A House Too Big

The weather in Kikai changes very rapidly. It was a rainy day yesterday and a great day today until about 4 pm when all of a sudden strong wind came up and blew some clouds in, but no rain still.

As for the pics, I think I mentioned that there were 3 int'l students studying in other parts of Japan in Kikai recently for a 2-week homestay. We went to play ground golf, which is a mix between mini golf and croquet, at the town of Soumachi. The first 2 pics are of us there. The 1st pic is me, a 10-yr-old who is in one of the homestay families, and then the Hong Kong student on the right. The 2nd pic is part of the group posing for a group pic. The other white guy in that pic is the French student, Lionel. The 3rd pic is us at the Hyakunodai Park, the highest point on Kikai. The 4th pic is a pic of the Daiichi Jr Hi School (which translates to the highly original name of "First Jr Hi School," not to be confused w/ DaiNIchi Jr Hi ["Second"]) graduation ceremony, which was, interestingly, pretty emotional for the students and some of the teachers. That is, in the latter part of the ceremony. The 1st 90 minutes were mind-numbingly boring highly formal. Finally, the last pic is a random pic of Aubrey next to some probably soon-to-be-harvested sugar cane during a walk we took around town recently.

We're preparing to move! The Board of Ed has graciously decided to move us to a bigger house, which was previously occupied by a member of the Board of Ed and his wife and 3 kids. Our apt is pretty small, 'tis true, but I don't know if we need such a big house as this one! Don't get me wrong - I'm not refusing a slightly-too-big house, but I just feel a little embarrassed. But we'll make up for it by inviting people over all the time.
Thought we were going to move on Saturday, but Aubrey told me today that it's actually planned for Thurs afternoon all of a sudden. Just FYI, I don't know if we'll have Internet access for a few days, so don't be surprised if we can't answer Skype calls or emails or whatever. Actually, I'll forward the Skype calls to my cell phone, so call away!
Thurs morning I'll help my friend Satoshi the HS English teacher move outta his house and then go move my own stuff that afternoon. Should be great. Looking forward to it. Hope it's decent weather. It'll be great once we're all done.

The last few days I've been hanging out a lot w/ my retired friend Izumi-San. I don't have a pic of him yet but I'll get me one and post it. He's pretty cool - always brews me a really good cup of joe and we just sit and chat on his patio next to his nice garden. The garden is cool b/c there are lots of flowers, tangerine trees, and mejiro birds who sing sweetly. He smokes so much (gotta be at LEAST two packs a day) but at least most of the time we're outside. And now hopefully we can start in w/ a few Japanese lessons. He doesn't need English lessons, but he doesn't have kids and is retired and monetarily well-off and by his own admission has little to do every day, so I think he's just glad to spend time w/ me. And I enjoy his company too, so it's all good. I'm still getting used to his being a tad hard-of-hearing and a bit absent-minded, but he's doing great for 74!

Finally, Aubrey is about to come back from her 4th end-of-the-rotation good-bye party in 3 consecutive evenings. Each time she's more or less dreaded them, but each time she's enjoyed herself. These parties take place to bid good-bye to those workers who have reached the end of their 3-year rotation on Kikai. The JET schedule is a bit off. Anyway. I'm done.

Our beloved pet birdies

I write from a dry corner of the, at least today, very very rainy Kikaijima Island. I am very thankful for our house, which is dry and doesn't leak much. I try not to take such things for granted.
This week we released our pet bird, Midoriko. It was actually very sad for us b/c Midoriko, literally the majority of the time, sang either quietly or loudly. Many times, while we have been playing music on the stereo or on the guitar or listening to a sermon mp3 on the computer, Midoriko has apparently made it his goal to chirp louder than the noise we make. It's been very entertaining for us. We kept his cage reasonably clean, gave him a cage that was 3X bigger than anyone else's for a mejiro bird, gave him treats consisting of a half-tangerine regularly, and never tried to catch him by the hand. All that to say that we were very good hosts, but still - he's a wild bird.
So we knew that we should attempt to get a permit from the local gov't to keep him, so Aubrey went to see if that was possible. We found out on Thursday that it was not. Now, many people on Kikai apparently keep one or more of these birds as pets, but it's technically illegal. And everyone we asked said, "It's illegal but -shhhh- don't tell anyone." So I get it - it's one of those minor laws, beneath parking infractions in importance, that are almost never if not never enforced.
And yet just b/c nobody else keeps the law, that doesn't mean we shouldn't. So we thanked God for the gift of Midoriko's songs and the fun we had in watching and listening to him, opened the cage door, and waited until he flew into the tangerine tree right across from our patio. We were pretty sad and immediately missed his singing, but I'm sure a wild animal like him prefers to be in the wild.
It occurred to me while praying the morning before we let him go that releasing him would make us sad and that it would be hard, and then that avoiding 'sadness' and 'hardship' is not nearly the most important calling on our lives. So what does it matter if it would make us sad to do the right thing?
We have received an unexpected blessing since we let him go - we still hear his song, a lot more often than we thought. Of course, it's farther away but he (at least we think it is he) sticks around our area and sings from the trees. Whenever he does, we open the door and listen and smile. Dang, he's cute! I can't wait until spring advances a little farther, b/c apparently, when the tangerine trees start to put out lots of tangerines, the mejiros return from migration in force and there are tons of them around. Hopefully their songs will be able to drown out those dang cicadas!

1st pic - Kansha, our original bird, who escaped on 29 Dec. Next two pics are Midoriko, mere minutes before being released into the wild on 24 March.

Fundamentalism vs. Liberalism

This post is from Mike Bird, of whom I hadn't heard until just a little bit ago thru the Blue Raja's blog. I really dig it and will try to apply its lessons to my own common-speech vocabulary.


Fundamentalist versus Liberal

Preliminary Remarks

1. Most persons who use the term "fundamentalist" pejoratively are simply ignorant of the historical circumstances surrounding the origins of fundamentalism as a theological movement in North America in the early 20th century. Many are also ill informed about the historical, theological and cultural differences between Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism - the two cannot be equated.

2. The terms "fundamentalist" and "liberal" are often used these days as an opprobrium but they have also become relative terms, i.e. a fundamentalist is someone more conservative than me and a liberal is someone less conservative than me. (I've been called both!) To make things worse, Old Liberalism was a package and you could easily discover an Old Liberal based on certain questions, e.g. virgin birth, inerrancy, resurrection, atonement, etc. But today there are a number of theologians who don't quite fit the bill, e.g. Rowan Williams. William's has an orthodox view of the resurrection (as far as I can tell), but his views of sexuality are as liberal as Hillary Clinton speaking at an ACLU convention. In sum, other than being an insult, the terms fundamentalist and liberal don't really mean much anymore.

3. The Fundamentalism versus Liberal controversy was really a symptom of Christianity wrestling with the challenges posed by modernity. There were two reactions to modernity: "run for the hills and hide your daughters" (Fundamentalists) or "wine me and dine me" (Liberals). As we enter into a Postmodern period the liberal versus fundamentalist controversy is no longer the defining issue for Western Christianity.

See further:

- Carl F. Henry, The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism (1947)
- George Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture (1980)

Why I'm not a Fundamentalist

1. Fundamentalists major on the minors, and make minor issues tests for faith and orthodoxy (e.g. alcohol, Bible translations, etc).

2. Fundamentalists fail to distinguish between what is Christian and what is the cultural Christianity that they were nurtured on.

3. Fundamentalists fail to distinguish between areas of conviction and areas of command, and treat areas of conscience as a test of orthodoxy.

4. Fundamentalists have a view of Scripture that is docetic in that Scripture is divine but it is not human - no human processes (e.g. the Synoptic problem) are compatible with divine authorship.

5. Fundamentalists preach the authority of the text but practice the authority of the community.

6. Fundamentalists fail to appreciate the different genres of the Bible or comprehend the role of presuppositions in influencing our reading of Scripture.

7. Fundamentalists believe in theological cloning rather than theological learning.

8. Fundamentalists fail to be the salt of the earth as they are concerned almost exclusively with the minutia of doctrinal purity and correctness.

9. Fundamentalists have a lopsided soteriology as they think of salvation as purely the salvation of souls for heaven rather than the liberation of persons from sin, sickness, subjugation, and death. They aim for decisions rather than making disciples.

10. Fundamentalists fail to recognize the true marks of the Church and allow for a diversity of voices within the body of Christ.

11. Fundamentalists are more excited about what they are against, than what they are for.

12. Fundamentalists regard the Spirit as a theological entity, but not as a presence that manifests itself in worship or loving community.

Why I'm Not a Liberal

1. Liberals mimic culture to the point that they simply imitate the contemporary values of the day and wrap them up in some Christian wrapping paper. The world looks on and says, "Thanks for affirming all of my values but you can keep the wrapping paper".

2. Liberals minor on the majors - sin, atonement, and resurrection.

3. Liberals have a view of Scripture that is Arian - it is human but not divine.

4. Liberals take Scripture to be illustrative but not necessarily prescriptive and normative for faith and praxis.

5. Liberals deny the transforming power of the gospel to liberate persons from every form of sin.

6. Liberals minimize the unique revelation of God in Christ and deny the eschatological finality of Jesus Christ.

7. The Gospel of Liberalism was what Karl Rahner warned us of: A God without wrath takes men without sin to a kingdom without judgment.

8. Liberals de-historicise and de-apocalypticise the message of the Prophets, Jesus and the Apostles.

9. Liberals preach pluralism but do not tolerate anyone who fails to embrace their pluralistic ethos.

10. Liberals believe the Spirit is a Spirit of unity but not a Spirit of truth.

11. Liberals think that the only heresy is to believe in heresy.

12. Liberals think that the church is about programs and structures, when it is about creating gospel-proclaiming, Spirit-driven, Christ-centered, God-focused redemptive communities.

Normalcy's Big Challenger

Pix - 1st on top left is me cooking keihan at the Summers' house in Houston. Nice kitchen, good food, good friends, Dr. Pepper...makes the evening, man.
1st on top right is a bunch of Trinity iMPACT people at Santa Fe Steakhouse in Norman, enjoying good ol' SW food and the best dinner rolls I have ever had. No kidding. And I'm picky.













Next down is a view of Kagoshima looking out from the inside of the big Shinto temple there. Notice the neato tree and the huge gate - had to be 10 meters tall at least. Next is the cute little Buddha statue I found in the hillside park in Kagoshima. It was rainy, so someone was nice enough to clothe cute little Buddha in some red knitted raingear and a hat to make sure he didn't get his chub belly all wet. They also bwat him some fwowahs and a nice cup of gween tea. Nice widduw Buddha. Gag me.

Made me think of this biblical passage.





Last one is me at the OU-Iowa St. basketball game w/ some Chi Alpha friends, the day after the ice hit Norman. By this time, I'd been in the States for about 42 hours. Seriously, it was a great trip.














It's been a week of getting back to normal, and I think I've succeeded.
Does that mean that I will join the realm of "normal people"? Mmmmm, no. I meant "normal" in a very postmodern, comfortably relativistic kind of way. It just makes me feel...happy. Tolerant. Accepting. Affirming.

All strange prefaces aside, this has been a good week, actually. I finally realised that I have a bit of a discipline problem when it comes to hanging out on the Internet during the day - I just spend a bit too much time on it. And then, when I try to study at home, lots of stuff gets in my way, like snacks and little errands that suddenly occur to me, or a book on the bookshelf that suddenly seems a TON more interesting than studying how to count various specific items in Japanese.
You may laugh, "You mean you haven't learned to count yet?!?!?!" Hear me out, now. Japanese uses certain "counters" for all different kinds of things, analogous to the way that English says "3 pairs of pants" or "a glass of water". And when is it a glass and not a cup? Ah, now, my friends, you are catching wind of the difficulty. So in Japanese, you have to say, for example, "At my house cats 8 animals there are." That's a more-or-less literal transcription. In Latin characters it's, "Uchi ni neko ga happiki imasu" (he said just before double-checking "happiki". I was right). Anyway...that's what I studied today. The point is that I've taken to timing myself while on the PC and shutting it down when I'm done, and then studying at the liberry. It's been working well so far and I'm learning at a good pace.
This new approach to self-discipline has, however, come up against a 6'8" 260 lb. all-muscle contender in the ring, w/ the words "March Madness" proudly emblazoned across its championship belt. Ooofff. And my bro hooks me up w/ a website where I can watch all these basketball games for free, and even live. Thanks a ton. I'm half-sarcastic...sigh. I do so love March Madness. That and the occasional (just under one per week in the autumn) college football game are about the only things that get me in front of a TV on any reliable basis anymore. Were I back in the States, I'd be watching the games on TV during several spring evenings. But I'll get my fix and then just kind of leave it alone. The challenger can be starved! If I can just stop chucking T-bones at him...

Tonight Aubrey and I went to Sugira Beach, the big park not too far away from our house and the place where we swam on New Year's Day, and where many things happen. We were going to play basketball on the court since there's supposed to be a coupla communal b-balls in a storage locker next to the court. It was empty so we contented ourselves w/ bizarre games on the playground, wrestling a bit (very chastely, thank you very much) in the grass, and making fools of ourselves. Great time. Then we were watching the sun set (sun set or sunset?) on top of a playgrd toy when two high school girls showed up and started swinging. We talked to them (yes, mostly in Japanese) for a while and then took a coupla pictures, and they were saying "Oh, lub lub," which means roughly "lovebirds." Seriously, our marriage is a huge testimony around here and we asked them if they wanted to know our secret. I wasn't surprised that they said yes, but I was surprised that they showed a ton of interest, even when we were stalling most of the way thru, not knowing the right words. We pretty much told them our story and then shared our and their need for Jesus as best we could. What a divine appt! I'd never met these girls before, and Aub had maybe once. I challenged them to challenge Jesus honestly to prove that He exists (a challenge I make to anyone reading who doesn't believe Jesus to be the only way to God), and so yeah. Quite a cool time. Tomorrow we're getting together w/ a young couple who speak English to watch Jonah: A Veggietales Movie on our laptop, since it won't play on theirs (FYI - DVDs are set from purchase on regional settings so a Japanese DVDR typically can't play an American DVD and vice versa. Yes, it is annoying in case you were wondering). That should be neato.
Many teachers who have finished their 3-yr rotation are preparing to ship out and we'll start seeing lotsa new teachers soon. We are praying that we can meet many who will become our friends and hear the Gospel. Heck, we're also praying that some will be believers already - that would definitely qualify as nifty.
I spent so much time making sure the text wouldn't get all wranged around by those pix that I'm tired now. Catch you later.

Got all proud of myself

for blogging a bunch when I got back from the States and now it's been 4 days. Forgive me for I have sinned.

It's been really nice and yet unpredictable weather since Wednesday. Today, though, it's chilly and blustery and my house is cold.
I took a bus ride around Kikai today and played guitar for the driver. I talked to him a bit and, true to form, forgot most everything of what he said. That's why Aub has a notebook in which she keeps that kind of info. I do too but I forgot it (what else is new?).

We went to Naoko's house yesterday but another friend showed up as well and we weren't able to talk about the Gospel much, but we will. She was reading the Gospel of Matthew when we arrived. We got to talk about Shusaku Endo's novel Silence, of which I may or may not get around to posting a review in a while. It was bloated w/ self-importance, to be sure, and it had a lot of good things to say but not where it wanted to say them. That said, if we ever home-school, which is looking likely, that would be on the reading list. Not sure we would home-school into high school, which is when I would suggest a student read that book, but you know. Anyway, review. Perhaps later. Patience.

I am supposed to read Chapter 1 of Machen's Christianity and Liberalism along w/ Tony this week, to which I look forward. It's only Monday today...

One of our friends, who is married to a workaholic, has joyfully reported to us that he has quit his job and they are going to move. Bummer that they're moving, but we've been praying that he would drop-kick the taxing job and spend more time w/ the family. Yay!

The NCAA Basketball Tourney has begun, and I'm doing a fun bracket w/ friends and family. I always enjoy that. Perhaps too much. I'll miss watching some of the games on TV, to be sure.

This post will not contain a clever ending.

Cleverness

You want clever? You want this interview with David Berlinski.
As an added bonus, it's on Darwinism. As yet another added bonus, it is sprinkled w/ French phrases and references to art and Madame Bovary.

Kagoshima by the light of the rain-clouded sun

Next morning, Aub took her flight to Kikai so she could work that day. I took the bus back to Kagoshima City and was just walking around. I had seemingly lost one of the keys to my storage locker, so I went back to Erica's house to look for it, only to find it in another pocket of my suitcase. Of course - that fit our last 24 hours well. But at least I found it!
So I was walking back to the center of the city when I was greeted by a Japanese fellow taking the same sidewalk and wearing a backpack. He introduced himself as a Japanese-American, had an accent but was perfectly understandable, and his stories were fascinating. Turns out he's a highly seasoned traveler. He's been on the road since August, when he took:
-Amtrak from Oakland, CA to Denver
-Bus to Chicago
-Bus to NYC
-Airplane to London
-Bus, ferry, bus to Paris (which I have done)
-Night train to Italy (which I have also done)
-Ferry to Croatia (nope, haven't done that)
-Bus to Zagreb
-Bus/train to Sarajevo (!)
-Bus/train to Turkey
-Bus/train to Georgia
-Bus/train to Baku, Azerbaijan, where he was denied a visa to enter Turkmenistan (he has a US passport)
-Flight to Tashkent, Uzbekistan
-Train to Kazakhstan
-Train into China from the western border
-Train to Shanghai (he wanted to hang out in Central China but it was too cold by this time and he didn't have a heavy enough coat)
-Flew back to San Jose for his sister's funeral
-Flew back to Osaka
-Ferry to Okinawa
-Ferry to Kagoshima
...
and the guy's not done yet. That's just messed up.
He had many amazing and fascinating stories, a lot of good insight into Japan/American relations from WW2 and also Japanese/Japanese-American relations. After talking for a while (and postponing my lunch date w/ a French guy I had met 2 weeks before in the same city), it became obvious to me that this guy had made an idol out of travel. Which is one of the more interesting idols out there, I have to admit.
At any rate, I challenged him w/ the Gospel and he said he travels too much probably to take it too seriously, but you know, his choice. Craziness.
Anyway, I'd say he was easily the most interesting acquaintance I've made so far on this jaunt. The vulgar French-Canadian running an exporting business out of Tanegashima that I met in Starbux in Kagoshima falls now to a distant 2nd. They have sthg in common, though - seems they were one-time acquaintances. The Canadian guy doesn't respond to my email and this Japanese-American gentleman doesn't do email and didn't seem too enraptured by the idea of staying in contact.

Later I had lunch w/ my new French friend, Michel, and he seemed genuinely glad that I had come to see him, so I hope that we can continue to cultivate that friendship later on.
I got fairly wet in the steady rain, but got on the ferry that night w/o further incident and crashed around 7:45 pm.
I'm tired b/c I then had a full day (Tuesday), had 3 classes, was still tired from walking around so much the previous 3 days, and then went to basketball practice on Tues night.
So don't ask me to do any running for the next coupla days.

Here, have some pics.

1st is me in Starbux in Dallas on my way to Houston, enjoying my first cup of costly brewed happiness.

2nd is Bobby and me in Starbux 5 days later, enjoying more costly brewed joy.


3rd is my family and me being goofy. We wanted to take a pic that looked like the album cover for an alternative band. I think we have talent.

4th is the Osaka Castle from closer up.



5th is a kid playing a drumming video game in a Kagoshima arcade. Ridiculous. If you zoom in, you can see that he's made 169 consecutive drum strokes so far w/o a miss. Think he practices sometimes on this game?

Kagoshima by moonlight

In the meantime, Aubrey had felt called to go to Kagoshima (just where I was heading) on Friday evening to hang out w/ our friends Erica, Masumi and Rika there, and it worked out well b/c I got there while she was still there. We enjoyed our morning alone together and then our afternoon w/ the three girls. That night, we decided to stay in a hotel near the airport (since Aub's flight back to Kikai was early the next morning and we didn't want to get up way early to catch the airport bus). We found a few hotels near the airport, called one, and made a reservation. That evening, we took the bus to the airport and then a taxi to the hotel. When we said the name of the hotel, the driver looked at us kind of funny, but took us there. We started to get a funny feeling once we drove thru a considerable grove of tall trees before we got to the hotel. The driver left us and we looked for the office for a bit, but let me tell you, the place had SHADY written all over it. Aub was like, "Alan, can we, um, not stay here?" By the time 30 seconds had passed, I was in full agreement, so we just turned around and started walking back towards the airport on an unlit street.

--Weird evening continues--

So by this time I was remembering that we had seen quite a few hotels on the Internet map, so we set off to look for one. The airport was only a mile or so from there, so it's not like we were in the middle of nowhere, but we sure felt like it! We stopped at another hotel called "Hotel J0u1r" (replace the 0 and 1 w/ "o" and "i") and I decided to take a look inside, noting only in passing that "j0u1r" in French has a highly sexual connotation. The office had a frosty window in front of the Reception and I could barely see under it by craning my head way down. The receptionist informed me that I should come back after 10 pm (it was 8 pm at this point). I argued for a moment and then turned around to rejoin Aub outside, who had already put 2 and 2 together - we were right in the middle of a "love shack" hotel district. Oops. Looking around, the way the hotels kind of hid themselves and had funky colors all over them made sense all of a sudden.

Yowza.

Back we went towards the airport, ducking the cars barrelling down the street, hoping they'd see us as we pulled our luggage down the unpaved shoulder of the street. Asked a restauranteur where we could get a regular hotel and she pointed us to the Airport Hotel. They wanted to charge us US$150 for a room w/ two twin beds. Thanks, buddy. Depressed, we called the only other hotel down the road, the equivalent of a Super 8 Motel, and we got a tiny smoking room w/ a double bed, a strong heating unit, and quite the tobacco scent. I was pretty ticked but couldn't figure out how to communicate in Japanese the fact that the guy had promised us a non-smoking room. Paid US$90. Life lesson was included.

Finishing up Osaka

OK, I've now been in Kikai for about 30 hours. I'm pretty tired, but I'll get to that.


This 1st pic is me eating at the lovely restaurant where Sho took me the evening of my arrival.


So, the next morning after waking up in Osaka at like 3:30 am and not getting back to sleep (thanks, jet lag), I got up when Sho did, at about 7 am. We took the light rail system and subway of Osaka 1st to stuff my luggage into a coin locker at the bus station. Then we hit another spot in Osaka where we volunteered for 3.5 hours at a soup "kitchen" for homeless/destitute people in Osaka. We actually just kind of stood around and chatted for almost 2 hours, occasionally feeding a few fires under the big soup pots, before we were actually put to work, but that was OK - we got to talk about a lot of interesting and useful topics. You know, not the weather. 'Twas good to be able to deepen our friendship that way. Anyway, once the soup started being served, we (having already eaten the soup to test it out) set to work rinsing the bowls that were used by the people. You can see in the succession of pictures above how it looked. It was basically a big dirt block in the middle of urban cityscape. About 400 people showed up to eat, but quite a few came back for seconds, and I saw at least one return for thirds. So we rinsed dishes (someone else earlier in the washing-line had washed them) for about 90 minutes and then took off when all was finished. We then rode the rails to the Osaka Castle, which was the site of a couple of important shogun-related actions in Japan's history. Cool outside family park place. We toured the castle, whose interior was moderately interesting, but its top (as you can see in the pic) had a great view, so that was nice. There were some juggle/comedy performers hanging out outside and doing their thing, and there were lots of kids and people just hanging out. It was a nice place, to be sure.
So the whole time we were blessed w/ good conversation - I thank God for that, had been praying for it.
Anyway, took the night bus to Kagoshima that night and I had expected to sleep great since I was so tired from not sleeping well and walking around all day in Osaka, but such was not to be. I think I got about 4 hours on the bus, which ain't great but is enough I guess.

(I apologise for the disorganisation of these photo posts - I can't figger 'em out. If anyone has hints, I welcome them.)

My blessed return to Japan

Just to let you know, I have returned safely to Japan. I type today from our friend's house in Kagoshima, having come from Osaka this morning on a night bus.

Thanks to Daniel W for dropping me at the OKC airport way early on Thurs morning. He even brought me some coffee, though I wasn't interested in it, given that I had stayed up all night and wanted to sleep on the plane. Appreciate the thought very much, though. I dozed from OKC to Detroit and then had my last American food, a lovely Quizno's sub at the DTW airport. On the plane, it was great! I got a whole row of 3 seats to myself, so that was really welcome news. I slept just over half the flight away and so got to Osaka much more coherent than I had been at my arrival in OKC after the overseas flight. I did miss the first meal since I was apparently asleep, but asked about it later and they gave me my tray to eat by myself, so I was grateful for that. At Osaka, I got to go thru the fast Customs line, that of the Japanese nationals, and they didn't even check my luggage. Awesome! Once there, I found a bus that would take me almost directly to where my friend Sho could easily meet me. So that was great too. I had arrived at about 5:45 pm in Osaka on Friday.

I was praising God for providing much for me on the way over here, and it was also really nice that my cell phone was working again (since in Japan only it has coverage). 'Twas also nice to talk to Aub over cell phone and not Skype. Sho met me at the bus stop and we ate some delicious Japanese pancake-things. Yum. Now, I guess I had not made it absolutely clear what I intended to do at Osaka, b/c Sho asked me halfway thru dinner where I was planning on staying while in Osaka. Oops. Turns out he lives in a dorm for 1st-year workers for his company, which is fairly common in Japan, and his room is the same size as a dorm room at Cate at OU (for those of you who know that type of room). Sho was, however, very gracious and invited me to stay at his place and even lent me his blanket to sleep on the floor. Due to the jet lag, I didn't sleep well that night, but even in a really comfy bed I probably wouldn't have slept much anyway. It's just hard for a light sleeper like me to readjust in one night to the time zone difference, to be sure.

OK, it's lunchtime here at the house, so I'm gonna finish this message later.

Hats Off to Yuma, Kunitoshi & Ken

Today was an extraordinary day. I went to the junior high that is closest to our house which is about a five minute walk. I think they have about 200 students, this one being the biggest junior high of three on the island. I spent the first two hours in class assisting Midori, the Japanese/English Teacher, and then happily tootled back to the teacher's room where I tried to nestle into my short-back chair (hate those) and dug into my Japanese study. I was learning some new stuff in order to make my puny sentences into a little less puny ones, so, I was pretty pumped. Time passed quickly this morning and the sun finally came out to warm up the muddy soccer/baseball field that lies right in front of the school. I often cross it to get to the fusuma-like glass-sliding doors (the front door(s). For lunch, I ate with 7th graders and for some reason they were particularly talkative and NOT shy today, which is odd for most of my junior high schoolers there. We spoke Jinglish (Japanese and English) thru most of the lunch and tried to steal each other's chocolate that was a gift (omiyage)from someone who took a trip recently. I thought that this was one of the best lunch conversations I'd had so far. [By the way, in junior highs and elementary, we (the ALTs) usually eat with the kids in their classroom along with their teacher]. So, I was pretty happy about this particular lunch. Next was hiru-yasumi (kind of like recess) and the students play a wide variety of things from practicing on their instruments, soft tennis, soccer, volleyball, baseball and just hanging out and roaming the halls. Sometimes I play (soccer,baseball, tennis and basketball) too but often I just hang out and try to talk to them. Today, I really wasn't trying to talk or anything when I was suddenly surrounded by three girls (sitting next to me near on the flag pole platform) and three boys standing in front of us. We were sitting right outside the front door(s).

Then IT happened!
One of the girls and two of the guys (whose names are mentioned in the title) began to ask me all sorts of questions while making funny comments about my pink socks. I was so stunned and so bewildered that they were finally coming out of their shell and/or they had been studying. We laughed so hard and smiled so much. I think they were happy to see me laugh so much! I often laugh but today I really couldn't stop because their jokes about my pink socks and also the way they were dancing was hilarious. We had a little exchange of Japanese and English going on and it was by far the best group exchange I've had so far. I even gave them Spanish and French names for fun. I think the thought that most ran thru my head was, "how long have you been able to talk like this?" and "wow, I am so impressed."

THE EFFECT
Because of this day, I was even more encouraged to study Japanese than ever before. I never thought that twelve-year-olds would be the ones that would give me such inspiration. After that, I went back to the teacher's lounge and wrote my FIRST e-mail in mostly Kanji whereas usually I just write in Hiragana or Katakana. So, that is all I have to say. I thought it would be an encouragement to you who have been wondering about my language study. And yes, thank you Yuma, Kunitoshi and Ken for making my day.

My Brain Is Like Spaghetti...It's a compliment actually (*

Ok, so I am not a pro at blogging but at least I am trying. I am up pretty early this morning after eating too much black bean soup with an ungirth of rice. Yeah, I have been experimenting with beans and such that our friends (thank you Houston peoples) sent us for eatins.

Last night, I invited a Japanese friend and her baby to come over and try this soup. Happily, they accepted and even had a bowl of the dyeing Black Bean soup. [I say that because all the vegetables were completely black after I finished cooking the soup...still tasted good though]. Kei is quite adorable, I must say and if I had any idea how to post pics by myself, I would do it but I don't and he has grown so much since Thanksgiving, which is the last time we took good pics of him and his family. He turned 1 in January, I think. I like to watch him dance, walk and just about anything except cry at our Christmas lights...he doesn't like them! And I love his curly black hair and big beautiful eyes. K and T (his parents) must be really proud!

Other Blogs


Since I have been up so early, I thought I'd look at other peoples blogs a while just to see what they write about. It's really quite interesting actually to see what is going on in friends' and strangers' lives alike...they definitely write (mostly) about what they are passionate about. And they SEEM to be organized in this neat 'box' of their likes, dislikes, current readings, blogreadings, intellectual-magnet-sites, daily life and traveling. It could also be just certain people's blogs I checked out too. Also, it could be they write random things sometimes when they aren't sure how to harness their thoughts into bite-sizeable ideas.


Friends

So, I have been thinking a bit about friends back home and what they are doing and how they are doing. Yesterday I purposefully left Skype on and one of my friends from Dallas called me at 5:30AM Kikai time (which is not too early for me on weekdays). I picked up the phone and muttered a scratchy a 'moshi, moshi' [hello expression for phone in Japanese]. She felt bad to call me, but honestly, I wasn't bothered so much by it. I just got up and started my day and He gave me enough energy to make it through the day; always does.
So, if any friends read this blog entry, give me a call. If I am awake enough, I will talk to ya. Miss you guys.


Kikai Rain

So, it rains a lot these days but for some reason, I haven't been affected like a lot of people are affected by rain. I like rain, for the most part, and it reminds me of Oklahoma except not. There are no thunderstorms in Kikai and I really can't remember if I have ever seen lightening here or not. Rain in Kikai can be of varying degrees of intensity and direction depending on the wind. One time during a typhoon, Alan and I went walking (just a short distance) to the post office and back. Ok, I know, it was dangerous with the needled-rain and whipping wind and bending tropical trees but I was JUST curious and terribly bored to stay inside all day. I am thinking now since the rainy season hasn't even started and it is already quite a wet spring, I should really invest in some good goulash (just joking; goloshes)! So, as I stated before and was so easily sidetracked, I like rain in general but I do prefer summer rains to any other season. I also prefer hard rains to soft ones and of course, something warm to drink and a good book to read and/or an inviting journal to fill up. Alan next to me is an added bonus.


A Bit Disturbed

I found out that our neighboring island to the west of us [about 3 hours by ferry and 10 minutes by plane]also is run amuck with cults except they have one in particular that is much more well known. I won't mention which cult it is but I will say that it is quite disturbing to actually KNOW there numbers are growing over there-and all over the world. As a bright, young man told me, 'people don't just go out trying to find a lie or be deceived'. I haven't done any 'jogging' in my little head about this specific situation but I will start by doing a bit of heart-to-heart with Him so as to get some ideas. Signing off for now from rainy Kikai.

Rhoblogy

Tuning In From Rainy Kikai

It's not cold here right now in the middle of the Pacific but it is rainy and windy. Spring has definitely embraced Kikai. All the yellow radish flowers and other unknown beauties are littering the patches of empty lots that aren't overcrowded by the proud sugarcane, Kikai's cash crop. And even though spring is unpredicatable and easy to get sick, I am glad there IS a spring because summer is long and sticky-and I don't mean Wrigley's either.

I have been quite sick recently with an attack of Celiac symptoms. It was confirmed that I have it about a week after I left for Japan, last July 2005 to be exact. A few people that I talked to probably already guessed I had it but I was truly hoping it was an allergy for if it were, I would outgrow it or beat it but alas I am stuck with it until I go Home. And yet, I know that God is going to use even this disease that I have to bring Him glory and I get to be a part of that. I am not for sure how He will do that but I am reminded over and over again that it truly is when 'when we are weak, He is strong'.

Encouragement
I wanna thank all of you who have been praying for me, for us and for many others here in Japan whom you have never met, never bowed to, or shook hands with yet. All who have called just to say 'hi' or even to chat a while, I really really appreciate it a lot. Conversations with people here have been sweet and He fantastically shows me sometimes a small piece of their part in the Body of Christ, if and when they give their lives to them. I am not saying other people groups are not talented but I have been around Japanese people for a while now and talent abounds in really incredible ways...I smile to myself as I fade into the background thinking what it would be like if they were my brother and sister...

Simple Pleasures

I have a friend who has been introducing me to rather common customs of the Japanese culture. I am sure she relishes them but these customs I have only read about and seen on movies and heard countless stories from my Japanese or other friends who have been here. Take 'tatami' for example. 'Tatami'is really so interesting. It is woven rice grass into tiny small squares measured according to a standard size of Japanese houses. We have a three-tatami room while others have a six-tatami room. A beautiful design outlines these huge mats. People spend a lot of time on their 'tatami' floors either scooted up to the small table, resting on it, or just doing whatever. I do have to say that sitting up straight with no chair support (even though there is a wall sometimes) is hard on the back though. Another thing that I am coming to relish is the Japanese bathtub. It's a small deep tub that is filled almost to the brim with hot steaming water-no bubbles. The protocol is very important: wash oneself outside of the tub by sitting on a plastic stool and doing all your washing there first. Next, you get into the tub to soak and relax-not to wash. After you are finished you get out and dry off and the NEXT person comes and uses your bathwater or vise-versa. This is really hard on the American mind, at least mine since I usually START in the tub not go there second. So, I guess the huge amount of water being used is justified by the fact that everyone in the family will use the same water. If I were born in Japan, at least I would've been the third to get in; being the oldest does have some benefits!

Cooking

I am not the main chef at our abode but I do get flairs and wild hairs for cooking sometimes. Mostly, I just thrive in a kitchen that is big, spacious, clean and has an oven and interesting ways to hang or arrange all the utensils, pots and pans. I wanna learn how to cook good meals that people will like but with a truly international edge to it. I've never been big on American food since I moved to Norman anyway so I don't often crave a hamburger or hotdog-not anymore since Celiac but I still love French fries. So, I am hoping that in the coming months, I can slowly begin to explore this idea.

Finally, I just want to say 'hello' to my sweetie, Alan. He has been a huge huge encouragement to me while we have been separated. We took special care to give each other things to remember and things to read while apart. And so, I'll leave with that. Signing off from Agaren in Kikai, Japan.

Small children should not be allowed to be so cute

Logging in from the Dallas Metroplex today, waiting on a good time to talk to my lovely wife. At 1 am her time. Yes, we are desperate to talk to each other, thanks for asking. No, I'm not interested in having my carpet cleaned.

OK, so since last night that makes two of the past three nights when I have interacted w/ unbearably cute children. I had already mentioned the lovely and shy Zoe last time, and last night I went to Bryan's house and met his little Esperancita (of course, the phrase "little Esperancita" translate to "little little Hope," but I digress), who is not shy at all. Or at least, she wasn't w/ me. In fact, I do believe she ranked my face as one of Esperancita's Top 4 Most Interesting Objects of Yesterday Evening (ETFMIOYE, for short). I swear, she kept looking at me and smiling and giggling. Halfway thru the night I'm wondering what inside jokes Bryan and Audra have been sharing w/ her and which one she found so darn sneaky funny. Of course, my face was almost constantly contorting and I was doing funny things w/ my tongue (which she promptly learned, no doubt MUCH to B & A's delight. You guys can thank me for that later), but that merely KEPT her attention on me. She seriously did take well to me, which is not rare but not all that commonplace either. So we talked to her in Spanish and English and had yummy casserole while Esperancita feasted on strained sweet potatos and Cheerios... a fun evening was had by all. Bryan commented that one of the funniest things he's ever seen is naked baby crawling. I have to agree. That's just funny stuff.

Once again, I gotta get me one of those.

This makes 3 of the last 4 days that I have enjoyed Starbux' fine blends of quality coffee, soy milk, flavored syrups, and liquid gold (which is probably why it costs so much) w/ one BobbyD. Gotta love a guy who loves Starbux. I can neither confirm nor deny rumors that Tulsa and Norman Fourbux will also receive patronage dollars from me w/in the next week. One strike against them, though - they dropped their coconut flavored syrups, which was by far the best.

Some world politix issues are flaring up on which I have yet to form a strong opinion, which is actually kind of surprising. Not unheard of, but still. They are the UAE taking over US port mgmt, and the seeming buildup to a civil war between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq. As for the latter question, I have to admit that I might just prefer them to do it and get it over w/, get it out of their system. But the ramifications are large and as of yet unconsidered by me. So never mind - forget I mentioned it.

Checking in from Houston

With all due respect and thanks to Benjamin and Tammy for letting me stay at their house, allowing me free rein of their kitchen, computer, etc, I must object to this keyboard. It and I are not getting along well. I will make do w/ what I can, however.

So, I've been in Houston now for about 40 hours or so, having arrived on Monday evening. It is now Wed morning, by my estimation (and also my watch says so) and I'm preparing to leave at some point to Dallas. Which is not to say that I've actually begun gathering up my things that are scattered all over the guest bedroom. Rather, I'm sitting here blogging. Priorities, man!
Speaking of priorities, my borrowed car is a mess! When I picked it up, it was fairly empty but my stuff is all over it, so I think I'll be cleaning out the inside, vacuuming out the floors, etc, before taking it to Dallas. It'll be nice to drive a cleaner car. It's been running great, gets good radio reception, and so I'm very happy to have it, to be sure. It has really saved me from a lot of headache, financial problems, and logistical issues. The lack of a CD player hasn't even been a huge impediment - I'm enjoying catching up on talk radio. I don't listen much in Japan to talk radio, though I usually enjoy it between a 5-8 on a scale of 1-10 (I said usually) b/c I've got way too much other stuff to do. But compared to what else is on the radio, it's become my favorite. And I include all talk radio, be it the evil Rush to the sardonic Glenn Beck to my favorite freaky wacko preachers like John Macarthur and David Jeremiah. Truly, my radio palate is a foreshadowing of a life lived in bent, closed-minded, clean-living obscurity. Truly, I scare myself.

It just occurred to me yesterday that I have so much going on over the rest of my trip - really a good portion of my time is booked solid. I'm supposed to do some shopping as well - I will have to get on that in Dallas, 'cause I don't have time to do it in Norman, really.

Kerwin, Sunny, and Zoe came to Benjamin and Tammy's house last night. Zoe is like 2 yrs and change, and she is oh-my-gosh-how-cute-can-you-be cute. And shy. But she was a joy, and she conked out on Kerwin's lap while we were chatting after playing guitar (Benjamin let me play his new Taylor. Sweet!) and then Kerwin picked her up but needed to put his shoes on, so I got to hold her for 2 minutes. I didn't want to give her back, to be honest.

Gotta get me one of those.

OK, the interview went quite well I'd say. It was funny that I knew the JET coordinator guy and also two of the three interviewers. One of them was the JET coordinator from last year and another was her boss who had fast-forwarded my visa app last July. So I was glad to see them as my interviewers. The other was an OU Japanese prof. I wonder if they pressed me a little bit more than they ordinarily would have just b/c they knew me and they know Aubrey and b/c Aub is already a JET. Perhaps. They definitely parsed how I would differentiate myself from Aub and also how we would function in a different setting than rural Kikai, etc. They also asked me a lot of questions about what I don't like about Japan, the JET program, etc. I thought that was strange, but in retrospect it is very possibly a good thing since I wasn't the one being negative so they thought they had to bring that out. Hope so - God knows I can be quite negative sometimes, but typically not in interviews. I was darkly sarcastic, just for a bit of comic effect, in an all-day interview once, and that was one of the main reasons cited for not hiring me. Lesson learned, and learned well, you know?
All that said, I'd say it was a good experience. I also offered advice and answers to questions from the other interviewers who were waiting, so they seemed to appreciate that. After the interview, I was tempted by Starbux downstairs, but I was strong! I did NOT give in!

Headed to Dallas today. Please pray for Aubrey - she has been sick for three days; nothing serious, just cold-like symptoms induced by eating some hidden wheat on Sunday.

Much Ado

Much Ado
Does this work? Sorry,I am not much of a blogger-reader-leave-a-comment. Let's try first.

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away

Hello from the US!

I'm obviously here and have overcome sleep deprivation and time zones and jet lag in just under 3 days! Sleep is lovely. But let's not indulge too much, now. Only problem is that I've gotta do some driving over the next week. To Houston tomorrow via Dallas, then back to Dallas by Wed night, then to Tulsa on Saturday, then back to Norman on Monday. Ouch!

I thank God for the car that our friends Alex and Kendra lent me. I thank God very much for the time w/ friends I've so far enjoyed quite a lot. I have had opportunities to talk w/ people about the Gospel. I've seen friends long missed. It's been cool.
But I'm really ticked off this morning. A relatively minor ice storm hit Norman on Friday night and has predictably iced over the neighborhood roads. But by Saturday evening, the main roads were not particularly bad. Yet this morning, after being totally prepared and chomping at the bit to go to church, what happens? They CANCEL it. What...the...smurf??!?!?!?!?!?!??!?
I seriously do not remember the last time that church was cancelled for a minor ice storm. I think I probably remember the church I grew up in calling it off like one Sunday when we were IN THE PROCESS of being buried under near-record amounts of snow and ice. Like that morning. But a 36-hour-old ice fall?

Yes, I'm venting. May the Lord teach me the virtue of waiting on Him; ie, waiting perhaps another couple of years to attend my home church. Sigh.
Having some people over this morning to worship the Lord, at Eric's house where I'm staying. I should stop venting on the blog now and go prepare my heart for what we do get to do this morning rather than being bummed over what I've missed.

I was about to make a sarcastic comment to end this entry, but I won't. Over and out.

Aubrey chimes in on life without Alan

I am sitting here with a box of Kleenex

but not watching any sad love story.
Yesterday while at my friend Haruno's house
for a sleep-over, we made dinner together.
Accidentally, we used a Miso soup paste
that had gluten in it (I am allergic to wheat)
and boy was that soup good...no wonder!
My taste buds had not forgotten the delicious
taste of wheat but it was too late and I ate a full bowl
of vegetable consomme w/ white Miso paste and was
infected. My symptoms range from mild to severe depending
on how much gets into my system. This time around, I was not
too severly affected but quite inconvenienced. I have a major runny nose, water eyes and terrible sneezing fits. But, Celiac stories are best left for another time. Let's talk about the island life of Kikai, Japan.

Alan is in Norman for 15 days and he reminded
me just how MUCH we as Americans (and other cool countries) have
to be thankful for. If not for inconvenience though, I might not
write this!
Transport
My major form of transportation is a bike. His name is Frosty because he looks like well, gray and 'frosty' except he lives here on this hot island. Kikai is quite small in some aspects so we really don't need a car. I can get to the small grocery store in two minutes at normal speed. Everything has to fit in my basket or on Alan and my's handlebars. I don't think I have ever done so much biking in all my life, except when I was a freshman in high school. Now I've been up to it for about 6 months and some bananas. I like it most of the time. I've been caught in downpours, huge gusts of wind but no typhoons yet. Usually don't ride in them but walk and video in them! he he

The Super
The supermarket still feels a little bit like a puzzle to me. Each time I go though, if I am attentive, I find another piece and things make more sense. See, I don't really read Japanese Kanji. I only read Kana (Hiragana and Katakana). A lot of Japanese people say they
don't even read the Tokyo paper because they forget Kanji. Wouldn't that be horrible? I mean, sure, there are fifty-cent words (in English) all over the place that I don't know, but I can usually figure it out by the context. What about Kanji? I'm not sure. I haven't delved into that world too much but maybe someday I will know. So, I feel weird wandering around for a LONG time in the supermarket which is about the size -well, I can't think but it's not big. I buy usually what I SEE. Does that make sense? If I can SEE(clear plastic bag or container) what it is, and I need it, then I buy it. If I can't SEE what it is, well, I am gonna have to pull out Mr. Jisho (dictionary) and try to figure out something or ask someone. Japanese supers here in Kikai usually play dorky music. It's loud and annoying but I guess so it is in many American clothing stores too.
Maybe it's better I can't understand all the words in the songs yet!
Japanese supers are crazy about tape too. They tape between the handles of the plastic bag and also they are good at trying to get everything in ONE bag. I know Alan is bit perturbed by that...but it's ok to me.

Traffic-wait, there's not really...next

Roads-We have some. Most in Kikai-cho are under construction.
I laugh and giggle at the construction signs because they are these cutsy animals and landscapes and then at the bottom it tells you how many km until the construction. Kikai 'imports' their construction workers from the mainland which means that these guys stay on this island until their project or assignment is done. I remember Alan being kind of excited that at a restaurant we saw some younger Japanese (as opposed to quite a bit older) guys. He thought he'd befriend them and then found out that they were leaving next week. They were construction dudes from Yokohama. Yes, we made many jokes of the name with ours since it sounds so much like Oklahoma.


Kitchen-
The kitchen in our little house is about 300cmx175cm. Bathroom and Bath Room are quite smaller. We have a small range, a large silver sink and really no counter space. When I mean no counter space, I mean NO counter space. We usually cut things up on our EVERYTHING table in the living/dining/den/teaching/entertaining room. Our fridge and freezer is about 150cm tall and about 50cm wide. We have a microwave and a toaster oven. No real oven and Aubrey feels quite out of cooking rhythm without one.

How do they heat up that there place?
Well, I'm sure some people in Japan do have CHA but I would say they are quite the MINORITY and they don't really think they need it anyway. It's too expensive. During the winter or cold months, people us hot tables called 'kotatsu'. I love these things!!!! There is nothing like eating a meal with my legs and feet under a nice fluffy blanket that is heated by some heating filament underneath the table. Sometimes people(not the whole person..just their thighs down) sit under there and have tea and chat. In our bedroom, we have a hot carpet. I like them too. Ours is gray and looks like a tough-looking electric blanket that plugs into the outlet and can be adjusted by a sliding clicky thing on the side. We also have a little heater too. I heard some people up on the mainland use kerosine heaters too.

The seasons
Well, island seasons can differ depending on where you are but in Kikai I'd say that summer is the longest season next to spring. We have a rainy season in May or June but I wasn't here at that time so I don't know. Today is February 19th and spring is already here but it's still a bit chilly, overcasty, windy and rainy most of the time. Reminds me of France's weather in Clermont-Ferrand! I think that December and January were milder here for winter than they have been in the past. I can't give you any temps but I can tell you I saw NO snow, nor frost, nor any kind of that precip. I would compare Kikai's weather to that of Houston since they run on the same latitudinal line. I was disappointed in Kikai's fall though. Most things just stay green and a few things change colors or die. I miss Oklahoma's fall; that's for sure. Thanks all of you who sent us pictures of Oklahoma's fall!

Eatins
What do we actually eat? Well, not Sushi and Sashimi everyday but we could if we wanted to. Alan is the cook, the main one, of our household. He is excellent and unwavering in original dishes to please me and guests. I will say that we eat cabbage salads now instead of iceberg lettuce (although they have it). We eat salads, French fries, Onigiris, chicken and or beef dishes, lots of soups, omelettes, tons of rice and rice dishes and the occaisonal treat from those back home who send us some missed American goodies. Since I can't eat wheat, Alan has had to come up with some pretty interesting but tasty dishes. My favorite this month is his Omelette-Rice dish. It's an incredible mixture of rice, spices (you can get them easily), and diced tomatoes wrapped in a piping hot thin egg omelette. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Now I am hungry for one like Alan makes.

Going out
Is an expensive affair. Truly, it is HARD not to pay $20-$30 bucks for two people if you go to a regular izakaya (rest./pub). They serve most things at night 'tapa' style which means that they come in tiny dishes for all to share. Alan and I had a hard time with that one since the portions are not always so big. If you go with a group, they order tons of these little 'tapas' and then they split the bill. Sounds ok but can get pretty expensive. Some of the stuff we've eaten is
eel, octopus, crab, clam, raw fish, raw goat, squid, little fishies (looks like fishing bait but saltier), seaweed, radishes(the radishes here get as big as American leeks!!! Eeeeek!), Miso soup, Keihan, Omurisu, pasta, steak, French fries (the fat kind kinda like Braum's has), Salsbury steak, Nikujaga, egg-wrapped rice bullets, and tons of other stuff I can't think of right now.

table manners
I have to hold in my giggle when we eat with tons of Japanese. It's like a monotone of Itadakimasu (let's eat!) in happy unision as they clap their hands together height of the breastbone and pause for a second until they dig in. I usually pray after that because I am already in the natural position to. Sometimes we talk and a lot of times just slurp if we have a dish to slurp. Chopsticks are handled like second nature to us now even though we used them in the States. I love the rice in Japan. I could write a paragraph on its consistency...mmmmm sticky rice is sugoi (cool)! After the meal is over, they say gososhama deshita (what a feast!) and then clear their plates quickly.
Speaking of plates, my bowl of Hamburger Lentil soup is calling my name. I will let you go. Until next time on Island Life.

So, be thankful of all that you have no matter where you are!
(Aubrey)

My last day in Kikai for a while

It's but 10 hours before liftoff.
Err... liftoff... I don't know if big ol' ferry boats "lift" off, but whatever they do, that's it. I guess embarkment. It's weird - I'm looking forward much to my trip to the States and relish the opportunity to see friends and family, that's for sure. And I get to see so many people - it's really great! But I do not want to leave Aubrey behind. Looks like I have to, though. It's gonna be hard - we'll be separated for just under 3 weeks, and that's just no good. Last time, when we were to be separated for 5 weeks, we thought it would be good for us. Chalk that one up to experience! I guess it was "good" for us, but we did NOT enjoy it. I would call it a dead heat on "good for us" and "unnecessarily unpleasant." Only the fact that I believe God called us to do it keeps me on the more optimistic side of things on that count.

Anyway. Got lots of things to do to prepare today, and I have to pack and such. So it's gonna be fun times, that's for sure. I'm bringing certain funky and not-so-funky snacks to the States for friends and well-wishers to enjoy, such as Pocky Stix (not funky), dried fish (funky), and, um, I'll think of something else. Gonna hoof a whole bunch of presents for Aub's family to the States in my luggage and then send it in a box from there, so it'll cost about 1/4 of what it would normally cost and get it there sooner. Shipping from the States to the States is always preferable, man.

I also have to teach 3 classes today, which I'm not looking forward to. But hopefully I don't have to prepare too much today. It does definitely hurt the profit margin that I'm not working for 3 weeks. My wallet is moaning softly.
On the bright side, looks like smooth sailing on the ferry, since it's great weather today and not very windy. The next day's night bus to Osaka is definitely questionable, but I've heard it's not too bad. And once I arrive, I have 5.5 hours before my flight takes off, but there's apparently an express bus that'll take me right to the airport from my bus station, so I should be in good shape. I might walk around just a bit in Osaka to see what there is, but I doubt I'll be anywhere near anything very interesting. And I don't read much Japanese, you know.

I am wondering if anyone about my size can lend me a suit for my interview. Thanks!
Finally, if you need to reach me after Tuesday evening (ie, about 5 am CST in the US) then please email my cell phone. See you in the States!

This, my friends, is the culinary masterpiece known as "keihan." I am hoping to introduce it to some of you when I get there.
This is a picture.

This is a pic of the mother-daughter combination w/ whom we have dinner most every Sunday night. Sachiho is the little girl and Yukari is the mother. Yukari is a great cook! Sachiho was shy at first but now she has really warmed up to us and loves to sing Magi-Ranger stuff for us and be silly. Magi-Rangers are like Power Rangers, only far cheesier and, um, Japanese-er.
This is a picture.

Burning property and traveling to the States

First let me extend my thanks to the thousands of Muslims out there rioting over the Danish cartoons. At least you're burning some Euro-property this time instead of firebombing or defacing a synagogue or American property!

Yes, I am half-kidding. But only half. You take issue w/ the other half, go live in France for awhile and then come back and take issue.

And just one more elbow to the ribs, a similarly-themed cartoon that certainly has ME, a conservative literalistic freako-Evangelical, up in arms! I'm about ready to say, "Wow, the mainstream media sure doesn't like me!" and then go on w/ my life.

So today I'm sick. I think I caught a cold yesterday from one of my little girl students. She was coughing and stuff during my first class and by the end of my 3rd and last class I was feeling quite out of sorts. So now it's about 27 hours later and I don't feel great still, but at least it's mostly just one symptom - general achiness and fatigue. I hope to be over it by tomorrow. Tomorrow, even if I don't feel great, I think I'll go w/ Aub to her kindergarten class so as to help w/ crowd control and mostly to play guitar and aid in game-playing. She will have to do most everything in Japanese. We are both wondering what the point of sending a JET teacher to a class that knows NO English is when plenty of other schools could use her services, but we're not the bosses. If we were, it's for dang sure there'd be less constant road construction around here.
During my sick time, I watched the Sugar Bowl, having downloaded it last week. A very entertaining game, so I was glad again for the ability to download.
You know, just like I considered such luxuries as being able to download a whole football game (w/o commercials, no less!) and to video-conference over the Internet to be only for the rich and highly technical/savvy. And just yesterday I was talking to Nate about how cool it is that we can vid conference for free. So many varieties of technology are grand, man! I thank God for it regularly, seriously.

OK, so I have confirmed my arrival in OKC. 16 Feb at 5:10 pm I'll arrive at the airport, and I have a ride, thank you again! I'll go directly to iMPACT that evening and then Saturday hit the Chi Alpha Alumni party. Sunday will be church - looking forward to it, to be sure! To Houston by Monday evening, back to Dallas probably on Thursday or Friday 23/24 Feb, to Tulsa or Norman by Sunday evening 26 Feb, probably. I'm not sure whether I'll make it to Tulsa, but I am leaning towards going there from Dallas before coming back thru Norman by Tuesday at some point, to fly outta OKC on Thursday 2 March at 6 am. I'm really looking forward to it. If you're around, please make it a point to see me - I really do want to see everyone I can, at least a little!

Time for resting. Have a lovely day!

Thanks for the offers! Got a ride.

I never know how to start these blog entries, so I'm just gonna start.

Thank you very much to all of you who offered to pick me up at the airport. I got a ride from a friend who works like 2 miles away and gets offa work right when I come in. What's more, I wanted to go to his house for a meeting of my iMPACT friends that very evening, so it all works out very well.

I'm looking around at how I might get to Dallas from OKC on Monday Feb 20. Anyone want to take me to Gainesville, TX, sometime that day?

Many thanks to Jenny and Kaki who offered me the use of their digital cameras. I'm looking forward to taking quite a few pics.

And a happy coincidence - there is a Chi Alpha alumni reunion on 18 Feb, Saturday. So I'll be hanging out w/ them and Nate (the BlackBlogger to you) on Saturday, maybe even going to an OU basketball game. That should be really cool. And there's PIZZA involved! I don't care about lactose intolerance, my friend. That pizza will be eaten. By me.

Finally, I'm looking to borrow a suit for my interview in Houston on 21 Feb, Tuesday. Anyone in OKC/Norman who is about my size have a decent suit I could borrow? I promise to give it back. In Japan I don't have much use for suits...

The big day

So we have made the call.
We won't be returning to Kikai next year. I'd say the deciding factor was our desire to have a baby sometime soon and refusal to wait for another 18 months before having a baby. There you go.

Telling certain members of family was not easy, and reminded Aubrey of one of Aesop's fables:

The man led his donkey to market as his son walked beside him. They passed someone who said, "You don't lead a donkey! You ride him," so the man smiled and put the boy on the donkey.

Feeling good about this solution, they passed someone who said, "Look at that selfish boy. He rides while the poor old man walks." Being eager to please, they changed places.

They felt this must be the right thing to do until they passed someone who said, "Look at that mean man. He rides like a king while the poor little boy walks." Being eager to please, they both rode.

Who could object to this solution?
Soon, they passed someone who said, "That man and boy are so cruel! The poor little donkey must carry both of them!"

So they got off and tried to figure out what to do. They decided to tie the donkey's legs to a pole and carry him.

Everyone who saw them pointed and laughted. The man and boy kept walking.

The strong little donkey didn't mind the other arrangements, but he didn't like this at all! He squirmed and brayed! As they crossed a bridge, he got one leg free. He kicked the boy making him drop his end of the pole. The poor donkey slid into the river.

Moral? Try to please everyone and you please noone. So we'll be trying to please Jesus, and if other people want to come along, they are certainly welcome! But we're hopefully not coming "home" yet b/c we won't be there until we croak. Until then, it's wherever God wants us.

Looks like I'll be coming into OKC at 5 pm on 17 Feb. Anyone wanna pick me up? I promise I'll smile broadly and I might even offer you a hamburger and/or coffee on me!
I'll probably save around $300 by taking the ferry to Kagoshima and then the night bus to Osaka from there rather than flying, though that extends my travel time by about 40 hours. Time is money, you say? Indeed! Going slower is way cheaper. Traveling in Japan is expensive, to be honest. Just getting to Osaka from Kikai and back will cost me almost as much as the overseas flight. Argh.

Declining the re-up option today. Should be fun.

Today was Saturday

1st picture is me at the ping-pong club, the same club to which I have not gone in about 5 weeks now. I miss it, but Saturday night is not the best night for such things, you know?
The next is a pic of us out east of town on a bike jaunt to look at some empty houses and an old no-longer-used tomb. Yes, we have weird ways of spending our time. Get off it.
In other news, I have deleted the Rose Bowl from my hard drive (what a great game!) and have completed the download of the Holiday Bowl and am 18% away from the Sugar Bowl as well. The Holiday Bowl only took 35 hours - that's not bad! A big shout out to the peer computer from whom I dnlded the game. Thanks for the file, but couldja upload just a TAD faster than 8 KB/sec next time?

Now then, today was Saturday. Today was so full! Whoof!

We were supposed to go over to my friend Izumi-san's house today and talk around 10 am. I haven't seen him in a while and he's quite nice to me...he doesn't have any kids and I think enjoys having me around. And so Aub and I went over there to find... no Izumi-san. Left a note in Japanese in his mailbox that he may or may not get and went over to Ariana's house, the other American on the island. Hung out at her place for a while in the usual way - Aubrey and Ariana and Alan talking for a while before the 3 kids invite Alan to some back room to play, 1st w/ toys and then by pummeling Alan w/ fists and other blunt objects, and then demanding that he hoist them into the air about a zillion times, before Alan gets tired and goes back into the kitchen to continue drinking his tea/coffee and talking a bit more and the kids come in and make noise, occasionally hit Alan some more, whine and laugh. It's crazy, man.
At lunchtime we went over to a restaurant to meet w/ a friend of mine named Tama who works at the post office. We ate lunch (I love this restaurant's lunch - the place is called Jube and their food is my favorite) and talked, and afterwards Tama pulled some funky little games out of his bag. We drew slips of paper out of a box and Aubrey won some gum and chocolate, and I won nothing. It's a bit eccentric to carry around games like that in your bag, but oh well. That's what he does, and he's really nice and funny, so you just let it pass.
Leaving the restaurant, we happened upon our friend Midori who was driving up w/ her boyfriend, who is newly returned from living in China for 15 months. (!) He's glad to be back... we drove around and eventually found a place to fish and we just talked. He thought he saw an octopus (I tawt I taw an octoputh!) but it turned out to be like a stick or something. So we didn't catch anything, but had a good time.
We were then supposed to go to a big badminton tournament and watch teachers play, a teacher-only tourney. We invited Midori and Satoshi (boyfriend) inside, but here's a weird thing about Japanese (or at least Kikai) schools. If the teacher has a romantic relationship that's not marriage, they are supposed to keep it VERY secret. One friend of ours has a boyfriend (who treats her like garbage, but that's beside the point) and only Aubrey knows about it - none of her co-workers! Same w/ Midori here. Why? They say that if the students find out, they'll talk. OOOOOOOoooooohhhhhhh. Interestingly, the teachers brag about getting sloshed on the weekends in front of their kids, but they are prohibited from even allowing their face to be seen around w/ their romantic interest. Zounds! That's just messed up.

Anyway, the tourney was fun and I saw alot of friends, but we had to leave before the final match to prepare for Midori and Satoshi to come over for dinner. We ate leftover homemade soup and a massive salad, and generally made merry. They brought beer, unrequested by us, and had a couple each. To be honest, I had no idea what to do... I had asked them pointedly to bring "juice," which means Gatorade or tea or actual juice, but I guess that was clear to only Aubrey and me. Next time I'll keep w/ my usual routine of specifying no alcohol.
You may be wondering why. The main motivation is that there is this idea in Japan that you can't have fun or get to know someone until you're drunk or drunk w/ them, and we are of course highly interested in overturning that stupid idea. Case in point - we showed our friends a couple of videos that we had made w/ Kaki and Erica, just when we were feeling random. They were like, "Is Alan drunk?" Why? B/c I was being loose and funny, natural. They don't think you can get there w/o chemical assistance. Keep that in mind when praying - 'tis a real stronghold over the people here. Though nothing like another large Asian country, I hear (hat tip to Troy).

So now I'm tired and thinking of changing my email sig line to some quotes from Job. Think I will - that guy was just a stud. Peace out.

OK, just one more! When Erica and Kaki were here, we rented the movie "Hitch" one night. At the end of that movie is a scene where they're all dancing to this old-school Jock Jams song called "Now That We've Found Love." So we rewound it and started dancing to it ourselves while Kaki took a video w/ her really sweet brand new digital camera/video recorder. This camera takes still shots WHILE taking video, so this is one of those shots. Problem is, when it takes a still shot, it freezes the video for about a second, so we didn't like the vid as much as we could have, but you can see here that we are freaking some really sweet moves to this mix, yo.
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As proof of the aforementioned gaining of Austin's affection, I post a pic of one of my favorite pasttimes - pettin' nice kitties!
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Me taunting Shoyu (which means Soy Sauce) in the backyard. He swiped at me like 8 times that day and only got me twice. So that's a pretty good record!
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And to top off my picture-posting spree, I present a few more KittyPix! Here's my hand about to pet an only-kind-of-unwilling Rapha. He's getting a little nicer. Austin is chowing down on the cat food we feed them about every day and lets us pet him any time we want now. He seems actually to like it a lot.
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Kaki and Alan being very serious outside Hana No Ren, where we all 3 ate just before Kaki took off on the night ferry.
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Kaki was able to capture some of Kikai's seasoned citizens on film. Thanks Kaki! I asked someone in another part of town and she shook her finger at me and told me I better not. Maybe it's the hair.
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Kaki w/ Midori and some of her students at Daiichi. Midori is a 1st-year English teacher at Daiichi.
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Kaki and Aubrey and a nefariously subtle introduction of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a couple of girlfriends. That's a tract entitled "The Passion of Jesus Christ" in Kaki's and the one student's hands.
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Kaki went to work w/ Aubrey one day, like the day before she left. Here she is w/ the middle school students of Daiichi Jr. Hi, the closest one to our house and the biggest on the island.
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One friend brought over a confetti grenade and detonated it inside after eating kebabs. He didn't want to have his pic taken (something about practicing grenades w/ confetti) but he allowed us to take a pic of the after-effects.
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Two budding English teachers. They will no doubt one day attend OU and become huge football fans. No doubt.
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And here is the tea/coffee/cookies group along w/ kids.
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Here is what Aubrey looks like just before leaving for work on Monday morning. Well, something like that. Her bike, Frosty, is her favorite form of transportation, especially when it's mostly sunny, a slight breeze, and about, oh, 72 degrees outside. Or if she's late. Either one.
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Here's me cooking kebabs on our borrowed hibachi grill. We invited two friends over on the fly and to our surprise each was able to come. That's almost unheard of, to be honest!
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Kaki and Aub in their flamenco get-up. Aub is taking flamenco and seems to enjoy it quite a lot.
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Aubrey, Tomoko, and Kaki trying to thaw out. We ate omuraisu, which is like an omelette covering a mound of rice. It has ketchup on it and it's pretty good, really (I know, it doesn't sound all that good, but believe me). It was cold today so we sit on a hot carpet and cover our legs w/ that big blanket/tablecloth thing and another heating element under the table also puts out heat, so it keeps you kind of warm when you sit down. Problem is, sitting on the floor gets really uncomfortable for back, thighs, calves, pretty much everything, after about 30 minutes.
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A little bit later on, we walked out to the pier and took this pic. This is at Soumachi Park, and it's approximately the farthest you can get from our house and still be on Kikai island.
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The kid on the left is half Chinese and half Japanese and is one of my students as well as the son of one of my students. The other two are sons of one of my adult students. While the ladies were enjoying tea, coffee, and cookies inside, I was keeping the kids occupied outside so they wouldn't disturb the proceedings w/in. We were hoping for some good conversations that day, so I took one for the team and ran around outside for like 90 minutes w/ these boys.
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Here is Aubrey at her Board of Ed New Year Party (or as they spelled it on her paycheck stub, Niu Yia Pati).
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This is Aubrey's (soon-to-be-former) softball team and Kaki at their New Year Party. It is very common to eat in a private-style room like this and many restaurants look like this in Kikai.
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Here are Hiromi and Erica eating tacos. Thanks to all those who sent taco stuff! We just ate our last batch last week. I think we hosted like 6 taco parties in all, so the stuff was used wisely.
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Erica and two of our Japanese friends, Michiko and what's-her-name. Michiko is going to study in Australia in the spring or something, so that's cool for her.
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Here are Aubrey and Kaki while I'm playing guitar up on stage at Sabani. At least, I think so.
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