10/24: Thrift Shop Week

Top 10 of the Week:

1. Helping at Thrift Shop
2. Watching Oxford Field Hockey Videos
3. Subbing for Spanish classes at CAJ (though I know very limited Spanish)
   
4. Memorizing 1 John in the ofuro
5. 50 + videos for photography
6. Going to the sushi restaurant with Mom, Miriam, Matthew
7. Saw Arthur Kraai, wife and son!
8. Meeting with Kyle Smoker and Elliot Reasoner to study 1 John
9. Enjoying かき (persimmons) in this 秋のきせつ (fall season)
10. Walks along the river in the Autumn weather

Some of my best buys at Thrift Shop:

Coming to America by Betsy Maestro (Usually $5 but I got it for ¥50)

Tree of Cranes by Allen Say (Usually $18 but I got it for ¥100)

Grandfather Tang's Story by Robert Parker (Usually $7 but I got it for ¥50)

Immigrant Kids by Russell Freedman (Usually $9 but I got it for ¥50)

The Story of the Orchestra by Robert Levine (Usually $20 but I got it for ¥200)

America: A Patriotic Primer by Lynne Cheney (Usually $17 but I got it for ¥100)

Anno's Aesop by Mitsumasa Anno (Usually $20 but I got it for ¥100)

Read-Aloud Bible Stories Vol. 1-4 by Ella K. Lindvall (Usually $60 but I got it for ¥650)

Earthquakes by Seymour Simon (Usually $7 but I got it for ¥100)

Some Insights in my Bible reading!
I made a overlapping graph of the line of Christ as far as I could go which was as far as Isaac. After Isaac there is no mention of the ages or years of those in the line of Christ so it is difficult to find out the overlapping years.

Interesting Insights:

• Lamech, Noah's father, died about 5 years before the flood
• Methusaleh, Noah's grandfather, died the very same year that the flood came!
• Noah lived 20 years longer than Adam
• Noah was the 3rd longest living man.
• Shem lived to see the time of Jacob...11 generations after his!
• Moses married an Ethiopian woman! Num. 12:1 (intercultural marriage)
• Joseph married the daughter of an Egyptian priest! (Gen. 41:45) (also intercultural marriage)
  
• Peter was married! (Matt. 8:14)
• Ishmael had 12 sons! (Gen. 17:20; 15:13)
• Between Levi (Jacob's son) and Moses were 3 generations. Levi, Kohath, Amram, Moses (Ex. 6:18-20)
• Cain had a son named Enoch! (Gen. 4:17)
• Jacob had more than one than daughter! (Gen. 37:35)
  
• Jacob had a rough life. He lost Joseph and 10 years before he went to Egypt to live in Goshen with Joseph he lost his father Isaac! We know this because Esau and Jacob were twins, born to Jacob when he was 60. We know that Esau married a Hittite woman when he was 40 (Gen. 26:34) so at this time Isaac was 100 years old. Isaac lived to the age of 180 yrs (Gen. 35:28), so, by adding 80 more years to the 40 we know that Jacob and Esau were both 120 years old when their father died and we know that Jacob did not enter Egypt until he was 130 years old (Gen. 47:9). So...here are some of the things that happened in Jacob's lifetime: his brother tried to kill him because of the birthright issue, he had 2 contentious wives, he had a troublesome father-in-law, he had 2 concubines, his daughter Dinah was raped by Shechem, his sons slaughtered the men of Shechem, Joseph was falsely reported dead, his wife Rachel died giving birth to Benjamin, his son Reuben slept with his concubine (Bilhah), his father Isaac died, his son Judah sleeps with his daughter-in-law and two of Jacob's grandsons are killed by the Lord, there was a famine in the land, Simeon is kept imprisoned in Egypt, Benjamin has to go to Egypt and then Jacob's finds out that his son Joseph has actually been alive all this time but that his sons had deceived him!
  

My genealogical overlap chart

A close up

The Key

Some other interesting things:

1. Saw a man waltzing in a park along the river
2. Different types of plants along the river

• Pomegranate
• Mulberry
• Persimmon
• Banana (only 2 trees)
• Olive
• Chestnut (not far from the river)
• Goya (type of cucumber)
• Mandarin orange (みかん)
  

10/15/11: Another week in Tokyo

Top 10:

1. Read my first G.A. Henty By England's Aid
2. Playing guitar with Matthew
3. Cooking a meal by scratch
4. Watching a CAJ volleyball game Seisen vs. CAJ
5. Photography
6. Meeting with Elliot Reasoner and Kyle Smoker
7. I've now watched more than 45 photography videos online
8. Okonomiyaki restaurant
9. Hogan's Heroes
10. Walks along the river
    

Okonomiyaki Restaurant
Mom, Matthew, Miriam and I went to an okonomiyaki restaurant in Niiza and I was able to try some monjayaki for the first time. One of my students at UTSS had said that I should try so I decided to give it a go and it wasn't bad! However, I think I prefer okonomiyaki still :) My camera died only a few minutes after entering the restaurant but I also got some more photos with my point-shoot camera.

Frying the okonomiyaki

Matthew

Still frying....

Frying some garlic cloves!

Katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes)

The sauces rack

The mascot...

Books Read
I finally read my first G.A. Henty book and was very fascinated by how thorough the history is. G.A. Henty was a prolific writer of the 19th century and is best known for his historical adventure stories. The story which I read was entitled By England's Aid Or, the Freeing of the Netherlands and was a good read.

Japan Today

I thought this was a great name for a chap stick: menturm...

Japanese spam

Carton of 4 eggs.

The largest sour cream I could find at the local grocery store!

Photography Online
In the last two weeks or so I have been watching photography videos online via Youtube and have viewed a total of more than 45 videos: about 3.5 hours worth of video watching. I've tried taking photos with outside, inside, at night, and of movement situations.

Here are a few examples:

Downtown Higashi Kurume at night
Nikon D40 50mm F1.4 1/100 ISO 200

From the 4th story of Matsukawa Place looking toward the train line.
Nikon D40 50mm F1.4 0.625 ISO 200

Higashi Kurume grocery store (this turned out a bit blurry but it was a great take)
Nikon D40 50mm F1.4 1/100 ISO 200

At Chikurin-koen where there is a bamboo grove
Nikon D40 50mm F1.6 1/125 ISO 800

Also at Chikurin-koen
Nikon D40 50mm F1.8 1/200 ISO 800

10/11/11: He has made everything beautiful in its time...

Top 10:

1. Visited Nojiri for 3-day weekend
2. Collecting and cooking chestnuts
   
3. Playing roller hockey with the Benedicts
4. Taking an free online photography course
5. My biblical genealogy project
6. Blueberry pancake breakfast with grandpa and the family
7. Long talks with Caleb at Nojiri
8. Tutoring Minoru
9. Subbing for Kindergarten and 4th grade at CAJ
10. Teaching at UTSS

Bible Reading
Just recently I decided that I wanted to do a little biblical genealogy study so I began looking for those passages in the Bible that we so often skip over which contain all the names of the ancestors/descendants of different people. I created a rudimentary family tree of these people and hope to eventually get it onto some bigger paper so that it can be a good visual. However, some of the genealogies are not as easy to follow as you might think!

A sample from one of my sheets.

Books Read
I have been able to get some new books read!

• The Girl With the White Flag by Tomiko Higa (Very good autobiography from Okinawa-Japanese perspective of WWII)

• The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne (Very clean, adventurous and exciting!)

• When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr (Wonderful piece of historical fiction of WWII that I would recommend even to 5th graders)

• H.M.S Bounty by John Maxwell (I wouldn't recommend it but it was an interesting read. It is similar to the Count of Monte Cristo in that there is a theme of vengeance all throughout)

• Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Journey by Alfred Lansing (Very intriguing book that tells of the Antarctic expedition of Ernest Shackleton which became a fight for survival))
  

UTSS
I had a great opportunity recently to be a witness for Christ at UTSS. The students in the written communication class were supposed to write about something sad that had happened in their life. One of the students had written at the end of her story, "Mr. Victor what is your sad story?" So, after correcting her writing I proceeded to describe to her the story of how Ethan died this summer and at the end I wrote how I know he is with Jesus and I can't wait to see him again.

It has been such a blessing to be working at UTSS because I have enjoyed working with Japanese high school students and also with the professors. Sometimes I'll also get some very humorous journal entries such as the following:

"Today, I went to Mister Donuts to study with my friends. I was taught math by my friend. I am not good at math. So, it was good for me to study math but I had a problem. I ordered two doughnuts and a coffee. It is free to get refills on coffee. So, I drank much coffee because the taste was very good. I drank about seven cups of coffee. So, my stomach was broken. I could not concentrate after drinking coffee. "I'm sorry. I want to go to rest room" I said to my friend. I returned from the restroom but I said, "One more!" I returned from the restroom again but I said, "I'm sorry!! One more!!" My friends said to me "Are you okay today?" I think that it is not good to drink much coffee. It is very good to refill coffee and very profitable but when we do it too much we encounter painful situations. So take care."

Photography Online
Recently I have been learning more about photography because I want to brush up on my photography skills and put them to good use. I searched online for some Youtube videos that might have photography tutorials and ran across a professional photographer who offered a free photography course online. So, I watched some of the tutorials and have been learning about aperture and shutter speed and lighting etc.

Over the weekend I tried putting my learning into practice and here are a few examples.
The following were taken with a Nikon D40 50mm lens. Most of them have an aperture of 1.4.

Enoch, my nephew.

Enoch again!

Enoch and Amy!

Caleb

Cicada shell.

My cousin Esther's flower garden.

Nojiri lake in October.

Chestnuts on the ground

Chestnuts that have just been boiled.

Trip to Nojiri Oct. 7-10
I was able to drive for about 125 km to Nojiri and Dad drove the other 125 km. I got a Salt and Lichi drink to enjoy on the drive which tasted pretty much like a sports drink. I was able to spend lots of time with Caleb and Amy and also baby Enoch. We did some roller hockey with the Benedict kids. We watched a Danny Kaye movie called "The Inspector General." Caleb and I cleaned the chimney. I did some cooking and tried cooking and peeling chestnuts. On Sunday we listened to a John Piper sermon.

Cooking
I am beginning to enjoy trying out new recipes and using allrecipes.com to get ideas. During our time at Nojiri I made a sort of fruit juice:

• 2 bananas
• 1 can of mandarin oranges (with juice)
• A few ice cubes

Blend in the blender and serve in a cup.

I also made a 2-Bean Soup.

• 1 can of kidney beans
• 1 can of garbanzo beans
• salt and pepper to taste
• water
• Cayenne pepper to taste
  
• 1 T. olive oil
• 2 cloves of minced garlic

Bring to a boil and let simmer for about 2-3 minutes.

I also was able to make a pizza a couple weeks ago using Tom and Linnea's recipe but these are the pictures :)

\Pizza #1

Pizza #2

Gardening
I tried planting an avocado pit not long ago and look at how it has sprouted!

The avocado plant.

Mom decided to get a lemon tree so here it is!

Our new Meyer lemon tree.

Guitar Repair

My old guitar that had the bridge break off when we were traveling. I'll see if I can fix it but I don't know...

Praises!

• My college loans are now paid off!
• Matthew and Miriam will be in Tokyo with our family for the next two weeks!