Uyoku

Uyoku (Japanese nationalist right-wing groups) drive by my place in their scary-looking noisy sound buses at least once a week (or so it seems to me). They came by the other day while I happened to be out on the balcony with my video camera. Here's a short (27 seconds) clip in case you're interested (or just curious):

More Birds

Cell phone pic.

The Brick Wall

Cell phone pic.

Flower Porn

The 08/09 Miyazaki Maroons

Of all my geeky interests, my yearly participation in a fantasy hockey league is maybe the most passionate. I love hockey, but here in Japan there are very few games to be seen on TV (ESPN Asia shows about a game a week, but this is hit and miss due to the vagaries of licensing rights, etc.). Fantasy hockey is a useful and fun way for me to keep up (on a daily basis) with the game I love.

(I'm fairly certain that none of this blog's regular readers are much interested in hockey (let alone "fantasy" hockey!) but, as I've said before, it's my bloody blog, and I'll blog about what I want to blog about! With apologies...)

The league I'm in, the Pacific Rim Hockey League, had a live online draft this morning in order to set our team rosters (there are eleven teams in all). Until I ruthlessly dump under-performing bums and replace them with even more worthless under-performing bums, here are the 2008-2009 Miyazaki Maroons [*]:

• Goal: Roberto Luongo (Vancouver Canucks); Cam Ward (Carolina Hurricanes); Tim Thomas (Boston Bruins)
• Centre: Jonathan Toews (Chicago Blackhawks); Anze Kopitar (Los Angeles Kings); Patrice Bergeron (Boston Bruins); Steve Stamkos (Tampa Bay Lightning)
• Left Wing: Ilya Kovalchuk (Atlanta Thrashers); Vaclav Prospal (Tampa Bay Lightning); Christopher Higgins (Montreal Canadiens); Milan Lucic (Boston Bruins)
• Right Wing: Patrick Kane (Chicago Blackhawks); Jason Pominville (Buffalo Sabres); Pierre-Marc Bouchard (Minnesota Wild)
• Defense: Dennis Wideman (Boston Bruins); Braydon Coburn (Philadelphia Flyers); Shea Weber (Nashville Predators); Andrej Meszaros (Tampa Bay Lightning); Marek Zidlicky (Minnesota Wild); Paul Martin (New Jersey Devils); Mattias Ohlund (Vancouver Canucks)

I'm excited. Aren't you?

[*] That I have the coolest team name in this (or perhaps any other) league is beyond dispute. This should be clear to anyone with a general knowledge of a) hockey history b) English vocabulary c) Bugs Bunny d) my life and interests.

More Water

Vending Machines, No. 44

Whatever

Would I be a bad person if I said that world economic collapse meant nothing to me?

World economic collapse means nothing to me.

Destroy All Monsters-Bored

I'm serious.

Bench

She Doesn't Understand English

My grasp of the Japanese language is, to put it somewhat charitably, shit. Sure, I can get by pretty well in most daily situations--shopping, eating out, stuff like that, but as soon as I'm required to comment on something of substance, or express a nuanced opinion (i.e. something a bit beyond, say, "yes, I like sushi!" or "no, I don't like natto!"), it's like walking into a brick wall. Fortunately for me most Japanese that I meet sense this, and very gracefully avoid putting me in a position where I might embarrass myself. Sometimes though, circumstance (or my own stupidity) forces me into a position where I'm required to speak Japanese at a level far beyond my abilities.

For example, if someone were to ask me, in Japanese, about the financial bailout currently being debated in the US, I might be lucky enough to catch a key phrase or two, allowing me at least to have a vague idea about what exactly it is that I'm expected to expound upon. Assuming I'm that lucky (and it's a big assumption), my strategy then is to resort to a type of linguistic flailing: I spout as many terms and phrases as might pop into my head that are in any way related to the topic at hand, in the (usually vain) hope that I will hit upon the desired/expected response.

I had planned to make up an imaginary dialogue to give you, gentle reader, an idea of what I'm talking about. But then I stumbled upon a video excerpt from a recent interview Katie Couric conducted with American vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Here is a concrete example of what it is like to speak about difficult topics in an unfamiliar language:

COURIC: Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries? Allow them to spend more, and put more money into the economy, instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, we're ill about this position that we have been put in. Where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh, it’s got to be about job creation, too. Shoring up our economy, and getting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade — we have got to see trade as opportunity, not as, uh, competitive, um, scary thing, but one in five jobs created in the trade sector today. We’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation.

Sarah Palin clearly does not understand English.

[Dialogue via Sadly, No!]

[UPDATE: URL (above) for "natto" fixed, courtesy natto nitpicking Brendan.]

Escape Hatch

Flowers

But then...

... there's always this:



Wasn't that fun?

Yes...

... this is about right:

Ulaan Kohl-Untitled (1)

Not for everyone, perhaps, but I find it quite soothing...

Homeless

Carp

I'm a bit sick and tired today. Some kind of allergy or something. Here's another pic:

Bzzz...

Rural Scene

Thank You for Smoking!

There was an interesting little nugget last week on the website of The Mainichi Daily News, discussing the benefits of raising taxes on cigarettes.

The government can expect to make an extra 9 trillion yen in tax revenue over the next 10 years by raising the price of cigarettes to 1,000 yen a pack, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced Wednesday.

"Many people won't be able to give up, even if they want to, so raising the price will lead to an increase in tax income," said a representative of the ministry's research team.

[...] The currently-planned price increase to 500 yen is predicted to make an extra 4 trillion yen in tax over the next 10 years.

I found it interesting that, in an announcement about tax increases on cigarettes, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (!) is looking only at the bottom line. How much money can we rake in? There is no discussion of the dangers of smoking, the cost to society, and the usual crap. In fact the single quote in the article suggests that they actually want people to continue smoking!

Amazing...

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