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.

The good article of the day: Risky Business. Talks about the modern day "dilemma" many people in developed countries face in living in risk. Really got me thinking about about the absurdity of worry.

Matthew 6:25-34.

In other news, I just went to the meat shop to reserve meat for a barbeque on Saturday. Aww yeah. We gonna have ribs! They aren't baby back and they aren't from Chili's, but there will be BARBEQUE SAUCE (in a deep voice). Speaking of which, I can't find that commercial on Kazaa. Instead, I get search results that show some Chili's commercial featuring NSync. I don't want a Chili's commercial featuring NSync! Who wants a Chili's commercial featuring NSync?!

Blah...

I think I caught a cold. I can't taste my food unless I inhale real hard while I'm eating. And lemme tell ya, that's hard work. I have a headache, and I'm just not feelin' all that great right now. Yeah, I know, IN JULY?!! Well, it ain't that hard when the high of the day reaches a scorching 64 degrees fahrenheit. Last night, during our church's prayer meeting, we had the heater on. Makes me go, "I don beeleef." Apparently, this is the coldest summer in this area for a real long time.

In somewhat related news, recently here in Date, plastic garbage gets thrown out with burnable garbage. Before, burnable garbage were thrown out in a green garbage bag on Mondays and Thursdays, while plastic garbage got thrown out in a white garbage bag on Tuesdays. With the installation of a new garbage incinerator, we now throw the burnables and plastic out in the green bag together on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Maybe the city officials realized that the whole global warming phenomenon wasn't reaching our quint city of Date. Before we know it, Date will become a tropical beach resort with the help of a hole in the ozone layer right over us, courtesy of burnt plastic.

Well, at least God didn't call me to be a missionary in Antarctica.

Bill James... baseball nerd extraordinaire. This one is for you Ben Tao.

I can almost hear Ben Tao yelling across the Pacific Ocean, saying, "Hideyo, you're an idiot. How can you think that Marvin Benard is no good?" Marvin Benard is one of many points of contention we had. Included in the list are Mike Hampton's pitching ability outside of the Astrodome, reformed theology, affirmative action, Macintosh computers, whether or not compassionate conservativism actually exists, foreign policy, Ben's skill in wrestling, Puff Daddy's skill in rapping, the President's intelligence, Ben Tao's intelligence, and my intelligence.

Looks like I'm on an article run cuz here's another... Pizza cuts cancer risk?

Hmm... Italian scientists huh? A tad biased? I mean how seriously would the world take it if American scientists said that a big fat porterhouse cuts cancer risk? Or if Japanese scientists said that squid, mayonnaise, sardine pizzas cut cancer risk? Even if it was confirmed that squid, mayonnaise, sardine pizzas cut cancer risk, I don't think I'd go rush to get one.

Reminds me of these "barley greens" pills that my friend Ben Tao took. Actually, lemme correct that... these "barley greens" pills that my friend Ben Tao was supposed to take. They were supposed to be good for you. I didn't see Ben take those pills very often. Instead, I think he used them more often to wake me up when I'd fall asleep in his apartment. He'd take the jar, twist off the lid, and keep the jar under my nose for a few seconds.

Thought this article was quite funny considering the awkward position the US is in right now.

A good, short article showing the current Japanese societal situation. And the US government thinks it has a social security problem...

This past Sunday, we had a lot of guests come to worship service because we were holding a church member's "konyaku shiki" or engagement ceremony. Yeah, that was a little cultural quirk. Apparently, in Japan, if you want to get engaged, you hold a ceremony for it. In front of your invitees, you basically, propose... but not on one knee. You just stand there, and "ask" the girl to marry ya. I put the word, "ask" in quotation marks because by the time the ceremony comes around, the guy knows the answer to the question. The konyaku shiki just serves to show friends and family that in the very near future, the couple will get married. Thought this was very Japanese-y.

Anyway, after the ceremony we had a dessert luncheon. And of course, in true Japanese fashion, everybody introduced themselves, and said a little something to the newly engaged couple. The best self-introduction by far was by Miyazaki ojiichan or grandpa Miyazaki. He went like this (translated):

I'm Miyazaki. I'm... eighty... something years old. I forget. I'm done.

A person's future and God...

I've heard a lot of well meaning Christians say in regards to their futures, "I'm trying to figure out what I can do that'll make the biggest impact for the kingdom of God."

Not too long ago, I finished reading the book of Jeremiah. Yo, lemme tell ya, it ain't a whole lot of fun. This dude had serious problems with depression.

Jeremiah, from a ministry standpoint was a humong-o failure. Lemme explain. He was a prophet. But nobody listened to him. Nobody repented because of his work. He didn't do anything "really cool." He didn't have fire come down from heaven like Elijah. He didn't control animals to eat children who made fun of him like Elisha.

Jeremiah just said what God told him to say, and when the people didn't listen, he cried and asked God to stop telling him to preach. But Jeremiah continued. He CONTINUED.

As a warning against false prophets, Jesus warns that you'll recognize a real prophet by his fruit. We've taken that to mean that a good leader has a lot of fruit... the kind that look like hordes of people coming to Christ, hordes of people recommitting their lives to Christ, being part of a humong-o church that multiplies disciples throughout the world (work fruit). But assuming that Jeremiah's a legit prophet, Jeremiah's fruit is found in his HEART, not in his WORK. He saw none of that stuff. If there is "heart fruit," there is the possibility that "work fruit" will appear. But whether "work fruit" shows up or not is God's decision.

The problem with saying, "I'm trying to figure out what I can do that'll make the biggest impact for the kingdom of God," is two-fold. First, when we think about the words "the biggest impact" we're really only thinking about work fruit. The thinking is, if a ton of people don't come to Christ as a result of me, I didn't make a big impact. The truth is that work fruit can quite easily be manipulated to look even better than it really is. In some cases it can appear to look like there is work fruit when in reality there is none. The second problem, is closely tied to the first. Put simply, there are too many "I"s. The focus is all wrong. The focus is on "me." What can I do?

The thing is that when God calls us and chooses us to do something, the question "What can I do?" kinda just fades away. It just doesn't matter. God chose Jeremiah to do something. It wasn't fun. It wasn't a very cool job. And in the end, Jeremiah didn't have very much to show for it all in terms of numbers. But he had lots to show for it in his heart. Patience. Longsuffering. Perseverence. Trust. Humility.

Jeremiah 1:4-5

If the BCS post from yesterday shows anything, it's that if you write about other people's blogs, not only will your readership increase, but your comment box will start to fill up. Nothing like a little brown-nosing...

In related news, I just noticed that my blog counter's close to the 5000 mark (it's down at the bottom of the page). Dude, I'm almost at the same pace as some girls' blogs. Actually, lemme correct that... as some girls' xangas. It's come to my attention that girls' bloggers don't fare as well as girls' xangas. Apparently, because xangas give you the ability to post pictures, guys check em out more often in hopes of catching a glimpse of a glamour shot of the author. I'm yet to see hard evidence for this theory... but the guys in the labs are checking it out as we speak... err as I write.

Oh, and I'm still mad at NHK.

In keeping with the recent baseball theme,

I'm mad. No wait, I'll drop it down a notch to "incredibly peeved." I was able to watch the baseball All-Star game live (the broadcast started at 9:00AM out here). To make it even better, it was showing on one of the TV channels (NHK) that have bilingual capabilities here in the Muroran/Date area. I consider this better because that way, I don't have to listen to Japanese "sports reporters" babble on and on about American baseball when it's very clear that they know nothing about it. I love Japan, and Japanese things... but the sports reporters here, ughhhhh.

Anyway, in the 7th inning, the clock struck noon here, and whaddya know, NHK cuts away from the game to a news report. Why? Because it was noon. Everyday, at noon, NHK does a 15-20 minute news report... who cares if their showing a live feed from the All-Star game, and it's not yet over?

If it's a news flash showing some major disaster, or international crisis, or national crisis for that matter... I'd understand. If the news report started in the 3rd inning, maybe I'd let it slide. But it started in the 7th! And of course, because it started in the 7th, by the time the news report was over and they cut back to the All-Star game, the game was over and the American broadcasters stopped talking about the game so, Japanese broadcasters took over the bilingual channel, going over the highlights of their Japanese players.

To make the whole thing even more infuriating, the news report interruption highlighted the action of the All-Star game up until that point (the 7th inning). I wanted to SCREAM, "I DON'T WANT TO SEE THE HIGHLIGHTS UP UNTIL THIS POINT IN TIME! I WANT TO SEE THE GAME! HURRY UP AND GET BACK TO THE GAME! STOP TAKING AWAY TIME FROM THE GAME SO THAT YOU CAN SHOW HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SAME GAME!"

And of course, there was a ton of action in the bottom of the 7th and 8th inning, as well as the top of the 9th inning. NHK now joins NTT and NTT's subdivision DoCoMo, on my list of most hated Japanese companies.

To your left, you'll see the official BCS (Blog Championship Series) rankings. All rankings are determined by a computer taking Schedule Strength, number of losses, and the ever ambiguous "quality wins" into consideration. Actually, it's more like "quality of entries", "number of missed blog days", and level of comment participation. Hahaha... yeah right. To tell you the truth, there is no system. While I'm picking my nose, I'll say, "Hey, this is pretty good," and then raise that blog's ranking.

Check back for ranking changes.

Follow up blog to the baseball blog on the 9th...

So, yesterday, I went to Sapporo because there was an Alpha Course introductory seminar being held there. Afterwards, I met up with Alinna's sister, Kathleen who's here in Hokkaido with OMF.

Since I was in Sapporo, I figured, "Hey, I'll go find me a Nippon Ham Fighters ballcap." I think I went to about 3 sports stores, and none of em had a Nippon Ham Fighters cap. One store had all these caps for American Major League Baseball teams, even the throwback hats (like those nasty brown and yellow Padres hats... the Steve Garvey hats, yuck), but alas, they didn't have a single Japanese baseball team cap. I asked the clerk there, if they have any Japanese baseball caps and the guy looked at me kinda funny and said, "No, you're not gonna be able to find those around here. You're probably gonna hafta go to Sapporo Dome (the place where the Nippon Ham Fighters play) to get something like that."

Dude. How sad is that? You can get a nasty throwback Padres cap, but you can't get the local home team's cap. It's kinda like how it's cheaper for a Japanese person to travel to Hawaii, China, Korea, or Southeast Asia than it is to travel within Japan.

Oh, and Bob, it's the (Nippon Ham) Fighters. Not the (Nippon) Ham Fighters. The baseball teams here in Japan aren't affiliated with areas/cities like their American counterparts (i.e. San Francisco Giants, Oakland A's). Instead, Japanese baseball teams are affiliated with companies. For example, in the Yomiuri Giants' case, Yomiuri isn't a city's name but the name of a huge newspaper/media company. Hence, the Nippon Ham Fighters are not Ham Fighters at all, but sponsored by Nippon Ham, a company that makes... well... ham.

Mad props to Ben Nie for sending me this link. Wish I saw it on TV.

I miss watching baseball games at the ballpark. On my most recent trip back home just last month, I was fortunate enough to go see an A's game (the A's couldn't hit Shane Reynolds... Shane Reynolds!) though. ESPN.com is doing a summer feature reporting each Major League baseball park in America. Here's the feature on Pac Bell Park. Love that place. One thing I want to add to the feature is that you can (or used to be able to) get a bottled Coke for $1 from the vending machines behind the bleachers, right next to the Coke Bottle slides.

As for my short list of Major League ballpark experiences... I've been to Pac Bell Park, Candlestick Park, the Oakland Colisseum, the Kingdome (eating Vietnamese sandwiches of all things), and outside of Fenway Park. I still remember a night game at Candlestick where a bunch of my friends and I were daring each other to go the rest of the game shirtless. Those of you who've been to the stick before, know the (as Ben Tao would say) cuh-jones it takes to take on such a dare. I know I say this a lot, but one of these days, I'm gonna tour the ballparks of America like these ESPN.com writers.

'Round these parts, Hokkaido just recently got a baseball team. And I mean recently. This season is the first season that Hokkaido has a team. A team from the Tokyo area got relocated to the big city of Sapporo... the Nippon Ham Fighters. Gotta love em. I mean, how can you not like a team called the Nippon Ham Fighters? I'm yet to go to a game, because Sapporo's like 2-3 hours away, but from watching the news recaps of the games it looks like I wouldn't have a problem getting a ticket... the stands are empty at the Sapporo Dome. Apparently, everybody in Hokkaido, like everybody in Japan, is a Yomiuri Giants fan. For those who have no idea what Japanese baseball is like, the Yomiuri Giants are the Japanese equivalent of the New York Yankees on steroids. Everybody it seems, is a Giants fan. Giants games are always televised here in Hokkaido. The number of Nippon Ham Fighter games I've seen on TV here... 0.

As of today, count me in as a Nippon Ham Fighters fan. I'm gonna go find me one of their baseball caps!

Funny thing happened while teaching English today. I teach a group of kids ranging from ages 3-7. One of the older kids, a 7 year old wanted to tell me a secret. So he walks up to my ear and whispers something. One of the younger kids, a 4 year old, sees this and wants to know what's going on. So he walks up to my other ear, and puts his ear up against it. When the 7 year old was done telling his secret, the 4 year old went away saying, "Yep, heard that (in Japanese of course)."