Answering “How was Japan?”

Imagine returning to your home country after two weeks—or even four years—in Japan. You’ve completed a short-term mission trip or a longer ministry term in Japan, and you are back in your home country. As you approach your church (or even a local grocery store), an acquaintance sees you.

“Hey, I didn’t know you were back. How was Japan?”

How do you answer this question? How do you share your experience, especially when you clearly don’t have a lot of time?

For many of us, we give a brief, vague reply: “It was great. God is working in Japan.”

Others of us answer by listing our activities: “Ministry was great. We taught English classes and led Bible studies. We had some special events that were well attended.”

Sometimes we give some numbers: “We saw five new people come to the worship service and baptized two people last year.”

When I hear these responses, they all leave me wanting to hear something more specific. How is God working in Japan? How did the English class impact someone’s life? How did someone come to desire baptism? That said, I must admit that I myself have often answered in these usual ways.

Intentionality and significant stories

When we started the D House internship program in 2014, I was looking for material to use with our interns who would be with us for twelve weeks. One of my coworkers suggested the Journey Guide: A Companion for Your Cross-Cultural Trip printed by OMF specifically for short-term Christian workers. Section Five of this booklet (2008 US edition) is called “Returning Home Integration.” With our interns, we told them that their experience in Japan would quickly fade and that in just a few weeks after returning home, they would find it hard to believe that they had just recently spent a few months in Japan. In preparation for that, they would need to decide what changes they wanted to make in their lives before returning to their home country; otherwise, they would naturally slide into the habitual routines they had before coming to Japan.

Along with that, we discussed how they would respond to the “How was your time in Japan?” question. Of course, there are different contexts for answering that question. Perhaps you’re given an hour to share in a Sunday school class or home gathering. Perhaps you’re given five minutes to report during the Sunday morning worship service. But the most common time is hearing the question as you see a friend or acquaintance just passing by each other. For this, the sound bite answer is the best response.

Creating a sound bite

A sound bite is just a small portion of your experience, but it is something that had a significant impact on you. The sound-bite answer to the question is one story that can be told in about fifteen to twenty seconds:

A Christian woman in our church invited me to a Japanese Sign Language (JSL) class. I met Jiro and his wife there; they are deaf believers who live in a neighboring village. Jiro and I became friends, and through sign language, gestures, written notes, and apps, he shared with me how he became a Christian and how he took part in starting a church for the deaf in Yamagata. My relationship with Jiro has been a highlight of this last term.

This short story answers the basic question of how Japan was for me. It opens the door for follow-up questions. It perhaps creates interest in meeting again at a more convenient time to share more. At the same time, this relatively short answer frees the person who asked me from listening to a long response they don’t have the time for.

Short story examples

Here are some of the sound bite stories from previous D House interns that might inspire your own fifteen-second story:

It was a life-changing trip, so much so that I decided to quit my job and join SEND as a lifelong missionary to Japan. The missionary I worked with hugged a friend of his at Sendai station, and these two junior high girls were near us, smiling at what he did. They looked like they wanted a hug too, so the missionary asked them if it was okay to hug them, and they said yes and hugged him! I saw that Japanese people long for connection.

One time, two girls from the children’s English class came to the house, as they are good at drawing manga-style characters. Raven, another intern, and I got to spend time drawing with them. I learned that the majority of missionary ‘work’ is just cultivating relationships! It’s just caring about people and making friends.

While we were in Japan, we attended an event at Tsubamesawa Church, and another intern and I were given the opportunity to pray for a woman named Yumi (a nonbeliever) through the help of a translator. During that prayer, it was just amazing to me to realize that I was praying to God in English, and then the translator was praying in Japanese, but God could understand and hear both of us! Hearing what I was praying in Japanese just opened my eyes to how God truly is the God of every tribe, tongue, and nation. After we were done praying for her, Yumi was so grateful and thanked us many times for our ‘beautiful prayers.’ It sounded like she was really touched by what we had done and what we had prayed for her. It was a wonderful opportunity to show the love of Christ to someone from outside of the church and to show them what Christians should be. That experience was one that I will never forget from my time in Japan.

During the hanami (cherry blossom viewing) in Murayama right outside the train station, I remember enjoying delicious food with a Japanese friend underneath the beautiful cherry blossoms. I also remember seeing families from the community come by to picnic beneath the blossoms. Some of these families were familiar faces while others were people we had just met. Each conversation was a blessing. As we began sharing food with those around us, our sense of community deepened. It was a blessing to share food and spend time with people from the community beneath the cherry blossoms—a precious memory to me and a reminder of fellowship, kindness, and God’s beauty reflected in everyday moments. As I look back, I picture the moonlight peeking out between the petals of the cherry blossoms, with the river flowing in the background, and I am encouraged on this journey, trusting in God’s providence that weaves meaning through every moment—even the brief ones. My time in Japan was like a cherry blossom—breathtaking, but shortlived. Through every connection and memory made, God used this short season to plant a lasting calling within me.

Each of these short stories answer the question “How was Japan?” and leave a picture with the questioner. These stories invite more inquiries from those who have the time or desire for more and, equally important, free those who don’t have time or capacity for more information. Of course, I love being able to talk for hours about my experiences in Japan, but those opportunities are rare and usually come from family members, very close friends, or fellow missionaries. As I write this article, I am thinking about our return to the US for home service in May 2026 and reflecting on the last four years, trying to decide what will be my two or three fifteen-second stories in anticipation of the common question we will be asked. I ask you, “How was/is Japan?” What is your story?