so much government, so little time.

if there's one thing my travels in japan taught me, it was the stealthy and disarming nature of government. socialism is so embedded in japanese culture that people rarely think that they might be entitled to feel or act in opposition to the group. i saw this most clearly when i worked for NOVA but i won't get into that again. recently, i found out the extent to which the government's mandates have crossed into the public health arena and i had to share this. the new york times reported that the japanese government has made obesity illegal. in an attempt to lower the health care costs shelled out by the government, men and women between the ages of 40 and 74 must have their waists measured as a part of their annual physical. if they are metabo (+33.5 inches for men, 35.4 inches for women), they have 3 months to loose it or face 6 months of mandatory lifestyle training. the idea is to shame people into loosing weight because no one wants to be singled out as a fatty. because the government will penalize private companies (who provide health insurance for the metabos), private companies have begun measuring their employees from age 30 and having family metabo days where you have to listen to lectures about how to eat right.

to me, this is a clear-cut example of why the government should not provide social services for its citizens. anyone who pays the price for a service wants to make sure they minimize their waste: if you pay for your car, you drive carefully; if you pay for your education, you go to class; if you pay for your healthcare, you eat right and excersise. when the government gets in there to provide these "necessities" it also follows that they will find it mandatory to minimize their losses, thus restricting the freedom of those that use their services.

Notes from the Underground: A Look Inside the Love Hotel

At first mention of the words Love Hotel, most Americans envision flickering Neon signs and dank walls shedding their paper like dead skin. But, since we’re talking about Japan, this is not the case. Fuse the Japanese obsession with technology and cleanliness, twist in some kinky fantasies and you have the Love Hotel, or Rabu Hoteru. These gigantic, window-less buildings look like they have popped out of a Disney theme park in the shapes of ships and pyramids. Wandering through the maze of private entrances and frosted glass doors, you'll be lucky to stumble upon the reception board since no one is there to tell you where it is. The most important feature of the Love Hotel is discretion; no grimy man handing out keys under a flickering florescent light here. The reception board displays illuminated photos of the rooms they have available and upon selection, illuminate a map to your room. Your room number is also illuminated so you know you're in the right place, which is helpful since you haven't been given a key. But don't worry about someone bursting into your fantasy romance: that sound you hear upon closing the door is the magnetic seal and no one is coming in (or out) until the bill is paid: a security measure that makes you feel like a character from a Murakami book.


The room is pristine and fully equipped with all the necessary amenities: mini bar, video game center, karaoke station and a vending machine filled with toys and edible panties to spice up the evening. While the knowledge that an unknown number of people have "done it" in this room is slightly unnerving, the sheets on the circular bed are pressed and the mirrors on the ceiling are sparkling, so it's easy to shrug it off. Besides, the jacuzzi and bidet being standard equipment in the "LoveHo" makes emerging from your lust cubby less conspicuous.

But now it's time to pay for your evening by turning on your T.V. and selecting payment from the game system's drop down menu. The amount you owe the house then pops up on the screen and you swipe your credit card using that card reader on the wall. If you don't have plastic, no worries. Just use the pneumatic tube to send your yen soaring to the unknown people on the free side of the door. When you get your change and receipt, the door unlocks and you are free from your prison of pleasure.

For those of us more accustomed to space, this might seem like a lot of effort for a lay, but its not surprising that these dens of fornication are so popular among Japanese who haven't given up their love of paper walls. Add onto that the merging of families into common households and the idea of going out to get it on sounds completely reasonable. As real estate prices continue to soar and fewer people can afford the spacious homes to which Americans have become accustomed, you might see this Love Hotel phenomenon trickle into the states.

this is very japanese

etoooooooo ne...eeeeehhh!?

the drunk business man passed out on the train...this is very japanese















the girl who sits next to you at a coffee shop and pulls out an electric curling iron...this is very japanese.

the shirts in strange engrish, usually offering some strange sexual suggestion...this is very japanese














children (or adults) dressed as cartoon characters or animals...this is very japanese







(by the way: these outfits are placed next to the lingerie)










pickled anything and fish on a stick...this is very japanese



















really really short skirts with boots and really really big hair for girls. really really white boots and pink leapord shirts for boys...this is very japanese.

bars and restaurants crammed into one tiny office building, with a tiny sign outside that makes it impossible to find a place if you're actually looking for it...this is very japanese.
















hostesses wearing thin dresses in the cold while bowing to a group of departing businessmen repeatedly, as if the bobbing warms them up...this is very japanese.

littles in really kawaii outfits...this is very japanese













puppies for 235,000 yen...this is very japanese

bling...cell phones, belt buckles, boots, jeans, fingernails. if it's got surface area and you can put jewels on it, it needs bling....this is very japanese












a high pitched phone voice and a costume to sell electronics...this is very japanese








getting really red and falling on the floor OR pretending to be mickey mouse when you get wasted....this is VERY japanese

meri kurisumasu

i knew if i didn't get my act together, i wouldn't leave nagoya for christmas and that would depress me. though it was a risk that i would be alone for christmas, i decided to take off and travel through kansai for the holidays. as you know this is a huge gamble because it depends so much on who happens to be in the same hostel as you or who you happen to meet at a coffee shop.

osaka

for such a cosmpolitan city, osaka is very confusing. unlike other japanese cities, osakans walk on the other side of the street and stand on the other side of the escalator. this is pretty confusing, considering, as an an american, i'm conciously trying to follow traffic as the japanese drive. also, unlike most japanese cities, they don't have signs romanji or provide maps in english are addresses in either language. lucikly, my amazing sense of observation triumphed and i found my way by following everyone else. i dumped my bag at my hostel and wandered around osaka-ekis looking for the umeda sky building. what i found there was so bizarre, i should have expected it: a german christmas village set up at the bottom of the building featuring a huge christmas tree and js stuffing themselves with bratwurst and sauerkraut while taking pictures of the miniature snowman placed on a throne in a roped off section of the village. gotta love the randomness of japan sometimes- you never know what you're going to find after a wonderful dinner with my friend's family and a failed attempt at riding the world's largest ferris wheel, i head back to my hostel satisfied at my christmas eve. only when i got there, the hostel kids were partying with calpis and chuhai, so i joined in and kicked off for a very merry christmas eve. we planned a christmas breakfast and christmas carol karaoke, but that wasn't in the cards for me.
instead, i spent christmas morning at the vietnamese embassy trying to get a visa (since i'm only in osaka today and i had to get in while i was in town) it was only 2 hours, but it was really frightening: the room was barren and the face of the employees were stark. it was the epitome of statism at its best- cold and calculated. the english forms were behind the desk, but the man wouldn't talk to me until it was my turn so i couldn't start filling out the form. then when i borrowed a pen, i was lectured on not returning it promptly and putting the glue and scissors in the wrong place (which ironically was where i had found them) i can't say that i was shocked, but i felt compelled to call him "sir" and sit up straight in my chair. so when i left, i made a point of telling him merry christmas, even though my new friend the college professor from San Francisco reminded me that "communists don't celebrate christmas!" so i missed the group, but my friend willow arrived shortly after and we made our way to kobe, eating our american christmas feast of mcdonald's on the train, earning us looks of disgust and complete shock for our lack of manners.

kobe

my hostel was hidden above a car repair shop in a pretty industrial neighborhood, but when i went inside it turned out to be just charming. willow and i befriended a few hostellers and we went through the neighborhood sake breweries for sake tasting. 7 factories, countless glasses and a detailed guided tour later, we made our way to harborland: kobe's port amusement park. willow, taro and i got on the kobe ferris wheel with a bottle of sake and toasted to christmas while overlooking the port with it's crazy modern buildings and lights. we found a great restaurant with a view of the water and feasted on grilled hamburgers and beer. willow went back to osaka and taro and i drank chuhai on the steps of kobe dears' backpackers.
so the next day, we borrowed bikes and tried to ride to the cable car to visit arima onsen. this mission was seriously flawed in that the cable car is almost impossible to find, which is why people take buses up there. after climbing 2 mountains, screwing up and soaring down them at at top speed, we finally got to the cable car. we took it up to mount rokko and had a coffee at the top of the mountain as the sunset over kobe and revealed the lights of the city. from there we rode our bikes back down the mountain without having to peddle once. we then went to chinatown for gyoza and to the trendy district in search of gaylord, the indian restaurant, which is really funny when you start asking people for directions. (garlord wa doko desu ka?)