Thomas Kennedy

Losing a loved one is always difficult, especially when that loved one was such an amazing person. My grandfather taught me a lot, the main thing that I will learned from him is to love life, do what you love and aspire to be great. I first learned of his passing when I was on the golf course yesterday. I had been worried about his health and being over here in Japan it is hard to stay in the loop. I basically checked facebook every hour to see if there was a message from my family. So at the half way house yesterday I checked my phone and there it was, a message from my sister, saying that our beloved grandfather had indeed passed away. It is strange that he would pass away as I was playing golf. I found it appropriate that I would be golfing when his time was up. He was the person that sparked my interest in the game of golf. I have vivid memories of going to the Lafayette club with him and practicing at the driving range for hours. He would always tell me, “you need to teach me how to hit it like that.” I would respond, “you need to teach me how to hit it straight!” One of my favorite memories I have of grandpa is from the Father-Son-Grandson Lafayette Club tournament. My mom dropped me off at his house the night before and of course we went to his favorite spot for dinner, Snuffy’s. And of course we both had a cheeseburger and a chocolate malt. Anyone who has ever spent any time around my grandparents will know that Snuffy’s is the Mecca of restaurants for them. After that we went back home and sat in his den and we explored the various books in his library. It was at this time that I discovered his love for history. Being a 12 year old at the time my only interests involved sports and girls. However, after that night I developed a fondness for history, especially UK/Irish and Scandinavian history. We went to bed at 9am sharp. Of course I sat awake until about 10:30 and fell asleep. That next morning I was suddenly awoken by grandpa. He turned on the lights in the room and said, “time to get up.” I got up in a daze, looked at the clock and responded, “but it’s only 5am, we don’t have to be at the course for another 3 hours! Let me sleep in a little more.” To which, he countered, “I already let you sleep in, I’ve been up since 4:30.” That is just the kind of guy he was, always ready to go and he always kept a joke in his back pocket. We went to the course and had a wonderful time with my Uncle David. I’ll never forget that day. Growing up in the city, we didn’t have the opportunity to get lost in the woods or really lose ourselves in a fantasy as children. Luckily for the Kennedy-Budge Petri dish (a nickname for Charlotte, Stephanie, Liane, Colleen, Conor, Timmy, myself, and Julia) we had our Grandparent’s house out in Minnetonka to fulfill our needs. They had this great white house, a stereotypical white house in the boonies that you see in the movies, with a backyard that went on forever. We would wander into the woods behind the house and spend hours playing our favorite game, “Gnomes and Trolls.” I won’t go into details, but basically the old kids were the Good Gnomes and the young kids (Julia and Colleen) were the Evil Trolls. We would come back from a long day of exploring and throwing sticks at the Trolls and we would wander into Grandpa’s Den for a story or a history lesson. He had so many stories, so many books, so many ways to enlighten us. I remember getting pulled into his stories. He took me to distant countries, race car tracks, dirt bike mountain courses and to the 1950s. I will never forget him sitting in that patented leather chair with a book on his lap. He was such a calming presence at family events, even in his final year. He had a hard time speaking in his final year, but every once in a while, he would surprise me with a rant about some historical fact. I was talking to him about this shrine in Japan where the famous Emperor Tokugawa Ieyasu is buried. He responded by telling me, “oh I know him, he was the one who united Japan and moved the capital to Tokyo.” I kind of giggled in response and that is exactly right. Only my Grandpa would be able to recite such a historical fact in his final year while battling the awful Parkinsons disease. In the end, a guy couldn’t really ask for a better Grandfather. He showed me to do what you love and do it well. He was a golfer, runner, race car driver, dirt bike racer, history buff, bookworm and a world class dude. He was amazing at all those things because of his can do, no complaints attitude. When I sit back and reflect on my own hobbies I kind of laugh at the correlation. Golfer, runner, hockey player, water skier, history enthusiast, bookworm. I can’t help, but think that a lot of what I do and who I am is a reflection of my grandfather. As I was playing golf on Sunday and I had just found out that he had passed, I thought to myself, this is exactly what he would want me to be doing.

I think this picture represents our crazy family well. I'll miss you Gramps JB

Thinking about Grandpa back home

I think the hardest part about being over here in Japan is not being able to be there for the ones I love when the going gets tough. After hearing about Grandpa being hospitalized, I realized that I can't be there for him, my nanny or my mother. This creates a pain inside that I haven't felt for a long time. I desperately wish I could just hop back to Minnesota to be there for my family. Grandpa is a strong man and I know he will pull through, he always has. He has that competitive race car driver spirit. Some side notes on life over here. My rib is finally all healed and my knee stopped bothering me so much. I ran in a 5K race last weekend. I ran it in about 23 minutes, not a great time, but respectable, especially with a bum knee that started to act up half way through. The next 5K is in about 2 weeks, I am hoping to finish in about 21 minutes. I also have been working out daily at the gym I joined, it feels good to put on weight. At school I am adjusting to the different lifestyle. Junior High School kids are either really awkward and shy, or big noisy comedians. I prefer the comedians, they are really interested in learning English. Here are some pics from the past 2 weeks or so.

Mt Daisen and the rice fields that are famous in Japan.

The bridge that connects Tottori Prefecture and Shimane Prefecture. It is a beautiful area.

Hakuto Beach. An early morning surf session with my bros. Everyone please let Grandpa and Nanny know that I am thinking about them. JB

Example of what I do at school

Sign languages 手語 are used　　　　　　　　　　　　使用されている around the world.　　　　　　　　世界中の each of them　　　　　　　　　　それら各 is a separate language　　　　　　別の言語である For example,　　　　　　　　　　例えば the Japanese sign 　　　　　　　日本手話 for ‘Thank you,’　　　　　　　　ありがとうのために is different　　　　　　　　　　異なっている from the American sign　　　　アメリカの手話とは Any information,　　　　　　　すべて情報や idea,　　　　　　　　　　　　　考えや or feeling　　　　　　　　　　　感情 can be expressed　　　　　　　表現することができる in sign languages,　　　　　　　手話で just like in oral languages　　　音声言語の場合と同様 A sentence is　　　　　　　　　文は made with 　　　　　　　　　で作られる a combination of signs.　　　　符号の組合せ What does　　　　　　　　　　何を Figure 3　　　　　　　　　　　図３ show?　　　　　　　　　　　　見せる Can you guess?　　　　　　　あなたは推測できますか。

Back into the flow

I am finally readjusted to life over here. I am getting used to all the stares and compliments. I have to admit that I will never grow tired of hearing compliments, but getting stared at will annoy me eventually. I think on average, I am called cool, handsome or tall at least 5 times a day. Last weekend, I was jogging along the coast in Shimane prefecture and I came upon an old couple. Old people in Japan usually either give me the cold shoulder or are very warm and welcoming. As I ran past them I said, Konnichiwa. The response I received however wasn't what I was expecting, the Grandma (Obachan) said, EEEEEE, Kakkoiiiiii! Which means, whooooooaaaa, coooooll. Pretty hilarious getting such a reaction in the middle of nowhere. Here is a map of Mihonoseki, I jogged about 10KM along the coast up and down hills, I was exhausted of course, but the scenery was so amazing I had to continue.

I jogged along the northern part, there weren't any people around, it was very peaceful. However, there were a lot of hawks, and these hawks seemed very territorial. Every time I jogged through their hood, they would circle me and get within ten feet of my head. Their wingspan made them look like flying junior high school children. I actually stopped at one point, made a fist and braced myself because I thought this one was going to stick his talons in me. It was quite the experience.

Here is what the view was like, I have always wanted to find an amazing coastal road like this to run along and I finally found it.

Here is a picture of a coastal town, it brought about images of the documentary The Cove where the Japanese kill hundreds of dolphins.....Luckily there aren't any dolphins around here.

Here is a picture of a desolate village tucked away in the mountains. I love Japanese style roofs. So other than teaching and exploring my new city, I have been trying to get back into surfing, but this rib injury I got 3 weeks ago refuses to completely heal. I think after another week I'll be able to surf. I can do most things, but laying flat on my stomach still hurts my ribs. I also joined the local gym, it is about 2 blocks from my house which is nice. But once again, the layout is super Japanese. A lot of machines, treadmills and ellipticals. But the free weight area is severely lacking. The dumbbells only go up to 45 lbs.....but they do have a bench press, so I can get my beach body back into shape. haha. Being in Japan is the ultimate ego boost, I get complimented all day and then when I go to the gym I am the biggest, most fit guy around...in America I feel like a mouse at the gym, here I feel like King Kong. I have a funny story to share...so I have been reading Haruki Murakami's latest novel 1Q84 (amazing novel check it out) and in the book the main character's father is an NHK collector. What that means is, he goes door to door and collects money from people who have TVs. Public TV isn't free here and everyone has to pay a certain yearly fee to watch like 5 channels...haha. This dates back to the 1960s. They stopped doing door to door collections for a while, but they started back up. So anyways, in the story he goes into great detail about how his father used to take hime along with him door to door collecting these fees that people try to avoid him.Later his dad is a coma dying, but his spirit or ghost or something goes out and starts collecting NHK fees again. So I'm sitting in my apartment on a Sunday night reading this exact kind of scary/surreal part of the book, when all of a sudden my doorbell rings. It kind of startled me, but I got up thinking it was my neighbor Appea. When I opened the door I was astounded to see an NHK fee collector standing at my door...I was really creeped out because the last time I was in Japan I never received a visit from one of these fee collectors and I didn't know they still did it. Anyways, it was pretty strange. The funny thing is, in the book he tells you that all you have to do is tell them you don't have a TV and they won't bug you ever again, so even though I have a TV, I told the collector that I didn't have one. Thanks to Haruki Murakami I don't have to pay the 200$ fee for 'public' TV. Last weekend I learned that my good friend Eric also has a long vacation! I have a 5-6 week vacation from late July until September!! Completely different from my last teaching job that made us teach like indentured servants. So I've been thinking about what to do with all that free time. I decided I want to experience another beach vacation, because, really is there anything better than that?? Eric and I are tentatively planning to go to the Phillipines! Flights to Manilla are only like 350$ and flights to other islands are like 100$ round trip! I am pumped that the flights are so cheap. Once we get there, we will spend maybe one or two days in Manilla. Manilla, like Bangkok is probably not the safest/cleanest of places so we will only be there for a bit. Then we are thinking about going to an island and just hanging out. We would do that for about 2 weeks, that would leave me with another month of free time when I get back to Japan....hmm what to do? It sure would be nice to host some visitors again like I did 2 years ago...hint hint.