Last posts on japan

Japan needs your Help

2011-04-25T03:21:42+02:00

As all of you may know by now, Japan is still not out of the woods.
This country is facing one of the most difficult challenges in modern history. More than 6,700 has confirmed dead and another 10,000 missing and counting.

First was 9.0 Quake then Huge unimaginable Tsunamis, Quake aftershocks that continues up to this moment, Reactor issues at the nuclear plants in Fukushima, Hunger for the evacuees and now they are concerned about sickness spreading across the affected areas.

Please spare a moment to say a sincere prayer for us. Only God can help this country to recover going forward.

Thank you for your time
ありがとうございます

Nagoya Castle

2009-08-15T08:50:00+02:00

Nagoya is the 4th largest city in Japan.

There is a big castle which has a long history,

now it is the good place　for sightseeing.

Nagoya Castle was constructed on the orders

of Ieyasu TOKUGAWA　 in order to secure an important position on the Tokaido highway.

Construction was completed in 1612.

In May 1945, during the air raids on Nagoya in the Second World War,

most of the buildings were burned down. Fortunately, however,

three corner towers, three gates, and most of the paintings on the sliding doors

and walls in the Hommaru Palace survived the fire, and have been handed down

as Important Cultural Assets.

Became a free walking tour guide for Imperial Palace

2009-06-13T15:16:00+02:00

Today, I have become a guide for free walking tour guide for Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

Though I am not a professional guide but I speak English so I joined the volunteer activity.

It was nice. Today I and other two guides started the tour from Tokyo Station.

There were 10 people gathered at the exit. They were from Canada, Australia, Sweden and North Carolina (U.S.A).

After explaining to them history and current renovation plan of Tokyo Station, we took them to Tokyo's most famous tourist spot, Imperial Palace.

We explained to them how the castle was protected from invaders, such as surrounding mort, Stone Walls, Trap gate, and checkpoints.

We talked about middle age to modern time history of Japan as to how the country was developed into a unified nation.

It was sunny and hot day. They really seemed to enjoy the tour.

If you are living in Tokyo or have a chance to visit here, why don't you join the tour.

The tour is held every Saturday afternoon at 1PM. Gather at the Marunouchi central exit of Tokyo Station.

Straight-ahead is Imperial Palace.

See you there!!

Delusions, Illusions

2008-11-24T11:12:00+01:00

Reading lots, between my inter-library loaned crime novels -- finished Tana French's The Likeness last week, am reading PD James' new Dalgleish novel, The Private Patient, now, and have Reginald Hill's The Price of Butcher's Meat to read afterwards -- and the arrival of the Wall Street Journal through the door slot almost every day, a little 6-month perk for having completed about 200 online surveys in the last few years ... I love the WSJ, its editorial board notwithstanding.

Here are a couple of recent gems from its pages:

***

Destructive Delusions: How therapists and 'victims' seized on the idea of repressed memory, leveling false charges and ruining lives, by Theodore Dalrymple, a book review of Dr. Paul McHugh's Try to Remember: Psychiatry's Clash Over Meaning, Memory, and Mind. Best lines:

"One of the most extraordinary outbreaks of popular delusion in recent years was that which attached to the possibility of 'recovered memory' of sexual and satanic childhood abuse, and to an illness it supposedly caused, Multiple Personality Disorder. No medieval peasant praying to a household god for the recovery of his pig could have been more credulous than scores of psychiatrists, hosts of therapists and thousands of willing victims."

"In Try to Remember, Dr. McHugh hints at the cultural context in which preposterous and vicious accusations against parents and others could be so easily believed by seemingly intelligent people, including courtroom judges. ... Freudianism alone could not have produced the necessary atmosphere; there must have been other forces at work as well. The sanctification of victims and victimhood comes to mind."

***

Japan's Latest Fashion Has Women Playing Princess for a Day

Japanese women in their 20s and 30s are dressing up as doe-eyed princesses, aiming "to look like sugarcoated, 21st-century versions of old-style European royalty. They idolize Marie Antoinette and Paris Hilton, for her baby-doll looks and princess lifestyle." They buy $1000-outfits (frilly dress, parasol, handbag, shoes) and work their straight hair so that it's curly with 'super-volume" to assuage a "longing for a happy-ending fairy tale," if you accept that bit of sociological analysis.

The women (aka 'girls') particularly idolise 24-yr-old Keiko Mizoe, sales clerk at one of the stores that sells the gowns, who calls those who sport the look "perfect, gorgeous and feminine."

A 16-yr-old who's buying the clothes online because the store seems too intimidating says:

"Their cuteness is beyond human. I'd like to be like them."

A 36-yr-old housewife felt "shy about her plump figure" so she lost 33 pounds and can now wear the tight-waisted dresses, on which she spends $2,000 or $3,000 a month. Her parents "send the couple food so they have more money for Ms. Yamamoto's shopping sprees.

'I figure it's OK as long as what I'm buying is pretty,' she says."

***

How a Drug Maker Tries to Outwit Generics describes how pharmaceutical company Cephalon, Inc. maximises profits on its drugs, in particular, its narcolepsy drugs Provigil and Nuvigil, and entices customers away from cheaper generics. The company, using an apparently common tactic of pharmaceutical companies, has been recently increasing the price of Provigil -- now $8.71 per tablet, 24% more than 8 months ago and 74% more than 4 years ago -- so that patients will have an economic incentive to switch over to Cephalon's new and longer-lasting narcolepsy drug, Nuvigil, which will be available next year at a lower cost -- and, critically, which won't be off patent until 11 years after Provigil will be:

"It works like this: Knowing that Provigil will face generic competition in 2012 as its patent nears expiration, Cephalon is planning to launch a longer-acting version of the drug called Nuvigil next year. To convert patients from Provigil or Nuvigil, Cephalon has suggested in investor presentations that it will price Nuvigil lower than the sharply increased price of Provigil. By the time the copycat versions of Provigil hit the market the company is banking that most Provigil users will have switched to the less-expensive Nuvigil, which is patent-protected until 2023."

One woman who takes Provigil off-label for Parkinson's stopped taking the drug when her cost went to $565 per month. Her insurer, like most, won't cover payment of an off-label use (a use not approved by the FDA).

The article later notes that "fully preventing tactics like Cephalon's would be difficult short of outright regulation of drug prices. Most other countries in the world control drug prices, but most U.S. regulators and legislators have opposed such moves."

***

In further drug-related news: Power of Suggestion: When Drug Labels Make You Sick by Melinda Beck looks at the effect of nocebos, which are the opposite of placebos: the power of suggestion that brings on illness:

"Research deliberately causing nocebos has been limited (after all, it's kind of cruel). But in one 1960s test, when hospital patients were given sugar water and told it would make them vomit, 80% of them did. Studies have also shown that patients forewarned about possible side effects are more likely to encounter them."

Interestingly,

"the rare, serious side effects listed on drug package inserts -- say, toxic epidermal necrolysis, in which one's skin falls off in large sheets -- are less subject to nocebo effects."

It's harder to "suggest" one's skin to slough off than to evoke headache and fatigue by suggestion, and anyway, as is noted in the article, large percentages of the general population experience these vague symptoms regularly; in a 1968 study of healthy subjects not on medications, only 19% said they had no symptoms (such as headache, fatigue, dizziness) in the past 3 days. Also noted, that anxiety about illness can bring about common side-effect symptoms like nausea, diarrhea, dry mouth and rapid heart beat.

** Hours after I read this, I learned that the dear friend of a friend of mine is suffering from exactly this "rare, serious side effect" of toxic epidermal necrolysis, likely from anti-inflammatories she had been taking for a while.

Japanese washlet

2008-06-27T08:19:30+02:00

Namaste from cloudy Tokyo! I　assume that those of you who are reading this article have been to Japan already. Have you seen washlet (how can i translate this, well, electrical bidet ?toilet and bidet in one?) ? If so, haven't you ever thought about bringing 'washlet' to your country? I hear that some tourists bought washlet in Japan and tried to use in their countries but without success. Also a lot of Japanese people miss washlet when we go to foreign countries. I　have been to several countries, however, till now I　haven't seen even single washletin hotels outside of Japan. So doesn't washlet exist outside of Japan? I don't know about the US but I know that in South Korea, washlet is becoming popular and, I expect that within 10-15 years, washlet will be popular in India, too. How about in Europe? Yes you can buy washlet.......but it had been very expensive...... Good news is that now an Italian company sells washlet for Europe which cost between 280-480 euro. I hope that soon we can see washlet in hotels outside of Japan !

Deborah's Sketchbook: The Japan of Long Ago

2008-02-28T00:40:00+01:00

Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Master-san and Sato-san before their yakitori-shop

____________________________________________________________

One snowy night I was cold, hungry and stir-crazy in my tiny rented room in Japan, and plunged out into the drifts to find dinner. I was soon soaked and frozen, and when at last I saw a red paper lantern glowing down a street, I was drawn like any heat-seeking device.

I stepped into a miniscule yakitori shop, peopled by the middle-aged couple behind the counter and a lone customer comfortably nursing a bottle of sake at his elbow. They fixed marvelling stares on me as my glasses fogged. My brain didn’t produce anything very coherent, preferring to limit itself to “Nani-wa oishi desu-ka?” (“What’s delicious here?”)

The owner Master-san looked at his wife Sato-san, who shrugged and passed him a box of prepared yakitori. He went on to obediently dip them in sauce and grill them. And by the end of the end of the evening gestures, drawings, broken Japanese, cold beer, hot saké and their unfailing patience had done wonders to advance the acquaintance, and by the time I left the country they had become as dear to me as a mother and father.

Although long ago, they and their generosity, despite their very limited means, marked me for life.

We did what we could to stay in touch: I sent flowers when their daughter married; they sent amulets from the local shrine. I wrote baby Japanese and drew pictures for them on notebook paper, and they sent back snowy-white rice paper with elegant brushstrokes to inquire formally after my health and the weather in Paris, and to remind me of their affection.

Twenty years passed, and a middle-aged woman myself now, I returned to see them.

Some things are so big for the heart that the tongue cannot speak. They are now old, and small, and Master-san explains that despite his tiredness he prefers to keep working in his shop to remain vital. Sato-san fondly chaffs him and fetches a beer for a customer.

I went to see them once, and then once again, and then it was time to part again, this time quite probably for good.

“Look,” he told me then. He reached for the manekineko, the lucky happy-cat I had once given them that has stood in their shop for twenty years, beckoning with its china paw. He turned it over in his hands, and there I read what he had written painstakingly long ago, in my language and in my alphabet, and in my youth: “Deborah Mends. 1986.”

Manekineko, the cat that brings luck and happiness

Shogun Nakata

2007-07-16T12:35:00+02:00

Shogun Nakata - The Shogun of all Japan. He is ruthlessly ambitious and will stop at nothing to reach his goals, even doing things that are considered dishonourable and against the strict Bushido Code of the Samurai. The Japanese have long been on the “losing” side of the China-Japan war, with the odds stacked heavily against them, but they have always managed to struggle on. Nakata wants to turn that into the conquest of China, and so he signs a secret treaty with Eagle Empires, promising to serve their interests in return for military aid in the war.

Sakuro Hachi

2007-07-16T12:35:00+02:00

Sakuro Hachi – The older brother of Saphora. He is a reclusive genius, with several degrees, including a medical degree and an engineering degree. His mind is partly cracked, but his sister and his mother are both able to deal with this and help him when he needs it.

Saphora Hachi

2007-07-16T12:30:00+02:00

Saphora Hachi – A powerful Samurai and general of Shogun Nakata's armies, she is one of only a handful of women Samurai ever to attain such high rank. Her skill with the Katana is second to none and becomes greatly enhanced after her training and surgery at the Elite School on Enceladus. She is pushed forward on a personal, and entirely secret, mission to gain Justice for the death of her father at the hands of Ninja assassins.

Wasp

2007-07-10T14:29:44+02:00

Wasp – A Samurai fighter craft. It is agile and fast, although this is at the expense of heavy weaponry. These ships were designed in response to the Chinese Zen ships, for the exclusive use of the Samurai.

ELICA

2005-12-22T05:56:50+01:00

Elica - organo di propulsione per natanti a motore.

This is the dictionary meaning of the word Elica which means organ of propulsion for floating to motor. But what makes this word more interesting is, this is the word which has caught everyone's eyes in the Tokyo Motor Show this year.

This car was developed by the industry-university joint research center whose members include the Keio University Electric Car Research Center and 38 companies. This electric vehicle, which uses lithium batteries, has achieved high speed specs, with an acceleration velocity of 0.8G, reaching 400 km/h at maximum speed (the actual record to date is 370km/h). Moreover, the fuel-efficient cars of late has mileage of a few dozen kilometers, however, ELICA, surprisingly, is able to run 100 km on just 100 yen of electric fuel. Naturally enough, the Eliica roadgoing prototype aims to offer the ultimate environment and safety standards – power will be available by plugging into the mains electricity where it will take 10 hours to take on a full charge which should offer the 2,400kg Eliica a range of 200 kilomtres.

It was designed after the catamaran ships of the Polynesia; its streamlined body is sandwiched closely by eight tires, minimizing wind resistance and increasing the stability of the car body. Though it looks to be limousine length, the Eliica actually only seats the driver and three passengers – small consolation is that at an approximate US$320,000 a unit in prototype form, the car will still be in a limousine price range when manufactured in production quantities.We hope that dream cars like this will be made available to us soon.

They Did This To An American.... And A Japanese

2005-10-21T05:20:00+02:00

"U.S. Army Deserter Describes 40 Years in North Korea Hell," Drudge Report, 20 October 2005.The North Korean monsters.

In his first U.S. television interview, the former U.S. Army sergeant who deserted to North Korea speaks for the first time about the abuse and control inflicted on him by the communist dictatorship over his nearly 40 years there. Charles Robert Jenkins tells Scott Pelley he had a "U.S. Army" tattoo sliced off without anesthetic and was even told how often to have sex by his communist "leaders" in a 60 MINUTES interview to be broadcast Sunday, Oct. 23 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.In 1965, Jenkins was posted along the hostile border between North and South Korea. He says he was being asked to lead increasingly aggressive patrols and was wary that he might be sent to Vietnam. And so, on a sub-zero night, he says he drank 10 beers, abandoned his squad, and walked through a mine-field to surrender to the North. He says he thought he would be sent to Russia and exchanged in some Cold War swap. But he was wrong. "It was the worst mistake anyone ever made," he tells Pelley. "In words I cannot express the feelings I have towards North Korea, the harassment I got. The hard life."That life included forced studying of the writings of the communist dictator Kim Il Sung. He says he and three other American deserters were forced to study eight hours a day for seven years. The studying was imposed by communist government handlers called "leaders." They also assigned him a Korean woman, with whom he was supposed to have sex twice a month. "The leaders almost tell her when to do it, and I got in a big fight one time over it," recalls Jenkins. "I told [the leader], 'It's none of his business if I want sleep with her. She wants to sleep -- we sleep.' 'No -- two times a month'" He says he was severely punished for talking back. "That's the worst beating I ever got -- over that," he tells Pelley, showing a scar where he says his teeth came through his lower lip.Worse still, says Jenkins, was the pain he endured when someone saw his U.S. Army tattoo. He says the North Koreans held him down and cut the words, "U.S. Army," off with a scalpel and scissors -- without giving him any painkiller. "They told me the anesthetic was for the battlefield," says Jenkins, "It was hell."

Charles Jenkins

During his first 15 years in North Korea, Jenkins says he led a lonely and desperate life. Then his North Korean "leaders" brought a young Japanese woman to his door. She had been kidnapped from her homeland by North Korean agents. The only thing they had in common at first was that they hated North Korea, Jenkins says, but the relationship blossomed. They raised two children. Kim Jong Il's decision in 2002 to allow Jenkins' wife and other surviving abductees to return to Japan paved the way for Jenkins' release last year.Each night before going to bed in North Korea, Jenkins said good night to his wife in Japanese, rather than Korean. He did it, he tells Pelley, to "remind her that she's still Japanese, that she's not Korean. She's not obligated to Korea. She is Japanese... and she spoke to me in English -- every night. Regardless of how hard things got, we always stuck as one."

Charles Jenkins and Hitomi Soga

When Jenkins finally stepped outside the North Korean culture after 40 years, he was most surprised to see women in the Army, limits on where you could smoke and black policemen. He had never heard of 60 MINUTES and thought Life magazine would be the place where he would tell his story. He knew something about the 1969 moon landing, however. "I was told that by the Koreans, one of the officers. They wouldn't say what country, but they said, 'Una handa la'... some country landed on the moon."

For more about North Korea, please read One Free Korea and NKZone.

SHINTARO ISHIHARA IS THE GREATEST MAN ALIVE

2005-08-05T03:50:00+02:00

"Counter Culture," by Gaijinbiker, Riding Sun, 14 July 2005, http://ridingsun.blogspot.com/2005/07/counter-culture.html (from apostropher).Tokyo Mayor Shintaro Ishihara is the greatest man alive.He's not just the man who responds to North Korean aggression by daring them to attack. Now he insults the French.

A group of teachers and translators in Japan on Wednesday sued Tokyo's outspoken nationalist governor for allegedly calling French a "failed international language," a news report said.Twenty-one people filed the lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court, demanding that Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara pay a total of 10.5 million yen (US$94,600) compensation for insulting the French language in remarks last October, national broadcaster NHK said. In their suit, the plaintiffs accused Ishihara of saying: "French is a failed international language because it cannot be used to count numbers."

Shintaro Ishihara rocks. I've long criticized froglandish myself.

Asian Geopolitics Roundup

2005-05-04T05:30:00+02:00

Korean troubles, Chinese scheming, Perisan bloggers, and more! May 3rd, 2005:Korea: Josh at OFK Fisks the New York Times' Nick Kristoff's criticism of Bush's Korea policy. Not that the Souks are helping. Between media lynching American servicemen and curtailing the free press, Seoul has other dreams than being a liberal democracy. Willl South Korea lose face if its soldiers liberate Nork concentration camps? And if that day does not come soon, who will be the next Pyongyang despot?China: DU notes that Chinese military jets are flying closer to Japan. If Beijing isn't careful, Tokyo could do something drastic like ditching Pacifism. Or even a revolution at home.Other Chinese endevours are smarter. Beijing is trying hard to woo the Taiwanese, but apparently not the Maoists. Simon reports that scary Philippine rebels are upset that China abandoned Maoism. I imagine Beijing's reaction would be the same as when the Nepalese crazies said the same thing: You guys are violent, but Mao was never violent.Iran: From South West Asia, Younghusband at Coming Anarchy looks at Iranian bloggers.On the lighter side, Mutant Frog offers tips for killing a hooker and getting away with it... eek!

South Korea: Not An Ally

2005-04-04T22:55:00+02:00

"Roh Hints at New East Asian Order," Digital Chosunilbo, 22 March 2005, http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200503/200503220024.html."Seoul Is Beginning to Reap What It Sowed," Digital Chosunilbo, 1 April 2005, http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200504/200504010037.html."U.S. to Scrap Ammo Reserves for Korean Army," Digital Chosunilbo, 4 April 2005, http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200504/200504040035.html."Korea Steps Up Military Cooperation with China," Digital Chosunilbo, 4 April 2005, http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200504/200504040020.html (from OFK).A state can be a positive force without being an American ally. While we distrust France, we recognize that the French economic engine is an important part of European trade. Likewise, India was a force for good in South Asia even when they were non-aligned. So when Korea hints at leaving the Japanese-American alliance

President Roh Moo-hyun said Tuesday the power structure in East Asia will shift depending on what choices Korea makes.At a graduation ceremony of the Korea Third Military Academy on Tuesday, Roh said Korea's new role was of a stabilizer for peace and prosperity not just on the Korean Peninsula, but in East Asia as a whole. "Korea will calculate and cooperate if need be, and move forward with its proper authority and responsibility," he said.His comments were being read as a pointed reference to the country's alliances with the U.S. and Japan rather than a mere statement of principle. Among core figures in the administration, there is growing dissatisfaction with U.S. and Japanese policies in East Asia, including North Korea.

or when Korea approaches the Chinese orbit

Military exchanges between Korea and China will intensify to a level similar to those between Korea and Japan, the defense ministry said Monday."China, more than any nation, wishes for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, so we plan to strengthen our military exchanges with China, including making defense minister meetings a regular occurrence," Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung told reporters. "There is a need to raise the level of military cooperation between Korea and China to at least that shared between Korea and Japan, and it's worth thinking about plans to help stability on the Korean Peninsula with China's assistance."

we should see it as a challenge, not a disaster. South Korea is still a force for good. But the alliance is over. American blood should no longer to spilled to protect South Korea.Fortunately, America has gotten the message

Lt. Gen. Charles C. Campbell, the chief of staff of the U.S. Forces Korea, said on Friday that 1,000 of the current 12,000 Korean employees of the USFK [United States Forces Korea, the American presence that protects South Korea under United Nations Command -- tdaxp] will be laid off and forces' support contracts cut by 20 percent over the next two years. Campbell also suggested relocating some key military equipment reserved here for an emergency from South Korea....Given that the U.S. has been telling us that even if USFK strength is cut, it will try to leave as much equipment here as possible, it is hard to believe that cost saving alone is behind the move. No: this looks more as though the alliance is beginning to slacken.The government must think carefully about the consequences, in terms of both responsibility and money, of advocating its "cooperative independent defense" and Korea's much vaunted new role as a stabilizer in Northeast Asia.

even if it means something as serious as this

The U.S. has unofficially informed Korea’s military authorities that it plans to scrap the War Reserve Stocks for Allies (WRSA) -- pre-positioned military supplies for use by Korea in times of emergency. But the Korean government and military say rather than destroy the stocks or ship them back to the U.S., Washington will ask Seoul to buy them.

That said, this is serious. This is a much, much, much greater rift than between Europe and America after the Iraq War. This is Korea saying it wants to shift sides, and America letting it. This is the greatest diplomatic gamble South Korea has ever taken and the greatest set-back for the Bush Amdministration, ever.

The Monsters

2004-12-09T05:00:00+01:00

From Digital Chosunibo, via NK Zone

N.K. Falsifies Remains of Abducted Japanese NationalDNA tests have revealed that the alleged remains of a Japanese national kidnapped by North Korea decades ago that were repatriated under a recent bilateral agreement in Pyongyang are in fact the mixed ashes of several other corpses, fuelling calls for further sanctions against the Hermit Kingdom and a suspension of food aid.Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hosoda Hiroyuki said Wednesday afternoon that DNA tests on what North Korea claimed were Yokota Megumi's remains revealed them to be a mixture of several other people. North Korea has admitted to kidnapping Yokota in 1977 and claimed she hung herself.Secretary Hosoda expressed regret over the test results and criticized North Korea by saying that the Communist state's investigations into abducted Japanese nationals had been falsified. ...Yokota vanished in Niigata on Nov. 15, 1977, at the age of 13, prompting Japanese media and investigating authorities to suspect that she had been abducted by North Korea.The Northern leadership later confessed, explaining that Yokota had married in 1986 and given birth to a daughter named Kim Hye-kyung. She was hospitalized for depression and allegedly hung herself after telling friends she would take a stroll on Mar. 13, 1993. North Korea said that her husband, Kim Cheol-jun, cremated Yokota two and a half years after she committed suicide.Yokota's parents were enraged about the test results and demanded Japan impose economic sanctions against North Korea.

The DPRK must be destroyed. They are not humans. They are monsters in human form.It's trivial in comparison, but the DPRK is also "modernizing" North Korean property laws

Changes in North Korea's Criminal Law to Protect Private PropertyNorth Korea made significant revisions in both its criminal and civil rights law back in April to apparently reflect the changes it expects to see in the future. The latest revisions in North Korea's criminal law are the first in five years. Among the notable changes are those related to strengthening regulations to protect private property.Under the new guidelines, an individual found guilty of illegally seizing another's possession will be sentenced to more than 10 years of hard labor from the current less than 10-year period

Sickening.