A little bit of Yokohama knowledge.

Apparently a HUGE part of Yokohama used to be underwater!  Actually, not underwater... but it used to be part of a lake!  What we know today as Sakuragicho, Kannnai, Nihon-odori... and other big parts of Yokohama are all build on artificial land.

That part of the city was once a busy lake with boats sailing everywhere around it fishing, trading and doing other things.  That was 400 years ago. But suddenly,350 years ago, someone decided to fill it in and build a bunch of rice paddies.  Then 120 years ago it became prime real estate with the opening of Yokohama's port to the rest of the world.

Its an interesting fact to me. However, the book i was reading didnt explain why or who exactly decided to fill in that lake.  If someone decided to fill in Lake Tahoe with land to build whatever on it, people back home would throw a huge fit. I know I would.

I love learning something new everyday!

I love Daiso.

 I got a flat tire with my bicycle last week.  In the few days I didn't use it, i realized how long it takes just to get somewhere, even around my neighborhood just walking.  I was thinking of taking it to the bicycle shop for a fix, but then I found this repair kit at Daiso. The equivalent of the Dollar Store but with actual quality items! 

I bought a tool for different size bolts and a repair kit for flat tires.  All it cost me: 210 yen.  Thats a little over 2 bucks!  Also, I rode all the way to the bike shop after fixing it myself just to test my repair and see what kind of repair kits the store might have.  And just as I thought, they had lots of neat tools, but they were freakin expensive. 

Looking at the kit below, do you see those two orange cylinder like things?  Those are just plastic tools to help pop your tire off of the wheel.  A pack of those alone at the bike shop would have cost me about 7 bucks. No patches or liquid cement included!  Hah, im glad i fixed it myself.. like a BAUS!






 

Im glad to be using this beautiful bike again.

Undokai

Something new I got to see in the last two months is something known as the Undokai. Aka, a sports festival.  Kids at the school train and practice for months before the day of the actual event. Sometimes the kids are there early before I even get to work.  Every morning is filled with the school band practicing, or kids yelling chants and singing songs, running relays and all that fun stuff.

Thinking back, I don't believe I ever experienced this at my elementary school when I was a kid. If we had one, i definitely dont remember it. All 6 years in primary school and no sports festival.. boo.

One thing that left in impression on me was that the entire community around the school, parents, grand parents, kids who graduated from the school a year or so before.... all these people come to watch.  The school puts this event on a Saturday and takes the following Monday off. Its a serious event, but really interesting how it brings the community together as they watch these little people battling it out in sports games.

I like how during lunch time, the entire school becomes like a park with people picnicking all over the place. From grandparents to grand kids, its just one big family in the school almost.  I don't remember having this in my primary school. Im not sure if we have this in america for primary, or even jr highschool. But I think it would be really awesome if we did.

People of all ages, even ojisans getting together to throw bean bags at those piniata looking things.

The group that pops theirs open first wins.

Unfortunatley I was a bit busy and couldnt take more pictures of the cool stuff they were doing. But I do have a video i will edit later.

May

This month marks the 2 year anniversary I got to "walk" for my graduation from San Diego State.  Although I didn't actually graduate until December that year, it symbolized quite a few things. One: It was time for me to move into "the real world".  Two: It was time to graduate from living with 17 housemates in the AGO house and either move back home or find a new job really really fast and get myself an appartment in SD. I moved back home T_T. Though for a very short time.  Three: I finally had that "International Business" degree I worked so long to get.

Fastforward to now and I can see that lots of things have changed.  I live by myself in a tiny apartment with a tiny loft I sleep in above my kitchen. I go to work everyday to be surrounded by monkeys... uhm i mean kids who make me laugh and sigh at the same time.  I have the blessing of being able to finally develop skills with guitar as i am surrounded by musician friends i see every week and alos have the privilege of jamming with them in addition to playing in a church band really similar to Flood Church in SD.  I get to make loud noises with friends with and without instruments on weekends.

While I do feel like I haven't accomplished much in the career area of my life, I did get to Japan and somehow receive God's blessing to stay. Despite trying to be independent and live for myself (while horribly failing at it) Ive been blessed with a good (hopefully not for the rest of my life) job, great friends, a really interesting town to live in and something to look forward to every week.  After all, I did meet another SDSU graduate with the same major as me, yet in the same situation with the same "temporary" job as me.  A little encouragement to know that im not alone in the "career limbo" part of life.  Im not the only one feeling the need to move forward.

Somehow I am still living in this country and it hasn't ceased to amuse me, I only dreamed of being able to play in a band, a church band.. or just any band up until now.  And I don't know how, but I'm livin it.  Meeting new people every week in and out, mostly through church made me realize what a special place it its. In normal Japanese or American life you just dont meet these many new people so often. Ive never seen so many people come together  for or because of Christ.  But thats another story for another time.  Ill share some of the things I experienced this month.



In the beginning of May they have something called "Golden Week"  Its really just a bunch of holidays put in a row just so it feels like you have a week off.  城ヶ島 or Jougashima was the place we went to. Just south of Yokohama about an hour or two. 

Really beautiful scenery mostly. There were a few shots that would have been good except for the huge crane or just random construction machines in the way.

One of our friends decided he wanted a picture of himself taken with nunchucks and his shirt off.

The latter part of the day just turned into a ridiculous photo shoot.

Club Spare Room, a literal spare room at our friends' apartment had a sweet sound system and vinyl turn tables. A true club indeed.

















Here's some manga style pictures from the Yokohama Girl's Apartment. Who can you recognize?

 Another view I get to see when I go running near where I live.

And something interesting I found.  This bass is literally an AXE!

One part of having church potlucks is that we are lucky to have people who live on base bring real american pizza every once in a while.

 Cool fountain park area in my beautiful city.

Okay, way past my bed time. I get more and more terrible at posting and writing things so ill put up more pictures of this past month later!

The word "religious"

Before reading this, please know that this post is a copy of my own personal journal. Its a message that is not intended for any one person but for all.   These thoughts I have written down that I think are good things to think about.  Though I may fail at this at times, my goal here is to develop my listening skills with the intent to understand. Most people listen with the intent to reply.

The word "religious"

 

I often hear the phrase " I'm not religious, im just living a Christian lifestyle."  People who say this phrase are often the same kind of people who will use the example of a strict church or group of people that will kick someone out for drinking, smoking or being seen doing worldly things. They claim that living the Christian lifestyle is not about judging people who aren't perfect, but rather encouraging people to do their best in battling those worldly desires so God can bless us.  They then go on to say, "Christianity is not a religion, its the truth, its the way of life." 

 

They are correct in that as Christians, we aren't here to judge people. It’s not our place to. We are here to encourage people to seek the truth so they may be able to see and choose the journey that brings them to a fulfilling life with God.  However, they are incorrect in using the words "I am not religious."  I believe that before even using the word “religious”, we need to know what it means, to us, to other people, and the correct definition given in the dictionary.

 

In the online Miriam-Websters dictionary these are the definitions:

1: relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity religious

person> <religious attitudes>

2: of, relating to, or devoted to religious beliefs or observances religious

order

3: scrupulously and conscientiously faithful

In my own words, being religious is synonymous with being faithfully devoted to something.

You can therefore be religious because of your faithfulness to your spouse, devotion to consistently journaling and reading scripture or even unceasing prayer. According to these definitions every Christian should be religious, they are in fact called to be faithful to the lord and devoted to his kingdom are they not?  You can even be religious because you faithfully wait until every sunday just so you can watch the new episode of the Walking Dead or from this month, the Game of Thrones season 3.

When I hear, "It's not a religion, its a relationship, lifestyle….etc."  What I believe my good willing Christian friends really mean is "I'm not legalistic."  After all, it is the Law that condemns us but Jesus who sets us free.

 

Often I hear stories about many people who don't know much about Christianity stepping in to a church or running into a group of people praying somewhere like a public place, lets say McDonalds or Starbucks, and they think “those guys are religious, those guys are weird.” 

But many of my protestant brothers will do the same thing when they think about the Orthodox or Catholic Churches. They hear about a church that has icons, tons of traditions dating back hundreds of years, priests that wear robes, and no rock band and think, “that's weird. I don't understand that.”

 

The problem here isn't that it’s weird. It’s that we are failing to look at each other with the intent to understand. We just dismiss it as foreign and go on our merry way.  We want the world to look at us and see the light of God, but many dismiss us as a bunch of crazies.  But are we not doing the same thing when we look at our brothers of the other major branches of Christianity? We don't even try to understand where the traditions came from.. we dismiss it as religious and go on our way.

My call to my brothers and sisters who read this is to:

-Please do your research on certain terminology before you use it in conversation because it may mean something different to someone else.

-also, please open your eyes and realize that no matter what denomination you or anyone else is, Christians still have a lot to learn from each other no matter how different they look.

Happy Easter!  Sorry that im writing this at 2am, April 1st Japan time. -_- and  i don't have pictures of cute bunnies T_T.

7 years today.

I'm missin my mum.  This is the longest ive gone without those strange dreams.  I used to dream about waking up and realizing that all of it was just a dream. The sickness, all the bullshit suffering no human should ever have to go through and having to say goodbye. I would run to my mom and tell her how happy I am she is still alive. Then she would look at me with a sad expression, shake her head... that is when I would wake up realizing that this is reality. Bad things happen to the best people.

Im not bitter. Sometimes I do look back in anger, but not at God. I look at the person I was back then and I was a terrible son. Immature and had no idea how to treat a suffering loved one. I'm sometimes angry at the person I was back then. So selfish and concerned with my own escape from the situation.

In the end of it, my mum realized how much happier she would be with Jesus. After so much fighting with that evil cancer, she must have been tired of this temporary tent of a body we have as mortal beings. It was time for her to go home.



Despite all of the hell that broke loose after my moms passing, long story short, its a miracle my family is together still.  I can still say "I love you" to my father. I can talk to my sister like one of my best friends. Even though we are living in different parts of the world, I think we are much stronger as a family today than we were back then.  I hope they feel the same way too.


And to my mum, its been 7 years.  I still miss you and wish I could share with you all the things ive done and places ive been these past few years. Im the same son, a little bit more mature and less selfish I would like to believe.

So in your memory,  today ill hit the gym harder, take a nice bike ride and eat a nice meal. Ill continue to try to live as a son you can be proud of. Amen.

PS. Milo misses you too.

All seeing eye.

With March coming to a close, Cherry Blossoms a bloomin, and April just around the corner, one thing I am happy about is Spring Break! March and April are like New Years all over again for people living in Japan. It means graduation ceremonies, new jobs and just a fresh school/work year.

Before leaving school during my last week, I spent some time exploring the school buildings to find a few interesting things:

I was looking through one of the books in the library and apparently there is a detailed explanation about the structure of an Antarctic Base. What???!!  I didn't know this existed. It has explanations for this and that.. what this room is used for, what kind of equipment is used to keep the heat in, what kind of skis people use to make their way around... all kinds of stuff.

 In one of the rooms (only open because some teachers were looking for super old pictures (the school is over 130 years old) ) was this float. I dont know what they call them...

I thought it was pretty neat. "I wonder how long they have been using this. It must be super old." Started to sense the spirit of the history of the school until... I took a closer look.

WTF Nescafe makes this stuff?

 

Are flashcards in America this cute?

 

My nametag.

Because everything we read on the internet is true... 

Omg! Whats with this sign? Its an illuminati symbol right? They have even penetrated elemetary schools in Japan.

 This is actually kinda creepy.

Whoa, and there's another one. This one has an evil serpent tongue and a hopping foot. This is the special ed room too. Illuminati has got a damn eye on everyone.

 And then the exercise ball with.... cow utters??!

I have a week or so until the next school year starts up.  Until then, I have plenty of time to　筋トレー and drink lots of protein.  Yeah!