The Thing to Remember

The most important thing to remember is this; the world is huge, the problems are complex, there are no magic answers, but there is always hope and with hope there is a future.

Post #50

It's summertime here in Tochigi and it finally stopped raining. We had our rainy season which was all fine and good and it ended about 6 weeks ago. Then we had our second rainy season... and it was the unexpected, uninvited, unwanted guest at our dinner party. The second rainy season (I will refer to it as Ignacious) was the one that made our floors damp, kept our clothes from drying, encouraged mold on my boots, soaked everything, and generally dampened the mood around the place. We made it all the way through the first rainy season (Peggy) relatively unscathed but when Ignacious showed up, the party turned south. But enough of that. The typhoon seems to have switched course and headed East, the earthquake in Tokyo sent a few tremors our way and today the birds are singing and we are doing skits about gender issues.

This weekend I got back from summer vacation where I traveled up to the north island (Hokkaido) and met with Yamato for 5 days of hiking in the mountains at Daisetsuzan National Park. Twelve months ago I read a National Geographic article about this park and the pictures captured my imagination, I was not disappointed. The place is gorgeous and we had a great time. Lots of rice, lots of hiking, and a wild onsen (hot spring). The weather turned bad on the 3rd night but we were able to make it to a mountain hut and wait out the rain. Among other things, we saw a fox, bear poop, butterflies, mountain lakes, snow, and lots of clouds. In Sapporo, before the trip, I met a french traveler, Olivie, and he ended up coming hiking with us. I took some pictures and video, and would like to compile them into a short clip soon, wish me luck.

Leander and Phillip left yesterday. They were great friends and the last two volunteers that were here when I arrived. I am still getting used to that fact but I know they will go do great things, and I will see them again in the future. Our new Germans are coming in a few weeks so I am excited about getting to talk to them about ARI before I leave.

I will be heading to the US on September 30 for a retreat in New York then back to Texas. I am planning on visiting friends and family for the first month or two so let me know where you are and we can get together for some food, or drinks, or both, or kayaking. I hope all is well, go cook dinner with some friends.


Peace and Love (Love and Peace)

Mike

Dirtbag Altruism

I meet people every day who want to make a difference in the world. They go out and study intercultural communications, environmental justice, and peace making. But what comes next? How do you pay for college loans by talking about peace? How do you feed a family volunteering in Southeast Asia? How do you tell a story from a hut in the mountains? So many of my friends are intelligent, passionate people that want to make a difference, but in order to do that it seems that our only option is to vanquish ourselves to a life of poverty. Is there another way? What should we change in order to pursue a better world, or even a better community, or neighborhood, or family, or life and not be a beggar. I am looking for a middle way, as the Buddha would put it, a path between the extremes of commercial excess and abject poverty, a middle way that offers us peace of mind, good health, and a fulfilled existence. Maybe this is idle talk of a dreamer, but I have been pondering this for months and will continue to do so for some time. Maybe I will discuss this topic more in the future. Peace Love and Ramen


Mike

Utsunomia Community Cafe

In Utsunomia there is a curious little noodle-shop-turned-community-cafe that hosts a different restaraunt each day. Day to Day you could would into a cheeky college coffee shop, a fair trade restaurant or ARI's open cafe. It is a beautiful opportunity for groups to share their ideals and their tastes with others.

A local business owns the building and rents it to groups for about $20 a day, the groups then take care of their cooking, advertising, and atmosphere for the day. A student group at Utsunomiya University (right down the street from the cafe) is responsible for organizing the different groups and arranging the schedule, which is a great way for students to get involved in this project.

ARI was featured today and I was able to ride along to help out. I hovered between the dish washing sink and the egg frying pan just trying to do my part to keep the flow of clean plates and sunny side ups, it was great. As with most noodle shops/ local restaurants in Japan this one had an upstairs living area and another room for hosting small parties complete with dumbwaiter to shuttle food up from the kitchen.

I think they could add to the flavor and success of this project by renting out the living space to a college student and hosting parties/meetings for college groups in the other room, maybe opening up the cafe for concerts on Saturday nights it could be classic. When I first heard about the cafe six months ago I was immediately struck by its implications and hope to hear that one of you has opened one in the States before I get back...

I hope everyone is doing well, getting enough food and meeting new people. Life is relationships and we should be friends.

Peace Love and Music

Mike

Summer Thunder Storms

We have made it through the rainy season officially, now it is full fledged summer and a little on the warm side. Tonight are experiencing a nice little thunderstorm with lightning and raindrops. I gave a morning gathering today about non profits, entrepreneurialship, how to play the guitar, freedom, and the old testament, it was received warmly and I don't think I put anyone to sleep. I still need to work on writing outlines for my public speaking, but sometimes it works out for me without many notes. I spent the evening reading blogs about entrepreneurialship and non profits, there is a connection between the two and I think it could make a huge difference in how we look at saving the world and methods to get there. I hope everyone is eating well, go cook a meal and invite some friends over, Sunday night dinners are a favorite of mine and they should be a regular on your calender.

Peace Love and Thunderstorms

Mike

Guest Post

It is American independence day and the American contingent at ARI has organized a real shindig to celebrate life and culture. In this Kathy has rounded up volunteers from all over ARI to create a quintessential American barbeque with chicken, cornbread, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, chocolate chip cookies and homemade ice cream, there will be fireworks tonight.

We have a few visitors on campus this weekend including two former volunteers. One of these volunteers is my former roomate who rode his bike up from Chiba on Thursday to spend a few days at ARI. He was gracious enough to offer a few words as my first guest contributor to the blog, here is what he had to say (unedited) I give you Yumitaro Yamato:


Hi everyone.

I can listen to the music from outside and people chatting. I can smell the chicken being grilled. Yes, meeen today is July 4th. People are preparing for tonight 's BBQ. I know there were people prepared icecreams and cookies. These extraordinarily many flies are celebrating this day.
Oh happy day oh happy day.

On that note I am going to wander out to see how the grilling is going and listen to a little Eric Clapton.

Peace Love and Explosions

Mike

Lessons Learned

I have recently begun taking my life lessons seriously, evaluating my mistakes and trying to make steps to correct future behaviors. That might seem like a stiff and uptight wayt ot start a post, but it is a short post so I wanted to get it off of my chest.

This weekend I got a chance to go down to Tokyo and make a few connections. I met with my contact with the Anglican office in Japan, then got a chance to speak at St. Alban's about ARI. I had some trouble with my speaking in church but rallied after the service and got to make some good connections about ARI. Despite botching my speech I was treated to a great lunch with my new friend Tomoko. After lunch I headed to a natural farmer's gathering at my friends and former roomate Yamato's house. There was a speaker from Osaka, his talk was all in Japanese but I enjoyed watching his enthusiasm and our friend Maria did a great job translating for the two English speakers. On Monday I headed home with the participants who had been in Tokyo for a home stay program, I even got to drive the van. All in all a great weekend was had by all. More to come later.

Peace and love
Mike