Higashihiroshima Catholic Church

28/10/07 - sun (nichiyoubi)

Today we cannot be piggies but have to be early birds to go for mass. With the help from Funato-san now we are clear of the direction to the church. She even helped us to call the church too. We are attending 9am mass and we have to depart from our place 2 hours before that.

Taking bus to Saijo JR Station then take train to Nishitakaya station, from there walk for about half hour (hilly roads again!) then finally we are here --- Higashihiroshima Catholic Church. It took us one and half hour to reach there. Not a long time, just about the time we spent to attend mass back in KL. But the transport fee is far different lor.. It cost us RM54 for transport. Next time we will cycle to the train station and not taking bus.

I have to say that the JR train is very similar with our komuter train.. Look at the photo you know I’m not telling lies. But the fare is very different then. Nishitakaya is only a station away and it’s costing you 360 yen round trip. Oh well, it’s cheaper than our bus fare.

Reaching there already a sister welcomed us. She's the one who answered the call from Funato-san. It’s not a big church, plain and simple. I believe it can accommodate about 100~150 people. The first thing that attracts my attention is the cushions on each bench. I forgot to take a picture of those cushions after mass. Next time, k. They have 5 cushions on each bench, but strictly speaking those are not cushion as it's empty inside. But the unique part is that all the cushions are made of different clothes. Either each of the parishioners made one or the church wardens made from the old rags, I don't know.

The mass, well of course everything in Japanese and we do not understand a word. And there seems to be a bit different from ours. Half way through the mass I just noticed the alter server appeared from don't know where. There's about 50 parishioners attending the mass, sitting according to the cushions arranged. I noticed this station of the cross, which i think it's quite different from our practice of hanging them around the church and theirs are hanging all on the 3 boards.

After mass there are announcements made by parishioners, and we were asked to introduce ourselves. Of course in a small community aliens are easily spotted. After the announcement there's a guy approaching us and said that there's a parishioner able to fetch us from the JR station before mass. They have this service given by the volunteers among the parishioners. So next week we do'nt need to walk to church liaw. :) Walking back to the station is not a problem as it's all the way going down hill. hehe