Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I could speak fluently and I could say what a normal American would say back home. Today when I came to school the notoriously strict principal (at one of my elementary schools—the same guy that scolded me last week for not saying hello to him every time I arrive) ask me who the red car belonged to that was outside of my house last weekend. He also asked whom the other two people were that I was driving to Toyohashi with. I felt like telling him the car belonged to a Mr. Biznass, A Mr. Nunya Bizass to be specific. He ended his inquiry into what I was doing with my life by telling me that everyone here is watching me, and that I need to be careful. I might let it get to me, but I know that all of the other teachers in Toei can't stand this jerk—so knowing that makes him easy to ignore. I would love to let him hear it just one time though.
Everything else is Toei is going great, except for one small thing. The teachers at my junior high give me so much to eat, I am going to have to talk to them. Every day they load up my plate with a TON of food, and I can’t take it anymore. Some Japanese people think that just because I am a white foreigner that I must eat a ton. I have pointed it out to many of the other teachers that I am not any bigger than any of my Japanese teachers, and that I can't eat that much. Nevertheless, the fact that I am white trumps all other reason.
The weather is getting warmer and I am ready. I have been enjoying exercising after school and getting home in time to enjoy the sun—unlike winter here when it got dark at like 4:30PM. The only downside to the summer is that I think it now gets light here at like 4:15AM, and by that time the birds are up and going nuts each day. I like getting up each morning at like 5AM though…gives me time to ease into the day, drink my coffee, and chat on the phone before the work day begins.
Michi and I have been reading the Bible a lot together these days, and I have go to say that I am now convinced that most people, especially Christians, have no idea what the Bible really says. Even if I do think I understand what it says, when I start to break it down and explain it, I realize that I don’t know a thing about what I am trying to explain. We are plowing through John, and we are in the middle of chapter 3. If there is anyone out there who can explain what Jesus meant in John 3:18 when he said that those who don’t believe are ALREADY condemned—I’d love to hear you give it a shot. And while you are at it, go ahead and give me an explanation of the last four or five verses of John 2.
I have been listening to and reading a lot about different translations of the Bible and where our current text came from, and I am amazed by so many that can follow every word that we have in English and not even wonder about where it comes from. I admit that living in a foreign country and learning different languages makes it obvious how meanings do change with each translation. To my knowledge, when we read the Bible—we are reading text that has been translated through at least two languages. I can imagine how the meaning gets lost… Kentucky English just doesn’t translate into Japanese. You can imagine how even the smallest things are lost in translation. Think about how many ways we have to express the simple but always funny act of passing gas. Translating, “Who cut the cheese?” or “ripped a big one” into Japanese just doesn’t work.