I'm living in Kusatsu-shi, Shiga-ken for an undetermined amount of time and teaching English as a second language at a local high school. This journal is to document my experiences, thoughts, and to stay connected with others at home and abroad.

Saturday, October 04, 2008

The Almighty

Thank god today I ain't a Christian...
because if I were, I'd be crying fouls of blasphemy while my high school students innocently play their game of Bingo. This is because in many Japanese games, the wild card/joker is called "The Almighty".

I am not kidding. I'm actually quite embarrassed that it's taken me over 2 years to learn this--but in Japan, wild cards, free spots, anything ubiquitously fortunate in board or card games is called "The Almighty". The Ace of Spades. The center "FREE" square in Bingo. Sacré bleu, mon dieu.

In a sense, this means that our Christian God (who I incidentally worship to the same extent that I worship Maroon 5 or GW = not at all), is nothing more than a happy-go-lucky advantage point in cards to the Japanese. Makes you really consider what's important. If God is an Ace of Spades, what does that make the Buddha or Muhammad?

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