In Memory of Sho Funai

So, I started a blog. I have no particular aim or subject that I want to focus on; I simply want to get my thoughts, feelings, ideas, and emotions out there. Also, being out of school for almost two years now, I have not written to any real extent since graduation, and I can already tell that my writing skills have diminished. My resume does say Journalism and Media Studies as my major, so I suppose I should be a decent writer, and what's a more appropriate form of media right now than a weblog?

I want to start by remembering and thanking one of my very good friend, Sho Funai, who passed away last week (March 11, 2012) at 23 years old. It's hard to describe the myriad of emotions I felt when I heard about Sho's passing. Any time one loses a friend, you are going to feel sadness and maybe anger, but with Sho, it was pure disbelief. I started to flash back on memories from flag football. Myself lined up at QB, with Sho and Russ as the running backs. We were about 8 years old at the time so our playbook basically consisted of pitch right, pitch left, and watch the little guys run. Then I started remembering how when the rest of us were at Lunada Bay Elementary, Sho would travel to the Intermediate school for his math classes. Then countless other great times came across my mind from high school and the trip that Sho, Mark, and I took to Japan when we were in college.

Since those days, Sho and I had been relatively out of touch. We texted back and forth every once in a while about meeting up for drinks, but with him being busy with school and me with work, we just couldn't find a good time. So it wasn't until his funeral service at the Buddhist temple in LA last weekend that I was able to see him again. That was one of the hardest days of my life. Despite the sadness and the mourning though, I got comfort out of everyone's stories and being able to talk to his family. But man, you really got a feel for how much of an impact Sho had already had on the world, and what a shame it is that he is not still here. He was honestly one of the very few people that I have ever met that I truly believe could have changed the world for the better. Come to think of it, he did. I know that having the privilege of calling him my friend has made me an infinitely better person.

Sho Funai is the inspiration behind this blog. I was such a wreck the night I got the call about his death, I just wanted to be alone. The only thing that was making me feel any better was reading his blog, the link to which his friend Aaron had posted on Facebook. Reading that made me feel like I was talking to Sho again, and I took a lot of comfort in that.

I took some time thinking about what I wanted to title my new blog. I knew it was going to be something that reminded me of him, and the one that kept popping into my head was a phrase that I had seen in Japan.

"Be Best. The Sports."

I remember laughing in confusion with Sho and Mark about this. It was written on the side of the plastic cup of beer I bought from the vendor while at my first Japanese baseball game (which was unreal!!). Were they trying to say "Be the Best AT Sports"? Who knows, but this is the kind of thing that Sho loved. Cheap, stupid jokes that most people don't take the time to appreciate. It's the kind of thing that we all loved about Sho - Intellectually superior to everybody but he could laugh with simplest of people. He was the unanimous captain of our high school football team, valedictorian, and master's engineering student. He had every right to boast and brag, but he would never. Instead, he always made an effort to see how YOU were doing.

Not only is Sho the inspiration for me starting this blog, but I am going to think about how he lived his life, and do my best to align my values and practices with his; the purest person I have ever had the honor of knowing.