5 days with the Chancey's.

Like Carmon's previous post said, It's summer right now and unlike the States- teachers in Japan are required to come to school year round. So as of lately, I've been busy trying to find ways to get busy.

My desk in the teachers room. 

Keeping busy isn't all I've been doing though. Last week, Carmon and I took some time off to travel a bit. To be honest, I kind of had a crappy attitude about the whole thing at first. You see, right now, all of our fellow AET's are returning back from their summer getaways. They've all gone to places like Cambodia, Thailand, Bali, Hong Kong, Hawaii and Germany, while the two of us settled on Tokyo, because some friends were coming to Japan. Tokyo in and of itself is awesome, right? But when everybody else is getting out of Nippon then Tokyo becomes just Tokyo. So I pouted.

"Agh, there's NOTHING to do here!" 

Eventually I put things into perspective and thought,
"How awesome is life when trips to Tokyo seem casual?" 
I mean, I'm an Okie... Tokyo to me is as exotic as Oprah to a Best Western. It's just an odd pairing ya know?
Anyway, my point is, Tokyo is awesome. It's the largest city in the world and there's no way I could ever exhaust what it has to offer. Once I made up my mind we'd just go have fun and explore, we found out that our friends didn't want to stay in Tokyo, but travel around a bit! So here is a summary of our vacation with Dudley and Vicki Chancey.

Meet the Chanceys. 

Dudley Chancey was one of our Bible professors at OC. I had him once for Intro to Ministry my freshman year and Carmon had him for a Gerontology class. If you're an avid follower of the blog (you are) then you'll recall this post where I talk a bit more about the man. 

I can't tell you as much about Vicki. This past week was the first time we ever really spent together but she's a wonderful woman and Carmon and I had fun hanging out with her. 

And sleeping, too.

First on our agenda was Japanese baseball at the Tokyo Dome. 

(Quick FYI, the Tokyo Dome, aka the "Big Egg," is the largest roofed baseball stadium in the world.) 

Now, I knew from college that Dudley was a sports fan, but to stop there would be an injustice. This guy has been to every pro baseball stadium in the States and this wasn't his first time to see Japan League Ball either (He and Vicki have visited Japan multiple times).  The night's game was coincidentally Japan's biggest rivalry matchup - the Tokyo Giants vs the Hanshin Tigers. 

I never did find out which team was which.

The downside of big rivalries is that sometimes you're forced to get less than ideal seats- like standing room only. Even so, we had a good time, and I got to witness the most hostile confrontation between two Japanese people yet! It consisted of a Giants fan telling a Tigers fan to go stand on his side of the stadium.
And that was that.

The Tigers won it 6-0 and before we left Carmon and I bought some sweet merchandise. 

After the game none of us really had any plans, so Carmon and I suggested going to Shibuya Station to show the Chancey's the world's largest intersection. It's quite the sight to see. Neither of them had ever been. 

     CLICK ME

With only 13 "likes" it's not my best instavideo.
But seriously, 13?
It should've at least broken 18.
I'd even say 20.
But 13?
The camera panning to the right was SO smooth.
Please follow me. 

Next, we decided to go check out Takeshita Street, which supposedly hosts a ton of weird Japanese fashions, but ended up being a bit underwhelming. Maybe it's too hot for them to dress up in their weird outfits. Nonetheless, I'm pretty sure Vicki found her new favorite shopping place.

Since the Chancey's have been here several times already they're over the "We must eat authentic Japanese" phase, which was fine with us. So, soon after Takeshita Street we stopped by some random pizza place called Shakey's. 

Days with earthquakes are buy one get one free. 

My experience in Japan thus far has been a relatively pizza-less one. To my dismay, finding a hand tossed (dare I say deep dish) style pizza that resembles something I'd find back home is a difficult and frustrating task. Sure, if I want to pony up $30 I can get something delivered to me that's pretty close to "American style" pizza. But for somebody who ordered Dominoes 3-4 times a month it's just not the same. (On the bright side, I can't help but think there's a correlation between my lack of pizza now and the 20 pounds I've lost since I've been here.)

 Anyway, I say all that to draw this final point: Shakeys was awesome! We had a good ol' Pepperoni Pizza and it was big enough to feed all four of us! The drinks were huge, which, in a place like Japan where refills don't exist, was delightful. Probably the best pizza I've had since, oh... I don't know. 

April 9, 2013

The final stop for the evening was at Sensoji Temple. We got there around 7:30 so there wasn't much of a crowd and most of the vendors selling knick knacks and what-nots were closed for the night. Turns out, I had been here before on my Pacrim study abroad trip in 2010 which led me to sulk in past glories for a while.

Sensoji is Tokyo's oldest and most significant ancient Buddhist temple.  

And this is a very large lantern that I don't understand.

The next morning Carmon and I checked out of our hotel, ate a delicious bakery and then taxi'd to the Chancey's hotel. There was nothing on our agenda for the day so we didn't have any idea what or where we might be going. 

To Sendai!

I've never been, I heard it's beautiful, and there's a festival going on right now. Lets go.

In case you didn't know, Sendai is about 2 hours North of Tokyo by the bullet train. More notably, it's coast was the worst hit area of the 2011 Earthquake/Tsunami. We were too far inland to see any of the devestated area though. I plan on going to do some relief work there eventually. 

The four of us took a bullet train from Tokyo. OC starts back up on the 23rd (I think) and so Dudley would periodically work on next semesters reading assignments during the ride, Carmon and Vicki napped, and I would read or play games on my iPad after booking our hotel for the next two nights, courtesy our handy dandy iphone hotspots. 

I spy ...me! 

Sendai has a professional baseball team- the Rakuten Eagles. So after we arrived, I conjured up all my Japanese language powers to attempt buying us four tickets. This entailed going to the nearest 7/11- because in Japan you can do everything at a 7/11: from ordering professional baseball tickets to paying your utility bills to buying lunch to ice cream. I managed to get the tickets and it was a success. Kind of. Eventually, we had to get other tickets for a sooner game (think 'earlier', not OU) but the Chanceys graciously gave the first set of tickets away to some Japanese people we befriended.  

After dropping off our stuff at the hotel we shopped around and explored a bit. 

Luckily for us, that evening was the beginning of one of Japans largest festivals. The Tanabata (or Star) Festial. It's a tradition of the festival to write wishes on Taneaku paper and hang them around the area.

Check out this J-pop(?) girls group we came across. You might have heard of them, "HAPPY LITTLE DORTHY".  

_NOT AVAILABLE_

And I have to bring up the Octopus Balls. Fried balls with bits of Octopus in them, that is. Maybe not Dudleys favorite quisine. 

TAKOYAKI

The main attraction of the festival was the gianormous firework display. It was an hour and a half long and one of the better firework shows I've seen. Fireworks- "hanabi" in Japan, are really uncomparable to those in the States. They're just ...better. Initially I'd think otherwise. I mean, it's America. Not only do we love seeing things blow up, there's just no better way to showcase our power and pride than a tightly wrapped collection of gunpowder and nitrate streaming through the skies with a dazzling red white and blue burst of glory. Accompanied by it's delayed boom echoing off the rooftops throughout the night.

But the fact is... Japan's fireworks are better. It makes sense when you think about it. America does fireworks twice a year (generally). Japan has some kind of festival or celbration or holiday every month. Not only are fireworks more frequent, they're available anywhere... like at 7/11. Or at the grocery store, or at the family mart or anywhere else lighters are sold. Plus, since the Japanese don't really have a military force they can focus more on making insanely large fireworks in stead. Like this 930lb Godzilla blinker...

"Jim, what did I tell you about cigarrettes?" 

Like I said, the fireworks that night were awesome. It rained for about an hour before the show but cleared up just in time for us to enjoy the sights. 

The next day we spent mostly shopping and walking around Sendai's station.

That evening we had scheduled to go to the Rakuten Eagles game but it was rained out.

Still a fun experience none the less. 

So, in it's stead we went to go grab a Mos Burger, but after having Shakey's none of us were impressed. That night Carmon and Vicki treated themselves to foot massages. No picture necessary. 

Probably the most fun sporadic decision of our trip was to go to Tokyo Disney Land! The Chancey's were leaving soon and they suggested spending the last day at the park. Fine by us! I hadn't ever been to any of the Disney-themed parks before. I've done Universal and Six-flags and Cedar Point (is Frontier City worth mentioning?) but never Disney. 

Today was the day. 

It was Magical. 

 The whole day went smoothly with the exception of a little hiccup waiting in line for our first ride - Space Mountain. We had spent about 50 minutes in line when the ride shut down. They didn't give us any idea when they thought it might be back up and running so we were in that weird place where you've already committed an hour to the line but you risk wasting that time, plus however long you stay, if it doesn't start back up again. We stayed, and in the meantime made small-talk with, Hey, a you're not-Japanese person, too! 

Out of all the lines and rides and places to get stuck in, the four of us landed right by a fellow Okie. Well, he at least went to school in Norman. I gave him the "Boomer Sooner" and he accepted so that's Okie-enough for me. He's been here the past month (I think) traveling Japan and working on his Japanese. I think he was doing international business or something. It was cool running into him, and here of all places. In the course of our conversations he mentioned his dad lived in Minneapolis AND his last name was Piper.  

I slowly began to recall that my beloved theologian/pastor had a son named A-something-Piper... And, John Piper lives is Minneapolis! This guy's name was Alex! 

I thought,
"Could this be? Is this God's sovereign hand guiding the son of John Piper to none other than mine self? Are we gonna become best friends and will I get to hang out with he and his father on the weekends and maybe we could write books together and swing merrily discussing C.S. Lewis and the apostasy of Rob Bell?"

I was nervous. What do I say? "Excuse me, are you John Piper's son?" 

So stupid. I'd feel like an idiot.

Then Dudley asked, "Hey, are you related to 'John Piper'?" 

I Looked at Dudley... Scared. 

I looked at Alex...

I waited for his response...

His reply, able to dictate the fate of my life from then on out...

"No, I don't know him."

I felt like my heart had just been rick-rolled. 

...

Well, Alex was a cool guy anyway. If you're reading this buddy you're free to chill in Mito with us for however long my wife and I are in Japan, even though you're not related to John Piper.   

The ride eventually started back up and I finally got to experience Space Mountain -with shattered dreams of course. 

But seriously, it was awesome. And the rest of the day was just a blast. Super thankful for the Chancey's friendship. 

After space mountain we packed in as much other stuff as possible:

Pirates of the Carribbean

The Jungle Boat Ride and Runaway Mountain

Saw the Castle

Ate some appropriately themed food.

Sat down for the Light parade

Tried to shop- it was a mad house. 

Ya, no thanks!

After the festivities, the four of us took an hour and half train ride towards Narita. We had gotten a hotel near the airport so there wasn't any rush the next morning. Even without lugging kids around, you're kinda pooped after spending a day at any theme park so we hit the hay as soon as we got to our room. 

The next morning was good bye time. :(

The Chancey's had ended this year's journey in Japan and we we're fortunate to be a part of it. Even though we're the one's living here they were the ones treating us that week. Aside from all the general fun things that come from traveling to new places, Carmon and I really got a lot out of just spending time with a Godly couple. We were certainly encouraged and I feel like I've been spurred on to pursue more evangelism. They have that effect on people. We had breakfast that morning, said our goodbyes, and asked God to continue the work that he started. 

And that was that. 

The Fox and the Hound

qualifier - (qual·i·fi·er) 

- A word or phrase that limits or qualifies the sense of another word or statement.

Like, "The Dark Knight Rises was the best super-hero film of 2012". In this sentence, "super-hero" is used as the qualifier. It allows for "The Dark Knight Rises" to be considered the best film of 2012, so long as we are talking about super-hero films. I would argue that such a sentence needs no qualifier but that's just me.

Best Supporting Actress

Sometimes, 'qualifiers' don't need to be vocalized. Some are just assumed when speaking. Let me give you an example.

The phrase "Everything's bigger in Texas" is often spoken in the lone star state. Taken at face value, this of course isn't true. Not everything is bigger in Texas. For instance, just look at the Allen High School 60-million-dollar football stadium.

Clearly, not the biggest. I believe the 49ers have a 61 million dollar stadium. 

So, the understood qualifier in the phrase "Everything's bigger in Texas" is that "everything" isn't meant in the literal sense. Even though it isn't stated verbally, both Billy-bob and Earl understand that what is really being said is actually something like, "[most things, many things, some things] are bigger in Texas."

The following statement has such qualifiers.

The Fox and the Hound is Disney's most relevant and moral animated film for today's American audience. 

Note: There are two main qualifiers on that... I said, "it is Disney's most relevant and moral animated film." No doubt there are countless other relevant and moral films the company has produced, but none, I shall argue, is as important for children (and adults) to watch then this one. 

And the second qualifier is that I've limited the statement to just animated films... no computer animation or live action here.

I think Disney Pixar has exceeded expectations on how to create beautifully rendered stories while delivering rock solid content to it's audience. 

Toy Story wrestles with the vulnerabilities of losing your identity, being replaced and unused.
The Incredibles dealt with a family who neglected the marital tensions between  husband and wife.
A Bug's Life made an effort to convey the importance of breaking from tradition.
Finding Nemo portrayed the parental struggle to "let go," and...
Wall*E, rather overtly, touched on climate change and the Nation-wide obesity epidemic.
It's safe to say that Pixar always delivers excellent, moral, relevant messages. 

Cars was about exploiting children's innate desire to buy car toys. 

Back to the Fox and the Hound.

I think it's the most relevant Disney animation film for two reasons. 

1. It deals with the universal experience of having to assimilate to what culture tells you to do.

Todd and Copper (the fox and the hound, duh) were best friends. They loved each other. "We'll always be best friends," Todd says, "no matter what." Sadly, after the two spend a season apart from each other they meet with a new-found sense of cultural norms. "He's a hunting dog now" Big Momma (the owl) says, "things have changed." Despite their true feelings, Todd and Copper ultimately abandon their friendship out of obligation. How can a fox and a hound be friends? 

Today, kids are asking the same questions. 

When I was in junior high, the third day of school, a group of boys (the "popular ones") came up to me and told me I needed to hang out with them. "You seem pretty cool" they said, "Be friends with us." Hmm..."This was odd," I thought. Odd because it was a command directed solely at me and not the others I was hanging with already. The group wanted me to make a decision right then and there about who it was I would associate with. In their minds I was a "fox" like them and they wanted to tell me I couldn't be friends with the "hounds." 

This happens so often amongst kids you wouldn't believe. If you're a pretty girl, you're friends with the pretty girls. If you're an athlete, you're friends are supposed to be athletes. If you're in band, you only hang out with band geeks. 

Unless you're a drummer ...then you're totally like the most popular guy ever. 

My High School experience. 

Back to the fox and the hound...

2. It has an optimistic, yet realistic conclusion. 

Unlike most children's movies, this one didn't end with everything being gung-ho and happy. It was an optimistic ending, like I said, but Todd and Copper never ran off into the sunset playing hide and seek. 

"Found you!"

In the conclusion, the two remain friends but only at a distance. The actions the two have taken in the film have consequences that simply don't allow for the shared life they both want. They leave each other to live their own lives. Friends, but friends that must go separate ways.

It's a great movie. Incredibly sad in some places and quite funny at times. Roger Ebert wrote, 

"For all of its familiar qualities, this movie marks something of a departure for the Disney studio, and its movement is in an interesting direction. The Fox and the Hound is one of those relatiely rare Disney animated features that contains a useful lesson for its younger audiences. It's not just cute animals and frightening advetures and a happy ending; it's also a rather thoughful meditation on how society determines our behavior." 

So, for whatever reason, if you've actually ended up reading this post all the way through and need a good kid flick to watch with your niece, nephew, son or daughter... go netflix The Fox and the Hound. 

And after you've watched it. Instantly watch this.