Japan without the sugar

There ain't no samurai, there are few geisha, Japanese are not the most polite people in the world. In practice, there is no special love or care for nature, nor is Japan uniquely unique. Sorry, but the sugar-coated fantasyland-Japan of Edwin O. Reischauer et al does not exist--if it ever did.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Thomas Friedman in full fantasy mode

To all those Europeans, Canadians, Japanese, Russians, Iranians, Chinese, Indians, Africans and Latin Americans who are e-mailing their American friends about their joy at having “America back,” now that Obama is in, I just have one thing to say: “Show me the money!”

Don’t just show me the love. Don’t just give me the smiles. Your love is fickle and, as I said, it will last about as long as the first Obama airstrike against an Al Qaeda position in Pakistan. No, no, no, show me the money. Show me that you are ready to be Obama stakeholders, not free-riders — stakeholders in what will be expensive and difficult initiatives by the Obama administration to keep the world stable and free at a time when we have fewer resources. NYT

What do they smoke at the Times? And why oh why is the Obama administration/US expected to "keep the world stable and free"? Ain't the UN supposed to be doin' something akin to that? Or perhaps the EU could step in. China. Anyone, please.

What am I smoking?

Posted by D at 16:00

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Frequented Japan blogs/sites

  • σ1 (sigma 1): Japan Politics/Foreign Policy from NZ
  • 1000 Things about Japan: The good and the bad. This lady knows of what she speaks.
  • Shisaku: Required reading for anyone interested in Japanese politics
  • Our Man in Abiko: A different style of Japan Politics blog by a British fellow north of Tokyo.
  • Observing Japan: No introduction needed for the Japanese politics observer
  • Loco In Yokohama: Outstanding writing on Japan-related and other topics
  • Japan-US Discussion Forum: A moderated forum with some interesting discussion of US-Japan issues.
  • Japan Subculture Research Center: Think Japan is all purity and light?
  • Japan Focus
  • Japan Echo: The website of the old Japan Echo magazine
  • Global Talk 21: Japan politics blog written by a real live Japanese fellow (in English)
  • Cat Foreheads & Rabbit Hutches: A blog about housing in Japan
  • Balefire: Posts on various topics by an ex-pat with nearly 4 decades in Japan
  • Asia Policy Point Blog
  • Armchair Asia: A view of Japan-US issues from DC

Japan-related plus---a variety of blogs of current/former Japan residents

  • Japanese Snack Reviews (Got a hankerin' for green tea Kit Kats?)
  • In Praise of Izakaya: An ex-pat's hands on review of local izakaya
  • Seen the Elephant
  • You, Madam, are no Sei Shonagon

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Non-Japan related sites

  • David Brooks columns at the NYT: Arguably the best reason (other than Frank Rich) to read the NYT
  • Bike Snob NYC...The mamachari mentality is not unique to Japan either
  • Great Falls Montana Tribune...Just because

Japan-related books currently or recently read

  • Tokyo Vice
  • The Green Archipelago: Forestry in Pre-Industrial Japan
  • The Lost Wolves of Japan

Some favorite Japan-related books

  • Tokyo: A Cultural and Literary History
  • Japan Rising: The Resurgence of Japanese Power and Purpose
  • Asia, America, and the transformation of Geopolitics
  • Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan
  • Bamboozled: How America loses the intellectual game with Japan
  • Japanese Higher Education as Myth (anything by Brian McVeigh is good.)
  • Nationalisms of Japan
  • Cartels of the Mind
  • The Enigma of Japanese Power
  • Japanese Society by Chie Nakane
  • Japan's Policy Trap

Who's the fool?

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D
Denenchofu, Tokyo-to, Japan
I live in Japan: The only country on earth with four clearly distinct seasons.
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