Aub's 1st post and 1st baby

Hello everyone!

This is a pick of me at a park on our way to some gardens at a place called Sengan-en. November 7th was the official 'proof' that I am indeed with child. It worked out spendidly that I had a meeting in Kagoshima-shi that week and would have the whole afternoon to get los..I mean, to find the hospital for a check-up the day I flew in, a day before my meetings. In Japan, going to the hospital is just where the doctor works-it doesn't always mean an emergency like it could be in the States. Also, it is quite a bit more immodest or 'open', shall we say, in the area where one is given a check-up. Every nurse working that day knew where I was from, how I got there, what my job was and yes, that I was pregnant. Simple pink partitions separated me from the rest of the patients waiting in their 'room' for their turn. The OBGYN did speak broken English and was incredibly patient but he saw really no visible baby on the screen so I had to take another pregnancy test (other than the one I took at home). He said that I had to be about four weeks and that is why we couldn't see much but approximated that the little guy/gal is about .65cm now. As I am writing this, the baby should already have a heart! That's amazing to me. And yes, I am feeling fine-no morning sickness yet. I don't have any strange cravings; I just wish I weren't allergic to gluten. I miss bread so much. I do get tired but that's usually at the end of the day and I spend a lot of time in the ladies' room...and no, not to put on make-up! Next appointment is December 10th, in Naze City on the neighboring island called Amami. We'll go by boat until it's too uncomfortable for me. Please pray that I can find an interpreter each time since there is no one at the hospital who speaks English! Yikes!

No more cicadas!

Ah praise God!!!!!

The weather is cooler now. Praise God #1.
The wind is blowing quite a bit. Rats.
The cicadas, which have been WAY loud ALL the time, are no longer blaring forth their incredibly annoying and deafening sound. Praise God #2, 3, and 4.

More on our Kagoshima vacation

OK, back w/ a little time for blawggin before I teach my 3rd English class for kids today. For all of you wondering how that's going, it's still tough to come up w/ good ideas but I am usually able to think of sthg at least halfway decent, and the classes virtually always go quite well. The kids are warming up to me and I to them. The problems are getting myself in the right frame of mind to teach them and not being stressed before the classes start. I am slowly getting over both, partially by just waiting and partially by putting forth significant effort to prepare far in advance. I pray that it will indeed go better in the future.

Anyway, the day that I met Aub in Kago City was actually 9 Nov, her birthday. We were blessed to be able to be together to celebrate, and after meeting for awhile at our friend Erica's place (which is where we stayed all but Sunday night), we rode our bikes down to the Dolphin Port, which is a seaside dining/entertainment complex that is quite nice. It reminds me alot of a similar complex (which is where The Melting Pot restaurant is located) just along the Arkansas River in Jenks, America, right across the river from Tulsa. So we roamed and searched, finally deciding on akeihan restau. You can see in that pic the toppings, which you put on top of rice in your bowl, and then you pour chicken broth on top and eat it w/ chopsticks/drink it like a soup. At this restau they also happened to have live shamisen music there, to which we danced and made the waiters laugh. The player turned out to be from another town on Kikai island (I was going to say "small town on Kikai," but that woulda been redundant. And redundant). After keihan-eating, we adjourned into the clear and slightly chilly evening to drink tea on the balcony. Erica's Japanese friend Masumi had also come along w/ another JET friend, Sive (who is Irish). Sive and Erica talked for a long time and Aub and I were able to talk to Masumi for quite a long time. What a God-sent rendezvous! She was not even supposed to get off work that day, but at the last moment was 'set free,' and we really hit it off in Japanese/English and were able to share the entire Good News w/ her. To be honest, it was quite a surprise since convos like that don't often just pop up, but there you go - this one did, and it grew out of a discussion about Aub's and my purity rings. (Wanna know the story? Email me or sthg.) So as not to give the wrong idea, it's not that we necessarily expect an on-the-spot conversion, but then again we try not to expect the Holy Spirit NOT to work in someone's heart.

Thursday we had to get a multiple-re-entry visa for Aubrey and me, but only got one for Aub since I forgot my passport. We need that if we ever want to leave the country and come back in (more on that later). Thursday we took our time and went over to the downtown (Tenmonkan) district. We grabbed some more Fourbux coffee and sat down, and our sailor friend just happened to come in at the same time, so we had another interesting conversation. Then we took off to see more of the town and decided we would bike over to the famous Sengan'en garden/house complex. This was a retreat house of some kind for the powerful Sho'gun Satsuma (I believe) in the 19th century. It took us a while to bike so far north and we almost got lost several times, but it was nice to see so much of the city. We made it to the Sengan'en (aka the Iso Garden) and took a look around. It is a cool place, though I think its charm was diminished b/c such a large amount of the complex's buildings were not exhibits or historical artifacts but rather shops for buying blown glass or samurai armor or regional specialty sweets and clothes. We ended up climbing up the steep and slippery nature trail, which offered some good views but was actually a bit disappointing. Our legs protesting every step of the way, we descended. The garden was neat - pretty well-cultivated w/ some nice flower scuptures. Also, there were some tents w/ special flowers underneath, and some of them were strange mutant flowers!

OK, I'm tired and don't wanna type no more. Back w/ more later.

So far in Kagoshima...

Hi everyone!
We are back at our fellow JET's apartment, feeling thankful that the 9:43 pm bus from Tenmonkan was late so that we didn't have either to walk or wait 30+ minutes to catch the next one back here.
We have been having a great time in Kagoshima City so far. You wanna hear about it? Fine.

Aubrey arrived here on Monday and got to the English-speaking doctor w/o a hitch. So that was good - we were a bit worried that maybe she'd have to wait some ridiculous amount of time. The next two days were spent at her conference, and she was quite bored during the day but had some fun w/ Erica and friends during the evening. We're a bit too tired to deal w/ that so far.
I (Alan) came in on the Tuesday night ferry, which is only 11 hours long. But it ended up being delayed for like 90 minutes and so didn't leave until 10 pm or something. Oy. So that meant that I would arrive in Kago City at 10 the next morning. So, got on, chilled out, studied the Bible, took a seasickness pill (that would be a pill that PREVENTS seasickness, mind you) and promptly crashed. It was great. Got up, had some breakfast, was ready to go at 9:55 am when we pulled into port. I felt really good, which is a bit different from how I felt last time I was on the all-night ferry. After that, I felt like I wanted to die. So it was a marked improvement.

I brought my bike from Kikai for $20 and so biked up to the Tenmonkan district, which is the equivalent of London's Piccadilly Circus or OKC's Bricktown or Watonga's, um, never mind. It's the entertainment part of town and it's quite entertaining, to be sure. Once there, I walked around a bit (though not too much, mind you - I had two backpacks on!), went up into the 5-story mall and took 10 minutes to absorb the Pachinko Parlor atmosphere (a Pachinko Parlor is a casino) and got good and depressed, and then took a sharp left turn once the presence of Starbucks began intruding on my consciousness. Ah, Fourbux! I marched meself right in there and ordered me a tall double-shot half-caff extra-hot soymilk hazelnut latte. At which point they informed me that they don't have decaf. So rather than risk my life drinking TWO shots of espresso, I knocked it down to a regular, not a double-shot. Enjoyed it. Except they had WAY too much foam for a latte! (Am I talking like a snob, or what?)

Now, you might think that hanging out at Starbux in a foreign land is a great place for a divine appointment, and you might even pray that God would bring you one, but you might be surprised when one lands in yo' lap. So it did and I was. A tall whitey walked into the cafe and I caught his eye and tossed a How ya doin' his direction. Once he got his drink, he came over, asked if he could join me, and then we began a long conversation. During which I was able to share the Gospel w/ him and ask him for a response. Cool - quite an encouragement. After about 2 hours I took off, but it was a good time. He was an interesting guy - French-speaking Quebecker, sailor, more recently a wine importer, world-traveler (claimed that Japan is Country #50!) and so yeah - it made for fascinating conversation, really.

At which point I was able to go meet Aubrey. But that's for another time, since I'm tired of typing now.
More later!

Gone all week

To Kagoshima City.

See you next week!

Dan Brown was wrong!

What a shock!
For those of you who don't know who Dan Brown is, perhaps you've heard of his exercise in lunatic ahistoricity, The Da Vinci Code.
For those of you who don't get it even after reading the article, I explain. I aim to please.

See approximately paragraph 10 of the article, where it says:

"Two mosaics inside the church — one covered with fish, an ancient Christian symbol that predates the cross — tell the story of a Roman officer and a woman named Aketous who donated money to build the church in the memory 'of the god, Jesus Christ.'"

Now, if you've read the book, you know that it makes the claim that Emperor Constantine made up the story of Christ's divinity. If you were paying attention when reading that, you'd've also noticed that Mr. Brown places Constantine in the AD 400s. Um, AD 400s is not the same as the 4th century AD.
But who cares?
So, this ancient church proves that Christ was regarded as God way before Constantine ever lived.
Dan Brown was wrong. But at least he has $$$$ and a major motion picture to show for his ignorance. Must be nice. But it doesn't last forever.

A Sooner's prayer

Dear God,
Please don't let USC and saxeT play for the national championship.
Amen.

The Vicks

Just a little on the Vicks.

In the 1st paragraph of this article, the author refers to Marcus Vick as "not the run-first QB his brother is."
What he should have said is "he's not the my-1st-wideout-read-is-covered-so-I'm-running-NOW QB his brother is."
That woulda been better writing.

Hate Outside

Hmm, I think it was just over a year ago that I attended a Love Won Out conference in Oklahoma City. I actually volunteered 'cause I was short on cash, wanted to help, and also wanted to get in free. So sue me. Anyway, got in free, got me a (nice-looking) T-shirt, and attended the all-day event. Quite good. And during a few free moments, I saw a familiar group of people across the street holding up signs. Familiar b/c I'd seen them at other homosexual-themed panel discussions and such in Norman, and b/c some of them were from a nearby church (which opens its arms and its theology to gay people and closes them to a belief in Hell) whose pastor used to preach at a less-obnoxiously-liberal but still liberal and still gay-friendly church where my grandmother used to attend and at which her funeral was held (and no, my grandmother was not a lesbian. She did say that the choir was really good there, though). I watched them hold up signs and get an occasional honk from passing cars. It was chilly and windy, so I hesitated, but then finally got the gumption to head out there to talk to them. There were about a dozen of these anti-"anti-gay" protesters, and they were about to pack it in at 1:30 pm. I asked why they were there and engaged them in pleasant conversation. One of them (who turned out to be an author of a mean-spirited book) was quite nasty to me, but he contented himself w/ a one-liner and left me to talk to some other people. I spoke at length w/ a young man named Jacob, who gave me his card. I later emailed him w/ some questions about how he justifies his homosexuality, but I never received any reply. After they headed back to wherever anti-"anti-gay" protesters go after protesting an "anti-gay" event, the rest of said event completed w/o further incident. No police were present w/ the protesters though there were a few inside the Christian university building where the event was held.

Contrast that w/ this demonstration in Boston over the same kind of event (w/ even the same speaker, Joe Dallas), the signs they held up, and what Boston's Finest did about it.
Read to the end of the article on the 1st link and ask yourself the same questions posed there: What if these had been pro-lifers outside an abortion-friendly church or an abortuary? What if these had been evangelicals - oops, sorry, I meant to say intolerant bigoted fundies - outside a lib church where PFLAG was meeting?
Just file this away in your mind - it is more proof that achieving a "neutral," value-free society where no one worldview is dominant in government or public thought is IMPOSSIBLE. Among many other things, the rise of the gay movement has provided backing evidence for this.

Et encore un verre pour la Republique!

Oh and by the way, see here for 2 good posts ("The Bells of Ys" and "The Bells of Ys 2") on the aforementioned issue in France.

Un frisson pour la France

I obviously have little idea of what is carried on the American media these days. Heck, when I was living in the States, I never watched TV and so still had trouble w/ that. But France is undergoing some really difficult events right now.
It kinda reminds me of the May 1968 demonstrations in France.
Obviously, there are quite a few dissimilarities, but these riots have been going on for 7 days now.
But I guess I would like to comment a bit on my understanding of how and why these are developing. First of all, Paris is not like an American city, where the poorest districts (the ghetto, IOW) surround the downtown area and other central parts of the city and the most prosperous areas tend to be the suburbs. In the US, these suburbs developed spontaneously as the cities grew and people didn't want to live in such constricted quarters - they wanted backyards, swimming pools, 3-car garages, and 2000 sq ft floorplans. Market forces caused their growth. In general, this is not the case w/ Parisian suburbs. Rather, the govt, for whatever reason, created the suburbs around Paris out of thin air and then tried to get people to move there. What is that if not a planned (socialist) economy idea? My guess as to why the govt decided on that course of action is that they needed to keep the central part of Paris safe for tourism and more crime-free. So, many poorer people started moving out to the suburbs.
There are some good things about this idea - reducing crime is nice, central Paris is an astoundingly wonderful place to visit, Paris also built a very efficient mass transit system along w/ the suburbs, and traffic is much less of an issue b/c of it. Good job.
However, the govt projects in the suburbs have long been hotbeds for crime and dissatisfaction.
Which brings us to the Muslim issue. France has, for years, treated the 5-million-strong-and-growing Muslim population w/ a 2-faced approach. On the one hand, the govt "stands up for Muslims" in opposing, for example, the US' intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yasser Arafat's wife and kids have long lived in Paris (and the kids attend an expensive private school, as I understand it. And why not, when you've got $Many-Millions to burn like he did?) and the French govt opposes Israel in almost any action it takes to protect itself against people who blow up themselves and buses full of old people, children, and other non-gun-toting types. And the govt has been trying to appease Muslims in mostly not going after illegal immigrants (much like the US govt does next to nothing to stem a similar flow across the Mexican border). However, French law allows for anyone to ask someone to remove a religious symbol in a public building or otherwise to call them to be arrested. At 1st, I thought this was about cross necklaces, but rather it is about the Muslim hijab (the veil for women). The French govt is unable to get most of these Muslims to assimilate into French-ness and also many of these Muslims are growing very restless b/c they can't get a decent job b/c 1) they really sometimes are discriminated against, and/or 2) they are illegals. But illegal or not, they feel entitled to sthg more.

At any rate, I hope that these riots continue to grow in France until the govt has to exert a great deal of effort to put them down. And then, let us all pray that France's politicians and population will be shocked out of their complacency and radically reconsider their lives and ideas. France is crippling itself thru so many of its policies - if the govt will adopt more American-style policies, it will go far in recovering from its material problems. But on a deeper level, France is dying inside - only the Gospel of Christ can bring it real life. If you want more info on that, just shoot me an email or leave a comment...
Perhaps a great conflict w/in the society will bring some or many to the realisation that the relativism they hold to holds no water.

The kitties' other favorite hang-out is our camp chairs in the front patio area. Here Tabi-Tabi and Austin are in my chair along w/ what we suspect to be their kittens (T-T is certainly the mother, and we are pretty sure that Austin is the father). Rapha also frequents the chairs, especially in the morning, and they seem to prefer my chair to Aubrey's usually, but not all the time.
This is a picture.

Here are Austin and No-Name Kitty curled up on the cushion one evening.
This is a picture.

Here is Austin inside our house, stretching. Austin is our other favorite, since he's not as skittish as the others and he's really pretty. We can sometimes pet him (as long as he's eating something we gave him), and the day I took this pic, I had lured him inside w/ a trail of dried fish.
This is a picture.

Here are (from left) Tabi-Tabi, Rapha, and Austin at our backdoor drinking milk. Whenever they come to our door and meow, we usually give them either dried fish (which we have started keeping on-hand), dried seaweed (which they, surprisingly, seem to dig) or milk.
This is a picture.

2 more cats, Cyrano and Rapha. Neither of them like us very much, but the greyish one (Rapha) sometimes comes close enough that we can pet his back or tail before he moves out of range. This was taken at the backdoor of the next-door neighbor.
This is a picture.

We now move to our next feature presentation - kittypix!!!!! This is in our "back"yard and the washing machine is on the left. We have left that pale green cushion out there to attract the 5 wild kitties that live near our house and they take advantage of it, especially when it rains! Here our favorite cat Tabi-Tabi is taking a break from her usual difficult life of napping. The other cat is the only one of 5 that we haven't named yet. T-T lets us pet her almost anytime, but the No-Name kitty is quite skittish. You can see here that he's about to take off running, which he did about 2 seconds after I took this.
This is a picture.

Kikai/Japan Idiosyncraszcies, Part Sheven

I just tried to post this and it got deleted. So you know I'm really happy to see that happen. And it totally RUINED a good day!!!!!

OK..., I'm over it.
Moving on, it's really nice weather now in Kikai. It has rained for two days but now it's partly cloudy and quite windy. I don't like wind very much but the temperature is very very nice. It's like in the low 70s.
Today I accompanied Aubrey to one of her schools, which is in the town on the farthest point on the island from our town. It takes about 40 minutes to get there on bus and so is a bothersome distance, but it's not like driving from Norman to Edmond, either in stress of driving, speed of vehicle, or straightness of road. We enjoyed the teaching and the kids, and the teacher is very nice. I think she wants me to come back next time Aubrey goes to that school. I don't know when that will be - she goes to something like 14 different schools in the course of about a month. And today the last class ended at 3:00 and we had been prepared to wait for the 4:10 bus but decided to try to make the 3:10 bus at the last moment so ran out to meet it. I guess it came early. So we waited an hour in the cold cold wind, watching some seasoned citizens play GateBall, which is a cross between mini golf, croquet, and the French-seasoned-citizen game called petanque. The wind gets really strong here sometimes and we were really glad when the bus came!

In Kikai, there is no Halloween, which gladdens our hearts. Why? We think Halloween is creepy and annoying.

In Kikai, there is no football, which saddens our hearts (or, more specifically, my heart; I don't think Aubrey really cares).

But in Kikai, there do be idiosyncraszcies. Here's another one:


-When we're on the streets, lots of people look at us for a good long time. I'm OK w/ it and Aubrey is slowly getting accustomed to it. Whenever we encounter a Jr. High or High School student, they almost invariably say, "Herro." I like it and respond w/ "Hello" about half the time and the appropriate Japanese greeting of "Ohayo gozaimasu" or "Konnichi wa" the other half the time. When I go to the high school to play ping pong (twice a week at about 4:30 pm) I always see HS students hanging out. They are always delighted to see me and yell, "Herro. How ahr you?" And I say, "I'm fine. How are you?" And they say (often in unison), "I'm fine, thank you!" Lately we've been trying to ask them tougher questions so as to stretch them - questions like "How was your lunch?" or "What are you doing today after school?" It's pretty fun actually. And it's a whole lot better than them throwing things at me, ignoring me, or beating me up and stealing my cell phone and wallet.

On that note, I bid you all ja mata.

Video tour of our humble dwelling

All of you who have been requesting a tour of our house,
the time has finally arrived. Click there and you'll find a video (it's 56 MB, so be careful!) ready for downloading.


It's not a very big house, and you're probably wondering how I got 56 MB of video out of it. Thru mindless chatter, that's how!
As always, I hope you enjoy (that's a hope based more on wishful thinking than on fact, I know)!

Thank goodness for Harriet Miers!

Thank goodness that she withdrew her nomination!

Man, I was getting really nervous that she might actually make it thru the Senate confirmation. So it's a good day in America.