I was flipping around one of my old diaries and I found some sermon notes from when Papa was preaching through the book of Romans.

… if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. (Romans 12:20)

Did you know that the Greek word for “coal” is “anthrax”? I think I started contemplating kindness for some people a little too gleefully that morning.

I went to buy some textbooks for my students this afternoon and chatted for a minute or two with one of the guys who worked there, a fellow bilingual haafu.

- You said before you grew up in both America in Japan, right? Where in America?
- Yeah, lived in Seattle for a few years.
- Oh, I was just there a few weeks ago on my way to Moscow, Idaho. Have you been to Moscow?
- My brother went to school there for four years. He hated it. Moscow is so small, there’s nothing to do.
- It was great to see small town life and I really enjoyed my time there, but it’s a relief to be back in the city.

I guess his brother didn’t get to attend the history conference. Poor guy. But after coming back here, I started to wonder what life in Moscow is like when it’s not conference season. As several people told me, I can imagine it won’t be as exciting as it was during the conference.

While I was there, I couldn’t get over the fact that everywhere Lindsey and I went, she knew everybody. People passing by in their cars, walking down the street, and working in the stores, she would wave and greet them by name. Everybody was so friendly I didn’t know what to do at first. My first day at the mall, I nearly jumped out of my skin when somebody who worked there came up behind me and greeted me like somebody he knew. But after going to a few stores, I realized everybody was like that. After growing up my entire life not talking to the millions of strangers who live in this city, or actually, when outside, so oblivious of strangers that they are practically non-existant, it was a mind-boggling experience.

A lot of the time I was there, I felt like I’d been sucked into a movie. Huge houses, wide empty roads, vast spaces of open land, and a “downtown” that was smaller than any section of any town I’d ever seen in my life. When somebody was telling me she was so excited about how busy downtown was getting, I was utterly at a loss for words. The entire population of Moscow is smaller than the number of people who go through our little, local train station every day.

Population of Moscow, Idaho: 21,291
Population of Koganei, Tokyo: 110,557
Population of Tokyo, Japan: 12,170,000

People often ask me if I like living here and if I like it better here than living “in America.” I used to answer, “Well, I’ve never really lived anywhere else that I can remember, so I can’t give you a real answer.” Now, I answer with an enthusiastic, “Yes! I love Tokyo.” Sometimes, I’ll even add, “I love the smell of exhaust hanging in the air. Home, sweet home.”

This city is packed with millions and millions of people from pretty much every country in the world. Tokyo is full of universities, a number of which are top universities in the world. There are art exhibitions every day. Every week, some world-famous musician has a concert. All year around, there are top class orchestras, ballet companies, theatrical companies, and circuses on stage. Politicians, journalists, scholars, artists, actors, chefs, are flying in and out all the time. There are innumerable restaurants serving food from every continent (OK, except Antarctica, you smart aleck). There are tens of thousands of stores selling everything you could ever need or want, selling things even beyond imagination.

Tokyo is the home of a breathtakingly exciting technological mecca. There is no place in the world like Akihabara Electric Town. People actually fly in from all over the world just to visit that section of Tokyo. Every computer, every computer part, accessories, electronic gadgets, both old and new, are sold there. More and more here about Akiba. If any of you techno-geeky bloggers come over, I’ll take you for a visit.

Granted, it’s not as if I am always meeting people from Swaziland, going to exhibitions, buying new computers, and eating out every day. But any time I want to, I can. Just knowing that makes a difference. And even if I’m not doing it myself, there is always somebody I know, a friend, a student, a neighbor, somebody, who is doing one of those things. I used to take it for granted, and probably still do. But not as much as before.

One of the things I like best about Tokyo is its safety. It’s so safe here, it’s ridiculous. One of my former students was a policeman. He said that about 50% of the misdemeanors in Japan were thefts … of bicycles. Basically, as a policeman, all he does is track stolen bicycles. Can you imagine? According to an interesting book I have, the murder rate here is 1/15th that of the US.

You know what? I’m rambling beyond control. I don’t even know what I’m writing about anymore. It’s nearing 1 AM and I’m going to church tomorrow morning, so g’night.

… was Anti-quasi-arbolic-Habermasian-crypto-modernism. I don’t even want to understand what that means.

I have now been blogging for a year, a week, and a day. By popular demand, I celebrate this anniversary by posting my most popular template so far. (Here is the story of how it came to be.)

I just had a piece of chocolate, a glass of milk, and some blood.

This afternoon, I had class with my advanced kids, The 6, 2 girls and 4 boys, ages 10-13. In the past year, the pace they’re learning is only getting faster and faster. It’s so exciting to see how much they learn week by week. Right now, we’re working on English grammar, reading, writing, vocabulary, Bible memorization, and recently, a few creeds.

The Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy 5:6-21) are down pat, reading, spelling, recitation with emphases, pauses, everything. Now we’re working on 1 John (finished the first chapter, starting the second) and Proverbs 31:10-31 (almost done). All of the memorizing is done in both Japanese and English, and of course, the English is from the Authorized Version.

A few weeks ago, the kids decided they’re ready to tackle some creeds. We have three creeds in our church’s order of worship booklet, the Athanasian, the Nicene, and the Chalcedonian. We started with the Athanasian because it’s the easiest, even though it’s longer than the other two.

We just finished reading about the history of the English monarchy. Next week, we start going through a workbook of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and will read The Prisoner of Zenda. In the next two or three weeks, we’ll be done with English grammar. After that, we figure we’re ready for either Primeval Saints and/or A House For My Name.

Most of the students in most of the classes I’ve taught will probably never use what I’ve tried to teach them. The 6 are the ones that make teaching a joy. I hope and pray that they will become mighty kingdom builders in the years to come.

While we were at the conference, some of us talked about our mothers and wondered why none of us mention them much, even though our mothers are the ones who have influenced and shaped our lives perhaps more than anyone else. It’s hard for me to blog about Mama because it is hard to say anything about her without sounding like I’m bragging and because I know she doesn’t like attention. But here goes.

As I sit here and think of my mother, what comes to mind? Fire, Zeal for God’s Word, Righteousness, No Compromising, and Tenderness. If I were to write a book about her, it would be called My Mother is a Warrior.

Some of my first memories of Mama are pretty normal, I guess. I remember her cooking in the kitchen, doing the laundry, and cleaning up around the house, scolding us (in Chinese), taking lots of pictures, teaching in Sunday School and the Junior Bible Club.

But there are things about Mama I’ve always taken for granted that as I get older I realize are very special.

Ever since I can remember, I’ve heard Mama and Papa discussing theology early in the morning or late at night, saying things like “x is Jesus” (I always wondered what that meant), pulling open humongous heavy books, and going back and forth about the interpretation of this or that verse or the root of some Hebrew or Greek word. I used to take it for granted that Mama has always had a thorough understanding of Papa’s work and writing. She reads and edits everything Papa writes.

Ever since I can remember, I’ve taken it for granted to see Mama stay up all night studying, the living room table covered with books. Various Bible translations in English and Japanese, sometimes Chinese also, the Hebrew OT, Greek NT, Septuagint, various lexicons and dictionaries, commentaries, and then countless pages of charts and papers covered with her handwritten notes. She prepares like that for every class, every seminar. From Mama’s classes over the years, the serious ladies at church have learned little by little to do in-depth study of the Bible on their own, and some have learned to study using Hebrew and Greek interlinears. Sometimes, Mama works at the office so long she doesn’t come home till morning.

And somehow doing all that she does, she still makes so much time for her children that she knows everything I do and gives me a lot of advice … about everything (whether I ask for it or not! LOL).

It is said that a man is happiest with these three.

- American House (big, comfortable)
- Japanese Wife (quiet, submissive)
- Chinese Food (best in the world)

Papa got mixed up somewhere along the way.

- American … um … Citizenship
- Japanese Apartment (eentsy-weentsy)
- Chinese Wife (shall we say, stalwart?)

He’s one of the happiest men I know.

I’m getting so tired of timetables and rules and restrictions and reputations. But there is no escape from any of it as long as one is human. No matter how free or casual a society or group is, there are always rules of some kind. Even if there are no people anywhere and one becomes a hermit, it would be impossible to live without structuring one’s life in some way.

As creatures created in the image of God, a God of three Persons who relate to each other in an orderly, hierarchical manner, there is no way for any man to avoid hierarchy or order. Both are holy, but contaminated and perverted by sin in this world.

OK, so all this thinking “out loud” is to tell myself I must not abandon, or rather, it is sin for me to even wish to abandon rules and order and hierarchy and social grids, the whole lot.

1. What is your full name? Emeth Hesed Smith

2. Rick lost this question.

3. What are you listening to right now? Today, nothing. Yesterday, No Doubt and Matchbox 20. A couple nights ago, Frank Sinatra. The day before that, Handel’s Israel in Egypt.

4. What are the last 4 digits of your phone number? 8845

5. What was the last thing you ate? I don’t know what it’s called. Some Chinese thing with beef and vegetables.

6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? I’d never be a crayon, but if I were, black or blue.

7. How is the weather right now? From Wunderground.

Updated: 3:00 AM JST on March 20, 2003
Observed at Tokyo, Japan
Temperature: 45 F / 7 C
Windchill: 38 F / 3 C
Humidity: 46%
Dew Point: 25 F / -4 C
Wind: North at 16 mph / 25.7 km/h
Pressure: 29.94 in / 1014 hPa (Steady)
Conditions: Clear

8. Last person you talked to on the phone? Rachel.

9. The first thing you notice about the opposite sex? There’s more than just one thing.

10. Do you like the person who sent you this? I stole this from Rick. I think I like him. <grin>

11. How are you today? OK, I guess.

12. Favourite drink? Cranberry juice. Grapefruit juice. Cherry Cola.

13. Favourite alcoholic drink? Bailey’s Irish Cream, various kinds of fruit liqueur.

14. Favourite sports? To do: swimming. To watch: gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, figure skating.

15. Hair colour? Black.

16. Eye colour? Brown.

17. Do you wear contacts? Yes.

18. Siblings and their ages? Ben Zedek, 21. Berek Qinah, 19.

19. Favourite month? May.

20. Favourite food? Yamcha.

21. Last movie you watched? Say Anything.

22. Favourite day of the year? Depends on the year.

23. Are you too shy to ask someone out? Yes. But that’s not the issue. I’d never do it anyway.

24. Scary movies or happy endings? Happy, of course.

25. Summer or winter? Spring.

26. Hugs or kisses? Neither now, but no dichotomy necessary.

27. Relationships or one night stands? This is the question that should’ve been erased. I wonder what number 2 was.

28. Chocolate or vanilla? Depends.

29. Living arrangements? With family, for now.

30. What books are you reading?

• The Word of God in English: Criteria for Excellence in Bible Translation
• The Art of Biblical Poetry
• Dance Kinesiology
• Monsters from the Id: The Rise of Horror in Fiction and Film
• The Christian Counselor’s Manual (required reading, not my choice)

31. What’s on your mouse pad? No mousepad. I use a trackball.

32. Favourite board game? Haven’t really played any.

33. What did you do last night? Talked with Ben. Went to sleep.

34. Favourite smells? Gardenia (the flower), Daphne (the flower), Nina Ricci’s L’Air du Temps, J.Lo’s Glow

35. What is the first thing you think when you wake up in the morning? What day of the week is it? What classes do I have today? <groan> I wanna go back to sleep.