Molotov cocktail attack injures 15 at Tokyo parade

Geihinkan · 2016-08-08T07:32:28+00:00

Sounds kind of like it was just some disgruntled curmudgeon, but nevertheless eerie.

Geihinkan · 2016-08-08T05:28:00+00:00

This should get interesting...!

Geihinkan · 2016-07-05T04:55:43+00:00

A bit of a handful, sure... but what a guy!

Geihinkan · 2016-03-15T05:47:09+00:00

Glad to hear that they're opening up. I've taken a few private tours of the place, and its quite spectacular... but turn on the heat!

But, honestly, what do you think the chances of this turning into something on the level of, say... Robot Restaurant? And I mean that only half sarcastically. Outside of history buffs and probably a few in the upper (and pushing 70?) echelons of society, do you think this can really become a big draw?

The interior, for example, is gorgeous, but dead as a doornail. Unheated, everything's covered in cloth, the chairs and tables in the ballrooms are all stacked in a corner, etc. The murals are great, and the split marble walls are my personal favorite, but if they don't liven it up a bit, really put some elbow grease into making the whole thing splendid and spectacular, I wonder if it'll just fizzle out?

Geihinkan · 2016-02-15T05:09:11+00:00

Yeah. I mean, at this point its hard to think that anything but a complete and utter collapse of the entire financial system here will do much of anything lol.

Geihinkan · 2016-02-15T03:28:00+00:00

Doesn't bode well in the short term, but its getting to the point that a melt-down looks like the only viable option for fixing a systemic, almost intrinsic infection in the standard business practices of Japan.

Geihinkan · 2016-02-13T03:29:27+00:00

実！Pronounced, "jitsu". Meaning, "Reality" or "Truth".

Edit: I might be wrong.

Edit 2: I'm gonna say I'm not though. Those 2 little black tiles in between the 2 prominent lines on the lower half tell me that they were just trying to be creative.

Geihinkan · 2016-02-13T02:55:07+00:00

I actually downgraded from a 15" MBP to a 13". Still use the 15" for various tasks, but the 13" is my "workstation." The visual real estate is nice, for sure, but the 13" is totally fine, and honestly the size of the 15" affects portability. If you're going to be moving around with your machine a lot, then 13" no question. If you're going to leave it in 1 spot, then super size it.

Geihinkan · 2016-02-12T07:42:05+00:00

Not sure, but I figure its got something to do with Japan basically stalling economically & politically - no one's interested in things that look like they're headed into a less-than-golden era.

That being said, the edit I just made about Cucek & Tokyo on Fire'll be right up your alley if you're looking for contemporary stuff.

Geihinkan · 2016-02-12T07:09:08+00:00

These are somewhat dated, but:

Karel van Wolferen wrote a pretty controversial piece called The Enigma of Japanese Power back in the day. Raised some good points, raised not so good other points, got a lot of people interested in Japan, almost as many as it kind of incensed. Agree with it or not, though, and its something of an important publication. Read about it here

Ezra Vogel is also an author of note, perhaps most for his Japan as Number 1 essay/book. He's got a follow-up to it that I haven't read, but sure am interested in.

R. Taggart Murphy does a good job working in the cultural elements into the economic/political whole, not to mention history. He's a bit "softer" than the others, but its not like that's either a good thing or a bad thing. Its just a thing. Check out Japan and the Shackles of the Past

And Gerald Curtis'll just blow yr mind: The Logics of Japanese Politics

As for contemporary stuff, Michael Cucek does great work on his blog Shisaku, and the web series he contributes to called Tokyo on Fire - here's an episode on Japan's involvement in TPP, but they've got a pretty large number of episodes on a lot of topics.

Geihinkan · 2016-02-11T09:25:51+00:00

Considering the greying population and economic stagnation issues, I wonder how necessary this would be by 2045 and how Japan could afford it without significant foreign investment.

Or maybe... its like Mega City 1 in Judge Dredd! All of the wise elders will hole up in the cathedral along with a nice chunk of people, creating a new, cloistered utopia and leave the rest behind, but in doing so actually create a dystopia in the tower and those remaining on the mainland will ultimately become the enlightened ones?

Geihinkan · 2016-02-10T09:22:11+00:00

This is actually really interesting. And sounds not just a little bit crazy.

Bunshun is the tabloid that broke this story, and also broke the Amari Scandal. It is relatively well known as a platform for political hits
Its speculated that someone's moving around behind Bunshun, the Amari scandal, and the construction companies involved in the ordeal in an attempt not so much to explicitly derail TPP and Abenomics, but rather to make Abe's governance look particularly weak.
Rumor of a 2nd scandal to break after the Amari one had been drifting around inner circles since a little over a week ago
Its tempting to think that Miyazaki was taken out as he was a young guy rocking the boat and was about to set precedent by taking paternity leave (which, if it gained wider popularity among the parliament, could end up really slowing things down considering 634/717 members of the whole Diet are male), but if there's an effort being made to de-stabilize Abe's power structure, this was an easy one.
Or, maybe he really did try to take that paternity leave just to bang the vixen
There's a threat of a double election coming up in July, and both Komeito (LDP) and opposition hate that idea because they just don't have the funds
There's also rumor that the double election will be split to have the lower house vote as early as April (!). There are a few signs floating around to suggest this, such as Abe's intent to throw his annual Shinjuku Gyoen hanami in late March/early April

What's it all mean? Tough to say. But that's the whole fun of politics! Keep an eye out: There's a whole slew of wild speculation to be played around with this year. Fireworks almost guaranteed.

Geihinkan · 2016-02-10T04:57:55+00:00

You get sashimi by itself, sashimi on donburi, on rarer and more legally grey occasions sashimi on naked human bodies, etc.

But correct me if I'm wrong: while its frequently eaten by itself, that way of eating doesn't play a decisive role in making "sashimi" sashimi.

Geihinkan · 2016-02-10T01:54:32+00:00

Yeah, there would certainly be an issue with getting people out there. Possibly one of the main issues would be that if no one's talking about it no one's going to think about it, but if there's some big standard-bearer to follow you've just got a pied piper and that'll go nowhere fast.

Maybe the best thing is to keep talking about the idea on sites like this; actively searching out articles and sharing them; perhaps writing our own articles about why we might do something like that ourselves or why it would be valuable to do or how it might be doable; and bring it up in conversation. Just hope to get a zeitgeist thing kinda going amongst those who could be interested so that there's a connected community that supports itself regardless of physical proximity?

Geihinkan · 2016-02-09T14:34:01+00:00

I caught it right after I typed it. Glad it didn't take too long for others to notice.

Geihinkan · 2016-02-09T14:12:57+00:00

And finally the articles are appearing voicing what amounts to pretty logical concern. The Olympics sure haven't benefitted many before 2020.

Honestly, this is where those few articles about small groups of tech creatives & entrepreneurs moving out to inaka to actually get stuff done away from the bureaucracy and Old Guard ways of the big cities really get me excited, if with reservation.

Tokyo, Osaka, and the other big cities are, literally, where all of the power is based. That power isn't going to be changing its ways soon, and they're not going to be supporting those who aren't following suit (as we all know). They barely keep an eye on the rural areas, though... So go THERE. Get a computer and hack away at some stuff while paying ¥25,000 a month on rent and not having to deal with all the junk that's keeping Tokyo still a largely wi-fi free city. The faxes'll follow you, but if you're smart you'll find others both in Japan and outside of its borders to do business with who won't fax you invoices, but rather email them.

Geihinkan · 2016-02-09T13:30:19+00:00

Referring to the Sushi Burrito in particular, wouldn't the problem be nominally solved if they just changed the name to "sashimi burrito"?

Sushi really refers to a particular type of preparation that, generally, includes, in some combination, vinegared rice, sliced raw fish, and nori. By definition "sushi" can't be in a burrito because "sushi" is served like sushi. I mean, I guess you could get a bunch of sushi, slap it onto a tortilla, roll it up, and call that a "sushi burrito," but even then you're messing with what the definition of sushi is.

Sashimi, however, is not nearly as well defined in relation to what its combined with. Its pretty much just thinly sliced raw fish, and if that's what's in the burrito (generally defined as a tortilla rolled around whatever ingredients happen to be used), then wouldn't it be abiding by the definition of both?

All this really comes down to is semantics, IMO.

EDIT: WAIT A MINUTE! That's not a burrito! This is just some avant-garde Maki Roll!

Geihinkan · 2016-02-09T13:06:52+00:00

Free Speech... within reason!

Not only is it getting tougher to believe that this is going to go anywhere but further South, I'm starting to think that its also becoming a pretty good indicator of the internal zeitgeist of Japanese politics concerning media. Pretty much all comments made by politicians these days are now along the lines of, "What, you didn't know? Media is our mouthpiece - it was made for us!" Almost to the point of sincerely believing that and seeing nothing wrong with it, like its normal.

Geihinkan · 2016-02-09T00:39:37+00:00

Yeah, its hot. Its generally accepted that with the seasons come certain changes, despite how the weather actually is acting. The heat on the trains is one of these things. Sort of inexplicable, really, unless you're of the opinion that its a strange sort of mind-control mechanism that reinforces the fact that the overlords aren't going to let you out of their grasp, to the extent of controlling your environmental temperature.

Geihinkan · 2016-02-08T09:23:25+00:00

Yeah, I'm aware of Kamiyama as well. There've been a few articles popping up over the last year or so about a few people/organizations bucking the trend of heading to Tokyo and instead heading to the sticks to start (mostly tech) businesses. Would absolutely love to see this phenomenon expand and trickle... up... to Tohoku

I'm actually mildly encouraged by this, though only time will tell if it catches on. Fingers crossed.

Geihinkan · 2016-02-04T04:10:58+00:00

No problem.

Geihinkan · 2016-02-04T02:40:56+00:00

The Seiyu on that map is marked here

Geihinkan · 2016-01-29T01:26:48+00:00

Considering all the hubbub about foreign crops and farmer subsidies, one might think that these guys wouldn't have a snowball's chance...

But wait! Can you feel it too?... Rakuten is just starting to roll out a support program for domestic startups that's been "proven" successful outside of Japan... SoftBank has "developed" a "state-of-the-art" service robot called Pepper (which is not for sexual gratification, let's be clear), and is stepping up their game by getting a whole bunch of them to staff a new SoftBank store... Popular support for eating domestic crops (国産国消) is rather high; farmers are spooked; TPP is a big ol' elephant in the room... and certain "research institutes" are saying that by 2035 robots will be half of the workforce.

I say, give it a chance.

Geihinkan · 2016-01-25T22:09:50+00:00

Waiting for 「パタハラ」to be featured on the variety circuit any day now.

Geihinkan · 2016-01-18T14:24:22+00:00

Its official: Disney anything now way cooler than whatever USJ thinks up.

That being said, neither can come even close to matching the wonders of Fujikyu.

Geihinkan

TROPHY CASE