常識... Common Sense

Tonight was another annual tennis farewell party hosted by parents. In the midst of the conversation the 2 tennis coaches talked about the uniqueness of Tamasei. they both talked of how strange things were at Tamasei when they first started, a different world, probably you could say that for them as Japanese men having no contact with Christianity Tamasei was their... "Twilight Zone". One thing that was said that for them looking at Tamasei through their cultural eyes, everything that was common sense (joshiki), at Tamasei was hijoshiki, or you could say the opposite of common sense.

Again I was reminded of what my mission is here, how to make Christianity relavant, to find it's joshiki in Japanese society. Where is the line, why do the two have to be at such odds. I don't think they have to but for to many reasons they are. How do I stand among my colleagues and show them Christians aren't all strange? What will it take to touch the hearts of my colleagues? In thinking about this from now on when they talk on this subject and I am there I think I'm going to tell them I'm a Kakure (hidden) Japanese. Isn't this sort of what Paul was saying when he said, I have become all things to all men so that I might when a few.

Miyajima

Picture taken last summer on my trip with Drew. Tomorrow I am headed off for our spring staff retreat in Yunokoya, near Minakami. We will stop at one of my favorite hot springs on the way there, Takaragawa, and hopefully I'll have some nice pictures to share when I get back.

iPod

We are finally into spring break, but can you really call it spring break when almost no one takes any time off. Even many of the students are there almost every day. In fact I have seen one student who doesn't come to classes, but she has been coming to school during break go figure. I have had to be at school this week for club, basically I just sit in the teachers room and do any work that I can find and wait for the students to go home.

But I did get some other things accomplished this week. On thursday I finally brode down and bought a niw iPod and BOSE Sound Dock. It rocks! Good quality sound and compact.
Then on Friday I took a bunch of my hard back books to the the Yokohama Central Post Office to ship them back to the states in a Special M-Bag, I was able to send 40 lbs. of books for ¥5,400. Sure it will probably take forever for them to get there, but I'm not in any rush.

Thursday night was another drum party, and a chance to get rid of the Champagne that I got from tennis parents for graduation. We of course ate like there was no tomorrow. And the German girls of course brought great desserts again. I have had to do some walking to make sure that I can still wear my new pants. I was there from 6 and didn't leave until about 11:30. We had to wait around until our teacher showed up, but the food never stoped the whole time.

Roller Skate

Had a nice day out yesterday at Alina's. She made an awesome sandwich with apples, tomatoes, letuce, and two kinds of cheese. Topped with poppy seed dressing. Very good.


Then we sat down and watched the movie "Saved" too funny and too true at the same time. The funniest line in the whole movie is from the scene where this picture is taken from. Culley McCulken plays a parapalegic, and in this picture his halloween costume is, a roller skate. I fell on the floor laughing. Good I wasn't in the theater.

Stadium Buddy

Thanks Alina for sharing this video with me. It is too funny and yes it is a real product.

Prison Break

I have to admit that I love this series! It was great to watch the first season on DVD I love being able to sit down and watch 4 or 5 episodes in a row. Now thanks to iTunes I have been able to keep up with season 2 as they are downloaded the day after on air broadcast in the states. Oh the wonders of technology, no more having to wait for friends to video tape show and send then. I can keep current with almost anything with a click.

On a sad note, as I was looking for this picture I saw where Lane Garrison, the guy that played "Tweener" on the series is being charged with vehicular manslaughter. It is kind of sad to think that he might be thrown into a situation similar to what he acted in.

Quiz

Ran across this the other day and thought it was rather interesting. Give it a try. How much do you know?

1. Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.

2. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward?

3. Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons. All other vegetables must be replanted every year. What are the only two perennial vegetables?

4. What fruit has its seeds on the outside?

5. In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear inside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle is genuine; it hasn’t been cut in any way. How did the pear get inside the bottle?

6. Only three words in standard English begin with the letters ” dw” and they are all common words. Name two of them.

7. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name at least half of them?

8. Name the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh.

9. Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter “S.”

Thinking Time
Don't look at the answers yet.

Give up like this guy?

Here are the answers...

1. The one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends. . Boxing

2. North American landmark constantly moving backward. Niagara Falls (The rim is worn down about two and a half feet each year because of the millions of gallons of water that rush over it every minute.)

3. Only two vegetables that can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons. . Asparagus and rhubarb.

4. The fruit with its seeds on the outside. . Strawberry.

5. How did the pear get inside the brandy bottle? It grew inside the bottle. (The bottles are placed over pear buds when they are small, and are wired in place on the tree. The bottle is left in place for the entire growing season. When the pears are ripe, they are snipped off at the stems.)

6. Three English words beginning with “dew” are: Dwarf, dwell and dwindle.

7. Fourteen punctuation marks in English grammar; Period, comma, colon, semicolon, dash, hyphen, apostrophe, question mark, exclamation point, quotation marks, brackets, parenthesis, braces, and ellipses.

8. The only vegetable or fruit never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form but fresh... Lettuce.

9. Six or more things you can wear on your feet beginning with “s”; Shoes, socks, sandals, sneakers, slippers, skis, skates, snowshoes, stockings, stilts.

American Friendly??

So we went to pick up Abbey at the airport today, and while we were waiting I was trying to tell Alina a little story when this lady standing close be just jumped into our conversation. I hadn't even noticed her, but she felt free enough to just pull herself into our conversation. Why are many Americans like that? Is it good or bad, it is something that I surely never fell free to do. Now Alina said that back in the states she would have probably been the same way, but after being in Japan for not even a year yet she was so taken aback by it. Me to. Difference with me is that even when I was in the states I don't think I ever really did anything like that. Where does it come from? Does anyone know?

Anyway on the way home we stop for supper, Bernie had found a Katsu restaurant that he had found before, but when we pulled in the parking lot Alina spotted a Hard Rock so we decided to go there instead.

Snow

Just heard on the news that this morning it snowed in Tokyo. Must have been like 2 flakes. It has been the big news that this year there was no snow in Tokyo. People get real I have never seen Tokyo as a place with snow. Yes it does come time and again but rarely does it stay on the ground for any length of time.

Last night was drum practice and we had another foreigner who is coming to join our group. Duncan Grey has been in and out of Japan since '91, he has jumped right in and already is comfortable with our members. Actually I have seen him at the 8th district speech contest, he said that he thought I looked familiar.

Kodo

This group was the inspiration for me to start drumming.

Kind Acts

I often get interesting fwds from different people, this story came from my aunt Jean, I'm not into forwarding messages so much so I will just put it up here. I think it says something about the importance of just being. Forget about the doing but just be.

A nurse took the tired, anxious serviceman to the bedside.

"Your son is here," she said to the old man.

She had to repeat the words several times before the patient's eyes opened.

Heavily sedated because of the pain of his heart attack, he dimly saw the young uniformed
Marine standing outside the oxygen tent. He reached outhis hand. The Marine wrapped his toughened fingers around the old man's limp ones, squeezing a message of love and encouragement.

The nurse brought a chair so that the Marine could sit beside the bed.All through the night
the young Marine sat there in the poorly lighted ward,holding the old man's hand and offering him words of love and strength.Occasionally, the nurse suggested that the Marine move away and rest awhile. He refused. Whenever the nurse came into the ward, the Marine was oblivious of her and of the night noises of the hospital - the clanking of the oxygen tank, the laughter of the night staff members exchanging greetings, the cries and moans of the other patients.

Now and then she heard him say a few gentle words. The dying man said nothing, only held
tightly to his son all through the night. Along towards dawn, the old man died. The Marine released the now lifeless hand he had been holding and went to tell the nurse. While she did what she had to do, he waited.

Finally, she returned. She started to offer words of sympathy, but the Marine interrupted her.
"Who was that man?" he asked. The nurse was startled, "He was your father," she answered.
"No, he wasn't," the Marine replied. "I never saw him before in my life."

"Then why didn't you say something when I took you to him?"

"I knew right away there had been a mistake, but I also knew he needed his son, and his
son just wasn't here. When I realized that he was too sick to tell whether or not I was his son, knowing how much he needed me, I stayed."

The next time someone needs you ... just be there. Stay.

WE ARE NOT HUMAN BEINGS GOING THROUGH A
TEMPORARY SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE.

WE ARE SPIRITUAL BEINGS GOING THROUGH A TEMPORARY
HUMAN EXPERIENCE.

Birthday Time

Last night we all went out for dinner for Alina's birthday, then off to Bartons for cake and a new card game that we laughed wildly about.

Gov't Spending

I don't really keep up with politics much, but this little cartoon does make you think. And I think I will look into this organization.

Nagihana

I finally got the first part of our performance down to an uploadable size. Enjoy!!

Japanese Urban Dictionary

Gero Gakkari (Upchuck letdown) The feeling of disappointment you get when you find out that miraculously vacant seat on the last train has no one sitting in it because it’s covered in salariman puke.

Ran across this funny phrase on Quirky Japan, it was the best on the list. As I thought I wondered if it wouldn't be a good entry for a Japanese vesrsion of Urban Dictionary. Like the words that show up here on my sidebar if you haven't joticed.

Patience

I have had this jade tree for probably close to 15 years now. And I have waitede and waited for the day that it would bloom. This year it finally budded and has been ready to bloom for at least a month now. Well it has finally decide to open some of its blossoms, but not nearly as many as some of the many jade plants that I have seen. Maybe I am taking care of it too well. I have often found that it does better when it is neglected a little bit. Who knows?

Uncreated One

After downloading Chris Tomlin's new album for the Amazing Grace cut that I posted yesterday, today I have found this song to be even more powerful. Enjoy!!

Amazing Grace

Ran across a video promotion for the movie Amazing Grace, the story of John Newton. And was really moved by it. In fact I really think that God provided it for a worship experience for me. I would like to enbed the video here but can't find the code for it. But I did find this clip about the song written for the movie by Chris Tomlin, it is interesting and worth a listen.

You can find the video clip with the song here, click on The story of Amazing grace. It will move you.

Mega Mac

I have heard about the Mega Mac, but since I for the most part have stopped going to McDonald's haven't partaken until today. It was a leisurely day and so at lunch I ventured out and tried this big sandwich.

Actually it wasn't that bad, a little messy to eat and yes there was a lot of meat, but it could have used more cheese and more sauce. All in all I prefer a double cheese burger. But hey after such a long time it was sort of nice, and I am reminded how good their french fries are.

Buy the way how do you eat a Big Mac? I think most Americans I know will pick it up and turn it over eating it with the top bun down. I think it has something to do with the packaging and I have heard some say it is because the bottom bun tends to get soggy from the sauce and what not.

Old Friends

Actually this picture was taken on Aug. 17 2003, the last time that I was home for an extended period of time. All the old gang and families from my high school and college days and all connected with the Shelby Church of God. We all gathered at the Barndollar's house and had a great afternoon.

I remember first moving to Shelby and my closest friends soon became; Tom, Lynn, and Juan. Tom and I shared many strange and rather wild adventures, I remember having a doggie poo fight fling poo at each other in his back yard. I remember one summer trying to make a raft to float on the local pond. I don't think we ever succeded. And we were the founding members of the SD Har club. And for the life of me I don't remeber what it stood for, but it may have had something to do with skinny dipping.

After Tom and his family moved, Lynn and Juan still were my close buddies. Mostly because our families always spent a lot of time together. We formed the "Down by the Roadside Singers" after many evenings singing and playing around on the front lawn at Lynn's. Her house being way out in the country and the main road running past their house was the inpiration for the name. I also remember driving our car through the muddy lawn and leaving a big rut in the grass. It was all on Lynn's insistance that it was ok my parents do it all the time. I think they had to re-lanscape that little piece of the lawn though.

Fond memories of friends from the past. I don't here from them or see them that often, but when I do it is pure joy. I remember the last time I saw Tom and his family, his son told him that he sure had some cool friends.

Felix

Japan is the land of cute characters. For the most part I don't get into all the little collections, but I do remember this cute little guy from when I was in Kobe and he was still popular and you could buy all kinds of goods in of course black and white that either came in his likeness of bore his likeness. I really don't remember the cartoon so well but the theme song still sticks with me, "Felix the cat, the wonderful, wonderful cat." Who is your favorite character?