hey

hindi kaya ipaliwanag sa salita kung ano ang tuwa na dinadala ng anak sa kanilang mga magulang. I love you anak. Daddy will see you soon.

Oct 28, 2008
4:53 am

tagalog muna. hirap na ako mag inggles e. (hahaha)
medyo naging mahirap sa kin ang nakaraan na buwan. masyadong busy sa work at medyo maraming iniisip. hindi kasi simple yung buhay eh. minsan may komplikasyon. naisip ko nga minsan parang pelikula ang buhay. kelangan laging may drama. may conflict. hindi ba pwede yung tuloy tuloy na maayos yung buhay. yung masaya. walang hassle. yung tipong pasok ka sa work, uwi ka sa mga mahal mo sa buhay. salo salo sa hapunan. kwentuhan tawanan. simple lang. pero gaya ng pelikula, hindi siguro maiiwasan na mawalan ng drama ang buhay. laging may kontrabida. laging may kaaway at meron din naman mga kakampi. hindi lang katatawanan ang lahat. may iyakan din. wala lang napansin ko lang. hindi simple ang buhay eh.
Isa pang napansin ko eh napakabilis ng panahon dito sa Tokyo. Lahat ng tao nagmamadali. Lahat ng tao may schedule. May deadline. Hectic na nagiging toxic kung hindi maingat. 

kailangan tumigil muna at magpahinga ng konti. easy ka lang.

Oct 22, 2008
5:46am

Look at the picture. That is my Dad on the left. Hawaii. December 2003. I sure got a kick when I saw this picture while browsing my old files. Hehehe. Talk about “My Big Fat Love”. And no, I am not referring to my Dad.  Yikes.

10/21/2008
6:29am

My wife’s high school reunion will be held this coming December. This reminded me of our OWN high school reunion which will be happen in the year 2015, if I am not mistaken.

High School Life. Remember that Sharon Cuneta song?

“High School Life o my school life, how exciting kay saya…”
Say what you will about the mega star but she indeed hit the nail on the head on that one. By the way, has there ever been a more influential artista in our generation than the Megastar? And the fact that even now she still has her own TV show says a lot about her lasting legacy. Its disturbing to me that I know these things. End of tangent.

Going back to my original train of thought, I question myself about what made my high school special. As most of you might know, I studied at Don Bosco Techinical College in Mandaluyong from Prep (age 6) to College (age 21). Yikes!
Don Bosco at that time was an exclusive Catholic School for boys. Here are some things that I remember from that time that I was in High School there:

1. playing sipa and really being good at it (yeah I know)
I could hit the sipa for 100 consecutive times, and even do “tricks” like the abra kadabra. I also remember putting foam inside my adidas rubber shoes(or was it Mighty kid?) –maybe i was in elementary then..haha

2. playing basketball during recess AND lunch and falling back in line all sweaty and stinky . Speaking of basketball, the way it was played in Don Bosco, there could be 50 kids on the court AT THE SAME TIME, playing in their own 5 on 5, or 4 on 4 or even 1 on 1 games. It was chaos but everyone who played were able to keep up. I did not know how we did it we did.

3. Soirees. Yikes. Sad but true but I had PERFECT attendance in all the soirees that we had. For the uninformed, a soiree is a party held between two classes, one class all boys, and the other class, all girls, under the supervision of their class advisers. So  I, as part of class 350 and 450 attended a few soirees St Paul Paranaque, St Paul Pasig and I think there was one more but I could not remember. I remember being in a state of panic just before the first soiree with St Paul Paranaque. I did not really have high self esteem then for some reason(haha). I guess pimples and having no sense of fashion would do that to you. During the soiree with St Paul Paranaque, we played a game where you would everyone would pick a number, equally divided between the two classes. Then if you and the girl had the same number, your hands would be tied together for 5 minutes so you could talk and get to know one another. Well, needless to say I was really nervous and excited. The girl that was paired with me was quite pretty (although to be honest, during that TIME, anyone wearing a skirt would probably be pretty to my eyes). Anyway I barely started introducing myself when she saw our class VP passed by. She gushed “ang cute nung vice president ng klase nyo ah…”. Needless to say, I quickly lost interest and my already low self esteem went plummeting down the drain. NOT good times.

I’m pretty sure there are more high school stories to tell. Will save that for another day though as I need to go to work soon. I’m not in high school anymore, you know?

Oct 16, 2008
7:08am

Life sometimes can be funny. It is also full of challenges. Or even pain. Its very unpredictable and literally you don’t know what’s going to happen next.

Right after the concert the other day, I got called into the office to do some unscheduled work. Tough, but it is what it is.

We all have to earn a living. And we need to do what we need to do in order to feed our families and secure our children’s future.

We do it for them. Is there such a thing as loving one’s job? Is it possible that you get to do what you want to do and still get paid for it?

Some people would define that real success. Doing what you love as a career.

In my case, I would really love to go back to teaching someday.

Perhaps that day may come sooner than I thought.

Or is it just a knee jerk reaction because I am currently fractured by the recent challenges of life.

Dear God, please give me your direction.

Oct 15, 2008
1:27am

Attended the Passion tour concert with my wife Diana. Many friends and family from Tokyo Baptist were there too. There were also many people from other churches in Japan. It was held at the CC Lemon Hall in Shibuya Tokyo Japan. The place was full and it was an amazing night of worship.

Here are some You Tube clips I found to give you an idea:

Plus my FAVORITE SONG from the Passion Conference:

Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman and David Crowder Band led the people in worship. Louis Giglio, a very gifted preacher spoke from the heart and end talked about how we Christians should be a shining light to everyone. Show the light of Jesus Christ in our lives. That is the plan. The Passion Conference inspired me to be bold and to be strong in my faith. To express my faith as if it is on “high def”. Indeed in these trying times, God is our only refuge. What an amazing reminder that as Christians, we have a God that is alive and true, and real. Jesus Christ who has ALREADY won the victory for us, is our source of strenght. He is ON OUR SIDE. Jesus is for real. Jesus is my friend. We can call on Jesus for all our needs. Jesus CAN change our lives. IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT YOUR PAST IS. It does not matter how messed up your life is right now. If you call on His name, He will save you. There is nothing impossible. I wish I could explain in more detail about God’s love and what He did for my life. It is my prayer that anyone reading this will come to know Jesus in a REAL and PERSONAL way, because He is indeed real. There is no greater JOY than in knowing Jesus Christ and understanding what He did for us on the cross.

It is NOT a fantasy story. It is not made up. It is not a RELIGION or a cult. Rather knowing Jesus Christ is a real way, is a RELATIONSHIP. When you have a RELATIONSHIP with Jesus Christ, then you ARE a Christian.  And when you are in a relationship, how do you get to know them? You SPEND time with them. And how do you do this? Read the bible and spend time in prayer. The bible is the word of God and tells us of His love and salvation for all of us.

To put it simply, I know Jesus Christ personally. I really do believe that He died for me for my sin. I do believe that no matter what happens in my life, it will be OK because I have a God that loves me, and watches over me. I have a saviour who forgave me and my past. And by His word and teaching, I can live my life witha purpose.

Look, my life is not perfect. I am not a saint who does not commit sin. But what comforts me is grace. In Japanese it means “megumi”. GRACE.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God

-Ephesians 2:8

It is by GRACE that I was saved. And it is by GRACE that despite my inconsistencies, God carries me thru and sees not my imperfections, but my desire to live a life for His glory.

It is indeed a journey. Life is a race indeed.  And I cannot wait to reach the finish line.

At this point I do need to catch my breath(just like the song..whew). Seems like all my ideas are going in all directions. To be honest all I want to say is God is great. He is good. Jesus is for real and I hope that if you are not a believer yet, I hope and pray that you will know Jesus Christ. Alive, real in each and every way.

Hallelujah! How great and awesome is our God!

Have a blessed week! God bless!

Oct 7, 2008 
6:15am Tokyo, Japan

Not sure if you’ve heard, but there is a deep financial crisis that is impacting everyone. Needless to say, no one can be sure what is going to happen tomorrow. 

The bible says in Matthew 6:34 “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. ”

Indeed, the past few days have been quite stressful. As my sister would say “toxic”. So much stuff to do, in so little time.

Busy, busy, busy. 

I have been trying to improve my Japanese. Its quite shameful that after almost 10 years in Japan, my Japanese skill is considered “mecha kucha” (messy).

I have been putting in the time so I hope that it pays off.  My head sometimes hurts from trying to remember kanji and the proper stroke on how to write them. This time around, I do not plan to quit. Aghh…ugh…arghhhhhhh
(that’s the sound of me struggling)

ABOUT CATS IN THE CRADLE
Last Sunday our pastor at Tokyo Baptist Church delivered one of the most moving and powerful message I have ever  heard. He talked about the importance of being present in your children’s lives.  About letting them know you love them. About giving them a hug and kissing them. About encouragement and discipline.  At one point of the sermon, our pastor asked us to listen to a portion of the song “Cats in the Cradle”. The song basically tells the story of an absentee father and his son who craved for his attention and time. When the father became old, his own son was also too busy to spend time with his dad. In the end…his son was just like him.