Murals of Wat Phra Kaew

Sure, the shiny gold buildings, freaky demon statues, and annoying Korean tourists at Wat Phra Kaew, the royal temple of Bangkok, were plenty fun, but what really did it for me were the fantastic murals that cover the entire inner wall. What exactly is going on, or what saga it is based on, I have no idea, but I do know that I want Peter Jackson to make a movie version of it, starting tomorrow.

Update: From the Wikipedia article in The Ramayana.

Thailand’s popular national epic Ramakien is derived from the Hindu epic. In Ramakien, Sita is the daughter of Ravana and Mandodari (T’os’akanth (=Dasakand) and Mont’o). Vibhisana (P’ip’ek), the astrologer brother of Ravana, predicts calamity from the horoscope of Sita. So Ravana has her thrown into the waters, who, later, is picked by Janaka (Janok). While the main story is identical to that of the Ramayana, many other aspects were transposed into a Thai context, such as the clothes, weapons, topography, and elements of nature, which are described as being Thai in style. It has an expanded role for Hanuman and he is portrayed as a lascivious character. Ramakien can be seen in an elaborate illustration at the Wat Phra Kaew temple in Bangkok.

You can read an English translation of the Ramakien online here.

These images cannot be appreciated in such a small space, so please click on them for a larger file.

Morgan Stanley Global Economic Forum: New and improved!

You can’t understand how deeply disturbed I was a moment ago when I couldn’t access Morgan Stanley’s Global Economic Forum. Where the hell am I supposed to get frank assessments of the Japanese political/economic scene for an investment audience without the Forum?!

Thankfully, they didn’t do anything insane like turn it into a pay service. Instead, they have vastly improved their site and unified their contents section! The icing on the cake? RSS feeds of the GEF! Joy!

In our latest installment:

As shown in preliminary Jul-Sep GDP numbers, the contrast between the corporate sector and the household sector has intensified, and this gap is not likely to close for some time. We assume that it will take a year or more for a positive growth cycle to develop, as momentum on the corporate front gradually spreads to the consumer and household level. Thus, while lack of support from consumer spending is likely to result in a slowing through F3/08, we expect growth in corporate spending to allow for continued gradual growth in the economy overall. Thus, we look for improved productivity to contribute to ultra-stable prices going forward.

Ahh, it’s good to have you back, my sweet Forum.

For those of you who liked the godawful calendar format for the archives, it’s still available.

What Adamu thinks: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

Being the preeminent experts that we at the Mutant Frog Travelogue are, some Japanese university student has decided to use us as a primary resource for a major research project (or more likely, the subject of one of the countless “survey the foreigner” projects they give in university English classes). Here’s what the questioner wanted to know:

Dear Mr. Mutant frog.
Hello! I’m a [Japanese] University student. I get your e-
mail address at MUTANT　FROG　TORAVELOGUE. [This university]
is Japanese university. Our English class was to sending e-mail which
has some questions about things which have interest.

Questions.

・ What do you think Prime Minister Shinzo Abe?

・ How will Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe be different
from the ex-Prime Minister Koizumi?

・ Do you think Japan become better? And I want to listen to your
opinion.

Thank you.
From [a] university in Japan.

Continue reading What Adamu thinks: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

The Environment Ministry’s real-life power rangers

Japan’s Ministry of Environment employs about 60 “active rangers.” These assistants to the ministry’s Rangers for Nature Preservation are employed to patrol, give tours of, survey, and in general help maintain Japan’s national park system. Apparently, they also spend a lot of their time blogging:

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Climbing Meakandake (active volcano in Hokkaido)

The ranger-bloggers for the Kanto region update more frequently:
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A “song-house” in the Southern Japan Alps National Park.

And here are the folks in the Tohoku region:
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Hikers hailing from the Tokyo metro area contemplate a waterfall during an apple-picking tour in the Shirakami mountain area.

There are also blogs for the Chubu, Shikoku, and Kinki regions. Even if you don’t read Japanese, you can scroll around the site to see some interesting nature shots courtesy of the Japanese government.

Real facts about Shinzo Abe: His favorite foods

Rather than blog about more substantive issues (like the massive fraud perpetrated by the Koizumi and Abe administrations with their faked “town meetings” in which the government paid people 5000 yen apiece to ask the right questions), I’ll use this time during a break from translation to look at the latest “live talk” from PM Shinzo Abe, intended as his modern-day version of FDR’s fireside chats.

shokuiku no hi poster3.jpgAbridged and edited from a video interview (mp4) with Japan’s prime minister on the occasion of the upcoming “Food Education Day” that occurs on the 19th of every month:

Q: What is your favorite food?

Abe: Well, it hasn’t changed since I was a child. I still like Korean BBQ, ramen, ice cream, and watermelon!

Q: Do you eat breakfast every day?

Abe: Well, I was asked at the Diet this soon after I became prime minister. Sometimes I eat light, just tree kale juice, carrots, and apple juice, but since becoming prime minister, I have been making sure to eat rice, miso soup with clams, and fermented soy beans with lots of leeks.

Continue reading Real facts about Shinzo Abe: His favorite foods

Watch Muhammend Ali vs. Antonio Inoki

Thanks to the magic of YouTube, you can now watch highlights from the historic Muhammad Ali fight with Japanese pro wrestling legend Antonio Inoki (read more about the fight here):

It’s a sports documentary in Japanese, but anyone should be able to get a picture of what the fight looked like. And what does it look like? A boring mess! This description of the fight put it well:

Inoki spent much of the fight on the ground trying to damage Ali’s legs. Ali spent most of the fight dodging the kicks by stepping out of the way or staying on the ropes. Occasionally, Inoki’s boot would connect. By the third round, a wound had appeared on Ali’s left knee.

I guess that’s what happens when you put a boxer and a wrestler together and then try and mix-match the rules of each sport.

Inventor of Cool Biz Rewarded with WSJ Picture

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This, like my recent translation of the Soka Gakkai-Japan Times article, is from July, but I thought Wall Street Journal’s portrait of the mayor of Yokohama and inventor of Cool Biz made him look especially dignified. You can read the WSJ’s interview with him here. An excerpt:

WSJ: What was your first job and what was the biggest lesson you learned from it?

Mr. Nakada: My first real paid job was as a staffer for the Japan New Party , but I experienced different jobs while I was at the Matsushita Institute. I first worked for three months at a suit factory in the countryside. Then I worked in the seafood section of a supermarket in Singapore for three months. I spent the longest time in waste management, collecting garbage and working at a factory that sorts and prepares garbage for recycling. I learned different things from each job. At the suit factory, I learned what small-to-medium-size businesses are about — their organizational structure and way of thinking. Working in garbage management, I learned about people’s irresponsibility: Sellers only care about selling products and consumers only care about using them. No one cares about what happens to waste. I learned that different players act out of their own interests.

Hastert tipped as next Tokyo ambassador

Breaking: Steve Clemons reports that outgoing House Speaker Dennis Hastert is tipped by insiders to be the next US ambassador to Japan, thus continuing a fairly consistent tradition of appointing powerful people irrespective of their connections to Japan. Must be the food and the women.

UPDATE: Looks like Da Curzon Code was right.

American public still shows questionable taste in foreign relations

When Americans were asked whether “the following countries or regions share generally common values with the U.S.” the responses went like this:

            General     Opinion
Country     public      leaders

Japan         78%         96%
Taiwan        57%         83%
China         48%         55%
North Korea   20%         14%

How in God’s name did North Korea get 20%?! Where was this poll taken, at a Workers World conference?