G juice on Gs.

As the world, at least the world as it exists in my circle in Japan, is absorbed in important events like the celebration of international brotherly love, game playing, and nationalist pride in Beijing, it seems crude and out-of-place to say anything about the Soviet---oops I mean Russian---invasion of Georgia. One should not let mere politics interfere with the innocent purity of sports and the making of large globs of profits from them while we root for folks from our country to reconfirm our superiority over folks from other countries. Besides, the Russian invasion of Georgia is, as usual, at least partially the fault of the US. If Dick Cheney had been running it, it would even be worse than what Russia has done. Not that Russia is wrong, of course.

Oh. Back to G juice.

Last spring around the anniversary of the sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway by Aum Shinrikyou, I was sitting in a Starbucks near Akasaka Mitsuke/Tameikesanno in Tokyo at about 7AM. Suddenly I smelled a very strong, unpleasant odor which quickly began to burn my nose and eyes. Oh My God! thought I. Sarin! Oh no, we're all going to die!

After a minute or so of panic and burning eyes and nose I began to feel somewhat nauseous. I looked around for the source of the deadly fumes. Nothing. Then I noticed an old barcode head (G* with comb-over) sitting a few tables away. The nauseating stench had not been around until gramps sat down. He was the source. He was not, as far as I could tell a member of any cult. In fact, the foul chemical that he had apparently been drinking and bathing in for the last 5 years seemed somewhat familiar---I remembered a similar scent from when my grandfather applied the hair tonic (he called it hair oil) Vitalis. Since he had usually only applied a teaspoon or less, I was not really familiar with the scent of a full barrel's worth.

Now in this case it was a bit confusing as the old geezer in Starbucks had almost no hair on top of his head except for the few remaining strands making up his barcode, so why would he douse himself with hair tonic? Do the old ladies get turned on by the scent? Does it make the barcode easier to read at checkout? Does it keep flies away (likely) or the grim reaper?

I have recently noticed this odor a lot, and it is always emanating from men of more than 60. Often they have being going bald for about 25 years or more. What's amazing is that even though the stuff smells repulsive, they seem to be completely unaware of it. Not only are the old fudds who pour a tanker ship's worth of G juice per day on their skull unaware of the smell, but everyone around them pretends to be too. The people around him are faking. I wish that I were that good at acting, but that day I had to move as soon as I found the source of the stink and I still flee every time he comes in while I am there.

The old boy is still working too. Bet he's popular in his office. The babes must get goosebumps when the man with a comb-over walks in smelling like Chernobyl.

Now back to the important stuff: The shirt-pulling contest is on TV. What's it called? Judo?

*G. GG. jiji. Ojiisan. eg Masahiko Fujiwara.

Are Japan's leaders merely readers on climate change? Japan Times headline.

A very simple answer: Yes, if that is not giving them too much credit. Since the Kyoto Accord was signed in Japan, there seems to be some belief that Japan is a world leader in fighting global warming. The nihonronists and members of the Department of an Imaginary Japans like to spout this as it goes right along with the "special" relationship with nature that Japan mythically has. Some of the right-wing nutjobs even count their own brand of environmentalism as part of their ideals, so no doubt they would love to believe that Japan is or should be the natural leader in this.

Strangely though, Japan did not ratify the Accords until Boy George pulled the U.S. out of the agreement. (OK, most countries curiously declined to act until Bush said the U.S. would not participate.) In addition, one often reads/hears about how difficult if will be for Japan to become even more energy efficient than it already, anyone who lives in Tokyo ought to be able to think of numerous was that Japan could easily reduce energy usage and emissions further. The use of proper insulation in homes and less wrapping/packaging, for example.

..."Fukuda's speech at Davos was compiled by officials of the Environment Ministry and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry...those bureaucrats are actually controlling policies on global warming to ensure they are ineffective and insufficient...

Tetsunari Iida, [from the Tokyo-based Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies] explained the government, greatly influenced by big energy industries, hammered out the targets — targets which have actually been preventing the promotion of renewable energy. Read the full article at The Japan Times here.

The good thing for the US is that Boy George will soon be a former president like Bubba Clinton and we won't hear much from him unless his wife---god forbid---runs for president. For Japan, it is likely that the same bunch of hair-dyeing, barcode-headed old geezers mainly from the LDP (and the bureaucracy) will still be running the country for the foreseeable future. So leadership from Japan on the issue is about as realistic as the uniquely special relationship that Japan has with nature.

Fujiwara and the unique love of bug sounds

in Japan. As I mentioned, in his comic book Masahiko-kun claimed that the Japanese are uniquely unique because they notice and enjoy insect sounds and can connect those sounds with such things as a change of seasons, which except for a few "obscure poets" (Emily Dickinson for example?) non-Japanese cannot do. Even the Koreans and Chinese don't notice bugs in the superior, more cultured and more beautiful way that the Japanese do.

Now being a stupid, semi-evolved, primitive non-Japanese, I was a bit confused when I read that because I recall things differently. When I was in the US---and even now---I notice things like that and can associate those things with seasons or nostalgia or other things. Now ol' Barcode head did admit that it could be possible for us robot-like foreigners to notice insect sounds and perhaps even enjoy them, but he implied it would be in a sort of inferior sub-Japanese way.

I googled "poems about insect sounds" and got 1.5 million hits. The first several pages---I went no further---had numerous references to such in the west, and mainly in the USA. (Because I used US Google. Wouldn't be surprised if Fujiwara's less logical, humor-filled British had a few too, as well as the Chinese, Koreans, and all other folks on the planet).

Oh drat! Oh fiddle! Now I am more confused! I am sure the quality of the western stuff is poor compared to that of Fujiwara-chan's neo-bushidoist Japan. It has to be, because he said it was. To use his logic: It is because it just is!

Fujiwara, Masahiko

AKA Ol' barcode head (barcode is what Japanese call those guys who are bald on top but let their hair grow long on the side then comb it over the top in the belief that nobody will know) has had his intellectual masterpiece (AHAHAHAHAHA) translated into English. I just got a copy, and frankly I have given him too much credit in the past based on some partial translations of it. I am actually stunned that anyone could take it seriously. A third grade kid would know better I would assume.

I haven't read it all, but the first few chapters are spent with a unbelievably weak, shallow attempt to refute ration, reason, and logic. One way he attempts to do this is to set up a straw man argument that logic can explain everything and solve all problems, and then attacking it. The first question one would ask is "Who said this was true? Who believes this?" He doesn't say, but he implies that this is what the West believes. (From what I have read so far, it appears he truly believes this.) We are all like Mr. Spock.

In the forward, he humorously states that these are his beliefs, and he believes he is right and everyone else is wrong. OK, no problem there, at least he admits what the rest of us deny. The question I have is why did this book become so popular in Japan when in later sections he opposes any rights/freedoms at all except for the right to criticize leaders and rejects democracy in favor of a dictatorship of the elite. (Yes, dictatorship. If they make all decisions and tell everyone what to do, no matter how benevolent, is it not a dictatorship?)

He believes the elite---I have only skimmed the later chapters so far and haven't a clear definition of who he means by elite---should govern. And naturally, as before when he said something about saving the world through bushido, he believes that he has something here that the world can learn from.

I plan to read this over the next few days and check some of his facts, many of which are very, very questionable, if not obviously wrong on first glance.( There are no footnotes/references for his assertions/facts anywhere in this book which should tell us something, although this is not unusual in these types of books written in Japanese for Japanese.)

Please forgive any spelling or grammar errors. As Fujiwara said, Americans can't write English because in English classes we only learn typing. (I never knew that. My English teachers were all radical nuts who taught English grammar, spelling, composition and that kind of stuff. But this is Japan. If it is written in a book by a guy with a PhD in any subject, it has to be true. Cannot doubt nor debate it. Especially if he has a barcode on his bald head.)

We must once again be "Japan the proud, Japan the different," Masahiko Fujiwara.
Has it ever not been? Has it ever truly been "Japan the humble, the same as others"? In action and core beliefs as well as in tatemae (window dressing) words?