Shh... We have a secret.

Tom Friedman's masterpiece Hot, Flat and Crowded is about how developing green technology is a win-win story. He says the world will be nicer because we'll have nicer air and water, for starters. We'll also live better because we will get more comfort for less energy expenditure. (like the newer air conditioners and refrigerators that cost less to run than old ones) Businesses will do better, too, because when you think about it, pollution is just good resources gone up in smoke or thrown out with the trash.

Here's the good part: What it takes to get new, improved green technology is not lawyers and politicians. It's engineers.

Japan has lots of engineers.

We have an annual quota on how many new lawyers can be certified. The number of elected officials also dwindles year by year as cities/towns/villages/prefectures consolidate. But the number of engineers always grows.

Shh... Don't tell, but I think Japan is winning when it comes to the newest industrial revolution, the green tech revolution. Japan's secret weapon is schools that teach math and produce lots of engineers, not to mention an abhorence of waste.

Richard "I Am Not a Crook" Nixon, live in Tokyo

Last night the other Ichiro, not the super hero ballplayer but the sleazy politician, was on TV to give a speech the likes of which have not been seen since the days of America's disgraced former president. Ichiro Ozawa, LDP party born and bred but now chairman of the opposition DPJ party, claimed that the billions of yen in bribes that entered his campaign treasury did not stain his lily white soul.

Mr. Ozawa squeezed a teardrop from one beady eye, and when the cameras failed to catch it--there was only one tiny tear, and observant members of the audience knew it was coming because of the squinty way he kept blinking, trying to force it out--he ostentatiously took out a handkerchief and wiped his by then dry eyes, just to be sure his attempt at penitance was not missed.

It was great theater, even the timing.

Mr. Ozawa spaced his words during his late night press conference to fill up the time until the clock ticked safely past the deadline for filing print media news. In other words, none of the reporters' questions would be reported, only Mr. Ozawa's claim that, because the "people" love him so much, he would bravely carry on and not take responsibility the way normal people in Japan do, by removing himself from his political pedestal.

Who are these "people" who love a crook who can afford to scoff at billions being a "paltry sum" when the rest of us are doing job (and salary) sharing, just to meet the rent and grocery bills?

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A milestone: 1,000 visitors to this blog.

Thank you for your interest!

True Fiction

This writer enjoys Okinawa. It's more than the weather, the scenery and the music. There's something about the atmosphere of connection--to people, of course, but also between past times and present times.

I used my background in an antiquities NPO and made up a story set in Okinawa. It's called Katsuren, and it will be published soon.

The story--and the characters--are all made up, but I think the Okinawa atmosphere will be true to life.

Sanshin Day 2009

March 4 is the day dedicated to sanshin music. There is a traditional song called Kagiya-de-fu which is played at the opening of ceremonial events, and that is the song that opened the Sanshin Day event at the Kumoji Palette Plaza in downtown Naha.

The beauty of Kagiya-de-fu is that it is always and everywhere played exactly the same way in exactly the same key. Anyone, anywhere on the planet, can join in and be in harmony whenever and wherever this song is played.

It's not a simple song, though, and the only way to learn it is to sing it with other people who already know it. What a way to build human harmony!

The words are a poem: "To what shall I compare the beauty of today? A flower, a dew drenched bud about to blossom."

Oscar! Oscar!

Two Japanese films just one Academy Awards. Banzai!
One is called Okuribito (the person who waves good-bye). The title is Departures in English.
The other is a short animation: Tsumiki-no-ie (house made of children's blocks), or House of Small Cubes in English.

Everyone needs some good news once in a while. Even though we have--I mean had-- apparently the world's goofiest joke of a finance minister, it's nice to know we still do some things really well.

Mad, Crazy Ideas?

The idea of saving the world's economy through chocolate appealed to me. Here's another crazy idea from Thomas Friedman's column in the NY Times.

He's writing about a ride through the Indian countryside in a plug-in car with a solar-powered road show thrown in. One of the comments from a witness to the trip goes like this:

“Why this mad, insane plan to travel across India in a caravan of solar electric cars and jatropha [a bio fuel] trucks with solar music, art, dance and a potent message for climate solutions? Well ... the world needs crazy ideas to change things, because the conventional way of thinking is not working anymore.”


*** At the end of the month I'm going to Okinawa and will look at their wind powered electricity farm and fresh water from the ocean desalination station.

*** Here in Hino, about one house in ten already has solar water heating equipment on the roof.

*** Out in Yamanashi, I have a friend who gets money from the electric company--they buy his extra solar power from his roof top generator.