Snow in Japan

[Fattwins 0]

you shouldve bought 3 though that always helps plus someone like me most likely would buy the other one.

[Kumapix 0]

you've got to be right on it though. I saw it as soon as it turned and spazzed out trying to get an account created in time. I'm regretting now not having gone for a 3rd pair just for the car!

[Fattwins 0]

yeah todays gear is nothing that great. they will be asking you for card info dude if you just created an account.

[Kumapix 0]

don't really like the bottomless SAC. especially when they get stuck on something lame

 

FT there's also the moose jaw low down

http://www.moosejawlowdown.com/moosejaw/default.asp?s_id=3&

 

but it's not as good

[dizzy 0]

heartrate monitor on sandc right now, get 'em if u want em.

 

nice speech, FT. good message. Is the audience chuugakkusei? I haven't taught chuugakkkou in three years, but one suggestion: keep your sentences short.

 

I.E."There are a lot of people in the world, and of course, no one thinks the same all of the time."

I would change to:

There are many kinds of people in the world. (Pause, make eye contact w/ the audience, etc.) Of course, (pause) no one thinks the same all of the time."

If I understand it correctly, 3 nenseis barely know the relative pronoun ("that" or "which" clauses).

[dizzy 0]

let's double posting!

 

how was everyone's weekend? i had a good one at the beach. bp, we usually 5 2 ("go to")a secluded and less populated beach than Onjyuku Beach, which is close by. it's in Chiba. where's good over by you?

 

we were jumping off the pier. me in mid-air, doing a diving trick called a Ganor. equivalent to a backflip on a snowboard.

then other peeps started copying us. hilarious. well if those guys are jumping off the pier, then so can we!

[damian 0]

FT – I don’t know the context of your speech, but here are some comments:

 

>> This is not true stength this is selfish, sinfull behaviour.

 

I wouldn’t use the word sinful. Its not sinful from bin Laden perspective, nor GWB.

 

>> We all know that Japan launched a war once a long time ago

 

I would word that to be less accusatory.

 

>> Unfortuntaly it seems that article 9 will soon be re-written. The Japanese Self Defense Forces could become the Japanese army again. We must respect our nieghbours by living in peace. Living together in peace and trying to better understand each other is Japans True strength.

 

Perhaps try and build a clearer link between peaceful post war Japan and their successful popularity in the modern world. Focus on what they have achieved as a result of Japan’s true strength (using words from your text) “Living together in peace and trying to better understand each other” rather than through strength of arms.

[dizzy 0]

yeah, i agree with spud.

 

also, FT, i'd be careful with your wording:

"After the war Japan refelected and wrote article 9 into the Japanese constiution."

 

Use the passive voice:

"After the war, Article 9 was written into the Japanese constitution."

There can be factual debate about this b/c the U.S. wrote the Japanese Constitution, yet some people say certain Japanese officials at the time strongly asked for Article 9 to be PUT INTO the constitution at the time of writing.

[fb_steve 0]

Creek Boy, had a look at Don Det, definitely looks like the right place to be for that week. I know what you mean about spending time in Laos, everyone I speak to seems to love the place, I'm going to stay the maximum 30 days for sure. We're heading into Luang Nam Tha first (stopping at the 'Gibbon Experience' before), up to Muang Sing, down to Luang Prabang then alll the way down south via Vientiane. Maybe 2 weeks in Cambodia, probably more rushed. Then heading down to Tarutao Marine park in South-East Thailand for a couple of weeks at least. That part and Loas I'm looking forward to the most! Only 3 months to go!

 

How much longer have you got on your trip? I'd be keen to see the photos of the 4000 islands, or even a blog if you have one? I've found travel blogs to be really helpful in planning a trip.

 

Burma looks great hey. One day I'd like to get the the Mergui Archipelago just above the Thai borer. It's mostly off limits to tourists but looks like the most beautiful place on earth! I guess that might be the one pro of the junta if there was one.

 

Cheers!

[mattlucas 0]

And I'm online in my room now

 

 

Let's posting free links to good porn

[bushpig 0]

Dizzy, I have to make a trip up to Hamada in Shimane to get to the surf. Only about an hour and a half, but not really great surf. Only occasionally good(relatively). It's a minimum 5 hour drive to get to the Pacific side of Shikoku (Kochi) from here, so only do that sometimes for a camping trip.

[Fattwins 0]

where were you guys yesterday all day. the speech went out at 4pm to Nagano TV i think. considering the 8 pages of (insert negative adjective for bad english). This topic was not choosen by me. I found it rather dark, but heck look at the news over the past week.

war, war, plane crash, plane crash, possible child killer, terror, murder, theft specials on tv! wow i wonder why she choose such a dark topic?

[bushpig 0]

Sorry we weren't there to do your job for ya FT Was that a student's speech or did you have to make it on TV?

[eskimobasecamp 0]

did your junior high student actually write that? if so, amazing english - indeed the standards are higher than my school

however, the actual informative content of the final paragraph was a shocking example of historical misinterpretation and ehh what students are led to believe by the educators in the japanese school system. ask china and korea what they think of japan's 'true strength'. perhaps applicable to INSIDE japan, but not concerning it's international relations with it's neighbours. and yes, i'm not sure about japan reflecting, the US definitely wrote their consitution, esp the part about them having a SDF. nonetheless, fantastic english for a junior high student. she's not a member of the ski team i assume?

[soubriquet 0]

What leads you to believe the Chinese or Korean school systems are free from "historical misinterpretation"?

[eskimobasecamp 0]

What leads you to believe that's what i think, because that's not what i said, but from my experience here in the Japanese education system - there exists a fair amount of historical misinterpretation or bias, consequently permeating the Japanese mindset concerning, in particular the events of the war being mentioned by that student.

Do you think that "Living together in peace and trying to better understand each other..." is Japan's true strength? I'm quite sure the Chinese and Korean school systems are not free from "historical misinterpretation", since you bring it up though. What do you think on the matter? I just commented because the last paragraph made my eyes pop out, so to speak. The merit of the English, and not the content, if that is what is important here, is undeniable however.

[soubriquet 0]

I think the last paragraph is historically wrong, as well as fluffy wishful thinking. I'm not sure a JHS age student in the UK, USA or Oz would have come up with anything better, especially if written in Japanese.

 

"Do you think that "Living together in peace and trying to better understand each other..." is Japan's true strength?"

 

I think that's a pretty fair go. My limited experience in my little backwater is that society is inclusive and that people try to get along harmoniously. It's very different from the constant aggro and vandalism that I experienced in the UK and Oz. I have experienced first hand the consultation and consensus making process used to identify and solve problems, rather than the top down western command structures.

 

Japan's two most vocal critics are countries whose post-war political processes have been dominated by brutal military dictatorships. Page 1 paragraph 1 of the political manual states "find a scapegoat, preferably foreign, to distract the masses from the miseries you are visiting on them".

 

My father-out-law did his time as a conscript in Manchuria. Following the Soviet Union's unprovoked attack on Japan after the end of WW2, he was captured and spent 3 years in a Siberian slave camp. In this home, there is a very clear understanding of the events and crimes of WW2. Since then Japan has been at peace with the world. Its neighbours have not, but that never stops them ignoring the present reality in order to stir up past hatreds.

[Fattwins 0]

the girl in question wrote 6 pages 2.5 typed. which i then had to knock down to a 5 minutes or less speech. she had refences to yasukuni and other events but the speech had to be short. Her aim of the speech was to use the words true strength. the words were meant to say that people need to be tolerant, communicate better and to not use violence.

 

Its not really up for debate. this poor girl couldnt even debate what she has written.

 

Although i dont agree with the yasukuni visits Japan has apologized something like 5 times. At what point does it become when is enough.

 

My Japanese friends this summer said why do we have to keep visiting yasukuni and piss off china? They support the idea of the 14 war crimnals being de-enshrined. It is Japans faith though, shinto is older than most of our religions. Thats what it is really. Japan also has not made one aggresive act since the end of World War 2. They must be teaching the kids something then cause they dont tend to want to go to war unlike, other asian countries.

 

China killed more of their own people during the cultural revolution, but i doubt its written in their texts.

[bushpig 0]

The problem with the idea of de-enshrinement of the 14 though FT, is that the Officials of Yasukuni are vehemently against it. The shrine itself has a fairly obvious right-wing leaning and looks to gloss over a lot of Japanese wartime atrocity.

 

As for the apology issue, you need to take a look at just how those so-called apologies were made.One of the most famous ones was made by Tanaka Kakuei to Zhou Enlai back in 1972

when relations were restored. He said "meiwaku o kakemashita". Zhou reportedly said angrily that this was no more than what one says when one spills tea over a lady's dress. Yet Tanaka

probably felt he had made a sincere apology. The wordings of many of these apologies is what ires many of those countries that continue to carry their gripe with Japan. They are perceived as not quite saying enough, or being evasive in nature. The words we choose to express ourselves have a lot of influence on the meaning conveyed. I'm undecided on the issue myself FT, but it seems that it isn't as simple as "We have apologised 5 times so they should just shut-up!"

 

I came across an interesting thread on the Japan NBR forum site, which actually argues for the idea that Japan has indeed done enough. It is a post written by Jane Yamazaki, a university professor in Oakland, who has written a book on the issue. Have a look. It is an interesting read.

[soubriquet 0]

For anyone queasy about war criminals being buried in holy places, here are a couple of snippets from Wikipedia, about Richard I, coer de lion, King of England and Duke of Normanady.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_I_of_England

 

"When Richard was crowned King of England, he barred all Jews and women from the ceremony (this was apparently a concession to the fact that his coronation was not merely one of a king but of a crusader), but some Jewish leaders showed up anyway to present gifts for the new king. According to Ralph of Diceto, Richard's courtiers stripped and flogged the Jews, then flung them out of court. When a rumor spread that Richard had ordered all Jews to be killed, the people of London joined in to persecute the Jews, and a massacre began. Many Jews were beaten to death, robbed, and burnt alive. Many Jewish homes were burned down and several Jews were forcibly baptised. Some sought sanctuary in the Tower of London, and others managed to escape. Among those killed was Jacob of Orléans, widely regarded as one of the most learned of the age."

 

"Richard had kept two thousand seven hundred Muslim prisoners as hostages against Saladin fulfilling all the terms of the surrender of the lands around Acre. Philip, before leaving, had entrusted his own prisoners to Conrad, but Richard had forced him to hand them over to him. Richard feared his forces being bottled up in Acre, as he believed his campaign could not advance with the prisoners in train. In a fit of impatience and nervousness, he ordered all the prisoners killed."

 

"..However as soon as Richard died, with his 77-year-old mother Eleanor at his side, on 6 April 1199, Richard's most infamous mercenary captain Mercadier had Basile flayed alive and then hanged.

 

Richard's bowels were buried at the foot of the tower from which the shot was loosed, his heart was buried at Rouen, while the rest of his remains were buried next to his father at Fontevraud Abbey near Chinon and Saumur, France."

 

"This bronze equestrian statue of Richard I brandishing his sword by Carlo Marochetti stands outside the Palace of Westminster in London."

[bushpig 0]

War criminals being buried in holy places isn't the issue Soub. It's the fact that Koizumi worships at Yasukuni (for lack of a better word), in his official capacity as PM of Japan, paying respects to all those enshrined there including the 14 convicted of war crimes after WW2.

[Fattwins 0]

ok this is too deep for snow in japan. off topic it so i can ignore it.

[bushpig 0]

and on a lighter note...

 

How's this pussy?!!

[Rag-Doll 0]

Ol' Richie wasn't such a bad bloke, by the standards of the times:

 

"However other chroniclers such as Benedict of Peterborough tell a different story; the rioting was started by the jealous and bigoted citizens of London. Richard is said to have punished the perpetrators and allowed a forcibly converted Jew to return to Judaism. Archbishop of Canterbury Baldwin of Exeter reacted by remarking, "If the King is not God's man, he had better be the devil's," a reference to the supposedly infernal blood in the Angevin line.

 

In either case, realizing that the assaults could destabilize his realm at the time of his imminent departure for the Holy Land, Richard ordered the execution of those responsible for the most egregious murders and persecutions (most of those who were hanged were the rioters who had accidentally burnt down Christian homes). Further, he distributed a royal writ demanding that the Jews be left alone. However, the edict was loosely enforced, as the following March there was a renewed outbreak of violence, including a massacre at York."

 

 

The whole apology and yasukuni issue could have been managed a lot better than it has been. Whether that would stop the leadership of the PRC from banging the drum whenever they needed to get some leverage over Japan - who knows. It is funny how the fact that Japan has paid vast sums in war reparations doesn't get a lot of airplay in the PRC or that the protests seem to come and go at opportune times.

[bushpig 0]

As you said the issue could have been handled a lot better (on both sides). The issue of reparations is an old one RD. That was legally settled in the San Fransisco Peace treaty. The issue has never been about the reparations, but about the apology and sincerity of those apologizing. Propaganda is the name of the game on both sides now though.