For those of you I know who have not traveled to Japan, here are a sampling of today's (April 17 and 18) headlines which you might have missed in the North American press...I have paraphased some of this so click the link below to get all the facts as they were seen in print.
Man arrested for using mirror to look up 15-year old girl's skirt.
A 43 year old peeper was spotted by a JR employee and caught him in the act, using a hand mirror.
In Japan, some JR (Japan Raiway) trains have "women-only" train carraiges for rush hour times, to discourage groping. There is a picture one of these train boarding platforms on my webshots page.
2 of 3 freed Iraq hostages want to return to Iraq soon.
Although the Japanese who were freed this week are back on Japanese soil, two made public a request to return to the turmoil to assist everyday Iraquis with reconstruction efforts.
The Japanese government however said something to the effect of 18 year old high school graduates should not, however well intentioned they ma be, travel to war zones. This was an indirect reference to one of the three freed hostages, a freelance writer.
North Korean Sailors caught with drugs
I would have to say par for the course there, until the North Korean economy produces something the world wants, they will have to stick to trade in herion, pot and possibly nuclear arms. The sailors in question were detained at a port of call on the western coast of Honshu port in Japan, and were taken into custody by local authorities. The volume of illegal drugs both carried, however was not significant.
Daily Mainichi:
12 year-old allegedly entices 7-year old to jump off 14-storey building.
The 12-year-old in question was detained by police for "guidance," and subsequently handed over to the juvenile court authorities. In Japan, minors 13 and under cannot be held legally responsible for their crimes.
The myth of a safe Japan has long been shattered, but seldom do these type of stories make it to the international media. While Japan is certainly safer than other regions of the globe, certain evils are now making headlines domestically that were formerlly taboo to report upon, including child abuse, sexual crimes, lack of parental discipline and childhood obesity.
Japan sufferes domestically with problems not noticed my international media, whom mainly choose to focus on Japan as a mystical Oriental oasis. The Japan model of business and capitalism has been mentioned in countless articles and books, but some of the uglies have been overlooked.
The myth of Japan as archepeligo of green isles, a quaint nation filled with temples and passive kind folk needs to be balanced with the realities of Modern Japan: paving of rivers, filling cities with noisy gambling(pachinko) halls, rampant governmental corrutption and raising and over-testing children whom, as a generation exhibit limited interpersonal skills, compared with their elders.
Sunday, April 18, 2004
Saturday, April 17, 2004
Ever wonder how many ickies are lying around on public transportation? You know the stuff: stray hairs, boogers, airborne dandruff and assorted other human-borne detritus.
If today's train ride to and from Kyoto today is anything to go by, the abandoned booger count is high. The train today hosted several booger-digging folks on their way to the Hanshin Horse race track in Nigawa, appeared mildly unstable, as most compluslive gamblers tend to be. As you might have inferred by now, several of them were seated inches from yours truly.
While everyone has the right to pick their nose, discretion when in public would be a favor to all.
On an undenaiably more positive note however, Japan's mass transit network is fast, on-time and your chances of having your wallet lifted or being stuck with a shiv here is lower than other large metro areas in other parts of the world. The safest I ever felt on a train was in Washington, D.C. No punk is going to mess with a train car full of Marines!
The coolest train is the "bullet," or Shinkansen, zips along at over 200 km/h which certainly is a step up from Amtrack, the long distance train service I used in the US. In its defense, Amtrack provides very helpful and friendly staff on its trains, but its network is not far-reaching, as train travel in America peaked in the 1950's, as the interstate freeway system was expanded.
If today's train ride to and from Kyoto today is anything to go by, the abandoned booger count is high. The train today hosted several booger-digging folks on their way to the Hanshin Horse race track in Nigawa, appeared mildly unstable, as most compluslive gamblers tend to be. As you might have inferred by now, several of them were seated inches from yours truly.
While everyone has the right to pick their nose, discretion when in public would be a favor to all.
On an undenaiably more positive note however, Japan's mass transit network is fast, on-time and your chances of having your wallet lifted or being stuck with a shiv here is lower than other large metro areas in other parts of the world. The safest I ever felt on a train was in Washington, D.C. No punk is going to mess with a train car full of Marines!
The coolest train is the "bullet," or Shinkansen, zips along at over 200 km/h which certainly is a step up from Amtrack, the long distance train service I used in the US. In its defense, Amtrack provides very helpful and friendly staff on its trains, but its network is not far-reaching, as train travel in America peaked in the 1950's, as the interstate freeway system was expanded.
Friday, April 16, 2004
You are what you eat:
Sitting here being hungry, i was thinking of the past, and what I should NOT have put into my body over the years. Here is what I have come up with as I write this:
Those halloween wax vampire lips. I thought they were candy!
Velveeta; purported to be a "blend" of several cheeses. I want to know which ones, Kraft man!
All things gummi (gummi coke bottles are my favorite)
Popcorn topping; I can't believe that it's butter, cuz it ain't.
Circus Peanuts. Neither peanutty taste nor any odors found under the big top.
Jawbreakers, they should be called "multi-colored future dental work"
Mountain Dew. Increased my diabetes risk factor tenfold!
Fried mozzerela cheese sticks, as featured on the Shari's menu.
Super-sized french fries.
Added to the list today are:
All things Hostess, most notably Twinkies, Cup Cakes, Ho Ho's and those quasi-fruit pies.
Tokyo Station banana sponge cakes. Folks, that isn't real banana...
French fries with garnished with mayonaise, ketchup and mustard (tonight's dinner side dish)
Supersized Butterfinger. Mix in some crushed oreos and vanilla ice cream, and you get "dirt" cake!
Dots, the stickiest candy ever.
Lime flavored Tootsie Rolls. As you might guess, not made with real lime.
Banana and assorted flavor PowerBars. The inventor of these dainties (which found my way into my backpack on multiple occasions, due the 1.25 per meal price) recently died at age 51. So a PowerBar diet and marathons certainly do not mix, one could infer.
Kraft Handi-Snax, comlete with "real" pastureized process cheese food product. Also, Cheese Whiz and the cheese in the aerosol can.
In Lake Grove, Oregon there is a place called Giantburger. An original Giantburger had on it a1/3 pound patty, three fried eggs, several slices of bacon and the usual fixins'. I ate the whole thing, and then skipped the following meal.
Balls of butter and flour rolled in sugar. Also known as "bear claws" and "danishes."
Sitting here being hungry, i was thinking of the past, and what I should NOT have put into my body over the years. Here is what I have come up with as I write this:
Those halloween wax vampire lips. I thought they were candy!
Velveeta; purported to be a "blend" of several cheeses. I want to know which ones, Kraft man!
All things gummi (gummi coke bottles are my favorite)
Popcorn topping; I can't believe that it's butter, cuz it ain't.
Circus Peanuts. Neither peanutty taste nor any odors found under the big top.
Jawbreakers, they should be called "multi-colored future dental work"
Mountain Dew. Increased my diabetes risk factor tenfold!
Fried mozzerela cheese sticks, as featured on the Shari's menu.
Super-sized french fries.
Added to the list today are:
All things Hostess, most notably Twinkies, Cup Cakes, Ho Ho's and those quasi-fruit pies.
Tokyo Station banana sponge cakes. Folks, that isn't real banana...
French fries with garnished with mayonaise, ketchup and mustard (tonight's dinner side dish)
Supersized Butterfinger. Mix in some crushed oreos and vanilla ice cream, and you get "dirt" cake!
Dots, the stickiest candy ever.
Lime flavored Tootsie Rolls. As you might guess, not made with real lime.
Banana and assorted flavor PowerBars. The inventor of these dainties (which found my way into my backpack on multiple occasions, due the 1.25 per meal price) recently died at age 51. So a PowerBar diet and marathons certainly do not mix, one could infer.
Kraft Handi-Snax, comlete with "real" pastureized process cheese food product. Also, Cheese Whiz and the cheese in the aerosol can.
In Lake Grove, Oregon there is a place called Giantburger. An original Giantburger had on it a1/3 pound patty, three fried eggs, several slices of bacon and the usual fixins'. I ate the whole thing, and then skipped the following meal.
Balls of butter and flour rolled in sugar. Also known as "bear claws" and "danishes."
Thursday, April 15, 2004
High Season:
This concept goes like this: In Japan and Korea, most people take their vacations only at designated times, creating a crunch on the travel industry. The solution? travel costs double, triple and even quadruple the "low" season.
I am not much of an economist, but if you reduced the price, demand would increase, as more people take off-peak trips, more often. would this not be better that this gouging that goes on in summertime and around New Year?
In Japan there are heaps of old people and since flight bookings here average 65% in the low season, why not aim your ads at these pensioners? then they would not travel as much when the working world scrambles to book flights for their annual 3-4 day break.
Thus, low demand at peak times would prompt airlines to lower prices in line with lower demand.
Let me give you an example of the errors of this Hig/Low season policy.
A round trip ticket to Los Angeles from Osaka is around $400 in winter (low season) but goes to more than $1100 duing the summer high season. Which ticket would you prefer?
This concept goes like this: In Japan and Korea, most people take their vacations only at designated times, creating a crunch on the travel industry. The solution? travel costs double, triple and even quadruple the "low" season.
I am not much of an economist, but if you reduced the price, demand would increase, as more people take off-peak trips, more often. would this not be better that this gouging that goes on in summertime and around New Year?
In Japan there are heaps of old people and since flight bookings here average 65% in the low season, why not aim your ads at these pensioners? then they would not travel as much when the working world scrambles to book flights for their annual 3-4 day break.
Thus, low demand at peak times would prompt airlines to lower prices in line with lower demand.
Let me give you an example of the errors of this Hig/Low season policy.
A round trip ticket to Los Angeles from Osaka is around $400 in winter (low season) but goes to more than $1100 duing the summer high season. Which ticket would you prefer?
DAM IT.
Yesterday I had a nice rainy day to myself and I wandered around the fringe of Kyoto.
I was able to see a few streams and rivers which seemed, more or less natural. What a treat in Japan, where most "rivers" are concreted to the point that no natural riverbead remains. According to the Japanese construction ministry, however, this is done in order to "tame the hazards rivers present," or something to that effect. The mindset here, unchanged since the post-WWII era, is that damming or paving a river to prevent once in 100 or 500 year floods is seen as a public service, something to be proud of.
As Alex Kerr writes in his book on Japan, Dogs and Demons, only 3 of Japan's 115 rivers are undammed or unchanneled. This was from a book published in 2001.
So the market is ripe for rivers to be renaturalized and for trees to be planted to stabilize the new dirt river banks, if you know anyone influential in central Japan government, please pass this tip along...
Yesterday I had a nice rainy day to myself and I wandered around the fringe of Kyoto.
I was able to see a few streams and rivers which seemed, more or less natural. What a treat in Japan, where most "rivers" are concreted to the point that no natural riverbead remains. According to the Japanese construction ministry, however, this is done in order to "tame the hazards rivers present," or something to that effect. The mindset here, unchanged since the post-WWII era, is that damming or paving a river to prevent once in 100 or 500 year floods is seen as a public service, something to be proud of.
As Alex Kerr writes in his book on Japan, Dogs and Demons, only 3 of Japan's 115 rivers are undammed or unchanneled. This was from a book published in 2001.
So the market is ripe for rivers to be renaturalized and for trees to be planted to stabilize the new dirt river banks, if you know anyone influential in central Japan government, please pass this tip along...
Let's no writing:
While at an Osaka bookseller's the other day, I was writing down some basic hiking information from a book, when out of the blue a bookstore employee swooped out of nowhere to inform me that taking notes was strictly forbidden. So it must be inferred: in Japan, buying the book is the preferred method.
This served as an interesting contrast to my overseas bookstore-parusing experiences, as I used copied travel information in Korea all the time without the workers there batting an eye.
As it turns out, I ended up buying the book. Kinokuyniya Books, I bite my thumb at thee!
While at an Osaka bookseller's the other day, I was writing down some basic hiking information from a book, when out of the blue a bookstore employee swooped out of nowhere to inform me that taking notes was strictly forbidden. So it must be inferred: in Japan, buying the book is the preferred method.
This served as an interesting contrast to my overseas bookstore-parusing experiences, as I used copied travel information in Korea all the time without the workers there batting an eye.
As it turns out, I ended up buying the book. Kinokuyniya Books, I bite my thumb at thee!
Aichi World Expo 2005: Exploring Nature's Wisdom
What an ironic slogan, as nearby, engineers have reportedly filled in one of Japan's last remaining large wetland/marsh areas in order to build structures and grounds for the Expo.
The Aichi Expo mascots, whose names I will add here later, look like a cross between Sesame Street's Oscar The Grouch and that green algea usually called "pond scum." So, not all is lost.
What an ironic slogan, as nearby, engineers have reportedly filled in one of Japan's last remaining large wetland/marsh areas in order to build structures and grounds for the Expo.
The Aichi Expo mascots, whose names I will add here later, look like a cross between Sesame Street's Oscar The Grouch and that green algea usually called "pond scum." So, not all is lost.
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Plastic Demand:
The other day at the department store I saw a woman buying a loaf of bread. Her bread was packaged in no less than three layers of plastic, one of which was a thick, crinkly vinyl pouch, with a few twisties thrown in for show.
If you buy a bottle of beverage, you get a bag. And where do these bags end up? Well, as refuse in lakes and ponds, burned in incinerators, and taking up space in landfills. I was given a few canvas bags (which cost under a dollar each) and now I try to avoid receiving any extra bags when shopping. They also make great gifts, and last basically forever.
If everyone used fewer plastic bags less, imagine how much less litter and trash that adds up to...
Habits are easy to fall into, yet easy to dismiss when change is desired and perceived as doable.
The other day at the department store I saw a woman buying a loaf of bread. Her bread was packaged in no less than three layers of plastic, one of which was a thick, crinkly vinyl pouch, with a few twisties thrown in for show.
If you buy a bottle of beverage, you get a bag. And where do these bags end up? Well, as refuse in lakes and ponds, burned in incinerators, and taking up space in landfills. I was given a few canvas bags (which cost under a dollar each) and now I try to avoid receiving any extra bags when shopping. They also make great gifts, and last basically forever.
If everyone used fewer plastic bags less, imagine how much less litter and trash that adds up to...
Habits are easy to fall into, yet easy to dismiss when change is desired and perceived as doable.
I thought a good, productive thing to do here would be to create a list of things that I believe few people like. So review this list and e-mail me if you have anything that I should add or delete:
1. Hair clogs
2. 2000 flushes blue and similar products (does your toilet water really need to be blue?)
3. Oscar Meyer Gummi Hot Dogs and Hamburgers (desserts from the creators of baloney)
4. Wasps (what useful purpose do these things serve?)
5. Chernobyl. (Post- April 1986)
6. Forest monoculture (4 species are better than one!) Actually, this is only disliked by a subgroup.
7. Cream Bread (yes, shortening-based cream filled inside spongy baugette, a big hit in Korea)
8. Crude Oil Spills (oil-eating bacteria aside)
9. Mullets (sorry, Canada)
10. Nascar (Sorry North Carolina, both Virginias, Alabama and other fan bases)
11. Venomous Spiders and Snakes
12. Coach seats on planes (for people over 170 cm tall)
13. Air Canada bathrooms (economy class, anyway)
14. George W. Bush (Nascar fans excluded) (not to be confused with George H.W. Bush, or George H.W. Bush, Sr.)
15. 99 cent canned Salmon purchased in West Virgina. Perhaps I got a bad batch.
16. $ 10 for 2 passport photos at Kinko's
17. The McRib at McDonalds (remember when they found rat parts in them?)
1. Hair clogs
2. 2000 flushes blue and similar products (does your toilet water really need to be blue?)
3. Oscar Meyer Gummi Hot Dogs and Hamburgers (desserts from the creators of baloney)
4. Wasps (what useful purpose do these things serve?)
5. Chernobyl. (Post- April 1986)
6. Forest monoculture (4 species are better than one!) Actually, this is only disliked by a subgroup.
7. Cream Bread (yes, shortening-based cream filled inside spongy baugette, a big hit in Korea)
8. Crude Oil Spills (oil-eating bacteria aside)
9. Mullets (sorry, Canada)
10. Nascar (Sorry North Carolina, both Virginias, Alabama and other fan bases)
11. Venomous Spiders and Snakes
12. Coach seats on planes (for people over 170 cm tall)
13. Air Canada bathrooms (economy class, anyway)
14. George W. Bush (Nascar fans excluded) (not to be confused with George H.W. Bush, or George H.W. Bush, Sr.)
15. 99 cent canned Salmon purchased in West Virgina. Perhaps I got a bad batch.
16. $ 10 for 2 passport photos at Kinko's
17. The McRib at McDonalds (remember when they found rat parts in them?)
As of late in Japan, JT, or Japan Tobbaco ( 64.5% government owned) has created a public reltations campaign to make smokers more aware of their actions. Nowhere in the ads aiming to get users to become "good smokers" does it mention that blowing smoke in others' faces is annoying, or that 30% of all cancer deaths in Japan are smoking-related. JT makes billions annually from cigarette taxes, which it then puts into low-interest (at a prime rate averaging 1%) loans to industry, which squanders the cash in innumerable ways... Isn't government wonderful?
In Japan, 30% of all cancer deaths are from smoking-related illnesses. (Statistics published in the Japan Times, April 9, 2004)
In Japan, 30% of all cancer deaths are from smoking-related illnesses. (Statistics published in the Japan Times, April 9, 2004)
Monday, April 12, 2004
What some things could you do to improve the lives of others?
Here are some ideas...
1. If you have children, stop smoking around them.
2. Support a grass-roots cause in your neighborhood.
3. Vote in all local and national elections
4. If possible, alternate car usage with public transit or walking and biking
5. Give up your seat on the train to an injured or elderly person
6. When on vacation spend a few hours or days donating your time to a local cause.
7. Learn about another country or language. Share what you have learned with friends, and if possible visit there, spending money as locally as possible.
8. If facilities in your area allow, try to recycle your household trash.
9. Travel in off-peak times.
10. When hiking on trails do not take shortcuts. Such behavior erodes the soil and inclreases costs for land maintenance.
11. Do not build fires while camping abouve 4,500 feet. There is not enough fuel to fetilize the soil if humans burn it all.
12. Lose some weight.
13. Plant shade trees in your yard. grass is a very inefficient user of water. Oaks or Tulip trees provide good shade as saplings.
14. Use recycled tire rubber when resurfacing your driveway or sidewalk. Certainly softer and possibly cheaper than hiring an ashpalt contractor.
15. Lobby your state to create a bottle deposit law, if it does not already have one. Aluminum cans require lots of energy and fuels to produce.
16. Try to get to know your neighbors.
17. If you must own a gun, keep it unloaded and locked securely.
18. Use barbless hooks when fishing catch and release species.
Here are some ideas...
1. If you have children, stop smoking around them.
2. Support a grass-roots cause in your neighborhood.
3. Vote in all local and national elections
4. If possible, alternate car usage with public transit or walking and biking
5. Give up your seat on the train to an injured or elderly person
6. When on vacation spend a few hours or days donating your time to a local cause.
7. Learn about another country or language. Share what you have learned with friends, and if possible visit there, spending money as locally as possible.
8. If facilities in your area allow, try to recycle your household trash.
9. Travel in off-peak times.
10. When hiking on trails do not take shortcuts. Such behavior erodes the soil and inclreases costs for land maintenance.
11. Do not build fires while camping abouve 4,500 feet. There is not enough fuel to fetilize the soil if humans burn it all.
12. Lose some weight.
13. Plant shade trees in your yard. grass is a very inefficient user of water. Oaks or Tulip trees provide good shade as saplings.
14. Use recycled tire rubber when resurfacing your driveway or sidewalk. Certainly softer and possibly cheaper than hiring an ashpalt contractor.
15. Lobby your state to create a bottle deposit law, if it does not already have one. Aluminum cans require lots of energy and fuels to produce.
16. Try to get to know your neighbors.
17. If you must own a gun, keep it unloaded and locked securely.
18. Use barbless hooks when fishing catch and release species.
After all the hooplah about modifying the Pledge of Alliegence in US schools, I have come up with a solution which should keep both the ALCU and the current administration happy.
Instead of reciting the controversial "One nation under God" clause, schoolchildren shall now be made to listen to Attorney General John Ashcroft's "let the eagle soar," made so famous on Letterman back in 2003. Patriotism at its best, for all parties involved.
Instead of reciting the controversial "One nation under God" clause, schoolchildren shall now be made to listen to Attorney General John Ashcroft's "let the eagle soar," made so famous on Letterman back in 2003. Patriotism at its best, for all parties involved.
At present I am studying behaviors such as handbag (purse) carrying habits.
The angle (between 45 and 70 degrees it seems) at which many Japanese women carry hand and shopping bags seems totally non-ergonomic and simply uncomfortable. The extended purse-toting hand does tend to widen one's profile, which you should watch out for in crowded venues, pray you break a nail or at worse, get a nasty cornea scratch.
The process seems to be a blending of fashion and pure habit. To be scientific I should try out my own purse, but alas I cannot as a man carrying a purse is just not on.
Perhaps I shall post some photos of different styles and let the masses tell me that they think. Stay tuned.
The angle (between 45 and 70 degrees it seems) at which many Japanese women carry hand and shopping bags seems totally non-ergonomic and simply uncomfortable. The extended purse-toting hand does tend to widen one's profile, which you should watch out for in crowded venues, pray you break a nail or at worse, get a nasty cornea scratch.
The process seems to be a blending of fashion and pure habit. To be scientific I should try out my own purse, but alas I cannot as a man carrying a purse is just not on.
Perhaps I shall post some photos of different styles and let the masses tell me that they think. Stay tuned.