The Chronicles of the World's Saddest Sandwich

The Saga Begins

We join our heroes, Cheap White Bread, Kraft Single Wrapped Cheese, and Plate in close counsel. They must choose a leader. But who will lead this treacherous and harrowing journey from the table to the mouth?
"Certainly not Plate," said Cheese, "he's far too cowardly."
"Yes, cowardly, that's right," replied Bread.
"It's true," said Plate. "Plus I'm kind of heavy."
"You forgot ugly," retorted Cheese.
Bread let out a snicker.



"I move that Cheese gets to be the leader," said Bread sucking in breath to cover his laughs.
"I second," said Cheese.
"You can't second your own nomination," protested Plate.
"Well then who's going to second me...you?" Cheese sneered.
"Maybe I will, if you're going to challenge me like that. In fact, forget you, Cheese, I will nominate you. Second!"
"Well that's settled," sighed Bread. "Now the question is, who's going to be the delegator?"
Cheese said in his new leader voice, "You'll be the delegator, Bread."
"So...who's going to tell me what to do?" said Plate hesitantly.
"I delegate the leader to tell you what to do," Bread answered smartly.
"Thank you, but that really wasn't necessary, Bread," said Cheese.
"Sorry El Leadero."
"And I'm not nacho, I'm cheddar."
"Well you can't tell by your smooth and melt-at-room-temperature personality."
"You have been known to pool a little," added Plate.
Cheese, going a little red, decided it was time to change the subject. "We must organize men, cheerio!"
"Where'd the British accent come from?"
"I heard it in a movie somewhere, it sounded inspirational."
"Indeed, indeed," chimed in Plate, trying to sound British too.
"Stay out of this, Plate," said Bread crossly.
"OOOooo, you just got DELEGATED!" crowed Cheese marking his words with a point.
"Just step all over me, why don't you," said Plate, obviously smarting a little.
"What a great idea!" Cheese exclaimed.
Bread climbed up onto Plate.
"And if I stand on you..." said Cheese.
"Oh, and add a millimeter?" said Bread sarcastically.
Cheese pulled himself up anyway, accidentally stepping on Bread's toes on the way. "Well, the leader must go first certainly?"


Bread poked Cheese in the bum and Plate took this moment of dissidence to chime in. "I heard that if you fold yourselves over like 30 times you can reach the moon."
"We don't want to reach the moon, Plate, we're trying to get to the mouth. However, it would be nice to drop in on my relatives, the Mooncheeses."
"Is it on the way?" asked Bread.
Considering this thoughtfully, Cheese changed his mind. "No, it's not on the way, plus the Mooncheeses are my in-laws."
"So, one fold will do it?" Bread looked up for agreement. He got the nod from Cheese.


"Are we there yet?" asked Plate.
"I'm not sure...how do we tell?" said Bread with brow furrowed.
"I'm sure we'll know it when we get there," replied Cheese with confidence.

My home

Shizuoka Prefecture - You sweat your balls off in the summer and chatter your teeth out in the winter, but it's got the 3 things realtors are looking for most: location, location, location.

A Japanese Update

It's really great. I'm learning! I can definitely tell my Japanese has progressed and is on the move. I've now had 3 private lessons and it's definitely worth the cash. I thought that at worst it would provide motivation to study, and it's been doing much more than that; my private teacher Watanabesan really knows how to teach, so I'm absorbing information and setting the bar during my lessons.

The other night I biked to the konbini because I was craving some junk food. I made my purchases and hopped back on my bike. Just across the street from the konbini is this grease trap ramen shop that I had been to once and avoided since but this night I was feeling particularly daring (and admissibly more hungry than chocolate covered peanuts could satiate) so I decided to make a brief stop to order and swallow a single order of gyoza. How did it take me this long to learn my lesson? I now realize fully that when you don't speak a region's native language and you look as white as a polar bear nothing happens quickly. It used to bother me, but I finally just conceded that things are going to take longer than normal and to just roll with it. A laugh and a "wakarimasen" (I don't understand) is a reasonable response in many situations. However, many positions I find myself in I can get through eventually, it just takes a lot of arm flailing, chicken scratching and the 3rd or 4th choice vocabulary word. (And that's on both sides of the communication!) Furuyasan (my usual tutor at my bunka center lessons) is particularly hilarious in his actions - just tonight he had me laughing at his air guitar playing.

So I ordered my gyoza from the lady, and I heard her talking to the man behind the counter (I found out later they are husband and wife) that I was the English teacher at Ihara High School. I think she was a little put off that I only ordered gyoza. The man started talking to me a sentence or two at a time until our conversation really started to warm and he came over and took a seat next to me at the counter. We talked about English and teaching and a relative of his in the United States. We talked about the weather and that sort of thing - even small talk takes a while to get through for me still. His wife kept badgering him to let me eat; often in our conversation I was left with gyoza in chopsticks, in limbo between my plate and mouth. He would say "gomennasai" (sorry) then start talking again the moment I had a full mouth. I found out that his name is Mitsuo Sano and he is 66 years old. We also talked about my name, Ru-Sa-, and my age, 24, and the fact that I'm 42 years his junior! Sanosan actually runs an autobody shop connected to the ramen shop - thus maybe a bit of the grease and grime. He and his wife both are super nice and really fun to talk with. They ended up cooking me some free ramen (I had already eaten a bowl of ramen for lunch, but I really couldn't turn it down). Sanosan wanted to give me free beer, but I told him I had biked, so I couldn't drink. (There's a zero tolerance policy for drinking and driving here in Japan, one that is rigorously kept for even bicyclists. I would lose my job and get shipped home if I was pulled over on my bike blowing a 0.01.) He then said I had to walk next time to the shop so that we could drink together.

We talked too about learning Japanese and the efforts I've been making so far. He told me to bring my homework to their restaurant and work on it there. Tuesday night really made me feel welcomed in my community.

It's really weird thinking back on our conversation - I realize that we were communicating almost entirely in Japanese - I know more Japanese than they know English (and that's not to make anything of my abilities, believe me). I have yet to feel like I'm communicating while using Japanese, I still feel like it's a cumbersome blunt object that I'm wielding, hacking away at tangles of uncertainty. I can't wait until the Japanese language is no longer a burden but rather a vehicle. (A shinkansen, maybe!)

Well, either way, we still ended up exchanging a lot of information, and I'm happy with whatever successes I find. Japan's not too bad; I can see movement and that's a good thing.

John Bolton

Time Magazine was justifiably correct in labeling John Bolton as the “anti-diplomat” in their 10 Questions column. It seems that Bush nominated him for his potential to shake up and reform the U.N., or maybe more accurately, use it as a method for enacting U.S. agenda globally. Luckily he never received the proper nomination to enjoy the full title as permanent ambassador. The democrats were firmly against him, as well as several key republicans. He has very little respect for the U.N. and resolves too quickly for action rather than talking things over. In a glaring example, in 2003 Bolton was removed from the U.S. delegation to the six-party talks over the nuclear program in North Korea after using extreme and damaging language to describe the state of North Korea. The point of diplomacy is to open up the possibility for change through decent and tactful communication; not to shut down the other party through insults and bullying. Bush seemed to think this is what the U.N. needed when he appointed Bolton, and Bolton’s comments published recently in TIME magazine only verify this. The following is a question sent in by a reader and Bolton’s answer:

Given the U.N.’s endemic inertia, corruption and competing national agendas, do you think it still serves America’s national interest to be a member?

It does, although it’s not a body that I would rest our foreign policy on. The U.N. [however] can be a useful instrument of American foreign policy.

Wow.

The God Delusion (TGD) Commentary 4

Pg 125 Again, why does a supernatural being have to follow the rules contained within a natural universe? Irreducible complexity on earth points to a creator outside of the physical realm. It is not logical to continue the irreducible complexity argument once you leave what we understand as the physical realm.

126 You write, “One of the truly bad effects of religion is that it teaches us that it is a virtue to be satisfied with not understanding.” In the Bible we are not told to disregard our logical minds. Christ commands us to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”

126 Dawkins also assumes that the gaps will eventually all be filled by scientific research. First of all, it is impossible to run an experiment on the process of evolution. It’s not observable, so we can’t make conclusions based on observation.

126-7 Dawkins makes a good point that Intelligent Design people (IDers) mooch off of scientists, only waiting to pounce on newly discovered gaps in evolution rather than going out and finding evidence for Intelligence Design. However, there are many scientists finding evidence for design and a young earth. Walt Brown is one (check out his book In the Beginning…). We can only draw conclusions from what is observable. Those facts are then run through an interpretation filter where one side concludes that evolution must be true and the other concludes that Intelligent Design must be true. It’s that interpretation filter that’s so complicated and involved and wrapped up in our worldview and perspective and reference frame and subconscious.

127 Dawkins says that molecular genetics is evidence for evolution.

128 Dawkins states, “No anachronistic fossils have ever been authentically found.” I think this means that you don’t want to believe any of the anachronistic fossils that have been discovered are real. This would be interesting research. Also – on the other side of the coin, some fossils that stand as champions of evolution have a pretty sketchy record, like the Leakey’s Lucy for example. Different body parts from this supposed individual were discovered hundreds of meters apart.

129 Is there molecular evidence of scaffolding?

132 Dawkins writes about evolutionary theory: “A lot more work needs to be done, of course, and I’m sure it will be.” Here’s another quotation: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see…” Hebrews 11:1. Dawkins has faith too. He is sure of what he hopes for and certain of what he doesn’t see. He sees some of the gaps filled by scientific discoveries – (which by the way are not therefore proofs against God’s existence) and assumes that every gap and every process will be able to be explained without needing a creator.

133 I think science should do everything it can to find ways to ease people’s pain. How is that a bad thing? Jesus says to feed the hungry, clothe the poor. If a particular scientist believes in evolution and is able to do this, let him!

134 I will give the same answer “He’s always existed and he’s not constrained by nature.” It’s impossible to fully grasp and difficult for many to believe. But that’s the answer, and I’ll never apologize for it. If there is a supernatural being, then that’s the way it is. I cannot prove it to you like a math theorem. Then you answer, “Which of course, explains nothing.” I won’t even try to explain the how of God existing outside of nature and the exact relationship between the two. But I will explain God’s character. And his relationship with people. And I will let the Holy Spirit work in people’s lives and I’ll let their hearts speak honestly to themselves about what they think about God.

134 In the Christian worldview, God did not create pain. He did not design us with intentions for back pain or arthritis or broken bones or heartbreak for that matter. We were designed perfectly and with the intention that we would live in perfect communion with our creator never knowing or experiencing pain. However, we chose to go against God and leave his presence, leave his will for us. This brought pain into the world. The fact that there are prey and predators at all is the result of our own doings. God is still on the side of his creation even though it chose to disobey.

137-9 Here we read about the anthropic principle. Dawkins explains the anthropic principle in this way: The odds of life beginning spontaneously are 1 in a billion billion. This seems very small and unlikely, but when you consider the fact that there are a billion billion planets that could potentially support life, then 1 of those planets will have life. Everything in our situation just seems to line up so perfectly because we happen to be that 1 in a billion billion!

I challenge the anthropic principle. First of all, I’d like to start with a brief statistics lesson. Thank you to my statistician consultant, Steve Lund (a doctoral candidate in statistics at Iowa State), for providing the following:

Assume a billion billion sided die. Each side has an equal chance of being rolled. Each roll has no effect on subsequent rolls. Let’s assign the perfect set of conditions that start life to side #1. What are the odds that “1” will be rolled at least once when the die is rolled 1 billion billion times? It’s not 100% as Dawkins assumes in his thought argument. The answer is actually about 63%, or less than two-thirds. So even if the figures are the numbers that Dawkins proposes, there’s still a 37% chance or so that life would not begin on any planet. Mr. Lund would like to further provide that the odds proposed are purely hypothetical bordering on the arbitrary, so it’s not too productive to even go through the statistics. However, Dawkins provides some numbers for arguments sake, so I will continue my argument in the same vein.

Next Dawkins says that “Natural selection works because it is a natural one way street to improvement.” Then he admits that natural selection needs luck to get started, but that the anthropic principle covers that infinitesimally small chance of natural selection getting underway. I think the odds are a lot worse than he thinks. To start things off I want to be fair to Dawkins and repeat his caution that we cannot put these same odds on the chances of Darwinian evolution happening and I totally agree. Yet once again, Dawkins is equating observable natural selection (Darwinian evolution) with evolution and they’re not the same thing.

Yet now look at this: Dawkins himself says there are “a few later gaps in the evolutionary story [that] also need major infusions of luck” and then says again it’s still probable that it happened because of the anthropic principle. But what is the odds multiplier for each of those “few later gaps” and just how many is a few? Let’s do some real number crunching. And, barring the impossibility of that, let’s at least be as realistic and quantitative with the numbers as possible.

Speculation wise, say the odds of that initial jump start to life are 1:1,000,000,000,000,000,000 (a billion billion.) Let’s say a few = 3. I think there are many more places in evolution that natural selection won’t smooth over and Dawkins hints that there are more as well. Now let’s say that the odds of each of those “later gaps” happening are a more promising 1:1,000,000,000. We have to multiply a billion 3 times against our original number. Now the odds of life making it all the way to our present day are 1:1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Or 1 in 1x10^45. Are there that many planets in the universe that could potentially support life?

I just looked this up - the NASA Website states that the Hubble Telescope in 1999 came up with a prediction of 125 billion galaxies in the universe. As technology gets better, this number could rise. For arguments sake, let’s say that number is actually 1,000 times bigger. Let’s say there are 125 trillion galaxies in the universe. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, has an estimated 300 billion stars. Charley Lineweaver of the University of New South Wales in Australia told space.com, "There are about 300 billion stars in our galaxy. About 10 percent (or 30 billion) are roughly Sun-like," he explained. "At least 5 percent (1.5 billion) but possibly as many as 90 percent or 100 percent (about 30 billion) of these have Jupiter-like planets." The thought is that Jupiter planets hold the key to surviving (and possibly thriving) earth-like planets. So if every solar system with a Jupiter planet also had an earth-like planet, then there would be 30 billion planets with the potential to support life, or about 1 planet to every 10 stars at best.

Next let’s say that the average galaxy holds not 300 billion stars but 1 trillion stars. This again is a liberal estimate. That makes the number of earth like planets 100 billion per galaxy. All we have to do now is multiply our number of galaxies with our number of planets-with-potential per galaxy to get the total number of these planets in the universe.

100 billion x 125 trillion = 1.25x10^25

This number is far smaller than our odds calculated above, 1 in 1x10^45. The anthropic principle can no longer be our mathematical savior.

Mid Year Seminar Reactions

I was thinking more today about personal responsibility and this job I have as a teacher overseas. Too many times have I used the excuse that I’m not teacher trained or that I don’t understand the language or the culture or that my job is too ambiguous. Akiko Hasegawa, The keynote speaker at our prefecture’s Mid-Year Seminar, delivered a very inspiring speech. She is currently a professor at Tokoha Gakuen University, but for 8 years had been in charge of the JET Program in our region as an English Teacher’s Consultant. She gave us a history of her strictness and passion as an educator and then as an administrator of ALTs. One thing that she said made my notes:

“You may not have been an English major, but now you’re an English teacher so you need to study.”

In my own notes to myself I wrote,

“I may not have the experience, I may not have the training, but I have a good head on my shoulders. I have common sense. I have an education. I have genuine care for my students. I have the capabilities and nothing is too hard. Don’t complain.”

Here are some other good points I wrote down during the seminar:

- Make the first move

- Teachers are in the business of sowing slow growing seeds. It’s difficult to not be able to see immediate change, to not “seal the deal” so to speak. It’s a daily thought, moving forward a little each day. Movement, investment.

- This moment is a new moment.

- I will act proactively in everything I do.

- The red moments will pass. Don’t worry about it.

- People respond to your confidence, not your abnormalities/deficiencies.

- (As a side bar: Have I ever found this to be true! I see it over and over again in so many circumstances and find it in so many situations. Just yesterday I was reading reactions to Lincoln written by some of his contemporaries. Many made statements about his ridiculous appearance or high and tinny voice. These were suddenly overlooked when Lincoln opened his mouth and delivered some of history’s most famous speeches with dignity, passion and logic. He always grasped the gravity of the situation and always came through with confidence and understanding in his cause.)

- (I personally have been saying for about 8 years now that “confidence is 90% of everything.” I truly believe this and find over and over that my performance follows closely with my confidence in whatever it is I’m doing.)

- In everything, when you’re not sure, ask the JTE.

Here are the notes I scrawled to myself in between correcting tests today:

I may not have teacher training, but let’s face it – this isn’t a technical skill kind of job. There’s no assembly line, no number crunching formulas; there are many grey areas. There’s often not a right or wrong answer; only answers that are better than others. My major prepared me for this very thing. Why complain about not having the training? [I’ve now beat that phrase to death, so I won’t use it anymore] This is real world problem solving. My job is to: communicate, take tasks seriously, follow through, and do the research when I don’t have the knowledge. My time here in Japan and in Ihara High School is so applicable to my future career and my life. With hard work in all these areas I can even find success where I am right now.

Libertarians

The O'Reilly video I watched the other day plus a recent reading of Justin Webb's Blog (the North America editor for BBC) led me to the libertarian homepage. Wow, this platform is crazy - you should check it out: http://www.lp.org/issues/platform_all.shtml.

I definitely am not a libertarian; I don't think a lot of their policies would work out too well if unleashed on the entire population. And unleashed is not a randomly chosen word- I think it's one the libertarians would choose themselves- "Run free, Americans, Run free!"

For example, their stance on Freedom of Religion:

I.3 Freedom of Religion

Issue: Government routinely invades personal privacy rights based solely on individuals’ religious beliefs. Arbitrary tax structures are designed to give aid to certain religions, and deny it to others.

Principle: We defend the rights of individuals to engage in (or abstain from) any religious activities that do not violate the rights of others.

This is weak. How can you defend the rights of an individual who says it's his right to pray in school when another individual says it's his right not to have to listen to the other guy praying? Lines have to be drawn somewhere.

Simply check out the opening paragraph of their preamble to see where the basic principle goes wrong:

Preamble

As Libertarians, we seek a world of liberty; a world in which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives and no one is forced to sacrifice his or her values for the benefit of others.

In a recent reading of Outline of U.S. History published by the U.S. Department of State, I found that I have a leaning towards "republicanistic" views. Republicanism is the idea that one is inherently entitled to certain unalienable rights, but that those rights should be subordinate to "communal responsibility" and "self-denying virtue," especially among the nations leaders. Republicanism was almost chosen over individual rights by our nation's founders as the rally cry for independence. What a different history (and present) we would have if the phrase "your benefit" rose above the cries of "my rights."

I also disagree with the libertarian foreign policy. This world is astronomically more interconnected today than it was 230 years ago. It is impossible for the United States to not be involved. Even if you don't think we should be proactively involved overseas, then you would have to at least concede that we must be reactively - what happens abroad affects us at home; wars, famine, economic and political crises, environmental issues - we cannot wash our hands and leave the world alone. Since we must be involved, let's go at it with knowledge, tact, sensitivity and intelligence.

Those are the qualities that I think should be representing and running our country. Those who display historical and current knowledge, use tact in their interpersonal communication, are sensitive to the complex issues surrounding us today, and display intelligence that permeates through all of this and appears in all aspects of their person will receive my vote. I care less about individual policies and more about a candidate's overall platform and character. I cannot be informed on every issue or understand the social science behind every policy so I have to trust representatives to put their lives and efforts into governing for me.

This is not to excuse myself from the responsibility of seeking knowledge and understanding. I will pursue these as well- it’s just that at the moment mine’s not on a global scale nor do my actions affect literally millions of people on a daily basis. I hope one day to be involved on a larger scale, but I’ve got a lot of work to do before I get there. For now I have to plug along on my daily basis reading, talking, writing, asking questions, praying, and being responsible to this current job and all that that entails.

Speaking of which – I just a stack of tests dropped on my desk that need marking. I’ll stop the rhetoric for now and get to work.

Say my name, say my name

I just got home from work and am now cooking dinner for 1 in my 2 bedroom apartment. I stopped by this little grocery store for the first time on my bike ride home to pick up some eggs and then bacon (at least I think that’s what I bought). I can hear the sizzling now mixing with my ever present chorus of semi-truck tires and rumbling concrete.

I had my second private Japanese lesson last night. It’s going really well and I’m really excited because I finally feel like I’m getting started. I’ve gotten somewhat comfortable with my life here, that is to say I’m settled in, and I’m ready to move past the surviving stage and into a thriving one. However, I still find pulling and perplexing aspects on an almost daily basis.

Last night my tutor, Watanabe-san, was asking me my family member’s names. When I tried telling her Marie’s name, I put it in katakana and said “Ma Ri” with the emphasis on the second syllable. Watanabe-san asked me, “Is it Mary?” (She can speak English fluently). I said no, it’s Marie. “Oh, so Ma Ri,” she repeated, but with the emphasis on the first syllable. I said, no, that it was actually Ma Ri. But Watanabe-san corrected me again and then went on to explain that in katakana, foreign words always receive the higher emphasis on the third to last syllable, and since Marie only has two syllables, the emphasis is on the second to the last syllable. I was quite put off by this, like the wind being taken out of my sails. I had already been putting up with people calling me “Ru—Sa—“ for the past 4 months, and now here was a name that could actually be somewhat accurately pronounced using Japanese phonetics, yet that wasn’t the way it was going to be.

When Watanabe-san was giving me a ride back to the station I started thinking about names again. I suddenly realized that I now knew what it feels like for people coming to America – people with Chinese names and Arabic names and Thai names in a place where no one can pronounce them. I was thinking this out loud to Watanabe-san, and I almost started crying. I said that it was difficult to have to say my own name incorrectly to people in order for them to understand me.

Thinking back on it now, I remember wondering to Sarah, my fellow ALT at my high school, if I would miss hearing people say my name. There’s just so much identity wrapped up in it- and maybe especially for me since I’ve never been called anything else my entire life.

I was looking at an American friend living in Japan’s photo album the other day and saw a picture of her singing in a row of Japanese ladies; her natural bleach blond hair stark against the row of black. One of her Asian friends back in the states had made a comment poking fun at “all the Asians and [her]!” and then wrote, “Now you know how this girl feels every day.”

I am a minority here: in this city, in this prefecture and in this country; A minority in looks, in language and in culture. This is neither a positive nor a negative value placed on this statement, it just simply is so far. I really haven’t had a long enough period of time to flesh it all out.

Osaka and Okinawa pics!

Kakegawa Mid Year Seminar and Osaka:
http://uwec.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2111976&l=aa00c&id=59501063
Okinawa part I:
http://uwec.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2111977&l=e77d8&id=59501063
Okinawa part II:
http://uwec.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2111978&l=1d6d5&id=59501063

Okinawa

Okinawa was a great time. I went down with 2 ALT friends for the weekend and stayed with an American family, the Fallons. The Fallons picked us up at the airport Friday night and took us on a ride through the neon lights and electrical advertisements lining the main drag on that side of the island. Okinawa is a thin strip of land 67 miles long and 4 miles wide at the narrowest. Much of the island has been greatly developed even in the last 35 years since Okinawa became part of Japan. In return for allowing vast American presence, Brock Fallon explained, America was pumping millions of dollars into the development of the prefecture. Okinawa actually includes many islands, most of them small that surround the mainland. Despite the American aid, Okinawa is still the poorest prefecture of Japan’s forty-seven.

I spent most of my time listening to Brock and Linda Fallon describe their ministry work here in Japan as well as their incredible interest in and knowledge of American military history. Brock had been in the Army Reserves for 28 years before retiring as a commercial diving engineer. Now he is a high school math teacher on one of the military bases in Okinawa. With his clearance we were able to get on the bases as well for shopping, dining, and renting snorkeling gear. If snorkeling had not been my number one priority I totally would have wanted to go golfing at Kadena’s golf course- only $6.50 for 18 beautiful holes.

At first I had adverse reactions to this. Six-fifty for 18 holes of golf? That’s where our tax money is going? Then I was told that for Christmas, the military families were getting shipments of pine Christmas trees, not native to the island of Okinawa. Another lavish expense unnecessary. But as the weekend progressed I started to think a lot harder about the money being spent on military men and women already stationed around the globe. You may disagree with war in principle, you may disagree with particular wars, but I find it difficult at least to relegate the lives of those who serve.

On Sunday we went to Camp Hansen for a morning service. There I met a young man named D. (I’ll keep his name to an initial) who came with us to the Churaumi Aquarium Sunday afternoon. Here was this 19 year old kid, really, with a young bride back home in the states, giving up the first year of marriage and the last year of his teens to sit on an island and tool radios for military operations in Southeast Asia. Other families on base have husbands and fathers away on secret missions where they have to wonder where they are or if they’re even alive. When that young soldier signs his name on the line, he’s not only sacrificing his own life but the lives of his family members as well. I’ll let them play golf for 6 bucks.

Besides the golf course, there are many other amenities to make families feel at home. Stepping onto Kadena base (the second largest American Air Force base in the world) was like stepping back onto American soil. I was surprised to find that it’s not, legally. The entrances to all the bases we were on were marked by the American and the Japanese flag. However, standing in a Chili’s parking lot not 6 hours after departing the Shinkansen (bullet train) was a surreal experience. Once inside I was immediately struck by the entire occupation of white faces and brown crew cuts. And lo and behold, the flat screen TV was playing the Packers/Lions game! I ordered 2 appetizers and a steak- I almost couldn’t put down the menu. For a drink I asked for “water…in a tall glass, please.” The girl looked at me funny, but I didn’t care, I hadn’t seen a tall glass at a restaurant since I’d been in the states. I ate way too much that evening and left with a stretched stomach; but it was for the best- I was preparing for a Thanksgiving meal the following day.

Linda Fallon had made Turkey-day food for 100 soldiers that Thursday and had managed to save almost a whole bird plus all the fixings and gravy. The only thing missing from our Saturday Thanksgiving feast was the can-shaped cranberry sauce. This was my birthday meal. And to top it off, pumpkin pie! Little did Linda know that this was often what I would ask for instead of a birthday cake growing up.

So it was an American weekend. We didn’t get much of a chance to see the Okinawans in action (I hear they have a much more relaxed way of life) but we did get to see an aspect of Okinawa that typically only military folk see, and their perspective is from the inside. I will definitely return sometime again before I leave Japan for good (and when will that be?) whether under the guise of a vacationer or not. Or maybe it will be on Brock’s command for me to take some diving lessons and stay a bit in the summer. There’s so much more to this island than I ever knew, and the military presence is a whole new fascinating situation of its own.

I’ll end with my random bit of musing I did today whilst taking my morning shower:

I like writing down my “thinkings” rather than my “thoughts.” To me the word “thoughts” is static and past oriented. “Thinkings” is dynamic and malleable. Once a thought occurs it’s frozen in the past; At best a thought is simply a momentary slice of a thinking. These thinkings can be stirred, can be simmered and steeped. Then strained through colanders of new ideas and experiences to emerge in their own right worthy of utterance.