The Wayfarer Blog

(I began writing this post last week, but got busy and never finished it. Better late than never…)

One of the things that has bothered me about using Flickr to host my pictures is that, short of asking everyone to sign up for a free Flickr account, I have had no way to easily share private pictures on Flickr with family and friends–until now.

Signing up for a Flickr account is a nice thing if you want to share photos and participate in the huge online community. It is a fun and interesting way to view pictures. If you take pictures, or if you want to comment on other people’s pictures, I would highly recommend it. But if you just want to see a couple of my private pictures, it might be a bit of a hassle. Now you don’t have to.

When I create a set of private photos, I can give out a guest pass to anyone who wants it, so all you have to do is go to the link I give you, and you can see them. Of course, you can still join Flickr if you want, but now you don’t have to.

Why is this important? My policy is, I don’t want to post pictures of family and friends publicly, unless they give me permission. I know many people might think that is silly, but I want to respect people’s privacy. I worry that the next time I whip out my camera, no one will want to let me take a picture, because they are afraid everyone in the world will be able to see it!

I have many private pictures that I have been holding back. When I have time, I will get them up and get out guest passes to everyone! If you want to read more about this, check out the November 21st post of FlickrBlog.

When I was in Seattle, I met many Japanese students at the University of Washington. There was a special one-year program, now defunct, called the English-International Business Program (EIBP). I still keep in touch with many of those students, at least sporadically.

A couple weeks ago, I reunited with two of my closest friends, who are now husband and wife, from that program. They met during the program, and got married when they returned to Japan. His family has a clothing business, and now they run it together with his family.

I hadn’t seen them for a long time–far too long. But I was happy to see them again. They had a clothing exhibition. His sister designs all or most of the fashions. It was a small, boutique showing, but very busy. I was able to go between classes and see how their business is growing. I told them I was glad to see them living their dream.

A dream can start small. It might even stay that way for a long time. Sometimes, it seems like we are not making progress, or we are wasting our time. But even if it isn’t readily apparent to others, we should always keep the fire in our heart burning. We should never give up on our dreams.

It’s great to see people living their dream…but it is even better to see yourself living your own dream.

(Ok, let’s try this again. I had already almost finished this post the other day, but I guess I didn’t save it correctly, so I lost it.)

On Saturday, I taught my Mitaka group. We talked about many things. One of the students had seen my Hiroshima pictures on Flickr. During the class, she and another student both told me about a mutual friend, who survived the bombing of Nagasaki. Some of the details are too graphic and upsetting, But I thought the story was amazing. They told me the story in Japanese, and i wrote it in English on the whiteboard for them. Here is what they told me:

The second A-Bomb that the U.S. dropped on Japan was in Nagasaki. At the time, their friend was about 11 years old. She was in school that day, and at the moment the bomb hit, she had bent down under a table to pick up an eraser.

When she stood up, she saw that the walls and the ceiling of her school had been destroyed. She was burned, but because the desk was very thick, somehow, she survived.

As she was walking home, she saw many people she knew lying dead or barely alive in the street. The ones who were alive were begging for water. They had an unquenchable thirst.

She survived that day, and in fact is still reasonably healthy today. However, many of the stories I heard, which I won’t repeat here now, would make any reasonable person lose their appetite. People sometimes ask me: Do Japanese hate Americans because of what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? I usually say no, but I guess it depends on the person. In general, I don’t think so, but some people might. I don’t know. Should they? No one blamed me because I was an American. It was not about politics; Japan or the United States. It was more of a discussion about the fact that their friend was very fortunate, because she faced a very extreme and hellish moment, and yet she has lived a full life. But it makes me think about the wanton destruction of human life. And it continues to this day on every continent. And we all harbor conflict in our hearts, even if we call ourselves “peaceful” or “pacifists.”

I think we should really examine our hearts and try to understand the conflict and pain we all carry. And we should try to work together to build understanding and respect, if not equality, so that future tragedies may be avoided.

As I said the other day, I don’t want to sound preachy. Just sharing something that really affected me. It is one thing to talk about suffering. It is truly another thing to see the burned clothes of a schoolchild.

Perhaps war is necessary. Perhaps all things happen for a reason. I certainly believe that. But it doesn’t make it any less sad. And it is true that the Japanese military was extremely brutal and cruel. But, as they say, two wrongs don’t make a right. We must never forget…

Today, I went to that one high school class.  After that, I met a friend in Yokohama.  On the way to the class, I saw an orange Lamborghini!  Too bad I didn’t have a chance to take a picture..even with my cell phone.

I often see German cars (especially Mercedes or Porsche), and even American cars.  But I don’t see Italian cars here too often.  I shudder to think how expensive they must be to own here!  I have seen a couple Ferraris, too.  Hopefully next time, I will be able to take a picture.

I have started a couple posts, but I am just too tired to really finish them. So for now, I want to extend my best wishes to you for Thanksgiving Day.

Thanksgiving is a special day for Americans. It is a day when we remember how grateful we are for the gifts we have. Yes, we can easily focus on what we don’t have, or what is not going right, but there is so much to be grateful for in our lives.

I have several things I would like to share, including upcoming plans, hopes, dreams, worries, and recent experiences. But the most important thing to share with you now is gratitude. As the holiday season begins again, let’s try to take the spirit of this time and keep it alive all year. After all, we shouldn’t really need a special day to be thankful; it should be something that we feel in our hearts every day.

Sorry, I don’t mean to sound preachy and didactic. Just a thought. Best wishes for a Happy Holiday. Although I cannot be with you in person, I am with you in spirit.

By the way, we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Japan, but it is a national holiday: ???????which is the Japanese equivalent of Labor Day! Unfortunately, I have to teach one class at a high school for my company, but after that, I will be a free man for the rest of the day. (And I don’t have to go to the high school where I normally teach, so I am grateful for that!)

Last week, I left the charger cord to my laptop at my high school, so I have basically been offline for a week.  I was able to check my email on my phone, but I wasn’t able to post anything new here.  I’m back!

But it is getting a bit cooler. Still, not bad weather for mid-November!

I have a lot of pesky paperwork to do, but I will try to keep churning out blog entries and photos. In the meantime, I hope everyone is doing well and finding new reasons to smile every day!

But it is getting a bit cooler. Still, not bad weather for mid-November!

I have a lot of pesky paperwork to do, but I will try to keep churning out blog entries and photos. In the meantime, I hope everyone is doing well and finding new reasons to smile every day!

October 8, 2006. Angela and I had survived the capsule hotel. It was time to start exploring Hiroshima! The first thing we did was get on the “Hiroden” tram, and head for Miyajima. In Japanese, Miyajima (???means “Shrine Island.” It is a floating Shinto Shrine (or you could say it is a flooded Shrine; it sits on a shallow pool of water.)

I will write more about Miyajima later. For now, I wanted to share this picture of a deer at Miyajima. There are many deer on the island, and they are not shy at all. They eagerly beg for food, and if you don’t have food, they are happy to eat paper or anything else they can. Maps, papers, even clothing is not safe from their greedy mouths! Alas, Angela’s English map fell victim to a hungry deer. We were left with my Japanese map!
I took this picture of a deer. I thought it was funny, because he just stood at the cart for a minute, looking like he was waiting to buy some food!

Keep checking back, as I will keep posting more pictures as time permits. I am extremely busy, but I will try to get them up as fast as I can. As always, you can view the pics here on this site, or click on the picture to go to my Flickr site.

“Hey, what’s a deer gotta do to get some service around here?”

Today, I am busy…doing NOTHING.

That’s right. I might do some laundry.

I might work on some pictures.

I will probably go to the store.

But I won’t work on any of the evaluations, planning, grading, or countless other tasks I need to do. This is my my last “do nothing” day for a long time. I am sure it is the last one for 2006.

So I don’t apologize. I am going to be lazy today. Tomorrow I start running like a madman again. As always, I will be busy doing something. Today, I am busy…doing nothing.