summershadow comments

I lived in Tokyo for 15 years. I have been back in my "home" country for 10 years. I am far more unhappy here than ever I was in Japan. I don't belong here. I find myself being discriminated against for not fitting in, being different, here in my "own" country. Some of the discrimination is self-administered. I can't relate to these people who have such narrow views, or views I no longer entirely reflect. The people here are missing something. They are like the blind who don't know they can't see.

The word "gaijin" doesn't stop at meaning "non-Japanese". There is also a meaning that comes close to "not-quite human" ("Yes, human, in a way, but just not quite. After all, only Japanese are truly human.").

One of these days I may see what it is like trying to get a foothold in Japan again. I am not too optimistic about the prognosis however. We'll see.

I wonder how bad the nuclear explosion will be when a critical mass is achieved by the still-fissioning, molten cores when they pool together.

(were) Darn malfunctioning preview button.

(Fuyuko)

Paulinusa: So whom would be a first guess as a husband for the alluring and talented Matsui Furuko? An exiting Erotic Review editor? I know (literally) someone who could accommodate her in that regard.

There are a couple somewhat grotesque images here at Wikipedia by the artist Soga Shohaku that was done in the mid 18th century. I am sure she is familiar with his work: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Soga_Shohaku for a too brief look at one of her possible antecedents.

I noticed at the above link to CNNGO that Colin ("C.B. Liddell") is the Far Eastern Editor of the 'Erotic Review'. Is he trying to cover more than one base with this article about the fascinating nihonga artwork of Matsui Fuyuko? You know, send it off to Japan Today via CNNGO and also the above erotic-review publication? Or, speaking of bases, get to first base with the artist? Heaven forbid a home run. After all, what would his wife say? "I don't care as long as you don't take her seriously?" I believe Matsui Fuyuko deserves to be taken seriously in her own right as an artist, without having to be assaulted by this reporter's drooling over her physical attractiveness. And where is Colin's journalist objectivity, referring to her husband as a "boring" scientist. If the artist found him so boring herself would she have married him? Perhaps her husband's scientific specialty is along the lines of pathology. Or something that entails (entrails?) vivisection. Something he might be interblending mentally with the writer of this article.

I just checked her website. Rather than the ¥500 listed above. It reads: ¥1,000 for adults.

I find her work to be disturbing, yet haunting for it.

Unlike certain renowned beauties of the past such as Onna no Komachi or Yokihi I would guess that Matsui Fuyuko will do just fine as the inevitable ravages of time do their work: Ravages seem to be one of her themes.

Here, outside of japan, I have only the TV drama "Taiyo no Uta" by which to judge Erika Sawajiri. From that I have always been impressed. I have no clear understanding of her "bad behavior" but it seems like nothing more than a touch of honesty, and haven't we seen how anathema that is to the indigenous culture? Or was it that she didn't come off at PR events with a personality like Aki Hoshino (God love her).

The TV commercial is cute. Are they going to do the same kind of thing for a PMS amelioration? There have been times in my relationships when I wouldn't have minded a bit of "lion to lamb". http://www.chrismorton.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/LionLamb.jpg

Some information about social insurance in Japan here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elderly_people_in_Japan#Aging_and_retirement_of_the_labor_force

Way too much information here: http://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/progdesc/ssptw/2010-2011/asia/japan.html

The situation of being too young to receive a pension yet too old for most jobs was touched on in the book titled "A Man with No Talents: Memoirs of a Tokyo Day Laborer" by Oyama Shirô. Life ain't always easy in Japan, is it?

It was across the street from Ebisu Station in 1989 or 1990. Honami Suzuki was surrounded by a crowd of we gawkers as she was filming a TV drama. Turning around and looking up at a huge billboard attached to the railway overpass I saw her face and name emblazoned thereupon. “How serendipitous,” I thought. “Both right here in the flesh, and up there in publicity.” And now, here, once again... You go girl!