As in, they have reconfirmed Himiko’s tomb as the kofun (burial mound) in Sakurai that T and Adam and I walked around on the way past Miwa Jinja on a cold drizzly day a few years back. You see, this is important because the location of the Yamato kingdom has always been disputed by tourist money-deficient Kyushans who just can’t accept the fact that Nara always has been and always will be the one, the only, the Kingdom of Heavenlike Yamato, biiiiotches.
What Kyushu is lacking in ancient bronze mirrors from China (burial mound evidence), however, it makes up for in cultural value.
So let that be a lesson to you – Nara has all the dope ancient shit and Kyushu has much better hairstylists (we know firsthand since we [as in, most of Cosmic Buddha plus friends and family] were in a commercial for one in Saga ten years ago..).
That is all.
Category: Japanese Society/Culture
Democracy in Obama City
It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but homeboy gets points for pseudo-fundoshi and giant Garfield flying kick cop-out.
The Road Warrior would be really happy in post-apocalyptic Japan (because he wouldn’t have to worry about tolls/gas/speeding tickets)
There’s an excellent article up at the Japan Times that explains some of the reasons why even though the government used to subsidize half of the toll for the bridge to the mainland I used every weekend when living on Awajishima, I still had to pay 2600 yen (one way!): Japan’s many roads to ruin
“The results have been a disaster. Certainly, Japan has a lot of roads: four to five times the number of any other Group of Seven country when measured by kilometers of road to usable land. The trouble is, a lot of these roads are in places where they are not needed. The country has an impressive network of toll roads that will never be profitable. It has expressways that connect industrial parks to ports and airports that industries do not want to use, and monumental bridges that suck people and money out of rural towns rather than reviving them. Yet despite decades worth of road and other infrastructure projects, projects that people actually need remain undone: In 2007 the government identified 110,000 km of roads where there was a high risk of accidents because, for example, children used them to walk to school (including 40,000 km of streets lacking separated sidewalks!). Adding sidewalks to streets used by small children simply doesn’t fit the agenda of the road tribes as well as a four-lane expressway to nowhere does.
The cost of all this has also been disastrous. Thanks in part to road-building costs 10 to 30 times higher than in other countries, Japan has the most expensive toll roads in the world, some of the highest vehicle acquisition costs, and a national debt almost double the country’s GDP, the servicing of which consumes about a quarter of the annual budget. Japan’s four principal road corporations stagger under an additional ¥40 trillion in debt that is guaranteed by the government.”
I still have some really crazy road stories from Japan, and I may eventually share them. Some of them may be future editions of Osaka Stories.
Some Mother Frakking Group – OMFG with an “S”
OK it’s time to go on a Japan kick for a couple posts.
Is it just me, or is SMFG the worst named financial institution, ever?
As in, “SMFG agrees deal with Citi to buy Nikko Cordial.”
They might as well call themselves the Stealing Fuckers or Nipponese Moneylending Urchins of Doom (NMUD).
Kings get bored.
The Death Of D1 – The Rise And Fall
My bootleg drifting vids will one day be worth millions (of Zimbabwe dollars?).
Fuck Mount Fuji (also, Fuck Mt. Fuji)
Out of all the fucking glorious mountains in the world, why is Mt. Fuji so universally beloved?
I can’t believe nobody’s ever written this before. So I reiterate: FUCK FUJIYAMA*
Some people like mountain climbing; I like mountain hating. FUCK YOU FUJISAN, YOU STUPID DORMANT VOLCANO!
Also, just to cover all bases: FRAK YOU, MT. FUJI!!!
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* For some reason, Thais call it Fujiyama. I hadn’t even heard this word until I came to Thailand, but wikipedia says, “Fuji-san is sometimes referred to as ‘Fujiyama’ in some Western texts, but this reading is not correct in standard Japanese.”
** This post was spurred by this comment.
You say Dokdo, I say Takeshima (or the Liancourt Rocks)
The Big Picture captures the Dokdo/Takeshima (Takeshima/Dokdo) debate through big news shots: Dokdo or Takeshima
They should just take one island a piece and turn them into penal colonies, or breeding grounds for the next generation of Godzilla.
Actually, the best way to handle this situation is probably for the UN to evacuate the islands and then nuke them into oblivion. That way, neither side loses face, and that’s really what this is all about, right? A 500 year old Japanese-Korean pissing match about some rocks in the middle of nowhere… And yet, this issue even springs up in articles covering race relations at Little Tokyo senior care facilities.
When will we all learn?
– Koreans must embrace their kimchi funkiness
– Japanese must accept their well-deserved reputation for snootiness
(And of the two, I’m personally guilty of the former more often than the latter)
Osaka Bang is back
You might remember the video I posted about Osaka culture last month – it got taken down once by the Yomiuri TV goonsquad and I couldn’t find another instance… Well someone has put it back up, with subtitles this time! If you didn’t see it the first time, it’s definitely worth a watch.