In fact, this is being handwritten right now. It *was* going well, but then a vampire space hog biped sat down next to me... Anyway, my station approaches - better to stand than to have my energy stolen by a vampire.
Off to see an art exhibition.
2013/06/20 (Chuo Line / 中央線)
"Members Only"
I was recently asked (by an e-friend) what I thought the reason for local resistance to outsiders knowing the local culture was about after they had read something I posted some years ago, specifically this:
[00/12/20 note: I've been asking around about this, and everyone I've mentioned it to says that letters of intent to quit are not generally torn up - given back, yes, but not usually torn up... maybe Prez has been watching too many television dramas?]
[10/08/15 note: There's something else too. In 1984, I mentioned to a woman here about the model "Skyline" car, and she told me "No, there's no such car as that." Later, I was with her in her car going somewhere, and - lo and behold - a Skyline was right in front of us, with "Skyline" written on the back. I pointed it out to her and she seemed very displeased.
Around 1996, I began to notice that young people were dropping the final "i" with words like "samui", "atsui", etc., so they became "samu", "atsu", etc. I mentioned it to a local friend, and again he said "No, no such thing. You're mistaken." Later, I was with him when some friends of his joined us outside, and one of them said it was "samu" instead of "samui". I basically said "Behold! - It is as I told you!" Again that displeased look and he claimed it was because they were from Osaka.
Etc. etc. etc. - I could go on and on with similar examples. The point is - there seems to be a basic rule that outsiders are not qualified to notice something [outside the tourist routine] about the local culture, and this thing of the resignation letter may well have been just such a situation. I wasn't supposed to know about that, so it was denied? It doesn't sound plausible, but if you'll go back with me in a time machine, I'll show you and you can see for yourself.]
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/LL_R/RArchive/LL285a.html#abandon
It baffled/irritated me initially, but I've gotten to the point where if someone - whenever, wherever - doesn't seem to accept that I'm from Planet Earth, I (naturally) still don't like it, but instead of feeling/thinking "What is *wrong* with this person?!" - I think something along the lines of "Oh... this is *that* type of person then..." and do one of a number of things - from heading immediately for the exit, to introducing myself as a fellow Earthling (in a joking way), etc.
In stark contrast, many of the racists I've met I've been able to reason with and often they will accept logic, reason, evidence, etc., and change their thinking somewhat when you show them conclusively that they're being wrong-headed about something.
2013/07/30 (Seibu Line / 西武線)
"Leaving the Camera Off"
Decided to (basically, but not completely) leave the camera off today. The ironic thing about taking pictures is that while it can bring so many memories back later, at the time you take the pictures, the machine interferes with your perception of the scene you're in. I often think it would be great to have a time travel machine, but cameras (especially video cameras) are - in a way - time machines, and it's then a perceived (and real?) connection to the future that ripples the waters of current time and interferes with the here and now.
And so a photographer must be, pretty much by definition, a perpetual outsider - looking back on the present from a future imagined. ......
While writing this (by hand - ink on paper), I ponder text, which is another kind of recording, but the feeling I get while writing this is that writing (by hand at least, and with machines also?) feels very much a part of the present - in fact, it seems to enhance the present somehow. An age-old heightening of the senses in order to mentally record things?
.... A man (from across the seas) wearing a bottle or two of some nasty-smelling artificial scent just sat next to me... concentration broken - more later. Man I hate foul-smelling artificial smells! I think they should be illegal!
(Shinjuku / 新宿) - It was amazing how one biped with a couple of liters of noxious scent ruined the rest of my train ride! Speaking of scents ("noxious fumes" would be a more accurate term), recently there's been a barrage (in Japan) of advertising saying that older (50s-up) men smell bad, and - noxious fume bottles to the rescue - "If you just douse yourself in noxious fumes from our company, you won't stink any more!"
A particularly obnoxious form of this kind of advertising shows pictures of attractive middle-aged women (one at a time - with different pictures for different versions of the same ad) supposedly saying "My husband smells nice!".
Prior to that, they had pictures of attractive young women supposedly commenting on the smell of their fathers. (Nothing is said about the female half of the population by the way. Apparently it's a male curse to stink past 50.) I've been here for about 30 years and I don't recall there being a particular problem with older men smelling bad... until now that is, when gullible individuals who have bought into the advertising hype are walking around fouling the air with noxious artificial fumes from the companies manufacturing that horrible stuff.
Gee, I don't suppose the media people who have talked about smelly upper-middle-aged men have accepted advertising money from the noxious fume manufacturers.... You can kind of see the gears turning - Japanese men traditionally don't douse themselves in noxious smells, so they haven't been buying that horrible stuff. How to get them to start shelling out for it....
August 4th, 2013 - Decided to write something, but after looking over my schedule, etc., I realize I don't remember what I thought I'd write about.
2013/08/07 - (Osaki / 大崎)
"Writing by Hand in Public"
I used to wish my handwriting was more legible, but it's begun to be handy that it's difficult to decipher - I can pull out a piece of paper in a public space and write in front of people, and they have a lot of difficulty making out what the words are. Not that it really matters if they do read what I'm writing, but still.... The other interesting thing is regarding how ever fewer people are even taught to read/write cursive handwriting. So suddenly it feels like I have a special skill. Almost like being able to write in code or something.
Well, that's enough for now. I do find writing by hand (after not doing so for quite a while) to be quite nice. There's something profoundly fatiguing about using a computer. I'm still trying to figure out why that is, but I imagine the stress of thinking about all that is going on with the machine, combined with the multitasking functionality of it, puts a pretty heavy load on a biped's CPU....
Okay - and that brings us back to today - August 24th, 2013. I've got a load of things I want to get done this weekend, so I'll stop here. This photo (below) is from March... so it's not related to the text of this post exactly, but I stumbled into it while looking for the pictures I used above and like it enough that I thought it would fit in here at the end.
Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
http://youtube.com/lylehsaxon
http://lylehsaxon.blogspot.jp/
http://lookback1997.blogspot.jp/
http://tokyoht.blogspot.jp/
