A month? Already?!

Yes, I can hardly believe.  Today marks the one-month anniversary that I stepped into a plane bound for Michigan, leaving my family and friends to adventure into a country that spoke in a foriegn tongue and promised a different experience than my life in the US.  Was it worth it?  To me, it seems silly to even ask that question, because it was totally and completely, but of course you all don’t get to view my thoughts.  So I had to write that down.  I don’t regret joining the Rotary Exchange Program *at all*.  Everyday I learn more Japanese, get to wake up in Japan, go to a Japanese High School, meet new people…it’s all so worth it.  Ok, my little ode to being here a month is over.  I’m just very happy to be here, and thank God that he gave me a chance to be here.

Ok, so a bit of US-related news.  You all should be familiar with the new film “Jesus Camp” by now, and if you aren’t, Google it.  I find this very very interesting.  Half because I was interested in the subject of Pentacostal worship in the first place, but also just the film itself and the footage they have there.  Do I think they went overboard?  A little, but not by much.  I think during the ’70s and the whole “Freedom” theme with the Hippies, it pushed the US wildly Liberal as compared with the generations that led up to that.  Is the pendulum finally swinging back to a much more Conservative era for us?  I certainly wouldn’t mind more support in my home country, it’s getting to be too many people with empty words and no conviction or faith in my opinion.  Churches have become too afraid to do anything for fear of sparking political controversy, such as this film and Camp have been getting.  It’s about time someone riled up the youngsters for God though, honestly.  Let’s get some things right with kids.  As long as they’re not suicide bombers, it’ll probably been good for our society if they hold onto their moral beliefs.

I’m very interested in your comments, so send me an email to read about your thoughts on the film if you’re bored, can’t say I can reply, but I really want other people’s input on it, or thoughts on my thoughts.  Click the “Email” link at the top…or use paul.php -at- gmail.com, but replace ” -at- ” with @.  Just spam-guarding.
Ok, so next political World Event: Thailand Coup.  Some of you may not know that the same day I arrived at the airport for the Makis to pick up, that very morning their son had gone to Thailand through Rotary for his year abroad.  I am praying for Masafumi…I know if Japan had something similar, I’d be scared to death.  So basically send his prayers out for him in Thailand.  THANK GOD that his was a bloodless Coup AND that this new military values the input of students and actively encourage them to give them ideas.  It makes me think that this may be good for Thailand if they can set up a Democracy like they said they would.

Yes, I keep up on the news a lot here.

So, anything else to add on here?  Not really.  Finishing my PHP/MySQL book as fast as I can for my coming project.  Also going to buy that webcam next month hopefully so I can get a nice “Video Blog” up to outline my stay in Japan and record daily events and stuff.

Oh, I suppose I’ll mention some funny swearing stuff in Japan.  My little brother [12] says the “s” word a lot, which I find hilarious.  It doesn’t mean much here, as you can say the Japanese equivelent [kuso] and not get in trouble at all.  They don’t take foul language as seriously as we do, and I’d say we weight it too much.  My Japanese teacher was telling me all the swear words his foriegner friend had taught him, and the best was probably “Get the ‘f’ out of the way!”.   You won’t realize how funny it is until you  hear Japanese pronunciations, and the fact that they absolutely don’t care about saying it.  One of my friends said the ‘f’ word on the train the other day and no one even flinched.  I was like “Ah! What are you doing!?” and stuff, and she’s just like “What? No one knows what it means!”.  Foiled by logic.  It’s just a … weird experience to hear that.

Japanese class is also going really well, especially now that I have Japanese 4 out of 5 school days.  I’m definitely picking up the language, I’m guessing by the middle of November I can have a really good handle on the daily conversations if I work hard.

Time to sleep, very tired, good night everyone! [Actually it's good morning for you all, but, have a good Wednesday as I sleep into Thursday!]