Living the Dream

6/7/07

I finally got to see, with my own eyes, the huge Buddhist statue my dad had told me about several months ago. It’s a stone idol made in the image of a beautiful woman dressed in a long flowing robe holding a baby in her arms.. It had to be at least 150 feet tall. From what I understand, the statue is some sort of guardian for all of the mothers that have had an abortion. They pray to her and she is supposed to forgive them. Many women spend several thousands of dollars on small stone replicas of the statue and place them in their homes hoping that she will watch over their aborted infant wherever it might be. I was amazed at its size, it can be seen from a great distance all around the city. It must be absolute torment for those mothers who are constantly reminded of their abortion whenever they look in that direction. My dad has been praying for several months now that God would bring the statue down and that He (God) would receive the glory. I have started to pray the same thing.

In other news, I was able to go to an authentic ramen shop last night. American ramen should be considered a sin compared to the deliciousity (it’s a real word, look it up) of Japanese ramen. These ramen shops can be found just about anywhere in Japan and it is one of the tastiest foods around. I had a soy sauce based soup with pork, vegetables and of course ramen noodles. It is appropriate when enjoying ramen to slurp your noodles as loud as possible. It’s almost impossible to carry on a conversation with the person next to you because of all the deafening slurping. I’ve never heard anything like it. It reverberates off the walls into a glorious cacophony of noodle attacking lip smacking. I gave it my best shot and almost choked to death. I guess I need more practice.

I’m still enjoying the company of the Takahashi’s. We find something new to laugh at every day. For example, I’ve been learning a lot of Japanese and some of the words seem awfully long to me. I get out of breath just thinking about the pronunciation. One phrase in particular, “Do Itashimashte” (doe-ee-tosh-ee-mosh-tay) means, “you’re welcome.” I decided to shorten it to, “Do I” (pronounced, doe-ee). It’s so much easier and convenient. I’ve also been coming up with new words like the word “kanbanichuwa” (kahn-bahn-each-you-wa) which is a combination of “konbonwa” (good evening) and “kanichuwa” (good afternoon). You’re supposed to say “kanichuwa” from 12pm to 6pm and “konbonwa” from 6pm to 8pm. Pretty choppy, isn’t it? I decided to smooth it out a little bit and use “Kanbanichuwa” from 5:55pm to 6:05pm. It makes the transition so much easier on everyone. Seriously, can you really say that it’s the afternoon at 5:58pm or that it’s evening at 6:03pm? Nobody really knows what’s going on at those times, you can’t tell up from down. It’s just downright awkward but no one wants to admit it. Everyone’s checking their watches every five seconds trying not to mess up and say the wrong thing. Thanks to me, I’ve solved the whole situation with one simple word. I’m currently in the process of getting “kanbanichuwa” added to the Japanese dictionary but so far it’s been an uphill battle.