Well, the election is over and Japan picked the eternal bad hair day guy, Yukio Hatoyama. The aftermath will be like fireworks. First the sky lights up with pretty colors, but when the colors are gone, all that's left is a big noise and the smell of smoke.
Is Japan burning?
2009年8月31日月曜日
2009年8月29日土曜日
Three Jolly Pirates
A commercial--no longer being aired--showed the Democratic Party of Japan (DJP/Minshuto) leaders Hatoyama, Kan, and Ozawa as cartoons of themselves cavorting in the rigging and at the helm of a pirate ship. It was hard to figure out what, exactly, the message was supposed to be.
Could it be the commercial was withdrawn because people figured out what it is that pirates really do? Hijack what someone else built and paid for, use it for their own profit, wreck it, and then abandon it.
I sure hope the ship in question isn't Japan.
Could it be the commercial was withdrawn because people figured out what it is that pirates really do? Hijack what someone else built and paid for, use it for their own profit, wreck it, and then abandon it.
I sure hope the ship in question isn't Japan.
2009年8月28日金曜日
Dirty Money in New Wrappers
The polls are predicting the government will switch hands from the LDP coalition to the DPJ. Normally, switching parties can be a good thing. This time, it's not.
Why? Because they won't be switching parties. The people being named as possible cabinet are all LDP born-and-bred politicians who switched bandwagons, not politics.
It's just dirty money in new wrappers. Especially Ichiro Ozawa and Shizuka Kamei, Rove and Cheney with a made-in-Japan label.
There are still two days to go before the election, and all I can say is: Help!
Why? Because they won't be switching parties. The people being named as possible cabinet are all LDP born-and-bred politicians who switched bandwagons, not politics.
It's just dirty money in new wrappers. Especially Ichiro Ozawa and Shizuka Kamei, Rove and Cheney with a made-in-Japan label.
There are still two days to go before the election, and all I can say is: Help!
2009年8月14日金曜日
2009年8月7日金曜日
Hokkaido, the Cool Country
Time out for a trip to Japan's northernmost island, Hokkaido.
Mountains! Lakes! Singing birds! Cool breezes and open roads!
Hokkaido is not like the rest of Japan. It's more like Canada.
Well, it's like Canada would be if they put it in the wash and shrunk it a bit.
Summer happens next week, and I'm going up to take a look at it.
Mountains! Lakes! Singing birds! Cool breezes and open roads!
Hokkaido is not like the rest of Japan. It's more like Canada.
Well, it's like Canada would be if they put it in the wash and shrunk it a bit.
Summer happens next week, and I'm going up to take a look at it.
2009年8月6日木曜日
Do Bugs have Karma?
When I was a kid, we ran around with butterfly nets. In Japan, chasing butterflies is for sissies. REAL kids chase serious bugs.
One such bug is noisy like a cicada but a whole lot bigger. The biggest variety is woodchip brown and makes a noise that sounds like "Mii-mii-mii." Maybe that is Japanese bug language for a "Pick me!" love call. Another variety of cicada is a clean, green color and goes "Kana-kana-kana". They seem to be an endangered species. I haven't heard one of those in years. The third kind sounds like a wind-up toy. "Tsuku-tsuku (that's the wind-up key being turned)--hoshi (a winding down sort of sigh".
The absolutely most popular, most sought after bug in the Japanese insect universe is the stag beetle, or kabuto mushi. They are bigger than a grown man's thumb and wear an impressive set of antlers. When they fly--and from the look of them you would never guess they are capable of flight--they sound like helicopters. You can actually hear those stiff beetly wings beating the daylights out of the night air.
To be a captive kabuto mushi is not such a bad life. The kids feed them watermelon and eggplant and set them up in elegant housing. If they can't find one for themselves, someone will buy them a pet kabuto mushi from a department store.
But here's the karma part.
Everyone loves butterflies. Everyone loves fireflies. Kabuto mushi are bought and sold for real money--upwards of $10 dollars or so. However, pity the bug who comes into the world in another, unlovely incarnation. A mosquito, say, or heaven forbid, a cockroach. Would they be loved, photographed for calendar art, fed and valued?
I don't think so. Is that karma?
One such bug is noisy like a cicada but a whole lot bigger. The biggest variety is woodchip brown and makes a noise that sounds like "Mii-mii-mii." Maybe that is Japanese bug language for a "Pick me!" love call. Another variety of cicada is a clean, green color and goes "Kana-kana-kana". They seem to be an endangered species. I haven't heard one of those in years. The third kind sounds like a wind-up toy. "Tsuku-tsuku (that's the wind-up key being turned)--hoshi (a winding down sort of sigh".
The absolutely most popular, most sought after bug in the Japanese insect universe is the stag beetle, or kabuto mushi. They are bigger than a grown man's thumb and wear an impressive set of antlers. When they fly--and from the look of them you would never guess they are capable of flight--they sound like helicopters. You can actually hear those stiff beetly wings beating the daylights out of the night air.
To be a captive kabuto mushi is not such a bad life. The kids feed them watermelon and eggplant and set them up in elegant housing. If they can't find one for themselves, someone will buy them a pet kabuto mushi from a department store.
But here's the karma part.
Everyone loves butterflies. Everyone loves fireflies. Kabuto mushi are bought and sold for real money--upwards of $10 dollars or so. However, pity the bug who comes into the world in another, unlovely incarnation. A mosquito, say, or heaven forbid, a cockroach. Would they be loved, photographed for calendar art, fed and valued?
I don't think so. Is that karma?
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