cat /proc/claus

Well, I was playing yesterday at my computer, when the earth began shaking again. It was just a gentle sideway sway, lasting for maybe one minute, while I was taking my supper. I don’t have net access at home yet, so just today I found out it was a Lv 4 earthquake at Fukushima (about two provinces to the north). It was registered as a 3 here in Kashiwa.

Anyway, I’ve wasted most of my time this weekend finishing “Three the Hard Way“. And I urge you to try it out. Someday I’ll write a proper review here in the blog, along with a RPGMK session with reviews and my own secret project (oops). But for now I leave you with this link.

That’s It… I’m supposed to be doing some work, so I’ll stop here.

Since my mother always calls me whenever there is the slighliest shake wherever in Japan, I might as well just start posing quake reports on my Blog, like Luis does.

We just had a degree 4 here in Kashiwa. The center was a 5- in east Ibaraki. No tsunami warning.It was quite long, but nothing out of the ordinary for me. The folks in the lab stopped a little to check the news on the TV, but that was that.

Besides that, today I found out that there is a Gym in the Solid State Physics Bldg, just besides mine. I’m planning to start using it from this week (went there today already), but I need a good excercise plan.

Lastly, I found one number for making collect calls from japan to Brazil. It is the “Brasil Direto” service by Embratel. The prices are somewhat steep, 1,87R$ the minute, plus 25% tax, so I’m still on the lookout for a cheaper service.

That’s it for today.

The Good

I remember once talking to a friend (can’t remember if she was japanese or not), and being told that japan had a very low rate of homossexuals. I argued that it probably was actually a very low rate of “coming out”, but the friend insisted in her point.

Elected in 2003, congresswoman Kanako Otsuji made an announcement in august about her sexual orientation, bringing some light on the issue. She gave an interview to the japan times about a month ago (which I just found today), about her decision to announce her orientation publicily (an issue which wasn’t actually hiding, but was surprisingly - or not so - ignored by the media).

It is a very interesting interview discussing the issues of an not often heard about minority in Japan. I hope she keeps her support after her announcement, and extends her progressive views to other minorities (namely ethnical) in this country.

The bad

And althought Japan DOES have quite a few minorities, and depends economically on them (specially taking into acount the aging population), there are some people who will just close their eyes to the truth.

In the opening ceremony of a museum in Fukuoka, the Minister of Internal Affairs, stated that Japan is composed of “one nation, one civilization, one language, one culture and one race. It is nowhere else in other nations,”, according to the Japan Today.

Never mind that the REAL native japanese are the Ainu, a ethical minority living now mostly in hokkaido. Never mind the thousands of Chinese and Korean descendants born and living in japan, under either japanese or K/C citizenship. Nevermind the Burakumin. Nevermind the Ryukyus, natives from Okinawa, which was dominated by the japanese just one century ago. Never mind the waves of southeastern asians, westerns, middle easterns, well, just all sort of gaijin coming to work and to maintain families here in Japan.

Never mind that, in terms of ethnical “purity”, there are many countries “ahead” of japan, like the Koreas, and some european countries, like Portugal.

And never mind that these numbers grow every year.

The ugly

After the Good and the Bad japanese politicians, let’s call our (actually good looking) prime minister, Koizumi-chan, who decided today was a good day to piss off China and Korea by visiting Yasukuni Shrine once again.

Now, while I’m all against nacionalism, (or perhaps because of it), it pisses me off the way that Korea and China like to cry foul and play victim on things like this. While Japan DID do some really nasty things during the war, and enshrining war criminals is not a really friendly thing to do, Yasukuni jinja also houses thousands of Tanakas and Suzukis (and perhaps a Koizumi) whose families would like to go and pray for them every once in a while.

This time around, the prime minister went alone, without any formal dress, didn’t enter the shrine, just prayed on the outside like everyone else, and avoided the press. Yet the chine embassador said that “The fact that the prime minister has done such a thing on the day when the Shenzhou 6 made a successful return to Earth is a challenge to all Chinese people.” Yeah sure.

Oh well, I guess some things will never change.

So the results from the japanese elections are over, and the results were out yesterday. The LDP, the government party, led by Prime Minister Koizumi, won a clear victory, grabbing more than 2 thirds of the seats in the lower house. This is enough to pass some sorts of laws without the approval of the higher house, and also enough to vote a constitution ammendment.

I guess it’s bye bye article 9 then.

On further analysis, the seats gained by LDP also means that they can obtain a majority in the parliament without the aid of their block ally, the Koumeito. With the “LDP Rebels” also weeded out from the Kokkai, this gives Koizumi “Carte Blanche” (sp?) to do whatever he well pleases in his last year in office. The leader of the opposition party (DPJ). Okada, now reduced to almost half of its previous seats, resigned, as he promised before the elections.

Maybe it’s also bye bye to japanese political opposition for another 50 years?

For those who are not in the know, japanese politics have been dominated by the LDP since the postwar period, and this election was expected by some to finally turn the tables over to “the other side”. The result was, as mentioned, completely opposite. While I don’t have enough information to support any of the two parties, I would say that a oposition-less system does not look good…

So this last weekend I threw caution and my entrance examination studies to the wind, and decided to go climbing mount fuji with some brazillian friends.

I came to Japan on a plane with a number of other brazillian exchange students. As we were saying our farewells at narita airport, and heading for our respective universities in the four corners of Japan, we promised to meet each other again in the summer vacations, for climbing mount fuji. It turns out that unfortunately I did not manage to meet the same people from the plane again, but some of them did come, and some new friends too.

Anyway, it was a very clear weekend, no rain, winds or cloudy forecast, perfect for the trip. We started around 8:30 at night, after some delays, but still way ahead of schedule.

Climbing mount fuji can’t really be called “climbing a mountain”. It is more like walking a very long, very steep train. The height brings with it cold and lack of oxygen, which makes the trip harder. But patiente and perseverance are all you need to defeat the highest mountain in japan.

The basic idea is to begin climbing in the middle of the night (somewhere between 8:00 and 10:00), and try to get up there before sunrise, so to enjoy dawn in Japan’s highest peak. In the summer, there are hundreds, thousands of people climbing, most of them in excursion groups, that blocks large parts of the path, slowing everyting and annoying everyone. This particular time there was also a large number of the military. Or at least of people wearing miliary attirre. I wonder if the SDF was doing some sort of training.

Our group made to the top without great problems. One of the members got sick right before getting to the highest station, and had to stop in a local inn to rest for a few hours, but still managed to make it to the top before sunrise. Everyone was terribly tired, and cold to the bones, but seing the red sun in the sky lifted all the spirits around.

Although it is no mission impossible, climbing mount fuji is a very very tiring and demanding affair. So that people say that “climbing fuji once is a necessity, climbing it twice is folly”. This was my second climb, and I took the role of guide, making all the needed preparations, helping the others prepare, and being the general annoying guy who would stop the rests and press everyone on. Maybe because of that I had the impression that this time was much harder on me than the first one. On the other hand, as pretty as the rising sun on top of mount fuji is, what really made my trip was watching the joy of those who were there for the first time. Going through all that together is really all that there is to it in climbing mt. Fuji.

More pics can be seen in:

The b2005 page - (in portuguese!)