UPDATE: Nichi Nichi also has a “sorry for not posting” post. Parallel lives!

Posts to MF have recently slowed to a trickle due partly to my increased level of employment and also the general busy-ness of others involved in this vital project. So in an effort to break of a little something for the peoples every now and again, I have decided to yank open the curtain of shame and reveal to you just what kinds of links writers from Mutant Frog Travelogue, Coming Anarchy, and Nichi Nichi (otherwise known as “Japan’s Gaijin Brain Trust”) e-mail each other back and forth:

First, a completely random picture to help broaden your horizons:

Found in an image search for “persistently.” This man is a member of the Motorcycling Amateur Radio Club. Their motto is “two great tastes that taste great together.” That guy looks really happy to have discovered a club that combines his two favorite and completely related things! It seems like it might be dangerous to take your hand off the bike to check in with your HAM radio buddies.

But what’s this? If you look closely at the photo you’ll see A GUY ON A CELL PHONE This must be considered no less than blasphemy in a group of people who cling to obsolete technology, shocking beer bellies and tacky motorcycles.

But enough mean-spirited ranting. On to more links:

This was icky:

WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT (NSFW):

THE STORY:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8589349/

THE VIDEO:
http://www.jegergrim.dk/video/mrhands.mpg

I read that Kansai Electric is reporting something similar now:

Thursday, September 8, 2005

‘Cool Biz’ Saved 1 Month’s Power For 240,000 Homes: Tepco

TOKYO (Nikkei)—The Japanese government’s Cool Biz campaign, which encourages workers to dress lightly during the summer, saved the equivalent of a one-month supply of electricity for 240,000 households during the June-August period, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) said Thursday.

For Tepco, the saved 70 million kilowatt-hours translated into a 0.08% loss in the volume of power sold, or 700 million yen in lost revenue, for the three-month period. It also contributed to a 27,000-ton reduction in carbon dioxide emissions at its fossil fuel power plants.

The firm estimated that the lost revenue would have little impact on its profit, given that the cost of power generation also dropped.

Cool Biz was implemented in an estimated 40% of office buildings during the summer, according to Tepco. Men were encouraged not to wear neckties. On average, rooms were kept 1.4 C warmer than usual, the company said.

(The Nihon Keizai Shimbun Friday morning edition)

Miss Nippon!

Strange headline: 在韓日本人、１０年で倍増　半数、統一協会関係者か
“Japanese Residents of Korea Double in 10 Years, Half Are Members of [Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s] Unification Church”

Anyone know any more about this? If so, do tell!

Muneo Suzuki, internationalist politician known for A) Hiring an African Secretary (pictures included) B) Bribing voters with rice balls stuffed with 5000 yen notes and C) Getting re-elected to the Diet this year even after being convicted of accepting bribes!

That’s all for now. Must catch bus home.

Shelton Bumgarner at the Marmot’s Hole blog quotes from a recent NYT article about how Disneyland Hong Kong has been redesigned to accomodate Chinese culture’s lack of waiting online.

There are, in fact, cultural differences in how people behave while in line, according to social scientists and park designers. Those differences have even led to physical changes in so-called queuing areas at some parks.

Rongrong Zhou, an assistant professor of marketing at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said the differences went beyond a Hong Kong-mainland split. Ms. Zhou, who has studied the psychology of queuing in Hong Kong, although not at theme parks, said there was a tendency among Asians and others in more collective cultures to compare their situation with those around them. This may make it more likely that they will remain in a line even if it is excessively long.

(The NYT article is old enough to only be avaliable to Times Select subscribers, which I am not, hence no link.)

When I was traveling in China, my fellow backpacker stumbled across a book, written in English by a Chinese man for a presumably Chinese audience, entitled something like “An introduction to English culture.” This book contained a sentence, now forever emblazoned across my mind, that almost perfectly defined the experience of being a foreigner in China, and perhaps of being a Chinese abroad.

“In England there is a phenomenon known as queueing.”

What more needs to be said?

Shelton also notes that Koreans seem to have no trouble with waiting on line. I can attest that the same is true of Taiwan, one of the many cultural differences between this island state and its parent continental nation. Perhaps waiting on line is, like removing ones shoes when entering a private home, a habit picked up from the Japanese during the 50 year rule?

Just when you thought Japan was getting better (Daily Sports via 2ch News):

Makiko Fujino （５６）, a first-term member of Japan’s lower house of the Diet (Liberal Democratic Party), attended a “Winter Sonata Gallery” at the Takashimaya dept. store in Osaka’s Naniwa-ku on Sept 24 with her husband, upper house member Kimitaka Fujino (57). “My daughter was a fan at first,” Makiko explained as she observed photo panels and costumes from the popular Korean dramatic TV series, “but I eventually fell in love with it as well!” Since she is known as a culinary researcher, she says she’d like to “get Yon-sama with kimchee.” Makiko looked satisfied after purchasing a wristwatch bearing Bae Yon Jun’s likeness along with a soundtrack CD.

Forgive me, but I don’t see what’s attractive about a pasty-faced, femmie birdman! That goes double for her husband…

I’m starting to think that Koizumi’s “shake up the LDP by guaranteeing Diet seats for random women by putting them first in the proportional representation blocks” strategy may have screwed Japan over in ways that are only starting to manifest themselves now. If they aren’t careful, Diet members with bad taste like Fujino might succeed in giving Yon-sama his own holiday!

For once, 2ch says it better than I could: Get Yon-sama with Kimchee?! I’d like to stuff kimchee in that impudent mouth of hers!

BTW, in case you were wondering Yon-sama looks something like this:

For those wondering where I’ve been (both blog readers and those who couldn’t reach my via IM or email), my internet was down for the better part of a week, due to a mysterious simultaneous failure of dsl modem and ethernet router.

If a country elects their legislature through free and fair elections, but they spend their sessions physically fighting each other and don’t actually pass any bills, is the country still a democracy?

Photograph and caption from the Taipei Times:

DPP Legislator Wang Shu-hui, left, attacks KMT Legislator Kuo Su-chun, right, after Kuo tore up a copy of Premier Frank Hsieh’s policy report that he was scheduled to deliver yesterday at the opening of a new sitting of the legislature.

Oh, and please, please don’t refer to Taiwanese politics as ‘kabuki.’

Article from today’s NYT says:

This may be a moment of reckoning for Mr. Bloomberg, as a Republican leader in a town where being a Republican is something of a kabuki art, political analysts say.

In recent days I’ve also heard the John Roberts nomination process described as a ‘kabuki play.’ When did this become such a widespread metaphor in political reporting? More importantly, when are the actors going to start doing somersaults to keep the kids happy in between speeches?

Here I am, researching on Japan’s FDI policy, and I thought you might like to see some of the lame words I am coming across (definitions copied from ALC, the best general dictionary for translators out there, and JDIC via JWPCE):

1. 迂回

circuit // circumvention // roundaboutness // turning movement

1. 障害迂回

fail-over〔主にコンピュータシステムで、エラーが起きたときにそのエラーをやり過ごす（何もなかったかのように振る舞う）ための機能。たとえばサーバーなら、エラー時にすぐ別のサーバーに自動的に切り替わるようにしておく〕

1. 迂回させる

【他動】divert

1. ～に迂回させる

【他動】detour

1. 包摂

class inclusion // subsumption

1. タイプ包摂

type subsumption

1. タイプ包摂グラフ

type subsumption graph

杞憂【きゆう】(n) absurd fear, needless anxiety

1. あたかも～かのようである

be as close as

1. あたかも～かのように

as if〔〈用法〉as if 節の中で直説法を使うこともある〕

1. あたかも～であるかのように

as though〔〈用法〉as if 節の中で直説法を使うこともある〕

1. あたかも～のような

【形】apparent

• 社内きっての敏腕家
  ablest man in the whole office
• 自民党内きっての変人
  the strangest fellow in the Liberal Democratic Party [[Unsurprisingly, a Google search shows this to be none other than our man Koizumi!]]

The Guardian reports that an investigation by their reporters has discovered evidence that tissue from executed Chinese convicts is being harvested for use in collagen (injected into lips to make them puffier) and other biological products used in cosmetic surgery.

Agents for the firm have told would-be customers it is developing collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners after they have been shot. The agents say some of the company’s products have been exported to the UK, and that the use of skin from condemned convicts is “traditional” and nothing to “make such a big fuss about”.

Of course, this may seem like a horrific and inhumane practice, reminiscent of the most profane and perverted practices of the Nazis, and yet there is probably a small segment of the population who would actually be more likely to buy implant tissue harvested without permission from executed Chinese prisoners.