Our Eternal Judge - Judges 1:1-3:6

Last week we concluded our time in Philippians, looking at the idea of joy in different contexts.  For the next several weeks I want to go back in time to the book of Judges.  Judges was a book that I wanted to teach to the middle school group but never had time for and it also gives me the challenge of expositing an Old Testament book.  Keep in mind while Philippians was a letter, Judges is a historical narrative.

In the first 18 verses of Judges, we read about the people of Israel, a fairly new nation, conquesting their Promised Land.  As the Israelites moved throughout the land of Canaan, the Lord was with them and they easily defeated their enemies driving out all of the inhabitants.  This in its self brings up the topic of a "holy war" but we aren't going to look into that.  Let me just say that the Israelite conquest of Canaan was ordained by God but I would not say the same about the Crusades or any other war in mankind's history.  This shows the trouble we can get into when we as man put words into God's mouth that justify what we ourselves want to do, even if scripture explicitly says different.  That said, for these first 18 verses, the Israelites follow their command, they drive out the peoples of Canaan but as we hit verse 19, something changes.  The Lord was with the men of Judah.  They took possession of the hill country, but they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they had iron chariots (emphasis added).  The rest of chapter 1 tells of the peoples Israel failed to rid the land of.  In Joshua 9 we read about the Gibeonites who deceive the Israelites, but we can add to this list many more people groups.

As chapter 2 begins, we fully see why leaving these peoples was problematic.  I think Exodus 32-33 says it very clearly: "Do not make a covenant with them (the peoples of Canaan) or with their Gods.  Do not let them live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you." God wanted the Israelites to have the land to themselves.  It was their land!  But they left other peoples in the land and we see this cause the Israelites to fall over and over again.  Their history is plagued by bad decisions and evil kings.  I don't think we are too far off of this path.  God wants us to have an amazing life in him yet over and over we sin against him.  When I say sin I don't just mean doing a bad thing.  Stealing or lying or calling someone a name.  No, sin stretches much further, sin is separation from God and we do this everyday when we worry about life, focus on this life rather than God.  Spend our time poorly and of course, when we do do those "bad things".  We leave this sins in our lives just like the Israelites left peoples in their land; and just like the Israelites, sin causes us to grow further apart from God.

This leaves us at a point of desperation.  We are separated from God and seemingly have 1. no way of getting back to him and 2. even if we were able to get back to him, we need to defeat the sin in our lives.  Well lets look at what God did for the Israelites.  In chapter 2 verse 16 we read that God began raising judges up for the Israelites.  These aren't judges like the supreme court or Judge Judy however, these judges were simply heroes who fought for Israel and led them to victory when enemy nations attacked them.  There was only one problem though.  The Judges were finite.  They got old, they died.  Israel and even us nowadays need someone who can help us defeat sin at all times, not just during a single lifetime.  That is where Jesus Christ comes into the picture.

Jesus is our eternal judge.  He fought for us on the cross and died for our sins in our place.  He bore God's wrath, he took the punishment we deserved for all of our sin.  But friends, he didn't simply die for it, he rose again from the dead three days after!  This means that he not only paid the price for our sins with his death, but in his life we can find forgiveness over and over again.  His grace is like an endless spring that never stops flowing.  With this great and glorious news then, we can answer those initial questions.
1.  Through faith in Jesus Christ alone we can have our relationship with God made right.  No actions or works gains us salvation.  We can't pray enough, read the bible enough or preach the gospel to enough people to gain salvation.  These are things we should do, but they don't gain us salvation.  A pray we prayed when we were young also doesn't mean we have salvation.  Because we believe there is a God or even that Jesus died for us doesn't give us salvation.  Rather, when we put our faith fully in the work of Christ on the cross and thus literally change our life by making Christ the Lord of our life, we gain salvation.
2.  We are forgiven, sin no longer has a hold on us.  Unfortunately as we are human we will continue to sin but know that 1.  We are forgiven and don't have to feel the guilt and weight of sin and 2.  Through Christ and his power we truly can defeat the sin that rots our lives.

Friends, I hope that you choose to put your faith in Christ and receive the salvation that comes from that faith.  If you have already done this then know that sin has no grip on you.  Through Christ you can overcome sin because he has already overcome death and died for our sins!

Nikko

Today my Oregon group travelled to Nikko, a spot of beautiful scenery and many shrines and temples.  As I have done a lot of travel already around Japan, it wasn't too much new stuff for me.  While everything was still very beautiful and the craftsmanship was wonderful, it is essentially the same thing I have seen multiple time, even on this trip alone.  Unfortunately the lack of novelty sort of takes away from the experience but I nonetheless had a wonderful time and climbed up 207 stairs to see the tomb of the Shogun who united Japan.  I am in a history class about Japan but I can't remember his name, I should probably go study.

 hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil monkeys

Well, sorry I haven't posted much recently.  To be honest not much new is going on.  I'll be continuing to post on Sundays and try to post once a week to let you all know whats going on.

Yokohama

Yesterday some of the people from my Oregon group as well as several Japanese students took a trip to Yokohama which is about an hour away from Tokyo.  We started our tour of Yokohama in its Chinatown where we ate lunch and looked at a shrine.  After that we went to the port and walked around on a pretty sweet viewpoint/dock feature.  Next we went over to a mall which was quite spendy, especially for a building who's outside looked like a prison.  There were $100 earmuffs to give you an example.  After this we went to a newer but still expensive mall where we looked at the Pokemon Store, essentially a Disney Store but with Pokemon stuff.  They had several other themed stores that some people went in but I am not an anime person so I went and sat with some people on a bench.  After this we rode a curved escalator down to the lobby and walked to the Landmark Tower which currently holds the tallest viewpoint in Japan (soon to be beat by the Tokyo Sky Tree).  It also has Japan's fastest elevator and we travelled at 750 km/hour, up 69 stories in 40 seconds.  At the top we were greeted by a beautiful view of the city and Tokyo even.  Buildings and lights went to the horizon.  My pictures don't do the view justice so I apologize, but honestly it is one of those things you kind of have to see yourself to fully experience.  It was a very tiring day but nonetheless I had a lot of fun and it was my first time to Yokohama so that was sweet!

 Chinatown

 The bay!

 seriously a very odd but cool structure

 Sunset.  Wish I was at the top of the tower right now...

... but this was still sweet.

Weekly Meditations: Joy in Giving (Philippians 4:2-23)

Well, it is our last week in Philippians, I just got home from a trip to Yokohama (details tomorrow hopefully) and it is 11:12 p.m. and I need to study for a quiz, so I apologize in advance for any grammatical errors, random thoughts etc.

Today I want to talk about giving.  I think that when the offering plate comes around there are two types of people that put money in.  1st, there are those who put money in for the wrong reasons: it will make God happy and less mad at me, give me some reward, because I have to, because it makes me look good, etc.  Alternatively there are those who put money in for the right reasons and thus take joy in their giving.  That is what I want to focus on tonight.

I think giving is a hard topic to touch on and even as I type I believe it will be the hardest exposition I have written so far.  I also acknowledge that I may not have all the answers or even might not have the perfect view on giving, but I'm going to try hard to faithfully write.  I think Pastors have to have the hardest time preaching on giving.  Think about it, they go up in front of everyone and talk about how Jesus commanded us to give but still stay completely faithful to scripture and somehow not put in his personal agenda or any thought about how the church is doing financially.  Well, I am not a pastor but I still want to tell you that giving to your local church is important.  This statement carries some connotations:

1st:  You are a Christian.  You believe that, in short, Man has sin or separation from God, which deserves punishment but Jesus Christ took on flesh and died for mankind's sins thus creating a way to a right relationship with God.  Thusly, you have put your faith in Christ and live your life for him now.

2nd:  You belong to a local church.  The reason I think giving is important is that giving is what keeps churches running.  Therefore, if you are a member of a church, it should be important to you to keep that church running and spreading the gospel.  That is why we should give!  Giving to a church honestly makes no sense unless you are a part of that church.

With all that said, let us look at scripture.  In verse 9 Paul writes: Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me - put into practice.  Paul has given a pretty good example of giving his entire life for the sake of the gospel, therefore I think we can infer that giving is part of the Christian walk.  Monetarily is great but physically giving yourself for the sake of the gospel is also great.  It has been very truthfully said by John Piper that there are goers and senders (people going into missions and people sending them monetarily) and if you aren't one of these than you are sinning.  Jesus commanded us to share the gospel, he also commanded us to give and to love God, in other words obey God's commands which we just said were sharing the gospel and giving.
Paul continues on to exhort the church for giving to him.  I'm not going to get into this but, Paul tells them that they will be blessed for their giving.  I don't think giving will directly give you blessing but there are many stories of God meeting needs after someone gives.  I think it is all about trust in God.
Last year I began giving to my church, one because I began to see the importance of my role as a church member.  I'm not just going to sit, sing and listen, I'm going because it is my fellowship and body of believers which I am a part of.  Secondly I felt like if I wasn't trusting God with a little bit of my money each month, how can I trust him to help me pay for things like school and studying abroad.

To conclude, if you are a member of a local church and you aren't giving, think about why not, and truly consider giving to help the church that you are a member of.  If you aren't a member of a church but you are giving and maybe even regularly attending, I would ask you why you haven't formally said you would like to be a part of the body.  In Muslim nations, they don't need church membership because the church is very separated from the rest of the country.  However, in America there are lots of people who say they are Christians who truly aren't.  Membership is a way for a pastor and elders to look at someone's life and say yes, they are following Christ and should become a part of our body here.  If you aren't yet a Christian, I would ask you to consider Jesus.  Where do you think evil comes from? Christians believe man is inherently sinful and this is a big problem because it separates us from God.  Through Jesus Christ alone however, we can gain salvation.

A Quick Update

Sorry I haven't been posting but honestly the awestruckness of first arriving has pretty much worn off and now I am in the swing of life.  Thus there isn't much new info to write down each day.  I am still having a lot of fun but this week has been very busy.  Yesterday I was extremely lucky to be able to have dinner with the wonderful Josh Mize, my cousin!  It was very fun!  Otherwise I am doing a lot and sleeping little and looking forward to some weekend naps.

P.S.  Happy Birthday wishes to my Grandma, my father and my cousin Marek, who's birthdays are all this week.  Love you all, have a wonderful birthday!

Weekly Meditations: Joy in Heaven (Philippians 3:12-4:1)

As I read through these passages, I'm finding that Paul's messages tie into one another very well.  This passage is no different as "joy in heaven" is something I have already mentioned in other contexts within this letter.  Today I want to focus in on how we who profess Christ and believe in his death as substitution for our sins, can take joy in what awaits us in the next life, an eternal life in heaven.  I think we do this in two ways, looking to the future, not the past, and hoping in the spiritual, not the physical.

Paul in verses 12-14 speaks metaphorically of the Christian walk as a race.  He says he will press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (vs 14).  He continues in verse 15 to say all of us who are mature should take such a view of things.  Paul encourages us that if we truly are following Christ, we should be looking ahead, pushing forward to heaven.  Now this can be done in a couple of ways.  First off, if we are looking forward, it means we are not concerned with this life.  We will talk about this in the next section as we think about putting our hope in the spiritual, not the physical.  Another way we look forward however, is not looking back.  It is very simple I know but think about Lot's wife in Genesis 19 who looked back at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

If we are not looking at our past what does that mean?  Should we forget memories? Forget old friends, family members who have passed on?  No!  What I mean to say, and what I think Paul is getting at, is that we need to forget who we were as sinners.  I think we need to look at Christ and say "Jesus, you died on the cross for my sins, and I am forgiven for everything I have ever done to sin against you".  Then, get rid of guilt, quit dwelling on sin and rejoice that you are forgiven!  This doesn't mean we should forget that we ever sinned or try to act like we have never sinned but rather, we need to understand that we once sat in destruction but have been saved by the grace of God and are forgiven.  With this in mind we can rejoice in Christ and rejoice in heaven which awaits us as we press on toward that final goal.

Secondly, I also think we need to hope in the spiritual and not in the physical.  Paul sums it up in verse 20: But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ... We need to be hopeful for Christ's return!  I know I don't think about that enough but we as Christians should be eagerly awaiting Christ, our savior.  So as I have said in weeks past, where are we putting our hope, our time, our energy?  I've been waking up at 2:30 Monday morning to "watch" football.  I have never woken up that early to read the Bible.  We as Christians, as a church, as a group of believers committed to following Christ, need to build each other up and help each other to avert our eyes from the world and set them on Christ.  We need to stop putting our hope in things of this world!  Now, be clear, this doesn't mean we should stop living life, or go run into the wilderness and hide.  No, we are citizens of heaven but right now we are ambassadors to earth.  This means then that we should keep living here, but we need to be sure that our lives are different from the people of the world.  Our goal throughout the day should be to glorify Christ, not a paycheck.  I think a great illustration is this: When your hand is clenched tightly around a pencil, that pencil can't be removed from your hand, and it is your pencil.  However, when your hand is opened and the pencil is laying on top of your hand, the pencil is still yours, but it can be removed.  All of our possessions, relationships, everything in our lives is that pencil.  Is your hand clenched tightly around it, not letting go, or is your hand open to God, letting him decide what stays in and what leaves your hand?

Friends, let us feel the freedom of Christ.  Let us throw off the weight of sin and of guilt and look forward to eternity in heaven with Christ.  Likewise, let us be ambassadors to earth, sharing the good news of Christ with everyone, and let us open our hands to God, let us make him Lord of our lives, and let us focus not on this world, but on the glorious life we will one day have with Christ, for eternity in heaven.

Last night I went to the baseball game (pictures up on Facebook).  It was a lot of fun, although the team I like, the Chunichi Dragons, lost pretty bad.  Nonetheless it was a good experience.  Japanese fans are nuts and have numerous chants which are led essentially by cheerleaders throughout the fan sections.  The teams chant and sing non-stop while their team is at bat and then rest while their pitcher is on the mound.  How they retain their voices so long, I don't know.

Random Thoughts

I'm pretty much settled into a routine.  Mondays are my long days, Tuesdays are restful, Thursday nights I look forward to basketball and Modern Family, Fridays no school, Saturdays are my exploring days and Sundays I have church.

So far I've been really impressed with the Japanese classes done by CJL (not to be confused with SILS who's classes are in English, and so far have been sub-par.  The teachers are awesome people and are probably decent teachers in Japanese, but since the classes are in English, not so much. ) the teachers are some of the best Japanese-language teachers I've ever had, they are relaxed, helpful and the textbook, class style, lesson plan, everything, is great.  It is also great to be in Japan so I can practice what I learn in class outside of class, and study things on my own.

Things are going well here, I'm excited for the weekend and the baseball game!

Weekly Meditations: Joy in Christ (Philippians 3:1-11)

Fun fact: this passage was actually the first passage I taught to the middle school group at Hinson, about a year and a half ago.  Tonight (today for you) I am going to look at it through a different lens and break down two world views, of which every person falls into.  Therefore they are black and white, no gray area.  The first is a worldview that finds its joy in this world, this life and themselves.  The second is a worldview that finds its joy in Jesus Christ.

In verses 4-6 Paul tells us how he used to fall in paradigm #1.  All of his joy was found in the world.  He explains his background, Jew, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee, basically Paul was a stud as far as Hebrew culture goes.  He was the wealthy, handsome, athletic high-schooler of today's world.  His life was awesome by the world's standards, he was revered, loved and even feared.  I think its safe to say that all of us deep down want this.  We want the wealth, the looks, the abilities, whether athletic, artistic or intellectual.  We want people to like us.  We want people to notice us, to praise us and society uplifts those who are all these things.  Too often do we find our joy in the world; and not just that, we find our meaning in the world and we are consumed by the world.  Our lives are down to a systematic pattern, wake up, shower, eat, go to work or school, come home, go to sleep, start over.  Our goals are consumed by the world.  Get rich, be prettier or more handsome, be smarter, dress better, the list goes on and on.  But this life, this worldview, the joy in all of this, it is so very temporal.  We soon find the thing we strove so hard for is not good enough.  We need something new now.  There is no end to the desires as fulfillment never comes.  But friends, there is a second path, a path to fulfillment.  Take it from Paul.  He had it ALL.  But look at what he says in verse 7.

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  Paul gave up his life as a celebrity and he gained so much more.  Friends, life in Jesus Christ is fulfillment.  Jesus is called a spring of life because he quenches our thirst.  Instead of drinking money and a better job or house, relationships, clothes, being cool, being liked, take a drink of the Spring of Life that is Jesus Christ.  A worldview that takes it joy in Christ literally gives up everything else.  Your life slowly becomes shaped to match that of Christ's life.  Worldly things don't matter because of the knowing Christ; that is, putting your faith fully in Christ's death on the cross as atonement for your and all mankind's sins.  Friends, we all of sinned.  You, your mom, your dad, me, my pastor, your pastor (if you have one), Paul and everyone else but one man.  Jesus Christ came to this earth, lived a perfect life then died in place of us.  We deserve the just punishment of God for our sin, but God in his great love send Christ to die in our place.  By putting your faith in this act of atonement, you can receive forgiveness from your sins, eternal life with God and a new heart that yearns for Christ, that takes joy in Christ and that changes your worldview, like Paul, so that you see Christ as all that matters over the many trivial things of this world.

The Bible is often mistaken for a rulebook.  It is true, it has laws in it, however those don't apply directly to us and they cover a very small portion of the entirety of the Bible.  The Bible in fact is a story, the story of God's love and Christ's sacrifice.  The story of how we can gain relationship with God, the same God that created the sun, the moon and stars.  Yes, Christians follow "rules".  Don't cuss, don't get drunk, don't do this or that, but Christians are still sinners like everyone else.  The difference is that Christians have decided to focus their worldview, their joy, around Christ.  So I encourage you today if you have not made the decision to follow Christ yet in your life to do just that.  Yes it may be painful, it may mean changing your lifestyle, it may mean giving things up, but friend, it will be so worth it as you experience the joy of Jesus Christ in this life, and the joy of Jesus Christ forever in eternity.

The Tokyo Dome

Today I did a bit of exploring as I had to go to my ward's office to get my alien registration card.  I rode the community bus over to the civic center, got my card, and then went for a walk around the Tokyo Dome and the surrounding area.  I must say, the Tokyo Dome is quite the place.  It not only has the baseball stadium where the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants play, but there are shopping centers, many restaurants, an amusement park, which by the way has an awesome-looking roller coaster, and probably much more.  It is a colorful campus which I can only compare to if the Anaheim Angel's had their stadium in Disneyland.  Of course in this case it is the wealthy Yomiuri Giants creating a funland around their stadium, not the stadium inside the park.  So I guess it is more like if the Yankees built an amusement park around their Stadium, but right now no one is very amused in New York :).  (if you don't follow baseball than you won't get that joke)

Sorry to ramble on about the stadium but it was honestly quite awe-inspiring.  The roller coaster has a section on the department store's roof!  Anyways, during this escapade I picked up 2 tickets to watch the Chunichi Dragons (my favorite Japan League team) play the Giants next week! Im very excited, Japanese baseball is amazingly fun to watch.  Plus, I get to sit in the Giants section which will really add to the ambiance and the experience of the game.  Im in right field so hopefully I'll catch a home run ball!

 Teruki biking

 This is where I have been playing basketball!

 Our dog Cocoa; we have really bonded over the past few days.

 The Tokyo Dome

 I will conquer this roller coaster

One of the department stores

I realize I haven't posted in a few days but that is pretty much due to nothing too interesting going on here.  I've just been going to school, hanging out with friends and hanging out at home for the most part.  Today I was introduced to a restaurant that probably had the best noodles i've ever eaten.  They were very soft but also fairly big ramen style noodles and they were served with some oil and vinegar and it was very tasty.

Other than that school is going fine I guess.  Its school.... After my classes tomorrow I have a lot of fun things planned tomorrow night, and over the weekend so I have that to look forward to!

Weekly Meditations: Joy in Serving

I think its safe to say that you, the reader, have at some point in your life, served someone else.  Whether you did some community service, baked someone something, held a door or gave a compliment, I’m sure that you have at some point in your life served someone.  I think it is also safe to say that afterwards, you probably felt good.  I know anytime I do a good deed for someone else I get that nice “warm, fuzzy” feeling inside.  However, as we look at chapter 2 of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, I think Paul is getting at something more than a mere feeling, and I certainly think that Paul is encouraging us to serve more than a monthly event or a situational good deed and to serve for a cause other than our own self-gratification.  I think Paul breaks down service into two categories: serving others, and serving God.  Let’s begin by looking at how we can serve others.

In the first 11 verses of chapter 2, Paul encourages the Philippians to serve one another.  Now at face value this seems like an easy task.  Say hello to a couple people, smile at someone, maybe take somebody out to lunch and check it off the weekly list.  No!  That is not at all what Paul means when he says in verse 4: each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Our service should not be something we do because we have to, or even because we want to.  It also doesn’t have a quota of X amount of good deeds to do this week.  Service should be our lifestyle as Christians because of the new heart we have in Christ.  Verse 1-3 reads: If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.  Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.  Essentially what Paul is saying is, if you are a Christian, then act in humility and consider others better or before yourself.  In short, being a Christian means you put others before yourself.  This is also known as love, and Christ commanded us to love God and love our neighbors.  As Christians, we need to look for ways to serve, or love, everyone (a side note, just in case: when I use love here I do not mean chick-flick-I-just-met-you-yesterday-but-now-I-love-you “love”, but rather the love Christ has for the church, a self-sacrificing love we see in verses 6-11.).  This is a very hard thing to do.  Loving everyone means loving our family, our friends, people on the street, people who despise us, our enemies, everyone.  While this is a hard task, we are nonetheless commanded to love everyone because by our love for others, our crazy love for even those who hate us, we show Christ’s infinite, eternal, majestic love.  So continue serving at monthly functions and keep trying to do those daily good deeds, but remember that service is something we can do at all times of the day, for everyone we encounter.  

In verses 12-30 Paul continues by talking about serving God.  While there is lots of content in this passage, I want to focus mostly on verse 17.  But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.  This verse evokes the image of Paul’s life as a sacrifice, being poured out, to God.  If we look at Paul’s life we can attest to this truth that his life was in fact very sacrificial, all for God’s glory.  So how then can we serve God?  Well I first want to say that nothing we do, no way that we serve God, can ever atone for our sins, and earn us salvation or eternal life.  Rather, Jesus’ death on the cross after living a perfect life was an atoning sacrifice for our sin. By putting your faith in this work, in Jesus literally taking your place and the punishment that you and I deserve, is what gains salvation for sins.  That said, I do think that we can serve God and we do this by being obedient to him.  Jesus served God; he followed the command to love God by being obedient to God the Father and dying on the cross.  We too can serve God in many ways by being obedient to his commands.  We are called to love others, are you loving others?  We are called to be baptized as a proclamation of our faith, if you are a Christian and have put your faith in Christ and are living for him, have you been baptized?  We are called to share the gospel, are you?  We are commanded to deny ourselves and take up our cross, are you living for today, for this world, or are you living with your eyes focused on Christ, for eternal things? 

There are many ways to serve God by being obedient, most sources I looked at had 49 commands of Christ, and following these is one way to serve God.  I think another big and life-changing way is to serve God through missions.  We can do this in many ways including taking the gospel where it has yet to go, taking the gospel to another country, taking the gospel to those in your area and supporting missionaries and missions agencies.  Our lives are not of this earth and everything we have will not follow us into eternity, so I challenge you to think about a missions vision in your life.  It might not be moving to a remote country, and that is ok! But you could give us comfort by sharing the gospel with family, friends or coworkers that don’t know Jesus. 

I titled this “Joy in Serving” but I haven’t talked much about joy yet.  Honestly, I believe that if you are serving others and serving God, you are truly following Jesus, and this will bring you great joy!  You may be poor, you may be sick, you may be broken, cold, and hungry, you may suffer, and you may be persecuted.  But if you are following Jesus, you will never be short of the joy that comes from the Savior.

Bondon Kawamoto. Hero.

Sorry, but the title actually has nothing to do with what I did today, I just wanted to grab your attention.

Unfortunately, the way classes work here for most exchange students, there is Japanese class on Saturdays.  So this morning I went on down to school and sat through my Japanese class, which really isn't that bad of a class, but going to school on Saturdays is kinda a drag.  The nice thing is pretty much everyone has class in the same building so I was able to see a lot of my Oregon friends that I hadn't seen throughout the week. After class myself, some Oregon students and some Waseda students all went out for Indian curry and all-you-can-eat Nan.  All-you-can-eat of course is a challenge for me and I ate Nan bread till I felt sick, and then ate a little more.  But don't worry! No Mexico repeat.  I ate 2.5 pieces of bread which doesn't sound like much but they were quite large.

Afterwards my buddy Carey and I went to Akihabara, one of the many electronics meccas in Tokyo where Carey showed me a retro video game store.  It was honestly one of the coolest things I've ever seen as it had walls of unopened video games, ancient gaming systems and all sorts of cool stuff that here costs like 20 bucks but on ebay could go for hundreds.  No joke.  There was also an arcade with various retro games which was pretty cool as well, other than the smell of smoke and broken dreams that filled the air.  After our Akihabara tour I walked a little over 2 miles to get home.  There weren't any trains that would conveniently get me there and it was a nice day so I was able to walk through Ueno park, which by the way is going to be beautiful when cherry blossom season comes around, and see some other parts of the city that I normally would not have seen.