Valentine’s day fast approaches, at least for those who care about such things. I personally think it’s great gimmick, along the lines of “Hey, let’s make ANOTHER day where people will have to get stuff for each other, and we can make money selling cards and candies.”

Not that I have anything against the idea of exchanging gifts, mind you. I just don’t like it when someone/some entity tells me that i ought to do it. Even when it might be beneficial or a nice thing to do. Take, for example, my situation yesterday at a supermarket. It was crazy busy, for whatever reason, and a throng of shoppers were clogging the checkout lanes. I only needed a pack of noodles, and there I was, eyeing the long lines of people with a mountain of groceries. You’d think there was a hurricane imminent.

While lost in my own thought about the weather, the economy and the exchange rate, this random girl addresses me.

“Hey!”
I blink at her puzzled. Is she talking to me? I formulate the only reasonable reply.
“What?”
She points at my pack of noodles and says “Put it here.” Gesturing to a spot in front of her. Again I say,
“What?”
She seemed a little exasperated, and says “Since you only have one thing, you can go in front.”

Generally, I would think it’s a nice gesture to your fellow shopper to allow them to go in front of you when the other guy’s carrying only a few items, but I suppose what kind of upset me was her attitude and an air of smug superiority. What, just because you happened to be in a spot in front of me, you think you can dictate where I stand in the line? Couldn’t she be a little more polite in offering me a space in front of her?

I suppose that’s the way I feel about Valentine’s day or even Christmas, for that matter. Yes, it’s nice to give gifts and receive them, but if it comes at a cost of a pushy girl telling you where to put your groceries, or, in this case, card companies and department stores telling you that you need to buy presents, I’d rather do without.

But, most people don’t feel this way, and they see Valentine’s day as a festive day to get some fattening stuff for their sweetheart.

In Takashimaya department store in Tokyo, there is a shop called “Q-pot” that sells chocolate jewelry for the V-day. We’re talking about rings and… uh, chocolate tiaras.

from Spluch

遊園地

ゆうえんち [yu en chi] (”yu” is a long vowel)

meaning: amusement park

遊 to play
園 park, garden, or a farm
地 ground, earth

kourakuen yuenchi [後楽園遊園地]

i read “economist” because it’s full of useful information and news without the fluff like the doings of paris hilton or whatever the hell is going on with the celebrities. and, you get a global perspective on things, like this article about parking situation in japan.

JAPANESE traffic cops were until recently a genteel bunch. Confronted with a wrongly parked vehicle, they would just place chalk marks next to the tyres, and return an hour or so later to see if it had been moved before issuing a penalty. But in recent months motorists have faced a new army of private parking wardens who enforce a no-tolerance policy with on-the-spot fines and digital photos taken in evidence.

Shopkeepers, restaurateurs and local businessmen are up in arms. Trade on busy thoroughfares is said to have dropped by 20%. Some businesses have come up with inventive solutions—like the MOS Burger chain that has started taking orders from customers’ mobile phones and delivering take-away meals to the kerbside. Valet parking, previously unheard of in Japan, has begun to make an appearance.

… Average land prices have fallen by more than 80% from their peak during Japan’s “bubble years”. Old wooden houses on 80-square-metre plots sell for as little as ¥15m ($126,000) in Tokyo, or less than half that in big industrial cities like Nagoya or Hiroshima. Once cleared, paved and equipped with car-stackers, such tiny plots can generate around ¥5m ($42,000) a year as car parks. The owners are in no rush to get planning permission to build four-storey houses. They would rather pile up cars, and cash.

i had the pleasure of traveling to san francisco a little while back, and i’m constantly reminded of what a pretty city it is, what with its hills, surrounded by the pacific ocean and the bay, as well as some lovely bridges and great food. in a lot of ways, kobe in japan reminds me a lot of san francisco, although i’m not sure how many hippies live in kobe.

one thing i do not like about san francisco is the parking situation.

i stayed in the lovely nikko san francisco hotel near union square, and as some of you may know, it’s a hotel operated by japan air(JAL). everything was dandy(except my room suddenly lost water at 10 pm) but the parking fee is exorbitant. at usd $40 simoleans per say, it’s a veritable highway robbery in my opinion. but, not wanting to have my car broken into by the san francisco recreational drug users at night, i parked my car across the street at a private garage, for a more reasonable sum of usd $30.

i really like to watch the japanese carousel parking garages whenever i get a chance. well, i guess it’s more of a ferris wheel than a carousel. viz, a car goes in to a sort of a cradle, after which it moves up or down in a type of a vertical conveyor, much as a car would move up and down on a ferris wheel. i suppose this way, one could stack cars on top of one another, an ingenious way to save space in a crowded city. but what happens if a car has leaky engine? but this is japan, of course, and these things simply do not happen. or so i’ve been told.

this particular photo is from sapporo. notice the snappily dressed parking attendants. i thought at first they were parking enforcement dudes, but then i realized they weren’t wearing white gloves.

carousel-style parking garage

your comments are no longer held in moderation, as i think i’ve got a handle on all the spam that i get(thank you AKISMET!)and they will appear immediately after you post them. please be civil and courteous, as profanity and vulgarity is frowned upon.

-Junosora

hello everyone,

i would like to wish everyone a wonderful new year!

“새해복많이받으세요!”
“明けましておめでとうございます！”

here’s a picture of “mashimaro”, a fat lazy rabbit who sits around doing nothing, rendered as a snowman.

tigers and crane will be returning to more regular postings. thank you.

this shouldn’t really surprise any korean nor a japanese, but many westerners recoil in horror at existence of such a device. namely, for lack of better words, what i like to call “ear diggers”. or perhaps a better (or at least more scientific sounding) moniker might be “aural excavator”.

at any rate, traditionally, these slender sticks with a itty bitty scoop at the end have been used to, uh, dig ear wax out of one’s ear. now, now, don’t get all squeamish on me. i say “ear wax”, but it’s more like “ear chunks”. wait, no, that’s not any better. maybe “ear flakes”?

well, they(the flakes) exist, and what better thing to do on a lazy day than shove a bamboo stick up your ear and dig it out? don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it. it’s better than spending money on expensive headphones to hear better. plus, the satisfaction of hauling out a prize sized nugget is… well, damn satisfying.

traditionally, like i’ve said, they’ve been made of bamboo slivers, but i’ve seen heirloom silver ear digger. “here you go… granma used to dig a mound of flakes out of her ear!”

this wonderful item from rakuten, called “mimipet”(hah! “mimi” is, of course, japanese for “ear”) is actually a cellphone charm that looks like… well, see for yourself.

no! don’t do it lady!

there’s even an “evil version”- a grinning black elephant. ask yourself this: “do i really want to stick an evil elephant in my ear?” well, if it works better than a Q-tip, then, well, maybe.

found via red ferret via textually , from rakuten. Whew!

from the truly weird news of the day, i came across this little tidbit: some believe jesus is buried in aomori, japan.

yep, that’s right. contrary to what is written in the bible and the belief of billions, a small city of aomori in tohoku region, the gateway to hokkaidou claims that jesus escaped from jerusalem, went across siberia, and ended up in aomori.

as a rice farmer.

Most visitors peer at the grave curiously and pose in front of the cross for a photograph before heading off for apple ice cream at the nearby cafe.

But some pilgrims leave coins in front of the grave in thanks for answered prayers.
The cross is a confusing symbol because according to the local legend, Jesus did not die at Calvary.
His place was taken by one of his brothers, who for some reason is now buried by his side in Japan.
The story goes that after escaping Jerusalem, Jesus made his way across Russia and Siberia to Aomori in the far north of Japan where he became a rice farmer, married, had a family and died peacefully at the age of 114.

A villager hinted that I might be able to meet one of Jesus’ descendents - a Mr Sajiro Sawaguchi, who is now in his 80s.
His family owns the land on which the grave stands and his house is at the foot of the mountain.
I set off to find him but was told he was too ill to speak to me.

However, his grandson Junichiro Sawaguchi did agree to talk. Was I about to meet someone with a true touch of the divine?
The tubby middle-aged gentleman in glasses who spoke to me did not seem particularly Messianic.
Local legend says Mr Sawaguchi is a living descendant of Jesus
“Actually, my family are Buddhists not Christians,” said Mr Sawaguchi.

from bbc news
man, you can’t make this stuff up.

this is probably one of the greatest differences between japanese and koreans. whereas most japanese maybe be spiritual, for them religion is in many ways, a convenience. there’s even a saying that a japanese is born shinto, marries christian, and dies buddhist. certainly, christianity, or at least the flavor of christianity is present at weddings where a fake priest usually presides over the ceremony, and usually, a foreign, white-looking students or english teachers looking to make a few extra bucks on a weekend impersonates a man of the cloth.

in almost any town square, one can find a little shinto shrine, usually with an offering left by those who are in need of extra little fortune. i usually found a bottle of yogurt drink, but sometimes a burger.

contrast this to korea, where as the only east asian nation to fully embrace christianity, one can find protestant and catholic churches everywhere. and unlike japan, many korean are very active, and one can see protestant proselytizers on the streets and train stations all across the nation.

this is not to say that christianity has no foothold in japan. it’s just that compared to korea, it is very low key and less than 1% of the population claim to be adherents.