The
issue of who
will ascend to the Chrysanthemum Throne of Japan
was brought to the forefront recently when the current
Emperors cousin (Prince Tomohito) issued a statement
stressing the importance of maintaining an all-male
line of emperors. He was quoted as saying that instead
of allowing a woman to assume the post it would be better
if 1.) the practice of using concubines be brought back,
or 2.) bring back a male from one of the family lines
that were stripped of their nobility after the second
world war.
Is this guy smoking crack or what?
It is amazing to think that he is
that far out of touch with reality if he thinks saying
something like this is acceptable in today's social
climate.
As ludicrous as this sounds, it seems
to happen a lot here.
From time to time Tokyo's
Mayor Ishihara spouts similar tripe, frequent enough
to amaze me that he is able to keep his job. One of
the more most recent of which was when he said that
it is pointless for women who have lost the ability
to reproduce to keep on living.
Simply amazing.
--
Yesterday afternoon I spent a couple
of hours in Yokohama testing out the movie mode on my
new Casio
Exilim EX-P 505. It records in MPEG4, so I no longer
have to rip DV tape to my hard drive and then convert
it. Instead I just drag and drop the files from an SD
card which is a big time saver. The video quality, although
not anywhere as good as mini DV, is quite good for a
digital camera. It also weighs next to nothing so I'll
be a lot more likely to take it with me when I go out
shooting pictures.
Following is a test clip which shows
what it is capable of. I already see I will have to
be very careful to hold it as still as possible since
it does not have image stabilization.
Warning: The video is nothing too exciting. Just the
view one gets on the streets of Yokohama.
See
the video - 6.7 MB .wmv file
--
Yesterday evening I went out to a
couple of small hole-in-the-wall Izakaya with Pete,
a friend of mine.
I always enjoy evenings out with Pete
and last night was no exception. He is always up f0r
exploring all the little hidden places that other foreigners
never frequent.
We met up an Yokosuka chuo station
and headed in the opposite direction from downtown.
Pete wanted to find a very small, very local, place
to grab a couple of beers and a bite to eat.
Since neither of us knew exactly where
we were going, we wandered around for about 15-20 minutes
before spying a likely candidate. It was a very small
place, and as Pete slid the door open we could see just
how small. Only 4 stools, and all of the were occupied.
No problem though, and we just continued
our search.
To make a long story short, we were
flat out refused entry into a couple of places, no doubt
because we were foreigners. (If only they knew Pete
was completely bi-lingual...)
Undaunted, we continued on our quest
and shortly came upon a place that had some open seats.
(3 out of 6 were open) So we went in, settled into our
seats and ordered a couple of beers. At first the owner
and other patrons were a little apprehensive about seeing
two gaijin come into the place, but as soon as Pete
started to order they were put at ease. (Pete's Japanese
is excellent) We stayed at that place long enough to
down a couple of beers each along with some hot sake
and a couple of dishes of food. During the evening customers
came and went and the place was usually full. It w2as
always funny to see some of the regulars come in and
do a double take as they saw a couple of gaijin there.
By the time we left we were the last two customers there.
The next place we found was just as
small (6 stools) but much older than the first place
we were allowed entry to. It was also a little more
quiet with only us and two other customers.
Like the last place, at first they
were a little apprehensive about us, but before long
we were all having a good time. The other two ( Japanese)
customers were even kind enough to buy each of us a
beer towards the end of the night. I'll bet we were
some of the only (if not the only) gaijin to
ever go into that place.
Comment 44
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