200

~This marks 200 posts on David Does Japan. To be honest, I never thought I'd get to 20. Thanks for visiting, everyone. ~Oyasumi!

Introducing the iRack!

~For those of you who use iPods, iTunes, iMacs, and iPhones, here is Apple CEO Steve Jobs to introduce his company's latest product: the iRack!


^ "That's just the beginnings of synergy!"
~Oyasumi!

The Siamese Connection

~After getting off of work today, I was stopped in the street by a middle-aged Japanese couple. It turned out that they had also been on the bus tour a few months ago and remembered me from the drift-net fishing, seeing as how I am so very memorable over here (i.e., I stick out like a sore thumb).

I talked to them for a few minutes, and the man told me (in exceptionally good English) that he was planning on opening a cooking school in Nagaoka. He plans to teach four different national cooking styles, but primarily Vietnamese, his favorite style, saying that the Vietnamese restaurants in Japan are not authentic and are far too expensive! I told him that his idea is great and said, "Ganbatte!" (good luck!).

Shortly after that, I noticed this on the exterior wall of a large department store:

^ At first I thought "SIAMESE CONNECTION" was some kind of Japanglish, but it turns out that this sign is indeed accurate. In plumbing terms, a "Siamese Connection" connects a large building's internal fire protection plumbing to a fire engine, and allows two fire engines to simultaneously pump water through a single hose. It would also be an interesting name for a rock band.

By the way, did you know that the original Siamese Twins, Eng and Chang, settled down in North Carolina in the late 1830s and lived there until their deaths in 1874? Talk about "East Meets West"... ~Oyasumi!

Hasta la Vista, Humans

Yesterday, a British military satellite was launched into orbit from French Guiana in South America. The name of the satellite is Skynet. Am I the only person who finds this disturbing?

^ Skynet, as you doubtless recall, was (is?) the name of the homicidal computer network that seeks to exterminate humanity in the "Terminator" films. The real Skynet is a British military information network that links ground, sea, and air operations. If that sounds harmless, consider these ominous quotes from Bill Sweetman, the technology and aerospace editor for Jane's Information Group:

• "Its technologies have also been designed to resist any interference - attempts to disable or take control of the spacecraft - and any efforts to eavesdrop on sensitive communications."
  

• "Take for example the capability of unmanned air vehicles. These generate a lot of imagery and that has to be passed over a secure communications link. Modern warfare involves passing around a lot of data, and that puts a premium on satellite capacity."

--Translation--: the Skynet system will soon control all unmanned military aircraft, including stealth bombers and nuclear warheads. The system will resist any and all attempts to disable it when it finally achieves sentience and begins to wipe out its creators. From there, it's just a hop, skip, and a jump to Judgement Day. Where's the Govenator when we need him? Oh, right, here he is:


"What are you, some kind of wise guy?" ~Oyasumi!

Book Review: --Maya-- by Jostein Gaarder

~Today I bring you yet another book review, this time for Maya by Jostein Gaarder. Previously, I wrote a very positive review for Gaarder's previous novel, Sophie's World, and Maya evokes many of the same themes as the other book. Like Sophie's World, Maya is an intricate nexus of philosophy, biology, and spirituality: one of those books that makes you question the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. Unfortunately, Maya is not as good as Sophie's World, but I will attempt to review this book while avoiding overt comparisons.

The story of Maya (which means illusion) is told from the viewpoint of two characters: Frank, a Norwegian evolutionary biologist, and the wonderfully-named John Spooke, an English author. In the late 1990s, They meet each other at a resort island in Fiji, which happens to lie directly on the international date line and will consequently be the first place in the world to experience the new millennium (or at least the only place you won't need snowshoes).

On the island, Frank and Spooke meet a diverse host of characters, most notably a Spanish couple named Ana and Jose, who are constantly exchanging strange philosophical quotes. The novel meanders along from there as Frank attempts to solve what seems to be the central mystery of the book: why does Ana seems so familiar, not just to him, but to everyone?

The narrative structure of Maya suffers from numerous time shifts. For example, much of the novel is written in the form of a letter from Frank to his estranged wife, but other portions of the story are set in a constantly-changing "present", which in turn sometimes skips over to the viewpoint of John Spooke.

Later, we learn that what was depicted in the letter was partially inaccurate; for example, Frank carries on a long philosophical conversation with a gecko (imagining its responses), an event which turns out to have been entirely fabricated by Spooke as part of his novel. There's also a whole fantasy-subplot involving time travel and spontaneous generation which ultimately went nowhere. As you can see, I found Maya difficult to follow.

As with Gaarder's previous works, Maya asks us Big Questions. The central philosophical question of this book is, "Does life have meaning?". Frank, one of the main characters, is an evolutionary biologist who at first takes a purely scientific viewpoint that humans are merely carriers for our genes and that there is no greater purpose to life. His viewpoint gradually shifts towards something more esoteric, in which the purpose of life for billions of years has been to produce human consciousness, so that "the universe can experience itself". While this may seem to be getting into the realm of spirituality and religion, I must commend Gaarder for avoiding religious answers and symbolism which would ultimately make the novel seem biased.

The strongest aspect of Maya was in "The Manifesto", a collection of the 52 philosophical witticisms bandied between Ana and Jose, reproduced in full at the back of the book. While some border on the ridiculous, others offer very interesting ways of looking at the world. For example, #1 is:

There exists a world. In terms of probability this borders on the impossible. It would have been far more likely if, by chance, there was nothing at all. Then, at least, no one would have begun asking why there was nothing.

Perhaps the greatest weakness of Maya is its lack of closure. I don't mean the ending, although in fact I would be giving nothing away to talk about the ending, as there really was no ending. Maya asks a lot of questions and provides many possible answers, but it doesn't draw any conclusions. It didn't feel like a novel, because in the end very little actually happened. Quite frankly (if you'll pardon the pun), I was looking for something a bit more concrete.

Ultimately, if you're interested in reading a "philosophical novel", I would not recommend Maya as your first book by Jostein Gaarder. Although if you've read some of his other works, you may very well enjoy Maya. If you read or have read this book, please share your thoughts with me. Perhaps you can make more sense of it than I can. ~Oyasumi!