From the Daily Yomiuri, this story about a cell phone attached to a breath analyzer that is becoming popular with bus and transport companies. Apparently there has been a recent rash of incidents involving drunk drivers which has led Japan's Construction and Transport Ministry to impose stricter administrative punishments on transport and other companies "that allowed employees to drive while under the influence of alcohol or did not properly supervise their drivers to prevent such reckless driving habits."
The new system, which uses NTT DoCoMo's FOMA third-generation cell phone equipped with a breath analyzer, is easy to use. First, the driver makes a video-phone call to his or her company and breathes into the analyzer connected to the cell phone. The video image showing the driver blowing into the analyzer and data regarding the alcohol concentration on his or her breath are transmitted to the company and confirmed by computer there. [...] The company can check the alcohol concentration while watching the video image, eliminating the possibility that a drunken driver might try to get around the system by getting somebody sober to pose as the driver to breathe into the analyzer.
Some companies are using the systems to check alcohol levels before employees begin their shifts, and to check whether someone is driving under the influence the morning after a night on the town.
Personally, I'm in favor of anything that can help reduce the incidence of drunk driving. What worries me, however, is the potential for abuse if this device is put into the wrong hands. I can imagine a time when a breath analyzer is a standard feature on cell phones, especially here in Japan where they love to cram a million useless features into any piece of technology (if I desire it, for example, my current cell phone will emit the sound of maracas when shaken...). Who the hell wants his wife calling him in the middle of a Friday night binge with his buddies so she can check on how much he's been drinking? Now, I'm not talking about myself, of course, no no... It's the principle, the ideal, nay, the sanctity of our cherished notions of liberty and privacy that concern me. Yeah, that's it...
My fantasy hockey league completed its draft a couple of days ago. I think I did pretty well, especially at centre and defense, but once the season starts I may have problems on the wings. In goal there's a lot of potential (for success or disaster...).
The league I'm in allows for a roster of 23 players--3 centres, 3 left wingers, 3 right wingers, 6 defencemen, and 2 goalies can start on a given day. There are 6 bench positions, and there are also 2 spots available on the injured reserve if it becomes necessary.
Anyway, here's the team I have as of now (I'm really hoping to trade for an established left-winger who can score, so this might change):
Centre: Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins); Jason Spezza (Ottawa Senators); Brad Richards (Tampa Bay Lightning); Ryan Getzlaf (Anaheim Ducks) My team absolutely rocks at centre!
Left Wing: Ray Whitney (Carolina Hurricanes); Alexander Semin (Washington Capitols); Nils Ekman (Pittsburgh Penguins); Dmitry Afanasenkov (Tampa Bay Lightning) I'd like a little more scoring punch here, but there's a lot of potential...
Right Wing: Steve Sullivan (Nashville Predators); Vaclav Prospal (Tampa Bay Lightning); Milan Hejduk (Colorado Avalanche); Colby Armstrong (Pittsburgh Penguins) Really, there are no bums in this bunch, but a little more firepower would be nice...
Defence: Chris Pronger (Anaheim Ducks); Sergei Zubov (Dallas Stars); Lubomir Visnovsky (Los Angeles Kings); Marek Zidlicky (Nashville Predators); Dan Boyle (Tampa Bay Lightning); John-Michael Liles (Colorado Avalanche); Bryan Berard (Columbus Blue Jackets); Sandis Ozolinsh (New York Rangers) Incredible scoring power here, but PIM and plus/minus could be a problem.
Goal: Kari Lehtonen (Atlanta Thrashers); Cristobal Huet (Montreal Canadiens); Hannu Toivonen (of my beloved Boston Bruins) Three young goalies with a lot of potential. I'm a little nervous about this position.
And there you have it, the 2006/2007 Miyazaki Maroons!
They wouldn't be heroes if they were infallible, in fact they wouldn't be heroes if they weren't miserable wretched dogs, the pariahs of the earth, besides which the only reason to build up an idol is to tear it down again.
--Lester Bangs
Damn. I've been holding this in for about a week now and, as much as I hate getting all melancholy and nostalgiac here in public, I've got to say something about it. Last Saturday The Rolling Stones played in Halifax, Nova Scotia, my hometown. I was just over at YouTube checking out some videos from the show and found myself on the verge bawling like a baby. Why? Because the Stones have been my favorite band forever, and I've never seen them in concert, that's why. Damn, I wish I could have been there...
In the early summer of 1969 I was not quite 11 years old. I remember listening to the radio one day, a top 40 station in Winnepeg, where my family lived at the time. I remember hearing an ad for some local fast-food chain, followed by 2 or 3 seconds of silence. What followed would blow my mind. A cowbell. A drum beat, funky, but simple. A chunky-chuck guitar. A quick build-up, and then: "I met a gin-soaked barroom queen in Memphis, she tried to take me upstairs for a ride..." I didn't know what this was, and I certainly didn't know what it meant, but I was hooked 10 seconds into the song. The song, of course, was "Honky Tonk Woman" by the Rolling Stones.
Thanks to my parents, I grew up listening to a wide variety of traditional and popular music. Big band, Sinatra, country and western, traditional Irish and Scottish tunes, Elvis, The Beatles... all kinds of stuff. There was always music playing in our house. At the tender age of 10 I was becoming very interested in top 40 tunes and was just starting to build a collection of 45s (singles). It's tempting to say that nothing had prepared me for the Rolling Stones, but the truth is everything had prepared me. I was ready. The sky opened, a ray of light shone down, and I took the Rolling Stones into my heart. They've been my favorite band from that exact point in space and time.
I mean, you can tell they (the Stones) programmed this for maximum inconvenience. You knew at some point during each song you’d have to get up and move the record needle to the next track to escape whatever annoyance was on at that point. And yet, you gladly do it because it’s THE STONES!!!
--Lester Bangs (on Sucking in the 70s)
These days there are other bands I listen to more often than the Stones. And, to be objective about it, the 'golden era' ended for the Stones about 30 years ago. But they are still, and always will be, my "favorite band". A lot of people slag the Stones these days, and their criticism usually boils down to two main complaints: firstly, that their music sucks and has sucked for a long time; secondly, that their constant touring is nothing more than money-grubbing exploitation of their past glory. The only reasonable reponse to the first complaint is this: so fucking what? Frankly, I don't think a reasonable person would listen to Michael Jackson, or Madonna, or Britney Spears, or any one of a million shite "artists" I can think of, but arguing over what is essentially a matter of taste is a waste of time. Nothing, and I mean absolutley nothing I say, no matter how reasoned, how steeped in terms of music history and theory, is going to make someone stop listening to Michael Jackson and start buying Stones albums. Case dismissed...
The first mistake of art is to assume that it's serious.
--Lester Bangs
My initial response to the second complaint is also so what? Since when is it a crime to take the money of willing customers? This response will likely satisfy most, but there will always be some poor, misguided soul who will cry out, "but what about artistic integrity?" Artistic integrity? Sorry, sonny, we're talking about rock 'n' roll here. Sure, it's art, but there ain't no room on the bus for "artists". Show me a guy who picks up a guitar for "art's sake" and I'll show you a fucking wanker. Have the Stones ever fashioned themselves as artists? Does anyone think the Stones are actually embarassed about being old rich guys with hot wives and girlfriends? Hah! It's their philosophy. People can like them or leave them, but they can't be accused of dishonesty. We'll leave that racket to the artistes...
Damn, I wish I could have been there... Even this close...
UPDATE: I located a video that has the original recording of "Honky Tonk Woman". It's really too bad that the enjoyment of this song has been watered down by so many inferior versions (a few of them by the Stones themselves). It's not the best Stones tune ever, but it is one of many rock classics. Enjoy...
Just when I was about ready to give up on them, my buddies over at the Korean Central News Agency of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea have returned with a vengeance. Yes, after months of lazy, uninspired, and --dare I say it?--almost civilized rants against Japan, the U.S. and anyone else who looks like a running-dog lackey of the imperialist hordes, my guys, yes, my guys (for I love them as surely as the sun rises in the east...) are back with a healthy dose of that good old down-on-the-rice-paddy, angst-ridden, I-don't-know-how-to-use-English-grammar-or-vocabulary-and-I-don't-give-a-fuck political invective.
The sanctions — called for in a U.N. Security Council resolution that denounced the July launches — ban fund transfers and overseas remittances by groups and individuals suspected of links to North Korean weapons programs.
"By taking these measures, we have demonstrated the resolve of the international community and Japan that is in line with U.N. Security Council resolution," Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said.
"I do not know how North Korea will respond, but I hope North Korea will accept the U.N. Security Council resolution in a sincere manner and respond to various concerns of the international community such as on their missile launches," he said.
I guess you could call North Korea's response "sincere". The Korean Central News Agency (Sept. 25-UPDATE: Sorry, this should say Sept. 26) translates for us from Rodong Sinmun:
Rodong Sinmun Monday ridicules Japan's application of "financial sanctions" against the DPRK as a farce of a jester of a circus troupe. The Japanese authorities, bereft of reason, are foolishly performing short-sighted and senseless buffoonery reminding us of a rural vendor, regarding "financial sanctions" as "a panacea," says a Rodong Sinmun commentary Monday.
[...] Dancing to other's tune, Japan is attempting to pressurize and strangle the DPRK with such "financial sanctions" to drive it somewhere. It is, however, a poor, third-rate diplomacy of bat-blind philistines.
I don't mind telling you right now that I could read this stuff forever. For me it has the essence of, oh, I don't know, Nietzsche on acid...
Japan is whipping itself into senseless frenzy to please the whim of its American master. It is acting flippantly not to fall behind the U.S. in the racket of sanctions against the DPRK. It does not warrant surprise, considering that Japan has made it its physical quality to lick the boots of the American master and tail behind the U.S. It is unseemly for Japan, styling itself "a big power," to behave like this.
Japan's noisy row of "financial sanctions" against the DPRK is a disgusting behavior of a slovenly political charlatan bent on refurbishing his public image by ingratiating himself with his American master and feathering his own nest by following the U.S.
You know, if I could get my Japanese university students to speak and write like this, my job would be a helluva lot more fun...
It is an utterly unreasonable sophism to describe the application of the "financial sanctions" as "a catalyzer" for "dialogue." It is a folly rendering the problem more complicated and carrying the DPRK-Japan confrontation to extremes.
It is justifiable and natural for the DPRK to put up a tough rebuff to Japan's desperate political provocation. The situation is very serious and the consequences are unpredictable. Japan would be well advised to behave with discretion, pondering over the serious consequences to be entailed by its harebrained act against the DPRK.
And there you have it. Well, Korean Central News Agency of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, you've been a stranger too long. It's good to have you back and in such fine form. Until next time, farewell, my friends.
A Japanese man recently won the World Air Guitar Championship in Finland. Less publicized, however, is the fact that Japan has another champion in, um, another "virtual" sport--air sex. According to this story in the WaiWai section (English translations of articles from some of Japan's less 'reputable' magazines) of the Mainichi Daily News, "air sex requires players to simulate sauciness as though with a partner, but actually while alone."
"Air sex was originally invented by guys who couldn't get girlfriends, but desperately want to have sex," J-Taro Sugisaku, the self-professed creator of air sex, tells Weekly Playboy.
Sugisaku discusses some the 'dangers' of air sex:
"You must be warned, though, air sex can be very dangerous," Sugisaku says. "Normally what happens with a display is that you perform the same way you normally would when having sex. I've seen guys who put on air sex shows that clearly display they're still virgins. I've also seen other guys perform such incredibly authentic fake fellatio that nobody has been left in any doubt that they could only be bisexual. Let me reiterate: Air sex can be dangerous."
Hmmm... The reigning air sex champion, who calls himself Cobra, informs us that "successful air sex... involves more than just blowing," and gives some insight into the mental preparation required to be a successful air sex... participant:
"On the day that I reached the top, the day I became world champion, I was thinking of my girlfriend. No, my ex-girlfriend. She'd just dumped me two days before the contest," Cobra tells Weekly Playboy. "The air sex display I put on that day was, in my mind at least, supposed to be the farewell fling I really wanted to have with my girlfriend. It was the best possible condition I could have been in going into the competition."
Now close your eyes and imagine this:
Cobra then proceeds to put on an 8 1/2-minute display of air sex for the weekly, with moves including ear nibbling, sphincter licking, attaching a condom while kissing, ejaculation and afterglow. Cobra says that the knack of bogus bonking lies in openness.
If you're still here, Cobra has some advice for aspiring air sex 'artists':
"You can't care about what women watching your performance are thinking about you. When you get down to air sex, you've got to immerse yourself in the air sex world," Cobra says. "Air sex can't be performed in half-measures. If it is, you're only asking for trouble."
Sugisaku concurs, explaining that "if you get nervous, air sex is impossible. A good start is understanding your own sexual habits and going on from there." Truly words to live by...
UPDATE: In a classic case of 'I wish I'd thought o' that', Eli at Multi Medium asks, "... do they achieve airgasm?"
Hockey has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately, living in Miyazaki means that I rarely get to see any games, and then only on TV. These days I 'experience' hockey pretty much exclusively through my pc. To my knowledge there is only one skating rink in all of Miyazaki Prefecture. It's outdoors, is only open for a few weeks in winter, and is located atop Ebino Plateau, making access in wintertime somewhat difficult. I went there for the first time last winter and had a blast dazzling the locals with my (very rusty) skating abilities.
Anyway, the National Hockey League pre-season has begun, and my attention is beginning to turn to hockey. I'm quite aware that, of the handful of regular readers I have here, probably none know much about hockey and may not be interested in it at all. To the hockey 'unwashed': I plan to post occasionally on the topic of hockey, in a non-technical, general-interest, and (I hope) sometimes humorous style. I'm not going to try to 'teach' hockey to anyone (although there will generally be links aplenty for those who want to find out more). I simply want to share my passion, gentle readers! Game on!
Behind every great hockey player is a... coach, who imparts his knowledge, his passion, and his philosophy of the game to the impressionable young minds and bodies of the players in his charge. In the video below, future Hall of FamedefensemanChris Chelios of the Detroit Red Wings reminisces about a memorable coach from his past, the inimitable Jules Winnfield...
In football (soccer) they have something called a penalty kick. In hockey we have a penalty shot. Watch the brief video below, and then tell me which seems more interesting...
You'll never see anything that cool in a penalty kick!
[Note: A complete comparison of penalty kicks/penalty shots would require me to get into more technical details than I want to do here. If anyone wishes to pursue a more technical discussion on this or any other hockey-related topics, as they arise, please feel free to post a comment.]
Once upon a time, in a land far away, on the internet, I directed the following 'flame' at a long-forgotten opponent, in a long-forgotten argument having something to do with insects:
So tell us, o entymylogically(sp?) wise one, what the fuck does this have to do with the original post? Since you're obviously some kind of mutated cockroach, you've got nothing to win or lose, although it appears as if you've lost your antenae for common sense. Go back to the garbage heap you worhtless shit gulping less than a maggot brained wart on a shit infested ant's ass. While you're at it- fuck off.
I don't have much to say for myself, except that in those days the internet was, for me, one long flame war. In the years since writing the above, aside from learning how to spell 'entomologically', I've learned to, shall we say, control my tongue (if not my temper) a bit more. Cursing and swearing and snide comments, after all, tend to lose their appeal when the potential target (in my case Japanese-speaking people) is not likely to understand what you're talking about. Of course, as any of my ex-pat drinking buddies could tell you, I can still peel the paint off buildings with just a few choice words when the mood hits. Generally speaking, though, I'm a much mellower guy than the lout that wrote the words above, which leads me to something that happened this morning...
Like most English-speaking guys (at least the ones I know and associate with!), it's fairly common for me to use the words 'fuck' and 'shit' as exclamatory statements: "oh, for fuck sake!", "fuck it!", "fuck, yeah!", "ahh, shit!", and "holy shit!" being but a few examples. This morning, I was making coffee in the kitchen. I thought I was alone. One of the things I hate about Japan is that it sometimes seems as though all of the interior designers here are thinking about dwarves or people who never have to stand up living in their creations... Anyway, I'm in the kitchen making coffee and I think I'm alone, when suddenly I give my head its daily bash, this time into the corner of an overhead cupboard. Fuck, did it hurt! "Fuuck!!", I yelled. And then my daughter walked around the corner and said, "nande 'fuck', Daddy?" As much as my head hurt, I felt a bit ashamed.
Nande means 'why', so my daughter was asking me why I said 'fuck'. She didn't say, "'fuck' nan desu ka?" ("what is 'fuck'?" or "what does 'fuck' mean?"). I'm fairly certain that my 3-year old doesn't know the meaning of 'fuck'. But by asking me why I said 'fuck' she showed a pretty good understanding of one of the word's functions in English. She heard me say 'fuck'. She saw me holding my head in pain. If she could say it in English, she would have said "what happened?". Barring that, she wondered what made me say 'fuck'. Clearly she's heard me say it before...
I'm a rotten father, doomed to spending the rest of his days in fear. Fear that one day, sooner or later, my little girl will, in the presence of her mother--my wife, fall down, or bump her head, or drop her ice cream, and at that fateful moment she'll scream the dreaded word. And I'll be fucked...
From my recently-met friend, Chez, at Smells Like White Spirit. I give you the President of the United States of America, poet statesman:
MAKE THE PIE HIGHER by George W. Bush
I think we all agree, the past is over. This is still a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mental losses.
Rarely is the question asked Is our children learning? Will the highways of the Internet become more few? How many hands have I shaked?
They misunderestimate me. I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity. I know that the human being and the fish can coexist. Families is where our nation finds hope, where our wings take dream.
Put food on your family! Knock down the tollbooth! Vulcanize society! Make the pie higher! Make the pie higher!
Ironically, any halfway decent screenwriter/director pair could have made that mini-series [The Path to 9/11] and made Clinton look like an ass without inventing anything at all -- but that would have required a talent for subtlety evident in a level of professionalism that would make writing propoganda ... distasteful.
From, ahem, Hermann Goering [G.M. Gilbert: Nuremberg Diary, 1947; pp. 278-279]
Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship. [...] Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.
This car shop sign caught my eye as I was driving by it the other day. I can't decide if there's something odd about naming your shop 'Car Queen', or if there's something odd about me for thinking it's odd. I don't think I'd want to buy a car, or get my car fixed, at a place called Car Queen. Gentle readers, do you think I'm a little sexist, or even homophobic for feeling this way? And some of the cars they had? Well, I can't imagine your typical hetero-guy --and indeed, if you ask anyone, "Hey, what's that Kyklops guy like?", they'll tell you staight out, "Oh, you know, he's a typical hetero-guy...")... Anyway, I can't imagine your typical hetero-guy wanting to get behind the wheel of some of the cars they had for sale at this place. I mean, really, a Honda 'Life Dunk'? Isuzu's 'Mysterious Utility'? Mitsubishi's 'Delica Space Gear'? And the list goes on: from Toyota there's the 'Nadia' and the 'Gaia', and Mazda has the 'Bongo Friendee' (I hope I never see the day when I say to my friends, "Hey, let's hop in my Bongo Friendee and go downtown to watch the girls!" [shivers]). [Note: Readers from outside Japan can verify that I'm not inventing these car names here and here. Readers in Japan know the horror all too well...]
Princess Kiko, the wife of Prince Akishino, the Emperor's second son, gave birth to a boy Wednesday morning, a long-awaited male heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne. The baby, delivered by Cesarean section, is the first male born to the Imperial family in 41 years and becomes the third in line to the throne after Crown Prince Naruhito, 46, and Prince Akishino, 40. The birth will put off the succession crisis facing the Imperial family for a while.
I wasn't going to write about this story at all because, frankly, I find the notions of 'royalty', 'aristocracy', 'divine right', 'imperial succession', etc. both morally repugnant and logically absurd. Any particular monarch might not necessarily be a bad person, but we can be pretty certain, if we go back far enough in the family line, his/her ancestors would most likely be considered homicidal maniacs in modern society. Why anyone should be proud that his/her ancestors did more killing, raping, and stealing than mine or yours is a bit beyond my understanding... Anyway, having got that out of the way, this story is not completely without interest.
Conservative elements in Japan are no doubt relieved that Princess Kiko had a boy. The current system of succession does not allow women to inherit the throne but, until yesterday, it had been 41 years since a male was born into the royal family. Last year a panel convened by Prime Minister Koizumi recommended that the laws be changed to allow women and their children to ascend to the throne. News of Princess Kiko's pregnancy put off the introduction of a bill to parliament. Conservatives argue that male-only succession, to ensure the 'purity of the male bloodline' (ie.the Y chromosome), is the throne's defining characteristic. In order to prevent a woman from becoming monarch, conservatives proposed bringing back other branches of the imperial family (which were abolished after World War II), and even went so far as suggesting a revival of the concubine system.
Most Japanese, while happy that the new baby is healthy, remain divided over whether to revise the Imperial House Law to allow females to take the Chrysanthemum Throne. Many people appear to be concerned about the effects recent events might have on Princess Masako, wife of the current royal heir, Prince Naruhito. By all accounts an intelligent and articulate woman, the Harvard-educated Masako gave up her career as a diplomat to marry Naruhito and join the royal family. The pressure on Masako to bear a son, however, pushed her into depression and provoked Naruhito to publicly defend his wife (almost unheard of in Japan). It was the birth of their daughter Aiko that initially prompted lawmakers, with a lot of public support, to begin looking into changing the rules of succession.
It's perhaps not surprising that the issue of royal succession is illustrative of one aspect of the conservative/progressive divide in Japan. One interesting point, though, does seem to be emerging. While conservatives are clearly happy about the birth of a male heir, Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko appear to be actively courting and winning favor with Japan's more conservative elements. Crown Prince Naruhito and Princess Masako, on the other hand, apparently have the sympathy of younger, more progressive-minded Japanese. Whether or not this leads to increased politicization of the throne, from within the royal family, it's really too early to say.
...join hands against South Korea... This kinda jumped off the page at me. According to the article, from the Bahrain News Agency, "Japan and Canada agreed on joining efforts to help halt South Korea's nuclear and missile development programme." [This headline will probably be fixed by the time anyone reads this post, but I swear, that's what it said...]
(Something seems to have drained what little creative energy I might previously have possessed. I can't even rouse myself to a mid-level rant about something Japanese these days. So, to pass the time, and to engage in some 'therapeutic' typing, I'll content myself with a little linkwhoring. The following via the nonist.)
The Gematriculator is a service that uses the infallible methods of Gematria developed by Mr. Ivan Panin to determine how good or evil a web site or a text passage is. Basically, Gematria is searching for different patterns through the text [...] Experts consider the mathematical patterns in the text of the Holy Bible as God's watermark of authenticity. Thus, the Gematriculator provides only results that are absolutely correct.
Use the Gematriculator to rate the 'evil-ness' of your site! Just enter a URL and, presto!, you have your results. "Wasn't that fun? Now waste your time by killing everyone!"
I guess it could be argued that a site like Find A Grave probably has some utility as a reference source ("Millions of Cemetery Records and Online Memorials"), but personally I think it's more interested in pandering to a morbid fascination with celebrity. The most popular searches at the time of this writing include some unsurprising results: Number One: JonBenet Ramsey (I refuse to link to this because, well, I like to think that I have some sense of decency. If I seem a trifle self-important, too fucking bad...) Other 'Celebrities' in the Top 20: Ingrid Bergman (2); Hedy Lamarr (3); Lee Marvin (!) (5); Jim Morrison (15); Diana Spencer (16); Surprisingly (to me, at least) coming in at number 6 is Saint John the Baptist. The photo (click for larger view) is from the gravesite of my favorite poet, John Keats (this is a good place to start if you're unfamiliar with Keats' life and poetry). The inscription at the bottom of the gravestone reads, "Here lies one whose name was writ in water". This was what Keats requested shortly before his death, at the age of 25. The words above this were written after Keats' death by a friend who was bitter about how the young poet's life turned out.
This Living Hand
This living hand, now warm and capable Of earnest grasping, would, if it were cold And in the icy silence of the tomb, So haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nights That thou wouldst wish thine own heart dry of blood So in my veins red life might stream again, And thou be conscience-calmed—see here it is— I hold it towards you.
This is a picture of a dork with a camera, taken in the parking area outside the condo said dork lives in. Like the Delphic Oracle, Socrates, et al, I've always felt that self-awareness is the key to knowledge. I know I'm a dork, so it's ok...
I haven't really felt like writing much the past couple of weeks, so I thought I'd post a photo. I don't post many of my own photos because I'm not much of a photographer, but once and a while I get lucky and spot something interesting like the cloud formation in this Miyazaki sunset. Not the highest quality pic because it was taken with my cell phone.
To the few friends who regularly drop by my humble blog: I've been really busy lately and just returned from a conference in beautiful Fukuoka. Now I'm going away for a couple of days with my family to a nearby resort area in Kirishima. The time away from my pc and my blog is taking it's toll, but like Arnold says in The Terminator: "I'll be back."
... living in Miyazaki, Japan. I like that I don't have to worry about some idiot stealing anything I don't nail to the wall or keep under 24-hour surveillance. A bicycle is safe with a simple wheel lock; my wife can go to the washroom and leave her purse on the table (which I still discourage); I have forgotten my camera somewhere and gone back to find it was still there. I like that I don't have to pay an arm and a leg for a pack of smokes and/or a beer. I like that, in eight years here, I have never heard one negative racial comment directed my way (well, except for being mistaken for American...heh!); my half-euro/Japanese daughter is accepted and treated like the future queen of Japan. I like that I don't have to argue with anyone about Quebec. I like that I don't have to argue with anyone about religion (Japan is a good place for atheists, although skeptics (like me) may have a harder time--there will be a more serious post about this in the future...). I like (and I might as well be honest about it) that the simple fact that I'm an educated English-speaking person has allowed me to get good jobs here. I like that I have a great wife and a beautiful daughter; I like that they have made me (I think) a better man. Japan has been good to me...
I guess that people around the world all have different ideas about what makes a 'good cop'. Probably for most of us a good cop is one who protects the innocent and catches the bad guys. In North America people are becoming quite used to seeing examples of police brutality on TV. Stories of police corruption also seem to be more common these days. I'm not really sure how the average Japanese feels about the police here. In the video below is the most shocking spectacle of bad police behaviour I have ever seen. North Americans in particular may not be able to believe what they are seeing. The following video is from a Japanese news broadcast and is in Japanese, so let me set it up a little (details in English here): a car has left the road and smashed into some sort of structure; rescue workers are trying to help the driver, who seems to be a bit unhinged; the driver seems to go a bit crazy and starts smashing up the inside of his car; the police arrive; the man gets out of his car and moves toward the police brandishing some sort of club... What follows will shock and astound you...
I couldn't quite believe my eyes when I first saw this...
Well, I guess it had to happen sooner or later. There's been a spike in the number of spam messages in the comments section, so I've enabled the "Comment Verification" device (it's not like I get a gajillion comments anyway, but this week I got more spam than real comments...). Anyway, sorry for the inconvenience. [And please, no "I told you so"s from the wordpress crowd, or I'll have to start moderating comments as well!]
Eat your food only; do not eat that which is not food; neither seize the table between your jaws, nor use the raiment of the table to wipe your lips. I say again to you, do not touch it, but leave it as it is.
And though your stick of carrot does indeed resemble a marker, draw not with it upon the table, even in pretend, for we do not do that, that is why. And though the pieces of broccoli are very like small trees, do not stand them upright to make a forest, because we do not do that,that is why.
Sit just as I have told you, and do not lean to one side or the other, nor slide down until you are nearly slid away. Heed me; for if you sit like that, your hair will go into the syrup. And now behold, even as I have said, it has come to pass.
Laws Pertaining to Dessert
But of the unclean plate, the laws are these: If you have eaten most of your meat, and two bites of your peas with each bite consisting of not less than three peas each, or in total six peas, eaten where I can see, and you have also eaten enough of your potatoes to fill two forks, both forkfuls eaten where I can see, then you shall have dessert.
On Screaming
[...] if you receive a portion of fish from which every piece of herbal seasoning has not been scraped off, and the herbal seasoning is loathsome to you and steeped in vileness, again I say, refrain from screaming. Though the vileness overwhelm you, and cause you a faint unto death, make not that sound from within your throat, neither cover your face, nor press your fingers to your nose. For even I have made the fish as it should be; behold, I eat it myself, yet shall not surely die.
Various Other Laws, Statutes, and Ordinances
Bite not, lest you be also bitten again. Neither drink of your own bath water, nor of the bath water of any kind; nor rub your feet on bread, even if it be in the package; nor rub yourself against cars, not against any building; nor eat sand.
[Addendum: My daughter has been free of her father's "lamentations" these past two weeks because she's been away at her grandparents' place having the time of her life playing with her cousin (whom she has a huge crush on--she's not quite 4, he's 9 and has the patience of Job...). I realized while chuckling over this piece that I was actually laughing at myself...]
Maybe it's exhaustion from grading end of term tests and papers (terms here run April-July, October-January). Maybe it's the heat. Maybe it's a 'dog days' combination of the two. I dunno. I've started several interesting, informative and insightful (heh) articles on various topics related to Japan but, for now at least, they're languishing as 'drafts'. I don't have the mental energy right now to do a proper job on them (and I'm working a deadline to finish a presentation I have to give next week). Sunday was the 61st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and I had planned to write something about it. I guess it'll wait until next year... While researching said article, however, I came upon a rather amusing quote. In an article attempting to justify American use of the atomic bomb, the writer refers to Japan's attempt to make atomic bombs during the war, and then makes the following rather comical comment:
Had we [the US] tried the invasion route, it is entirely possible that Japan might have been able to complete a bomb and use it on us. MADD would not have sufficed to prevent it because Japan had absolutely nothing to loose by using it. [I haven't altered this quote, and if you check the link, you'll see that there's an 'editorial' note informing us that the article was originally posted to the site one year ago...]
Now, clearly Mothers Against Drunk Driving could not have prevented the Japanese from loosing their atomic bombs. But they didn't have any, so yes, "Japan had absolutely nothing to loose". (Right about now I feel like my brain is turning into a Moebius strip.) In fact, MADD, as an organization, didn't even exist that long ago (although it must be granted that an early form of MAD did). So, clearly, Japan had everything to lose by having nothing to loose, and America was the winner because it was the looser. And that's the story of Hiroshima...
I'm all for the exploration of space and stuff, but it seems a bit odd to me that a rapidly de-populating country like Japan is seriously planning to build a crewed lunar base by 2030. Now what could they be up to...
Yes, I'm a smoker. I've tried many times to give up cigarettes, but I can't do it. I'm weak. I'm a slave to an evil, filthy habit. Living in Japan, it's even more difficult to quit, because Japan is, well, smoker's heaven! A pack of smokes costs just 320 yen (about 3-4 dollars, depending on where you live), and that's after a recent tax hike, which resulted in Japan Tobacco, the world's third largest cigarette company, recording a 60 percent rise in profits in the most recent quarter. Of course the government (like all governments) pays careful lip service to educating people about the dangers of smoking, but the fact is that smokes are a major money cow for governments. Heh, the Japanese government is actually the biggest shareholder in Japan Tobacco (it holds 67.77 percent of issued stock). Anyway, the Japanese are nothing if not polite, so I've included a couple of nifty graphics from a series sponsored by Japan Tobacco on smoking etiquette. [Very odd. I originally had a link to the Japan Tobacco site here, but just after posting this it went down...]
I think the video below is meant as a parody, but it's so close to the reality of teaching English at many conversation schools here in Japan (and elsewhere) that I can't really be sure. It actually looks like a lot of 'learn English' TV shows I've seen here. [Courtesy Harry at Chase Me, Ladies; (via Dog Bones)]
Yes, in many places that would constitute an English lesson: 'useful' expressions, 'realistic' situataions, singing, dancing...
Consistently, from the Hezbollah heartland, my message was that Hezbollah must stop this cowardly blending . . . among women and children... Jan Egeland, UN head of humanitarian affairs
Something probably closer to the 'truth':
Hezbollah fighters [...] avoid civilians like the plague. Much smarter and better trained than the PLO and Hamas fighters, they know that if they mingle with civilians, they will sooner or later be betrayed by collaborators -- as so many Palestinian militants have been. Mitch Prothero (link via Informed Comment)
Here I am! Kill me, please!
The implication of Egeland’s cowardly statement seems to be that any Lebanese fighter, or Palestinian one, resisting Israel and its powerful military should stand in an open field, his rifle raised to the sky, waiting to see who fares worse in a shoot-out with an Apache helicopter or F-16 fighter jet. Hizbullah’s reluctance to conduct the war in this manner, we are supposed to infer, is proof that they are terrorists. Jonathan Cook
My good friend Pierre over at Loser's Guide posted this interesting comment today about a movie review he read at Salon (the name of this Tunisian movie is Satin Rouge). Pierre informs us that the review "... dutifully belabours the fact that many Tunisians are Muslim [...] even though this movie is about friendship, middle age and loneliness," and then presents us with this little chestnut of a quote (with "righteous parentheses"!):
(Even if Islam as a religion doesn't necessarily preach misogyny, if one of its cultural interpretations is that a woman should be sentenced to death by stoning for having a child out of wedlock, there's no other word to use.)
Now let me quote Pierre:
I don't know. What do you call a religion that demands the death penalty thusly (Deuteronomy 22:20-21):
But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel:
Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die.
As Pierre informs us, "And there's a lot more where that came from." And then we have this story from Media Matters for America (link via SIVACRACY):
For the second time in three days, CNN featured a segment on the potential coming of the Apocalypse, as indicated by current conflicts in the Middle East. The July 26 edition of CNN's Live From ... featured a nine-minute segment in which anchor Kyra Phillips discussed the Apocalypse and the Middle East with Christian authors Jerry Jenkins and Joel C. Rosenberg -- who share the view that the Rapture is nigh. At one point in the discussion, Phillips asked Rosenberg whether she needed "to start taking care of unfinished business and telling people that I love them and I'm sorry for all the evil things I've done," to which Rosenberg replied: "Well, that would be a good start." Throughout the segment, the onscreen text read: "Apocalypse Now?"
As Media Matters for America documented, the July 24 edition of CNN's Paula Zahn Now featured a segment examining what "the Book of Revelation tell[s] us about what's happening right now in the Middle East." CNN re-aired this segment the next day. Media Matters also noted that Rosenberg is just one of several conservative media figures who have identified and expounded upon the purported signs of the Apocalypse to be found in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict. During his appearance on Live From ..., Rosenberg claimed that he had been invited to the White House, Capitol Hill, and the CIA to discuss the Rapture and the Middle East, and noted -- several times -- that the apocalyptic events described in his novels keep coming true.
So, CNN is giving serious coverage to the impending apocalypse? Is this what passes for news in the United States of America these days? Maybe the apocalypse ain't so far away after all... Japan seems saner the longer I live here...
I've been too busy reading (pretty much exclusively about this) the past few days to post anything new here. I feel a kind of mental 'paradigm shift' coming on. This happens periodically, and when it's over the world looks different to me (not necessarily better or worse, just different). In the meantime, it's a bit unsettling, and somewhat paralyzing, because right now I'm not sure what I think about anything. It's not any kind of real 'condition' or anything. This is just what happens to me when I'm about to change some long-held opinion or belief. I'm very unhappy about what's happening in Lebanon... Anyway, I expect to be back real soon...
The Yasukuni ('peaceful country') Shrine is located in Tokyo and is dedicated to the spirits of soldiers who died fighting for the Japanese emperor (english homepage here). It's essentially the Japanese version of a war memorial, and its Book of Souls contains the names of about two and a half million Japanese men and women who died in the service of their country. Anyone even passingly familiar with the current problems between Japan and its neighbors (most notably China and the Koreas) has likely heard of this place, and has possibly wondered what all the fuss is about. I mean, the leaders of Western nations (all nations?) pay annual homage to their war dead at war memorials, right? Well, yes, but...
In the Shinto tradition humans become deities (kami) when they die, so the "souls of the dead are worshipped rather than just remembered." Only the kami of 'remarkable' people are enshrined, and this is where things get sticky. In 1978, 14 Class A war criminals (including Hideki Tojo) were quietly enshrined as 'martyrs of Showa'. (When Emperor Hirohito, emperor of the Showa period, learned of this he stopped visiting the shrine altogether--more on this below.) Yasukuni also operates a museum which many believe offers a revisionist version of history. It claims that Japan's occupation of its neighbors was done to protect the region's independence from Western encroachment; it denies events like the Nanking Massacre; it says that the execution of convicted war criminals was "cruel" and "unjust"; etc. For Japan's war-time victims, and for many liberals within Japan itself, Yasukuni is a symbol of Japanese militarism and right-wing nationalism. Conversely, to many it is a symbol of patriotism.
The current controversy centers around annual visits to the shrine by recent Japaneser prime ministers, and whether these visits were done in an official or private capacity. Current Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has visited the shrine four times since taking office in 2001. Not surprisingly, relations with China and South Korea have grown worse during his tenure. Koizumi will step down as prime minister later this year, and many see Yasukuni as a central issue in deciding his successor.
The bitter debate over the annual pilgrimage of Japan's Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, to the Yasukuni Shrine war memorial has been given a new twist by a beyond-the-grave intervention from an unusual critic: Emperor Hirohito.
A memo has been found claiming the wartime ruler expressed "strong displeasure"at Yasukuni enshrining 14 Class-A war criminals in 1978, and refused to visit the memorial, which also honours 2.5 million war dead, until his death a decade later.
As the story points out, this is a "severe embarrassment" for Mr. Koizumi. Personally, I would imagine that right-wing nationalists all over Japan are embarrassed by this revelation. They act and speak, after all, 'in the Emperor's name'. For his part, Mr. Koizumi said that he has not changed his views about the visits, calling it "an issue of the heart". But as the article points out,
[...] proof that the monarch in whose name millions of Japanese fought in the Second World War staunchly opposed official trips to the Tokyo shrine will put intense pressure on Mr Koizumi to call off a final, politically explosive visit before he leaves office in September.
Also of note here is the timing of the memo's release, which is seen by some as an attempt by business interests in Japan to "sabotage the election of Mr. Koizumi's successor" and restore good business relations with the rest of Asia.
The current Emperor, Akihiko, has never visited Yasukuni shrine, despite pressure to do so, and now it's clear that his father, who was emperor during World War II, disapproved of Yasukuni. If this isn't a slap in the face to right-wing nationalists in Japan, I don't know what is. (Imagine the Pope declaring he was an atheist...) I believe the Royal Palace has the hearts of many, if not most, Japanese. This could signal a change within Japan and between Japan and its neighbors. Assuming, of course, that the Japanese themselves are actually paying attention...
You know, as soon as I can figure out how to use the 'record' function on my DVD machine (it's in Japanese), I'll have an unlimited source of odd videos to post here. In the meantime, some more stuff culled from YouTube...
I'm not actually sure if the following commercial for copy paper is originally Japanese, but it certainly could be...
Police in Japan, and the contrast between reality and fantasy...
A nice anthropological study here. It's in Japanese, but you should be able to figure out that it's a lesson on how to grovel in Japan...
Wow. It's not often that I get the chance to talk about three of Japan's idiosyncrasies in one short post, but here goes...
To my mind, one of Japan's most enduring icons is the ubiquitous vending machine. Canned coffee (hot or cold) is one of the most popular products offered by vending machines in Japan. The picture on the right is from an advertisement on a vending machine at a park near my place, and shows just two of the many coffee products offered by (I think) the biggest canned coffee company in Japan, Georgia. Georgia is owned by Coca Cola Japan. The Japanese also (quite famously) have a penchant for using the English language, shall we say, creatively, sometimes with quite unintended results. You'll notice that one of the products in the picture is called "Deeppresso", a name which is no doubt intended to express the idea of this product's deep, rich espresso flavor. But really, say it out loud. Are you reminded of any kind of coffee? Would you want a nice hot can of deeppresso in the morning? Would you like to cool of on a hot day with an ice-cold can of deeppresso? Maybe you get my point... This is made even more amusing with the juxtaposition of Deeppresso with another of the company's products, "European". "Deeppresso European". Mmm... reminds me of Swedish movies...
We're taking a family trip this weekend. My lovely wife says if I behave myself we can go visit Ultraman Land. Needless to say, I'm quite excited! If I can, I promise to post pics of me and Ultraman in battle! In a completely unrelated matter, I guess I'll have to change the "About Me" section of my profile, since I bought a new pc this week. May not look too imposing, but under the hood it's a lean, mean, clean, web machine. I'm very happy. Wow! A new pc and Ultraman in the same week! I still sometimes wonder what I did to deserve it but, life is good...
Ok, so I'm going to try to make this a regular thing, so long as I have time and can find half-way interesting videos (in the future I hope to make a few of my own). Here goes this week's entry...
It's perhaps not very common knowledge, but Japan has one of the most powerful and best equipped militaries in the world. In fact, in terms of conventional force, they are a match for damn near any country one might care to mention. The numbers vary from source to source, but Japan is generally recognized to be in the top 5 in terms of military spending (PDF file). So why am I wasting your time with this? Well, to introduce the first video, of course! Looks like some kind of promo used to suck young men and women into joining the forces. Starts out a bit slow, but later on they start blowing things up...
Summertime is typhoon season in Japan, and heavy rains frequently cause landslides. I've never experienced a landslide, and if the video below is any indication of what they can do, I don't want to anytime soon. This is worth watching...
"If we accept that there is no other option to prevent an attack ... there is the view that attacking the launch base of the guided missiles is within the constitutional right of self-defense. We need to deepen discussion," Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said.
Now, anyone who reads this blog knows that I'm no fan of North Korea. Nor am I especially fond of Japan's weak-in-the-knees constitution. I don't, however, believe that the Japanese government should be seriously considering making an end run around Article 9 with a pre-emptive attack on their minds. If the Japanese people want to change their constitution through a legal referendum (to my knowledge the only constitutionally legal method), that's one thing. It's quite another for the government to embark on a path of 'creative interpretation' and by-pass the people altogether.
OK. Now, if this is gonna make any sense to whomever is reading this, the first thing ya gotta do is go over to Multi Medium and check out a pic with the caption "Orange wall with thingy." I was over there myself earlier today and saw the pic in question, and didn't think anything of it until later, when I happened to drop by Loser's Guide and saw an eerily familiar looking object in an article called "The Truth Is Right Here." It doesn't end there, people. I took the picture you're looking at right now with my cell phone (sorry for the poor quality). Look closely and you should recognize this object. Yes!! It's the same object! And do you know where I saw it? It was hovering over a rugby field in back of my condo!! The glare is from the field's lights, but this is clearly the same object. They'll never take me alive...
My new friend Maliha over at Lightness of Being... has sent me a meme tag. Maliha, I usually hate this kind of stuff, but in the spirit of friendship, good international relations, world peace, saving the whales, and plugging the hole in the ozone layer, I will play along. ;-) I'll need a bit of time to figure out which of my friends to 'tag'. Here goes...
I am? an outsider, a stranger in a strange land I want? to live forever I wish? England would win the World Cup; my beloved Boston Bruins would win the Stanley Cup I hate? Japanese-style pizza (potatoes and mayonnaise on pizza? gimme a break!); intolerance I miss? my father (who never got to meet his grand-daughter); Canada I fear? anything bad happening to my family I hear I am not? a very nice guy I hear I am? a very nice guy I dance? only when it's absolutely necessary! (except with my daughter--anytime, anywhere) I sing? goofy Bugs Bunny-style 'opera' tunes to my daughter ("Figaro" is her favorite); old Rolling Stones tunes when Japanese friends drag me to karaoke I cry? when nobody's watching, about really sappy things I am not always? aware that I've acted or spoken unkindly I make with my hands? very good sandwiches; a nice, spicy chili; silly play-do creatures with my daughter I write? these days about my love/hate relationship with Japan; generally about things that interest me or make me concerned I confuse? nobody intentionally, but probably many accidentally I need? some time alone (maybe more than most people) I should? work a lot harder to improve my Japanese; quit smoking I start? umm...what time is it now? I finish? umm... when do you need it?
In an article in the Japan times talking about the apparent lack of sex in Japan resulting in a declining birth rate, a Japanese researcher says that it's "important for men to have sexual relationships." About half of the world may be stunned by this news... The other half have known it all along...
Not long after I arrived in Japan in 1998, North Korea test-fired a missile, part of which flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific Ocean. Now, according to this Reuters story (you can read about it anywhere, actually), it looks like they're getting ready to test another missile, this one more long-range capable. If the idiots in Pyongyang are true to form, this one will also likely violate Japanese airspace, not to mention all international norms of civilized behaviour. I was quite aware that North Korea was the nutjob of nations before I came here, but living next door to to the global village idiot is enough to raise anyone's level of anger and disgust. Of course these missiles are relatively harmless without a payload, and it's fairly common knowledge that North Korea has a nuclear weapons program, if not actual possession of one or more nuclear bombs. From 1977 to 1883 agents of the North Korean government were responsible for the abduction of many Japanese civilians. Most were abducted to teach Japanese language and culture to North Korean spies, some in order to obtain their identities. For years North Korean spy boats have routinely violated Japanese territorial waters, for the purposes of both espionage and smuggling drugs into Japan. North Korea can go on ranting all it wants about Japanese war atrocities and the wartime occupation/colonization by Japan, but it doesn't change the fact that Japan stopped throwing its weight around 60 years ago, while North Korea's crimes (and that's what they are) are recent and ongoing. I won't even go into what this pathetic excuse for a government does to its own people. Given the above, and the relatively recent news that North Korea has been counterfeiting US currency in order to make a few bucks and destabilize the American/world economy, we Kyklopes are tempted to ask our American friends one simple question: what the fuck are you guys doing getting blown up in Iraq?
Apparently a fight broke out after a public screening of Japan's World Cup loss to Australia last night. According to the report, at the end of the match "[...] about 10 Japanese fans began fighting, with some accusing each other of smiling even though Japan lost." Luckily for me, I watched the game at home. Even more luckily, my (Japanese) wife was sleeping...
The proposal to make education more patriotic in Japan signals the determination of conservatives here to combat what they see as a self-obsessed youth culture, characterized by rampant school bullying and juvenile crime, which they say is eroding the nation's vaunted social order. Under proposed revisions to the Basic Education Law, which are being debated in parliament, teachers would be required to instill in students "an attitude that respects tradition and culture, and loves the nation and the homeland that have fostered them." The changes alarm liberal critics who worry that a legal duty to teach a love for Japan would override the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of thought and conscience. They argue that mandating educators to teach patriotism echoes the ultranationalism of imperial Japan, which led to the catastrophic error of military aggression and, ultimately, ruin.
Evidently most Japanese support the revisions, "[...] demanding schools foster civic morality and teach students to show more respect." It was also revealed that some schools have already begun "grading students on their level of patriotism" and "love for Japan." Responding to criticism of the plan, Prime Minister Koizumi told legislators, "[we] are not intending a law that would draw us into war," and noted that the proposed revisions would also require teachers to imbue a respect for other countries.
Aside from inducing loud barks of disgusted laughter from reasonable people, the above story might lead us to wonder, 'who the fuck is going to be in school here in 50 years' to study anything, let alone patriotism? More than 20 percent of the population is aged 65 or older, and because of an "abysmally low fertility rate" the population will decrease to below 100 million by 2042. This is not really news, as I have yet to meet anyone here who is not aware of this problem. What makes Japan's population decline somewhat alarming is its apparent reluctance to do anything about it. Western countries, for example, rely on a steady influx of immigrants to offset lower birth rates. This leads us to our next item...
There is, in Japan, a truly radical thinker (at least in Japanese terms). His name is Hidenori Sakanaka, and he believes Japan should allow the entry of 20 million immigrants in the next 50 years. Until recently Sakanaka, a career bureaucrat, was head of the Tokyo Immigration Bureau. From what I've read of him, he seems like a rather interesting chap. Some quotes:
"It is ultimately the Japanese people who will decide this issue, but the problem is that there is no debate. The population is declining and the birth-rate is falling, and there is no way we will solve this just by encouraging more births. Now is our chance to begin talking about it seriously." "It's almost taboo to raise the issue of mass immigration here, [...] Japan has no experience of this, only of sending people abroad. Modern Japan almost totally shuts out foreigners and the only people who debate the issue are specialists. Nobody is even researching it." "Here's the problem: The population of the world is over 6 billion, and about half of these people live in Asia. The population of China, India Vietnam and so on is growing very fast at the same time as ours is shrinking. We're a rich country surrounded by developing countries. If we just say we're going to stop immigration completely it will eventually overwhelm us, so we should deal with it now; open the taps slowly to qualified, distinguished people. It's like a dam; we're sitting behind it and a tsunami is coming. What are we going to do about it?" "The common Japanese view of foreigners is very unsparing at the moment. Twenty years ago, 3 out of 10 people didn't like the Chinese; today it is 7 out of 10. Many Japanese fear foreigners because they think they cause crime. Seventy percent of Japanese are against allowing more tourists. That's ridiculous. Tourists don't cause crime and the overwhelming majority of foreigners are good people. But negative thinking about foreigners here is strong." "The politicians are afraid that if they speak positively about immigration they'll run up against public opinion. But look: The politicians don't tackle it, the bureaucrats are divided among different agencies, and there is no policy, so who is going to start?" "Someone should say: Look, there are good and bad foreigners. We won't solve this by ourselves, so let's discuss asking foreign laborers to come here in greater but controlled numbers, and making society easier for them to live. But we haven't even got to the entry point of that debate."
By Japanese standards Mr. Sakanaka is a loose cannon. It's quite refreshing to this gaijin, however, to hear a Japanese speak so frankly and honestly about these issues. There are no doubt many reasons for the negative views Japanese tend to have of foreigners. The media is partly to blame. Any serious crime comitted by a foreigner will be on the front page of every newpaper and the leading story of every newscast. The government is certainly responsible for many policies directed against foreigners, and contains many racist elements. It doesn't help that the American military is still here. Ultimately, though, it boils down to the fact that the Japanese, as a culture, are xenophobic. Anyone who tries to deny this simple fact is either deluded, a fucking idiot, or a liar. Do I 'hate' the Japanese? Of course not. Should I 'teach' them the error of their ways? Most definitely not. Should I express my opinion? Yes, of course I should. The Japanese should take a look in the mirror once and a while. We can't force anyone to look into the mirror, but there's nothing wrong with holding it up. Here's our final item for today. Mr. Sakanaka is back in this one, although it's a bit older. In this article Sakanaka-san gives us some insight into the problem of human traficking in Japan. I'm not going to comment on it, because I think it speaks for itself.
Now this is something I didn't know. According to this aricle in The Times, the village of Shingo, in northern Japan, claims to be the final resting place of Jesus Christ.
According to the account in the Christ Museum next to the tombs, Christ arrived in Japan at the age of 21 and learnt Japanese before returning to Judaea 12 years later to engage in his mission and preach about the "holy land of Japan". The official Shingo history is that Jesus' place on the Cross was "casually" taken by his brother, leaving Christ free to return to Japan. On his return he fell in love with Miyuko, a local girl, and lived happily with his family among the rice fields until dying aged 106.
The Times' article is a bit skimpy on historical details, but a quick Google search of japan christ's tomb brings up a long list of links with more 'information', including one of my personal favorites from Learn the Bible, which calls the entire notion a "blasphemous heresy". Here you'll read about more "false" and "blasphemous" stories of Christ, from the "African Legend" to the "Mormon Myth" to "The Da Vinci Hoax." "Here is the question to ask yourself," the author says. "Which one is true? The answer is clear – they can't all be true. They are all false." Well, I can't argue with logic like that...
I've never quite been able to figure out what to do with this blog; I haven't been able nail down a certain writing style or even any sort of vaguely thematic content. Yeah, the Japanese angle is certainly ripe, but my feelings about Japan are so damn ambiguous at this point that I don't have any confidence about writing coherently about it. In many respects Japan is a shithole when I compare it to Canada. Yet there's no doubt in my mind that coming here was the best thing that could possibly have happened to me. My wife and daughter are daily reminders. After eight years I still don't know what to make of this place that has given me so much. And that's the essence of my problem--it would be unseemly to make fun of a place in which I've become, well, successful, but it would, at the same time, be remiss not to talk about all the fucked-up things I see here. My own ambiguous feelings are mirrored in how I'm perceived by the Japanese who know me. I'm neither an insider nor an outsider. I occupy some limbo-like region of social existence that I haven't quite come to terms with. It would probably help if I put more effort into my Japanese language studies, but there's a creeping fear: the more familiar I become with the language, the more obvious it becomes that the Japanese don't have anything to say--at least not anything I'm interested in. To be fair, that is an as yet unproven hypothesis... Anyway, I haven't given up on this blog yet. Actually just writing this post has given me some ideas for a new approach. In the meantime, I've started a new blog about something I love: rock n' roll. It's called Rocklops, and you can find it here.
It occurred to me tonight, after several beers and while listening to Opeth, that I've become too polite. Obviously a symptom of living in Japan for the past 8 years, this 'politeness' is, in fact, not a true reflection of the 'real' me. I'm not talking about open-the-door-for-little-old-ladies, common-decency-to-your-fellow-man, "sorry-I-stepped-on-your-foot"- type of politeness. No, I'm talking about the insidious type of politeness that keeps you from saying what's on your mind for fear of offending someone. Fact is, I think that 99% of what goes on in the world is shit. It goes without saying that I only interest myself in the 1% of things that happen in the world that are, well, interesting. You may not like Opeth, but I don't really give a shit. I'm quite pleased that, at the age of 47, I can listen to a good death/prog metal band and enjoy them. Beats the fuck out of Eric Clapton Unplugged or Queen with Paul Rodgers or whatever. I'm generally a left-wing type o' guy, but speaking of Japan, I think it's time they renounced that pathetic, peace-loving constitution of theirs. Let's get real here, how can Japan participate in world affairs if their 'soldiery' can't go and be killed in foreign countries while 'keeping the peace' wearing the blue beret of the UN? Permanent Security Council seat? Up to now all Japan has done is pay protection money, they have not shown that they're worthy to have a permanent seat on the Security Council (the notion of 'permamnent seat' itself is worthy of another post...). I pay taxes in Japan, I pay into the social security system here, and my wife and daughter are Japanese citizens. I think I have the right to speak about these things... (and I will in my next post...).
This recent headline caught my eye: Ice Hockey: Japan powers past Israel in Group A. Not exactly the Olympics or the NHL Playoffs, but it is Division 1 of the International Ice Hockey Federation, which means that the winners of this tournament will move up (however briefly) to play against traditional powerhouses like Canada, Sweden and Russia at World Championships next year. I had no idea that they played hockey in Israel, prompting me to dig a bit deeper into this story. The Israel Ice Hockey Federation was established in 1989 by emigres from the Soviet Union and Canada (my heart is beginning to swell...). It joined the International Ice Hockey Federation in 1991. There are three skating rinks in Israel--one Olympic facility and two smaller rinks, one of them at the Canada Center in Metula (my heart is bursting with pride...). The current head coach of Team Israel is none other than Jean Perron, who coached Team canada in the 1984 Olympics and led the Montreal Canadiens to a Stanley Cup championship in 1986. It's fair to say that, given the short amount of time Israel has had a hockey program, it's quite remarkable that they are now playing competitively in Division 1. I started this post thinking to make some kind of joke (as the title might suggest), but it lead me to an unexpected place. Good luck to Israel and Japan at this year's tournament!
Ahh, apparently some South Koreans like America: "It is a disgrace and tragedy that there are such traitors within the nation who hit upon the abominable idea, after licking the boots of the aggressors, running the whole gamut of flattery."
On whether or not US sanctions against North Korea are linked to resumption of the six-party talks: "The hypocritical nature of the U.S. oft-repeated assertion has thus been fully revealed by its self-contradictory statements."
The headline says DPRK Will Never Allow U.S. to Dare Provoke It:"They are grossly mistaken if they calculate they can wrest any concession and compromise from the DPRK by whiling away the time through sanctions and pressure."
Take that, America!!: "If they ignite a new war despite our repeated warnings, the army and people of the DPRK will mobilize all potentials to wipe out them to the last one so that they may not be able to go back home safe."
As if my simple recommendation weren't enough to bestow greatness upon them, my friend Pierre over at Loser's Guide has asked me what it is that I like about the music of Drive-By Truckers... Umm, well, they have a cool name, don't you think? And they're from the South (Alabama, I think), and boys from down there have always made some good shit-kickin' rock 'n' roll. These guys make some damn good rock 'n' roll, too, but there's a little more going on than simple shit-kickin', Old Glory-waving southern rock. It took me a few listens over a few years to realize it (actually I had an epiphany a couple of weeks ago while listening to the album Decoration Day after drinking about 10 beers), but Drive-By Truckers have a lot of interesting things to say about being from and living in the South and about life in general. I don't usually pay too much attention to song lyrics unless they're really good or really bad. These guys have very good, intelligent and thoughtful lyrics. They sing about, for example, the "duality of the 'southern thing'" (pride and shame), economic hardship and the divide between rich and poor, and personal relationships. Their lyrics, I think, are always life-affirming and heavy with themes of reconciliation and redemption. (Note to self: don't mention Faulkner or readers will think you're showing off...) Musically, Drive-By Truckers sound like a hybrid of Neil Young and Lynyrd Skynyrd spiced with some Stones and a bit of punk. As a young guy growing up in a small town in Nova Scotia, me and my buddies listened to a lot of southern rock bands. The Allman Brothers Band, The Marshall Tucker Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd saw us through many a drunken evening. We paid for our beer with hard-earned unemployment cheques. The Atlantic provinces are the 'poor' part of Canada. But it wasn't always like that. The Maritimes used to be the 'civilized' part of Canada. I wouldn't go so far as to make a direct comparison to the American South (for many obvious reasons), but it's no mystery to me if the songs of some good southern rock bands somehow resonate within me.
"Where I live, there are six adults living in houses. There's more and more garbage. The hospital is losing money. We are trying to help stem the tide, but what we really need is the National Guard along the southern border and at key spots along the northern one."
This guy must live in Los Angeles or Florida where, so I've heard, filthy, uneducated, lazy Canadians clutter the scenery like cigarette butts in a gin joint urinal.
From the Daily Yomiuri, this story about a cell phone attached to a breath analyzer that is becoming popular with bus and transport companies. Apparently there has been a recent rash of incidents involving drunk drivers which has led Japan's Construction and Transport Ministry to impose stricter administrative punishments on transport and other companies "that allowed employees to drive while under the influence of alcohol or did not properly supervise their drivers to prevent such reckless driving habits."
