Hmmm. Rushing around the (currently very busy due to Christmas) streets of Bath, and I’m noticing a rather strange phenomenon. Take this normal day to day scenario. You are walking down the street, through the crowds. In the medium distance, you become aware someone is vaguely on the same path as you, but coming down in the other direction. In most cases, as if by sixth sense, you and other party are aware of the situation and come to a mutual decision about how to avoid collision way before you actually get close to colliding. Only sometimes do you end up doing that silly dance in the middle of the street, both going the same way.

So, when I first arrived in Japan, for some reason, this sixth sense broke down. I would constantly find myself narrowly avoiding people at last minute. It was only towards the end of my time in Japan that sixth sense came back. OR, had I merely learnt how to read Japanese brains better???

The thing is now, maybe my brain went a little ‘native’ in Japan, because I’m having the old problem again back here in the UK. I’ve forgotton how to think like a Brit! It’s a bizzare thing, and I’m sure most of you are wondering what the hell I’m on about. But having now experienced it twice, I’m sure there’s something going on with subtle body language signals.

In other news of Gavin and Yuko’s relocation… me and Yuko ended up watching (and recording) Rick Stein’s TV show that was shown on Tuesday night. Pretty interesting, though Yuko and I were desperate to eat some really nice sushi and sashimi after watching it. The good thing about the programme though was that Yuko and I got the chance to learn the English names for fish, which currently we only only know how to say in Japanese (this says a lot about how much fish I used to eat before I went to Japan… I speak more Japanese than English when it comes to fish names). So, know we know what to try and get, we will have to try and get it!

Anyway, enough rambling, what else have I seen around.

Ahhh, as you can see, Japan is just like the UK. Need some extra policing powers, simply, put fear into the local indiginous population about foreigners committing crime. In the UK, it’s those strange Muslim types. In Japan, well, it’s ALL those foreign types (especially the damn Chinese and Koreans) if you believe anything that Ishihara tells you.

Looks like Abe is still pushing Japan to become a more powerful regional power. Is this part of the worrying nationalist trends in some elements of the Japanese government? Actually, I think it’s quite a complex issue. I think Japan has reason to be concerned, and needs to improve it’s ability to defend itself with the ‘threat’ from China… but I worry about Nationalist abusing any extra military strength and powers that Japan would aquire.

Ahhh, seems there’s a large proportion (well, in this less than scientific study anyway) of Japanese seem to think Japan is the ONLY country in the world that has 4 seasons! As the author of the post on the linked website said, it’s a bit of running joke amoungst foreigners resident in Japan.

Quite an amazing little story.

I remember seeing a story about Paris Syndrome a while back, but always thought it was just an urban myth. Well, reading the BBC story, it seems that the Japanese Embassy in Paris actually has to repatriate distraught Japanese when their mental image of Paris turns out to be a complete myth. Strange, but true it seems?

Bloody hell. A 30% population decrease in 50 years!. That what Japan is facing based on current projections. In the ‘current’ capitalistic world, this would be a disaster for Japan. We are looking at an economic implosion… except of course, it’s pretty much a certainty (exact date is not a certainty) the whole planet is looking at a collapse of the capitalistic economic system. So, I guess the Japanese are going to have 30 million less people to feed. Factor in that the probably life expectancy would decrease, and maybe Japan will end up with a population demographic that resembles how nature intended it to look.

Ahhh, only in Japan. In the UK and most of Western Society… geeks in Stormtrooper outfits scare away girls. In Japan, geeks in Stormtrooper outfit gets to pose with attractive girls wearing bikinis!

And finally… Gordon Brown may have a challenger for the Labour Party leadership. Now, I happen to think that all UK politicians (well, maybe not all, but most) are idiots with no long term vision or planning (I mean, doing unpopular things for long-term prosperity… nah, can’t be doing that since we’d be unelectable… f**k it, lets just something stupid but popular to get/keep in power).
Anyway, Meacher it turns out is a bit of a Peak Oiler. So, even though he won’t become the next leader of the Labour party, I hope he uses this opportunity to get the message out to the public at large. We’ll see.

Right, that’s it. Tomorrow is my last day in the office, before a week off for Christmas. Wooohooo.