Long time no write.
I have a couple things to say to bring you up to speed:
First, what sort of updates you can expect from me.
Second, an explanation of the name change.
First, the 100 weeks Bible study in which I have been participating will be the main theme for this blog starting in August. For each meeting, I will mention five key points from that weeks reading. In the future, I might start bringing in highlights from past meetings as we are currently about to start week 34.
Secondly, I changed the Japanese name of this blog from 命 INOCHI to 使命感 SHIMEIKAN. I've wanted to change the name for a while but just never got to it. When I first made this blog, I wanted a word that would help identify the religious theme of this blog, but at the time I just chose an approximate Kanji that I liked.
In order to rectify my initial laziness, over time I've found some appropriate Japanese words. These were some of the best:
任侠 (Ninkyou)
This is a Japanese word defined as "protecting the weak, standing up to the strong, and having a sense of willingness to sacrifice one's life for the sake of justice." I thought this word was perfect at first, but most English translations of the word are things like "Chivalrous," "Machismo," and "Masculinity." None of those three really match the Japanese because the Japanese lacks negative connotations. Negative connotations that I don't want associated with this blog.
淙々(Sousou)
This is a very uncommon word in Japanese, and it means "lightly, smoothly, flowing water." The only English translation I could find was "murmurs" as in "the stream murmers among the rocks." I don't think that really captures the Japanese at all. Though I did like the Kanji in this word for its irony. The right part of the Kanji being that of 宗 or "sect/religion."
凛と
This is another word that does not lend itself well to translation. The meaning is something like "a powerful, clear voice," an image that I rather liked to associate with God speaking to Moses from the burning bush. The problem with this word lies in that it also has the meanings of "taking up a masculine attitude and manner" and "being strict and cold-hearted." Neither of which did I think appropriate for this blog.
使命 and 使命感
Both of these words mean "one's calling" or "vocation." When I came across these words in my search, I was hesitant but quickly won over as I thought it through. I could still have 命 in the title, but have a meaning more closely associated with religion.
Both words are comprised of the same first two Kanji. The first being "to serve" and the second being mainly "life" and secondarily "command." The key difference between the two words is obviously the Kanji at the end which makes the word more emotionally tied. If I were to try and iterate the difference in English, the closest I can come is the difference in emotional pull between "mission" and "calling."
The end result should be visible at the top of this page. The blog title is now "SHIMEIKAN"
日本人の皆さんへ
これから僕が参加している百週間聖書研究会を話題にするつもりです。毎回読んでいた範囲で五つの面白い点を紹介しようと思っています。
それからブログの名前を変えました。命だけじゃなくて使命感というもっと長い名前にしました。
人間は神様から与えられた道はあるからこそ命があると思います。
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Happy New Year! - and a (sadly) new viral video
This video has been going around like the plague:
Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus || Spoken Word
Of course, this guy has proposed a fireball of a topic, right? In short though, My biggest qualm with it is that simply the guy throws around general terms without so much as a hint of a definition. "Religion" to one person, simply means something else to another. In my case it means something very specific, probably because I'm Catholic. No surprise there, I would think.
If you were to strip out the first 1:18 of the video and remove a couple of the odd jabs toward the end, the message would be at it's core indisputable by most any Christian. Instead though, the video has a very anti-Catholic vibe, of which I'm sure only Catholics would be aware.
I thought of writing a well-thought out response to the video, but in finding that someone else already has, I will play tour guide.
READ this: Why I Hate Religion, But love Jesus - The Smackdown
That is all.
Addendum: Video Response
Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus || Spoken Word
Of course, this guy has proposed a fireball of a topic, right? In short though, My biggest qualm with it is that simply the guy throws around general terms without so much as a hint of a definition. "Religion" to one person, simply means something else to another. In my case it means something very specific, probably because I'm Catholic. No surprise there, I would think.
If you were to strip out the first 1:18 of the video and remove a couple of the odd jabs toward the end, the message would be at it's core indisputable by most any Christian. Instead though, the video has a very anti-Catholic vibe, of which I'm sure only Catholics would be aware.
I thought of writing a well-thought out response to the video, but in finding that someone else already has, I will play tour guide.
READ this: Why I Hate Religion, But love Jesus - The Smackdown
That is all.
Addendum: Video Response
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
100 Weeks, Silmarils...
Where to begin?
Firstly, I am yet again being horribly unfaithful to writing anything in my blog.
I make no promises. This blog mainly for religiously-themed dissertations has been quiet because quite frankly the number of religious themed discussions I have lately has dropped to near naught.
Secondly, among other new activities in my life, I have joined a Bible study at the local Cathedral. I think I have been with them now for months (at least three if not way more than that). We are studying the entire Bible through a progression of 100 weeks. Although, I should say that "Studying" is a very loose term because we are actually reading it and then pointing out what stood out to us. It's more like we are reading the Bible on our own multiple times and then digesting it as a group. I love it.
We, unfortunately, have just entered Leviticus (レビ記) and my mind is spinning. Why? Did I mention that this Bible study is in Japanese? Yeah, I read whatever section were are going over twice in English and then as many times as I can in Japanese before we meet. I am the only non-native speaker of Japanese at our meetings and I'm the youngest member as well. You can see why my head would be spinning. I can attest to learning a lot though.
Leviticus though is not being fun for me. I want to blame it on being in Japanese, but Leviticus just really wasn't that interesting the first time I read it years ago either. On the other hand, some of my group is having trouble with the descriptions of the animal sacrifices. One of the older women didn't even get through the first five chapters of the book. To be honest, I don't know how to react to that. The descriptions seemed detailed but not necessarily gross out level to me. In fact, I think I read the chapters while eating...anyway...
Thirdly, I have finally acquired a Kindle-ready device (ASUS EEE Pad) which means my drought of reading material in English has officially ended. One of my acquisitions for Kindle has been a copy of the Catholic Ignatius RSV second edition because I didn't bring my copy with me from America (I brought my slim black NRSV).
I'm hoping Japan's Catholic peoples get a Catholic Japanese Bible up for Kindle. Until then I'm content with my 1955 translation and physical Japanese Bible. Which leaves me pondering, why are we Catholics always so behind when it comes to technology? I mean, the Pope first twittered this year I think.
Fourth and final for now, I am re-reading Tolkien related books. I am starting with the Silmarillion. Since I started seriously dabbling in writing stories and such after the last time I read any of Tolkien's books, it is weird. I used to read in the past like a adventurer with a rocket strapped to his back... fwing! done reading.
Now, I still have that rocket strapped to my back, but the adventurer now has a fine-tooth comb and a highlighter. Everything from "that description felt forced and I don't like that literary device" to "okay, if I were writing this story, how would I have come up with that?" passes through my mind well reading. I analyze and mentally tab patterns to emulate and mistakes to avoid. I enjoy this a lot but don't expect any books from me anytime soon.
My mistake in the past was to always read good, excellent books (Silmarillion, or more recently Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell). An experience reading particularly terrible fantasy that I picked up in Ireland taught me that I needed perspective. Now, I pick up all sorts of books (about three novels that were free for Kindle come to mind) and devour them. These books, both good and bad, are teaching me through their contrasts.
Example lesson: Monologues as noted in the Incredibles, are unhealthy for villains, but I would add are the dead space that will kill a good story.
That's all until next time I check in again.
Firstly, I am yet again being horribly unfaithful to writing anything in my blog.
I make no promises. This blog mainly for religiously-themed dissertations has been quiet because quite frankly the number of religious themed discussions I have lately has dropped to near naught.
Secondly, among other new activities in my life, I have joined a Bible study at the local Cathedral. I think I have been with them now for months (at least three if not way more than that). We are studying the entire Bible through a progression of 100 weeks. Although, I should say that "Studying" is a very loose term because we are actually reading it and then pointing out what stood out to us. It's more like we are reading the Bible on our own multiple times and then digesting it as a group. I love it.
We, unfortunately, have just entered Leviticus (レビ記) and my mind is spinning. Why? Did I mention that this Bible study is in Japanese? Yeah, I read whatever section were are going over twice in English and then as many times as I can in Japanese before we meet. I am the only non-native speaker of Japanese at our meetings and I'm the youngest member as well. You can see why my head would be spinning. I can attest to learning a lot though.
Leviticus though is not being fun for me. I want to blame it on being in Japanese, but Leviticus just really wasn't that interesting the first time I read it years ago either. On the other hand, some of my group is having trouble with the descriptions of the animal sacrifices. One of the older women didn't even get through the first five chapters of the book. To be honest, I don't know how to react to that. The descriptions seemed detailed but not necessarily gross out level to me. In fact, I think I read the chapters while eating...anyway...
Thirdly, I have finally acquired a Kindle-ready device (ASUS EEE Pad) which means my drought of reading material in English has officially ended. One of my acquisitions for Kindle has been a copy of the Catholic Ignatius RSV second edition because I didn't bring my copy with me from America (I brought my slim black NRSV).
I'm hoping Japan's Catholic peoples get a Catholic Japanese Bible up for Kindle. Until then I'm content with my 1955 translation and physical Japanese Bible. Which leaves me pondering, why are we Catholics always so behind when it comes to technology? I mean, the Pope first twittered this year I think.
Fourth and final for now, I am re-reading Tolkien related books. I am starting with the Silmarillion. Since I started seriously dabbling in writing stories and such after the last time I read any of Tolkien's books, it is weird. I used to read in the past like a adventurer with a rocket strapped to his back... fwing! done reading.
Now, I still have that rocket strapped to my back, but the adventurer now has a fine-tooth comb and a highlighter. Everything from "that description felt forced and I don't like that literary device" to "okay, if I were writing this story, how would I have come up with that?" passes through my mind well reading. I analyze and mentally tab patterns to emulate and mistakes to avoid. I enjoy this a lot but don't expect any books from me anytime soon.
My mistake in the past was to always read good, excellent books (Silmarillion, or more recently Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell). An experience reading particularly terrible fantasy that I picked up in Ireland taught me that I needed perspective. Now, I pick up all sorts of books (about three novels that were free for Kindle come to mind) and devour them. These books, both good and bad, are teaching me through their contrasts.
Example lesson: Monologues as noted in the Incredibles, are unhealthy for villains, but I would add are the dead space that will kill a good story.
That's all until next time I check in again.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
(Fr.) Corapi .... blacksheepdog...
I have little to say...
The best iteration on what has happened:
http://gerardnadal.com/2011/06/17/goodbye-father-corapi
A link to Fr.(?) Corapi's video on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TfhGjfHWBM&feature=player_embedded
My brief thoughts:
Philippians 2:8 "He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross." I think, he's trying his best to follow this without dragging the Church down with him. He's just not doing that good with the humbling himself part. I pray no one follows him away from the Church as a result of his decision.
Though, I am going to miss him and keep him in my prayers. His message always stood out for me because he did the one thing that so many people (especially Catholics (me especially!)) find hard to do. Despite having a screwed up past, he's trying to be a positive example, and that in itself is a representation of the forgiveness with which Christ entrusted His Church.
Additionally, the responses to potential scandals tend to be something I disagree with because they feel more about image than about truth... but that is me possibly just reaching for a forbidden fruit of knowledge because I do not know what is going on in the background. Unlike Adam and Eve's basic failure, I must learn to place faith and trust in those placed in authority over me.
That's all.
The best iteration on what has happened:
http://gerardnadal.com/2011/06/17/goodbye-father-corapi
A link to Fr.(?) Corapi's video on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TfhGjfHWBM&feature=player_embedded
My brief thoughts:
Philippians 2:8 "He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross." I think, he's trying his best to follow this without dragging the Church down with him. He's just not doing that good with the humbling himself part. I pray no one follows him away from the Church as a result of his decision.
Though, I am going to miss him and keep him in my prayers. His message always stood out for me because he did the one thing that so many people (especially Catholics (me especially!)) find hard to do. Despite having a screwed up past, he's trying to be a positive example, and that in itself is a representation of the forgiveness with which Christ entrusted His Church.
Additionally, the responses to potential scandals tend to be something I disagree with because they feel more about image than about truth... but that is me possibly just reaching for a forbidden fruit of knowledge because I do not know what is going on in the background. Unlike Adam and Eve's basic failure, I must learn to place faith and trust in those placed in authority over me.
That's all.
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Tiny Bits of Brain
I think my brain exploded: An attempt at picking up the pieces.
So.. . Umm, usual Sunday. NOT.
Well, I guess... ... never mind.
Scratch that.
Starting at the beginning: Saturday.
Yesterday, I had a lot of fun. I went and hung out with a friend in the evening, and then I went home. You know, the usual thing you do after having fun, I suppose. Well, I went home, and in between doing laundry and tidying my room, I tried to make progress through "precipice of darkness" a penny arcade game (for those of you not aware of its humor... it IS off-color a lot of the time, sadly). I got sucked into the game and suddenly it was 1 am.
"Great," I thought. "I'm already tired, it's late and I have church in the morning."
So, of course, to start things off on the wrong foot, I woke up at 9:10. Mass being at 9:30 and a brisk 10-15 minute bicycle ride away. Flying down the road, I was still about five-ten minutes late. Why? Well, I had to get dressed right? So, besides that, Mass was uneventful and cold as usual (really Japan? We have 10 small heaters to warm up a small Cathedral?)
The next events are not so interesting so they will be casually retold in numbered bullet-point format:
1. Went to Matsuya and ate food.
(Pork and rice and cabbage and miso soup.)
2. Went to Round 1.
(Blew things up at Border Break)
(Am now level B1 )
3. Wandered around
4. Went to grocery store and bought food.
(I mean.. what else would I buy?)
5. Went home.
6. Realized I had 30 minutes to meet my fellow teacher.
7. Arrived five minutes late. (Pattern? Quite possibly yes. )
8. Joined meeting for one hour.
At this point the numbering must digress so that I can properly express what happened at the meeting.
First, the result of the meeting is that I have a volunteer translation task. That task though is helping alongside other volunteers to translate some 28 or so written experiences of people who were in Hiroshima when the bomb blew up. Not a problem there because I rather think this will be a good experience for me and my Japanese. However, I got handed a book to look at to help with terminology. It was to distract me while they determined some of the more complicated aspects of the meeting. It worked.
The book was titled something like "Why was the A-bomb dropped." Great... nothing like a touchy subject told from a Japanese perspective. It was surprisingly fair concerning matters of Russia getting involved, casualty calculations, and general political reasoning. However, I started to notice a certain line of thought that irritated me: America was constantly being noted as "covering up" the facts about the bombing. (ever been to the museum in Hiroshima? Most of the detailed photos were taken by the US military.)
Then it hit me. There was absolutely no mention in the book about two things: The messy experience America had in Okinawa (where Japanese civilians and soldiers killed themselves rather than be taken prisoner). Secondly, anything about the Japanese unwillingness to surrender being related to their belief that the Emperor was god was left out.
For those of you that are going to ask: Yes, I read the entire thing, but sadly, no, I didn't read the Japanese half. I didn't have that much time.
My mood was now severely downtrodden because I felt the truth was actually being covered up by the Japanese government. While I was in my funk, the teachers determined that it was best that I see the museum in Heiwa Koen (Peace Park). Why? I might learn something that would be helpful in translation, and apparently it was "nearby." With the one teacher from my school, we walked a good thirty minutes. Then we went to Peace Park's museum which, by the way, details all sorts of gruesome things about the Hiroshima bombings.
My mental position on the bombings just so you know is basically this: War sucks... sucky things happen in war. When in the museum though, my mind was more so like this: Do Japanese blame America? What is the reasoning behind this exhibit in their minds? Man, what does peace really mean anyway? Essentially, I degenerated to a questioning mass of nonsense.
(Still sorting myself out on that currently.)
Then, we left the museum.
I thought, "Yay, breath of fresh air, I can think now." Nope.
I got shown around the park and constantly reminded that this used to be a city.
PAUSE. You are thinking right now, something like "suck it up," I mean, we've all talked about the bombings before and those of us in Hiroshima have seen the sights, right? YES. Exactly. I agree.
This whole Peace Park thing was nothing more than a temporary jarring of my mind as I tried to shift around and see the whole thing from a Japanese perspective. I thought of ways to explain the logic and reasoning for why such a thing happens during war. I thought of explaining that a worldly peace is nothing more than an ideal. An ideal that if ever realized will only be taken advantage of by some sad party. I also started backtracking on my thoughts, because there is no way to explain to people connected with a tragedy anything about the tragedy. It becomes further impossible as numbers of innocent are increased: children especially.
Random: Am I the only one creeped out by the fact that Sadako holding her paper crane looks like a Cross? Besides her actual paper cranes are like the tiniest ones I've ever seen too. There full wingspan isn't even an inch!
RESTART. Wait, didn't I just do this by explaining more.
No. Sadly, I didn't.
My day is actually only beginning from here.
This next part also only deserves bullet points because it equates to the silver lining for the day.
1. Went to MotoYasu (an Italian Restaurant)
2. Discovered they had Guinness on Tap
3. Convinced the other teacher to try it.
4. Had a Guinness
(note: wearing Jameson whiskey cap at the time)
5. ... rephrase: Had the Guinness on an empty stomach.
(Bad idea)
6. Chatted about life, youth, and the future.
(blame it on the beer? nope....)
7. When leaving, I found out that there is a genuine Irishman who works at the place. He just wasn't in at the time
8. Parted ways for the day after being shown the Hypocenter for the A-bombs blast....lovely.
For those of you who have read this far, I commend you and I must tell you the real story is now.
I went and joined up with some new friends that I had never connected with before. Actually, to make this complicated there are three factors. I had only met two people in this group before, and briefly at that as they are actually the friends of another friend. Secondly, I was feeling quite relaxed from the beer (sadly). Thirdly, I had this odd feeling like I was walking into a trap because I thought I was meeting one maybe two people but now it was five unknown people.
After some typical wishy-washy Japanese decision making,
("Where do you want to go"
"I don't know, where do you want to go"
"I don't kno- HEY don't start that again.")
We went to Tullys on Hondoori. (That's like saying I went to some Starbucks knock off.) With our drinks in hand, we found our seats and started to "get to know each other better."
It started off nice. You know, the cliche barrage of "what do you do?" "oh my gosh your Japanese is great!" "How long have you been in Japan? etc etc. Then we hit hobbies. Easy enough right? Well, it was easy for me and the other guy there to talk about our gaming interests. Movie interests went over their heads. Then, music, well, let's just say I'm not a fan of most top 40 Japanese pop music, so it was a complete surechigai (miss). It did start to make me wonder just what this one "she" did for fun; So I asked.
Oh.. mistake. Wonderous, glorious what-the-heck Mistake.
I cannot translate very well what the answer was, but it basically came down to "my hobby is effecting peace into the parts of the earth that are in need of it." Yeah, I think I made her rephrase, re-say, and repeat that so many times too.
Initially, I thought she meant that she likes to sit around, like many people do, and simply discuss the problems in the world and look at the ways to help said people. Nope, that was a nice thought, but not what she was getting at.
So, foolish me and my curiosity had to ask more questions. Ask a simple question in Japan and get a long-winded explanation about everything but the actual "How."
I got asked "do you believe, well actually it really doesn't matter whether you believe or not, but .. a thing that, well "thing" isn't right either... a power for peace?" Seriously, derp? What was that supposed to mean? She back-pedaled on nearly every word of substance when she opened her mouth.
"Umm, yeah I believe in a power for peace, but could you tell me what the subject of your sentence is? Of perhaps what kind of power you are talking about?"
Progressing from the vague to the slightly less vague, after about ten minutes, I got out that they focus on peace as members of their group. AHA! So these five are a group. Yup, it's a trap... where was admiral Akbar when I needed him?
"Great... this is starting to sound like a religion" so I said that. They denied it, but informed me a little bit later that one of their original members is now passing the word on to people in a office in Brooklyn. "Therefore" they said, "our group has members in America that are just like you." Just like me? American? Or what? Foreign?
Ugh.. I didn't like the sound of that. Then, it happened...
They invited me to join... why? Because, well, anybody can wish for peace, so regardless of what I believe I can join their group. Or so they took the time to inform me.
I had to resist laughing (why this makes me laugh is because it showed to me the complete lack of thought on their part because of the "regardless of what you believe" part). I explained how that might work from their perspective but that people with religion are going to see that as a conflict. Using Islam as a example because one of their close members is apparently in Afghanistan, I explained that peace is not something you bring about, but something achieved through Allah. I could be wrong about that since I'm not a Muslim, but I thought the example would help.
Nope, it didn't communicate. So, I tried to get them to explain what "peace" meant to them. I mean, I had to start somewhere. They didn't do a good job explaining, but I think they were trying to say that peace basically consisted of "no war" and everybody sharing everything equally. Err.. isn't that a socialistic Utopia?
Using that as a sounding board, I tried to explain that the Christian and Islamic concepts for peace were radically different. I explained that this was mainly because the goal was not a simple external no-war peace but rather a next-life/internal peace. Their response? They were giving me strange looks like I had just defined a grape as as watermelon.
In fact, the lack of understanding towards other perspectives was leading me to wonder what sort of brain-washing these people had experienced. I say that now only half-joking. I chalked it up to cultural background at the time, but now I wonder otherwise.
So, I tried to explain that religions in Japan were passive towards people with their kind of thinking. Specifically, I menat Shinto and Buddhism. Either of those two would see no problem with you "effecting peace in the world" (however it was that they were doing that) but that most western religions would see that personal attitude of self-causation as in direct opposition to their religious fundamentals. This again, didn't communicate...
(I'm thinking right now: Who the heck is going to read this far...?)
This is when it got weird.. and I started getting some real information. They, personally, aren't the ones effecting peace. That was just a nuance in the wording. They act as gathering points for an unexplained(origin-wise) energy (presumably positive) using pendants that they have around their necks.
Ah, new agey wiccan type stuff, I thought. WRONG. I asked why they thought these pendants had power. (I was still foolishly thinking that they and this small office in Brooklyn were the extent of their group.)
They informed me that these pendants were inscribed with characters of "power" by a person who had power. That person is also apparently deceased at this time. They even claimed that this person and these pendants have caused miracles (they couldn't give me any real examples though).
O_O . . . I hope my eyes weren't bugging out too much at this point in the conversation, but I had to ask "who wrote on the pendants?"
Okada Mahikari.
I had it pegged it as a religion from the very beginning and, oh boy, was I right. I informed them that since my thoughts are otherwise on these matters and that I'm Catholic (as soon I as figure out what that means exactly). I apologized for the directness in my approach, but I let them know that I felt I needed to be fair.
The conversation continued on the same topic for maybe another 10-15 minutes because they were convinced that I was just plain not getting some of the Japanese they were saying. I can tell you know that I was understand every word. If anything, the toomawashi (beating around the bush) and what wasn't being said was perhaps not being communicated. The topic thankfully went elsewhere from there. However, as you can see, I'm still picking up the pieces.
What is Mahikari? Simply, it's a cult. Furthermore, it is the great DAFT cult that is stupid enough to profess a belief that Jesus is buried in Japan.
I like this link:
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~skyaxe/mahikari.htm
So.. . Umm, usual Sunday. NOT.
Well, I guess... ... never mind.
Scratch that.
Starting at the beginning: Saturday.
Yesterday, I had a lot of fun. I went and hung out with a friend in the evening, and then I went home. You know, the usual thing you do after having fun, I suppose. Well, I went home, and in between doing laundry and tidying my room, I tried to make progress through "precipice of darkness" a penny arcade game (for those of you not aware of its humor... it IS off-color a lot of the time, sadly). I got sucked into the game and suddenly it was 1 am.
"Great," I thought. "I'm already tired, it's late and I have church in the morning."
So, of course, to start things off on the wrong foot, I woke up at 9:10. Mass being at 9:30 and a brisk 10-15 minute bicycle ride away. Flying down the road, I was still about five-ten minutes late. Why? Well, I had to get dressed right? So, besides that, Mass was uneventful and cold as usual (really Japan? We have 10 small heaters to warm up a small Cathedral?)
The next events are not so interesting so they will be casually retold in numbered bullet-point format:
1. Went to Matsuya and ate food.
(Pork and rice and cabbage and miso soup.)
2. Went to Round 1.
(Blew things up at Border Break)
(Am now level B1 )
3. Wandered around
4. Went to grocery store and bought food.
(I mean.. what else would I buy?)
5. Went home.
6. Realized I had 30 minutes to meet my fellow teacher.
7. Arrived five minutes late. (Pattern? Quite possibly yes. )
8. Joined meeting for one hour.
At this point the numbering must digress so that I can properly express what happened at the meeting.
First, the result of the meeting is that I have a volunteer translation task. That task though is helping alongside other volunteers to translate some 28 or so written experiences of people who were in Hiroshima when the bomb blew up. Not a problem there because I rather think this will be a good experience for me and my Japanese. However, I got handed a book to look at to help with terminology. It was to distract me while they determined some of the more complicated aspects of the meeting. It worked.
The book was titled something like "Why was the A-bomb dropped." Great... nothing like a touchy subject told from a Japanese perspective. It was surprisingly fair concerning matters of Russia getting involved, casualty calculations, and general political reasoning. However, I started to notice a certain line of thought that irritated me: America was constantly being noted as "covering up" the facts about the bombing. (ever been to the museum in Hiroshima? Most of the detailed photos were taken by the US military.)
Then it hit me. There was absolutely no mention in the book about two things: The messy experience America had in Okinawa (where Japanese civilians and soldiers killed themselves rather than be taken prisoner). Secondly, anything about the Japanese unwillingness to surrender being related to their belief that the Emperor was god was left out.
For those of you that are going to ask: Yes, I read the entire thing, but sadly, no, I didn't read the Japanese half. I didn't have that much time.
My mood was now severely downtrodden because I felt the truth was actually being covered up by the Japanese government. While I was in my funk, the teachers determined that it was best that I see the museum in Heiwa Koen (Peace Park). Why? I might learn something that would be helpful in translation, and apparently it was "nearby." With the one teacher from my school, we walked a good thirty minutes. Then we went to Peace Park's museum which, by the way, details all sorts of gruesome things about the Hiroshima bombings.
My mental position on the bombings just so you know is basically this: War sucks... sucky things happen in war. When in the museum though, my mind was more so like this: Do Japanese blame America? What is the reasoning behind this exhibit in their minds? Man, what does peace really mean anyway? Essentially, I degenerated to a questioning mass of nonsense.
(Still sorting myself out on that currently.)
Then, we left the museum.
I thought, "Yay, breath of fresh air, I can think now." Nope.
I got shown around the park and constantly reminded that this used to be a city.
PAUSE. You are thinking right now, something like "suck it up," I mean, we've all talked about the bombings before and those of us in Hiroshima have seen the sights, right? YES. Exactly. I agree.
This whole Peace Park thing was nothing more than a temporary jarring of my mind as I tried to shift around and see the whole thing from a Japanese perspective. I thought of ways to explain the logic and reasoning for why such a thing happens during war. I thought of explaining that a worldly peace is nothing more than an ideal. An ideal that if ever realized will only be taken advantage of by some sad party. I also started backtracking on my thoughts, because there is no way to explain to people connected with a tragedy anything about the tragedy. It becomes further impossible as numbers of innocent are increased: children especially.
Random: Am I the only one creeped out by the fact that Sadako holding her paper crane looks like a Cross? Besides her actual paper cranes are like the tiniest ones I've ever seen too. There full wingspan isn't even an inch!
RESTART. Wait, didn't I just do this by explaining more.
No. Sadly, I didn't.
My day is actually only beginning from here.
This next part also only deserves bullet points because it equates to the silver lining for the day.
1. Went to MotoYasu (an Italian Restaurant)
2. Discovered they had Guinness on Tap
3. Convinced the other teacher to try it.
4. Had a Guinness
(note: wearing Jameson whiskey cap at the time)
5. ... rephrase: Had the Guinness on an empty stomach.
(Bad idea)
6. Chatted about life, youth, and the future.
(blame it on the beer? nope....)
7. When leaving, I found out that there is a genuine Irishman who works at the place. He just wasn't in at the time
8. Parted ways for the day after being shown the Hypocenter for the A-bombs blast....lovely.
For those of you who have read this far, I commend you and I must tell you the real story is now.
I went and joined up with some new friends that I had never connected with before. Actually, to make this complicated there are three factors. I had only met two people in this group before, and briefly at that as they are actually the friends of another friend. Secondly, I was feeling quite relaxed from the beer (sadly). Thirdly, I had this odd feeling like I was walking into a trap because I thought I was meeting one maybe two people but now it was five unknown people.
After some typical wishy-washy Japanese decision making,
("Where do you want to go"
"I don't know, where do you want to go"
"I don't kno- HEY don't start that again.")
We went to Tullys on Hondoori. (That's like saying I went to some Starbucks knock off.) With our drinks in hand, we found our seats and started to "get to know each other better."
It started off nice. You know, the cliche barrage of "what do you do?" "oh my gosh your Japanese is great!" "How long have you been in Japan? etc etc. Then we hit hobbies. Easy enough right? Well, it was easy for me and the other guy there to talk about our gaming interests. Movie interests went over their heads. Then, music, well, let's just say I'm not a fan of most top 40 Japanese pop music, so it was a complete surechigai (miss). It did start to make me wonder just what this one "she" did for fun; So I asked.
Oh.. mistake. Wonderous, glorious what-the-heck Mistake.
I cannot translate very well what the answer was, but it basically came down to "my hobby is effecting peace into the parts of the earth that are in need of it." Yeah, I think I made her rephrase, re-say, and repeat that so many times too.
Initially, I thought she meant that she likes to sit around, like many people do, and simply discuss the problems in the world and look at the ways to help said people. Nope, that was a nice thought, but not what she was getting at.
So, foolish me and my curiosity had to ask more questions. Ask a simple question in Japan and get a long-winded explanation about everything but the actual "How."
I got asked "do you believe, well actually it really doesn't matter whether you believe or not, but .. a thing that, well "thing" isn't right either... a power for peace?" Seriously, derp? What was that supposed to mean? She back-pedaled on nearly every word of substance when she opened her mouth.
"Umm, yeah I believe in a power for peace, but could you tell me what the subject of your sentence is? Of perhaps what kind of power you are talking about?"
Progressing from the vague to the slightly less vague, after about ten minutes, I got out that they focus on peace as members of their group. AHA! So these five are a group. Yup, it's a trap... where was admiral Akbar when I needed him?
"Great... this is starting to sound like a religion" so I said that. They denied it, but informed me a little bit later that one of their original members is now passing the word on to people in a office in Brooklyn. "Therefore" they said, "our group has members in America that are just like you." Just like me? American? Or what? Foreign?
Ugh.. I didn't like the sound of that. Then, it happened...
They invited me to join... why? Because, well, anybody can wish for peace, so regardless of what I believe I can join their group. Or so they took the time to inform me.
I had to resist laughing (why this makes me laugh is because it showed to me the complete lack of thought on their part because of the "regardless of what you believe" part). I explained how that might work from their perspective but that people with religion are going to see that as a conflict. Using Islam as a example because one of their close members is apparently in Afghanistan, I explained that peace is not something you bring about, but something achieved through Allah. I could be wrong about that since I'm not a Muslim, but I thought the example would help.
Nope, it didn't communicate. So, I tried to get them to explain what "peace" meant to them. I mean, I had to start somewhere. They didn't do a good job explaining, but I think they were trying to say that peace basically consisted of "no war" and everybody sharing everything equally. Err.. isn't that a socialistic Utopia?
Using that as a sounding board, I tried to explain that the Christian and Islamic concepts for peace were radically different. I explained that this was mainly because the goal was not a simple external no-war peace but rather a next-life/internal peace. Their response? They were giving me strange looks like I had just defined a grape as as watermelon.
In fact, the lack of understanding towards other perspectives was leading me to wonder what sort of brain-washing these people had experienced. I say that now only half-joking. I chalked it up to cultural background at the time, but now I wonder otherwise.
So, I tried to explain that religions in Japan were passive towards people with their kind of thinking. Specifically, I menat Shinto and Buddhism. Either of those two would see no problem with you "effecting peace in the world" (however it was that they were doing that) but that most western religions would see that personal attitude of self-causation as in direct opposition to their religious fundamentals. This again, didn't communicate...
(I'm thinking right now: Who the heck is going to read this far...?)
This is when it got weird.. and I started getting some real information. They, personally, aren't the ones effecting peace. That was just a nuance in the wording. They act as gathering points for an unexplained(origin-wise) energy (presumably positive) using pendants that they have around their necks.
Ah, new agey wiccan type stuff, I thought. WRONG. I asked why they thought these pendants had power. (I was still foolishly thinking that they and this small office in Brooklyn were the extent of their group.)
They informed me that these pendants were inscribed with characters of "power" by a person who had power. That person is also apparently deceased at this time. They even claimed that this person and these pendants have caused miracles (they couldn't give me any real examples though).
O_O . . . I hope my eyes weren't bugging out too much at this point in the conversation, but I had to ask "who wrote on the pendants?"
Okada Mahikari.
I had it pegged it as a religion from the very beginning and, oh boy, was I right. I informed them that since my thoughts are otherwise on these matters and that I'm Catholic (as soon I as figure out what that means exactly). I apologized for the directness in my approach, but I let them know that I felt I needed to be fair.
The conversation continued on the same topic for maybe another 10-15 minutes because they were convinced that I was just plain not getting some of the Japanese they were saying. I can tell you know that I was understand every word. If anything, the toomawashi (beating around the bush) and what wasn't being said was perhaps not being communicated. The topic thankfully went elsewhere from there. However, as you can see, I'm still picking up the pieces.
What is Mahikari? Simply, it's a cult. Furthermore, it is the great DAFT cult that is stupid enough to profess a belief that Jesus is buried in Japan.
I like this link:
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~skyaxe/mahikari.htm
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
Am I a Tolkienite
I believe that as far as writing goes, I am no longer a pure Tolkienite. I have no desire to craft a medieval fairytale as epic as gold and insurmountable as time. Instead, I am in the story for the journey and the experience anymore. I want to express both the rollercoaster ride of the emotional windfall of the characters but to also emphasize the loftiness of the eternal through structures and places beyond the normal visual constructs.
Essentially, the one sliver of moondust coming from my reflection of Tolkien is limited to two beams of light. The first falls every gracefully and covers the entire realm of the story in itself. The story is the reason I write and the very focus of the words. I loathe or at least limitedly abhor the craft of books for the sake of changing minds, manipulating political opinions and purposed allegory. Those may be elements of a story, but they shall never be the target for my verbose arrows. Nor I suppose are they wholly deplorable, but they strike at the back of my righteousness in a visciously subtle way.
The second beam comes pointedly as a intermittent laser light. A radiance found in word play and masterful usage regardless of verbose difficulty as surmised by the general public must pepper my writing. If that were to vanish into the methaphorical white pit that is paper, my writing would cease to be my writing. I desire to achieve the intentional verbosity of Chestertonion writing. Although, I have no wish to pursue his propagandist approach to writing. He is truly a rare example of skill and purpose that I can admire. AMDG was Chesterton's life, and in that aspect of his we can see the nobility of Thomas More's “I am the king's good servant, but the Lord's first.”
I will separate myself from other writers by learning about them. Furthermore, I will sharpen my wit amidst hard tasks and learn to not simply flex but extend beyond my usual reach.
Essentially, the one sliver of moondust coming from my reflection of Tolkien is limited to two beams of light. The first falls every gracefully and covers the entire realm of the story in itself. The story is the reason I write and the very focus of the words. I loathe or at least limitedly abhor the craft of books for the sake of changing minds, manipulating political opinions and purposed allegory. Those may be elements of a story, but they shall never be the target for my verbose arrows. Nor I suppose are they wholly deplorable, but they strike at the back of my righteousness in a visciously subtle way.
The second beam comes pointedly as a intermittent laser light. A radiance found in word play and masterful usage regardless of verbose difficulty as surmised by the general public must pepper my writing. If that were to vanish into the methaphorical white pit that is paper, my writing would cease to be my writing. I desire to achieve the intentional verbosity of Chestertonion writing. Although, I have no wish to pursue his propagandist approach to writing. He is truly a rare example of skill and purpose that I can admire. AMDG was Chesterton's life, and in that aspect of his we can see the nobility of Thomas More's “I am the king's good servant, but the Lord's first.”
I will separate myself from other writers by learning about them. Furthermore, I will sharpen my wit amidst hard tasks and learn to not simply flex but extend beyond my usual reach.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Hiatus
Yup, I've been away from this and busy. I've been to Ireland, graduated from college, been accepted to work in Japan and cleaned my room. Yes, I know that is indeed a miracle.
While doing so, I've realized how short and limited are the memories of a single human mind. Somehow though, all the holes and fragments in my mind though are completed in the extension known as my room. Especially, now that I know the contents of my room.
While I sought to dig my room out of its disastrous state, I've incidentally done a lot of soul-searching. I found things I never knew I had written. I found letters written that were never sent. I found drawings I didn't know I could have even drawn. I even found a pack of cigarettes that I bought in Germany to remind me how horrible it was to be trapped in a small room with smokers.
The cleaning of my room, to a very limited extent, was a spiritual experience. I now feel like I know myself better, but at the same time have no clue what to do with this information. Instead of feeling like I had a limited list of abilities, I now feel spread too thin and unable to decide on a future occupation. For now though, I am supposing that I could be a writer in some limited capacity and that shred of focus gives me hope.
While doing so, I've realized how short and limited are the memories of a single human mind. Somehow though, all the holes and fragments in my mind though are completed in the extension known as my room. Especially, now that I know the contents of my room.
While I sought to dig my room out of its disastrous state, I've incidentally done a lot of soul-searching. I found things I never knew I had written. I found letters written that were never sent. I found drawings I didn't know I could have even drawn. I even found a pack of cigarettes that I bought in Germany to remind me how horrible it was to be trapped in a small room with smokers.
The cleaning of my room, to a very limited extent, was a spiritual experience. I now feel like I know myself better, but at the same time have no clue what to do with this information. Instead of feeling like I had a limited list of abilities, I now feel spread too thin and unable to decide on a future occupation. For now though, I am supposing that I could be a writer in some limited capacity and that shred of focus gives me hope.
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