The idiocies of a damena yatsu in Salariman Island: Babble

Beautiful rubbish/きれいなゴミ

Sun, 18 May 2008 04:05:43 GMT

There is no doubt that Japanese are masters at the art of wrapping things. Many times the often used phrase to express humbleness when giving a present "Kore wa tsumaranai mon desu ga" (This is just a small something but...) is nevertheless betrayed by an elaborated and intricate ribbon arrangement, which is worth more than the actual gift.

But Japanese are not less creative at the art of discarding paper and cardboard. The symmetrical Lego-like structures made of bundles of various printed matter that neighbours erect in pavements could easy pass as art installations and are worthy candidates for the Turner Prize.

Japanese are very meticulous indeed in how things are presented, such as individually packed sunflower seeds, but they also take recycling very seriously, otherwise they would run the risk of turning this island of salariman into an island of rubbish.

Ero Jiji/ Dirty Old Men

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 04:52:15 GMT

After reading the article Ami, guitar team up against sex trafficking on the Japan Times I started thinking about something I saw in a recent visit to Bangkok.

But first some historical background. Baishun (literally buying sex) tours or sex tours started back in the 1960s when hordes of salariman (the modern Japanese Army) decided to invade Taiwan for a second time to have fun with the local ladies in these so-called sex tours. Apparently, there was a change in this trend in the 1980s when women from Asian countries, such as the Philippines and Thailand, started to arrive in Japan to serve in its sex industry. But is this trend really over? I still remember a famous case in the Guangdong Province, China, when 268 members of a Japanese construction company had "fun" with about 500 Chinese hostesses for two nights.

Back in Bangkok, while all the whitey farang are up in Patpong Street's gogo bars, some homesick Japanese make a stop at the kyabakura, massage parlours and God knows what that abound in the quieter street of Thaniya Street (see photo), known as Little Tokyo, running parallel to Patpong Street. There, Thai girls, probably back from a stint in Japan, dressed in long evening dresses waved goodbye in Japanese to a group of drunk young lads, the scene, nevertheless, looking all very innocent and harmless.

A bit more seedier was the sight of middle-aged Japanese men accompanied by Thai girls, who could have been their daughters, eating and looking like pigs and drinking Asahi beer in the private rooms of the restaurant Baan (Ban) Kun Mae, famous for its excellent Bu Pad Phong (soft shell curry). The girls, apart from one who must have been the organizer of the party, didn't seem to look too excited about the idea of spending an evening with fat and ugly as hell "ero jijis", who on the top of that had a terrible sense of fashion wearing chequered Bermuda shorts as they were.

For more info check this interesting source:
OWED JUSTICE: Thai Women Trafficked into Debt Bondage in Japan

stress, stress, stress, scuatro

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 01:17:34 GMT

So, how do you fight stress? Probably by going to Laos and using the bus system. People could just wait patiently hours and hours for their bus, anywhere else it would be chaos. Mind you, the bus situation in Laos is pretty chaotic itself, you never know when a bus is going leave. Well, actually you might have an idea of when it is going to leave: When the bus is completely packed, it's time to go!. Which also means that it could depart ahead of schedule. First time I took a bus I was told three different departure times: 5:30, 6 and 6:30 PM. Eventually, just after 6PM the bus left the Northern bus terminal at Luang Prabang only to go to the Southern bus terminal to pick up more passengers and then back again to the Northern terminal to get some more people. Unbelievable. And this happened right before a trip to the city of Luang Namtha, 310 kms north of Luang Prabang. in a record time of 10 hours. On the way back from Muang Sing to Luang Namtha (58 km) it was much the same story. I couldn't really figure out if the 8 AM pick-up truck had left earlier or didn't leave at all. The one at 9 never turned up so had to wait for the one at 11, which miracously left on time. But only to have a puncture a few kms after leaving Muang Sing. Still the whole experience was priceless, an inspiring reality check, and will do it again no matter how long I'll have to wait for a bus.

Back at Japanese train stations, people were fuming because the early morning train was 17 seconds late. Ironies of life. A reliable and punctual transportation system is a must for creating a healthy economy. That explains the differences in both countries' economies and why it's so difficult to get, apart from being a landlocked country, fresh sashimi in Laos. But all the Japanese obsession with speed, punctuality and building a powerful economy has created social problems such as kireru (snapping under pressure or stress), karoushi (death from overwork) and one of the highest suicide rates among industrialized countries, as well as a nation of long faces. More ironies of life.

In Laos, even though many people live in tremendously poor conditions they are still able to genuinely smile at you and be generous. Back in sanitized Japan as soon as you leave Airport customs you start noticing the long faces, the shoegazing, the heads buried between shoulders, the dragged feet, the unhappiness of a people living in the second most powerful economy in the world. The only time they show their teeth is to let out a growl and let you know that one more step near their Coach handbag they will bite off your bloody neck. Is this just pure post-holiday blues? A mirage? A typical case of a Western tourist romantic vision of what South-East Asia should be?

I don't know. My friend B from London agrees with me. She says that even though in India people are as poor as a church mouse they can still smile at you and say something nice. And she adds, the more we have the more demanding and obnoxious we become.

In the beginning I created this blog

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 05:01:01 GMT

You must be very bored or have too much free time to dedicate a few minutes of your time to read this rubbish.

Why did I create this blog? I guess it is a kind of free therapeutical exercise. It diverts my thoughts of killing the two old sisters next door with the knife I use to slice sashimi. You see they are completely deaf and being old they get up with the first crow of their AIBO cockerel. So they set up their TV's volume control to 11 really early in the morning to watch that living mummy that is Mino Monta

I'd better not talk about planned murders, somebody might take it too seriously. Not just that but it could be a perfect excuse for the Aichi police department to charge me with some unresolved murder case involving more old ladies with AIBO cockerels murdered with a sashimi knife.

Which makes think about an article that I read in the Guardian where it says something really interesting but unrelated to the previous babble. It connects well with something else I read somewhere sometime in the recent past about the current development of police states around the globe, except in the Antarctica, which national security is in the reliable hands of the Emperor penguins. Anyhow, at one point the article says that the old common law principle that any act which isn't specifically illegal is legal is changing to all acts are illegal except those the "authorities" specifically say are legal. Beautifully scary!