Do you Believe?

For every religious person out there who is reading this, I have one thing to say: I'm an agnostic. Now many of you without your dictionary are probably asking what does this mean? It means that I have my own beliefs on life, the universe and everything. While I do believe that there is a god and that he/she/it is very powerful compared to us, I do not believe that he made everything, including my Family Mary Burrito, and the Grand Canyon, with some sort of design or plan for us in mind.

I usually explain him/her/it in an analogy I got from a great Sci-Fi TV show. Imagine if I take up an ant on my finger and look at it for a second and then put it down. The ant would probably return to its nest where upon finding another ant it would ask, 'did you see that?' 'See what?' would probably be the reply. As the first ant opens to his mouth reply back he begins to realize that he doesn't know how to describe what he has seen and therefore cannot tell his friend, let alone claim that I am his creator, that I have a plan for him and that if he prays hard enough that I will overthrow his queen and/or open seats on his supreme court.

Anyway, as the debate between Intelligent Design and Evolution heats up, someone else is adding his two cents, namely the creator of the First United Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. As theorized by a Kansas citizen Bobby Henderson, the theory of the FSM deals with the true god who created the universe, but started with some mountains, some trees and a midget. The Flying Spaghetti Monster is usually depicted as being made of spaghetti with two round eyes and meatballs which make up the majority of his torso. He has never really be sighted as it's well accepted that he takes an active role in human affairs and prevents people from finding out about his true nature. Members of the church, also known as pastafarianism, are expected to dress in pirate regalia as a homage to the founder's discovery of a correlation between the decrease in the number of pirates and global warming.

Whether or not pastafarianism will ever catch on is beyond me. But I can say that I will more readily believe in this theory and the possibly that at this moment I'm being touched my his noodly appendage that any of the major religions of today's world. Religion is merely a political tool for keeping control of the population. Always has been and unfortunately it always will be...

Wisdom of the Day: Stop denying it

Sayonara Tomoko

By this time next week, my sweet Tomoko will be on her way to Canada leaving me to my lonesome self in Japan, that is if my friends weren't coming over on a regular basis...

Anyway, to commemorate Tomoko's second Exodus from Japan, we had a small gathering of a few of her and my friends to say goodbye, eat food and drink a few beers. Yes, I know it seems like drinking is occupying more blog space than normal recently, but ummm… well…. it’s summer!

Anyway, similar to my birthday we played a few games including pictionary (Hiro you suck at this game!), two-tap brainstorm (easier to explain in person) and word brainstorm. Yes, I know what you're thinking, with all that excitement, where did I find time to blog? Don't worry about it. In the end everyone had a good time (including Noriko, who barely leaves the house) and Yukiko (who gets very angry when Justin drinks) and Hiro (check out his blog in my links).

Goodbye Tomoko. You'll be missed but not forgotten.

Wisdom of the Day: Throw the dart enough times and eventually you'll hit the bull's-eye

Blue Note Osaka

My final and best birthday present came from the lovely Tomoko, who took me to the Osaka Blue Note to enjoy an evening of good food, cold alcohol and the awesome sounds of the Al McKay All-Stars. Now, I've never been a fan of Earth, Wind and Fire but I do like some of their stuff, although I heard it about 10-15 years after they were at their height, but the show tonight by the Al McKay All-Stars, a group organized by Al-McKay originally from Earth, Wind and Fire and filled with talented musicians such as Devere Duckett, Claude Woods and Tim Owen, three unbelievable vocals.

Anyway, the night was great. The music was great, the Blue Note serves some top notch food, I highly recommend the lamb, and all manner of alcohol, although expect to pay around 800yen a drink average. And did I mention the place was filled with hot girls? I didn't? Well the place is filled with hot girls (NOT SAFE FOR WORK!!) ! Gotta get back there soon!

Almost forgot, the answers to the Korea Picture Contest. The following pictures were off Korea: 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 18, 21, 22; the others were all from Japan. We have a tie between Kaze and Movie King. Email me with your guest post and I'll put it up ASAP.

Wisdom of the Day: Don't scratch it, it gets worse!

Dr. Strangetyphoon or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Except the Fact that Typhoons Never Hit Osaka

The title really says it all. Whether by Osaka's situating in between a pair of mountain ranges, or some unseen airstreams that fly past us, Osaka nearly never gets hit by typhoons.

For everyone who is curious, a typhoon is simply a hurricane that occurs in the Pacific Ocean, and in the late summer/early fall time period, Japan is in a literal typhoon alley. Many hit the southern island of Okinawa before making their way north towards the Japanese mainland, usually bearing west towards Kyushu, Korea and China, or east towards Tokyo and the ocean. While they can be quite large when hitting Okinawa, most lose a great deal of power when they get close to Honshu and are sometimes downgraded to tropical storms; pussies.

They do cause damage and problems in Japan especially in the Kanto region and the surrounding prefectures. This week's typhoon, named Mawar, has, as I write this, turned away from Honshu and is making its way out to sea. Rain fell, rivers overflowed, property was damaged and one man died.

I'm not trying to downplay the potential disaster that could occur, but if past history is any teacher, very rarely, if ever is Osaka hit by one of these typhoons. Yet, unlike any people I've ever met, Osakajin panic and freak out. They issue storm warnings, chat incessantly about floods and heavy rain, and stock up their homes with food and provisions waiting for the worse case scenario. Which never comes...

In three years here, we have been partial hit by one typhoon, which was hyped far beyond the damage it did in this area. One observer described this typhoon has "typical London weather."

So, in conclusion, the typhoons aren't coming to Osaka. Relax, don't worry, go to work, don't horde food and condoms and stop telling me about it. I do have internet you know.

Wisdom of the Day: Don't Panic
-- Douglas Adams

What I Did For My Birthday

Although this post is a little late, my birthday was actually on Tuesday, August 23rd, the day after my Mom's. Good timing Mom! Anyway, as most, it was rather uneventful, at least until later.

The day started off with a health dose of work and meetings. Meetings, especially bullshit ones, are the exact sort of thing one is always looking for on one's birthday. This one was no exception as the teachers and the salespeople involved with one of clients met to discuss issues that had arisen in the past and how to prevent them in the future. This is all good and nice, except that the communication link between us, of which some of the problems arose, was noticeably absent. Therefore it accomplished exactly what I thought it would.

The day continued with some lessons, none of which were eventful nor worth mentioning, so I'll stop.

The party then began at Gekiya, our local cheap izakaya. Joining me were the lovely Tomoko, Tomiko, Marie, Andy, Phil, Justin and Greg. After a large number of fried foods and beers, we retired to my place to continue the drinking and crack open the bottle of champagne that Tomiko bought me for my birthday. Moet is good stuff. The rest of the night has been a bit hazy, but I remember a number of games that I wasn't good at, my floor absorbing beer, always good for a tamami that has absorbed plenty at a few other parties, and awaking up to find the room spinning and various friends littered about.

All-in-all a good day.

Wisdom of the Day: Thanks to all who sent me birthday wishes and to all who wanted to but forgot, no worries. Except for one or two, you know who you are.

Happy Birthday Mom

a.k.a. What Mom Taught Me.

Well today is my Mother's birthday. While it has been said that with age comes wisdom, I've always felt my mother has had some strong wisdom, words that she pounded into me and that still resound through the fiber of my being when the situation arises. These pieces of advice have made my Mother one of the strongest influences on my character. As I now reach the beginning of my 26^th year, I find these lessons to be more relevant than ever and am pleased to share them here.

Don't Judge a Book by its Cover: An extremely difficult rule to implement in your life. The tendency to make snap judgments on anything or anyone based on the way they look is so natural to us that we can hardly ignore it. Time and time again, my snap judgments, which I kept private for obvious reasons, turned out to be wrong and I was sorry I made them. Even a good friend of mine was shocked to find that one of their judgments on a certain media person was wrong and that they enjoyed them more than they thought. Actually this applies to a few people.

Don't Stoop to Their Level: If you consider yourself to be a mature, responsible adult, than this is the rule for you. Sure you have had something bad done to you and nothing would make you happier than to do the same thing or worse back. This retaliation is only to make you feel better, nothing more, if anything it makes you look as bad or worse than them. With no doubt I can say that you will regret it later on in life. This has always been my argument in the Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib stories. Yes these people, or someone connected to them, did terrible things to us. But by treating them in a poor fashion, or at least allowing the world to think so, and something bad must have happened somewhere for it to get this much publicity, we cannot distinguish ourselves from the evil we fight. We need to stand above them, and the world will support us. Politicians can learn from this too. Just because someone runs a smear campaign against you doesn't mean you should do even worse back to them. There must be a more mature way; you guys are smart think about it for a while. And the public might even just perhaps respect you more.

Pick you Battles: A famous old saying says you can make some of the people happy all of the time and all of the people happy some of the time, but all of the people all of the time is an impossibility. This is up there with that. You can possibly win ever battle presented to you in life. Sometimes you have to concede in order to win the more important fights. That's why I don't fight every time I have a problem at work, and why I usually get what I want when I ask for it. The Democrats should follow this advice. At the moment they are fighting and losing every battle. It's time to concede a few. Cut their loses and get ready for a more important battle, whatever that might be to them. But attacking everything Bush and the Republicans try to do is counter-productive to the country. The Right may be working in some ways to keep the political scene partisan, the Left isn't helping!

Brush Your Teeth Twice a Day: Pretty much a given, but I've never had a serious tooth problem, good genes or good advice? You decide.

Don't Lie, Take Responsibility: Possibly the most difficult thing you could ever do in your life. From small things like: you knocked over the coffee cup, or, who gave the dog chocolate, all the way to who revealed a CIA operative's name, or, did you have a affair with your intern and then lie about it under oath, you should always take responsibility for what you do. I've only seen one politician in recent times ever come close to saying that he made some mistakes and he wanted to make up for it, and he's a fictional character. I'm voting for David Palmer!

A lot of wisdom in only a few sentences. Thanks for everything Mom. Nothing I could write here truly sums up how grateful I am. I love you very much. Have a very Happy Birthday.

Wisdom of the Day: What you need more???!!!?!?!?!

Bad Eigo

The bad English of Japan continues in these beauties I was able to procure over the past few months. As hilarious as these examples and the many more to be found here, it seems that the number and quality has been declining in the past few years. The cause of this seems obvious, the increase in the amount of foreigners moving to Japan and subsequent repairing of Japan's bad English.

What can this mean? Is the future of bad English in Jeopardy??!!!!?!?! Not to worry, as long as Kazuhide is still answering emails, we are all okay:

Dear Sir,
Why do all your tall apartment buildings have such small windows? Where I come from, the windows are bigger and let natural sunlight in. And one more thing: back in my country, we call tall apartments "condominiums", but here in Japan you call them "mansion". I think they are not mansions.
Thanks. Look forward to hearing from you.
-Alan O

Dear Alan,
You are wrong. Tall apartment is called apartment. Condominium is for rich ski family in beach or Colorado. Why you not allow poor salariman to call his small apartment mansion? This is Japan, we calling it mansion. Please to learn Japanese way if you stay here and please don't American arrogance.

Wisdom of the Day: Don't ask Kazuhide, only read

Redesign

I'm in the process of drawing up the redesign for the new homepage and blog. They will be combined on Jedicraft.net, I will probably discontinue using blogspot. In the meantime, if anyone has any ideas of anything they'd like to see, please feel free to comment it up.

And yes, I just felt like posting a picture of Yasuda Misako. Somehow she's sexy and cute. Just like the magazine said! So sue me!

Now, I'm going to the Honmachi Berlitz Summer Party. Aren't you sorry you weren't invited?

Wisdom of the Day: All you can drink can be a bad thing

PSP & Me

Back in February I took the plunge and bought a PSP right after launch day, against my better judgment. The first and sometimes second run, of a new piece of electronical equipment is usually a bad time to purchase it. The company is usually still working out some of the bugs and likes to use customer feedback to help tweak the later versions, the game industry is notorious for this as is Microsoft.

And while I still had one dead pixel, which Sony unlike Nintendo was refusing to replace a system for, the system worked well and I've been happy. The perhaps coolest feature is the power-off resume function, which allows the user to shut off the system and when the system is restarted it will be in the exact same place, as long as the battery hasn't died for longer than an hour or two. This is great for my latest pastime, toilet Lumines. I can stretch one game over the course of a week or more trying to get my score as high as possible. I've been able to get around 300,000 points and I'm on my way to 400,000.

Wisdom of the Day: Like your iPod? Don't drop it

Mission Accomplished

There has been a lot of controversy in the news recently over the Japanese war criminal shrine, also known as the Yasukuni Jinja. There has been an especially loud noise coming from the people's league of justice, human rights and morality, also known as China. Yasukuni, which means peaceful nation in Japanese, is dedicated to Japan's war dead. Now, please note that this means any and all Japanese who have died in a war are enshrined here. It is not, as some ignorants are claiming, a shrine dedicated to the war criminals who turned Japan into a totalitarian state during WWII and attacked and conquered a large area in Asia.

The recent controversy comes from the state visits being made by a number of high ranking government officials including, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Health minister Hidehisa Otsuji and Environment Minister Yuriko Koike Protests from all sorts of organizations have turned these visits, which are meant to honor the war dead of Japan, have created a huge situation as well as a large amount of political pressure between Japan, China and South Korea. Some people feel that these visits are basically saying that Japan’s attrocites in China during WWII didn't happen. Others feel that these visits encourage the further use of military action in Japan's future and are seen as a symbol of stronger ties with a more militaristic America. Yet others feel that these visits, by state officials to a religious location violate Japan's separation of church and state laws (those haven't stopped much in America have they?).

The loudest voice, by far seems to be China. That champion of human rights, freedom, justice and unedited history, the Chinese see these visits as a big F-YOU in the face and are demanding they stop. But in reality many believe that the Chinese government is for these visits, as they provide sufficient material for a propaganda campaign aimed at hiding their own governmental issues. And let's not forget the questionable things China has done in the past, Tiananmen Square, Korean War, Season IV of 24, to name a few.

As for myself, while I do feel strongly that Japan's actions in Asia, especially China, during WWII were terrible, I also feel that they paid a heavy price, not only in their subsequent defeat, but through a pair of special bombs that were dropped on their citizens. All the people enshrined in Yasukuni, including the class-A war criminals, died for their country and were patriots. They may have been misguided, but they loved their country, should we hold it against them?

Wisdom of the Day: If you come to Japan, instead of Yasukuni, pay your respects to Yasuda Misako

A Couple of Things

Hey. First off sorry for the long break, but it was Obon. What is Obon, you might ask? Well, I'll tell you. Obon, or festival of the dead, was originally a Buddhist holiday dating back to the early Buddhist tradition in Japan. Usually it takes place during mid-August and is accompanied by a large number of varies Matsuris (festivals) and gatherings. In a modern city like Osaka, Obon is better known as the mid-summer break in which 70% of the workforce celebrates an unofficial national holiday and does nothing while all of us in the service industry continue to work. If I had an ichi yen coin for every time this week someone asked me if it was my holiday.. The answer by the way is no! Most eikawas (English conversation schools) are open on all national holidays, even though some of the bigger ones don't pay holiday rates, and cater to the holiday demographic.

The reason I didn't have a chance to blog was, well I got stuck doing a lot of things, blah, blah, blah, you know. Anyway, the Korean Picture Contest is still in effect. I think I wasn't very clear on the instructions. Choose which pictures are of Korea and enter them by the number, in a comment in the post. There is an equal number of Japanese and Korean pictures. The winner gets a guest post on this blog! Good Luck!

Wisdom of the Day: Take a job with good holiday benefits

Too Much 24?

Weird Dream last night. Myself and Tony Almeida from 24 are inside the house of a man connected to the current terrorist attacks, although I don't know what those are, the man's name: Rush Limbaugh! We are searching through rooms looking for him, we know he's there hiding from us. Apparently Rush's home is a 10 story historical landmark. Rush, in a standard 24 style, is able to escape by opening the house to tours while we are chasing him. The large influx of people, apparently waiting outside to come and see the house, prevent Tony and I from grabbing the elevator, and Rush escapes while we are running down the stairs, pushing away kids and old ladies screaming "Federal Agents!"

Starring:

Nicholas McCarthy........as himself
Rush Limbaugh........as himself
Carlos Bernard........as Tony Almeida
John Smith........as Tour Guide #2
Chiho Kamei........as Tourist #14
Kiefer Sutherland........voice of Jack Bauer, speaking from HQ over my headset
Brad Pitt........Back-Up Agent Rynes

Special Thanks to

John Travolta........not in the dream
Tom Cruise........not in the dream
Sean Penn........not in the dream

No animals were harmed in the making of this dream.

Wisdom of the Day: to quote Tomoko: 24 is like a drug addiction, steer clear

More 24

With the release of season 4 on DVD here in Japan imminent, this is a great time for me to tease all my Japanese friends about how I've downloaded it and am already halfway through. They have to wait for the Japanese translation because they are too lazy to study English!

I have to say that season 4 is cool, but some of the same themes are being reused far too much. I'm getting tired of the CTU employee who has a personal connection to the disaster happening, panics and then freaks out. It's been like 4 characters now, enough. Also I feel, so far, in season 4 that things happen too easily for the bad guys. They are completely on top of the situation, like being able to kill captured witnesses three minutes after they are captured. While, I'm looking forward to the end of season 4, I'm a little worried about season 5, scheduled to begin in January. Fox also confirmed that there will be a season 6. I hope the writers come up with some new ideas. I still feel season 3 was the best, and I plan to buy it on DVD when I return to the states.

BTW: 24 is a bitch to search on Google. Mostly you get news channels. Oh, and the picture at the top? Did I mention that Japan loves 24, and Kiefer loves Calorie Mate!

Wisdom of the Day: No time for lunch? Try a Calorie Mate!

Picture Contest

Yes, the long awaited picture contest is here. I started a new Yahoo account for it even, due to bandwidth concerns. I have posted 22 assorted pictures of Japan and Korea. The object is to determine which are of Korea. In the comments section write which you think are Korea. The person with the most correct wins a guest post on my blog to write anything they want and a possible future blog on my site Jedicraft.net as soon as I get Moveable Text working.

Good Luck!

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Wisdom of the Day: It's a tough choice

Postal Nightmare

Usually I talk about what's happening my life here and how it relates somehow to Japan, but today I thought I'd talk about the issues in the Japanese post office at the moment.

As many of you would figure, the Japanese post office functions in much the same way as the American post office, basically delivering the mail, sorting out packages, shipping, that sort of thing. Other, more, governmental administration functions, such as passports for example, are done by the local government offices, also called ward offices, which exist in each ward or city area. I live in Minato-ward, so I get my gaijin registration sorted out there.

Unlike America, the Japanese post office also offers savings accounts and life insurance. Current estimates place the total combined amount stored by these services to be over $3 trillion, making the Japanese post office the largest deposit taking entity in the world, and it’s life insurance division the largest in Japan.

Yet, after the burst of the bubble economy in the late 80s/early 90s, the Japanese parliament, called the Diet, and it's most recently Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, have been looking for ways to offload a large number of government sponsored programs to the private sector. The most notable being the privatization of the national railway company JR, which was privatized in the late 80s and has been operated in this fashion since, with little or no governmental interference.

The current crisis comes from the proposed privatization of the post office, yet another effort by Koizumi to reduce governmental size and to help settle the large number of bad loans that helped to collapse the bubble and continue to hold Japan down economically. While both Koizumi's cabinet and the lower house of the Diet voted for the sale, the Upper House, yesterday, voted against the sale. The main reason being a very interesting one, and somewhat distant from what seems to be happening in the states recently, the people.

With about 25,000 branches national, the Japanese post office is the primary account form of course for a high number of people living in the rural areas. The Upper House fear that their constituencies will turn on them if they approve this bill. The people's general fear being that if the post office is privatized and the savings division is split off into a separate company, as proposed, then the new company will start lending money as a bank would and create problems. Japanese faith in their own banks is rather low due to the bad loan situation and repeated government bail-outs. To add to the problem, many postal employees fear job cut backs due to restructuring under the proposal. The Japanese post office employees over 400,000 employees.

At the moment Koizumi believes wholeheartedly in the privatization scheme and has now dissolved the Lower House and called an election for September, perhaps for a run through on the bill again. We'll all have to wait and see what happens.

Wisdom of the Day: Work for the Japanese Post Office? Maybe it’s time to quit your day job

Abandoned Port Building

During a drunken ride through the back streets of Minato-ku, we found this. The site of a former terminal for the Kansai Kisen, the Bentenchou abandoned port building as slowly begun to fall into disrepair and now has become a hang out for bored people and the location of a few squatting bars, a usually empty club and a fabric store.

We crusied around inside for a few minutes looking for something cool and instead found a girl who resembled something out of an alien movie. Sorry for the condition of these pictures, but it was dark.

Of all the places I have seen, this building, which used to house a thriving shopping center and ferry service to Kobe and Matsuyama, has to be the clearest sign of Japan’s economic decline. While most analysts agree that Japan is finally starting to get on the track to comeback, the strong, yet bubble, economy which allowed them to own the world and become one of the most feared names in business, will never return. Japan now should reinvent itself to return to it's dominant position before Korea and China overtake it.

Wisdom of the Day: Look to the past to learn how to redesign the future

Japan Movie Preview

With the huge barrage of Hollywood movies that fills the theaters here in sunny Japan it's easy to forget that Japan, itself, has an enthusiastic and interesting film production industry. Not many of these movies make the American theaters due to a number of reasons, but mainly blockage caused by the American film studios. One glaring example is Disney's purchase of all Hayao Miyazaki films and subsequent limited release as to not hurt their own ticket sales of their horrible movies (Cinderella 2 anyone?). Recent movies of note from Japan include nearly anything by Akira Kurosawa, Battle Royale, Bayside Shakedown 2 (Odorudaisousasen 2) , Casshern, Appleseed, Year One in the North, Nobody Knows (Daremo Shiranai) and Zatoichi. And of course we can't forget the funny Ninnin: Ninja Hattori-kun, Cutie Honey and the absolutely terrible Ringu, which I refuse to link to.

But this post is about two upcoming movies which I recently saw previews for. First up is Aegis (Bokokunoaegis). It's a war drama about a Japanese Aegis cruiser which has gone rogue under command of its captain. When it begins threatening Tokyo the government orders it's destruction, while simultaneously some of the crew, apparently lead by Last Samurai's Hiroyuki Sanada, mutiny to stop the attack and save the ship. While not quite as flashy as the equivalent Hollywood fare, it still looks decent.

Next up: Shinobi. It's a kind of Japanese Romeo & Juliet set in samurai times. The story revolves around the love affair of Oboro (Nakama Yukie) and Gennosuke (Joe Odagiri - you used to play Kamen Rider) who belong to the opposing ninja clans of the Iga and Koga. Oboro has become the leader of the Iga shinobi but has lost something that Gennosuke loved, during her transition, as warned by the creepy dude in the long hair (Kippei Shiina) who's name didn’t come up but seems to be with the Iga. Looks good and even includes a theme song by the lovely and high-pitched Ayumi Hamasaki.

Now everyone make sure they go out and watch Howl's Moving Castle, an unbelievably good animation film more for adults by the master animator Hayao Miyazaki. BTW: yesterday I forgot to post my picture of me and my ex friend, Cap't Crunch, which may have made me break out badly!!!

Wisdom of the Day: Rent something different tonight

Dinner at Tamon's

Last night I had the pleasure of dining with two lovely Japanese ladies by the names of Junko and Kaiyu (Kaiyu's name I mispronounced quite a few times, good job Mr. 3 years in Japan!) at the excellent Tamon's Cafe in Umeda. Tamon's Cafe is the closest thing to an American style sports bar I have seen in Osaka, this coming from Tamon's experience as an American Football player (or just Football as we say). The place is filled with big screens, movies, hip-hop music and great food. I highly recommend the nachos and the pizzas.

Junko is a former Berlitz student and friend of mine who also happened to attend the high school which I now teach at called Meijo Gakuen. She found it very funny that the teachers she had nearly 13 years ago are still teaching today. Kaiyu, her friend and coworker, is absolutely obsessed with New York City. Similar to Seoul as I took many pictures of restaurants in Korea that seem to be in love with NYC.

On a side note, I had to finally throw out the box of Cap't Crunch, because I was eating too much of it, even though it was still about half full. I think I'm breaking out from the sugar, or the heat, can't tell.

Wisdom of the Day: When self control fails there's always the garbage pail

Excitement

First off, happy birthday (slightly belated) to my good friend Chris Diaz! I lost track of your age about 5-6 years ago, so I'm gonna assume you are around 28. Because it's your birthday you get to guest host my blog for a day! So send something!

Next up, the website is finally done! You can check it out at Jedicraft.net. In it's current stage I highly recommend using Internet Explorer. I'm happy with the way it looks, but I intend to make it look and load better in the near future. Check it out and tell me what you think.

Finally, my friend came back from America with an unexpected present, a large box of Captain Crunch Crunch Beries cereal. So much sugary sweetness in one box, I can't help myself! Thanks Tomiko!

Wisdom of the Day: Hide the box

Every Saga has an Ending

As I near the end of my 25^th year, as well as the half way marker of my fourth year in sunny Osaka (which is too sunny today if you ask me), I feel I should reflect on what I have accomplished so far in life. But that wouldn't be so interesting.

Instead, I'd like to talk about similarities between American and Japanese culture. Besides from being a westernized, modernized, developed nation, Japan and its people bear a striking resemblance to Americans in many ways. The most obvious being driving. Japanese people, whether they are walking, riding a bicycle or driving some sort of motorized vehicle, tend to not look where they are going and instead just go and let whatever be in their path be damned. This is similar to the Brooklyn housewife who drives an SUV while screaming at her kids over the non-hands-free cell phone. On my way back from the Supermarket today I nearly hit three people because their heads were watching their feet and/or back.

Next, Japanese people love useless stuff. This is the biggest consumer market on the planet. Coca-Cola has about 27 different drinks on the market here, just to remain competitive. Japanese people will buy anyway from anyone. Case in point and I'm sorry I don't have a picture, everyone's favorite Christmas decoration, especially for a country that doesn't celebrate it, Santa on a Cross. I actually held one in my hand and am still kicking myself for not buying it.

Walking around the streets of New York City on any day and you will find a large number of people talking to themselves. While, usually, in NYC we chalk this up to mental instability, while in Japan it's socially acceptable. People can be often found in street saying such lines as "I'm hungry!" "It's hot/cold/windy," "I'm tired," etc. Although this doesn't extend to the truly crazy old man I saw today screaming hello at everyone who walked by from the comfort of his kiddie ride.

But, we cannot forgot the national Japanese pastimes that have become amazing popular in the states in the past few years, namely eating sushi, sending text messages (cell phone emails), playing video games and watching crappy animation. Just because it's Japanese doesn't mean it's good.

Wisdom of the Day: What you do today you may not have to do tomorrow.