My parents brought me this interesting ring from Afghanistan used as a family seal. I’m thinking of seeing if I can get this registered as my official seal here in Japan…
Afghan Ring
December 25th, 2009Christmas Dinner
December 25th, 2009For our Christmas Gathering, we invited everyone to a sit-down dinner last Saturday at our home. It was a wonderful time to njoy everyone’s home cooking, as we ate a pot-luck style dinner with recipes from America, Japan, and the Philippines. After dinner, we read the Christmas story from Matthew and Luke. To finish the evening, we watched an interesting documentary off the BBC called “The Star of Bethlehem.” This interesting show explored the possible astronomical explanations of the star and it’s appearance and significance to the wise men.
Laverature
December 24th, 2009Ako and I recently stumbled across this interesting japanese invention. Apparently someone wrote a novel on toilet paper.
Japanese Christmas ideas
December 17th, 2009CNN recently found some interesting Japanese Christmas presents. I particularly like the samurai sword umbrella. Who wouldn’t want one of those?!!
Trade As One
December 9th, 2009A friend of mine recently told me about “Trade As One” – a Business As Mission project designed to help those in poverty-stricken areas. I love this concept!
Costume Party a Big Hit
November 3rd, 2009We welcomed 51 into our home for our latest outreach event: a costume party. To make way for a bigger crowd, we dug a hole in the back yard for a fire pit and we taught everyone how to make smores. Kei won “best costume” as a clown and we enjoyed meeting many new “Friends of friends.” I’ll try and gather photos this week and get them posted in our gallery. Until then I’ll leave you one of our hostess preparing for the event.
Princess Naomi
News at a Glance
October 21st, 2009Just a few updates from the past weeks:
Akiko’s father recently retired and the entire family went to a traditional Japanese Ryokan to celebrate. It was expensive, but quite a treat to get to experience quintessential Japanese culture. The onsen, the views, and the meal were all wonderful. [More photos here]
This event took place on a Saturday, which meant we would have to miss our first church service. Thankfully, we received great reports that everything went really well.
Rachel McEachern is arriving next week. She will join our team as a church planter and teach at Zoe Cafe. I’ve been busy preparing the school for her arrival. We’re also providing a furnished apartment, so I’m in the process of collecting the “furnishings.”
Another English teacher here in Hamamatsu has decided to move to Singapore and she has brought half a dozen new students to our school. Wonderful, but time consuming!
A few questions for the English teachers among us…
October 6th, 2009- * Why isn’t phonetics spelled phonetically?
* Why are there Braille signs at the drive-through windows at the bank?
* If a deaf kid swears, does his mom wash his hands with soap?
* What’s another word for synonym?
* Why do we drive on a parkway but park in a driveway?
* Isn’t it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do “practice?”
* Where do forest rangers go to “get away from it all?”
* Is it possible to be “totally partial?”
* Would a fly that loses its wings be called a “walk?”
* If a turtle loses its shell is it naked or homeless?
* If vegetarians eat vegetables, what do humanitarians eat?
* If people can have triplets and quadruplets why not singlets and doublets?
* Is Atheism a non-prophet organization?
* I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, “Where is the self-help section?” She said that if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.
* Is it true that cannibals don’t eat clowns because they taste funny?
* Why don’t you ever see the headline, “Psychic Wins Lottery”?
* Why is “abbreviated” such a long word?
* Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?
* Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?
* Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?
* Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?
* If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
* If flying is so safe, why is the airport called ‘terminal’?
* Why is it that to stop Windows, you have to click on “Start”?
(These are quoted from a variety of sources)
New Video
September 29th, 2009I’m currently uploading most of the videos I shoot to my Mobile Me Gallery. I hope to soon integrate that into the blog, but for now I thought I’d post a link in case any of you want to see it.
September 9th, 2009
The Economist recently published an article on Japan that mentioned Hamamatsu so I thought I would post a clipping here.
Hamamatsu, a coastal town south-west of Tokyo, has its share of shattered lives. Workers were laid off right down the supply chain almost as soon as home-town outfits like Yamaha and Suzuki saw export orders slump last year. The lay-offs included many Brazilians of Japanese descent, who had flown to Japan because factories needed cheap, part-time labour rather than expensive Japanese workers on full contracts. The jobless Brazilians live with each other if they cannot pay the rent, and the church provides the neediest with food parcels. At a Catholic church recently, they were making soup to share among those, like themselves, eking out the last of their savings. That included homeless Japanese men, who, unlike the Brazilians, cannot face turning to friends or family for shelter.
That unemployed Brazilians are staffing soup kitchens for homeless Japanese is deeply shocking in Japan. It also conflicts sharply with a view of the country held by some Westerners that, despite 20 years of economic stagnation, the Japanese soldier on largely unaffected by the crisis, and have no appetite to reform their economy and society.
