The season for giving...?

Well, we're only a few days away from what used to seem like the biggest day of the year for me. Thinking back to that time in my life, I'm almost in awe of the excitement I used to feel at the approach of the morning when I could get up and open all those presents. Man, I really used to love that day. Now, I can't seem to generate much enthusiasm for it, and it's not just because I'm here in Japan where it's not a big deal. I guess it has to do with the way I'm increasingly bothered by the disparity of the haves and the have-nots. I go jogging along a river near my house--I guess it's a river; it's in a man-made canal--and there are homeless people living under the overpasses, in small blue tarp shelters, and I think how cold they must be. Why am I living in a nice apartment while there these people not three hundred yards away living like that? Gets me down... So I'm going to try to do something for them. I'm not sure what yet, but something. Maybe I'll buy a few blankets and drop them off...or make some warm food...I don't know, something.

I heard about this bank in the US that gave all its employees a holiday bonus with the catch that they have to "pay it forward," or, in other words, use it for a charitable cause. That is a nice idea.

Anyway, I don't want to be a downer, I guess I'm just getting to my point in a kind of depressing way, but here it is: Let's give to those who need it. Small amounts, whatever, but something. Even if we only help a few for just a day...it's something, it contributes to the overall goodness in the world, I think, and isn't that a good thing?

The other day I was running along the aforementioned river, and when I'd finished, I saw some little kids climbing up the cement slope out of the canal. The two bigger kids got to the top, but then the little one, just a toddler really, got scared halfway up and started crying. As I walked back toward them, I watched the two others come back down to him and try to encourage him to climb down; they weren't big enough to really help. I kept feeling like the kid might fall, but then, even if he did, all he'd probably do is roll down the slope a bit, get a little scraped up. But I thought I should offer to help, small a gesture as it is. So I asked (in my terrible Japanese) if I could help. The little one (don't know if he understood me or not) turned and looked, red eyes and wet face, and then, as I reached toward him, held his arms out. I lifted him and gently set him down, trying to tell him he'd be okay (again in Japanese). The oldest kid, a boy, told me "Because he's only two," as if that should explain it all, and I guess maybe it did.

Well, this will certainly be my oddest entry to date...I'm not even sure it will all make sense, and I hope I don't get you down...I just want to share my thoughts on this holiday.

For this holiday, however, I will be heading off for a little seclusion. In a nearby prefecture, Okayama, there are a couple of "International Villas" in small and usually out-of-the-way towns, which they have set up to promote tourism and give tourists a chance to see part of the country not usually visited. And they're cheap (about $30/night). I recommend them if you ever come. I'll be going to one in Takebe, which I chose as it's the only one with an onsen (hot spring) in the town. I'll spend a quiet three days there, then go to my friend Kurara's house again, to pound mochi for the new year. I'll return to Ibaraki on New Year's Eve and take in the New Year in the traditional Japanese way: Join the hordes of people making their way to a temple or shrine at midnight. I figure I should see it once, as I think this may be my only New Year in Japan. After that, I'll have another week or so off, and I think I'll mostly just be taking it easy.

Strange as this post was, I hope you enjoyed it. And I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season! Take care and be safe on New Year's Eve! Aloha!