Japan names their legislative body after a way to lose weight, the US names theirs after a synonym for sexual intercourse. What implications does this have for US-Japan trade relations?
Author: Adamu
Mutant Frog Incorporated Reveals Secret Correspondence
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)
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.
Bad Omens: New Diet member is a Yon-sama fan, attends “Winter Sonata” Gallery Event
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:
アダム君の単語帳
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):
# 迂回
circuit // circumvention // roundaboutness // turning movement
# 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〕
# 迂回させる
【他動】divert
# ～に迂回させる
【他動】detour
# 包摂
class inclusion // subsumption
# タイプ包摂
type subsumption
# タイプ包摂グラフ
type subsumption graph
杞憂 【きゆう】 (n) absurd fear, needless anxiety
# あたかも～かのようである
be as close as
# 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〕
# 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〕
# 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!]]
Osaka Nostalgia Part 1
When I was an exchange student in 1999, I spent a lot of time hanging out with the other exchange students in Osaka. Led by a wily and hep raver pimp who shall remain nameless, we galavanted about town, club-hopping, flirting, complaining about our high schools, practicing Japanese with our entourage of official groupies, and drinking a lot. Given its convenient location, the Osaka/Umeda station was our hangout of choice. In particular, we spent lots of time waiting for each other in front of Big Man, a giant TV in front of Umeda station, pictured here:
For the year we spent on the exchange , Umeda station was something of a playground, or more of a launching pad for our numerous antics and mayhem. Safe from the watchful eyes of our parents and tossed into a society too polite to tell us no, we exchangers (who mostly hailed from Europe, Canada, and the US but included souls from such exotic places as Brazil and Australia as well) scammed the trains big time (more on that later), took advantage of Japan’s strange legal loopholes, sat around for hours nursing one cup of Mr. Donuts coffee, went on violent drunken rampages, hooked up with each other, hooked up with kids from the schools, hooked up with host sisters, got people pregnant (or “took it to the house” as one of my Swedish friends put it) and that’s just scratching the surface. I didn’t perpetrate all of the above myself, mind you, but I just want to emphasize that Umeda station was the launch site for all this madness. (Go to this Flickr site or this awesome site for more of an idea of what I’m talking about).
That is why I am saddened to hear that, according to the latest eyewitness reports, the beautiful Hankyu Umeda station in Osaka is being torn apart as part of area renovation plans. Hankyu is planning a full-scale revitalization of its flagship store in Umeda, and in the process developers have scaffolded off the entire station. This story tells of people saying their last goodbyes to the Old Umeda Concourse:
Anticipating the loss of the station they knew so well, Osakans capture the final moments of the Umeda Concourse in Kita-ku.Saying Goodbye to Old Hankyu Umeda Station Concourse Walls
Sept. 13, Asahi Shimbun
Starting Sept. 14, the old Hankyu Railways Umeda Station Concourse will see a construction fence go up around it as part of the renovation project of Hankyu’s Umeda flagship department store. That means that the mosaic murals that line the tall walls and ceilings of the station will no longer be visible. Those who came to say goodbye brought their cameras to “capture the elegant form” of the station.
The fence will go up directly over the 6-meter wide walking path. The ceiling will be removed within the fiscal year, but Hankyu Railways is considering saving the murals and chandeliers.
I had originally thought that this was talking about this gigantic hallway:
To get to any subway station from Hankyu trains you have to pass through this area, one of the few expansive, open areas that I encountered in the “beautiful urban jungle” of Osaka. I think the Old Concouse actually refers to an old area of the station located away from any trains or foot traffic. It has cool little murals like this:
But to tell you the truth I CAN’T EVEN REMEMBER!! This makes me even sadder than hearing it’s getting redone!
More than anything, thinking back on all this reminds me that I can never go back to my salad days as an exchange student.
As my own way of saying goodbye, Here are some random pictures of Umeda station that I culled from Google Image search:
Continue reading Osaka Nostalgia Part 1
This Asbestos thing is way more complicated than I thought…
Looks like Japan isn’t the last country to figure out asbestos is bad for you after all:
Friday, September 9, 2005
Japanese Labor Unions Ask Canada To Stop Exporting Asbestos
TOKYO (Kyodo)–Three Japanese labor unions including one comprising construction workers requested in a joint action on Friday that Canada, the biggest single supplier of asbestos to Japan, stop exporting the carcinogenic mineral, union officials said.
Representatives of the unions delivered a letter of request to the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo saying that ”60 percent of asbestos used in Japan is imported from Canada. We would like the export promotion policy to be terminated, given the hazardous nature of white asbestos has been confirmed.”
Canada is the third biggest producer in the world of white asbestos, a type of the mineral known to be relatively less carcinogenic than other types.
The request was made by the All Japan Construction, Transport and General Workers Union, National Confederation of Trade Unions and the Liaison Conference of Public Promotion of Public Works Related to People’s Life.
The embassy told the unions that they will refer the matter to Ottawa and promised to offer a reply in writing, according to the union officials.
The move was part of a global action by labor unions belonging to the Trade Unions International of Building, Woods and Building Materials Industries. Similar requests have also been filed with Canadian diplomatic missions in 12 countries including Australia and Colombia.
The All Japan Construction, Transport and General Workers Union, which led the action on Friday, has 46,900 members. It is affiliated with the two other unions.
Asbestos is a fibrous mineral used in buildings, among other things, which is known to cause diseases such as mesothelioma and lung cancer even many years after being inhaled.
Someone is looking for a roommate
If you live in the Washington, DC area and are looking to share a furnished 1BR with someone starting in October, maybe you should give this guy a call.
Aichi Expo Update: Good news and “bad” news
Before you read this, remember the Osaka Expo in 1970 attracted a whopping 64.2 million people, so comparatively this one is a big flop!
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Number Of Visitors To Aichi Expo Tops Targeted 15mn
NAGOYA (Kyodo)–The number of visitors to the 2005 World Exposition in Aichi Prefecture on Thursday surpassed the 15 million mark, the target set by the Expo organizers, 40 days before the event’s closing Sept. 25.
According to the Japan Association for World Exposition 2005, the 15 millionth visitor entered the gate at around 10:15 a.m. on the 147th day of the 185-day expo, which began March 25.
”We believe we were able to achieve the goal more than a month earlier than the event closes because many people highly valued the exposition’s unique exhibits and a variety of events,” Shoichiro Toyoda, the association’s chairman, said in a statement. Toyoda is also honorary chairman of Toyota Motor Corp. (7203).
An association official said the number of visitors is likely to reach 18 million by the closing day of the expo and may even top 19 million.
Shortly after opening, the expo saw low turnout, blamed mainly on poor weather, but it began getting crowded after Japan’s Golden Week holidays in early May. The number of visitors each day has often topped 100,000.
About 216,000 people visited the expo July 17, a single-day record.
Five indicted for making porno video on Expo cable car
NAGOYA — Police sent papers Friday to prosecutors on five people on suspicion of shooting pornographic video footage on a cable car at the site of the World Exposition in Aichi Prefecture, in violation of the Minor Offenses Law, police officials said.
The police allege a 33-year-old producer, a 28-year-old director and a 31-year-old video photographer for a TV program production company, a 39-year-old actor and a 26-year-old actress of shooting the video footage for about a minute May 2 on the Kikkoro Gondola cable car. The case came to light after a person who saw the video on a pornographic cable channel informed the Expo organizer, Japan Association for the 2005 World Exposition, about it, the police said. (Kyodo News)
Extra details on the porno incident from ZAKZAK:
According to investigations, the minute-long scene is of a man groping a topless woman on the Kikkoro Gondola. The gondola can seat 8, and the scene was likely visible to those outside the craft as it is mostly clear glass, designed to give a view of the scenery and activity below.
The five suspects originally planned to shoot a scene outdoors within the Expo grounds, but had to change the location to inside the gondola since the Expo was crowded with Golden Week tourists. The group also filmed a scene in which they ask foreign staff sexually explicit questions.
My jealous contempt of the Aichi Expo has been documented on this site before, so you can see why this incident steams my beans. Taken one way, this is a pretty good sign for the Expo — it was so crowded the porn directors had to change their location to someplace quieter! Curses…
Bahhhhh
OK, just because we need a new entry:
大学１年生には、「閑古鳥」「吟味」「醜聞」の読みや「魚のクサミ」「マイゾウ文化財」「門前のコゾウ」の漢字を書かせる問題などが出題された。
Answers:
閑古鳥 【かんこどり】 (n) a cuckoo
吟味 【ぎんみ】 (n) testing, scrutiny, careful investigation, (P)
醜聞 【しゅうぶん】 (n) scandal, (P)
臭み 【くさみ】 (n) bad smell, affectation, fulsomeness
埋蔵 【まいぞう】 (n) buried property, treasure trove, (P)
小僧 【こぞう】 (n) (1) youngster, (2) young Buddhist priest, (P)
Guess what: I didn’t get them at all and still haven’t looked them up, though it would be cool one day to pass 2kyu myself. Let me give you my completely pedestrian and baseless opinion: the Kanji Kentei people should stop conducting surveys like this because it just shows how irrelevant they’re becoming and the precious idioms that they are trying so hard to protect are slowly but surely dying out of the Japanese language. Those conservative old guard slush-puppies (new word?) should just go cry into their bourbons at the members-only enka-only karaoke bars they came from.
Honestly, I haven’t felt much like blogging the last few days/weeks. I was inspired to blog mainly as a way to keep up my Japanese by translating articles. Over the year and a half or so I have spent blogging, my translation skills have improved enough to land me a few good jobs.
However, now I’m a lot busier in my new job and translating news articles is actually something I do every day — and get paid for. So the inspiration is gone a little bit.
Another thing is I have started considering who my audience is here and asking myself “what impact is what I say going to have?” and I have to answer “not all that much.” Not sure what that means to me, but it does certainly mean there’s no point in starting “Internet debate” in my posts (because, as has been said before, it’s like the Special Olympics: even if you win, you’re still retarded.)
Anyway, anonymous readers, my point is please bear with me while I consider what role blogging will have in my life.
Random picture of an Adam Richards (THIS ISN’T ME!!!!!!!!):
Police say Adam Richards admitted to abusing the baby
Police say a Union Township man admitted to abusing his girlfriend’s baby boy.
Five-month-old Dillion Richards is now in critical but stable condition at Children’s Hospital, with multiple fractures.
Adam Richards, 23, was behind bars Thursday night, charged with felony child endangerment.
The baby and suspect have the same last name but are not related.
Police say Richards beat the child at his home in Union Township.
The child’s mother is Megan Cloud, and she has not been charged.
Shit, he’s my age and everything. Stay away from my unborn kids.
Koizumi’s magical hands Part 2
Koizumi hypnotizes a crowd of followers in Shizuoka Prefecture with the help of his magical robot orb.
And who could forget this classic moment?
Here he is pointing out how great his hair is to the press corps.
[Edit by MF:] A reader submitted this excellent example.
