Gintama

１月２２日

Gintama 銀魂




So, I've been watching a rather strange anime called Gintama. It's like... the opening of closed-state Japan 1853, only instead of America sailing in with battleships, it was aliens that sailed in with spaceships. But the rest is basically the same: unfair treaties, Japan being ashamed, samurai losing their privilages, sword ban, etc.



It's funny, because you have all kinds of modern technology (TVs, etc) and space age technology, all set in a bizzarre 1870s Japan, complete with disgraced samurai.



Filial Piety
Anyways, there's some interesting cultural stuff that's a part of it. In the third episide (you can watch these legally and free, right here), a brother and sister continue trying to run a beat-up dojo that no one goes to, even though it's ruining them financially. Why? Because their dead father wanted it. Did I mention that he died 15 years ago?



In Japan, something you promise a dead relative or something a dead relative wants is just as binding as if they were still alive. So, if you promised your mother that you'd be a good Buddhist for the rest of your life, then suddenly you realize that Christianity is true and good.... what do you do? Well, respect your dead mother, of course, and keep your promise to her, and never become a Christian. Even going to hell would be the right decision to make, because that's where your mother is. This is actually a true story that a missionary friend told me.



Truth? Righteousness? No, filial piety is higher value to many Japanese.



I'm so over living.
I also sense a certain level of despair in this anime. It was made in the disillusioned 2000s, after all, even if it is set in the 1870s. When you have disgraced samurai who have lost everything because the government has changed, I think it reflects the attitudes of young people today. Life seems meaningless, and Nihilism is strong in Japan.



In response to these changes, the main character's idea is this: “Well, I'll make my own code of honor and protect those around me” (this is very anime-main-characterish). But that is not a strong enough philosophy to combat the seeming pointlessness of life, in my opinion.



No, only Christianity can take disgraced samurai, high-school dropouts, neeters, freeters, parasite singles, and all the other despairing young people of Japan, and give them something meaningful to live for. Perhaps this is why in the real 1870s, a lot of samurai became Christians! In addition to Christians starting educational facilities where many of them got saved, perhaps their wounded honor at their lost social position brought them to the foot of the cross.



There is no hope in living to please your deceased parents. Our true Father is in Heaven, and we must live to please Him. He's the one we can't afford to be unfaithful to. And He will give us hope and honor and purpose. Only He can truly restore such things to our lives.



Today's Vocabulary
Finally, here's  today's vocabulary list:



爆音 - Bakuon - An explosion (specifically, the sound of one)
時限 - Jigen - Time limit/period of time
時限爆弾 - Jigen bakudan - TIME BOMB
再放送 - Saihousou -Reruns



Anime is great for learning Japanese, ne?

84th Psalm

So,  recently I've been memorizing the 84th Psalm. Today, I even did some research on it on Blue Letter Bible. There were a few specific things that I was trying to figure out. Verse 5 pronounces a blessing on (according to the NIV) "Those whose hearts are set on pilgrimage." As I looked into the Hebrew, it seems to be something more literally like "those whose hearts are the highways." Though a lot of translations translate this into something about a pilgrimage or highways to Zion. I hope they have a good reason to do that, other than that Hebrew is vague.

Anyways, this verse has been a comfort to me, specifically because I've been on the highways, on the pilgrimage so much, lately. I'm on a pilgrimage, a highway to the Heavenly Zion, and I have a long road ahead. But blessed I am for taking it. "They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion." (verse 7). I suppose that's where the idea of "hearts are the highways" being a pilgrimage comes from. That each will appear before God in Zion. Oh, under the new covenant, what joy this is. As believers, our hearts are set on this pilgrimage to the heavenly Zion, and we WILL go from stength to strength and appear before Him there. My sterength is in You, oh Lord.

Anyways, the "valley of Baca" in verse 6 was also a mystery. Actually, I looked it up in my Japanese Bible for some reason, and it was the valley of 涙, or tears. And sure enough, Baca is Hebrew for weeping. So as I pass through the valley of weeping (I'm still not sure if this is an actual place in Israel), I will "make it a place of springs. The autumn rains also cover it with blessings." That "blessings" is another tricky one that is often translated "pools," but as near as I can tell, that Hebrew word usually means blessings.

And "sheild" in verse 9 seems to often refer to authority or power in the Bible. Interesting, vague Hebrew. Ah well. Good psalm. Read it for yourself.

By the way, speaking of springs of blessing, check it out: another attempt at playing Broken Mirror:

Smoke and Mirrors

Dec. 12, 2009

America: Nothing but Smoke and Mirrors

After being absent from my culture for a time and now returning to it, I have a theory about American culture: what it is and what it needs. Here it goes.

This modern world

My first observation about modern America is that we are unbelievably advanced in technology. We possess artifacts that the ancients would never have dreamed of. We can speak across the globe in an instant. We can circumvent it in less than a day. We have tiny boxes that can produce endless hours of music upon our request and whim. I mean, think about that. If you wanted to hear a symphony, you used to actually have to go to the symphony. Today, you can carry it around in a 3 ounce ipod.

Let's keep going. There is more entertainment available today on Youtube for free than any mortal could ever consume. And forget the Roman Colosseum. we can watch bloodier, more exciting things with the wave of our hand. And we can even participate in fighting in such games all day and night without any risk of injury (except perhaps carpal tunnels). Sexual imagery is everywhere. We have sex on demand. We are like gods. Nay, better. Even Zeus had to come down in human flesh to seduce a woman that he desired. For a paltry fee, we can have her at the edge of our fingers in high definition.

Global village

People who have grown up in the last few decades have lived with such immense power at their fingertips since birth. It is commonplace to us now, nothing special. Only the latest thing is special. And even that doesn't stay latest for long. We have more entertainment than we could ever imagine consuming.

And it comes in the form of mass-produced goods. Ipods, computers, cars... though they try to fool us into thinking that it's “our ipod,” or a “personal computer,” all we're really doing is choosing the model and colors. There are thousands of others out there with the exact same good. In my opinion, we are united by our mass-produced, mass-consumed entertainment. People from California to Maine watch the same TV hits. Heck, people in Japan will be watching them in six months. The entire world is unified by the US entertainment behemoth. We have more in common than ever with millions around the world who love the same movies and electronic gadgets we do. Without ever visiting China, you share the same entertainment consumption with them.

“Global village.” That's what we call this. We feel it all around us. And yet, what is the effect on human community? My thesis, if there is one, is this: because of the interconnectedness created by mass-produced, mass-consumed products, even though we have more in common with more people than ever before, and even though we can maintain more relationships than ever before, Americans feel as though we are losing our individuality and genuine human relationships.

Nothing but lies

One interesting fact about these phenmenons is their falsehood. I mean, entertainment is nothing but acting. I think that's why reality shows have been so popular: they aren't totally scripted, and they give an illusion of something real. However, for everything else, we are watching actors and 3D animation. There is no reality to video games, movies, music, and television. They exist to make money, not convey truth.

Everything is false. Our music is about love to non-existant lovers. Our adventures are digitally produced, and there is neither risk nor true reward for completing them: just a pretty computer graphic movie at the end. Even our sex is done by actors. It is false (they're not really having sex) and absent of love (they're actors, for crying out loud!). And though we love it when a movie says “based on a true story,” how many of us actually take the time to research and see how much of it is true? Few care about the real, true story, just the entertaining movie. In a thousand ways, we spend our lives living in a virtual reality world, utterly absent of substance.

I think this plays into the overwhelmingly post-modern culture of today. When so much time is spent consuming entertainment and advetizing, it's hard to care about truth. There is so much information going into the mind that it's hard to discern every piece of it and easier to only care about what makes you feel good. It's just too much work to examine truth.

Loneliness

Let's face it. As much as we can put out an image or pretend, we are part of a mass of humanity. We are a part of a statistically calculated demographic. They know what you're likely to like, and they use it to market to you, be “they” Warner Brothers or the Republican party.

This is something we live knowing, and we rebel against it. As Americans, we hate it. We want to be individuals! So we watch the TV we like and we buy the latest goods to be individuals. But everyone else, of course, is doing the same thing. We try to be ourself, but there's still the reality that we are somewhat defined by these mass-produced, mass-consumed products, just like everyone else. This desire to express ourselves and be individuals contributes to the use of Youtube and blogging. As convenient as it is for watching movies without paying the price of admission, a lot of people use Youtube to post their own videos, hoping somehow to get the view counter above 1,000.

In a world where we are more aware than ever how many millions are out there, we are alone. We have our god-toys for comfort, but despite them, we live with a profound loneliness. There are more ways than ever to communicate with people (from text messenging to Facebook), but all that does is to make our communication more superficial than ever. We can maintain four times as many relationships with all this technology, but they have the depth of a dessert lake. We are more connected than ever and lonlier than ever.

Genuine

I am convinced that all these facts play into the extreme emphasis placed by young people today on genuineness.

In my experience, one of the best things you can be is genuine. It is such a positive word in this century in the English language. Because of this world of lies, when people run into someone who does not put up an outer facade but is on the outside what they are on the inside, they are drawn to that.

But despite all our methods of communication, most Americans have a difficult time really opening up and being “genuine.” It's hard to do that in a 6 KB text message, after all. It's also why people respect a truly genuine person. In a world so much about things, Americans are longing, more than ever, for real, deep human relationships. They may not admit this or consciously think about it all the time (our god-toys are great at distracting us from our deeper thoughts), but there is a desire for better human relationships.

We live in a world about flashiness. Text messeges are new and flashy (or were a few years ago). Iphone apps are all the rage right now. We love the new. We love the advanced. So sitting down and having a conversation for three hours just sounds boring. So while we put “genuine” on a pedestal, we don't really want to be genuine ourselves. Despite our deep loneliness, what it takes to get out of that loneliness (like talking without music or TV in the background) isn't flashy or new.

What people really want

Young people these days want those true, genuine relationships, whether they admit it or not. Most didn't get them in their family growing up, and they're not getting them from Facebook. Despite all the distraction of our flashy technology, people cannot escape the need for reality, genuiness. And in a world where so many families are broken, they cannot escape their longing for love.

Enter the church

I believe that this is one of the deepest, truest felt-needs in our society today. And it is essential for the mission of the church that we understand this aspect of American culture.

Some churches have gotten good enough at using the world's ways (being flashy) to attract large crowds and get tons of “sinner's prayers” out of people (in the quietness their own seats while everyone's eyes are closed). However, what they do not realize is that they are just meeting a superficial desire: being flashy. They are not meeting the deeper need: something with substance.

The uber-pastor up front, even if he makes himself seem genuine, is still often putting up a facade of what he knows people want (genuineness). He's still an actor on a stage. He is still creating a mass-produced, mass-consumed product: the church service. People, despite enjoying that and being enthralled by that, need something more in this isolated society. They want personal interraction and human relationships. Whether they admit it or even realize it or not, no amount of mass-product will meet their need for meaningful relationships, muchless create a strong relationship with God.

Churches must grow smaller in today's culture. What I mean is that they need small groups, not that the congregation should shrink. If you're just producing a mass-product, you will stay on the superficial outside, and little real transformation will happen. I believe that in today's mass-culture, the best place to create true transformation is in the totally counter-cultural place of a genuine, small community where people know one another deeply. Where they can have those media-less three-hour conversations. The deep loneliness of our society cries for that.

If churches continue to issue productions, they can have some results. But when push comes to shove, Hollywood has a bigger budget, and they're just better at advertizing. The church just can't compete with their mastry of media. So, what I am suggesting is a total side-stepping of the culture into the counter-cultural realm of deep relationships in small groups. Go straight for the jugular of the felt-need and bypass all the marketing.

But these can't be just any small groups. No. As Christians, we have to unplug from our media enough to develop real people-skills, like listening to others in a way that gets them to truly talk. The small groups that are needed are small groups filled with people who are experiencing the transforming power of the gospel and learning to develop deep, real, loving, and strong human relationships. In short, they must experience transformation and do so openly in community. In our culture of broken families, I think that people are longing deeply for that kind of nearness and unconditional love. And that is something the church was made to do that Hollywood never can.

Know your culture

It is important to understand your own culture. It is important to study your own culture and study it hard, just as a missionary studies a foreign culture he enters. If you do, you understand what people are hurting and where they need healing from God and ultimately may be open to the Gospel. We must be students of our culture.

For instance, I think the days of tracts are much ended in America. Quite simply, it's just another mass-produced product, so many people these days will even read it. Even a gospel presentation personally presented through a tract can still have that mass-produced feel, and people feel like you are not being genuine, which is the unforgiveable sin. They will shut you out. The gospel must not only be the true gospel message, but it must be presented in such a way that people know they are loved and cared for in the presentation. Otherwise, they will not listen. Tracts make you appear just like Coca-cola. Only Coke has better ads.

Sharing in a non-truth culture

Our culture is almost entirely oriented away from truth, now. It is thoroughly post-modern. And you can wring your hands and wonder how to bash that away and share the gospel, or you can use it to your advantage. People are disillusioned with claims of absolute truth, but they are thirsting for deep relationships. Make your church a place of such deep relationships that they will be drawn into it, loved like they've never been loved in their lives, and find themselves believing this truth that has such power.

For all that we care about “having an answer” to the question that we are asked, it is Jesus that said, “By this all men will know you are my disciples: if you love one another.” Our culture is now in a perfect place for the spilling-over of genuine love from within a church to be the primary method of evangelism to those outside of the church.

So, in conclusion, be a student of your own culture. These are some observations by me, but I'm not sure how accurate they all are. You must study American culture for yourself and pray for God's wisdom. And study the difference between Christian and non-Christian subcultures. They are quite different, and you don't want to be preaching a Christian-aimed message to non-Christians. Preach the Word; be a minister of the entrusted, holy, and true gospel, and do it in a way where people can easily understand the hard-to-receive, life-destroying, life-healing power of our God.

THIS CITY NEEDS YOU NOW (BLEEEEH, BLEEEH, ELECTRIC GUITAR, DRUMS, REALLY LOUD XYLAPHONE)

Dec. 12, 2009

This City Needs You Now

One of the things waiting for me upon my return to America was a CD that I have been anxiously anticipating for nearly two years: The Protomen, Act II. The first act of The Protomen's epic Megaman-based rock opera was something that enthralled me a couple years ago while I was still in San Luis Obispo, so I'd been waiting to hear the next chapter. This one was a prelude: the story of Drs. Thomas Light and Albert Wily as they develop their robots. If you are interested in this CD, this whole article will be a bunch of spoilers, so I urge caution. Go listen to the CD, first.

**********SPOILER ALERT*********

This CD is filled with emotion. Anger is there: that's what rock music communicates really well, after all. Also the passion to change the world. And the sad pitifulness of a society living for comfort and brainwashed by media.

At the end of Father of Death, Albert comes into Dr. Light's apartment and finds Emily leaving a letter for her lover. This is, to me, one of the most passionate scenes.

“What are you doing here?” – Emily

“Let me take you away.” Wily wants her for himself.

“I'm not going anywhere.”

“He will be nothing when this runs its course.”

“He will be everything that a man is supposed to be.” Rebuking Wily's dismissal of her love, Emily belts out:

“If a shadow blots out the sun... THERE WILL BE LIGHT.

“If it stays till the sun it set... THERE WILL BE LIGHT.

“If the sun never shows its face again... THERE WILL BE LIGHT.

“No matter how dark this city gets...”

Dr. Wily orders his robot to kill her.

The Power

Aside from the passion of the music, this is powerful to me because it is something that all men desire deeply, I think. They desire a woman who will have absolute faith in them, no matter what. And that's what Emily did. The phrase “There will be Light” is a play on words. She could be talking about light in the general sense, but she's also saying, “No matter what, you can't get rid of my love, Dr. Light.” She had incredible fidelity to sacrifice her life rather than betraying her love by going with Wily.

Upon finding her dead, Dr. Light grabs her final letter and runs from the police as he is framed for her murder. Without Emily, he falls into a deep depression and is eventually exiled from the city, leaving it to Wily.

The Sleeping City

The CD's constant references to “This City” also contain a strange power and, whether the Protomen realize it or not, a deep understanding of our society. After Wily's takeover, he makes an army of robots to take over the labor of the city. Mankind retires to a pleasant lifestyle of leisure, and Wily controls the media and uses it to brainwash them and pacify them with how good life is in this new world.

Basically, it's how Satan is at work in the American church. We sleep. We are content with our comforts and riches, not realizing that the Devil is tightening his grip on society all around us. Yet we do not fight. We play. It's not that leisure is the problem, it's that we worship it.

Breaking Out

I listened to the demo track of Breaking Out from this CD months ago (a leak on the Internet). I see America in it, but it describes Japan perfectly. Everything is quiet and people think that the city is fine, running perfectly, but it is slowly dying. It was eerie once as I listened to it riding on the central train line in Tokyo and then wrote a poem along the same lines.

There is such power in that music. Our minds are slowly being transformed and controlled by the media and society around us, and we don't even realize it. We do not live out our true identities in Christ as warriors. As a friend of mine put it today, “When I hang out with my church friends, we're Christians, so we don't do things like go out drinking, look at porn, or talk about sex, but no one says, 'Hey, let's study the Bible,' or 'Why don't we pray?'”

I think that one of the sentences from the Breaking Out narrative sums up this and American society very well: “But the familiar sound of the telescreens reached even here. Joe stood watching the face on the screen. It babbled incessantly, but said nothing.”

Such is how many of us spend hours every day. TV doesn't say anything. It just babbles. Entertainment, advertising, even news... it's usually mindless. And slowly but surely, it creates a strong tide of turning our hearts (note that I do not say “minds,” which it bypasses) to the world's way of thinking. And sadly, immersed in it, we do not even realize it.

The Last Song

Skip to the last song: Here Comes the Arm. Joe has died in front of Dr. Light, and Wily's army of evil robots is coming out to make order by force. All of Light's plans have failed, and as he prepares to die, he says that he will stand against this thing, but that it will overwhelm him and he will die without making a difference at all. And then he finally opens Emily's last letter:

“Thomas, please don't cry for me... I love you completely... He could never cage the world... and soon the darkness will pass. I want so much to be with you but in my heart I know, this city needs you now. This city needs you now.”

And the music explodes to life suddenly: “THIS CITY! THIS CITY!”

To me, this is my call to Japan, a thoroughly urbanized society. This city, this city. Images of Tokyo, nearly 30 million strong, flash to my mind. Trains and subways and towers to the heavens... When I hear those words, “This city needs you now,” I feel that I will return to Japan and to my destiny. Especially with the last line of the CD:

“Joe, if you see Emily, tell her to wait for me. 'Cause I still have work to do...”

Again, we men (or maybe just me) long for this kind of woman who is capable of so encouraging us that even 20 years after her death, a letter from her makes all the difference. At the point of Light's surrender, Emily's last letter turns him around and makes him realize that he has a mission to do. I long for love like this, love that is not about making one another mutually happy in our complacency and uselessness for the kingdom. No, rather it is about spurring one another on in a way that no other human can to fulfill God's call in our lives.

To me, it's about far more than a girl who will make me happy. It's about finding one who expresses absolute confidence and love and thereby enables me to be the man that God has made me to be. And it's about someone for whom I will do that, just as much as she does it for me. Together we will form an unstoppable team and save the world from Wily's army of evil robots... or evangelize Japan. Something like that.

Star Trek

Saw the new Star Trek movie. It didn't disappoint my thirst for:

a) Non-sense science If we eject the warp cores (a mysterious quasi-science object that can do anything you ever need in a pinch) then the resultant shockwave may be enough to get us out of the black hole, somehow mysteriously without damaging the ship!

b) Rehashed plotlines Oh no, a BMSO (Big Mysterious Space Object) has appeared and is attacking earth!! What shall we do?


c) Scantily clad Starfleet officers - Apparently, they start wearing miniskirts at the academy as a part of the training.

d) A Military completely without discipline or common sense - Let's put the cadets on the bridge of our new flagship!

e) Vulcans

Regarding the latter, a friend of mine, when I described how Japanese people do not show emotion, said, "So, basically, it's like living on Vulcan." Yeah, more-or-less. Except that Japanese people don't believe in logic, not when it comes to human relationships, at least. But the whole thing where Vulcans don't show emotion... yeah, that's basically Japan.

Also noticing how many Roman references are in Star Trek: Romulus (the founder of Rome), Nero (Roman emperor), James Tiberius Kirk... and probably others.

And more imporantly, Remus, as in Remus Lupin, was the brother of Romulus. That has nothing to do with Star Wars though, and everything to do with Harry Potter, which is way better. The books, that is. The movies basically suck in comparison.

Good night, everybody!

Live long and prosper.

SLO and Zion

I actually wrote this post a week ago, but just posted it today. If you'd like something sarcastic and cynical, please scroll down to my previous post about being in love. If you'd like something serious, read this post.

Nov. 23, 2009

SLO Times

This past weekend, I went up to San Luis Obispo for a visit. Since leaving America a year and a half ago, SLO was constantly on my mind. And there I was... in that place again.

Home?

As much as any place on earth could be considered home, SLO is my home. I have not been able to come to a place of calling Japan “home,” yet (even in the earthly sense). SLO is still home to me. This isn't meant as a slight against my parents. Their place is like a second home. It was home as a child, but as an adult, we find homes in new places away from our parents. And I feel too out of place in Southern California. I feel like those on the Central Coast understand who I am and are like me. And my church is there.

In that place, I have experienced deeper bonds of friendship and deeper wholeness than any other. They are my tribe, my family. I have a place of belonging there.

And so, quite predictably, as soon as my jet lag was recovered enough to drive those 260 miles, I made my way up to San Luis for a weekend. It was a good weekend. My heart still burns from it.

I've been nervous what it would be like going back, whether I would feel utterly out of place or whether I would be received into the waiting arms of my friends. It was the latter.

What I found

Going back was not as emotional as I imagined over the last year and a half, when it was always on my mind. Rather, SLO is, after all, an earthly city, so my emotions were still mortal emotions and the people were mere humans. It is not heaven, though it sure feels close, sometimes.

It was a joyful time. With those I was closest to, it was like just picking up our relationships where they left off. It was as though there were nearly two years of news to catch up on, but they hadn't changed that much. Some were married, some had babies, but they were still those I have loved.

It is the revival that defines that city to me, the work that God is doing. The passionate prayer of the saints. The ministering saints. God is at work, and it's like stepping into the Great Awakening when I go there. There is no place like it on earth. It's not the beauty of that valley that was so wonderful, neither the laid back atmosphere. No, the uniqueness is in the revival, that which I was swept up in and left stranded by on the mission field.

That revival is still happening, and it was good to step into it for a weekend. The fact that so many people were doing well made for a good visit. It was also fun surprising people who thought I was still 7000 miles away. I feel refreshed and more ready for what is next (my deputation down south, here). And of course, I can't wait to go back for a few months starting in January.

The departure

A year and a half ago, leaving SLO was the hardest experience of my life. I've never lost a parent or close family member, but that departure, that 出発 was like the death of all my best friends, followed by my entering a strange and lonely society alone. I suppose that's one reason why I expected my return to be so emotional: it was like receiving them all back from the dead.

Why must I continue on this path? I do not know what leaving that place again will be like when I do so in March to return to Japan in April. How do my feet continue down this road?

Whatever my feelings are; wherever my heart is at, I am a realist. The ideal is one thing, but I know enough of human existence and life to know that our good memories are always better than the events themselves.

And in addition, even if we do find ourselves in an ideal state, that state cannot last. What would I do for a job in SLO? How would I emotionally deal with the constant departure of college students? Even if I had stayed, it would not have been as good as I imagine. Despite that I am envious of those whom God blessed to stay, I know that they have life problems, too. If I would have clutched SLO like a treasure of mine, I would have lost it in the end. Perhaps now that I have left, it shall remain as a place of refuge for me to return to in times of need.

In addition, once we have left a place, it falls into an axiom that I live by: There is no going back to the Shire. You cannot return to the glory days or whatever happy memories you have. You're better off pursuing new ones. But yes, I have written of that in the past.

The Road Ahead

It always comes to this point when I mourn leaving a place, does it not? To me, SLO is like an earthly picture of the Eternal City, that which I long so intently to see. The affections that I have for it are those that only that City deserves. So, then, in my mind, the New Jerusalem and San Luis Obispo get confused at times, and that's why that town means so much, too much to me. For however fine, it cannot hold even the basest comparison to where I journey.

So then, I have my reason to press on. I leave the place of my desires and longings because I know that it is not the true place of my desires and longings. I can leave that good city because I journey to a better one. I can leave that earthly city to journey to an eternal one. I have the strength to leave that valley, because my destination is Zion.

Even today, driving home, I was longing more intently for another departure, the departure to that City. Perhaps because I experienced such beauty this weekend, I was able to imagine and long for it more clearly. It is that ability to imagine that keeps me longing.

Oh, my friends, my loved ones. Do not weep for me. Our parting is but brief...