Welcome to Japan Clinton-sama

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Japan. She is, as I type, in Tokyo on her first diplomatic mission. The following is a clip from the 2/16 episode of The Rachel Maddow Show. I'll give some additional information on the info after the video. Now we get to see if I've figured out how to make these embedded videos work.

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First off, Finance Minister Nakagawa is soon to be EX-Finance Minister Nakagawa. Nobody is buying the "too much medicine" excuse. "Nakagawa stressed he had just sipped a glass of wine during a toast at the G7 luncheon but claimed he "did not drink it."" When this story broke Monday morning, Prime Minister Aso "14% approval rating" Taro issued a statement saying that he would not fire the man. ""As for my responsibility of appointing (Nakagawa), I am grateful that he has surely been doing his job," Aso said." (Quotes credited to The Japan Times)

Not twenty four hours later, Nakagawa-san's office issues a statement that he will resign, thereby allowing the Prime Minster to save face. Nobody is buying this! By the way, Rachel may not understand Japanese, but I do and Nakagawa-san still makes no fricken sense.

However, Nakagawa-san seems to have taken the Ron Blagoyavitch (I don't care enough to look up the spelling for that) route by saying as much as possible before vanishing into the void. Some highlights:

"I was told by Prime Minister Aso to do my best until the passage (of the bills)," he told a hastily called news conference in Tokyo after he visited a doctor for a medical check.

He said his wobbly performance was caused mainly by jet lag and taking too much cold medicine, brushing aside speculation that he was under the influence of alcohol at that time.

And my personal favorite:
"My doctor told me I am suffering from a cold and fatigue," he said, adding he had "apologized for having caused a great deal of trouble to the prime minister and other people concerned" by not taking good enough care of his health. (Again, all quotes are from The Japan Times)

He has a cold? Seriously? Go watch that video again and tell me if that is any cold you have ever seen.

Now for the scary $*!*, that "Sea of Fire" that the North Koreans are talking about making, is about 60 feet from one of the elementary schools that I work at. Damn. Fortunately, this is probably bluster and bluff. I can't take anything seriously from a country whose leader once bragged that he owned ever action figure ever made of Japanese professional magician Princess Tenko.

And now for Clinton herself, the one major thing not mentioned in the Maddow clip is that Clinton is planning to sign an accord that will remove 8000 US troops from Okinawa. The only thing that would further US-Japanese relations better than that is promise to get the USS George Washington the heck away from Yokusuka. (The only nation that has ever suffered a nuclear attack doesn't like having a nuclear warship floating off the coast)

Also, I'm taking bets on how long before we see Japanese models start wearing the "Bada$$ on the outside, kimono on the inside" jacket.

That's about all the extra insight that I can provide. In other news, it is insanely cold out here right now. 38 degrees F with the heater on kind of cold. Californians don't get to complain about the cold. EVER!

Setsubun

I’m a couple of days late on this, but with the time difference, it mostly works out.

Feb 3rd is a holiday in Japan, not the Get-out-of-work kind, but still fun. It’s called Setsubun (節分). The name translates roughly to “cutting the season” and refers to the official boundary between winter and spring. (He said as he looked out the window at the snow and died a little on the inside)

Setsubun is celebrated with a purification ritual meant to cast out evil spirits and usher in good luck for the new year. The evil spirits are symbolized by the Oni, a mythological baddie whose name translates as “demon” but “ogre” is a better analogy. How do you cast out an Oni? Why, by throwing soy beans at it of course.

People throw roasted soybeans at someone wearing an Oni mask and shout “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!” (鬼は外! 福は内) Which means “Oni outside, luck inside.” Traditionally, this was a shinto ritual that held deep significance. However, today it has devolved into a children’s ritual where they get to throw things at their parents and teachers. The children are also typically given candy at the end. Why? I have no idea, but who needs an excuse to give kids candy? Many shrines still have Setstubun events, but they’re mostly publicity stunts.

I had the opportunity to be an Oni at one of the elementary schools I teach at. I kind of fit the bill physically since I’m tall, large, and can look pretty darn scary when I try. I and a handful of other teachers stood outside the school gym ready to walk in one at a time as the children prepared to throw beans at us. I was told we were supposed to just walk slowly and let the children hit us. My instant reaction to that was “Oh heck no!”

When my turn came I stood at the door for a second and let out what I hope was a blood curdling roar. I dashed into the gym growling in a half werewolf/half Gollum impression. The kids were laughing their heads off as they started to throw the beans. I ducked, dodged, and spun my way around them (and at my size, that isn’t easy). Eventually, I started letting them hit me. Being in possession of an amateur drama background (Read: Being a big ham) I naturally acted as if the beans were made of acid. I then transitioned into the corniest death scene you can imagine before removing the mask and accepting the praise of the students and teachers.

The Great Split

Greetings puny humans,

I’ve realized that I long ago abandoned what this blog was supposed to be about and started commentating mostly on politics. Since I tend to write about whatever I feel like at the time, sticking to any one topic is rather difficult.

Last night I was rereading the great book of laws that govern the entire internet, The Tome of Gore and noticed something in Vol.3, Section 6, Subsection 31 regarding blogs:
A User may have as many blogs as he/she/it can comfortably provide for.

Having realized this, I have decided to split off and start a total three blogs. The current plan is to post something in one of them at least once a week.

Wandering Gaijin will remain as a Japan specific blog. This will include commentaries on what are known on the Internet as WJTs (Pronounced: widgets) or Weird Japanese Things. I will also post reflections of experiences and other such information. You know, the stuff I should have been posting all along.

The first of the new blogs will be called RNR or Random Nerd Reviews. I am a proud nerd (or Intello-American if you want to be politically correct) and this blog will be me talking about all things nerdy. As the name implies, reviews will be the main bread and butter of this blog. This one is already up and running at randomnerdreviews.blogspot.com, go there.

The second and last of the new blogs will be political in nature and it will have a very catchy name as soon as I think of one. It will mainly be my political rants at the stupidity that envelops modern politics and political punditry.

Some cross over between blogs will happen. Articles of Japanese nerdom on RNR, or the political blog with the very catchy name featuring transpacific stories.

Also, I may soon decide to abandon all attempts at anonymity and start posting video blog entries because I’ve always wanted my own TV show. The fact that my new computer has a built in web cam also has something to do with this.

And so dear friends, we begin a new era of Net based commentary in this: The 3rd Age of the Hack.