Does peanut butter go bad? I hope not. Today, as I was stumbling around the apartment in the morning, I noticed that I have a jar of peanut butter. I also noticed that the lid was nowhere to be found. That's right... I had a jar of peanut butter just sitting around for who knows how long, without the lid. I dunno why I didn't see it before.
I wanted to eat something, so I did what most anyone would do, the sniff test. I took the jar of peanut butter, looked inside to make sure that there wasn't anything weird in there, and wafted it like any science major would. It passed all the inspection tests so I spread it on some crazy expensive bread (because all bread in Japan is crazy expensive... 5 slices for $2) and ate. I think it was ok. I'm not sure. It kinda tasted funny, but then that might have been because I expected it to taste a little funny.

So yesterday/today was Hideki Matsui's Spring Training debut. For those who have no clue as to what I'm talking about, Hideki Matsui is the latest Japanese import (or export depending on how you look at it) to Major League Baseball. He's slated to be the starting left fielder for the heralded New York Yankees. And of course, the Japanese media was there in full force. Apparently, the Spring Training game against the Cincinnati Reds was televised here in Japan... live. Yes, since it was live it was on TV here at about 3 AM. The man known as "Godzilla" here in the Land of the Rising Sun, hit a 2 run blast much to the surprise and excitement of the entire country as well as himself (just look at the picture in the ESPN article).
The thing that makes Matsui different from the supa-dupa-mega-supa-(did I say supa yet?)star Ichiro is that Matsui isn't a contact/gap hitter. He's a power hitter. He hits homeruns. Hence the nickname Godzilla. Since Matsui signed on with the New York Yankees, the Japanese media's been asking one question: "Will Matsui be able to hit homeruns in America?"
I've been especially intrigued by how the Japanese media's been presenting the situation. In the process, they've of course been analyzing pretty much every aspect of American baseball... and how they're different from Japanese baseball. Japanese sports "experts" have been analyzing the differences between the styles of play in American and Japanese baseball. How American pitchers don't nibble on the corners of the strike zone as much as Japanese pitchers do. How American pitchers throw harder than Japanese pitchers. How strategy is different. Even how the actual balls are made differently. The "experts" have also been talking about how the ballparks in America are considerably larger (thus, a little harder to hit a homerun) than their Japanese counterparts.
But this analysis isn't what's been so incredibly interesting to me. It's the tone, the inflections, the subtle nuances. The reporters and experts, while they are presenting the information, they exude a sense of doubt. It's very clear that they doubt Matsui can be "successful" as a homerun hitter in American Major League Baseball. It's almost like they're trying very hard to lower the expectations so that in case Matsui isn't successful, they won't be so disappointed. And if Matsui does prove to be successful, it would exceed those lowered expectations causing everybody to be elated. Basically, it feels like they're protecting themselves from being disappointed in Matsui. The funny thing is that inside, every Japanese person hopes and expects Matsui to be a superstar.
Example... this past baseball season, Matsui came close to winning the Japanese Triple Crown (that is, the #1 hitter in batting average, homeruns, and runs batted in) in the Central League. At the same time there were lots of rumors (in Japan, a rumor is pretty much fact) of Matsui going to America to play for the Yankees. Late in the season when it became apparent that he wasn't going to get the Triple Crown because he was a few points shy of winning the batting title, many sports reporters openly doubted that this was a sign that he wouldn't be successful at the Major League level. I was like, "C'mon! He still mashed a bunch of homeruns, drove in a bunch of runners home, and hit for a very good average. He doesn't have to be the best at everything here in Japan to be able to compete and succeed at the Major League level!"
In somewhat related news... Barry Bonds is a media icon here in Japan. I think I've seen him on Japanese TV doing interviews more often than I've ever seen him on American TV. Anyway, recently he was doing an interview with a Japanese television station. Here's an excerpt of the interview:

Interviewer: Mr. Bonds, to you, what is baseball?
Barry Bonds: To me, baseball's just a game.
Interviewer: (in a shocked tone) Just a game?!
Barry Bonds: Yeah, just a game.
Interviewer: (still shocked) Just a game?!
Barry Bonds: (smiling) Yeah, it's just a game. I mean, it's not going to change anything in the world. It doesn't mean all that much in the world. It's just a game.
Interviewer: Oh.

I dunno what the interviewer was hoping Bonds would say... but I'm sure she was expecting some deep, philosophical answer from "the best player in American baseball."

How come this didn't make bigger news? No surprise that the White House isn't even considering the challenge. I don't know if Saddam's a good speaker or not... but does it really matter? I mean, remember the Presidential debates from a couple of years ago? You know the set of debates between Bush and Gore. I'm sure Saddam feels that he's a better public speaker than Al Gore. Actually, lemme restate that. I'm sure Saddam saw and remembers the American Presidential debates from a couple of years ago... which is probably why he challenged President Bush to begin with. Almost any high school debate team could probably tear Bush apart on the speaking forum.
This is definitely one of those situations where America (or Bush) has nothing much to gain and A LOT to lose... with the probability that America would lose.

What is it about music that reaches deep down into our soul and dwells there? Specifically, in terms of the church and musical worship... what is it about worship music that just touches our inner being and creates such a sense of release? I know that especially for my generation and the younger generations, worship music is the most pronounced way that we "experience God."
Whether this is correct or not is not the direction I want to take. Instead, I want to focus on the "Why." Why do we "feel God" so incredibly when we are singing songs of worship to Him?
Sitting here, as I'm writing this blog, I'm listening to the worship song "Holiness." For those who don't know the song, the lyrics are quite simple... the first stanza goes:

Holiness, holiness is what I long for,
Holiness is what I need
Holiness, holiness is what you want from me
So, take my heart, and form it
Take my mind, and transform it
Take my will, and conform it
To yours, to yours, oh Lord.

As I look at these lyrics now, I wonder... I wonder, "If this song never existed, would I be able to say such a thing?" That is, on my own, would I be so bold as to... say those very words? Granted, the odds of me saying those exact words, in that order are astronomical. But my point is, would I dare to say something to that effect on my own? I think not. This is not to say that I don't want to say these words. This is not the reason why I wouldn't otherwise say the lyrics. It is not that I don't agree with the words. Quite the opposite. I dearly want to say these words. But something, I don't know what, perhaps it's fear... fear of letting God down, fear of letting myself down... I don't know, keeps me from proclaiming the words held in the lyrics of these worship songs.
Immediately, I think of normal love songs... songs by Boyz II Men, Babyface, you can take your pick... there's a never ending list of artists in this genre. I know for me, the songs I like the most are the ones that "connect" with me. The ones that almost perfectly describe how I feel about someone at a certain time. They put words into a feeling that was otherwise undescribable. Or they say the words that I'm otherwise too afraid to express.
The songs (both love and worship) are somewhat of a "crutch" I guess. And I believe there lies that mysterious power that worship music holds. More so than some catchy beat, rhythm, or melody... the lyrics, and how they push us to say words we want to say but are otherwise be too timid to say... that, I believe is the reason why so many of us younger Christians experience God so richly during times of singing songs of worship.
Whaddya guys think? Am I completely off?

If I was at the Tyson-Etienne fight in Nashville today... I would've been pretty mad. 1st round... 49 seconds. And it's over. Well, not quite.
Half of the people at the fight probably wanted to see Tyson fight again. The other half probably wanted to see Tonya Harding's pro-boxing debut. Being in Japan, after church, I turned to trusty ol' ESPN.com to check both the main event and the undercard... which is which, I'm not quite sure.
So here's the column on the Tonya Harding fight. I don't care too much for the article. But BAM! Right there, when you open the page, there's the picture of Tonya Harding during the fight. This was a major "Wha-the-hao" moment. The picture is worthy of a double bam... BAM BAM. I didn't recognize her at all in the picture. I had to read the caption to make sure it was her. I don't exactly remember what she looked like when she was skating but I KNOW FOR SURE that she didn't look like that. Granted, it's probably not her best photo-op.
"At 32, Harding hardly is a petite athlete anymore. She has bulked up to 123 pounds, much of it in her arms, shoulders and upper body." No kiddin'.

I love the all new ESPN.com! I probably wouldn't think all that much of it if I were in the States, but being here... many many miles away from ESPN (the TV version), the new .com version has been great. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, ESPN.com just added a new feature called "ESPN motion." Basically it's a non-downloading, non-streaming video inset on their frontpage. The picture comes in beautifully. I have no idea how it works.
So what do they show? Clips from the Sportscenter episodes, NBA 2Night, interviews... etc.. Absolutely awesome. Although, I have to admit, I'm still waiting on clips from the bass fisherman's show, the miniature golf championships, and the world series of poker.

I got real tired of YACCS (the commenting site I used to use). Half of the time, I wouldn't be able to access their website. I think their servers are maxed out. So I jumped ship to backBlog. Found it from Christina Cheung's blog. Really like the few extras they add. But of course this means that all the old comments are gone... yeah all 2 of em, one by Kyle and one by Steve. It's sad I know. Oh well. Hope you all like it.

Today as I looked at my incredibly incredibly incredibly messy apartment, God taught me something I knew, but in a completely new way.
Just a couple of weeks ago, my apartment was fairly clean. Emphasis on fairly. But then there were a few days when I came in late at night and all I wanted to do was vegg or collapse in bed. So naturally, I just took of my shoes, dropped my bag, and took off my jacket and sweaters (yes, plural) in a very un-Mr. Rogers manner. Then there were a few days when I was running a little late to a meeting or a class, and so, things got thrown out of my bag, things got thrown into my bag... yeah pretty chaotic. You get the picture.
I didn't make my room messy all in one sitting. I didn't make my room messy all in one day, or one week for that matter. But little by little, piece by piece, things got a little more cluttered. The problem was that I didn't take the time to go ahead and clean up the growing mess. It was a slight nuisance but instead, I'd just walk around a pile of books on the ground, or ignore the blanket draped messily on the rug. And this continued as the mess grew and grew until today, when I realized, "Hey, this place is absolutely filthy." To me, the interesting thing was that I didn't realize this because my apartment hit a "filthiness limit." It wasn't like I left a wrapper on the table in addition to the existing mess and so with that, the apartment would be deemed unliveable. Just by chance, I took a little time, took a good look around, and finally saw what had been true for at least a good week.
So what did God teach me other than that I can be completely oblivious to my surroundings? As I looked around my room, I realized that it's the same thing with sin in so many ways. We don't sin all in one sitting. Little by little, incident by incident, our lives get cluttered by the sins we commit. And sometimes, instead of going straight to God, confessing those sins (cleaning up), we decide to ignore it. "It's no big deal." "I can deal with it being around." "I'll just walk around it." And it keeps piling up, to the point where suddenly, for no real reason aside from God's leading, we realize, "Hey, I'm filthy!" "Where did all these sins come from?" "How did I let it all become like this?" It's not like God's set a "sin limit" in each person to which if you pass it, a message is automatically sent to your brain saying, "Warning. You've passed the sin limit. Please report to God's throne." I know that in my case, instead, in a real mysterious way, it's like God gives us new eyes to see the current situation from a different perspective, the correct perspective.
"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- his good, pleasing and perfect will."--Romans 12:2

After every English class, a member of the church leads a Bible time. Today, during the adults' English class, the leader, Itsuko, read a story from a Japanese Christian devotional book called "Clay." I think it's based on Ephesians 2:8-9 which says, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -- not by works, so that no one can boast." From what I understand, here's how the story went:
A man dies. And as he's walking on the road to heaven, he sees an angel. The angel comes up to him and says, "Before you can enter heaven, you have to tell me all the good things you did while you were on Earth. Based on how great those achievements were, I'll give you a certain number of points. If you can get a total of 100 points you can get into heaven."
The man agrees, and begins to tell the angel of his past achievements. "Well, I stayed completely faithful to my wife throughout my life."
The angel answers, "That's great! That'll get 3 points."
The man is a bit surprised because he expected to get more points, but he shrugs it off and continues. "Hmm, I went to church every week. And frequently put quite a bit of money into the offering bin."
The angel answers, "Great! 1 point."
The goal of 100 points suddenly feels incredibly far, but the man presses on. "Ok, how's this? In my free time, I often volunteered at the local community center. And every year during Christmas I helped feed the poor and the homeless in the area. And one Christmas, I helped more than 100 people."
The angel answers, "That's great. 2 points."
The man is stunned. That was the best thing he could think of. He counts the points he has so far. He compares it to the goal of 100 points. Realizing that he has absolutely no chance of reaching the goal, he pleads with the angel, "Have mercy on me!"
The angel answers, "Ok, you can go in now."

The saga continues. Today, I went to go take the written exam to get the Japanese license. And ain't it crazy? I went in to take the written exam today, and I actually took it today! Before I go on though, I have to say that the weather was crazy out there in Sapporo today. The snow was falling sideways. That is, not only was it cold... not only was it snowing... but there were strong, continual gusts of wind so as to make it look like the snow was falling sideways. Coming from an area of the United States where the term "wind chill factor" is mistakenly used to describe "why San Francisco is so much colder than the East and South Bay," I was mmm... to put it nicely, surprised.
So, to the test. There really wasn't much to it. 10 True or False questions. The questions come from a book they have at the testing center. One question per page. Each page is illustrated. There are more than 10 pages so the questions are chosen at random by the test proctor.
Two questions I got particularly stuck out. I cannot stress this more... these were actual questions!
#1: True or false. There is an ambulance behind you, but you're allowed to keep going in your lane because you're in a hurry.
#2: True or false. You see pedestrians or bicyclists using a crosswalk. You must stop before the crosswalk, giving the pedestrians the right of way.
The second question in particular was hilarious to me. I mean, what happens if it's false? You can just run over law abiding pedestrians? And this is in a country where "careful" jaywalking is legal!
So, now I'm scheduled to go and take the actual driving test on the test center's course on March 3rd. Hopefully, then it won't be snowing sideways.

Yesterday, Monday, I took a trip to go get a Japanese driver's license. To be more specific, I went to go do what's called a "Gaimen kirikae" which means a switch over to a Japanese license from a foreign license. You'd think that all you have to do is show em your US license, pay some money, and wait for the Japanese driver's license to come in the mail a few weeks later, but no... this is Japan, it's the process that matters.
What happened? Well, because they have only one testing site in each prefecture (imagine having only one DMV testing site per state), and because Hokkaido is crazy huge, it took me 4 1/2 hours to get to the testing site. I left my apartment at 9AM. I got to the place at 1:30PM... and because I took public transit, I didn't take the time to eat breakfast or lunch up til this point! Anyway, let's just say that I went in expecting to take the written exam, and I came out still expecting to take the written exam... only next week. Another 4 1/2 hours, one way!
Like I said before, I took public transit, so I used that time to study up on a book called "Rules of the Road" which is basically one of those booklets that the DMV passes out for those people who are gonna take the written test. There are some crazy things in this book.
For example, there's a section in the "Rules of the Road" book called "Laws of Physics and Their Impact on Driving." I don't remember anything in the DMV handbook talking about friction, inertia, and centrifugal force! Later in that section there's this classic diagram of a fairly tall building with a car driving off of it. Not only that but on the right side of the building, it marks certain heights from the ground, and on the left side of the building it shows increasing speeds from ground. Apparently, the diagram is trying to show that hitting a wall at so-and-so speed has the same impact as driving that same car off of a building at so-and-so height. Oh man, I couldn't stop laughing.
One last thing, apparently, it's ok to jaywalk here in Japan. Well, as long as you look both ways and are careful that there's no incoming traffic. Duh.

So this post is for those of you who said that the comment box still doesn't show up on the blog. Yeah, I'm talking to you Steve. Hit the refresh button on your Explorer or Navigator. That should do it.

Coming here to Hokkaido has introduced me to a lot of "firsts." Today, it was surprisingly warm. I got up into the positive side of the thermometer... in celcius of course. And so, because it went to the positive side, the ice and snow started to melt.
My apartment is in front of a really narrow concrete road. But before you can get to the concrete road, you have to walk through about 5 yards of dirt starting from the steps entering the apartment complex. Well, for the past 2 or 3 months, I couldn't see the dirt... all I saw was snow and ice. Today, I saw the dirt very well. But it wasn't dirt anymore. It became mud because the snow and ice melted.
After walking on nothing but hard, slippery surfaces for quite some time, mud might as well have been some foreign substance. Anyway, as the sun went down, the temperature fell below 0 celcius, and the water from the melted snow and ice, became ice again.
But the mud... this was today's "first." It got hard. The mud froze. The mud was hard. It's the weirdest thing. You see something that looks like mud... it has the color of mud (and not dirt or rock or concrete), it has all the properties of mud, but when you step on it, it doesn't make that expected gushy feel under your feet. Instead, it feels like rock. Crazy!
Oh, and I got the comment box back up. Post!

I just realized two things as I fiddled around with my blog by adding links to other people's blogs. So far, the people I know who blog are all 1) Asian (or to be more specific either Japanese or Chinese-American) AND 2) Christian. So this is a call to all those who know me; if you don't meet both criteria, that is, you're either not Asian or not Christian, and you blog, send me the link to your blog through the comment box and I'll put you up on the link box right away.

On the first Monday of February, Japan throws beans. Usually Japanese people'll go to some gathering (usually the local shrine) where they'll see "Oni" which are devils... and throw beans at em. Hate to be the guy wearing the oni costume. Beans can hurt! So why do Japanese people throw beans on this day? To celebrate the coming of Spring. I guess throwing beans at some dude wearing an oni costume is the Japanese version of watching the groundhog pop its head out for Groundhog's Day. Could've fooled me though. Sure doesn't feel like Spring's coming around. Maybe the Japanese people didn't throw their beans until the oni cried for mercy.

On Tuesdays I usually teach a Kindergarten/Preschool English class at the church. Today, we learned about colors... so, at the end, we did a color-by-number activity. The kids really got into it. I was really happy. So were they. I had this dialog regarding the color-by-number activity with Gen, one of the kids, as he was coloring:

Gen: Mr. Satake, did you make this?
Hideyo: No, I didn't.
Gen: Who made it then?
Hideyo: I printed it from the internet. A friend of mine showed me where I could get it.
Gen: You have friends?

The shuttle crash news is huge here in Japan. It's always on TV. When I first heard about it, I didn't think it was all that big of a deal. Sure it was on Japanese news... but the whole President Bush choking on the pretzel thing last year was huge news here in Japan. I mean, they had science analysts come behind the news desk describing pretzels, the shape and the way they're made, talking about how incredibly dangerous they are to eat.
Anyway, I looked around on people's blogs (seems like everyone and their mom has one), and nobody's mentioning it. It wasn't until I looked on some online news sites that I saw how incredibly big this story is. I mean it's everywhere on every single news site. Complete with video and audio clips. Is there a reason why nobody's writing about it?
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." -- Matthew 5:4

Joshua Clayton is here. Joshua is a new LIFE Associate. He's scheduled to be in the Kanto region (Tokyo area) for the church planting effort starting in late March. Right now, he's going around from place to place in Japan, taking film for a LIFE/Asian Access promo video. Right before he came here to Hokkaido, he was in Okinawa. So here goes the story... a very short story.
So he's showing me some footage he took from Okinawa. I was surprised. It didn't really look like Hawaii. It didn't even look like SoCal. It looked a lot like a NorCal beach town. You know, Monterey, Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz. Not great sand. Buncha rocks. Buncha cliffs. Lotsa wind. But as a was looking at the screen on the video camera, well, I dunno. To put it in a short sentence. I think Joshua is a jerk. Well, not really. I was just watching the screen and it looked a lot like home, and I wanted BE HOME! I realized even more so, that I am very far away from home. I realized how much I'm a fish outta water here in this place.
For anybody who read this far... I'd encourage you all to email Joshua and tell him... I dunno, well, tell him something. I'm sure he'd appreciate it. To find his email, go to the LIFE ministries website.
As a disclaimer, I really don't think he's a jerk. He's right here with me. He can read the words I'm writing. I think he's a great guy! Smile! I was just joking, and talking about how much I miss home.

You guys have to take a peek at this picture I took. For you cautious types out there... it's a picture of a chicken drumstick from the local KFC. (Yes, we have Kentucky Fried Chicken here in Japan) All the drumsticks in the pack we got looked like that.
I was digging through the pack, and saw the drumstick, pulled it out, and nearly fell from the surprise of finding something attached to the drumstick end. At first I thought that the drumstick was the neck and the attachment was it's head. I was comparatively calm when I realized that it was indeed a drumstick, but with the FOOT STILL ATTACHED! I kinda want to check to see if all the Japanese drumsticks still have the feet attached, cuz I know that the American ones didn't... at least when I left about a year and a half ago.