It’s amazing how enthusiastically retailers in the heathen 🙂 far East have embraced the birth of Christ, our Lord and Savior.
All born again Christmassivesaleians.
Month: November 2011
essential reading for Japan
Any gaijin traveling to Japan MUST read these two historical fictions first.
In fact, I recommend everyone read the entire Asian Saga (6 novels).
After that … get The Lady and the Monk: Four Seasons in Kyoto.
The Lady and the Monk: Four Seasons in Kyoto
One of the best books for those traveling Asia is Video Night in Kathmandu (1988), by Pico Iyer.
Quite similar is his follow-up, The Lady and the Monk: Four Seasons in Kyoto. (1991)
When Pico Iyer decided to go to Kyoto and live in a monastery, he did so to learn about Zen Buddhism from the inside, to get to know Kyoto, one of the loveliest old cities in the world, and to find out something about Japanese culture today — not the world of businessmen and production lines, but the traditional world of changing seasons and the silence of temples, of the images woven through literature, of the lunar Japan that still lives on behind the rising sun of geopolitical power.
All this he did. And then he met Sachiko.
Vivacious, attractive, thoroughly educated, speaking English enthusiastically if eccentrically, the wife of a Japanese “salaryman” who seldom left the office before 10 P.M., Sachiko was as conversant with tea ceremony and classical Japanese literature as with rock music, Goethe, and Vivaldi. With the lightness of touch that made Video Night in Kathmandu so captivating, Pico Iyer fashions from their relationship a marvelously ironic yet heartfelt book that is at once a portrait of cross-cultural infatuation — and misunderstanding — and a delightfully fresh way of seeing both the old Japan and the very new.
I read it in Kyoto.
Pico, from the UK, studied at Oxford and taught at Harvard before becoming a vagabond. He ended up living in Kyoto, living with the lady of the book.
… “Japan is therefore an ideal place because I never will be a true citizen here, and will always be an outsider … “
These days he writes for Time, New York Review of Books, New York Times, National Geographic and others.
Hello Kitty culture
In Japan it seems nothing can be too cutsie.
Hello Kitty is a fad in most parts of the world. But in Japan …
The character is a staple of the kawaii segment of Japanese popular culture.
more of my Hello Kitty themed photos
top travel destionation is …
ICELAND
According to Lonely Planet Best in Travel Readers’ Choice Awards.
… ‘Incredibly friendly, amazingly beautiful and one hell of a good time. Bars followed by geothermal hot springs.’
‘Iceland is the place to be in 2012 to see incredible displays of nature! The country of Iceland is currently experiencing two “maximum cycles”: One to do with increased volcano activity and another to do with the increased aurora activity for 2012.’ …
… ‘The wonders and creativity of nature at its best – untouched by humans…to this point. Geothermally heated pools to refresh the soul, literally seeing the rift valley between the American and European geological plates, visiting glaciers, seeing a real volcano, walking on terrain that cannot be seen anywhere else in the world…AND who wouldn’t want to see a puffin!!’ …
details on Lonely Planet
(via Best Hike)
Philippines is on the list, too.
torturing and murdering seafood
… apologies for all the (delicious) dead animals on this blog of late. Yet here are more creatures put in pain for our pleasure.
I’d avoided the usual Japanese tourist “attractions” — fish markets … until Hokodate.
At that seaport it’s near impossible for a passerby to avoid the cruelty zoo.
Crabs and squid seem to object more strenuously than the rest.
The shark tried to make a run for it.
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Let’s say you believe in trying to reduce global warming. Like this guy:
… There’s not a single person who’s done more to fight climate change than Bill McKibben. Through thoughtful books, ubiquitous magazine contributions, and, most notably, the founding of 350.org (an international non-profit dedicated to fighting global warming), McKibben has committed his life to saving the planet. For all the passion fueling his efforts, though, there’s something weirdly amiss in his approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions: neither he nor 350.org will actively promote a vegan diet. …
… as a recent report from the World Preservation Foundation confirms, ignoring veganism in the fight against climate change is sort of like ignoring fast food in the fight against obesity. Forget ending dirty coal or natural gas pipelines. As the WPF report shows, veganism offers the single most effective path to reducing global climate change. …
read more on Freakonomics – Agnostic Carnivores and Global Warming: Why Enviros Go After Coal and Not Cows
Maxim at Disney
Max took Dana and Fred to Disneyland … via a Disney Cruise.
… The Oceaneer’s Club was Maxim’s favourite place. The Pirate Ship provided him literally hours of climbing and sliding adventure fun. The staff was amazing, the multitude of “friends” unlimited! One happy boy! …
Meal by meal details on Dana’s blog – The Happiest Place on the Sea – Cruise Disney!
SOPA sucks … American legislators are criminals
Proponents of the latest disastrous IP bill , the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) insist it only targets the “worst of the worst”: so-called “rogue” foreign websites that profit from pirating U.S. intellectual property. But the broad definitions and vague language in the bill could place dangerous tools into the hands of IP rightsholders, with little opportunity for judicial oversight. One very possible outcome: many of the lawful sites you know and love will face new legal threats. …
Etsy
Flickr
Vimeo
Anybody who thinks about SOPA for more than 15sec will realize it’s an idiotic idea.
… It’s a power play from big corporate media companies — the sort of legislation that nearly everyone strenuously opposes but which might pass because the money is on the wrong side. …
Daring Fireball by John Gruber
American legislators are mostly bought off by old media. How does that happen. Here’s one painfully obvious example just brought to light by 60 Minutes, a show that aired Nov. 13, 2011:
… The next national election is now less than a year away and congressmen and senators are expending much of their time and their energy raising the millions of dollars in campaign funds they’ll need just to hold onto a job that pays $174,000 a year.
… Most former congressmen and senators manage to leave Washington – if they ever leave Washington – with more money in their pockets than they had when they arrived …
(Peter) Schweizer says he wanted to know why some congressmen and senators managed to accumulate significant wealth beyond their salaries, and proved particularly adept at buying and selling stocks.
Schweizer: There are all sorts of forms of honest grafts that congressmen engage in that allow them to become very, very wealthy. So it’s not illegal, but I think it’s highly unethical, I think it’s highly offensive, and wrong.
Steve Kroft: What do you mean honest graft?
Schweizer: For example insider trading on the stock market. If you are a member of Congress, those laws are deemed not to apply.
Implicated are Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner and many other heavy hitters. If they were anyone other than the group of people writing the laws, they’d be in prison.
There is some hope this criminal behaviour can be slowed – Measure to ban Congressional insider trading gains steam
tasty Octopus balls
Big in Osaka, where they were first introduced.
Takoyaki (たこ焼き or 蛸焼) (literally fried or grilled octopus) is a popular ball-shaped Japanese dumpling or more like a savory pancake made of batter and cooked in a special takoyaki pan (see below). It is typically filled with diced or whole baby octopus, tempura scraps (tenkasu), pickled ginger, and green onion. …
The performance making them is as important as the taste.
Rick McCharles 