Right Wing in Japan

This (Sunday) evening here in Tokyo I decided to be really geeky and get some fun pictures down at Shibuya Crossing - sort of the "Times Square" of Tokyo. My 360-degree panoramic shot is here at the left. Without clicking on it to see it enlarged, it may be tough to see because it's so long and skinny (and I never dated a girl like that). Anyway... it's always a fun place to people watch. I ended up taking in some very interesting propagandizing. In Japan causes, politicians and others can use vehicles laden with speakers to be mobile propaganda platforms. These things can actually be quite annoying, just because they're so loud. I'm sure even here in Japan you need a special permit, but I'm not even sure you could get such a permit in the U.S.

Anyway... tonight parked down at Shibuya Crossing was one of these propaganda trucks for Taikousya Sumera. Upon doing some research I discovered that they're a right ring group here in Tokyo of about 700 members, and they even have ties to the yakuza. Lovely. For the most part, their propagandizing wasn't bad. They brought up several speakers, each addressing the topic of how to make Japan better. Not a bad cause. They were even saying some really logical things like, "You'll have a chance next summer to participate in elections; study up on the issues and candidates to make an informed choice."

It's all good so far. As was one guy who said, "We can make Japan better by honoring our parents. Even if you don't like your parents, you still need to honor them because they brought you in to the world. Take care of them, and don't let anything bad happen to them. Don't let the medical establishment treat them poorly." And so on. All good stuff. But wait a minute... this is a land of socialized medicine: on that last point, how could that happen???!!!

One guy even got up and said, "You know... for as long as I can remember, at this time of year, we also light up all parts of the city with 'Christmas light-up' every year. Even here a Shibuya Station, erected back in the 1920s, in its first year it had Christmas light-up. Why is it that we all do this? Why do we like this so much? I believe it's because in the vast craziness of living in such a big city, it makes us feel like a small community..." (you can see a little bit of that "Christmas light-up" he was talking about at the right).

Interesting, huh? Man... he just DOESN'T GET IT!!! We like it because it's the Christmas spirit, you nitwit!!! Christmas. Christ. Geesh. Oh well... I'm glad this guys feels the spirit of Christmas, even if he doesn't recognize it for what it is.

But the most interesting part was when the guy got up and spoke about how we need to rely on ourselves to make Japan better. OK... I'm a self-reliance kind of guy; I'll go with that. But then he went on to rip on all foreignors, and that's when he lost me. He said that "in our own circles of trust (individually), we trust ourself the most. Then just below that we trust our family. Then just below that we trust our friends." OK... I guess this isn't so bad; I'll go with it. But then he lost me. He said, "Trusting foreignors is way down on the bottom; we cannot trust them. We can't trust the Chinese; look at what they do to their own people. We cannot trust the South Koreans because look how we treated them for several decades last century. (OK... he sort of has a point there.) We cannot trust the Americans; they nuked us. Why didn't they nuke the also-white-skinned Germans instead?"

Whoa wait a minute, fella (pictured at left). Maybe it had something to do with the fact that despite overwhelming losses for over three years the Japanese were still entrenched throughout the Pacific and were not giving up, but the Germans had already surrendered???

By this point, probably 100 people were standing there listening, including another white guy standing near me. He and I both started shaking our heads at the same time. He came over to me and asked in English with a very thick accent, "Do you understand this guy?" I laughed and said, "Yeah, I do." As it turns out, this guy I was near was from Russia but also speaks English and Japanese. He told me, "This guy's stupid." Well... I actually think he seemed pretty intelligent, just a little nutty.

It was really interesting. I was here in Japan in September when they had their big parliamentary elections, and I sat glued to my hotel room TV that Sunday night watching election returns in Japanese. I got really in to that then, and observing this tonight was pretty interesting, too.

Below, and linked here, is an embedded video of the massive throng of people crossing at Shibuya Crossing when the light turns green. You can hear one of these guys talking in the background.

Brianna Singing "Hero"

My readers here know that I love taking pictures. My favorite camera is my Canon Digital SLR, but it's just too big to take along on business trips, so I have a smaller "simpler" Olympus digital camera that I take along with me when I travel. It also shoots video (which my larger digital SLR does not).

So I brought it along with me to Tokyo on this trip, and I go to download a few pictures that I've taken with it. Lo and behold, I discover that back on November 9th, somebody (I'm assuming Andrew) used this camera to record Brianna singing "Hero," undoubtedly one of the tribute pieces of her Uncle James Michael Cotter ("Uncle Michael"). Michael was a proud member of the Hi-Tops Dance Team, and they always perform this song. Whenever they perform it, each member of the dance team wears a shirt with his/her picture on it. At Michael's funeral, the Hi-Tops performed, and they all wore a shirt with Michael's picture on it.

Anyway... I don't know how Brianna got through this, but she made it without crying. One of these days we should record her doing this mic'd up so we can hear her voice better over the piano. If any members of my family can watch this and listen without getting all teared up, my hat's off to you!

There's a YouTube link to the video here, but chances are that YouTube will remove it due to copyright protections. I'm also embedding it here below, directly to my blog (blogger link is also here). Enjoy.

Happy Thanksgiving

Though it's Friday morning here in Tokyo where I am for a week or so, it's Thanksgiving back at home, and I thought I'd take this opportunity to list some of the things I am grateful for. There are sure to be many MANY things I'm missing, but this was just sort of a brain dump here.

I approached listing God first, followed by immediate family members in descending age order, and then everything else is just alphabetized. I am more of the persuasion of Matthew 6:4 ("That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.") and so I usually don't discuss this much, but I have a deep and abiding faith and perhaps some day I'll do a more extensive posting on this, but herein I list it first and know that it's the cause of all of my other many blessings.

So here goes, and I apologize for the many things I've left out:

• God and Jesus Christ. I’m grateful for God’s great plan of happiness that makes all of this possible, and for my Savior who in spite of me loves me and offers me an avenue of repentance for all my imperfections.
• Michelle. My wife is my best friend and I love spending time with her. She’s a terrific mother and wife. All parents encourage their children to “marry up” – I certainly did that, and I’m glad that Michelle ignored her parents’ counsel in this regard.
• Justin. I’m glad that Justin has turned out to be such an awesome young man, in spite of being our “guinea pig” in the parenting experience. He’s super talented, funny, full of integrity, and is doing a great job serving a mission right now for our Savior.
• Christopher. I know of few young men whom have a greater love for his fellow man that Christopher. He always wants to help other people, and is doing a great job serving our country.
• Brianna. I once heard a father explain that with the birth of his son, he thought he had no greater capacity to love. But then his daughter was born and he found a little corner of his heart that he had no idea existed. And so it is.
• Andrew. Quiet, unassuming Andrew. Sort of a quiet, blend-in-the-scenes young man with incredible intelligence, whit, athleticism and talent that continually takes us by surprise.
• Mark. “Hey… I coulda made a hat out of that!” The poor kid got my sense of humor (sorry, Mark). We can always count on Mark to make us laugh and to appreciate life in all its wonderment.
• Steven. Rounding out the Goodale lineage with an even half-dozen, Steven always strives to do the right thing and we love him for it. His purity and innocence reminds us of where we should all be.
• Acura. Loved my TL when I had it, and today my MDX is really fun to drive.
• Air Travel. On American Airlines alone I’ve traveled more than four million miles lifetime to date, and yet air travel never ceases to amaze me.
• American Soldier. And all of our military members. Though Christopher’s experiences in the Army have jaded him a bit about the quality of our men and women in uniform, I think overall he still respects them and is proud to be counted amongst that group. I am grateful these brave men and women whom have written blank checks to our government and to us, payable up to and including their very lives.
• Blogging. Michelle says I’m voyeuristic and perhaps that’s true, but I love expressing my thoughts and sharing my fascinating (or incredibly dull) life with my loved ones.
• Books. Wow I love reading. So many good authors out there, too. You’ll never see me on the road without a book to read. Hey… maybe I do all this traveling because it’s a good excuse to engross myself in a good new book.
• Boy Scouts. Two of my sons are Eagle Scouts and I’ll have a third one soon. I am grateful for this great program.
• Campfires. Sure… I’m a boy and therefore like fire. And if you know me, you know I’ve always said that if it’s not visible from space, it’s not a campfire!
• Cell Phones and Text Messaging. My first cell phone was a BRICK, and my how we’ve come to rely on these things!
• China. OK. Is it weird this one would come up in my list of things I’m grateful for? Not really. Over the past few years I’ve had the opportunity to spend a lot of time in China, and I love its “uniquefulness” – a tough thing for a nation of over a billion people. One for personal progression, I love to see the national progression China is making to become a responsible player on the world’s stage. Still a ways to go, but I love China’s progress.
• Computers. I grew up in a world where a motherboard was what your mom hit you with (OK… my mom never hit me, for which I am also grateful) and random access memory was just merely selective memory (a practice still practiced by my entire gender). Imagine life without computers now, though!!!
• Constitution. I believe the document created to guide our nation was inspired of God, and I am grateful to have it. May we not use it as a doormat.
• Dining Room Table. OK… not the table, itself, but I’m grateful for all the great family conversations we have around the dining room table. You see, in our home, the dining room table is not something you pass by on the way to the rest of your life. It’s a destination.
• Diversity. Indeed, I think it’s really cool that we all sway our hips (or not) to the beat of a different drummer.
• Driving. I love driving, and have driven in some amazing places: cross-country trips in the U.S., the German autobahn, the laneless madness of the roundabout circling the Arc de Triomphe, the French and Italian rivieras, the crazed streets of Japan, another driving-on-the-left experience in Melbourne and Sydney, and other great places.
• Earth. What a beautiful planet we live on!
• Employment. I am so grateful to not only have a job, but I’m grateful to do something that I really enjoy.
• Extended Family. I paid tribute to each of my direct family members, but I am so grateful for all of my extended family. Too many to mention here, but I love you all!
• Facebook. I have reconnected with so many long-lost friends through Facebook – it’s way fun. Not to mention being on Facebook is a great way to know your own kids! Thank you Mark Zuckerberg and your geeky fellow computer science friends at Harvard for founding Facebook!
• Food. I’m not the smallest guy on the planet, so you’re probably not too surprised to hear that I enjoy food. Speaking of which, while here in Tokyo this week, I can’t wait to go to my favorite yakiniku restaurant, Safari.
• Freedom. I am so grateful for the freedoms that I enjoy every day, and admittedly take for granted.
• French Toast. OK. Who doesn’t love French toast? While my family is enjoying a yummy Thanksgiving dinner at home in Boise, it’s Friday morning here in Tokyo, and I made French Toast here in my weekly mansion studio apartment room. Yum!
• Health. Though not perfect, I do enjoy relatively good health, for which I am grateful.
• Home. We have a great house, that truly is a “home.” I really miss it when I’m on the road.
• Idaho. I truly love my adopted state (some pics here). It’s gorgeous, and for the most part, I love its people.
• Information. I am grateful to be part of the “information age” when just about anything you can possibly imagine is readily researchable with a few keystrokes.
• Infrastructure. OK… on the outset, I can see that this might seem funny, but think of all the modern-day conveniences we take for granted. And when was the last time you freaked out when you flipped a switch and the light did NOT come on. Or flushed the toilet and it didn’t go down. We freak out in the rare instances when our infrastructure fails us, and it makes me grateful to have them.
• Intelligence. I’m not claiming to have it, but I love pursuing it, and am thankful I can do so.
• Internet. Ever indebted to Al Gore for having invented this!
• Japan. I love its people, its culture, its history. What a great place. I am so glad that I was called to serve in Japan as a missionary, and thus began a lifelong love of all things Japanese.
• Japanese. I love the Japanese language, and have fun in my never-ending study of it. I am grateful to be bilingual.
• Microwave Ovens. Wow how we missed ours while it was on the fritz!
• Modern Medicine. It has brought my kids safely in to my world, and has on occasion brought them back from some pretty serious ailments. Who could imagine that a once-daily little pill could save our family from the traumatic epileptic seizures that one of our own was suffering? And as I sit here I can think of eleven separate times I’ve been under general anesthesia while doctors have cut in to me to fix one thing or another! And who can survive kidney stones without modern medicine (I've done it once, on a flight from Tokyo to L.A. - I wouldn't recommend it!).
  
• Mother. I’m grateful to have had a great mom, and I miss her. We had this tradition that I would call her every time I went out of town – and hence we actually spoke quite a bit! There are still times when I get in to the car to head to the airport and instinctively I pull out my phone to call Mom. See my tribute to her here.
• Movie Time. Whether going to the movie theater or sitting in our family room with a DVD, I love hanging out with my family and watching movies.
• Music. I love music, and with the possible exception of twangy country western and opera, there are few genre of music that I do not enjoy. I am very grateful that I have some musically gifted children. Even as I type this, I’m listening to a recording of Justin playing in the All Southern California Honors Orchestra playing Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” – recorded when Justin was just 16.
• Photography. Capturing life is awesome. My Flickr sets can be found here.
  
• Popcorn. Kudos to the guy (or gal) who discovered that if you heat up corn kernels, they explode in to a culinary treat! I’m enjoying some right now, even while typing this list (otherwise I may not have thought to include it).
• Shadow. We have an awesome dog. Our 80-pound huskey/malamute mix is gorgeous, loving, and dumb as a rock. Sometimes I think I’d like his life.
• Simplicity. In spite of all the fancy things I’m listing that I’m grateful for, I love simplicity, as well, as reminded by Lynyrd Skynyrd’s recent song release “Simple Life.”
• Skiing. Though I’m not very good at skiing, and my really bad left knee keeps me from going on advanced runs, I look forward to making good use of our season passes to Bogus Basin this winter!
• Snowflake. Our beloved bunnicula? I can’t be thankful for our pets without including the rabbit. Nobody really seems to like him, but I admit to occasionally going up to him and petting him on the head (and miraculously, he doesn’t try to bite me in the process).
• Sports. Not that I’m very good at any sports (“Here, Andrew… let me show you how that’s done…”), but I sure love watching them, at every level. From the hysterical tee ball games we enjoyed with our young kids all the way up to professional level contests, it’s all great!
• Stormy. What? I’m grateful for our cat? I guesso. Stormy has put a chink in my belief that cats are God’s proof that not everything in nature has a purpose.
• Taco Seasoning. It’s unlikely you could ever escape our house without hearing from our children about our taco seasoning experience one Christmas morning several years ago.
• Talk Radio. A funny thing, perhaps, to be thankful for, but I love it, and listen to perspectives from all sides. It stimulates the mind.
• Travel. Though I spend TOO much time on the road, I am grateful to have seen much of the world, and I love it.
• USA. I have the cool perspective of experiencing much of the world throughout my travels, and there is no place like the United States of America. I pass through U.S. ports of entry several times a year, and on more than one occasion I’ve gotten choked up when seeing “Welcome to the United States of America” at these ports of entry.
• Video Games. Hey, indulge me here! The industry is what puts food on my table and keeps a roof over my head.
• Weather. Now having grown beyond the four seasons of Fire, Earthquake, Flood and Riot that Southern California offered up, I’m grateful now to be living in Idaho where we experience four distinct seasons.
• Writing. I’m not a very creative person, but I love writing and it’s the one avenue where I do have at least some level of creativity. I’ve already written a little bit on a couple of works of mine here on this Japan trip, and look forward to more.

Bronco Nation

Since moving to Boise, we've of course become huge BSU fans. It doesn't hurt that we have two people in our family who go there: Michelle pursuing a Social Work degree and our son Justin pursuing a Music Education degree (though Justin is on a two-year break serving a mission). And its fun to be in the national spotlight with a top ten ranking in NCAA football. Horizon Air has even done a Broncos-themed aircraft now. I snapped this photo (on the right) of our Broncos turboprop just after boarding my regional jet flight to LAX (connecting through to Tokyo) earlier this week. Horizon has university-themed aircraft in their fleet, honoring universities in cities they serve. I've seen the aircraft for the Universities of Oregon and Washington, and now it's good to have one for Boise! I understand that this aircraft did a flyover at Bronco Stadium at the home game a couple of weeks ago - that would have been fun to see.

Boise is a city of just less than 200,000 people, and the whole city goes crazy on a football game day, particularly if it's a home game. Everybody wears blue and orange. All the store marquees have some sort of message for Broncos football. BSU flags are flying on a good percentage of the cars in the city. Local schools even excuse absences for BSU game attendance. At the stadium, tailgate parties are crazy!!! The whole atmosphere is just way fun. People even dress their pitbull dogs in BSU attire on game day (see pic here). I also like this pic from the tailgate parties from the November 14th game, sporting the USA and BSU flags.

This week (Friday after Thanksgiving) BSU plays Nevada in what will end up being the WAC championship game. I'm sad that it won't be broadcast on Japanese TV while I'm here. It should prove to be an exciting game. GO BRONCOS!!!

Below are some additional Bronco Nation photos, and I've linked a bunch more (click here). Michelle's sister and her family were up here a couple of weeks ago, and we went for a walk down at Julia Davis Park and around Bronco Stadium, and that's where these pics are from.

Broncos fans are also patriots.

Pre-game tailgate parties in the parking lot at Bronco Stadium.

BSU-clad dogs pulling a wheelchair. I think this sort of thing could give Santa Claus and his raindeer-pulled sled a run for his money! :-)

Pre-game tailgate parties in the parking lot at Bronco Stadium.

At a tailgate party, one fan even played the Broncos-Vandals matchup on his PS3 before the game. His outcome was 33-14 Broncos. The actual game ended up 63-25 Broncos. Pretty close to the same ratio, ironically, but the wrong score.

Pics from Around Idaho

These past two weekends I've had the opportunity to take quite a few pictures from around Idaho. First off, last weekend (November 7th) Michelle and I had a "driving date" through northern Idaho on my way home from a business trip to Seattle and Vancouver (BC). After I drove out there for work earlier in the week, Michelle flew out to meet me in Seattle Friday night, and we drove home together. We have some really good friends whom had moved to the boonies just east of Coeur d'Alene from Irvine about the same time we moved to Boise, and we hadn't seen them since our California days (daze?). This is their beautiful home here on the right. They built this log cabin home on their 40-acre property after they bought it, and the home overlooks Lake Coeur d'Alene - it's really beautiful!!!

I had crossed the border (border crossing pic here on left) from Vancouver in British Columbia back to the U.S. earlier Friday afternoon and picked Michelle up in Seattle, then we drove to Spokane that night. We spent the night in Spokane, then visited our friends for breakfast Saturday morning. It was so great to see them again! We took the rest of Saturday driving south through northwestern Idaho, down through Plummer, Moscow (University of Idaho Vandal country!!!), Lewiston, and McCall en route home. It's really pretty up in Coeur d'Alene, and call me crazy, but I actually thought Lewiston was quite pretty (I've never heard any talk about how pretty it is). Particularly as you are coming south on I-95 and you're on the big hill overlooking the entire valley, it's quite pretty. Maybe it's because we were seeing it at sunset it was nice - I dunno. You'll see the pics and can judge whether or not I'm crazy.

Then this past weekend Michelle's sister and her husband and children were visiting from California. We took the opportunity of the first measurable snow this season in Boise Friday night to take a stroll around downtown Boise's Julia Davis Park Saturday morning. The park is right next to BSU's Bronco Stadium, and of course it was game day. The whole area is awash in blue and orange, and it's just really fun. You'll see a lot of nature pictures of the park and of the Boise River (pictured at right), but you'll also see a bunch of pics from all the tailgate parties, as well. Boise gets CRAZY on BSU football game days, and it's way fun!!!

We also had a GREAT time Friday night while the Bruns were in town, when much of the local Dillion clan from Boise came over to our house for dinner (lasagna) and fun. It's always so much fun when the whole family gets together! Believe it or not, though... I didn't take pictures at this gathering (like I usually do). Michelle's sister Melinda was taking pics, so I can't wait to see them on Facebook after she posts them!

Anyway... enjoy the photos below, as well as all that I've posted online from last weekend (here on Facebook and here on Flickr) as well as from this weekend (here on Facebook and here on Flickr).

The Seurynck's log cabin home on their 40-acre lot.

The view from the second floor of the Seurynck's log cabin home. Dave literally sits at this window from where I took this picture, and hunts in his pajamas. Last year he bagged a big ol' elk without even taking his slippers off!

Lake Coeur d'Alene.

Overlooking Lewiston, Idaho.

The cousins at Boise River.

The little white church on the BSU campus.

The tailgate parties.

From the tailgate parties.

The lake at Julia Davis Park.

My favorite mother-in-law!

Haunted House 2009

Every year Michelle's cousins do a big Haunted House here in Boise. Steve and his neighbor use both of their back yards and turn them in to this great Haunted House. We ran the Haunted House Friday and Saturday night, the 30th and 31st, and between the two nights took close to 600 people (I think) through the attraction. It's a very popular (and FREE) haunted house, and people line up out front and often wait up to two hours to get in. We take groups of 4-6 through at a time, guided by three tour guides. This first photo here are Steve Sr. and his sons Steve Jr. and Mike (from left to right), whom were our guides Saturday night.

We have tarps and other barriers constructed as walls to take victims... er... guests though a route that features many sections: a head table, a creepy bridge, a graveyard, a funeral, a guillotine execution area, a torso table, a dot room, a headless poker tournament, a butcher... lots and lots of different sections. To the left here is from the mental ward infirmary. I won't say what happens in this "room," but let's just say it's kind of disheartening. I worked in the guillotine area, and had the honor of beheading Mark over and over and over again - we had great fun! I actually had one of the few speaking parts in the Haunted House, and you know me... I can't do anything like that without spewing corny joke after corny joke. At any rate, I highly recommend you come to Boise next year and check out the Haunted House. Boise is a great place to beheaded anyway. :-)

I've posted 90 photos from both nights - some of these are not for the faint of heart. You can check them out on Facebook (click here) or on Flickr (click here). And below you can see an embedded video from YouTube (or click here) of me doing a practice run at the guillotine with Mark and Andrew.