It's been a while since I could post

You know how life is: You work late so you miss a train, which means you can't go shopping, you have to walk all over the place to find an all night noodle shop so you can eat eat dinner, and you're so tired that almost trip over the girl trying to lure customers into the Yakuza-owned massage parlor and get a good threatening stare from a five-foot-five guy wearing a $2000 suit and a $40 color and perm job. Same old story, I guess.

Anyway, that yellow template sucked, so I'm gonna pretend that it never happened.

And as far as the Iraq thing goes, that's a whole 'nother rant. Keep your heads down, it's not going to end cleanly or quietly.

I had a student the other day, she was a Japanese woman about 28 years old. She was feminine in the way Japanese women seem to be expected to be: she was petite, quiet, a little shy, and all of her habits, mannerisms and actions were executed with the maximum possible cuteness. Even her voice was wispy, delicate, and so high pitched that I thought it was she was joking at first.

Because my primary job there is to make small talk, we chatted about her job, her family, and her pet. And each time there was something moderately amusing, she responded with a set routine of giggling, daintily covering part of her mouth with two fingers, and returning to her initial pose. Everything about her seemed soaked in cuteness and about two inches deep. But then something interesting happened.

I found out that her hobby is ballet. Not only watching ballet, or reading about ballet, but actually practicing ballet. Like, for the last six years. She studies dance routines, breaks down the mechanics of different dancers' moves, and does weight training to strengthen her leg muscles. She could probably leg press as much I can. Her favorite part of ballet is the jumping. She actually studied how NBA players strengthen their legs and adapted some of those techniques to her workout. And this is only her hobby. She started about fifteen years too late to even think about being a professional.

When she was talking about dance, her body language began to change. She stopped tucking her elbows into her lap and keeping her hands on her knees, she began looking directly forward instead of tipping her chin down and looking up. Even the giggling became less frequent; she actually laughed about things. Even though her voice was still more easily heard by dogs, she spoke with more assertive forms and fewer qualifiers and modifying phrases. And she mentioned casually, but with all seriousness, that she would like to have been born a man because they get the bigger, more dramatic leaps. But there was no real regret in her voice, just an idea about how she could have enjoyed ballet more.


Sometimes humanity leaks out of places where you don't expect it.

At the moment, the economy here is not strong. Businesses continue to struggle to hold even, exports are down, individual investment in the stock market is somewhere south of 5%, unemployment is rising and the banks are drowning in a sea of bad loans that they are not being forced to eliminate. In fact, they continue to be allowed to make them. Wages are down, confidence is non-existent, and prices are rising. There is a surplus of factory space as manufacturing jobs move east to China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. And there is a surplus of office space as companies are continuing to cut back on hiring and increase layoffs.

Yet for some reason, Tokyo is in the midst of a construction boom. There has been a surge in the construction of new high rise office and apartment tower complexes. Real estate companies can not fill existing office space, yet newer and more luxurious and expensive properties are continuing to be completed on what seems to be a daily basis.

How the hell is this possible? What could compel a bank officer to make a loan to a man who seemingly could not raise the funds to repay?. Everyone who has an opinion on this seems to agree that banks need to stop making bad loans, eliminate their unrecoverable investments, and start down a road of Spartan reforms if they ever hope to recover their stability and strength. But all these new projects feel like they were approved in a time warp to 1987.

This goes beyond the organizational culture of glacial resistance to change, and it seems too big and too widespread to be a pork barrel blessing to the construction industry. It's like some sick addiction to physical reconstruction. Barring designated historical landmarks, temples, and parks, I have never seen a area of Japan that was not within a three year window for construction. Any neighborhood, district, zone or region is either scheduled for, in the midst of, or proud to have finished building something within three years. Is the physical reconstruction of the 1950's and 60's so heavily stamped on the national psyche? Is the perceived connection between rebuilding and impending prosperity that strong?

Why the hell are they doing this?

Geez. Over two weeks since the last entry. I'd like to say it was because I had such a great Valentine's day that it took this long to recover from, but I'm not quite ready to start lying to you. Short update: Day job is still the same (See previous entry). I'll start moonlighting this week (for new job details, see previous entry). And with any luck, once I start getting paid regularly, I'll be able to get back to what I really enjoy doing (that is: eating five times a day and drinking too much beer on satuday night)

Next time, a decent entry and a new name.