My musical talent; or "I couldn't think of a good title"

I wish I had sthg more interesting to write today.
I'm sorry.
I have posted some pics and I'm too lazy today to get the ones that are currently on the camera off it so I can post 'em, so I'll just post some older pics. And I can do that since I'm the blog writer guy.
Pix 1-3 are at the int'l student good-bye party where the French guy and Hong Kong and Taiwanese girls were. 1st - I'm playing the drum along w/ the shamisen; 2nd - I'm singing "The Preacher and the Bear" from Guardian's Swing Swang Swung album; 3rd - our friends Xu Xu and her husband Sunakawa (she's Chinese and he's a blind Japanese masseur) singing a Chinese song; 4th - some great Engrish off the back of one of our favorite Jr Hi students; 5th - another shot of the awesome gajumaru tree in Tokuzuku.

Max and I continue our discussion on the post entitled "Cleverness" in March, so if you care to read it, it's quite educational in many ways.
It's a rainy day after two straight days of ridiculously beautiful weather. My apologies to those who are in OK - 95 F ain't no fun. At least, that's what I hear. ;-)
Ha ha, no, I'll have my share of hot and miserable days soon enough, believe you me.
Since we last spoke, what's happened? Hmm. Well, on Pascha evening we went over to the Tokumoto family's house w/ our new Belgian friend Marc. True to form, w/ 3 guys and 3 girls present, we became 2 convo groups, guys and girls. The girls got to talk about the source of morality and truth, while w/ the guys I was stuck talking about Iraq and the US. Sigh. In my younger days I might have enjoyed such an exchange a little more, but anymore I'm not too interested in many political subjects. Being a missionary has its foibles, man. Anyway, Mrs. Tokumoto (who has made an appearance in the photos on this blog) stated that morality comes from Buddha. "But Buddha is dead," said Aubrey. True. Well, what do you say to that? (Hint: Nothing.)
Moving on, we discovered that our burgeoning plans for Aubrey to go to Kansas to visit family took a blow on Monday, so we're kind of back to the drawing board on that one.
I got on a memorisation tear yesterday and memorised a whole vocab card booklet, including all those great theology words. Here are some more:
-Atonement (shokuzaki)
-Baptism (senrei)
-Repentance (kui ara tame)
-Advent (sairin)
-Trinity (sanmiittai) (I dig the word for Trinity)
And many, many more! So that's neato - now I can make my way towards having a halfway decent spiritual convo w/ someone in Japanese. Didn't say I'm there yet, mind you.
On Monday, from the pastor's wife, I acquired 10 Gideon bilingual New Testaments. Cool - they're pretty nice. And then Tuesday we received our shipment of more good literature from our friends in Tokyo, so thanks to them! I biked to the next town over (Araki) to give one of those NTs to the lady who invited us for dinner on Sat night. I showed up at her elem school during lunchtime and played w/ the kids and gave her the NT. She was very surprised and appeared to be very glad to receive it (if about a dozen profuse Thank-yous are any indication). I suggested she start in the Gospel of John. We pray she will.
Last night we got together w/ the Belgian guy one more time to eat out, but the restaurant all the way up on the mountain was, as we discovered just before finding it, closed on Tues nights. Live and learn. Drove a long way for nothing, but oh well. The next one (Blue Reef) was right on the coast and on the way, but it was also closed. So we went to our old stalwart, Kubo. During the course of dinner, we noticed that there were some Star Wars figurines on the wall and Marc asked if we like Star Wars. Perfect segue, actually, to launch into a discussion of ultimate morality, which leads directly into the Gospel. He's a typical European rationalist, but that was a good foundation - all you can do is lay out the info and pray. And I'm liking Star Wars more and more - that's the 2nd time that it's afforded me an opportunity to share the Good News w/ someone.
Tonight we're going to yet another restaurant w/ the new English teachers, so that should be cool. I know I SHOULD try sthg else at this restaurant, but I love their fried shrimp too much to eat anything else. Those suckers are almost as big as lobsters, man. Not kidding.
My English classes were running a little thin, so I condensed them and now it's much better. Tuesday I have 2 classes. Wed still 3, but should be a bit more well-populated. I'm about to start English classes during the evening at the Community Center, which will pay well, but it may not pay well depending on how much work I have to put into it. Plz pray for me on that.
Alan is out.