Sadness

As a former YWAMer I was stunned by the news out of Colorado today. Although I personally served in "safe" countries, many YWAMers risk their lives serving in countries that are "closed" to Christianity. With several Muslim countries on the list of outreach locations for the Denver base, these guys knew they could face danger. I'm sure they never expected it at home though.

I'm praying for the bereaved families and for quick and full recoveries of the wounded from the base and New Life Church in Colorado Springs.

By the Numbers

Beach weather is a distant memory. This will have to be a catch-up post and it will go by the numbers.

599. The height of Mount Takao in meters. It's the tallest mountain in Tokyo (Tokyo is much more than the city). T and I climbed it last Saturday. It's a tough climb for a seven-year-old. He was a trooper.

1. The number of paper clips I paid for the first piece of fine art I ever bought. It's a picture of a rhino in crayon on paper by T.

100 and 500. The number of kilometers I've run this month and since I started logging my runs in June.

4.5. D's age in months. Time flies. He laughs at his own (or even better, someone else's) hiccups. enjoys my falsetto singing voice, (but frowns disapprovingly when I sing in a normal voice), and loves his Mommy.

20. The approximate number of times R shouts "Daddy!" as she runs to greet me when I come in from work most days . . . even though she's been with me most of the day at work and got home just an hour before I did.

26. The number of days until Christmas.

3. The number of days R thought there were until Christmas as of yesterday. We've been telling her that Christmas is in December. She knows that December is in just a couple days. Put two and two together and when is Christmas again?

9. The number of years Tomomi and I have been married. We celebrated our anniversary last month by getting a babysitter and going out for a nice Italian dinner. Had to take D with us, but he was on his best behavior. I've got a wonderful wife!

Beach Day

We went to the beach with some friends today. T and R had been looking forward to it for days. ("Tomorrow's tomorrow's tomorrow's tomorrow, we're going to the beach, right Dad?") We planned a 5AM departure to beat traffic and the kids had no problem waking up at 4:something. T was running, jumping and blabbering so much that I had to tell him just to sit in a chair and not get up unless he really had to (I had to finish my first cup of coffee before dealing with that much energy at that time of day).

It was a beautiful day at Kujukuri beach in Chiba prefecture.

Catching some rays

Sand castle? Cake?

For T, a day without baseball is now unthinkable. (That's our friend David playing catcher.)

She left it all out there on the beach.

Baseball!

T. (and R. to a lesser degree) has been all about baseball for the past month or so. We play catch or practice batting whenever we have a chance. Yesterday there was a sample lesson for a baseball school that practices at Hikarigaoka park, our favorite hangout. I had never heard of a baseball "school" before, where there are teachers rather than coaches and classes rather than games, but then again, this is Japan. We went anyway because the the price was right (free!).

T. and R. both participated and had a blast. There were warmups (with parents), throwing lessons, batting lessons, a sales pitch (sorry, bad pun) for the school, and some freestyle batting and fielding. The picture above is of T., R. and another kid working on their grip while waiting for their throwing lessons.

If T's interest in baseball persists, we'll look for a team for him to join.

Running Again

I should be out for a run right now but instead I've been stuck in the house, glued to the TV screen, watching people's umbrellas get blown inside out, tiles fly off of roofs, and storm surge crash over breakwaters. We're in a big typhoon, hurricane for you western hemispherians. Since I can't run, I figured I'd write about running.

I started in sixth grade. My first race was the 10km Turkey Trot in Kona, Hawaii. I finished it in 57:18 at age 11 (weird how I can remember silly things like that but not to pick up bread and milk at the store). I ran off and on and got serious about it in '95-'96 when I ran a couple of marathons in Hawaii (Kona - 3:43:?? and Maui - 3:32:32). After that I didn't really run again until June . . . this June. Yes, that's an eleven-year-gap.

There is a huge park in one direction from my apartment and a river with a trail all along it in the other direction. They are both beautiful places to run. I've been at it pretty regularly for the past few months except for eleven days in the middle of August. That's better than eleven years anyway and plus I have tons of excuses--I had a fever for about a week, guests from back home, our newborn was awake at all hours, and Tokyo had the hottest August on record, blah, blah, blah.

Anyway, I post this to say that I'm nuts about running again. I have more energy and feel more relaxed throughout the day, sleep better and eat better. I'm sure good things are happening to my heart and lungs too. I found a niftyonline running site with an excellent log and a community of good folks. You can see automatically updated snippets of my running log at the bottom of the sidebar on this page (feel free to bug me if you notice a long gap between runs).

The site is runningahead.com. If there are any Tokyo runners reading this, especially in the Itabashi/Nerima area, let's get in touch.

Girly Tomboy

R wanted to get all dressed up for our family afternoon at the park but then when we started playing baseball, she was right into that too, even with the dress and faux pearl necklace.

Mitsumasa Anno - Picture Books that Teach Math

We recently found a few really delightful children's books by Mitsumasa Anno. He is (was?) a Japanese math teacher turned author of children's books. The ones we read were Anno's Magic Seeds, Anno's Counting House, and Anno's USA. I love studying and teaching other disciplines through literature, which is part of what draws me to Anno's books.

Anno's Magic Seeds is about a wizard who gives a young man named Jack two seeds and tells him to eat one and plant the other. He promises that Jack won't be hungry for a whole year and that the seed in the ground will produce two more seeds the next year so he can repeat the process. Jack obeys and the wizard's words come to pass. For a few years Jack continues eating one seed and planting the other but one year he decides to plant both seeds. That's when the fun begins as the seeds begin multiplying geometrically. Jack eventually has so many seeds that he starts selling some. He plants more and more each year and always eats one each year. It is the reader's job to figure out how many seeds were planted, harvested, etc. Other complications arise when Jack marries and has a baby. Of course his wife and child eat some seeds also. All goes well until the hurricane. Jack, thankful that his family is spared, begins anew with just a few seeds.

The book, besides being a fun, beautifully illustrated story and a challenging math puzzle, teaches about risk, compound interest, the importance of diversification and the fact that good things, especially family, mustn't be taken for granted.

Anno's Counting House is a wordless book about people moving from one house to another. The old house gradually empties and the new house gradually fills with the people and their furniture. The reader (or readee) needs to predict and count who and what moves from one house to the other at each stage in the story. Attention to detail is important.

Anno's USA is one of a series of journey books. Wikipedia describes them better than I could:

In the "Journey" books, a tiny character travels through a nation's landscape, densely populated with pictures referencing that country's art, literature, culture, and history. Anno's illustrations are often in pen and ink and watercolor, and occasionally incorporate collage and woodcuts. They are intricately detailed, showing a sense of humor as well as an interest in science, mathematics, and foreign cultures. They frequently incorporate subtle jokes and references.

There are three pages of Anno's work on amazon.

An interesting web site with math lessons based on literature (including some of Anno's books) for grades K-8 is called SMaRT Books. Check it out and if you have any other reading recommendations, please share in the comments.

Geography Quiz 2: Statetris

For those who liked the other geography quiz I linked to a while back, here's one that is similar to tetris. Drop the states in their proper place using the arrow buttons on your keyboard. There are maps of Europe and Africa into which you drop the countries, and maps of the US, the UK, France and The Netherlands into which you drop states (or counties or whatever those European countries subdivide into). My times for filling in the US map was 4:06.7 on the easy setting which earned me a "Very Good" and 7:43.5, also on easy for Europe, for which I was told, "I've seen people do worse." That didn't give me enough confidence to try the even more difficult maps.

Anyway, give it a shot and post your scores in the comments. Here's the link again: Statetris.

Welcome to Japan! Here's your heat wave.

I've got a lot to write but the biggest thing that has happened recently is that my parents came out from California to visit . . .


and especially to meet D.


We went to a big "Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends" exhibit in Sunshine City, Ikebukero. We were herded through something like a maze containing pictures of Thomas characters set up for easy photo ops like this:


Of course the main attraction was the life-size(?) model of Thomas. I think James and Percy were there too. This is what the crowd was like . . .


But we finally made it up close and have the photos to prove it:


Because we were in a major heat wave, the kind where they update the death toll on the news every day, we didn't get out and about much. We played cards and did a lot of this:


The annual high school baseball tournament at Koshien was happening all week. Each prefecture in Japan sends their best team. (I think big prefectures get to send more than one.) Anyway, T learned all about baseball: the rules, strategy, etc. It was fun for three generations of Seminoffs to watch the games together. R even got into it and asked if she could have a bat for her birthday.

This shot is my current desktop background. Click it to see it bigger.

Because Papa and Grammy had to leave a few days before R's birthday she got to celebrate early. She loves the doll clothes that she got (because she doesn't get to dress and undress D) and as you can see above, the bat is popular too.


Anyway, we had one day of relief from the heat and spent it a Hikarigaoka Park, our current favorite hangout.





The kids played on the playground and we ate way too many ice cream cones (what else can you do when they keep giving you two-for-one coupons?). All too soon it was off to the airport and back home for Papa and Grammy.

70s Flashback with Keith Green

Yesterday evening I asked T what his favorite song was. He said, "Rejoice in the Lord Always." I took out an old Keith Green CD with a medley that included that song, dusted it off, set the player to "repeat" and we had a hoedown. T, R and I danced all around the living room for twenty minutes or so. R got so into it that when I started doing dishes later she said, "Let's keep dancing Daddy." I need to do the dishes now, R." But dancing is much more fun! Just keep on dancing"

It reminded me of attending church in the 70s and early 80s. The songs we sang were the songs in that medley. They are simple, catchy, and all have similar tunes. Click the play button below and to the left of Keith's face (or right on his face depending on your browser) and see if you can listen without smiling and tapping your feet.




I recommend all of Keith Green's music. This song originally appeared on "The Keith Green Collection" and it's also on "The Ministry Years: Volume 2"

I'm pretty sure I'm okay with copyright here. Keith Green sold his music for "whatever you can afford." He's dead now. If you are the current copyright holder and have a problem with what I've posted, let me know and I'll take it down.