I'm OUT!

Here's what I'm listening to as I get ready to bust out of here...not exactly getupandgo music, but it is definitely smooth.

Jose Gonzalez - Hand On Your Heart

Nothin' Much

Me and Lena went exploring in Maebaru yesterday and I took this.

I'm heading off to Nagoya for the long weekend to hook up with Mr. Nicholas Riley and his lady, Michelle. All day my teachers have been telling me to eat the delicacy there, 味噌煮込みうどん, which apparently, from a friend of mine, is known as 'Japanese Soul Food'. Kinda skeptical, but I'm willing to try it. I'm sure Nick is getting ready to throw down, so I'm drinking lots of water to try and prepare the body for the massive amount of alcohol that is going to be consumed. (Not sure if it's a valid strategy or not...and I've been thirsty recently anyways).

This week has been a pretty good one. My kids have tests tomorrow and half of next week, which means I'm pretty much free until next Thursday. It's hard to study Japanese only for Japanese, so I've been reading two Japanese books, well one book, and one manga. It's pretty cool.

This manga is hilarious. You can tell the author actually played ball before. AND(!), how is this...

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar makes an appearance!

And, for a challenge, I'm reading this...Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone!

Here's what a page looks like...luckily, if I don't know a kanji, the hiragana is on the side so I can look it up.

I've learned some pretty cool words too, through this book. For example:

1. 嗜める (tashinameru) - to reprove, to chide
2. 急降下 (kyuukouka) - nosedive
3. 魔法 (mahou) - magic, sorcery

So, I'll try and get some pictures up from Nagoya after the weekend. One more day!

The Broken Window Theory, Reversed

(This post may take some of your time.)

A couple of years ago, I read Malcolm Gladwell's book, 'The Tipping Point', and was really struck by one idea, because it made so much sense to me, The Broken Window Theory. Basically, the idea is that if no else gives a shit, then why should I? One small disorder invites more and more disorder. If no one else thinks its important enough to fix that window, to give value to where I live and who I am, then why should I think anything of myself? It's a real easy concept to grasp, but a real powerful one too, I think.

The reason I bring it up, is because, after living a while in Japan, I have noticed that if there is a 'broken window' here, it is more often than not 'fixed'. Quickly. That part of Japanese culture really touched me when I came here, how much thought people put into things. Every day, for most of my students, there is a bento waiting on the table for them before they go to school. There's a man at my train station whose job is to keep everything clean...full time janitor. If someone says they're coming to pick you up at 730, they will pull around that corner at 730. It's just a part of the culture. But, again, there is a flip side to it. To a point, this type of attention to detail is good. But, when you have to call two weeks in advance to see if your friend wants to hang out, it gets to be a little much. It is unheard of to call someone on a Saturday night and ask them to go for a drink. Never happens. People spend inordinate amounts of time cleaning streets, bathrooms, parks. Committes are formed, neighborhood watches organized. What this inevitably leads to is a type of mass OCD, everyone incredibly (read: irritatingly) involved in every aspect of every one else's life. Everyone cares though, so it can't be a bad thing right?

Well, for me, sometimes, it is. Living by myself for most of the past six years, I've become decently (read: barely) self-reliant. And I think that this, at times, suffocating attention to detail is what drives so many Japanese to want to leave. Of course, they think, things are good at home, everything's in order, but damn, give me some space.

The person who lives in the city with the broken windows realizes that if he doesn't care about himself, no one will. He steels his will and becomes self-motivated, but also a little too hardened. The person who lives in the immaculate city realizes he doesn't need to worry, things are taken care of, he can relax in the knowledge that other people are there to help. In doing so, he unknowingly forfeits the chance to be able to do it by yourself, to become a self-reliant individual.

That's where I'm at now. How much attention to pay, how much to let slide. How much to pick up one person, and how much to let another person do his own thing.

Here is a video of Bill Strickland speaking at a TED conference a couple of years ago that indirectly relates to what I was talking about earlier. My favorite quote from it is this:

I think that welfare mothers, at risk kids, and ex-steel workers deserve a fountain in their life...It sets an attitude and an expectation about how you feel about people before you ever give them a speech.

Don't Stop Believing

This is just awesome.

They like it Fresh to DEF!

This has happened more than a couple of times, but it still creeps me out a little. Seeing something's murder played out in front of you, albeit delicious murder, is always a little crazy.

At a dinner for Japan-Hawaii Relations a couple of months back.

Eating out with my sensei and his son after we hit the onsen.

Introducing Lena, the girl who lives on the first floor. We went out to a spot pretty close to our house and saw this.

気持ち悪い。

He Actually is for real.

After I showed mad people the 'cross' video, and after watching it a hundred times and laughing to myself, I decided to look a little deeper. I found a couple more videos, which are pretty good, but don't have the same shock value as the first. Still hilarious though.

'Triple combo. Be tricky, be explosive with it. Old school cross.'

He also has a pretty professional looking site. I'll be honest, this dude can probably ball. He played D1 at Austin Peay, so he can't suck. But...God DAMN, what a character. On the site it says he has trained NBA players. So, the next time we see the 'stepoutcrossboom' in a game, we know who to thank.

"Going for Broke"

The other day I decided to do a cultural lesson and get away from English a little bit. English is fun and all, but our job is supposed to be a little more dynamic than just explaining the difference between 'light' and 'right'. (Or 'correct' and 'collect'...I did both of those today). So, I decided to do a Hawaii lesson, on Japanese Americans living in Hawaii. Throw in some pidgin stuff, kids get a laugh out of it, and we're good. So, I got caught up doing some research. One thing led to another, look up notable figures, and I come across this line:

One all-Nisei unit, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, went on to become the most decorated unit of its size in U.S. history, having received more than 18,000 individual decorations, including 52 Distinguished Service Crosses and one Congressional Medal of Honor.

Tell me that's not impressive. So, I start looking stuff up. Of course, I knew about Senator Inouye...everyone does. And I had heard about a badass all-Japanese battalion before. But I think the more important stuff though, is deeper. These guys...man, these guys were insane. What's even more insane is that more people don't know about them. I went through some of the names on the list, and how they received their Medal of Honors...I was getting goosebumps. Considering the environment in which they were in, (they weren't even allowed to join the military until 1943 because of anti-Japanese sentiment), it's just amazing how much these guys accomplished. (You can watch the whole thing, but the first part is the one about the 442nd).

"You fought not only the enemy, but you fought prejudice, and you've won."

So, that's what I was doing all day. I'm not sure if I'll use it in class, the war is still a touchy subject. But it was good to get lost in history for a little bit, thought I'd share it. And, I lied. That's not what I did all day...