Higo Blog

How are the police going to deal with motorcyclists that cause a nuisance late at night and pose a danger to other motorists?

Cops will also be armed with paintball rifles, nail guns to shoot out tires and can now use unmarked Black Wing motorcycles to keep watch on the roads. (from this article)

Paintball guns I can understand, but nail guns (this is kind of off topic, but here’s another interesting story involving a nail gun-Operation Magician)? Someone’s been playing a little too much Quake or something. Hmmm, a cop shooting the tires out from under a young punk with a nail gun while riding a motorcycle. What could possibly go wrong? What if the cop mistakenly draws a bead on the motorcyclist’s head and only realizes that what he thought was a paintball gun was in fact a nail gun after he squeezes the trigger (Headshot!)? Does anyone else see anything that could possibly go wrong with these measures? I can already envision some fed-up cops freezing their paintballs and jacking up the velocity past recommended levels.
Does anyone remember The Jackal (the movie kind of based on The Day of The Jackal, not Carlos the Jackal, which is worth watching for the scene where Willis’s character adjusts the aim of the remote controlled .50 cal) with Bruce Willis and Jack Black? Well, some Texan is selling 10 shots from a .22 rigged so that it can be used over the internet. I like the idea, but if I’m going hunting over the internet I want to use a larger caliber rifle with the option to toggle between semi, tri-burst, fully-automatic, and grenade launcher settings to compensate for any lag issues.

It’s crazy what you can find when Googling your name and the name of people that you know. For example, I found out that my high school friends Gary Dote (at Halocrazed) and Daniel Chong (posting at chickennuggets) are also blogging. It’s good to hear from old friends, even if just through their posts.
It’s interesting to hear stories from people who have read my postings, as I enjoy hearing feedback and exchanging stories and opinions. But my favorite story by far comes from Joe Debiec.
I posted my thoughts about Joe leaving a McDonalds bag full of feces on top of my Civic after going to a cheesy disco party in Miyazaki, thinking that I was just recording a funny (in retrospect, not at that present moment) story for posterity. Well, it turns out that his professor, who has written letters of recommendation for him and whom he still corresponds with, did a search on Google and found this post. The professor then brought the post to his attention, teasingly chastising him for his primitive behavior. Now, that post generated some truly gratifying results and that is part of the joy of posting.
Other thoughts on Google as a social navigation tool:
Ego-googling, and Justin’s attempts to boost his page rank under a search for my name, has also made me aware of the existence of another Adam T. Yoshida. I wonder how many people have met or will meet me, only to mistake me for this other Adam T. Yoshida. How many of my former friends and acquaintances were shocked to find out that I wasn’t a real American or think that I have transformed into someone who is very vocal about his right wing views.
Many people write insulting things about this prolific Canadian, and though I am not this individual and do not share his political views I can’t help but feel disgusted about the lack of good things said about our collective name. I feel defensive of this other Adam T. Yoshida, even though we’ve never met each other or directly corresponded. It sounds superficial, but that’s how I feel. I’m kind of surprised that no Adam T. Yoshida hater has left any comments on this blog, but then again once you read Higo Blog it should be pretty clear that it isn’t written by the Canadian Adam T. Yoshida. For now, I am operating under the assumption that I am the only American Adam T. Yoshida in existence.

Jamie “Slice Bush” Mackay has started up The Republic of Mackistan, chronicling his experiences as a JET in Aso-gun. Here’s a little excerpt:

Jamie and I shared in a fair share of good/interesting times last year. We almost got blown away during a hippie music festival on top of Mt. Aso, went hitchhiking through half of Kyushu (come to think of it, this qualifies as part of the hitchhiking experience), and have dazed recollections of past parties and hashes. Keep on eye on his blog to see what life in Aso as an obvious gaijin is all about.

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Ed Ricketts (biography) and John Steinbeck are two names that are synonymous with Monterey’s Cannery Row. Looking at the pickled creatures in large bottles of formaldehyde, and the primitive scientific instruments and texts with which they were studied, I get goose bumps and feel my enthusiasm flare up just thinking about going out to a rich sea, capturing specimens, and scrutinizingly recording over every detail later. In the Sea of Cortez, you could make more discoveries, see more mind-blowing creatures with vibrant colors and fascinating behaviors, and participate in the noble quest for expanding our collective knowledge.
These experiences sound like a great time, even considering that living on a ship entails certain hardships such as lack of privacy, equilibrium imbalance issues, being confined in a very small space with a limited number of people, and having to post watch in the middle of the night to make sure that the boat is safe. Besides, you get to fight epic battles with beautiful, ferocious fish, hopefully resulting in some seafood to supplement the provisions.
I am only on the first pages of the log of the scientific expedition, undertaken by the Sea of Cortez Expedition and Education Project, and I am already hooked. Bill Gilly’s (the chief scientist) statement of purpose seems to really resonate with the image that I have of Doc Ricketts- an approach to studying marine biology that blends the passion of one’s hobby(using hobby as the Japanese definition of spending all of your free time and money on) with the uncompromising work ethic for one’s chosen profession. The sea is our last terrestrial frontier, and holds many more surprises than we know.

Smoking is legal, so why shouldn’t taking a radon bath be? It’s probably not a wise decision, but people have the right to give themselves cancer. However, it is a stupid thing to do because there are so many other onsens to choose from that have specialties of a more benign and pleasant nature. Why not go to Aso Farmland and bathe in wine, herbs, and flowers, go to Kurokawa and dunk your body in bitter cold mountain river water after soaking in minerals and heat and absorbing the abundant natural beauty, or get buried in sand after relaxing in a volcanic mud bath in Kagoshima? Going to the onsen allows one the sorely needed time to reflect and to analyze and learn from their stupidity (post hash wound examination and cleaning, nomihodai futsukayoi detox, etc). Developing cancer after routinely going to the radon onsen, one would seriously ask one’s self “What the f*** was I thinking?” and then agonize over it. Now wouldn’t that be ironic- a place of relaxation being the source of worry and stress.

Where have you been? So far, I have only traveled North of the equator. Gotta get down south one of these days.

I am looking forward to Tarantino’s future Kung-Fu movie, which is supposedly taking precedence over Inglorious Bastards (currently in production). I predict that the dubbed version (the film will be in Mandarin, with English subtitles on another version) will be most excellent. Will Pai Mei make it into this movie???