I went to my office in Gaienmae

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and while on break, I walked toward the police box in Omotesando. There, while standing near two chatting, giggling school girls, I saw a man wearing a trench coat and speaking on a cell phone while standing in front of the building with a mural of children and an umbrella with a hole in it who was looking at me. I returned to the office without learning whether the man who was wearing a trench coat and speaking on a cell phone while standing in front of the building with a mural of children and an umbrella with a hole in it and looking at me was a secret agent or not.

'Mericans git edumacated on the East

©2013 Love Tokyo. All rights reserved

It was a normal winter Sunday in Edo. A clear day with a bit of a cold wind blowing. But only cold if one considers 46 degrees at 9:30am cold. I didn't use to, but now, having forgotten what a real winter is, I do.

I was on the train to Shibuya, listening to the usual autumn through March sniffling from colds. There were the light little feminine "sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff, sniffs" which were usually done by women. These were often drowned out by the more manly "snort, sniff, sniff, sniff, snort" which were most often done by men. Occasionally enough to add a slow beat, was the deep nose, head, and lung clearing "SNNN.....OOOOOOO....RRRR....TTTTTT!!!!!!!!" that's always done by men. I hope.

Although the Sniffing Symphony was keeping a nice, steady, never pausing rhythm, for some odd reason I decided to get off 2 stations early at Nakameguro and walk to Shibuya from there.

During my stroll, I recalled a recent article I had read in the Washington Post about some US English teacher employed by a local school in Okinawa who had gotten in a bit of trouble with the 2-chan folk. Seems he posted a video about a class discussion about racism he had with his young students at the school. According to the article, his vice-principle thought the class was a good thing, until the nice 2-chan people convinced him and the school otherwise.

Well, this was no shock to me of course, for it is normal in Japan for nails that stick up to get banged down. Most especially if the nail is not critical of everything Chinese, Korean, liberal, or moderate. Come to think of it, I couldn't remember the last time some left-wing group gathered around a conservative's house with trucks and loudspeakers.

The surprise to me was that upon reading the comments, I found that Americans---here I am speaking of folks from the US---have become so knowledgeable able things Japanese. Why it wasn't long ago that people knew nothing about this poorly understood, mysterious extremely-well researched country. Must have been something to do with Zen.

Some of those folks seemed to know the Japanese school system in unusual detail---even more detail than the US system they had gone through. Not only that, they were very forceful, even strident, in their opinions.  One was so enthusiastic that he explained the staunchly conservative Japan view of the reason for Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. Another, so overcome with emotion at the idea that a foreign guest of Japan had made critical comments about the country, that he even began to attack his own countrymen as "ignorant, arrogant Americans."

I must say it's about time. For the last few years I have watched Americans, especially those in smaller towns in the midwest with nice average names like Richard in Cedar Falls, John in Skunk Hollar, and so forth, surprise me with detailed knowledge about China. Now we have folks, though with cuter names like NEMO, with detailed knowledge of Japan. They must have gone to similar, but opposing schools, for although they generally tend to dislike America (and thus themselves?) they dislike each others' favorite foreign country even more.

Well, I finally got to Shibuya about 30 minutes later, had lunch, dropped into the Tower Record bookstore, took some photos, then went back to the station to head home. I was pleased to see it was quiet in front of Shibuya station today, since the beer-bellied ojiisans who often shout at NHK for its near traitorous support of Korea had apparently chosen not to do so today.

Japan is not lovable, but it is supremely interesting. 

A quote by Donald Richie who died this week. One of the best western writers on Japan in modern times. RIP Donald.

Love Tokyo

©2013 Love Tokyo. All rights reserved.

Back in December, as I sat at my overpriced Ikea genuine pine desk in my over-priced study in really overpriced Denenchofu listening to Christmas carols (no, not that shyt that Starbucks tortures its victims with), I remembered that this was my 13th straight Christmas in Ol' Edo. And counting the Christmases I spent here on trips to visit my wife when we were living separated by the Pacific, and the year I spent in Toyama in '92, it's my 16th or 17th.  I asked myself, what the heck am I still doing here?

Well, I suppose I would ask that if I were still in the place I loved without question---Montana. I suppose most everyone asks that question of themselves sooner or later. And I suppose like most, I can't answer that in a simple way.

Do I love Tokyo. Yes, I love, or at least very,very much enjoy living in one of the world's great cities (it ain't really a city, though, it's a prefecture) in one of the world's great civilizations.

However, I am no longer a bedazzled tourist, a naive newcomer, nor am I a Japan-as-ideal-other fantasizer. I gotta live in the real Japan. When I can't, my friends who happen to have been born here and lived here most, if not all, of their lives set me straight, for they know that Japan is not some Zen fantasy-world where everything is perfect or nearly so. They also know, of course, that Japan (seems most everyone thinks of Tokyo as Japan, though it isn't) is not some economically depressed nightmare where everyone has given up hope. Japan---err, Tokyo---is like most other modern, developed countries and major cities.

Back in the day before Twitter killed blogging (Who wants to read and write paragraph long blogs?), I wrote a mostly political blog. Often I was very critical of the policies of the then and now government and the self-muzzled media. Well, that got old. I ain't gonna change anything, and it irritated the Japan-as-the-ideal-other crowd and gave erections of irritation to the wonderfully polite, open and honest 2-chan crowd. I shall try to avoid that this time and do posts of wonderfully non-political blogs. Anyway, to paraphrase our current gov't (which used to be our past government) politics, like history, is a domestic issue. So as a permanent resident and a US citizen who pay taxes twice to provide US security to Japan (and myself) I shall pretend I should have no say in the issue.

Unfortunately for the planet, more to come...