If you really want to find out about incompetence look no father than the Tokyo train company JR. If your organization needs a little they have plenty to spare. Sorry I just got off the JR and my senses haven’t returned to me yet.
I had a discussion with my girlfriend about the JR but not about incompetence it was about train perverts. No, not me. The problem is that Tokyo trains can get crowded (understatements abound) and there’s allot of attention lately about the molestation of innocent women by perverts. The authorities have gone as far as implement women’s only subway cars to fight this trend. My girlfriend was telling me about witnessing an old pervert exposing himself to a young girl. He put his pecker away when he was aware that people knew what he was doing (I have to teach her how to hurt assholes like that). I have a suggestion for JR to improve the life’s of their passengers, the problem is that they’re a big company that only cares about profits. I will tell you my suggestion as I climb down from my soapbox. They should spend a little money and put small cameras in each car. Japanese people get very conscientious when they’re being watched. So if JR is listening I saw put up some monitoring and run a few extra trains to alleviate the crowding.
It SNOWED today in Tokyo. Haven’t seen much snow in Japan and with the city effects I don’t recall seeing snow last year at all. It’s 1:30 p.m. and all I see is a little dusting on the roof tops not enough to make a snowman but it still snowed. Always reminds of my childhood and wishing for a snowday (school canceled because of snow).
I went to see John Q. last Saturday night (12/7), opening night in Japan. The story was pretty good. It doesn’t hold a candle to Training Day (not many movies do) but it brings to mind the problems with the American health care system (which was the point the movie was making). If the topic of American health care comes up in conversations with Japanese friends I tell them “if you have the money, it’s the best health care in the world.” Sad but true in my experience. I believe that many places will leapfrog American medicine because of a lag in research.
This perceived lag could be attributed to the present right wing administration’s mentality that limits the use stem cells in research. Places like Singapore are on the cutting edge of stem cells research and if they haven’t already, they will pass American medicine soon. Japan is not very far behind in that regards also. Another point to make about Japan; like the US it has top notch medical care for people with the money to afford it but unlike the US it has good medical care if you don’t have the money. Japan has a socialized health care system, if you have a job you must pay into medical insurance. My last (present?) employer uses a foreign insurer, BUPA. I may have mentioned it before that I live with MS (Multiple Sclerosis), BUPA has a long list of illnesses they won’t cover and MS is on that list. The Japanese insurance system doesn’t have a list, if you pay you’re entitled and pre-existing condition don’t mean squat. In my previous job in Kyoto I used Japanese health care so I have a little first hand experience with Japanese insurance. I’m not going to sing on the mountain tops about Japanese hospitals but they’re there for the people. A lot more than I’m willing to say about American hospitals.
It has been reported that Japan is considering sending troop to a post war Iraq to get involved with the rebuilding of the country. I can’t help but wonder if war is a forgone conclusion. I realize that Saddam Hussain has a very tarnished reputation for truthfulness but aren’t there deadlines that must pass before a war starts? Even Bush’s language seems to suggest that war will start any day. I still see this as an attempt by Bush to divert attention from the ailing US economy (which may do better without the threat of war hanging in the air). Maybe this is all to save face for his father’s presidency.
I do not condone war and any action to support warmongers (Bush in this case) is tantamount to being a warmonger. If Japan wants to help the people on Iraq after the war send aid workers not troops.
I ordered the DVD “Totoro” from Amazon and received it in the mail very quickly (about 5 days to Tokyo with standard shipping). This is not to be a review of the film but a review of the DVD. Hayao Miyazaki directed this film and is one of my favorite directors. His other films include “Spirited Away” and “Princess Mononoke”, he creates magic on the screen for all ages (did I just say that?). This DVD is being reviewed because of the poor job they did in packaging the film.
Watching it you might think it was produced some American TV studio. It was done well enough for young children which I suppose was the goal, do it good enough for kids. Good enough should never be good enough for any age, in my honest opinion. Japanese anime is not generally produced for kids, although some are produced for kids and Miyazaki-san generally delivers to that audience but there still is something for adults in his movies. This DVD strips out everything for adults with the poor translation. Another thing this DVD did which made me angry was that they removed Japanese language content. Yes most Western kids (and adults) lack the Japanese language skills to take advantage of a Japanese soundtrack but dammit not all of them and it would have cost $ 0 to leave the original soundtrack in. I have removed this DVD from my Amazon sidebar and replaced it with the “Princess Mononoke” DVD which is very well done. I had ordered Totoro because I’m lazy and Amazon is so easy to go online and click a few mouse buttons to have it delivered. I’ve learned my lesson and I’ll take a trip downtown and buy the Japanese version.
Guess I pack this and send it back to the states for my young niece, I don’t want it.
Finished “Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates” by Tom Robbins, as read by Keith Szarabajka. I was amused by his tale, then again I’m always amused by books from Tom Robbins or maybe I’m just always amused. I consider Mr. Robbins’ past books to be a very inventive diversion with plots filled with spirituality and sexuality. This book isn’t as inventive as his previous books. For example, his previous stories involve a love story inside a pack of Camel cigarettes (”Still Life With Woodpecker”) or a buddy road book involving a can of beans and a dessert spoon (”Skinny Legs and All”, my favorite). No this book is relatively mundane with the only bit of strangeness is having a South American witch doctor whose head is shaped like a pyramid. I don’t know about you but I run into them all the time, a little annoying when they stop by for tea unannounced.
Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates
Tom Robbins
Read by Keith Szarabajka
May 29, 2001
I consider my past reviews to be very wishy-washy. Always trying to look at the positive side of the story. Maybe now my infatuation with my iPod has reached a more mature level, the gee wiz aspect may be gone (I still love the iPod). This review is going to cut to the meat of the bone (what does that expression mean?). I’m going to dissect this book until I get bored and find something else to do. I promise to leave no stone unturned except the really dirty ones. To express cliches that boldly go where no man has gone before.
First a comment on the reading of this book. I haven’t run into a professional reader in these audiobook that I haven’t liked, except Stephen King. Keith Szarabajka is no exception to this rule. A very smooth voice capable of doing the separate characters with ease and giving the impression that someone else is reading those parts. Keith Szarabajka was very easy and enjoyable to listen to, I’ll look for more from him. Back to the book.
Tom Robbins has been a favorite writer of mine for some time. I’ve read several of his books and never been disappointed. I take that back this book disappointed me some. I hated the end, he could have done so much more. The book is a treasure trove of quotes to plagiarize and I’ve taken to the notion that since I get around with a cane and will go to a wheelchair soon (because of my MS). I’ll get a tattoo on my forehead with the words “Fierce Invalid”, I just haven’t decided on the font yet. I’m sure someone will misread that to mean fierce invalid (the English language can be so confusing sometimes). The only problem with the quotes is that you can never remember one when you need it so I make them up all the time, you can quote me on that.
The story meanders though the event that lead to… That’s the problem with the book, you think it will lead to “The Answer” but just tries to clean up loose ends and have a happy ending, sounds like a TV sitcom (American and Japanese). True there are mentions of actions that don’t take place on Friends (or at least we never see the actions). True only the Simpsons would have a pyramid shape head promoting laughter as the key. But all in all Mr. Robbins has produced much better stories then this. Read if you’re bored or are a huge fan of Tom Robbins otherwise give it a miss.
What exactly is an encore? Websters define encore as, “a demand for repetition or reappearance made by an audience; also : a reappearance or additional performance in response to such a demand.” Maybe I’m getting confused by the word demand. The last 3 concerts I went to in Tokyo where: Garbage last year, Elvis Costello a few months back, and The Manhattan Transfer the other night. All the shows had very “staged” encores. Maybe the Japanese audience had something to do with it. What I’m trying to get at, if you give me a chance, is that they don’t turn on the lights so you can leave at the end of the last set. Not that I wanted to leave at the end of any of those shows but I realized that if I had wanted to leave it would have been difficult because of the dim lighting. They make the thinest pretense that the show is over, the audience claps, the band comes back on and does a song or two (Elvis did an extra half hour for the first encore). I thought to myself, “What if the audience didn’t applaud, would the band notice?”
