The south side of our apartment building. Our apartment is on the top floor, leftmost unit. If you squint, you can see me standing on the balcony near the centerline. If you squint really hard, you can see Ishida behind the sliding glass door behind me, photobombing.


My desk. The writing surface folds up to cover the books and save room.


Me in front of my Japanese naval ensign. I don't know why that electric guitar was in the apartment; it didn't work in any case.


Oshiro, Ishida, and me on the balcony. The camera is facing east. I had merely asked the two of them to be in the photo; they took it upon themselves to "weird" themselves up.

Thursday, November 07, 1991--Day 674

This morning we headed out and met Kobayashi, who took us to a new place to do service. It was at an orphanage. We got there and were shown around, then we went into the room with the really young ones. The other three and Kobayashi got started sewing on some baby clothes, and at the same time a girl came in carrying a baby, then since I was still standing there she basically dropped him into my arms. So for the hour [that] I was there, I played with and held just him the whole time.

He was a really good baby. No crying or anything. For the longest time he just sat and looked up at me. Talking to the other workers, I was able to piece together his story.

They'd given him the name Sato Hiroki. [Once again, in Japan first and last names are reversed, so "Hiroki" was his given name, while "Sato" was to be his family name.] When he was found back on June 13 or so, his umbilical cord had barely been cut with a pair of normal scissors, and someone had gone to a hospital and just left him on the bathroom floor, no note or anything.

Poor kid! He made quite the impression on me, though. [He's] just barely separated from God's presence. Not a single sin or unclean thought. There's a lot I can learn from him. [Lo these many years later, I wonder whatever became of him.]

All those kids (less than 10 of them) were surprisingly good. Since they're basically orphans, I guess they learn early that all their wants won't be immediately met, so crying won't do them much good. [They were very] well-behaved kids.

[We] didn't get in much dendo after that. Oshiro and I went around taking pictures, one set in a story form/order that I wanted to use at the [annual] Christmas taikai slideshow.

After Eikaiwa at Meito again, Oshiro taught me how to play Japanese chess with the little [traveller's] set I bought today.

Wednesday, November 06, 1991--Day 673

Yes, today was even better. I didn't set my alarm right, so I didn't wake up until 7:30. Later I worked on coloring my fixed copy of a picture someone drew, more rather a cartoon, of angels guarding a pair of missionaries as various dangers befall them. Once I got going, I couldn't stop, and we didn't leave until 12:30 or so. We skipped tennis, however, which made me feel good.

[We] went to Hiroe's, and her mother met us at the door. Hiroe was sick again. Maybe her mother is worried due to us, since we did kind of show up out of the blue. We [my companion and I] talked it over and decided that the next thing to do is talk with her mother and tell her what exactly it is [that] we're all about so she'll stop worrying. I know [that] I'd worry if I were in her shoes.

We later colored many more chirashis, but had to leave since the other two were meeting with Gomyo-san here. So we streeted and I placed a couple of Books; one was with a second generation Soka Gakkai. He said that he'd call for an appointment and he'd bring along one of his S.G.I. (Soka Gakkai International) "seniors." If this goes through, it'll certainly be interesting.

Back at home I got a lot of copies of the list made and a lot of things done. [It was a] pretty good day today; I can't complain.

Me at the park. I didn't own a regular jacket, so here I improvised by wearing my rainsuit top as a windbreaker.


L-R: Ishida, Scott, Oshiro, me.


L-R: Scott, Ishida, Oshiro, me.

Tuesday, November 05, 1991--Day 672

After benkyokai we rode home and changed. We rode with Kobayashi out to make pottery, but the place was closed, so we ended up first going to that park I mentioned on Day 629 and eating the food [that] she'd brought. I felt kind of bad for skipping out on dendo for that.

My money finally came today, thank goodness, so I went and ran several an overdue errand. It was great to get it done.

[We] rode to the honbu for some copies, then headed straight out to where we'd passed out chirashis and dendoed there. The most "success" we saw was talking to a girl for a while about a bunch of church-related things. She'd gone to a Catholic school and I think [that] she was a Catholic, etc. She ended up rejecting all [of] our offers. I kind of got the impression that even though I can swear that that's where we were supposed to go, we were only meant to bear testimony, thus ensuring a fair judgment. Oshiro Choro felt the same thing. Plus, tonight I asked politely for him to let me do it [i.e., deliver the introduction, etc.] when it's my door, and he agreed--so that problem is taken care of.

We came in early, but the other two had played tennis with Aya, Aki, and two others of the honbu staff. I was feeling good tonight, really good tonight, knowing that we'd gone out and worked while they had played around.

I plan on skipping out on tennis also, so tomorrow should be even better.

Ha! Yes, considering the times we live in, I thought it best to clarify. :-)

A stereotype, and an incorrect one at that.

Could have been different back in 1990 though. That was almost 20 years ago.

I'm glad you clarified that the access you had to Sisters Woodward and Cordner was merely social access. ;)

In response to Cinerpro:

I have been an equal-opportunity critic of anonymous speech on the internet, whether it be critical or supportive of the Church. Somehow I just don't think it honorable for a stake president, for example, to spend his time in lots of anonymous speech discussing his theories of church doctrine.

My post cites plenty of secular sources.

Here's to the Dishonor of Anonymity:


Robert Crockett
Latham & Watkins
355 S. Grand Street
Los Angeles, CA 90071

[Bob edited this post to remove my personal residence and insert my office instead; I'm tired of my damaged mail box.]