"he, whom they seek to kill"

Humble Summer Festival around Tokyo






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Joh 7:25 Then said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this he, whom they seek to kill?

"which built his house upon a rock" - Mt. Fuji Cures Ailing Hearts

Imperial Palace Plaza, Tokyo

Mt. Fuji Cures Ailing Hearts

There is a unique conservative critique in Japan.

Susumu Nishibe (1939-) was inclined to leftist ideologies before 1970 when the Vietnam War was being intensified.  But he changed his philosophy, thinking that leftists would sooner or later start to kill one another.

Indeed the leftists boom in Japan symbolized by radical student movements gradually ended in 1970s as leftist youths associated with the Japanese Red Army were crushed by the police.  In this process, the most shocking incident was that around 1972 those radical youths executed their members in mountains where they were hiding through internal strife.

Nishibe became professor in social science of the University of Tokyo but he quit the job after some dispute with other professors in late 1980s.  And then Nishibe became one of leading conservative pundits, making many appearances on TV and publishing a unique magazine.  He sometimes met influential politicians, including prime ministers.

Recently, the wife of Susumu Nishibe died of  cancer.  He wrote a book recalling his wife who was born in Hokkaido and raised there after WWII like her husband.

One day the wife of Nishibe was watching winter fields toward Mt. Fuji from an upper floor of a hospital where she was hospitalized.  Then an old woman, looking like an old wife of a farm family, in a wheel chair came to her.  She said that she had been suffering in relationships with father and mother-in-low.  But one day she had found a place in a mountain near her village where Mt. Fuji could be viewed so clearly.  She visited the spot secretly whenever she felt depressed and hurt.

When her parents-in-low died one after another while she was attending them so honestly, she had felt so much relieved.  But then her husband died of cancer.  And now she was suffering cancer, too.  She said that she could ride a bike.  She needed a bike for shopping as she lived in a mountainous area of Tokyo Prefecture.  She confessed that her wish was to run up the slope of Mt. Fuji by bike as high as possible and die there.

This conversation gave the wife of Nishibe a great courage.  Nishibe remembered it after the death of his wife.

Indeed, Mt. Fuji has significance to some Japanese especially when they live where they can directly observe the highest mountain in Japan.

(IPS) TOKYO-- Post-war Japan, unlike post-war Germany, has been never able to face its violent wartime record in any serious, self-reflective manner. And this year's anniversary of the end of World War II comes at a time when the country is undergoing a nascent rise in nationalism -- much to the worry of its Asian neighbors, in particular China. 

Sunday, on the 59th anniversary of the end of World War II, four Japanese government ministers visited Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine. This Shinto site honors the nation's nearly 2.5 million war dead, but many of them are considered war criminals, including 14 people judged as "Class-A" war criminals.
....

On the other hand, conservative writer, Susumu Nishibe, explains that Japanese youth are searching for a national identity and are torn between the "sentimental philosophy" of leftists who call for repentance towards Asia and right-leaning politicians who make careless remarks to hurt the feelings of Asian neighbors by referring to Japan's World War II actions in a positive light. 

"What is needed now is rekindling a strong identity for the modern generation about their own country -- something we lost as a result of American influence after our defeat," he explains.
http://www.monitor.net/monitor/0408a/copyright/japanwwiihonors.html

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Mat 7:24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

"come from within, and defile the man" - Two Cases Involving Homeless Men in Japan

Around Tokyo

Two Cases Involving Homeless Men in Japan 

One homeless man was lying on a bench before the Sendai Station.

A TV crew asked him why he was there as a homeless.  The man said that he had come from Hiroshima to Sendai, the major city near the 2011 tsunami-hit regions.  But he had not been paid as promised by his employer, so that he quit the job.

While a TV camera was tracking him, the homeless man picked up a help-wanted magazine to phone a company from a public phone using a 10 yen coin though he had just 45 yen.  He could not get a job.  So, again, he phoned another company.  It looked well.

The president of the company, a wrecking company, came to the Sendai Station for a quick interview.  They talked in a restaurant and the homeless man was hired.

But, the next day, the homeless man didn't come to the company's office.  He disappeared forever.  The TV program didn't give a clue.

In another news story, a homeless man living around a big station in Tokyo was arrested.  It was because he tried to illegally sell one of his kidneys.

The story was that a few years ago an old man appeared before the homeless man, buying him lunch and supper many times.  But this old man was a leading member of a gangster group.  So, eventually the gangster requested the homeless to sell one of his kidneys to a sick man at 2 million yen ($17,000).  The sick man was an ex-member of the gangster group.

As it is only legal in Japan to provide one's kidney to his or her family member suffering a kidney disease, the homeless man was requested to become a son-in-law of the sick ex-gangster.  However, this case was exposed, and the three men were arrested before a surgical operation was actually conducted.

It is true homeless people are unhappy even in Japan.  But, the society forcing them to fall into such a difficult situation is helpless, too.  The society seems to have no sincere intention to save the homeless but to use them, good or bad, for some profits.

For the homeless, the society looks dangerous.  When the society comes to them, they might have to be alarmed.





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Mar 7:23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

"blasphemy, pride, foolishness" - Heroes around Goethe

Around Tokyo

Heroes around Goethe

Do you know anyone that knew George Washington (1732-1799), Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812), Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), and Napoleon (1769-1821) as his generation?

Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832) did, and how he mentioned each of them was recorded in some books written by Goethe, his friends, or others.

Goethe indeed wrote that he saw historic events happening one after another as if they had been especially presented to him. Goethe saw the independence of the United States of America and the rise and fall of Napoleon in Europe.

And when Goethe died, the Industrial Revolution came into full deployment with real railroad transport started in Britain around 1820. Though today nobody seems to truly respect Goethe, one of the greatest German authors, everybody is living in the world directly affected by legacies of George Washington (the modern superpower America), Mayer Amschel Rothschild (modern monetary systems), Ludwig van Beethoven (modern art), and Napoleon (modern Europe).

One of the most interesting remarks of Goethe is: "You may wonder how Rothschild came to become so rich, but there was a long history behind him and his family. In anything remarkable, there is a background that is deeply rooted in the past." Truly, the modern world today has its direct background that could be traced back to the era of Goethe. It is so, since Goethe witnessed the lives and achievements of George Washington, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Napoleon as a man of the same generation.

Nonetheless, the one Goethe praised so unconditionally was Shakespeare.

“God shall be my hope, my stay, my guide and lantern to my feet.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry V

But a word that most well represents what Shakespeare was may be:
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
― William Shakespeare, Hamlet
Indeed, Shakespeare is modern; therefore his faith in God must not be backed by classic practices of religion.

Nonetheless, Shakespeare was a person who lived 100 years after the great adventure of Columbus around 1500.  In a wider span of time, even Shakespeare belongs to an era having been opened by Columbus who reached the New World or America.



http://www.efficientfrontier.com/ef/404/CH1.HTM


After Goethe, the world changed drastically along with global development and deployment of the Industrial Revolution.  However, it has been supported by accumulated human efforts prior to it.




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Mar 7:22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:

"unto many that were blind he gave sight" - Hebrews, Sumerians, Tamils and Japanese

High School Baseball Game Around Tokyo

Hebrews, Sumerians, Tamils and Japanese

The Japanese language is an agglutinative language like the Tamil language spoken in Southern India.

Another interesting thing is that Sumerians also spoke an agglutinative language more than 4,000 years ago.

The Bronze Age began 3,600 BC in the Sumerian world in Mesopotamia.  However Mesopotamia produced no copper and tin.  Copper was imported to Mesopotamia from Iran and coast areas of the Persian Gulf.  However, tin was imported from West Afghanistan through the Gulf as with lapis lazuli, blue precious stones.

Sumerians especially attached the importance to a location in the Persian Gulf called Dilmun.

Dilmun or Telmun[1] was a civilization in Eastern Arabia.[2][3] Dilmun was an important trading centre[2] which at the height of its power controlled the Persian Gulf trading routes.[2] The Sumerians regarded Dilmun as holy land.[4] The scholarly consensus is that Dilmun encompassed Bahrain, Kuwait,[5][6] Qatar and the coastal regions of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.[7] Dilmun was mentioned by Mesopotamian civilizations as a trade partner, a source of the metal copper, and an entrepôt of the Mesopotamia-to-Indus Valley Civilization trade route.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilmun

Dilmun was a relay point for trade between Mesopotamia and India.

Taking all these factors into consideration, it is thought that Sumerians came to Mesopotamia from South India along with trade between Mesopotamia and South India.  The ancestors of Sumerians in South India must have been close to ancestors of Tamils.

And in a wider scope, some ancestors of Japanese and ancestors of Tamils/Sumerians must have been close to one another.

On the other hand, as Abraham came out around the Sumerian capital Ur, it is naturally thought that Hebrews were rooted in Sumerians.  In this context, Judaists, Tamils, and Japanese of today are regarded as descendants of one original language group of the ancient world established after mankind exited Africa 60,000 years ago.

In terms of DNA,  it is uniquely confirmed that the size of Y chromosome is the same between Japanese and Judaists of today.  However no other linkages have been confirmed between Japanese and Judaists of today, though some Japanese share part of DNA with Tibetans rather than Tamils.  But today we cannot find any descendants of Sumerians in the Middle East; Sumerians were absorbed by Arabic tribes.  Sumerian Hebrews must have been also absorbed by Arabic tribes, adopting an ancient Arabic language.  You cannot simply deny the above presented theory.  




A theory linking Sumerians to Japanese, though a little too quixotic
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/davinci/code/history/kuri/index5.html



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Luk 7:21 And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight.

"In which time Moses was born" - No More Money-Based Economy

Around Tokyo

No More Money-Based Economy

Everybody is afraid all over the world of being poor.

If you have money, you can first of all get means to protect yourself and your family.  But without money, your safety is in the hand of other men who have money.  And to earn money you have to be employed by a rich man who might be very evil.  You might be even requested to commit a crime for your salary.  Being poor is a state of risk.

Of course, if you have money, you can satisfy your need and dream in addition to desires after securing your safety, a minimum requirement.  And, with money you can buy various products and services to improve material and psychological quality of your life.  What's more, you can harm the poor acting as an evil man.

Today money is created through banking systems of each nation or international organization.  Value of money is backed up by economic power of nations.  People are working in society producing goods and providing services, which is a basis of value of money.  Without real economic activities of people, money can have no value.

If all the people in the world have big money, they all try to live without working but based on power of money to buy goods and services from others or businesses.  But if no one works for money any more, there will be no goods and services.  Then money will lose its value.

Accordingly, the rich need the poor.  Rich countries need poor countries.  To secure value of money they have accumulated, the rich need laborers who work to produce goods and provide services.  Therefore we may regard money as the major source of evil.

The only solution to address this sinful effect of money is to change the meaning of economy or production of goods and provision of services.

People should not work to give value to money.  People should be engaged in production of goods and provision of services for mutual support for living.  Economic activities should not be linked with value of money but directly to welfare and well-being of people.

In this context, commercialism is the worst factor in human economy.  Commercialism arouses desires in human minds.  To satisfy desires people think they have to get money and big money.  But this flame of desires cannot be quenched any amount of money.  People just endlessly seek and stick to money.

Human matters must not be fixed with money.  Love and faith must solve every human problem.  The last revolution mankind should experience should be this shift from money-based economy to love/faith-based economy.

But what percentage of mankind should come to hate money for this revolution?



http://hypervocal.com/culture/2011/american-christianity-confuses-itself-with-commercialism/


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Act 7:20 In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father's house three months:
Act 7:21 And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son.

"tree that bringeth not forth good fruit" - A Successful Japanese Comic Band

Around Tokyo

A Successful Japanese Comic Band

When the Beatles made the first and last live performance in Japan in 1966, a few Japanese bands acted as curtain raisers.  The one that played immediately before the appearance of the Beatles on the stage in the Budokan, Tokyo, was the Drifters, a comic band.

http://video.search.yahoo.co.jp/search?p=%E3%83%89%E3%83%AA%E3%83%95%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA+%E3%80%80%E6%BC%94%E5%A5%8F&aq=-1&oq=&ei=UTF-8

The leader of the Drifters was Chosuke Ikariya (1931-2004).  He led other four members as strong leader, since Ikariya was somewhat successful as a band man that had played in US military camps around Tokyo after WWII.  When he came to lead the band anew after some members left the Drifters except young one, Kato, in 1964, Ikariya recruited three musicians, Takagi, Nakamoto, and Arai, in haste.  But later Ikariya found that Arai was a pianist who couldn't play the piano but simply sound codes of rockabilly with a piano.  Ikariya also thought Arai was younger than he as other members, but later he found that Arai was three years older.  But Arai said, "Cho-san (meaning Chosuke Ikariya), you are the leader of us.  If you are younger than I, it is not funny.  Fans will not think it is funny.  So, outwardly I will tell that I am younger than you."

Ikariya admitted later that his band, the Drifters, was the fifth-class band, since Ikariya himself was a fourth-class guitar player in the Japanese popular music communities after WWII.  But, his members could perform a musical comedy.  And in comedies they played, the personality of Arai became a key factor.  Between bossy Ikariya and sullen Arai, other members found their roles and requested personalities.  Accordingly, the Drifters became so popular as a comedian group from the middle of 1960s (or after the performance on the same stage as that for the Beatles) to the middle 1980s.  They also came with a big hit song several times.  They are still remembered today as one of the most successful entertainers in Japan after WWII.  (In addition, Chosuke Ikariya played a certain role in Kurosawa's movie Dreams released in 1990.)

After Chu Arai died in 2000, Ikariya wrote a book recalling his professional life.  Ikariya specifically referred to Arai.  Though Arai was a poor performer as a musician, Ikariya learnt many things from Arai, including literature and world views.  Ikariya respected Arai and ascribed most part of the success of the Drifters to Arai.

Very ironically or interestingly, a great success story of the fifth-class comic band began after they played at the Budokan, Tokyo, as a curtain-raiser for the Beatles in 1966.  One almost ignorant leader and four weak and poor musicians became one of the most popular comic bands in Japan after WWII.

They were very different from Christ Jesus and His 12 disciples, but there must be something instructive for success of a human group in the case of the Drifters whether it is related to religion or entertainment.



The Drifters
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/thewhosnext7/33273367.html


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Mat 7:19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

"it cannot defile him" - Proof of Faultlessness of God

Tokyo

Proof of Faultlessness of God

God is perfect, which must be understood more deeply by human beings.

Whenever I see the world map, I confirm that Jerusalem is truly the center of the world, linking Africa to Europe and Asia.  This is the key location since continents took this configuration on the surface of the earth hundreds of millions ago.

And, Christ Jesus precisely appeared at this center of the world, Jerusalem.  Compared with this drastic appearance of Christ Jesus, Confucius, the Buddha, the founder of Islam, and even Abraham appeared at locations a little wayside or out of focus.  Other sacred men look so localized but Christ Jesus is precisely at a pivotal location of the world.

Even in the time domain, Christ Jesus appeared in the middle of the major human history, 2,000 years ago.  Our civilization roughly started 4,000 years ago when Abraham and his father left Ur, a Sumerian capital in southern Iraq of today.  If we grasp this 4,000-year-long human history as a series of the key periods where our civilization has developed, Christ Jesus appeared in the middle of the progress of it.  But Other sacred men like Confucius and the Buddha did not.

(If you insist that the Great Pyramids in Egypt were built 4,600 years ago and thus the civilization started about 5,000 years ago, Confucius, the Buddha, Socrates, etc. reasonably appeared 2,500 yeas ago.  They were given some glory and significance by God, though still they were localized.)

So, in the time domain as well as in the geographical domain, Christ Jesus occupied the middle or central point.  God gave the best glory to Christ Jesus among sacred men who ever appeared in the human history.

For this reason, we have to admit that Christ Jesus is special, like the king among kings.  And, I feel so whenever I imagine a world map and a chronological table.


In addition, the earth is situated in the best location in the solar system, while our solar system is located in the best location in our galaxy.

Incidentally, though the universe is now about 14 billion years old and in the process of expansion, it would start to shrink about 30 billion years later to be compressed into a dot 50 billion years later, according to a theory.  We live in the universe in the best period of time of its deployment, indeed, in an astronomical time scale.

God is truly perfect and almighty.

This is one humble example of proofs of faultlessness of God.



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Mar 7:18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;