Moore Than This

Gone to a better place

2007-09-06T17:06:00.000+01:00

Having suffered from a near-terminal case of couldn't-be-bothered-to-write-itis for most of this summer, I decided that to coincide with the resurection of my blog, I should move it to Wordpress. The new Moore Than This is now open for business, making the most of late summer sunshine permitting.

Journals!!!11!1

2007-04-19T23:38:00.000+01:00

In preparation for writing the big assessed essay for my Japan's International Relations module, I've spent the afternoon in the library, looking over scholarly journals on East Asian affairs for articles I can use. I have to say, the people who write these articles ought to make an effort to jazz up their writing. They are aiming for readership after all. Any publication that can switch its layout to day-glo covers and splash headlines about "Kim Jong-Il's HOT HOT HOT new hairstyle" and "Japanese PM Shinzo Abe in boozy after-hours press conference" stands to capture a substantial share of the market.

Jim Moore is a publishing industry professional. Honest.

Long absence report

2007-04-05T16:25:00.000+01:00

After my last post, the various deadlines at the end of term began to pile up so I didn't have to write anything. A few things happened in the interim though: a trip down to Leicester to see my mate Ed before he set to study in Germany, a conference at Leeds on East Asian relations where I listened to some very interesting discussions, catching up on the first series of the truly excellent TV show The Wire, and going to London to see the Hogarth exhibition at Tate Modern. The Easter holiday is going to end on a high note, as we set off for New York tomorrow. I'll be back by next week, hopefully with enough photos to send my Flickr stream into overload.

Respecting refugees, parading puppets, and a filmic Faversham

2007-03-05T22:17:00.000Z

Today I went down to the Union to help out at the stall for the Leeds Uni Amnesty group's latest campaign, run with the Leeds Student Action for Refugees group. We were campaigning against the destitution of asylum seekers as part of government policy (for more info, see here), and did a pretty good job of getting signatures for the petition, selling cakes to raise money for a local asylum seeker support group, and raising awareness. Some of the artier members of the AI group had made custom designed T-shirts and giant puppets to attract attention, and at one point I put on one of the puppets. While I thought it added a certain something to my outfit, its tendency to list to one side put terrible strain on my back. Still, it's not about me, is it?

During my stint on the stall, a guy came by who said he was going to be arguing for the motion "Should Britain close its borders?" at the debate on Thursday (also part of the events) and wanted to know if we could tell him how migrants enriched the country. I nicknamed him "Private Joker" because he was an enlistee in the military jacket fad that has swept the country, and because his views were pretty laughable. After he told me that Wikipedia didn't have an answer to his question (Zounds!), I asked him if he got all his political positions from Wikipedia. His answer was an admirably honest "yes". All in all, it's a pity I'll be out of Leeds on Thursday. Seeing him in the debate would be ... interesting, to say the least.

In the evening there was an screening at a relaxed watering hole just off campus of Stephen Frears' Dirty Pretty Things. If you haven't seen it, you should - it's great as a thriller, a love story, and an exploration of a side of modern Western societies that doesn't usually get seen.

And on the way home, a giant rat scampered across my path. Bit of an incongruous ending, but there you go.

It's a luscious mix of words and tricks

2007-02-25T22:56:00.001Z

Got the new Shins album yesterday. I've been a fan since I bought "Oh, Inverted World" the summer before I went to Japan, and since then they've always been associated in my mind with that time and settling into my year abroad. The new album, "Wincing the Night Away", is just as good - a subtle album, but a grower. As well as writing some of the catchiest indie-pop tunes since the Housemartins, the Shins' music also features completely nonsensical lyrics. Which leads to some embrassing situations at times, where I have to stop myself singing about "the sacred lambs of Sunday ham" or some such gibberish in public.

Lenin wants your lovin

2007-02-10T01:45:00.001Z

lenin wants your lovin
Originally uploaded by moorethanthis.

Walking around Leeds campus, you'll always be sure to find posters for various left-wing groups and events. This one caught my attention because it was the first I'd ever seen to use humour. Of course, being an Alabama 3 fan makes the joke so much richer (but not in the financial sense, capitalist pig-dogs).

Downtime in the Den

2007-02-08T22:37:00.000Z

Just at a time when I was in need of distraction, BBC Two has threw some televisual gold my way last night with the new series of Dragon's Den. I'd call it guilty pleasure TV, but the fact is I learn more about business pitches, investing and running a company from it than I do from sources like the Economist.

The long-running formula involves hapless investors pitching their ideas to a bunch of entrepreneurs who do their best to fit the snarling, hard-nosed stereotype. The schadenfreude factor comes when they realise they haven't prepared enough/have no idea about their figures/have a product that no-one wants, and are subsequently ripped to pieces by the "dragons". It's an interesting presentation of entrepreneurship and business, as while you're entertained by the dragons, you don't admire them (and you're probably not meant to).

At the time when the US show The Apprentice was about to be adapted into a British version, I read someone's opinion that the UK had an anti-enterprise culture as opposed to the US (can't remember where, or I'd link it). Comparing the two shows, it looks like Dragon's Den is far more about individual enterprise than The Apprentice - after all, in the former contestants have to have a business or idea that they can build into a profitable organisation. With The Apprentice, it's all about following doing whatever Donald Trump (or Alan Sugar) tells you.

And even the choice of tycoon makes the show seem dated. Trump was presumably chosen on his reputations as the brash, go-getting businessman of the 1980s, and he plays it as if nothing had happened in the intervening two decades. The companies that make big money and capture the public imagination nowadays - the Googles and the YouTubes - are run on a completely different corporate culture. It would be quite interesting to see a show where a bunch of hopefuls work for a pair of web visionaries, getting pushed to think up the next hugely popular application and taking time out in the bean bag room or whatever they have at Google HQ. Still, given the choice between that and Duncan Bannatyne sneering at someone's flimsy business proposal, I go for humiliation and suffering any day.

"I've made a huge mistake"

2007-02-07T14:30:00.000Z

You know those days when you you realise just how badly you've messed up? I've been having quite a few of those days recently. So, here are a few clips from Arrested Development (my new favouritest US sitcom) to put across how I feel right now.

Warning: learning Japanese can lead to addictive behaviour

2007-01-30T16:24:00.000Z

...But at least the manfacturers of my new dictionary have recognised the threat and printed directions for help in the inside cover.

The New Nelson Japanese English Character Dictionary was recommended by our teacher at the end of last semester. At 1600 pages, it was certainly one of the heaviest presents I recieved this Christmas, but I'm just working out it might well be one of the most useful.

The handout for our translation module this semester included as the first of its objectives that students would be able to "read, translate, summarise, and discuss Japanese texts that are NOT altered for ease of comprehension." While the texts we were given last semester were fairly complex, last week's work (an extract from a book on General MacArthur and the post-war occupation of Japan) included some characters and vocabulary that completely defeated my trusty electronic dictionary. Working with my three-year-old miniature model and the newly acquired paper monster, I was able to work through the text and unearth the most obscure and specialist vocabulary, including this gem: 公娼制度, or the pre-war system of licenced prostitution. If that isn't specialist, I don't know what is.

In short, if like me you're at a fairly advanced level in Japanese study and know you're going to continue at it for a long time, the New Nelson or a dictionary like it is basically invaluable.

The Sun Says: Racism bad this week

2007-01-23T20:01:00.000Z

Anyone with half an eye on the UK press over the last week or two will have noticed that all national tabloids have been markedly loud in their condemnation of racism. All it took was the juxtaposition of someone as beautiful as Shilpa with someone as unappealing as Jade.

While the media reaction is on the whole a good thing, you have to question their motivations. The most violent condemnations of Jade come from the Sun, a paper that not only reports avidly on every run of Big Brother and arguably helped launch Jade's celebrity career with their coverage, but has been known to cast slurs on entire communities and make stuff up when it suits their agenda of demonising a given group. The coverage, as well as having in some cases a ugly undertone of classism, gives the impression that The Scum and others are having their cake and eating it.

To sum up in a simple way what I was trying to express in my original post, the question is what is more offensive:

1) Someone who has achieved public recognition from being stupid and loutish while appearing on television, again behaving in a stupid and loutish fashion on television, or:

2) The confluence of business and media interests that work together to ensure people like the example of 1) are kept in the public eye and their path to fame seen as something to emulate.

I, personally, go for the latter.

It's the little things we do, when you go out in the night

2007-01-22T21:54:00.000Z

No, no, no. Never again. No nay never, no never, no more. I am never drinking again - until the next time, obviously.

A housemate's birthday is always a big occasion, and Saturday was J's 21st. A bunch of J and S's friends came up from their hometown, and with most of my housemates elsewhere, hosting duties were down to me. What with their having started drinking early on, I was very well-lubricated by the time we went out to the Elbow Room. Make that completely smashed. I was dancing like a loon amongst all the trendy types on the dancefloor, getting odd looks and the occasional thumbs-up. I knew what a fool I was making of myself, but I didn't care. Self-awareness mixed with joyous abandon - it's a good combination, and the way I'd like to live all of my life. Shame I have to get terrifically drunk to do it.

Arriving back at the house a little after everyone else, I found my room turned upside down and my safe gone. It was a practical joke by one of our guests, who kept dropping me subtle hints for the rest of the night about whose room he'd left the safe in. This made me laugh in the morning. We weren't exactly in Da Vinci Code territory - I was having trouble understanding simple sentences, let alone coded messages.

The following afternoon, we braved the outside world to go to the pub and watch the football. I don't really support any team, but I can watch a football match and appreciate it. The trouble is, I do it in a rather detached way, which coupled with my hungover state meant I was the only person in a crowd of cheering Manchester United fans sitting down, clapping my hands at the goal and drawling "Fantastic. Jolly good show. Super-duper."

I have a feeling that they somehow had me pegged as a casual fan.

Unfortunately, today classes begin again and I have my nose to the grindstone once more. Expect more adventures to the furthest edges of ~~my sanity~~ Japanese grammatical forms, as 2007 rumbles on.

Oh noes! How did I miss this?!

2007-01-20T02:58:00.000Z

My friend Sam is off on his travels overland from Paris to Osaka, and has set up a blog to chronicle his epic adventures. Also blogging the journey are his travelling companions Raph and Johnson. Each of the three are worth a read, and the journey itself sounds absolutely amazing - the kind of thing I wish I had done a few years ago, if I had the initiative, the funds and like-minded friends to accompany me. Right now, in the middle of a degree and the financial obligations that entails, the best I can do is track their progress through the magic of teh interwebs. Hell, already the Foreign Legion is sounding a decent post-graduate career choice...

But everyone's doing it, ma!

2007-01-19T20:22:00.000Z

Yes, yes, I deplore reality TV in all its forms, and I know there are probably more important things going on in the world right now (China's entry into the space arms race being one of them). But as the whole blogocube and all the daily papers are talking about it, the Celebrity Big Brother racism controversy is stuck in the public consciousness as an uncomfortable reminder, not only of the underlying racism and prejudice in modern-day Britain, but also the adulation and celebrity status we reserve for complete halfwits. As the rather excellent (and newly-discovered) Obsolete puts it, a lot of the abuse may stem from the fact that Shilpa has more good looks, talent and genuine celebrity than her female antogonists.

The whole thing sits very uncomfortably with me, because while I don't think the comments by Jade et al have much to do with old-fashioned Alf Garnett racism, they are a logical outcome of ignorance and a complete lack of interest in the wider world and other cultures.

Over the past few years, I have never forgotten how lucky I am to have been able to meet people from so many different countries and cultures. I'd be a completely different person, but for a few chance occurences. As the person I am now, I look at the picture of modern Britain this show is presenting and feel ... well, very uncomfortable. However, most of the people I know and see on a daily basis are very open-minded and friendly towards people who come from a different background, country or culture to them. And the masses of complaints that Channel 4 has recieved show that people are less willing to put up with intolerance and abuse than might have been assumed.

I honestly hope that the moves towards an atavistic, tribal politics that I've written about before comes up against this wellspring of public opinion. Then again, if people paid more attention to politics than to amazingly stupid people raised to the level of public figurehead by the simple application of media power (insert comparison joke here), the country probably wouldn't be in such a state.

Science building

2007-01-17T13:18:00.001Z

IMG_0571
Originally uploaded by moorethanthis.

Taken while wandering around campus on Sunday. I guess this is what people thought the future would look like in the 1970s.

Compare and contrast

2007-01-08T23:50:00.000Z

I'm back at Leeds revising for the exams I've got this week, so I spend a lot of time listening to the radio. Here's an instructive review of my reactions to two new tracks:

On hearing the new U2 song for the first time: Hey, this is rather good.
On hearing it for the second time: OK, I'm bored of it now.

On hearing the Kaiser Chiefs's new song "Ruby" for the first time: Hey, this is rather good.
On hearing it for the third time, I was dancing around my room singing along. Now that's catchy.

Hate your next door neighbour, but don't forget to say grace

2006-12-29T18:09:00.000Z

Happy Christmas to everyone reading this, and I hope you all got what you asked for. (For anyone who asked for world peace like I did, yeah, I know. Bummer, eh?)

So I was in the pub last night, looking back over the year with some mates. For some reason, the conversation got onto politics (what were we thinking?) and I was launching into a triade of abuse about Jack Straw's kicking off the whole manufactured veil controversy back in October. The fact that people around me were willing to stand up for him I found unbelievable. As I wrote at the time, Straw's original piece was a thoughtful and considered reflection on where one's person's tolerance meets another's beliefs. For the record, I've always believed that you have the right in your house or workplace to make requests of people, as long as you're prepared to offer a decent explanation.

However, that wasn't really the point of it all. The point was to raise fear and resentment of British Muslims in an attempt by New Labour at raising some cheap populism. The tenor and management of it seemed very well thought out, so much so that I'm inclined to think the statements from various ministers had been got ready in advance. Straw's article was the kickoff point. He either knew what his masters expected of him and jumped, or had that end in mind all along.

The most dispiriting thing this year for me (apart from the meaning of the term "wag" degenerating from a witty and irreverent person into something I wouldn't want to be associated with in a million years) is the way the government and the right-wing press has again and again fallen back on the politics of fear, of hatred and division. They're incapable of admitting they're wrong, so they want us to be scared of our neighbours, scared of immigrants, scared of terrorist attacks. Every bullshit manufactured controversy, from the veil scare to the aircraft bomb plot (that wasn't) to the fake war on Christmas, fractures the country and plays into the hands of the far-right, who are more than happy to have matters of race and culture put on the political agenda. That's why Straw, and everyone like him who trades on hatred for political capital, will never be worthy of my respect. A happy new year to you all.

Big words in newspaper shock

2006-12-22T17:39:00.000Z

Today I did something I've never done before. I found a word in a newspaper I had to look up in the dictionary. (From this, you can obviously tell blogging has hit a low patch.)

David Marquand uses "tergiversations" in a splendid demolition of Anthony Seldon's shameless grovelling to Blair. Turns out it means "use ambiguous or evasive language" or "change one’s loyalties" - Marquand handily includes the link in his piece. I like to think that he didn't just randomly pluck it from the thesaurus, but was saving the word for something special, and slipped it in close to Christmas when nobody really reads the papers anyway.

To yet more verbosity, in a piece about blogs from the Wall Street Journal opinion page. While the place is usually a haven for barkingly extreme right-wingers, this article is remarkably even-handed. I did like his assertion that instant response, as a condition of blogging, "is also a coagulant for orthodoxies". What a splendid put-down. I almost feel like using it here. Which would you prefer: "Moore Than This: A coagulent for orthodoxies" or a line from an Elvis Costello song?

Some people bring SexyBack...

2006-12-15T16:19:00.001Z

So apparently my spur-of-the-moment decision to grow a beard about a month ago has coincided with facial hair suddenly becoming fashionable again. Glad to see that the mysterious arbiters of style in this country keep tabs on what I'm doing. And if you think this is strange, just you wait till next spring, when I single-handedly bring Elizabethan doublet and hose back in style.

On the merits (or otherwise) of the arse-kicking approach to education

2006-12-09T13:34:00.000Z

So, as a final goodwill gesture before term finishes, I agreed to be interviewed by some first-year students in class. The deal was to talk in Japanese about our years abroad. I made a pretty good fist of it, although since I got back from Japan my speaking ability has gone way downhill from simple lack of practice. Also present was Ilkka, from the infamous year abroad briefing (which has now assumed legendary proportions among people who were there), and a few others.

The session concluded with some advice from us to the new generation about the year abroad and the semester leading up to it. Among some questions from the floor (about how to recognise Yakuza, as well as more quotidian concerns), one student asked me how many students made it from our first year to the year abroad. I answered truthfully: "About half the class." Then I wondered why he looked so shocked. In fact, all of us advised the first-years to work harder, in no uncertain terms.

Tough love? Sure, but I felt good doing it. For one, it was funny as hell to watch their expressions when Ilkka told them "You can't just expect the Japanese language to magically pour into your head. Do the work, or you'll fail." But also, I think this kind of "motivation" (read: arse-kicking) was what is missing from the staff this year. In my first year, our year abroad director was a sarcastic, cynical Australian academic named Dr. Weste, who left at the end of last year. His sardonic asides during lessons and frequent threats of dire consequences if we didn't do the work did a lot to help shake me out of a rut and do better.

I'm of the opinion that everyone secretly likes the Dr. Cox-type character - someone who will mock, belittle and scare you into working harder, but genuinely does it in your own best interests. Not only will it motivate you, it shows someone cares far more than a diffident, impersonal response.

Badly thought-out headline of the week

2006-12-08T20:34:00.000Z

Umm, I think the word "myth" might well give you a clue on that one...

I know, I know, I'm pedantic and sarky. But if a I was a sub-editor/layout designer, even for a publication that's given away free on trains, I'd have a bit more pride in my work.

[N.B. The picture next to the headline is of Jordan, which concerns a (debunked) urban myth about silicone implants exploding at high altidues. Just as well - I didn't know if I'd be able to fly again with these spectualar new breasts of mine.]

Talking it over, Part 2: in which your hero finds his flow seriously messed wit'

2006-11-23T17:06:00.000Z

I'm looking forward to it - going over the experience made me realise what a great time I had over there. Considering how apprehensive I was in the run-up to my departure, I want to convince everybody that it will be as good for them as it was for me.

Oh, I had a plan. I had a plan alright. A plan that disappeared the moment I saw Ilkka had come to the meeting as well.

Ilkka and I were at Kansai Gaidai together. He was a professional cynic, and his heart certainly was in it. We'd had some great times together, but considering that he'd spent most of the year bashing Gaidai and its large American population, I wasn't looking forward to doing the presentation with him.

We got up and stood in front of the first years. After a brief introduction, I began telling them a little bit about Kansai Gaidai. As soon as I paused, Ilkka was ready...

Ilkka: You might hear that Kansai Gaidai is a Japanese university. It's actually an American university...
Me: Well, there are a lot of Americans th-
Ilkka: ...where the foreign students are kept separated from the rest of the students!"

And on it went. I was giving a presentation on Kansai Gaidai, and Ilkka was constantly interjecting with observations from the Twilight Zone. He said that Hirakata was a hellhole, and that Japan was the only country in the world where he'd been attacked on the street. (Given that I there at the time, I think the reference was a sly dig at me, as he thinks I was responsible for it).

Every one of Ilkka's asides met with shocked laughter from the first years, and sotto voce pleas from the teachers to say "something positive". I was out there on my own trying to hold the show together, as the presentation degenerated into a back-and-forth exchange of bizarre and contradictory statements like some twisted manzai routine. In fact, I wish it was manzai - at least then I could shout at Ilkka and slap him every time I wanted to. Which was a lot.

After the talk, I had a few first years coming up to me and asking if the stuff Ilkka said was true. I replied "No" to every one and tried to give them some real gen on Kansai Gaidai, to make up for the damage done. Everyone, from the teachers on down, seemed universally stunned. If there's any kind of lesson I can draw from this, it's that you have the best plan ever, but it won't work if you're confronted with someone determined to screw it up.

Talking it over

2006-11-22T15:07:00.000Z

The year abroad briefing meeting for first-year Japanese students is this afternoon. As part of it, students who have returned from their year abroad give small talks about their universities I've offered to talk about going to Kansai Gaidai. I'm looking forward to it - going over the experience made me realise what a great time I had over there. Considering how apprehensive I was in the run-up to my departure, I want to convince everybody that it will be as good for them as it was for me.

"It's ironic, this revolution. The rich are even richer now,"

2006-11-14T16:21:00.000Z

Good news from Venezuela!

President Hugo Chávez has warned that "capitalism will lead to the destruction of humanity" but seldom has there been a better time to make, spend and enjoy money.

The economy is surging at 9.4% and banks and credit card companies are reporting exponential increases in deposits and loans. Car sales are expected to more than double this year to 300,000, many of them luxury models, and property prices rival Manhattan.

Oh, come now. I didn't say who the news was good for, did I? If the main protion of your country's wealth is from rising oil prices, it stands to reason which portion of the population will become richer. (Clue: there aren't that many slum dwellers or rural peasants owning refineries and distribution centres.)

Chávez is an interesting case in present-day Latin America. He's treated by Westerners on both sides of the political divide as a resurrection of Cold War stereotypes, representing either a blood-soaked Communist dictator looking to turn his democratic neighbours red, or a heroic saviour cocking a snook to the evil imperialist Yanquis, depending on whether you have the National Review or Daily Kos in your bookmarks.

The reality is that Chávez is more of an old-school populist-nationalist along the lines of Juan Perón - ruling by charisma and personal appeal to the poor, strengthening his connection with them through personal largesse rather than genuine egalitarianism. This is all well and good when you're riding high on an oil boom, but relying exclusively on energy exports is a recipe for instability. However, something tells me the country's elite won't get hurt as much as the people at the bottom, who Chávez professes to care for so much.

Stop the war, I want to get off

2006-11-08T01:27:00.000Z

As the situation in Iraq increases in brutality, and outside commenatators look at the mess created and sustained within the country, the most enthusiastic neoconservative cheerleaders for war are again outdoing themelves in their eagerness to jump on a bandwagon, this time for the opposite cause:

As he looks into my eyes, speaking slowly and with obvious deliberation, Perle is unrecognizable as the confident hawk who, as chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, had invited the exiled Iraqi dissident Ahmad Chalabi to its first meeting after 9/11. "The levels of brutality that we've seen are truly horrifying, and I have to say, I underestimated the depravity," Perle says now, adding that total defeat—an American withdrawal that leaves Iraq as an anarchic "failed state"—is not yet inevitable but is becoming more likely.

More likely? Good Lord, Perle, where is your confidence in the End of History and inevitable triumph of Western democracy? Right now the general carnage in Iraq seems too widespread for even the really big lies to paper over. But, even at this terrible point, will they put their hands up and admit responsibility?

Sadly, No!

Know what, Richard? Go to hell. You brought Chalabi and his merry band of crooks to the White House and had them feed the CIA bogus intel. You kept insisting that the invasion was a success long after it was clear to all ... that it was an abject failure. And you and Frummy wrote An End to Evil, the ultimate book of neocon wingnuttery that recommended, among other things, that the United States declare France an enemy state. To say that you bear no blame for this sad human catastrophe is beyond reprehensible. You and your buddies need to be banished completely from the national discourse and be forced to beg on the street for food. Just go away. Never come back.

Reading through the excerpts, the neocons blame everybody (the President and the President's advisors are choice targets) except themselves for ramping up pro-war sentiment with dodgy intelligence. Still, I don't think much will be achieved from this turnaround. Just as with the mass recantation of the Decents, both the the recent rash of pro-war chest-beaters and the opponents waiting in the wings assume that it's all a game, the outcome of which is no more important than who gets the biggest space for their op-ed page, in which they outline what they would have done to make it all better, never mind the blood on the streets in the present day. I don't think anyone far from the bloodshed is entitled to finger-pointing, let alone a bit of a gloat. Given the amount of killing that has taken place as a direct consequence, this recantation is far too little, too late.

(Bearing in mind I'm writing this on the eve of the US midterm elections while listening to the Beeb World Service report on the voting, where Iraq is treated as just another talking point. Never mind the piles of corpses, what about the exit polls?)

Oh, my sweet potatoes

2006-11-04T23:48:00.000Z

So here I am, having been learning Japanese for seven years now, and I yet somehow I never happened to learn from a book like this...

(via)

Facebook + Mixi = very little real social life

2006-11-01T19:53:00.000Z

Time was when I thought reading blogs (and writing my own) was taking up too much of my time. Then this summer a friend introduced me to Facebook, which started out as a social networking site for university students. Having no time for the vagaries and vicissitudes of MySpace, at first I didn't really think it was for me. However, I got hooked pretty easily, and tracked down a load of international students I knew from Kansai Gaidai. I think the great advantage of systems like this is that it enables you to keep in touch easily with people you know but haven't seen in a while. I don't email that much, and it can be easier to leave a few words on someone's wall than to compose a long letter to them.

Then, at the start of this year, our Japanese teacher signed us up to Mixi, a Japanese social networking site. I knew about it from a recommendation by the guys at Mutantfrog, which is certainly good enough for me. Mixi has gradually crept into my life, until it threatens to become a full-time obsession like Facebook. It's a good way to improve your Japanese, as you're navigating your way through a completely Japanese-language interface, and rather than, say, translating a news story that you can get from the English-language site of that newspaper, Mixi is full of stuff you want to read, from your friends and in the groups you can join.

Of course, does all this virtual socialising leaves little time for a real-world social life? I don't know. I'll answer that question when I get back from the Japanese Society Halloween party.

The Pun That Got Away

2006-10-24T17:24:00.000+01:00

In my Renaissance Literature seminar, I was listening to one of my classmates talk about how women were represented in the literature of the time. She mentioned how women who attempted to learn and acquire knowledge for themselves were at that time regarded as unnatural and "hermaphroditic". I was about to ask if she meant "androgynous", but then realised I couldn't open my mouth, because if I did, I'd make some awful joke about "boning up."

Somehow, I managed not to blurt out anything, and the seminar finished with everyone none the wiser that I am in fact a childish idiot.

Channeling Ed Murrow

2006-10-21T14:12:00.000+01:00

US broadcaster Keith Olbermann takes on the Military Commisions Act 2006. It's nine minutes long, but a must-see.

(via Chicken Yoghurt)

Korea and China

2006-10-19T18:04:00.000+01:00

The conventional wisdom on North Korea's nuclear test is that it's out for the international prestige and insurance against a possible US attack that joining the nuclear club would provide. An alternative explanation of its actions comes from China Matters - it's actually all about China.

North Korea’s weapons programs are meant to discommode China with the threat of a Asian arms race and the specter of Japan becoming a pro-active regional security force with US backing, and remind Beijing of the necessity of advancing North Korea’s interests on the world stage—in this particular case, getting China to support lifting some onerous U.S. financial sanctions.

Well, I believe China’s looked at its options and opportunities and decided that the best riposte to North Korea’s nuclear program is to strip Pyongyang of its independence in national defense and foreign affairs—in other words, assert virtually the same suzerainty that China imposed on the peninsula before the Japanese occupation in 1895.

(via) It's been said that North Korea is angry over the freezing of its accounts in Macau and elswhere by the US, as these provide the country's elite with the hard cash they so desperately need. But now China has joined in financially isolating the North (see the China Matters post above) the matter of motive becomes a little unclear.

North Korea wants to step out from under China's patronage and become a player on the world stage. China doesn't want it to - it trades more with South Korea than the North now, and is looking to a future where the Korean peninsula is at peace, with both nations under Chinese influence. However, China's plans for North Korea to emulate its own economic reforms are running aground, simply because the North's rulers are putting their foot down and saying no.

The two Koreas have a few factors in common, shaped by culture and history. The are fircely proud of their national heritage, and they are suspicious of Japan and China, their two larger neighbours who have both occupied Korea at various times in the past. Just as anti-US sentiment in South Korea is currently running high, the patron-client relationship between China and North Korea has slowly gone sour.

So what does this mean for the future of the region? China, angry at the North's defiance, will carry on squeezing it, which in turn will only cause the regime to dig in its heels. I see no sign of a rapprochement between the two Koreas, and there is no incentive for China to talk to any of the other regional powers. Meanwhile, the US is realigning its forces in the Pacific, transferring forces from Japan and Korea to Guam, focusing on "capabilities, not numbers" - basically the lightweight, high-tech military strategy that is en vogue at the moment. They aren't planning for a heavy-duty, full-scale invasion anytime soon.

Basically, the situation is in stalemate. China holds all the cards, and the current state of affairs is very much to its liking. The US, being unable to either destroy Kim Jong-Il or talk to him directly, is going to have to take a back seat for the forseeable future.

Connecting, translating, pok(er)ing

2006-10-18T16:47:00.000+01:00

We now have broadband in our house, and I am currently tapping away at this post on my laptop. Makes posting a bit more civilised (and easier) when you don't have to go out of the house and head to the computer clusters on campus.

In other news, Level 2 Japanese is working me very hard. I'm staying on top, just about. In translation classes, we are working on an op-ed piece by Shintaro Ishihara, governor of Tokyo, right-wing icon and lover of things robotic. It's an unintentionally hilarious rant against Chinese immigration, featuring some unduly convoluted language which would be a real pain even if I was actually good at translating. We have a great teacher though. It's a shame that I'm firmly in her bad books for missing lessons.

In happier news, I won my first poker game last night. My housemates are fiends for card games, and we play Texas Hold 'Em for small stakes sometimes. Not sure what I'll do with my winnings yet. Oh, who am I kidding, I'll spend 'em all on booze.

KGU connections

2006-10-11T13:20:00.000+01:00

I went out to a Japanese Society social last night. I was rather pleased to find my Japanese hadn't deserted me completely. I met a student from Kansai Gaidai, which was rather fun, and a little nostalgic.

I'm enjoying my Asia-Pacific module at the moment, as I can appear intelligent in class by simply saying things I've cribbed from Scott's Pacific Rivalry course back at Kansai Gaidai. It worked a little too well when one of my comments segued into a showing of the same documentary series we'd watched in Scott's classes.

All these coincidences ... is Kansai Gaidai in fact the Lost island? I'll have to find a picture of the time my friend Joe was in a wheelchair. Don't tell him what he can't do.

Insert straw-man joke here

2006-10-06T15:46:00.000+01:00

Had a rather evntful morning. Woke up to discover that the water was off and the street outside was flooded. The people from Yorkshire Water came out and had it back on very quickly, only for us to discover that the toilet was now spilling water all over the bathroom floor. We stood there like lemons looking at it, until S (the organised one and mother of the house) took charge and got us to stem the flow. Eventually it stopped, and all was back to normal.

Free from torrents, toilets and other disctractions, I can now talk about Jack Straw's latest comments. He's taken it from concerns about meeting with his contituents to a full-blown "open and honest debate" of the kind of new Labour love so well. If this is Straw making his play for high office when Brown takes over, it's telling that all he has to offer is yet more stupidity and illiberalism. (I remember when Jack Straw as Home Secretary was the last word in stupidity and illiberalism. Oh, those were the days.)

I see a couple of Muslim students around campus who wear the full niqab, with only a slit for eyes. It does make me a little uncomfortable. But I don't ask them to take it off, just as people don't ask me to change my appearance or dress. If we were talking, maybe I'd ask her about why she wears it. Maybe I'd learn something. And maybe I'd come away reassured.

Letting someone know who you feel about the veil is fine. Asking them to take it off, in your office or home, is fine too, as long as you explain why (and ask nicely). Demanding that it not be worn at all is illiberal and plain wrong. And conflating the two positions, as Straw has done, does no favours for understanding and tolerance.

Honest Assessments

2006-10-02T16:45:00.000+01:00

Talking to a classmate, before our Japanese lesson today:

Me: Who teaches the Thursday lessons?
Her: H~~~-sensei.
Me: Right. I need to talk to her.
Her: Got a question to ask?
Me: No, I missed last week's class.
Her: Oops.
Me: Yep. I think an apology is in order.
Her: To be honest, I don't think she'll care. Or notice you were absent.
Me: Really?
Her: It's like she's on this other plane of reality.
Me: So she's not a crack-the-whip type?
Her: Oh no.
Me: ...Thank God.

A trip round the neighbourhood

2006-10-01T17:44:00.000+01:00

What's this? Another Moore Than This Photo Special to fill up space while Jim thinks of something to write about? Indeed it is!

While posting here has been very light as of late, I've been settling back into life at Leeds. My new housemates are a nice bunch, which is rather lucky considering I met them through a notice on a student housing website. I count myself lucky at having ended up in a big, comfortable room in a house with some fun people which is very close to campus. Anyway, settling in is all well and good, but it didn't give me many entertaining things to write about, and my work schedule means I can't comment on every bit of news I find interesting. Still, this weekend I had a bit of free time and managed to take my camera for a walk round Hyde Park (where I live) and the university area. Click each photo for full-size version.

My house, aka the Lair of Moore. A place where anything can happen, and probably already has.

The view down Royal Park Road, looking toward the local mosque.

Hyde park, in all its glory.

The statue of Robert Peel, temporarily ~~vandalised~~ turned into a memorial for John Peel when he died during my first year.

A bit of philosophical graffitti, found on a park bench.

And finally, the Parkinson Building, main entrance to Leeds University.

The Old Reason

2006-09-27T16:33:00.000+01:00

I began lectures this week. No longer feel like I'm treading water or muddling through, although I'm not sure if that's optimism or not. I had my first lecture on International Politics of the Asia-Pacific Region (another one of those course titles that are even worse to say than to type). It seems pretty interesting, much like Pacific Rivalry back at Kansai Gaidai. The lecturer doesn't seem as witty and insightful as Scott, though. The moment of levity in the lecture came while telling us to buy the course textbook, which he had co-written, when he mentioned that the proceeds from the whole class purchasing a copy would amount to the price of a pint of lager.

When anybody asks me why I got into East Asian Studies, I always tell them: for the money and the women.

Let uniblogging commence!

2006-09-21T17:37:00.000+01:00

I moved all my stuff into the house in Leeds this weekend. However, as my intro week seems a little sparse and my new housemates all decided to head back home over the weekend, I've gone back to Cambridge for a couple of days to bring back more stuff. Leeds looks nice - it hasn't changed much. I keep bumping into people I know on and around campus, which was nice as most of them I hadn't seen seem in a year or so. As the year goes on, I'll try to hold to my resolution to not bore people too much about my time in Japan. (This blog more than makes up for that.)

Baggy trousers - not just for Madness

2006-09-15T16:53:00.000+01:00

From newly-discovered PingMag (The Tokyo-based magazine about "Design and Making Things"), a piece on Japanese construction worker fashion. During my time in Japan, I would see construction and maintenance crews everywhere, all wearng much the same regalia - hard hats, overalls, very wide, baggy trousers and tabi (Japanese two-toed shoes). I was intruiged by the baggy trousers most of all, as I'd have thought they would get in the way. But this article says otherwise:

There are various theories why the lower part under the knee is pumped up like a balloon. The main reason, however, seems to be a simple one: the baggy pants make it easy to move, easy to bend, stretch and stride.

Other explanations can be, that when working on very narrow scaffoldings high up in the air, it is good to have some kind of sensor: the balloon part of your trousers touches obstacles before your legs do, which acts as kind of a warning system without necessarily having to look down. Besides, they can measure the intensity of the wind and the bagginess prevents the fabric from clinging to your leg even when you are sweating. It also works as a cushion when you drop spiky tools onto your body.

Right below the pumped up part, the trousers become narrow again in order to tighten up your calves. Why? Pressing the calves encourages blood circulation and helps you to work longer and to stand for hours without your feet swelling up.

As soomeone who grew up in Cambridge during the whole baggy skate pants craze, I feel weirdly reassured that the fashion survives somewhere.

(Incidentally, I go back to Leeds on the weekend. Not much to say about that at the moment.)

Pub quiz triumph and tragedy

2006-09-07T23:57:00.000+01:00

So here's the story. We are at the regular Thursday night pub quiz at local pub The Boot - the scene of some heartfelt political discussion last week. Despite being a few members down, our team valiantly fights on, and we end up scoring 33/40 on the quiz, our best yet. However we are tied with another team. Pete had promised Paul (our rotund quizmaster) that if we won he would sing. We win the tie-break due to "amazingly good luck" (no fixing here. Hem hem) and then Pete steadfastly refuses to sing. Paul declares the other team the winners, and then hands us two instead of three bottles of wine as punishment for Pete's refusal to sing. Treachery to the cause or perfectly understandable behaviour? (Obviously I know which one is right, but I'm just presenting the facts without comment.)

Security vs. liberty: imbalanced, to say the least

2006-09-01T18:32:00.000+01:00

While heroically competing in the regular pub quiz at our local with some old school friends, we got to talking about the increased security measures at airports following the anti-terror arrests back in August. I was away on holiday at the time, but it was big news - even Ouest-France, the local paper (for local people), swung away from their focus on small-town civic events and road accidents to provide coverage.

Anyway, one of our party brought up the old "would you rather wait an extra minute, or be blown up?" straw-man argument. I tried telling him that it wasn't a matter of a simple two-way choice - there are different degrees of response to a terrorist threat. And in the matter of degrees, our government has cocked it right up.

Imagine the alleged terrorist plot had actually been executed. There would be mass panic, grounded flights, and intensive scrutiny of people's baggage. Exactly the same, in fact, as what is happening now. If the arrests were successful, why the mass cancellations and bizarrely draconian airport security? If a major terrorist plot has been forestalled using existing laws, why the 'threat levels' nonsense and calls for ever more sweeping powers? Does anyone else remember not letting the terrorists win? Because our government certainly doesn't:

The politics of fear. I was bored of it. Now I'm getting fucking scared of it. One side wants to kill us "because of our freedoms". The other wants to deny us our freedoms in order to protect us. Excuse me? Why are we letting the terrorists win by default?

I know I'm late to the party on all this terrorblogging, but that argument in the pub brought up my true and honest opinion. What makes me feel uneasy is that some people do think of it as a necessary sacrifice. While there's a definite case for looking at the balance between liberty and security, my feeling is that we've already given up far too much of one with only a slight return on the other (you can tell which one is which, I'm sure). U.S. news mentions that the alleged conspirators were caught through police work rather than any general screening; a fine testament to our ability to thwart the terrorist threat, which is then ruined by hysterical over-reaction at airports and on TV. As Bruce Schneier says in that last link: "The real lesson of the London arrests is that investigation and intelligence work."

English (and) Abroad

2006-08-26T18:15:00.000+01:00

I appear to have missed this - Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand has been writing a food column for the Guardian. His last one has a nice aside on the distinction between tourists and "travellers":

A tourist in his early 20s is explaining to another tourist in her early 20s that he is not a tourist: he is a "traveller". They have a tourist map spread on the cafe table in front of them, by the English translation of the menu. He is saying that his experience is richer. He looks, smells and acts like a tourist. I don't get it. Because he stays in a hostel rather than a hotel, is the veritas more veritable? Or is he just a git?

I'm a tourist. I tour the world. I don't feel I have to excuse myself. The travelling bit is dull. In my mind, that is standing around baggage belts hoping that my case hasn't been lost again. Of course I'm a bloody tourist. I don't have the insider's perspective. I feel like a stranger everywhere I go. I like that perspective.

Quite. Living in Japan gives you a lot of that outsider's perspective, because as however well you speak the language and understand the culture, you'll never really belong. This isn't a gripe, just an observation that even longtime residents have to deal with being treated like a newcomers, with all that entails. However, as I've said before, speaking the lingo does make the difference between the outsider's perspective (which will lose its appeal with long-term residency) and a genuine insight.

This leads into a long essay from today's edition about another pet annoyance of mine: the British education system's pisspoor attitude to teaching foreign languages. Agnès Poirier writes from a French perspective on the problem Britain has with teaching languages. This is a really important issue, for a few of the reasons listed in the article. Numbers of pupils taking GCSEs in the subject are already falling, and now universities are dropping languages:

Back in 2002, the University Council of Modern Languages carried out a survey of 30 universities in Britain: three-quarters had substantially or partly cut their modern languages departments. Between 1999 and 2002, 130 university posts in languages had disappeared. In July last year, Oxford Brookes University, one among many others, announced it was dropping its German, Spanish and Italian degree courses. Overall, the languages that have ceased to be taught at some British universities over the past few years have included Portuguese, Arabic, Russian and Spanish.

This is beyond belief. Of course we don't need Arabic! It's not like we have a large strategic investment in the Middle East, and are likely to do so for a long time. This really does make me bloody angry. The government has ended compulsory language studies for 14- to 16-year-olds, and then bleats on about the decline in languages. The thing is, if you're going to learn a language, the best time to do is when you're young and you brain is more receptive (this is why I'm jealous of kids brought up in bilingual households). And kids, as I'm sure you're aware, are not going to do anything like studying unless it's compulsory. Trust me on this. This is why I'm in favour of Continental-style compulsory language teaching, as is Poirier:

Why can't languages be taught as compulsory subjects from nursery to A-level, as they are in almost every country in Europe? I didn't have much say in what languages I learnt back in France. It was obligatoire, no bargaining possible. I had to learn two new langues vivantes (though I could choose which two among a poor choice of five) and one or two langues mortes, Latin and Greek. If I had been given the choice, I probably wouldn't have chosen any, and right now I would be writing in French and living in Paris. What does a child know?

But, once exposed, the curiosity grew in me. I naturally asked for more and added a third langue vivante at the age of 13. As a result, my horizons have widened considerably. Once you have tasted exotic fruit, you are hungry for more.

The practical or utilitarian reasons are covered well in the article, but it's the intangibles that she really writes well about:

There is no secret: to really get to see things as others do, and thus to understand them, one must master their language and, in the process, endure hardship and ridicule. Not a job for the faint-hearted. Try it and you'll be mocked for your accent; you'll struggle to make yourself heard, let alone be understood; you will stumble on words, fall silent, unable to keep up the pace of the conversation; you'll suffer a thousand deaths, that of continual misunderstandings, the kind newly arrived immigrants face every day, everywhere in the world.

[...]

When somebody refuses to learn someone else's language on the grounds that it is not useful, they implicitly reject the other's culture and their way of seeing the world - not a very good start for universal peace and understanding. Not a helpful way to make the world a more complex and richer place to live in either. Rather a recipe for unilateral, over-simplistic dogmas, such as the war on terror.

If this government really wants Britain to have an influential position in the world, make the teaching of languages a priority (along with sorting out the general crappiness of the education system. If we work at it, it'll make the difference between tourists and confident, independant citizens of the world.

I am a very lucky man

2006-08-22T12:31:00.000+01:00

We were driving back from Dover yesterday afternoon, when our car started veering from one side of the motorway to the other. Dad steered us towards the central reservation, where we spun round on a grassy verge and hit the crash barrier side-on. There was a loud knock, a large jolt, and we were still. It turned out we'd blown a tyre on the road.

Fortunately, everyone in the car was OK. We were calling the emergency services, when some people from the Highways Agency appeared and towed our car to the hard shoulder. They could not have been nicer - they stayed and chatted with us while we waited for a breakdown service to come and take us back to Cambridge. In addition to the burst tyre, the suspension was gone, so the car came back on the back of a flat-bed truck. An odd end to the holiday. Personally though, I'm still very very glad my family and I ended up safe and unharmed. Living to blog the tale, as it were.

"Carbonisé": a word for all occasions

2006-08-03T21:03:00.000+01:00

I'm off on holiday tomorrow, to France for a couple of weeks. We'll be in a tiny town on the Atlantic coast with no Net connection, so the only medium for keeping up with world affairs is local paper Ouest France, who deal mostly in graphic accounts of horrific road accidents. See you.

An observation

2006-08-02T23:53:00.000+01:00

I was down in London today. Went to see a man about a house, although it didn't work out. One thing struck me, though. The Underground train seemed so small. I had the odd feeling that the subway trains in Japan are bigger, and I was having a period of readjustment.

Domo arigato, Professor Roboto!

2006-07-31T23:17:00.000+01:00

In homage to the dudes at Mutant Frog - a post that combines Japan and robots!

A Kyoto researcher has built an android which looks almost exactly like him, and has on occcasion sent it into his classes at Osaka University to deliver lectures for him. (Japan, robots and the Kansai region - score!) The print version of the story is especially hilarious, as it includes a small picture of the professor and his robot double. They're eerily similar, but the robot has this cross-eyed scowl, like the puppet Kim Jong-Il in Team America: World Police. Still, the guy has form - he built the team that won the first robot world cup.

Now I think about it, I wouldn't mind having robots delivering lectures to me. And after the recent dispute over UK university workers' pay, neither would those in charge of the universities. Until the army of robo-academics inevitably rises up to crush their human masters, of course. Then workplace relations in academia will be a very different place. What on earth will David Lodge write about then?

"Jihad with money"

2006-07-30T23:34:00.000+01:00

Just watched the very good Panorama programme "Faith, hate and charity" tonight. It dealt with U.K.-based charity Interpal, and how it seems to be sending money to Hamas to help with its indoctrination programs for young children. It was great, a really well-made documentary - apart from the editing style, which recalled Oliver Stone. (For a more relaxing visual experience, try smashing your head into a paving stone for a good half hour.)

Apparently the strategy started with a big Israeli blitz against Hamas' money in the early '90s, where a number of Hamas fundraisers were caught by Israel and sent to prison for supplying money to the charitable and 'military' sections. From then on, the decision was taken to separate the two, at least in public.

The high points of the documentary were the interviews, particularly with Hamas-aligned charities in the West Bank who were the recipients of Interpal's money. For bare-faced lying, New Labour politicians have nothing on these guys:

JOHN WARE: I'm curious about that little sign up there. What exactly is it?

HASHEM RJOUB, ORPHANAGE DIRECTOR: 'Do not disappoint the orphan.' This is a Koranic verse. The Koran encourages us to protect the orphan.

JW: And that red colour coming down the arm and spilling over the world? What does that signify?

HR: By God... It's not clear whether it's blood or not, but in truth it looks like it might be.

JW: It conveys to me a picture of Islam dominating the world, and if necessary through bloodshed.

HR: It's true. This picture expresses the vision of the person who drew it. This doesn't necessarily mean that these things exist. I want to stress that Islam has ruled most of the world without blood. There was no blood, it was through persuasion.

The programme also includes an inteview with Yusuf al-Qaradawi, in which he talks about the role of Islamic charities, saying: "Don't talk about donations. I think of it as jihad with money." Usually these would be the ramblings of some extremist idiot, but according to the programme he is the director of an umbrella organisation of Islamic charities.

Hamas has long used its charitable/social work arm to gain support in the deprived Palestinian territories, which probabaly led it to victory in January's elections. This takes me back to something Jamie K wrote during the Israeli attacks on Gaza back in early July. To paraphrase: as a non-state organisation, Hamas was far more effective than it currently is as a quasi-state. This kind of charity-based largesse is easy to pull off, and easy to conflate with terrorist actions, when you don't have any government budgets to balace, as well as government institutions that can be bombed to bits at a moment's notice.

The Charity Commission comes out very badly in the programme, though from talking with my dad that doesn't seem so surprising. He has personal experience of dealing with them in the early '90s, when they refused to take action against a "charity" run by one guy who had applied for funding so he could get a rent-free office to run his other businesses. The developments in charity organisations, where they would become tools for political groups or for chancers looking for free money, seemed to pass the Commission by.

Well, that's my inner Harry's Placer all tired out. As for the general shitstorm in the Lebanon, I'm too sick of all the carnage to form an opinion, thought Shuggy's masterful post is a good starter in itself.

China builds scale model of disputed territory in the desert

2006-07-30T22:14:00.000+01:00

Via ComingAnarchy.com, I found a tip-off from davesgonechina about a strange find on Google Maps:

On the west side of the village Huangyangtan is what I take to be a military facility of some kind (judging by the masses of olive-colored trucks parked there). And right next to that is a scale-model of a landscape. I haven't tried to identify which region it depicts, but it doesn't seem to be a model of the region where this has been built. The model is mostly mountain ranges, complete with lakes and snow-capped peaks.

If you look at the map in question, it's rather striking - a perfect rectangle of mountainous territory in the middle of a flat, red desert. A bit of digging, and the same guy turns up this info:

It's of territory occupied by China but claimed by India, north and south of the east end of the Karakoram range.

It appears to be a 500:1 scale model of the Aksai Chin region, disputed territory occupied by China but claimed by India. A road built through this territory by China was apparently one of the flashpoints in the 1962 Sino-Indian War.

The first thing this made me think of was one of my earlier posts, where I considered the possibility of India and Japan in a partnership of convenience against China. Then I started to think of what an amazing resource the internet is. That people from around the world can look into one of the most remote areas of a dictatorship which take its military secrets very seriously, then find out the source of the model, if not its purpose. To be honest, a huge military such as China's is going to be full of projects that will never get off the ground, and probably weren't intended to. Perhaps it's just some generals inflating their budgets, and probably skimming a bit off the top while they're at it.

Another Homage to Catalonia

2006-07-29T22:40:00.000+01:00

I got back from Barcelona yesterday, having some enjoyed some lovely food, wonderful scenery, and treatment from Ryanair that made me want to throw back my head and let out a full-throated, Jack Bauer-style "DAMMIT!". Having left two of our suitcases behind in Stansted, and not getting them over to Spain until the last day we were there. We picked them up at the airport on our way out, only to be told our flight was cancelled. I pictured Michael O'Leary frolicking in a vault filled with Euros as we made our way to the Ryanair desk. There were two people there - very nice and as helpful as possible, but faced with two hundred-odd irate British tourists, many in full baseball cap and tracksuit regalia, they were all at sea. Disaster was averted as we phoned up Dad back home and got him to book us a flight out the next day.

Pooterish holiday-from-hell-blogging aside, it was a great couple of days. We stayed at a hotel just off Las Ramblas, which was brilliant for wandering down the huge thoroughfare and seeing the city's personality. Mime artists, tourists, promenading residents and a certain amount of disreputable characters as well (you haven't been to Barcelona unless someone's attempted to rob you). It leads down to the redeveloped harbour area, where you can walk across a footbridge to look at the boats coming in and leaving. Very romantic, especially of an evening. Oh yeah, and I saw a bird eating another bird. (The one time I forget to bring my camera!)

Back in the game

2006-07-28T14:22:00.000+01:00

trinity library
Originally uploaded by moorethanthis.

My trusty old Fuji Finepix F410, which I used to snap a near-obsessive amount of photos in Japan, stopped working the day I returned to the U.K. Sad as this was, it was the perfect excuse to get a new camera. So I picked up a Canon EOS 350D, with some money from my first paycheck. I'd seen it in Japan and liked the look of it, but over there it was called the Digital Kiss - a rather naff-sounding name for what is a fine bit of kit. Although I'm new to SLR photography, it's been very cool playing with all the new features. And of course, Cambridge in the summer just begs to be photographed. Taking pictures of the college buildings, from a punt, on a warm sunny evening, is one of life's finer pleasures.

The twin forces

2006-07-21T15:24:00.000+01:00

I'm coming to the end of my final week at the language school. It feels like it's gone really fast, and I'm torn between wishing I could stay on a little longer and just wanting to be shot of it. Similar emotions abound with regard to a few of the people I've met here, one in particular. The twin forces of attraction and repulsion are at work - she is very beautiful, which means I could look at her all day, but at the same time just being in her company reminds me of how little we have in common, and I want to avoid her. At some point I ought to wonder how many times I've been in this situation, and then reflect on what that says about me. But then, learning from my mistakes was never my strong point.

Your licence fee money at work

2006-07-17T13:32:00.000+01:00

I'm a big fan of the BBC, and think their news services are second to none. However, the current 'participatory media' craze has swept through the Beeb a little more than most, which can lead to some real classics of unfiltered opinion. Browsing the BBC website, I came across a Have Your Say thread where people could send in questions "to callers in China and Chinese living across the world." Looking at the most recent comments, there are some that truly deserve closer attention. (N.B. These are all real comments, I swear.)

Added: Friday, 14 July, 2006, 09:23 GMT 10:23 UK

What is your long term plans? Would they include returning to your homeland when civilised government is in place? How did you manage to leave a war torn country on the other side of Africa and get to the UK? Do you feel happy in a country when so many of the inhabitants dislike foreigners?

Roy Smith, Tauranga, New Zealand

China is on the other side of Africa? That's an A* in Geography GCSE by today's standards. "War-torn", however?

Meanwhile, in Cliche Corner we have this pair of gems:

Added: Thursday, 13 July, 2006, 21:47 GMT 22:47 UK

How do the Chinese use the concepts of Yin and Yang energy to bring much needed balance in todays busy and stressful lifestyle?

What advice can Chinese people give to the materialistic people in the west, who no longer have any belieg system or spirituality, and lack direction in all their goals?

Declan Philips, UK

Added: Thursday, 13 July, 2006, 21:45 GMT 22:45 UK

Chinese society is traditionally very polite and modest. What then do your elders think of the current fashion in western countries where women are selling themselves as glamour models and exposing themselves in magazines? Do you find it degrading and insulting to women who are usually the respected head of a household in China? Would you like to see young Chinese girls acting and dressing like people here, ie models and people like Jordan, Jodie Marsh etc where they are practically naked?

Donna, Essex

Traditionally, Chinese women were not the "head of a household". They were viewed as a "curse" on the family for being unable to work like males, and were sold off as property in arranged marriages. The only time a woman's life in traditional rural China got any better was when a young wife entered the household, who she would then treat like a slave. Top marks, though, for putting Jodie Marsh on the frontline of the East/West values conflict. I don't think even Martin Jacques has done that yet.

Added: Thursday, 13 July, 2006, 21:16 GMT 22:16 UK

What do Chinese people think about Indian food?! Is it too hot and spicy for your taste? We use many of the same spices, eg ginger, garlic and chilli. Are Chinese people very conservative or adventurous in their tastes? Which type of food do you prefer, apart from your own?!!!

Karim, Leicester

Eat some Szechuan, that'll answer your question.

I can't help thinking that these commenters are in need of a small "China explainer" like in the classic Tintin book The Blue Lotus, where a three-panel section dissolves centuries of prejudice by explaining that Chinese do not spend all their time eating bird's nest soup and thinking up torture techniques. Although the portrayal of scheming, buck-toothed Japanese in the book might create more problems than it solves.

Still, I can't make fun of all the comments. Here's one that, secretly, I'd love to know the answer to:

Added: Friday, 14 July, 2006, 09:39 GMT 10:39 UK

Did you/ do you have problems understanding the irish accent?

Imran, London

I'm English, and I still have trouble with it. Working with a couple of Northern Irish people has improved things though, so it has.

Updates

2006-07-16T14:32:00.000+01:00

As recognition of this blog recently passing the one-year mark, I've edited the sidebar to include a section of links on Japan. They're for myself as well as any readers who are interested, as it's a good thing to keep my hand in by watching Japanese TV and listening to radio programs. It would be awesome if one person became interested in Japan as a result of the stuff I've posted over the course of this year, but at any rate I'm happy for this blog to be just like any other blog - an outlet for my ramblings and geeky obsessions.

Another Sunny Day

2006-07-14T22:45:00.000+01:00

Picture the scene: late afternoon, in the back garden of the staff house. The sun is shining, and the boys are playing cricket (slightly modified to fit the tiny proportions of the garden), while the one girl present reads and suns herself. When you aren't playing, you sit out on the patio, sipping a cold beer and letting the sun warm you. When you are, you head up to bat and an enthusiastic bowler gives your abs a workout by throwing the tennis ball straight into your stomach. The game becomes a mixture of skill, slapstick and sheer dumb luck, depending on who's playing and how much they actually know about cricket. This is how you relax after work. You play on, drink beer, crack jokes, throw balls around. You wouldn't change any of it for the world.

Adventures in extreme boredom

2006-07-12T12:18:00.000+01:00

The reason I went to the staff house yesterday evening was because we were helping out at a disco for the students, which was held at a nightclub in the city centre. Afterwards, we went back to the house again and had a few beers.

I made a unseemly discovery about a colleague of mine. I've always talked to him before when his girlfriend is around, and he seemed like a nice guy. That evening, after she went to bed, I sat around the table with him and two other guys, and as the conversation went on I realised that he would not stop talking.

It wasn't like he was one of those people who dominate the conversation. He was the conversation. There are always a few tell-tale signs that someone loves the sound of their own voice so much that they will let nothing come between one word and another - the frequent returning to points already made, the needless self-contradiction and switching of topics, talking over other people's responses, as if "Yes, but..." was all they wanted to say. You stare at his ceaselessly moving mouth, your hands involuntarily clenching as you realise you are bound for the seventh circle of hell. Interrupting will only increase your anger, as he is ignorant of both your desire to talk and the words that you say. The only thing you can do is sit back and tune out (preferably while carrying on drinking). After I'd finished off my last "one last beer", I made my excuses and left.

From now on, I'm only talking to him when his girlfriend is around. She seems to keep him in check, and what's more, she's a good conversationalist.

Low Crimes and Misdemeanours

2006-07-11T17:30:00.000+01:00

As a famous aristocrat once wrote, "Never apologise, never explain". But then, sometimes it does you a world of good. Last Saturday, after the excursion to London, I went round to the hosue shared by fellow activity organisers at the school for a barbequeue, which turned into a late night party. At some point during the evening, punch was made in a plastic bucket. Thinking punch is basically fruit juice with a little more of a kick, I went straight for it, unaware of what precisely made up this punch. For the record, it was almost entirely rum. It was not so much 'punch' as 'GBH'. The last thing I remember that night was coming round and wondering why I had a redhead wig on my head.

The big question this week was whether to say sorry for getting amazingly drunk, abusing their hospitality, smashing all the slats out of the spare bed and crashing at their place. But oddly enough, the only thing I was asked about was a missing bottle of white wine that one of the girls had put in the fridge. I don't remember drinking it, and I don't think it would have been physically possible in the state I was in to open it. But still, tonight I set off for the staff house carrying a bottle of white wine that I have pinched from my family's store (in the manner of a Wehrmacht officer billeted in a French chateau). If you had to ask me why, it wouldn't be for the need to apologise somehow for my ridiculous behaviour, or the thought that it wasn't worth arguing over something I don't even know if I did or not. It was because of one of the important rules of my life: that it's never a good thing to get on the wrong side of a pretty girl for too long.

Great lies I have told

2006-07-10T18:01:00.000+01:00

"I know what I'm doing."

Said at various points this past week.

I'm just kidding - the job is surpirsingly easy. Sometimes you may not know exactly what's going on, but the trick is basically to bluff it out, and the kids will usually believe you. Even on the big excursion to London on Saturday was alright - taking care of 15 young students who all want to wander off with their friends was a little traumatic, but I got through it without any major disasters. My career as a professional child-wrangler is going excellently.

Welcome to the Working Week

2006-07-03T19:04:00.000+01:00

Rather unexpectedly, I have landed myself a job this summer. Thanks to a friend who had worked at a language school last summer, I got a three-week contract as an "Activity Organiser" which means I help out with the students when they're not in lessons. As jobs go, it seems pretty good. This afternoon I took a bunch of foreign kids on walking tour around Cambridge. The numbers of my party fluctuated wildly from 20 to 25 to 17, but all made it back in the end. It felt like being the Pied Piper for the day, but without the disturbing overtones of child-snatching. Despite the post title (have to get the Elvis Costello reference in there somewhere) this really doesn't feel like work, it feels like having fun. Maybe that feeling will change when I get paid.

(N.B. In the best traditions of workplace blogging, I'll be keeping the name and location of the outfit I work for a secret, out of respect to my employers. Although in three weeks I doubt if I can do, let alone blog about something that could get me sacked, it's best to be on the safe side.)

China and nationalism

2006-07-02T13:20:00.000+01:00

I'm not a big fan of Guardian columnist Martin Jacques, who specialises in churning out hyperbolic pro-China pieces week after week, so I scanned the first paragraph of his review of four recent books on China with trepidation. It was a surprisingly good review, though - Jacques, a supremely unoriginal thinker, seems to do better when summarising others' thoughts.

The books all seem pretty interesting, Christopher R Hughes' Chinese Nationalism in the Global Era the most so - if I have some spare readies I might pick it up. Jaques comments:

Hughes points out the continuing central importance of Deng Xiaoping's thinking in these debates. He traces the growing importance of nationalism and argues that this has become a central plank of the regime's legitimacy. He may be right about this, but the phenomenon of Chinese nationalism cannot be encompassed simply by reference to these party debates. It is also a function of wider social and cultural trends that have little to do with the party, for instance the predictable pride in the country that such a remarkable transformation is engendering. But more generally, and perhaps importantly, the nature of Chinese nationalism itself for a country that only became a fully-fledged nation-state just over a century ago and yet has a more profound sense of its identity than probably any other raises the question of what actually constitutes that "nationalism", or whether nationalism is the appropriate word for what might also be described as Sinocentrism.

Looking at the last sentence, Jacques doesn't bother to consider whether the paradox of "a country that only became a fully-fledged nation-state just over a century ago and yet has a more profound sense of its identity than probably any other" may have something to do with the difference between nationalism and sinocentrism.

Sinocentrism is a belief in China as the centre of the world - its vry name, "the Middle Kingdom", highlights its self-regard in this respect. With the intervention by colonial powers in the 19th Century, and the Japanese wars and invasion, this outlook was given a rude awakening, and lacking the mechanisms to re-evaluate China's place in the world, humiliation bred resentment.

Nationalism is a vengeful doctrine, patriotism's misbegotten offspring. It fosters resentment, belief that your country has been wronged, and hatred of a suitable enemy. For present-day China, this enemy is its neighbour and one-time occupier, Japan. Stoking hostility towards Japan unites China and helps keep the CCP in power. The question for the future of East Asian relations is whether the regime will be able to control the increasingly extreme anti-Japanese sentiment. With more and more violent reactions to textbooks, Yasukuni and other issues, Japan will see little point in trying to compromise. And increased hostility in Northeast Asia is a foregone conclusion. Jacques would do well to consider this when he writes more uncritical praise of China and its leaders.

JapanBlogging from another continent

2006-07-01T10:16:00.000+01:00

Well, I'm back, without too many mishaps. Came across a couple of articles this morning: one from TCS Daily about the Japanese government's efforts to promote patriotism as part of the education system, and one from the Japan Times concerning China and Korea's own issues with history and patriotism. The Marmot's Hole, an excellent blog on Korean affairs, provides some thoughtful commentary on the latter.

The issue of revising Japan's Fundamental Law of Education to encourage patriotism in schools is a long-running controversy. It is unlikely that it will be passed during the Diet's current session, due to continued wrangling between the parties. The last I heard, there was a disagreement between the two parties of the dominant coalition over whether the precise wording should be "love the nation" or "treasure the nation". Apparently, one of them was too overly nationalistic. No, I'm not sure which one either.

So, does Japan have a problem with patriotism? I'm of the opinion that it does - there is still an awful lot of walking on eggshells when it comes to attitudes towards their country. As I've written before, there is a curious tension between ultra-nationalist undercurrents in Japanese society and the general attitude that Japan paid too big a price in the Second World War for a resurgence of the kind of blind chauvinism that was instilled by the authorities through that period.

Thoughout the 1930s and 40s, children were indoctrinated through the education system. The mere suggestion of returning patriotism to the curriculum is enough to make some people worried, as the TCS Daily piece reports:

In Saitama prefecture at least 45 local schools were producing report cards for 6th grade students on "love of country", though officials stress that how to evaluate this is being left up to the schools.

However, despite widespread concerns about juvenile crime and a breakdown in classroom discipline, there are many Japanese who question both whether teaching patriotism is a good idea and whether it is even possible. They argue that it is easy to say you are patriotic just to get a few boxes ticked on a report card, but there is no way of knowing whether you really mean it. Some are also concerned that it will create too restrictive a definition of patriotism that will inhibit students from thinking for themselves.

This is an essential and long-time feature of the Japanese education system - its goal is more to do with "socialising" children and making them into ideal members of society than encouraging personal growth:

The children here are shuttled from school classes to cram class and then to club activities like basketball or kendo. They are exhausted. A friend of mind who teaches in a language school here said that many of the students at her branch look liked they are about to fall asleep in class. Indeed one child did.

Working the kids longer isn't the right way forward, and getting them to be good citizens isn't going to happen by changing school textbooks to gloss over the past. If the government wants young people to be proud citizens then it should provide opportunities for them to do what proud citizens do. Instead of encouraging token gestures and empty words, perhaps schools and parents should be easing some of the incredible pressure on their children to achieve academically and get them involved in their communities through voluntary work. Simply punishing people for not singing the national anthem is more likely to engender resentment and rebellion than pride.

Couldn't agree more. This misguided notion that you can simply tell people to love their country from above is being pushed in Britain as well. The governments of both these countries seem unaware that patriotism - real patriotism - comes voluntarily, and from having things in your country to be proud of.

My Second-Last Day

2006-06-29T13:45:00.000+01:00

Last night I went out with some Australian and Japanese students for a few drinks at an izakaya. Which turned into a few drinks and karaoke afterwards. Great fun, and reminds me that karaoke should also get a mention in the previous post. It's hard to believe that by tomorrow I'll be back in the U.K. Still, it's been an amazing nine months.

I will continue to keep an eye on Japan, blog on any news or issues about it that I find interesting, and of course carry on learning the language. For than anything else, the year abroad has reminded me of why I'm interested in Japan. That's definitely going to help with the remainder of my degree. And after that, I'd like to come back here. While my interest has widened to other countries in Asia over the course of this year, I'm pretty sure that Japan will always hold a special place in my heart.

UPDATE: This post from Adamu at Mutant Frog looks back at his experience in Japan. A good read, and sort of says what I was trying to say.

Things I will miss about Japan

2006-06-27T14:19:00.000+01:00

Partly inspired by Feitclub and quasi's lists of things they would/will miss about Japan, here's a selection of things that make me very sad to be saying goodbye:

Food

Top of the list, as it should be. Before I came, some aspects of Japanese food, such as azuki bean paste, I remembered with trepidation from my last trip. Over the course of this year, I've become a fan of all of them - except natto. Ramen, okonomiyaki, sushi, shabu-shabu, yakisoba - not only are they all delicious, but most are pretty healthy as well. I honestly don't know how I'll get by at home without them. Also, my time in Japan has introduced me to Korean food, which is so good that I resolved to travel to Seoul to try the real thing.

Urban Life

Because I live in a small town with not a lot going on, I enjoy going into Osaka or Kyoto. Osaka definitely has the edge in big-city atmosphere, and I enjoy wandering around Umeda, Shinsaibashi, Namba or Tsuruhashi, experiencing the crowds, the bustle, the crazy arrays of neon lights, and the many opportunities for fun.

Kansai Manners

As I fond out, people from the Kansai region behave quite differently to the traditional view of Japanese people. They're often upfront, direct and pretty in-your-face, which makes for fun conversations. Osaka is renowned for its contribution to Japanese comedy - many comedians on TV speak in Kansai dialect - and you can see some of that humour in how Kansai residents go about their business.

Onsen

I've written a few times before about how much I like Japan's hot springs and public bath houses. They are a fantastic way to relax, and although they're better in winter, I've enjoyed them in all seasons. Although your fellow patrons (at least in the male side) will be on the old side, I have no problem with public nudity. Unless it's done by other people, in which case it's disgusting.

Public transport

I've done a fair bit of travelling while I've been here, mostly thanks to the cheapness and convenience of public transport over here. In particular, Japan's widespread rail network is very friendly to the student traveller. I've gone by shinkansen three times for some long journeys, but for others, such as trips to Ise and Toba, we took a local train and got amazing views of the Japanese countryside as we trundled through.

Matsuri

Just as festivals across Europe provide an intruiging glimpse back into our pagan history, Japan's traditional festivals let you look past the usually formal, buttoned-up view of Japanese society. There are family groups, tourists, stalls selling all kinds of food, and usually groups of middle-aged men in traditional happi-coats, who look like they've been drinking heavily all day. At the Kishiwada Danjiri matsuri, which I went to last September, these men were in charge of pulling large floats, or danjiri, round corners at breakneck speed (see above). Nobody died last year, which according to some people was unusual.

TV

On the occasions when the TVs in Seminar House 4 weren't being used by clueless Americans to watch CNN or the Discovery Channel, I loved checking out Japanese TV. Sure, it's renowned for its craziness, and rightly so. But you can also learn quite a lot from it, mostly thanks to NHK, Japan's public broadcasting service, which is second only to the BBC in terms of size. I remember watching a Japanese sign-language program on one of NHK's channels, at prime time on a Saturday evening. I can't think of any other network in the world that would give such a prominent slot to that kind of programming.

My fellow gaijin (and Japanese friends)

Over the course of this year, I think the greatest help to me has come from the other international students. We were pretty much all in the same boat, and apart from a few exceptions, snobbery over language ability or knowledge about Japan never reared its head. Along with the Japanese friends we made, they were the best support network for finding yourself in a strange country that I can imagine. Together we explored Japan, from remote countryside shrines to city-centre bars, learning about Japan, our own countries and ourselves. It's been brilliant.

Seoul

2006-06-24T13:54:00.000+01:00

Seoul was rather nice. I'd been thinking about going for a while, but I decided on it when in the last days of living in Seminar House I found a Lonely Planet guidebook to Korea that someone had thrown out. As good as handing me a free ticket there, IMO. I spent three days mostly walking around, visiting tourist sites and snapping pictures. A lot of memories stuck with me:

A park full of old geezers doing karaoke with portable machines in the open air at sundown. Street stalls galore selling food and alcohol. Drunken boisterous groups of middle-aged men in the street. On a Tuesday. The hugely impressive great city gates (photos to come). Branches of Dunkin' Donuts everywhere. Team Korea football merchandise everywhere. The Gyeongbokgung palace - more impressiveness. The amazing amount of stuff for sale at Namdaemun market, including a load of stuff that was obviously taken off the U.S. military base. Seeing people stretched out on park benches in the early evening, taking naps. A bunch of middle-aged Korean guys in military uniform putting up banners outside Seoul Station (I found out later from a news report that they were veterans protesting against the missile test by the North). The Cheonggyechoen river at night - it used to be really polluted, but after a huge clean-up operation is now a nice spot in the heart of the city, full of courting couples at night. It made me think about the approach in Japan - most rivers there are artificial concrete channels, just like the Cheongyecheon, but it at least in Seoul they make an effort to make it look nice.

All in all, a nice trip. Next time I go, it'll be for longer, and I'll make more of an effort to explore the rest of the country. From what I've seen of Korea's natural features, it's just far too beautiful to just visit once.

Oh yes, enjoy my photos.

Fukuoka: Part the Second

2006-06-19T10:11:00.000+01:00

After the antics of the previous night, I managed to escape from my hotel at the exact check-out time. Unfortunately I didn't get to shower. So, what do you think I did? Walked around dirty all day? Ha! You don't know Jim Moore.

I took the train down to Futsukaichi, a small town with an onsen complex, and had a nice relaxing soak. As in most of these places, the clientele were mainly old men, with the less-than-ideal sights that entails. Still, it comes with the territory. It's not like I was expecting Jessica Alba or anything (though that would be a nice surprise).

After I got back I explored Canal City, the river (see above) and Tenjin a bit more, and before I met up with my Leeds friends again, checked into a capsule hotel. I had it down as one of those things I might as well do while in Japan, and this one seemed a little better than most - it had an open-air bath on the roof. Yes, on the roof. Who cares about sleeping in a pod - there are four-star hotels that don't do that sort of thing! I changed into the yukata-style nightwear they left out for guests, had a shower and quick dip in the public bath, and headed out on the subway to meeet my friends. (BTW, if you think I'm showering/washing/bathing too much, try spending a fairly active day in Japan in mid-summer. You will not believe how much you can sweat.)

I got a tour of Fukuoka University campus, during which I somehow managed to not spend every second pointing out things that were better at Gaidai. They've got a Mos Burger on campus, but we have a Seattle's Best Coffee. Despite my almost bankrupting myself last semester with coffeee, I still wouldn't care to trade. Anyway, they took me out to a little place off campus, where we had ramen. Fukuoka is actually famous for this king of foods, and there are many little mobile stalls, called yatai, selling it around town. I wandered past a few of these in the early afternoon, and they were just starting to prepare the ingedients. There were enormous hunks of pork bones laid out for making the broth - so big I could actually tell which part of the pig they came from. Being a carnivore is fun.

All in all, Day 2 was pretty chilled, but I had a nice evening. I'm heading off to Seoul tomorrow. It's all been a bit last minute, but it should be fun, barring those pesky North Koreans. Someone should tell them to play nice.

Fukuoka: Part the First

2006-06-18T09:57:00.000+01:00

So, on Thursday I went down to Fukuoka on the shinkansen. It was raining in Osaka, and all across the area of western Japan we tore through in the morning. Arriving at Hakata station, though, the sun was shining. Hah! Moore - 1, weather - 0.

I dumped my stuff in the hotel, then met up with Jake and the other Leeds people studying at Fukuoka. I got a miniature guided tour of the city, wandering through the Canal City development, across the river and up to Tenjin, the big shopping/partying centre. I was struck by how small it all seemed after Osaka, but that wasn't necessarily such a bad thing. It was nice to be in a city where "the centre" was something you could cross on foot.

A rough trajectory of the evening follows:

- We see a animation show on the top floor on a bookshop, by an outfit that do short films of oddly-done jungle animals. They are giving away free badges on the way out. I grab a few for presents.

- We sit outside a conveience store where one of the girls says she's going to look for "HedgeCat". I assume this is someone she knows, as she uses nicknames for everybody (real quote from her: "I'm not worried about MaxiHat anymore, because now I have MiniHat.") Turns out HedgeCat is a real cat, who lives by the store. For a stray cat, he looks remarkably healthy. We pet him for a bit, before he takes offence to me, hisses and runs off. He must be able to tell a Kansai resident from a Fukuoka one.

- We go to an izakaya (Japanese pub-style place). When ordering drinks, I ask for a "big beer" and am brought something the aproximate size of a rain-water butt. I drink it dry and ask for another. Finally, a place that knows my tastes and does its best to accommodate them.

- We go to an amusement arcade. The girls try a game where you throw balls at a screen to zap various things threatening cute characters. The game is called "GASHaaaaan!" which makes me laugh out loud. The guys go for "House of the Dead 4". I mow down crowds of zombies in a tube station, an experience which brings back traumatic memories of rush-hour Osaka and Tokyo. We meet back up, and have all have a go at the ball-throwing game together.

- We head upstairs to go bowling. As I haven't gone bowling in over a year (and I was rubbish back then) I'm not looking forward to this. We talk about the low-rent bowling alley near Morrisons' back in Leeds, and how my old flatmate from last year stole a pair of bowling shoes from there to wear in clubs and other places with "formal" dress-codes. I am surprisingly good at bowling, even though Jake tells me I strike a "Spiderman" pose at one point. I explain that I was bitten by a radioactive bowling ball.*

*(I actually didn't. But it would have been funny as hell if I'd thought of it at the time.)

- We go to a club called Happy Cock (yes, really) to have a few drinks and watch the England-Trinidad and Tobago match. Because we get there super-early, we get wristbands which mean we can drink all we want for 1000 yen. I pronounce this the greatest thing ever, and immediately get a drink to celebrate.

- The dancefloor is filling with Japanese people in b-boy clothing. They look like the breakdancers who practice in Hirakata train station, and throw shapes at each other in a hilarious "You Got Served" style. Jake tells me that they are members of the Fukuoka University breakdancing club. I tell him that I "could do better than that." He motions to me to go ahead.

- The dancefloor has turned into a circle of breakdancers, who take turns performing jaw-dropping moves in the middle. Jake asks if I'd like to try and do better. The circle breaks up temporarily, and I step to the dancefloor and tear it up for a bit. They don't ask me to join their crew, but I think I earned their respect. Now all I have to do is beat a Japanese person at Dance Dance Revolution, and I will have something to legitimately boast about.

- Jake introduces me to two friends of his, who happen to be hot Japanese girls. I try to think of things to say to them, and realise my level of drunkenness has gone right past "Language ability magically improves" and into "Language ability goes straight to hell." I must be more drunk than I thought. This is confirmed when one of them asks me to go up and get a drink. Let's break this down a minute:

Normal thought process:
Hot girls suddenly interested in me + lack of nomihodai wristbands + request to buy drinks for them = manipulating whores using me to get alcohol
My drunken thought process at the time:
Hot girls suddenly interested in me + lack of nomihodai wristbands + request to buy drinks for them = Wow, I'm such a stud. I'd better get them a drink.

- Having got what they wanted, the girls proceed to ignore me. I am angry beyond measure. Charging up to the bar to get a drink for myself, the following conversation takes place in my head:
"Dude, you've been drinking a lot. Don't you think you should slow down, get some water in between?"
"Well, they are cocktails. They're not strong. In fact, look at the amount of vodka she put in that last one. That's a piss-weak drink by anybody's standards."
"Yeah, I guess there's not a lot of alcohol there."
"And the mixer is basically like drinking water anyway."
"Yeah. Slam a couple more, you're doing fine."

- It is later. I am not doing fine. I am sprawled on a sofa trying to watch the match, but sinking into semi-consciousness with each passing moment. I miss seeing England's last two goals, but hear the reaction and manage to cheer with everybody else as the replay unfolds.

- We leave the club. I decide to rant to Jake about how women are "manipulating whores" and that his friends are "off the list". Perhaps sensibly, he does not ask me to elaborate.

- The Leeds people point me in the direction of my hotel, and get a cab back to their dorms. Although it is literally a straight line to my hotel, I have to stop people several times and ask them for directions. I stagger into my hotel room, and glance at my watch before I pass out. I have been in Fukuoka a little over twelve hours.

To Be Continued...

Back

2006-06-17T14:03:00.000+01:00

I've been in Fukuoka for the last couple of days, visiting friends from Leeds. I haven't for a while because, well, nothing was going on. I now have a post in the works on my adventures down south though.

Other people's photos

2006-06-09T10:07:00.000+01:00

I've been in the middle of a photo drought for some time - I just don't have the inclination to take pictures at the moment. It could be because I'm preparing to buy a whizzy new digitial camera. Anyway, in the meantime you can see these pictures from Of Rice and Zen. In fact, take a look at the whole blog - the guy is a damn good photographer, and a hilarious writer. See this caption on his picture of Japanese toilet instructions:

Do you realise what it looks like when you go into a toilet stall, turn on a digital camera and start flashing away in the middle of tourist season in the WORLD FAMOUS Sanjusangendo Temple? Yes, you're right. It does look like taking pictures of your cock at home like a normal bloke is not enough for you, and that you need the extra thrill of travelling around the world to do it in crowded tourist locations.

Ladies and gentlemen, a big hand. This man has done much to entertain us.

Why Japan?

2006-06-07T12:30:00.000+01:00

Some time ago, I came across this link to an exchange student's speech on why he came to Japan. (Note: later found out this guy was also at Kansai Gaidai. Small world, eh? I don't think we spoke at all, though.) Anyway, commenter Mayumi recently asked why I came to study in Japan. This is still a big question for me. I still can't give an exact answer to why I'm studying Japanese, but it's become such a part of my life now that I can't really feel like anything else is as important - not even English, the other half of my degree, and until last year my favourite subject.

I guess part of the answer is luck. The year I chose subjects for my GCSEs, Japanese was on there for the first time. So I picked it, sort of on a whim, because I'd never studied anything like it before and I was curious. I did pretty well, but lost interest in 6th Form, when it was all about constantly revising kanji. I let the spoken language slide, and got through with a decent pass. I'd already applied to Leeds to do English and Japanese, as they were my two favourite subjects and I wanted to continue them.

My academic performance in my first year at uni wasn't exactly stellar - in fact, I ended up having to convince my tutors to let me go on the year abroad. This was partly because due to my previous experience, I didn't take Japanese lessons for the first semester. Once I arrived, everyone had their own social groups and I found it quite hard to fit in. I made friends, but felt like I didn't have much of an investment in my work. So I let things slip.

Of course, once I actually got here, things changed. I had a reason to speak Japanese, to learn Japanese, to engage with everything around me. And once I get back, I'm going to carry on. There's so much I've learned, and so much I want to learn. I only hope I've managed to put a little bit of it across on this blog.

Some thoughts on development

2006-06-02T06:28:00.000+01:00

Saw this piece in the Guardian yesterday, on a new scheme between a British supermarket and the African farms that provide it with produce:

Fruit growers in South Africa have seen more than £330,000 ploughed back into their communities over the past year by the supermarkets group Waitrose, which is hoping to raise a further £500,000 to fund educational projects over the next six months.
The cash has been raised as part of the food retailer's initiative to return a sizeable proportion of profits it earns on sales of citrus fruits to the farmers who grow them.

From there I followed a link to an op-ed by Larry Elliott, who takes the view that trading with poor countries on an equal basis is better than simply providing aid. Bono did a piece on the same theme on the Guardian's Comment is Free, a sign that orthodox thought on poverty relief and the big campaigners are getting behind this position. The Live8 campaign for debt relief yielded some disappointing results, but maybe governments will listen to the trade-not-aid viewpoint.

Or maybe not. Tim Worstall, commenting on the Larry Elliott piece, offers this opinion:

Err, how do you reconcile those two statements? Either trade barriers should come down as they are a serious impediment to development or they should stay or go up as an antidote to liberalising imports. Can’t have both now, can we?

As I mentioned in a comment on that post, the harmful effexts of economic liberalisation occur when it is unequal. For its "structural readjustment" packages, the IMF insists on countries lowering their trade barriers to developed countries, who then simply undercut domestic markets. (A big culprit at the moment is China - not strictly a "developed" country but one of the biggest exporters.) This is the kind of thing that destroys a country's fledgling industries. If we look at the most successful economies in the world, the U.S. included, they were all heavily protectionist at first.

Going off at a slight tangent, why have some post-colonial states developed so well, whie some have done disastrously? This grew out of a debate over attitudes towards Western and Japanese imperialism, where East Asia and Africa were presented as two opposite extremes. While I don't want to get into the imperialism debate (you can see these posts for some good discussion) I will say that while Japan's colonies tended to be whole nations (Taiwan, while being historically part of China, was a province neglected by the mainland), Western colonies in Africa and eleswhere were carved up along arbitrary lines, either disregarding ethnic and national groupings or taking advantage of them to promote imperial power. When Britain and others pulled out, we left nation states containing differing, and often competing, groups who had little identification with the state as opposed to their own identity. Often these groups had been deliberately played off against each other by the colonial power - see Rwanda for the most tragic example of this tactic.

Which leads me to the main difference between post-colonial Asia and Africa. A main feature of post-war Asia was "the developmental state" - including Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong, they were run mainly for the purposes of industrial development by an educated elite, with highly protectionist economies. Democracy didn't get much of a look-in (except in Japan, in a highly formalised version), but living standards gradually rose, and when enough of a middle class had developed, the demand for freedoms grew louder. South Korea and many other Asian countries have joined the club of democracies, and some are now part of the developed world. So where did Africa go wrong?

The answer may be found in this article on why poor countries stay poor; corrupt elites who rob the country to enrich themselves. For an Asian example, see Indonesia under Suharto - incidentally, also a country with a diverse ethnic grouping created by colonial policy. When people have little identification with "the nation" as a whole, they turn to smaller groupings. The neighbourhood strongman, tribal leader or militia commander will protect you, at the expense of anyone outside the group. For an instant snapshot of this kind of situation, look at Iraq right now.

Once beyond these primary loyalties, a civil society develops that allows the rule of law, which in turn allows trade, which increases prosperity and development. This is not a process which can be artificially started or speeded up. Some African countries are already there, some are on their way. For those that are stuck there is little we can do, unless they are complete basket cases like Mugabe's Zimbabwe, and even then there is little support for direct intervention. I don't have the answers, but in my lifetime these problems will have to be addressed.

My 20th Birthday

2006-06-01T06:13:00.000+01:00

I moved out of Seminar House just the other day, and into my new digs where Internet access is not free, so updates may be sporadic. Anyway, I had to share the story of last night - one of the stranger birthdays I've had in my life. To think I had a considered post on international development in the works. I may return to it later, but this is probably more amusing.

Most people having left before yesterday, I ended up heading out to Osaka with just one close friend. We wandered around Shinsaibashi and Namba, and found an "English pub" where we had a few drinks. This place had the English pub atmosphere down pat:
Lack of natural light - it was exactly like being in a far corner of some warehouse-sized drinking establishment back in the UK, ingeniously simulated by being underground.
Thunderously loud music - not so much a jukebox as a full-blown sound system. Reminded me of a few places in Leeds.
TV screens - loses points for not having them all show different things for maximum sensory disorientation.

Yep, a real taste of home. As often happens on nights like these, the best things that happen are accidental. We came across a place that offered nomihodai (all you can drink) for a hour at a very reasonable price. We had an amazing amont of food, an even more amazing amount of drink, got the whole restaurant to shout "Kampai!" (Cheers!) at us, got chatting to some Japanese diners, and got invited out afterwards. So, we ended up walking through Namba with a bunch of very inebriated young Japanese girls. After a few wrong turns, we got to the bar they were headed for. The explanation of it they'd given (we were chatting in garbled drunken Japanese) didn't really prepare me for what was inside. The doors slid open and I saw a Japanese guy in a long evening gown, full make-up and blonde shoulder-length hair. We were in a drag bar.

Customers were sat at tables facing towards a small stage at the end of the room, as the "hostesses" moved around chatting to each table in turn. Our party was sat near the back, and we got visited by a few of them, one of whom got the whole club to sing Happy Birthday to me in Japanised English, and then poured us a bottle of something fizzy. I was sprawled on the seat, laughing out loud as I do when awesomely strange stuff like this happens to me. The girls (the real girls, the girls we came in with) were very friendly, and I shared a few stolen kisses with one who was my age before the lights went down for the main show.

Now this was very bizarre indeed. The performers were dancing topless, and some were obviously being women full-time, as they had fairly impressive breasts (implants, I guess). It wasn't really sexy - as feminine as some of them looked, the giveaway was in the face, particularly the jawline. You couldn't forget they were guys originally. Still, it was more enjoyable then a night out in a real strip club full of old men in dirty macs would have been. The crowd in this place was fun, loud, and predominantly female. Trust Japan to show you something like that.

Earlier in the night, Joe had asked "Is this where you expected to be after two decades living on this planet?" In a belated answer, not at all. But I'm grateful I ended up here anyway.

UPDATE: The nicest birthday tribute ever.

Gaijin meet river, hilarity ensues

2006-05-26T07:54:00.000+01:00

For me, this week has been all about putting off preparations for moving house. Oh yeah, and going to various people's "goodbye" outings. Yesterday I swung by Kyoto to go to an English pub with some friends. This was a regular thing for them, but I'd just started going recently.

The place did the English-pub schtick with moderate success. The effect of sitting in a pew seat, pint glass in hand, and looking out of the window to the dreary modern skyline of Kyoto was, well, a little jarring. These outings ran on tradition. The tradition was: get in early and drink while happy hour was still going on (sure, I'd love to use the Housemartins song in the post title, but we can't always get what we want) from 5 to 8. The place was usually deserted, so we hung out there, chatted to the bar staff, and got "merry".

Extremely merry. We left a little past eight to go get some sushi, leaving behind a few people who weren't hungry. Despite having eaten at the pub, I was end-of-the-night drunk by 8pm, and needed something more to soak up the alcohol. At some point we twigged that one member of our party was missing, and we started asking each other "Where's Jay? Where's Jay, dude?" Jay had gone home - after doing four tequila shots in quick succession he had apparently thrown up, not in the urinal, but around the urinal.

Probably just as well that was the last regular outing.

In the sushi restaurant, I discovered that like most foods, sushi tastes even more delicious when you're pissed. After shouting for soy sauce at the top of my voice, I noticed the foreign couple opposite our table were giving us dirty looks. I shot one right back - there's no use acting superior. You've probably indulged in some dumb gaijin behaviour before. Don't act like you haven't.

After polishing off a few plates of sushi, I decided I wanted another drink. I got a beer from a convenience store, and went back to the river. In summer the wide banks of the Kamogawa are full of people sitting and enjoying the view. In my opinion, there is nothing finer than sitting by water (a river, the sea, whatever) on a warm summer's evening, drinking a cold beer and watching the world go by.

Fate, however, had different plans for my evening.

I'd met up with the guys who didn't get sushi, and now the others came from the restaurant and found us. Suddenly I heard "HUMAN CHAIN!" and just like when anything stupid gets suggested, I jumped right in. My friends were forming a human chain to reach down the sloping concrete bank to the river. I ended up second from the top, with the guy at the bottom dipping his foot in. Karma must have decided to step in and punish such DG behaviour, because the next thing I knew, the chain had broken and people were scrambling up the bank, leaving two guys at the bottom clinging on to the moulded concrete.

They tried climbing up, as another guy went down to help them. Bad decision. I saw, as if in slow motion, the bigger of the two lose his grip and fall on the lower guy, and both of them fell in the river with a resounding splash. Once I clocked that the river was shallow and they were in no danger, I laughed long and loud. If there's anything funnier than seeing your friends fall in a river, I don't know what it is.

Looking up from watching the guys struggling, I saw a policeman talking to someone. "They're bringing rope, dude!" a friend shouted. Rope? Why the hell do we need rope? I thought. Surely we can just reach down and pull them up. A few seconds of frantically scrabbling on the concrete, I was disabused of such notions. I noticed there were more policemen now. Quite a lot, in fact. I counted about seven, surrounding our group and taking people's details. This is OK, I can wait this out. Then I looked up towards the street, and noticed more officers running towards us, one of which was carrying some rope.

This was something else. I started counting the coppers, then started over. I was sure I'd drunkenly miscounted. No, I was right. There were FOURTEEN police officers surronding us. This was a police swarm. What could bring so many police out in such a short time in the UK? Someone ringing a bell in Parliament Square? Caling a police horse gay? I dreaded to think of anything more serious.

So there I was, drunk, underage, an open can of beer right next to my stuff, surrounded on three sides by the police and on one side by a river containing two of my friends. It was just going to be one of those nights. I gave my details to one of the policemen, while one of them threw down the rope and helped my friends up. They were very nice about it, and didn't even mind when I started taking pictures. (Note: photos are (badly) edited out of respect to the officers of the law who fished these guys out of the river.)

This last photo just you can see a small number of the policemen down there.

Speaking of photos, at one point during the rescue operation someone grabbed me and said "There's people taking pictures from the bridge! We're going to be in the news tomorrow." We later met up with some of our party, and discovered that it was them snapping our brush with the law. Funny as the whole experience was, I want to keep my contact with Japan's police to a minimum for the rest of my stay here.

A watch blog?

2006-05-24T08:16:00.000+01:00

Amazingly enough, I was actually up early the day after the graduation ceremony, to go to Kyoto with some friends. There's a flea market held in the grounds of Toji temple on the 21st of every month, which I'd assiduoudly failed to go to for several months running. Last Sunday I broke the habit and went. In between hunting for presents for people back home, I managed to pick up a new watch.

As if anyone ever doubted how much I love Boss coffee.

Moore gets diploma, drunk (in that order)

2006-05-22T06:01:00.000+01:00

So, the graduation ceremony. I quite like opportunities like this, to get dressed up and celebrate time well spent with people you've met along the way. We all got presented with official-looking folders - in a slight anti-climax, the actual diplomas were in our mailboxes back at the CIE. The American and Australian consuls-general, and Prof. Scott all gave excellent speeches. Actually, the American guy spent a little too long talking about the glamorous life in the consular service, but made up for it with an interesting aside about having to sit next to the repesentative from Burma at some event. I mean, what do you do in that kind of situation?

Afterwards, we wandered over to the dining hall for the lunch. On the way, I discussed the possibility of there being booze at this event. My words paraphrased: "I don't think there will be, but I want to believe in it anyway. It's the beautiful lie that sustains me in the desert." And to think I was stone cold sober at the time.

We got there, and pretty much my first act was to clear an Asahi bottle off the table and pour myself a glass of ice-cold beer. I was filled with end-of-year goodwill. People I disliked no longer seemed so bad. In fact, I couldn't even remember the reason for my misanthropy. I cleared a year's worth of bad blood in a matter of hours, overwhelmingly happy at all these people. I gave my email address out ot everyone who asked, and a few people who didn't. I carried on drinking (in case you hadn't guessed). I lost my friends, wandered around, found some more friends, made a quick run to the convenience store across the road, and said my goodbyes to Kansai Gaidai by necking a beer in front of the CIE.

I met a guy from my Japanese class out there, who told me about my "reputation": "Dude, they say you go home with a different girl every night!" Well, well. That was a pleasant surprise, although I kind of wish I'd heard about it earlier. Maybe if I'd played on that reputation a little, I'd actually be with a girl right now, instead of drunkenly typing this alone at two in the morning. But I digress.

I went home and, well, kind of passed out for a bit, hoping I'd sober up in time for the evening. It took a few seconds after I woke up to realise that this was an unrealistic hope. My friends found me, and we went out to a charming little pub-type place just outside our dorms. I did my best to carry on being the life and soul of the party - and I think I managed it. A few moments from the evening that I can remember:

- When we were playing a word association game and I came up with "buttsex" (hey, blame it on the male mind). In response to my friends' socked expressions, I asked "Oh, did you not hear me? I said... [standing on the table and shouting out loud] BUTTSEX!"
- Shouting down the phone at some girl talking to the person sat next to me: "You didn't look good in that kimono. No siree!"
(In my defence, she really didn't. As well as being a horrible dresser, she was a stumpy, fat white girl. Out of the many international students wearing kimonos, the Asian students pulled it off best. Witness:)

For a last hurrah, it was pretty awesome. Counting in the escapades of the two nights before the ceremony, I was kind of wiped out. All my best
photos are now up on Flickr. Relive my journey into inebriation, in photo-essay format. Peace out.

UPDATE: For any Caucasians who might be interested, see this pic for the way to properly wear a kimono (ie. be very attractive).

Demob happy

2006-05-20T00:27:00.000+01:00

It's our completion ceremony today. There's a definite "end of the year" feel to everything. People are getting dressed up for it - several students have kimonos, and spent last night trying to work out how to tie them up. As there's going to be all manner of fun and games after the ceremony, I don't know when I'll be able to post again. But when I do, you bet I'll have some photos of me looking spiffy in my nice suit.

Chatting in a blog's comment section is the new blogging

2006-05-19T08:09:00.000+01:00

Check out the comments on my last couple of posts to see some charming enquiries from Brazilian reader and Illimms fan Juliana. Sadly, not knowing Portuguese, I have to rely on her English - which, she tells me, isn't that good. Hey, it's better than my Portuguese. Still, as much as I enjoy comments, random shout-outs included, a rolling conversation across multiple posts about something unrelated to the posts themselves seems like it's the wrong medium. I think this conversation would be better taken off the blog.

So, Juliana: e-mail me a picture of yourself to moorethanthis -at- ippimail -dot- com (replace the words in dashes with appropriate symbols). If you're hot, I'll learn Portuguese so I can chat to you.

Newsflash: My evil education

2006-05-16T05:49:00.000+01:00

Checking through my Hotmail account for the first time in a long while, I found a load of old emails from a discussion group of people I went to 6th Form with (sorry guys, long time no see!), one of which pointed me towards this article from the Guardian:

A US school district has banned the International Baccalaureate after officials condemned it as "un-American" and Marxist, sparking outrage among pupils who are studying the increasingly popular diploma.

A brief note: I went to an international 6th Form college that offered the International Baccalaureate. This was pure luck - it was the closest local school to us, which just happened to be the only comprehensive which offered the IB. If we hadn't moved to Cambridge, I probably wouldn't have heard of the course, much less have taken it. As it happened, studying the IB was one of the best decisions I've made so far.

I took seven subjects (English, French, History, Spanish, Japanese, Maths and Environmental Systems), in addition to a theory of knowledge (philosophy) course and a paper on a topic of our own choosing. I studied with people from all over the world, making friends and learning about the differences and similarities between our cultures. In fact, I think that's why I've enjoyed being at Kansai Gaidai so much - because it recreates the international atmosphere that I loved so much in my 6th Form, and I couldn't find in my first year at Leeds. In addition to that, it taught me the basics of indepedant study, how to do your own research and present your findings. When I got to university I was astonished to find that there were people who still hadn't been taught how to do this - for me it was second nature.

Anyway, now I've given you my side, you can see the opposing view It's mostly a rant on how the IBO's support for the UN and something called the "Earth Charter" (which I never heard of during my time doing the IB) undermines American sovereignty. It's the editor's comments at the end, however, that make that piece what it is:

This socialist-tyrannical indoctrination for the New World Order must be stopped, if we are to preserve the Good America that still remains ... It can be done, dear Patriot!

The Guardian has more on the school board's motives:

Most of the complaints emphasise the IB's teaching of a theory of knowledge course on philosophy and ethics, and that it offers subjects such as environmental systems, technology and social change, peace and conflict studies and experimental science, with an international flavour, alongside the "drier" subjects such as English, maths, history, geography, physics, chemistry, biology and foreign languages, that stir less debate, but are actually a much larger part of the core curriculum.

Now this is interesting. What seems to be the problem here is the teaching of philosophy, ethics and other subjects that encourage students to think for themselves. This is a trend that's been seen a lot in US education lately (the British education system deserves its own rant on this subject). The hypocrisy of this is astounding. Teaching creationism is pushed on the grounds of "giving students access to both side of the issue" but an internationalist outlook is treated as some kind of Red peril. As somebody who's seen (and recieved) the benefits of such an education, I'm very angry that small-minded nationalistic sentiment is depriving others of the opportunity I had. I stand with President Bush on this issue.

Yeah, you heard me:

Despite his disdain for the UN, the Kyoto protocol, the International Criminal Court and many other international institutions, Bush specifically called, in this year's state of the union address in January, for expansion of the IB programme.

In the meantime, be sure to check under your bed for me or any of my other former classmates. You never know where a evil socialist-tyrannical nutcase like me could be hiding.

The pocket tape recorder

2006-05-14T07:11:00.000+01:00

(...and why it will never be used)

In our last International Negotiation class, our professor told us about a job he once had in politics, where to find out how his behaviour was affecting his work, he got an intern to follow him round with a pocket cassette recorder and tape everything he said. He discovered that most of the things he said were amazingly tactless and rude. The upshot was he got out of politics, and years later gave us the advice that you should always listen to what you say, and try to change it if it doesn't fit the situation. The weekend's fun and games brought that anecdote into sharp relief.

Going to Osaka on Friday on the spur of the moment, we ended up staying out all night. While very fun, this deprives me of the beauty sleep I need so much. Because when I don't get enough sleep, I get angry. Very angry.

I vaguely remember drunkenly slurring my way through vague but ferocious denunciations of the many women who have wronged me in my life. I remember saying astoundingly rude things to the two friends I was out with. I remember shouting and banging the table in a Yoshinoya at half-five in the morning, and seeing the guy behind the counter flit past with a look of sheer terror on his face. I had done it. I had become the big, loud, scary gaijin of Japanese stereotype. I'm glad I didn't bring a tape recorder with me, and I will probably never end up doing so, even when I'm sober and well-behaved. Dredging up vague recollections of the things I said is horrifying enough. Reliving it on tape would probably finish me off.

Fortunately, my worst behaviour often gets written off by those on the recieving end, and we went out again on Saturday evening. The group of us comprised me, the pint-sized Mexican sex fiend, and another guy who I'll call "Bob", because he looks like he should be called Bob. Bob was not a good conversationalist. Anything you said, he would automatically take as a cue to start rambling on some pet topic of his, which would invariably be a) astoundingly boring, and b) completely unrelated to anything you said. In every conversation with him, you'd find yourself frantically trying to get away within the first couple of minutes.

Case in point: at another bar yesterday evening, he was in full flow. One monologue about his love of German beer would give way to one about his German heritage, then about a black beer he'd tried once that was too dark, then he switched his attention to the bottle of Thai beer that he held in his hand. Studying the red star at the centre of the label, he turned to me and said: "Oh yeah, red is an important colour. Across Asia, it means life, vitality, that kind of thing."

Suddenly, that was enough for me. I was sick of this bore, sick of his bargain-basement insights that he had probably half-remembered from something he once saw on the Discovery channel. And I was sick of all the other one-semester wonders like him that clogged up the campus, trying to paint themselves as experts, regurgitating all the mysteries-of-the-Orient cliches that I'd got equally sick of a long time ago. It wasn't so much the content of Bob's remark that got to me, but the ridiculous generalisation in "Asia", the transparent point-scoring of it ("look at me! I know soooo much more about Asia than you!"), and the fact that it followed half an hour of equally transparent point-scoring. I let him have it. I can't remember exactly what I said, but the words "You know nothing! I hope you kill yourself from shame" bob to the surface.

Seeking relief, I escaped from our table and wandered the tiny bar. I talked to everyone, Japanese, gaijin, longtime expats and visitors who were here for a week. In fact, the only person I really struck out with was the most beautiful girl in the bar (of course), to whom I addressed some standard plasantry as an opening for a conversation ... and then completely froze up. We stood there staring at each other, she gave a little embarrassed laugh, and I decided to cut my losses and move on.

Talking to people is something I like to do, and when I do it I learn things, benefit from the experience of others and make connections that weren't there before. To do so simply to ramble about your own concerns and try to get one over on other people is pointless. Pointless underlined, in italics. The upshot of all this? I insult and mock in my head far more than I do out loud. But occasionally, I let it all out. I tell that fat girl in the horrible top that "I didn't know floral prints were in for the amazingly badly-dressed girl this season". I tell people to their faces that I'm not interested in that boring anecdote. I do sparingly, though, because once I realise I can get away with it, wouldn't it be just so tempting to do it all the time? And if I did, how would I ever stop?

Maybe I am just a very unpleasant person. But I don't think of myself as one. So I have to keep the unpleasantness under wraps, because if the bad stuff is actually the real me, I'd prefer not to think about it. The tape recorder stays turned off.

The Ritz to the Rubble

2006-05-13T08:34:00.000+01:00

So I was out in Osaka last night. Bar-hopping with a couple of guys until the trains started running again, and we rode back to Hirakata at about 6 in the morning. I'd been out with one of the guys to Umeda at the start of of Golden Week - a mild-mannered chap in my International Negotiation class, he turns into a pint-sized Mexican sex fiend when presented with alcohol and Japanese girls. We ended up meeting quite late, and trawling Namba, the main party district of Osaka centered around the Dotonbori canal. Clubs and bars being open until 5am, we had a leisurely search for somewhere to pass the time. A meat-market club seemed to fit the bill, until the guys on the door checked my ID, and discovered I was under age (20, in Japan). To my shame and discredit, I got KB'd. Took me back a few years, I can tell you.

The night improved from then on, as we found a decent rock club in Amerika-mura, a trendy district full of Osaka's young things. I, for one, was overjoyed - the Japanese club scene seemed to be all dance music, and I had no idea you could find rock clubs here. It had the classic atmosphere: dirty, sticky wooden flooring, neon signage, moshing camararderie, the oddly metro guy who kept touching my arms - wait. That's not something you'd find at the Cockpit!

I ran into an Aussie who had come out here to work for a law firm. She didn't speak Japanese, but her work didn't really require it. Although I'd heard previously that for foreigners working in law firms in Japan, language ability isn't that important, it still brought me up short. She has a job, and I'm just a bum of a student. Yet I consider myself superior to people in Japan to people who can't speak the language. There's a moral here, but I'm a little too hungover to process it.

More to come, maybe. In the meantime, see these nice posts on expats and making friends while travelling alone. As I'm going to be staying on for a full month after exams finish, it looks like I'll doing a lot of that.

Laughing, developing, evaluating

2006-05-10T15:18:00.000+01:00

Today I was having lunch with some friends and the conversation turned to computer games. Not being much of a gamer, I carried on eating, until someone mentioned the games coming out for the new Nintendo console.
Said the guy:

"I can't wait to get Final Fantsy on my wee."

I knew about the new console's ridiculous name, but I still laughed like a small boy at actually hearing someone say "Wii" in the context of a sentence.

Later, I was rushing for my lesson on the fourth floor of the CIE when the open lift came into view. Unfortunately, it was already stuffed. Seeing the last few people drift in and assume sardine-tin formation, I mimed "WHYYYY?" at someone I knew as the doors closed. I turned and walked for the stairs. Then I started running to get to the top floor before the lift did and laugh at the passengers.

I laughed long and I laughed hard. Before doubling over at the sensation of the lactic acid pumping through my veins. Still, I laughed.

Over the past couple of days I've been developing the film I took with the photography club, using their darkroom. Since I managed to expose one of my rolls while it was in my camera, I was really trying to make sure these ones came out OK. It struck me that it was a really complex process, especially when you're doing it manually with a spool to wind the unexposed film on in the dark. Even if your only encounter with developing prints was dropping them off at Boots, digital photography really is a break with the past in terms of being able to view your work.

Although a few photos from the beginning of the film are lost, and a couple more are overexprosed, I'm pretty proud of what I got. Tomorrow I'm due to develop individual prints for the planned exhibition. I can't wait.

This semester is drawing to an end rather quicker than I realised, and we now have evaluation forms to fill out for all our subjects. I was actually told by one of my professors that these are actually taken very seriously at Gaidai, and the Dean personally reads the individual comments. Well, so much for my previous cynicism. I'm just glad I really put some effort into it this time. I guess it's because having been here for (almost) a full year, I feel more of a sense of ownership, of knowing the good and bad things about this place and wanting to change it for the better. If I'm lucky, I'll feel the same about Leeds when I get back there.

Film review, with added politics

2006-05-05T17:05:00.000+01:00

Japan has an intriguing relationship with patriotism, nationalism and its military, tied up with its experience of the Second World War and subsequent international policy. There was recently a big stink about changing the Education Law to define patriotism as an aim of the education system, which shows that even discussing it is still a big issue even now.

Japan is a curious country, as you can see outbursts of extreme nationalism in public, and similar views expressed by public intellectuals and political figures. At the same time, while most Japanese are proud of their country and will always ask you what you like best about Japan (trust me on this), they don't go for big outward expressions of patriotism. In that respect, they've got nothing on South Korea. (Then again, if patriotism looked this good in Japan, I'm sure they'd be all for it.)

So, inspired by this very interesting article on representations of the military and nation in recent Japanese films, I decided to rent one of the films discussed in the article: 亡国のイージス, translatable in English as A Lost Country's Aegis. I watched it with English subtitles, but was pleasantly surprised to find that my Japanese was good enough to recognise the occasional rough translation or contraction from the original phrase.

First off, it was a really enjoyable film. An action flick with a conscience, it has a Japanese Self-Defence Forces Aegis-class destroyer taken over by a group of nationalist naval officers, who claim that a country without a military is a country without meaning or identity - the ship they control is merely "a shield for a lost nation". Only the decent, paternal petty officer Sengoku and a gung-ho secret agent stand between Tokyo and the U.S.-developed chemical weapon the ship is carrying.

The nationalists are already in a conflicted position, being assisted in their takeover by some freelance terrorists/commandos from a foreign country. There's an explicit contrast made between the willingness for mass sacrifice of the commandos and Sengoku's determination to prevent loss of life (he only shoots to kill once in the entire film). In this way, the film presents a triumphal view of Japanese military personnel, but without the WWII-era attitudes of heroic sacrifice in a losing cause.

This is summed up in Sengoku's line towards the climax of the film, also the film's tagline: "生きろ！　絶対に　生きろ！" ("Live! Above all, you must live!") The humanist appeal to life over death is for me, one of the more interesting aspects of the resurgence in patriotic attitudes in Japanese film.

EDIT: I just noticed a post on nationalism in Northeast Asia, written about the same time as this post. Although the writer is blogging from Korea, it deals with all three countries in the equation - Korea, Japan and China.

Elections

2006-05-05T03:25:00.000+01:00

So Labour got a pasting in the local elections yesterday. Just as well. Blair's lot have been on the skids for a long time, but recently we've seen governmental corruption and incompetence on a massive scale. If it carries on like this, Britain will soon become like Italy but without the beautiful climate and scenery (ie. completely pointless). I for one registered my disapproval by being on the other side of the world and not voting. But if I could vote, I'd send these clowns a message by staying home and dressing up as a clown.

Long weekend post

2006-05-02T13:54:00.000+01:00

Went on a trip to Kyoto on Sunday with the Kansai Gaidai Photography Club. If you know the scene in Help! where the Beatles get off the plane with cameras and snap pictures of each other non-stop, it was like that at times as we turned our cameras on each other. Most of the time though we had nice scenery around Higashiyama to shoot. We wandered through the old streets and ended up at Kiyomizu-dera temple. It was odd to think that the last time I'd been up there was in my first week here. Things seemed to have gone full-circle.

Going out with the Photography Club gave me an insight into a bit of Japanese culture that I've (sadly) not experienced much of - socialising in organised groups. In the evening we headed back to Hirakata for a big welcome party (The Japanese students' academic year started recently). After lots of organised toasts, we sat down and proceeded to eat and drink a lot. A lot. I was not the freshest person when I left Sem House 4 the following morning to join a field trip to the Osaka courthouse.

What could make my hangover worse, you could well ask. How about one of those ultra-nationalist sound trucks that scream far-right rants through their loudspeakers at amazingly loud volumes? Coming right up! This one was quite small by their usual standards (manned by one man with a microphone and a big grudge), but easily the loudest one I've encountered so far.

Court proceedings were very hard to understand - I only got a few words here and there, and probably wouldn't have done any better if I'd been running at full (non-hungover) power. Fortunately, someone with us was very good at Japanese and managed to give us a precis of the case. The Japanese court system is inquisitorial rather than adverserial as in Britain and the U.S., so the judges take a more active role in the case.

I probably would have enjoyed it if I hadn't been a) hungover, and b) trapped with some of the most annoying students ever. The "I don't care" girl was in my group, and was whining about how we couldn't get into the big murder trial downstairs, because it was full and they were issuing tickets to allow people in. Apparently it hadn't crossed her mind that you don't have consumer rights when you're watching a trial.

The trip was organised by the professor who teaches our International Negotiation class, and afterwards he took us to an underground food court in one of the big department stores. I love these places, because they have lovely-looking food, but everything's far too expensive for me. Our professor then took us to a couple of bars, fetching up in a nice establishment with a good atmosphere and a selection of beers from all over the world. By that time there was only a small group, and we got talking to two Japanese girls and a fellow Brit who was travelling around the world. We also ended up doing purikura. These are photobooths where you take photos of you and your friends, customise them and print them out on little strips, a very popular pastime for teenage girls in Japan. We look slightly the worse for wear in all our pictures, and my cheeky grin is definitely cause for concern.

It was a fun night - just like the photography club social the night before, I met some cool people, and did more chatting in Japanese than I have for a long time. It comes back to something I wrote back in September (full-circle again, see?) about language for me being worth it when I get to use it outside the classroom. I will honestly say that the Japanese conversations I've had over the past couple of days have been more useful for me than learning about the Accusative-Passive in our duller-than-dull Spoken Japanese lesson today. Having been out drinking two nights in a row, I was too tired to seem interested. From here on out, a relaxed Golden Week looks more and more appealing.

A clear view

2006-04-26T11:06:00.000+01:00

As I've said before, the semester is coming to an end. However, lessons are still going at full pace, despite the general winding-down feeling which is starting to percolate through. In our Spoken Japanese classes my strategy is to find a seat which gives me a clear view of the tall Australian girl with long, flowing dark hair and drift ... right ... off. Doubly effective as it saves me from having to listen to our dangerously incompetent teacher.

My project for Issues in Contemporary Japanese Society and Culture (and if it's boring to read that, imagine how tired I get saying it) took a step forward yesterday, when I got to interview a zainichi student and talk about her experience, particularly with the parallel Korean edcuation system in Japan, and sense of identity. It was very interesting stuff, and gives me an idea of where I should take my final paper. Doing the interview itself was actually kind of tough, as not only was it a little awkward at first to sit down with someone you don't know, but will subsequently see around campus, and ask them a lot of profound questions, but because I had to keep an eye on myself.

I was trying to keep my questions impartial, as I didn't want to skew her answers through my own opinions. It's harder to do than I thought. Because this project is a work of sociology, having an impartial view is crucial. But it's also something I want to cultivate for myself. From asking non-loaded questions to knowing when to listen, I've done a lot of learning this year, and I know I still have a lot to learn. Coming to a person or situation without prejudice helps you understand them better, and gives you a clearer view of the world.

Example: I had the privilege of performing another takedown on a bad Issues presentation today. The student in question was doing their presentation on Christianity in Japan, and was coming at it from an obvious bias. She opened with an account of a meeting at the Japanese church she attended, and used that for a lot of her field research cited. She ended with questions implying that Japanese needed to "fill the void" in their hearts, and that Japan was a country where religious belief was invisible. Uh, yeah, right.

I wouldn't have minded if she'd declared her interest at the beginning. We all have our hooks to twist on (my strong atheism played a part in prompting my response), and as long as you're prepared to acknowledge it, that's fine. Either be honest with yourself, or shut up. That's a clear view, of sorts.

Asia: bigger than Japan, would you believe?

2006-04-22T13:58:00.000+01:00

I started learning Korean yesterday. Chae, the guy who organised the trip to Tsuruhashi, is giving lessons after class hours on Fridays. It was good to recapture a little of that awesome feeling you get when you've just started learning a new language, when you're still getting to grips with the real basics, and you're just pleased that people can understand what you're saying. This being my first proper lesson, I wrote out the basic phrases in romanised English - a stopgap measure until I get the alphabet down. That will be a challenge, but at least there are no kanji.

The preceding week was the first time I'd been to Chae's lessons, and we watched a Korean romantic comedy with the English title "My Sassy Girl". It was a fun film, slapsticky at first, and then unashamedly sappy and sentimental - in a good way. Korean romances seem to have a tendency to end happily, unlike films from Japan (bittersweet) and China (relentlessly depressing endings). I always feel like I should watch more Korean films, given their growing international reputation and immense popularity in Japan. I guess I could just rent a couple and take my chances with the Japanese subtitles. Then again, if like "My Sassy Girl" they star the very beautiful Jun Ji-hyun (right), the dialogue probably won't seem so important to me.

One of the bigger changes that have come over me during this year abroad, almost without me noticing it, is my growing interest in other parts of Asia. I was always interested in modern Japan's international relations, but since I came here I've started looking at China and Korea not just in relation to Japan, but in their own right. Course, interest in China is a given these days considering its influence on the international stage, but Korea now fascinates me as well. In both cases it was meeting people from those countries, talking to them and learning about their views that created the desire for knowledge on my part. And at the risk of seeming tiresome, the Internet and blogs in particular have been good for information and context that I wouldn't get otherwise. Sure, a fair few people out there have an axe to grind (usually in comments on other blogs), so they're best used sparingly. But I can recognise well-written, well-thought-out stuff when I see it, and it's always good to get views from other places.

Rather belatedly, I've also decided to do a bit more learning for myself outside of lessons and homework - hence hacking through the Japanese music mag, and Korean classes. I was even considering learning Japanese Sign Language (手話), inspired by two girls in my dorms who are enthusiastically taking it up (They use it to secretly mock me when we're out together - I've been called "stupid and [Japanese foodstuff]" more times than I care to remember). But in the end, it came down to the age-old question: Which will enable me to get more girls? It's the method by which I make most of my decisions in life. Needless to say, comparing the odds on hot Japanese deaf girls versus hot Korean girls is not the most exacting correlation, so Hangul it is.

Four Seasons of Japan

2006-04-20T14:16:00.000+01:00

Thought I'd share this montage with you, created using fd's Flickr Toys. Allowing for some artistic licence - "Winter" (mountain in Nagano) and "Spring" (plum blossom at Osaka castle) were actually taken in March within a week of each other - it's a pretty good indication of why the Japanese are so proud of their seasons.

Messing about in boats/language update

2006-04-17T08:56:00.000+01:00

On the weekend I went on a boat trip on the Hozu River with some friends. We were taken from Kameoka to Arashiyama, just outide Kyoto, by a group of (very tough) boatmen who rowed our wide wooden boat downstream through occasional rapids:

Cue lots of screaming from impressionable girls every time we got splashed. It was good fun, and to do it at this time of year with the sakura in bloom along the banks was very beautiful.

Currently writing some begging letters aimed at securing both my research project and my place in Japan once term ends. The fact that I have to make up an original composition in Japanese that says what I want it to say is doing wonders for my language skills. In Level 4, there are so many tests, homework assignments and the like that you have no time to actually do anything with the language beyond the class schedule. Make of that what you will.

I have a rare week where the workload has slackened, so I'm going home to try and read a Japanese magazine article. I used to do it with French magazines all the time, so getting through an article (however laboriously) will be a milestone of sorts.

UPDATE: I found the IMDB entry for the sumo film I mentioned at the end of an earlier post. It's actually rather good, in a laid-back, droll, charming kind of way. It was done by the same guy who did "Shall We Dance?" which was a huge hit in Japan and eventually got its own American remake. And the strange dance of Japan-U.S. relations goes round and round, oblivious to cack-handed attempts to write it off...

Body Bag Redux

2006-04-14T15:30:00.000+01:00

Moore Than This - last with the news that matters!

Some of this blog's adoring readership, on hearing of my epic adventures in the mountains of Nagano, wondered if there were any pictures of me in the "rescue boat" that took me down the mountain after I knackered my ankle. I'm pleased to say that Josh finally has his Nagano pictures up, and you can now see the battered but unbowed adventurer tasting sweet fresh air after his ride back to civilisation.

Props to the Mountain Rescue girl on the right, by the way. As you can see, the thing is shaped like a boat, but with runners. You're strapped in, zipped up and from there it's downhill all the way. Something I'll probably avoid trying again next time I hit the slopes.

“What do they know of England who only England know?”

2006-04-14T07:55:00.000+01:00

From Curzon at the always-interesting ComingAnarchy.com, a post on the value of foreign language skills and living abroad. Very well written, and sums up my feelings on the matter:

I would not recommend that an adult over thirty spend too much time learning a language. By then, it’s too late for most people. But living abroad at a young age is an invaluable experience. On multiple levels.

I admit that this bias comes from my own background. I first lived in Japan when I attended a rural public high school at the age seventeen. Being a teenager, it was pretty easy to learn the language, or at least easier than many people who I see trying to learn in college or as professionals...

But there’s more to speaking a foreign language than speaking a foreign language. Effectively wielding the skill requires a “sense” and understanding of a different culture and people. Living in Japan taught me much about Japan, but also concepts of linguistics and insight into human nature. You learn to deal with the fact that some things can never be translated; different cultures think and act differently; you must learn to say the “same thing” in different ways; the appropriateness of ettiquette, humor, and custom varies wildly; and much more.

First off: he went to live in Japan at age seventeen? How jealous am I?
Crazy jealous.

Second, the post has got a lot of comments from language enthusiasts such as myself, who all heartily agree. Nevertheless, if language is your thing, your specialty that you love doing and plan to use in any future career, you'll naturally view it as important. I believe travel is great for broadening the mind and enhancing your outlook on life, but without an insight into the cultures you visit, your experiences will undoubtedly be shallower than otherwise. Languages, for me, are the best way to that insight. The conclusion: travel all you want, but at least pick up a bit of the lingo while you’re there.

Nationalism, nonsense and other things

2006-04-13T11:54:00.000+01:00

I had my presentation this Monday for Issues in Contemporary Japanese Society and Culture. It was on the zainichi Korean population in Japan - the Koreans who came to Japan before the end of World War II, and their desecendants, who are still registered as foreign nationals. Went pretty well, but I still have to do field research. Which, come to think of it, is a good excuse to go to Tsuruhashi again.

Almost all the presentations I've seen so far have made me think, and I like that some people have obviously taken the time to research their topics and come up with new ideas. When I saw that one guy was giving a presentation on Japanese nationalism, I was doubly interested - it's an important subject that says a lot about contemporary Japan.

Unfortunately, this wasn't what we got from the presentation. It was lazy, biased, scaremongering, anti-Japan and woefully under-researched. A little walk-through: it kicked off with the hilarious assertion that Japanese nationalism died out after World War II exclusively because of General MacArthur's Occupation reforms. So, nothing to do with the immense suffering, food shortages, firebombing and two atom bombs, all of which created the intense post-war backlash among the Japanese population against militarism of any sort (which is still strong today).

Then, apparently, Japanese nationalism was recently kickstarted again - by the Americans allowing Japan to use their navy in combat operations. (The closest I can find to this is a law passed during the 2001 war in Afghanistan that allowed Japan's navy to support the US fleet with supply missions.) From hearing his presentation, you would assume that nothing happened in Japan without America's say-so. And if nationalism was dormant for 50 years, how does this guy explain the fact that the 14 Class-A war criminals were included in the dead at the Yasukuni Shrine in 1978? Or the fact that the first Prime Minister to visit Yasukuni did so back in 1985? (Nakasone Yasuhiro, and no, his nationalist outlook didn't get a mention either.) Any kind of deep political change occurs over a long period of time, it does not just snap from one extreme to another.

On the international front he was even odder. Summed up, that bit went: Japan bad, nationalism rising, wants to regain control over Asia. Remind you of anyone? I challenged him on a few of these points after the presentation, and he had nothing to say. I got kind of bogged down in the question of Japan's recent military moves, and was constrained by politeness from doing the kind of point-by-point demolition that I wanted. It's a real shame that a subject with such potential got such a pisspoor treatment. Off the top of my head, I can think of a few Japanese nationalism-related things I'd love to hear about:

Novelist Yukio Mishima, his ultra-nationalism and fondness for samurai chic, his attempt to take over the Self-Defence Forces headquarters with his own private army (seriously), and subsequent ritual suicide.

Kenkanryu, the controversial Japanese manga (the title can be translated as 'the hate Korea wave', a play on words on the 'Korea wave' pop culture boom in Japan). The manga, which has sold about 400,000 copies, puts across a right-revisionist view of Japan's colonial record in Korea. An interesting view of it
here.

Japanese nationalism is not always overt and scary, like the big right-wing sound trucks I've seen in Hirakata and Tokyo. (They were actually kind of a let-down - I thought they'd be much louder than they actually were.) I'm currently watching a film for my Japanese classes about an underdog university sumo team, which is quite interesting in terms of overtones. The sumo team gains members from students who are fed up with American sports, such as pro-wrestling and American football, and a gaijin character who is ignorant of Japanese tradition and relies on brute strength to win has recently been introduced. I suspect he will soon be shown the error of his ways. Would that I could say the same for the guy behind that awful presentation.

"Not helpful": my favourite diplomatic phrase makes a comeback

2006-04-12T06:50:00.000+01:00

Remember my post on the Indonesian cartoon depicting the Australian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister as "copulating dingoes"? And the Australian cartoonist who, in true hip-hop "beef"-style, came up with a response? A nice moment in the whole spat was when Indonesia described the Australian drawing as "not helpful". What a wonderful phrase (and thanks to Matt in the comments for pointing that out). Now this beautiful bit of diplomatic-speak rears its tactful head again, with regard to Iran:

The speech - carried live on state TV - was punctuated by chants of "Death to America", "Death to Israel", and "Death to counter-revolutionaries". [...] A Foreign Office spokesman said the speech was "not particularly helpful".

That'll teach them.

Irony: a definition

2006-04-11T04:52:00.000+01:00

When you revise for a test, and stay up so late that you oversleep and miss it.

Sushi and sake, beer and burgers

2006-04-09T13:14:00.000+01:00

As per regulations, Japan blogs are now filled with pictures of cherry blossom (or sakura). Now Moore Than This gets in on the action, following a hanami (flower-viewing trip) to Osaka castle yesterday with some friends. Before setting off from Hirakata on the train, we grabbed some sushi from a supermarket and I bought some beer and sake at a liquor store (with the splendid name "Liquor Mountain"). When we all met up in Osaka, one guy got a load of food from Wendy's as his contribution to the picnic - East met West in a delicious fashion.

Looking through the photos of our day out, it seems like the weather was horrible and overcast, when really it was very nice, milder than it has been for a long time. It only started getting overcast towards the end of the afternoon, when we decided to leave. I was slightly the worse for wear, but hey, I was engaging in Japanese culture - everyone gets plastered on sake at hanami. Not sure if that engagement extends to standing on a crowded platform on the Osaka Loop Line swigging from a bottle of sake. Oh well. You're only young and stupid once.

We took the train to Shinsaibashi, central Osaka's shopping district, and wandered down the big covered arcade there. We saw some pretty odd things, like a pick-up game in an arcade where the prize was a load of creepy pod-babies. We finished off in an izakaya in Namba, the main nightlife place of Osaka, which is dominated by huge neon displays.

From viewing cherry blossom in the grounds of a castle to this in one day. After a rough week or so, getting out with some friends and enjoying myself has really given me a boost. My first sakura season has been brilliant. Here's to spending many more of them in Japan.

Photography madness

2006-04-07T07:36:00.000+01:00

I had the opportunity to play with an SLR film camera this week, thanks to a Japanese student who knows a bit about photography and would like to teach others. It was a very cool bit of kit, and just makes me want to storm Yodobashi Camera and buy a digital SLR. Unfortunately, not knowing the film in the camera was black and white, I took a load of photos of the sakura (cherry blossom) around Hirakata, as well as some arty scenes and candid shots of people. I'll scan the good ones and post them on Flickr when I get them developed. Speaking of which, out of my Flickr pictures the ones that are getting all the comments and views are the photos of silly Engrish signs that I take from time to time. If I wanted to turn this blog into a half-arsed version of Engrish.com I could well do so.

I plan to go to Osaka on the weekend with some friends for an overdue look at the sakura there. I'll be sure to take some photos with my digital camera. The ease of use, and the fact that a picture I take can be on the Internet by the end of the day is to me one of the best arguments for digital (MF may beg to differ though).

"Glory Days" (Lost in the Glasshouse)

2006-04-06T09:38:00.000+01:00

This week was the start of term for the Japanese students (school terms in Japan start in April, while the CIE operates on a Northern Hemisphere September-May system). On Monday the campus was full of giggly Japanese students who hadn't got over the gaijin novelty factor, and had us pose for pictures, gasping in astonishment at our ability to speak Japanese. It took me back to when I first arrived. Back then, the "gaijin novelty factor" was a strange but welcome ego-boost, but it still felt odd to be treated like some kind of exotic pet. Fortunately, as the year went on both Japanese and international students settled down, and I came to know a bunch of friendly, intelligent Japanese people who treat me as a friend without the superficial foreigner stuff getting in the way.

Anyway, that made me think back to the new sensations at the beginning of the year: I used the phrase "glory days" ironically in coversation with some friends. They weren't the glory days, of course - no days ever are - but it was the time when there was a lot ahead of me. My interest in the language, my studies and Japan itself had been kickstarted again, and I couldn't wait for what was up ahead. Now, on the other hand, the year seems almost over. I have two months till the semester finishes and my housing contract runs out. The overwhelming sense at the moment is limitation. I feel like things are closing in, leaving me less and less room to move.

I think about things I've said that maybe I shouldn't have, about people I don't talk to anymore. Walking down the corridor past the CIE lounge and looking through the glass walls, I see another person I've alienated, another person I don't talk to, another person I've never talked to but wish I had. Missed chances, missed opportunities. This is the time for making the best out of whatever I have left, before it shrinks any further.

Apologists, of one stripe or another

2006-04-01T10:43:00.000+01:00

A very good post from Adamu at Mutant Frog reflecting on whether or not he is a "Japan apologist". Bottom line: no, because he's not getting paid for it. The post sprung from a debate over whether the term "Japanophile" was derogatory or not. The two terms are sort of linked; but Japanophile seems to have a more amateur connotation - you can be one whether you're a respected historian, university professor, martial arts fan, anime freak, or even a humble language student (check my bad self).

Japan apologists, on the other hand, are people who reside in paid (often infuential) positions, either in Japan or outside, whose job mainly consists of presenting a favourable image of Japan to the outside world. In the initial explosion of Japanese studies in the late 70s and 80s, the attitude that Japan was a fascinating and misunderstood place that needed to be "explained" to an often hostile world gathered a lot of credence. However, Japan's economic slump and the complicated post-Cold War world have given rise to more nuanced explorations of Japan's society, culture and international relations. As Adamu says:

As I’ve said before: I love Japan, but it’s screwed up. The society’s got major problems that have translated into things that have affected me personally. But at the same time, I’ve been fortunate enough to befriend enough real, intelligent, and genuinely friendly people to keep me from dismissing the whole country as the kind of place that wraps foreigners in lacquer.

I'm optimistic enough to think that most people who come to Japan with an open mind share this view, despite some reductive and stereotyped viewpoints from a few people I've come across here. Official apologism is still all around, of course, and not just for Japan.

China seems to be filling the role that Japan had back in the 80s: rising economic power, relentlessly hyped from either a friendly or hostile perspective. Academics, journalists and other writers can make a good living churning out hyperbolic pieces on "the rise of China", with little research or impartial thought. A regular culprit is Martin Jacques of the Guardian. I agree with the assessment that most of his articles can be cobbled together from platitudes such as "China is rising" "Europe is falling" "Japan must come to terms with its past", but this doesn't mark him out as a paid-up China apologist. He is, sadly, just an old-fashioned Orientalist.

See this takedown of one of his pieces at Blood and Treasure. It's one of Jacques' rare articles that doesn't mention China being on the up and up, but it relates to his opinions on "the East" versus "the West". Jacques writes:

The belief that western institutions, values and norms were of universal applicability, in the here and now, blinded the proponents of western-style democracy to the importance of history and culture; it marked a return to the western arrogance of the colonial era, when such attitudes were the common sense of the time.

To which Jamie K replies:

Jacques has the idiot’s habit of arguing against himself. The west has values and norms. The rest have “history and culture”. The first require a thought process. The second simply imply immemorial superstitions.

So Jacques is happy to portray everyone outside "the West" as lacking thought processes, yet believes they will take over the world. This is classic Orientalist thought - projecting your own opinions and prejudices onto the subject, without ascribing them free thought or agency. As the B&T post goes on to explain, China has a long tradition of political philosophy "absolutely none of which is founded in an ideal of individual liberty." This is why the frequent rural protests in China's countryside aren't demanding freedom - they're demanding justice. There's even now a strain of Chinese political thought which blames the atrocities of the Communist government on the importing of radicalism from the West. Societies can be influenced from outside, but lasting reform can only come from within, and asking people to junk their own traditions of discourse based on the fallacy that "freedom and reason and science" are the West's alone is doubly counterproductive.

Day Today territory

2006-04-01T08:06:00.000+01:00

Howard 'unfazed' by sex cartoon

Australia's prime minister has played down an Indonesian newspaper cartoon portraying himself and his foreign minister as fornicating wild dogs.

Not in other news: Australians burn down Indonesian embassy, boycott Indonesian goods, call for beheading, massacre of those who insult their PM.

UPDATE: The Aussies have decided that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Is this Cartoon Wars: Episode II?

Nocturnal Adventures

2006-04-01T06:09:00.000+01:00

I've had a bit of a rough week since spring break ended. Work is mounting up, people don't seem to have time for each other, and once more I've been left feeling like I don't what this year is for. So, come the weekend, what do I do to let off steam?

Picture the scene. Midnight, at the river in Makino, on the large stepping stones set in the riverbed, a classmate and I swinging at each other with sticks trading exaggerated samurai-movie-style grunts. I gots to get my kicks somehow.

Our little group wandered along the river from our dorms to Makino, a little suburb which doesn't really have much except a train station, a karaoke place, and a bowling alley. We went to the bowling alley, but having a near-terminal indicisiveness about what we wanted to do, just hung around in the arcade at the front. I went on the taiko-drumming game, which is easily one of the best arcade games ever. Whack at a model taiko drum in time with the coloured dots that flow along the screen to the tune of various J-Pop classics, and let your wildest Keith Moon fantasies run riot.

No karaoke, no booze, no arguing over politics. It's not the kind of socialising I usually enjoy. But like I said, I needed to let off some steam, and I had a fun night.
"I got a fever. And the only prescription...is more taiko!"

CNN reports something worthwhile shocker!!

2006-03-29T13:39:00.000+01:00

The "Lazy Sunday UK" rap (aka "We Drink Tea") gets bigger and bigger. A short report from CNN on online video sharing features a (very) brief clip of Sam and Raph representin' for Cambridge.

To think I'd see the day when CNN actually showed something worth watching. Meanwhile, the Illimms boys have come up with a patriotic rock ballad entitled "America (I Love You)". I'm not hoping for similar exposure on US news channels, but go watch it for a none-too-serious look at how the world sees America.

Coming home in a body bag

2006-03-26T15:22:00.000+01:00

My snowboarding trip to Nagano was great fun. I went with CIE students Josh, Joe, and Patrick, as well as our Japanese friend Shoji and Joe's friend Joey (yeah, I laughed too) who is studying at Nagoya. We got to Hakuba (the area where our ski resort was) via night bus from Kyoto - 11pm to 6am. When we got there we found that they charged an early check-in fee for giving us breakfast, as well as various extra charges on equipment hire and insurance - a very efficient scam. However, having Shoji with us, we were able to negotiate in Japanese and the rental guy ended up giving us discounts on almost everything.

So we hit the slopes, after having travelled on a bus all night. I did pretty well on the beginners' slope, and migrated with the others to the slope above. Coming down that one, I came a cropper and twisted my ankle pretty badly. I was forced to complete my descent very slowly. Fortunately, after dinner that night we went out to an onsen, where we soothed our various aches and pains.

Rather more unfortunately, after a slow start on the beginners' slope the next day, I went up again the next slope, where I twisted my ankle again. This time there was no question of finishing the descent, especially as I injured myself only a few yards from the ski lift. I crawled back up there and explained my predicament to the staff. With my cack-handed Japanese (and Shoji's help) we managed to convince the staff that I was in urgent need of rescuing. A very hot Mountain Rescue girl appeared from out of nowhere and told me that I'd have to be evacuated via the 'rescue boat'. I was like "Rescue boat? That's not covered by my insurance fraud!" (cf: Futurama), imagining a huge helicopter appearing from above. The rescue boat was actaully like a canoe on ski runners, that zipped up over the passenger. It was basically a body bag on skis, as I realised while frantically pawing at the zipped-shut canopy. What's worse - facing a steep mountainside with an injured ankle, or being fastened inside a tiny space? I had ample to consider the question as I was speeded down the mountain. The first thing I saw when I was unzipped was my friends congregating to see what had happened to me (now you can see what they saw!).

I spent the rest of that day (our 2nd at Hakuba) resting up at the hotel with an ice pack on my ankle. Following that excitement, I took it much easier the following day. After trying the baby slopes, I returned to the slope where I'd twisted my ankle twice and navigated it without any further injuries, thanks to the zig-zag technique that Shoji had taught me the first day. By the time we all met up at about 4:30, we had a lot of stories to tell; we'd split up according to ability and gone separate ways on the mountain. We went to the onsen again, and finished up with a cold beer - the best way to relax after a day on the slopes. All in all a very good break, and I think I've caught the winter-sports bug, despite the lack of much daredevil black-diamond slope action on my part.

Still my university

2006-03-24T16:07:00.000Z

So Frank Ellis has been suspended. My feelings and thoughts on this have ran the gamut over the past month, from initial revulsion to a more considered argument, but never forgetting that Ellis's comments are deeply wrong and offensive. However, I think that Leeds University's reasons for suspending him are all good, particularly the third one:

Dr Ellis has failed to comply with reasonable requests given to him by his employer. For example, we asked him to apologise for the distress which his remarks on race and other matters have caused to many people inside and outside the University. He has not agreed to do that. Nor has he given us an undertaking to make it clear in public that scientific questions about the differences if any between different racial groups are questions which lie a long way from his own area of academic expertise as a lecturer in Russian and Slavonic Studies. And he has failed to give us an undertaking that he will make no further public comments suggesting that one racial group is inherently inferior (or superior) to another unless there is no possibility whatsoever that anyone hearing or reading his comments might reasonably associate him with the University of Leeds. The University is clearly and publicly distancing itself from Dr Ellis’s comments on race.

The apology argument IMO is that as his employer, Leeds Uni has the right to ask him not to stir up trouble in the workplace - and that was all it was, a request - which he refused (see this post on Ellis's Irving-esque free-speech-marytyr complex) He is not being silenced for fear of "stirring up" the student population - there are no reports of Mohammed cartoons-style organised protests designed to intimidate. Moreover, the fact that he's also refused to recognise the difference between his published comments and the scope of his work is sure grounds for disciplinary charges (which, as the university press release notes, "is not in itself a disciplinary penalty").

The press release concludes with the statement that "The disciplinary process might take some time to complete ... the University intends to make no further public comment on the case until the conclusion of that disciplinary process." In the absence of a comment from them, I will simply say that they have done the best they could from a tricky situation. I await the outcome of the disciplinary procedure for further comment, but until then, I'm still proud to study at this institution, and that a degree from the University of Leeds means something beside the amount of credits notched up.

Tasty moments

2006-03-24T15:40:00.000Z

From our Nagano trip:

Waking up on the bus to discover a landscape covered in snow (銀世界). Haggling with the rental guy, and getting discounts which we didn't ask for. My first go on a snowboard. Going up on the ski lift, marvelling at the pure white scenery around me. Falling over for the first time. Falling over many subsequent times. Falling down badly and twisting my ankle. Stuffing our faces at the hotel buffet. Recuperating from the day's efforts at a local onsen. Falling over and twisting my ankle again. Getting evacuated down the mountain by a very pretty Rescue Patrol girl. "Don't tell me how to live my life." The three essentials: snowboarding, onsen, beer - a perfect last day.

More detailed blogging to come. But this provides a pretty good taster.
Photos now up.

I am the jester in the ancient court

2006-03-20T08:02:00.000Z

I'm off to Nagano this evening, via all-night bus from Kyoto. If I can update while I'm there, I will, but if not then this blog will be a bit quiet for five days or so.