Higo Blog

My Favorite Places To View Hotaru

One of my favorite ways to spend a spring or summer night in Japan is to go out and watch the hotaru (fireflies) flicker on and off in unison. The Hotaru Festival in Kyokushi (North of Ozu in Kumamoto-ken) is worth checking out, and easy to get to. During this celebration, beef ranchers like the Otsuka family sell exceptionally delicious beef which is best enjoyed with a glass of beer and a bunch of friends.

This isn't a hotaru, it's a picture of a tiny bee that I took at Yamabuki suigen (Yamabuki spring). In daylight, the fireflies look like regular elongated black beetles, somewhat reminiscent of a cockroach. I took the next picture in the dark of a firefly in my hand from Kyokushi last year:

Such a sad picture... The bioluminescence and frequency of their flashing varies among species. The fireflies in Kyokushi blink slower and with a yellowish light, while the yamahotaru blink slightly faster in a bluish-white. I wonder if the color differences have to do with the membrane of the photophores (assuming this is what the light producing cells on fireflies are called) or due to slight chemical differences in combination with the luciferin and luciferase...

Anyhow, if you are in Aso-gun near Ubuyama-mura during mid to late June you can still catch the yamahotaru (mountain fireflies), well after the other species have mated and died. One great spot is south of Namino village, in a place called Shiramizu Taki (white water waterfall- pictured below). The waterfall itself is worth a visit during the day time, but it is truly magnificent at night illuminated by the stars and the fireflies. The lighting has a soft, magical quality because of the diffusing effect of the spray generated by the falling water. Apparently, the light on my cellphone is irresistable to yamahotaru, as one followed it back into my pocket. I watched in amusement as it blinked out a pickup line to my unreceptive D251.

Yamahotaru are more reliable to see than the other species, I have found, because they come out in rain or good weather, and wind tends not to be a factor as they tend to live in protected areas among the trees or cliffs.

My other favorite places to see them are in Ubuyama-mura in Hokubu. I was able to see hotaru at Yamabuki suigen, but had to turn back because it was pitch-black, raining hard, and I only had my keitai (with a low battery) to serve as a flashlight. Instead, I went to Ikeyama suigen which is more popular and easier to access. The hotaru were out in abundance in the mist and drizzle, lighting up the cedars with their halogen-white glow.

Rainy Weekend

This weekend I had to work, and so I missed the last hash with our group in Kumamoto. I hope it went well, and that you all had to swim through the brown dirtiness that is the Shirakawa River. It rained all weekend long, which was a good thing. I did more this weekend then I usually do on weekends with fair weather.

This is the elephant in front of Ubuyama Junior High School. I think it has a really nice ass, don't you? In a purely asthetic sense, that is...

The clouds descended on the mountans like fog. It is quite difficult to see when driving through clouds, because they are extremely dense (they refract and diffuse the light from your headlights, and bring darkness if you don't use your lights- your vision is damned both ways) and cause disorientation when they sweep across one's field of vision (often at high speeds). They can make familiar roads seem strange, dangerous, and alien. I only enjoy driving through the clouds if I am well rested and alert.

This picture was taken in Saganoseki (on the coastline of Oita-ken, not Saga-ken). I thought the storm had passed, but that night it poured with great vengeance and furious anger. If you do end up in Saganoseki for some reason, then stop at the beach and practice your rock skipping technique. My arm is still sore, and my record was a possible 13 skips across the still-as-a-lake waters of the sea.

Chewing Through The Gag

Over the past year, posting stuff on Higo Blog is something that I have really grown to enjoy. It's a much needed release sometimes, and helps me to stay sane in my relative isolation in the Japanese country side. I can't imagine what it would feel like if the Japanese government decided to censor what I could and could not look at or post on the net, but I imagine I would feel a lot like Kevin and the other bloggers in Korea.

Instead of talking about my thoughts on the recent actions of the Korean Ministry of Information and Communication, I highly suggest checking out Big Hominid's site and to explore the links and Korea blogger's pages that he posts, and to join him and the others in saying "Fuck censorship!".

Cooking With Green Butter

Avocados are only 100 yen right now, and so I have been using them a lot lately. My favorite ways to eat them are sliced with shoyu (California-nisei style), as part of a sandwitch/cheeseburger, or as guacamole. Fresh tortillas are worth their weight in silver over here, but tortilla chips are abundant and cheap and go the best with the guac. I will be experimenting with various indiginous Japanese foods to see if any go well. Here are some proposed dished:

nato, guacamole, and yamaimo with ice cold soba
sushi with a pad of guacamole under the bullet of fish instead of wasabi
grilled, salted salmon with guacamole
curry with pork cutlet and guacamole
basashi (horse sashimi) and guacamole
miso soup with essence of guacamole
guacamole soft cream (soft serve)
guacamole with asse
yakiguacamoleonigiri
tantanmen with guacamole topping
Vietnamese spring rolls with rice vermicelli, sweet grilled pork, Vietnamese pickles, fish sauce, and guacamole (this is not Japanese, but I think it is one of the more promising combinations).

Some are destined for greatness, while others will be fed to unsuspecting friends. I used only ingredients that were readily available and cheap in the middle of Kyushu. Here's my take on guacamole:

2 hass avocados
1/2 tsp. of fresh lemon juice
1 small tomato, diced
1/2 small onion, minced
2 cloves of raw garlic, minced
garlic salt
pepper
cajun seasoning
tapatio sauce

I ate this guacamole with pack of Pringles (sour cream and onion flavor), because sometimes they don't have tortilla chips at the supermarket.

This is a very simple recipe and very easy to make. Caution: using raw garlic makes the guacamole spicy, and will result in breath that would cause one embarrassment in a kimchee factory in Korea.

Spy vs. Spy

Justin told me that he ran Ad-Aware and Spybot on Merin's computer last weekend, and that he was shocked to see how much spyware (check out this article for more information) was on her computer. He said that it had so much crap on it that it crashed while he was running the anti-spyware programs. I just worked on my BOE's computer with these same programs and here's the results:

Is it me, or does the little bug icon look like the spider-shaped trackers that Spider-Man uses to track bad guys?

Ad-aware: 191 programs detected
Spybot: 88 programs detected

Total: 279 spyware programs on the first go. It is truly strange to be in a place where I probably have the most experience working with computers. "Scary" is probably a better word than "strange", on second thought.

Results for the chugakko are as follows-
Ad-aware: 169
Spybot: 46

Total: 215
On this computer Claria/Gator was installed, and accounted for more than half of the spyware objects detected by both programs (and not all were detected on the first try).

Classroom Punishment

What ever happened to time out or setting up conferences with the parents of a kid who is having problems in school? In Japan, you hear many stories of how screwed up the educational system is, and how the pressure on teachers (to get their students to pass tests) and students (to pass the tests) really is. I can say for certain that if one of my teachers told me to write an apology in blood, I would walk past them and go straight to the principal and call my parents to help me sort this out.

I have been lucky enough to have nice teachers in my schools, in an environment where such behavior would most likely be immediately detected and severely dealt with. I have heard accounts of students being smacked by teachers, and even one case of a retarded student being put into a cage for the period because the teacher couldn't control him. What ever happened to humiliating a class clown or smartmouth in front of the class, and trying to get to the ultimate cause of problematic behavior? Hopefully, a teacher's class will be percieved as interesting or at least valuable enough to pressure the students to act in a respectful manner.

It also bothers me how common it is for teachers to have secret relationships with their students. Some teachers have no problem engaging in romantic relations with their students, and this really bothers me. It just doesn't seem to be such a big deal over here for some reason.

Cooking With Goya

This weekend I cooked with goya(bitter melon) for the first time, and it turned out awesome! I first tried goya in Okinawa as a component in a chop suey-like dish, and made it with the help of a friend. After you try this dish, you might grow to love the bumpy-cucumber-like hunk of bitterness.

Goya Champura

Ingredients:
1 goya, cored and sliced thin into half-rings
1 onion, cut into (half) rings
a few cloves of garlic, minced
one half a loaf of SPAM, chopped into thin slices
one block of firm tofu, cubed
four eggs, scrambled
one teaspoon of sesame oil
one teaspoon of olive oil
two heaping tablespoons of miso paste
one tablespoon of toubanjan (red chili paste)

Directions:
Fry the goya, onions, and SPAM in the oil on high heat, until the onions become translucent and then add the garlic along with the miso and toubanjan and cook for a few more minutes. Add in the tofu and the eggs with some salt and pepper and cook until the eggs are done.

This dish shows off the versatility of spam, in its ability to tame a food as bitter as goya. Like it or hate it, but above all, respect the SPAM.

Note:
Due to the high sodium content of SPAM, I suggest going light on the salt. If you want to get seriously Okinawan, then you should eat this with a slowly stewed pig's foot (this is so f*cking delicious that all negative connotations of pig's feet will disappear once you eat it), grilled lobster and steak, a small, deep-fried red snapper without its filets (basically the head, bones, and tail), and some awamori, aged 20 years (100% kusu, of course!).

For more info on goya, and another goya champura recipe, check this page. Mmmmm... Goya Beer...

Genocide Cocktail

My sister Merin sent me this picture of a tank full of habu in awamori that she took while on vacation to Okinawa this weekend, in a place called Gyokusendo Kingdom Village. I wrote all about habushu and mamushizake in a previous post, and thought that they made this liquer with one snake per bottle, kind of like one worm per bottle of tequila. Sad, isn't it?

But let's end this post on a lighter note. Let's enjoy some potty humor, again thanks to my sister:

Okinawa is, indeed, a place full of wonder...

A Gaping, Unfilled Niche

There are a few things that I used to depend on for everyday cooking and I still use many of them over here, but I sorely miss Mexican food ingredients. I miss the abundance of tortillas, both flour and corn (I can get flour tortillas at Costco in Fukuoka periodically, but it is a pain in the ass). Good cheese is also hard to obtain, because it is prohibitively expensive (except for at Costco, once again). If you want cillantro, you must grow your own, and it will not survive the cold winter of Ubuyama without a heat source (you can obtain it at the Kuju Hana Koen, labeled as "italian parsely", as a potted plant). I also miss frijoles and canned chilli. These are the ingredients that helped to get me through college.

I was excited to find all of the components for making tacos, including cheap avocados, but there was one ingredient I couldn't find- tortillas. I tried eating the taco ingredients on top of rice, but rice sucks as a substitute. The only worse thing I can think of is putting the taco ingredients on a slice of toast! I was so disappointed that I thought about making my own tortillas, and found these instructions. Sorry, that's just too much work for something that I'm used to shelling out 39 cents out for, for a ten pack.

Maybe that's what made eating Mexican food so great when I came back home last Christmas. I love eating tacos, enchiladas, burritos, quesadillas, chimichangas, taquitos, nachos, and everything else that you can get at a taco truck, Tito's tacos, Alerto's, King Taco, and the other mexican restaraunts and taquerias that I remember.

I'm not sure about the rest of Japan, but Kyushu has almost no Mexican restaraunts that I know of, except for Plaza Del Sol in Kumamoto City. This place is pretty good, and the prices are reasonable, considering the rarity of many of the ingredients that they use. THey make decent tacos, burritos, nachos, and other dishes and the cooks are Mexican- again, something truly rare in Japan but not worth mentioning in California. One thing that did surprise me was their pickled vegetables (I forget what these are called in Spanish, help Dad!). The slices of carrots, jalapenos, and whole cloves of garlic are the best I have tasted anywhere.

If you are coming to Japan, and love Mexican food as much as I do I suggest you do two things:

1. Bring your own industrial sized bottle of El Tapatio (or Cholula for all of you rich people).
2. Eat AS MUCH Mexican food as you possibly can for the two weeks preceeding your departure.

Tienes Arroz, Bitch?

This thing made me want to put on a blindfold, spin around ten times, let the force guide my bat straight and true, and smash it open to get to the candy.

Lost Bread Topped With Fried Bananas

Everyone knows how to make French Toast, but I consider my version to be top shelf. My favorite thing about FT is that I almost always have the ingredients, and it is a quick meal. Try this version out:

Ingredients:
bread, left out from the night before or toasted to get rid of moisture
eggs
whipping cream
peach schnapps or kahlua
butter
bananas, sliced
maple syrup
sugar
confectioner's sugar
cinnamon

Directions:
Scramble the eggs and add some whipping cream. Also add peach schnapps or kahlua, sugar, and cinnamon. Dip the bread on both sides, allowing it to soak in the egg mixture. Fry on both sides with butter (this is important!) on medium heat (you want the sugar in the FT to brown nicely, but not to blacken- there is a thin line between carmelization and carbonization. if it starts to smoke, you've cooked it for too long or used too strong of a flame).

Next for the topping. Add a generous tab of butter to the pan, and keep the flame at medium high. Carmelize the banana slices on both sides, making sure not to burn them. If you do it just right, they should be a deep, crispy shade of brown and will taste awesome! Powder the FT with cinnamon and powdered sugar, hip up some fresh whipped cream and top the FT with it, along with the bananas and some maple syrup.

This recipe was inspired by my mother, who used to make fried bananas for me and my siblings when we were little, and who also stressed the importance of using butter to cook with. Olive and canola oil have their time and place, but using margerine or some other butter substitute is unacceptable. And don't get me started on the butter-flavored lipids that they squirt onto movie theatre popcorn! Margerine wasn't meant to be eaten in the first place- it was developed to be mixed with gasoline along with other components to make Napalm (I'm pretty sure, but I can't find any sources on the net). Mmmmm... Napalm...

Around Aso and Kuju

The view from the top of the caldera was unusually clear yesterday. In case you're up here, the rest stop on the 339 right before it T intersects with the 45 sells awesome takoyaki.

This waterfall can be found on the Oike pond hike, in Kuju. From Aso take the Yamanami highway (the 11) towards Beppu, and about 20 minutes after you pass Maki no To (the highest point on the Yamanami from which people start their ascent on Kuju), follow the signs towards Oike pond. The pheasants were out in the clear cut woods on the way there, an intense concentration of iridescent colors among the desolation.

I can't believe I screwed up so badly. I took so many good pictures at the Kuju Hana Koen, and then erased them all. I also highly suggest this place right now, as the summer flowers are in bloom. However, my favorite time to visit is in the Fall when the Cosmos are in bloom. To get there, take the Yamanami towards Beppu, and follow the 442 towards the flower park (take a right).

Nature Is Disgusting

Let's face it, nature is a dirty place, dirtier than places like the middle-class suburbs, but mostly cleaner than third world countries, slums, and shanty towns where the population's excrement co-mingles with their drinking water. Ah, the suburbanites have the luxury of crying about how tragic it is that their kids won't get to experience the outdoors, and make a contribution by joining the Sierra Club and making once-a-year donations to Greenpeace.

Get most of these people out into nature and enjoy the irony as it unfolds. They want the mountain lions, coyotes, and other wild animals out of their neighborhood at any cost after someone or someone's pet gets attacked, yet teach their kids the importance of biodiversity and of the humane treatment of cute and furry animals. They pay more for organically labeled food, and yet soak those irksome weeds with Round-Up, having no understanding of the consequences of toxic runoff that seeps into the water. They go outside and cover themselves in deet to keep away the insects (Nature bad!), bust out the bug spray when the ants come and raid the picnic, and plug in the bug zapper whose kill ratio is 5 mosquitoes to 95 of possibly beneficial insects. They make a huge fuss if there isn't a nearby flushing bathroom stocked with toilet paper, running water, and soap. Watch the honors students cry when you tell them that they have to go into the forest behind a tree, dig a hole with a branch and wipe with broad evergreen leaves (make sure to avoid plants with clusters of 3 leaves)! Now what do you think of composting on a personal level, kids? You know what the difference between a jungle and a rainforest is? Being there yourself burning the leaches off of your friend's private areas versus watching Steve Irwin getting attacked by wild animals on TV.

We like to pick and choose our nature, wanting to interact with the clean and cute stuff, while avoiding the stinky, disease ridden, ugly stuff. A butterfly is good, a bunch of mealworm-like caterpillars collectively excreting white threads out of its butt is bad.

Most of us like nature, but only at a distance.
We like our houses sterile, devoid of nature except for a few groomed plants and pets that we keep unnaturally clean. When nature comes creeping in, we swat it with a rolled up newspaper, suck it up, sweep it out, douse it with chemicals, make adjustments to the places from which we think it came more inaccessable, and wipe it down with bleach afterwards just to make sure that all traces are removed. Don't say that you wish that people were close to nature unless you fully understand what this means, and are willing to put up and move out to Walden pond. Chances are that you can't hack it, unless it's on the Discovery Channel.

Nature is disgusting. Sure there are beautiful things in nature, but to say that all things natural are beautiful is a dirty, rotten lie that is easily exposed. Have you ever watched a hippopotamus give birth on the National Geographic Channel, or scattering shit with its tail to spread its scent around? Have you watched a seagull eating an umbilical cord that was still attached to a newborn elephant seal crying out for its mother? Have you seen chimpanzees cannibalizing bastard infant chimpanzees to get rid of offspring that they know was fathered by another group of chimpanzees. Has a three inch long millipede with the girth the size of a roll of pennies ever died in your bathtub, hiding an egg cluster somewhere in the vicinity? Did the eggs start to a year ago, letting loose a few dozen mini-millipedes in your bathroom? Did they start to appear again a year later, even after you disinfected the whole bathroom several times since with cleaning agents and bleach? After the tree huggers get a little too close to the poison oak, they start to think more practically.

If you feel strongly about living in "true" harmony with nature, then you might as well back up your words through action. Don't throw away the moldy bread, let it grow and flourish, and to spread its spores among the other foods. Don't sweep out the dust or vacuum, as you will be upsetting the fragile habitat of the dustmite! Don't clean your toilet because the shit-spatters and pubic hair are a micro-ecosystem for coliform bacteria- a garden rich in microorganisms from your intestinal tract. Sure, if you do this then you might have the balance with nature that you wanted, but at what cost? You will be known as the smelly dirty hippie who never cleans his or her toilet.

Go/Roku Nensei Pets

Yoshihiro: Dad, do you remember that you said I could have a pet if I brought up my grades?

Yoshihiro's dad: Hmmmm... You have been getting good grades in school. I think you're ready for the responsibility. You can pick any cow you like. Toshiki, pass the steak would you?

Yoshihiro: Can I have the calf with the big eyes?

Yoshihiro's dad: Why not? What's her name?

Yoshihiro: Britney! She's so cute, just like my cow!

Yoshihiro's dad: Great Yoshi-kun, make sure Britney eats a lot every day, and don't make her get too much exercise. On another note, have you boys noticed that beef prices at an all time high, thanks to the BSE situation in America? We're going to Disneyland this Summer!

Yoshihiro: What's wrong Toshiki?

Toshiki: I can't find Mary. I looked everywhere, but she just isn't on the farm! It's all my fault dad. I lost her... forgive me!

Yoshihiro's dad: There, there son. I forgot to tell you that I had to send Mary away to Bovine University. You want her to be happy, right? Wow, this steak is awesome!

Toshiki: Yeah... I do, but I don't understand...

Yoshihiro's dad: Great! Glad that's settled. Yoshihiro, can you pass the A-1?

Welcome to Mindhead

Yikes! We got our drug education from DARE (at Courreges Elementary), who did a decent job of educating without too much propaganda. Do you remember seeing Dianetics...

Dianetics junior much better then Krishna,
Dianetics junior much better indeed,
And all you people there, your tremendous,
Except the people in the middle,
When you're toking up a big ass bowl of weed,with me, and KG
All Right! Oh Yeah! All Right! Oh my god!

Would all the ladies in the house say Yeah! (Yeah)
C'mon, all you motherfuckers say a prayer! (prayer)
Cause when you fight, you gotsta fight fair!
You mother fucker, huh? You mother fucker,
You know what time it is?

It's Tenacious D time you motherfucker blow!
Fuck yeah!
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

Dude, that was TNT...
(Tenacious D rules!)

...commercials on during Saturday morning cartoon breaks? The volcano spouting lava looked so cool, and the persuasive voice oozing the words "It will change your life forever!" almost made me want to read the book (I can't believe I can still remember this! is it a testament to their skills of persuasion?)! Good thing I was only 5 years old, and had to depend on my parents to read anything harder than Dr. Seuss out loud to me.

Keep it together, Kit... Keep it together! More info on Mindhead.

Higothai

This is the Higothai flower, the flower of Ubuyama village. As some of you may know I used to hate bees. They used to sting me quite often. even though I avoided them, they would regularly land on me and jab me with their stingers. One time, I had to take a Tae Kwon Do orange belt test even though I had been stung on the sole of my foot- I passed, but it hurt like hell. I have since overcome my fear, and so I was able to get really close to this one.

The Higothai is a symbol, representing the friendship that has been created between Ubuyama and Thailand, thanks to the bi-yearly exchange program at the Chugakko. Supposedly, Ubuyama is one of the few places where the Higothai grows. I think the Higothai is a pretty fitting symbol, as the Thai students' uniforms are a similar shade of purple.

This model of a Higothai is just so ugly, I had to take a picture. It looks like it could blow a hole in the side of a battleship.

Guardians of the 442 Gosen

This one looks like the golden idol that Indiana Jones steals in the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark. It looks like he's not happy about something.

Something tells me that that isn't a hatchet used for chopping wood. Dude looks ready for battle.

Ode To Inaka Ninniku

On a routine after-work drive, deep in the country I spotted an unattended shack with a sign that read "yasai (vegetables), 100 yen". Nestled among the daikon and shiitake mushrooms was a mesh bag containing two choice clusters of garlic. For some reason, the garlic caught my eye, and so I dropped my 100 yen coin into the rusted steel tea cannister (tink!) and drove away satisfied with my transaction.

This is the setup I'm talking about. These daikon (giant Japanese radish) are not only ridiculously cheap, but are also fresher than anything you will ever find in Jusco.

Where else in the world can you find high quality produce by the side of the road and buy it based on the honor system? If this was Orange County, or even Kumamoto City, the cash box would be stolen at the very least and the vegetables would be thrown at the passing traffic! When theft does occur out here it is a big deal like it should be, and the cops come out and spend much time and effort trying to do everything they can to help. Out here is one place where I don't harbor negative feelings about the police. It is in their best interest, as part of a tightly woven community of country folk, to do their best job and to be friendly. I understand why cops back home can be (and sometimes have to be) such assholes, but as a result I tend not to like them. It still makes me laugh when I remember going to Baja Fresh with Justin, hearing the worker ask the police officer "would you like beef or pig?" tacos.

Enough on cops, lets get back to garlic. This garlic that I bought was special. It was about the same price as garlic in the supermarket, but it was much superior. One thing that you can count on about country grown produce is that the farmers plant very good varieties because they are eating what they produce. Producing one's own food is such a foreign concept for many people living in places like the U.S. or in big cities, as we are all disconnected from where it comes from and how it is made. My neighbors grow all of their own rice, vegetables, and in some cases chicken, eggs, and meat that they need, and surplus. It is this surplus that they give to their friends, barter, or sell in the booths. So the garlic that I bought from the stall is the same variety that some country family is enjoying as well.

What strikes me about this garlic is that it is so powerful. When I chop up onions nowadays, it is rare for my eyes to water from the fumes. However, when I mince my garlic up into tiny cubes, my eyes sting and well up, despite me wearing glasses. It hurts, but I know that the pain is worth it. The flavor of the garlic is rich and strong and full bodied, but not in an overpoweringly stinky way. Maybe it's just a placebo, but I feel more healthy after consuming it. One more special thing about this garlic is that the skin peels away from the cloves without any fuss. Whoever developed this particular cultivar of garlic knew what they were doing, and did it well.

Talking about cultivars and heirloom species reminds me of listening to Professor David A. Cleveland from U.C.S.B. lecture about the effect of cultivated plants on society and the environment. Professor Cleveland regularly went all over the world deep into the countryside, where people had developed intimate relationships with the crops that they harvested, from Oaxaca, Mexico to Syria. He was quite passionate about the importance of preserving these cherished species not because he anthropomorphisized them in any way, but because these specific cultivars have very useful traits that have been engineered over thousands of years by farmers, specific to their locations and needs. Companies like Monsanto and other biotech firms go into the countryside and get samples of these plants, often giving nothing back to the farmers in return and exploiting this resource, making a huge profit. Why is this a big deal? Because the farmers in these areas are getting doubly screwed. It is because of the farmers and their ancestors that these strains exist, and it has taken them great time and effort to develop and maintain these. The cultivars and their DNA are rightfully the intelectual property of the farmers who developed them. In addition, these big companies sell the bioengineered strains to these farmers, driving many to develop a dependence on them. This leads many farmers to abandon the very crops that the engineered strains might have been developed from, since they tend to be high yield varieties that in the short term out perform the local crops.

The local cultivars are there for a good reason. They are ideally suited to that specific environment and that specific microclimate, and have allowed farmers to produce the maximum yield sustanably over an indefinite period of time. The strain of corn in one village might be completely different from the strain used the next village over due to subtle, yet important differences in hydrology, geology, temperature, or any number of variables.

With the adoption of commercial, all purpose seed, these cultivars are being lost. Unique, valuable genetic sequences that took countless generations to create vanish, all for the pursuit of maximizing profits in the short term (and creating a dependence based on petro-chemicals, depleting the soil, and creating other environmental and socioeconomic problems in the long run). One of the most tragic things about monoculture using the same seed is that it takes away the variety from food. Instead of countless choices, it all becomes the same. I find this loss of flavor, texture, and uniqueness to be truly disturbing.

Luckily, the fields in my neck of the woods are small, ununiform, and terraced. The farmers grow an assortment of different crops, and the people value their favorite strains of vegetables, fruits, and mushrooms. I mean, the farmers do depend on petro-chemicals to raise their crops and produce rice and other products for the mass market, but they also grow the old strains for their personal consumption. I am pretty sure that the future of the wonderful garlic that I ate will be safe in the hands of these country farmers, deep in the heart of Kyushu.

Unorthodox Wu-Shu

If a modern day Bruce steps forward to take up the challenge, a remake of Enter The Dragon is entirely possible with the help of Donald Rumsfeld (Thanks to Chris for the link) who will be cast as Han, the evil geriatric dude who makes life as a hand amputee look pretty cool with the interchangeable prosthetic hands of death. The part of Yang Sze (Bolo) is to be played by Bob Sapp, who claims "NFL" as his fighting style.

Not Too Shabby

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Ultraman Attack

Makiko, Waka, and Sayuki prepare to whoop some ass.

Violent Crime in Japan

Is there a higher rate of violent crime and crime in general in the United States than there is in Japan? Yes, I think that's a safe thing to say.

Japan is the model most often used by advocates of the prohibition of firearms. There is no private ownership of handguns, and among 120 million people there are only a little more than half a million privately owned long guns, including air rifles.

Japan's annual homicide rate has been progressively decreasing for a decade and now stands at 1.2 per 100,000. It is reported that 97% of murders are solved - the highest clearance rate in the world.

Japan is one of the most disciplined nations on earth, with an authoritarian and conformist culture that precludes large scale law-breaking. There are few constraints on police powers, especially with respect to search and seizure. Rates of crimes not usually associated with firearms - rape, mugging and assault, are the lowest in the world and are trifling by European and North American standards. Japanese do not kill each other in large numbers because they are, in all respects, extremely law-abiding people. Interestingly, the current Japanese suicide rate of 21 per 100,000 is double the Canadian rate and almost double the rate in the United States. (this study is from 1992)

Japanese frequently and fervently insist that the U.S. is much more dangerous than Japan, but this is almost always based upon what they hear on the news and the movies that they see. I try to explain that only the most sensational news makes international headlines, and that aside from certain locations, the U.S. is a pretty safe place, and some people understand this.

However, the average Japanese violent crime is a hell of a lot more scary than the average violent crime in America. Although the amounts of crimes in which people shoot each other is really low in Japan, a lot of people are slicing and stabbing their victims over here. It makes sense. If there are no guns to kill people with, then you are left with knives. It takes a different kind of killer to weild an edged weapon and to stab and slash someone to death. In comparison, it's pretty easy to kill with a gun. All you have to do is to aim and squeeze the trigger, and the bullet fills the gap between you and your target, driving itself into a body with its own momentum. If you stand far enough away, you won't get any blood on you. With a knife, it's always up close and personal and involves using muscle work and body movements to penetrate flesh (unless you are throwing it, but how many of us would throw a knife at someone we wanted to kill? if you miss, they could pick up the knife and stab you!). You are guarenteed to get blood on your hands. I imagine that killing up close leaves a greater impression on the murderer because it is an intimate act. The greater the physical distance from the victim, the greater the emotional distance can be.

Two days ago, a little girl in the sixth grade used a box cutter to murder a classmate at Okubo Elementary School (in Nagasaki-ken). Lets take a look at an article from the Daily Yomiuri (Thursday, June 3rd, 2004):

"I slashed at her after getting her to sit on a chair. I wanted to kill her," police sources quoted the girl as saying. According to Sasebo Police Station and the Sasebo Municipal Board of Education , the sixth-grade girl and Satomi Mitarai, the 12-year-old victim, liket to play with computers and frequently chatted with another friend on their own homepages. The alleged perpetrator also was quoted as telling the police, "Because her (Satomi's) attitude was cheeky, I called her (to a study room) and slashed her neck. The police are investigating what Satomi wrote to the alleged assailant on the Internet and their conversations before the attack.

She killed her classmate because she was being flamed (teased in a chatroom)! And this wasn't exactly a crime of passion. She planned it out, lured the girl into a room and had her sit down, clicked the box cutter blade out a few notches, and went for the neck! This evil act is so perverted, so unbelievable that it is hard to comprehend how someone, especially an 11 year old Japanese girl, could do it so casually. According to the article, she's pretty calm about the whole situation and doesn't seem to be exhibiting signs of remorse.

I remember my brother telling me about a case a few years back about a boy attending JHS in Kobe who cut off his friend's head and stuck it on a pole in front of the school (mentioned in this article). Seems like a story out of Lord of the Flies, with something far more scary than a pig's head impaled on a stick. So yes, the United States is a violent place compared to Japan, but I would argue that Japan's brand of violence is, on average, committed by a much more emotionally disturbed individual, as most of the attacks in Japan are done with knives (another article from today reported that a cleaver and hammer were found next to the corpses of two Japanese men yesterday) and other close quater weapons.

Battle Royale doesn't seem so much like fiction anymore.

Cynops pyrrhogaster

This is a Japanese Firebellied Newt that one of my students caught in the Tamarai River that runs next to my Chugakko. Yesterday, my JTE decided to have class outside, and to "wing it". As would be expected when kids are taken outdoors and there is no lesson plan, the kids didn't learn any English, but we had a great time playing in the river.

Supposedly the poison of this newt is not toxic to humans unless it gets into an open cut, but I'm not going to lick it and find out.

Little fishy. I was amazed to see one of my slower students in this environment, as he transformed into a master of this environment, captureing frogs, salamanders, fish, and other aquatic animals with ease. He has a different kind intelligence, unfortunately it is a kind that isn't very useful in the Japanese educational system.

Thanks, I think...

Today, I walked in to the lunch room and heard the nursery school teachers mumbling my name. They collectively looked up, all of them wearing the same conspiratorial grin and called me a "Casablanca dandy". Now what the hell does one make of that?

Game over man! Game over!

The only insects that I hate are those which suck my blood or are unreasonably agressive toward me. I will not hesitate to kill a mosquito or to crush a flea between my fingernails, but house centipedes test me on these self-imposed limits. Their grotesque body and movements fascinate me, but also give me a strong case of the goosebumps. The reason why I am so creeped out by these guys is that one of them crawled across my bare thigh about 2 years ago, and I can still remember that unpleasant sensation.

As I was preparing to take a shower, this thing shot out of the shadows and stopped in front of me. My first inpulse was to kill it, but I decided to guide it outside with a broom instead (with a can of insecticide close at hand in case things got ugly). This ugly bastard's body was about 2.5 inches long, but the antannae at each end (disgusting!) stretched it out to about 6 inches total. The way these things move is truly disturbing, evoking similar feeling to those I experience watching the bug-like creatures in Aliens try to face hump a victim and shove their ovipositor down the throat! Well, the shower has been running for 20 minutes now, so I guess I should stop acting like a wussy and just get it over with. I'm taking my spray can of DDT with me though.

Sannensei Text Bubbles

Today the chugakko third graders were given a picture of two OLs(office ladies) sitting together on a bench, eating lunch together and having a conversation. They were given 20 minutes to write dialogue and I was proud of what they were able to accomplish. Here are a couple of samples from class (No corrections have been made to the original works):

Talkin' Smack About the Boss

O.L. 1: I hear Kacho has only recently begun to losing hair.

O.L. 2: Really?

O.L. 1: Moreover he thinks he's cool. He's a fool.

O.L. 2: Oh, he's a narcist.

O.L. 1: Thats right. And yet his waif ran away!

O.L. 2: that's too bad.

O.L. 1: Oh Kacho is coming.

O.L. 2: Run Away!

Pig Woman

A: How are you?

B: I'm drunk and very dangerous now

A: What did you drink yesterday

B: I drank milk.

A: Are you crazy?

B: No. I'm usually not

A: OK. I know. So do you know pig

B: Yes. I am pig

A: Are you OK? Do you understand

B: No I am sleeping now. I solly

A: I don't want to talk to you anymore bye bye

B: Oh No woooooo

About Relationships

Fumi: Kazuki! How are you?

Kazuki: So so. Fumi! How about you?

Fumi: I'm sad. Because I had a fight with Yasuhiro

Kazuki: That's too bad. Why?

Fumi: Yasuhiro had an affair with Shunichi.

Kazuki: Oh! Fumi is poor.

Shitsukoi

A: I often catch my boyfriend.

B: This lunch is very delicious.

A: I often catch my boyfriend.

B: I have to go to work Bye!

A: I often catch my boyfriend. I must kill you.

Now that's what English class is all about...