The Curious Case of The Curious Case

Yumi and I went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button this past weekend and it was enjoyable but hardly worth all of the Oscar buzz as far as I could tell. 13 nominations? The second-highest total of all time? Really? I thought it was well done but you'd think it was the second coming of Citizen Kane with 13 nominations.

For the uninitiated, the film is about the life of a man who ages backwards and his romance with Cate Blanchet's character. It was a nice diversion although after 2 1/2 hours I was itching for it to be over already. I did like the creativity of the story and the execution (the makeup, the period costumes and sets, etc.).

Other odds and ends from our movie experience. It cost ¥1800 per person (around $20) which is hard to stomach but it is what it is and I either accept it or forgo movies altogether. I was already choosy before, now I'm even more so. Despite the steep price, our Sunday matinee was almost completely full. Amazing. It was in English with Japanese subtitles. There were other showing which were dubbed into Japanese with English subtitles. Dubbing is evil.

Reviews

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch was a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon. He gave a talk* in the "last lecture" series (of which I attended many while a student there). The series is for professors to impart their most important life lessons. For Pausch, it really was his last lecture as he had been diagnosed with incurable pancreatic cancer. He went on to talk about living life to its fullest and achieving your childhood dreams. The lecture became a hit on the internet and soon he was a guest on Oprah and Primetime Live. The book then followed. I just watched the original "Last Lecture" again and couldn't help but be moved by it, and yet when I think about the talk and the book at a distance it appears much more banal, cliche, and trite.

The Price of Loyalty by Ron Suskind
I loved Suskind's first book, A Hope in the Unseen, about a young man defying the odds and going from the ghetto to Brown University. And while I can't stand just about anything about former President Bush (how nice it is to use "former"), this book was too over the top. It is mainly a political memoir of former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's two years in the administration. I do believe many of the conclusions and observations but the biased writing lauding everything about O'Neill and condemning everything about Bush and looking for little to balance O'Neill's opinions made me question how much to rely on Suskind.

Slumdog Millionaire (95% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes)
I really enjoyed this film: the music, the story, the pacing, the style (flashbacks and real time interposed), etc. It's a real feel-good Bollywood movie sans the typical, silly, over-the-top musical numbers and over sentimentality. It deserves all of the praise it has received. The story is about a boy from the slums who gets on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire but is suspected of cheating.






Milk (92% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes)
I also enjoyed this film. Of course, I'm a sucker (with my Mom and sister) for "based-on-a-true-story" movies. Add to that the political perspective (left) and inspiring life of Harvey Milk and I was hooked. I loved the story of Milk overcoming homophobia (much worse in the 1970s - even in San Francisco), changing his life from a guy wandering aimlessly to a political organizer to an elected official. Even though the ending is sad (his assassination is in the opening minutes of the film and then again at the end), I found it more inspiring than sad.


Rachel Getting Married (88% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes)
I had good luck with movies during my vacation as I liked all three. This one was very different. I found it so well done and so compelling but also difficult to watch. It reminded me a lot of The Squid and the Whale. I believe that it was Larry Rakow who was with our movie group that night who described The Squid and the Whale as watching a train wreck in slow motion. Rachel Getting Married deserves a similar description. Watching Kim's psychosis and drug problems and underlying family tragedy play themselves out during Rachel's wedding weekend evoked many cringe moments. But it was so well done.

*The version in this link is the full version of the talk which includes the introductions and awards he receives afterwards. The first introduction is by my former professor (now Provost), close friend, mentor, sage, and all around role-model, Indira Nair.

Complaints

As a public service I will tell you how horrible Internet Explorer, Net10 Phone, and the Westin LAX are. Really, I'm just looking out for your best interests. :-)

1. Internet Explorer
It started with IE refusing to open certain websites (get your mind out of the gutter - it was innocuous sites like the Cleveland Jewish News). Then it refused to play certain video (again - mind out of the gutter - it was video from sites like Slate.com). Finally, it started crashing on a regular basis. I would guess that I could have found some technical fix but I decided instead to just switch to Mozilla Firefox instead. So far it has been a dream - absolutely no problems whatsoever. A bit of research indicated that I am on the cusp of a wave. Join me.


2. Net10 Phone
Our relationship started off a bit shaky but then we had a good run; in the end it just wasn't going to work out. Net10 is a pay-as-you-go phone service. They wouldn't let me purchase a phone or service from Japan but we got past it and my sister was kind enough to buy it for me. Yumi and I used it in Hawaii during our wedding and honeymoon and it worked out great. It was $30-35 for the phone and service. The problem was when I tried to recharge the credit when I was in Cleveland in December. I called and bought credit but 24 hours later it still wasn't working. I called again, typed in about twenty-seven 19-digit codes and was told to wait another 24 hours. Again it didn't work. Finally, I called back and spent about 2 hours on the phone just to get my $30 back. Their customer service was horrible and ridiculously scripted. Never again.

3. Westin LAX
The price guide for the room said that local calls are $1.75. Pricey, but easier than running down to the lobby. Imagine my surprise when I went to check out and was charged $23 for a local phone call. In my lifetime of making phone calls, I've always understood "local" to mean nearby area codes to which long distance charges do not apply. Apparently the Westin LAX has a different definition, namely, locations within 3 miles of the hotel! Talking to the receptionist did nothing. She spoke to the manager who did nothing. I later talked to Mr. Cliff Sunajo in person and he did nothing. I can't believe they can be so stupid. $23 is nothing to them and surely is not the real cost of the phone call. Is it really in their best interest to antagonize or alienate customers with ridiculous charges and lose their future business? Oh, and just for icing on the cake, the room in this supposed 4-star hotel had a horrible view, the settee was grungy and the carpet was stained. While the Internet Explorer situation resolved itself with Firefox and Net10 did eventually give me my money back, the Westin LAX is far from over. They will be getting a tersely worded letter sometime soon.

The Return

I'm back from the 2 1/2 week journey which took me from Yokohama to Los Angeles to Cleveland to Phoenix to Los Angeles and finally back to Yokohama. It entailed dozens of hours in airports and airplanes and the like. It was both exhilarating and exhausting. I need a vacation from my vacation. Despite that, I went back to work today and am again facing the reality of running the school while teaching.

In any event, as usual I am behind in my emails, Facebook posts, and blog but I'll try to catch up while also getting back into the groove at work. Upcoming posts intended include the situation in Gaza, Obama's cabinet picks, more Japanese observations, omochi, complaints about Net10Phone, Internet Explorer, and the Westin LAX, and reviews of The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, The Price of Loyalty by Ron Suskind, Milk, Rachel Getting Married, and Slumdog Millionaire, and of course highlights from the U.S. trip.

Happy New Year! Thanks for reading. Please stay tuned...

くんよみ (Kunyomi) and おんよみ (Onyomi)

Another wrinkle I've been facing lately is the complexity added by くんよみ (kunyomi) and おんよみ (onyomi), i.e. the multiple readings for kanji characters. Kunyomi is the Japanese pronunciation and is largely used when kanji characters are alone. Onyomi comes from the original Chinese pronunciation and is largely used when kanji are combined. Of course, many kanji have even multiple onyomi and kunyomi pronunciations!

.

For example...

Alone using kunyomi:

新 (new) あたらしい (atarashii)

車 (car) くるま (kuruma)

.

Together using onyomi:

新車 (new car) しん しゃ (shin sha)

.

Alone using kunyomi:
火 (fire) ひ (hi)
山 (mountain) やま (yama)

.
Together using onyomi:
火山 (fire mountain = volcano) かざん(kazan)

Recent Trips

Yumi and I are continuing the "post-Ph.D. celebratory tour" of Japan, i.e. she keeps dragging me out to do stuff since I can't use the Ph.D. as an excuse to stay home anymore. The last two trips were to Odaiba (an area of Tokyo), and Ibaraki (a location well north of Tokyo).

Odaiba is a nice, waterfront area in the south of Tokyo which offers nice views of the Tokyo metropolis as well as the interesting architecture of the Fuji TV building and the cheesy Statue of Liberty replica. We mostly just wandered around all day and watched the ubiquitous dance performances which I was not sure were a regular feature or just happened to be going on the day we were there.

.

.

The Ibaraki trip was last Saturday and I wasn't too pleased when my lovely wife informed me that out that our bus tour left Yokohama station at 7:00 am necessitating a 6:00 am departure from our apartment and a 5:30 am wake up. We boarded the bus with about forty 60- and 70-somethings and headed north. We arrived at the first of 3 destinations around 11:00 am (4 hours after we left Yokohama!). The first stop was the picturesque Fukuroda no Taki waterfall, followed by the Ryujin pedestrian suspension bridge (Japan's longest at 375 meters) and then a nearby park. We got back to Yokohama around 8:00 pm and home around 9:00 pm. Thankfully we got some sleep on the bus. In addition to the sights, the other attractions were the local delicacies from natto (fermented soy beans - yum!) to apple pastry to dango (cooked rice flour in a sweet sauce).

Odaiba Pictures

Odaiba Pics

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Ibaraki Pictures

Ibaraki Pics

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Japan Articles

The Japundit website went through an overhaul which eliminated the need for contributors such as myself. That coincided with my ascendance to the interim principal's role at school which has resulted in more work and less time. Nevertheless I am still reading the news and listening to NPR and still come across interesting articles on Japan from time to time.

I came across several such articles recently:
1. Japanese Yakuza (Mafia); The New York Times

2. Brazilians in Japan; The New York Times

3. Japanese General Revises Pearl Harbor; The New York Times

4. Japanese Convenience Stores; Washington Post

5. Yankees' Pitcher Heading for Japan; ESPN.com

6. Japanese Attitude Towards Obama; Washington Post

The first article is interesting in that it discusses the underside of Japanese society and also highlights the vast differences between our societies (the mafia are careful to be polite and separate their trash properly so as not to irritate the neighbors). The second article highlights the touchy subject of foreigners and racism, which of course touches my life directly. The Japanese are alleged to be quite xenophobic. I don't know if they are empirically more so than other countries, though. The third article highlights an ongoing struggle between the extreme right and the rest of the country which flares up from time to time, often over historical revisionism. The fourth article discusses the Japanese phenomenon of convenience stores, of which I frequent almost daily. The fifth article piques my interest; I understand why he wanted to leave the Yankees (he lost his starting pitching role) but it is not clear why he wanted to be traded to a Japanese team. The last article is an interesting observation of Japan's view of the U.S., Obama, and the Democrats.

My last two articles on Japundit which I never cross-posted are:

Japanese Women Today (Washington Post)

Sukiyaki Western Django (Slate.com)

Serendipity Squared

The first bit of serendipity occurred when I was on the train going home from work and a guy sat next to me with a lanyard around his neck which read "Ohio State." I'm not one to usually accost strangers, especially in a foreign country, but when he pulled out his cell phone and it, too, had an Ohio State strap (hanging accessory), I had to ask him his connection to OSU. So we talked during the 5 minute or so train ride about how he and his wife had lived in Findlay, Ohio for almost 4 years while he worked for a Japanese company in Upper Sandusky. We both got off at the same station and it turns out we live a literal stone's throw away from each other. We exchanged email addresses. He wants to keep up his English and I want to practice Japanese so we decided to get together.

.

The first time we got together, he and his wife met Yumi and me for coffee. Today, just he and I met for breakfast at McDonald's. As it turned out, his 70-something father rode his bike up to get coffee. (I think everyone here has a bicycle). He told us he was heading to a local elementary school where his wood carving was displayed at a local art fair and said we should join him. Incidentally, my new friend lives with his wife and mother-in-law next door to his father and mother. So we walked over with him and saw the wood carving and the rest of the fair (it was all contained in the school's gym). Then he asked if we wanted to attend the Japanese Tea Ceremony that the school was holding upstairs.
.

I had wanted to see a Japanese Tea Ceremony since I first visited Japan in 2005 but never seemed to get the opportunity, so I was quite happy to accept the offer. It was done by a local middle school club, so it wasn't the most professional tea ceremony, but I got the gist of it. It was, well, very ceremonial. The only thing that really "happens" is that the guests (7 in our case), get served a snack and tea. But it took about 20 minutes because everything seemed to happen in slow motion and with great care, not to mention bowing about 10 times. Twenty minutes sitting on my knees was an eternity. The whole thing was a bit confounding, but interesting nonetheless. I have a feeling that Kabuki will result in a similar "huh?" experience. I can now check it off my list and look forward to the next cultural encounter. Note to self: heed the Lonely Planet's advice to never wear holey socks in Japan as you never know when you'll be taking your shoes off.

カタカナ (Katakana)

Katakana is one of the 3 alphabets used in Japan. It is largely the province of adopted foreign words such as　デパート (depa-to = department store), アメリカ (America)　and　テレビ (terebi = television). It's sort of a game I play to try to figure out what signs in Katakana mean. Here's a few I've seen recently - see how you do! Remember, Japanese has no sound for 'l' so 'r's can be 'l' or 'r' sounds. Also, almost all characters are consonant-vowel combinations (vowels and 'n' are exceptions) so double consonants (th, sh, br, tr, st, etc.) and words ending with consonants are rare - you'll see almost all words are consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel. (answers below)

.

1. レストラン (resutoran)

2. アップル (apuru)
3. ゴルフ (gorufu)

4. エスカレーター (esukare-ta-)

5. トンネル (tonneru)

6. クリスマス (kurisumasu)

7. ボックス (bokusu)

8. スケジュール (sukejyu-ru)

9. スチール (suchi-ru)
10. ブライアン　エンゲル　(buraian engeru)

photo: tatoo which says 'kyasarin' (presumably Katherine or Kathleen)

1. restaurant
2. apple
3. golf
4. escalator
5. tunnel
6. Christmas
7. box
8. schedule
9. steel

10. Brian Engel

Other Random Thoughts

1. Irony: The only website which regularly crashes my MICROSOFT Internet Explorer is MICROSOFT (Windows Live/MSN) Hotmail.

2. One day Yumi was complaining about my internet usage (with some validity) and called it the axis of evil (I asked her to spell it). I thought it would be better labeled the access of evil.