Week of August 22nd, 2014

Hi.  In review of our visit to the States this summer, something has been weighing on my mind and feel I must speak out.  Fellas...clip your nose hair (and don't forget the ears too).  So many men I encountered over the break had copious amounts of nose hair protruding from their schnoz.  And it wasn't just a single wild hair, but big ol' clumps.  Several of the offenders were friends, and was faced with the dilemma of saying something and potentially hurting their feelings, or remaining silent.  If it were my oldest high school buddies, the ones where you can say anything to, and will tell you when you are acting ridiculous, then no problem.  I get it, we're getting older and this happens to the best of us, but it is so freaking gross and it scares little children.  So this is a call out to all you ladies/partners to say something to your man about it.  Am not recommending a full manscape as that's between you and him, and perhaps you like the unkept bear look, but for those parts that show to the world, do him a favor and gently suggest that he (and the rest of us) would be better off with a better grooming regimen.  For our first Christmas together as a couple, Betty and I had been "dating" for about 3 months, She gave me a nose hair clipper as my first gift.  Have been in love ever since.  Side note, I gave her a hand carved African chair we had admired on a trip to Ojai.  We still have both the chair and that clipper. 

On our way to the States this summer, we stopped in Japan for a few days.  Every stereotype I had heard of the Japanese was validated and will share a few today.  The first thing I noticed, and kept seeing throughout our stay, was how awesome the men's hair is.  Am a huge fan of theoretical physicist Michio Kaku both for his way of braking down high level concepts and his bitchin' locks.  I thought it was just a product of TV, but seeing the wide variety of cool hair-do's in Japan impressed.  I was expecting more of the same that I've seen of the Chinese, where the next good looking hair style on a dude will be the first one.  A racial traiin wreck.  Since their DNA evolved from the same origins, the difference between the Chinese and Japanese hair is quite mind boggling and begs for more research.

That's the dudes.  As for the ladies, on the whole, they were as attractive as one would expect.  For my money, I feel the Japanese women that are 2nd generation or more in the States are much cuter as they just look healthier.  A little color in their skin and muscle toned.  San Francisco is a great place for this bird watching as they seem to be everywhere.  In Japan, the desire to have the tofu skin color and slim bodies to signify not doing manual labor is similar to the Chinese attitude.  What really sets them apart however is the "Harajuku" girl look. 

Whenever we went to the areas considered hip, we'd see a variation of this look everywhere.  Last night, I was watching an episode of the Simpsons and Kent Brockman burst into Principal Skinner's office to confront him over something, and Skinner quickly turns off his computer.  Before it shuts off, you can see the site he was viewing...Japanese Girls with Animal Ears.  Funny cause it's true.


What's up with the gerbil holding an umbrella. 

A million variations of Cupie dool haircuts, short skirts with long patterned socks, and the animal ears.  The look that seems to be really hot (trendy and otherwise) is the schoolgirl.  Walked down a couple streets that were red lightish, and the big seller were the schoolgirl uniforms for adults.

Still kicking myself for not buying one of these for Betty and I.  Not sure if this trend is the idea of the men or women, but suspect it is what the men find sexy and the women doing what it takes to lure them in. 

A big story while we were there, and is a major issue for their culture, is the birth rate.  Japan currently has 127 million people and the average birth rate for a woman is currently 1.43 children (up from a low of 1.25).  I read that to sustain a population, an average birthrate of 2.1 children per woman is needed.  They estimate that at this rate, by 2050, the population in Japan will be down to 80 million.  Add the fact that the Japanese have the longest life expectancy in the world, and that means they will have a dwindling workforce to pay for an ever increasing retirement population.  With a smaller workforce, the need for most women to work is pressing, which doesn't help in promoting a big family.

The scandal while we were there, that was a story we sawon CNN International, came from the Tokyo City Council, where a female Council member was speaking to the chamber about this conflict and that women need help from the government with child care and fertility treatments.  As she is giving her speech, several male council members start heckling her with taunts of "Why aren't you married? and "Are you barren?"  If I was a Japanese woman, not sure how I'd feel about rushing to give these horrible dudes with the schoolgirl fetish a bunch of children. 

Another big roadblock to having families in Japan is the nature of their employment.  Traditionally, when you got a full time job with a Japanese company, it is for life.  This explains why some companies, most notably Sony, are seeing a stagnation of ideas that is leaving them behind.  I can remember a generation ago when having a Sony product was the best, but can you name the last time you even looked at one you would consider buying?  We went to the Sony superstore and didn't see a single thing that I would want or couldn't find a more attractive version being produced in Korea.   To confront this, the growth of "part time" jobs (in Japan, this means full time employment without the lifetime guarantee) has exploded to account for over 40% of the total jobs.  In studies, they have found that part time workers are 60% less likely to marry and start families.

With the Olympics coming to Tokyo in 2020, there are huge construction projects that are pending, but they have a huge shortage of the type of manual labor needed to complete them.  There is all kinds of debate about how to fill this need with migrant workers (from the Phillipines naturally) in a way that they can bring them in but ensure that they leave at the end of the deal.  If the United States is the worlds melting pot, then Japan is the polar opposite.  The passion they have for keeping the Japanese blood pure overrides all other needs.  Quite amazing.

Another amazing thing the Japanese do are toilets.  You know the ones that have heated seats and warm/cool water spray jets for those hard to reach spots.

Oscillation was my favorite setting.

In the rest of the world, you'll run across one in a fancy hotel room, but that's about it.  In Japan, they are everywhere...Starbucks, the public restrooms at a Temple, you name it.  In the bathroom in our Tokyo hotel lobby, in the stalls in the mens room, when you open the door, the lid would automatically rise up as if to say "Welcome" or "Feed me".  If they could figure out a device that would actually wipe your bottom, you could get through the whole procedure without touching yourself.  Am sure some of their best minds are on the case. 

Probably the single most impressive thing about Japan are the trains.  Had heard about how great the bullet trains were, but they exceeded all expectations.  Immaculately clean and incredibly punctual, just a dream.  And not only was it just the bullet trains, but the metro systems in each city were extensive, clean and simple to use.  On the Tokyo metro, had heard the stories about them having people that were paid to help stuff passengers into overcrowded cars, but we only had one ride (Friday rush hour) where we got crammed in.  Otherwise, our rides were like this...

In Hiroshima, they went out to other cities that were getting rid of their vintage streetcars, refurbished them and use them all over the city.

Inspirational.

Finally for today, a thing that visitors to Japan warned us about was people smoking everywhere.  Not sure about the past (and can imagine it being bad as there were these vending machines everywhere),

but the Japanese seem to have made efforts to keep it out of public areas.  There are "No Smoking" signs everywhere and they were well observed.  They create zones up alleys and other hidden spots for people to smoke.  At the Yasukini Shrine (where all of their dead soldiers ashes are interned, including several of the worst WWII war criminals and where the Koreans and Chinese flip-out when Japanese politicians go to pay their respects) was my favorite smoking spot.

All in all, the Japanese are well behaved and considerate, creating a society that works extremely well, but there is undercurrent of repressed sexuality and xenophobia that is lying just below the surface that is hard to ignore.

Anyhoo, have a lot more to share on Japan and will do the travelogue thing later.  Am going to make an effort to keep up this diary weekly this year and we'll see how it goes.  I will be taking a break next week as we cashed in some Delta miles and will be making a rock pilgrimage to Seattle for Bumbershoot.  Drop me a line if you're going and/or you have any suggestions on who to see.