Check out this article in the Guardian: Japan's asbestos time bomb

This is a HUGE problem on my island. Before they built the longest, tallest, and most expensive suspension bridge in the world between Awaji Island and Kobe, the only way to cross was by ferry. Hundreds of ferry boats operated by several companies made the trip between the island and the mainland (mainly Kobe and Osaka) every day. Of course, the bridge eventually killed this industry, and predictably, left thousands of locals without jobs.

My company employs several of those ex-ferry workers. In fact, the guy who sits right next to me is one of them, and he is talking about going in for tests not covered by our yearly physical because his wife is worried sick. You see, his job on the ferry often consisted of tying down stuff with lines, and the ropes they used were apparently partially made of thickly braided asbestos strands. They used the same type of ropes right up until the ferry company went out of business.... There's not much you can say to someone after they tell you something like that, is there?

Well, I gave him an apple I picked up in the cafeteria today and told him that in the states, we say it "keeps the doctor away."

The poor bastard grinned at me, then ate the whole thing, core and seeds and all. He is just living day-to-day and hoping for the best, I guess.

What the fuck else can he do?

I totally scored an out-of-print DVD box set of the entire Tantei Monogatari (Detective Story) series on Yahoo Auctions last night! This was a very famous TV series in Japan and is virtually unknown overseas; the same goes for the star of the show, Yusaku Matsuda (best known overseas as the character Sato in the movie Black Rain).

He was the shit back in those days, and his popularity hasn't waned a bit over the years. I take pride in being his greatest gaijin fan - only a real fan would consider a 300 dollar DVD box set a real bargain, figuring, you know, that it's an investment.

This new box size from DHL isn't half as funny in English as it is in Japanese (junior = penis). I've always wondered if the reason Carl's Jr. went out of business here was that people weren't so keen on eating some gaijin's dick with the whole family.

These long, dreary trips out to factories way out in the country - I will not miss them.

When you leave the concrete landscapes of urban sprawl and start seeing more trees than cars, you know you have left the embrace of modern Japan. Strange things start occuring to you in the sweltering heat of an uncontrolled climate, as the lush green of summer passes by.

Perhaps the majority of Japanese will die never having peed in the woods.

Most have never camped outside for free, or without being in close proximity of the car they came in.

Surely, none would know how to wage a guerilla war from the forest and fire an M-60 one-handed like John Rambo.

Like I said, the heat gets to you. But the reason I will not miss these trips out to factories in the sticks is not really the locales persay, it's the people who work in them. You see, it's my own private theory that for the vast majority of Japanese people, happiness can be directly calculated from the concentration of convenience stores, train stations, and pachinko parlors in their proximity. Remove just one of these factors from the equation, and you are tempting fate.

It's like the triangle theory of efficient kitchen design - you want the sink, the stove, and the refrigerator positioned equidistantly.

Anyway, factories are usually located out in the boonies, and the ones I visit are no exception. The workers live close by in dorms or cheap apartments (that they jokingly refer to as "log mansions"), and you can tell there is a serious lack of the Golden Three, as mentioned above, because everyone looks seriously brain dead, and zombified, and honestly, just plain uninterested in living much longer.

In Japan, it is very hard working with brain dead zombies who have lost the will to live in the sweltering heat of pre-summer.

That is all.