is true in pretty much every language - after all there are ways of speaking, or choice of words in English that would be more feminine than masculine, but the difference between male and female speech is a bit more pronounced in Japanese than in English. I know it is wrong to laugh at others, especially if they are doing something through ignorance, but it is truly funny to hear a big burly type speaking like a sweet little girl in pink skirts and ribbons!

I should say that one of the great things about the Church in Japan is that it is the Japanese Orthodox Church, and while the majority of people at Church are Japanese, there is (in Tokyo) people there from all over the Orthodox world. A far cry from western countries where there can be heaps of different Orthodox Churches, even Bishoprics in the same city representing different ethnic groups. I think it can be a big problem when a Church begins concentrating on preserving its 'ethnicity' rather than its Orthodoxy.

Is the Divine Liturgy celebrated in modern Japanese?

[Loser]

Have fun there
Lellow.

[George]

The Liturgy is celebrated in classical Japanese - the language as it was written up to the end of WW2 - somewhat different to the spoken language, but not so hard when you get used to it. It has a much greater dignity to it "Tsutsushimite tate!" for example just sounds better than "Tatte kikou!" (Let us attend).