White Day

Today (March 14th) is White Day in Japan. It is the other 1/2 of Valentine's Day. Here, women give men presents on Valentine's Day and men reciprocate on White Day. I like that better; that way clueless men like me know what to get instead of buying something too big which makes her feel badly or too small which makes her angry. That is probably one reason why Christmas gifts can be so anxiety inducing -- trying to figure out the appropriate amount you should spend on a gift (or whether to get a gift at all!).

More on Green Japan

Three more pieces of evidence that Japan is much more environmentally conscience than the U.S.:
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1. There is a very cool, new, innovative electricity generator already in use at a train station here which produces energy from people walking across a plate as they enter the station! It's absolutely ingenious. I wish I had thought of it. Maybe if the U.S. government (i.e. Bush) would stop denying global warming and dragging his feet on solutions, U.S. companies would be doing the innovation.

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2. Many Japanese stores charge ¥5 (about 5¢) per plastic bag you get which encourages people to use reusable, canvas bags and the like. This was recently implemented in Ireland and has been a smashing success.

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3. Most Japanese apartments have only a washing machine and not a dryer. I'm not quite sure why this is. This was also true in Belfast and Papua New Guinea. I must admit, I like using a dryer -- not only it is a pain to hang laundry and take it down, but I like how the dryer makes the clothes softer and gets out more of the lint out. Nevertheless, dryers consume a lot of energy. Some people don't like seeing other people's laundry hanging out, but I don't mind -- it reminds me of how energy-conscience the country is. The picture below is taken from our new apartment -- you can see all of the laundry out. Our apartment looks just like the ones in the picture.

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Engrish

First a caveat: no one should be too critical of bad English in a foreign country because we, who come from English-speaking countries, rarely speak a second language at all, so who are we to criticize? Nevertheless, Japanese Engrish can be quite amusing. My quite fluent fiancee has a t-shirt I make fun of which says, "Dogs is Best Friend." I actually took the associated picture at the train station closest to my house for a website I regularly read called Japundit which is all about Japan (and I listen to the weekly podcast, as well). The website has all manner of things-Japan including funny things like Engrish. (P.S. If you couldn't figure out what the sign is supposed to mean, it's instructing us not to run to catch a train).

Prelude to Sakura

For 7 months now, I've been hearing about Sakura (さくら = Cherry Blossoms). The trees' pink flowers bloom for about a week in late March /early April and it's supposed to be quite beautiful. It appears to be *the* event of the year. People travel the length of the country looking at them (even though they are everywhere), people hold parties (we've been invited to 2 already), and there are even regular "Sakura forecasts" on the news. I know that people in D.C. also get quite excited about the Cherry Blossoms in spring but I think the Japanese have taken it to another level. A funny aside: the trees in D.C. were a gift from Japan. One time when Yumi was visiting me in Cleveland and we were headed to visit friends in D.C. in spring, my Mom told her we might get lucky and see the Cherry Blossoms in bloom and asked her if she'd ever seen them before.

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In any case, Sakura is still a couple of weeks away but the prelude is here - Ume (うめ = Plum Blossoms). Today we went to Sankeien gardens here in Yokohama and saw the tail end of their blossoming. They are quite pretty, too. Bright white. It was a beautiful day and nice to get out after a stressful week of Ph.D. work and craziness at school.

The Gift

Things are absolutely crazy here right now. In addition to the PhD, move, and wedding, things at school have been very stressful. There are some "financial irregularities" which have everyone worried. I'll write more about later as I know more. In the meantime, I'll try to reduce my backlog of topics which have been accumulating.
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I'm no expert in Japanese culture, but I have noticed that gift-giving (おみやげ = omiyage = oh.mee.yah.gay) is particularly important here. One such situation is when you move into a new place. So Yumi and I went to a local drugstore and schlepped home eight 5-packs of kleenex (picture 40 boxes of tissues!) to give to the people who live in each apartment which share our stairway (we are on the 5th floor which is the top - there are 10 total apartments on the stairway, of which one is ours and one is vacant). Then we knocked on each door, introduced ourselves, and gave the tissues. I have to say it is a nice tradition and certainly pushes me outside of my natural hermit tendencies. Interestingly, several people we met said that giving omiyage to new neighbors is becoming less and less common with younger generations.

Oscars Lament

The fact that I am no longer getting to the movies twice a week like I often used to in Belfast (QFT) and Cleveland (Cedar-Lee/Shaker Square/Cinemark) became more poignant yesterday as I wasn't able to watch the Oscars (with Jon Stewart hosting who I love!) although I didn't even really miss it that much because I had hardly seen any of the nominated pictures. Of the 24 films nominated for major awards (Best Picture, Director, Male & Female Actor & Supporting Actor, Original & Adapted Screenplay, Foreign Film, and Documentary) I only saw 3 (Sweeney Todd, Away From Her, and Sicko).

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To illustrate the withdrawal I'm going through as a cinephile in Japan, juxtapose that with some stats from the past few Oscars.

Among the films nominated for major awards I watched:

All 15 films nominated for Best Picture in 2004, 2005, and 2006.

19 of 27 nominated in 2006.

23 of 29 nominated in 2005.

21 of 27 nominated in 2004.

I could go on but I'm sure I've bored you enough already.

You Gotta Love Japan

Yesterday, Yumi and I moved to our new place near the seaside in Yokohama. I am acquiring quite a backlog of topics to write about but with work, moving, the PhD still looming and the wedding, finding blog time is more difficult. In any case, I'll try to address the move (it was largely uneventful and went pretty smoothly) and new apartment in another post but I do want to mention two related items.

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First, last night after the move and some unpacking we treated ourselves to a sushi dinner. I love sushi and there is something about the restaurants with the conveyor belts which carry the sushi around that I particularly like. It's so unlike any other dining experience -- very Japanese. The coolest thing was at the end of the meal. As the plates come around you just take the ones you want off the conveyor belt, eat them, and stack up the plates which are color-coded by price. Typically, at the end of the meal, a young woman comes over and totals up the bill by adding the price of each plate. Last night, she came over with some scanner which I had never seen. She waved it over the stack of plates and that was it! Instant electronic bill. How cool! The other thing is that one of the two trains I now take to work is driverless! I envision a futuristic science fiction plot where the train becomes possessed and out of control driving us to our deaths. This all reminds me of a great faux article I read in The Onion about a fictious Japanese earthquake and how it took the country back to the year 2147.

Some Guys Have All the Luck

Slate.com has a great article explaining how the law of unintended consquences is giving a *retired* basketball player (Keith Van Horn) $4.3 MILLION for doing *nothing* in order to facilitate the trade of Jason Kidd from the Dallas Mavericks to the New Jersey Nets for Devin Harris due to the archane NBA trade rules. Wow. Talk about winning the lottery. They should have asked me, I would have done it for half that amount! :-)

Japan vs. the U.S.

I've cared about the state of the environment since I was in high school and every trip I've taken from the flora of Costa Rica to the Sequoia of California to the rain forests of Puerto Rico to the lushness of Papua New Guinea has only deepened that passion.

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Living abroad often affords reflection on one's own country and comparisons with the current residence. I recently got to comparing them in the arena of the environment. While Japan is overwhelmingly more green, there are a few areas where the U.S. does win out. On to the tale of the tape:

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The greatest crisis facing the planet is global warming brought on by out of control carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Perhaps it is not surprising that the home of the Kyoto protocol (signed by every major developed country in the world *except* the United States) kicks the U.S.'s behind when it comes to mitigating global warming. The U.S. produces about *twice* as much CO2 as Japan per person. Twice. 100% more. There are a variety of factors that contribute to that including much more efficient cars, heating and cooling only parts of homes, extensive use of public transportation, and simply a smaller country which requires less transportation of goods and people.

What is even more astounding, however, is that the average Japanese car gets 45 miles per gallon (!) compared with less than 25 in the U.S. How pathetic is it that even China has more efficient cars than the U.S.? Many on the right claim a false dichotomy between the environment or the economy. The Japanese have shown that it can be both. Unfortunately for the U.S., as the entire world starts to change technologies to stave off the oncomming crisis, we will be importing all of the new technologies instead of producing them domestically and thus reaping the economic rewards of jobs and profits.

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Japan is also fervent about recycling. It is often difficult to find a garbage can but recycling containers abound. Even at McDonald's, customers separate their waste into combustibles and non-combustibles at the very least. Often they get sorted into glass, plastic, paper, etc. It can be quite intricate.

While the majority of environmental areas, Japan kicks butt, there are some areas for improvement I have found. First, insulation is lacking. Better insulation and windows would save a lot in terms of energy needed for heating and cooling. Second, unnecessary lighting. Neon signs are everywhere and also compact fluorescent bulbs are not very common. In a similar vain, all of those vending machines certainly eat up a lot of unnecessary energy (and contribute the proportional amount of CO2). Lastly, packaging is out of control here. Often things are individually wrapped and then put into one or more other packages. For example, I have a bag of small chocolate chip cookies -- all individually wrapped. Another time we bought two small puddings at a store. They were in glass containers and wrapped in plastic. Those were then put in a box with tissue paper and the box was wrapped and then put into a plastic bag! Excess packaging is certainly a waste of resources. Nevertheless, the U.S. and the rest of the world could stand to learn a thing or two about caring for the Earth from the Japanese .

Fuji-san

For 7 months now, I've taken the train to work and home every school day. Today was the first time that I saw Mt. Fuji in the distance. It was such a surprise - I was shocked but it was an awesome sight and took my breath away. It's funny, most of the time I am in my routines and not conscience that I am living in Japan but once in a while something like this jars me back into that reality. The same thing was true in Papua New Guinea (mountains, flora, butterflies, rain storms) and Northern Ireland (verdant hills), and Los Angeles (mountains, Hollywood sign) and Chicago (Sears Tower) for that matter.

Competing Interests

I have an admission to make: I really like reading advice columns. I only end up reading Dear Prudence in Slate.com but I do enjoy others when I come across them (Dear Abby, Ann Landers, Judith Martin, etc.).
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At first it seemed sort of weird to me -- advice columns seem closer to gossip in People Magazine than politics on NPR, but then it hit me: they are very similar in one important aspect -- both are about competing interests. I also enjoy the insights they give into human nature and and the human condition (which also explains my love of This American Life and PostSecret.com).

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Think about it: these columns offer advice on dilemmas someone is having, usually with a spouse, sibling, parent, friend, co-worker, etc. and these usually come down to "I want this and he wants that." Politics is not dissimilar. To wit:

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From Dear Prudence -

A mom who wants her daughter to do more housework vs. the girl who thinks it's ruining her childhood.

A woman who is ready for marriage vs. a man who wants to wait.

A guy who wants to spend more time on the phone when his girlfriend is away vs. the woman who hates talking on the phone.

A woman who wants massages vs. her husband who thinks they can't afford them.

A man who wants to go on a family cruise and leave their infant behind vs. his wife who can't imagine doing so.

A woman who wants her boyfriend to groom more often vs. the boyfriend who's content as he is.

And so on.

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From Politics -

People who think abortion is murder vs. people who think it's not and banning it violates women's rights.

People who want to keep more of their salaries vs. people who think that tax money funds important programs which help people in need.

People who value protecting the environment vs. people who think protecting the environment will cost the economy jobs.

People who want more religion in schools and public life vs. those who find it oppressive and unconstitutional.

People who believe gay people should be entitled to marry vs. those who find homosexuality an abomination and don't want the government to condone it.

And so on.

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Where we come down on these issues illuminates who we are, our politics, values, and ethics. We'd be better off if we realized that these issues are tough and that there are usually legitimate competing interests on both sides and that once a decision comes down, some people will be unhappy and feel that their rights have been infringed upon. Maybe we'd be more compassionate and understanding if we remembered that more often (myself included).

Wedding Progress (or Lack Thereof)

With the lull before the Super Bowl and Super Tuesday, I'll fill the void with Super Wedding Progress Update (or lack thereof).

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The first item of note is that my geeky dream of getting married on 08/08/08 is all but gone. Once we started pricing tickets from the U.S. to Hawaii and from Japan to Hawaii as well as coordinating with my school vacation calendar, we realized that we had only a few options. The weeks around July 4th are difficult for people in the U.S. wanting to use frequent flier miles (although the tickets aren't priced that much more). And from the Japan side, once regular schools are out for the summer in mid-July, prices climb and as they approach the Obon holidays in early August they become astronomical. Right now our first choice is Monday, June 16 and our second choice is Monday, July 14. The reason for Monday is that it would allow people to fly in on the weekend, attend the wedding and have at least a week of vacation before flying back. Also Monday should be easier (hopefully) to find locations, photographers, etc.

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As for other details we've spent hours searching and sending out dozens of emails to coordinators and to others asking for recommendations, etc., but are still at square one. We figure that the most important thing is to find a wedding coordinator we feel comfortable with and then have her (I assume it will be a her) guide us through various options. Unfortunately, we have yet to find a website that offers ratings or reviews of wedding planners. Of course most websites offer testimonials from satisfied customers -- I want to hear from people who were both satisfied and unsatisfied and not selected by the people who want our business. In any case, we are enthusiastic about a beach wedding followed by a reception at a restaurant or hotel although we toss around a lot of other options such as renting out a huge house for the day.

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Anyway, there you have it. We are at engagement +1 month (and possibly wedding -4.5 months) and have nothing concrete done. The only thing that keeps me from spontaneously combusting from stress right now is the thought that once the wedding (June) is over, the Ph.D. (April) is over, and the move (February) is over, I can live a relatively stress-free life -- for about a month I'm sure before the next thing hits, whatever that will be.