Do eggs really want to be made into omelettes?
No one knows, since eggs can't talk. However, it's reasonable to assume that people, given a free choice, would rather live to a happy old age than blow up themselves, their families, and their friends en masse with government-issue hand grenades.
Here is an excerpt from today's online Japan Times: "Court sides with Oe over mass suicides --The Osaka District Court rejects a damages suit filed against Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kenzaburo Oe and his publisher by two plaintiffs who had claimed Oe wrongly stated in his book that Japanese soldiers ordered civilians in Okinawa to commit mass suicide and murder-suicide in 1945."
History is usually written by the winners, but in this case, there are survivors with the gumption to stare official history in the face and declare, "You did this, now you have to own it."
Many of these courageous survivors are women in their 90's who lived the past half century alone, without the children they gave birth to, the husbands they planned to love forever, and the friends and family who would have been their companions in the journey to old age.
Let's have some truth in advertising. Let's call a spade a spade.
War is hell, and it's time to make omelettes out of the chicken leaders who try to convince us it's not.
2008年3月29日土曜日
2008年3月21日金曜日
Just for Fun: Old Fashioned Winters
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As of March 20, winter is officially over. This year it snowed only twice in Tokyo, insignificant amounts both times. Didn’t winter used to be colder?
Here are some words that stand for ways to keep warm in the deep, freezing winters of yesteryear. See if you can guess what they are.
1. Pechika
(a) a kind of down vest (b) a stove
2. Utampo
(a) hot soup served in an earthenware pot (b) a kind of hot water bottle
3. Kotatsu
(a) double thick mittens (4) a quilt covered table with an electric heater attached
4. Chan-chan-ko
(a) a hot pot dish favored by sumo wrestlers (b) a coat worn indoors
5. Kairo
(a) a muffler wrapped around the head and neck (b) charcoal burning hand warmer
(See comments for answers, please.)
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*********
********
As of March 20, winter is officially over. This year it snowed only twice in Tokyo, insignificant amounts both times. Didn’t winter used to be colder?
Here are some words that stand for ways to keep warm in the deep, freezing winters of yesteryear. See if you can guess what they are.
1. Pechika
(a) a kind of down vest (b) a stove
2. Utampo
(a) hot soup served in an earthenware pot (b) a kind of hot water bottle
3. Kotatsu
(a) double thick mittens (4) a quilt covered table with an electric heater attached
4. Chan-chan-ko
(a) a hot pot dish favored by sumo wrestlers (b) a coat worn indoors
5. Kairo
(a) a muffler wrapped around the head and neck (b) charcoal burning hand warmer
(See comments for answers, please.)
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*********
2008年3月9日日曜日
Can you sing? Takeda Shingen could.
Everyone should be able to sing at least one song. That's what my favorite teacher always says. He has entertaining friends in mind, but in the age of Takeda Shingen, your song was your autobiography.
Shingen's song is still sung today. It is called "Takeda Bu-shi", and both the tune and the words are memorable.
Yesterday I was in Yamanashi and climbed to the top of the ruins of one of Shingen's castles in the capital city, Kofu. Where I saw the bustle of building after building sprawling almost to the horizon, Shingen would have seen prospering fields and forests. The one thing we both would have seen was the ring of mountains circling the land, with Mount Fuji standing head and shoulders above them all.
The mountains of Yamanashi figure prominently in Shingen's song. They inspired him to be a leader who stands steadfast and sure between his people and every threat to their well being, as steady and reliable as a mountain.
Shingen's song is still sung today. It is called "Takeda Bu-shi", and both the tune and the words are memorable.
Yesterday I was in Yamanashi and climbed to the top of the ruins of one of Shingen's castles in the capital city, Kofu. Where I saw the bustle of building after building sprawling almost to the horizon, Shingen would have seen prospering fields and forests. The one thing we both would have seen was the ring of mountains circling the land, with Mount Fuji standing head and shoulders above them all.
The mountains of Yamanashi figure prominently in Shingen's song. They inspired him to be a leader who stands steadfast and sure between his people and every threat to their well being, as steady and reliable as a mountain.
2008年3月7日金曜日
Back to Okinawa
Sanshin Day--March 4, 2008. This is the day to celebrate sanshin music. The main venue in Naha is at the Kumoji Palette Plaza, where the world's largest sanshin is on display this one day only. It is so heavy, it takes three strong men to set it up. It is so long, it takes two people to play it.
2008年2月29日金曜日
2008年2月27日水曜日
Takeda Shingen--a story
Did you remember that name?
If you travel to Yamanashi, you will find a certain product at every souvenir stand. It’s called Shingen mochi, and it’s delicious. It’s a sweet named after Yamanashi’s greatest hero, Takeda Shingen.
The family name is Takeda, and the hero’s personal name is Shingen. Let’s call him Shingen in this story, though he had many names throughout his lifetime. Shingen became head of the Takeda clan back in the 16th century. That was a time known as The Warring States Period in Japanese history, because at that time Japan was less a nation and more of a motley collection of feudal domains.
The most famous story about Shingen concerns him and his arch rival, Uesugi Kenshin. They fought each other a total of five times, once in hand-to-hand combat. Neither one could defeat the other. When Shingen died of illness in late middle age, the rival cried inconsolably. Life wasn’t fun any more without a worthy rival.
Remember the part about Yamanashi being a landlocked province? One of the problems Shingen had to solve was finding a source of salt, the major food preservative in the days before refrigeration was invented. A rather romantic legend has it that Shingen led a party in search of salt down the Fuji River to the sea, where he came to a salt-making village. It was his plan to capture the village and secure an eternal source of salt.
However, Shingen’s reputation as a poet traveled well ahead of him.
The villagers’ idea was that if Shingen could not be defeated in battle, they would have to get him another way. Each night, a villager with a flute would play his most beautiful music. Each night, Shingen would come out of his camp to listen to the music and compose poetry. When this became established routine, the flute player dropped his flute, picked up a bow and arrow, and mortally wounded Shingen.
I read this in a novel (Japanese Inn, by Oliver Statler). I have no idea of whether or not it is true. It could be true, and that is good enough for me.
I like the idea that the only thing in the whole world stronger than a samurai is music and poetry.
If you travel to Yamanashi, you will find a certain product at every souvenir stand. It’s called Shingen mochi, and it’s delicious. It’s a sweet named after Yamanashi’s greatest hero, Takeda Shingen.
The family name is Takeda, and the hero’s personal name is Shingen. Let’s call him Shingen in this story, though he had many names throughout his lifetime. Shingen became head of the Takeda clan back in the 16th century. That was a time known as The Warring States Period in Japanese history, because at that time Japan was less a nation and more of a motley collection of feudal domains.
The most famous story about Shingen concerns him and his arch rival, Uesugi Kenshin. They fought each other a total of five times, once in hand-to-hand combat. Neither one could defeat the other. When Shingen died of illness in late middle age, the rival cried inconsolably. Life wasn’t fun any more without a worthy rival.
Remember the part about Yamanashi being a landlocked province? One of the problems Shingen had to solve was finding a source of salt, the major food preservative in the days before refrigeration was invented. A rather romantic legend has it that Shingen led a party in search of salt down the Fuji River to the sea, where he came to a salt-making village. It was his plan to capture the village and secure an eternal source of salt.
However, Shingen’s reputation as a poet traveled well ahead of him.
The villagers’ idea was that if Shingen could not be defeated in battle, they would have to get him another way. Each night, a villager with a flute would play his most beautiful music. Each night, Shingen would come out of his camp to listen to the music and compose poetry. When this became established routine, the flute player dropped his flute, picked up a bow and arrow, and mortally wounded Shingen.
I read this in a novel (Japanese Inn, by Oliver Statler). I have no idea of whether or not it is true. It could be true, and that is good enough for me.
I like the idea that the only thing in the whole world stronger than a samurai is music and poetry.
2008年2月26日火曜日
A Prefecture that isn't Okinawa
Yamanashi Prefecture—I can see its mountains when I look out my west-facing windows, and one of those mountains is the fabled Mount Fuji.
Mount Fuji stands alone. In the background are the Japan Alps. On the flat places between the various mountains are vineyards the equal of anything Italy, California—even NJ—have to offer. Yamanashi is prize winning wine country and is as famous for incredibly luscious peaches as it is for grapes. In early spring, the peach blossoms are so thick it looks like the land has been covered with a hot pink carpet.
The one thing Yamanashi does not have is a beach. Although Japan is an island country, and if you have all day you can drive across it from sea to shining sea, Yamanashi is landlocked. And that is the key to its place in the nation building history of Japan.
More on that later. For now, remember this name—Takeda Shingen.
Mount Fuji stands alone. In the background are the Japan Alps. On the flat places between the various mountains are vineyards the equal of anything Italy, California—even NJ—have to offer. Yamanashi is prize winning wine country and is as famous for incredibly luscious peaches as it is for grapes. In early spring, the peach blossoms are so thick it looks like the land has been covered with a hot pink carpet.
The one thing Yamanashi does not have is a beach. Although Japan is an island country, and if you have all day you can drive across it from sea to shining sea, Yamanashi is landlocked. And that is the key to its place in the nation building history of Japan.
More on that later. For now, remember this name—Takeda Shingen.
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