The One Where Jax Becomes a Dissident

日本語版を後で加えますけど、英語が分かる方、是非したのリンクをクリックしてみてください。Petition.
This is a subject I've been wanting to rant about for a couple of weeks, but right now I don't have the time. Japan has recently put into effect a law, supposedly to combat terrorism, which means that all foreigners, irrespective of visa status, must be photographed and fingerprinted, every time we enter the country. I still don't have the time to do it justice, but in the meantime, today's "Blog of Note" seems to have given a good rant in my place.
If you even care about my human rights, have a look at this: Vegetable Japan. Sign the petition too if you care enough. Maybe it will make no difference, but it is always the apathy that lets the people like the authors of these laws win. You can sign anonymously and it's free. there is a request for a donation to the website, but you can skip it.
I will probably add my own rant at some point, and my opinions may differ from that blog author's (I haven't had time to read all of it in detail), but would be very interested to hear what people think about it, and grateful if people who are not necessarily foreign residents in Japan would add their support and comments to the petition. I think Japanese people who are not directly affected, are the ones who need to stand up and be counted, as it's YOUR country which is the lesser for this blatantly discriminatory law.
I am a law abiding, tax paying citizen of this country. I advocate no law breaking. I do not see how my race, or nationality makes me more likely to be a terrorist, than say Shoko Asahara, who was, I believe, Japanese, born and bred. My daughter will now have to watch her mother being fingerprinted like a criminal every time we come back from visiting her relatives and friends in Scotland. What effect - even if only subliminal- will that have on the way she sees them and me?
America does it too? Well if two wrongs making a right is an adult argument, knock yourself out....

I just hope that my registering a negative comment about this law, will not be used against me or my family or friends at a later date, if Japan continues to slide down this slippery slope of institutionalized xenophobia like other infamous regimes have in the past.

Deep and Meaningful....?

Borrowed from an online Linguistics 1 course whose author was not obvious. I would have accredited him.

Been reflecting recently, which is not always a good thing; about how we get impressions of people and make value judgements about them, based on messages visual, vocal or subliminal, that they never meant to send. We all do it, and it can't be helped, we can only interpret things through our own experiential filters, if you like. Sad though, that so many of these mixed messages and miscommunications lead to concrete troubles and real anguish and pain everyday. When I see my friends misunderstanding each other, I always feel saddened, and, more often than not to my own disadvantage, find myself trying to interpret between them to make it all better. Of course this generally ends in making the situation worse, but I seem to be pre-programmed to try. Comes from a basic naive wish that we could just all get along with and tolerate each other, which would of course then lead to world peace! Simple as that! Has no-one realised???
Which then of course leads you to start wondering what impression others have of you.....But if I start going down that path, my fragile psyche might never recover, so I'll just assume everyone knows and loves me for the great specimen of humanity that I know I am (!?!).

Anyway, Blogger (who host this blog) have come up with a "Blogs of Note" widget you can put on your iGoogle personalized homepage, and it gives you their selection for the blog of the day. I personally have no time for surfing the internet, but as a serial blogger myself, I am interested in what's out there. So, much in the same way that a CD shop freaks out the music lover in me with its infinite choices, making me the queen of the "Greatest Hits" compilations; I am happy to be spoonfed one blog a day. There really are some weird and wonderful people out there, doing strange and creative stuff. Yesterday's blog Attitude of Gratitude is by a recovering alcoholic artist. I like his art. He waxes lyrical quite a bit, but I saw a couple of quotes which speak to my present state of mind there, so I'll share them with you:

If you were walking back from a well, carrying a bucket of water & someone jostled you, there could be spilled from the bucket only that which it contained. As you walk along the way of life, people are constantly bumping into you. If your heart is full of ill nature, bad temper, and ugly disposition, only those things will be spilled from it. On the other hand, if it is full of love, you will spill a smile or pleasant remark. You can spill from your bucket only that which it contains. ~Author Unknown


Always know that what other people think of you is their own concern, not yours. Do what you know is right, and fully accept that others will think what they will think. Certainly it is valuable to make a good impression. Keep in mind, though, that the best way to make a good impression is not to worry endlessly about what others think. The way to make the best impression is to be authentic. Allow the goodness that is within you to shine through your genuine courtesy, kindness, respect and consideration. By caring so much about receiving validation from others, you prevent yourself from getting it. Instead, share your real value with those around you and that value will be clear for all to see. Don't waste your time and effort keeping up appearances. Put your attention and energy into real solid substance, and your appearance will take care of itself. The more you strive to make a good impression, the less successful you'll be at doing so. Just relax and be yourself, and you'll be truly and authentically impressive. ~Ralph Marston

This is kind of how I feel. It's a bonus if it comes across that way. It really is all about communication, folks.

I'll give the last word to Robert Burns:

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us
An foolish notion:
What airs in dress an gait wad lea'es us,
An ev'n devotion!

From Burns' “To a Louse”

Winter is Upon Us 冬が着た

My trusty Prius told me it was 8 degrees on the bypass this morning. The news said 4. Anyway it was bloody freezing! I'll need to start wearing socks!
プリウスちゃんが今朝この情報を伝えてくれた。寒かったよ！靴下を今日からはこうかな。

Festivals and Lights

We went to the Ebisuko festival in town with Uncle E and I-kun on Sunday night.
日曜日にUncle EとIくんとえびすこう祭りに行ってきた。


By chance we met E-chan there and we all watched the taiko together.
偶然Eちゃんに出会って、皆で和太鼓の演奏をみた。


We got a chance to try as well!
私たちも叩いてみるチャンスがあった。


Then we went on to the shrine. Everyone buys these "komazarae" and has them blessed so they can prosper in the coming year. Mummy said we better get one to make sure we ca pay my school fees next year!

皆この「こまざらえ」を買って、神社に持って行って、来年金運がいいように祈ります。来年の私の学費も払えるように、私たちも買って、お参りしたよ！

Then we headed off to look at the illuminations in Hondori before going home very late!


そしてイリューミネーションを見て、かなり遅く帰りました。


楽しかった！


I had a busy but great day!

Miyajima Again

We took some rare family time and headed out to Miyajima on Saturday morning to have another go at checking out the Autumn maple foliage.
家族でもう紅葉を探しに、宮島に再び行きました。

Most people seem to be looking for this total scarlet effect, which the weather seems to be conspiring against this year
今年の天気の影響で、ほとんどの人が求めるこのもみじの真っ赤なイメージが長持ちしそうもないけど
I kind of prefer the effect of the contrast of the different Autumn shades we could see on Saturday anyway.
私は実はこの間見えた秋らしいいろどりの方が好きだと思う。


This was just a cool tree we passed!

このカッコいい木を通り過ぎた。

The leaves are actually beginning to fall so it was a good day to go really.
葉っぱは落ち始めているから、行くタイミングはよかったかも。

Weechan rushed off by herself to pray at this shrine. When we asked her what she prayed for : "To get taller soon!"
Weechanが一人でこの小さい神社でお参りしてくるって言った。何を祈った、と聞くと：「早く大きくなりますように」だって。

おみくじをとったら、「末吉」だったから結んで帰った。
She took a fortune paper, but it wasn't a very lucky one, so she tied it up to keep the bad luck in the shrine.

We took a few family shots.
家族写真を撮って



Weechan took this one!　Weechanがこの２ショットを撮った！

Then went for green tea and momiji manju before heading home.
そしてお抹茶ともみじ饅頭を食べて帰った。


What a perfect morning!
完璧！

Long Time No See 久しぶりの公園

I went round to my friend E-chan's house after school last Thursday, which was great for 2 reasons.
木曜日の放課後に友達のEちゃんのところに行ってきた。２つの理由でうれしかった。


１）久しぶりにEちゃんと遊べた。Eちゃんが大好き！
1) I got to play with E for the first time in ages. I love E!


2) I got to go and play in the park! Yeah!
２）久しぶりに公園に遊びに行けた！やった！

Autumn 秋

It's Autumn at the bus stop.
バス停で秋

The fallen leaves are an attractive prospect for some.
落ち葉を見たら、遊びたくなる人が多い。

This cutie appeared before M's bus.
この可愛い人がMのバスが来る前にきた。


But out of deference to the woman who's just cleared the park we didn't dive in.
でも葉っぱを集めたおばあちゃんが頑張ったから山に飛び込まなかったよ。

Remember Remember .....

Remember remember the 5th of November
Gunpowder treason and plot
I see no reason why gunpowder season
Should ever be forgot

Does this Guy look a bit worried?

この人は心配していると思う？

Well he should, as this was his fate moments later at the school bonfire night the other Friday.


多分そうだと思う。数分後に、学校のBonfire Nightでこの運命に会ったから。。。

All the kids enjoyed the bonfire, but found it hard to grasp why we would want to burn a human effigy. I suppose this is a particularly strange custom that we Brits have. Because Guy Fawkes Night happens to fall on my birthday, I have only good memories tied up with it (in fact as its the first time I've been to a Bonfire Night since I came to Japan, I think I was more excited than the kids!), but it's only when you try to explain it to people from elsewhere, that you see the gruesome side.

子供たちは皆楽しんでいたけど、なんで人間の形した人形を燃やすのか、ちょっと理解できなかったね。確かにこれはイギリスのお祭りの中で、特に変わった行事かもしれない。このガイフォークス記念日は偶然私の誕生日と重なるから、いい思い出しかない。実は日本に来て初めてのボンファイヤーナイトに参加が出来て、私は子供たちよりもドキドキしていたかも。でも他国の人にこの習慣を説明しようとすると、残酷なところが見えてくるね。


Even after I'd tried to explain the history of it to one of Weechan's classmates, she was really sad: " Yes, I understand all that about long ago, but that dolly didn't do anything wrong, why are we burning him? What a shame!"

習慣の歴史を茉利のクラスメートの一人に説明しても、「うん、昔のことは分かったんだけど、あの人形は何も悪いことをしてないでしょう。なんで燃やすの？可愛そうよ！！」と寂しがっていた。

But then there was also a large pile of fallen autumn leaves to add to the fun and take our minds off it!


だけど近くの落ち葉の山を見つけてから、すぐ寂しいことを忘れた！


楽しいね！　What great fun!


And then of course there were the fireworks!

そしてもちろん最後に花火があった！

The PTA made great food which we all enjoyed around the fire. A great nostalgic night for Mummy and a good new experience for M!

PTAがおいしいカレーを作った。ファイヤーを見ながら外で食べた。Mummyにとって、懐かしい一晩だったし、Mにとってとても楽しい初経験でした。

John Rebus RIP?

I always feel a bit bereft when I get to the end of a good story. You feel you've gotten to know the characters, and it's like someone has left you forever. This feeling is compounded today, as I have finished what is reported to be the last in a series of books I've read all of over the past few years. I met John Rebus when my best friends sent me all the available paperbacks in the series at that point for my birthday a few years back. Once again, they prove they know me well.
Living in a foreign country sometimes means your sense of cultural self is diluted in the process of making yourself understood to the people around you. Possibly especially when you come from Fife!! Ian Rankin was born just up the road from where I was born, and only a few years before me. His main character, like him, was born in Cardenden, a town where I briefly ran a Highland Dress hire shop before I headed out to Japan. I spent my university days in Edinburgh, the scene of his crimes, studying Goethe and his peers in the original. I don't know if Ian Rankin will ever be spoken of with hindsight in the same terms as they are now . Mystery writing I fear will always suffer the same fate as Comedy at the Oscars - somehow the lower class cousin, not fit to be talked about in the same conversation- although I believe it takes a special kind of genius to do both well. I do think that particularly the later installments in the Rebus series are extremely well written, but the reason that these books speak to me is more personal.
From the very first one, these books took me home for a while. I might be wandering round temples and shrines in crimson Autumn foliage, eating freshly steamed rice with chopsticks, sleeping on grassy smelling tatami mats, and standing in front of sailor suited raven haired girls in reality, but when I picked up one of these books, I was back in Auld Reekie, among my ain folk.
I know the people Rankin describes. People like Begbie in Trainspotting are realistic to me, they were around, but I actually can put names to people in my childhood who are like the people in the Rebus books. Never mind having walked (and staggered some of) the streets he names. Not just the main characters of the plot, but the incidental people who decorate the narrative. He quite literally speaks to me in my own language, and as a Scot and a Fifer, you find yourself laughing out loud at the dry humorous insults that abound, knowing that only we Scots could know that it is in fact funny.

Rebus sees his ghosts, and thinks of the what ifs throughout the novels. They make me see mine too. Not the least of whom is my father. He had a dry oneliner for every occasion, as well as a penchant for meeting "men about dogs" in sometimes less than salubrious drinking establishments (!). His life as a musician let him see Rankin's "underworld" as his "day job" as a engineer let him see the "overworld" too. He didn't feel the need to share his every emotion with the world, preferring to deflect anything too serious with irony, a "smairt" comment and a wry smirk. I imagine his reaction to the smoking ban in Scotland would have been expressed concisely with two fingers.
Not Rebus personified, by any means, but a particular kind of unpretentious Scotsman, of the last generation, who is definitely brought back to life for me by the little remarks and idiosyncracies of all the "old timers" Rebus meets on his travels. The love of music which illustrates the books, though a different genre to my Dad's, adds to the feel. There's a phrase in Scotland "Aye, ah kent yer faither" (I knew your father), which means more than that, but is hard to explain. It has something to do with community. I get a feeling Rankin really does know mine. I feel like I'm back in that community reading the books. Rebus is younger than my Dad would have been, but more important than how my Dad actually was, is that Rankin probably saw men like him from the same generational perspective as I saw my Dad.

My Mum sent me the last book "Exit Music" for my birthday. Although Rebus has been getting older at a fast pace, and it should have been obvious even from the last installment, my life has not allowed for much reading time lately, so I was shocked and apprehensive when I saw the title. In case you're going to read it, I'll give away no more. Suffice it to say though, that I flicked the few blank pages at the end of the book over in denial. Is that really it?
Common sense says "oh please! It's just a novel", and maybe I'm getting a bit dramatic, maybe it's hormones, no wine tonight honest! But I do feel bereft, like a window on my homeland has been closed, if only coz it reminds me that I miss my Dad too.....
I hope Ian comes up with something to cheer me up soon. Maybe a wee story about a girl with a dodgy perm who used to work in a kilt shop.......no, not that interesting....
Anyway, if you think Scotland's all castles, whisky, mountains and sheep, read some of the Rebus books. You might find out what we really do with our castles, whisky and sheep!

Free Rice

A friend told me about this this morning. If you are a word freak like me, have a look, indulge your freakishness and do some good at the same time!
It took me about 40 mins to donate 2000 grains of rice, and the highest level I reached was 49!

http://www.freerice.com

Billy's Bootcamp

Mother bought it- someone should actually do it......
お母さんがせっかく買った。。。だれかが使ってみたらいいじゃない？

MIyajima

On beautiful nights like this , it's nice to live so close to such beautiful and peaceful place. we popped by after school on Wednesday.
秋の夕方。こういう時、宮島の近くに住んでいて、いいね、と思う。放課後にちょっとでも行ってくるとほっとする！