Ippoippo

Well, it’s been a shitty day at work, and reading todays news as not made me feel any better.

Taro Aso, Japan’s Foreign Minister, has made a complete ass(hole) of himself, by suggesting that the Emperor should go to Yaukuni Jinja. Of course, this really pissed off the Chinese. As I’ve said before, the Chinese themselves are acting like idiots over the whole issue, but the Japanese just don’t get why the Chinese are acting like idiots and try to diffuse things.
Of course, Aso has now tried to diffuse things a bit, but it’s all too late. Pillock!

Meanwhile the planet is continuing to head up along shit creek, as reported by the BBC. (Bloody hell, I’ve change a lot in the last two years. I was a complete petrol head back then, with my sporty car etc etc).

Mind you, I await with interest GW Bush’s State of the Union Speech. In a sort of a preview, he was interviewed about, including some stuff on the US trying to ween itself off foreign oil. Does that mean GW just got Peak Oil? Does it mean, they won’t be kicking off a war against Iran? Nahhhh, I doubt it, and it will be business as usual for the Neo-Cons in US government.

Meanwhile, although a somewhat depressing subject, it seems the BBC is starting to realise what an important issue Peak Oil is. They now have an “In Depth” section on their News Website, called “Fuelling the Future”. We can only hope some of those idiot politicians read it, and start to act!

With luck, I’ll be in a better mood in a few days (weekend at least), so a more cheery post then. I hope so.

Well, this week has been another busy week, and it’s set to get worse next week. Ahh well.

At the moment, just catching up on reading the news, while I wait for Yuko to come and join me in Otemachi, and then go out to get some food.

I saw some depressing news on the state of the UK over the BBC News Website. It seems we are turning into America, with a worrying number of people not accepting Evolution as the most likely theory of how life developed. What was annoying to see was 17% of people selecting Intelligent Design.
Mind you, I was cheered up when I saw this other story.

Meanwhile, the talk of the town in Japan is about Livedoor and “Horiemon”. It seems that the media, once again, has decided that someone is guilty, when they have been arrested, and not been sent to court.
I saw one set of comments, I happened to agree with.
“I guess I agree with Watanabe, Aki and Yacchi for the most part. He has been arrested on SUSPICION of criminal activity, yet the media treats him like he has already been convicted. It’s a witch hunt. Too many people, not only in the business world, but in the media world, wanted to crush Horie. Perhaps they think that they can make an example of this upstart who dared to point the spotlight on Japan’s baseball dealings, stock market, and politics.

Many people have already made up their mind that Horie is guilty, thanks to the media. If Japan had a jury system, I doubt they would be able to find an impartial group of twelve. This is one trial I wish they would broadcast live. It would be more interesting than watching”

Finally, a bit of “Only in Japan”

Its been pretty busy this last week. Been working on site for a large Japanese company on a Prototype Project.
Looks like the Mexico move is off at the moment. GOOD!!!

Meanwhile, as I type this, its still snowing!!! Yes, at last, the first real snow of the winter season has arrived today in Matsudo (and Tokyo).
It’s been snowing all morning (no idea when it started), and it looks all lovely and white. Shame this didn’t happen one month ago, would have been great for Christmas time.

Later on, I’ll pop over into town and try and take some good pictures of one of the old Japanese houses. They usually look very pretty in the snow (when it’s light snow, and the roofs haven’t collapsed with the weight of the snow on top!!)

Meanwhile, some new’s I’ve been reading which has caught my attention.
First, it seem’s that Japan has decided to move into the later 20th Century (60 years late), and have started moves to allow female monarchs. After all the talking about it, it looks like there will be more talking, but things are starting to progress.

Finally, looks like there has been a SLIGHT cockup by the US, just after Japan decided to re-allow American beef to be imported. Well, they’ve just now decided again that it’s not safe again!
Links at BBC and CrissCross Japan (ex- Japan Today).

NOT HAPPY.

Considering I work for the Japanese division of my company, HQ seems to want to send me away from home a lot.
Now the gits want to send me to Mexico again, for 7 or 8 weeks!

I am seriously annoyed about this

Meanwhile in Japan (how I wish I was back there now), there’s more talk about the lack of snow on the top of Mt. Fuji.

Over at the BBC, I read an interesting story, talking about how “Booming nations ‘threaten Earth’.”
It said that if China and India were to consume as much resources per capita as Japan in 2030 “together they would require a full planet Earth to meet their needs”

That’s scary. Yet, why should the Western world have the right to this “luxury” lifestyle, and India and China not get. Basically, we need to fix our problems over here in the Western Society, and become less dependant on Natural Resources. That will be the only way to encourge India and China from not joining in with the party, and speed up the process of trashing the planet.

Talking about Trashing the Planet. I found another interesting story, and it really shows how little we (we = humankind) know about the world.