UCCJ Tohoku Disaster Relief Center

The group I'm volunteering with in Sendai:
http://ameblo.jp/jishin-support-uccj-en/

Please pray for the safety and healing of those in Japan's Tohoku region!

Going North

I'm leaving tonight for Sendai to volunteer in the earthquake and tsunami affected areas. I'll be staying at Sendai Lutheran Church and participating in an ecumenical effort in that area. I’ll post information about my time there after I return to Tokyo in 5 to 10 days. Please continue to keep Japan in your prayers!

Shikoku Cycling Tour

I will depart Tokyo tomorrow on a cycling tour of the island of Shikoku in western Japan. My brother Paul and I will try, in nine days, to ride the circumference of the island visiting Tokushima, Muroto, Kochi, Shimanto River, Beppu (in Kyushu), Matsuyama, and Shodoshima. We will travel by ferry from Tokyo to Tokushima and return, hopefully on the same boat, to Tokyo after a clockwise journey around the island. I've been planning this trip for about 4 months and am thankful it puts us far out of reach of both tsunami damage and radioactive what have you. It should be a great adventure through a very rural and traditional region of Japan. You can follow our progress on Twitter at twitter.com/thecyclingtour. There will be pictures and blog updates to follow.
Thanks for reading!

Earthquake

Please pray for the Japanese people!

http://www.elca.org/Our-Faith-In-Action/Responding-to-the-World/Disaster-Response.aspx

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/15/134541988/international-humanitarian-aid-needed-for-japan

Update coming soon!

Artists' Renderings

The first two pictures were drawn for me by my sympathetic neighbor Kumiko after my landlord got angry about my garbage being put out too early. The third is a picture of me as a sumo wrestler drawn by a cyclist on tour last summer in Hakodate. The last one was drawn by a four-year-old named Taro. It's amazing how different I look in each of these drawings.

Momma Tigers and the Tiger Mask Mystery

This past week Chinese parenting was the focus of many a cable “news” program and talk show in the United States. At the same time, here in Japan, people were talking about a comic book wrestler who wears a tiger mask. I know little about Tiger parents, Momma Grizzlies or whatever people are arguing about back in the States, and I'm not going to join the debate because I just don't care and I don't have kids. However, I will say that the common theme I've observed amongst good parents(on both sides of the Pacific) is unselfish love. Unselfish love can certainly be lived out in many ways. You could probably list thirty large carnivorous mammals which aptly describe the characteristics of each parent's child rearing style, making the case that each animal/parent loves unselfishly. While I sit here writing, wondering whether my mother is more of an ocelot or a puma, there are many children and adults out there whose concepts and impressions of parents, in terms of a biological or adoptive mother and father, are certainly different from my own.

An anonymous donor has been sending food, money and school backpacks to orphanages across Japan. Donations have been left for children in all of Japan's 46 prefectures. These gifts have all been given, not in the name of a corporation or foundation, but with notes signed by a fictional comic book character whose identity is hidden by a tiger mask. The Tiger Mask dates back several decades and is well know throughout Japan. The Tiger Mask's character was orphaned as a child, something that certainly resonates with the recipients of donations given in his name. The orphans, who ,the news reports say, want to give thanks, wonder who's making these donations. The Japanese people, inspired and perplexed by such generosity, wonder the same. It's a wonderful nationwide mystery!

These two very different stories made me think deeply about love. It's impossible to determine whether the true motivation behind the Tiger Mask's charity is love. It's also difficult to say which parents love their children unselfishly and which ones only appear to be doing so. Only God knows. I wanted to share the story of the Tiger Mask because it appears to be an act of compassion with no expected return on investment. So often companies seem to spend more money than they actually give to charity on commercials advertising their giving. As individuals we're told to volunteer in the community so we can beef up our resumes or get into a good university. As it is, I am rarely able to do charity or make a charitable contribution without somehow bragging about it or expecting a blessing in return. I guess it's only natural. Pondering the love of parents for their children and the inspirational work of the Tiger Mask I am reminded of Christ's love for us and the love God commands us to share. We are called to love even our enemies. Whether we do that as tigers or three-toed sloths, I guess, is up to our own creative license.

Happy New Year!

Blues for the Dead iPod

My 30-Gig iPod died last week. I purchased it at a Best Buy during the oh-so-epic summer of 2007 and, considering the abuses it sustained and absorbed through it's half plastic half chrome case over three and a half years of use, it's really no wonder it started ticking like a metronome the last time I tried to upload songs. Now, only a pale white screen appears with a frowning cartoon iPod and the Apple service center's URL.I know this isn't like the 25-year-old fridge in my apartment. No do-it-yourself-duct-tape-plastic-hose repairs are gonna give me an extra few months of use. It's dead. I'm sure more that enough of you have had a similar experience.

The sudden death of my iPod made me think deeply about the life cycles of all of my things, and more so the cycles of change in my own life. I was not only inspired by the iPod breakdown to replace my aging boxer briefs and see-through-unsalvageable socks (both on 5-year cycles), but was also compelled to recall memories of the past three years since I was coerced to buy that 35-dollar two-year service warranty I never used.

Though it seems everything has changed since my last semester of college at CLU in late '07, many of the same problems have re-presented themselves. This goes further than my inability to spell big words or hatred of card games. More importantly the subconscious nagging question remains, 'where do I go from here?'. Three years ago, the answer to that question was teaching English overseas, it so turned out, as a missionary. Mission accomplished or not, I'll be leaving Japan within the next four months for the Unites States and another uncertain future. I just hope there's some good cycling along the way.

Tenting on Tatami

I've mentioned before that I love my Japanese house. It has that certain time-worn comfort I've come to appreciate more and more since my days working at Value Village. In the wintertime cold, however, part of it's charm is lost (along with a whole lotta BTUs). The draft in here is beyond belief. The seams between my paper doors and around my 25-year-old plastic windows often remind me of freezer doors left ajar. This is a common trait amongst not only older but even newer Japanese apartments. In the interest of construction job creation or cost cutting (which I don't really know), almost all dwellings have been built with a short thirty-year life cycle and Swiss cheese for insulation. Central heating is also a rarity, compounding draft troubles. My Toshiba unit heater just celebrated it's 25^th birthday and has seen healthier days. It coughs out just enough heat to maintain the daytime winter temperature outside inside my apartment each night. This is where the tent comes in. My old three-season tent from REI provides just the windscreen and insulated bubble I require for homeostasis. It's cozy. I sleep on the floor on an old futon anyway, so the transition to sleeping in a tent indoors isn't quite as distant as you might think. I love camping anyway and I could sleep windows-open if I threw on the rain fly. Living alone (especially in a foreign land) offers so many wonderful liberties to be an idiot on my own time, and gives me creative license to solve problems in even the most unconventional of ways. Electric blankets.....bagh! If it gets any colder I may buy some potatoes to bake and put in my new socks, or acquire a burn barrel.