English catholic mass in Mitaka, Tokyo

Hi!

Anyone here knows if there's a catholic church in Mitaka? (not christian, but catholic)

Or what's the nearest church to mitaka that has english catholic mass during sundays? Ill be an exchange student in ICU for a year.

Thanks!

http://www.svdtokyo.jp/

http://www.geocities.jp/mitaka_hbc/

This one says they are protestant, but they certainly have English-speaking pastor, so probably you could ask.

Hi! Thanks for your reply.

Do you know what's the cheapest way to go there from ICU? How about the fastest way?
And how many minutes will travel take?
I also don't speak or read a single word of Japanese if that could affect my travel time.

Thank you!

You can get there in about 40 mins by train. It costs 290 yen one way. Alternatively, they're about 5 km apart by bike or on foot.

http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC,+%E3%80%92181-001...

I'm sure yllwsmrf meant to write "4 min" instead of 40.

The Catholic one in Kichijoji, shown on AK's first post, is quite a nice and big church and is close to the station. I used to go there every Christmas when I lived in Kichijoji in the late 80s.

Why not take a train on your first time, and once you know the location, you can go their by bicycle. You can enjoy a nice stroll through the park on your way.

As you can see on their map, there is a Koban (police booth) on the way from Kichijoji station, so you can drop by to make sure you're on the right path. By the way though, I don't think Iseya is there any more (moved to a different location which is right beside the park).

And although I doubt you'd have any problems with the language, if you are a student, I'm sure this will be a great opportunity to start practicing phrases like "Kichijoji Kyoukai wa doko desuka?" while handing a map.

May god bless you.

http://www.svdtokyo.jp/info/mass_e.htm
http://www.svdtokyo.jp/info/map_e.htm

http://chofu-church.ciao.jp/

I'm also sure you know that there is a chapel inside the ICU campus, although not Catholic.
http://www.icuchurch.com/maine.html

While the church is only about a 5 minute walk from the train station, it unfortunately will take about 40 minutes for the total travel time from ICU.

It takes about 15 minutes to walk from ICU to Shinkoganei Station, 10 minutes of train time plus a 5 minute transfer in between, and then 5 minutes to walk from Kichijoji Station to the church. Overall that adds up to a 35-40 minute travel time. You're probably better off going by bike though if you will have one during your stay. I'm guessing it would be about a 20 minute bike ride.

Thanks for all the replies!

I think I need to go to more than 1 church since the english mass in kichijoji is only during the 1st sunday of the month. The one in chofu is only during the 2nd sunday. While the one in fuchu is during the third sunday. Is fuchu far away from ICU? http://tokyo.catholic.jp/eng_frame.html

And I still don't know where to attend mass during the 4th sunday of the month :(

If they had just kept Latin for the liturgy, you could go anywhere! But you probably weren't even born yet when they still used Latin everywhere.

I hope you get a bang-up mass, wherever you end up attending. But once you've gotten yourself immersed in the culture a bit, why not try out the Japanese mass once a month? The structure will be the same, and you already know what they're saying for most of it.

Yllwsmrf, I see what you mean now.

By the way, according to ICU's access guide, they seem to recommend people to take buses to/from the university, and Odakyu Bus seems to go directly to Kichijoji and Chofu stations. Considering Tokyo's traffic jam, I don't know how long that is going to take on a Sunday, but those can be good options on a rainy day, once the OP gets used to the bus system.
http://www.icu.ac.jp/access/index.html

Controlalt, you've given us the link to a Catholic church in Bunkyo-ku instead of Fuchu. Bunkyo-ku is within common commuting distance, but as you can see on a map, it's on the other side of Tokyo so the distance is quite far compared to the other churches. Would you like to go to Bunkyo-ku? Or were you able to find a Catholic church in Fuchu that holds English mass?

And perhaps you can try attending Japanese language mass on your 4th week.

I see that great minds think alike (both of us recommending that the OP sample the local vernacular mass). I guess YOU weren't even born when the Catholic church ditched Latin! But by any chance, do you know if they ever do an old-fashioned Latin mass with Gregorian chant anywhere in Tokyo? I mean the full monty, not just a song or two. (Or does anybody else know of such a mass in Japan? Latin is scarcer than hen's teeth, these days.)

Thanks for all the replies!

great suggestion uma, maybe i'll try attending a japanese mass once in a while. though I'm sure I won't understand the homily. :(

Hi uco! http://fuchukyokai.or.jp/ here's the link for the fuchu church. is it near to ICU too? Thank you for the info about the bus, I'll really consider that since it's cheaper than taking the metro right? Also it's safer than biking. :)

Do you know if there's a televised english mass? Just a back-up in case I really can't attend mass when there's bad weather or if I'm running really low on cash.

THANKS!!

the fuchu church link is not working. I'm not sure if it's still celebrating mass? I just saw that church here: http://tokyo.catholic.jp/ from the "churches" link which takes you to a map of tokyo churches.

Uma,

Sorry I didn't notice your post coming in as I was posting mine. And, although I'm not that young, I have no idea about mass in Latin language. In fact, I only know about English mass from the internet. I've always attended Japanese mass, mainly at Anglican churches. I'm Japanese, by the way, and I'm not baptized. I don't really need a church if I want to pray.


controlalt,

The distance between Fuchu Kyokai and ICU is less than 5km or 3 miles, so it's easy by bicycle but public transportation is inconvenient. Perhaps you can ask the university to see if there are any buses going directly to the area. Meanwhile, you can click Google地図へ on the following site to jump to a Google map that shows where exactly the church is.
http://www.tokyo.catholic.jp/text/shokyoku/fuchu.htm

The buses are 200 - 210 yen per ride in your area. If you ride trains from Shinkoganei to Kichijoji, it's 290 yen one way. But if you walk to Musashisakai station, the ride to Kichijoji is only 150 yen.

I don't know if there is a televised English Catholic mass on cable of satelite TV, but I suppose you can ask all your questions at the first church you visit.

I'm starting to wonder why you didn't choose to go to a Catholic university here :)

Thanks uco for your detailed reply :D

I guess I'll just have to try and go to all the three churches near ICU to really know if they're near. And I'll try to go to them by bus, train and bike to see what's best.

I'm actually just an exchange student, and there was no catholic university that was partner with my home institution, that's why I chose ICU. :D

Not so close to Mitaka, but one train is St Ignatius Yotsuya. It is a Jesuit church that has a Sunday mass in English.

Hi girltokyo. Thanks for that. That church is the Kojimachi chucrch right? How much would commuting cost coming from ICU to that church? And how long is the travel time?

Thanks!

The main English-speaking Catholic church in Tokyo is http://franciscanchapelcentertokyo.org/ in Roppongi.