A Wii Issue

I want a Wii.

But where should I get one?

Japan? Given the high yen its a little expensive. And the console and games would be in Japanese. And I would only be able to play Japanese games.

Online? Where? And what region? How many regions are there??? Why does it have to be region coded!??!?!?!! Grrr. But are games cheaper to buy online?

Hong Kong? I'll have to wait til the summer to get it. I doubt if my mum would want to carry a Wii all the way here when she visits me in late March.

UK? The pound is so low a British Wii would be cheap! But aren't games expensive?!

Bull

It's a little late but...

Happy Chinese New Year

*sigh* a 6th Chinese New Year away from my Chinese home...! Meaning a 6th year away from packed flower markets, all that food - law bak go (turnip cake), neen go (sweet CNY rice cake), sweets; LAI SEE, fai chun, fireworks, holidays, saying gung hei fat choi (恭喜發財) and lung ma jing sun (龍馬精神)...crikey I don't even remember what we usually do during those few joyous days anymore.

Why am I having this rant just after I signed up for another year of JET!?

Signed, sealed, delivered...

...I'm yours, Japan, for another year (at least).

Yes. I've finally made the decision to stay for another year of ridiculously awesome fresh-grad pay in return for being a human tape recorder, worksheet-maker and occasionally doing some teaching.

Sadly, the world isn't my oyster. But Japan is. There's sooo much to do, so much to see and so many places to go in this little cluster of volcanic islands.

Also, hopefully by the end of it all, I would become a bit more competent at the language, a bit more mature, a bit more creative, and a bit more interesting for the world to become a yummier oyster to me. :D

I read some more

This is an interesting way of looking at abortion

"On January 12, 2009 Samantha Heiges, age 23, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for drowning her newborn in Burnsville, Minnesota. If she had arranged for a doctor to kill the child a few weeks earlier she would be a free woman.

What are the differences between this child before and after birth that would justify its protection just after birth but not just before? There are none. This is why Abraham Lincoln’s reasoning about slavery is relevant in ways he could not foresee. He wrote:

You say A. is white, and B. is black. It is color, then; the lighter, having the right to enslave the darker? Take care. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with a fairer skin than your own.

You do not mean color exactly? You mean the whites are intellectually the superiors of the blacks, and, therefore have the right to enslave them? Take care again. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with an intellect superior to your own.

But, say you, it is a question of interest; and, if you can make it your interest; you have the right to enslave another. Very well. And if he can make it his interest, he has the right to enslave you. (“Fragments: On Slavery")

There are no morally relevant differences between white and black or between child-in-the-womb and child-outside-the-womb that would give a right to either to enslave or kill the other.

"

- John Piper

from http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1586_lincolns_logic_on_slavery_applied_to_abortion/

Good morning, sunshine.

The title is a bit misleading since it was actually cloudy when I woke up and it still is. In fact, I woke up at 8:40am to a text from Hitomi saying ゆきー!!雪雪雪雪雪!!! (which translates as "snow!! snowsnowsnowsnowsnow!!!")

"Ughh", I thought. "My bed is warm. I don't care." But I got up anyway, looked out the window and saw beautiful white fluffy flakes flying and twirling down from the sky. It still is. None of it is settling though.

So early morning and heavy snow meant I couldn't go to the supermarket and thus had a lot of time to faff. Or catch up on the things I didn't do during the week, like watch Obama's inauguration speech.

WOW. What an amazing speech-writer and speaker.

I also had a chance to read John Piper's article titled "The President, the Passengers, and the Patience of God" (Thanks to Larry's post on Photizo).

Which made me look up videos on Piper's view on the election and abortion. Which then made me look up on Obama on abortion etc.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7847651.stm


I'm not sure what I think about it all. There's too much running through my head right now. But I do agree with Piper - we can never be certain when life starts, be it at the time of conception or time of first movement or time of first breath. We can never be certain whether or not abortion (however early or late) is an act of taking human life. But I also think it is better to be safe (ie not conduct abortion at all) than to err on the side of uncertainty.

This also brings in another issue, regarding how government and christianity (or any other belief system) or even simply morality should interact/be engaged with each other. How much moral responsibility should a government have? Where should society look to for moral guidance? What about the church?

On the other hand, shouldn't the church's main focus be on the Gospel, not on moral education? What's the balance between the two?

....So maybe snow and early morning text isn't so bad afterall. It got my brain moving. Sort of.

I suppose it is called extreme sports for a reason....

...because I was in extreme pain for 2 days after my first snowboarding attempt on Saturday. If my muscles could literally scream with pain it would make a Steven Tyler high-pitched scream seem like a pathetic squeal. At the moment still can't walk properly without looking like I've just been hit by a 50-tonne lorry, still can't rotate my neck properly and still can't put trousers without nearly falling on my face.

Call me a hypochondriac, but I might actually have done some damage to my knees. Maybe going snowboarding with already dodgy knees wasn't the wisest decisions of all. I probably won't be boarding again for a while, if not ever...

I should probably stop whining. But I won't.

Sleeping isn't easy, as it hurts to turn in my sleep. I no longer need to 'slow down' whilst walking up and down the stairs with my JTE (japanese teacher of english) to class. I've started doing what my JTE does and putting heat patches on my neck to ease the pain. I have to leave a good few minutes earlier in order to give myself more time to bike to school, as well as more time to actually get on and off the bike.

...yet I'd love to go back and carve up those snowy slopes though! Ohh cruel world*

*Note that I don't actually mean it since I do understand that there are much more cruel things in the world than not being able to go snowboarding.

The time has come

...to make a decision.

Do I want to carry-on my Japan Journeys for another 20 months, or put an end to it in 8 months time? Both ways involve a gamble. The only difference is what's at stake.

I honestly don't know. I can't decide. The answer is not there. My mind says one thing, but the heart says another. I need a revelation!!!!

not advertising...

...but to go to Bangkok and not stay at this unique little oasis in the middle of this scarily dense city would be a loss.

I sipped English tea with the hotel owner (aka dad) by the pool whilst tasting his own hand-made sponge cake. (He also makes carrot cake and apple crumble and all kinds of "once on the lips forever on the hips" sweet things). I stuffed my face with too much Thai food from the hotel restaurant not because I didn't have to pay for anything. Afterwards I worked it off in the pool that was just cool enough to bear in the Thai 'winter'. I also worked off my wallet (a bit too much) at Jatujak weekend market and Suan Lum night market. After too much walking and shopping at the night market I still managed to take the underground and then the sky train back to Phloen Chit, but had to hop on a little 10-baht motorbike-taxi to take me down the soi back to the hotel, to save some of the little life that is left in my battered feet so that I could walk up one flight of stairs to my lovely little single room.

Dad making cakes












Ariyasomvilla















Tea by the pool