Samurai Blues

Samurai culture: endlessly romanticized, the subject of countless historical dramas... Japan's men's soccer team 'Samurai Blue' and baseball team 'Samurai Japan'. However, you didn't want them as neighbors、not if you were a peasant farmer. Watch 七人の, from 1.29.00: the great Mifune Toshio, as Kikuchiyo, delivers an impassioned speech decrying the oppression of peasants by lawless samurai parasites.

Hearn, New Orleans Years: 1877-1886

In 'New Orleans in Wet Weather', published in the Cincinnati Commercial, December 22, 1877, Hearn describes the city's famous statue of Henry Clay,the statesman and slaveholder from Kentucky whose memorial was then located on Canal Street. Hearn is struck by the irony of an inscription on the memorial: "If I could be instrumental in eradicating this deepest stain, slavery, from the character of our country, I would not exchange the proud satisfaction which I should enjoy for the honors of all the triumphs ever decreed to the most successful conquerors. - Henry Clay" Hearn's appears to be the sole reference to the inscription on the east-facing surface of the statue's pedestal. Interesting page here: New Orleans Then and Now: Canal Street and Henry Clay’s Monument | Inside Adams https://share.google/nnQVwg1vRByALTE5T

Out with the Old

An anonymous donor has gifted the Osaka/ Yokoyama City water utility 21kg in gold bars valued at 566 million yen. Like many municipalities in Japan, Osaka's network of water mains and sewerage pipes is old, corroded, and in danger of collapse, which can result in sinkholes and costly property damage, if not fatalities. The benefactor、who made the donation under an assumed name、 requested the monies be spent on renovating the city's 水道管。I am reminded of a family resort at which I worked in Colorado, USA, which solicited donations from guests (the camp attracted the well-heeled) to fund construction of accommodations (cabins, lodges) and other facilities (resort library, playing fields, swimming pool, and the like). These donors insisted their names be emblazoned across their gifts. The reaction of the Yokoyama City mayor: "感謝しかない。とんでもない金額で言葉ない"。

Local Girl Nakai Ami Makes Good

in her first Winter Olympics, 17-year-old Japanese figure skater 中井亜美 leads the field after the short program. Ms Nakai is a native of Niigata City, completing primary school at Meike Elementary. The Niigata City Board of Education and her Alma Mater wish her well.

Bienvenue en Louisiane

More photos on the way, including from a visit to New Orleans and Hearn House later in the week. (Experiencing technical difficulties at the moment, unable to upload photos.) Decorations for Mardi Gras (this past Tuesday).

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 on a sidewalk. 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. PS. I have visited New Orleans and am uploading new posts with photos. Please see the latest.

Local Boy Makes 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.