Speaking of Connections...

The ringmaster of the right-wing populist circus that is Sanseito- I'm referring to one Kamiya Sohei- recently averred that Japan is the only nation in the world to stipulate a link between climate change and fossil fuels. Balderdash, but of a piece- Kamiya regularly trots out such nonsense, when he's not denying credible allegations of power harassment (leading to a staffer's suicide, I might add). Trump's America, from which this opportunistic hollow man finds inspiration, has managed what Japan never will (thank the Shinto gods, and the Japanese education system): Trump’s EPA repeals landmark climate finding in gift to ‘billionaire polluters’ | Trump administration | The Guardian https://share.google/Sp5Wvd8prYBGRnaqX

Glimpses of America: Japan Connection

Parked outside the hotel is this behemoth:

Turning Point USA, the outfit run by ultranationalist Christian Kirk. Remember him? Days before he became a martyr to the Second Amendment, he attended a rally in Tokyo at the invitation of Sanseito, Japan's MAGA.

Glimpses of America: The Neverending Story

Murder of Sonya Massey - Wikipedia https://share.google/rMcz5KqoUb0YKFs0j

Glimpses of the America on the Road.to. NO: Three Billboards

Glimpses of America En Route to Louisiana and Hearn's New Orleans

Preempted by the unceasing outrage, fury, cruelty, and distraction that is America are the stories of the individuals, children, elderly trying to make a life in such communities as those I witnessed on the run today.

Glimpses of the USA: On the Road to New Orleans

Spending the night in Springfield, Illinois, en route to Louisiana. The state capital, the governor a good man. But mere blocks from the capitol building I encounter, whilst running, urban blight and decay unlike any I've ever seen. Litter everywhere. Boarded-up houses. Busted furniture and broken children's toys on sagging, paint-flecked porches. Unopened cans of vegetables, abandoned. Payday loans and bottle shops (why not?- observations, merely, not judgements). "Recognize the symptoms of overdose": Naloxone. Have I mentioned that the state capitol is minutes away?

Lafcadio Hearn on New Orleans

"Times are not good here. The city is crumbling into ashes. It has been buried under taxes and frauds and maladministrations so that it has become a study for archaeologists...but it is better to live here in sackcloth and ashes than to own the whole state of Ohio." As true now as 150 years ago. I shall be visiting New Orleans a few days from now and plan to explore Hearn's haunts, including the Hearn House at the edge of the French Quarter. By the by, Dear Reader: Ohio is home to one J. Divan Vance. No further elaboration required.

Local Boy Does Good: トヨタ自動車の新社長•CEO 近 健太

Toyota Motor Corporation has announced that 近 健太、currently CFO, will be promoted to new roles starting April 1. I remember Kon Kenta as a junior high school student at Kido Jr High, Niigata City. He was exceptional, naturally, perhaps the only graduate that year to be accepted into Niigata's premiere public HS 新潟高等学校。Moreover, I remember his single-kanji surname struck me as unusual at the time. Finally, he has aged quite well: I can still make out the teenager he was then. https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/caae5b25a30f281c19e2a19285242ec34e48d83c

Hello Kitty, Madison, WI

Rice Price, Tokyo

A 5kg bag of Niigata rice sells for approximately 1,000¥ more in Tokyo than Niigata itself. CalRose, which I had never seen in Niigata supermarkets, was a few hundred yen less than the cheapest Japanese blend. However, at a different shop I discovered Japanese rice that was cheaper still.

富士山 at Evening

From the hotel room, Haneda Airport.

More 穴守稲荷神社 Photos

穴守稲荷神社

Ana Mori Inari Shrine is located in Ota-ku, Tokyo, at the entrance to Haneda Airport. I recently spent a night at a nearby hotel and stumbled across the shrine, which those who have traveled to or from Haneda by rail may recall from Keikyu Airport Line station of the same name.

Haneda Peace Gate

Apropos

Japan Today are reporting this: Man breaks into Tokyo apartment, threatening foreign resident with knife - Japan Today https://share.google/gslGj3frvzsVjExfH Some commenters assume the assailant is Japanese. Because zenophobia. About 20 seconds of searching reveals the following: “外国籍”男がアパートに押し入り住人男性に頭突き　包丁手に英語と片言の日本語で「財布よこせ」　もみ合いになり逃走　東京・中野区 - ライブドアニュース https://share.google/RmlqwbEhzDSf3PHvL Update: Unsurprisingly, the comment (including the above Japanese) was removed by the moderators at JT. The original story, however, has not been emended. One suspects this comment is not long for the world: JT, do your readers a favor- and your job- by updating the story to include reporting identifying the attacker as a foreigner.

Plus la meme chose

Writing in the 1890s, Hearn observes "Of the nine or ten English papers published in the open ports, the majority expressed, day after day, one side of this dislike, in the language of ridicule or contempt..." The "open ports" are the five Japanese ports opened to foreign trade in the 1850s and home to foreign concessions, entire 'alien' communities enjoying complete extra-territoriality, a colonialist arrangement regarded by most Japanese of the day as a national embarrassment and insult. The foreign community rarely traveled beyond its narrow precincts, and in its interactions with Japanese was insufferably haughty and condescending. As for "the language of ridicule or cotempt", one may simply peruse the comments (and the occasional article) in Japan Today to discover how little has changed. * Just imagine: "nine or ten English papers", some publishing morning and evening editions daily for a decidedly small readership.

Snowy Day

Snow atop grave monuments, downtown Niigata.

Rice: Great Kids, Cool Project, Nice Price

Bought 4kgs of rice today from students of a Niigata City primary school who live in a farming district and had planted and harvested the rice themselves. Pretty cool.

A Different Kind of Lunch

Lunch Set

Grilled saba and karage lunch plates. Simple izakaya fare to warm body and soul.

Niigata Artist Fukiya Koji

In the lobby of an historic hotel in Niigata City, I am pleased to discover an exhibit of works by local graphic artist Fukiya Koji. To view the artist's work, past the followingこinto your browser: うじふきや作品

玉子あんかけうどん

Most tasty, this noodle dish from udon chain 丸亀製麺.

Because Election Season

Government shifting away from inclusion of foreigners | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis https://share.google/dpsGVK9b29FshsTru Onoda Kimi heads the relevant industry, and there she is, to the left of the PM, with a smirk?, or is that her Giaconda Smile? If you suspect Kimi has immigrant heritage, noticing her coloring, perhaps, or facial structure, she does indeed: she was born in the US. Japan doesn't allow dual citizenship, but one is confident Kimi has satisfied Japanese law in that regard. (No point exploring the possibility of irony in Kimi's public service.)

Windbreak

This belt of pine forest was planted in the late Edo period as a buffer to shield Niigata from fierce winter winds barreling across the Sea of Japan.

The Kusa- Hibari

The Kusa-Hibari, or 'Grass Lark',is a species of cricket (Svistella bifasciata), of which Lafcadio Hearn keeps a lone specimen in a tiny wooden cage in his study. "By day he sleeps or meditates, except while occupied with a slice of fresh eggplant or cucumber... But always at sunset the infinitesimal soul of him awakens: then the room begins to fill with a delicate and ghostly music of indescribable sweetness..." https://youtu.be/gO-zSUmNH-8?si=Nf7Mihw-9C_lKSQt

More about Fireflies

"(T)he light of a fine Genji-firefly is so brilliant that.. at first sight the flash appears yellow as the flame of a wood-fire.." Thus the following poem: Kagaribi mo/ Hotaru mo hikaru/ Genji kana. The kagari is a brazier, torch basket, or cresset, such as were used by officers of the watch, certain fishermen, and at festivals.

A Few Words about Fireflies

In Lafcadio Hearn's miscellany titled "Kotto", there is a delightful chapter on the subject of fireflies, or hotaru (蛍- combining the characters for fire- 火- and insect- 虫). We read that two species are called Genji-botaru and Heike-botaru, folknames deriving from the famous warring clans. According to legend, the fireflies are ghosts of the Minamoto and Taira warriors, and they meet once a year in June above the waters of the river Uji to reenact the famous 12th century battle. And upon that day all caged hotaru are to be released to participate in the contest. Hearn relates that special trains took passengers from Osaka and Kyoto to Uji to view the Hotaru Gassen, or Battle of the Fireflies. Poet Chiyo was inspired by the spectacle to write: Kawa bakari/ Yami ha nagarete-?/ Hotaru kana, which Hearn translates "Is it the river only/ Or is the darkness drifting) Oh, the fireflies

Nissin ラ王とろ熟味噌 Ramen

For instant miso ramen, this is the bomb ( on account of the Hokkaido miso). Added green onion, sesame, red pepper, and pureed garlic. For best results, the miso and seasonings are to be added last: お召し上がり直前入れ下さい。

組子- Kumiko

Watching an NHK Education program about kumiko, 組子。As here...

Kadomatsu: New Year's Decoration

The kadomatsu (門松) at Goukoku Shrine, Niigata, are the largest I've seen in town. The individual elements are symbolic, with the matsu, or pine, signifying longevity, perpetuity and the bamboo, strength, growth, prosperity. Kadomatsu of this size may exceed 150,000 yen. The shrine itself is controversial inasmuch as it's part of the Yasukuni "Group", the Tokyo shrine where the souls of Japan's war dead, including war criminals, are honored.

The Chouzuya (手水舎)

Beside the approach to a shrine sits a water basin- in Japanese 水盤- provided with ladles (hishaku) for the performing of ritual ablutions, the purification of hands and mouth. The 手水舎 (also known as 水盤舎、or 水屋) is sometimes encirled by a sort of shimenawa with pendent shide to demarcate the sacred space and ward off evil spirits.

卒塔婆- Sotoba

Sotoba: mortuary tablet, from Sanskrit stupa. A wooden lath placed upright behind the grave marker at some (depending on the sect) Buddhist temples. The death name of the individual, date of death, age, and so on are inscribed thereon. Notched, to evoke the shape of a 5-storied pagoda. I visited a nearby temple 墓場 today, recalling that sotoba were numerous there in the past, only to discover that nearly all had been removed (perhaps that is a year-end custom). Those I did find were not upright but on the ground. Somewhat forlorn, it was.

The Brothers Toyotomi

NHK is broadcasting an historical drama about 16th century Shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi and his brother, Hidenaga (The two were born peasants; Hideyoshi's rise is the stuff of legend). Anyhow, he was most interested in geography and cartography, commissioning a map drawn on screens, currently preserved at Jotokuji https://share.google/79pGKpdvAv9HGZUh9

Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan

Lafcadio Hearn, or 小泉八雲、as he came to be known after naturalization, arrived in Japan in April, 1890. In "Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan" Hearn describes his early experiences and impressions of the country, at the time 22 years into 維新、or the restoration of the Emperor. Visiting a temple (unnamed) in Yokohama, Hearn writes that temple authorities had posted signs in English informing foreign visitors that "IT IS FORBIDDEN TO INJURE THE TREES" (an interesting choice, not deface or damage, but injure , as of a living thing). I was reminded of a recent story about graffiti on bamboo at Arashiyama in Kyoto and authorities' decision to remove the injured plants.

Foreign -born Children: Japan Doesn't Want You

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/16269759 Discriminatory and opaque Justice Ministry policies result in the Kafkaesque limbo such individuals face. However, the LDP is ultimately behind this. Right-wingers are the same the world over. So predictable, and so odious.

蓮久寺 (Kyoto) and 大黒様

Nice story here about the temple, previously in a state of advanced disrepair, Daikoku-sama, one of the seven gods of prosperity, and a generous benefactor. 奇跡体験！アンビリバボー：夢に大黒様が登場し 人生激変 - フジテレビ https://share.google/2SW5VfyJaXGuxItCx

The Mallet of Gold- an Old Story from Echigo

Long, long ago, in the province of Echigo (which, gentle reader, is an old name for Niigata), there lived in a village in the hills an elderly couple. (It will come as no surprise to visitors to these pages that the two were poor, childless, but happy.) Though poor, the couple knew not want but were able to share their meager fare and humble abode with an adopted dog and cat. Such was their household. One day jiji (old man, grandpa) was down by the river on some business or other when he heard a commotion. Going to investigate, he found that the tumult was caused by group of youths who had tied a length of twine to the tail of a turtle and were dragging it about, rapping smartly on its shell the while. "Hey, you, enough of that", remonstrated our hero. To no avail. Whereupon he bethought himself of the mochi and sweets his wife had packed for his lunch. "Hey, I'll give you some rice cakes and other dainties if you give me the turtle", to which the louts readily assented. The exchange completed, jiji carried the traumatized creature to a deserted stretch of river where, before releasing the turtle, he advised it to avoid teenage boys in future. To which the turtle made this reply to its astonished saviour: "I cannot thank you enough for saving me from those hateful delinquents. To repay your kindness, I shall place a wondrous treasure of a mallet beside your pillow on the morrow. No ordinary object, but atop this mallet will magically appear a small gold coin each and every morning." And with that mysterious and startling promise, the turtle waddled into the river and vanished from view. "If it hadn't been for you, what might have befallen that poor turtle?" mused the old woman when the day's excitement had been related. And the two discussed the wondrous mallet, not doubting the creature's word but wondering at its mystery. The couple betook themselves to bed at the appointed hour and slept a dreamless sleep until, in the dead of night, a phantom turtle disturbed their slumbers. "I most humbly thank you for coming to my assistance today. To replay your kindless, I shall have a mallet placed beside your pallet. Upon this mallet a bar of gold will appear every day at the time of your morning repast. Live happy and prosper." With that the image of the turtle dissolved, and the couple awakened. Rubbing their eyes and muttering astonishment, the two searched the room, half doubtinng they would find the mysterious mallet, when lo, there it was at the foot of their straw mattress, just as their benefactor had said. After depositing the 鎚 (tsuchi, mallet) in a hiding place for safe keeping, the old couple went back to bed. Rising at the usual time, or first light, they could scarce bring themselves to remove the false panel in their only tansu to see if in fact a coin of gold lay atop the tsuchi- lest their faith and hope be soかrely dashed. After a brief hesitation, jiji opened the hiding place and, behold, a dull golden gleam showed from a small gold coin, or koban, placed neatly atop the mallet. Each and every day a koban appeared, and the couple lived a life of modest leisure: the husband ordered silk kimono from the local haberdasher to replace his threadbare cotton kimono, while his wife fed the two adopted pets the choicest morsels. Which led to th becoming dangerously obese. - to be continued

The Fate of Private Universities in Japan

If you teach at a small private university in Japan, as I do, this article is for you: https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/260c1881910e56d04f3b7118bd2b5eea3d68310f

Izakaya Dinner

miso, sashimi, saba, salmon and roe potato salad