Ippoippo

Not so nice news about one of my fellow Brits out there.

Over the weekend, there were also a serious of rather strong earthquakes. The in-laws out there are all well, and were not affected by it thank goodness.

I must admit, I’m awaiting with interest to see how the divorce rate in Japan changes over the next month.

The Tokyo Times blog is reporting on more Mascot Madness in Japan. (Aside: For the last two weeks in Cardiff, we’ve FINALLY started having our recycled rubbish being collected. Hurrahh!! Of course, just like Japan, it seems the old folks are equally confused about what rubbish goes where and when it gets collected. Maybe Cardiff City Council needs a cute mascot too!!! )

Finally, what does Hanami (Cherry Blossom Viewing) mean to you. Here are some young Japanese person’s thoughts.
When you read between the lines, basically what they are saying…
“Today, society has decided we are all going to sit outside and completely pi$$ed!!!!… wooohooooo”.

… here, the whole Comfort Women thing rumbles on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on….

There is yet more confusion over the whole damn issue. First, Shimomura (Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary) says on Sunday.

There were military nurses and embedded journalists but no ‘embedded comfort women.’ It is true that there were ‘comfort women.’ I believe some parents may have sold their daughters. But it does not mean the Japanese army was involved.

In other words, he says there was no military/govt. involvement, backtracking on the 1993 Kono statement.

But then, the next day, you get the PM’s spokespersons saying

I apologise here and now as prime minister. As I frequently say, I feel sympathy for the people who underwent hardships, and I apologise for the fact that they were placed in this situation at the time.

This was reported over at the BBC too.

Just to add to the fun, the ex-PM of Japan (one of those rare, non-LDP Prime Ministers) is most certainly not following the ruling party line with:

There is no point in debating that. There is no mistake that the military had set up and managed the brothels. In that sense, the government was responsible

I’m confused… and I’m not the only one here and here.

Some cracking links here.

First up, we have some old film footage of mid-30s Japan. It really shows how rapidly Japan industrialised compared to Western nations.

We also have some old drawings, some made in the late 1800’s, and a few from the 1600’s. I love seeing stuff like this.

Japan News

Good old Aso. Never fails to amuse me.

In other Japan related stuff, I read quite an interesting story. As you may have read elsewhere, it has been decided that Pluto is not a planet anymore, but a dwarf-planet. What’s this got to do with Japan. Well, I hadn’t thought about this until reading the story, but ‘dwarf-planet’ needs to be translated into Japanese. Turns out it’s not such a simple task.

Finally, in Japan new, seems someone has been caught out about their true age. I suppose it really does show the pressure that Japanese girls who are trying to break into showbiz (whether that be modelling, singing etc) are under. Mind you, we do get it in the West as well, but this seems more extreme. I can ‘understand’ a women lying about being 29 when she’s 32, if she was just trying to get into showbiz. That’s the kind of thing that would happen here. But saying your 19, when you are ONLY 22!!!

Non-Japan

From the BBC.

Eyeing the fish on offer in Brixton Fish Market suspiciously, Dennis McCann, 52, said: “It all looks a bit to foreign to me.

“I like fish and chips and I like a good cod or plaice. I just can’t imagine having pomfret and chips.”

That’s so typically little-islander British. I despair sometimes.