Well, I'm in Japan right now. It was pretty hot the first couple of days that I was sweating like a pig in a suit. But it has been cloudy these past couple of days so it has been cooler. I'm in Asakusa right now close to Sensoji temple. I didn't visit Sensoji temple, but I saw the gate of Asakusa with the big red lantern.

Today there was a samba in the streets in Asakusa. It was a parade of some sort. They had some people dancing in the streets as the parade moved along. There were also elementary school kids playing in marching band. Some kids were pretty good at the drums also and the syncopated rhythms. Apparently the people in the parade were in a contest of some sort.

I am thinking that I have some things to take care of. I don't have a lot of time left. Actually, I leave the hotel tomorrow and travel to Yamanashi tomorrow with two other guys. I don't actually know how I'm getting there, but one of the guys who has been to Japan before said that he could show me maps at the station.

I am not sure why I'm here in Japan right now. I have a lot of doubts, but I am countering a lot of them with some rational thoughts. Everyone starts out not so skilled at something. I am learning how to put things behind me and to move forward. I'm talking about mistakes and how I view myself.

I have a lot of things to do. I'm thinking that I need to spend more time with God. But this is my last night in Tokyo, so I have to take care of some things first. We'll see though. Anyway, whether or not I do well or whether or not I'm liked, there is something that I've learned these past couple of days. You can't experience life if you're worrying about all the things that you can't help. Basically the two things I mentioned in this paragraph. Sometimes people are good at one thing and they really suck at another. Even though i believe that everyone can do a job well if they learn and find ways to improve, I feel that sometimes there are paths that might not work out. But that's what i hear from some older wiser people. They tried some things, but they found that they liked this other things better. Jobs...man, I wonder where I'll be. What is it that i want to do with my life?

Responsibility is a good thing. I guess I have to learn how to be responsible. I've made one step in this process. I'm going to take more.

Rogue Galaxy

Speaking of my video game obsession, I saw on the circuit city website that Rogue Galaxy is coming out on January 27th, 2007! This game was made by Level 5, the developer who made Dragon Quest VIII and Dark Cloud 2 for the Playstation 2.

It already came out in Japan, and I think that I'll pick one up while I'm there. Anyway, the link on Gamespot can be found here

If you go to www.circuitcity.com you can find that they'll be selling this game for $39.99 when it hits the stores.

This game is an action RPG. Hopefully it's way better than Star Ocean Till the End of Time. I'm guessing it will be, but we'll see. Star Ocean is made by Tri-Ace who made Valkyrie Profile also.

If you don't know anything about Valkyrie Profile, you can check it out on Gamespot here. Apparently a lot of people think that this game is better than the gamespot rating of 7.5 or something like that. It is a rare game and goes for about $100 on Ebay for the Playstation version. You can buy the PSP remake of this for $40 on amazon or anywhere else. I'm planning to pick up the Japanese version of this game because I can't stand dubs in English.

I don't know...maybe I am a little too obsessed with video games. That could be a reason why I have no life right now. heh.

Lately, I've been feeling kind of distant from God. I think the reason goes back to not spending enough time with Him, not going to church regularly, and not reading the Bible. Why have I not been doing these? Video games. Maybe my friends are right. They are a problem for me.

Oh well...maybe I should forget bringing any video games with me over there and not buy them over there either. But I don't think that will happen. heh.

I told myself that I can't buy a PS2 system until a certain date. Things didn't work out the first time I tried to buy one, so I told myself to wait and maybe the price will go down when the PS3 comes out. Hopefully.

Why am I talking so much about material things? Maybe I'm falling too far into the American dream of owning stuff to feel important. Maybe "important" isn't the right word. Maybe it's the phrase, "worth something." Why is it that we stress buying so much? Why is it that so many people are in debt in the US? Capitalism...I wonder how long it will last...

In Japan, my professor told us at lecture that Japanese people have a hard time spending money. They save a whole lot of money, and their economy isn't doing so well. I kind of wonder how it's doing now though...but yeah, did they adopt a capitalistic system in a society that doesn't use capitalism that much? I don't know...I don't know that much about this. But I think that when I'm in Japan, I'm going to have save a lot of money because everything there costs so much. I'm going to have to really work on saving money as it is a problem here for me to do so. Yeah, maybe I shouldn't visit the stores for video games while I'm there. Maybe I should just focus on reading newspapers on the net.

Lately I've been thinking about what God wants me to do. I've been thinking this because I think that He migth have closed a door on Japan. We'll see though. I'm still going to go and I think that I might be coming home pretty soon though. I've been discouraged as I have not been able to get a placement yet. I don't know why it is, only that it has something to do with one portion of my interview that they taped. I talked in Japanese and made some mistakes and I probably miscommunicated some details about myself. I really don't know.

I leave in a week and I have not been placed yet. My mom was telling me to talk to the company to see if they'd be willing to help me out if I don't get placed. I mean, if I don't work in Japan, then what can I do but wait? And from how things are looking, it's going to be really expensive and I can only bring so much money with me. I really don't know what to say...maybe it was God who told me that I should stay at my current job for another year. And since I can't stand my job there, I took the other option, to leave for another job no matter what...even if it may not be the best job in the world, it's something different and something that could help me out in the future with other jobs.

But if I do go back to my current job, then I know that I'm definitely going to be a disgruntled worker.

The strange thing is that people were telling me that they didn't know that I was leaving my current job. One guy who does the same job as me, asked if Friday was my last day this past week. Apparently he had some things he wanted to say before we parted ways. Or so I think. I've made some friends there, but I feel that I cannot keep doing this and working these hours. But I've got to do what I got to do. If I do come back to this old job then I will pray about this some more and really see if this is what God wants me to do for another year. ugh...

My job is not so bad...I got the easiest job there. But really the hours are killing me. I'm not taking it too well and I feel about 3 years older. My body is starting to wear down in my legs and I think that I'm losing some of my hearing, but that could just be my imagination. The company has been good to me by giving me my paycheck and benefits, but really I think that I'm starting to go crazy there. We'll see though.

Japan...maybe now is not the right time. But I think, if not now, then will I ever go there again besides this time?

I'm currently going through Genesis right now. It's been awhile since I read the Bible. I'm trying to read it straight through. Anyway, one thing that I've noticed a lot in the Bible is that all the great people of God obeyed God. Sure they had their flaws and such, but they were great people by doing what is hard and which may go against the grain.

How this relates to me is that I wonder if I will go back to my current job if things don't work out. Does God really want me there? Does He really want me to stay?

Then again, I could be overanalyzing things and this could just be my mistake that I made in the interview and really have nothing to do with God. But then again God sees further ahead. We'll see what happens.

Almost to the end of Faith and Race...but it shouldn't stop here

Man, I can honestly say that this is a difficult class to go to. I end up being angry the whole work day until I can calm down and sort of bury it in the distractions of work and the quirks of my coworkers. While it's not so much the content that makes me angry, it's the whole race thing being brought into my face type of thing with other people.

I haven't really thought about it before, but after taking this class, I'd say that there are some conotations of being Japanese, even if I am Japanese American and not a "true" Japanese person. With the tensions that I feel from the videos and just the uncomfortableness of talking about these things, I wonder if I make these weird faces and show my tension. Which might explain the weird looks I get from people. But I can't help but wonder if a couple left because of what I said about my dad. I haven't seen them since the first class and one of them did mention that there were Japanese people in her area in California.

I don't know...maybe I'm looking too hard where there might not be any unrest and maybe it was because this topic makes me so uncomfortable that when I was trying to pay attention, that I probably gave strange looks to them...but I wonder, does my being Japanese have anything to do with a reason why they might have left and why what I said might have caused them to say something else. I guess I won't ever know. But that is the thing that sticks most in my mind from this class. Japanese...I didn't think that tensions still existed between Japanese, Chinese, and Korean in America. But I guess they do.

Anyway, I felt some more tension later on this past night. But I don't want to talk about it. It was probably nothing.

I look at what I've learned in this class so far. Basically, it's not really about black, white, yellow, red or any other color. What it is is about privilege and how many of us have priveleges that others don't. It is this reason that we discriminate against others who we feel are "less" than us. While we may not consciously say these things, we do discriminate against others. It's human and one of our fallibilities.

The book that we are reading is called, "Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria" by Tatum. You can find it on www.amazon.com here

The main point of the class was this book and showing us that racism does exist today. It is like a smog. While we may not be the cause of the racism, we each have a responsibility to clean it up. (Quote taken from Tatum's book.) One of the points that she did mention was that racism does hurt society. It does hurt indiviuals who can be more than they are right now and are less because of racism. It hurts society because these individuals can help and benefit society instead of other things like problems.

Anyway, for most of the class, I think that we were learning how racism does exist today and that it didn't just exist in the past. For the minorities of the class, we're like...yes this is true. But I'm guessing as many other of my friends did, that the Caucasians didn't understand that there is still racism. And that they too have stereotypes and biases against others.

Anyway, the whole point of the class was not to just inform you of racism, but to help you to find a way to combat racism as a Christian. Tony Campolo said that "Racism is the work of the devil." He also mentioned other things that were the work of the devil also, like sexism.

One point that I want to make is, Ephesians 6:12 says that, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the tulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." NASB. You can find a easier to understand verse here at Biblegateway.com. Paul was talking about taking up the full armor of God from verses 10-24. Meaning to be strong in God as you go out into this world. I highlight verse twelve because if you look at things, Paul had it right in this verse. People are not our enemies. Satan is our enemy. And people are not Satan.

One of the retired pastors at my church told me this story. There was a Japanese Christian fighting as a pilot for Japan during WWII. What makes this rare was that there were hardly any Japanese Christians in Japan as Japan tried to wipe out Christianity for 200 years during the Tokugawa period. So this Japanese Christian was bombing China and he got shot down. He was afraid because he didn't want to be caught by the pagan Chinese. But, it just so happened that the people who saved him were Chinese Cathoic nuns. They hid him from the Chinese army and put their own lives at risk.

Later on, he thought about this. What he realized was that here he was a Christian bombing other Christians. And they happened to save him.

Which is why I say, in war, there is no discrimination. You don't know your enemy and they don't know you. You could be killing your own brother or sister in war and not know it. Anybody can come to know Jesus and God through the Holy Spirit. Which is why I learned that nobody is your enemy no matter who they are, whether they are terrorists or not. As seen in the past, even "good" people have the capability to do evil. Why? All people are capable of doing such things. We know the difference between good and evil. We are not so innocent as we think we are.

What it comes down to is that we in America are not innocent of what's happening in Lebanon. We support Israel and give them the weapons to do such damage to the people. We also are oppressors of other peoples economically. Just look at how much coffee we all drink and the hard labor that other people have to do to get that for us. What do they get? Pennies even if it is fair trade coffee. If it was fair, then we would be paying more for the hard work they do. There is a reason that the poorer keep getting poorer and the richer keep getting richer.

Anyway, I feel that this is meaningless because I myself am not doing anything to right this wrong. What can I do? Even if I do take this class and know all these things, how am I different from anybody else who does wrong?

There is no way that I can repay the debt that I am in. But I guess as Tatum said, there is a smog and while we may not be directly causing it, we all have a responsibility to clean it up. Man, I guess ignorance is bliss. But it comes at the price of other people's misery. I guess the time is near. What do I do? Man, I don't like this.

Anyway, we don't have to do something big to make a difference. We each can do something small. I guess I need to find what is on my heart.