My Two World Leaders

And Their Few Words

President Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Abe
(pronounced AH-beh or, alternatively, SEN-sah-za-MEE-dee-ah)

offered some telling remarks this past Tuesday

to open Herr Kimigayo’s visit to the US.

(The full transcript can be found here but the following summary is really all you need.)

 

"Come on, we agreed we'd say nothing about the new military bases. Now shake on it."

Obama went first since the Japanese are polite like that.

Mr. Nobel-Prize-for-a-Songbasically had 3 things to say:

1.     Japan has given us all sorts of neat stuff “like karate and karaoke.”

2.     I’m from Hawaii. Really.

3.     Mr. Abe and I are both equally scared shit at what’s going on around the world.

"I don't care if you did eat all your seaweed, Barack, I'm not giving you Okinawa."

 

Mr. Abe, fresh off his tongue-lashing for two TV networks who had the audacity to speak their minds, had all this to say:

1.     I’m banking on the US to back me up big time as I deploy my own Constitution.

Then they said 'Arigato', went inside and shut the doors.

"That should teach those TV people..."

I grew up in the US. I live in Japan.

I think I need a beer. Or a glass of good sake.

Actually make that a good European brew.

Matsumoto’s Kōbō-yama

The Life & Times of a Non-Descript Mountain

Kōbō-yama does not draw much attention from the tourist and backpacker crowd. Visitors to Matsumoto, once they turn their eyes from the castle and the easy bustle of downtown, are drawn to the serrated alpine skyline across the valley to the west. Even to the natives Kōbō-yama goes largely unnoticed. And this is not surprising. Standing barely 50 meters above the traffic rolling up and down nearby Route 19, Mt. Kōbō can hardly be called a mountain at all.

Yet there is something very interesting about this very non-descript place. Two very interesting things, actually. One floats overhead and all around, as fantastic as it is fleeting. The other lies underfoot, old and unmoving and fantastically understated. One requires perfect timing. The other is constant as time itself.

Come in mid-April if you want to see both.

Read more at Taiken Japan...

Tazawa-ko: Akita’s Deep Blue Jewel

Facts, Logistics & Fun

Photo： Agustin Rafael Reyes on Flickr

Tazawa Lake in Akita Prefecture is a near-perfect circle – and a perfect representation of Akita itself: unassuming, unspoiled and sublimely spectacular. Surrounded by mountains and laced with legend, this million-year-old volcanic crater offers the comfortable beauty of natural Japan without all the crowds.

Upon closer examination, we also see that unassuming Tazawa is quietly decorated with quirky details. But first…

A Few Facts

Initially thought by some to be an impact crater from a meteorite, research into the lake’s depths uncovered geological evidence of a tremendous volcanic eruption 1.4 million years ago that led to the lake’s present form. With no natural inflow or outflow, Tazawa’s waters consist entirely of eons of rain and snow.

With a surface area of roughly 10 square miles (26km2) Tazawa-ko sits well down the list of Japan’s largest lakes. But at 423 meters (1,388ft) she is Japan’s deepest. Drop Tokyo Tower into the lake and the top would still be 90 meters below the surface. Lake Tazawa sits at 249 meters above sea level, which means the deepest parts of the lake reach down lower than the waves crashing into the shores of Honshu. This translates into the lake never freezing over, no matter how harsh the Tohoku winter.

Read more at Taiken Japan...

Salaryman No More

Yen Pro Quo

There's a real good reason this is my first post since last Fall.
It has to do with that picture - more specifically, what's in it.

I moved my family back to Japan in July 2014. During our month in Fukushima, during which we did our best to decompress while simultaneously gearing up for our intended move to Nagano, I managed to land an interview for a teaching gig.

I don't know why I keep doing this. It is an undeniable fact that me and full-time jobs are about as compatible as Binyamin Netanyahu and any randomly-chosen sane person. I guess it's the idea that as a husband and father I'm supposed to do shit like this.

I enjoy teaching people, don't get me wrong. I get a kick out of it actually. As long as my students are all okay with having a good time first and are willing to consider any real learning a bonus they I'd say we're golden.

The downside is that my students - and my bosses too - expect me to show up every day. And on their schedule. No negotiating, no deal-making. Evening class means evening class, no switching to the morning so I can go home and eat dinner with my family like a real husband and father. Can't even move class across the street to the yakitori bar.

So while I liked my bosses, enjoyed my students and looked forward to seeing the other teachers at our weekly chat which everyone had a habit of callling a 'staff meeting', the immovable object that was the sum of demands of the job met with the irresistable force of my need for self-determination and I decided to return the keys to the company roadster you see in the picture.

So once again I am the master of my own schedule. I can use each hour of my day as I see fit. I can leave those neckties in the closet, stash the attache and settle down to dinner with my family.

Of course, now I have to figure out just who's going to pay for all that food on the table.