Far East Cynic

Have not even been back 24  hours yet. Catching up on sleep, work , bills. Something has to give and it would appear to be blogging.

However………

Expat at Large has tagged me with a meme. Not sure of its coherence or theme per se-but a challenge is a challenge that must be answered.  It is one of those “1o question” kind of things,  a 10 question blog meme, “ one that has been slightly twisted by the precious and well-meaning Savannah, viz: “the latest meme in blogville. the twist is that after i answer her[very good] questions, i get to ask 10 NEW questions and tag another set of bloggers!” ”

So here is the set he asked me. (My answers in bold).

1. Who was your 3rd grade teacher and were you in love with her? (Lesbian lust is OK, in fact even better.)

I have no fracking idea. I can’t remember any teachers back beyond high school. There was a junior English teacher that I had serious hots for, however. Sadly-she ended up marrying a Marine. ( But at least he was an aviator…..).

2. Is yours an examined life? If yes, did you find anything interesting?

I examine and contemplate my life all the time. Mostly I contemplate all the things I would like to be doing if I had not made bad choices earlier -and transformed myself into a life support system for women. Interesting? Possibly-there are loads of interesting things: planes, ships, trains, sex and whiskey.  A few car chases and run ins with the constabulary-other adventures are thrown in for good measure. I have a lot of “lessons learned-I wish I had not done that” types of life lessons to pass on that is for sure.

3. How high is the tallest mountain you have climbed, skied down, or tripped over (question for Singaporeans)?

Mt Fuji. 14000+ feet.

4. Speaking of storms, do you know, or DID you know, anyone who has been struck by lightning? Or indeed, by lighting?

Only the memorial pictures I see at the shelters at the various golf courses I have played.

5. What do you like most about your job/studies/unemployment cheques?

My previous employer? Travel, flying, travel, adventure, travel, camaraderie ( before it all went to hell in the name of “diversity and equal opportunity”), travel, excitement, seeing the ground go whizzing by at 500 knots and 300 feet-and the opportunity to take care of my Sailors.

My current employer? My paycheck. And the travel. And that is just about it. The difference? With my previous employer I felt I was making a difference. Now I’m just another schmuck making PPT slides and trying to convince people who ought to know better-not to do stupid things. I really envy people who actually create things of value or improve the world. Sadly-that’s not a statement I can make about my current daily struggle. And this is with a company I really like-its not the who I work for, it is the where that is the issue.

6. Men: are you Miles or Jack? Women: are you Maya or Stephanie, Jack’s fiancee or Miles’ ex-wife? (You haven’t seen Sideways? Why am I even talking to you?).

Miles. With Jack’s sex drive. And without the tranquilizers. (Does Viagra count?)

7. Would you rather write best-selling pulp genre fiction, or an art-house novel that confirms your towering genius but that not even your most sympathetic friends would read, except MAYBE under threat of torture? Trick question, eh what?

Which pays more? I’d like to do both-but if it’s one or the other-write a classic. Hell, look at Ayn Rand. Her booked sucked-but now its quoted by douche-bags tea party goons who never even knew what the book was before 2008.

8. Have you ever been on a cruise? On a ship I mean, not wearing leather and trying to pick up Mr Goodbar. If yes, did you fall in love on it, the cruise?

Uh, I’ve been on 11 cruises-but they were not exactly on the Love Boat. ( Although cruise on the USS Eisenhower in 1994 might qualify-a lot of people were getting laid and getting pregnant. It just wasn’t me). I never fell in love per se-but lust plenty of times. Every port of call to be exact. Somehow I don’t think my definition of a cruise fits E @ L’s.

9. Other than “I think, therefore I am”, can you quote a major philosopher NOW? Without having to look one up? (Descartes doesn’t count, he was a mathematician.) Please share your quote, if you have one. (I’m thinking, this is a wasted question.)

Philosphers? Not really. I can quote a lot of Shakespere from memory though. “The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed-it blesseth him that giveth and him that taketh.”

I’m also a fan of this quote by Einstein because I think it applies to me: “ I have no special gift; I am only passionately curious.”

10. Do you pay for an online newspaper? If so, which one? (If you are about to say The Straits Times, please leave this blog immediately.)

Three. The New York Times, Slate (for Kindle),  and The Straits Times. Sue me.

I got to think about my questions-but rest assured there are some folks out there who are going to get tagged. Sourrain can count it, for one.

But again it is Ja matte ne.

This has been a great week-so great. Saturday we went to Oedo Onsen and had dinner and a soak. Its kind of a neat thing. You go and pay your fee, change into a Yukata, then you walk around a center place with little eating and drinking stalls. You have an arm-band on and if you want to buy a beer or any thing you just have them scan the arm band. Clever little system-you don’t feel you are spending any money-and before you know it, you have racked up a bill of 4000 yen or so. ( That’s on top of the 2160 yen per person to get in and get your Yukata).

When ready-ladies go to their side and the men go to theirs. You enter a second locker room, get naked and go into the bath. Its a great feeling. There is an indoor bath, a sauna, jet bath and an outdoor bath. All deserve a soak or two. Then its get shaved, shampooed and dressed and back out to the general area in your Yukata. Relax for a while with a beer or two and some food-then repeat the bath again. Its great.

Got up this morning, went for a run over to Roppongi Hills and back to Hiro-o. Temperature was great and lots of folks were out walking to and fro. The run over to Roppongi Hills is also and up and down run-which is some pretty good exercise.

Then back, shower, pack and get on the bus. The dream is suddenly all over-and its time to start the voyage back to drudgery Hicksville.

But, the bills are not going to pay themselves you know-and I still got work to eat. So its back home-with a new insight into my goal.

Ja matte ne. Soro soro nihon ni kaerimasu!

Ganbare Skippy-san ( DO YOUR BEST!)

The picture in the previous post is the “Zero Milestone” which is located at Nihon Bashi. All road distances were supposed to be measured in Japan from this point-and it was the place that the Shogun ordered 5 roads built from the old capital of Edo. ( Now Tokyo). The rails system, however, has its Zero Milestone from Tokyo Station.

Here is a trivia quiz question. Do you know what this is?

Answer tomorrow.

Consider this an open post-I’ll let Curtis pick the topic.

Sadly, its the end of the week and this great little adventure is going to have to come to an end.  Returning to Hicksville and the job nuttiness soon enough. I still get two more evenings here in paradise though. I intend to savor them. This has been the best week of the year so far for me.

Yesterday went to Tsukiji fish market and we had Sushi-don at one of the tiny little restaurants there. It had a line to get in so we assumed it must be good. We were right-although I thought it was a tad expensive. Sushi was fresh though and of a quality we will not find in the hinterland of Hicksville AL. A great little lunch.

Then off to Yasukuni shrine so I could take some pictures. Wound up the day by having dinner with a friend who lives here-he’s one of the lucky ones who got to stay here and was able to engineer gainful employment for himself here-living in midtown Tokyo and flying hither and yon around the world. Exactly the existence I long for-and so far have been unable to attain for myself.  We had a great dinner after seeing his neighborhood and did a little bit of drinking at a Shibuya bar I had not been to for many years. I boarded the subway train-more than a little depressed. Did some more drinking when I got back to the hotel. Contemplated the present, the past and the future.  Must be nice to have everything line up your way.

Clearly I am doing something wrong in my search efforts. When I return home, rather than mope about it-I am going to re-double my efforts to find what I seek. I cannot-and I will not-let the mudane circumstances defeat me. I have to pick my self up and hold my head up and keep on pressing on. I have to force myself to re-double my efforts.

And for now at least-I get to enjoy the remaining days here in a great place. Ja ne!

Pix will be posted when I get back home-I want to load them on my computer back at the house and sort them properly. They will be posted soon I promise.

Because companies should not tell you how much data you can use.

I consider myself virtually addicted to my iPhone. I obsessively check my e-mail on it (4 accounts!); I listen to streaming music as I type on my computer at work; I surf the Internet fairly often; and I’ve got dozens of data-driven apps. Unlimted data for a fee seemed like a good deal. Now the cocksuckers folks at ATT have the balls to restrict how much data you can get in a month.

AT&T*, the U.S. smartphone leader, today introduced new wireless data plans that make it more affordable for more people to enjoy the benefits of the mobile Internet. Customers can pick the new data plan that best meets their needs – either a $15 per month entry plan or a $25 per month plan with 10 times more data. Current smartphone customers are not required to switch to the new plans, but can choose to do so without a contract extension.

Well, thank God for that. And please don’t call me a “data hog”. That’s exactly the point.  I’m paying for them to provide the service-its up to me how much I use it. I worry that the next step will be ISP’s wanting to penalize users like me who like to download high quality movies with quality graphics. ISP’s and cable providers are fighting to be able to ration data-at exactly the same time is moving to make more and more data stored out there in the “cloud”.

And that’s why the FCC should have authority to regulate companies like AT&T and enforce net neutrality.

By Yukio Hatoyama who resigned yesterday-one year after winning election by a huge electoral majority.

The S.O. has been grabbing every chance to watch the news coverage. It is kind of nice to see it in the original so to speak-not so filtered by American perceptions and biases. However in the end the reason for his resignation comes down to one particular issue:

He failed to get the US to budge on Futenma and in the long run failed to get the US to abandon the bad deal it and Japan signed back in 2005.

In fact-Hatoyama folded like a cheap suit-by coming out about six weeks ago and announcing publically that he would no longer seek to move the forces at Futenma off of Okinawa. It has been a down hill slide since then-culminating in a 17% approval rating the day we arrived in Japan.

It is kind of sad really.  Re-framing the 2005 DPRI agreement was in the interest of both countries, although the US has behaved stupidly-insisting that Japan live up to this bad deal. Nor does Hatoyama’s resignation really change the direction that DPJ is going to take, which is to push the US on making concessions about Futenma in particular and US basing in general. The up and coming leadership will demand a reduced US presence-knowing full well they won’t get it, which they believe will soften up the ground for what they really want-more strings attached to the billions yen the Japanese pay for the US presence here.

And that was actually a strong hand for Hatoyama-had he known how to play it.  The US needs its bases here for extending its foreign policy reach,  more than Japan needs them for its defense. Most of the threats to Japan today are economic, not military with the sole exception of Chinese and North Korean missiles. The US is in great reliance on the money Japan spends on the bases and the MLC employees, which mask the real cost of the bases from US defense accounting. Reducing that funding would have produced a real row with Washington-but would have been a good hammer to drive home the point that Futenma can be closed and the right assets moved elsewhere. The key factor, however, would have been having the US abandon the incredibly stupid decision to move CVW-5 to Iwakuni in 2013.

Now it appears as if the DPJ will simply redouble its efforts-but it will be from a much weaker position since DPJ is sure to take a drubbing in the Upper House elections in July. And the US knows that and will simply stall for time.

But that still does not make the 2005 agreement any less of a bad deal and the timetable for the moves will continue.

This ought to be fun to watch.

Ah, this is the life. Jack Daniels in the glass, and hot water shootin’ up your ass!

-from the beginning of the movie, Middle Age Crazy.

While I am not normally in the habit of carrying a drink into the restroom-the S.O. and I did have a chance to experience the marvelous technology that the Japanese have given to the rest of the world-when it comes to the art of bathroom technology.

The place we were staying came equipped with one of these:

This-for those who have never seen or experienced one before-is the “washlet” toilet. Complete with a heated toilet seat and a myriad of ways to depart the room of rest clean in all those “private parts”. It really is a great invention-I want to find a way to get one in my house.

This one came complete with an in wall mounted control panel:

Moving from left to right: the orange button is a “stop” button. The next two buttons control the spray of water up into your hindquarters. (Oshiri) Left is a strong broad spray the right one is weaker. The two buttons underneath allow for a massage spray and to move the nozzle back and forth.

Moving back to the top right-there is a control for a bidet. Used for what a bidet is ostensiblyused for-although in the spirit of equal opportunity I tried it. ( Probably the closest I will come to a cat bath this trip!) On the far right are indicators and controls to adjust the strength of the water flow and the nozzle positioning.

If you have never tried it is a novel experience.

No discussion of a Japanese bathroom would be complete without a glance at the ofuro.

The S.O. has a set up like this at her apartment here in Japan. ( which is currently rented for two years-or I would have moved there already). I’ve always liked the Japanese approach to a bath. A bath is for rejuvenation of the body and soul-the shower nozzle is for the business of cleaning. You will notice that the bathtub is higher than your standard American bathtub and that is a good thing-allowing you to lie back and soak in the heat of the water.

Speaking of heat-I’m always impressed by the Japanese approach to hot water heating. As is the case in other places there are no tank style hot water heaters-instead an on demand capillary system is employed. As utlitilities are expensive here-the hot water is normally of until you select it on-an important safety tip in both the bathroom and kitchen.

What’s cool is you can turn the hot water on, push the top right button and the bath fills automatically. Leaving you free to do whatever it is you like to do before a bath. ( Insert favorite sexual metaphor here). The bath chimes or talks to you when it is done. What’s also cool is that there are no taps etc to bump into inside the bath. The S.O. has that too-and I’ve always liked it.

Because its always good to be comfortable here-in the room where comfort and good flow matters most.