1. Ryuichi Sakamoto / behind the mask (live_2009_3_28)
2. Ryuichi Sakamoto / to stanford
3. Paul McCartney / Don't Get Around Much Anymore
4. Ryuichi Sakamoto / ice
5. Yellow Magic Orchestra / Behind The Mask
6. Ryuichi Sakamoto / disko
7. Ryuichi Sakamoto / glacier
8. The Beatles / Here, There And Everywhere
9. The Beatles / For No One
10. Ryuichi Sakamoto / +33 (live_2009_3_28)
11. Elvis Costello / No Action
12. The Beatles / Taxman
13. The Beatles / Eleanor Rigby
14. The Beatles / She Said She Said
15. The Beatles / And Your Bird Can Sing
16. The Beatles / I Want To Tell You
1. is the live version that I listened to admiringly for its unique arrange which is different to the original that I loved from the start. This tune was released on iTunes Store the day after the concert, I think the world is getting better. 5. is the original of 1., it was pulled up in this ranking because I found its attraction again by 1.
3. became to one of my heavy rotations since my friend played it on his iPod at a Japanese hotel of Izu. Paul McCartney's talent made the tune transformed from Duke Ellintong's jazz standard to a cheerful rock'n roll number.
8. to 16. (except 10. and 11.) are obviously the consequences of reading "Here, There and Everywhere" by Geoff Emerick. Revolver is a great album, I admit it time and again.
I always listen to the drum line of 11. mainly even its melody also good. The drummer, Pete Thomas, may be my most favorite drummer because of his drumming like singing.
Friday, May 01, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
A classical ryokan(Japanese style hotel) in Izu
After a 4-hour train journey, I visited a classical ryokan (Japanese style hotel) with my friends. This ryokan, Ochiairou-Murakami is not appropriate for me, ordinary people. This was constructed by skillful carpenters who were ordered to by a millionaire. He asked them to make a ryokan as you like, no matter how much it costs. So the construction and art of this ryokan is extraordinary fine, of course the accommodation fee is so expensive. However, one of my friends knows the ryokan owner so we were able to stay there for a reduced cost. Therefore we could stay there in other world.
constructed in 1933 to 1937.
Entrance. Japanese younger people sometimes feel classical Japanese design is tired and old-fashioned, not beautiful. However, I feel this design as modern, simple and beautiful.
The room we stayed. This suite room contains other one small room and one classical western style room with a table and chairs. May I stay in such a luxurious suite?
Small lighting window made with wood and paper. This design is also modern, simple and beautiful. All of the rooms window designs are different.
Library room. One of my traveling dreams was to stay at a hotel which has a library room since I had read Haruki Murakami's short novel whose story was set in a library room of a hotel. My little dream has come true.
Hot spring bathes are also marvelous. There are outside natural bath and a private bath which you can reserve. Both bathes are popular Japanese style Roten-buro, which is located outside of the building (Of course there are shade screens surrounding the bathes, but sometimes in men's bath there aren't any so as to enjoy the good scenery).
Dinner was perfect for its taste, amount and looks. This is an hors d'oeuvre.
Serving eleven dishes, I was satisfied with all of those. The best one was this raw fish on the bamboo dish. I think the chef choose the best fish at the marketplace.
After dinner, we talked about our favorite music with iPod+spealers till 3:00 am.
Breakfast was also such a lot!! We had enough.
A ryokan staff opened our room window for receiving April's confort breeze. Pleasant breeze and neat Japanese garden made us calm and happy.
My friend and me participated in a tour of this ryokan building at 10:00.
Partition slide between rooms and corridors. As usual, those designs are all different.
A tour guide explained to us that carpenters of this building used precious materials. For instance, a wood board was made of a log which had been treated for becoming a perfectly flat board for thirty years.
I was impressed with this design because of the designer's playful spirit – normal designers would have never thought of such a design for a classic Japanese lighting window. It was based on a legend of a female spider in the area.
Going out of this ryokan, we went to Jyoren Falls by a rent-a-car. The falls fed us a cool and comfortable atmosphere.
For lunch, we had Japanese noodle soba with wild boars soup. I'm a big fan of soba so I visited many soba restaurants, this was one of the best dishes.
We separated at 15:00. The stay was full of delicious dishes, relaxing bath and delightful conversations.
Ochiairou-Murakami seems to be the best hotel that I have stayed at. I have traveled to fourteen nations in the world and received good accommodation at almost every location, for aspect of building's beauty, cleanness, design, dinner and bath. Of course rack rate is also No.1... Anyway, I would like to stay this in ryokan again, after I grow up more and become the man who is appropriate for this ryokan (be more gentleman).
constructed in 1933 to 1937.
Entrance. Japanese younger people sometimes feel classical Japanese design is tired and old-fashioned, not beautiful. However, I feel this design as modern, simple and beautiful.
The room we stayed. This suite room contains other one small room and one classical western style room with a table and chairs. May I stay in such a luxurious suite?
Small lighting window made with wood and paper. This design is also modern, simple and beautiful. All of the rooms window designs are different.
Library room. One of my traveling dreams was to stay at a hotel which has a library room since I had read Haruki Murakami's short novel whose story was set in a library room of a hotel. My little dream has come true.
Hot spring bathes are also marvelous. There are outside natural bath and a private bath which you can reserve. Both bathes are popular Japanese style Roten-buro, which is located outside of the building (Of course there are shade screens surrounding the bathes, but sometimes in men's bath there aren't any so as to enjoy the good scenery).
Dinner was perfect for its taste, amount and looks. This is an hors d'oeuvre.
Serving eleven dishes, I was satisfied with all of those. The best one was this raw fish on the bamboo dish. I think the chef choose the best fish at the marketplace.
After dinner, we talked about our favorite music with iPod+spealers till 3:00 am.
Breakfast was also such a lot!! We had enough.
A ryokan staff opened our room window for receiving April's confort breeze. Pleasant breeze and neat Japanese garden made us calm and happy.
My friend and me participated in a tour of this ryokan building at 10:00.
Partition slide between rooms and corridors. As usual, those designs are all different.
A tour guide explained to us that carpenters of this building used precious materials. For instance, a wood board was made of a log which had been treated for becoming a perfectly flat board for thirty years.
I was impressed with this design because of the designer's playful spirit – normal designers would have never thought of such a design for a classic Japanese lighting window. It was based on a legend of a female spider in the area.
Going out of this ryokan, we went to Jyoren Falls by a rent-a-car. The falls fed us a cool and comfortable atmosphere.
For lunch, we had Japanese noodle soba with wild boars soup. I'm a big fan of soba so I visited many soba restaurants, this was one of the best dishes.
We separated at 15:00. The stay was full of delicious dishes, relaxing bath and delightful conversations.
Ochiairou-Murakami seems to be the best hotel that I have stayed at. I have traveled to fourteen nations in the world and received good accommodation at almost every location, for aspect of building's beauty, cleanness, design, dinner and bath. Of course rack rate is also No.1... Anyway, I would like to stay this in ryokan again, after I grow up more and become the man who is appropriate for this ryokan (be more gentleman).
Friday, April 10, 2009
Honesty is such a lonely word, but...
With my wife, son and friends, I enjoyed Tokyo Disney Resort. It was a wonderful holiday, but it isn't the main topic of this entry. An accident happened when we got on the Shinkansen (superexpress) from Tokyo station and took a trip for three hours to my home. A few minutes before the Shinkansen was due to leave, I bought lunch boxes. As soon as I got them, I put my wallet and pass holder into my jacket's pocket and ran up the escalator to platform 21. I could ride in the reserved Shinkansen. When I was about to breathe a sigh of relief, I found that I had dropped my wallet and pass holder.
I thought I was stupid because not only were there many important things (ex. My ID card) in them but also was much money. I was the organizer for this Tokyo Disney Resort trip among my friends, so I had received much money entrance passes and friend's dinner fee, because I paid it for everything on my credit card. My wallet had 70,000yen ($700 / 530Euro / 475pounds) in it.
I rang the lost property section of Tokyo station again and again, but I heard only the busy tone. So I explained my situation to an express conductor and asked him to call Tokyo station. Several minutes later, he came back and said, "Set your heart at ease, your property was found in the same condition as when you dropped them."
Three days later, my wallet and pass holder was sent to my home in the same condition as when I dropped them. Not only money of 70,000yen but also my ID card, credit cards, and so on. Billy Joel sings "Honesty is such a lonely word." However it surely existed at the platform 21, of Tokyo station on 17:50 5th April in 2009.
I thought I was stupid because not only were there many important things (ex. My ID card) in them but also was much money. I was the organizer for this Tokyo Disney Resort trip among my friends, so I had received much money entrance passes and friend's dinner fee, because I paid it for everything on my credit card. My wallet had 70,000yen ($700 / 530Euro / 475pounds) in it.
I rang the lost property section of Tokyo station again and again, but I heard only the busy tone. So I explained my situation to an express conductor and asked him to call Tokyo station. Several minutes later, he came back and said, "Set your heart at ease, your property was found in the same condition as when you dropped them."
Three days later, my wallet and pass holder was sent to my home in the same condition as when I dropped them. Not only money of 70,000yen but also my ID card, credit cards, and so on. Billy Joel sings "Honesty is such a lonely word." However it surely existed at the platform 21, of Tokyo station on 17:50 5th April in 2009.
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Top tunes on my iPod in March, 2009
1. Ryuichi Sakamoto / to stanford
2. Ryuichi Sakamoto / ice
3. Ryuichi Sakamoto / hwit
4. Ryuichi Sakamoto / still life
5. Ryuichi Sakamoto / glacier
6. Ryuichi Sakamoto / in the red
7. Ryuichi Sakamoto / hibari
8. Ryuichi Sakamoto / tama
9. Ryuichi Sakamoto / nostalgia
10. Ryuichi Sakamoto / firewater
11. The Beatles / When I'm Sixty-four
12. The Beatles / Lovely Rita
13. The Beatles / Octopus's Garden
14. J.S. Bach / Inventions No.8（Takahiro Sonoda）
15. The Bangles / Be With You
16. The Beach Boys / Vegetables
The top 10 are all works from Ryuichi Sakamoto's new album "out of noise". I listend to only 1., 3., and7. as music and enjoyed others as sound (others are composed of north poll area environment sound. For example, waterdrops of melting glaciers.) 11.-13. are the results of reading "Here, There and Everywhere" 14. is one of the tunes that never bores me even if I listen to it again and again, it is less than one minute long. 15. is my third favorite song by them after "manic Monday" and "Etrenal Flame".
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Geoff Emerick "Here, There and Everywhere"
The Japanese version of this book is "The Last truth of the Beatles Sound", it is a good selection, I think. This is an excellent documentary, biography, and growing-up story of a young sound engineer. The original title "Here, There and Everywhere" is also good for its contents, whose author is one of the few people who can talk about the Beatles' history because he worked with them.
In short, I would like to say that this is one of the best books about the Beatles history. In particular, I strongly believe that people who have listened to their music enthusiastically will enjoy this book. A friend of mine who loves the Beatles said, "I think that this is the book that gives answers to the questions of the world's beatlemaniacs" I agree with this.
For me, the biggest question was about the sound of "Abbey Road". Each of the Beatles' albums were recorded with a unique sound, this was because of changes in musicianship and recording technology. I feel "Rubber Soul" and "Abbey Road" have totally different sounds. I'm disappointed the former, the author Geoff didn't participated in this album, so the question still remains, but for the later, Geoff wrote the answer clearly. I was so impressed (he seems not to like the sound of "Abbey Road", I love it). about their sound and songs were answered by this book.
The value of this book is high because for the documentary of the Beatles' sound making aspect, in addition to this, the aspect about the describing of the people including four beatles is also distinguishing. The important factor for biographies are love and objectivity, are apparent in this book throughly. For instance, about George Harrison, the author didn't hesitate to write about George's poor techniques and ignorable atmosphere in the early days of the band. But on the other hand, he also didn't hesitate to give applause for George's great works in the later days of the band. And about George Martin, the producer of the Beatles, Geoff wrote the truth - there are many great work by Geoff but people have always thought they were George Martin's - without selfish pride. On the other hand, he wrote clearly about George Martin's prominent works, but he also wrote about how the Beatles sometimes alienated Martin in the later days of the band. This book has good balance of "love" and "objectivity" as above examples.
You can also read this book as the story of Geoff Emerick's growth: just after his high school graduation. He was hired by EMI, he met the Beatles, especially after the "Revolver" album, he developed as a professional sound engineer with the Beatles' music development. This point also impressed me. He responded to the Beatles demand as a professional, sometimes produce results that surpassing the Beatles' expectation under heavy pressure. Reading this book, I asked myself how I do my business with eagerness and innovation like Geoff. It is nonsense comparing genius Geoff to me, anyway, this book encouraged me by Geoff's attitude.
I've read many books about the Beatles, this book is the most intriguing and full of good things, I think. I feel that maybe no other book about the Beatles could surpass this book never be written.
At the end, I felt the following point again: the Beatles' magic. As many fans know, the Beatles didn't have unity as a band when they recorded "White Album" and their teamwork was at a peak when "Sgt. Pepper" was recorded collapsed. Of course this book described that situation without allowance. However, for me, "White Album" is one of the masterpieces of the Beatles. Why? After reading this book, the big riddle still remains.
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Top tunes on my iPod in Feb. 2009
1. XTC / Dear God
2. Koichi Sugiyama / Dragon Warriors I Finale
3. namco (Junko Ozawa) / THE TOWER OF DRUAGA
4. My Little Lover / DESTINY
5. Radiohead / Airbag
6. J.S. Bach/ Inventions No.6 (Takahiro Sonoda)
7. J.S. Bach / Inventions No.11 (Takahiro Sonoda)
8. The Beatles / Oh! Darling
9. The Beatles / Lady Madonna
10. Elvis Costello / Radio, Radio
11. The Flipper's Guitar / Goodbye Our Pastel's Badges
12. Guns N' Roses / You Could Be Mine
13. Paul McCartney / Mull Of Kintyre
14. Paul McCartney / You Gave Me The Answer
1. is famous for its lyrics, in my opinion, Richard Dawkins would not hesitate to give applause to the song, the song has also the power of music that can appeal the band's message to listeners even without its lyrics. I like 2., in particular, the second melody. 4. is one of my most favorite songs of the band. 8.'s episode is famous among Beatlemaniacs that John Lennon wanted to sing the song. I seem to be able to understand his desire and I also want to listen to John's "Oh! Darling", however, even John Lennon, could not surpass Paul McCartney's outstanding vocal. 14. is one of my favorite pieces of Paul's old fashioned piano based tunes and I am never bored. When listening the intro piano, I dive into the song's world simultaneously.
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Top tunes on my iPod in Jan. 2009
1. Schubert, F / Moments Musicaux Op.94 （Jenő Jandó）
2. Brahms, J. / Intermezzo Op 118 No 2（Kristian Banatzianou）
3. The Beach Boys / Cool, Cool Water
4. Bach, J.S. / Goldberg Variations The 20th Variation (Glenn Gould)
5. The Beach Boys / Add Some Music To Your Day
6. Bach, J.S. / Inventions No.13 (Takahiro Sonoda)
7. Brahms, J / 3 Intermezzi, Op. 117 - 1. Andante Moderato (Glenn Gould)
8. Brahms, J / 3 Intermezzi, Op. 117 - 2. Andante Non Troppo (Glenn Gould)
9. SEGA / Main Theme of Enduro Racer
10. GO!GO!7188 / Manastu no Dancehall (A Dancehall in midsummer)
11. Backbeat Band / Please Mr. Postman
12. The Beach Boys / Take A Load Off Your Feet
13. The Beatles / No Reply
14. The Beatles / This Boy
15. GO!GO!7188 / San nin no boggie men (The Three Boggie Men)
16. Olivia Newton-John and Electric Light Orchestra / Xanadu
17. Perfume / Ceramic Girl
18. Prince / I Wish U Heaven
1. reminds me of my childhood Sunday mornings – because every Sunday my father listened to the radio program whose theme tune was this song. As for 2,7, and 8, Ryuichi Sakamoto's recommend these tunes played by Glenn Gould, I believe these are romantic pieces. Haruki Murakami described The Beach Boys' excellent albums "Sunflower" and "Surf's Up" in his music essay, it also made me want to listened to these album. I'm very impressionable. I think that 11. is the best track by The Backbeat band – the band for the movie "Backbeat", which is about the early life of the Beatles. The song radiated the young Beatles' wild rock attitude. 16. was my friend whilst jogging. The promotion video of the song featuring a roller skate musical movie evoked me to run delightfully.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
My 2009 resolutions
1. Health
Take no day off due to catching a cold.
Concrete plan: I will go to my fitness club 1.5times in a week on average. The frequency helped me keep in good condition last year.
2. Learn cooking more
Concrete plan: Learn how to cook meals suitable for a sick person.
Last year I increased my ordinary menu from two to five to help my wife who looks after our one-year-old son. My wife appreciated that, but her imperative needs is that I can cook meals for her when she is sick.
3. Study and research for my family's future residence
Concrete plan: Making study sheet for as follows:
(1) Which is better purchase or rent?
(2) What is the best plan to manage money for residence for us?
(3) What are the important points for selecting good residence for us?
4. Select one theme and study it for this year.
This is Peter Drucker's method. I am learning his self-management method from my company's textbook, so I would like to bring in his good system.
What should I study? I want to know a theme which is concerned with politics. Last year, when I read a book (Robert B. Reich "Supercapitalism"), I thought that we should take part in politics more. In particular, the Japanese under 40 generation, including me, politicians became less interested in their policies for younger citizens, because of the voting rate of this generation.
I think to study about tax system, one of the important parts of administration.
Concrete plan: I will make summary sheets of this study and show them to my friends (sorry, in Japanese)
5. Become to be able to play a tune on piano
Concrete plan: I upload my play to web.
My ambitions through my life are making my English and playing piano better. I got TOEIC score of 825 last year, I think that it meant my English step was up (even I know my English is not enough) . Next, I take turn of piano. I will continue learning how to play the piano.
6. Keep TOEIC score above 800
I would like to keep my English ability, even though most of my free time will be taken for some other studies and learning the piano.
7. Speak more slowly than now.
Sometimes my Japanese speaking is too fast to understand.
Concrete plan: To become to speak at a normal speed and for my friends to admit that in December.
Take no day off due to catching a cold.
Concrete plan: I will go to my fitness club 1.5times in a week on average. The frequency helped me keep in good condition last year.
2. Learn cooking more
Concrete plan: Learn how to cook meals suitable for a sick person.
Last year I increased my ordinary menu from two to five to help my wife who looks after our one-year-old son. My wife appreciated that, but her imperative needs is that I can cook meals for her when she is sick.
3. Study and research for my family's future residence
Concrete plan: Making study sheet for as follows:
(1) Which is better purchase or rent?
(2) What is the best plan to manage money for residence for us?
(3) What are the important points for selecting good residence for us?
4. Select one theme and study it for this year.
This is Peter Drucker's method. I am learning his self-management method from my company's textbook, so I would like to bring in his good system.
What should I study? I want to know a theme which is concerned with politics. Last year, when I read a book (Robert B. Reich "Supercapitalism"), I thought that we should take part in politics more. In particular, the Japanese under 40 generation, including me, politicians became less interested in their policies for younger citizens, because of the voting rate of this generation.
I think to study about tax system, one of the important parts of administration.
Concrete plan: I will make summary sheets of this study and show them to my friends (sorry, in Japanese)
5. Become to be able to play a tune on piano
Concrete plan: I upload my play to web.
My ambitions through my life are making my English and playing piano better. I got TOEIC score of 825 last year, I think that it meant my English step was up (even I know my English is not enough) . Next, I take turn of piano. I will continue learning how to play the piano.
6. Keep TOEIC score above 800
I would like to keep my English ability, even though most of my free time will be taken for some other studies and learning the piano.
7. Speak more slowly than now.
Sometimes my Japanese speaking is too fast to understand.
Concrete plan: To become to speak at a normal speed and for my friends to admit that in December.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Checking my 2008 resolutions
1. Health
Keep my condition good.
Concrete plan: Take no day off with my bad condition. I took five days off with my cold last year. I want to reduce how many days off I take.
I go to my fitness club more. I did yoga everyday and went to my sports club twice a week, but I took five days off with cold.
result
I could keep my condition good till November. But in December, I developed a stress disorder because of my overwork for big problems between my important client and my company since October. (For example, I worked 27 days and over 100 hours overtime) and took some days off. After I told my boss the diagnosis, my boss decided that he took my hardest work (negotiations with the top person of my client) and gave me the half (morning) days off everyday till the end of January.
So I didn't achieve this resolution, but I appreciate myself for keeping good condition till November. I went to my fitness club 78 times in 2008, I think it made my condition good except overwork months.
2.Learn cooking
Concrete plan: Cook one lunch every week. Increase my menu two to five in this year.
result
I've learned to cook five simple menus: ketchup rice with some vegetables and sausages, beef rice, spaghetti Neapolitan (Japanese original menu – pasta with ketchup and onion, pimento, mushroom and ham), okonomiyaki and curry rice.
I couldn't cook one lunch every week, but I cooked most of weeks.
3.TOEIC score up
Concrete plan: 800 (now 740)
Keep my private English lesson with my American and English teachers and review my TOEIC text that I learned last year.
result
I got score of 825, thanks to my teachers, Sarah and Laura!
4. Know my city Nishinomiya
Concrete plan: Visit more 5 spots in Nishinomiya city
result
I visited more than five spots as follows (Sorry, most link targets are my Japanese blog):
Kitayama Botanical Garden
Architectures near my flat – including ex-classic hotel planed by a pupil of Frank Lloyd Wright
Sake (Japanese rice-based liquor) breweries (Nishinomiya is famous of good water production for sake)
A Shinto shrine, Japanese-classic-style lighthouse
Keep my condition good.
Concrete plan: Take no day off with my bad condition. I took five days off with my cold last year. I want to reduce how many days off I take.
I go to my fitness club more. I did yoga everyday and went to my sports club twice a week, but I took five days off with cold.
result
I could keep my condition good till November. But in December, I developed a stress disorder because of my overwork for big problems between my important client and my company since October. (For example, I worked 27 days and over 100 hours overtime) and took some days off. After I told my boss the diagnosis, my boss decided that he took my hardest work (negotiations with the top person of my client) and gave me the half (morning) days off everyday till the end of January.
So I didn't achieve this resolution, but I appreciate myself for keeping good condition till November. I went to my fitness club 78 times in 2008, I think it made my condition good except overwork months.
2.Learn cooking
Concrete plan: Cook one lunch every week. Increase my menu two to five in this year.
result
I've learned to cook five simple menus: ketchup rice with some vegetables and sausages, beef rice, spaghetti Neapolitan (Japanese original menu – pasta with ketchup and onion, pimento, mushroom and ham), okonomiyaki and curry rice.
I couldn't cook one lunch every week, but I cooked most of weeks.
3.TOEIC score up
Concrete plan: 800 (now 740)
Keep my private English lesson with my American and English teachers and review my TOEIC text that I learned last year.
result
I got score of 825, thanks to my teachers, Sarah and Laura!
4. Know my city Nishinomiya
Concrete plan: Visit more 5 spots in Nishinomiya city
result
I visited more than five spots as follows (Sorry, most link targets are my Japanese blog):
Kitayama Botanical Garden
Architectures near my flat – including ex-classic hotel planed by a pupil of Frank Lloyd Wright
Sake (Japanese rice-based liquor) breweries (Nishinomiya is famous of good water production for sake)
A Shinto shrine, Japanese-classic-style lighthouse
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
My harvests in 2008
Books
Sorry, most of them are written in Japanese and are not translated in English. Therefore I will introduce only two books:
Dostoyevskii / The Brothers Karamazov : I feel the strong power of story from this novel. Deep. I will read this masterpiece several times.
Kazuo Ishiguro / Never Let Me Go: A grotesque background appeared through simple, plain and calm sentences. This novel is not similar to any other novel I have read.
Music
Beethoven / Symphony No.6 "Pastoral" conducted by Carlos Kleiber (Bavarian State Orchestra)
The most marvelous music I've listened to in 2008. I didn't know that such dramatic and lively "Pastoral"
Perfume / GAME
Perfume is Japanese techno-pop idol group. Their composer / producer is Yasutaka Nakata, he composed and arranged high-completion rate songs for them.
The fireman / Electric Arguments
Paul McCartney's relax feeling produced his original pop-sense and some new taste.
Movies
Mystic River
Letters from Iwo Jima
Two of Us (TV movie. Fiction based on the fact that Paul McCartney visited John Lennon's house in 1976)
Climber's High (Japanese TV Drama)
The Dark Knight
Prestige
Art
"Vermeer and the Delft Style" Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum(Sorry, this link target is my Japanese blog)
It was the "incident" that as many as seven Vermeer's paintings were gathered in Japan. One of my ambitions is to appreciate all Vermeer's paintings (about 30) scattered across Europe and the US. So it was a big chance for me. In addition to, my music- lover-friends and I appreciated this exhibition together and talked over the paintings through "fresh eyes" (not genuine art lover's eye). It was very fun.
Sorry, most of them are written in Japanese and are not translated in English. Therefore I will introduce only two books:
Dostoyevskii / The Brothers Karamazov : I feel the strong power of story from this novel. Deep. I will read this masterpiece several times.
Kazuo Ishiguro / Never Let Me Go: A grotesque background appeared through simple, plain and calm sentences. This novel is not similar to any other novel I have read.
Music
Beethoven / Symphony No.6 "Pastoral" conducted by Carlos Kleiber (Bavarian State Orchestra)
The most marvelous music I've listened to in 2008. I didn't know that such dramatic and lively "Pastoral"
Perfume / GAME
Perfume is Japanese techno-pop idol group. Their composer / producer is Yasutaka Nakata, he composed and arranged high-completion rate songs for them.
The fireman / Electric Arguments
Paul McCartney's relax feeling produced his original pop-sense and some new taste.
Movies
Mystic River
Letters from Iwo Jima
Two of Us (TV movie. Fiction based on the fact that Paul McCartney visited John Lennon's house in 1976)
Climber's High (Japanese TV Drama)
The Dark Knight
Prestige
Art
"Vermeer and the Delft Style" Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum(Sorry, this link target is my Japanese blog)
It was the "incident" that as many as seven Vermeer's paintings were gathered in Japan. One of my ambitions is to appreciate all Vermeer's paintings (about 30) scattered across Europe and the US. So it was a big chance for me. In addition to, my music- lover-friends and I appreciated this exhibition together and talked over the paintings through "fresh eyes" (not genuine art lover's eye). It was very fun.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Toru Takagi / The War Public Relations Company
Since the Yugoslavia conflict of the 90s, the international society has thought Serbia as evil. Why do most people think only Serbia as evil, not Bosnia? Why did people have strong concern about the Yugoslavia conflict even though they didn’t have oil and economic power. For the former question, I thought the reason why was, Serbia was the strongest in Yugoslavia. For the latter question, I thought the reason why was, Yugoslavia is in Europe and people are white. However, I have changed my thoughts after reading this book. At least in the Bosnia conflict, it was the power of an American private company labeled that Serbia as “evil” and Bosnia’s Muslims became “Victims”.
Before surveying this book, let me summarize the Bosnia conflict. Yugoslavia union consisted of various ethnic groups. After the strong leader Tito’s death and the Cold War ending, every ethnic group wanted to have their own nations. At first, Slovenia and Croatia became independent. Next, when Bosnia-Hercegovina tried to become independent, a problem arose.
Slovenia consists of Slovenian and Croatia consists of Croatian. On the other hand, Bosnia-Hercegovina consists of 40% Muslim, 30% Serbian and 20% Croatian. Serbian and Croatian dominate the mainland, Serbia and Croatia. However, Muslims have only Bosnia-Hercegovina. If Bosnia-Hercegovina became independent, Serbian people and Croatian people in Bosnia, would become an ethnic minority group because they are isolated from the mainland. So Serbian and Croatian representatives left Bosnia government. After all, Bosnia-Hercegovina was ruled by a Muslim government, even though the country containing two other ethnic groups. However, the “Ethnic minority group” Serbian had a stronger military power than the Muslim’s because of the support of Serbia. This unbalance between “weak mainstream” and “strong branch” became the origin of the conflict.
The first scene of this book is the US visit of Dr. Haris Silajdzic, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia-Hercegovina. He had the mission: if Bosnia was attacked by Serbia, the international society will be in favor of Bosnia, not Serbia. He succeeded to make the meeting with the Secretary of State Baker and received the following advice; if Bosnia want the US’s power, you need to control the opinion of the US people. A civil-right activist, who was a friend of Silajdzic, introduced him to Jim Harff of PR company, Ruder Finn. PR companies’ works is to generate positive opinions for their client. Jim Harff was the man whose clients were nations.
Harff and the president Finn decided to accept the offer for their company's fame and position among the PR company world. Their committee of ethics didn't forget to confirm that Muslims were the real "victims" and this work had no problems on ethical ground.
Then, Harff started to support Silajdzic all out as a professional. At first, Harff set up many press conferences, because Silajdzic was very good at English. Harff frequently reported Bosnia's tragedies to people of importance, to change the public opinion using the Bosnia-Hercegovina Fax-Update. Healso set up oppoturnities for Silajdzic to appear on TV programs and give interviews to journalists. (After these interviews, Harff and Silajdzic never forgot to write thank you letters to the journalists.) He made "stage directions" for Silajdzic, not as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, but as a witness who had just seen Bosnia's tragedy right then. (Actually, he was staying at the US all the time, and didn't go back to Bosnia.) These steady efforts bore fruits and the US people began to be interested in Bosnia.
Meanwhile, a phrase made Bosnia's position among the US public change dramatically.
Harff thought that it was important to get Americans to recognize that Bosnia's problems were concerned with "democracy" and "human rights". Therefore he decided to use the phrase "ethnic cleansing" when he received the news that Serbian had selected and exiled Muslims from their dwelling village.
This phrase was appropriate for stimulating American's human-rights-mind. If this phrase had been "contemporary holocaust", American Jewish people might think the phrase a blasphemy for holocaust victims. However, the phrase "ethnic cleansing" was no problem. In additon, this one phrase was enough to express Bosnia's tragedy strongly. Harff started to use this phrase for most Bosnia reports.
This effort produced much effect. In the May, journalists didn't know the place where Bosnia was correctly, but in the July, some ordinary American people began to declare to adopt Bosnian children who lost their parents. At that time, The UN Secretary-General Ghali (born in Africa) said that there were at least ten places which had more serious conditions than Sarajevo. It was true, but international society criticized that saying intensively. At last, on 9th of July, President Bush used the phrase "ethnic cleansing" to blame Serbia at CSCE (Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe).
Of course, Serbia didn't keep silent. At the end of July, President Milosevic asked for Millan Panic to be the Prime Minister of Yugoslavia Union. Panic was the man who had sought refuge in the US, established a medicine company and succeed in business. In the US, he made an appeal to the US people tosupporting Serbia using an advocacy ad. Milosevic thought that Panic was useful for changing the evil image of Serbia (At that time, the Yugo Union was almost the same of Serbia.) After his inaugurating the President, Panic gathered his close subordinates who were good at English and sent them abroad to make an appeal known as "changing Serbia". And like Bosnia, he delegated his subordinate to get a powerful PR company on his side. However, he realized Serbia's delay.
The powerful PR companies had already contracted the other Yugoslavia members. Panic's subordinate managed to find a good PR company which hadn't contracted with other nations, but the company replied that they couldn't contract with Yugoslavia Union because it meant being against economic sanctions. For that reason, Panic asked a Serbian in America to make a contract with a PR company for Serbia, and this PR company accepted Panic's offer.
At precisely that same time, the second phrase "concentration camp" appeared. The origin was the news that Serbian made a concentration camp of Muslims. The news was from a New York tabloid and the reporter didn't confirm the information firsthand, only that he had heard that a man had apparently escaped from a camp. Harff understood the importance of this article, he wrote the news on the Fax-Update. This second phrase became popular in mass-media like the first phrase "ethnic cleansing".
Because of this second phrase, the PR company which had decided to contract with Yugoslavia refused the contract. The company told Yugoslavia that they couldn't make Yugo-support-image under such circumstances. Panic on the verge of Yugoslavia's image collapsing, visited Bosnia the Government suddenly by himself with ABC TV reporters, but during the visit, a member of the TV crew was shot and killed, so the meeting between Panic and Bosnia's Prime Minister canceled. On the 22nd of September, the UN exiled the Yugoslavia Union.
These Harff's strategy succeeded for both Bosnia and Ruder Finn. Nevertheless, Silajdzic didn't pay much money (only $90,000) and was in a bad mood whenever paying money. On the other hand, Harff received an award of their PR company world. Ruder Finn got many businesses. The clients were the companies which had defective products, if these companies had made bad decisions without consulting with Harff then the companies would have collapsed.
Now, I admit that if you can make the public opinion of the US be on your side, it means that you make the public opinion if the whole world in your side. A private company can change a nation's destiny – that's American company's power.
I also realized the importance of the ability of English among the international society. Silajdzic was proficient in English, so he could made direct messages to the US media. His English ability meant strong power of their PR plan.
The strongest point that I realized from this case is the power and importance of presentation skills, personal relationships and eagerness in "communication". Harff triumphed based on these factors. His work made Serbia's images worse than reality, I understand some people were blamed for that. However, I also think Harff's work deserves praise. At least, he didn't tell a lie.
After this case, Harff became independent and now he is the CEO of Global Communicators Inc. If Harff had supported Rwanda and Sudan, their destiny might have changed dramatically.
Meanwhile, a phrase made Bosnia's position among the US public change dramatically.
Harff thought that it was important to get Americans to recognize that Bosnia's problems were concerned with "democracy" and "human rights". Therefore he decided to use the phrase "ethnic cleansing" when he received the news that Serbian had selected and exiled Muslims from their dwelling village.
This phrase was appropriate for stimulating American's human-rights-mind. If this phrase had been "contemporary holocaust", American Jewish people might think the phrase a blasphemy for holocaust victims. However, the phrase "ethnic cleansing" was no problem. In additon, this one phrase was enough to express Bosnia's tragedy strongly. Harff started to use this phrase for most Bosnia reports.
This effort produced much effect. In the May, journalists didn't know the place where Bosnia was correctly, but in the July, some ordinary American people began to declare to adopt Bosnian children who lost their parents. At that time, The UN Secretary-General Ghali (born in Africa) said that there were at least ten places which had more serious conditions than Sarajevo. It was true, but international society criticized that saying intensively. At last, on 9th of July, President Bush used the phrase "ethnic cleansing" to blame Serbia at CSCE (Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe).
Of course, Serbia didn't keep silent. At the end of July, President Milosevic asked for Millan Panic to be the Prime Minister of Yugoslavia Union. Panic was the man who had sought refuge in the US, established a medicine company and succeed in business. In the US, he made an appeal to the US people tosupporting Serbia using an advocacy ad. Milosevic thought that Panic was useful for changing the evil image of Serbia (At that time, the Yugo Union was almost the same of Serbia.) After his inaugurating the President, Panic gathered his close subordinates who were good at English and sent them abroad to make an appeal known as "changing Serbia". And like Bosnia, he delegated his subordinate to get a powerful PR company on his side. However, he realized Serbia's delay.
The powerful PR companies had already contracted the other Yugoslavia members. Panic's subordinate managed to find a good PR company which hadn't contracted with other nations, but the company replied that they couldn't contract with Yugoslavia Union because it meant being against economic sanctions. For that reason, Panic asked a Serbian in America to make a contract with a PR company for Serbia, and this PR company accepted Panic's offer.
At precisely that same time, the second phrase "concentration camp" appeared. The origin was the news that Serbian made a concentration camp of Muslims. The news was from a New York tabloid and the reporter didn't confirm the information firsthand, only that he had heard that a man had apparently escaped from a camp. Harff understood the importance of this article, he wrote the news on the Fax-Update. This second phrase became popular in mass-media like the first phrase "ethnic cleansing".
Because of this second phrase, the PR company which had decided to contract with Yugoslavia refused the contract. The company told Yugoslavia that they couldn't make Yugo-support-image under such circumstances. Panic on the verge of Yugoslavia's image collapsing, visited Bosnia the Government suddenly by himself with ABC TV reporters, but during the visit, a member of the TV crew was shot and killed, so the meeting between Panic and Bosnia's Prime Minister canceled. On the 22nd of September, the UN exiled the Yugoslavia Union.
These Harff's strategy succeeded for both Bosnia and Ruder Finn. Nevertheless, Silajdzic didn't pay much money (only $90,000) and was in a bad mood whenever paying money. On the other hand, Harff received an award of their PR company world. Ruder Finn got many businesses. The clients were the companies which had defective products, if these companies had made bad decisions without consulting with Harff then the companies would have collapsed.
Now, I admit that if you can make the public opinion of the US be on your side, it means that you make the public opinion if the whole world in your side. A private company can change a nation's destiny – that's American company's power.
I also realized the importance of the ability of English among the international society. Silajdzic was proficient in English, so he could made direct messages to the US media. His English ability meant strong power of their PR plan.
The strongest point that I realized from this case is the power and importance of presentation skills, personal relationships and eagerness in "communication". Harff triumphed based on these factors. His work made Serbia's images worse than reality, I understand some people were blamed for that. However, I also think Harff's work deserves praise. At least, he didn't tell a lie.
After this case, Harff became independent and now he is the CEO of Global Communicators Inc. If Harff had supported Rwanda and Sudan, their destiny might have changed dramatically.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
David Snowdon / Aging with Grace
The world of abbeys is suitable for medical studies. All nuns never smoke and have the same situation of medical treatment, meal and living. Due to the same situations comparative research is easy. Why do some nuns have Alzheimer disease and other nuns not under such the same situations? The author, David Snowdon (Ph.D.), focused on this point and studied it.
The fact he found at first surprised me who know next to nothing about aging. The better educated nuns, the less death rate they have at all age. Research at Massachusetts (of the public) before this study showed the same results. However, this research showed people who graduated only elementary school have higher smoking rate and lower level medical treatment than other educated people. They have the cause. On the other hand, nuns also have the same tendency under the equal environments.
Proceeding the study, the author realized the existence of precious documents for study at abbeys. They are short autobiographies that nuns wrote when they entered abbeys. He assumed that he could research the relationship between Alzheimer disease and nuns' intelligence at their younger age. Then, he turned to Dr. Susan Kemper, who is the specialist for aging and language ability.
Dr. Kemper proposed him the research for "meaning density" of sentences in nuns' autobiographies. "Meaning density" is the number of propositions in every ten words. The author researched the mutual relations of "meaning density" in nuns' autobiographies at their younger ages and the cognition tests results for Alzheimer disease at their older ages. After that, he found clear correlations between the two.
In other words, people who had the high literate abilities to write high "meaning density" sentences tended to have a smaller chance to develop Alzheimer disease.
However, some people criticized the way of this study. They say, such high-meaning-density sentences might be relatively too complex and unintelligible. The unintelligible sentences show writers' low language ability. The author argued that all the autobiographies that they analyzed featured correct grammar and expressed clear thought properly. He declared that high-meaning-density sentences never mean unintelligible.
On the other hand, the author had the question as follows: Hemmingway's sentences are famous for his concise style. If we analyze his sentences, what result do we find? Dr. Kemper's reply: High-meaning-density sentences don't always compose excellent literature.
It surprised me that language ability at younger ages affects everyday life at older ages. It might be natural that we want to do something for our children for their future lives. Dr. Kemper gives us good advice, the answer is read to children. According to her advice, meaning density depends on vocabulary and the ability to read and understand. She said that to increase vocabulary and the ability to read, the best way is to read books to a child when he / she are infant.
Of course, the cause of Alzheimer disease isn't only language ability. It depends on genes, habit of smoking, having enough vegetables. This book gave me a new viewpoint as even the language ability affecting Alzheimer as the same way of other facts.
It was also interesting to me, the way found the results. Not only the author but also the Sisters co-operated in the study. They hand in their writings, tests and their brain after their death. I was intrigued by both the unexpected results and the process of the study.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor?
A Question from anonymous
"So why did they attack? I've heard it suggested that they didn't want Hawaii interfering with plans for the Pacific, but the US and Japan were still negotiating at the time, so why the preemptive strike? I do remember reading about the US opening the Japanese ports in 1850, but that was a long time before WWII." (quoted from comments of this blog on Dec. 8 2007)
Why did Japan decide to fight the US?
Before replying to the above question, I will divide it into two questions. One is "Why did Japan decide to fight the US?" The other is "Why did Japan attack without a declaration?"
About the former question, I introduce a radio lecture that aired in December 1941, about reasonings behind the start of the Pacific War by Dr. Shumei Ohkawa who was asked by the Japanese government. According to the lecture, he said the reason why was "The US got in the way of Japan's Asian management." In detail: Opening Japan ports in 1853 by the US was fortune, she kept polite and opened Japan with negotiations, not plundered. After Spanish-American War in 1898 (the US got the Philippines), she realized that the Asia-Pacific interests were important. The US persuaded Japan to sell the half interests of Manchuria (northeast China) Railway (the US failed), planned to construct a rival railway company to the Manchuria Railways with the UK (they failed), and so on. After that, the Washington Conference was held from 1921 to 1922. During that conference, participant nations set Japan's navy battleships weight as 60% of the US. In 1941, the US froze Japanese capital in the US and stopped exporting oil to Japan. Japan considered the above actions as obstacles of Japanese Asian management.
The US and other nations regarded "Japan's Asian management" as an invasion. So did the Asian nations invaded by Japan. It is the reason why the US 'got in the way of" Japan. Japanese people in those days, however, seemed to think that Japan's Asian management was relief to Asian nations from white people's plundering. When I read the radio lecture, I was surprised that Dr. Ohkawa's logic lacked a pang of conscience for Japan's ruling other Asian nations. In my opinion, generally, colonialism had many problems for colony nations, for instance plundering, discriminations and so on. Of course, Japanese colonialism included. Ruling "primitive" Asian nations, however, seemed "common sense" for Japanese people in those days.
I think that the reason that Japan started to fight the US was a collision of imperialism between Japan and the US. At the time, imperialism for Japan was justice and important to develop Japan. For the US, Japan's invasion was an obstacle of getting interests from Asia.
I have a second question "Why did Japan decided to fight the US even there was the vast gap between Japan's nation power and the US's?" In 1941, the GNP of the US was as many as 11.83 times larger than the one of Japan.
According to the book "Asia Pacific War"(Yutaka Yoshida, 2007), 1941 Japan had the largest budget for preparing for the war. It was 56 times larger than the war budget in 1931(the beginning year of China invasion). The Japanese Navy was a little bigger than the US Navy in the Pacific Sea in 1941. Depending that, some Japanese Army leaders mistakenly thought that Japan could win the US if the Japanese Army could end the war in a short time.
Why did Japan attack without a declaration?
The Pearl Harbor Attack is recognized as a surprise attack. The US people think it was an unlawful and dirty act. Why did Japan start the war in such away?
Do Japanese people think that the surprise attack was not a dirty act? I feel that most Japanese feel a little pang of conscience about the Pearl Harbor Attack, in spite of them knowing about it. The reason why is they believe in some explanations that justify the Attack (in detail: see my blog "How do the Japanese think about the Pearl Harbor attack?") Generally, they recognize that a surprise attack is evil. So why did Japan attack without a declaration?
I have no idea. I checked some books about the Pearl Harbor Attack whose authors approve the Pearl Harbor Attack, but even they couldn't show the validity of the surprise attack. The Attack was one of the big mistakes that the leaders of the Japanese Army decided, I think. The Attack not only was against the rule but also provoked the US people's wrath and union to fight Japan.
My opinion
I think that the surprise attack was the biggest mistake and the Japanese can't justify it. It was an unlawful and dirty act, in addition to, uniting the US people to beat Japan.
What about Japanese decision to fight the US? I also think that the war was a mistake. Even with pressure by the US, the Japanese government should have sought an alternative way because the war left a vast number of victims and destructions. In the first place, fighting against an enemy twelve times larger (GNP) enemy was unrealistic.
What should Japan have done? I have no idea, maybe she should have reconsidered her colonial plan of Asia. Japan can learn many things from this Attack and the War.
I think the US also can learn many things from this Attack and the War. One of them is that the strong pressure as to act "the world police" sometimes possibly provokes the unlawful and unrealistic counterattack.
-How do Japanese think about the Pacific War?
-How do Japanese think about the Pearl Harbor attack?
-The Great Tokyo Air Raid - More Victims than the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb
-Which was the best era in Japan? An interview with my grandparents who were born in the early 20th century
"So why did they attack? I've heard it suggested that they didn't want Hawaii interfering with plans for the Pacific, but the US and Japan were still negotiating at the time, so why the preemptive strike? I do remember reading about the US opening the Japanese ports in 1850, but that was a long time before WWII." (quoted from comments of this blog on Dec. 8 2007)
Why did Japan decide to fight the US?
Before replying to the above question, I will divide it into two questions. One is "Why did Japan decide to fight the US?" The other is "Why did Japan attack without a declaration?"
About the former question, I introduce a radio lecture that aired in December 1941, about reasonings behind the start of the Pacific War by Dr. Shumei Ohkawa who was asked by the Japanese government. According to the lecture, he said the reason why was "The US got in the way of Japan's Asian management." In detail: Opening Japan ports in 1853 by the US was fortune, she kept polite and opened Japan with negotiations, not plundered. After Spanish-American War in 1898 (the US got the Philippines), she realized that the Asia-Pacific interests were important. The US persuaded Japan to sell the half interests of Manchuria (northeast China) Railway (the US failed), planned to construct a rival railway company to the Manchuria Railways with the UK (they failed), and so on. After that, the Washington Conference was held from 1921 to 1922. During that conference, participant nations set Japan's navy battleships weight as 60% of the US. In 1941, the US froze Japanese capital in the US and stopped exporting oil to Japan. Japan considered the above actions as obstacles of Japanese Asian management.
The US and other nations regarded "Japan's Asian management" as an invasion. So did the Asian nations invaded by Japan. It is the reason why the US 'got in the way of" Japan. Japanese people in those days, however, seemed to think that Japan's Asian management was relief to Asian nations from white people's plundering. When I read the radio lecture, I was surprised that Dr. Ohkawa's logic lacked a pang of conscience for Japan's ruling other Asian nations. In my opinion, generally, colonialism had many problems for colony nations, for instance plundering, discriminations and so on. Of course, Japanese colonialism included. Ruling "primitive" Asian nations, however, seemed "common sense" for Japanese people in those days.
I think that the reason that Japan started to fight the US was a collision of imperialism between Japan and the US. At the time, imperialism for Japan was justice and important to develop Japan. For the US, Japan's invasion was an obstacle of getting interests from Asia.
I have a second question "Why did Japan decided to fight the US even there was the vast gap between Japan's nation power and the US's?" In 1941, the GNP of the US was as many as 11.83 times larger than the one of Japan.
According to the book "Asia Pacific War"(Yutaka Yoshida, 2007), 1941 Japan had the largest budget for preparing for the war. It was 56 times larger than the war budget in 1931(the beginning year of China invasion). The Japanese Navy was a little bigger than the US Navy in the Pacific Sea in 1941. Depending that, some Japanese Army leaders mistakenly thought that Japan could win the US if the Japanese Army could end the war in a short time.
Why did Japan attack without a declaration?
The Pearl Harbor Attack is recognized as a surprise attack. The US people think it was an unlawful and dirty act. Why did Japan start the war in such away?
Do Japanese people think that the surprise attack was not a dirty act? I feel that most Japanese feel a little pang of conscience about the Pearl Harbor Attack, in spite of them knowing about it. The reason why is they believe in some explanations that justify the Attack (in detail: see my blog "How do the Japanese think about the Pearl Harbor attack?") Generally, they recognize that a surprise attack is evil. So why did Japan attack without a declaration?
I have no idea. I checked some books about the Pearl Harbor Attack whose authors approve the Pearl Harbor Attack, but even they couldn't show the validity of the surprise attack. The Attack was one of the big mistakes that the leaders of the Japanese Army decided, I think. The Attack not only was against the rule but also provoked the US people's wrath and union to fight Japan.
My opinion
I think that the surprise attack was the biggest mistake and the Japanese can't justify it. It was an unlawful and dirty act, in addition to, uniting the US people to beat Japan.
What about Japanese decision to fight the US? I also think that the war was a mistake. Even with pressure by the US, the Japanese government should have sought an alternative way because the war left a vast number of victims and destructions. In the first place, fighting against an enemy twelve times larger (GNP) enemy was unrealistic.
What should Japan have done? I have no idea, maybe she should have reconsidered her colonial plan of Asia. Japan can learn many things from this Attack and the War.
I think the US also can learn many things from this Attack and the War. One of them is that the strong pressure as to act "the world police" sometimes possibly provokes the unlawful and unrealistic counterattack.
Related posts
-How do Japanese think about the Pacific War?
-How do Japanese think about the Pearl Harbor attack?
-The Great Tokyo Air Raid - More Victims than the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb
-Which was the best era in Japan? An interview with my grandparents who were born in the early 20th century
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Why do Japanese businesspeople work till late?
A bureaucrat's comment
About this question, a Japanese bureaucrat made a comment on his blog. He had experience working with EU bureaucrats in Belgium so he compared Japanese and European work style. It indicates the vast gap between the two. Japanese bureaucrats work till midnight every night, but EU employees work till 6pm with a 2hour lunch and a higher salary than Japanese.
He was interested in this gap, so he asked EU people about the difference. He learned four reasons.
Reason 1: Europeans are tolerant of others and themselves but Japanese aren't
An EU legislation was due to reconsider until a certain date, but a European bureaucrat in charge did nothing after the date. The EU committee explained to the parliament "The person in charge was busy on his long holiday." The parliament replied, "I see. No problem." If this case occurred in Japan, the person in charge's boss would get fired, the parliament would go mad and mass media would buzz.
Reason 2: Europeans do the same work for a long time, but Japanese do one type of job for a few years*
European people are easy to look at the overview of their work. Japanese people, however, have to catch up with them because of their little experience and knowledge.
*Why do the Japanese government and many companies transfer their members to other departments every few years? I have no idea, but some people said it is concerned with the Japanese career-long employment: If a person work the same company, he / she has to have experienced many groups to manage a department.
Reason3: European groups have severe delegation of authority, but Japanese don't
European people don't explain all about their work to their bosses. It seems to take them a shorter time to explain something to their boss than Japanese do.
He thinks there is the same root between Reason 3 and 1. Most Japanese businesspeople know how difficult it is to say "I have no idea." Their bosses take it for granted that their subordinates know all. It leads to on increase in explanations. For intolerance for themselves, the bosses want to know all. For intolerance for others, they never forgive people who say "I have no idea."
Reason 4: European customers are tolerant, but Japanese customers are not
European register clerks are eager to chat with co-workers, in spite of making long cues. There are 30 minutes- long line in front of registers at McDonald's. European customers don't complain and wait.
In Japan, some people think "Customers are Gods." This bureaucrat was more politely welcomed when he bought a rice ball (1.2$) in Japan than when he bought a car in Belgium. He thinks that Japanese business services try to listen to and remedy all customers' complaints, so it makes some business people's physical and mental health seriously suffer.
My opinion
I think this bureaucrat's comments are proper because I experienced a similar situation to the above comments in Japan. (I have no experience to work with foreigners.) In particular, Reason 3 is familiar to me. In my company, sometimes the time to make documents for the bosses may be more than the time to make documents for my clients because of little delegation of power in my company. It's non-sense, I think. I have some favorite points and some disappointing points of my company, this is the most disappointing, I think. I would like to be severe at my work but tolerant for other people.
About this question, a Japanese bureaucrat made a comment on his blog. He had experience working with EU bureaucrats in Belgium so he compared Japanese and European work style. It indicates the vast gap between the two. Japanese bureaucrats work till midnight every night, but EU employees work till 6pm with a 2hour lunch and a higher salary than Japanese.
He was interested in this gap, so he asked EU people about the difference. He learned four reasons.
Reason 1: Europeans are tolerant of others and themselves but Japanese aren't
An EU legislation was due to reconsider until a certain date, but a European bureaucrat in charge did nothing after the date. The EU committee explained to the parliament "The person in charge was busy on his long holiday." The parliament replied, "I see. No problem." If this case occurred in Japan, the person in charge's boss would get fired, the parliament would go mad and mass media would buzz.
Reason 2: Europeans do the same work for a long time, but Japanese do one type of job for a few years*
European people are easy to look at the overview of their work. Japanese people, however, have to catch up with them because of their little experience and knowledge.
*Why do the Japanese government and many companies transfer their members to other departments every few years? I have no idea, but some people said it is concerned with the Japanese career-long employment: If a person work the same company, he / she has to have experienced many groups to manage a department.
Reason3: European groups have severe delegation of authority, but Japanese don't
European people don't explain all about their work to their bosses. It seems to take them a shorter time to explain something to their boss than Japanese do.
He thinks there is the same root between Reason 3 and 1. Most Japanese businesspeople know how difficult it is to say "I have no idea." Their bosses take it for granted that their subordinates know all. It leads to on increase in explanations. For intolerance for themselves, the bosses want to know all. For intolerance for others, they never forgive people who say "I have no idea."
Reason 4: European customers are tolerant, but Japanese customers are not
European register clerks are eager to chat with co-workers, in spite of making long cues. There are 30 minutes- long line in front of registers at McDonald's. European customers don't complain and wait.
In Japan, some people think "Customers are Gods." This bureaucrat was more politely welcomed when he bought a rice ball (1.2$) in Japan than when he bought a car in Belgium. He thinks that Japanese business services try to listen to and remedy all customers' complaints, so it makes some business people's physical and mental health seriously suffer.
My opinion
I think this bureaucrat's comments are proper because I experienced a similar situation to the above comments in Japan. (I have no experience to work with foreigners.) In particular, Reason 3 is familiar to me. In my company, sometimes the time to make documents for the bosses may be more than the time to make documents for my clients because of little delegation of power in my company. It's non-sense, I think. I have some favorite points and some disappointing points of my company, this is the most disappointing, I think. I would like to be severe at my work but tolerant for other people.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Nishinomiya City Kitayama Green Botanical Garden
I visited the garden with my wife, son and in-laws. One of my new-year-resolutions is "to walk around my town Nishinomiya", this visiting is part of them.
Shukugawa river in front of the Garden is very small because the garden is located in the middle of a mountain.
Mountain cherry tree near the entrance gate.
Splendid weeping cherry tree.
In Japan, in the first week of April, many people gather near cherry blossom trees to appreciate them, so sometimes you miss a place to look at cherry blossoms because of congestions.
I learned if I visit this garden in the third week of April, I can appreciate the cherry blossoms without congestion.
I found pretty flowers named Veronica. The name reminded me of Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney because they composed an excellent song of the same name.
Decent pansy and unique tulip.
I think that one of the good points of this garden is the staff have good sense to mix such breeding flowers with wild plants.
This monument was presented by Shaoxing City of China, which is a friendship town of my town, Nishinomiya.
Lunch.
Japanese-style lodge for official guests from foreign countries.
We enjoyed many beautiful flowers in this compact garden at the best season for flowers.
I think that this garden is good for families because not only do they have pretty flowers but they also have a their kitchen garden and free spaces for relaxing and having lunch.
Shukugawa river in front of the Garden is very small because the garden is located in the middle of a mountain.
Mountain cherry tree near the entrance gate.
Splendid weeping cherry tree.
In Japan, in the first week of April, many people gather near cherry blossom trees to appreciate them, so sometimes you miss a place to look at cherry blossoms because of congestions.
I learned if I visit this garden in the third week of April, I can appreciate the cherry blossoms without congestion.
I found pretty flowers named Veronica. The name reminded me of Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney because they composed an excellent song of the same name.
Decent pansy and unique tulip.
I think that one of the good points of this garden is the staff have good sense to mix such breeding flowers with wild plants.
This monument was presented by Shaoxing City of China, which is a friendship town of my town, Nishinomiya.
Lunch.
Japanese-style lodge for official guests from foreign countries.
We enjoyed many beautiful flowers in this compact garden at the best season for flowers.
I think that this garden is good for families because not only do they have pretty flowers but they also have a their kitchen garden and free spaces for relaxing and having lunch.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Collapse: One Island, Two Peoples, Two Histories
This chapter focused on two nations, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, in the large Caribbean island of Hispaniola. These two nations embodied this book's subtitle: How societies choose to fail or succeed.
You can find much difference between the two nations. The wooded area of Haiti is only 1% of the area of the whole country, the Dominican Republic has 28% wooded area in the whole country. Haiti is one of the lowest income countries in the world except for Africa. It has one third of the area of the whole Hispaniola island but two thirds population for the whole island. In other words, it falls in a vicious cycle of poverty and high population growth. Social infrastructure still doesn't supply many citizens with electricity, water, sewage, medical care and schooling.
On the other hand, the Dominican Republic's income is five times larger than Haiti, its population density and population growth rate are both lower than Haiti. Many people go to the U.S. to work and send money to their Dominican families, some of them succeed as baseball players. (For instance, Sammy Sosa) Of course, security level is different between the two nations. When I checked out their security information on the webpages of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan in December 2007, they told us of travel warnings for Haiti, but no warning for the Dominican Republic.
What made such differences between the two nations on one island? The answer is not simple like the Easter Island case. However, history affected the difference like Easter Island.
On Hispaniola Island, people who were of the same race with Native Americans once lived, but after the Spanish came, they were exterminated with Spanish disease and killing. After the extermination of Native Americans on Hispaniola Island, the Europeans repopulated with slaves from Africa. Slaves were worked hard for sugar plantations.
That was the typical pattern of European ruling of the Americas. After that, the history of Hispaniola Island is not typical: the French occupied the western area of the island while the Spanish checked the other land, for example, for silver mines in Bolivia.
Then, being affected by the French Revolution, people of the western area of the island, Haiti, declared independence and became Haiti, the first black republic in 1804. When I read this part of the book, I breathed a sigh of relief. But this was Haiti's first step to a bad direction. The independent black people burned down plantations and killed well-educated French administrators. Consequently, their doing lost their economic base.
Haiti once occupied the whole of the island, then the eastern area of the island became known as Santo Domingo Republic. (Dominican Republic) Unlike Haiti, people of the Dominican Republic didn't destroy their economic base very much and didn't exclude foreigners. Therefore, the Dominican Republic's motto of "Welcome immigrants and Spanish OK" gathered many immigrants and foreigner's interest than Haiti's motto of "Excluding foreigners and Creole language (mixed African with French)".
As a result, the Dominican Republic could progress modernization and changed living energy from charcoal to hydroelectricity. On the other hand, Haiti's energy is still charcoal. Therefore, Haitian people have been cutting down trees.
These are not only reasons of difference.
Both Haiti and the Dominican Republic have had long period of dangerous dictators than the dictators of Haiti, the dictators of the Dominican Republic seemed to have much more concern about the natural environment. One of them, Trujillo, called for scientists to assess the environment and regulate deforestation in 1937. In the 1950s, he guarded wooded areas which could keep rain water to make hydroelectricity power stations work. His successor, Balaguer, was also eager to preserve wooded areas. He commanded that illegal people who cut down trees be shot from helicopters. When he retired at 94 years of age, he made a law to preserve the national parks against his successor who considered passing a weak national park preservation law. In contrast, the dictators of Haiti, Duvalier and his son, did no such presarvation.
Why were the dictators of the Dominican Republic so eager to preserve the environment? To begin with, why were they, who killed their political enemies and opposition factions, concerned about the environment? Maybe the main reason was economy. However, setting aside the period of Trujillo, in the period of Balaguer, which the nation modernized to a certain extent and established its economy base, why did he do so? I think such doing was merely his own interest.
The author, Diamond, had the same question. Therefore he asked Dominican people why Balaguer was so keen to preserve the environment, and all the answers were different. Some of them said, "Adolf Hitler loved dogs and brushed his teeth, but that doesn't mean that we should hate dogs and stop brushing our teeth." In addition, he recalled that he was about to be killed by a soldier in Indonesia under military control, but the government had a concrete plan to keep national parks' condition good. After all, the author didn't have clear answers, but he brought up that the logic of dictators are evil therefore they are never interested in preserving the environments was incorrect.
Reading this chapter, I learned some theories as follows:
Even a nation that was trampled on by Europe, used European know-how to establish the economy base.
You cannot construct a nation with only anger and pride.
Top-down system is the strongest in any means.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Collapse: Twilight at Easter
There are no trees on Easter Island except for the trees which someone planted recently. I was convinced that this meant such a tragedy by the book "Collapse: How societies to fail or succeed" by Jared Diamond.
Originally, there were many trees on Easter Island like other Polynesian islands. In 900, people from other island settled on Easter Island and they prospered. Increasing population and communicating with tribes on the island provoked tribal conflicts. People established many moai statues for their demonstrations and many trees were cut down for moving and erecting moai statues.
As a result, all the trees on the island vanished from 1400 to 1600. The lack of trees affected the possibility to grow other plants and animals. This meant a decrease in something to eat, Easter Island inhabitants had began to decline.
At the time, people changed their religions and tore down the moai statues. The author, Jared Diamond, said it as "Easter Islander's toppling of their ancestral moai reminds me of Russians and Romanians toppling the statues of Stalin and Ceausescu when the Communist governments of those countries collapsed." I think it could be symbol of twilight at Easter Island. Although there were still some standing moais on the island when Captain Cook went there in 1774, all moais fall down by 1868.
Tragedy had not stopped with the decreasing food (plants and animals), The islanders also decreased. Until, finally, they begun to eat human bodies. According to excavating results, human bones were found out not only in graves but also at trash sites. The author introduced, "Oral traditions of the islanders are obsessed with cannibalism; the most inflammatory taunt that could be snarled at an enemy was 'The flesh of your mother sticks between your teeth.' " After that, epidemics and capturing islanders for slaves by Europeans made islander population only 111, despite several thousands to thirty thousand at their most prosperous era. (Now there are two thousand islanders on the island, but most of them are half-breeds.
Why did only Easter Islanders take such a destiny? The reason why is that some conditions of the island happened to make it difficult to grow trees. In a dry and relatively cool climate trees grow slowly, inactive volcanoes make non-fertile soils, no high mountains mean clouds don't appear easily and little rain, small island which is affected easily by environmental change, and because the island is located far from other islands, the islanders didn't move from the island.
The author compared the last reason with the contemporary society. Of course, in our society, people, substances and information circulate all over the world unlike the ancient Easter Island society. However, changing the point of view, we can say that Earth in the outer space is similar to the isolated island. We are in same boat. The author admitted this analogy is pushy, nevertheless, he insisted that we have to do something to avoid the destiny like the Easter Islanders. I agree with it.
Friday, December 14, 2007
The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank
Many people say, "Breeding is more important than birth." Is it true? I wanted to know the answer in detail, so I picked up this book. I've got two things out of this book. Firstly, the actual condition of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank, secondly, the eugenics history of the U.S. and the existence of the man who embodied it.
1.The Nobel Prize Sperm Bank
The Sperm Bank was established in 1980 by Robert Graham who was a glass maker businessman. His policy was that this system was needed for making excellent humans because too much welfare allows incompetents to have their offspring. Therefore this Bank was free of charge for both donors and receivers.
What was the story of the Bank? This book told us that the bank was irresponsible. The bank required detailed profiles of donors, but they didn't require its proof. The author searched for a man whose profile said his IQ was 160; the man said to the author that he had never taken an IQ test. He merely told the Bank a number they would be glad of. He only wanted a lot of babies (This man registered his sperm with two other sperm banks, what's more, he made a lot of children with ladies in his real life.)
The staff of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank were also generous or irresponsible – they arranged a correspondence with a donor and a receiver family. As for the founder, his eagerness was "true", but the eagerness didn't penetrate into the staff.
In addition to, Graham quit before he could collect the Nobel Prize winner's sperm (Above all, the bank didn't make the Nobel Prize winner's baby) and he begun to collect the sperm of men who were smart, young, sporty and good-looking. The author thought the reason why was that mothers didn't want a smart brain only, they wanted well-balanced babies. After all, Graham adjusted his policy to clients' needs "flexibly". The client mothers were conscious of donors' looks, in particular, they asked donors' heights invariably (Nobody received the sperm of the low-height man.)
Could the Bank make the genius babies? 271 babies were born from this Bank, and the author had contacts with thirty people of the 271. He said that generously they are above average, but individual variation is much. Is that "above average" based on the gene? He said it's suspicious. In short, it was based on the environment. He thinks that all ladies who knocked on the door of the Sperm Bank were keen to have super babies, and they made good environments for babies.
However, the author picked up on the examples of blood ties. For instance, the common points of the donor and his child are as follows:
The child plays the piano, the donor's mother was a professional pianist
The child dreams to be a marine biologist, the donor's father and a grand father were both well-known marine biologists
The child likes to play chess, so does the donor
The child favors Russian composers (i.e. Rakhmaninov) more than German composers, so do a donor
The child resembles the donor
I was amazed at these similarities despite them never having been seen together.
This Bank was closed in 1999 because of the passing away of the establisher, Graham's successor.
2.The history of eugenics in the U.S.
This book told us not only about the Sperm Bank but also a background building up to that. It means that eugenics was popular in the U.S.
The word of "eugenics" was made by Francis Galton who was a cousin of Charles Darwin, but the U.S. people put it into practice. In the beginning of the 20th Century, white people's fear of other races and eugenics combined. In 1907, the law of forcible sterilization for mentally disabled people was passed. In the 1930s, sterilization for ineligible people became compulsory. They say up to sixty thousands people were operated on till the 1960s.
There was such "negative eugenics"(decreasing "ineligible" people). On the other hand, "positive eugenics"(increasing "excellent" people) grew in popularity, then the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank was established.
William Shockley was the man who embodied such eugenics passages. He was the Nobel Prize winner for his invention of the transistor.
I agree that he was excellent for his invention, but I can't agree that he was also excellent to understand human emotion. After he invented the transistor, he realized that a royalty of the transistor is attributed to his company (Bell Labs) and quit his company. He established an enterprise and employed young smart workers, for instance, Robert Noyce (one of the founders of Intel), Gordon Moore (the advocator of "Moore's Law" which describes an important trend in the history of computer hardware.) So far so good. But in the new company, he advocated "an open mind" and put up spreadsheets of all employees on a wall, advocated "the flat system" and exerted influence as a dictator. Employees left the company.
Then, he was open to say his theory. For example, in the U.S., black people's IQ is inferior to white people by 12 points, that is unable to be adjusted by social welfare or education because it depends on a genetic problem. Nazis contributed to decreasing genetic diseases because they did sterilization. And so on. It seems that he felt glad to provide his sperm for Graham's sperm bank.
At any rate, it seems that Shockley is a radical example of a man who is excellent but has problem in the root of humanity.
3.Interested in juicy stories
I personally think the human is a creature who tends to be affected strongly by environments, so I nearly agree that "Breeding is more important than birth." But sometimes juicy stories of genetic affection are interesting to me. For example, Japanese translator's trailer of this book: "I am endlessly interested in irresponsible juicy stories like tabloids: What songs does the child of Paul McCartney and Carole King give us? Could the child of Eric Clapton and Bonnie Raitt inherit the talent of the blues guitar without his/her parents' indulgence of cocaine?" I am also really interested in such juicy stories.
Saturday, December 08, 2007
How do Japanese think about the Pearl Harbor attack?
"Do you know what day the 8th of December is?" If you ask Japanese people, some music lovers will reply "It is the day of John Lennon was shot." But most of them will reply "It is the day (Japan Time) of the Pearl Harbor attack / the beginning day of the Pacific War." All Japanese know of the Pearl Harbor attack, most of them have a different understanding from the one U.S. people have.
The USS Arizona (BB-39) burning after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941 (from Wikipedia Commons, this image is in the public domain.)
Actually, most Japanese feel a little pang of conscience about the Pearl Harbor attack, in spite of them knowing that it was a perfidious attack. Of course, a perfidious attack is understood as an evil act among Japanese. Why do Japanese think that the Pearl Harbor attack was "a normal act?"
First, quite a few Japanese believe in the opinion that "the U.S. knew of the attack beforehand." The opinion is as follows: The U.S. caught and decoded the Japanese army's coded command of the attack, therefore the U.S. army prepared for the attack: let all main aircraft carriers go, only old battleships were left in the harbor. The opinion also says that a rare vivid color film which captured the attack exists. It is the evidence of the opinion, they said. In addition to, some go to the length of saying that it was a trap by the U.S. Of course, all the information above is a false rumor. But in Japan, many people know and believe the rumor.
Second, some Japanese say that the Japanese government prepared the declaration of war, but it couldn't be sent to the U.S. government before the attack. The night before the attack, all members of the Japanese Embassy in the U.S. attended a farewell party for a member and the ambassador attended a funeral, therefore nobody could receive the declaration. The ministry of foreign affairs of Japan admitted this mistake at last in 1994.
This mistake was a big misfortune for Japan: the attack became a perfidious attack from a mere sudden attack. However, at any rate, it was Japan's mistake - not the U.S.'s. In addition to, the Japanese government thought that the declaration of war would be sent at least 30 minutes before the attack. If Japan sent the declaration as they thought, the attack would be a perfidious one.
Third, in my opinion, this is the strongest reason for the Japanese thinking about the attack, nobody says that the Pearl Harbor attack was out of spite. Most Japanese think the following: Was the attack a surprise attack? Yes. Do you think the U.S. got angry? Yes, of course. That's all. People never ask the next question: Was the attack out of spite?
It is absurd thinking, I admit. However, in my opinion, many Japanese think so. Actually, I did. Through writing this article, I have learned that the rumor that the U.S knew of the attack beforehand was false, learned over 2,400 U.S. people were killed at the attack (many Japanese think the attack broke many battleships but didn't take people's lives.) I have also learned the following fact: think about what we did.
EDIT: the related post - Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor?
-How do Japanese think about the Pacific War?
-The Great Tokyo Air Raid - More Victims than the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb
-Which was the best era in Japan? An interview with my grandparents who were born in the early 20th century
The USS Arizona (BB-39) burning after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941 (from Wikipedia Commons, this image is in the public domain.)
Actually, most Japanese feel a little pang of conscience about the Pearl Harbor attack, in spite of them knowing that it was a perfidious attack. Of course, a perfidious attack is understood as an evil act among Japanese. Why do Japanese think that the Pearl Harbor attack was "a normal act?"
First, quite a few Japanese believe in the opinion that "the U.S. knew of the attack beforehand." The opinion is as follows: The U.S. caught and decoded the Japanese army's coded command of the attack, therefore the U.S. army prepared for the attack: let all main aircraft carriers go, only old battleships were left in the harbor. The opinion also says that a rare vivid color film which captured the attack exists. It is the evidence of the opinion, they said. In addition to, some go to the length of saying that it was a trap by the U.S. Of course, all the information above is a false rumor. But in Japan, many people know and believe the rumor.
Second, some Japanese say that the Japanese government prepared the declaration of war, but it couldn't be sent to the U.S. government before the attack. The night before the attack, all members of the Japanese Embassy in the U.S. attended a farewell party for a member and the ambassador attended a funeral, therefore nobody could receive the declaration. The ministry of foreign affairs of Japan admitted this mistake at last in 1994.
This mistake was a big misfortune for Japan: the attack became a perfidious attack from a mere sudden attack. However, at any rate, it was Japan's mistake - not the U.S.'s. In addition to, the Japanese government thought that the declaration of war would be sent at least 30 minutes before the attack. If Japan sent the declaration as they thought, the attack would be a perfidious one.
Third, in my opinion, this is the strongest reason for the Japanese thinking about the attack, nobody says that the Pearl Harbor attack was out of spite. Most Japanese think the following: Was the attack a surprise attack? Yes. Do you think the U.S. got angry? Yes, of course. That's all. People never ask the next question: Was the attack out of spite?
It is absurd thinking, I admit. However, in my opinion, many Japanese think so. Actually, I did. Through writing this article, I have learned that the rumor that the U.S knew of the attack beforehand was false, learned over 2,400 U.S. people were killed at the attack (many Japanese think the attack broke many battleships but didn't take people's lives.) I have also learned the following fact: think about what we did.
EDIT: the related post - Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor?
Other related posts
-How do Japanese think about the Pacific War?
-The Great Tokyo Air Raid - More Victims than the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb
-Which was the best era in Japan? An interview with my grandparents who were born in the early 20th century
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