Not-so-blind gaijin and the Japanese pink elephant
imomus' liveloserjournal

The blind gaijin and the Japanese elephant

People from other cultures who write about Japan often sound like The Blind Men And The Elephant. Everybody seems to be talking about a completely different Japan. Some change their opinion over time, arriving with a firm grasp of Japan's trunk but leaving clinging to its tail.
'Japan is very like a wall', said the first blind foreigner. Alex Kerr in his book 'Dogs and Demons' tells us that Japan is ruled by a corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy.,

Posted by trek/taro at 6:06 PM JST
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Like my Japanese lovelife, "odd-parity" discovered

Experiment Confirms Existence of New Electronic State in Superconductors

Penn State online / 11 November 2004
The existence of a new electronic state in superconductors, materials that can carry an electric current without resistance, has been confirmed experimentally according to research to be published in the 12 November 2004 issue of the journal Science... "We have established direct evidence for the existence of an odd-parity superconductor, which previously had been theorized but never demonstrated in an unambiguous experiment"...
...In addition to their scientific interest, superconductors have a number of practical applications. These include superconducting magnets, which have enabled the development of high-resolution magnetic-resonance imaging in medicine, and superconducting wires, which transport electrical power without loss due to heating of the cable by electrical resistance.....
....This research was funded by the United States National Science Foundation; the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; and the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology; and the Japanese 21st-Century Centers of Excellence.

Japanese sportsman doesn't like sporting photos? Sheesh.
Ok, let me get this straight: a public figure Ok, let me get this straight: a public figure--a jock no less-- does NOT want great publicity about him kissing a mega-babe. Sheesh.

Japanese football star Nakata wins more compensation over kissing photo

11 November 2004 1821 hrs
TOKYO - Japanese footballer Hidetoshi Nakata has won 1.2 million yen (11,215 dollars) after taking to court a magazine which reproduced a photo of him kissing a famous actress as it reported on another lawsuit by the sports star.

French army in Japan defends Republic and Beaujolais
NARITA, JAPAN: A Japanses custom officer checks a wine bottle of the French 2004 Beaujolais Nouveau at the Narita International airport, some 60 kilometres west of Tokyo, 11 November 2004. AFP/Getty Images
AFP/Getty Images

JAPAN: French residents living in western Japan wearing World War I French Army uniforms gather at the foreign cemetery in Kobe city, western Japan 11 November 2004 to commemorate the Armistice Day ceremony marking the end of World War I.

"Turret gods" of Okinawa guard over Falluja Marines
US troops move toward FallujahNov 10 The Christian Science Monitor / By Scott Peterson
NEAR FALLUJAH, IRAQ---
...Marines riding in light armor can be superstitious, and some travel with what they call "turret gods" - voodoo-looking dolls with feathers and beads hanging from their heads, picked up at their home base in Okinawa, Japan. The "gods" hang among photos of girlfriends and family, which are considered "guardian angels" in their own right....

Unidentified submarine spotted in Japanese waters
Unidentified submarine spotted in Japanese waters off Nov 9
TOKYO (AP) - - An unidentified submarine was briefly spotted in Japan's territorial waters off Okinawa early Wednesday but it later departed the area, ...

Posted by trek/taro at 1:37 PM JST
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