A Hymn to God the Father

I've never really liked poetry; probably because I never really learned to read it properly. And because all the poetry units I had in school devolved into something like "I like how the poet does ___." Poetry just never seemed concrete enough for me. But I do like hymns, which are basically poems set to music, and I'm coming to see that sometimes poetry will do something that prose cannot. This is John Donne's A Hymn to God the Father, which I read earlier today:

Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun, Which is my sin, though it were done before? Wilt thou forgive that sin through which I run, And do run still, though still I do deplore? When thou hast done, thou hast not done, For I have more.  Wilt thou forgive that sin by which I have won Others to sin? and made my sin their door? Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun A year or two, but wallowed in a score? When thou hast done, thou hast not done, For I have more.  I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun My last thread, I shall perish on the shore; Swear by thyself, that at my death thy Son Shall shine as he shines now and heretofore; And, having done that, thou hast done, I fear no more.
(From here)
The last stanza in particular is true of me, but I like how the it ends with the gospel

A Milestone?

I've noticed, when I watch American TV shows, that the layout of the car looks funny because the steering wheel is on the opposite side from what I expect.

I think I spend too much time in the car.

More Bread

I made bread today. I end up making a loaf about every two weeks; sometimes it's every week, but I don't actually eat that much bread, so a loaf lasts me a while. Since I really only eat bread for breakfast, and I've gotten sick of plain whole wheat bread, I've been experimenting with other flavors. This is a whole wheat loaf with dried cranberries and orange peal in it. (Cranberry Orange Whole Wheat bread? It's a long name for a loaf of bread).

A couple of weeks ago, I tried a recipe for Whole Wheat Cinnamon Raisin bread, and I have enjoyed that, so I used the basic bread dough recipe, kneading in dried cranberries and zested orange peal as well as cinnamon. Dried cranberries are unbelievably expensive here (300 yen for 100 grams, which is about $3.25 for 3.5 oz), and the dough really needs more than 100 grams for the cranberries to be evenly distributed, so I'm not sure if I'll use cranberries again. Still, it felt like a very seasonal choice of fruit.

I usually reserve some of the dough for a couple of rolls (I'm also usually too lazy to make the whole thing into rolls) because I like to have some of what every I bake while it's still warm and It's really hard to cut a loaf just out of the oven. The cranberries contrast nicely with the brown of the whole wheat dough.

Snapshots of Life

Because I don't post enough pictures....

One of the students, M, and me at Sendai's Oktoberfest. It was a pseudo-German festival that featured local beers (I didn't know that Japan had microbreweries), pseudo-German food, and music and dancing. The beer was good.

My teammate, J, at one of our club meetings a couple of weeks ago. We were hard at work on flyers advertising our booth at the school festival this weekend. You probably can't read the flyers, but they are all in Japanese, and J worked hard to copy the information without being able to understand it.

Fall has officially arrived. This rice field is catty-corner from my apartment and is surrounded on all sides by apartments and shops. I managed to catch them harvesting the rice one day last week.

This is my latest culinary adventure: my own version of tortilla soup. I made it without reference to a recipe last week. It contains spicy chicken dumplings (also my own concoction), corn, kidney beans, onions, bell peppers, and cilantro in a broth made of chicken stock and salsa. It was very satisfying on a cold, rainy night last week.

Living Overseas is Fun!

Or, really, complicated is a much better word. Here's an example:

I think I picked up athletes foot at the gym, not from swimming, but from showering. I've had itchy feet for a while and just assumed I'd been bitten by mosquitoes or something, but then I realized that the itchiness is lingering and growing, so it's probably not a bug bite. Not to mention the fact that there are no bug-bite-esque red welts on my feet.

Now, I've never had athletes' foot before, so I don't really know what to do about it. Googling it yields some suggestions, all of which seem reasonable, but, well, I live in Japan, so it's more complicated than that.

Step one: figure out what the term for athlete's foot is. After a couple of false starts, I land on the Wikipedia Japan page for 足白癬, otherwise known as 水虫. Wikipedia Japan helpfully provides pronunciation for both of these compounds, otherwise I would have been left guessing about how to pronounce the first one.

Step two: ask one of my teammates if he knows how to treat athlete's foot. He asks if I use the showers at the gym, and when I say that I do, he recommends getting a cheap pair of flip-flops and wearing them in the shower as well as figuring out whatever the medicinal cure in Japan is.

Flip-flops in the shower are a good idea in theory, I'll admit, but this is Japan, and the Japanese have a crazy system about where you can and can't where shoes. I already have to take my bathing suit off before entering the shower area, so I wouldn't be surprised if I couldn't wear flip-flops in the shower.

Step three: ask my Japanese roommate what she thinks about the flip-flops in the gym shower idea, and stumble over my Japanese because I don't know the words for "flip-flops" and "fungus" I do manage to get my meaning across, and she tells me that she thinks that it would be OK if they haven't been worn outside.

Steps four and five: (to be undertaken tomorrow): figure out where to buy a cheap pair of shower flip-flops, and figure out what to buy to treat my feet.

Step six: (also tomorrow) get over the embarrassment of being the lame foreigner who wears sandals in the shower.

In America, I could skip steps 1-3, and 6.

SIL and Academia

When I was in college, the unspoken relationship between SIL (the Summer Instituit of Linguistics, which is sort of the research/support/mobilization arm of Wycliffe Bible Translators) and my linguistics classes amused me. A lot of the resources we used, such as the International Phonetic Alphabet fonts and the Ethnologue, were from SIL, and most of the data we had, especially about minority/endangered languages was from SIL. I found it ironic that missionary endeavors were responsible for a large part of the resources we relied upon, but that was never acknowledged or mentioned, and a lot of the people I know would have been the first to criticize missonary work.

Apparently I'm not the only one who finds this relationship strange; there's a very intersting article in the August issue of Search Magazine.

It's pretty accesible to the lay reader, I think, and worth perusing. There's just one thing I don't understand, though. If the work the missionaries do in documenting these languages is quality work, and if it's valuable to the field as a whole--and a lot of people who work with SIL/Wycliffe have Ph.D.s in Linguistics, so it's not like they're not capable of good work--then why are there members of academia protesting the relationship? Is the anti-Christian bias really that strong?

(I happen to think that a heart for those who have not heard the gospel is one of the best motivations for the work entailed in learning and documenting a new language, but, then, I'm not an impartial observer in this particular area).

Odds 'n' Ends

I was at the grocery store yesterday evening wandering around and hoping inspiration would strike me and I could come up with something for dinner. I suppose I looked lost, or something, because an ojiichan [older man] came up to me and said "oyome-san, obento wa go wari da yo." (oyome-san, the boxed meals are 50% off). (I was there after swimming, so it was after 7, and they discount all the fresh food). And then, he asked me whether I understood. He gestured to his basket, which had about four different boxed meals, all marked as half off, and told me that he'd also got some potato salad. I know he was trying to be helpful, but....

---

Reason number 456 I'm thankful I speak Japanese: I can take care of things I need to do on my own. Like getting my driver's license issued in Japan. Unfortunately, the ability to speak Japanese doesn't mean that I can pass the practical test, and I have to go try again next week. The examiner didn't think that I came to a complete stop at the stop sign, and he also said I wasn't far enough to the left/right side of the lane for left/right turns. They give the practical test on a closed course, and I can't help thinking that being able to drive the closed course doesn't necessarily translate to being able to drive in traffic. I'd really like to pass it next week, and I think I can, because this has already cost me about $75, and because I didn't pass, I have to pay another $45+ next week. I also had to get an official translation of my US license done, which was $30.

---

Fall is coming!

---

Between school and ministry (which is starting up again next week--maybe) and swimming, I'm much busier now, or my schedule is much more regular than it had been, than I was in the Spring, and I like it. I'm also feeling more and more settled here. I think that's a good thing.

Eleven Months Later

Here is the post I wrote 11 months ago, October 6, 2008, right after arriving in Japan for this stint.

A year hasn't yet passed, but I feel very much like I've settled in. I don't know how much sense this will make, but I no longer feel like I'm living in Japan. By that I mean that this environment is no longer foreign. I don't have to struggle and fumble for words; I know how to shop for groceries; I have internet at home; my days have a shape to them, my weeks have a routine, and months slip by without my realizing it.

My internal language is still English; I still read mostly in English, but Japanese is totally normal, too. I feel like I move between the two worlds seemlessly. I notice that more now that I'm working at an English-language school because I really do have two distinct worlds. At school, everything is in English and I respond naturally with my English-language self (aside from the unconcious habit of bowing to people, which I can't seem to shake). But, when I leave school, I go swim, and then everything is Japanese. And I don't notice that the Japanese world is noticeably more difficult or stressful than the English world. Now that the summer friends are gone, I speak Japanese at home again, too, and that is normal.

I have to get a valid Japanese driver's license--which means passing the driving test, and I hear they are rediculously hard on foreigners so please pray that I pass it the first time I take it, this coming Friday--and I went to start the process this past Thursday. There was a time when these types of official business would have intimidated me, but now it's just...normal.

When people learned that I was moving to Japan, the most frequent response was "How exciting!" It was a response I was uncomfortable with because I was more aprehensive about this move than anything else, but also because moving somewhere, even an "exciting" place just means living life there. The day-to-day is usually mundane and acclimating to a foreign culture means that the day-to-day is mundane again. I wouldn't say that I've exactly ever really felt uncomfortable here this past year, just that I was living with a higher level of stress. But now, I feel like I'm more comfortable on yet a deeper level; like I've acheived equilibrium or something.

And, I'm thankful that I have another year. Leaving now would be leaving something incomplete. I feel like I'm just beginning to get to know students, like I'm just beginning to get my feet wet. Above all, this past year, God has been a good and faithful provider. I haven't usually been able to (or really wanted to) see it, but He has given me all that I need.

And I'm curious to see how the next year will unfold.

In Which I am Asked Questions. Again.

I have been told several times that Japanese people do not talk to strangers. In my experience, this is not true. I have conversations struck up with me at least once a week by obaachan, older women who are strangers to me. These conversations usually happen at the gym, either in the pool (my least favorite--I don't like having my swim interrupted), or in the locker room/bath, or at the grocery store. The following took place yesterday at the gym (in the locker room). (As a side note--given the prevailing assumption among most of the college students that I meet, it amuses me that all of the obaachan who strike up these conversations have no qualms about talking to me in Japanese).

Obaachan: お国どこですか？

Where are you from?

Me:　アメリカです。

America.

Obaachan:　日本どのぐらいにいますか？

How long have you been in Japan?

Me: 　10月は一年間になります。

It'll be a year in October.

Obaachan: 　一年にそんなに日本語できるの？お上手だね。あっちで日本語勉強してきたの？

You learned that much Japanese in a year? That's amazing. Did you study before you came?

Me: 　はい、そうですね。むこうの高校で日本語を勉強始めていて、高校四年生の時に山形県で一年間の留学してきました。

Yes, I did. I took it in high school, and spent my senior year of high school as an exchange student in the Yamagata Prefecture.

Obaachan:　すごいね。見ていないで話すと外人だとは分からないよ！日本人と話してると同じようですよ。

It's really good. If I'm not looking at you, I wouldn't know you were a foreigner. It's like talking to another Japanese.

Me:　ああ、そうなんですか？

[uncomfortable because "thank you" is not an appropriate way to respond to compliments in Japanese, and I still am not sure how to deflect them sucessfully] Oh, really?

Obaachan: 結婚していらっしゃるの？

Are you married?

Me: していません。

No.

Obaachan: もったいないね。

What a waste!

Me: [awkward laughter]

Obaachan: 日本人と結婚するの？無理だと思うの？

Would you marry a Japanese man? Or not?

Me: 相手にはよるんですが。

It would depend on the man.

Obaachan: そうですよね。

Right.

The conversation continued for another couple of minutes. She asked me what I do for a living and also told me that when I think about marrying someone, I should consider his relationship with his siblings, the family dynamic as a whole, and what his parents are like. Her mother-in-law, she said, was "taihen," or "difficult". I left the gym laughing and shaking my head. My marital status and whether I would marry a Japanese man are both topics of great interest to the women who strike up this conversations with me, but I still haven't quite gotten over the feeling that it is none of their business. I have, however, had a lot of time to think about how to respond to the marrying-a-Japanese-man question diplomatically....

Recounting these conversations to my Japanese teammates and roommate also seems to amuse them. I have to say that they used to bother me a lot more than they do now. Maybe I'm coming to terms with the fact that being a foreigner here means being a spectacle sometimes and that means fending off questions about my marital status. I also have to say that "mottai nai", or "What a waste!" is a response I've gotten a couple of times to the statement that I'm single. I can't figure out what the waste is. It's not that I don't desire to be married, it's just that I don't feel like being single is a waste of anything. God is sovereign and He has my good in mind, and it's good for me to be single now. By and large, I'm content with that. I think it's a matter of perspective and worldview, but it has (thus far) never failed to amuse me.

Odds 'n' Ends

August is winding down, and I can feel fall coming. That's one of my favorite parts about living in Colorado. Around the end of August or the beginning of September, the weather begins to have a little bite in the air. Sendai appears to be the same way, although it think it stays warmer longer here than it does in Colorado.

The Rockies continue to play good baseball. They've got a three game lead in the Wild Card and are three behind in the NL West. For a team that was 15.5 games behind the LA Dodgers at the beginning of June, this is a good spot to be in. They're playing about .700 baseball and are a fun team to watch.

I'm working two days a week at a school, helping out in some different classrooms. This was my first full week--I'm there Mondays and Wednesdays, so it counts as a week--and I think I'm really going to like it. It's nice to be in an English-speaking environment sometimes, for one thing, but I also like the atmosphere and I like working with the kids. It's an English-langage school, but the vast majority of the kids are non-native English speakers, so it's also going to be a good opportunity to get some ESL instruction experience.

The University resumes September 7, and at that point, so will all of our regular ministry activities. It will be interesting to see how the schedule shapes out this fall, but I think the added structure will help, not hurt.

I joined the gym, and have been swimming six days a week. I can't believe what a difference all the swimming makes. I also found a website (www.swimplan.com) that gives you different swim workouts, and I have really enjoyed those. I feel like I get a better workout, I don't get bored like I do with the swim a mile plan, and my backstroke is improving.

Ten years ago around this time, I first started studying Japanese. I had no idea I'd be here, then.