Japan Commentary

Taxis safely parked. (photo by Tod)

On the way home this evening we hopped in a taxi that was promptly rear-ended. It was a classic low-speed collision--we were stopped at a traffic light and the car behind us didn't brake soon enough. It made a loud bang.

The cars pulled over and the taxi driver checked to make sure we were OK. No bumps or bruises noted. The driver of the other car, a 20-something woman in an orange scarf, ran over to check on us, too. Her eyes got a little bigger when she saw we weren't Japanese, but she trotted out her best English for us and said she was very sorry.

The taxi driver handed the phone number of the taxi company on it so we can call if we discover any injuries later on. The next taxi driver, who was conveniently at the ready for us, said that if we're going to get whiplash, we'll feel it in the next three days.

Tokyo's governor is planning to ban some legal drugs starting next April.

The metropolitan government asked a panel Monday to map out the ordinance to ban the sale, production, import and advertisement of drugs such as those that induce hallucinations or improve sexual pleasure, which will be called "governor's assigned drugs."

I wonder if drugstores specialising in these newly illicit drugs will spring up along the borders of neighboring prefectures, providing easy access to the banned products?

It happens in the States. Along the Pennsylvania-Ohio border there were always fireworks for sale at makeshift stalls just inside the Ohio state line, and back in the day when the drinking age was state-mandated (18 in Ohio, 21 in PA), plenty of liquor stores.

And speaking of liquor, isn't that the #1 legal, addictive drug? I bet Ishihara won't ban that.

1969: a 29 year old man in the shipping department of a major Japanese nrewspaper dies of a stroke. This is the first case of karoshi or death by overwork, though it won't be called that until a 1982 book by the same name.

2002: 819 people apply for compensation after family members died from karoshi. Estimates range from 1,000 to 10,000 deaths per year are related to working too hard--stroke, heart attack, cerebral hemorrhaging, even suicides are attributed to too much slogging.

If you are working more than 80 hours in overtime every month, you're at a high risk for karoshi. So watch out for those 60 hour work weeks, friends, they are a killer.

Every Wednesday I spend a couple of hours at the Foreign Correspondents' Club. I'm the club webmaster and the go-to girl for Mac troubles. Mainly I just sit in a little room off the library and manage web content. From time to time someone will pop in with a question or just to say hello.

Way more than half of the Club's members are over 50--maybe half are over 60. They've been kicking around the bar since the early days and it's definitely an old boys club (with a few girls and a growing handful of youthful go-getters in the mix). When they fuss and squabble among themselves, I think of them as the Old Curmudgeons and reflect on my future temperament.

But I really don't know much about them at all. So I each month I read with great delight Write Up Your Alley, a column of reminisces in the No 1 Shimbun. This month, Max Desfor described a memorable trip to an onsen:

They apparently didn't speak English and, of course, I couldn't speak Japanese. One day, as I was luxuriating in my kimono after soaking in the hot tub, there was a loud knock on the door and the innkeeper was jabbering away at me. I understood only one word: denwa. I jabbered back that no one knew where I was and no one could be calling me. But he kept insisting, and I finally went downstairs with him to the phone.

It was Don Huth, our news editor and a very close friend, who told me that I had won the Pulitzer Prize for news photography. My reply was, "Look, if you want me back to work, say so. But don't give me that bullshit." With which I immediately slammed the phone down and went back up to my room.

A few minutes later, the innkeeper was knocking on my door and again jabbered about denwa. So back I went to the phone. This time it was Bob Eunson, our chief of bureau, who first ordered me not to hang up on him. Then he read several congratulatory messages from the big bosses in NY, also from my wife and brother.

I was somewhat shellshocked at that point and didn't slam the phone down. Shortly after that, the ryokan was filled with a mob of local newsmen who came to interview me. The innkeeper apparently knew he had something of a celebrity in his house, so he came up with a beautifully decorated, enormous platter of sushi as an honorific offering.

So I guess some of my Old Curmudgeons are eminent old curmudgeons. I should probably pay more attention to them.

Our annual supply of Girl Scout cookies arrived yesterday. We order them from one of Tod's colleague's daughters in Chicago and she mails them to us.

This year, the package arrived sealed with Japan Post tape and with a note saying the box had been inspected at Customs. Both boxes of Thin Mints were open.

I wonder if the densely packed cylinders of Thin Mints--18 cookies per roll, two rolls to a box--trigger some sort of weapons alert? Maybe it looks like a pipe bomb.

Inspired by a recent post on Wirefarm (and Kibo's amusing cones in action page), Tod & I counted traffic cones on our way from Iidabashi station to home.

It's about a 15 minute walk. I guessed we'd see 20-30; Tod estimated 100. We saw 95 cones. Next I counted the cones en route from our house to the coffee shop and grocery store at La Qua. A 10 minute walk--137 cones. They are everywhere...

They were hidden in bushes, tucked into dark alleys, defending bumpers of parked cars, saving parking places. Most of them are just sitting around, piled up next to buildings or guard rails, waiting to be useful.

I never really noticed them much, but now that I'm paying attention, I can't cast a glance anywhere without a bright orange witch's hat appearing.

When I was a teenager with her first job, I developed a financial coping skill that I will share with you, though I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this. I think of buying, selling, earning, and saving in terms of an object I care about whose price I know.

At age sixteen, I used a $40 wool sweater as a reference. I earned about a sweater a day as a lifeguard during the summer.

As a college student, my reference was pizza. The $4.99 Corleone's large cheese special (with two 32 ounce Cokes) was usually out of my budget, but it made a fine comparison tool.

After we bought a house, my reference became our mortgage payment. The apartment the company rented for us when we first arrived in Japan was eight mortgage payments. Yikes!

My latest reference is a lovely Abssynian kitten for sale at "Dog and Cat Nana." He is priced at 120,000 yen--about a thousand dollars. So now I think of things in terms of kittens. "That job just earned me 1.5 kittens."

Economics via Kittens

1 kitten = 1000 vending machine drinks
1 kitten = 136 Zoupi
1 kitten = 120 rides on the LaQua rollercoaster
1 kitten = 50 CDs
1 kitten = 42 Zousan
1 kitten = 30 dinners at Ampresso
1 kitten = 10 pairs of jeans
1 kitten = 10 kg of Japanese beef
2.5 kittens = 1 month's rent
5.2 kittens = 1 G5 + cinema display
7.3 kittens = 1 1996 VW Beetle 1600i
350 kittens = 2LDK apartment at Lions Square
6,662,369,081 kittens = 1 US national debt

Money seems so much cuter and accessible now.

It's hard to believe, but I've been living in Japan for long enough to have my gaikokujintourokusho, foreigner registration card, expire. Today I went to have it renewed. That's a once-every-five-years event. I feel like a long-time resident now...getting there, anyway.

So sayonara to the old tourokusho with my smudgy fingerprint. They don't subject us untrustworthy foreigners to the criminal-feeling inky finger anymore. I wonder what will go in that space?

I'm looking forward to being able to read the new one--the ink on the old one was starting to get rubbed off. Every time I had to copy down my registration number I had to think hard about whether it was a 3 or a 5 that I was looking at.

My original purple card was issued in Meguro-ku where we lived when we first arrived in Japan. My new card from Bunkyo-ku will be another color, I believe. I saw someone picking theirs up today and it was sort of salmon-pink colored. It's a fitting color for this ward, more subtle and refined than the brash violet of funky, urban Meguro-ku.

I am happily saying goodbye to the bad photo circa 1998 from when my hair was growing out and I had to pull it back to keep it out of my eyes.

But now I'll have this one instead. Just as bad, but different. I'm not so crazy about seeing my face aged five years but I like this haircut better, even though it's a little too long right now and looks like a lopsided helmet.

Five years in Tokyo has made me look my age, at least in this picture. Maybe when I'm moving around and smiling I look a little younger. I hope so.

But what can I expect? ID photos are rarely attractive and I don't make any effort to look great. It's too much fun to whip out the old IDs at drunken get-togethers and compare to see which is least like the person it belongs to.

The postal services in Japan were privatised on the April 1. All the post offices changed their logos, took down the cute seasonal decorations and the postal workers look slightly more grumpy. Other than that, not too much seems to have changed.

But now that mail delivery is a commercial venture, the parcel services are keen to get a piece of the action. Kuroneko Mail will take your 50 gram letter for 80 yen. It costs 90 yen at Japan Post. Sagawa, another parcel delivery company, also runs mail services.

But Japan Post is fighting back. Starting later this month, they're planning a package delivery service, EXPACK 500. It will cost only 500 yen within the central business areas of Tokyo.

A sacred cypress.

Hunting for spot-bellied tree shrews.

Fence details.

Self-portrait with sun.

Our health insurance is through a company called TSK that specialises in insurance for employees of computer-related companies. It works in conjunction with National Health, but I'm not exactly sure how, though I know that every hospital that accepts National Health takes this insurance, too.

But it's more than just covering doctor's bills. TSK sends out a magazine every now and again that lists all of their services. Healthy, Sports & Resort Life Magazine Toco Toco came this week and it's full of curious things.

The first section of the magazine is devoted to statistics, policies and health checks. TSK has 4,065 companies registered and insures 156,876 people.

Insurance companies run their own clinics. TSK has 3 in Tokyo, where the insured can go for an annual physical. This includes a chest x-ray, ultrasound and bloodwork. Men over 35 get a bonus-- a prostate check. I know how much all the Perot guys look forward to turning 35. If you're over 50, you can have an elective MRI every three years.

When you're finished with your check-up, perhaps you'll be feeling a little peckish. In the same buildings as the clinics, the insurance company has restaurants.

Prices for meals are discounted for TSK members--the dinner course shown here is 3,000 yen for members, 5,000 yen for others. Weddings and party banquets also catered and conference rooms are available for half-day or full-day functions.

If you're hoping for some relaxation, why not spend a few days at a TSK "TosLove" resort? There are four of them, all offering bathing and pools, meals, and relaxing environments outside Tokyo for only 5,000 per night (including breakfast and dinner). I think the one at Tateyama sounds best because there's a horse riding club nearby for only 900 yen, and a place to try making your own pottery. The other resorts also have attractions, like a ropeway, a water park and all of Hakone's sights.

But if TosLove's resorts aren't your style, TSK offers discounts at hotels and resorts all around the country as well as package tours to Guam, Hawaii and domestic locations. There's a place in Sapporo where you can spend the night for 1,000 yen. Fancy a night at the swanky Hotel Okura--only 5,000 yen including breakfast. Usually rooms at the Okura are 30,000 and up per night. Of course, there's a small catch. You have to apply through TSK at least two months in advance for all these places. But if you're planning a holiday, instead of just winging it like I ususally end up doing, this is a great bargain.

TSK's benefits don't end there, though. If you want day tickets to the gym or golf courses, those are available, too. As are tour events, like a "bus hike" to go fishing in the countryside, or a trip to Universal Studios Japan. Just plan ahead and get in line...

"Sweaters" is what the shipping form claimed was in the box my mother sent to us for Christmas.

The shipping box has been opened, examined, resealed with kraft tape emblazoned with Japan Post in big red letters. It was shipped on to us with a duty fee payable.

I've never had a parcel containing gifts opened and examined. Maybe we've just been lucky; maybe the Customs office is cracking down to make up a budget deficit. Perhaps they have a thing against sweaters. Who knows? It's a pretty decent racket the Customs Office has going. Here's what the customs form says:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Classification:
JERSEYS, PULLOVERS, CARDIGANS OR SIMILAR ARTICLES 6110.92-2

Rate of Duty: 11.50% (of assessed value)
Consumption Tax: 4.00% (of a different assesed amount)
Area Consumption Tax: 25% (of a very small assessed value)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

And the post office charges 200 yen to handle the Customs duty payment! I truly do not mind paying the duty, but it's a bit of a surprise out of the blue like that. I expect duty on commercial shipments--shoes in particular always get slapped with a hefty extra fee--but on a private gift from Mom? Outrageous...good thing I picked up freebie a Customs Office pen at a community fair a few years back.

(Sorry for simply copying this interesting wire story here; it explains better than my paraphrasing might.)

TOKYO (Kyodo News) A group of citizens in Japan said Monday they will launch a mock tribunal to try U.S. President George W Bush on war crime charges over military attacks on Afghanistan last year in retaliation for last year's Sept 11 attacks on the United States.

The organizing committee for the "International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan" will hold public hearings in some locations in Japan, beginning with one in Tokyo next Sunday, before handing down a "ruling" on Dec 13 and 14 next year, the group said.

The group, co-chaired by Akira Maeda, professor of international criminal law at the Tokyo University of Art and Design, said it will deliver the ruling to the White House.

It said it has visited Afghanistan three times to look into war damage there.

Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who organized a similar tribunal in New York in 1992 against then U.S. President George Bush over the 1991 Persian Gulf War, is a special adviser to the upcoming tribunal, they said.

TOKYO --The telecom ministry said Tuesday Japan intends to hold talks with the United States in Washington on Monday over a U.S. demand to have Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT) cut hookup fees charged on non-NTT carriers.

"We would like to hold talks in Washington early next week," Kaoru Kanazawa, vice minister of the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications, told a news conference.

I guess the US-based international long distance carriers complained. Or maybe the US doesn't want its telecom companies to get any big ideas about higher hookup fees. Who knows? I don't and I'm really confused about why the US government thinks it can make requests like this--they don't even own any telephone companies anymore.

But I shouldn't complain. I've benefited from their last intervention with NTT. Internet access in Japan is superfast and very cheap because the US bitched about NTT rates being prohibitive to broad acceptance of the 'Net by regular folk. So now I pay monthly fees of only 3,700 yen to NTT and 2,300 to my ISP for 8 Mb ASDL! Cheaper than in the US, and faster, too.

According to an investigative panel presented earlier this week, as much as 80% of Japan's food supply may contain Diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), a suspected endocrine disrupter.

DEHP is used to make plastics flexible and it's a big component of vinyl and some food packaging. In low levels, it's not likely to harm you too much, because the body can break it down pretty quickly. But high level, long term exposure in rat studies did nasty thing to the poor rats, like kidney damage and reproduction problems.

Of course, rats aren't human. Should we worry? Maybe not about this specific problem, but the combined chemicals and manmade things in our environment have got to have an affect on us.

I've always had a suppressed urge to run away to the countryside and live more in harmony with nature,eating grains I grew, using energy from renewable sources, raising animals for food and clothing but I'm not sure I could give up my computer. Articles and reports like this make me think about it more seriously.

After teaching a digital photography workshop with 23 participants, and after a delightful dinner at a restaurant on Sotobori Moat, the outermost of the Imperial Palace defences, I met a cat.

Cha-chan was sitting on a makeshift plywood and crate shelf outside an old house. I couldn't help petting her. Fat and friendly, I held out my hand and she tested me out with a gentle bite. I passed muster by not flinching and was allowed to pet her.

Her owner, an older woman who never gave her name, came out to talk to us. "Cha-chan runs away from scary strangers and dogs," she said. I guess since Cha-chan didn't run away from us, we weren't scary. I'm pretty sure I'm not a dog (no comments from the peanut gallery, please).

Obaasan chatted with us for ten minutes before we said goodnight and left. I think this was the nicest, longest conversation I've ever had with a stranger here. This old woman was lonely and not too concerned that we were foreign or didn't always understand what she was saying. Cha-chan liked us and that was good enough for her.

Prime Minister Koizumi is in North Korea today, attending a summit with tetchy neighbors.

The hot topic at the summit--abductions. Japan claims that North Korea abducted a dozen or so Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 80s. NK has sometimes completely denied this; at other times they have launched "missing person" searches in cooperation with the Japanese Red Cross.

What isn't said is why NK would want to abduct Japanese citizens in the first place? Did these people have specialised knowledge NK needed? Was it just to cause terror and piss off Japan? Digging around on the 'Net as not brought the answers to the surface.

Oyama sensei is on holiday in Canada this week. We'll have a substitute teacher tonight. But instead of a regular lesson, Oyama sensei left us a page-long composistion to translate. We'll discuss it in class tonight.

I've finished deciphering the first three sentences. This makes me realise how few kanji I actually know--there's a lot of dictionary work for me this afternoon. I have four hours to complete the rest.

Today is Greenery Day, the first of the official Golden Week holidays. We got a jump on it by strolling through Koishikawa Korakuen this weekend.

This is the oldest park in Tokyo and was laid out by a Chinese landscaper for the Tokugawa clan in 1629. It's full of water and bridges, minature mountains, shrines and all of the wonderful variety of plants and trees that make Japanese gardens so enjoyable.

And it's a short ten minute walk from our apartment. What a treasure. From inside the garden, you can view the local skyline--Tokyo Dome sports complex hovers like a giant cloud above the tops of the trees and the Tokyo Dome Hotel tower shows its profile.

The name, Korakuen, comes from a Chinese poem and means "a pleasure afterward." The poem, as translated in the garden's brochure, is oddly discouraging. Be the first to take the world's trouble to heart, be the last to enjoy the world's pleasure. Doesn't that mean you'll be the one to shoulder the world's troubles the longest?

This is, hands down, the strangest store name I have ever encountered. It's a "recycle shop" which is called a second hand store or a thrift store in the US. I had a hard time remembering the English for recycle shop.

"Does that say 'poop dick'?" Tod asked incredulously as he read the Japanese sign above the street. I sounded it out, then discovered a second sign with English to confirm it.

What were the owners thinking?

Here is a place you don't want to live. Maison Commode.

You've really got to wonder what possessed the owner to choose this name. No matter whether someone intended 'commode" to mean a chest of drawers or a toilet, this doesn't conjure up a pleasant living space!

Was it a joke? Probably not, as "commode" means convenient in French. Convenience is a favorite concept in Japan; you see it in plenty of nonsensical ad copy. Heartful convenience life. Your convenient life. Let's convenient.

Convenient or not, Maison Commode has the look of a bathroom fixture, with its rounded corners and metal trim. The cracks around the windows are an added asthetic bonus. I wonder where the toilet paper goes?

It could take all day to explain this calendar page.

Today is Sunday, September 2nd. On the lunar calendar, it's 7/15 and the feast of the dead, Bon. Today is also "lottery day" (takarakuji no hi).

In the ancient calendar today is a dragon day (the seahorse is known as "dragon's child") and its element is earth with a positive pole (tsuchi no e).

The proverb at the bottom says "Shouji ni kodawari daiji wo wasureruna" which means "Don't sweat the small stuff."

I guess it didn't take all day to explain, after all.

9:01 am. The extremely cute, bright turquoise mini-digger (model SKR-301) is doing a balletic dance from its flatbed truck to the ground. The skilled operator uses the digging head as a fulcrum to slide the machine off the raked bed of the truck without bouncing it off the asphalt.

Sadly, it is a Sunday morning....one that I had hoped to sleep through. Construction crews begin their work on the dot at 9 am. This timing is so consistent that I suspect it must be mandated by law. Because it is challenging to rest when the SKR-301 is dancing and digging underneath the bedroom window, I'm in the office, checking e-mail and working on a Sunday--I swore I wouldn't. Maybe I'll have better luck next week.

Japan's population is about 125 million people. 20 million of them carry DoCoMo's i-mode mobile phones.

i-mode allows its users to send e-mail and text messages, read news, access web pages, even play games on the color displays of the tiny mobile handsets. You can also make travel reservations, do your banking, find a restauant, get a map, and program your own ringing sound.

Of course the phone takes messages, keeps track of who called and when, allows you to set up "speed dial" lists (that you can activate by saying the name of the person you want to call), and all the normal functions of a phone.

Tod's i-mode phone (model P209i) weighs only 55 grams (about an ounce and a half)--less than a candy bar weighs. But that's not good enough for me...

I'm one of the shrinking group that does not carry a cell phone. I'm still waiting for an interface that integrates all the digital gadgets (phone, PDA, Internet, camera, music playera) into one device that is easy to use and impossible to lose. Like a chip implanted in my head. I think I have a while to wait.