Ed O Jidai comments

I found her sleeping off a bender (way too much wine?) in the trash collection site in front of my apartment building. I told her to scram because it was Moe-nai gomi.

Just joking. My apologies. No offense intended.

@Moderator above: Thank you for letting us know that:

The plan is still subject to government budgetary approval.

I concur with herefornow above:

Good on Toyota.

@hachikoreloaded: Ha ha ha ha ha. I guess it's not always hot springs that put a look on a Japanese monkey's face like this: http://www.themanyfacesofspaces.com/Japanese_Macaque_aka_Snow_Monkey_20.jpg

There are some photos of Kamonjigoya here: http://kamonjigoya.com/english/

I loved the natural environment of Nagano Prefecture. Naganese people are said to often have an independent streak, possibly derived from their distance from Edo during its eponymous period. Have to love 'em for that.

I just checked out Mr. Bill's links above. Maybe Ayumi's endearing "affliction" was in the realm of yaeba after all. "Sigh."

I think of this as an oral-cavity version of Robert Herrick's poem:

DELIGHT IN DISORDER.

A SWEET disorder in the dress

Kindles in clothes a wantonness :

A lawn about the shoulders thrown

Into a fine distraction :

An erring lace which here and there

Enthrals the crimson stomacher :

A cuff neglectful, and thereby

Ribbons to flow confusedly :

A winning wave (deserving note)

In the tempestuous petticoat :

A careless shoe-string, in whose tie

I see a wild civility :

Do more bewitch me than when art

Is too precise in every part.

I knew a Japanese "actress" with a couple teeth thrillingly askew (not yaeba); until she had cosmetic work done on them. Her endearing individuality was replaced by cookie-cutter, mass-produced "precision." One might say she went from a uniquely flavorful banana split to drab plain vanilla, identical to countless others.

Has anyone counted the steps on the escalator in the photo above?

Kudos to the Hula Girls of Iwaki who continue to do their utmost to maintain the past-and-present threatened life of their community at the risk recently of their own lives.

I loved the movie, by the way.

Long go I read that men reach a sexual peak at 17 and women in their mid-thirties. So my first impression on reading this was, "Good for them!"

Hang in there and hang on! May you enjoy each other's company as a couple for a long time, or whomever comes first.

Christina: I thought the BMW was just getting another posse.

Japan is a safe country, externally, but they getcha inside. I saw a number of dead bodies in public during my stay in Japan: jumpers; train and building. Never elsewhere. Although the, "Thump, thump," I felt while riding in the first car of the Inokashira Line one night was from a couple guys who had been fighting drunk on the tracks, so I couldn't call those volitional.

Life is so precious. There is so little standing between any of us and death. Our existence is so ephemeral. Close your eyes, take a deep breath and just be for a few seconds.

Maybe clickable links here: http://www.debito.org/yunohanatranscript103100.html

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/no-place-for-you-aussie-geisha-told/story-e6frg6nf-1226069744853

Think of Japanese hierarchy as a kind of ladder upon which all Japanese people place themselves -- either higher or lower than everyone else. The word "gaijin" can mean "person or people outside the hierarchy," totally off the map. Not even lower than everyone but outside all norms of existence.

There is also a racial component to the word "gaijin." It has the meaning of "person outside the Japanese race." It is a term used BY Japanese for those who are not Japanese. So, for non-Japanese to refer to themselves as "gaijin" is the ultimate in absurdity. Not only is it self-debasing but it is a word used (only!) by Japanese for those outside their own Japanese race. The word "gaijin" does not have a general, universal meaning of "not-Japanese" but "those creatures who are not WE Japanese."

Being born in Japan and being utterly fluent in the Japanese language and customs does nothing to strip away a non-Japanese person's "gaijinness." Nor does becoming a naturalized Japanese citizen, as one can see here: http://www.debito.org/yunohanatranscript103100.html Nor does becoming highly skilled at traditional Japanese arts, such as here: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/no-place-for-you-aussie-geisha-told/story-e6frg6nf-1226069744853

"Gaijin" is a word to be used only by Japanese people. In fact, a former landlady once told me, "You're not a student anymore are you? You're working now and trying to live here. I don't mind if a "gaijin" comes here as a student just to check out Japan for a year but you have to go home. You have no business actually living in Japan. Japan is for Japanese. Go home." Not only is the term "gaijin" for Japanese only. The nation of Japan, it seems, is for Japanese only. When I heard my landlady say the latter I thought it would be poetic justice if we, the international community, could restrict severely all Japanese people and business to only Japan. If we in the rest of the wide world strictly curtailed travel, study, and business activity of Japanese people outside of Japan they would merely be getting what they give. That is how I felt then.

It is clear that I find the term "gaijin" and its associations reprehensible. I wish there was a Japanese term which meant, "Treat this person as an equal to yourself -- neither higher nor lower." Is that even possible? Can anyone come up with such a term? Gaikokujin nakama?

Although it would help the Japanese to clearly understand their exclusive attitudes and policies toward "gaijin" I am now absolutely opposed to those who would advocate the establishment of a world-wide, international Japanese exclusion zone. A zone that would include virtually every nation and location on the face of the Earth outside of the Japanese archipelago. Such an exclusion zone would be an insult to common human decency. But then, why is such exclusivity tolerated within Japan?

Was it Japan's rigid social construction that gave rise to honorifics in Japanese, or was it the other way around? Does the mind automatically seek to strictly identify another's place in the social hierarchy when one's language places such an emphasis on titles and formalities?

When I read this I felt that Mr. Oakland, as an American, doesn't understand hierarchical societies such as England and Japan. Does he understand that a hierarchy leads ever upward until it reaches the ultimately superior being: a queen or king in England; an emperor in Japan? Could he really suppose that Japan's more than millennia-old emperor system originally came about because of the prior use of honorific and humble forms in the language before there was anything like an emperor: that the language could have developed these honorific and humble forms first and then because they existed, it became necessary to create an emperor? This is just absurd. I believe that in this case cause and effect cannot be reversed. The emperor system caused language that fit the system. It could not be that the emperor arose to fit the language.

Because Japan is a hierarchical society it is easy to understand how a lone-wolf "gaijin" resident such as myself could be seen as lower than the lowest Japanese person. Academic and business "gaijin" guests are conferred a status by their hosts. Married "gaijin" take on the general position of their spouses. But what happens in Japan when the Japanese half of a mixed marriage dies? That would be like losing sponsorship for the cast-adrift "gaijin," wouldn't it? Do these now-unconnected "gaijin" become non people? It is all case by case, I suppose.

The Wikipedia link didn't work. How about IMDB? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051398/

Hmm. Shimoda; geisha; 19th century. What is missing here? Aha! John Wayne! <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Barbarian_and_the_Geisha >

Thinking further: Because you live in Japan, if one parent or both are Japanese then the primary educational language should be Japanese because that is the language of the society you are living in. The ideal would be an excellent English program in conjunction, starting at the earliest age possible. But I suspect that died with Prime Minister Obuchi's sudden death. I hope that I am wrong (often am) and that it is possible for children to become as bilingual in Japan as in Western Europe.

Only if both parents are non-Japanese and they do not plan on spending the rest of their lives in Japan should their children's education be centered on English or another language.

OK, that leaves the Utada Hikaru exceptions. Good for them!

kurisupis' (crispies?) comment above is interesting. It brings to mind the often seen disclaimer in investment prospectuses: "Past performance is not a guarantee of future results." Chinese anyone? Or will it be Swahili in 50 years? But we have to go with what we know: English, or Japanese, with possible side orders.

When I was participating in an education-abroad program in Japan one fellow student at university could communicate quite well in English, German, and Japanese. But he was not fluent in any of them, making loads of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation mistakes in all three. He was technically trilingual but he could not be said to be a native speaker of anything. So, it is possible to allow, or force, children to spread their languages too thin. And we have all seen how even some monolingual people butcher their one language of semi-expertise with poor education.

Just a word of caution, is all.

@horrified: I once read that there is really no such thing as a superiority complex. It is only a twisted-around inferiority complex.

Further on this issue: What about non-Japanese or "half" school children in Japanese public schools? Is ijime (being picked on) still a problem, particularly during junior high and high school? I have known of non-Japanese people who left Japan because their children were reaching school age, in order to avoid ijime. Is the best way to defuse this ijime to say , while being pummeled, "Ha ha. Yappari, ore wa gaijin da. Ouch." Or, "Half dakara, sho ga nai. Nagutte kure. Ha ha. Ah, itai ze!"? Or would the best course of action be to enroll such non-Japanese children in a martial arts course at a young age?

What about those things called gaijin houses? Still there in Japan? Needed because of what? Separate but equal housing segregation? The difficulty foreigners have in securing housing because they are non-Japanese? I know that to be my case. If the posted available apartment notices in front of real estate offices didn't say outright, "No Gaijin!" (or the Japanese equivalent) then there were innumerable real estate offices I couldn't get a foot in the door before hearing, "No gaijin!" After finally finding tolerant real estate agents it became the same thing over again among potential landlords: "No gaijin."

A Canadian I met said that it was when he started looking for an apartment is when he developed his IHTFC attitude.

I believe things are somewhat different now. Less difficult to find a place to live but still forms of segregation.

@Human Target: Whatever works for you. Would referring to yourself as a gaijin really tend to neutralize the term or will it continue to cause Japanese people to be disconcerted at hearing someone refer to him/herself using such a term? Or will they fill with boundless mirth at finding someone who really knows their proper place, without being an uppity "racial epithet"?

Would continually calling yourself "filthy scum" ever eventually mollify those two English words? You have about as much chance mollifying the term gaijin in the eyes of those who most use it. But wait. I think you are on to something. It's like the way some restaurants lose all their Japanese clientele when the restaurant gets a reputation as a bit of a gaijin hangout. If we used the word enough it would be seen as the property of gaijin and Japanese people wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole.

Oh, I just used the word restaurant. No discrimination there at all, not! But I am most grateful to those establishments that deigned to allow my patronage. Thank you. I will always think of you with kindness.

@Nicky Washida: I suppose that there could be other British women in similar circumstances in Germany or France. The former could take the term "Inselaffe" (island ape) and use it to her advantage by hunching down with bowed legs and arms and and making, "Ooh, ooh," monkey sounds. And a Brit woman in France could get far when committing faux pas, by appending a, "Mais, naturellement, je suis simplement un rosbif".

It is possible that Japanese people are so insular and so confident in their island-isolated superiority that they could use a commonly-used racial epithet in the most natural way without an ounce of malignance in the tone of their voice. But to some of us, when we hear non-Japanese people actually refer to themselves as gaijin it comes off like something in the American antebellum South. There were house "racial epithets" and field "racial epithets". It was a common term. Everyone used it, even, at times, for themselves. The house "racial epithets" may have even felt a sense of superiority over their manual-laboring brethren. When I hear non-Japanese people use the "G" word self-referentially, what I hear is: "Yo! White man's 'racial epithet' here. I loves the white man".

You are the one who has to live in Japan and you are doing the best you can. You are acting in ways that have proven to you beyond a doubt their efficacy in helping you survive and, hopefully, thrive. But, please, there are certain things you should keep only between you and your chosen "masters," although it probably doesn't bother you at all how you make some of us cringe. Nor should it. You are obviously too strong for that.

It looks like a weapon women could keep in their hair.

This is just speculation but TEPCO could simply be letting the molten core burn slowly through the water table until it passes through the Earth's mantle into magma. Would its path be a weak point allowing molten magma to ooze upward? Could it lead to a volcanic eruption? Could anyone really know what would happen? Has there ever been drilling as deep as the magma layer? If so were there any volcanic incidents, or not? How fast would a molten nuclear reactor core, carried downward by gravity, descend deeper into the Earth? How deep is it now? Six meters? 60 meters? 600 meters?

@Darren Brannen: Thank you for mentioning Prof. Koide. I have been thinking the same. How interconnected is underground water throughout Japan? If the molten core penetrates the watertable radioactive substances will slowly spread over enormous distances in the water supply underground. Would it even be possible to surround the molten core, at whatever distance, not only laterally in a circle, but below its position within the water table?

Will public water over wide areas have to be filtered or treated for radioactive substances? Again, how wide an area would the worst-case scenario lead to? Yet, people could still use untreated well water to save money...

That plant is so close to the ocean. Would radiation from the molten core essentially spread into the ocean for, essentially, eternity?

Will the Japanese ever actually do all that is necessary in the handling of this disaster? Not if it means somehow losing face in the process.

Is this still the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl or is it now actually the worst?

@Nicky Washida: Thanks for reminding us that discrimination in Japan can also have positive manifestations, that is, if one is an instant-superstar blond. Being referred to as kirei na gaijin might take the sting out of the word for many.

@Elbuda Mexicano: In reference to Jacqueline Miyagaya's French koku pronunciation in gaikokujin: I just looked up the French cocu in Google Translations: "cuckold" in English; "cornudo" in Spanish (I can imagine an interesting meaning of korunudo in Japanese).

@lucabrasi: So, Japan was headed for a more multi-cultural approach, such as ALL residents, Japanese and non-Japanese alike, using the same lines at airport immigration; and Prime Minister Obuchi's proposed official institution of English as the second language of Japan, but this process was waylaid and subverted by certain reactionaries and the death of Obuchi. Too bad.

I was reading comments at The Economist about embarrassing times learning a foreign language when this comment popped up: http://www.economist.com/comment/1023929#comment-1023929 (Give the link a little time. It will pop down to the appropriate comment, first paragraph being the one of interest).

Then there is this sterling example of just how one person was inspired by discrimination in Japan: http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/norway-killers-manifesto-includes-praise-for-japan-for-not-adopting-multiculturalism

I just don't see the word gaijin as entirely benign, nor do I necessarily see it as "sinister". Although it certainly is a racial epithet.

@lucabrasi: The time I was speaking of was more than a decade ago. However, I found this quote from someone in 2007 just after fingerprinting was initiated:

I know everyone is hoping to hear a horror story but the system worked perfectly at Narita today. There is a large sign as you enter the immigration area "Japanese passports and re-entry permits" one lane and "foreign passports" the other lane. A couple of desks were open for re-entry permits while about 10 were open for Japanese.

But, yes, at the time I wrote of there were only two categories of lanes. Any non-Japanese person with a re-entry permit and valid alien-registration card could use the Japanese-nationals' lane. Is that no longer the case? Just out of curiosity (and for staying on topic), is it disturbing to anyone that "gaijin" of any ilk should be allowed to use the same facilities that have also been specifically demarcated for Japanese people within Japan, such as in this case: a foreigner standing in and passing through a line for Japanese people that was set apart from non-Japanese? And isn't this really the crux of the question here? We know that, indeed, it would be disturbing to a certain percentage of Japanese people ("What are you doing in this line [country]? Go over there [home]. You don't belong here with us! Young, fair-complected, blond, blue-eyed gaijin excepted.").

It is an indisputable fact that Japan is a highly discriminating, racist society. And we non-Japanese revere and respect those Japanese people and policies that have helped to alleviate the harsher aspects of that reality. To me, the use of the word gaijin, even in its mildest form of "outsider", reinforces an intolerance for differences among people and other races that I would rather see lessened.

Reformedbasher asked if I had gone home. This (not Japan)? Home? I'm a total fish out of water wherever I am.

A brief story: Returning to Japan after taking off overseas for a couple weeks, as I was wont to do every year or so; because of my longish-term visa, I could use either the non-Japanese (gaikokujin?) immigration line or the line reserved for Japanese people. Both were OK. The Japanese "national" line was shorter, so coming back from Thailand (or was it London?), I chose the Japanese line. The Japanese guy behind me got his jockey shorts in a twist and informed me that I was in the wrong line. "You have to use that line over there. This is for Japanese people only." I glanced over to the right at the much longer line and smiled softly and took a step forward and completely ignored him from then on. I don't remember if he used the term gaijin or not. After clearing immigration I turned and noticed my interlocutor looking at the immigration officer like he wanted to do him harm.

An hour later, stretching my legs out in the Keisei Skyliner I looked out the window of the speeding train and thought to myself, "Ah, home!...Home? Yeah. This is my home. Thank God. But I wonder what they would think of me considering this home... Not fluent that well in the language. Few connections. Cognizant of some history and culture but oblivious to myriad cultural norms and standards (thank the heavens also that they didn't always apply to we lucky-dog non-Japanese). How long can I remain in but not totally of?"

Now days I wish I could be referred to as gaijin, or ijin, or hen na yatsu, or kichigai uchujin; or anything except the only Japanese epithet appropriate to me now: the irreversible, inescapable rojin - "tottering old fart".

So if you see me on a crowded train get your ass out of that Silver Seat and let me get off these weak and spindly legs for a couple minutes. That is, if I ever return "home" again.

A Japanese gentleman who worked for Kodo News Agency once told me that the term "gaijin" does not mean foreigner as we Westerners know it. It is more akin to "alien" as alien from outer space, he said. My own reading, after living in Tokyo for 15 years, is that it means that only Japanese people are human and every one else is just not quite human (that is the feeling of the term).

"Gaijin" is a term that can never apply to a Japanese person outside of Japan because it doesn't mean "foreigner." If one single Japanese person happens to be in an out-of-the-way overseas country then everyone in that country, even if in the millions in population, is a "gaijin."

The non-Japanese who perceive no insult in the term "gaijin" are simply ignorant and fooling themselves. There is an awful lot of non-Japanese in Japan who suffer from a common syndrome: the oppressed who identify with the oppressors.

Having said that, I will always be grateful for the help I received from both Japanese individuals and the Japanese government. For a Japanese businessman to go out on a limb and serve as a non-Japanese person's housing guarantor is remarkable. I was close to losing a couple housing deposits to an unscrupulous real estate agent until I made one phone call to a Tokyo governmental legal advice help-line. When the real estate agency heard the word "lawyer" they couldn't give my money back fast enough. Bilingual TV? English newspapers? So much "romaji" in the transportation networks now. I bow to those who made such things possible and widespread.

To return to the topic: I am fond of Edward Seidensticker's quote: "The Japanese are just like other people. They work hard to support their—but no. They are not like other people. They are infinitely more clannish, insular, parochial, and one owes it to one's sense of self-respect to retain a feeling of outrage at the insularity. To have a sense of outrage go dull is to lose the will to communicate; and that, I think, is death. So I am going home."

For a person who has a daily photo blog that is followed internationally, shots of specifically-Japanese dishes of food can be one way to to add another posting and might actually be interesting to people not familiar with Japan.

I don't think the action of taking a photo without flash is any more disturbing to other guests as, say, picking up a napkin, unfolding it and placing it on one's lap; or gesturing to get the waiter's attention. Now if someone were to stand up on their table to get the shot and step back onto my table with the heal of their shoe in my soup I might be less than pleased.