Tonight I sat back to enjoy the third presidential debate.  The first two were pretty boring, but this last one had a sense of urgency that made for good viewing.  Both candidates seemed to be surrounded in a cloud of pressure forcing them to get their message out much more forcefully, and I can only ask why this didn’t happen before.  I felt that this third one was pretty evenly matched, but unfortunately McCain came across as being a little whiny.  I used to be a huge McCain fan so it’s pretty disappointing to see how far he’s fallen in this campaign.  I’m sure a lot of it is the work of his campaign team, even his brother told the press to let him be him, but you’d think he’d have more control over what is going on.  Obama’s policies just make more sense to me this time around – especially in areas such as health care, which I was without while living in the US.  I will say this though: even if Obama wins, I’m still disappointed in his Yes vote for telecom immunity.

As for other going ons, there’s more after the jump:

Ninna Temple

There’s actually a lot going on right now, almost too much to write about in just one blog entry, but I’ll start with my recent trip to Kyoto.  Last weekend my wife and I packed up our bags and headed out on the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto.  I’ve been there once, about 10 years ago, and my wife went there, as most students in Japan, during junior high.  For both of us it was nice to just get away before the birth of our first child, and even better, this time of year is probably the best time to visit the Kansai area (Kyoto, Osaka, etc.).  Summers in that area are dreadfully hot, and winters are surprisingly cold.  The spring and autumn, however, are pretty out of this world.  The Japan of old does exist, at least in spirit, and during these seasons you can really get a feel for a time long gone.

Every year Kyoto gets swamped with people who want to see either cherry blossoms or autumn leaves, but since it’s still early for the leaves to change colors we really hit the jackpot.  I really recommend visiting Japan during this time of the year if you can get the time off.  Just be careful though – prices for planes and trains skyrocket during the spring and autumn so be sure to get some kind of package deal, or pick up the JR rail pass that only tourists have access to.

Also, in following with my complete lack of focus, or I should say my absolute focus on everything in general, I’ve been working on computer graphics at my office.  I tried out some computer modeling a long time ago, but it’s pretty amazing what you can do with the programs available nowadays.  I just can’t get enough of creating new objects, and in particular I’m really focused on making things look real.  Photorealism is extremely hard to achieve – just check out a B movie to see what I mean – but it’s really rewarding when you can actually get it done.  I’ll probably be posting some pictures here sometime in the near future.  Requests are also ok.  I can’t guarantee the quality, but I’m always up for trying something new.

Very briefly I’d like to recommend to you the movie Death Proof by Quentin Tarantino.  Originally part of a two-movie collection called Grindhouse, Death Proof was shown along side Planet Terror directed by Robert Rodriguez.  From what I understand, the official Grindhouse feature was only shown in North America and after poor ticket sales it was decided that both movies would be separated for overseas audiences and lengthened to a normal running time.  I had been looking forward to seeing Grindhouse – a throwback to the explotation films of the 70s – but after learning of the two movies being separated I decided to wait until video.
Well, to make a long story short, Death Proof was worth waiting for.  It’s not as good as some of Taratino’s other films, but the characters were interesting, and the way the story plays out is something of a surprise.  The movie hasn’t received very much praise from critics around the globe, but it serves up an entertaining hour and a half that most people should rent at some point.

On my way home from seeing a movie today, I was playing a Sony PSP on the train. Like always, I was standing in the area closest to the door but pressed up against the seat to avoid traffic. At one point an old man (probably in his 70s) got behind me and actually pushed me off the train.  Since he was stumbling on the train as well I just figured he was trying to get off, and rather than block his exit, I just decided to get off and let him pass.  Well, much to my surprise, rather than exiting like a normal person, the old man continued to push me to keep me from getting on the train again. We got about 10 ft. away from the train door and I was trying to get around him to re-board, but he was doing a pretty good job of getting in my way.  Then things started to escalate.  He started yelling at me and tried to rip the PSP from my hands. He was obviously drunk and was yelling at me for both playing games and not understanding the rules being a foreigner.  I wasn’t quite sure what rules he was referring to, but I had had enough of his crap so I told him we were going to the police (in Japanese of course) and strangely he immediately agreed to go with me.

I was pissed as hell at this point, but I decided that rather than go to the police we should just stop at the station office and let them deal with this piece of work. When we got there I told the people what he did to me and he said, “Yep, that sounds about right,” and proceeded to explain to me that you can’t play games on the train. The office attendant butted in and told him that you can’t push other riders off the train and that playing games is not against “the manners” as long as you are wearing headphones and not playing the sound loud enough to bother other riders. The old man bowed and said something like, “Yeah, I suppose there are some things that I should apologize for too.”  After hearing this sentence I got even angrier and told him, “There’s no damn too about this at all.  You owe me an apology!”  At that point he started to berate me for not accepting his apology and the office attendant had me sit down so he could start talking to him about how playing games isn’t a moral offense. They then asked me if I wanted to call the police to report him but I told them I just wanted to go home.

It was a very bizarre experience and not one I would really want to repeat but I felt it was pretty strange that the old guy would actually physically accost me to stop playing games quietly on the train. I’m totally for this “Be mindful of your neighbors” campaign that they are running here to keep people calm on the trains but this was pretty crazy.

The worst part was that when the station attendant told the old man to apologize to me the old man tried to hug me. The station attendant jumped in between us because he was probably unsure of how I would react to getting touched by the old man. In the end, the old man did one of those politician handshakes (the two-handed one) and was sent stumbling off on his way into the sunset.

Needless to say I was pretty worked up about all of this.  Maintaining my composure was probably the most difficult part of this whole ordeal.  It’s not quite often that you have someone in elderly diapers attacking you for something totally irrelevant.   We’re told to respect the elderly but things like this really just sour your overall impression of them all.  I doubt this will ever happen again, but at least now I guess I’m prepared.

Oh, and on a side note, I saw American Gangster starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe.   It’s a great movie and a must-see for people who like police dramas.  The story is based on a true story.

And knowing is half the battle

Squid ink pasta

Confucionist way of life

How strange can you get? Guess I’m filling a niche market for someone.

I hope you like it!

We will probably try more varieties before this season is over but I’m personally very excited to have a new variety of cooking that we can enjoy at our house. You can see a picture on my wife’s blog.  The post is in Japanese, but it’s marked Nov. 4 (you can find the link to her site on my blogroll).

You might be interested to know that nabe is also the food that sumo wrestlers eat on a daily basis to gain weight (they eat tons and tons of food before sleeping around 14 hours a day to put on the pounds).

This link is for an article on the BBC website that describes the incident in more detail, but it seems that after Joe Darby (the whistle blower) was named on TV in front of his peers, he was then flown out of Iraq and put under protection for six months out of fear of retaliation. His house in the US was vandalized by people angry over the whistle blowing and his wife, after learning what her husband had done, fled to her sister’s house to avoid any repercussions.

Those who are anti-Bush tend to say it was on purpose, as does Joe himself, but what I find more disturbing about this whole issue is that there are actually Americans who would be angry with Joe Darby’s actions. To be fair I don’t know if this reaction was by acquaintances from his home town or complete strangers, but it makes me angry to think that doing the right thing would make you a target. Call me naive, which I readily admit I am, but when a crime has been committed I have always been under the impression that it needs to be dealt with properly. Strangely, I wrote about a similar topic in a letter to the editor of the Japan Times. It’s scary times we live in when people in the right are subject to wrong.

Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.

I find it hard to believe how much time has passed since my last blog entry. Work has been busy, and my usual ramblings don’t seem important enough to sacrifice some free time. I have been doing a little behind-the-scenes maintenance though, and I’ve been very happy with result of installing Spam Karma 2. It has completely stopped the amount of crap coming into my mailbox, and I can at long last live without the annoyance of cleaning out junk mail. You have no idea how much this annoys me.
Today I thought I’d just cover a light topic that might be of interest to some of you. When I first came to Japan I had terrible posture. Even now it’s not perfect, but I have been actively trying to fix the way I sit and stand over the past few years. My mom always warned me about sitting up straight, but it wasn’t until I started Kendo over here that I finally realized why.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Kendo, it’s kind of like Olympic fencing, except it’s the Japanese traditional form of sword fighting using a two-handed weapon. Most of the gear is the same as in fencing except the gear is very top heavy and is constructed using plastics, wood and a heavy canvas-like material. I think the full set of Kendo gear wears around 20 lbs. (roughly 8 kg) and probably more than half of the weight is in the helmet. When you first put on the gear, you learn right away whether your posture is good or not. If your center of balance is off just the tiniest bit, it becomes very hard to stand up straight, and after about 10 minutes of trying to maintain your footing your legs feel like jelly. The key to doing kendo right is to keep your back straight even when moving forward.

Generally speaking most people in Japan have amazing posture. I think this might actually be a trait found in most Asian countries as it is actually part of education. You need to be sitting up straight to show that you’re paying attention. It’s actually a great thing to practice (I realize this now) and it always makes me laugh to see people from other countries slouching their way down the sidewalk. I must say though, correcting 10+ years of bad posture is a pain in the butt. It’s really something that you have to work at.

On a side note, and I’ve mentioned this before, I just love how much information there is out there to read. There’s just no end in sight for how much one can learn from the various agencies out there, and I thought I’d briefly mention some of my current topics of interest.

The Great Depression – I think this topic is of particular importance right now with all of the subprime loan issues in the US and around the world. It’s amazing to read about how the US economy was so devesatated by this time period in world history, and it’s even more fascinating to see how this economic depression eventually led to World War II. To be honest though, as much as I’ve read on this topic, it’s extremely, extremely complicated and since it covers such a wide variety of fields of knowledge it’s hard to get a grasp of everything that occurred.

The Dust Bowl – This is the term for a series of severe dust storms that took place from 1933 to 1939. This topic is strongly related to the Great Depression as many farmers had to leave their land to get away from the storms destroying everything. The Grapes of Wrath is based on this event in North American history and if you check out the photos, it’s scary to think something like this could happen in modern society (it feels very Fire and Brimstone).

Space – This isn’t really a specific topic, but I’ve found a couple of topics that are pretty cool. I originally found this information on Slashdot so I should give credit where credit is due.

Saturn’s Rings – This first article talks about how pieces of a smashed moon were found inside the rings of Saturn. The article is a bit confusing to read but it’s interesting to see how scientists were able to piece all this information together.

Black holes – This second article talks about how hundreds of black holes were found by NASA. This news is the first evidence that all galaxies were created with a black hole at their core.

Feel free to post a comment with information that you have found interesting lately!