Lots n lots of random stuff.

Tomorrow morning I'll be leaving to go see family near the Tokyo area (as Lauren would say, "Jeech and botch"). I'll be gone til the 5th. Probably means I won't be posting stuff or getting/sending any email for a good week or so. Hopefully, I'll take pictures and post them, but I've never been much of a shutterbug so who knows? Gotta get back to my Japanese roots I guess. Chiizu!

I was looking at the calendar just now, and I realized that I'm gonna be around in Date for only 3 more months! Two words. Really weird. To give you all back home a heads-up, I'll probably be back sometime in mid-April. After I pack up my stuff from Date and leave, I'll be attending the yearly Spring retreat hosted by my mission, go sightseeing in Japan, and go through re-entry training in LA... all before touching down in the Yay. More details as the time approaches.

Been checking out the Urbana website. It's cool that we can sorta follow along with the happenings of the conference via the internet. Streaming video is awesome. I know quite a few who are there right now. Know that I'm praying for you.

I'm almost finished with my essays for seminary apps. Two 250 word (1 page) essays for Fuller.
1. "Reflect on your past Christian experience, including the most significant spiritual event/influence in your life, the role of Christ in your religious experience, and the effect your faith has on your worldview. Include your involvement in Christian service, your perceived gifts/calling for ministry, your reason for attending your church, and any involvement in Christian ministry or leadership."
2. "Reflect on how attending Fuller Theologicval Seminary would complement your present Christian experience and/or help you to achieve your future professional and vocational goals."
My problem now, isn't getting the words on paper. My problem now is trying to condense it all into one page. I'm baffled by how anyone can write on topic #1 for only one page. Topic #2, I've found is quite a bit more do-able. I said that it'd be done by Christmas, but when Christmas rolled around, I had a 5 pager and a 2 pager. I should be done by the time I get back from visiting family.

Japanese TV.

Ok ok. So most everybody knows that there's weird stuff on Japanese TV. SNL skits have been made on the subject. But what surprised me when I came here is the channel selection. There are only 7 TV channels. Seven. You can get 3 more with the basic cable option (known as BS... yeah yeah, I think I've heard all the jokes already). There's the premium cable option... but I dunno how many more channels you get. I'm guessing not too many. I'm yet to go to house equipped with CS. And of course there's satellite TV.

I once talked with some Japanese friends about how a few of my friends back home have something like 600 channels right now. Unimaginable. Jaws dropped to the floor. Yeah, America is the couch potato nation. Where else can you get channels in the hundreds? On the flip side, the American audience is quite a bit more diverse in their tastes than many other nations of the world. So, it could be argued that all those channels are necessary to keep America's diverse audience entertained... maybe. Yeah, maybe not.

I got an email from my mom on Christmas eve saying that she tried to call, but couldn't get through. Just the other day, a few people in Japan said that they tried to call but the line was busy.

Starting on the 23rd, I noticed a clicking sound when I sat down at my desk. It kinda sounded like those Snapple tops. I didn't think much of it though. And went about my business. This goes on until yesterday the 26th. After 3-4 days of clicking noises, I got annoyed and searched for the source of the sound. So, I put my ear against various things on my desk. Naturally, I start with the computer... specifically the CD drive. Nothing there. I put my ear up on the mouse. Nothing. Next was my MD player from way way back. Again nothing. By now, I'm figuring there's nothing left that might click. So, I resort to stupidity. I put my ear against my stack of post-it notes and scotch tape. Then it hits me, my phone! Sure enough, my desk phone was off the ringer. It wasn't completely off... I'm not blind. It was in the area but it just wasn't resting in the cradle.

Christmas is an interesting time over here in Japan.

Supermarkets, department stores, and local stores have the Christmas decorations out with the trees and jiggling Santa statues but there isn't any noticeable difference busyness. In terms of business, it's pretty much like any other day.

The food. For some reason, Kentucky Fried Chicken makes a killing in Japan at this time of year. Somehow, KFC convinced everyone in Japan that Christmas = fried chicken. It's like mind-control or something. As an aside, to set the record straight, I roasted a turkey for the Christmas party last night. It turned out alright. It was about 10 lbs. Kinda small but just the right size for my oven.

Oh, and then there's the Christmas cake. Yeah, at first, I was like what? Christmas cake? But the Christmas cake has become a staple in the holiday season here. It's just your basic 6-8" round sponge cake with white frosting with all sorts of decorations on top. But this is the Christmas cake. I don't know how many times I've been asked, "Do you make your own Christmas cake?" Or, "What do you put on your Christmas cake?" The concept is so widespread that in Date, your can buy your own Christmas cake in the supermarket, coffee shop, even convenience store. That's right, at 7-11 in Japan, you can pick up your chips, coke, and a Christmas cake. No slurpee though. They don't have slurpee machines yet. But to compensate you can buy oden and all sorts of bentos. Sure beats that shriveled up Big Bite that's been rolling around for who knows how long.

The Christmas weekend is upon us.

Although a fun and joyous time, it's also a busy time. Much appreciate your prayers... more than you probably know.

Today, among other things, was the gospel choir Christmas party. Lotsa great food. I'm gonna sleep well tonight. I brought a honey baked ham... thanks to Tim for supplying me with the ham from FBC. I couldn't find whole cloves so I decided to do a light, ground cloves rub on the ham. Turned out well... a tad salty though.

Here in Japan, most of the time, you take off your shoes when you enter a building. Not so interesting. As a result, sometimes, you'll notice somebody's socks. At times interesting.

Today, I noticed these rather peculiar socks. Actually, I've seen them before, but it's been a while. I guess the best way to describe em would to say they're feet gloves. Whereas normal socks would be like feet mittens, these are feet gloves. At the end they're separated for each individual toe. I'd imagine that they're quite a bit warmer than normal socks. These things would blow away those Dan Marino isotoner slippers. And so, I'm sorta tempted to get em. But then, I'm worried that if I wear them, I'd just stare at my feet all day.

It was surfing through people's xanga and blog sites... is anyone not super duper stupendously excited about the upcoming Lord of the Rings movie? Maybe it's because I'm away from the hype. It's like the time when Finding Nemo came out in America a number of months ago. Seemed like everyone was all excited like a bunch of preschoolers with a chocolate caffeine rush.

By the way, Finding Nemo just came out on theaters here in Japan. Why the long wait? Because it's a kids' movie, subtitles won't do. So, they need to dub over the voices. Hence, it takes time.

On the other hand, Lord of the Rings is coming out in late January I think. I might be wrong. But it's somewhere around there. Maybe the hype will hit Japan in a couple of months. Then again, even if the hype hits Japan, there'll be no way I'll know about it. Our city doesn't have a movie theater. The neighboring city of Muroran has one. Not two, but one. I probably wouldn't go all that often anyway. It costs about 2000 yen (about $18) for a ticket!

To follow up the December 13th, post, there are a lot of misconceptions Japanese people have about America. I'll touch on some of the lighter misconceptions...

As Charlie commented, there's the misconception about American eating habits. In a few words, "beef and bread." More specifically, beef in either steak or hamburger form. As for the bread thing... plain white bread. Not potatoes. But bread. I don't know how many times I've been asked, "Do you eat rice or bread?" As if it's an either, or thing. For a while, I tried explaining that I eat both rice and bread, along with beans, potatoes, tortillas, etc.. To which, I get this blank stare that says, "What are you talking about?"

Second, there's the whole chopsticks thing. "Do you know how to use chopsticks?" "Chopsticks are very hard to use." Any foreigner coming to Japan will get asked this question at least once. For a while I was courteous, and replied with a quick little, "Yes, I do." But now, every now and then, I want to say something like "Yes, I do... do you know how to use a fork?" Luckily, I don't get asked the question as much as I used to.

Third, the usage of land. Most Japanese have this image of America as this huge wide open space. And compared to Japan it is. But recently, I showed this picture of San Francisco chinatown to some Japanese friends, and they were surprised by two things. Chinese characters in America... and the density of the city. "Oh, it's crowded in America too?" On the other hand, they can't grasp how country the country is in America. After hearing that in some parts of America, a family's neighbor could be miles away, my pastor had this look of bewilderment.

Fourth, gun ownership. After watching movies, TV shows, and news reports, most Japanese people think every American household has a gun. 'Nuff said.

Oh, bonus one... the military. I've been asked on a number of occasions, "Have you served your time on the military already?" "Are you afraid of going to the war?" Looking at the nearby examples of Taiwan, China, and Korea, many Japanese naturally assume that America also has a mandatory military service period. After explaining that military service isn't mandatory in America, many openly ask me, "How does America support their armed forces then?" Most Japanese I've talked to are surprised that all current American military personel are volunteers.

I had the weirdest dream the other day.

I dreamt I was in Tokyo. The buildings. The lights. The crowds. It was all there. I'm walking down the street, when I notice a store. I walk inside, and it looks like a mom & pop grocery store except there's nothing on the shelves. But on the far wall there's a refrigerator section filled with different Mexican salsas.

A la Broadway, I suddenly break into song and dance to express my delight, although I don't know where the song came from or what the words to the song were. A Mexican lady is at the register and she tells me, "Go ahead, take the salsa of your choice."

And for the rest of the dream, I stand there, trying to choose which one I want.

I was talking with some Japanese people, when the topic of different cultures came up. One person said something pretty interesting. She was talking about the reasons behind action in different cultures:

Germans do things because it's commanded.
Americans do things because they want to be heroes.
Japanese do things because everybody else is doing it.

Naturally, I wanted to ask the question, "What if everybody was jumping off a cliff? Would you jump too?" But, perhaps wisely, I decided to hold my tongue.

There are a lot of misconceptions about Japan and Japanese people...

First, in response to Ben's comment, most Japanese people really don't understand war and conflict... today. For nearly 60 years, Japan's been without an official army. The whole thing with their "Self-defense forces" and if that's really an army or not is another post. Most Japanese people are under the delusion that their Self-defense forces are not a military force. (Most Japanese people actually think their self-defense forces are more like a relief aid structure... never mind the fact that they're armed and trained in military weaponry.) Japanese people haven't had a military casualty in nearly 60 years. With the exception of those old people, the WWII vets, Japanese people can't understand the concept of war. The reason? In that 60 year time span, the schools have indoctrinated their children with the "Peace always" mantra, mostly out of shame from the atrocities they committed in WWII and well, with losing WWII. It's kinda strange actually. Japan just recently sent some of their self-defense forces to Iraq. Many Japanese people fear that this may be a step in the direction of re-establishing their armed forces. It's like they're afraid of themselves... afraid of what they might do if they have an army.

Second, the Japanese flag is practically nowhere to be found. It doesn't fly on the school flag pole. It doesn't fly inside a single classroom. It doesn't fly outside the city hall. It doesn't fly anywhere. Apparently, those images of lines and lines of people waving those small little Japanese flags when someone important comes to Japan from another country... is staged. I asked around, and what I found is that before the guest comes, and more importantly, before the video cameras roll, designated people come, handing out the mini flags to the surrounding people. In my 2+ years of living in Japan, I don't think I've seen the Japanese flag flying anywhere. I've seen it on occasion in the corner of a room like the principal's office, but I haven't seen it on a flag pole where all can see.

Third, Japanese people eat meat. There's the misconception that Japanese people will (or can?) only eat Kobe beef which goes at something like $150/steak. Although meats are typically a bit more expensive here than say... oh, Costco in America, it's not too bad, and the selection is mostly there. Beef, pork, chicken, lamb. It's there... especially here in Hokkaido. Getting the cuts of meat I expect, however, is a little different, as I found out when I was preparing for the BBQ back in the summer. Anyway, meat, especially among the younger generations (that is, under 60, yes, in Japan, if you're not retired, you're considered to be in the younger generations) is eaten quite often, and in many cases is preferred over fish!

Fourth, not all Japanese people know how to do Karate. Actually, very few do. Japanese people were very quick to point this out to me. But upon further investigation, I found that nearly all men and boys know at least the basics of Judo. They learn it in school for PE. In the meantime, the girls are sent to home ec where they learn how to sew and cook among other things. Speaking of which, are there any high schools in America with home ec as a mandatory class anymore? At El Cerrito, I don't think they even offered it as an elective.

Can't we all just get along?

Unity, world peace, everybody just holding hands swaying back and forth with a smile on their face. This is the dream most Japanese people hold especially in the face of a continuing conflict in the middle East. Although practically nobody will say, "No I don't want that to happen," I think most of us realize that the process is a little more complicated than just respecting one another.

Japan is an island nation. And on top of that, a very homogenous island nation. Japanese people born and raised make up at least 95% of the population in this country.

"Everybody is the same" is a saying I hear often. To which I want to say, "Well, yeah in Japan." Language, values, ways of thinking, all pretty much the same in Japan. Obviously this makes it hard for foreigners to get established here, but that's a whole different post. Group think isn't a thing people work towards here, it's a given. Since this is what most know to be "reality," most don't understand why wars and conflict are necessary.

An interesting conversation I had a few months ago... a Japanese friend watched the movie "Remember the Titans." She commented, asking me, "Why is there so much racial segregation and conflict in America? Why can't everybody just get along?" I tried to explain exclusivity, but it just went over her head as well as the others who were listening in on the conversation. Finally, I said, "What would happen if you married a foreigner? What would your family and friends think?" Suddenly, it looked like most everybody understood. But then someone chimed in saying, "Well that's different."

Unity and the such is an easy thing to talk about. It's easy because when most people talk about it, they come in with the thought that everybody thinks like them, holds the same values as they do, and is "normal." But as anybody who lives in foreign countries can attest, that simply isn't the case. Even with the language barrier gone, the cultural barrier proves to be a far formidable force. Simply put, to an American like myself, Japanese people aren't normal. They're weird. Really weird. And conversely, Japanese people think I'm not normal. They think I'm weird. Then again, I am weird. Oh, well. So much for that.

Oh and I forgot, we'll have winter ball. The new season starts mid-January in time for March Madness. Are you ready to watch some diaper dandies come out and show what they're made of, baby?! March Madness minus the Dick Vitale and the East Coast bias... I promise.

It's over.

The first season is finished. The college season however, continues. And I won't even go into that. If you wanna read rants about the actual college BCS system, you can probably go to some random guy's blog... and half of em will have something about the topic. As for me, well I'm a number of seasons removed from American football. But the blog BCS served me well in providing a substitute. Well, not really. Oh well. When I get back home, I'll have plenty of lazy autumn Saturdays and Sundays... in front of a TV, jumpin', yellin', and screamin'. Ahh, maybe I should've followed through and become a mic-man when I was at Cal. Then again, Asian guys never did a good job in front of the Cal crowd. I remember there was an Asian mic-man when I was there, and well, quite frankly he looked lost up there... like he didn't know what to do. Should he watch the game and cheer? Or should he turn his back on the game and start a cheer? Oh the choices!

It really didn't matter because there was the veteran mic-man who held the fort for the 4 years I was there and then some. I seriously think that the senior mic-man guy beat out Al Grigsby in terms of his tenure at Cal. They should retire his rugby shirt in Memorial Stadium.

I've been on a fudge making frenzy over the last week. The best thing about making fudge? Even if you give the stuff away, you get to eat the edge pieces! Maybe that's not such a good thing. Well, we'll see. All of my dress pants still fit me, although I have to admit, one of em is starting to get a little tight. Then again, I've had that pair since high school so I think I'm alright.

Cool thing about snow... the crunching sound it makes under your feet when you walk. It goes something like "Errg... errg... errg." But if you're power-walking it goes something like "Rgrgrg."

Not so cool thing about snow... when it is no longer under your feet because you slip and fall. That's what happens if you're running.

Random thing... I hate programs and software that automatically starts downloading onto my computer! I just caught a program trying to do that. And in the process of trying to get rid of it, I discovered a whole myriad (yeah! used the word myriad today) of programs I never downloaded purposefully.

I have to admit, the snow does make for beautiful scenery all around me. Even though it's crazy cold when I wake up and crazy cold when I need to take a shower and crazy cold when I need to get around town, white winters easy beat out brown winters aesthetically.

That said, our church did the stupidest thing ever this past morning. We passed out flyers starting at 7:15 AM in front of an elementary school for an English class I'm teaching in the area. Why is this stupid? Because it was 25F outside with gusty winds and a nasty wind chill factor of I dunno what. Everybody who knows me, knows that I'm not a morning person, and that I'm really groggy when I wake up. Well, I think I figured out how to solve that problem this morning cuz I was wide awake. I had gloves on the entire time, and after 30 minutes of being outside, I still couldn't feel my fingers. Somehow, I think things would be so much easier if I was in Guam. Hee hee.

One thing that's great about living here is that I can see the stars practically everyday. Absolutely amazing. The clarity, the brightness... some days I don't think you can get the views I do in Yosemite. Nothing quite like a dark, quiet, brisk night looking up at the stars... well, except for experiencing that through a window of an apartment with the heater on full blast.

Today I had lunch with another Asian Access missionary, Tim.

We went to a restaurant, decided what we wanted to order from the display out front, and sat down. I sat on one side of the table and he sat on the other. When the waitress came by, she squared her shoulders toward me so that her back was to Tim. When I ordered noodles, she asked, "Two orders of noodles?"

This entire time she's completely ignoring Tim, whose Japanese language skills are very good. Tim orders his lunch to her back, she writes it down, and she leaves. Not once did she turn to look at him... even when he ordered his lunch in Japanese. I thought it was rude of the waitress. Then again, it has happened so often that I'm getting used to it. They see my Japanese face and assume I can speak Japanese... they see his caucasian face and assume he can't.

On my way to Tokyo... I missed my flight because there wasn't any toilet paper.

The airport in Chitose is an hour and a half train ride from Date. To catch my flight I needed to catch the 9AM train heading out of Date. I got to the Date train station at about 8:30AM. Plenty of time. But at 8:50AM, I get the feeling... the feeling like I need to go to the bathroom. Since it's 8:50 already, I figure I'll just hold it until I get on the train. I soon discover that that's not an option. So, I rush into the bathroom at the train station.

I go into the stall where there's a squatty-potty. I do my business and then realize that there isn't a toilet paper dispenser. I look around the stall to see if there's a free roll just lying around, but of course, there isn't one. I peek out of my stall and look for paper towels, pieces of garbage in the trash, anything to use. Nothing. I go back into the stall to check one last time.

Now, I hear an announcement over the PA system giving the last call for people boarding the train to the airport. I decide to ask the ticket master if they have any toilet paper. I zip up, yeah it's gross, and waddle like a penguin for about 20 feet to the ticket booth. I ask for toilet paper and he says, "We don't carry toilet paper." After I stared blankly at him for a while, he stands up, and says, "But I can give you some tissues." He hands me a pocket package of tissues, I take them, and head back. I wipe up real quick and run to the train platform only to see the doors close right before me eyes. I bang on the doors a couple of times. The ticket master goes out to me and says, "Don't do that, it's dangerous." My patience with him in running real low at this point.

I ask the ticket master, "When's the next train to the airport?" He responds, "Not for another hour and 15 minutes." I do some quick math, and realize that I have no chance at catching my plane. So, I ask him for another package of tissues. "Sorry, we can only give people one package at a time." I was a very unhappy semi-Japanese boy.

Just got back from a seminar/conference in Tokyo that went from the 25th to the 27th.

While I was waiting for my flight out of Tokyo back to Hokkaido in the airport terminal, I noticed this guy who was sitting in front of me. He was actually a couple of rows ahead of me. And this dude was full on picking his nose. This wasn't the courtesy rubbing of the nose. Or brushing by the knuckles. You all know what I'm talking about. No, this guy wasn't discreet about it at all. No shame. Just straight diggin'. "Craikee... I can't believe me eyes!"

Last week of the regular season... haha, this is getting way too much "hype"

Considering that the 5824 house in itself owns 3 blogs, it should be a conference in itself... a mid-major like Conference USA or something. That would cause some rivalry! Oh well, not this time around. Speaking of which, I am pleasantly surprised by the success of the Cal Bears on the football field over the past couple of years. Win over Stanford and a bowl berth. I don't know if this proves Tedford's genius or Holmoe's incompetency.

Anyway, with the last week, is the lineup of the BCS bowls. It's championship week.

Blogger.com Bowl
(No.1 vs. No.2)

Hyper "bole"
(Highest ranking blogger out of the East Bay conference vs. Highest ranking blogger out of the South Bay conference)

Ramen Bowl
(Highest ranking blogger out of the SoCal conference vs. at large bid)

Manute Bol
(Highest non-California conference blogger vs. at large bid)

Today, there was an art display at the city community center. They were displaying the works of art of the elementary school kids from the city of Date. When I saw what many of them had drawn, I couldn't help but laugh. No no, the drawings were actually very good. A lot better than me when I was in elementary school. Man, a lot better than me now. It wasn't the technique that made me chuckle. It was the subject of their drawing.

When I was in elementary school, I think I drew stuff like cars and airplanes and big buildings and dinosaurs (or at least things that resembled dinosaurs in my mind). What did the children of Date draw? I saw about 5 construction shovels. And I saw about 15 tractors. The others, were things like trees and flowers and stuff. This was a pretty small display too. 15 tractors! I was like, "Where am I? Iowa?" Nope, Date, baby.

Tomorrow, I'll be having Thanksgiving dinner. Since I'll be away on the actual day of Thanksgiving, I decided to hold a Thanksgiving dinner at the church tomorrow as a coffee house idea. And in preparation, I've been making a whole mess of food tonight. Bruschetta, corn bread, mashed potatoes, sausage stuffing, cornish game hens (because I can't get turkey), fruit salad, pumpkin pies, and peanut butter cookies. Whew. I'm figuring other people'll bring other appetizers and drinks. Should be hammin' it up tomorrow! Oh yeah.

Every now and then, some Japanese person will ask me, "Is the Japanese language difficult?" For about a year or so, I told them what I really thought. "No, I mean learning any foreign language is a challenge, but Japanese isn't especially challenging." BIG MISTAKE. To that response, I'd always get a weird look and some explanation about why the Japanese language in particular is incredibly difficult for non-Japanese people to learn. Some pointed out that Japanese grammar is so different from any other language (point out that it's the same as Korean and some people get mad). Some pointed out that the pronunciation of the Japanese sounds are difficult for non-native speakers to make (but for the most part I don't have too much difficulty with this). Some have nothing specific to point out but just blankets everything with the overarching statement, "Yeah, Japanese is a very complex language."
An interesting thing about an island country, particularly with Asian countries that start with the letter J and rhyme with "Apan"... because historically they don't get much exposure to other countries and cultures, they believe that they are so unique from everybody else. And in some cases, the Japanese are correct, but not nearly as often as they think. Use of chopsticks. Eating rice.
The idea of globalization? Yeah, here, it's pretty much just an idea. I don't know how many people were surprised that I've eaten sushi in America. Or that I own a Toshiba computer that I bought in America (some people actually became very proud of Japanese manufacturing because of my Toshiba computer).
Then again, I've heard that the urban areas of Tokyo and Osaka are more aware of what's going on in other countries. Maybe this is all just coming from the country perspective.

Peanut butter cookies are good. Especially if you use chunky peanut putter. Mmmm. Add hot cocoa, and well, that's a good winter night spent.

BCS rankings have been updated... two more weeks left in the regular season! Then we get into the bowls. Oh yeah! Can you feel the tension? I sure can. Ooohhhh. Speaking of which, I have a real hankering to watch a football game. I've now missed six straight football seasons. Well, actually it's more like three pro football seasons and three college football seasons, but in my book they should be counted separately.

Today, it snowed for the first time this year in Date. When I say "this year" I of course don't mean 2003 because it snowed all the way up til mid May. Yo, mid-May snow is "nooooo-good." But anyway, it snowed today, and when compared to last year, this year is a bit late. Last year is snowed in the beginning of November. That's right, snow from November to mid-May. A little over 6 months of winter. Blah! Some Hokkaido people were having some fun with me in saying that Hokkaido has only 3 seasons... winter, spring, and fall. They may very well be correct.

So, with snow, come changes. Clothes get more numerous and puffy. The space heater gets turned on all the time. The tires on the car have to get changed... and so do the windshield wipers. I can't wear a pair of shoes I own... and regardless of the shoes I'm wearing, I have to do the "walking on ice and snow shuffle." I can't hang my clothes out to dry anymore (although I think I should try it with an old T-shirt just to see if I really freezes). Hot chocolate suddenly tastes really really good. Ditto for microwaved smores, well, until the marshmallow cools and gets all hard and sticky.

Interesting thing about the Japanese language...

Recently, I've noticed that the Japanese have interesting names for some animals. Japan is not home to very many animals in the animal kingdom. And so, while the Japanese language was being developed, only a few animals got Japanese names. Examples include dogs (inu) and cats (neko).

Some of the animals without Japanese names have names that sound like the English counterpart. Examples include gorillas (gorira) and lions (raion).

But then, there are those animals with names that are really Japanese descriptions. These are the really interesting ones. Examples include porcupines (harinezumi) and raccoons (araiguma). Harinezumi means needle mouse while araiguma means washing bear. The Japanese for porcupines I understood immediately. I guess a person who's never seen one could say that it looks like a mouse with needles sticking out of it. But the raccoon... the raccoon had me stumped for a while. I mean, the first thing I notice about raccoons are the black rings around their eyes. I don't notice the fact that they wipe/wash everything they eat with their hands. And there's the whole bear thing. They don't look anything like a bear. They look more like cats or dogs or I dunno, beavers than bears. But then that's my opinion.

I had sushi for dinner today. It was good. There's a sushi restaurant like around the corner from my place, and that place is bomb! It's close. It's cheap. And they've got big portions. "Sushi? Big portions?" you may be asking yourself. To which I reply, "Yes indeedy!" It's not like you can supersize the rice in the sushi. BUT... the topping (neta) is huge at this place (note: most of the sushi in Japan are the ones with the rice on the bottom and the fish on top... not the rolls).

Example: If you pick up an unagi plate. You get two pieces of unagi sushi. Pretty normal. The rice on the bottom... regular size. BUT, whereas most sushi restaurants have the pieces of unagi sitting on top of the rice, this place has it on top of the rice and curling under it. Basically, it's twice the size. My favorite... the King Salmon sushi plate that has pieces of raw King Salmon resting on top of the rice, with about 3/4 inch of excess flapping on the sides. Can't get that out in Tokyo! Gotta come out to the country to get some of that good finga lickin' food.

One of the things I never get tired of here in Japan are the clothes. I love seeing people wear clothes with weird English on them. When I went to Sapporo the other day, at the train station, I saw this guy with a windbreaker jacket that had the letters "ASS" written in big bold yellow letters on the back. Then below that it said something like "Authentic California Clothing."

Yeah, in all my years in California, I don't think I've ever seen clothes by that make. It just made me think though, "Who designed that jacket?" Some Japanese guy who's never been to California? Or some Californian who wanted to play a joke on Japanese fashion knowing that people would wear that jacket in public in Japan?

Today, on my day off, I went to Sapporo. It was a lot of fun. I never realized how much I am a city boy until I came here to Hokkaido. For those who don't know, I'm in a city of 35,000 people. Now, some of you in the bay area may say, "Oh, 35,000? That's like the size of El Cerrito (maybe?)." The thing about the bay area suburbs is just that... it's a suburb of a fairly large metropolitan area. Basically, if you're driving down I-80... it's hard to tell where one city starts and another begins. Out here, it's very easy to tell where one city starts and another begins. There are stretches of fields that separate our city from its neighbors. So, we get that small town feel. And thus, I realize how much of a city boy I am.

I think I wrote this about Sapporo before, but I find it strange how it seems like the people in Sapporo are like 6 inches taller than the people in Date (where I'm living). Then again, maybe not. Young people live in Sapporo. People in their 20s and 30s are there. Out here, we have more the 50s, 60s, 70s type people. And everybody knows that many Asian people in their 70s are hunched over, pushing some cart or something. And well, people hunched over just aren't as tall as people who are standing up straight.

My hair's getting a little shaggy. Yeah, it's getting a little long. Normally, I'd cut it. But right now, I'm having second thoughts. Why? Because it's getting mighty cold. And short hair doesn't insulate the noggin as well as longer hair. The hair also helps with the wind chill factor. And we got plenty of that.

The problem with longer hair of course, is multiple. It takes longer to dry when I come out of the shower. It goes all over the place when I wake up. It starts brushing up on my eyebrows which I absolutely hate. And well, it's just not very stylin'. Am I metro?

Today there was a funeral...

And go figure, even in this solemn atmosphere, a lady came up to me and asked me, "Would you like me to set you up with my granddaughter?" I've almost gotten used to people saying something like this to me so I wasn't surprised so much by what she said as I was by the way she brought up the topic.

Lady: Thank you for coming.
Hideyo: Oh, it was no problem. You have my condolences.
Lady: Thank you. Would you like to stay around to eat?
Hideyo: No thanks. I don't want to cause too much trouble.
Lady: It's no trouble at all. You can come eat with us.
Hideyo: Thank you. But no thanks.
Lady: Oh. Well, thank you for coming. Would you like me to set you up with my granddaughter?

Completely came outta the blue. I mean, what the hao?!

Tonight, we had our weekly prayer meeting. Only, this week, instead of the pastor, I led it. Boy oh boy... was I overwhelmed! I don't know about everybody else, but I was touched by God during our time of prayer tonight. It was awesome. At the end, I kept thinking, "Man, I should've brought a camera! I should've brought a camera!" It was just one of those meetings where the Holy Spirit was just moving and you could see it with your eyes (and probably through the lens of a camera).

If there's one thing you can't dock Japanese Christians for, it's praying. Japanese Christians pray. There are a lot of things about Japanese Christianity that drives me absolutely nutso... but I highly respect them for praying.

Oh, and by the way, today, I had bowl of miso ramen. That mess is good!

Part 2 of the sticky rice saga...

I forgot to mention that it's the sticky rice balls the "onigiri" that the Japanese anime cartoon people are often eating while they're walking. I don't care what the English dub over says. They ain't DONUTS... or MEATBALLS. Out here, if you wanna get donuts, you go to Mister Donut... or as the locals call it, MisuDo. I remember the first time I heard "MisuDo." I was like "Miss who?"

Mad props out to Kat-chan for the comment about the onigiri. Actually, it probably more like a full blown post. And Japanese ingenuity indeed. It doesn't matter where you go. If you order fried rice, it'll come served as a dome. Sometimes, if you're lucky, you might go to a restaurant that puts a little toothpick flag on top. And if you're still a kid and order the kids' special, you get that with a little tempura shrimp all served on a bullet train (shinkansen) dish. But, shoot, I want some of that bomb umeboshi. I'm guessin that it won't pass through customs inspection though. If Naomi Sato gets a contract with Kewpie mayonaisse though, I can learn how to make that stuff from watching "san-pun-kukkingu."

About Seri's comment, I read the word "inane" like "ee-nah-neh." I thought it was a Japanese word and so I read it like one. Sigh. How am I ever going to get through apps?

The are a lot of ramen shops here in Hokkaido.

I'm not talking about some store that sells cup-o-noodles by the bulk. I'm talking about full blown restaurants that feature ramen. I guess the closest thing I can compare them to is Katana-ya for all you El Cerrito/Richmond folks out there. Except that even there, ramen is one of many other kinds of "Japanese" food you can get. The extent of variety in the ramen shops here in Hokkaido includes ramen (what else?), sometimes potstickers, and sometimes fried rice (I'll get back to the fried rice in a second).

How is the ramen served? In a bowl... kinda like pho minus the nasty dirty chopsticks and the even nastier dirty soup spoon. Yo, if you need to wipe the eating utensils with a napkin before you use em, there's something wrong. Getting back to the ramen, I remember my senior year in Berkeley when my roommate and I went crazy over the Korean ramen noodles sold at Ranch 99. We seriously bought them in bulk. Then we'd put all this stuff inside to make it semi-nutricious. Eggs, bok choy, spinach, even mochi... I don't remember other stuff we put in there. Anyway, because of all the good stuff, we served it as a meal. Gourmet ramen I think was what we dubbed it. Hahaha. So anyway, I come here to Japan, and "gourmet ramen" is everywhere. It's like college batchelors took over Japan and opened up all these restaurants.

So about the fried rice. As my other roommate Jason said once, "You can't make fried rice from your rice." "Your rice" of course, is in reference to the sticky Japanese rice. Apparently, he tried to make fried rice for lunch one day using the Japanese rice, and it just didn't work because Japanese sticky rice stays... well, sticky. Regardless, Japanese people still make fried rice... or at least their version of it. A sticky version.

The best thing about Japanese rice though is that you can make rice balls (onigiri) out of them. Can I get an amen from some of the Japanese readers out there? Going on a picnic? Wanna eat rice? Have no worries. Just smush a gob of rice together into a rounded triangle and wrap it in dried seaweed for some wholesome goodness. Portable rice. Aww yeah.

This week has been crazy... but the BCS continues...

The BCS. Haha. In its conception, it was merely a fun way to list my links and show who's blogs I'm reading. I know that it's all in good humor, but I never imagined it to be the topic of conversation for another person's blog or regular people-to-people conversation. Honestly, I think I got more traffic to this blog because of the BCS.

So, as for the questions about it... I don't know when the BCS season will be over. I'm thinking until the end of November. We need an offseason... play some winter ball in Mexico or something.

Will there a playoff structure? Well, if we hold true to the format of the original BCS for college football, the only matchup that'll make sense will be the No. 1 and No. 2. The rest is a toss up. Maybe we'll do it by regions. The number 1 from the East Bay Conference vs. the number 1 from the South Bay Conference. Who knows, if Christina jumps back in the rankings, she'll practically have an automatic bid to a bowl cuz she has little competition on the East Coast... the Big East Conference. I guess she could go head to head against the No 1 from the SoCal Conference.

As for real blogging material from my side... I've noticed that I've become a lot more domesticated since coming to Japan. Example... I've picked up baking again. My latest project: A good pumpkin pie. Why? Because if I want to eat pumpkin pie, I can't just go to the local Safeway and pay $5. Not that I did before anyway. Before, I had a bad case of Safeway-Club-Card-itis. What is Safeway-Club-Card-itis? It's the condition found primarily in Asian American college-aged males, in which the affected will only buy things that are on sale with the Safeway Club Card. The symptoms are especially strong when the affected sees the "Buy 1 get 1 free" placard. It doesn't matter if the $5 pumpkin pie from the Safeway bakery is a great buy. It never has the placard with the picture of the Safeway Club Card. If, however, they were orignally priced at $6, but you save $1 with the Safeway Club Card, those pies would disappear so quickly. Same price in the end, but so incredibly different to those affected by Safeway-Club-Card-itis.

The end is coming...

To set the record straight, I'm coming home in March. Recently, on AIM, I've been getting messages like "So, when are you coming back?" Actually, scratch that... more like early April. I'm hoping to do some traveling after the term is over. Go see this country that I've been working at for the past 2 years. Haven't done a whole lot of sightseeing. Actually, very little. And what little I have seen, well, let's put it this way... I've mostly been in northeastern Japan. Japan looks like the letter J and I've been at the top of the J. Most tourists don't bother with northeastern Japan. Seri did though.

The thing is that because the end of my time here is ending, I'm starting to make plans for when I come back home. Yikes. If I do everything that sounds cool... I'll go on a roadtrip to who-knows-where in April, go to Virginia in May, go to LA in June, sprinkle in the inevitable weddings in the summer, go to Chicago sometime probably in July or August, and then go to school in September. KERAYYYZEEE!

One big thing that God has taught me so far in this country... the huge difference between success and victory.

When people ask me, "So, what exactly are you doing in Japan?" I answer the scripted, "Helping a Japanese church do church planting." To which, the same people inevitably say, "So, how's the church planting going?"

I wish I could say that it's going splendidly. But it isn't. I wish I could say that we've (Date church and I) made huge strides. But we haven't. Basically, I wish I could say that in the Date area there is at least one group of people away from the mother church, that meets together to worship God and are seeing many people become Christian. But it's not happening that way. This isn't to say that my efforts have been completely unfruitful. We've made steps. We've seen great things happen. It's just that, well, to me, we're moving at a snail's pace.

Interesting thing about missions or probably any ministry occupation, there's an incredible pressure to succeed. Yes, there is a lot of pressure on everybody to succeed. But there's an added pressure that is very unique to this field of work. I experience it every month when I write those newsletters. As with most other fields, this field's success is often measured by numbers and tasks accomplished. It is often perceived that if nothing is accomplished, that is, no goals are realized, that the labor was in vain.

If this is success, God doesn't guarantee success. No, but God does guarantee victory. Victory cannot be measured by numbers. Victory cannot be measured by the list of goals that have been met. There is no prerequisite for victory checklist. Victory is knowing that when all is set and done, we'll meet up with Him and hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!" After all, labor isn't in vain if we don't see results. Labor is in vain if we don't join God in His work. And sometimes, that requires "failure" on our part.

A couple of English language things...

So among a bunch of other things, I'm teaching English here. In the elementary school kids' class this week, we did animals and their corresponding onomatopoeia. I let the kids choose the animals we were going to cover that week. Well, I came across a problem. One of the kids said, "Elephant." What sound does an elephant make? It's not the same problem like a rabbit where the animal doesn't make much of a sound. Elephants definitely make a sound. I just don't know what the sound looks or sounds like.

In related news, I'm forgetting my English.

A high school English teacher showed me the following sentences:
Fiji is a small island WHICH I've long wanted to visit.
Fiji is a small island WHERE he was born.

The teacher then asked me, "How do you know? How do you know when to use 'which' instead of 'where'?" I smiled, looked at him, and said, "You're an English teacher, you know the answer right?" He did. He just wanted to know how a native English speaker can tell the difference. So I told him. "I just know. I hear it and it sounds right." We had a good laugh.

AIMing with the entertainment himself... BET.

BET on the upcoming Giants' offseason:

TaoPingKuang: i think the giants need to sign vlad
Heeday1719: they hafta
TaoPingKuang: yeah because bonds can't imitate babe ruth forever
TaoPingKuang: and when he stops . . . so do the giants
Heeday1719: yeah cuz alfonzo's not carrying the team
Heeday1719: i learned that pretty early in the season
TaoPingKuang: i think he'll be better next year
TaoPingKuang: personallly i think signing sexon would be a good idea
TaoPingKuang: partially becauswe i like his last name
Heeday1719: hahah
TaoPingKuang: that way every time i see hiim hit one out i can say . . "aww yeah he's sexon"

BET on Jack-in-the-Box:

TaoPingKuang: you know that jack takes credit card now!?!
Heeday1719: no way
TaoPingKuang: man i would have been there all the time if they did htat in college
Heeday1719: it's a good thing they didn't when were at berkeley
Heeday1719: exactly
Heeday1719: you'd be like 300 pounds
TaoPingKuang: you'd see on my statement a whole buncha 2.32 cent charges from jack in a box
TaoPingKuang: for one jumbo jack and two tacos

BET on cooking:

TaoPingKuang: when i live alone . . . i have to weigh the benefit of eating with the cost of cooking
Heeday1719: hahaha
TaoPingKuang: many times i evaluate the situation and say the cost outweighs the benefit
Heeday1719: so sometimes you just go without eating?
TaoPingKuang: only when my hunger isn't greater than my laziness
Heeday1719: so some days you're on the far end of the graph
TaoPingKuang: asometimes the hunger pains are too strong and i must microwave the taquitos

In honor of the Giants-less baseball playoffs (what was Zimmer thinking?), I'll continue my writings of Japanese professional baseball... or puro-yakyuu.

Deddo booru (Dead ball). Shuuto (Shoot).

That's beanball (as in what Roger Clemens likes throwing) and screwball (as in what John Franco and Jim Mecir throws). Where they got those terms... I have no idea. Oh, and like half of the pitchers here in Japan throw a "shuuto." And nearly all of em throw splitters or forkballs (i.e. Kazuhiro Sasaki and Hideo Nomo). Combine those nasty pitches along with Koshien, the big nationwide high school baseball tournment that happens twice a year, and I think anybody can figure out why most Japanese pitchers' arms practically fall off by the time they turn 30.

"The count is 2-3 with 2 outs." (Translated)

2 and 3? 3 strikes? Isn't that an out? No, no. 2-3 is read as being 2 strikes and 3 balls here in Japan. Not 2 balls and 3 strikes as it would be read in America. It's the little differences.

Speaking of differences... strategy.

Bunt. Bunt. Bunt.

It doesn't matter who's at bat. If there's a man on first and less than 2 outs... they guy at bat is more than likely to bunt. Forget the hit and run. If Barry Bonds ever comes here to play Japanese baseball, he better learn how to lay down a bunt. Rob Neyer, and his devout disciple Ben Tao would go nuts.

"Hey, you swing like a Major Leaguer." (Translated)

I went to a batting cage a while ago. People stopped and took notice. Apparently, I swing differently from all Japanese hitters, both pro and amateur. According to them, I swing like an American Major Leaguer. How do they swing? After watching other people for a while... i noticed a few differences. All their swings were either level or in a downward motion. Mine were either level or in a upward motion... an uppercut. The level swing I can understand. The downward swing... yeah, that goes beyond all logic in my mind. Then there's the issue of the legs. They didn't try to generate any power for the swings from their legs... I did.

The fans.

Baseball? A pasttime? As Tony Soprano would say, "Forget about it." Japanese fans are super devout. Going to a Japanese baseball game is not about sitting down and having a good time. Going to a Japanese baseball game is about standing up for a majority of the time, following the the lead of the "mic man," and going all out for your team. Closest thing I can compare it to is going to a college football game in the student section.

Ahh, the repercussions of not having a real national military force. All that built up energy gets put into sports. No joke. It gets downright scary at times. Never will you hear a Japanese athlete say that "Baseball is a game." Instead you might hear things like "Baseball is a battle," or "Baseball is life," or "Baseball represents the struggle between... etc etc etc." or "Baseball is the sacrifice of the individual for the greater good." It's incredible. Gotta admire them for their commitment to their convictions.

"Don't assume."

A piece of advice that my parents reinforced over and over and over again when I was younger. Apparently, this is an American value because Japanese people always assume. It works both ways here.

Probably the greatest thing about Japanese people is that they assume. They assume or perceive a need you have, and go at great lengths to meet those needs. This is the famous Japanese hospitality that everybody always talks about. I remember going through Japanese culture training at the LIFE office in LA, and being told never to say that you like something in somebody else's home. Why? Example... when I was in Shizuoka a while ago, I glancingly said that I thought my host family father's old high school baseball uniform was really cool. As a farewell present, guess what I got from the host family father? The same old high school baseball uniform.

At the same time probably the greatest struggles I have with Japanese people is that they assume. I say something, and they think I'm saying something else. This isn't a language barrier issue. It doesn't matter if I'm speaking perfect Japanese. When I speak, people listen to me with the assumption that I'm not speaking with my "honne" or my true intentions/feelings. Of course, being both male and American, I say what I mean or at least I try to. But in the Japanese culture context, to speak my "honne" is perceived as being immature. And so, as Japanese people listen, they try to figure out what I'm really trying to say when in fact, I'm saying what I'm trying to say. Confusing? You betcha. Basically, Japanese people figure that I'm not directly communicating my true intentions when I am. Wow, that was a lot harder to explain than I thought it'd be.

In response to Steve's response... I never knew! Burps? Someone needs to give them cows a crazy mess load of Altoids. And oops, sorry about the mistakes. Guess I'm just ignant in regards to Davis. Yes, that was spelling of ignorant was intentional.

I just sent an email to Brandon out in Thailand saying that it probably doesn't smell as bad here in Japan as it does out there... among other things, don't worry! Anyway, it looks like I underestimated the smell of Date. I forgot about the pig farm. Up on the hills there's a pig farm. And every now and then, usually when it's sunny and windy, the smell of its feces blankets the entire city. It looks like I'm living in Quatro at Davis. Or as my old accountability group used to say... C-C-C-Cohwalinngahhh! (that's Coalinga)

Today was sunny and windy, a great day for hanging laundry on the balcony like a FOB. Well, except for the fact that the funk of the pig farm was swirling in the air too. Still hung it out though.

Great, simple article about Japanese economics and politics on newsweek: Japan is Back (No, really!)

Things that surprised me about the article... Japan is the fourth largest spender on military? I had no idea. All this talk from Japanese people saying that they don't have a military but a "self defense force" blah blah blah. I don't care how big the SDF is in terms of members, if you're the fourth largest spender on it, you're a formidable force. They're making a small army of Rambos out here.

Speaking of which, I've found that Sly has zero charisma here in Japan. Not that he has much in America now... but he used to. But no luck here in Japan. Every Japanese person I've talked to doesn't like and never did like Sly. On the contrary, Arnold's got a huge fan base here. What's the difference? "Stallone's gross" is the most I've gotten so far... maybe I'm not asking the most articulate people in the country.

Well, after his governorship, Arnold can come to Japan and try to be the Prime Minister of Japan. He can team up with the pro wrestler in parliament, The Great Sasuke and "pump up" the government by getting rid of all the flabby girly men.

Bob, I usually update the rankings on Monday. In the case of last week, however, because I was butt-tired after coming back from Tokyo on Monday, I decided it was wise to just adjust the rankings on Tuesday. I'm sure you understand.

In related news, I'm wondering how many BCS weeks should constitute a "season." And then what of the post-season? Are we gonna have blog bowls? Hey, if that means corporate sponsorships, I'd be more than happy to set that up. This being the inaugural year of the BCS, we probably won't be able to get big name sponsorships like Tostitos or even Enterprise. Oh well.

Completely unrelated... looks like winter's rearing its incredibly ugly head around to Hokkaido. Hasn't snowed yet in Date, but wow, it's getting mighty cold. Today's HIGH... 10 celcius. I'm not sure but I think that's around the ballpark of mid to low 50s. My celcius to fahrenheit conversion skills went out the window when I was introduced to Kelvin in chemistry. Stupid Kelvin.

I just came back from the Tokyo area for the LIFE MInistries Day of Prayer. Quick thoughts.

I'm definitely a city boy. When I rode in someone's car, I was happy there was traffic. Oh, the people here in Date sometimes complain about the car traffic. But when they complain about traffic here in Date, they're talking about 5 cars in front of them at a stop light. I think they'd go berzerk if they drove in the bay area around the MacArthur maze. When I rode the train, I was elated that there were so many people around me... with the exception of the time when I caught the last train of the day in the Tokyo area, and hence the train conductor pushed us all in the train car with his white gloves.

I walked a lot. In Tokyo you walk or you stand. And I did a lot of both. In Hokkaido, you don't do a lot of either. We sit a lot. We drive a lot. And it showed by how exhausted I would be at the end of the day in the past weekend.

Missionary get-togethers are weird. They feel so surreal. I mean, everyday, you work with Japanese people with Japanese values, speaking the Japanese language, and then for a concentrated few hours or days, you go to some place and see, talk to, and interact with all these Western people doing the same kind of work as you are. I'll probably write about this more a little later.

I visited this really interesting church that Sunday. Super conservative. Super traditional. But a good number of the congregation were 20, 30, and 40 year olds. Totally weirded me out.

Have no fears. I am ok.

At 4:50AM, a large earthquake (8.0) hit off the coast of the island of Hokkaido. Guess where I am? You guessed it. Hokkaido. If you want to hear the news aspect of the earthquake... here's the CNN article on it.

So, what was I doing when the earthquake hit? It was 4:50AM. What do you think I was doing? I was sleeping. And as many of you know, I am a heavy sleeper. This is coming from a guy who slept through his roommate dressing him up in a ridiculous costume made up of a surgeon's mask and sunglasses among other things. Well, surprise surprise, I woke up this time around to the earthquake.

My first thought? "Ehh, I ride this one out." Then I started hearing Mrs. Weaver, my 1st grade teacher saying, "If you feel an earthquake, duck and cover." So, I thought about it. Should I duck and cover? Should I run over to the sturdy table and curl up like a sow bug? Mind you, I'm thinking while the ground is shaking. I'm still thinking... and about 10 seconds pass.

By this time, I just thought, "Ehh, the earthquake can't last much longer. It's not worth the effort to get out of bed." But sure enough, it kept going, and I kept waiting. I was playing chicken with an earthquake. And I won. Yeah. Stupid? Yeah.

So now, in the aftermath, I'm living in an official tsunami warning area. That's pretty cool. Oh yeah, and there's an ever present volcano eruption warning in this area too. When I first moved in, I got a poster with a map of the area and its nearby volcano saying, "Be careful if you live within the colored area on the map." The colored area encircled the volcano and its surroundings. Sure enough, there was my neighborhood colored in yellow. At least I'm out of range from lava flow. That would not be cool.

In related news, go check out BET's blog about his conquests over Hurricane Isabel.

Every Wednesday night, our church has a prayer meeting. For part of the prayer meeting, we well, pray. And the pastor makes a printout with a list of prayer requests that he passes out to everyone who comes.

This past Wednesday's handout was full of typos. The best one?

"From the 'end of the world' to the beginning of next week, Hideyo Satake will be Tokyo for the LIFE Ministries Day of Prayer."

What he meant to type was "From the weekend to the beginning of next week..."

Instead he got the "end of the world." How? The Japanese pronunciation for the term "end of the world" is the same as the Japanese pronunciation for the term "weekend." BIG DIFFERENCE. But same pronunciation. "Shuumatsu." But of course, the Chinese characters, the Kanji of the two terms are very different.

So, it looks like I get "left behind." I mean, I'm gonna still be in Tokyo after the world ends. Well, at least until the beginning of next week. Who knows what happens after that.

Hey, if you're a guy, go check out the 5823 "Are you a metrosexual?" quiz. Props out to Danny for making a way better quiz than the one on ESPN.

Personal notes about the quiz. I got 13 points. So far, that means I'm between Cal and Danny in terms of my metrosexuality. Question #8 about the last book I read upped my score quite a bit. 3 points. Last book I read... Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. Great book about writing a book. And yes, it was recommended to me.

We are now coming to the end of the American baseball season. This, of course, means the end of the fantasy baseball season. It's a weird thing... playing fantasy baseball with American people when you're away from America. A lot has happened in the American sports world over the past 2 years. And I didn't witness any of it. A new crop of stars have sprung up and I don't know any of them.

Example: I joined a fantasy football league with some friends from high school. We had a live draft a while ago. (There was the whole "I'm in Japan Standard time, how am I supposed to join a live draft with Americans?" thing, but that's not all that interesting so we'll skip that.) At the end of the draft, I noticed that I've seen about a third of the players I drafted, play in the pros. The only reason why I knew to draft them was because of their stats from last year. Now, that we're into the season, they're nothing but stats on a box score to me. I mean, I wouldn't have known that Chad Johnson, the wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals was black had Yahoo! Sports not put a picture on all their player profiles.

Some random thoughts,

Foreigners are always the last to know in this country. Doesn't matter what it is... doesn't matter how important it is... we're the last to know anything. Most recent example: Today, we're going to have a singing concert at the church involving the children attending the English classes. Last Wednesday, the organizer asked me to speak for it. "10-15" minutes he said. To begin with, I obviously need more prep time than the average Japanese person to give a talk in Japanese. A week to prepare? Doable, but difficult. And secondly, I'd like to see someone else do it. It's an opportunity to discover giftings, an opportunity that should be reserved for a Japanese church attender I thought. I brought up the concerns, but the organizer insisted that I do it. At the end, he said "Think about it." The following Sunday, after service I was going to tell him that I'd decline, but a different church member asked me how the preparation for the concert speaking was going. Apparently, there wasn't anything to think about. I was assigned the task even though I refused at first and intended to refuse again. Oh well.

Completely different topic. Michelle Wie, the Korean-American female teenage golfer who now has entered in 2 men's events. She's 13! 13! What the heck? LeBron James step aside. At least you were 17 when you were discovered by the national eye. When I was 13, I was like 3 feet tall, memorizing the Abbott and Costello Who's on First routine for my English class, and doing science fair experiments. Which reminds me, she's 13 and she's like 6 feet tall. That's like twice my height at the same age. I'd be afraid that she was gonna eat me. Now that's gotta be awkward for those already awkward junior high school dances.

I wrote this before, but I webcam with Dean weekly. Starts Tuesday 11:30PM JST (that's Japan standard time). Sometimes we go well into 2AM JST. Kinda crazy!

What do we do? Well, together we're doing an LTG (Life Transformation Group). Bible reading, accountability, sharing news, etc..

This time around we messed around a lot. I don't think I've laughed so hard in a long long time. Among other things discussed was what a Chris Rock comedic routine would be like if it were adapted for Christian audiences.

"You know what I hate about hypocritical Christians? They take credit for things they're supposed to do. They're like, 'I love people who love me.' You're supposed to love people who love you. What? You want a cookie?" (Matthew 5:44-46)

Wow, lots of stuff floating around in my head. But today, I'll finally get around to addressing Bob's comment a few days back. How did you decide to apply to seminary?

The reason why I decided to put this topic aside for a while is cuz when I first read his comment, I said, "Oh no. I'm gonna hafta write a college essay-like thing and post it on the web for everyone to see." I mean, his question is the topic for one of the essays I'm gonna hafta write for the app process. And the last time I went through the college essay writing process it was long and not fun. It ended up becoming one of the assignments for our English class... a what-seemed-like 4 month assignment. And it very well could have been, I don't remember. 4 months from the first draft to the final. Ugh. What did I write about 7 years ago? I wrote something about wanting to go to college to rediscover myself and my ethnic roots... and somehow I weaved Tupac in there. Yeah yeah. He's black (err was... I dunno), and I'm not. So, back to the topic at hand... have no worries I won't write some college essay-like thing. I'll do the short run down. And Tupac'll probably be left out as a result. Too bad.

In my last year of college, I knew two things. In regards to the whole "Whaddya wanna be when you grow up thing" I knew God was calling me to serve Him. And I knew God was telling me to go to Japan now. And so, I interpreted it to mean that this short 2 year (now 2 1/2 year) commitment was an experiment, a testing ground for my faith and trust in Him. I didn't know one big thing though. What am I gonna be when I grow up? But I went. And here I am. I went knowing that if I took this first step, that God would light the next one.

The perfect storybook ending would be that once I got here, God totally confirmed everything and then gave me this huge vision, and now I know. And if the end product is all that matters and if you shrink down "huge" to maybe "semi-big," then, yeah, the perfect storybook ending is what happened. But the process has been CRAZY. Stretching anything, including faith, causes tension and stress. I've been frustrated, tired, burnt out, angry, pissed off, drained, exhausted, sad, lonely, hurt... YET, I will praise Him. And because of that process, I'm starting to sense that I've been given a gift. Not absolutely certain yet, but it seems to be a vision to see God transform the Asian American church into an Antioch. One that truly does send out.

I read through the books of the prophets a while ago. And as I read through them, I learned that with a vision from God, comes a very big responsibility. A responsibility to communicate that vision/revelation. I still don't know what my role is in this vision. I don't know the title that I'm gonna carry. But, I feel that going to seminary will help train me in, and clarify the beginnings of this vision.

So I went to a Japanese wedding today. This is the second time for me for the wedding itself while it was the first time to go to the reception. Christian wedding, so it was very Western. Why is that? Why does Christian equal Western? Ehh, but that's a whole different topic. Regardless, even though it was very Western there were differences... quirks if you will from the way that I'm used to, the American way.

Number 1, the wedding itself is short. I timed it. The wedding went for 40 minutes. Now, I don't know how long a standard American wedding goes, but this wedding was all in Japanese, I didn't understand everything, and it still felt short. Why?

Well, that goes into number 2 which is, the couple don't exchange vows. The pastor did the whole "Do you?" "I do" thing (I'm so romantic) to them both, but then when the rings came out, they just slipped them on each other.

Number 3, when the bride made her entrance, nobody stood up. Instinctively, I almost stood up... good thing I wasn't completely oblivious to my surroundings, which is a nice change.

Number 4, even though the ceremony is short, the reception is long. So, the wedding starts at 2PM. It ends at 2:40PM. It takes about 45 minutes to get everybody to the reception hall and seated. It's about 3:30PM. 3:30PM! The reception. You know the place where people get together, talk, and eat. Who eats at 3:30PM? We did.

And number 5, the reception is full of speeches. That's right speeches. Not toasts. Speeches. Actually come to think about it, the reception wasn't very long. It was pretty standard actually. We left at about 7PM. About 4 hours. But it felt longer. Speeches can do that. And from what I hear, the speeches at this particular reception were shorter and fewer in number.

Number 6, people don't buy wedding gifts. Instead, people give them money. But in an indirect way. No, they don't slip em a bill through a handshake like a bribe. Instead, the people who go to the reception pay way too much for the reception dinner on the day of. Yeah, it's kind of strange. Everybody knows that the money goes to the couple. But it's labeled and given as payment for the reception dinner. Example. I paid 7000 yen for tonight's reception dinner. That's about $60. Now, the food was good. But it wasn't that good.

Interesting thing that came up in conversation. Apparently, here in Japan, people think I'm older than I really am. How did this come up in conversation? Well, at the beginning of the day, I prepared myself for the two question/comments I was sure to get at the wedding. "How old are you?" and "So when are you getting married?" And sure enough I got them both. Yeah, I won't touch that second question in this blog... or ever.

So, anyway, I get asked "How old are you?" I tell them the truth. Yeah, that's right, them. It was a group question. I say, "23." And they respond back with "Oh, I thought you were 2 or 3 years older than that" "Yeah, me too" "Uh huh." The weird thing is that this isn't the first time I've heard this in Japan. Why is it weird? Because when I'm in the States, I often get mistaken for a 16 year old. In strict movie theaters, I get carded for R rated movies. The last time I came home, I helped my mom out at El Cerrito High, and some people there thought I was a student there. I wanted to shake em real hard and say "I graduated 6 years ago."

So, again bringing it back from the tangent... after the group said "I thought you were 2 or 3 years older than that" I was unexplainably happy. They were visibly perplexed. "Why are you happy that you look older?" And I couldn't answer. So, I responded back with a really slick "I dunno." Yeah, that's right. I was real cool. Haha.

Oh, quick Happy Birthday shout out to my brother Kei. Hope you got the package by now.

"The man is no fool who loses what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

Why is it that churches keep pens and markers that are outta ink?

Every church I've been to (granted it's a small sample size) has a seemingly endless supply of useless pens and markers. And of course, they're all together in a canister or cardboard box somewhere. When I teach English at the church here, I use a white board... you know those dry erase boards. And there's this box that holds all the dry erase markers... along with a bunch of other junk like tiny broken pieces of chalk, dirty rags, small magnets, and broken colored pencils. In this box, there are probably about 10 dry erase markers. 4 are black, 3 are blue, 2 are red, and 1 is green. Does that add up? Yep.

Ok. So, of these 10 dry erase markers, only one works well. There's one fat black marker that works well. Good, continuous, dark streaks. The other ones? Dried out. Thin streaks. Weak color. But for some reason, we keep them. Maybe it's because they work well for the first stroke on the dry erase board. And it'd be wasteful, especially for a church, to throw away a pen that's still good for the first stroke of usage. It's always the same. I pick up one of the dry erase markers, start to write something (and it's good for a little while), and then of course it starts running outta ink real quick. So, instinctively, I put the cap back on, chuck it back into the box, and pick up another marker. This process goes on with the black markers until I find that one that's good. This happens everyday. When I put the bad markers back into the box do I think that they'll magically become good again? I dunno. And of course, I don't go to the local store and buy new dry erase markers because we have 10 dry erase markers in the box. Why would anyone need more than 10 dry erase markers?

Maybe I should change the initial question from "Why is it that churches..." to "Why is that Hideyo...". Just call me the bad dry erase marker savior.

Ohh... this week's Strong Bad email was hilarious, or at least I thought so.

I just finished video conferencing with Dean. Weird thing about video conferencing... there's of course a window showing the dude you're video conferencing with... but then there's also a window showing yourself. Well, at least in iVisit's case there is. The first few times I used iVisit, I tried to ignore my window. But I dunno, it's hard. Sometimes, I feel the urge to take a peek at myself for some strange reason. What do I look like when I look surprised? What do I look like when I'm being sympathetic? Do I look fake? Ever wonder this stuff? Or am I the only one? Maybe I'm just vain... or self-conscious, or both. Whoa, what a scary combination.

Well, anyway, the last 3 times that I've video conferenced (is that a word?) with Dean, I decided to hide my video window behind one of the other windows so that I don't become distracted and can devote my full attention to what he's saying.

Sorry Bob, that post'll have to wait.

So, this morning I sliced off a piece of my left thumb. As I type I'm learning to use my right thumb to push the space bar. Ughh, this is taking a long time. I was clumsily using a grater... as in for use in cooking, and a chunk off the tip of my thumb got sliced off.

Man oh man... those monkeys have it hard. Opposable thumbs are great. You can brush your teeth, you can comfortably grip a steering wheel, chopsticks are usable, and space bar pressing is as quick as lightening.

Bob, yeah, you didn't miss anything. I never posted about it before. Never realized that the whole process never made it to the online version. Oh well.

So anyway, a while ago, I requested app information from some schools online. Some interesting things that happened as a result...

1) Online requests for app info are not internationally friendly. To request for information, all you have to do is provide em with your address. Sure, some of em have a little box that says "Country"... but at the same time the rest of the address boxes are just not very useful. Take the "state/province" box for instance. Two letter limit. Naturally... if you live in the United States or Canada. CA, NV, HI, BC, ON, etc.. But what if your province is... oh say, "Hokkaido." What do you write? HO? HK? One might send it to the North Pole while the other'll go to Hong Kong, or Jeff's house. And don't get me started on the "postal/zip code" box with it's 5 number limit.

2) Every school thought I was an international student. I didn't request for international student info. But I got it. Must have been the combination of the Japan address and the Japanese name. Yeah yeah yeah. I didn't use Alfred. That's my middle name by the way (yeah, that's right, get all your Batman jokes out of your system now). Anyway, I got all this literature about the TOEFL. Stroke the ego? Maybe not.

3) Seminaries are crazy expensive. I had no idea. At the end of almost all the pretty brochures is the estimated costs rundown. Yowzuh.

4) I got a personal email from someone at one of the schools. This was really cool. Completely unexpected. And cool.

Something that's bugged me since the beginning of this entry... what's the two letter code for Alberta? Cuz Alabama took AL right? AB? But that's a blood type. And American Eagle took AE. AR? That's Arkansas... I think. AT? Automatic transmission? AA? Yeah, I think we all know what AA is.

Just started on seminary apps. Crazy stuff. When I first got em a few weeks ago, I sorta hid em because they were scary. Ok ok. I didn't "sorta" hide them. I really hid them. Away into the abyss between books on my bookshelf.

Why so scary? Well, for the last 3 or 4 years, I haven't known specifically "what I'm going to do when I grow up." Sure, in that 4 year span... the beginning was pretty scary. All of a sudden, the goal of "gettin' my learn on" got a little cloudy. But, with time the uncertainty became my friend. I got used to it. It became the norm. And soon, the uncertainty transformed into something else. It transformed into freedom. Ch-chur-chur-chur-chi. That's the sound of a Transformer transforming.

In taking this step in applying, it almost feels like I'm losing that friend. Maybe it's the whole committing to a set path thing that was giving me a small case of the heebie-jeebies.

Now, I'm getting a major case of the heebie-jeebies because I gotta write a couple of essays. A person a couple of years removed from living in an English speaking country is expected to write an essay in English! Oy. It'd be so much easier if I could write the essays in Hideyoese, a personal mix of Japanese and English. Demo shikataganai yo ne.

I love blogger.

I just noticed now that the banner on all blog pages at the top has a "Related searches" thingy. Cal's banner has "pancakes" among other things right now. Me? I have "middle finger" and "static electricity." Great. I'm now linked to the middle finger because of my post on August 31st.

Thanks Drew for helping me understand in relation to the August 24th post. It's possible.

In the same thread, I've been flipped off here in Japan practically everyday. The guy at the convenience store flipped me off when I asked for directions. The gas station attendant flipped me off after pumping my gas. Even my pastor flipped me off on a number of occassions after I asked him when he was planning on taking his vacation.

Why? Well, here in Japan people don't point with their "pointer" finger. Japanese people point using their middle finger... I guess because it's the longest finger. I dunno. I think I've gotten used to a lot of the Japanese "quirks" but this one... this one never ceases to catch me off guard.

Back in July, I was in my pastor's office talking about the vacation he was about to take in August. I wanted to be sure I got the information straight so I asked him, "What days are you looking at?" So, he pulls out the wall calendar in front of us, and BAM! Out stretches the middle finger right before my eyes, and he points it at a Monday. And then he continues to drag his finger across the week.

So, OK. Maybe I exaggerated when I said that I've been flipped off everyday. But for that split second, it sure feels that way.

A Pearl of Wisdom

No Asian person... no matter how lactose tolerant they think they are should ever try to drive a liter (about a quart) of milk straight. I made the mistake yesterday. I make some cookies, and I wanted to eat em so, of course I bring out the milk from the fridge. Well, you know when you watch TV when you eat and you don't keep track of how much you eat or drink? Yeah that happened with cookies and milk. And before I knew it... I downed the entire carton. My stomach wasn't feelin good when I was trying to go to sleep.

One thing I can't get used to, here in Japan... the way guys cross their legs when they're sitting down.

When I sit down, I'll cross my legs by making something that looks like the figure 4. No, not the old school wrestling move. The actual number "4". I'll pick up one of my legs and put it on the other so that the ankle of one leg is resting above the knee of the other leg. Not only is it comfortable, but it also doubles as a mini-desk if I don't have one in front of me. Yeah, pretty standard right?

Well, apparently, it isn't here in Japan. The guys here cross their legs the feminine way. You know, with the knee of one leg above the knee of the other leg. Girls doing this is understandable. But guys? YO! Doesn't it hurt? Or at least feel uncomfortable? I mean, anatomically, guys shouldn't be able to do something like that.

Vending machines are everywhere in Japan. Not just in front of stores, shopping malls, and supermarkets. Often, you'll see a random vending machine right in front of some dude's house. It's really weird. But that's not the only weird thing about vending machines here in Japan...

1) There are a ton of vending machines but there are hardly any public trash cans. Often, you won't see a trash can next to a vending machine. And yet, there's hardly any litter on the streets. Just one of those Twilight Zone or X-Files things I guess... like where do the socks disappear to when you do the laundry and where do all the Corn Pops go?

2) This summer, the Coca-Cola vending machines have a special taller-than-usual can (about 16 oz) that sells for 100 yen. The normal can (about 12 oz) sells for 120 yen. The thing is that even though the vending machines sell the tall can for 100 yen, they also sell the normal can for 120 yen. And... on the display, the tall can is right next to the normal can. Who would buy the 12 oz for 120 yen when you can get a bigger size for cheaper?

For all you guys who just came back from PCJFMC camp... this article's for you. Man, I wish I was there. But looks like I'll be there for 2004. In the great words of the Kool-Aid man, "Oh yeah."

I've been going to the hospital for a while now to get rid of my warts. YUCK! Yeah it was pretty obvious that they weren't gonna go away by themselves, so I decided to go to the professionals. So, for those who've never had them before, there is no option if you go to the hospital. They have one standard treatment. Freeze it off. They have this can/gun full of I dunno... liquid nitrogen? And the doctor just shoots the stuff on the wart. If it doesn't go away (or scale off) a few days after the hospital visit, you get the same treatment again. Repeat if necessary.

Yo, that mess hurts! Whoever it was that said that it doesn't hurt... you're either really tough or a big fat liar. Or maybe I'm just a little baby. There's of course the initial sting from the hospital visit... but it hurts more when you go home and unknowingly wash the dishes. When normal water touches the affected area... YAOOOOCHHHH. Kinda felt like the time I accidently burnt my finger with a sodering iron... and then tried to cool it off under a sink. Yeah, BAD MOVE.

Finally able to webcam with Dean just yesterday. It was pretty cool, even if his video was really jittery for no real reason. Definitely better than our previous way of communicating... email. And definitely better than phone calls cuz A) I can actually see him when I'm talking to him and B) It doesn't cost us by the minute! And he got a pretty phat deal on his webcam... $35 with a $20 mail in rebate to make it a grand total of $15. Now that, my friends, are some Chinese penny pinchin' skills. The software is free... downloaded from iVisit (thanks Peter). If anybody wants to talk... let's do it!

Article of the day: Conan Ready to Mark 10th Anniversary. Yes, that's right. Conan O'Brien. How can you not like a man that debuts Triumph the Insult Dog on TV, frequently gets Mr. T as a talk show guest, and gets his band members to do obscure sketches with him (in the year 2000... in the year 2000). Definitely funnier than the overly sarcastic David Letterman and Jay "I Laugh at My Own Jokes" Leno. Sophomore and junior year in college, I'd watch his show almost every night and just pass out on the recliner. Oh, that was a lotta fun.

Oh, and because all xanga sites are down and have been down for quite a while now... and because Danny'll be away for a week, we'll be having consecutive BCS bye weeks through August.

A couple of days ago, I get this phone call. I pick up and of course I go, "Moshi moshi." The guy on the other side gives a really hesitant "Uhh." A few moments pass and I realize that it's Jerry, and he realizes that he didn't call some random Japanese dude. Congrats to that man for going through the ordeal known as support raising. In many many ways it's very tough process.

Today's article of the day: Dinner with the Sayyids. Thought it was a really interesting perspective on the aftermath of the whole Iraq war thing. I really thought that the end of the article discussing and suggesting the United States' part in this religious and cultural revolution was compelling.

Just now, I saw a TV commercial here in Japan for some eye drops. According to the commercial, the eye drops aren't for red eyes, allergies, or even contact lens dry out. No. Instead, they're being sold as eye drops that help you out when you're tired.

Eyes feel tired? Use these drops for ultimate refreshment. Forget going to sleep. Forget taking some vacation time. Need to work! Have to work! Must work! Put a drop in each eye and I'm good to go. After all, a few milliliters of this miracle fluid is the same thing as a good night's rest.

The article of the day: The Beast Goes East.

Yeah, I still don't get the phenomenon. The article is right on when it comes to this guy Bob Sapp. Japanese fame as many of you know is a very very strange strange thing. Ehh, but it's one of those things that you just go, "I don't get it, but that's cool."

Strange thing about my apartment... when it gets warm outside, guess what room is the most humid. My bathroom. Actually, it's just the toilet room because that's all that's in that room. A toilet, oh, I'm sorry, it also has the toilet paper dispenser. Regardless, it's the strangest thing to come back to my apartment in the afternoon, go to the bathroom, and get hit with heavy humidity.

For a while I was perplexed as to why the toilet room would be so humid when the rest of the apartment is fine. And then I peered into the toilet and discovered that the toilet water levels were like half of usual. DUDE! That's kinda nasty! Breathing toilet water air. YUCK! I might as well go and drink the water straight.

So why, you may ask, is Hideyo's toilet room so humid? Well, I really don't know. At first, I thought it's because there isn't any real ventilation there because it doesn't have a window. But then, I realized that most apartments don't have windows in their bathrooms... it certainly was true in my apartment at Berkeley. And we never had toilet water humidity problems at my Berkeley apartment. We only had toilet clogging problems there, and that was because of those stupid "water conserving" toilets that don't flush with the required "oomph." It'd just kinda swirl around and then get clogged. Oyy.

Oh, unrelated... here's the article of the day: The fine art of packing revealed. I particularly like the link to Jamiaca Jim the website listing travel needs for traveling to the Caribbean. Caleb, with Jamaica Jim, here I come!

Today, we had the English class for the little kids. Today, we drew clothes on pieces of paper with people who looked like gingerbread men. I would say something like "He's wearing a blue jacket," and the kids would draw a blue jacket on the pieces of paper. I thought two things were particularly funny about this exercise.

I said, "She's wearing a yellow skirt." And after the boys figured out what a skirt was they went to work. As I looked around I noticed that half of the gingerbread men had SUPER mini skirts. I mean the skirt would start at around the belly button and would end at about the hips. Since this is a "Mom and me" class, the moms got real surprised and immediately told their kids to make sure that the skirts would go down to the knees.

When I was walking around to see how the kids were doing, I noticed that one of the boys drew tears on his gingerbread man. Because I was curious, I asked him, "Why does he have tears?" And he said, "That's me... it's because I always get scolded." Poor thing. But sorta funny. Change that. Really funny.

Ahh, summer!

Summer is "matsuri" or festival time here in Japan. Today, was Date's special "musha matsuri" which celebrates the founding of the city. The parade of people dressed up in samurai armor during the day was pretty cool. The parade of people playing taiko drums and dancing in the streets was cool too. But as people who know me know, it's all about the food, and I got plenty of it. I had a stick-run where everything I ate came off a stick of some sort. Yakitori, chocolate covered banana, corn dogs.

Funny thing about Hokkaido... yakitori literally means grilled bird or chicken. And most everywhere in Japan, the meat is chicken. Except here. It's pork out here. Why? I'm not really sure, but it is. I asked a Hokkaido person, "If it's pork why don't you call it 'yakibuta' or grilled pig/pork?'" I'm yet to get an answer to that question. Interestingly, sukiyaki, the national dish of Japan which is usually served with beef is served with pork here in Hokkaido. In fact, some Hokkaido people don't even know that it's supposed to be beef. Them Hokkaido people love their pig and freakin' cold wind chill factor.

Today's article: The Professional Jerk. Interesting article about the guy who plays Stifler. I still remember the MTV Cribs of his apartment. I think that was the coolest episode ever. Still can't find it on Kazaa. I can find Master P's stupid house... and practically every member of No Limit, but I can't find Stifler!

Now is the time for me to semi-rant like an old man...

I was blog hopping (you know, when you jump from one blog to another through the links posted on the blog), and well, I went through a stretch of some youngun's blogs. Is it just me, or are those pop-ups with mini messages that show up before you enter the xanga/blog really annoying? Oh and don't get me started on the background pictures that make it really hard to read the messages posted. Asian people squinting is never a good thing. What's wrong with a simple blog? Then again, maybe I'm just jealous because all I can do so far is post text messages. I can't even post pictures.

As an aside... with the power of blog hopping, who needs friendster? Unless of course people start 'fessing up admitting that it's not a "networking" site but a matchmaking site.

Dude...

I think the guy who lives under me has something like an ant farm. Today, I just noticed an ant with wings on the screen door to my balcony. (Side note, ants in Japan are way huger than ants in California) Fortunately, I don't have an ant problem inside the apartment yet.... But upon further investigation I saw a lot of ants up on my balcony next to my tire stack. And I think they're coming from down below. I'm on the 3rd floor. Ack. Right now I'm real tempted to give the ants the standard Hideyo treatment of death by vacuum cleaner.

Article of the day: In the Past, Children Were Full of Life

Question... is it the government's responsibility to provide "a hope for [the Japanese people's] life in an affluent society" as the columnist concludes? I might agree that it's the government's partial responsibility to provide a hope in a poverty-stricken society and even then it's only partial. But in an affluent society? In an affluent society I'd have to say that personal lifestyle choices are the key factors.

Jeremiah 29:11

Brought the East Bay barbeque to Japan...

Hot dogs, steak, chicken, and ribs for meat. Some things I learned from the whole thing in regards to the four basic food groups...

Hot dogs: Japanese people don't eat hot dogs. Japanese people see hot dogs on the grill, and immediately think "Breakfast sausage." So I had to have an another American show everybody how to prepare the hot dog. That Japanese dude at the Coney Island hot dog eating contest sure had me fooled. Anyway, I bought 30 hot dogs, and 30 hot dog buns (often does that happen?). In the end, I had about 9 hot dog buns leftover. What happened? I think some people either didn't hear the explanation, thought that the explanation was too difficult, or decided that Japanese people just shouldn't eat sausages like hot dogs.

Steak: When Japanese people grill cow, they always cut it real thin. If it's being fried in a pan, steak is ok. We had steak. We grilled it. Wow, I got a lot of comments about that. "What if it's not properly cooked?" "You're gonna have a red steak." "This is so different." "You're definitely American." The comments went on. Apparently, Japanese people don't like medium rare steak. They like it medium well. Regardless, the beef disappeared real quick.

Chicken: When Japanese people grill chicken, they cut it into chunks and shish kabob it (kushiyaki style). Yeah, I heard the comments on the steak again when the chicken got put on the grills. Funny, because unlike my usual ways, I cut the thigh meat in half for financial reasons. In the end, I found out that most everybody liked the chicken the best. As Dean used to call it, "Boodeyo chicken."

Ribs: Japanese people have never cooked ribs like... well, ribs. I broke out the ribs towards the end. I swear I saw people look at me like I was some primitive caveman when I put the ribs on. People wanted to see Oog and Thog do their thing. This was definitely the draw. Some people really liked em. Some people just wanted to try em for novelty purposes. And some were just too full from the hot dogs, steak, and chicken to eat em. That of course was great news for us grillers.

All in all, a great success. Have no worries, thanks to many other people, we ate vegetables and lots and lots of fruit! About 25 people came out. Too bad none of the neighbors wanted to join. Then again, we had just enough food. After all, I was preparing for 25 people.