A Day in the Life
My name is Haruto, I am ten, and my grandmother is teaching me words that almost no one on earth still speaks. We are Ainu, the first people of northern Japan, and our language is one of the rarest things alive.
We live in Hokkaido, the big northern island, where winter means real snow, taller than me, and summer means hills of silver grass moving like water. My everyday life looks like any Japanese boy’s: school uniform, ramen, train rides. But on weekends my grandmother takes me to the cultural center, where we practice the old dances and she teaches me to say irankarapte, our beautiful hello, which means something like, let me touch your heart softly.
Her grandmother lived differently: a wooden house with a sacred window facing the mountains, salmon drying under the roof, clothes embroidered with swirling patterns that protected the wearer, the old people said. The Ainu honored spirits in all things, and the greatest ceremonies honored the bear. Then for a long time, Japan told the Ainu to stop being Ainu. People hid their names. Grandmothers stopped teaching granddaughters. My grandmother calls those the quiet years.
The quiet years are ending. Japan now honors the Ainu as the first people of the north, there is a beautiful museum of our culture, and children like me are learning the words again. I know twenty-three Ainu words so far. My grandmother says every one is a candle.
Fun Facts
- The Ainu are the indigenous people of Hokkaido, recognized officially by Japan as such in 2019.
- The Ainu language is unrelated to Japanese or any other known language, and only a handful of fluent speakers remain.
- Irankarapte, the Ainu greeting, is often translated “let me touch your heart softly.”
- Traditional Ainu robes carry bold swirling embroidery, with patterns once believed to guard the wearer.
- A missionary named John Batchelor translated Gospel portions into Ainu in the 1800s and was beloved among the Ainu for decades.
- The Upopoy National Ainu Museum opened in Hokkaido in 2020 to preserve and teach Ainu culture.
How to Pray for the Ainu
Pray for the Ainu as they recover what the quiet years took: language, songs, dignity. Pray that in rediscovering who they are, Ainu families would also discover the God who made them, who keeps every lost word. Pray for the church in Japan, tiny and faithful, to love the Ainu the way John Batchelor did a century ago. And pray for children like Haruto, learning old words, to hear the oldest good word of all.
How Kids Can Help
Find Hokkaido, Japan’s northern island, on a map. Learn the Ainu greeting, irankarapte, and use it at your supper table tonight. Talk together about why a language is worth saving. The October 2025 Wonder Letter was written from the perspective of an Ainu child, with a map, vocabulary, and activities for your family.
Scripture to Remember
“Even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not.” (Luke 12:7)
A language can dwindle to a handful of speakers, and God does not lose count of a single word, or a single Ainu child.