Japanguish

Japan is a great place! It's world-leading in some ways. Could it be better?... certainly!

I've lived in Japan for 13+ years, and now visit regularly. There's much I like. (Perhaps I'll add more kudos later, but -- quickly -- some areas I admire are the hot springs, the people, culture, food, holidays, predictability, reliability, etc.).

This post, however, will list major weaknesses. Over time I'll add & revise the items. These are personal observations; suggestions welcome!
----------------------------------

Prepare plenty of yen (cash) for Japan. Only a small percentage of ATM machines handle cashcards / creditcards issued outside Japan (this means 1% or less!) In early 2009 I was in Beppu, Oita Prefecture. There was no place in that city to withdraw cash using a foreign Visa or Master card... I asked at two Tourist Offices, the major local bank, at a high-end hotel, and at a foreign tourist assistance desk. It was recommended to go to the neighboring city of Oita. Terrible for a city that attracts international tourists and has an globally-oriented university.

Most hotels & many restaurants accept credit cards (foreign or domestic) but a great many places in Japan require cash. Foreign exchange at banks in many cities is a tedious & costly procedure. In this earlier cited trip, I visited Oita Bank and exchanged Korean won at 15% over the interbank rate, and Australian dollars at 21% above that day's interbank rate; it took about 25 minutes for the paperwork. (I'm interested in this as a structural weakness. I wasn't out of cash, and had more than 50,000 yen and also plenty of U.S. dollars). The lesson is that well-off foreign visitors to Japan can expect to be seriously inconvenienced. They'll also feel Japan as rigidly domestic and financially archaic. It's sad that Japanese financial institutions haven't fixed this...
----------

Zagat Sucks

I formerly subscribed to Zagat Survey, an excellent review of restaurants, hotels, nightspots, etc., around the world. I also submitted many reviews, which were published online & in Zagat printed guides.

But now I don't subscribe; rather, I believe Zagat sucks.

What soured me? They've a scummy system that automatically renews subscriptions. They don't allow immediate opt-out. The system is skewed to their convenience: the user is automatically billed again next year, and again forever. They claim a call or letter later can end a subscription. But I don't wish to "subscribe for life until further notice" -- I'd be OK for a year, but this is bad practice. Zagat sucks.

Haiku

Haiku by Genki

Distraction left me
knowing "Something Was Just Lost"
Then refreshing smell

------------------

Our world ain't fair, but
Children's chalk marks, blood, and grime
All purged by Spring rain

------------------

One quiet breath, then
Another. Without chatter.
Rustles mix with wind.

Dangerous Korea?

Having spent some years in South Korea, with three trips to the DMZ and once across, I'm often asked by friends in Europe & the USA -- how dangerous is South Korea?

It's a tough question to answer. South Koreans don't feel much danger, but proximity to North Korea is certainly a problem. It's only 35 miles (55 kms) from the DPRK border to Seoul, 120 miles (190 kms) between Seoul & Pyongyang. It's costly to be bottled-up on the Korean peninsula by an unpredictable neighbor.

In terms of marketing, people around the world are both confused & frightened by the jointly-used name "Korea"...

There are smaller problems in living anywhere; sometimes irritation seems to accumulate. In Korea I've been bothered that incoming international mail is a few days slower to arrive than to Japan or Europe or the USA. It was also an irritant that an international service I use regularly will not ship to Korea (VistaPrint; they ship to 120 other countries...). An associated problem is finding Korea in international postage lists: is it under "K" for Korea, "S" for South Korea, "R" for Republic of Korea, or is it not listed...?

Some weaknesses leave locals unfazed, but I've been surprised: the university regularly issued us medicine to kill intestinal parasites. And don't drink the tap water!

But most people in South Korea prefer not to think about these wider problems, and don't spend time worrying about them. People busily focus on the everyday business of life.

Obscured Imprisonment

(poetry by Genki)

I expend
My lonely energies
Building barriers
Against Others

Wrong race
Bad nation
Ugly
Can't be trusted

What threat
Built my prison?
Unforgiving jailer
In every mirror

But sometime
solitude breaks
I'm outside, in
unpredictability

Fresh air
A few breaths
Smile
Banter with others

No whistle of "time's up"
I trudge back
To my cell
and lock my own door

I may wake one day
In a better world
I hope. I pray.
Simple things may set me free.

Poking at Pyongyang

Media reports about Lee Seung-Eun (리승은 Euna Lee) & Laura Ling have been unfairly inflammatory. These two 'journalists' were arrested while unreasonably probing the Chinese / DPRK (North Korea) border on 17 March 2009.

To illegally cross the border, or even to be close enough that North Korean guards could grab them, was dumb. They were in a controlled area, and are now convicted provocateurs. Certainly we want them back as soon as possible; they and their families must be suffering terribly.

Who are these women? They were clearly in a dangerous place, with producer-cameraman Mitchell 'Mitch' Koss and a North Korean-born naturalized Chinese guide (who both evaded North Korean capture, but were subsequently detained by the Chinese; Koss was quickly released and returned to the USA a few days after the incident). Koss before has traveled the full length of this North Korean border (see his LA Times report from 2003). For what reasons were inexperienced women sent into danger? (Some facts emerge in a 30 March 2009 article by Barbara Demick). Why no clear statements from Koss - the direct witness who abandoned them? Most press coverage shows bias, and facts have been woefully inadequate.

Within hours of this incident, a Japanese man with wire cutters was arrested by the South Korean military attempting to break through the North Korean border. (A video report in Japanese is here). Strange goings-on for a highly-dangerous area!

The best strategy available for these women is to beg for mercy & clemency.

Update: It is unhelpful that in 2006 the older sister of imprisoned Laura Ling, Lisa Ling, infiltrated North Korea with hidden cameras posing as part of a medical relief team; the resulting National Geographic production "Undercover in North Korea" was highly critical of the DPRK. http://epicanthus.net/2009/06/08/larry-king-live/

Foreign Devils Left My House

I've lived in assorted countries as a student & teacher; over 28 years as a foreigner! (About 14 years in Japan & Korea as a racial minority). This could be characterized as miserable or wonderful - mostly it's been good. There are many thousands of people such as myself: highly skilled global migrants who regularly learn to enjoy new tastes & experiences. Our numbers are increasing.

Mixed-race people are also increasing in number (I've Hawaiian, Chinese & European roots). In comparison with citizenship, racial ancestry is less likely to be public knowledge and is often misreported: U.S. President Barack Obama is regularly termed "Black" when he's as much Caucasian as otherwise. Racial groupings and definitions are imprecise and often used as a mechanism for exclusion...

I've lived in Sweden since 1995, and was a foreigner until a couple of months ago, when I joined my American-born wife as a naturalized Swede with multiple citizenship. Now I feel more interest as a local stakeholder, and more empowered. It's nice.

Tasting Torture: Gandhi at Gitmo

Torture continues at Gitmo. Kidnapped people held by the USA at Guantanamo Bay are still held in bad conditions. These so-called "detainees" are held indefinitely without charge. Some are tortured. Food is actually forced down their throats.

Active torture exists: where a detainee refuses to eat on command, they are bound & force fed. They're hogtied, a tube is painfully thrust up their nose & down their throat, a 'meal' is forced into them "for their own best interests."

This type of torture has been specifically forbidden by the World Medical Association (1975 Declaration of Tokyo; 1991 Declaration of Malta). The medical profession (the American Medical Association is a signatory) is specific (Malta, Art. 21): "Forcible feeding is never ethically acceptable. Even if intended to benefit, feeding accompanied by threats, coercion, force or use of physical restraints is a form of inhuman and degrading treatment."

Doctors from around the world have condemned US mistreatment through force-feeding; 263 doctors signed a 2006 letter to The Lancet urging the USA to abandon these procedures.

Visualize skinny Gandhi, bound in a Gitmo five-point restraint chair, half clad in USA Gitmo orange, his hunger strike and human dignity forced to nothing by torturous tube-feeding. Force-feeding must stop now!

Slaves: Pay for Your Chains

Bailing-out banks in the USA with public funds is a clear case of the average schmuck having to pay for his (her) own chains. What a racket! Some people foolishly expect politicians to speak up, but top politicians are rewarded by high finance - it ain't gonna happen. The public must protect itself.

The citizenry wonders why they fund the banks, who then charge them usurious fees. Paying twice? No - more than that: pay also for police who protect the wealthy. Pay further for politicians who make financier scams legal...

Those paying the costs are the American working people, chained to the job, working 50 weeks a year & liking it (or they're thrown out of work).

There's a word for this: it starts with nothing, and ends with "sucker"