Money - or ambition? - and the City

A friend of mine pointed out last night that, in the last year in New York City, he has been shocked by the way his female friends have discussed their human relationships. To quote,

The typical American 'Sex and the City' girl [sees] the boyfriend as a 'deal', and going out together as 'a return on investment', and so forth... The city sport for these girls is to capture the richest guy.

Although I was quick to denounce the so-called 'Sex and the City' girl, this morning I found myself reconsidering the topic, mainly as a result of my own realised habits. What exactly is the thought process behind this typified girl, and how prevalent and common is it? (Note: all 'he' and 'him' written below are interchangeable with 'she' and 'her')

To be sure, it only took a second to mentally create the image of what my friend labeled as the 'Sex and the City' girl: she is the shopper at sales (because no branded item is clearly worth more than $50), the occasional mani-pedi client, the yoga- or pilate-enthusiast after work, who has at least a bachelor's degree from a reknown university and a decently paying job, who attends the sunday brunch with the girlfriends, and then, over a cosmopolitan or a martini or a glass of red wine, talks about her recent (and most likely, failed) date with a man of similar social status, background, and mentality. The immediate topic of discussion becomes his occupation, his firm, his income bracket, and his interests.

Like I said, I was quick to tell him that I'm increasingly weary of people who describe human relationships in market terminology, and that my humble opinion was that while human psychology has much to do with the way the macroeconomy functions, macroeconomic theory and the world of finance can only help explain a small aspect - albeit a crucial component - of human behaviour.

To be fair, I noted, for the longest time men have commodified women, perhaps not necessarily in market/financial terminology but through other means. Only with the rise and subsequent radicalisation of feminism - subversively through media outlets like Sex and the City, Calvin Klein adverts, and maybe more officially through political activism of sorts - did women start commodifying men, at least in the western world, and hence you get stuff like dinner or gifting as a "return on investment" and by proxy, the whole obsession over who pays the bill at the end of the evening, etc etc. So in this way both parties are at fault for the mass commodification of genders.

The primary reason why I'm weary of relationships being described that way is because it glosses over all the important stuff about human relationships (whether it's familial, friendship, mentorship, etc) and prioritises all the stuff that really doesn't matter. They take the icing and forget about the cake. And it's quite mediocre and unfortunate that the 'cake' falls by the wayside.

And one more thing - people who care so little to put their relations into such terms often have little respect for others, let alone for themselves, constructing this false sense of security. And that really bothers me. "Who do you think you are?" becomes the imminent question.

But then, if you 'strip' the 'Sex and the City' girl, so to speak, you come down to a simple, naked fact: we always weigh the costs against the benefits, and take in the pros with the cons. The questions we ask ourselves make a pretty long list: Does he have a good job? Is he good at what he does? How much does he earn? How does he dress? Where does he live? Where did he go to school? Will he really call? Will he call back? Where will we go for our date? Will he pay the dinner bill? And so on and so forth, you get the idea.

Surely this decision-making process isn't such an abominable act?

After some thought I came to the conclusion that there are at least two ways of looking at this. On the one hand, we may all just be obsessed with someone's job title or income bracket or their material assets residing in their apartment. Perhaps after a few years of failed, disappointing, or somewhat mediocre human relationships (friendship, romantic, mentorship, or whatever) we may find both security and solace in someone who shares similar values. Even better would be a situation in which the benefit outweights the cost - they supplement whatever you lack, be it money, status, etc.

On the other hand, maybe everyone actually realises that the less-monetary characteristics are crucial, and yet fail to communicate that recognition as effectively as they truly could. In short, the answers to the aforementioned list of questions merely become indicators of non-monetary characteristics. The fact that he has a good job at a good company, earns good money, and is good at what he does could just mean that he is ambitious. The fact that he calls back, has chosen a restaurant for the date and will pay the bill at the end of the night might indicate roots in chivalry and consideration for their partner.

This latter view would mean that even though we suck at communicating it, we are all actually just attracted to the causes of the effect - the underlying characteristics that result in a good job, a nice apartment, and fabulous style. Of course, all these indicators could also be negative. They could be indicative of greed, immaturity, selfishness, disrespect, etc. But that's not the point. Because more importantly, the fact that we hope that a good job, good pay, and a good apartment are all indicative of ambition, chivalry, or whatever, speaks to the underlying values of the judge (i.e. us). We want someone with ambition, intelligence, compassion (to take chivalry more broadly across both genders), consideration, respect, and then if they have a good job, good pay, good apartment and fabulous style in addition, well, that's just great, isn't it?

What has happened is that, at some point in time, the way we communicate all these things that we want became warped, so that we now convey our preference for certain indicators - the money, the sex - first, before we convey our preference for the relevant characteristic.

This may have been a result of a historically and socially implanted positive relationship between a good job and good values, even though the wiser in us all inherently know that that's a very flimsy correlation. Maybe it is exacerbated by the stresses of the daily life, the pressures of the working world, the jade that comes with age, and the insecurity we feel at the end of the day. Maybe we just want it all - the job and the pay with the ambition, the intelligence, the respect and compassion combined with the great body and style. And I'm not about to speculate on why we want all these things. But regardless of whether this is inevitable or preventable, admirable or dispicable, it's certainly something to be aware of.

And maybe we shouldn't be so quick to judge the 'Sex and the City' girl/boy as a pebble in a pile of rubble - it may just become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Read more!

The world needs a little bit of the English

Reading this post's title, you may gasp and whinge at the colonial undertones, and bemoan, "Oh no you didn't!" But, contrary to a glancing moment's thought, a little bit of appreciation - and maybe, adoption - of the English mindset may do a bit of good in a world increasingly full of radicalisation, the so-called 'clash of civilizations', and fear.

I was brought to the attention of a particular article in the Guardian this morning. My flatmate (or, roommate, in North America) forwarded me the article, written by one of my favourite comedians, Dara O Briain. Dara, if you've never seen him in action on Mock the Week or Live at the Apollo, is a broad-chested, tall (at least from what I can tell on BBC iPlayer) Irishman who, despite casual allegations that he looks like a member of the Russian mafia, to me looks like a very huggable bear. An innocent one at that.

In this particular article, he's collected his conclusions about the English, their country, their behaviour, their habits. Like Dara, England and its largest city, London, were both foreign to me before 2007. My image of England pre-2007, which consisted of Princess Diana, the Beatles, Blair, David/Victoria Beckham, Hugh Grant and Bridget Jones' Diary, was as warped and bizarre as Dara's image of England derived from That's Life! So, when I did arrive that nippy September morning at London Heathrow, dragging my way to the Picaddilly line with all my luggage, one can only imagine - and I'll be honest here - the reality check, the disappointment, and the wonder as to why I chose England, over all the other countries in the world, to spend the next half a decade in. In the weeks that followed, I became more than just privy to the drinking, the smoking, the dirty streets, the packed buses and unventilated (and un-air conditioned!!!), tardy or broken down tube trains, and of course, the shock that not all English men had posh accents and looked/acted like Hugh Grant. And it was all too different from the England I had imagined.

Yet, the price I paid for the damn-expensive piece of paper from one university did have some effect on my merciless, and probably naive, judgment on England. I became acutely aware that the world is a complicated place that is becoming unimaginably convoluted with the process called globalisation. The knooks and crannies of what such a process entails, I won't get into here. But I will say that, with that complication comes a lot of fear and uncertainty. We fear resorting to relativism, because that could undermine the 'core' values we stand for. But at the same time, we fear the radicalisation and the fundamentalism that stands at the other end of the spectrum, because that, too, would only serve to undermine, rather than support, the long-standing values of the Western world.

So what can one do? How do we deal with it all? Take Dara's joke about how Londoners reacted in the wake of the July 2005 bombings:

The media reacted as if the attacks would, or should, be greeted like 9/11 had been in New York. Of course, the attack was nothing like 9/11 and besides... this is London.

They've had the Blitz and then there was the IRA...

In fact, the response in London to the attacks was much more: "There's been a bomb on the Piccadilly line!" (Long, thoughtful pause and then, like a problem being solved...) "Well, I can get the Victoria line..."

It's this comparatively non-chalant attitude about the things that happen in the world around us that I think is increasingly important to foster. While Dara's joke and the reality it points to may be an exaggeration, it's the sense of being reasonable, and realistic about events and people that perhaps, we should all learn to adopt.

The 'realism' I note here can also be seen in English soap operas. As one flatmate recently pointed out to me, whereas North American soaps are full of slim, relatively good-looking people with perfect white teeth and glowing skin who've all had the lucky genes of also-relatively good-looking parentals and thus - here's the key - only represent a very small portion of the North American population, the cast of English soaps are all ordinary people. Sure, there may be a few over-the-top glamourites in there, but on the whole, they look like normal people. And there's something comforting in that.

In writing about the appreciation of the English, one cannot purposely overlook the undersides: the binge-drinking culture. This is where my North American health-conscious mentality kicks in. Binge-drinking can't be good for you. It just can't. Consuming that much alcohol in that short period of time, regardless of how many alcohol-processing enzymes you've cultivated over generations, simply cannot be conducive for the health of your liver. And cholestrol levels.

Or the subtle ignorance that comes with the blurbs that come when an English team is beaten in football: "This, in a sport we invented." As Dara rightly points out, the English never invented football (and the Americans never invented basketball or baseball) - "They codified it, which is a different thing altogether":

You didn't invent football because you didn't invent the ball, or kicking, or fields. We should only be grateful that the Victorians didn't gather together in a room and write the first rules for the use of the wheel, or fire, so that you can claim credit for them as well...Villages have been dragging, pulling, kicking and running against each other for millennia; you just happened to be the ones with an empire when the upper class took an interest.

Well put, Dara, well put.

England once had an empire, a vast one at that, and that historical fact cannot be erased. But as Dara says, the superiority-complex that arises from a historical - not present - fact can't do much good in the complex world that is the present-now, and the English should "snap out of this" (as should other countries, too). But there is something to be said for the humility and realistic spirit that lies on the flip side of that coin. The ability to carry on without being enraptured by the effects of a bombing (although this begs the question as to what would happen if Big Ben suffers an attack not from an alien invasion but from another country), or to be truthful to reality in representing human drama (although perhaps 'truth' is not exactly the objective of American shows, and is questionable as to 'truth' can be used in the same sentence as 'soap opera' to being with) can be indicative of other elements of society and human behaviour. It really comes down to keeping things in context and perspective. And despite all bemoanings, it's a mentality modern societies need, and there's no harm in turning to the English for that.
Read more!

Commodified complacency

Earlier this week, one Google Alert email, among the bazillion of others that bombard my work inbox daily, caught my attention: “The state of dating on Wall Street,” it read. The link led me to a Fortune Magazine article called “Wall Street’s $25,000 matchmaker.” Compared to the other bland (but sometimes exciting in a geeky sort of way) items I read in my morning hours, this one seemed much more entertaining.

As it turned out – entertaining it was, but at the same time, unreal. A matchmaker that costs that much money, to me, seems to undermine the whole idea of a matchmaker, not least because it’s simply idiotic to hash out $25,000 (that’s one year’s worth of university education in some places!) to find someone to date. Doesn’t the fact that you would pay $25K for a dating service say something quite significant about yourself, beyond how much discretionary spending money you have? Or has certain parts of society reached a stage where spending thousands of dollars to find a good match is totally justifiable by reasons such as lack of time available, lack of opportunities to meet people – and what does that say about society itself?

Of all the industries to be considered as consumer discretionary, one would think that third-party dating services would be one of them. But apparently, such is not the case and south Manhattan is by no means the exception to the rule. Because when times get tough, purse strings get tighter but the heart gets looser. Or, at least more amenable to romantic possibilities. Internet dating – Match.com, OKCupid, DatingDirect, eHarmony, and the like – has seen more subscribers, for reasons ranging from more time available to devote to one’s private life, a perceived need for a supportive companion, and a means to split costs.

That’s all well and fine, but a matchmaking service that costs $25,000 seems rather crazy, especially considering the insight Samantha Daniels is giving. To the question, “Now that "I'm a hedge-funder" no longer does the trick, how would you advise bankers to market themselves romantically?” Daniels gave the following answer:

When you meet a woman, you should go back to the basics of who you are as a person – how you live your life, your interests. But it's also good to let someone know that you're doing well and have a stable job in this environment. The number one thing women are attracted to is confidence.

Right. In my humble opinion, that there are people out there who need to be reminded that on your first date, you don’t firstly talk about your income level (“I have an annual salary of $100,000 plus a $50,000 bonus”) and your job title (“I’m vice president of ___”) and the company you work for (“I work for JP Morgan, which is one of the few first-tier investment banks left in the world”), seems simply bizarre. Obviously, if that’s your starting point, then you’ve effectively narrowed yourself down to a pool of people who are looking for exactly those qualities, not the ones who look beyond that. So follows the question, “How do you convey financial stability without handing over tax statements?” and the answer, “My clients have a lot of toys and own a lot of homes. But if you tell someone that you own your own plane on a first date, it sounds like you're overcompensating for something.” Hammer that last nail in the coffin, why don’t you.

Of course, if that’s what you’re looking for, then good for you. By choosing a service such as Samantha’s Table, one does filter out those who allegedly wouldn’t be described as “ultra-successful, ultra-busy, ultra-cultured, and the ultra-educated.” But clearly, Daniels’ clients are not all looking to dig gold (or are they?), as the fact that her clients would pay $25K shows that people are doing whatever they can to find a good match, and one of such criteria – not the only – happens to hinge on income level (see “Money – or ambition? – and the City”).

What ultimately really bothers me about the proliferation of ‘exclusive’ dating services is that, it’s another way by which social categorization is effectuated. It’s subversive because it plays on our tendency towards the familiar, our fear of the unfamiliar, and our preference for convenience. It produces, encourages, and glorifies a social structure that is really based on purchasing power but is masked with labels like ‘success’, ‘culture’, and ‘intelligence’.

Surely, there is nothing wrong with someone seeking another of similar social standing, income, education, background, along with interests, lifestyles, hobbies, and the like. Just as our nature to greed, to hunger, and to reason can never be fully satisfied, nor will our tendency to stick with what we know, seek stability, and choose the easier way out. And to be sure, the subject of these actions can vary: we can greed for wealth or for justice, we can hunger for food or knowledge, we can reason with someone or out of a situation. But to put in place purchasable services that banks on people being lazy about human relationships can’t do very much good.

After all, relationships are supposed to require effort, pull you out of your comfort zones, make you think – often both about the other person as well of yourself – and push you to strike a balance for pretty much everything between you and your partner. They are full of prolonged sessions of diplomacy that for some eventuates in years of peace and hopefully, brief moments of turmoil. A service that tries to get you out of doing that will only make one complacent and naïve about what it takes to build human relationships, break them, and find ways to rebuild them.
Read more!

Irony

On the final day of their entire secondary schooling career, on which all the 12th grade students here have their final exams, the train is late. Two seniors came in (actually pretty relaxed) about 20 minutes late into the classroom. The principal had walked in about half a minute before them, and gave a sympathetic laugh as the two rushed in. One of the kids presented to me a blue slip noted, "Tardy Admit," with a white paper that looked much like the following stapled onto the corner:
The principal took a long look at the blue slip and its white attachment, and asked, "What's that? A receipt for a cab?" I explained to him that this was a ticket that train companies would print when their trains are late on a given day at a given time. The n-thousand people that are thus affected by the delayed train are, upon submission of this small 'proof' to their respective companies, excused for their tardiness. According to the principal, this is also a Japanese phenomenon unseen anywhere else in the world. This makes sense. No other country in the world (that I've been to or heard of) is as obsessed with running transportation systems consistenly on time as Japan, to the point where they feel that they must put their apology on paper and distribute it in times of delay.

Living with such a transportation system, however, spoils you. I remember my first weeks in Vancouver when none of the buses seem to appear on time. In fact, it took me a while to figure out that there even existed a schedule; as far as I was concerned there wasn't one that the drivers cared to adhere by. As months passed I realized that Japan's transportation system, in the greater scheme of things (called, the world), is a total anomaly. In fact, my return to Japan after four years abroad revealed to me that, as some of my previous entries have attempted to show, Japan is an anomaly in every sense of the word. It's interesting (and tiresome to adapt to, actually) what seeing other countries does to our world views. I can't even imagine what I'm going to think after my upcoming years in London.

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about the upcoming move. Don't get me wrong - the prospect of going and living in Europe is exciting; it's something I've always wanted to do. I get to fly to continental Europe anytime for a pretty cheap price, and I can't wait to hit up Italy and Germany again. And it's not even that I'm worried about being able to adapt to the city - I've done it too many times before. It's just that the moves are getting tiring. I've been in one city for no more than 5 consecutive years, and while 5 years may seem like a long time, it's actually really not, considering that I can't set my roots in too deeply during them. I uprooted myself from Hawaii (you know I used to speak fluent Hawaiian? crazy thought.), from Tokyo, from Florence, from Vancouver, and from Tokyo again, and now I'm moving somewhere from which I'm going to uproot myself, sooner or later. Traveling is awesome, in every which way possible. But it's also very tiring and it drains me mentally and emotionally. But, what can you do. I suppose some people would love to live the way I do.
Read more!

Japanese Obsessions

With masculinity. Yes, masculinity.

So we had what, Men's pocky, Men's pudding... now we present to you: Men's Tofu.














So ridiculous and yet, hilarious.
Read more!

"Japan is a weird country."

More than once I have heard these words spoken. It is understandable: this country's people are known for their apparent kindness and politeness, as well as their efficiency. Its capital city is a host to buildings soaring high above the clouds, and its culture encompasses everything from ancient Buddhist shrines and gold-tinted pavilions to easily accessible porn sold side-by-side with morning newspapers. This country places on the fringes of society, men and women of all ages who obsess over anime figurines and have thus created a super-subculture of otaku that transcends national boundaries. Some--well, enough--are so caught up in living apart from their real lives, that "Maid Cafes" and alternate economies in the cybersphere (using real currency!) have found a huge market. While the country's infatuation with ethnic homogeneity has been criticized by the international community as being fundamentally racist, paradoxically, it is indeed this homogeneity that has fertilized its rich culture, beckoning flocks of foreigners to its land every year.

Japan is a weird country and there is no denying it. In the eyes of the rest of the world, it is weird in an eccentric way. It is weird, they say, but rich and beautiful and totally unique. They think of geisha girls and extravagant kimonos, the large, red torii gates, the samurai, sushi, endless cuisine, and uber-advanced technology on the one hand, and the Shibuya/Harajuku girls who stand at the forefront of international fashion, on the other. Unfortunately, most do not stop to observe the rotting elements of Japanese society. There is no birth-rate to be spoken of; it simply does not exist (actually, it has improved, but still). Young adults and children are thus seen as the hope of Japan's future, and yet one by one they are disappearing because of brutal bullying (ijime) that take place in schools and end only with the victim's suicide. Its education system is in shambles, with kids learning less and less kanji every year because their parents believe it is "too hard for them." Students who continue on, but fail entrance exams take their lives, believing that no happy future could possibly await them after such a failure.

Japanese society itself is rotting from its very roots; it is sickened and slowly dying. The by-products of this disintegration--horribly unaccounted for, too--are people who know no limits, who believe that their fucked up family and upbringing, or all the familial and societal pressures that they feel, can justify any immoral act.

But all of this is not so apparent to the world beyond Japanese boundaries. Everyone sees that this country has few petty crimes--at least what is noticeable--and therefore conclude it to be safe. In many ways, it is--you can be in the city without being mugged, things you lose in the city will almost always be found without anything being stolen, and you can walk around the city at night and be at ease. Yet, anyone who now lives in Japan will know that Japan is dangerous in a very different manner. As witnesses to extensive cases of murder of the most extreme kinds on a daily basis, one should be encouraged to think twice about what Japan really is.

A 22 year-old British girl was murdered this week in Chiba prefecture. She worked for NOVA, one of many English-conversation schools established in Japan. The man who killed her was a 28 year-old man and he is still on the run. You can read about her story on IHT and BBC. Needless to say, her family and her boyfriend are all devastated.

I cannot but be completely struck by this case. Partially because we are of the same age group, partially because her long-distance with her boyfriend parallels my own, but mostly because so many of my own friends are currently working as English teachers throughout East and South East Asia. "We though Japan was safe, a good society," said her father in last night's press conference. Indeed, Japan's safe environment was certainly something for the nation to be proud of. But, it should no longer be taken for granted. No, yellow fever and hepatitis may not be rampant in this country, and your wallet might not be stolen while you walk in its streets, but you make connections with the wrong people and they will end up killing you. "Wrong people" doesn't necessarily denote people with drug addictions, people involved in drug trafficking, or people involved in gangs or the yakuza. These "wrong people" are barely identifiable as such; they are immersed in their own world and believe that all their actions are justifiable. They are the unaccounted by-products of Japan's recent social disintegration.

I am thoroughly ashamed of this place whose apparent politeness and cultural beauty has masked everything that lies beneath. This place is not much safer than any other place in the world; perhaps it is a lot worse in some ways.

My deepest condolences lie with the family and friends of L. H.
Read more!

At the heart of Japan

And it begins!

It wouldn't be an understatement to say that every Japanese citizen looks forward to this moment when all the cherry blossom trees throughout the country begin to bloom in light shades of pink. You can literally feel everyone's energies beginning to rise, as people of all ages stroll through parks and narrow roads just to view the flowers. People are so excited about the bloomings, in fact, that parties will be organized amongst workers of every company, every office, and every establishment. These parties, called ohana-mi (litearlly, "flower-viewing"), take place under blossomed cherry trees--mainly in parks, but the occasional, desperate party might take place on roadside--and are accompanied by exorbitant amounts of food, liquor, and portable karaoke machines. As you can imagine, this is serious party time for the normally workaholic Japanese.

Since many of you reading this will not be able to experience first-hand this wonderful time of year in Japan when everyone turns into a calorie-consumptive, beauty-stricken diva-alcoholic, I've posted below some pictures of cherry trees near my parents' house. Perhaps you too can join the Japanese population and take in this great beauty via cyberspace, and of course, indulge!

>The main dish: the cherry blossom.





For those who are interested in seeing this 'live', check out the Hanami Webcam!
Read more!

Earthquakes!

It's spring break and I am currently in an NHK studio filtering submitted comments on the webpage of the Spring High School Baseball Championships. Around 9:45am, the live baseball programme cut out and was replaced by an emergency broadcast of an earthquake in Ishikawa prefecture of M7.1. This earthquake was followed immediately by a tsunami warning, telling citizens who were near the coastline to evacuate immediately. What was most impressive was that within seconds, they showed on TV the estimated arrival time of the tsunami, and its size: 9:50am, 50cm.

Thus, residents had 5 minutes to evacuate, and could expect a maximum rise in tide of 50cm. How crazy is that!!

Ever since the Kobe and Hokkaido earthquakes in the late 1990's, Japan has buffed up their earthquake notification system, as well as strengthening all its buildings. They take it so seriously that architects and real estate agencies who fail to follow the earthquake-resistant building codes have been punished stringently by the Supreme Court. Times like these Japan impresses me.
Read more!

"An encyclopedia should be radical."

> Mr. Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikimedia Foundation.

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia and Wikia, started his presenation in the new theatre with the statement, "An encyclopedia should be radical." This statement was indeed the founding statement of the free encyclopedia that more than a billion users all across the globe have access to today.

He spoke about how the Wiki Foundation works, the functions of the Wikipedia, and how much it has grown over the past few years. What interested me most about his presentation was the growing and expanding connection between languages, cultures, and the global(izing) network. Wales suspects--and on many levels, I agree--that in the next decade we will be witnesses to a radical, "cultural shift," where an additional billion people will come online to join the internet community. These people are the people in current developing countries who do not have adequate internet access to make use of what Wikipedia (or what the internet as a whole) has to offer. In the next decade, 'these people', whom we only hear about in CNN and BBC when a catastrophe occurs, are exactly those people we will hear directly from--in their words, of their thoughts, of their lives.

> Wikipedia as a radical encyclopedia

Wikipedia today boasts 1,000 articles in 128 languages, and its aim is to have 250,000 articles in over 300 languages worldwide. I didn't even know 300+ languages existed, but hell, Wales dreams big. He dreams of free access to knowledge on the truest standards, where people are free to copy, modify, and redistribute information commericially or non-commericially. This is "free" in every sense of the word, and it is great, but it also brings to the forefront those who question Wikipedia's contents for its accuracy. Even here, I often hear teachers placing an unofficial, but definitely outspoken, ban on the use of Wikipedia, and in fact, the school's IP address has been blocked by the Wiki administrators for our students' perpetual, adolscent vandalism.

"Vandalism of articles don't last long on the Wikipedia," Wales laughed. His adminstrators are constantly monitoring changes of all types--the useful, harmful, humourous, and the scandalous. To show how accurate Wikipedia could be--and in fact, how inaccurate other well-accepted sources could be--Wales gave a telling example of a project that British magazine of scientific prestige, Nature published on 29 March 2006. The article (access to subscribers only) titled "Britannica attacks (...and we respond)" concluded that, according to 50 experts of various scientific fields who surveyed 50 articles of similar length from both Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia, Britannica articles contained an average of 3 errors per article, while Wikipedia articles contained an average of 4 errors per article. Statistic shmatistics, but that should still say a lot. Viva free knowledge! I say.

The Wiki Foundation, indeed, runs on a sort of motto that questions how information today is distributed by whom, and it is now seeking to manifest this political statement by launching "Wikiasari," a wiki-search engine, this year. Labeled by Fast Company in its most recent issue as Google's Worst Nightmare, Wales challenges the editorial statement made by modern search engines that 'hide' how their searches were produced. He, in turn, seeks to bring some transparency in the searching process itself. As The New York Times recently stated,

The Wikia search engine would allow users to see how the results were generated and modify those rankings using their own knowledge of the Internet. Any changes could be reversed by a different user, and, as in Wikipedia, long discussions could ensue over the decisions.

Today, he revealed his initial forecast: "It's going to suck, at least for the first little while." But I think the demand is definitely there, considering the cult-like following he had in the theatre today.

Read more!

Consumerfest!

"I heard that Christmas isn't really big in Japan. It makes sense because it's not a Christian country," my friend recently commented.

Well, actually, take this: if Christmas were a multinational company like Starbucks Coffee (it might as well be), it would make a good portion of its total annual profit from Japan (Starbucks does). Despite the lack of an apparent Christian culture, Santa-day is a major festival--a consumer festival. Much like in North America, red and green decorations begin to adore the streets, shop windows, staff uniforms, gift wrappings, and whole sides of department stores (the Japanese mall) starting the beginning of November. Baby-faced idols and models--male and female--begin to wear white fluff and Santa costumes and their faces are posted up on pretty much every legitimate building facade. Major downtown areas like Shibuya, Harajuku, and Shinjuku are bright with LCD Christmas lights, and LCD Christmas lights only because a few years ago there was an activist movement that condemned the bright, old-school Christmas lights for their contribution to light pollution and hurting the trees.

At the time I couldn't help but notice that as the night went on, the activists' paper banners condemning Christmas lights could only be recognized via the glow from the neon banners above.

Tokyo is not like Vancouver, in the way that it is unlikely that one would come across any major churches downtown or anywhere else. There are, to be sure, some substantial Christian populations here; believe it or not there are missionaries floating amongst the crowds. But, they are hardly seen. Candle services and masses on Christmas Eve/Day are only attended by the most stringent of Christians. Oh, but you can't forget about the street preachers. These street preachers are holding large white pickets in major downtown areas that say, in black font, such heart-warming stuff like "God knows the truth" "Reconnect with God" and my favorite, "You are a sinner." One or two men are often talking into a megaphone, claiming how sinners will die and those who reconnect with God will live eternally after Judgment Day. They are not shy to insist conversion upon 'sinners' walking by and through them, carrying bags from GAP and Gucci. "Be saved by God," they insist. Most people just laugh.

Christmas is huge here. But unlike in North America, it is very rarely a family occassion, but rather, a couple's occassion. If you're single during these two days, it is just another reason to drink your head off and forget about keeping your liver and kidneys. Families with young kids will most likely do the family version of Christmas, and the aged population will just sit at home and not do much but watch TV, but the majority in between eats, drinks, sings, buys hugely expensive gifts for their partners, and gets laid. People who didn't have sex on Christmas Eve were probably just too drunk or too drugged out to perform. People who didn't do any of that were probably working. Funny country.
Read more!

Is it worth the investment?

Investment of time, resources, and perhaps more importantly, faith.

In my recent effort to write a letter of intent for my postgraduate applications, I strongly insisted that the world is in need of people who are not only multilingual, but multicultural, to stand as representative members of a growing international community. I argued that they must be, first and foremost, endowed with a sense of global responsibility. I cannot help but feel that Roh Moo-hyun, the current South Korean president, was one such person.

His 'sunshine policy' programme was began in an effort to reengage a population that had been separated quite cleanly in two by a physical border and a war. According to my mother's extended family members, such a political separation has not led them to believe that they are specifically 'Northern' or 'Southern'; they are, they insist, Korean. The successful completion of Roh's 'sunshine policy', therefore, would have helped bring together two populations that were originally one.

But what do you do, as a man of politics, when your neighbor blows up a nuke, against international objection? Here is a government you've decided to invest in, hoping--and that is truly the appropriate word: hoping--that they would begin to cooperate and see things in a different light. Despite the result (i.e. nuke), Roh should be commended for his effort and his ultimate faith in the good heart of human kind. Yes, they may be (are?) developing 'weapons of mass destruction', but their people are starving, and today, they would be half my people if it were not for the War and the physical border. The government that rules over their former people must be pressured to meet recent international standards of peace and security, but being so close and sharing so much history, they must not be completely alienated. As the direct neighbor and thus the most threatened, South Korea's approach to the recent North Korean crisis has been summarized in the recent issue of the Economist as the following:

South Korea's predominant political consensus, says Andrei Lankov of Kookmin University in Seoul, is to seek gradual change north of the border in ways that might eventually narrow the vast income gap between the two sides. Tightening the screws too far risks goading Mr Kim to strike back. A collapse of the regime, followed by reunification, would impose unbearable costs on the South. Even the opposition GNP, says Park Jin, a member of the party, believes in maintaining dialogue with the North, while adding some pressure.

How does one with a sense of so-called 'global responsibility' tackle such a situation?
Read more!

A Successful Test?

International Herald Tribune announced, along with all of Japanese, South Korean, and U.S. media, the successful--question mark--execution of a nuclear bomb test in North Korea. North Korea gave the following statement regarding this shiver-inducing 'accomplishment':

The field of scientific research in the DPRK successfully conducted an underground nuclear test under secure conditions on October 9, 2006, at a stirring time when all the people of the country are making a great leap forward in the building of a great, prosperous, powerful socialist nation.

It has been confirmed that there was no such danger as radioactive emission in the course of the nuclear test as it was carried out under scientific consideration and careful calculation.

The nuclear test was conducted with indigenous wisdom and technology 100 percent. It marks a historic event as it greatly encouraged and pleased the KPA and people that have wished to have powerful self-reliant defense capability.

It will contribute to defending the peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the area around it.

Whether North Korea actually blew up a nuke underground remains to be confirmed. Personally, the successful completion of a nuclear bomb test seems highly unlikely for a country that, not only failed to launch 7 missiles in July 2006, but is also facing international reprimand, including those from fellow neighbors China and South Korea; an entire starved nation; and limited funds/resources. Do they have all necessary components of a nuclear bomb, and have they been able to develop sufficient technology? Not so sure.

If North Korea actually blew up a nuke, it will be interesting to see what the UN and its participating countries will do in response...if any. The U.S. have, in the past, repeatedly articulated their contempt for any nuclear test, as has the UN, China, Japan, and South Korea. Furthermore, a successful execution of a nuclear test is a metaphorical equivalent to a political slap in the face for China and Russia. For years they have stressed that they will contain North Korea and its potentially disastrous activities. A successful test will, essentially, prove them wrong.

So far, tangible confirmation has been limited to a 4.3 Richter scale earthshake, artificially created, in an area of North Korea that U.S. intelligence has estimated to be the locale of nuclear testing.

To be perfectly blunt, the U.S. has nothing to gain from North Korea other than, in its defeat, keeping their reputation as the world's police force debatably committed to extermintating all Evil. Unless North Korea actually bombs someplace beyond their national borders, the U.S. will do nothing.

Now, as for Japan and other East Asian countries developing nuclear arms, which many Western nations seem to fear. As the only country ever levelled by an atomic bomb, the feeling that we will never be the ones to nuke another nation remains strong, even half a century after the War. Abe, our new PM, may be more nationalistic than Koizumi, but it is doubtful that he will go against an entire nation's opinion.
Read more!

Do Japanese people eat sushi all the time?

I've answered "No!" to this question bazillions of times, but then when I've been asked follow-up questions like "Well, then what do you eat?" or "So what's a regular Japanese meal look like?" I wasn't able to give a good answer.

So here's a picture of a standard Japanese meal. From the top left: broiled Komatsu-greens (similar to spinach) with soy-radish sauce; grilled salmon fillet with soy sauce; seaweed and green onion miso soup; Japanese rice; pickled radish. It was a tasty, and most of all hearty, meal. Totally comfort food for me. In any case, you can see why most Japanese people tend to be slim--there's very little fat content. Maybe a bit of fat from the salmon, and some carbs from the rice, but all in all it's a pretty healthy meal.

It's not what I would call 'standard', but this dessert is fairly traditional. The reddish-brown stuff is sweetened red-bean paste (if you are in Vancouver you can go to pretty much any bubble-tea store and have a taste of red-bean), and the white balls are literally called 'white balls' (shiratama) in Japanese. They are kind of like mochi (rice cakes) but slightly sweetened. Japanese desserts like these are also fairly healthy compared to a cake or a cookie, and (I think) they're pretty tasty, too.
Read more!

London Bridge ISN'T falling down..

Well, at least the real estate there isn't.

So I know I said something about fucking future plans, but well, today is another day. I went online to check up on rent rates in London...it is ridiculous! Talk about expensive, and I'm from Tokyo! Asking around, I found out that university-operated student housing is the way to go, because it is uber-cheap. But from experience, I know that sometimes this type of housing isn't so cheap compared to what actually goes on in the student (housing) world. And also, do you not pay rent by the month in London? I've seen the abbreviation "pcm"--Per Calendar Month, I am guessing--and other rent prices noted by the weekly rate. On some sites, it even had a daily rate! What is going on?? Man, I hope I can live a little while I'm in London, because right now it sounds like that's just not going to happen.
Read more!

Mr. Trainman

Ever heard of this guy? Well, he's out there, somewhere in the crowds that inhabit this city. Mr. Trainman works as an IT specialist at a company. Whether it is because his desk is hidden in the corner of the office floor, or whether it is because he is so quiet--well, probably both--we cannot say for sure, but he often goes unnoticed by everyone around him. He commutes to and from work hiding behind backs, pillars, and shadows, slithering through the crowd. When he is noticed, it is because he has tripped on nothing and has fallen on his face. Or he's woken up in a screaming fit on the train.

When he goes home, he sits in front of his computer and his social life begins there. He knows not the faces or the voices of the people he types to, but they are his friends nonetheless, and every night they talk to each other about...life, I guess?

Anyways, there is a happy event to this apparently miserable and pathetic story of Mr. Trainman. He meets a girl one day on the train. She is being harrassed by an intoxicated salaryman, and he steps in. Well, he kind of throws himself onto the man from behind and shudders by the door whilst the attacked drunkard transfers his frustration upon him. Luckily, some train officers intercept the drunken man and drag him off the train. The girl asks for his contact info so that she can get a hold of him later, to send a gift, perhaps.

So to make a long story short, with the help of his online friends he refashions himself, changes his way, and gets the girl in the end. They marry.

This story portrays a man that is so typical in contemporary Japan. It also vividly portrays the lives of his so-called 'friends', who lead various lives of their own--a heart-broken nurse, a detached wife, her silent husband (they don't know that they're in the same chatroom until the end), a depressed youth, and three students who don't have any idea what they want to do with their lives--and the ways in which they 'refashion' their selves while they cheer and encourage Mr. Trainman along.

The story was a movie (^-^). And it was based on a true story. So Mr. Trainman is still out there, living his happy life with his beloved wife! Isn't it a great story? Programmes with plots like these are so common, I find. Whether it's because people here are longing for some 'pure' form of love or some other idyllic notion, I don't really know. I can't help but be reminded of the article that I wrote about before...
Read more!

June is bike month...and the police are out to get you.

I was in a hurry. I had a dental appointment at 1pm, but I had about 40 books that I wanted to donate to the Vancouver Public Library. I couldn't possibly haul it to the nearest branch by foot, so I decided that biking to the VPL was the best idea--plus, it would save me some time. It would take two trips, but with a bike I figured I could probably do it in under 30 minutes.

"Hey ma'am.....MA'AM!!! *blows whistle* Could you step over here, please?" At this moment, out went my under-30 minutes plan. A power-mongering (obviously) police officer stood by his motorcycle and beckoned me over to the side of the road. What's going on? What crime could I have possibly committed in my final days in Vancouver? I swear, I haven't stolen anything, I haven't killed anybody, and these are all books I'm about to donate to the VPL! If anything I'm committing a very very humanitarian act by donating books. I am proudly contributing to the fountain of publicly accessible knowledge...

"Where is your helmet?" he asked.

Ah. Indeed, I wore no helmet. After all, I was only taking books to the library, which was literally only a few blocks from my house. This, of course, was no excuse. I was reprimanded further for not having a piece of identification. "You have a BAG on your back, and you're telling me you have no ID on you?" "Uhh...well my bagS are full of books I'm about to donate to the library." Apparently this revelation of my act of humanity in contributing to the fountain of publicly accessible knowledge didn't distract him very much from issuing a ticket that fined me $29 for not having my helmet on while riding my bike. Moments after issuing me this rather obnoxious ticket, the police officer stopped another, and then yet another, Vancouverite riding his or her bike without a helmet, just as they have been all year long. Pretty soon there was a crowd of bikes and people forming on the intersection of 8th and Macdonald.

I went out the rest of the day warning those on bikes that the police are out to get them. June is bike month, and now it is the end of June: hunting season. And yes, I do plan on paying the $29 to ICBC. I don't really want to get stopped at customs going out or coming into Canada in the near or far future.
Read more!

I don't like YOU.

There are some incredible things people get away with in this world. Actually, it's not that incredible--I bet it's one of those things that happens very often but no one ever hears about it. Imagine if, like every other time in your life, you happened to lose your wallet, or even get it stolen. You cancel all your credit cards, notify the bank, get a new driver's license, and a social insurance card. You get a new wallet, and you think the matter is settled. Then, one day, you get a phone call from a ski rental place to tell you that a snowboard you rented was damaged. You've never been snowboarding in your life.

A front-page article on the Vancouver Sun this weekend recounted in detail exactly such an occurance. It is the most frustrating, and allegedly unsolvable, crime ever: identity theft. An 18 year-old woman had her purse stolen one night, and for the past two years she's been fighting someone who has been claiming to be her. This 'someone' has all her legitimate government ID, so for every car crash and every counterfeit cheque transaction, the finger points to her...except, she has committed none of it. And the reason why it's unsolvable by the police?

Sgt. Ken Athans, head of the Vancouver police Identity Theft Task Force, was not familiar with McAteer's file. That's because his new and highly successful task force targets large groups of people who work together across the Lower Mainland to pull off organized and very lucrative identity theft. [...] He has sympathy for McAteer and others in her situation, adding that in an ideal world there would be enough manpower and cooperation between police and outside agencies to solve a case like her's. [...] "We probably have people pointing fingers at each other saying it's your jurisdiction ... It's a huge problem. Resources are always going to be a problem. And we need to find a way to empower somebody to do something about that. That's sort of the shadow that identity criminals are able to operate in," he said. "It's really tough for her to go to the top of the pile ... There are a lot of people with stories like her's, and we hate to hear them."

First of all, in an ideal world, there wouldn't be such dishonest people. Secondly, in an ideal world, there would be no need for criminal justice systems or laws, for that matter. And thirdly, if not even that, there wouldn't be such an incompetent 'Theft Task Force' whose head-hancho stands and publicly claims that there are people "pointing fingers at each other saying it's your jurisdiction" and does just that. (Well, at least he is being honest.)

But, the true reprimand shouldn't be aimed at the police for their incompetence, but this bitch who goes around thinking she can get away with identity theft, although she clearly has and is. Whoever you are, wherever you are, you do NOT deserve to live in civil society, to reap the benefits of a safe, peaceful community. People like you who don't have common decency should never be amongst those of us who actually do. Go f%^k yourself.
Read more!

we're just not having enough sex.

Al emailed me an article he found online today, titled "Falling birth rate due to lack of sex" and joked that he was starting to have second thoughts about coming to Japan:

Japan's fertility rate – the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime – fell to an all-time low of 1.25 last year. Demographers say a rate of 2.1 is needed to keep a population from declining...Japan came last among 41 nations in a poll last year by condom manufacturer Durex, with lovers there having sex just 45 times a year compared to a global average of 103 times a year.

45 times a year. Just so you know, that's less than once a week. The funny thing about this latest revelation about Japanese sex lives, is that the country has--and is known for--a substantial pornography culture. The dominant prevalence of pornography in Japan was demonstrated last year by Al's father's souvenir. Upon a brief visit to Japan, Al's father had brought back a magazine bought from a newsstand at probably a train station. The type of magazine that he had bought, however, was not only manga (a particular type of comic prevalent in Japan only), but the extremely sleazy type of manga that "stressed-out" salary-workers (men) would read on crowded train cars, regardless of the time of day. Thus, pornography is not limited to red-light districts and happy-ending massages by beautiful Asian women; it seems, more or less, part of any man's daily life.

So if Japanese men are as horny (perverted?) as I've made it sound, then why aren't they having sex? The aforementioned article of the Japan Times attributed to stress, "tiresome relationships," and--"no particular reason." Dr Kunio Kitamura, director of the Japan Family Planning Association, says couples need to start talking to increase interaction. But, I believe that there's much more to it than just stress and tiresome relationships. To begin with, Japanese men are probably satisfied, to some extent, with their porn. They get to read it on the train, they get to rent it at any local video store, and now they even have the internet. They're already stressed, and, the best part about videos and magazines is that without any physical effort, they can take their sex lives to a place far beyond a manifestable reality. Their wives aren't hot enough? All they have to do is resort to imagination. There's a lack of spice or passion in their sex? Well, fantasies can solve that. And, they don't have to get frustrated about pleasing the woman, because hey, it's a fantasy and in fantasies the women are always pleased.

All the blame can't lie in men only, however. Japanese women have their faults, too. A good friend of mine once described to me her friends in Japan: "They have their own careers, they have their own lives, they have their own apartments and their own toys, and they have money. Now they probably have vibrators, too, so why the hell would they need a man, or even have any desire to have a family, when they can just please themselves whenever and however they want?" Like every other time in their history, it seems as though the Japanese have once again taken things a bit too far. These are independent women--truly independent women, who don't need others to please them, because they figured they can do it themselves. No need to experiment, no need to think about pleasing the other. Like their male counterparts, they, too, have their own fantasies.

Conclusion: Essentially, you have an entire country whose citizens live their sex lives solely in their own fantasies. Now that is just a bit disturbing.
Read more!

20 (+2)

I turned 20 two years ago. Yet in Japan there is a traditional ceremony that I technically should've done but did not because I was out of the country: that is, the Coming-of-Age ceremony (sei-jin shiki). Facilitated much by the local government (I think), on the second Monday of every January there are multiple venues--large concert halls, auditoriums, city gymnasiums--that are utilized for the congregation of 20 year-old men and women, dressed in traditional kimonos (for women) and hakamas (for men). Some may wear tuxedos and fancy dresses, but the true way to go is in costly traditional attire. The ceremony itself is known to be fairly boring, much like many graduation ceremonies of universities...a few speeches here and there of monotonous nature, followed by a formal drinking of rice wine at the end. In Japan the legal age to drink, smoke, drive (actually you can start driving in an N license at the age of 18, but full licenses come around 20) is 20, and by that age, unless you are in school, a full-time job is an expectation to say the least. Otherwise, shame is bestowed upon you and your family...no, not really, but kind of. Strange country (let's not get started on that).

Anyway, in a recent conversation with my mother, the idea came up that maybe I should get a photo shoot done to commemorate my coming-of-age, two years belated. No real need to go through the ceremony, per se, but a photo in nice expensive kimonos is a once-in-a-lifetime sort of thing unless I come to own my own kimono one day, and it would indeed be kind of fun to have a picture of me in such...well, clashing?...attire lying around. After that conversation I surfed around and found the following three kimonos appealing (they are from a website of a place that rents kimonos near my mom's apartment).
This one is my favorite (and actually, the least expensive of all three...yes, this is a major concern, as rentals are costly. This one is approximately $350 to rent for a day). Since this is a traditional ceremony, we might as well go fully traditional by using the basic colors of Japan: red, black, and white.





This is my second choice. When foreigners first came to Japan (1800s), they were astounded and allegedly mortified by the Japanese's use of clashing colours, as in this one. Blue with orange and red and yellow (rather than blue with light blue and green, or blue with purple or lilac). I think it's quite beautiful, and nowadays motifs like these are fairly common. Back then it was a blasphemy.



This one is the most expensive of them all...if it weren't for the sale they're having the original rental cost is about $1000. I like the more subtle blue base and and purple corners. All in all this actually looks the most....well, mature.

I just don't want any butterflies on my kimono, or any bugs (like fireflies and dragonflies) for that matter. But no butterflies. It's a coming-of-age ceremony and I don't want to look like I've reverted back 10 years. Or huuuuge flowers. Or too many flowers. Again, I'm 20 (+2), not 10. Or pink or pastel purple, or even ones that are really tacky looking. Perhaps it is a bit more difficult for you to understand what I mean by 'tacky' kimonos if you're not Japanese, but really, there are some horrid pictures out there that you wish you never saw. These people destroy the art of kimonos. Somehow. Anyway.
Read more!

whistler -- vancouver's disneyland. And recordings!

For the second time in four years, I went up to Whistler. The first time, I tried snowboarding -- a painful experience it was. So painful that, on the second day, I took my volleyball kneepads because I couldn't fathom falling on my knees ever again.

Whistler village, though, is a world on its own. Kind of like Disneyland. People go there to yes, enjoy all the winter sports that Blackcomb and Whistler mountains have to offer, but down in the foothills of these great mountains is an entire village devoted to shopping, eating, drinking, clubbing, and more shopping. There's a GAP, a Roots, a Guess store and even a Lululemon store (why anyone would wear lululemon pants in snow-weather, I have no idea). A handful of coffee shops (including 3 Starbucks), a couple of high-end grocery stores and several pretty nice restaurants of various cuisines adorn the village paths that all truly look the same. And of course, atop these stores and restaurants are private townhomes and condos--all up for grabs, for about 2 million dollars and up. Hotel room prices in the Village, of course, fare no less. It really is no wonder that the 2010 Olympics would be hosted here; in fact, Whistler is such an appropriate location!

In any case, the reason for my trip to Whistler was a youth band/choir music festival that was taking place there. The Asia tour band from UBC went up there as, I suppose, guest performers, as well as the Vancouver Gospel Choir -- these guys were pretty awesome. An okay trip.

Right now I'm listening to a recording of our most recent concert, Artunian trumpet concerto, Music for Prague (we destroyed, in the most literal sense, the third movement), and Pines of Rome. Mmm. The fourth movement of Prague sounds actually alright...surprising. I got this CD and a DVD of one of our Taipei concerts, which I'm looking forward to watching later this afternoon. Hopefully that will turn out to be a good surprise as well.
Read more!