WANISAN

I was a big fan of the show Breaking Bad. It intrigued me though I came to it very late, I think I started Season 1 during the first half of the airing of the final season.

I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I’d seen Malcolm in the Middle and thought it was funny for a while. The boys and I both bailed on it when it jumped the shark with the cutting off of the remaining hand of the commandant. The show had been slipping already, but I did like Brian Cranston.

I thought Breaking Bad would be interesting just to see the different character type.

Wow!

I always felt uneasy watching the show but I couldn’t stop watching and I couldn’t wait for it to end.

I asked some of my students in Japan if they were watching and only a few knew about it and less were watching it.

So you can imagine my surprise when I went to the book store near our house and saw a kit for kids to create their own blue crystals.

Must have been more popular than I though 😉

So last week was the Heal the World – Michael Jackson event which was held at the church in Imaike.

MJ still has a really hardcore fan base that is very active here in Japan at least.

We (Meito Junction) were invited to perform so though we are a bluegrass band primarily we were happy to accept and come and play. Since it was a Saturday afternoon it wasn’t easy to get the band together, so it was me and Byron. Luckily, my older son, Bynn, came and sang with us. He’s sang with us a time or two before and knew these songs, so it was great to have him there, too.

I’m very glad we did. It was great fun to introduce bluegrass to a group of people who had never heard it before much less seen and heard it live. We also did a couple of MJ songs, You are Not Alone, and we did a reprise of Heal the World which everyone had sang together earlier on. It was the show closer and we invited one of the Japanese members who was a really good singer to come out and join us for that song and then had everyone sing along.

It was really a fun time. I love watching and being a part of people really enjoying themselves and letting loose a little. That was definitely going on here.

Anyway, here are a couple of photos from the event:

Last night I got to play with the whole gang again for the first time in a while. We also were lucky enough to have an additional guest join in on the banjo. Very nice.

We had an entire service with just bluegrass songs, and we also stuck around afterwards and played a few more songs. I love being able to just say, “hey, how about this song?” or just start a song and everybody joins in.

I almost lost myself a couple of times because I was enjoying playing so much.

So, this Saturday I will have the chance to play some more, but this time it will be for a benefit concert that is titled “Heal the World”. I hope it goes well.

Here’s the flyer for that:

So a couple of weeks ago I got the chance to go and play golf for the first time with just me and my youngest son.

We have played golf a few times together but there was usually someone else with us which was fun, too. Still, it was really fun to get to play with just us as a twosome.

It was a course we have played a couple of times, so that was good, too. We knew our way around and were remembering holes as we went. That usually went something like “Oh yeah, last time you hit into those trees.” or “Ah, you hit into the water here” 😉

We got off to a fantastic start. On the first tee I hit my tee shot about a putter’s length from the pin on a short Par 3. I was feeling like this was going to be a great round. The weather had been bad, but cleared off just before our tee time, and that tee shot was saying I was going to be hitting it well.

Ahn also played the who fairly well after an errant first shot from the tee, but he was laying near me and hitting 4.

I drilled that birdie.

Ahn double boggied, but still, not a bad start.

That was pretty much it for me for about 9 more holes. Boggy golf pretty much the rest of the way. I was putting for par on almost every green though, so at least I had a chance. Last time we played there I was working to save boggy and double boggy.

Here are a couple of photos I took of that first tee. Oh, and I blame my good friend Tim Carter for the bad round. The day before we went he and I were chatting online and he was telling me about his last outing where he had killed the first hole, parred the second and then started a round that included several snowmen… I hate you, Tim 😉

Yep, yesterday was Ahn’s birthday again. It seems like it comes around once a year… whether I’m expecting it or not. 😉

This year was more hectic than most. It seems like classes restarting and other work were more crazy than ever. I’m usually pretty good about getting things taken care of for birthdays, and Christmas, at our house, but I was pretty behind this time.

I had already messed up because I knew last week that I was getting close to running out of time, but thought I had Monday to take care of things.

Of course it’s a day of work and prep time for me usually, but this Monday was a holiday. That means it’s not a holiday for me because both of the boys stay home as well. That’s not bad, but it does mess up my schedule.

Anyway, I had a great time Monday with them, but knew I was getting pretty pressed.

I have class all day Tuesday, so that didn’t leave me much time at all…

Then I’m getting set for another full day of classes on Wednesday when lucky for me a typhoon comes. Yeah!! 😉

Classes not canceled at the other schools, but morning classes are shut down at the university.

Time for us to bake a cake, and then for me to run to get the present he’d been asking for.

Shweew… thanks for that weather break 😉

Anyway, I promised to post a couple of pictures of the cake, so here they are: