My Three Bikes

I went through quite a large variety of emotions today, mostly because of events to do with bikes.

I woke up at quarter to nine trying to smack the alarm clock quiet when it was actually my phone alarm going off. I didn't have much time before I had to cycle to the bus stop to get the bus to town for church. I left home with 6 minutes before the bus came, and it takes 5 minutes to get to the bus stop. I mounted my onahama bike and zoomed down the familiar streets to the bus stop, parked it outside the family restaurant, and the bus came a minute later. It was cloudy and a bit chilly, but I thought I was off to a pretty good start overall.

After a 35 minute bus ride into town, I got off one stop before the station, where I had put Chantal's (last year's ALT's) bike, aka the Taira bike. I got this bike from Chantal so I could bike from where I get off the bus to church, which is a 25 minute walk; or to weekly badminton sessions. But when I got to the tree where I thought I had put it, the generic-looking black mamachari had been replaced by a notice saying 'Your bike has been moved to the Station West Bike Park'. OK, that's kinda annoying. But it's only a 3 minute walk from where I was, so OK. But when I got there, to my shock horror, there were a billion bikes in that bike park. Or rather several hundred. Most of them looked pretty generic too. But I knew my bike had a seat cover, so I walked around the bike park looking for a bike with a seat cover. I went around once, and didn't see it. Hmm maybe someone stole my seat cover!? I also remembered that my bike had little blue paw print stickers at the back on the tyre mud guard, so I walked around again, now getting a little nervous, my eyes darting left and right and along the back of the bicycles. Still nothing. I was getting considerably ticked off. I looked around again. Nothing.

My (Chantal's) bike's been stolen!! :O First came shock, then anger, then disappointment, then annoyance. Shocked because it's my first time I've had a bike stolen from me. Then anger because of some prick's dispicable act against MY bike. Then disappointment because I now have no bike. Then annoyance because it means I have to walk all the way (a massive 40 minutes) to church.

So I started walking, rather aimlessly but at the same time towards the general direction of church. My head spinning like a washing machine with all these emotions. I whipped out my phone and emailed S Mac, filled with crying/sad/angry emoticons. But just as I was putting my phone away, I came across a home centre, with 50 new and colourful bikes lined up outside the store. I stopped. I looked. I debated internally. I checked the prices. 9,800 yen. I checked my wallet. 10,000 yen...! I had exactly what I needed. I took that as a 'sign' that this was meant to happen. And it happened. It's an uglyish teal-blue gear-less cruiser bike. I pointed. I paid. I own. I rode. I breathed out.

After church I got money and bought an extra lock - an ugly lime green but hopefully sturdy lock.

Now, at least I'll know if it does get stolen again, all I have to do is look for someone riding an ugly colour un-coordinated bike. And I will not let him forget what happens when one steals a bike from Sam.

It wasn't me.

OK so I did take an extra omiyage white chocolate cookie from the 'share table' in the staff room the other day.

But that's not my point. I'm talking about the grander scheme of things.

Of how I was accepted by JET. Of how I was rejected by all other job applications. Of how I am privileged to have a group of friends, both foreign and local, here in Japan. Of how I have been so fortunate to be able to travel to and explore many places around Japan. Of how I haven't been killed in an earthquake or a bike accident. Of how I passed the Japanese Language Proficiency Test and the entrance test for the CLAIR Translation & Interpretation Course.

Of course, I worked hard for most of these, but nothing compares to the grace of God's hand in every door opened or closed; every turn and path made straight, in my life.

To Him be all the glory, honor and power.

Thank you God ♥



*omiyage - socially obligated souvenirs whenever you go traveling or whenever someone finds out that you will be traveling somewhere interesting

Note to self

Existence of God by Ravi Zacharias

1. Physical entity of quantity does not have the reason of existence in itself. If you slice and reduce the physical universe into any form, it still cannot explain its own origin. It has to find its explanation outside itself. i.e. The explanation has to be non-physical.

2. The 'to-design' argument. Logic tells you that where you see information you assume prior to that information is a mind. You don't assume that Handel's Halleluja just came together by itself , nor do you assume that the dictionary developed because of an explosion at the printing press. The possibility of an enzyme coming together by chance is one in ten to the power of 40,000, which is more than the number of atoms in the universe.

3. In the history of society, human experience, in history itself - social and moral issues and human interaction demands explanation of moral reality. The existence of good and evil demands the existence of a moral law to distinguish the two. The existence of a moral law demands a moral law giver.

Just a few things that are handy to keep in mind.

What contest?!

Wednesday was the Iwaki City Inter-Junior High School English Oratorical Contest. Around 50 girls and boys from each JHS around the city gathered at Alios, the local arts theatre, and recited speeches in English. 30 something of them recited a peice from English textbooks, and 17 of them recited original speeches they wrote themselves.

As expected the textbook-recitation section had lots of students repeating the same speeches. Except for a few, just like my dear darling student N-chan, who recited the emotional 'The Diary of Anne Frank'. We had practiced hard for a good 2 months, and N-chan herself had put so much effort into perfecting each word and expression. We had lots of extra lessons over the summer holiday, she practiced at home, and on top of that she had to go to juku (cram school) everyday and ballet lessons most days. Not to mention all the summer homework the school piled on her.

Yesterday finally came. All that hard work was going to pay off and make everyone proud. And she did make us proud, by doing a wonderful recital, full of Anne Frank-esque emotion and energy, finishing and pronouncing each word perfectly, and didn't go too fast or slow, didn't stutter, didn't stop, didn't slur over any words. It was a work of art. We were so confident that she was going to walk out with a prize or something.

We were wrong.

She didn't even make it to the top 6.

We were stunned we didn't hear her name when they were announcing the top 6.

At the end of the whole thing, when I waiting outside to meet up with her, I saw this teary red-eyed girl approaching, and my heart sank even more and was even more disappointed at the verdict. I thought it was impossible that she didn't win. I felt so bad, so sorry. Before the contest we were so confident and kept reassuring her that she'd come out with flying colours. I felt we had lifted her hopes too high. All that hard work....!

Turns out 4 out of 5 of the judges were actually Japanese, and there was only ONE native English speaker. What kind of English Oratorical Contest do you call this?! Where 80% of the judges don't even speak the language fluently..!? It really wasn't very fair.

But hey, this is Japan.

why, atheists?

Excuse me for asking...but...

Why do atheists care that they are atheists?

Why do atheists care that others are not atheists?

If they truly believe that there is no God, no meaning to life, no after life or no nothing after death, why do they care so much that other people might believe in these things?

Why are there atheist books?

Atheism seems to me a very personal belief, as in each person ought to have their own 'version' of their beliefs and moral basis and values, and thus seems quite difficult or even impossible to push onto people.

And what is with that 'atheist campaign bus'?

I could only imagine that it does nothing good except cause arguments and discomfort.

To me, "atheist do nothing but complain about religion."

I realise I'm ranting a bit here.

*****

In Christ alone my hope is found,

He is my light, my strength, my song;

this Cornerstone, this solid Ground,

firm through the fiercest drought and storm.

What heights of love, what depths of peace,

when fears are stilled, when strivings cease!

My Comforter, my All in All,

here in the love of Christ I stand.

Under House Arrest

Ah my week of 'quarantine' has finally come to an end.

I suppose 'house arrest' is a bit severe a term to describe what I went through during the week. Basically because I was in a foreign country for 3 weeks I had to stay at home and not go out as much as possible in case I got swine flu. Funny - because I would consider someone from Japan a bit more swine-flu-susceptible than HK. Meh. Full list of swine flu cases, country by country.

I did leave the flat a few times, when insanity and boredom and beautiful weather drove me out of my pajama pants and into the sunny streets of this little yakuza-infested town.

When I was at home, though, I did quite a lot of cleaning, reading, cooking, facebook stalking and project runway catching-up-ing. I will certainly miss the feeling of slowly rolling out of bed at 10am , seeing all the other ALTs' bikes are no longer in the bike shed and thinking they were all driven out 2 hours ago and are now parked quietly outside their respective schools, whilst I contemplate how to slowly waste the day away without being too unproductive.

BUT tomorrow morning (Saturday - weekend) I actually have to get up early(er) and meet a couple of students and help them practice their little speeches for the annual English Speech Contest. Oh why oh why. Lord have mercy and graciously spare me some grace. Indeed one of the last things on my want-to-do list. And the irony is that I actually volunteered. I could've totally bailed out on it. But when I think about how unprepared these poor girls are, and also about how bad I would look in front of the other ALTs for being responsible for under-training them, my fingers just started tapping away at my cellphone - and before I knew it an email was composed and sent to the English teacher about how worried I was and how much I want to help. I do want to help. Just hoped it was a better time of the week and day.

I'm a kind person, really.

Misconceptions

Having been in Japan for a year, and having spoken to lots of people back home and being asked lots of questions about life in Japan, I've come up with a list of what people might misunderstand about Japan and life in Japan.

If you don't want your perfect little self-constructed image of Japan ruined, turn away now.

Misconception #1: Everyone in Japan eats sushi or some kind of 'common Japanese food' everyday
Unfortunately, no. People definitely don't eat sushi everyday. It's not cheap even in Japan. And no not everyone eats ramen or even rice everyday. Quite a few Japanese people I know actually prefer bread to rice/noodles. For school lunch, out of 5 days in a week, we get about 2-3 rice days, 1-2 bread days and 1 noodle day. We never get sushi for lunch, hardly get tempura; but we do sometimes get curry, pottage, sautéed veg, potatoes and jelly.

When I asked one of my teachers in school (Japanese teacher) what they usually eat at home, he responded with 'salad, rice, soup...' and he occasionally takes his family out for pasta, burger, roast meat, and sometimes sushi.

Misconception #2: Everyone in Japan loves fish
Mr. S from one of my visiting schools, a Japanese language teacher, HATES FISH! I have also encountered several students and friends who generally don't like anything from the sea. And one of them was brought up by fishmonger parents!! Poor kid.

Misconception #3: Everyone in Japan is polite
Most people are quite polite in Japan and generally have relatively better manners than those in Hong Kong. BUT I have observed, several times, that people on a train or metro rarely give up their seat for the elderly.

Misconception #4: Everything in Japan is super high-tech and modern
In fact, squat toilets are still widely used around the country; many houses are poorly built with wood and metal; every year hundreds (or thousands?) of very traditional festivals are held all over the country that have been held for hundreds (or thousands?) of years. Japan has also done well to preserve many old old temples, shrines and buildings.

Misconception #5: Everything in Japan is very expensive
Only in the cities! And even within cities there are some great restaurant and shop finds that sell great value clothing and food. There are also lots of 100-yen shops and 100-yen (around 65p or $8HKD) sushi restaurants (my favourite haunt)!

Misconception #6: Japan is one big bustling urban city that's super crowded and noisy
There are in fact many deserted coasts, lots of farms and open fields, magnificent mountain ranges and deep forests.


Right - off to my sushi lunch.