Thoughtcrime

The novel 1984 by George Orwell introduced, or at least familiarized the world with a new term, "Thoughtcrime." This term was used in the book in reference to having thoughts that were against the government of dystopian Oceania and subversive towards "Big Brother. "The term was entirely meant to describe a criminalization of differing viewpoints. The definition presented in the novel refers to holding thoughts or beliefs that challenge the ideology of the ruling party. In the decades since 1984's publishing in 1949, our culture has taken up arms against a new kind of thoughtcrime.

Because thoughtcrime is not a real word, and therefore not in a real dictionary, I went to Urbandictionary.com to see what today's popular definitions for the term are. Two of the top three definitions stated that thoughtcrime had to do with thinking about doing something criminal, rather than holding unpopular beliefs. I believe this horribly conducted statistical analysis is indicative of the popularly understood meaning of this word. The thing we decry has switched from noble non-conformity to a perverted sense of entitlement to unsavory thoughts.

And there's something wrong with that.

We know that thoughtcrime is something that should not count as real crime, we know that we're supposed to scream that we are free to think what we want when we hear the term, but we do not actually understand what the term means . The definition of the word has morphed to make us believe that it's OK to think something wrong as long as we do not act on it. It suggests that it does not matter what we have in our hearts, does not matter what thoughts we choose to harbor and dwell on. As long as we don't do anything, we are not guilty and we do not have to worry. It's OK to think bad things, it's OK to meditate on criminal things, as long as we do not actually do them.

I'd like to challenge this notion on two premises. 1) Thoughtcrime in Orwell's novel was not in reference to anything but holding negative or non-compliant thoughts in regards to the ruling party, AND 2) The line between thought and action is too thin, and not one worth straddling.

The border between thought and action is only separated by a few strings of neurons;. A handful of electrical signals calling the muscles into service The difference between entertaining thoughts of murder and pulling the trigger is less than one second and requires the compliance of only a few muscles. The more conditioned the brain becomes to fantasize about doing the wrong thing, the harder it becomes for the body to do the right thing.

We've drifted from protecting the beliefs of minorities, to justifying the thoughts that produce the crimes we abhor. Orwell never intended to write a book in defense of thinking about murder, or fantasizing about rape, or contemplating larceny, yet we've come to use his term to decry criminalizing the thoughts that build up to unspeakable actions.

We're pushing the line more and more every day. Sure, we may have the right to think whatever we want, but should we carry that on to mean that thinking these things is a good thing? 

If there's anything I've come to understand about my thoughts, it's that they almost always work their way out. The occasional swear-word that used to drift across the front of my mind slowly became more frequent and then worked it's way out, much to my surprise, during an exceptionally frustrating dry stretch in my career on MLB The Show '14 for PS4. And that's just the least of the thoughts I've seen grow into action in my life.

The more we allow negative, sinful, and criminal thoughts to invade our brains, the closer we drift to actually committing those thoughts. Thoughtcrime as defined by modern culture IS a bad thing and is something we should be concerned about. Just as Rome wasn't built in a day, so no crime is committed without a cultivation of thought.

Thoughts are the seeds of actions. What are you allowing to grow?

Matthew 5, 6, and 7

富士山 (Mt. Fuji)

A couple of weekends ago I went with some friends to climb Japan's tallest and most iconic peak, Mt. Fuji. You probably know this already, but Mt. Fuji is a volcano. I'd never climbed a volcano before. From the trailhead to the summit is just under 5,000 vertical feet over about 4 miles and some pretty intense terrain (For you colorado people, Longs Peak is around 5,000 feet over 7.25 miles.) On the way up it was dark, crowded, and steep, and on the way down I was constantly sandblasted by volcanic dust (think tiny particles of glass being blown into your eyes all day). The view from the (near) top was great! And definitely worth experiencing (once). Maybe sometime I'll write more in depth about the experience, but for now I just want to focus on some thoughts I had while climbing. 

We started the trek at 9pm in the dark. I had bought a headlamp for the trip, knowing we'd be climbing through the night and as such, I spent much of the night focusing on a small ring of light in front of me. Sometimes I would look up and see the lines of headlamps weaving back and forth up the beast of a mountain that lay ahead, but I'd immediately have to look back down to keep from stumbling, and to avoid becoming disheartened. Because I spent most of the 8 hour climb in silence and with my eyes fixed on the patch of dirt and rock in front of me I had plenty of time to think.

I thought about all kinds of things; .. The stars, geology, war, peace, wind, thunder and lightning, cars, escalators, chocolate-covered almonds, you name it Eight hours is a long time Eventually though, my thoughts settled on ". Your word is a lamp for my steps ;; it lights the path before me" this one verse from the book of Psalms -Psalm 119: 105. 

I've known this passage since I was little and sang the song for years, but that night on Fujisan it gained new meaning. 

I should probably give more context before I continue;. Since moving to Japan in April, I've noticed that when I read the Bible, new things stick out to me Verses that spoke to me in a certain way before, now have a different voice. I do not think this is necessarily because I'm in Japan specifically but because so much change has occurred in such a short amount of time in my life. I know that my perspective is continually shifting and being molded, but the recent dramatic and rapid shift has made some of these differences more obvious. I've become more and more convinced that the Bible is more than just a book of good advice and ancient stories, that it is indeed the active and living word of God spoken into my daily life on a personal level.

The circle of light cast at my feet on Mt. Fuji helped me to solidify and understand this concept. 

You see, with each new step the light stayed the same, but the things it illuminated were constantly changing. It would have done me no good to be able to see what was illuminated on the first step on steps two through 20,000. And I ' m convinced neither does the Bible or the Holy Spirit. It shows us what we need to know, when we need to know it. It does not illuminate the top, it illuminates each step on the way there. In the past, I think I 've looked at the Word like a stationary floodlight illuminating some goal I'm trying to reach, but now I'm realizing it's so much more. Sure there are some promises and revelations of things that will come, but the Bible working together with the Holy Spirit does much more, it shows us each step on the way to those goals. It gives us specific help and instruction for the next 20 inches, it helps us navigate up the switchbacks and scramble over the rocks. 

Without a headlamp to illuminate the next step I needed to take it would have been impossible to make the top; similarly life without the Spirit and Word of God is impossible. 

The word of God is like a light cast at one's feet; though the light never changes, the things it illuminates are different with each new step.

JAPAN (Part 3)

I know it's been a couple of weeks since my last post about my first weekend in Japan, but here is the final part in the series; training week at Souken.

You may remember me mentioning Souken before, and now I'll attempt to explain what souken is. First; Souken is the channel through which all AETs are employed, they hire us, they pay us, and they train us. An easy comparison would be a school district office in the US, but souken is a little bit more than that here. To be honest, I don't know the full extent of what happens at souken, but I know they develop curriculum, train teachers, do educational research, and about a million other things to make the schools run well in Mito. Hopefully that clears things up on the matter of Souken (maybe?).

Monday morning, the new AETs all met up with the Souken staff (Mr. Hosoya, Ms. Haginoya, Holly Reeves, and Annalisa Briggs) at City hall to register as residents and sign a bunch of papers. I remember sitting at the counter being told repeatedly to sign and initial and initial and sign and having a small anxiety attack over what on earth all these papers I had signed said (This anxiety has dwindled with each stack of papers to receive my signature). After getting everyone squared away at city hall, we all walked to Mito station to catch a bus to the Kencho building (Prefectural Government building) to set up our bank accounts. I'm sure you could have guessed, but setting up our bank accounts required even more signatures and hankos. A hanko is basically a bamboo stamp of your name in Japanese, it's the Japanese version of a signature. Each AET received a hanko prepared by the Souken staff in the morning at city hall.

Once our bank accounts had been set up we walked to the Souken building for an overview of the week's training schedule.

After Monday's training I went with Josh and Yukiko, some of my AET buddies, to get a cell phone set up (more signatures). This was relatively painless, except that the cell phone companies in Japan have decided to stop allowing people with a one year visa to pay for their phone on a two year monthly contract. This meant I had to pay $700 up front for my phone, but hey, at least now I own it!

We finished off the night with some great ramen at the station before catching the bus back home.

Tuesday I rode my bike to the souken building, not too bad on the way there; it's about 3 km away from my house, and mostly downhill. We had training from 8:30-5:00, but because of Jet lag and the east facing window in my entryway/kitchen/bedroom, I was up and ready to go quite a bit early and made it to souken with plenty of time to hit the local Konbini for some breakfast.

After training I made the 3 km bike ride (mostly uphill this time) back home and went with Daleth (Neighbor, AET buddy, all-around cool dude) to meet up with Mason (former roommate, AET, buddy, all-around cool dude) for some star gazing. When the stargazing didn't work out, we made our way back to my apartment and watched Japanese TV and talked for a while.

Wednesday was our shadow day, probably my favorite day of training.

I got to shadow Jordan Powell who is in his 3rd year as an AET at Sannomaru Elementary School. As you can guess, shadow day means we got to observe and follow Jordan around all day. This was by far the most helpful part of training in terms of learning how to be a teacher and putting my mind at ease as to whether or not I knew what I was doing. Two other new AETs were shadowing Jordan with me; Lisa McIlroy, and Nathaniel Nalley. Jordan taught several classes and had us join in teaching introductions by giving examples and practicing with the students. In between classes he showed us some helpful tools, talked through what he was doing in class and why, and taught us some playground Japanese. I was pretty nervous as to what I was going to do when training ended and I was standing in front of a class full of students with no teaching experience, but seeing Jordan teach and his advice really made me feel prepared.

Thursday was another training day at souken. I forgot to mention earlier that I was wearing a suit for this entire week of training, which made biking that much more intense. I definitely do not recommend biking in a suit ever.

We started with small group discussions about our shadowing experiences, and then shared tips and ideas with the rest of the group.

Today Holly (AET leader), who was training us with the help of Annalisa (AET leader), asked if anyone would be willing to give a speech in Japanese on behalf of the new AETs to the board of education in our entrance ceremony the next day. For a while nobody said any thing or really even moved, so I went ahead and raised my hand with brazen Wheat family unsubstantiated confidence and volunteered (as tribute). NOTE: I did not then, nor do I now speak Japanese; much less well enough to give a speech to the superintendent of Mito city schools and other top school board officials.

After training I met up with several of the other AETs to go to an onsen for dinner and relaxation. An onsen is basically a public bath house with a bunch of different types of baths. They have a sauna, a cold pool, a silt pool, individual tubs, an electro-pool (not sure what to call it), a scented pool, a carbonated pool, some jet pools, basically all of the kinds of hot tubs you can think of. they're divided by gender, and everyone showers before and after bathing to keep the water from getting disgusting. It's definitely one of the more relaxing experiences you can have in Japan, also, it's the cleanest I think I've ever felt (2 showers and 2 hours of bathing).

Friday I took the bus to Souken for training and the entrance ceremony.

This ceremony was all in Japanese and involved us receiving a certificate from the superintendent, Honda-Sensei and bowing a lot.

I gave my speech during the ceremony and everyone seemed to be following along and understanding what I was saying, a good sign. Seeing as I don't speak Japanese, I was reading a speech I had written in English, and our boss, Mr. Hosoya, had translated into Japanese for me. Luckily, Japanese pronunciation is relatively simple, each character representing a syllable that more or less always sounds the same (Unlike characters in the English alphabet that can represent whatever sound they want).

After the ceremony, we had our final training session before being picked up by some of the administrative staff at our schools. I got picked up by my Kyoto-sensei (Vice principal) and driven to my School. Most of the teachers were still in class when I arrived but a few were in the teacher's room to show me my desk and then give me a tour of the school. When all of the teachers returned to the teachers room after the students went home, we had a meeting concerning the PTA day coming up on Sunday (I think) at the end of which I introduced myself to everyone in Japanese. After a quick meeting with the fourth grade teachers to plan out our first lesson, I walked home. My first time at my new school!

Mason picked me up for dinner that evening, we had Indian curry (possibly Nepalese) at Ram's and had a great time of catching up. After dinner we stopped by WondeRex, which is basically a thrift store (They're much cleaner here) and I found a game boy color for $5.

Saturday I went on an expedition to Hitachi Seaside Park to find their disc golf course. In order to get there, I took a bus, then a train, then another bus. The course was pretty fun, though it seemed really easy until I found out from the only other disc golfer on the course that day that I was cheating. Japanese disc golf courses are made for 150 class discs, I was throwing much heavier 170 class discs. I asked him where to buy 150 class discs and his best suggestion was the internet. Hitachi Seaside Park is a really beautiful place, after disc golf I hiked to the top of a hill covered in blue flowers and had a great view of the mountains to the west and the ocean to the east.

I bussed and trained back to Mito station then walked to the post office to pick up my bank card. I figured I'd wait for the bus at the stop across the street from the post office, but when I had been standing there for 10 minutes with no bus in sight decided to walk to the next stop. About 100 steps after leaving the bus stop, I saw my bus go by. So I figured I'd wait at the next stop for the NEXT bus; once again though, after ten minutes or so I decided to walk to the next stop again (the bus schedule said a bus should have come by then) and yet again, a little bit after leaving the bus stop, there goes the number 3 bus. At this point I was starting to get slightly frustrated, and in the shadows of the buildings it was getting kind of cold, so I decided to stop in at a coffee shop and roaster I had seen from the bus to renew my strength and resolve. The coffee was great and they even had Côte d'Or chocolate imported from Belgium! (This is my new favorite coffee shop). When I left Maruni (coffee shop's name) And continued down the street towards the next bus station I kept hearing my name from what turned out to be the disc golfer from earlier, he had seen my name on my discs. We talked for a little bit about where we each lived and what our jobs were. Note: This would not be the last time I'd run into someone in Mito (a city of nearly 300,000) I had just seen way out at Hitachi Seaside Park. Anyway, as I was talking with him I saw the number 3 bus go by again... I went to the next stop, and then the next, and then stopped at 7-11 for some water (Bus went by as I came out of the store). Until finally (almost half of the way home) I just decided to call Mason (who was planning on picking me up at my house to play Catan with some others at his house) and ask if he could pick me up where I was instead. The end of this ridiculous 2 hour ordeal. Lesson learned: patience, young grasshopper. Busses come to those who wait.

I finished off the week playing Settlers of Catan with Mason, Carmon, Jordan, Abby (AET), Julia (AET), and Anna. As always, I lost, but it was tons of fun and a great way to finish off my first week working in Mito!

Thanks for reading! This is the end of my series about my transition (which is still ongoing) to Japan, but just the beginning of my adventures here! I plan to write frequently about my life, travels, and faith while in Japan! I hope you'll stay tuned!

JAPAN (Part 2)

After our bus ride from Tokyo Narita Airport to Mito, we were met by some of the other AET's who have been in Mito for a year or more, including my good friends Mason and Carmon Drumm, and several other people I had known at OC. My 'AET Buddies' Josh Huggins, Yukiko Sonoyama, and Daleth Mountjoy took me to dinner at an Italian place at Mito station called "Saizeriya" (Quickly becoming one of my favorite meals), and then dropped me off at my apartment to settle in and get some sleep.

Saturday (The next day), Daleth had us all over to his apartment (The crazy distance of about 20 paces from my front door) for breakfast. He cooked us eggs and toast, and then we talked about plans for the day. Daleth's girlfriend Tiffani was visiting from out of town and has a car, so she drove us to Nitori (Japanese Ikea) to get some things for my apartment. I bought (what I thought was) a fitted sheet, a couple of towels, an end table, and a lamp, and we ran into several of the other new AET's with their buddies picking up apartment furnishings. We took our purchases back to the apartments and then walked down the street to a noodle restaurant for lunch, I had sukiyaki udon, it was delicious. After lunch, I set set up some of my purchases, and found out that my fitted sheet was actually a duvet cover. **Side note: buying stuff in Japan can be pretty confusing, I imagine returning it would be a nightmare, so I kept it and put it over my comforter.**

That evening, Yukiko and Daleth, two of my AET Buddies who also are my next door neighbors had a surprise birthday party to attend. We walked to an Izakaya restaurant about ten minutes away, the food was great, and it turned out the party was for their friend Mac, who is from Loveland, Colorado. Afterwards, we walked back to the apartments and went to sleep.

Sunday, Daleth and I took a bus to Mito Station and then walked to church. I had visited Mito Church of Christ when I was in Ibaraki on study abroad, and it was really cool to be back and join that community in worship; they have a bilingual service which is pretty cool, you can choose to sing in Japanese or English. I usually try to sing in Japanese, I can usually read the words, but have no clue what they mean (I'll probably blog about that later).

After church, Daleth and I went to lunch with some of my OC friends and fellow new AET's Cameron Sutherland, and Taryn Parker. We walked down the Main Street in downtown Mito to a Chinese restaurant about 15 minutes away. Japanese Chinese food is much different than American Chinese food–and probably more like Chinese Chinese food.

After Lunch we all walked back to the station, and then about 15 minutes past it to a park where a bunch of AET's were gathering to play soccer and frisbee for Jordan Powell's birthday (AET, I once took a bible class at OC taught by his dad). It was a lot of fun playing soccer with them and just getting to know some of the AET's and other church members.

After the park, we took a bus back to the Migawa area (This is the name of our neighborhood, and also my main school) and I grabbed a meal from the konbini (Japanese convenience store; these things are everywhere, AND they are awesome) and headed back to my apartment to get to bed early for my first day of training on Monday.

To be continued...

JAPAN

For those of you who don't already know, I moved to Japan in April.

I was offered a job teaching English in the public schools in Mito, Japan back in December, participated in a one-day training seminar in January, sold my car in March, and packed up and got on a plane in the beginning of April. Since then, I've experienced and learned so much already, that it's hard to even begin to sort through it all.

I'm intending to use this blog to chronicle my time in Japan through stories, pictures, and thoughts, so I'll start off with an overview of my arrival in Japan.

Wednesday April 9th, 2014. Windsor, Colorado 4:30 AM, I woke up and got ready to head out to Denver International Airport to catch my 8:10AM flight to LAX. My parents drove me to the airport, I had narrowed down my belongings to fit into a suitcase, a duffel, a carryon, a backpack, and my trumpet case. **Bonus thought: If I can trim the stuff in my life down to such a small amount in order to move to Japan, do I really need all that other stuff I've got? (Yes, Dad, you can throw away all the junk in my room.)** At the airport I was forced to cram my backpack inside my other carryon and rearrange some books in order to avoid having to pay an additional $200 baggage fee for my trumpet. Thankfully the airline clerk was very helpful, and with all of our combined efforts we were able to cram the backpack into my carryon. 

I got checked in and printed my boarding passes and then my parents and I headed towards security, where we hugged goodbye, and huddled up for a prayer. That's one of my favorite things about my family; each time one of us is facing a big life change, heading out on a trip, or even just driving back to college we come together and pray. It's been that way since I was a kid, from starting a family roadtrip around the state of Colorado when I was 7 to moving to Japan at 24 it's all been covered by my family's prayers. 

Now back to my trip: I hugged my parents goodbye, told them I loved them, and then went through security. I boarded my flight to LAX, we took off, and just after we had flown over loveland pass and all the ski areas, I fell asleep for the rest of the flight. That turned out to be a mixed blessing as it may have contributedto my lack of sleep on the trans-pacific flight,but was also the only sleep I got on the whole trip. At some point after that, I landed in LAX, and found the gate for my next flight. In the process of finding that gate, I was lured astray by the aroma of a delicious hipster coffee shop; it was pretty good, I'll post the cappuccino rating for it soon.

I boarded my flight to Japan, found my seat, and then played with the window shades for a good solid 15 minutes (If you haven't seen the window shades on the Boeing 787, you should look them up). The next 12 hours of my flight were filled with movies, failed attempts at sleeping, and a couple of times through Nickel Creek's new album. 15 hours later, I landed in Tokyo on Thursday, the 10th.

It was three in the afternoon when I landed, so I had to figure out a way to stay awake until at least 21:00. I made my way through customs and baggage claim, and stepped out the door into Japan, where my first experience was having a camera and microphone shoved in my face, and being asked several questions about myself and my arrival in Japan. I'm really not sure who told the paparazzi I was coming, but I guess I should have seen it coming; I'm kind of a big deal in Japan.

After my TV interview, I went to find my shuttle bus for the hotel (neglecting to withdraw cash). I got on the bus, took a 25 minute ride, and then checked in at the Narita Radisson. At this point it was around 16:30, I showered, changed clothes, caught a little of the Rockies game, and then decided to head into Narita city to find an ATM and some dinner. 

I took the free shuttle bus to the train station in Narita and commenced my search for an ATM. And I found about 30 of them. At various different convenience stores, none of which were close to eachother. Needless to say, the first 29 ATM's didn't work, but then the last one...... ALSO didn't work. When they told me that getting cash with an American card in Japan is nearly impossible, they weren't lying (Tokyo, the airport, and post offices being the exceptions). So after my one and a half hour tour of the convenience stores in Narita, I decided to give up and take the scenic loop* through what turned out to be a cemetery to get back to the bus stop. The next bus wasn't for another hour and a half, so I just walked around at the station to up my Fitbit stats for the day. It's amazing how long an hour takes when you're starving, thirsty, and don't have any money. Finally, the bus came, and I got on and fell asleep on the way back to the hotel, where I mozied up to my room and crashed into my bed at around 22:00. 

Find money and dinner: FAIL. Stay awake past 21:00: SUCCESS. 

The next day I woke up bright and early, ready to succeed where I had failed the night before, and also driven by an insane amount of hunger. I caught the first shuttle bus from the hotel back to the airport where I knew there had to be an ATM that would allow me access to my money. I located the airport post office, only to find out that it didn't open for another 30 minutes. So I found a nice bench, sat down, and twiddled my thumbs for half an hour; unable to access the internet, unable to buy breakfast, and unable to read any of the free magazines around. When the post office opened, I stopped by only to find out that they didn't have an ATM, so I decided to expand my search radius and eventually found a citibank ATM in one of the check-in lobbies. I took out enough cash for to last that day and the weekend, then found a breakfast restaurant where I ate some kind of rice filled omelet with tonkatsu (Fried pork cutlet) on top. It may have been the best breakfast I've ever had, or I may have just been extremely hungry.

Feeling accomplished, I grabbed a cappucino from Starbucks, and took the shuttle bus back to the hotel in order to clean up and check out before 11:00. Once I had checked out and stored my luggage, I took the bus BACK to the airport to catch a train to Narita and explore the town in daylight and on a full stomach. Narita is a pretty cool city, with a really big temple, and lots of cool walking and shopping streets. I worked my way from the train station through some winding shopping neighborhoods to the Narita Shinshoji Temple. I stopped to take a few pictures and read some informational signs a few times, but mostly just walked through the temple from the South end to the North end. From there I kept walking through some neighborhoods towards the Narita Aeon mall, where I could catch a shuttle bus back to the hotel.

I picked up my luggage, changed into my suit in the lobby restroom, and then caught the shuttle bus to the airport to meet up with the other AET's and my bosses from Souken (I'll explain what Souken is in another post) Mr. Hosoya, and Ms. Haginoya. I accidentally got off at the wrong terminal initially, so I was a couple of minutes late meeting up with them, but thankfully ran into them right as they were heading to take their luggage to some vehicles. We dropped off most of our luggage in Mr. Hosoya and Ms. Haginoya's cars, and then walked back to the terminal and bought our bus tickets to Mito. From then we had about 20 minutes to kill so I withdrew more cash to make sure I had enough for the week, and edited some of my pictures from the day in Narita. The other new AET's were all there so we had some time to share our travel experiences and talk about what all we had done since arriving. 

At 17:05 we all got on the 2 hour bus for Mito, our new home!

To Be Continued...

*Scenic loop; n. route taken when Daniel has no idea where he is.