Ahhhh. Finally something like autumn has arrived. No frost on the pumpkin, but except for Sunday night when I was hunting mosquitoes in the mansion, it has cooled enough and enough leaves have turned to make it seem like October back home.

Luckily for me, autumn brings learning opportunities and I needn't go to school to experience them. Why just yesterday a fellow as telling me about how Japanese enjoyed walking under under the canopy of ginkgo trees. Then he moved on to maples and how Japanese like the red leaves of those trees. I was both happy and confused as since I enjoy those things too, I am apparently turning Japanese. Except that I also enjoyed them before I came to Japan----as do most folks I've ever known. Except my for wife who often responds with something like, "It's just trees." I was worried that I might have confused my friend too, for when he mentioned Japanese liking maple leaves, I thought of the Canadian flag and said, "Oh, Japanese are like Canadians."

Then this morning I read some learned (?) discussion concerning the internationalization (or lack of) of Japan. I discovered that in addition to the many famous entertainers and athletes of non-Japanese background, there are also a lot of restaurants serving foreign cuisine in Japan. Now if that does not show internationalization, I don't know what does.

I was also educated that the UN Special Rapporteur on Racism who wrote the UN report about discrimination in Japan was apparently some sort of lackey for minority interest groups in Japan. These sneaky devils led him around for 9 days or so showing him only what they wanted him to see, and they, unlike some fellow from the government or perhaps even academia, had political interests at heart. Even worse, the Special Rapporteur could not speak Japanese and had to rely on his deceitful escorts. I am not sure if that is unusual, for I doubt that the fellow could speak Swahili if he went there on an investigation, but then again, this is Japan and we must apply different rules and standards here. Always.

I can not be sure what I should think of this until I consult an unbiased, unfettered by personal day-to-day experience person of letters who can explain everything to me in an abstract moonbeam sort of way that seems to have no connection to reality. I certainly cannot trust my own lying eyes as I am a member of a minority group with a vested interest in not being discriminated against.

But best of all, Diane Sawyer took ABC and Hot Stud Reporter David Muir to China investigate just how China is poised to overcome the US in every possible way pretty darn soon if we don't take hints from ABC news. ABC promised to have several of these reports on what China does differently than the US and what we should learn from it to keep from being surpassed in the next few weeks. Wonder if Diane and babe-magnet Dave took a listen to Joseph Nye below (or did any relevant research) before they flew over to China to give us the latest version of the 1980s Japan threat. Doesn't the ABC interview with Thomas Friedman sound almost word-for-word like what was being said about Japan 20-25 years ago?

Shock and Awe

The weird, inscrutable, and mysterious Japan theories begin:

On Akio Toyoda's "apology":

Jeremy Anwyl, chief executive of auto information company Edmunds.com in Santa Monica, noted that in Japan, "guilt and shame are very different things."

"He apologized for inconveniencing Toyota customers and causing them concern, but didn't actually deal with the issue of responsibility," Anwyl said. "In the U.S., for an apology to be sincere, the speaker must accept responsibility and express remorse.*" LA Times



Mr. Anwyl must have read Ruth Benedict's ancient and controversial interpretation of the Japanese, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword---which was based largely on interviews with Japanese POWs. Or perhaps he read a Berlitz guidebook on Japan. I have never understood the supposed huge difference between the two (guilt and shame), nor do I believe that it exists in such an absolute manner. Of course, I am not the first to say that...

I find this one of the most interesting controversies in years because it seems to be a complete role reversal. Now the Japanese are being accused of not apologizing, not apologizing soon enough, not apologizing correctly, not apologizing sincerely, not understanding a foreign culture, appearing cold, unfeeling, and logically dry (the latter is my accusation), all the things that Westerners---especially the US---are accused of in Japan. And it's not even connected to WW2 issues.

I can imagine the shock and confusion some folks must feel to learn that, yes, in the US and elsewhere folks apologize too, and also expect some sort of apology when they feel wronged. Sometimes, even non-Japanese must be apologized to despite the fact that you think you have not actually done anything wrong. Such a feeling is not unique to Japan. Imagine that.

*Is it different here? Is it not mostly form in both countries when corporations send out folks to "apologize?" Does anyone expect real sincerity in a corporate apology?

Defective Toyotas the fault of foreigners

From the article Drivers in Japan unfazed by Toyota's global recalls:

"The cars being recalled in China and the U.S. aren't made in Japan. They were made there. Those kind of problems definitely won't happen in Japan," he [a Toyota owner in Japan] said.

Sorta like the made in Japan Mitsubishi trucks that had wheels falling off and crushing people a few years back?

(As many of the original links have disappeared, a small archive of stories on the Mitsubishi scandal are here.)

If you know one Japanese, you know them all

No, it was not a statement made by the Imperial Wizard of the KKK in an address to the semi-annual international conference of simple-minded bigots, but something said by a Japanese in a "international culture course" conducted by a very large and well-known Japanese corporation.

I wasn't there to hear it, but I naively stepped in this cow-pie because I was not quick enough in switching the subject when an acquaintance who had attended began to explain just how different the Japanese really are. Apparently, they are even more different than he, a Japanese, had realized.

He rattled off a few other things that he had "learned." Most were not new to me: Foreigners (If you know one foreign culture, you know them all?) communicate verbally while the Japanese are a non-verbal society. (Hell, anyone who has ever been to an izakaya knows that.) Japan is a consensus society and as such Japanese bosses "never make a top down decision."

Being one who never learns, I would throw things back like: "My wife is Japanese, does that mean I know all Japanese?"; "When my wife has friends over, there seems to be a lot of verbal communicating"; "The boss at my old company sure seemed to make top down decisions", and so on. He would laugh a bit after each and say something like "That's what I learned." Being a bit slow at Japanese verbal communication myself, I didn't think to ask, "If I had known the fellow who went on a murderous rampage in Akihabara a few years ago, would I have known all Japanese?"

It sorta seems to me that these sort of "international/intercultural" courses tend to be more about Japan than about any other country. I like the way they work too: If you find that a foreign country and Japan are similar in some area, then switch to another country which is "different" to show Japan's unique uniqueness. Say you are talking about pickles and find that Germans eat pickles too. You could either point out that German and Japanese pickles are different in some way, or just switch to North Niklebania where nobody eats pickles and compare that to Japan. Foreign countries/cultures/people are generally interchangeable anyway with slightly less interchangeability between Western and Asian countries. (Think gaijin vs Chinese, Koreans, Indians, etc.)

One who lives in this country should not be any more surprised to repeatedly hear this sort of thing from nearly every source (including goofy overseas sources) than he/she should be surprised at going to a tent revival and hearing religion preached. After all, they are both, for the most part, a religion. And religion is based on faith, and faith is belief without evidence, although in many cases "evidence" is contrived or manufactured to strengthen the faith.

Well, that's enough ranting. Gotta be ready for the lady next door, henceforth known as Ol' Buffalo Mouth, to come home and start her 3-4 hour monologue (usually beginning at about 1130 pm) without pausing for a single second. I assume that she is actually talking to another person, although all I can hear is her muzzle blast through the walls of my well-insulated, Manhattan-priced "mansion." Thank goodness that she is a non-verbal communicator.

Now to find something worthwhile to post, if that is even possible anymore.

Tweaked at 1504

A few thousand words

It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but whoever said that has never seen a "photo" taken with my handy, post-modern uber cell phone from NTT Docomo.* It takes about a thousand words to explain to someone that, yes, the blurry smear there actually is a photo. Then you still have to explain what the glob is a photo of.

These two globs were taken Saturday at the Takashimaya in Futakotamagawa during the Special Days sale. They show an impossibility: People who do not like sweet foreign things standing in line to receive a box of Krispy Kreme donuts** which, the uninitiated might believe, are sweet foreign things. People standing in the long line (the line was doubled around) did not even receive the free donut that is usually handed out, so they were unable to eat it while commenting in utter surprise, "Oh, it's sweet!" before buying a dozen of the sweet donuts that they do not like.

Naturally, after writing a post about the "Foreigners love sweet food, but Japanese don't" scatology---Nihonjinron in Japanese---that's all I heard for the weekend. While going through a magazine article (which I had specially selected in part so that there could be no diversion into nihonjinron) with my Japanese tutor, she suddenly brought up her recent first experience with a Snickers bar which was so sweet it almost made her nauseous. "The caramel was so sweet!" she exclaimed. I, too, was flabbergasted that made-of-sugar caramel would be sweet!

Later that evening I had a little of the Yamanashi white wine she had given me. She, and several others, had recommended it as very good. Although the label promised that it was a dry wine (rated B with A being the driest and E being the sweetest) it tasted darn sweet to me. Had I not known that it was Japanese wine, I would have said that it was too sweet, reminiscent of sugar water.

As I often ask my wife, "If the Japanese do not like sweet things, then why do you like me?" Showing her true Japaneseness, she then denies that she does.

*Only 21 keystrokes per photo required to get it to my computer---not including those for taking them or entering data.
**Given to customers who had made purchases above a certain amount.

Too much SuperDry at Asahi Shinbun

Hoping to follow the success of canned coffee in Asia, Japanese beverage and food companies are accelerating sales of regular coffee designed to hit the sweet tooth of foreign consumers.

The manufacturers are making coffee catered to the tastes of people abroad who prefer sweeter flavors, unlike in Japan, where many coffee drinkers use little or no sugar. Asahi Shimbun.

Where is this place called Japan? I don't think it is anywhere near Tokyo. I suppose one could debate the meaning of "many" in the report. Wonder if "many" coffee drinkers in those weird foreign countries also use little or no sugar.

Gotta give up my out-of-the-ordinary-for-non-Japanese black coffee and start drinking more of the classic Georgia canned coffee which, to my amazement, is not sweet.

Everyone knows that folks in Japan don't like sweet stuff which is why there is so much of it here. I know a guy who ate some Snickers bars in Chicago. He hated it because it was so much sweeter than the Japanese Snickers. Oddly enough they are exactly the same according to a fellow who I spoke to a few years ago who sold Snickers in Japan. At the time they were trying a smaller, less sweet (tastes salty, he said) Japanese version of Snickers. Despite my foreign love of sugary sweets, I liked it. The natives, however, did not and it quickly failed.

Tweaked at 1012 because I can never get it right the first time.

Beware the winter wind

"Although the temperature is lower in northern Japan, in Tokyo there is no moisture in the winter air..." Yoko Tawada, NYT.

Now I know why Japan is the only country with four seasons. It is the only one on earth with absolutely no moisture in the air in winter which would mean no other country has a winter like Japan. Perhaps it's only Tokyo as the moisture has been displaced by other things.

No moisture in the winter air in Tokyo and no discernible fact-checking going on at the NYT.

1255: I am nitpicking though, the short opinion piece isn't bad.

It ain't winter yet, but Tokyo is already drier than Sapporo. At 12:45AM, Sapporo had 86% humidity, and Tokyo had 81%. Great Falls, Montana is a bit humid yet at 66%

Forget the flu, will vaccine work on the unique Japanese?

There are folks who are worried about the potential danger of swine flu this autumn. The US is predicting a 30-50% infection rate. With the crowded subways in Japan and the likelihood of many to go to work ill regardless of the consequences, the condemned might reasonably expect more. Achuuuu...AAAACCCCCHUUUUU!!!!!

I was concerned until my Colleague from Down Under explained how it was all bull and that we should believe it only "when a movie star, politician, or other famous person dies from it." I was relieved to hear that, especially since any already delayed vaccine would be further delayed until it tested safe for the supra-human Japanese body.

The Japanese government might not be able to import vaccine to combat the new type of influenza the H1N1 virus, or swine flu -- before autumn, when an epidemic of the disease is feared will intensify, as experts want pre-import confirmation that the vaccine is safe for Japanese patients, sources familiar with the matter said. The Hour

Years ago I received an e-mail asking if I was interested in participating in a testing program to determine the effects of certain medicines in the bakagaijin body as opposed to the Japanese. I somewhat unkindly turned down that thoughtful invitation to be a guinea pig in nihonjinron studies.

I know there can be some differences between certain groups of people as far as tendencies for some illnesses. I have heard a number of times---even from a pharmacist in Japan---that the gaijin body, always being bigger and apparently less-evolved, is less sensitive to medicine than a Japanese. (How do you determine a Japanese body? Is there a special Japanese DNA?)

So I find it a bit strange that when we were in the US and my wife would visit a doctor, dentist, or pharmacist, that they did not have a special Japanese-only medicine. As far as I know they used the same medicine as they did for normal humans. Must have been the change in diet.

A Sunday stroll through the neighborhood

On Sundays the wife goes off to play tennis and with her friend, The Firefighter's Wife, and probably afterward to badmouth both The Firefighter and me at some izakaya. This leaves me plenty of time to do other things. One which I enjoy is picking some nearby area in Tokyo/Yokohama and walking around aimlessly. Reminds me of one of my jobs.

Today I decided to avoid anything to do with train/subway travel and stayed close to home. Although I have lived in the area for about 3 years now, I still haven't seen it all.

I had barely walked 10 minutes when I met a very kind man in "downtown" Denenchofu. I knew that he was a kind man because he stopped for me as I waited at a crosswalk. At first I didn't trust him, having had much experience in crossing streets in the area, and thought he was tricking me and would suddenly accelerate and run me down as soon as I stepped off of the curb. However, since he was not driving a city bus, or a silver Mercedes, or a dark blue BMW coupe with Shinagawa tags, I decided to risk my life. Amazingly, he waited patiently while I crossed and did not enter the crosswalk until I was out of it. Hmmm. Must not have been from around here.

As I walked toward the Tama River via a route that I had not traveled before, I began to sense from the near monopoly of JCP campaign posters that I was in a heavily Communist-occupied area.

One might assume that such an area would force even more folk to obey the rules---this being Japan and all too---and I found this to be true. Folks here obey the rules as much as or more than everywhere else in Tokyo/Kanagawa.

I waddled in true Tokyo style on down to the river and observed a lovely Sunday afternoon scene that one could see only in Japan. Folks were relaxing and having fun while being concerned with others and naturally observing all the rules and laws as this sort of thing is in Japanese DNA.

I wouldn't know since Japanese is too Japanese to be understood by non-Japanese, but I think that sign reads: Please barbecue here. It could not say that barbecuing is prohibited.

I continued my walk, enjoying the unique and well maintained nature of the river side and soon passed under Maruko Bridge. I suddenly came upon a large number of parked cars in the area near the bridge where I noticed some men changing clothes. Had I not been in Japan I would have sworn a few of these fellows were about to do a Kusanagi except for small, somewhat strategically placed towels. Now I once heard from a Japanese gal who had never been to the US, but had visited Canada, that people could walk down the street nearly naked in the States, but I could not believe that the traditionally conservative and modest Japanese would be sitting around naked in an open, crowded, public area. I was tempted to hang around in the interest of research to see if any women would join the display, but had to move on. Unfortunately, I didn't have the courage to snap a few nudie pix, but since this sort of thing doesn't happen here, I could not have taken them anyway.

Resuming my stroll I went down a newly opened walkway, dodging mamachari and their morons. Fortunately, there are rules about riding these high-tech machines where I was walking.

The signs apparently say: Please feel free to ride your clunker like some sort of drunken idiot along this path and see how many people you can run down.


Then I began to head home. I took my time as I walked through Tamagawadai Park, pausing often to listen to the cicadas. Of course I was unable to do so, because as the great intellektual, Masahiko Fujiwacko, informed us, only Japanese enjoy insect sounds or some horsepooky like that. Frustrated at my racial/ethnic/national origin inferiority, I gave up and left.

Not long afterward, I reached Denenchofu eki. (That's a real Japanese word. No need for it here, but I threw it in just to show that I am a member of an in-group. Watch this: 駅. Oooohhhh, kanji!) Denenchofu has been referred to as the Beverly Hills of Tokyo, apparently by folks who have never been to Beverly Hills. Most folks here are successful in some way, or else descendants of people who owned land in the area years ago. People do not become successful in Japan unless they obey the rules. Which rules, I don't know, but I guess they do.
I had mixed emotions as I returned to my mansion. Why can't the rest of the world be as polite, law-abiding, and rule-obeying as we are in Japan? You'd have to try really hard to find anyone other than a non-Japanese breaking rules or laws here. It's all part of the unique uniqueness of the country. I aspire to be able to do as the folks I saw today, but I haven't the guts, for I don't think the koban-sitters would understand.

WTF does blogger preview have no resemblance to the actual post? Why do I have to play around in HTML? OK, back to the old editor. It wasn't perfect, but it's better than the new and improved version.

No more language study

You know it's gonna happen sooner or later. Disregarding the fact that Google translation is such a joke that it it's barely worth using, sooner or later there's going to be software that can actually translate into a reasonably correct sentence/idea perhaps even equal to the level of a first semester student. Of course, it probably won't work with Japanese since that is such a mysterious language that even the simplest sentences cannot be accurately translated or understood:

"Only the Japanese can understand an implied meaning of indirect message which is quite confusing to non-Japanese, if it is translated into English."

A British woman who lived in Tokyo* for a number of years before moving to Australia, has been working on an interesting project related to an instant messenger which will theoretically allow folks who speak different languages to chat together in their native language---as long as it is not Japanese, of course.

No hours, weeks, months, and years of language study. You'll even be able to watch good movies like Yureru and grasp the very useful phrase fuzaken ja nee (ふざけんじゃねえ), which as I understand the meaning---if it is actually understandable by a non-Japanese---would be an appropriate response to Mr. De Mente (below).

*Her often hilarious Japan posts were in 2005-06.

Must have book!

For any future Japan explainer, this book seems a necessity. Haven't read it yet, and hell will likely freeze into a solid block of ice before I do, but I am sure it's a winner:

Why the Japanese are a Superior People, by Boye Lafayette Demented De Mente

"In addition to such topics as emotions vs. reason, the “fuzzy” [holistic] thinking of the Japanese vs the linear thinking of other people, the diligence factor in Japanese behavior, and quality vs profit, De Mente identifies a long list of views and practices that distinguish the Japanese from left-brain oriented people — and are important for foreigners to know about."

Quality vs profit? Cool, without profit and market share in a non-rigged market, how can you keep quality up? Is the housing (and some other parts of the construction industry) an example of quality? Why the layoffs when profit is so far down the list? This book will explain all. (Hint for future success: Add vowels to your language.)

Gotta get in on this book-writing scam.

#%$&@ Only Japan has safe drinking water. $@#4%&

Swearing can make you feel better, lessen pain. I call Bull.

N-san: You can drink water from the tap in Japan. It's not like Europe and America.

Exasperated Blogging Imbecile: What? Everybody says that! Where did you hear that? Did you read it in the newspaper? Where?

N-san: I don't know. (The most accurate statement he made all evening.)

Exasperated Blogging Imbecile: Water is treated in the US, just as it is in Tokyo...

N-san: Yea, but I think that the basis level for bacteria is different for the US, Europe, and Japan...

Exasperated Blogging Imbecile: So water in Japan has less bacteria?

N-san: I don't know. I am not a water expert.

(Possible reply, left unsaid: No, you are not. You are, however, beginning to sound like an idiot.)

A few minutes later, a return to quasi-religious, nationalist racialism:

N-san: I'm not talking about whether one country's water is safer than another's. Japanese water is soft and Japanese stomachs cannot tolerate hard water from overseas.

Exasperated Blogging Imbecile: I grew up in a area with soft water. Japan is not the only country on earth with soft water. It varies by region and many other things. Besides, plenty of imported water is sold in Japan. It is mineral water. Japanese seem to drink it with no problem.

N-san: Yes, it's very soft.

Later, somehow forgetting that he had just lied and said that he did not mean that one country's water (Japan's) is safer than other country's water:

N-san: OK, I want to see you go to some developing country like India or China and drink the water.

That was one of the rare occasions that I got openly pissed at a Japanese friend or acquaintance. You know, the usual thing is to go along to get along. Only a fool would challenge another's religious beliefs, and I made that mistake.

Thank goodness I was able to come back to reality and have a decent discussion with my Colleague From Down Under (Actually I have several from there, but this guy is "special.")

After watching to This Week with George Stepon-what's-his-name on ABC (US):

CFDU: I see Obama is in trouble now, his poll numbers and such going down...

Exasperated Blogging Imbecile: Well, that's nothing unusual.

CFDU: Yea, he has to fight with Congress now and all the special interests that they are beholden to. Makes you wonder if communism or socialism isn't better.

Exasperated Blogging Imbecile: ......(No reply. I have known CFDU long enough to know that he hasn't any knowledge of any of these systems in any detail or even much in historical perspective, so there could not possibly be any debate on the merits of one system versus another. And I certainly didn't wanna get the man started on his 9/11 conspiracy theory again.)

$&#@*. $&¥@#. SOB. BS. Effing BS. Feel no different. Still in pain.

I am going to just sit in my little dark room and play computer games, rave about my Mac---I love my Mac--- and never go out again.

Why am I researching this? The average water hardness in Japan is 60. (Basically meaningless as it is the average for the whole country.) In the US, depending on region, it ranges from 0-60 (low) to 250 (high). Don't know about other countries, but I'd guess a variance between some degree of softness and of hardness is not rare.

N-san attended high school in Canada, apparently survived the drinking water there, so most of our conversation was in English. The conversation with my "Special" Colleague From Down Under was also in English, but a special light version we reserve for him.

Judge a book by its cover and

learn the same old lesson.

Was talking with a fellow who seemed somewhat bright. Doesn't work for one of the big Japanese companies, but for a Tokyo branch of another company headquartered in northeast Asia. Things were going well for the first 5 minutes we spoke, then he mentioned the recession and the record drop in Japan's GDP. This was because folks had stopped spending money and were saving it instead, he informed me. He then told me how he had heard that Westerners behave differently than Japanese in a recession---don't reduce spending and such. He asked for my thoughts on this puzzling issue.

Honored as I was to be asked to speak for all Westerners, I didn't really have much of a clue about what New Zealanders or the Spanish, or even Canadians do. Maybe they spend more in a recession, but I expect they are humans too, so maybe they don't. How could anyone enjoy a recession if they keep on buying and making and selling things?

Although I wanted to ask him if he were naturally stupid or if it were something that he worked at, I could think of nothing clever or polite to say. In the end, I simply let the poor fellow know that, no the Japanese were nothing special, most folks reduce spending in a recession. I then found a reason to excuse myself.

The odds were, of course, very strong that he was a university graduate. A university graduate, and a "professional" who not only lacked even the slightest understanding of economics, but of the human race. Should I ever meet this fellow again---and I might---I will see the word baka written on his forehead.

Nihonjinron/nihonron: Deny that natural, widespread human tendencies, emotions, customs, and so on could possibly be shared with non-Japanese. Instead claim those things as especially or uniquely Japanese. This will advance the much blabbered about "mutual understanding."

1236AM: I am certain that I could go back to the US or nearly any other country and have an equally idiotic conversation with someone about Japan.

*He stayed in Florida.

But can they understand

Japanese food?

Apart from its economic might, Tokyo is counting on its culinary finesse to woo International Olympic Committee specialists scrutinising its bid to host the Summer Games in 2016. AFP

That was the charge against Michelin when their restaurant rating guide gave Tokyo restaurants such high ratings a few years ago. Some of the more arrogant snobs here claimed that non-Japanese could not possibly understand Japanese food well enough to judge it.* Foreigners could come here and eat foul, slimy, smelly garbage and not know it!**

While on the subject of the Olympics, I was watching the news last week and one program showed Aso speaking in English. They then cut to some blond lady who was in some way connected with the Olympics and she said "The fact that the Japanese prime minister is willing to speak in English is an asset for Japan." I don't really get that, but it seems a bit idiotic to me, and I am quite knowledgeable about things idiotic, according to the resident commie pinko. Knowing how the Olympic process has worked in the past, I would assume that the ability to fork over large globs of money to certain influential folk in the decision making process is perhaps a bigger asset than the language ability of a country's leader.

*Perhaps that's why the "specialists" were treated to Italian at Restorante Aso. Yes, "Aso".

**I am not passing judgment on natto. Honest. It cleans your blood, after all.

Of Dirty tap water, Autumn leaves, Nature, Trash, and Depression

Saturday morning, as I sat in Kawasaki talking to some guy who saw me studying kanji and decided to invite himself over to chat (you know, a supposedly "shy" Japanese), he began to question me about all the usual---Is Japanese difficult? Is kanji hard?; Where are you from?; Are there any Japanese there?; Can you drink water from the tap in the US?*; and so on, my mind began to wander to the subject of bovine feces (i.e. BS) and naturally on to nihonjinron.

In his book, Dogs and Demons**, Alex Kerr wrote about how folks in modern Japan were somewhat less conscious and respectful of nature (among other things) than they were in the past. One of the smaller examples he wrote of was how people were so quick to trashcan fallen leaves in the autumn.

When I was a kid, folks back home got rid of fallen leaves too, but there was no great hurry to sweep them away as soon as they fell. We never went into the woods or parks to sweep leaves off of dirt trails as we do in Tokyo, for here one must keep nature naturally natural for the convenience of humans. And, perhaps, to give the older gents something to do for their pay.

While in a nearby park a few weeks ago when the leaves had just began to change colors and fall, I was surprised at how hard it was to find any on the floor of the park. Then I discovered the reason. The park trails had been swept clean of the ugly yellow and red fallen leaves to reveal the beautiful mud-brown dirt below. (One could assume that this was done so that nobody would fall on wet leaves until one recalls that if a rare snow falls, the same trails would be snow and ice-covered until it melted.)

Then, last Friday as I was walking down a local street specifically to look at the autumn leaves, I was pleased to see that those leaves were also being swept up as soon as they fell.

Ahh, Japan. Where we humans make nature more natural than nature itself.

When the world economy seems ready to collapse into the biggest disaster since the Great Depression (and for some reason, few whom I meet seem to be concerned) perhaps I should worry about other things.

*Alas, another fine example of nihonjinron. I have run across a number of people who seem to think that Japan is the only country on earth which has safe, drinkable tap water.

**A very controversial book to some---mostly non-Japanese---as Kerr was critical of modern Japan.

Rambling holiday nonsense

November, the middle month of autumn. Cool, crisp nights with frost. Brilliant blue skies above what remains of colorful autumn leaves. The smell of woodsmoke in the air as folks light up the woodstoves or fireplaces. Occasionally, even the smell of burning coal as a few still use it for fuel. Hikes into the woods where is is easier to see wildlife as the foliage decreases and some bigger game becomes more active for breeding season. The bugle of a bull elk. The chance of seeing one of the most impressive animals in the woods---a bull moose.

Oh wait. I am having a nostalgic daydream. I am in Tokyo, Japan, which although it is the only country on earth with 4 distinct seasons (make me barf) I occasionally have trouble figuring out which clearly distinct season it is without the help of a calendar. I still very much miss being able to just walk out the backdoor and be in a forest within 5 minutes like I could as a child. I miss the ability to drive to the woods like I could as an adult in Washington state, Washington DC, or that most beautiful state of Montana without a major undertaking like it is in Tokyo.

The more I live here the more I live to get out of town and at least find some fresh air, hills, and forests. A big bonus is to see wildlife, although nothing interests me less than seeing a damned monkey. Perhaps disinterest that may change someday. But the biggest bonus is to be able to get out in the woods and not see nor hear another human for the whole day. I suppose my wife is OK, but as a city girl she has no such interests. Not in Japan anyway, but she did while in Washington and Montana to some degree. (Usually it involved her getting to eat---picking wild blueberries, or me hunting. Occasionally she enjoyed seeing a bear cub, or some other baby animal.)

Since I can't get out of Tokyo as often as I would like---which would ideally be every damned day---I have to make do with what passes for "nature" here. In order to do that, I look for nature on a much, much smaller scale. I have to ignore all the unnatural surroundings, all of the human activity, all of the noise, and all of the obviously man-made (or arranged for man's pleasure) parts of nature. For example, flood lights on at night so that we can "enjoy" cherry blossoms.

I spend a lot of time near the Tamagawa (river) as it is about the closest thing there is to natural in my part of Tokyo. I can spend hours and hours there on top of what I spend riding my rode bike along the river. There is some wildlife, mainly waterfowl which although very, very wary of humans can provide opportunities to watch, learn, and relax. (There are various species of ducks around as well as egrets, herons, cormorants and other large waterfowl.)

Quite often if someone sees me photographing in the area, they'll come up and start talking. This is not something that is all that common in Tokyo, but it seems to happen a lot there. Most of the time people will be speaking in Japanese instead of assuming that I cannot speak a word of the language. Although this can be a bit of a nuisance if I've been trying to get close to a heron to take a photo and Watanabe-san chooses that time to noisily walk up to me and start asking about the lens I am using, generally I find such encounters very enjoyable as folks speak to me as a fellow human being and don't give me the full (baka)gaijin treatment. I have learned a lot of interesting things about the birds there and the river from older guys who get all excited about the chance to tell me what they know. (Did you know that some of the lava flows still visible at times in the river were formed during volcanic activity 300,000 years ago? Me neither, until earlier this year.)

Anyway, I have spent the last 2 weekends trying to find some signs of autumn. They are here, of course, but on a different scale. It's cooler. A few leaves have started to change. I have become so desperate for fall that I have gather some of the fallen sakura leaves and have a pile on my desk. In about another month, most will have finished and be falling. Fall subtly (and officially) began in September. In small ways. I began to notice the difference in the type of winds while riding my bike by late September. Naturally, the length of the day had shortened and light angles---and thus color---had begun to change. These changes are very subtle compared to what I have been used to for most of my life before coming to Tokyo. Thus, I have found myself becoming more sensitive to them by necessity, because the seasons, the weather, and the outdoors (nature, wild areas, mountains, wildlife---not golf or other games) have always been extremely important to me.

But still, I have to get into the mountains occasionally or I will become completely insane. And within this month, I plan on at least two trips to the mountains. I won't wanna come back...

Confidence restored

MangaMan Aso is a man of action and as such has already appointed a fresh, competent cabinet.

His new tourism minister began by arguably being a bit too honest:

...Nariaki Nakayama wasted no time putting his foot in it. The day after stating that Japanese do not like foreigners and that the country is ethnically homogeneous...

...Asked how more foreign travelers might be enticed to come to Japan in the face of opposition from some locals, Nakayama responded, "Definitely, (Japanese) do not like or desire foreigners."

He added that Japan is extremely inward-looking and "ethnically homogeneous." (Japan Times.)

OK, so Japan is not "ethnically homogeneous." I assume that this error in fact is what the controversy is over as the rest of what he said rings true. Or is it because a man in his position should have more sense than to publicly make statements, well-intentioned/true or not?

Or, is the real sin this statement:

"In that sense, I envy somewhere like China"...

(Made when complaining about local opposition to the Narita airport expansion--- I guess he assumes that it would be better if he and his fellow rightwing nutjobs could repress protests as China can.)

Mr. Nakayama is one of rightwingers who has claimed that the Nanjing Massacre is a lie*, and was so happy that he could have s**t himself when references to sex slavery were removed from some school texts in 2005.

Maybe, just maybe, the LDP is on its last legs this time. These old goofs are going to continue these sorts of statements because they believe them---and in some cases making such statements satisfies the nutjob section LDP supporters. The question is if the public cares enough about these sorts of things to throw them out for more than one election cycle. I wonder, as even the pension scandal seems to have gone off the radar screen. Of course, if they do vote the LDP out then we'll get to see if the DPJ, led by Ozawa (???!!!), is any different.

* 29 Sept: I have also read that he actually said that the number of deaths has been exaggerated by China, but that he did not deny Nanjing occurred. Also, I deleted "Aso/Abe" from "rightwingers" as I do not know that either of them have claimed Nanjing is exaggerated or a lie.

Gas and Global Warming

I was a little late in returning home last night because I had coffee with a civil servant. He's an interesting guy usually and talking to him is sometimes educational. For example, last night he explained that it is now a season called Obon and filled me in on the details of what it is. He does me the same favor every year for every holiday. Don't know if he does this favor for me because I am a non-Japanese who could not be expected to know such things no matter how long I live here, or if it is because I am of the ignorant peasant class and not a bureaucrat.

Anyway, I got on a relatively empty train home and stood near the door so that I could make a transfer a few stations later without being pushed, shoved, and trampled very much. I am fast enough that I can move through the doors and be out of the way before the main mob tries to rush out all at the same time.

I was again first in line at my transfer station and the train soon arrived with a number of empty seats. Even though I was first in line this time, I did not rush through the doors like a man with his ass on fire in order to get a seat while pretending that I didn't really want one. I leave that sort of thing to the children as it seems un-adult to do it. I have not yet fully adapted to the unique train riding culture.

A few minutes after the train departed, I smelled a rather sulfurous odor. At first I thought it was the breath of a guy who had moved closer to me to talk to his girlfriend, but his mouth was not pointed in my direction. Another thought entered my mind. I looked around to see if former Prime Minister Abe was on the train. I did not see him, so I had to assume that it was some other person with bowel trouble.

Then I started to worry as I often do when this happens. Was it me? After all, I am certain that one could find people---often foreigners---who would claim that Japanese don't fart and even if they did it wouldn't smell bad. You know, someone like the New York Times fashion section reporter who a few years ago wrote an article in which he claimed that the Japanese have "almost no body odor."

I felt somewhat relieved to see another Westerner on the train who could also serve as a suspect in the silent fart attack. Everyone on board was acting innocent and pretending that nothing was wrong, so the guilty person could not be determined.

While enjoying this fun-filled sardine can trip home, I got to thinking about gases and global warming and Japan's leadership in fighting it. Earlier that afternoon I had walked through Denenchofu and was able to keep cool on a very hot day just by standing in front of the open doors of Magi (26 August: oops! Actual name is Maggy.) as they had their AC blowing full blast. A few other shops were doing the same. It used to be even more popular in many areas of Tokyo and one could always enjoy a refreshing breeze standing in front of a shop with its doors wide open and the air conditioning blowing out into the street.

Now this is the way to cool down the earth and save the polar bear. Forget the closing of 24-hour 7-11s at night. More aggressive action is needed. And besides, it's a tradition. Stores in Tokyo have been cooling the sidewalk and planet for decades with their air conditioners. It's all part of the unique relationship with, and respect for, nature.

A graceful death by hanging

In an effort to show that former Justice Minister Hatoyama was not a fluke, the new Minister Okiharu Yasuoka announced that he opposes offering a life sentence without parole in place of the state killing people by hanging.

Naturally, this is at least partially due to Japanese culture. As the late, great Ruth Benedict* said, Japan is a shame-based culture. Therefore, Yasuoka says that "the majority of people support the idea of dying gracefully to pay for a crime" and that life without parole "is cruel, and does not fit with Japanese culture.**" (quotes from a Japan Times article.)

I for one am very thrilled that Fukuda has replaced his cabinet. Now we will see real change and forward movement as a bunch of new retro-grouches of advanced years replace the old bunch of retro-grouches of advanced years and we can confidently rush headlong into the 1960s.

*Ms. Benedict is the author of the well-known The Chrysanthemum and the Sword in which she implies that Japan is a shame-based society vs. the guilt-based society of the West (the US in particular). She based a large part of her research on interviews of Japanese prisoners of war which may have been a bit of an unusual segment of Japanese society. There is an ongoing debate (here and here, for example) about her work which is surprising only because it is ongoing.

**Yasuoka may have a bit of a point here---of course the point is a few hundred years old:
...[Edo Period] prisons as there were held suspects awaiting verdicts or criminals awaiting sentencing. The sentence might be death (by crucifixion, for example), or exile, or flogging. But it was almost never a specified period of incarceration. The concept was scarcely known, and facilities all but nonexistent. Severity generally won the day in the name of public order...(From The Japan Times Tokyo Confidential which is based on stories from the tabloids. Some people consider the tabloids a bit more reliable---or at least less under political control than MSM.)

NYT discovers

that Buddhism is "dying out" in Japan. The real question is: Has it ever, ever been widely practiced by the general public? Other than among some elites and a minority of the population, the answer would be no*. It was/is not like Christianity in the US, for example. The "no" includes the Zen Buddhism of western fantasy too.

According to the article Buddhism is losing its place even at funerals:

a religion that, by appearing to cater more to the needs of the dead than to those of the living, is losing its standing in Japanese society.

The real "religion" of the Japanese is nihonjinron.

2:05pm: *Except for the occasional ceremony such as for funerals as discussed in the article.