I am sitting in the biggest Starbucks in Nagoya. Yesterday, I bought Naomi Klein's book No Logo, so I suppose this could be the last time I ever come here, but for now, ignorance is bliss. Though this isn't really such a blissful place for me. I don't really like coffee, so instead I just paid $5 for a steamed milk, which seems a little overboard for warm milk, but hey, I bought the image, and I am sitting in Starbucks, which makes me infinitely cooler than I was just minutes ago...

Yep, if we have it in North America, they pretty much have got it here, just with better service. All except for size 11 shoes. I have searched far and wide for a pair of size 11's - not because I need them but because I will need them - and have met with no success at all. There was a size 11 pair of nike basketball shoes in one place, but they were orange and yellow, and I will do a lot more searching before I go back for those.

Today I am looking around for English teaching jobs. I need something to do with my week, and I need some extra money to pay off the startup costs of life in Japan. We got a nice house about 25 minutes out of Nagoya in a place called Seto. It has lots of room, and the rent is very low, as we are getting it from a pastor friend of mine. Diana and Natsumi, Andrea, Simon and I are all going to live there together, which should be a good experiment in intentional community. All of us, with the exception of Andrea and Diana, have lived together before, so I don't foresee too much friction. Well, maybe some between me and Diana because, come on, we are siblings. And I suppose between me and Andrea because, come on, we are married...

Yesterday we were talking excitedly about the house parties we would be able to have at the new place. I have been musing a little about how, in my estimation, traditional church has fused the school and the party with poor results. You either have a boring party or a vague and confusing school. I am wondering to what extent we can experiment with separating the two �Eeither let a get together be a party of wide open relational connecting, or a more focused and intentional look at issues and theologies. Well, we'll experiement a little anyway. Apparently, the party might run into a little trouble as house parties are just not very normal here. The Japanese tend to confine their partying to the downtown areas, while keeping their homes for quiet family living. It is quite a rare thing to go over to someone's house even just to hang out. Relational connecting is usually done at a bar, restaurant, karaoke lounge, arcade (YOU SHOULD SEE THE ARCADES HERE), etc. So we might have to walk softly in our neighborhood with that one. I'm not really interested in a "loud, obnoxious gaijin" kind of reputation.