The Tour, part 2: Don't Get Crabby With Me!

~After sorting through masses of jellyfish and picking out a half-dozen tiny white fish, it was time for lunch. What we'd caught was just enough for a small (non-hungry) child, but luckily a real lunch was provided in a beachfront restaurant (free of charge, no less):

^ Mmm, seafood! Note the chopsticks (hashi in Japanese; kanji = 箸 ). The Japanese eat everything with chopsticks. When you go to a restaurant, you always get chopsticks. When I buy lunch at the supermarket, they give me chopsticks. Some Japanese (especially older citizens) don't even own forks!

In China, the government now assesses a 5% tax on chopsticks in an effort to combat deforestation (billions of them are thrown away each year). In Japan, environmentally-conscious people often carry around a set of reusable, washable chopsticks in plastic cases, and decline the free sets offered at restaurants and markets. [Memo to self: pick up a set of those...]

^ "I think it's reaching its claws towards me..." The crab was good, but there's wasn't much meat on it. Fortunately for my stomach, I brought a lunch with me, thus preventing me from getting crabby.

^ Post-lunch, it was time to relax a bit. Notice how everyone is sitting around a low table. The floor was covered with tatami mats, traditional straw "rugs" found in buildings across the nation. The size of a tatami mat is fixed at 90 cm x 180 cm x 5 cm for a full-size mat (half-sizes are also made). As time passes, the mats start to stink (they are straw, after all) and have to be replaced. From a marketing standpoint, it's brilliant!

Tatami mats are so ingrained in Japanese culture that room sizes are measured not in square meters, but rather by the number of tatami mats that will fit on the floor! I often see these measurements in newspaper advertisements for apartments and houses.

^ Example layout pattern of tatami mats in a room. The layout must conform to certain patterns, some of which are considered unlucky. For example, tatami mats are never put down in a grid pattern; there must never be a point where the corners of three or more mats intersect.

^ These unusual volcanic spires litter the area between the beach and the mountains. As our bus departed the beach, I took a picture of this interesting example. I like how this one has a tree growing out of it.

~The next part of the tour consisted of a stop at a mountain observation point that had many temples hidden away in the nearby forest. Stay tuned to David Does Japan! for more.

~Oyasumi!

Nagaoka Sunsets

~Japan is known as The Land of the Rising Sun, but unfortunately for my sense of aesthetics, I'm not a morning person. Although the thought of watching the sun rise strikes me as relaxing, there's one thing I find infinitely more so: sleeping. However, the skies over Nagaoka are host to some spectacularly gorgeous sunsets, which I can see from the excellent vantage point of my apartment building. Here are some of the better pictures I've taken of Nagaoka Sunsets (which, by the way, would be a good name for a rock band. Or a sports team):

^ It looks as if something has burned a hole in the clouds, leaving the outer ring on fire. This is one of my favorite pictures from the large number that I've taken since coming to Japan.

^ Lighter clouds layered with thicker clouds create this curious "river" effect, which looks like a pink waterway floating in the sky. I think it would be take a small plane and fly along this aerial river.

^ These swirling cloud patterns are caused by the interaction of eastward winds from the sea of Japan that run up against the "Japan Alps" just beyond Nagaoka. The masses of moving air are blocked by the mountains and just sit here, swirling around. That's why we get these clouds, along with lots of rain and only a small number of thunderstorms. By the way, the Japanese word for cloud is "kumo" ( 雲 ).

^ The long, thin cloud in the above image appears to be an airplane contrail, but it's not. It's just another interesting meteorological effect of the interaction between the mountains and the ocean breeze.

As always, I'll post more interesting nature pictures in the future. ~Oyasumi!

Three Questions

~You're probably sick of seeing all the crap that's being spewed out by the media regarding the fifth anniversary of the 9-11 attacks, so I'll try to keep this short and to the point. Five years on, a great deal has changed. On this anniversary, I have three burning questions that few want to address:

1) Just a few days after the attacks, the FBI admitted that several of the suspected suicide hijackers were alive and well, protesting their innocence from across the globe. One is a Saudi airline pilot, and another is a telecommunications engineer. I'm sure you've all seen the mugshots of the evil Arab hijackers that sacrificed themselves in the name of Allah to murder the infidel Americans...except that the list of hijackers, it seems, is inaccurate.

^ These men have accomplished the incredible feat of killing themselves in a suicide attack and somehow not dying! Amazing!

Which begs the question...if these men weren't the hijackers, just who the hell was on those planes? This is not some wacko conspiracy theory, this is the FBI. But I'm sure hardly anyone has even heard about this.

2) Just two days after the attacks, our Great and Powerful Leader stated that Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaida, was the primary suspect behind the attacks, and said that capturing or killing him was his #1 priority. "I want justice," said the President, "Dead or Alive." [Read it here]

How bold and macho! How forthright and decisive! Except that just a few months later, at a press conference, the President said, "You know, I just don't spend that much time on him...to be honest with you." [Read the transcript HERE]. Indeed he hasn't, as the ongoing combat in Afghanistan (remember that place?) continues to claim American lives, the Taliban are still active, and Al-Qaida still on the loose and churning out venomous messages for global Jihad.

Which begs the question, what happened to Osama Bin Laden, public enemy #1? Is he alive or dead? And why is it that he seems to have been forgotten in favor of...

3) Iraq. The question here is, why did we invade? At first, it was to find the Legendary Weapons of Mass Destruction, which turned out to have been nonexistent, the evidence for them a "sexed-up" patchwork of lies and fabrications.

Then, it was because Saddam Hussein was in cahoots with Osama. Except that a recent U.S. Senate report indicates that Hussein considered Al-Qaida a threat to his rule in Iraq (committed as they are to an Islamic Empire), and was hardly inclined to cooperate with them.

Then, it was because Saddam was a brutal dictator who tortured his people and had to be removed, unlike all the other dictators that America has supported.

^ Dec 20,1983, Day 147 of the David Calendar [click image to play video, no sound]: Donald Rumsfeld shakes hands with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, finalizing an agreement for U.S. technical, financial, and agricultural support of Iraq in their war against Iran. Although Iraq used chemical weapons at this time, this fact was overlooked in light of Iraq being our ally. That is, until we needed a reason to attack them.

On a more pragmatic note, the invasion is most likely about control of an unstable region containing most of the world's oil...which I actually consider to be an important and reasonable goal. But the situation is absurdly corrupt and violence is out of control. So I ask again, is there a clear mission here? Oh, wait, the mission has already been accomplished. Never mind.

~So take a moment to think about where your country is headed on this most-stupidly named "Patriot Day". Real patriots ask questions instead of toeing the line and believing everything they're told. I remember the day after the attacks--my friends and I were ready to do anything, and I mean anything, we were told by the Powers that Be.

I remember some friends seriously considering joining the army (look at where they'd be now, and if they'd even be alive, fighting in Iraq). It was like Pearl Harbor must have been. It was scary, but in the 20/20 vision granted by hindsight, it was more than just disturbing and terrifying. It was a perfect opportunity to delude angry people into doing whatever you wanted them to do.

I'm sure many of my older readers are shaking their heads now. "He's just a young man," you're thinking, "he will soon learn that there's nothing he can do, and that it's all far beyond anyone's control. Just let it be and get on with your life." The sad thing is, you're probably right. Just keep in mind that people my age are going to have to live with the nightmare that people of your age have created. Sometimes I think I should just stay in Japan.

Links:

Current Cost of Iraq War (that's ~$100,000 per minute! Interestingly, adjusted for inflation, it's cost more than America spent on World War 1 and has lasted longer than World War 2)

Current Number of U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq (most deaths occurring after "Mission Accomplished")

I hope I didn't alienate too many readers with the political rantage! I'm just trying to get you to think. ~Oyasumi.