My plans were to be blogging from my new place in Rockville by now, but as you will see below that was not in the cards. The following is a 100% true story of what happened to me yesterday. Names have been changed.
Continue reading My moving nightmare — a quiz for my readers in law school
Author: Adamu
Japanese quiz again
Word that I should have known but only learned recently:
団塊の世代
What’s it mean? No cheating!
Asahi has an idea for letting the immigrants in
Page 11 of the Oct 21 Asahi Shimbun carried an editorial signed “H” in its “Keizai Kishodai” (Economic Observatory) Column..
The piece promotes a solution for the predicted work shortage in Japan: If putting women and the elderly to work isn’t enough, and Japan won’t accept foreign workers to take the good jobs, then they should push women into the work force and import CAREGIVERS and MAIDS to take care of the chores while they are away. Hong Kong and Singapore are already doing this apparently, so why not Japan?
Sounds like a plan! I don’t know why I haven’t seen this argument before. This seems like a very realistic proposition. I mean, caring for the elderly may be a pretty sensitive issue (it’s taboo even for a daughter-in-law to take care of her husband’s parents), but babysitters and housekeepers might be a different story.
The only coverage of this I could find on Literati (CORRECTION: TECHNOrati) was a Japanese-Chinese translation blog… Interesting if you’re studying both languages I suppose…
Koizumi takes a moment to ponder (taking magic mushrooms)
Last week’s Koizumi mail magazine started out like this:
[Lion Heart — Message from Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi]
(Provisional Translation)Autumn at the Prime Minister’s Office
Junichiro Koizumi here.
Yesterday morning, a clear and crisp autumn day, I was taking my usual walk from my official residence to my office when I spotted mushrooms amongst the shrubbery in front of my residence. Looking closer, I found an assortment of mushrooms scattered about, whose varieties ranged from large-capped mushrooms to small mushrooms that were nearly hidden by the shadows of the weeds. I am eager to look them up to learn whether they are edible.
A poignant moment of reflection for the PM right before his dream of postal privatization is about to be realized, right?
Well, thankfully for Koizumi he didn’t have to take time out of his busy schedule to look up what kind of mushrooms those were. According to Super News (anchored by the stunningly intense Yuko Ando — check out her awesome Fashion Calendar!), the mushrooms growing outside the Prime Minister’s official residence are actually hallucinogenic drugs that were legal in Japan until 2001 or so!
On a completely unrelated note, a friend of mine has pointed me in the direction of FNN (English explanations, Japanese videos [wtf??]), Fuji TV’s online video news site. This is the only site of its kind I have seen that offers high quality video that you can actually pause and let load so it doesn’t stop in the middle.
Japan Politics Links
So suddenly I can’t get enough of Japanese politics. Hey, must be the money!
But in the course of my studies I have come across some great resources for those interested in following every goddamn word these politicians say:
Prime Minister’s movements. All newspapers and major sites offer this, but I prefer Nikkei’s because they have little news stories covering the PM’s major statements of the day. Like today was Koizumi’s big day to celebrate as his pet project, postal privatization, finally became law, so everyone’s favorite henjin decided to refer to himself in the 3rd person:
“This is a miracle in politics,” Koizumi said before a TV camera Friday afternoon at the Prime Minister’s Official Residence. “This miracle has been realized thanks to people who have supported Koizumi.”
In Japanese that’s not grammatically incorrect or anything, but it does take some balls for a man in his 60s to pull a Jimmy like that.
Continue reading Japan Politics Links
“Endless Rain” by X Japan is 500 times better than THE ENTIRE BIBLE
OMG it’s true. Anyway, all hail guard dogs:
Panty Thief Forgets Bag, Gets Self Arrested because of Dog that “Wasn’t there before”
The Fukuoka Pref. police, Kasuya Precinct arrested a part-time factory worker of Koga City on suspicion of theft for stealing a woman’s underwear. They confiscated 220 pairs of women’s underwear that were scattered about his apartment.
According to the Fukuoka police’s investigations, the man is suspected of entering the female company employee (25)’s apartment through the unlocked front door, upon which he stole one pair of underwear.
The man ran off in a hurry after being barked at by the woman’s pet canine. The woman, who was in the bath at the time, dialed 110 (Japan’s 911) after she noticed the trouble. It became clear that the crime was the suspect’s doing after receipts for public utilities were found in a bag left at the scene.
According to police, the suspect had infiltrated the woman’s home a few times before since she was the man’s type. He was surprised at the presence of the dog, which had not been there before.
Thanks again ZAKZAK for making me feel better about myself.
6% of Japanese men EXPECT to be homeless in 10 years!
The subject of where I see myself in 20 years has been a recent topic of discussion (still thinking about it, I blame a society that offers too many choices, not enough guidance). So I found it an odd coincidence that Japan Today has recently printed, with no sense of journalistic responsibility, a shady survey done by weekly magazine SPA! measuring where Japanese men see themselves in 10 years. Go ahead and read for yourself, but I ound this part to be the most interesting:
A generation ago, notes Spa!, a survey like this would have been pointless. Life ran on the rails then; people knew what was in store for them. If you were entry-level in 1975, by 1985 you’d be a “kacho” or section head, making so-much a year, married, living in a house you could visualize as clearly as you could the company dorm you’d be going home to that night — and so on. The predictability was dull but secure. Almost no one would have said, as 30% do now, that they expect to be unemployed in 10 years, surviving on occasional jobs. Still less would anyone have foreseen — as 6% do today — homelessness.
WTF? I’ll admit this is the first survey I’ve seen that asks such a question, who in the hell actually “expects” to be homeless?! I mean, if that was actually a concern of yours, wouldn’t you try and at least DO something about it? Just asking.
Mutant Frog Exclusive: The LDP’s Preamble to the New Japanese Constitution
The Liberal Democratic Party intends to release their proposed new Japanese Constitution next month, at the party’s 50th anniversary. Until then, here’s a leaked version (with MFT’s rough translation) of the preamble:
日本国民はアジアの東、太平洋と日本海の波洗う美しい島々に、天皇を国民統合の象徴としていただき、和を尊び、多様な思想や生活信条をおおらかに認め合いつつ、独自の伝統と文化をつくり伝え、多くの試練を乗り越えてきた。
The Japanese people have, upon the beautiful wave washed islands of East Asia’s Sea of Japan, while taking the Emperor as the unifying symbol of the people and mangnanimously acknowledging diversity in thought and lifestyle, created and transmitted a distinctive culture and overcome a great number of trials.
日本国は、主権を持つ民主主義国家で、国政は国民の信託に基づき、国民の代表が担当し、その成果は国民が受ける。
The nation of Japan is a sovereign, democratic state whose government is based on the trust of the people, with which the people’s representatives are charged, and whose results are borne by the people.
日本国は、自由、民主、人権、平和、国際協調を国の基本として堅持し、国を愛する国民の努力によって国の独立を守る。
The nation of Japan maintains freedom, democracy, human rights, peace, and international cooperation as the fundamentals of the nation and protects its independence via the effort of a people who love their country.
日本国民は正義と秩序による国際平和を誠実に願い、他国とともに協力し合う。国際社会において、圧政や人権の不法な侵害をなくすため不断の努力を行う。
The Japanese people, faithfully wishing for an international peace based on justice and order, cooperate with other nations. In international society, [the Japanese people] will make persistent efforts to eliminate tyranny and the illegal violation of human rights.
日本国民は、自由とともに公正で活力ある社会の発展と国民福祉の充実を図り、教育の振興と文化の創造と地方自治の発展を重視する。自然との共生を信条に、美しく豊かな地球環境を守るため力を尽くす。
The Japanese people, for the fulfillment of a free, fair and vibrant society, emphasize the development of the promotion of education and the creation of culture. Making living as one with nature an article of faith, the Japanese people make every effort to protect the beautiful and bountiful global environment.
日本国民は、大日本帝国憲法および日本国憲法の果たした歴史的意味を深く認識し、現在の国民とその子孫が、世界の諸国民とともに、さらに正義と平和と繁栄の時代を内外につくることを願い、日本国の根本規範として自ら日本国民の名においてこの憲法を制定する。
The Japanese people, while deeply acknowledging the historical meaning of the Imperial Constitution of Japan and the Japanese Constitution, establish this Constitution in the name of themselves, the Japanese people, as the fundamental norm of the Japanese nation, while the present Japanese people and their progeny wish for the creation, both domestically and internationally, of a further just, peaceful, and prosperous era along with the various peoples of other nations.
KSW is Korean for “puberty mustache”
Caught off the front page of Amazon Japan:
The fact that this guy is popular is even harder to take than the whole Yon-sama thing. Geez, people, will you get a grip?!
Justice denied: The evil Adam Richards gets a plea bargain
Child Abuser Gets Reduced Sentence
Baby Left With Brain Damage, Skull FracturesCINCINNATI — A woman whose son was left brain damaged by a child abuser is trying to petition Congress for stricter regulations, News 5’s Sheree Paolello reported.
Adam Richards was sentenced Monday to five years in jail as part of a plea bargain. Richards could have faced up to 20 years in jail, but he had no prior record of abusing children like Dillon Cloud.
Cloud was left in a coma, suffering skull fractures and brain damage after Richards spent two weeks baby-sitting him.
During that time, police said, Richards slammed Cloud into his crib — and even held the infant by his ankles and then dropped him.
“[Doctors] had to keep him ice cold so he didn’t have a fever so his brain wouldn’t swell,” Meghan Cloud, Dillon’s mother, said. “He was helpless. He was laying on the bed and we couldn’t do anything.”
She spent weeks in the hospital, and told Paolello she and her family prayed that they would get some closure when Richards was sentenced. Instead, she said, he was let off the hook.
“It flabbergasts me that there are so many cases of this that the prosecutor has to go this route for a plea deal,” Jay Voline, Meghan’s father, said.
Now the family is trying to get a law passed that would require child abusers to register their addresses, in an effort to stymie the type of suffering Dillon has undergone.
“He doesn’t walk — he doesn’t even try to walk,” Cloud said. “He didn’t crawl till he was 11 months old. He struggles to do everything.”
God that is sad. The poor kid!
The son of a bitch that did this really needs to change his name.