Upside Down and Meant that way

Our wedding anniversary was last Saturday.  We were going to go out to eat.  Well, that morning, I remembered that the national high school baseball finals was going to be televised at 1 p.m.  The team representing Okinawa had made it to the finals--I couldn't pass that up!  But what would I do about our plans to go out for lunch?

pic: the national Koshien, or baseball competition

Well, it made things a lot easier when, as soon as I made the remark that I had remembered the game was on at lunchtime, my mother (who is not a sports enthusiast) automatically suggested, "You'll just have to put off going out to eat until tomorrow!"  And Kinya didn't seem to mind one bit either.  So we stayed home and watched the entire broadcast.  ...and guess what?

OKINAWA TOOK THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!!!

I think the whole island went wild.  My Dad commented that if the team pitcher ran for the nation's top political office, probably all Okinawans would vote for him!  And you can believe it was even mentioned from the pulpit at church the next day (I guess the missionary knew that everyone would be thinking about it, so might as well talk about  it and get it out of the way so they could concentrate on the message).

And Daddy took us to a U.S. military base golf course country club that afternoon--probably because it was an experience we wouldn't be able to have here in Koriyama.  The serving sizes, because they were meant for hungry G.I.'s famished after a game of golf, were humongous!  I'm sure Kinya was stuffed after that meal.  I was!

pic: Kinya at the Lanai.  Raymond had a foot-long 100% beef hot dog, but he hates being photographed, so...

But what I noticed when I first sat down at the table was the condiment tray: the ketchup and mustard were upside down!  They were placed that way intentionally, so that the contents would come out right away--yes!  Japanese ketchup & mustard never come upside down.

pic: the condiment tray.  Can you see by the labels that they were meant to be placed upside down?

God's ways are not our ways either, and He often allows seemingly senseless obstacles to upset our plans...but He "meant it that way".  For a real good reason.   Our seemingly interrupted plans to eat out....  Perhaps it would be good to mention here that it's a good thing we stayed home: it was fifteen minutes 'til noon that my laptop was delivered to the house.  Had we gone out to eat, we would've had to wait another day before I could begin work on the computer.