A thousand lashes to the man who has lazily refused to update this blog . . . wait, that's me? Oops, never mind.
Ahem, er, sorry about the lack of postings. It takes a while to write all of this stuff down and I find myself unable to accomplish it all. Also, I write some things which I would not be comfortable with others seeing me write, so the constant presence of others over my shoulders prevents me from writing at times. However, this should be an epic update, so I hope it works for you. And now I present to you . . .
MEGA UPDATE: HAL IN JAPAN!
Saturday 5/29
Okay, this is the day we all left for our retreat to a hot spring resort on Mt. Asahidake. Fun times, eh? We met at the train station and left by bus. Dan was charming as ever in his hung over state. [Side-track: If you ever need a good reason against heavy drinking, just observe or point out someone who does it. Their state should be reason enough to put that can or bottle down.] So our strange little gathering left for the mountains: two professors, four American students (well, three and a Korean exchange student), five Chinese students, and two Japanese students.
After a long, boring bus ride, we arrived at a rest stop near the mountain. Our original plan was to take a cable car/hike up to the peak of the mountain, but because of a steady rain, any view from the mountain would be compltely obscured. So, instead, we hiked from the rest stop over to a waterfall. This was great fun, because mountain landscapes are beautiful, and so are waterfalls. You can't find this stuff in Illinois. Consequently, having not seen any corn for several weeks has seemed like a dream.
Next, we returned to the rest stop to wait for cabs to take us to our lodge. Nothing much to note here, except the arcade: American arcades are no comparison. We don't put candy or food as rewards in the games, especially beer or cigarettes. Also, we gear this stuff towards children. The Japanese, on the other hand, understand that adults play this stuff too. Thus why there was a mahjong game that rewarded good behavior with girls in bikinis or lifting up their skirts. I think if someone put that in a mall in America, we'd have a heart attack.
So, we ended up at the lodge eventually. This was pretty far up the mountain. It was kinda neat, it had a "log cabin" kind of feel to it, except it smelled pretty rank. Everything smells funny here. Why? Oh well. The owner sat and explained everything to us, but guess what? It was japanese. Most of us sat there and let our minds wander. I imagined what it would be like if I could understand him. Maybe he was just spouting off silly gibberish and my professors were too insane to care. Wouldn't that have been scary? Well, after that, we dropped our stuff off and hiked up the street to the visitor center. One professor decided that we should watch this video about the wildlife and landscape of the mountain (since, again, we couldn't go up the mountain). This was a video of flowers swaying in the breeze with slow, quiet piano music playing in the background. No joke. I think all of us slept for at least part of it. Well, after that, we walked even further up the road to the cable car station and checked out the gift shop, as that was the last thing we could do there. I thought about buying souvenirs, but most of it was junk.
Back at the lodge, we didn't do much. Settled down and played Uno for a while. The Chinese students hadn't seen it before. We did this until dinner time, where we all pitched in on preparation and cooking. We made some skillet dish which I cannot pronounce and was made of ingredients which you cannot find in the US. Sad day. It was good though. After we cleaned up, the men got their turn in the hot spring. This was interesting. First, I'm glad I wear glasses; it meant not having to see the other guys naked in the spa. Otherwise, the spa was relaxing, but VERY hot. Like, "we were in there 20 minutes before we felt like passing out" hot. Very relaxing, but potentially dangerous. Oh, and Dan just kept shouting the entire time about how drunk he was. Lovely. He tried to get me to down beers at dinner, and I was like, "Dan, I'm a Christian . . . I can't do that." He thought I just didn't want to look bad by getting drunk in front of others, that I couldn't let loose and have a good time. Some people just don't understand.
After that, not much happened. I got the chance to play cards with Mike for a while. I tried witnessing to him as much as I could, but I didn't get very far. He doesn't seem interested in learning the truth. For a lot of the questions I asked him, he seemed content to give trite, meaningless answers and let the question slide. I didn't like that, but it seems he doesn't want to confront a lot of those issues. I get the feeling this isn't over, but time will tell where this leads.
I went to be shortly after this, but it was hard; people kept coming in and out (drunkenly) and the walls separating the men's room from the women's was far too thin. Ah well.
Sunday 5/30
Being on top of a mountain, I couldn't go to church this day. So, I got up early and walked around the mountain side for a while. It was really foggy, so I couldn't see much, but everything was quite beautiful, and the sound of the river flowing really gave it some atmosphere. Words can't do justice to the natural beauty of the place. I returned, did some time in the scriptures, and then waited for breakfast.
Well, after cleaning up and everything, we returned to the city. I rested most of the afternoon. I got to meet Fujiko's parents. They were nice, but they didn't speak much english, so it was awkward (it always is).
Mike and I were to try again for StarCraft in the afternoon, but instead I joined him and his host family for bowling at the Sugai. This was pretty fun, but Mike certainly has an anti-social streak to him. He didn't hardly talk at all whilst we were bowling. At least this place had a great arcade.
Monday
Not much to say here. We were supposed to visit a high school, but that was thankfully cancelled. I think they finally figured out that we aren't education majors. Instead, after Japanese class, we visited this computer/mapping company. This was interesting, but minimally.
Okay, update cut short. I thought I had more time, but there is class in here now. Strange, but I shall explain later. Enjoy this for now!
Hal
Monday, June 07, 2004
Japanese Adventure V
A thousand lashes to the man who has lazily refused to update this blog . . . wait, that's me? Oops, never mind.
Ahem, er, sorry about the lack of postings. It takes a while to write all of this stuff down and I find myself unable to accomplish it all. Also, I write some things which I would not be comfortable with others seeing me write, so the constant presence of others over my shoulders prevents me from writing at times. However, this should be an epic update, so I hope it works for you. And now I present to you . . .
MEGA UPDATE: HAL IN JAPAN!
Saturday 5/29
Okay, this is the day we all left for our retreat to a hot spring resort on Mt. Asahidake. Fun times, eh? We met at the train station and left by bus. Dan was charming as ever in his hung over state. [Side-track: If you ever need a good reason against heavy drinking, just observe or point out someone who does it. Their state should be reason enough to put that can or bottle down.] So our strange little gathering left for the mountains: two professors, four American students (well, three and a Korean exchange student), five Chinese students, and two Japanese students.
After a long, boring bus ride, we arrived at a rest stop near the mountain. Our original plan was to take a cable car/hike up to the peak of the mountain, but because of a steady rain, any view from the mountain would be compltely obscured. So, instead, we hiked from the rest stop over to a waterfall. This was great fun, because mountain landscapes are beautiful, and so are waterfalls. You can't find this stuff in Illinois. Consequently, having not seen any corn for several weeks has seemed like a dream.
Next, we returned to the rest stop to wait for cabs to take us to our lodge. Nothing much to note here, except the arcade: American arcades are no comparison. We don't put candy or food as rewards in the games, especially beer or cigarettes. Also, we gear this stuff towards children. The Japanese, on the other hand, understand that adults play this stuff too. Thus why there was a mahjong game that rewarded good behavior with girls in bikinis or lifting up their skirts. I think if someone put that in a mall in America, we'd have a heart attack.
So, we ended up at the lodge eventually. This was pretty far up the mountain. It was kinda neat, it had a "log cabin" kind of feel to it, except it smelled pretty rank. Everything smells funny here. Why? Oh well. The owner sat and explained everything to us, but guess what? It was japanese. Most of us sat there and let our minds wander. I imagined what it would be like if I could understand him. Maybe he was just spouting off silly gibberish and my professors were too insane to care. Wouldn't that have been scary? Well, after that, we dropped our stuff off and hiked up the street to the visitor center. One professor decided that we should watch this video about the wildlife and landscape of the mountain (since, again, we couldn't go up the mountain). This was a video of flowers swaying in the breeze with slow, quiet piano music playing in the background. No joke. I think all of us slept for at least part of it. Well, after that, we walked even further up the road to the cable car station and checked out the gift shop, as that was the last thing we could do there. I thought about buying souvenirs, but most of it was junk.
Back at the lodge, we didn't do much. Settled down and played Uno for a while. The Chinese students hadn't seen it before. We did this until dinner time, where we all pitched in on preparation and cooking. We made some skillet dish which I cannot pronounce and was made of ingredients which you cannot find in the US. Sad day. It was good though. After we cleaned up, the men got their turn in the hot spring. This was interesting. First, I'm glad I wear glasses; it meant not having to see the other guys naked in the spa. Otherwise, the spa was relaxing, but VERY hot. Like, "we were in there 20 minutes before we felt like passing out" hot. Very relaxing, but potentially dangerous. Oh, and Dan just kept shouting the entire time about how drunk he was. Lovely. He tried to get me to down beers at dinner, and I was like, "Dan, I'm a Christian . . . I can't do that." He thought I just didn't want to look bad by getting drunk in front of others, that I couldn't let loose and have a good time. Some people just don't understand.
After that, not much happened. I got the chance to play cards with Mike for a while. I tried witnessing to him as much as I could, but I didn't get very far. He doesn't seem interested in learning the truth. For a lot of the questions I asked him, he seemed content to give trite, meaningless answers and let the question slide. I didn't like that, but it seems he doesn't want to confront a lot of those issues. I get the feeling this isn't over, but time will tell where this leads.
I went to be shortly after this, but it was hard; people kept coming in and out (drunkenly) and the walls separating the men's room from the women's was far too thin. Ah well.
Sunday 5/30
Being on top of a mountain, I couldn't go to church this day. So, I got up early and walked around the mountain side for a while. It was really foggy, so I couldn't see much, but everything was quite beautiful, and the sound of the river flowing really gave it some atmosphere. Words can't do justice to the natural beauty of the place. I returned, did some time in the scriptures, and then waited for breakfast.
Well, after cleaning up and everything, we returned to the city. I rested most of the afternoon. I got to meet Fujiko's parents. They were nice, but they didn't speak much english, so it was awkward (it always is).
Mike and I were to try again for StarCraft in the afternoon, but instead I joined him and his host family for bowling at the Sugai. This was pretty fun, but Mike certainly has an anti-social streak to him. He didn't hardly talk at all whilst we were bowling. At least this place had a great arcade.
Monday
Not much to say here. We were supposed to visit a high school, but that was thankfully cancelled. I think they finally figured out that we aren't education majors. Instead, after Japanese class, we visited this computer/mapping company. This was interesting, but minimally.
Okay, update cut short. I thought I had more time, but there is class in here now. Strange, but I shall explain later. Enjoy this for now!
Hal
Ahem, er, sorry about the lack of postings. It takes a while to write all of this stuff down and I find myself unable to accomplish it all. Also, I write some things which I would not be comfortable with others seeing me write, so the constant presence of others over my shoulders prevents me from writing at times. However, this should be an epic update, so I hope it works for you. And now I present to you . . .
MEGA UPDATE: HAL IN JAPAN!
Saturday 5/29
Okay, this is the day we all left for our retreat to a hot spring resort on Mt. Asahidake. Fun times, eh? We met at the train station and left by bus. Dan was charming as ever in his hung over state. [Side-track: If you ever need a good reason against heavy drinking, just observe or point out someone who does it. Their state should be reason enough to put that can or bottle down.] So our strange little gathering left for the mountains: two professors, four American students (well, three and a Korean exchange student), five Chinese students, and two Japanese students.
After a long, boring bus ride, we arrived at a rest stop near the mountain. Our original plan was to take a cable car/hike up to the peak of the mountain, but because of a steady rain, any view from the mountain would be compltely obscured. So, instead, we hiked from the rest stop over to a waterfall. This was great fun, because mountain landscapes are beautiful, and so are waterfalls. You can't find this stuff in Illinois. Consequently, having not seen any corn for several weeks has seemed like a dream.
Next, we returned to the rest stop to wait for cabs to take us to our lodge. Nothing much to note here, except the arcade: American arcades are no comparison. We don't put candy or food as rewards in the games, especially beer or cigarettes. Also, we gear this stuff towards children. The Japanese, on the other hand, understand that adults play this stuff too. Thus why there was a mahjong game that rewarded good behavior with girls in bikinis or lifting up their skirts. I think if someone put that in a mall in America, we'd have a heart attack.
So, we ended up at the lodge eventually. This was pretty far up the mountain. It was kinda neat, it had a "log cabin" kind of feel to it, except it smelled pretty rank. Everything smells funny here. Why? Oh well. The owner sat and explained everything to us, but guess what? It was japanese. Most of us sat there and let our minds wander. I imagined what it would be like if I could understand him. Maybe he was just spouting off silly gibberish and my professors were too insane to care. Wouldn't that have been scary? Well, after that, we dropped our stuff off and hiked up the street to the visitor center. One professor decided that we should watch this video about the wildlife and landscape of the mountain (since, again, we couldn't go up the mountain). This was a video of flowers swaying in the breeze with slow, quiet piano music playing in the background. No joke. I think all of us slept for at least part of it. Well, after that, we walked even further up the road to the cable car station and checked out the gift shop, as that was the last thing we could do there. I thought about buying souvenirs, but most of it was junk.
Back at the lodge, we didn't do much. Settled down and played Uno for a while. The Chinese students hadn't seen it before. We did this until dinner time, where we all pitched in on preparation and cooking. We made some skillet dish which I cannot pronounce and was made of ingredients which you cannot find in the US. Sad day. It was good though. After we cleaned up, the men got their turn in the hot spring. This was interesting. First, I'm glad I wear glasses; it meant not having to see the other guys naked in the spa. Otherwise, the spa was relaxing, but VERY hot. Like, "we were in there 20 minutes before we felt like passing out" hot. Very relaxing, but potentially dangerous. Oh, and Dan just kept shouting the entire time about how drunk he was. Lovely. He tried to get me to down beers at dinner, and I was like, "Dan, I'm a Christian . . . I can't do that." He thought I just didn't want to look bad by getting drunk in front of others, that I couldn't let loose and have a good time. Some people just don't understand.
After that, not much happened. I got the chance to play cards with Mike for a while. I tried witnessing to him as much as I could, but I didn't get very far. He doesn't seem interested in learning the truth. For a lot of the questions I asked him, he seemed content to give trite, meaningless answers and let the question slide. I didn't like that, but it seems he doesn't want to confront a lot of those issues. I get the feeling this isn't over, but time will tell where this leads.
I went to be shortly after this, but it was hard; people kept coming in and out (drunkenly) and the walls separating the men's room from the women's was far too thin. Ah well.
Sunday 5/30
Being on top of a mountain, I couldn't go to church this day. So, I got up early and walked around the mountain side for a while. It was really foggy, so I couldn't see much, but everything was quite beautiful, and the sound of the river flowing really gave it some atmosphere. Words can't do justice to the natural beauty of the place. I returned, did some time in the scriptures, and then waited for breakfast.
Well, after cleaning up and everything, we returned to the city. I rested most of the afternoon. I got to meet Fujiko's parents. They were nice, but they didn't speak much english, so it was awkward (it always is).
Mike and I were to try again for StarCraft in the afternoon, but instead I joined him and his host family for bowling at the Sugai. This was pretty fun, but Mike certainly has an anti-social streak to him. He didn't hardly talk at all whilst we were bowling. At least this place had a great arcade.
Monday
Not much to say here. We were supposed to visit a high school, but that was thankfully cancelled. I think they finally figured out that we aren't education majors. Instead, after Japanese class, we visited this computer/mapping company. This was interesting, but minimally.
Okay, update cut short. I thought I had more time, but there is class in here now. Strange, but I shall explain later. Enjoy this for now!
Hal
Monday, May 31, 2004
Japanese Adventure IV
Heh, I can't believe how long it's been since my last update on the trip. I guess I can only assume that people are actually reading this, though. The absence of any sort of replies to my questions (*cough cough*) makes it difficult to determine. Ah well. So, on the one hand, it's been a week since I've updated my activities. On the other hand (I have five more fingers?), not much has happened since then. So, I hope the update is sufficient. Without further ado . . .
Tuesday
This was 5/26. It was an interesting day, too. I spent most of this day worrying about catching whatever it is the little girl I'm living with has. I would have absolutely no immunity to cold strains from Japan, so I've become slightly paranoid about that. But, well, I don't want my trip ruined by sickness.
In any case, my morning began with a trip to a Shinto shrine. Shinto is the dominant religion of Japan, with Buddhism pulling up a close second. The shrine is really quite beautiful. It practically sits on a nature preserve. Unfortunately, everything I heard and saw in the shrine leads me to believe that these people are worshipping demons. Sad. I wanted so badly to share the truth with the priests in the shrine, but they wouldn't have understood a word I said. Also sad. Really, though, I can see why Shinto has lasted as long as it has in Japan. It is a religion of very few formal teachings, no set of actual scriptures, and no requirements of faithful observance. Most Japanese show up at the temple a few times a year, depending on the events of the year, give some money, say a few prayers, and they're good to go (It's amazing such a thing hasn't caught on in America). It's strange though. This religion is an animistic polytheism. Yet the west, in its religious laziness, turned to atheism as progress was made. Why didn't the same thing happen here? I cannot really say.
The rest of the day was spent in class. Japanese class was interesting, as only two of the four of us showed up. Dan and Young were more interested in being with their girlfriends than listening to me struggle with Japanese. Losers. Well, after that, we took part in a calligraphy class (shodo). This was fun. It's not particularly difficult, but I suppose I would have to practice a lot to get down some of the particularities in being great at it. I got to draw haru, spring, which is what I am called by the Japanese here. They can't pronounce "Harold."
Yeah, so the rest of this day turned out interestingly. We didn't know about the guys having girlfriends until after class. Well, we find out, and I'm just kinda like, "Oh, okay." I don't think it's a good idea. Dan, in his ever friendly way, asks me what I think, and I tell him. He then calls me a jerk for my opinion, and asks me why I don't think it's a good idea. Of course, he wasn't interested in my answer; every 2 or 3 words, he interrupted me with an attempt to justify his opinion. Oh well. I guess we aren't entitled to our own opinions after all.
Wednesday
Wednesday was spent visiting the schools. This was yet another reminder that this program was meant for the education majors, which none of us are. The morning was with the kindergarten, and the afternoon was with the elementary school. We could mostly understand the kindergarten (it is, afterall, kindergarten), especially since we showed up at recess. The elementary school was another story. The classes are in Japanese. I don't know Japanese. Consequently, watching the classes was rather dull. I did, however, have an interesting time watching the science club do their thing. These kids do far cooler things than I did when I was their age.
My time here is making me sad though . . . I haven't met one Christian yet! There's even a Nazerene church by the university. I stopped by on this day, and there were two cars and three bikes parked outside of it . . . but no people! I searched the entirety of that tiny building high and low, and found not one person! Did I miss the rapture or something? *Sigh* . . . I miss home.
Thursday
So, Thursday began with a visit to the Junior High. We'll do some math again: Observing classes in Japanese + Not knowing Japanese = Boring. We did get to see English class, though. This was funny. However, the administration here didn't make us feel welcome like they did at they did at the other schools. I felt like an annoyance here.
This feeling did not improve as the day went on. See, we return, and I ask if anybody is going to eat lunch, and no one answers. I ask again, and Dan calls me a whiny child. Yikes. I try to politely tell him that I simply wanted to know if anyone was going to eat in the cafeteria or not, and he responds that he might later. Twenty minutes later I declare my intentions to leave and eat, and no one says a word. So, I get up and leave. While waiting in line for food, Dan flicks me in the back of the ear and asks why I left without him when he said he would be here. Well, all right, whatever. I wait for him to get his food, but he takes too long and tells me to go sit down. Okay, well, not seeing an empty table in the main room, I go off to the other room and sit next to a window so he can see me. However, he never comes. I even see him sit at a table with some of the local students. I leave, and he's on his way out, asks in a rhetorical manner (and not very politely) why I chose to eat in there. Well, when I return to the computer lab with these guys, he gives me the finger and the accompanying verbal cue. After I give my explanation, and everyone in the room looks at him incredulously, he says he was "just kidding." Yikes.
It made me glad he skipped class again. I had to return right away, too, because my host mother was leaving for Sapporo and needed me to stay around to watch the children. Oh well. An afternoon in front of the computer wasn't so bad.
Friday
Friday, Mike and I attempted to get a game of StarCraft going, but alas, the network here is inexplicably dumb. You'd think the Japanese would be a step ahead of us on this, but apparently not.
Japanese class was fun again. In the afternoon, though, we had an art history class under the guise of Japanese culture. This was obscenely boring. It's not that art history is boring, and the professor's english was fine. The problem was that he kept addressing the same things over and over and over because he either thought we didn't understand or he felt the need to emphasize the same issues over and over and over. It was awful.
Friday night, however, was a bit more fun. After my family laughed at my attempts to eat Soba, we attended a music concert at the city concert hall. Piano, singers, french horn, clarinet . . . I thought this would be classy. No, it was an evening of Disney music. Well, not all Disney music is bad, per se, but the Japanese lyrics to "Bippity-Boppity-Boo" are just bizarre. It was interesting, and kinda fun to attend, but I think I was glad when it was over. On a side note, even in Japan the youth don't seem to understand that you dress up for concerts that involve "classical" instruments. Oh well.
Afterwards, we attended for ice cream what I can only refer to as the Japanses equivalent of a Denny's or a Shoney's. The name? Surprise Donkey. Ooooookay . . .
Well, this post is getting long, and I find myself tiring of writing. So, I shall leave it at this for now, and post my weekend later today, or perhaps in the next few days. Enjoy, and please let me know that you're reading!
Hal
Tuesday
This was 5/26. It was an interesting day, too. I spent most of this day worrying about catching whatever it is the little girl I'm living with has. I would have absolutely no immunity to cold strains from Japan, so I've become slightly paranoid about that. But, well, I don't want my trip ruined by sickness.
In any case, my morning began with a trip to a Shinto shrine. Shinto is the dominant religion of Japan, with Buddhism pulling up a close second. The shrine is really quite beautiful. It practically sits on a nature preserve. Unfortunately, everything I heard and saw in the shrine leads me to believe that these people are worshipping demons. Sad. I wanted so badly to share the truth with the priests in the shrine, but they wouldn't have understood a word I said. Also sad. Really, though, I can see why Shinto has lasted as long as it has in Japan. It is a religion of very few formal teachings, no set of actual scriptures, and no requirements of faithful observance. Most Japanese show up at the temple a few times a year, depending on the events of the year, give some money, say a few prayers, and they're good to go (It's amazing such a thing hasn't caught on in America). It's strange though. This religion is an animistic polytheism. Yet the west, in its religious laziness, turned to atheism as progress was made. Why didn't the same thing happen here? I cannot really say.
The rest of the day was spent in class. Japanese class was interesting, as only two of the four of us showed up. Dan and Young were more interested in being with their girlfriends than listening to me struggle with Japanese. Losers. Well, after that, we took part in a calligraphy class (shodo). This was fun. It's not particularly difficult, but I suppose I would have to practice a lot to get down some of the particularities in being great at it. I got to draw haru, spring, which is what I am called by the Japanese here. They can't pronounce "Harold."
Yeah, so the rest of this day turned out interestingly. We didn't know about the guys having girlfriends until after class. Well, we find out, and I'm just kinda like, "Oh, okay." I don't think it's a good idea. Dan, in his ever friendly way, asks me what I think, and I tell him. He then calls me a jerk for my opinion, and asks me why I don't think it's a good idea. Of course, he wasn't interested in my answer; every 2 or 3 words, he interrupted me with an attempt to justify his opinion. Oh well. I guess we aren't entitled to our own opinions after all.
Wednesday
Wednesday was spent visiting the schools. This was yet another reminder that this program was meant for the education majors, which none of us are. The morning was with the kindergarten, and the afternoon was with the elementary school. We could mostly understand the kindergarten (it is, afterall, kindergarten), especially since we showed up at recess. The elementary school was another story. The classes are in Japanese. I don't know Japanese. Consequently, watching the classes was rather dull. I did, however, have an interesting time watching the science club do their thing. These kids do far cooler things than I did when I was their age.
My time here is making me sad though . . . I haven't met one Christian yet! There's even a Nazerene church by the university. I stopped by on this day, and there were two cars and three bikes parked outside of it . . . but no people! I searched the entirety of that tiny building high and low, and found not one person! Did I miss the rapture or something? *Sigh* . . . I miss home.
Thursday
So, Thursday began with a visit to the Junior High. We'll do some math again: Observing classes in Japanese + Not knowing Japanese = Boring. We did get to see English class, though. This was funny. However, the administration here didn't make us feel welcome like they did at they did at the other schools. I felt like an annoyance here.
This feeling did not improve as the day went on. See, we return, and I ask if anybody is going to eat lunch, and no one answers. I ask again, and Dan calls me a whiny child. Yikes. I try to politely tell him that I simply wanted to know if anyone was going to eat in the cafeteria or not, and he responds that he might later. Twenty minutes later I declare my intentions to leave and eat, and no one says a word. So, I get up and leave. While waiting in line for food, Dan flicks me in the back of the ear and asks why I left without him when he said he would be here. Well, all right, whatever. I wait for him to get his food, but he takes too long and tells me to go sit down. Okay, well, not seeing an empty table in the main room, I go off to the other room and sit next to a window so he can see me. However, he never comes. I even see him sit at a table with some of the local students. I leave, and he's on his way out, asks in a rhetorical manner (and not very politely) why I chose to eat in there. Well, when I return to the computer lab with these guys, he gives me the finger and the accompanying verbal cue. After I give my explanation, and everyone in the room looks at him incredulously, he says he was "just kidding." Yikes.
It made me glad he skipped class again. I had to return right away, too, because my host mother was leaving for Sapporo and needed me to stay around to watch the children. Oh well. An afternoon in front of the computer wasn't so bad.
Friday
Friday, Mike and I attempted to get a game of StarCraft going, but alas, the network here is inexplicably dumb. You'd think the Japanese would be a step ahead of us on this, but apparently not.
Japanese class was fun again. In the afternoon, though, we had an art history class under the guise of Japanese culture. This was obscenely boring. It's not that art history is boring, and the professor's english was fine. The problem was that he kept addressing the same things over and over and over because he either thought we didn't understand or he felt the need to emphasize the same issues over and over and over. It was awful.
Friday night, however, was a bit more fun. After my family laughed at my attempts to eat Soba, we attended a music concert at the city concert hall. Piano, singers, french horn, clarinet . . . I thought this would be classy. No, it was an evening of Disney music. Well, not all Disney music is bad, per se, but the Japanese lyrics to "Bippity-Boppity-Boo" are just bizarre. It was interesting, and kinda fun to attend, but I think I was glad when it was over. On a side note, even in Japan the youth don't seem to understand that you dress up for concerts that involve "classical" instruments. Oh well.
Afterwards, we attended for ice cream what I can only refer to as the Japanses equivalent of a Denny's or a Shoney's. The name? Surprise Donkey. Ooooookay . . .
Well, this post is getting long, and I find myself tiring of writing. So, I shall leave it at this for now, and post my weekend later today, or perhaps in the next few days. Enjoy, and please let me know that you're reading!
Hal
Thursday, May 27, 2004
Making Decisions and the Will of God
Hey guys!
This isn't a formal update of my activities so much as it is an update of the thoughts that have been running through my mind while I've been here. I've shared this with a few of you, but I thought I'd get some larger feedback, see what everyone thinks about this.
I've been reading a book while I've been here called "Making Decisions and the Will of God." It is by Pastor/Dr. Garry Friesen. Basically, Dr. Friesen outlines two approaches to decision making in the Christian community. One he calls the traditional view. The traditional view works like this: God has three wills. These are his sovereign will, which dictates everything that will happen in the universe towards our ultimate good and his ultimate glory and cannot be known; his moral will, which is found in the Biblical revelation and contains all of the guidelines a believer needs for holy and righteous living; and his individual will, which is his unique, ideal, detailed life plan for each believer. This individual will is the one which is difficult to discover, such as figuring out where to go to college, whether and whom to marry, or what to do for a vocation. By the traditional view, the individual will is discovered by correlation of the signs, which are: the Bible, mature counsel, inner witness, circumstances, personal desires, common sense, and special guidance. By paying attention to these signs and determining the correlation of them, we can know God's will for our life.
At least, that's the traditional view. Dr. Friesen says that this is view is an incorrect understanding of the Bible. He spends the second part of his book giving a Biblical critique of this view, and then spends the third part laying out what he considers to be the Biblical approach to decision making, what he calls the wisdom view. By this view, there is no "individual will" of God. Christian freedom allows us to make decisions in our lives based on the revealed moral will of God, though we must make them with wisdom and spiritual expediency in mind. Thus, there is no right or wrong answer to the question of "Where should I go to college?" or "What should I do for a living?" If there is no moral prohibition against it, then the roadsigns, tempered by wisdom, may dictate your decisions.
What do you think? To some, this may seem very radical, and I understand, as it goes against everything we've been taught in our churches. Have we been wrong? Dr. Friesen certainly makes a very compelling case Biblically, though I cannot lay out the entire thing here. If you wish, you would do well to read the book.
Myself . . . I'm inclined to agree with him, but my jury is still out. That's part of why I'm putting this on here. What does everyone think? Do you have questions or objections? If I've left out important details, I'll try to fill in as I go, but I want to know what everyone thinks about this. Please, let me know!
Hal
This isn't a formal update of my activities so much as it is an update of the thoughts that have been running through my mind while I've been here. I've shared this with a few of you, but I thought I'd get some larger feedback, see what everyone thinks about this.
I've been reading a book while I've been here called "Making Decisions and the Will of God." It is by Pastor/Dr. Garry Friesen. Basically, Dr. Friesen outlines two approaches to decision making in the Christian community. One he calls the traditional view. The traditional view works like this: God has three wills. These are his sovereign will, which dictates everything that will happen in the universe towards our ultimate good and his ultimate glory and cannot be known; his moral will, which is found in the Biblical revelation and contains all of the guidelines a believer needs for holy and righteous living; and his individual will, which is his unique, ideal, detailed life plan for each believer. This individual will is the one which is difficult to discover, such as figuring out where to go to college, whether and whom to marry, or what to do for a vocation. By the traditional view, the individual will is discovered by correlation of the signs, which are: the Bible, mature counsel, inner witness, circumstances, personal desires, common sense, and special guidance. By paying attention to these signs and determining the correlation of them, we can know God's will for our life.
At least, that's the traditional view. Dr. Friesen says that this is view is an incorrect understanding of the Bible. He spends the second part of his book giving a Biblical critique of this view, and then spends the third part laying out what he considers to be the Biblical approach to decision making, what he calls the wisdom view. By this view, there is no "individual will" of God. Christian freedom allows us to make decisions in our lives based on the revealed moral will of God, though we must make them with wisdom and spiritual expediency in mind. Thus, there is no right or wrong answer to the question of "Where should I go to college?" or "What should I do for a living?" If there is no moral prohibition against it, then the roadsigns, tempered by wisdom, may dictate your decisions.
What do you think? To some, this may seem very radical, and I understand, as it goes against everything we've been taught in our churches. Have we been wrong? Dr. Friesen certainly makes a very compelling case Biblically, though I cannot lay out the entire thing here. If you wish, you would do well to read the book.
Myself . . . I'm inclined to agree with him, but my jury is still out. That's part of why I'm putting this on here. What does everyone think? Do you have questions or objections? If I've left out important details, I'll try to fill in as I go, but I want to know what everyone thinks about this. Please, let me know!
Hal
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Peanut gallery? Hello?
Okay, just a clarification. In order to post a comment, at the bottom of each entry, there is a link to the number of comments already posted. You click on that, and then you'll the current comments, and a link to leave your own. So please, if you're reading, don't be shy!
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Japanese Adventure III
Well, I apologize that it's been a while since I've posted, but like I say, I have better things to do in Japan than sit in front of a computer. (Sadly, right now, I really don't have much else I could be doing).
So here's the run down on my recent events:
Friday
This was just another one of those days. My host mother again wouldn't let me ride my bike to school because it was supposed to rain (hooray for typhoon season!). So, I had to be shuttled over to the university again (yet another limitation on my freedom). I spent the morning studying Japanese with one of the guys before we had class. And yikes, yet again, I did not understand one bit of class. It's very hard to have Japanese taught to you IN Japanese when you are just learning the language. Why? Well, when all those little things such as particles, modifiers, and sentence structure start creeping in, you can't understand the explanations of how they work. Oy.
After class, we had the sado, traditional tea ceremony. This was very neat for a variety of reasons, but ended up being quite boring. Why? Well, there's a lot of Buddhist philosophies that transformed this thing into an artform of movement. However, all explanations for everything were given in Japanese. They said you could come on this trip without having any Japanese, and that's been true so far, but you surely get so much more from this by knowing at least some. Ah well. As it is, green tea, the way it was meant to be, is gross. Totally bitter, and a very strange consistency. Additionally, the way you are supposed to sit for this ceremony, the way most Japanese people sit, is very painful to the legs. We westerners are not used to it. It must take a lifetime to aclimate to it.
Well, the evening was supposed to be a night out on the town with my newfound friends, but it was raining. We all get around by bike. The conflict is obvious. So, I got picked up by my host mother and taken home. She did take me over to the home of one of the other guys, Michael, which was pretty fun. We got to hang out and chat, which was cool enough. But they (our respective host mothers) wanted me to stay the night there, and I really didn't feel comfortable with that. I'd see him the next day.
Saturday
And see him I did. My host mother, her children, Michael, his host mother, and I all packed into a van and headed to Furano, a nearby town, to see the sights. Wine, lavender, and dairy and the kings there. First I must say, the rural countryside is exquisitely beautiful, especially for the mountains. I guess it's my Illinois residency that makes me appreciate mountains. We had lunch at a restaurant at the winery, which was nice. It was the first time I didn't have to use chopsticks since I had arrived! Next, we went to the winery, which was quite fun. We did some taste testing and looked around, but there was no tour to take. Additionally, I couldn't understand the signs, so I basically looked at the pretty objects. Once again, not knowing Japanese reduces the joy. Ah well. After that, we headed over to the cheese factory to make ice cream. This was fun and delicious. It was funny, too. We made ice cream in a device called the "hyper-tron". You know that anything with a name like that is going to be cool.
Well, we returned, and I was left at Michael's to hang out with him. This, again, was fun, but also a disappointment. We were supposed to go out with our friends that night, but it was really cold out. Lots of walking when it is cold = bad. So, we simply hung out. Plus, everyone wanted to start at 10 (and they stayed out until almost dawn!). I returned to my host family at 9, and still woke people up with my return. *Sigh*, that part is really frustrating me. They go to bed so early I cannot stay out and enjoy the evening with my friends. If I had a key, that would be different, but they won't give me one.
Sunday
Well, it just keeps getting better. The night before, I struggled with my thoughts quite a bit, because I'm really uncertain about where my life is heading, what I want to do with myself vocationally. As much as I'm unlikely to get a burning bush or to find myself sitting in a beam of light and hearing the divine voice, it really would be nice, wouldn't it?
The morning was no improvement. First, we had to get up early to go to Yuki's (my host sister) school for sports/field day. I gave up on breakfast because I could tell she was developing a cold; she was coughing all over the food! Then the younger children, who really don't get this "closed door" concept, kept barging into my room as I was changing from my shower. Sometimes, I just want to be alone, and in a Japanese apartment such as theirs, it is nearly impossible. My mood was quite foul, but I did what I consider to be a pretty good job hiding it.
We ended up at the field day, but it was pretty boring. All of the kids look the same to me, and I really didn't have a stake in watching the events. So, I read my book all day. 7:30-2:30. At least I'm almost done.
The rest of the day was uneventful. I rode off to the university to use the computer, returned for dinner, and was taken to the mall for grocery shopping (unusual, eh?). One thing of note on that: Fujiko wanted to go to a bookstore, so you can only imagine the problems I foresaw with that. Well, I thought I'd just look at the magazines, as pictures are pretty easy to understand. I grab this men's fashion magazine. Clothing, hats, accessories, clothing . . . half-naked girls? That's right, the last fourth of the clothing catalogue was a girly magazine. All right, I'll try again. Next was a men's hairstyle magazine (BTW, I really don't like the men's hairstyles here . . . too flamboyant). Hair . . . hair . . . hair . . . girly magazine. Yikes, okay, something safer, perhaps? Hey, video games are safe, right? Oooh, looky, cell phone games, game boy games . . . adult comics? Yikes. You can't read ANYTHING here geared towards men without it having a naked SOMETHING in it. Oy.
Monday
Monday was rather dull. I spent the morning trying to get the phone system to work right. This was frustrating. First, the thing wouldn't accept my calling card number. Once it did, it wouldn't accept the phone number. Once it did, it thought I was trying to call South Africa. FINALLY, I managed to call home, but my time to talk with my family was limited. Hey, Japan to America phone calls are expensive.
One note of good news, though, is that I put my foot in the door in witnessing to one of the Chinese girls here. She's Buddhist, and she didn't seem to interested in hearing anything about my faith or Christianity in general. However, I did tell her that I would gladly teach her anytime about it. Pray that her and others around me are softened towards that prospect. I haven't met one other Christian since I came here, and that includes the guys I came with! (In a recent development, she started dating a Korean exchange student who came here with us from ISU, so I'm afraid she will be too distracted to listen to me, but I'm still praying that God will get her attention).
The afternoon was filled with class. In a very bright note, however, I'm beginning to actually understand class! Sweet, joyous day! Granted, I can't really USE it well, yet, but at least I understand what I would be saying if I could remember any of it. Heh, I guess I oughta spend time studying.
After language class, we had our reminder that this program was meant for the education majors (which none of the people on the trip are). We had a seminar about the historical development and structure of the educational system in Japan. It was fairly interesting, but only in a limited sense. Dan was banging his head on the desk. If any of you education-type people are intersted, you're more than welcome to a glimpse of that material.
We were supposed to go to downtown to bum around after class, but delays on the part of others made this difficult. We finally made it, but I had to leave about 20 minutes into our "bumming around" stage because of dinner. Oh well. Had I stayed with the others, I would have ended up in the drinking room at the karaoke bar with them for 3 hours, racking up a ￥11,000 ($110) bill. Yikes. Incindentally, the alleyways between the buildings downtown contains the seedier parts. It's not in its own separate world, its just in the alleys. By that, I mean the questionable Pachinko parlors, the strip shows, adult stores, and what not. From now on, no more shortcuts.
The rest of the evening was dull. I came back, read a lot, ate dinner, watched cartoons which I barely understood, and went to bed. I really need to figure out how I can make my schedule more flexible, because I am just not making enough of my time here. Don't get me wrong, I'm having a lot of fun, but I could definitely be having more fun.
Well, that's about it for now. I hope everything is well with you all, and I hope to hear from you! Thanks for the emails from those of you who wrote!
Hal
So here's the run down on my recent events:
Friday
This was just another one of those days. My host mother again wouldn't let me ride my bike to school because it was supposed to rain (hooray for typhoon season!). So, I had to be shuttled over to the university again (yet another limitation on my freedom). I spent the morning studying Japanese with one of the guys before we had class. And yikes, yet again, I did not understand one bit of class. It's very hard to have Japanese taught to you IN Japanese when you are just learning the language. Why? Well, when all those little things such as particles, modifiers, and sentence structure start creeping in, you can't understand the explanations of how they work. Oy.
After class, we had the sado, traditional tea ceremony. This was very neat for a variety of reasons, but ended up being quite boring. Why? Well, there's a lot of Buddhist philosophies that transformed this thing into an artform of movement. However, all explanations for everything were given in Japanese. They said you could come on this trip without having any Japanese, and that's been true so far, but you surely get so much more from this by knowing at least some. Ah well. As it is, green tea, the way it was meant to be, is gross. Totally bitter, and a very strange consistency. Additionally, the way you are supposed to sit for this ceremony, the way most Japanese people sit, is very painful to the legs. We westerners are not used to it. It must take a lifetime to aclimate to it.
Well, the evening was supposed to be a night out on the town with my newfound friends, but it was raining. We all get around by bike. The conflict is obvious. So, I got picked up by my host mother and taken home. She did take me over to the home of one of the other guys, Michael, which was pretty fun. We got to hang out and chat, which was cool enough. But they (our respective host mothers) wanted me to stay the night there, and I really didn't feel comfortable with that. I'd see him the next day.
Saturday
And see him I did. My host mother, her children, Michael, his host mother, and I all packed into a van and headed to Furano, a nearby town, to see the sights. Wine, lavender, and dairy and the kings there. First I must say, the rural countryside is exquisitely beautiful, especially for the mountains. I guess it's my Illinois residency that makes me appreciate mountains. We had lunch at a restaurant at the winery, which was nice. It was the first time I didn't have to use chopsticks since I had arrived! Next, we went to the winery, which was quite fun. We did some taste testing and looked around, but there was no tour to take. Additionally, I couldn't understand the signs, so I basically looked at the pretty objects. Once again, not knowing Japanese reduces the joy. Ah well. After that, we headed over to the cheese factory to make ice cream. This was fun and delicious. It was funny, too. We made ice cream in a device called the "hyper-tron". You know that anything with a name like that is going to be cool.
Well, we returned, and I was left at Michael's to hang out with him. This, again, was fun, but also a disappointment. We were supposed to go out with our friends that night, but it was really cold out. Lots of walking when it is cold = bad. So, we simply hung out. Plus, everyone wanted to start at 10 (and they stayed out until almost dawn!). I returned to my host family at 9, and still woke people up with my return. *Sigh*, that part is really frustrating me. They go to bed so early I cannot stay out and enjoy the evening with my friends. If I had a key, that would be different, but they won't give me one.
Sunday
Well, it just keeps getting better. The night before, I struggled with my thoughts quite a bit, because I'm really uncertain about where my life is heading, what I want to do with myself vocationally. As much as I'm unlikely to get a burning bush or to find myself sitting in a beam of light and hearing the divine voice, it really would be nice, wouldn't it?
The morning was no improvement. First, we had to get up early to go to Yuki's (my host sister) school for sports/field day. I gave up on breakfast because I could tell she was developing a cold; she was coughing all over the food! Then the younger children, who really don't get this "closed door" concept, kept barging into my room as I was changing from my shower. Sometimes, I just want to be alone, and in a Japanese apartment such as theirs, it is nearly impossible. My mood was quite foul, but I did what I consider to be a pretty good job hiding it.
We ended up at the field day, but it was pretty boring. All of the kids look the same to me, and I really didn't have a stake in watching the events. So, I read my book all day. 7:30-2:30. At least I'm almost done.
The rest of the day was uneventful. I rode off to the university to use the computer, returned for dinner, and was taken to the mall for grocery shopping (unusual, eh?). One thing of note on that: Fujiko wanted to go to a bookstore, so you can only imagine the problems I foresaw with that. Well, I thought I'd just look at the magazines, as pictures are pretty easy to understand. I grab this men's fashion magazine. Clothing, hats, accessories, clothing . . . half-naked girls? That's right, the last fourth of the clothing catalogue was a girly magazine. All right, I'll try again. Next was a men's hairstyle magazine (BTW, I really don't like the men's hairstyles here . . . too flamboyant). Hair . . . hair . . . hair . . . girly magazine. Yikes, okay, something safer, perhaps? Hey, video games are safe, right? Oooh, looky, cell phone games, game boy games . . . adult comics? Yikes. You can't read ANYTHING here geared towards men without it having a naked SOMETHING in it. Oy.
Monday
Monday was rather dull. I spent the morning trying to get the phone system to work right. This was frustrating. First, the thing wouldn't accept my calling card number. Once it did, it wouldn't accept the phone number. Once it did, it thought I was trying to call South Africa. FINALLY, I managed to call home, but my time to talk with my family was limited. Hey, Japan to America phone calls are expensive.
One note of good news, though, is that I put my foot in the door in witnessing to one of the Chinese girls here. She's Buddhist, and she didn't seem to interested in hearing anything about my faith or Christianity in general. However, I did tell her that I would gladly teach her anytime about it. Pray that her and others around me are softened towards that prospect. I haven't met one other Christian since I came here, and that includes the guys I came with! (In a recent development, she started dating a Korean exchange student who came here with us from ISU, so I'm afraid she will be too distracted to listen to me, but I'm still praying that God will get her attention).
The afternoon was filled with class. In a very bright note, however, I'm beginning to actually understand class! Sweet, joyous day! Granted, I can't really USE it well, yet, but at least I understand what I would be saying if I could remember any of it. Heh, I guess I oughta spend time studying.
After language class, we had our reminder that this program was meant for the education majors (which none of the people on the trip are). We had a seminar about the historical development and structure of the educational system in Japan. It was fairly interesting, but only in a limited sense. Dan was banging his head on the desk. If any of you education-type people are intersted, you're more than welcome to a glimpse of that material.
We were supposed to go to downtown to bum around after class, but delays on the part of others made this difficult. We finally made it, but I had to leave about 20 minutes into our "bumming around" stage because of dinner. Oh well. Had I stayed with the others, I would have ended up in the drinking room at the karaoke bar with them for 3 hours, racking up a ￥11,000 ($110) bill. Yikes. Incindentally, the alleyways between the buildings downtown contains the seedier parts. It's not in its own separate world, its just in the alleys. By that, I mean the questionable Pachinko parlors, the strip shows, adult stores, and what not. From now on, no more shortcuts.
The rest of the evening was dull. I came back, read a lot, ate dinner, watched cartoons which I barely understood, and went to bed. I really need to figure out how I can make my schedule more flexible, because I am just not making enough of my time here. Don't get me wrong, I'm having a lot of fun, but I could definitely be having more fun.
Well, that's about it for now. I hope everything is well with you all, and I hope to hear from you! Thanks for the emails from those of you who wrote!
Hal
Thursday, May 20, 2004
Move along, nothing to see here . . .
This is just a test to see if my new "comments" feature works. And if it does, then leave me some messages!
Japanese Adventure II
Greetings fans!
Well, at this point I'm not sure how many of you even know this exists, but thanks for reading all the same. Here's what's been happening lately:
Wednesday
Nothing super-exciting this day. I'm riding my bike everywhere, and so the city is beginning to make more sense, but it still looks mostly the same to me. Oh well, there's a lot of little shops and places to see, so I really want to take a few days at some point to just explore and see what the city has to offer.
We spent this day going to the brand new, three story mall here. They even have a grocery store here (strange, yes). It was fun, but I didn't really want to buy much. Most of the clothing I don't want to buy (although I did get a shirt I really liked), most of the "stuff" is very "American" and consequently of little interest to us, and the music is totally unknown to me. I don't want to just buy random CDs in the hopes that I will like one of them. Well, at least I had fun bumming around the mall with our gakusei escorts. Ha, it was neat, they even played at the arcade with us!
That night, the International Club of the university had a welcoming party for us, which was really neat, although it was kinda strange that nearly all of the students who showed up were girls. In any case, it was fun getting to meet so many people, play more strange games, and make new friends, but I'm becoming more convinced of a mission here. A girl I talked to quite a bit there was wearing a cross, and I asked her if she was a Christian, but she said, no, she was a Buddhist. Lots of people wear crosses here, but it is jewelry probably 95% of the time. This makes me sad, but I need to be proactive in making opportunities to share Christ with these people.
Thursday
Well, we saw lots of museums today. Let me just say, it was pretty darn dull. Don't get me wrong, I love museums, but I should explain.
First, we saw the International Weaving and Dyeing museum. This was neat, as there was a lot of very old tapestries and pieces of clothing here. However, after a while, you have a hard time distinguishing one 15th century robe from another. And since all of the signs are in Japanese, all we could do was admire. Most everything could have been loin-cloths for all I would have known.
Next was the Snow Crystal Museum. You see, Asahikawa gets dozens of feet of snow during the winter season, so they have a museum dedicated to their snow. Strange. Some of the pictures/videos were really pretty, and I was fascinated by their "Ice Hall", and would have loved to read more, in English, about how the ice shape changes based on humidity and temperature, and the concert hall was absolutely beautiful. But let's face it: it's snow. We've all seen it, we all get it . . . let's move on.
Next was the Folk Art Museum. This was all modern weaving, and it was all very beatiful, but it was just one big advertisement for their expansive gift shop selling hand-woven clothing and accessories in the same patterns costing as much as several thousand dollars. Yikes.
After a quick lunch at a museum restaurant (I had some egg and rice thingy), we saw the city museum. It reminded me a lot of the museum under the Arch. Taxidermy, flora and fauna, historical dwellings . . . . it would have been much more interesting if I could have understood the signs.
Well, after this, we moved on to the Otokoyama Sake (pronounced sah-kay) Brewery Museum. This, again, would have been much better with a guided tour. As it was, there wasn't that much to see, and what we did see, I couldn't understand the signs. Do you notice a pattern here? If you don't understand the language, museums that don't have art are of limited use to a foreigner. We did get to try several kinds of sake, though. Not that I ever liked wine. They even had this super-sweet stuff, and it still was just not good to me. I guess it's something I should leave for my parents.
After all of this, we sat around in the computer lab talking with the Chinese students. This was awesome. We're friends now, and I really look forward to talking to them again. Hopefully, I will have a chance to share some Good News with them. They think I'm very shy. Heh, just wait until they let me talk about Jesus . . .
That night, we had another Hippo meeting. This one was smaller, with no food. Really, it was boring beyond imagination. I know parents love getting out of the house when they have small children, but the running, screaming children, all over the room, made an event that was already confusing and hard to understand even more frustrating for me (I can only imagine how the others handle it). Oh well.
I'm looking forward to this weekend. I have plans to be social with my fellow Americans and the Chinese girls, plus my host family is taking me to a winery in the area (Mom and Dad, here come your souvenirs!). This looks like it will be a good weekend. Just pray for me . . . it's typhoon season here.
Missing you all dearly! Send me email, and your address if you want a postcard!
Hal
Well, at this point I'm not sure how many of you even know this exists, but thanks for reading all the same. Here's what's been happening lately:
Wednesday
Nothing super-exciting this day. I'm riding my bike everywhere, and so the city is beginning to make more sense, but it still looks mostly the same to me. Oh well, there's a lot of little shops and places to see, so I really want to take a few days at some point to just explore and see what the city has to offer.
We spent this day going to the brand new, three story mall here. They even have a grocery store here (strange, yes). It was fun, but I didn't really want to buy much. Most of the clothing I don't want to buy (although I did get a shirt I really liked), most of the "stuff" is very "American" and consequently of little interest to us, and the music is totally unknown to me. I don't want to just buy random CDs in the hopes that I will like one of them. Well, at least I had fun bumming around the mall with our gakusei escorts. Ha, it was neat, they even played at the arcade with us!
That night, the International Club of the university had a welcoming party for us, which was really neat, although it was kinda strange that nearly all of the students who showed up were girls. In any case, it was fun getting to meet so many people, play more strange games, and make new friends, but I'm becoming more convinced of a mission here. A girl I talked to quite a bit there was wearing a cross, and I asked her if she was a Christian, but she said, no, she was a Buddhist. Lots of people wear crosses here, but it is jewelry probably 95% of the time. This makes me sad, but I need to be proactive in making opportunities to share Christ with these people.
Thursday
Well, we saw lots of museums today. Let me just say, it was pretty darn dull. Don't get me wrong, I love museums, but I should explain.
First, we saw the International Weaving and Dyeing museum. This was neat, as there was a lot of very old tapestries and pieces of clothing here. However, after a while, you have a hard time distinguishing one 15th century robe from another. And since all of the signs are in Japanese, all we could do was admire. Most everything could have been loin-cloths for all I would have known.
Next was the Snow Crystal Museum. You see, Asahikawa gets dozens of feet of snow during the winter season, so they have a museum dedicated to their snow. Strange. Some of the pictures/videos were really pretty, and I was fascinated by their "Ice Hall", and would have loved to read more, in English, about how the ice shape changes based on humidity and temperature, and the concert hall was absolutely beautiful. But let's face it: it's snow. We've all seen it, we all get it . . . let's move on.
Next was the Folk Art Museum. This was all modern weaving, and it was all very beatiful, but it was just one big advertisement for their expansive gift shop selling hand-woven clothing and accessories in the same patterns costing as much as several thousand dollars. Yikes.
After a quick lunch at a museum restaurant (I had some egg and rice thingy), we saw the city museum. It reminded me a lot of the museum under the Arch. Taxidermy, flora and fauna, historical dwellings . . . . it would have been much more interesting if I could have understood the signs.
Well, after this, we moved on to the Otokoyama Sake (pronounced sah-kay) Brewery Museum. This, again, would have been much better with a guided tour. As it was, there wasn't that much to see, and what we did see, I couldn't understand the signs. Do you notice a pattern here? If you don't understand the language, museums that don't have art are of limited use to a foreigner. We did get to try several kinds of sake, though. Not that I ever liked wine. They even had this super-sweet stuff, and it still was just not good to me. I guess it's something I should leave for my parents.
After all of this, we sat around in the computer lab talking with the Chinese students. This was awesome. We're friends now, and I really look forward to talking to them again. Hopefully, I will have a chance to share some Good News with them. They think I'm very shy. Heh, just wait until they let me talk about Jesus . . .
That night, we had another Hippo meeting. This one was smaller, with no food. Really, it was boring beyond imagination. I know parents love getting out of the house when they have small children, but the running, screaming children, all over the room, made an event that was already confusing and hard to understand even more frustrating for me (I can only imagine how the others handle it). Oh well.
I'm looking forward to this weekend. I have plans to be social with my fellow Americans and the Chinese girls, plus my host family is taking me to a winery in the area (Mom and Dad, here come your souvenirs!). This looks like it will be a good weekend. Just pray for me . . . it's typhoon season here.
Missing you all dearly! Send me email, and your address if you want a postcard!
Hal
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Japanese Adventure I
Hello from Japan everyone!
If you're reading this, then you must be interested in my exploits here in Asahikawa. I hope to be putting up regular posts regarding my happenings and going-ons. I've been here about 6 days so far, so I'll try to do a brief catch-up, but future postings should be more in-depth.
Thursday
Thursday was the departure day. I haven't flown in a few years, so I thought I was going to die on takeoff from St. Louis to Chicago. After that, I was fine. However, the 12 hour flight to Narita Airport in Tokyo was torturous. My head was pounding from the air pressure, I couldn't get comfortable (or tired) enough to sleep, and they played the same movies/television shows on the monitors over and over and over. Buying a gameboy would have been a marvelous idea (I read a lot, but lighting was rarely good).
Airport security and what not was not bad, but Japan is a strange place. I'm not used to not understanding the people and the language. Anyhow, there was the Busride to Haneda and the flight to Asahikawa, but I slept through nearly all of that. My host family picked me up, and it was rather awkward working through our language barriers, but we arrived at their apartment about 8PM Friday and I went to sleep almost immediately.
Saturday
Life is an adventure. My host father and his three children (two boys and a girl) rode bikes with me to the university, so that I would know the way. We then went to a science/nature center, which would have been very interesting if I could have understood any of the exhibits.
In the afternoon, I went with the "Hippo Family Club" (think Rotary Club) to the zoo here. St. Louis zoo is much better, but this was neat all the same. They have a roller coaster at their zoo. Weird. Even stranger, those of us americans became surrounded by a group of high school girls fascinated by us, trying to speak the very little english they knew with us. It was bizarre. I don't think westerners come around these parts very often. In the bigger cities on the main island, perhaps, but not here in Asahikawa.
And, I'm going to be around 8 and getting up around 5 or 6. My sleeping habits have not regulated yet, and I'm beginning to doubt whether they will anytime soon.
Sunday
Sunday I didn't get to go to church, but I was taken to the home of someone from the Hippo club, before being taken to the Hippo Club Welcome Party. It was bizarre, and they fed me all day long. I thought I would explode. Two notes: 1) The Japanese love games, and their games are bizarre. 2) Nato . . . pickled plums . . . super salty, super gross. If ever offered, I would recommend against trying this.
Monday
Day one. Showed up at school early in an attempt to find a phone I could use to call home. That turned into a circus.
We had a tour of the campus (it makes ISU look unearthly beautiful . . . at least their dining center has good food) and were taken to a bank to change our money. Then we had our first Japanese lessons. The teacher used very little english, which made it all very frustrating. THAT was when I was hit with home-sickness really badly.
Tuesday
Nothing in the morning, but class again in the afternoon. I'm still confused as all get out by the language, and my teacher. It might be too much to learn in such a short time, but oh well. We had ceramics in the afternoon, which was frustrating. I was bad at art in grade school, and I'm still bad at it now. We made bells, so we shall see (or hear) how mine turn out after firing in the kiln.
After class, the other Americans and I went to downtown to explore the shopping area. It was fun, but frustrating. I can't buy anything fun like video games or DVDs, because I either cannot understand them, or "regional encoding" prevents my home player from playing it. I could buy a DVD player here, but how much trouble would that be? Ridiculous!
Well, I'm sorry this is so short, but like I said, a lot has happened to simply type it all out at once. Future postings will contain more, I promise. If that's not enough, email me and you will get more. I'd love to hear from you!
Signing off for now. Stay tuned for more!
Your friend in Japan,
Hal
If you're reading this, then you must be interested in my exploits here in Asahikawa. I hope to be putting up regular posts regarding my happenings and going-ons. I've been here about 6 days so far, so I'll try to do a brief catch-up, but future postings should be more in-depth.
Thursday
Thursday was the departure day. I haven't flown in a few years, so I thought I was going to die on takeoff from St. Louis to Chicago. After that, I was fine. However, the 12 hour flight to Narita Airport in Tokyo was torturous. My head was pounding from the air pressure, I couldn't get comfortable (or tired) enough to sleep, and they played the same movies/television shows on the monitors over and over and over. Buying a gameboy would have been a marvelous idea (I read a lot, but lighting was rarely good).
Airport security and what not was not bad, but Japan is a strange place. I'm not used to not understanding the people and the language. Anyhow, there was the Busride to Haneda and the flight to Asahikawa, but I slept through nearly all of that. My host family picked me up, and it was rather awkward working through our language barriers, but we arrived at their apartment about 8PM Friday and I went to sleep almost immediately.
Saturday
Life is an adventure. My host father and his three children (two boys and a girl) rode bikes with me to the university, so that I would know the way. We then went to a science/nature center, which would have been very interesting if I could have understood any of the exhibits.
In the afternoon, I went with the "Hippo Family Club" (think Rotary Club) to the zoo here. St. Louis zoo is much better, but this was neat all the same. They have a roller coaster at their zoo. Weird. Even stranger, those of us americans became surrounded by a group of high school girls fascinated by us, trying to speak the very little english they knew with us. It was bizarre. I don't think westerners come around these parts very often. In the bigger cities on the main island, perhaps, but not here in Asahikawa.
And, I'm going to be around 8 and getting up around 5 or 6. My sleeping habits have not regulated yet, and I'm beginning to doubt whether they will anytime soon.
Sunday
Sunday I didn't get to go to church, but I was taken to the home of someone from the Hippo club, before being taken to the Hippo Club Welcome Party. It was bizarre, and they fed me all day long. I thought I would explode. Two notes: 1) The Japanese love games, and their games are bizarre. 2) Nato . . . pickled plums . . . super salty, super gross. If ever offered, I would recommend against trying this.
Monday
Day one. Showed up at school early in an attempt to find a phone I could use to call home. That turned into a circus.
We had a tour of the campus (it makes ISU look unearthly beautiful . . . at least their dining center has good food) and were taken to a bank to change our money. Then we had our first Japanese lessons. The teacher used very little english, which made it all very frustrating. THAT was when I was hit with home-sickness really badly.
Tuesday
Nothing in the morning, but class again in the afternoon. I'm still confused as all get out by the language, and my teacher. It might be too much to learn in such a short time, but oh well. We had ceramics in the afternoon, which was frustrating. I was bad at art in grade school, and I'm still bad at it now. We made bells, so we shall see (or hear) how mine turn out after firing in the kiln.
After class, the other Americans and I went to downtown to explore the shopping area. It was fun, but frustrating. I can't buy anything fun like video games or DVDs, because I either cannot understand them, or "regional encoding" prevents my home player from playing it. I could buy a DVD player here, but how much trouble would that be? Ridiculous!
Well, I'm sorry this is so short, but like I said, a lot has happened to simply type it all out at once. Future postings will contain more, I promise. If that's not enough, email me and you will get more. I'd love to hear from you!
Signing off for now. Stay tuned for more!
Your friend in Japan,
Hal
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Thursday, April 15, 2004
So long a time . . . so few a post. Loyal fans (all 5 of you), I apologize for the long hiatus. Life is busy, but procrastination is so sweet! Ah, the studying I should be doing now . . .
So, on the with ranting.
First, much in the world of politics has changed since I last posted. What to say? I'll make some brief observations:
1) Democratic Primaries: Ridiculous. I've never really cared for any of the candidates, but the way the media pretty much ran this one was absurd. First, Howard Dean was the media sweetheart who was such a shoe-in for the nomination that everyone else should step aside so as to give the most liberated front against Bush. Then, a slight change occurred and suddenly John Kerry is the new darling. And the convention hasn't even been held yet! It's as if everyone has completely forgotten that there are actually several other candidates!
2) President Bush: I don't understand things sometimes. There's a lot of people out there, in the mainstream media mainly, who demonize every word, phrase, and action President Bush takes. Sometimes its hard to distinguish when he does anything right simply because you've got people on both sides screaming their heads off when he so much as sneezes. To be honest, some of his actions in the past few months have frustrated me. His whole, "temporary work permit" or whatever for illegal aliens is just wrong. Let's reward criminals because they have a strong native voting base? That sounds dangerous.
3) 9-11 Commission: What a political joke. The entire point of this thing is to simply pin blame on someone, which is not the place to be right now. What if we had done the same with Pearl Harbor? History would not be very forgiving on that, I suspect.
Well, moving on.
So, I see hear that people are protesting at the University of Illinois about their mascot, Illiniwek, today.
*sigh*
I've said this before and I'll say it again: Until I see different, the activists who take part in this are hypocrites. Surprised? Let's look at what's being said . . .
One of the arguments made is that Illiniwek is a mockery, a discriminatory symbol of oppression and stereotypes. Stereotypes? Mockery? When was the last time any of these people complained about the Vikings? Or the Cowboys? Or what about the Fighting Irish? That last one is pretty bad, but nobody seems to care about that one. Or do they? I don't see their protests, so I hope someone proves me wrong on this point.
Along the same point, the University emphasizes over and over that they handle Illiniwek with the utmost care, concern, and respect, and make certain that whoever plays him each year learns everything so that it isn't a mockery.
But then again, maybe some people actually do find it insulting. I dunno. Do the Native Americans find it insulting? I wouldn't know. I've seen maybe one or two Native Americans speak out on this issue. Everyone else is just a white person complaining about oppression and mockery.
So, oppression? Discrimination? How does a mascot cause oppression and discrimination? I've heard a lot of people complain about the horrendous conditions on the reservations . . . the poverty, the hopelessness, the corruption and unfair dealings from govt. officials. So, wait, how does a mascot cause those? And, the million dollar question, how does getting rid of the mascot solve those problems?
I maintain that if people really cared about the native people, they'd work to solve those problems, not worry about some mascot. The entire thing just smacks of politically correct "white guilt." "Let's not solve any real problems, let's just chase down rabbit trails to ease our collective guilt for being ancestors of people who may have been involved in oppressing your ancestors." Yikes. If you pity them, if you care for them, then solve the problems that really matter. Just as James said, if you wish a man well but don't care for his earthly needs, then what good have you done him?
In other news, my family likes to watch "Joan of Arcadia." I haven't heard anyone comment on this show in the time it's been on. So, I'll share my thoughts.
For those who don't know, it's about this girl from a "Catholic" family that meets God in various human forms, who tells her to do certain things. As Joan does what God tells her to do, she learns various lessons about life and people around her are bettered for it. We also see the lives of her family and friends evolve as they go about their lives. It's fun, it's exciting . . . it's religious drivel.
See, while it's really neat that God appears to Joan and says some things that do hold true, the God portrayed here is certainly not the God of the Bible. The God of "Joan" seems to use a works based salvation: Those who do the will of God are loved by God. It's just about being a good person, not about having faith in Christ. There's the next problem: "God" never, ever mentions his son. I know they have to water down the religiosity for broadcast television, but the God of the Bible testifies to Himself and will not deny the Son. We don't see that here. The third big problem is God's purposes. I understand that we don't always know what God is doing or what He intends, but "God" in this instance is just a cosmic Dr. Phil. He wants to teach Joan all these great lessons of life and show her how to be a better person . . . blah. A very well known saying (though I don't know the original source) is, "Jesus didn't come to make bad people good . . . he came to make dead men live." Joan learns great lessons about being a swell girl, but it's almost meaningless.
So, those are my thoughts. On the show, on politics, and on many, many things. Perhaps this signals a return to normalcy. Or perhaps I'm just making a temporary hiatus BACK to the blog. Either way, enjoy it while it lasts :-)
Hal
So, on the with ranting.
First, much in the world of politics has changed since I last posted. What to say? I'll make some brief observations:
1) Democratic Primaries: Ridiculous. I've never really cared for any of the candidates, but the way the media pretty much ran this one was absurd. First, Howard Dean was the media sweetheart who was such a shoe-in for the nomination that everyone else should step aside so as to give the most liberated front against Bush. Then, a slight change occurred and suddenly John Kerry is the new darling. And the convention hasn't even been held yet! It's as if everyone has completely forgotten that there are actually several other candidates!
2) President Bush: I don't understand things sometimes. There's a lot of people out there, in the mainstream media mainly, who demonize every word, phrase, and action President Bush takes. Sometimes its hard to distinguish when he does anything right simply because you've got people on both sides screaming their heads off when he so much as sneezes. To be honest, some of his actions in the past few months have frustrated me. His whole, "temporary work permit" or whatever for illegal aliens is just wrong. Let's reward criminals because they have a strong native voting base? That sounds dangerous.
3) 9-11 Commission: What a political joke. The entire point of this thing is to simply pin blame on someone, which is not the place to be right now. What if we had done the same with Pearl Harbor? History would not be very forgiving on that, I suspect.
Well, moving on.
So, I see hear that people are protesting at the University of Illinois about their mascot, Illiniwek, today.
*sigh*
I've said this before and I'll say it again: Until I see different, the activists who take part in this are hypocrites. Surprised? Let's look at what's being said . . .
One of the arguments made is that Illiniwek is a mockery, a discriminatory symbol of oppression and stereotypes. Stereotypes? Mockery? When was the last time any of these people complained about the Vikings? Or the Cowboys? Or what about the Fighting Irish? That last one is pretty bad, but nobody seems to care about that one. Or do they? I don't see their protests, so I hope someone proves me wrong on this point.
Along the same point, the University emphasizes over and over that they handle Illiniwek with the utmost care, concern, and respect, and make certain that whoever plays him each year learns everything so that it isn't a mockery.
But then again, maybe some people actually do find it insulting. I dunno. Do the Native Americans find it insulting? I wouldn't know. I've seen maybe one or two Native Americans speak out on this issue. Everyone else is just a white person complaining about oppression and mockery.
So, oppression? Discrimination? How does a mascot cause oppression and discrimination? I've heard a lot of people complain about the horrendous conditions on the reservations . . . the poverty, the hopelessness, the corruption and unfair dealings from govt. officials. So, wait, how does a mascot cause those? And, the million dollar question, how does getting rid of the mascot solve those problems?
I maintain that if people really cared about the native people, they'd work to solve those problems, not worry about some mascot. The entire thing just smacks of politically correct "white guilt." "Let's not solve any real problems, let's just chase down rabbit trails to ease our collective guilt for being ancestors of people who may have been involved in oppressing your ancestors." Yikes. If you pity them, if you care for them, then solve the problems that really matter. Just as James said, if you wish a man well but don't care for his earthly needs, then what good have you done him?
In other news, my family likes to watch "Joan of Arcadia." I haven't heard anyone comment on this show in the time it's been on. So, I'll share my thoughts.
For those who don't know, it's about this girl from a "Catholic" family that meets God in various human forms, who tells her to do certain things. As Joan does what God tells her to do, she learns various lessons about life and people around her are bettered for it. We also see the lives of her family and friends evolve as they go about their lives. It's fun, it's exciting . . . it's religious drivel.
See, while it's really neat that God appears to Joan and says some things that do hold true, the God portrayed here is certainly not the God of the Bible. The God of "Joan" seems to use a works based salvation: Those who do the will of God are loved by God. It's just about being a good person, not about having faith in Christ. There's the next problem: "God" never, ever mentions his son. I know they have to water down the religiosity for broadcast television, but the God of the Bible testifies to Himself and will not deny the Son. We don't see that here. The third big problem is God's purposes. I understand that we don't always know what God is doing or what He intends, but "God" in this instance is just a cosmic Dr. Phil. He wants to teach Joan all these great lessons of life and show her how to be a better person . . . blah. A very well known saying (though I don't know the original source) is, "Jesus didn't come to make bad people good . . . he came to make dead men live." Joan learns great lessons about being a swell girl, but it's almost meaningless.
So, those are my thoughts. On the show, on politics, and on many, many things. Perhaps this signals a return to normalcy. Or perhaps I'm just making a temporary hiatus BACK to the blog. Either way, enjoy it while it lasts :-)
Hal
Thursday, December 25, 2003
Merry Christmas everyone!
I hope you are all having a blessed day, celebrating the birth of Christ, because of whom we can stand before God. Not much political going on right now, so the rants will have different focus this time, but that's okay, it's all still good stuff.
First, a little personal stuff. I've been having it rough the last couple of days. I hate being sick. The flu is no fun. I'm better now (a little bit of gross stuff in my lungs yet, but it's all right), so calm your fears. Being sick is not easy. It's not just the aching and the nausea and the dizziness, it's the helplessness. My sister and I were sick at the same time, and it doesn't help that my father is still recovering from foot surgery. We were quite a burden on our parents, needing food and medicine and such brought to us constantly. Perhaps it is pride which is the root of the problem. To feel sorrow for requesting help with a necessary need? To regret being a burden on family? We let our pride rise up in silly forms sometimes. Granted, my father could have done without being on his feet so much for my sake, but his selfless help should not make me shameful. It should make me grateful.
Ah well. I haven't done much productive with my day. Mostly, I've watched TV, and I really have to say, I love the History Channel. It's great. Except at Christmas.
At Christmas, they like to play all these shows that are, essentially, "Let's see how acceptable and reasonable we can make crack-pot quasi-Christian theories and blatant heresies look" shows. Let me just cover some of the examples. One of the programs I was watching earlier questioned who wrote the Torah. They eventually talked about the quasi-Jewish heresy known as Kabbalah. The group is . . . interesting. Apparently, they see the Hebrew alphabet as "magical runes" with mystical powers. God's revelation on Mt. Sinai, when looked at properly according to Kabbalah principles, gives people the power to fill the void of chaos in their soul and lead lives of fulfillment. Something like that. Right. They also use numerology. For example, when you give the Hebrew alphabet numeric values, the sum of "God" is equal to the sum of "nature." That must mean they're very similar, right? Pfft. Another program talked about the "Bible Code." This one really gets me riled up, just because of how ridiculous it is. Basically, they play crossword puzzles with the text and discover words, phrases, and dates near each other, which means that there is hidden prophecy in the Bible.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not ever going to say that there might not be some deeper meaning or hidden power or whatever in the Bible. God is bigger than my imagination. But there is a fundamental problem inherent in both of these views: When you get the Bible to say something that is not said in the text, especially when it runs counter to the text, you are doing dangerous things. God's revelation was never meant to be a gift to mankind to make our lives more enriching and fulfilling. God's revelation was meant to show us who he is, who we are, and how we should be. In other words, "I am God, I am holy, you are sinful, be holy like me." As for the "Bible Code," it works just fine when you get to dictate the size and shape of your crossword puzzle. You can find stuff eventually that way. It's just, as they theorized, a "parlor trick." Besides, to say that God "hid" prophecy in the Bible is to akin to blasphemy. Why would God hide something from us that could only be found by complex computer programs and crossword puzzles? Why would God hide something from us at all? The real meaning of scriptures have always been hidden by something: Faith. This is why many people had no idea Jesus was the Messiah until after the fact. This is why most atheists and cultists look at scriptures and cannot grasp why God does what he does or what certain verses mean. The Holy Spirit is the real interpreter of scripture, not an equation. And if you're going to claim God is hiding prophecy in the Bible, you'd better have a very good explanation of why God is hiding messages in the first place.
Best part is, that's not even the last program that I watched. They played another one of those "Rejected Bible Book" programs. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. They discuss the "dangerous" books of the Bible, that the church rejected because the books threatened power and the status quo, weren't popular enough, blah blah blah. Pfft. They usually only give lip service to the ideas that these books were heretical, written far too late from their events to be reliable, historically inaccurate, or so on. Usually, they try to make some attempt at neutral objectivity (which the History Channel actually does much better than the major networks, to its credit), but you can always feel like they're coming out on the side of the heretical. When last I watched, they were talking about Mary Magdalene again. Yeesh. So many problems, so little time.
Well, that's that, folks. Before I go, I'd like to make a personal request, and ask that you pray for my uncle and his family. They are experiencing rough waters right now.
Merry Christmas to you all, and a blessed season!
Hal
P.S. Be on the look out. I'm currently experimenting with certain ideas, and this blog is either going to get a new look or the whole shindig is going to move on over to another server. If so, I'll post a link. Be watchful.
I hope you are all having a blessed day, celebrating the birth of Christ, because of whom we can stand before God. Not much political going on right now, so the rants will have different focus this time, but that's okay, it's all still good stuff.
First, a little personal stuff. I've been having it rough the last couple of days. I hate being sick. The flu is no fun. I'm better now (a little bit of gross stuff in my lungs yet, but it's all right), so calm your fears. Being sick is not easy. It's not just the aching and the nausea and the dizziness, it's the helplessness. My sister and I were sick at the same time, and it doesn't help that my father is still recovering from foot surgery. We were quite a burden on our parents, needing food and medicine and such brought to us constantly. Perhaps it is pride which is the root of the problem. To feel sorrow for requesting help with a necessary need? To regret being a burden on family? We let our pride rise up in silly forms sometimes. Granted, my father could have done without being on his feet so much for my sake, but his selfless help should not make me shameful. It should make me grateful.
Ah well. I haven't done much productive with my day. Mostly, I've watched TV, and I really have to say, I love the History Channel. It's great. Except at Christmas.
At Christmas, they like to play all these shows that are, essentially, "Let's see how acceptable and reasonable we can make crack-pot quasi-Christian theories and blatant heresies look" shows. Let me just cover some of the examples. One of the programs I was watching earlier questioned who wrote the Torah. They eventually talked about the quasi-Jewish heresy known as Kabbalah. The group is . . . interesting. Apparently, they see the Hebrew alphabet as "magical runes" with mystical powers. God's revelation on Mt. Sinai, when looked at properly according to Kabbalah principles, gives people the power to fill the void of chaos in their soul and lead lives of fulfillment. Something like that. Right. They also use numerology. For example, when you give the Hebrew alphabet numeric values, the sum of "God" is equal to the sum of "nature." That must mean they're very similar, right? Pfft. Another program talked about the "Bible Code." This one really gets me riled up, just because of how ridiculous it is. Basically, they play crossword puzzles with the text and discover words, phrases, and dates near each other, which means that there is hidden prophecy in the Bible.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not ever going to say that there might not be some deeper meaning or hidden power or whatever in the Bible. God is bigger than my imagination. But there is a fundamental problem inherent in both of these views: When you get the Bible to say something that is not said in the text, especially when it runs counter to the text, you are doing dangerous things. God's revelation was never meant to be a gift to mankind to make our lives more enriching and fulfilling. God's revelation was meant to show us who he is, who we are, and how we should be. In other words, "I am God, I am holy, you are sinful, be holy like me." As for the "Bible Code," it works just fine when you get to dictate the size and shape of your crossword puzzle. You can find stuff eventually that way. It's just, as they theorized, a "parlor trick." Besides, to say that God "hid" prophecy in the Bible is to akin to blasphemy. Why would God hide something from us that could only be found by complex computer programs and crossword puzzles? Why would God hide something from us at all? The real meaning of scriptures have always been hidden by something: Faith. This is why many people had no idea Jesus was the Messiah until after the fact. This is why most atheists and cultists look at scriptures and cannot grasp why God does what he does or what certain verses mean. The Holy Spirit is the real interpreter of scripture, not an equation. And if you're going to claim God is hiding prophecy in the Bible, you'd better have a very good explanation of why God is hiding messages in the first place.
Best part is, that's not even the last program that I watched. They played another one of those "Rejected Bible Book" programs. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. They discuss the "dangerous" books of the Bible, that the church rejected because the books threatened power and the status quo, weren't popular enough, blah blah blah. Pfft. They usually only give lip service to the ideas that these books were heretical, written far too late from their events to be reliable, historically inaccurate, or so on. Usually, they try to make some attempt at neutral objectivity (which the History Channel actually does much better than the major networks, to its credit), but you can always feel like they're coming out on the side of the heretical. When last I watched, they were talking about Mary Magdalene again. Yeesh. So many problems, so little time.
Well, that's that, folks. Before I go, I'd like to make a personal request, and ask that you pray for my uncle and his family. They are experiencing rough waters right now.
Merry Christmas to you all, and a blessed season!
Hal
P.S. Be on the look out. I'm currently experimenting with certain ideas, and this blog is either going to get a new look or the whole shindig is going to move on over to another server. If so, I'll post a link. Be watchful.
Tuesday, December 16, 2003
Merry Christmas, friends!
Well, first, the big news for me: My time in the corporate gulag is over! Oh, free at last . . . free at last . . . thank God Almighty, I'm free at last!
All righty, down to business. So, the biggest news in politics right now is the capture of Saddam Hussein. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that he's behind bars now (so to speak), but I must say that I'd rather him dead than captured. Perhaps I should explain.
With Saddam now a prisoner, the entire issue of Iraq is going to become far more complicated. The question I'm surprised nobody has asked yet is, how do we know it's him and not one of his many look-alikes? I mean, it was my first question. In any case, let's assume it is him. The first thing we'll get settled is, how shall we try him? Whose courts? The Iraqi courts? A UN tribunal (which is a scary enough prospect alone)? I keep hearing pundits ask whether he will get a fair trial, but what I wonder is, what would a fair trial be for a man of such reputation? He very brazenly admits to violating human rights we didn't even know we have. It's well documented that he's a monster, and he's proud for it. What would be a fair trial? And then what? Will we make a martyr of him and execute him? Will we just let him sit in a prison cell for the rest of his life? Would he still be dangerous as a prisoner? Even if he couldn't get messages out, he'd still be a very powerful symbol to those who saw him as a "glorious Arab leader." Ugh.
And even better, will we see him become a liberal poster child? Will an execution be condemned as barbaric and cruel? Will his imprisonment be seen as bullying from the US? "Poor Saddam, all of his rights taken away, such a misunderstood Arab leader. The bad, bad Bushes just wanted his oil. What did he ever do to anyone?" Already, some hollywood knuckleheads have said that Bush should be on trial instead of Saddam. I can't wait for the Democratic candidates to start spinning this one. At least they had the courtesy to say something nice about it, even if some of the comments were double-edged compliments. John Kerry even kept it clean!
Yah, Kerry . . . hoo boy. Is he pandering to the younger crowd, or is he just not thinking? Using the naughty words about your opponent does not look good to the public. I gotta be honest, these guys scare me. Let's take Dean for an example. He has been saying on countless occasions that he wants to "take back America" from radical conservatives and religious nuts (a paraphrase, but on target). If anyone who claims that they're a Christian votes for him, they either deny their own faith or show their own ignorance. Why would you vote for someone who openly disdains your beliefs?
Well, enough politics. Here's an interesting question. Let's say you know a man who is the major breadwinner for his family. He receives an unexpected injury in the form of several fingers being lost in an accident at work. While worker compensation does something to help, this family now has a crisis on its hands. At first you want to help, but then you find out he's a white supremicist. We're talkin' full package here, with KKK membership card and swastika tattoo. Do you still help him?
This is the situation my mother's employer faces. One of their employees, though an ideological outcast, is experiencing a great need. Personally, I say the company should help them all the same. Yes, some of the black and jewish employees are fuming at the possibility of this man receiving aid, but this isn't just about him. The aid is to come in the form of money for the family, and clothing and toys for his children. It shows a greater spirit of compassion, charity, and love to help those who would hate you (or whom you hate, I guess). Jesus did say, "Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you." Besides, those children should be helped, whether or not their father holds disdainful views.
But then, that's me. The issue isn't so black and white. The company may receive some nasty public backlash for helping out a man with such a perspective. What do you think? What would you do?
Well, that's all for this update. Just remember folks, the world may not like to talk about it, but there's a reason we celebrate this time of year. Even if it's not the real date, even if it's roots are impure, even if it's transformed into something vulgar and obscene, Christmas should still be about celebrating the greatest act of love ever. Let us take captive every thought and make it subject to Christ. Remember that when it all starts to seem overwhelming.
Merry Christmas!
Hal
Well, first, the big news for me: My time in the corporate gulag is over! Oh, free at last . . . free at last . . . thank God Almighty, I'm free at last!
All righty, down to business. So, the biggest news in politics right now is the capture of Saddam Hussein. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that he's behind bars now (so to speak), but I must say that I'd rather him dead than captured. Perhaps I should explain.
With Saddam now a prisoner, the entire issue of Iraq is going to become far more complicated. The question I'm surprised nobody has asked yet is, how do we know it's him and not one of his many look-alikes? I mean, it was my first question. In any case, let's assume it is him. The first thing we'll get settled is, how shall we try him? Whose courts? The Iraqi courts? A UN tribunal (which is a scary enough prospect alone)? I keep hearing pundits ask whether he will get a fair trial, but what I wonder is, what would a fair trial be for a man of such reputation? He very brazenly admits to violating human rights we didn't even know we have. It's well documented that he's a monster, and he's proud for it. What would be a fair trial? And then what? Will we make a martyr of him and execute him? Will we just let him sit in a prison cell for the rest of his life? Would he still be dangerous as a prisoner? Even if he couldn't get messages out, he'd still be a very powerful symbol to those who saw him as a "glorious Arab leader." Ugh.
And even better, will we see him become a liberal poster child? Will an execution be condemned as barbaric and cruel? Will his imprisonment be seen as bullying from the US? "Poor Saddam, all of his rights taken away, such a misunderstood Arab leader. The bad, bad Bushes just wanted his oil. What did he ever do to anyone?" Already, some hollywood knuckleheads have said that Bush should be on trial instead of Saddam. I can't wait for the Democratic candidates to start spinning this one. At least they had the courtesy to say something nice about it, even if some of the comments were double-edged compliments. John Kerry even kept it clean!
Yah, Kerry . . . hoo boy. Is he pandering to the younger crowd, or is he just not thinking? Using the naughty words about your opponent does not look good to the public. I gotta be honest, these guys scare me. Let's take Dean for an example. He has been saying on countless occasions that he wants to "take back America" from radical conservatives and religious nuts (a paraphrase, but on target). If anyone who claims that they're a Christian votes for him, they either deny their own faith or show their own ignorance. Why would you vote for someone who openly disdains your beliefs?
Well, enough politics. Here's an interesting question. Let's say you know a man who is the major breadwinner for his family. He receives an unexpected injury in the form of several fingers being lost in an accident at work. While worker compensation does something to help, this family now has a crisis on its hands. At first you want to help, but then you find out he's a white supremicist. We're talkin' full package here, with KKK membership card and swastika tattoo. Do you still help him?
This is the situation my mother's employer faces. One of their employees, though an ideological outcast, is experiencing a great need. Personally, I say the company should help them all the same. Yes, some of the black and jewish employees are fuming at the possibility of this man receiving aid, but this isn't just about him. The aid is to come in the form of money for the family, and clothing and toys for his children. It shows a greater spirit of compassion, charity, and love to help those who would hate you (or whom you hate, I guess). Jesus did say, "Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you." Besides, those children should be helped, whether or not their father holds disdainful views.
But then, that's me. The issue isn't so black and white. The company may receive some nasty public backlash for helping out a man with such a perspective. What do you think? What would you do?
Well, that's all for this update. Just remember folks, the world may not like to talk about it, but there's a reason we celebrate this time of year. Even if it's not the real date, even if it's roots are impure, even if it's transformed into something vulgar and obscene, Christmas should still be about celebrating the greatest act of love ever. Let us take captive every thought and make it subject to Christ. Remember that when it all starts to seem overwhelming.
Merry Christmas!
Hal
Thursday, December 04, 2003
Wow! I'm very surprised! I have a confirmed readership of . . . 5 people! I had no idea I was so popular!
Ha ha, seriously though, there's plenty to rant about.
Ah, it's finally here. Christmas, that wonderful time of the year when we joyously celebrate the birth of our savior with an orgy of materialism, shopping, and consumerism. How lovely. This season never ceases to amaze me. What should be a joy has turned into a nightmare. I try hard not to participate, but immersion in culture is hard to overcome, especially when it is so prevalent.
But what amazes me is what this elicits from people. Did anyone else hear about the woman trampled at a Wal-Mart in the wee hours Friday after Thanksgiving over $30 DVD players? People sicken me so much. I'm not sure what turns my stomach more, the fact that people actually knocked her over and walked over her to get to the display of DVD players, or that they left her there. You see, store personnel found her later. This means people continued to walk over her and just leave her there long after she originally fell. What have we become as a people?
Actually, this brings up another incident. I found out today about a woman who ran over another woman in the parking lot of a fastfood restaurant. Why did she do this? Because the woman put the wrong toppings on her burger. That's right folks, this lady broke another woman's pelvis because her burger was screwed up. Again, I'm confused about what to be more amazed about. Should it be that she ran down this woman with her car over burger toppings? Or should I be amazed that, in order to run her down with her car, she had to go wait in the parking lot for the woman? This means that minutes, even hours after her burger was wrong in the first place, she waited for this woman. How distorted must your view of reality be to think that running her over with your car was just desserts? How seriously ticked off must you be to wait in a parking lot for hours to run someone over because of a burger? Lord Jesus, come quickly.
In other news, Thanksgiving was an exciting time. Especially for the troops in Iraq. I know a lot of people are quick to condemn it as just a silly publicity stunt, but I don't think so. Sure, President Bush probably realized that he would look good in the public's eye for doing such a thing, but does that automatically mean that his good deed was done purely for selfish reasons? Or can the President do no good deeds without such a charge being made? Personally, I think it was probably more for the troops (and himself), considering the great risk he took by going to Iraq. I mean, if I were an Iraqi soldier and I knew that Bush was coming to town, I'd be making every possible attempt to take a good shot at him. He went to Iraq at great risk to himself, but talk about moralizing to the troops. I think he showed great leadership in doing so, which is more than we can say for how some Presidents have led our military.
So, what else has been going on? Did you hear that Abercrombie & Fitch pulled their winter catalogues from their stores? Some people want to attribute it to the boycott from conservative groups, but A&F is saying it's to make room for perfume displays. Either way, A&F is resolute in continuing to peddle their crappy merchandise through the overused medium that is sex. I'm not sure who to believe, but I definitely support the boycott. For some reason, some people see no problem with using sex (orgies, in the case of the winter A&F catalogue) to advertise to young teens. Is nothing sacred anymore? Is there ever a "too far"? This is a company that was making thongs for 9 year olds. I don't understand why people just sit back and say "Eh, whatever, doesn't affect me, sex sells, blah blah blah . . ."
Yeesh. If you can't see what's wrong with using naked models to sell clothing, much less to people who are barely past childhood, then you have bigger problems than over-tolerance of advertising. In any case, I need to end this rant. Until next time, people!
Hal
Ha ha, seriously though, there's plenty to rant about.
Ah, it's finally here. Christmas, that wonderful time of the year when we joyously celebrate the birth of our savior with an orgy of materialism, shopping, and consumerism. How lovely. This season never ceases to amaze me. What should be a joy has turned into a nightmare. I try hard not to participate, but immersion in culture is hard to overcome, especially when it is so prevalent.
But what amazes me is what this elicits from people. Did anyone else hear about the woman trampled at a Wal-Mart in the wee hours Friday after Thanksgiving over $30 DVD players? People sicken me so much. I'm not sure what turns my stomach more, the fact that people actually knocked her over and walked over her to get to the display of DVD players, or that they left her there. You see, store personnel found her later. This means people continued to walk over her and just leave her there long after she originally fell. What have we become as a people?
Actually, this brings up another incident. I found out today about a woman who ran over another woman in the parking lot of a fastfood restaurant. Why did she do this? Because the woman put the wrong toppings on her burger. That's right folks, this lady broke another woman's pelvis because her burger was screwed up. Again, I'm confused about what to be more amazed about. Should it be that she ran down this woman with her car over burger toppings? Or should I be amazed that, in order to run her down with her car, she had to go wait in the parking lot for the woman? This means that minutes, even hours after her burger was wrong in the first place, she waited for this woman. How distorted must your view of reality be to think that running her over with your car was just desserts? How seriously ticked off must you be to wait in a parking lot for hours to run someone over because of a burger? Lord Jesus, come quickly.
In other news, Thanksgiving was an exciting time. Especially for the troops in Iraq. I know a lot of people are quick to condemn it as just a silly publicity stunt, but I don't think so. Sure, President Bush probably realized that he would look good in the public's eye for doing such a thing, but does that automatically mean that his good deed was done purely for selfish reasons? Or can the President do no good deeds without such a charge being made? Personally, I think it was probably more for the troops (and himself), considering the great risk he took by going to Iraq. I mean, if I were an Iraqi soldier and I knew that Bush was coming to town, I'd be making every possible attempt to take a good shot at him. He went to Iraq at great risk to himself, but talk about moralizing to the troops. I think he showed great leadership in doing so, which is more than we can say for how some Presidents have led our military.
So, what else has been going on? Did you hear that Abercrombie & Fitch pulled their winter catalogues from their stores? Some people want to attribute it to the boycott from conservative groups, but A&F is saying it's to make room for perfume displays. Either way, A&F is resolute in continuing to peddle their crappy merchandise through the overused medium that is sex. I'm not sure who to believe, but I definitely support the boycott. For some reason, some people see no problem with using sex (orgies, in the case of the winter A&F catalogue) to advertise to young teens. Is nothing sacred anymore? Is there ever a "too far"? This is a company that was making thongs for 9 year olds. I don't understand why people just sit back and say "Eh, whatever, doesn't affect me, sex sells, blah blah blah . . ."
Yeesh. If you can't see what's wrong with using naked models to sell clothing, much less to people who are barely past childhood, then you have bigger problems than over-tolerance of advertising. In any case, I need to end this rant. Until next time, people!
Hal
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