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Tokyo: Redefining bizarre murder cases since 1869 Thursday March 29
Japanese news doesn't regularly make it to the global headlines, and since I only read the "Wall Street Journal" of Japan (it's not the WSJ, by the way; I use that phrase as a matter of comparison), I don't really catch the latest pop-gossip or odd murder/death/kills that happen in the area.
For example, when I was away in the States on holiday last December, a woman cracked a wine bottle over her 4am-returning drunk husband's head and killed him. This was literally down the street from my apartment; a 5-7 minute walk. What may have been an accident (she claimed it was not premediated) became increasingly difficult to claim manslaughter when she (a) went shopping at the local hardware store for saws and peat moss, (b) dismembered her husband's body parts, and (c) spread them around the West Tokyo area.
Quite gruesome, actually, when I write it all out. But how else was a tiny woman going to dispose of her husband's heavy body undetected? It makes sense, in the way that it doesn't make sense. There's a word in Japanese for these kinds of murders, because every defendant seems to believe they can somehow get away with it if they just put all the parts in small enough sizes and throw them away in discreet areas (side note: most of these murders are women killing their husbands).
I looked on Google News tonight to see what was going on in the world; apparently we've had another incident: a British English teacher was found on the balcony of one of her student's apartments, totally naked, buried in sand inside of a bathtub with only her hand exposed. The manhunt is of course active for the 28-year-old gentleman who lived in that apartment. The article had a picture of her as well: quite a nice looking woman.
Don't let anyone fool you into thinking Tokyo is safe. I've seen at least five times on TV since I've gotten here where a man or woman sets fire to their own house with their family still in it.
And the Toei Asakusa subway line was stopped this morning because of a jumper. So don't tell me Japan is safe and normal. It's just as f-ed up as anywhere else in the world, and I can tell you why: it's full of human beings.
Communism at it again: the North Koreans are making me fat Tuesday March 27
Every time I try to go and do something, the North Koreans get in my way. There are only 22 million Koreans living above the 38th parallel, but they're pretty darn sneaky.
For example:
The chief operating officer (COO) of our company is a world traveller. He doesn't seem to travel so much because of pleasure, although there is an element of that, but rather to just see what is out there. He just returned from North Korea last weekend, to where he and his family had secured tourist visas through some otherwise channel. As an American citizen, this is impossible for me; he is Australian.
Today I didn't have a lunch booked, so I asked him if he was free to go to lunch with me and tell me about his experience. We went to the French cafe with seats outside, as it was a high of 20 degrees today, and the historic elementary school across the street actually makes you forget a day in the life of the concrete jungle.
Our COO moved to Japan with his wife when his children were young to give them "a bicultural education". This is far more important than a bilingual education, although the latter usually implies the former, though not always. He went to North Korea to see "one of the last remaining countries [he] hadn't seen," and also to see the other side. Literally.
While I trust that the American media doesn't paint a very rosy picture of North Korea either, I can tell you first-hand that the Japanese media does whatever necessary to give Japanese people the impression that everything above the 38th parallel is a desolate, hellish, barren landscape where people starve and die by the millions at the hand of their cruel dictatorship government.
There has always been one part about that image that has not clicked in my head. How can a country with such issues manage to have multiple nuclear sites and successfully detonate a nuclear device? Clearly there is something odd here.
My informant told me over lunch that there are two ways to tour North Korea: the way that most people tour - with a guide from the department who is responsible for tourism; they control where you go, who you communicate with, and so on. The other way is what he opted for: using a personal connection, he got a personal translator and a private visa. Unlimited access.
He uncovered that: Pyongyang has a reasonably modern subway that runs every two minutes, Sundays are public days where no one is allowed to operate motor vehicles and must rely on public transportation, Saturday mornings are reserved for public service, and everyone in the country is heavily encouraged to attend an institution of higher learning beyond secondary school.
I'm not turning into a DPRK sympathizer overnight here, but what he was pointing out was something very simple: amidst all of the propoganda and things worth criticizing, they actually have some marginally successful aspects of socialism implemented. The smartest people from the colleges are shaved off to become government officials. The second tier of smart people are channelled to become teachers and doctors. Despite the fact that everyone is paid "the same", doctors and teachers are paid higher than everyone else. Doctors certainly earn their keep in the West, but teachers?
On the public service half-day on Saturdays, politicians, laborers, whoever -- everyone has to turn up and do something: plant trees, weed a garden, whatever. Something for the public good.
Before I go into too much detail about my conversation, let me just summarize my point: we have very little information about what goes on north of the 38th parallel. What information we lack (how people live on an everyday basis) is easy to fill in based on the information we do know (isolationist, dictatorial), and thus it is possible for us to think that everyone there is really crazy, or at least living in fear of the government.
I'm sure there's some of that.
But like everything else I've ever thought about in this world, it does not seem to be black and white: it is very complicated, and there are many circumstances. Understanding all of the circumstances requires first-hand knowledge of what's going on, why it's going on, and the history that has led to what the current circumstances are. I feel that even now, I fundamentally lack that knowledge on North Korea. I don't have access to the information, and I don't think that my colleague's travel diary is enough, either.
Knowing what you don't know, I believe, is at least a start in being less ignorant.
And as for the title of this post, my colleague did bring back some North Korean strawberry creme sandwich cookies, and I definitely ate about 12 today at my desk. There those sneaky commies go again: making me fat, right when I'm trying to slim down. It's all part of Kim Il Jung's evil plan.
I have decided that if it is in my power to do so, I will visit there sometime in my lifetime.
Transit without thinking: Suica and Pasmo Wednesday March 21
What a poor performance this website has shown recently. I've actually scribbled out a few posts in the past few weeks, but scrapped them for lacking content. No excuses.
Today's post regards possibly the best thing to come to Tokyo since I've gotten here.
On Sunday March 18th, private and city railways, the bus companies, and the JR railway corporations cooperated on the launch of the long-awaited Pasmo, an integrated system for riding buses, subways, trains, and monorails without ever taking a card out of your wallet. JR has had Suica for quite some time now, but because JR has to be difficult, it never worked on any of the subways (which is what I ride most frequently). Newer mobile phones contain circuitry to support RFID, the underlying technology for both Suica and Pasmo, and thus consumers can now purchase mobile phones that act as bus/train passes as well as electronic debit/wallet solutions.
You touch your card (or wallet, whatever) to the sensor for a second, it calculates everything for you.
It is now time to shortsell on the company that manufactures the magnetic tape that has been used for Japanese train tickets until now.
In a large metropolis, public transportation is a way of life, part of the culture, and an absolutely essential for the area itself. Certainly, things got interesting in New York City during the transit strike, but I don't recommend this as a general state of being for a large metropolis. I don't ever think such a strike could happen in Japan, anyhow.
Michael has often said that the logical solution to population issues is to have mega-dense, large population centers, and then turn the rest of the world into a natural wildlife reserve. I often think this is why he is yet again in Japan.
But true, when you think about the fact that I commute exactly 32 minutes to work every day door to door with an error of margin plus/minus one minute, I pay approximately $65 for this luxury monthly, and that I am contributing likely less than one-hundredth the energy consumption of a fossil fuel-based vehicle, one must wonder why it is that the United States is having such a difficulty getting away from cars.
Now, I don't even have to fiddle for change to get on the subway, either, I slap my wallet down on the pad and the gates open. I even have two cards in my wallet, one for work and one for personal. At the end of every month, any ticket terminal will print out a list of where I went, how much it cost, and the day -- everything I need to do my expense accounting. Life just got better. And there's no wasted ticket paper as there was before.
Sure, Japan still isn't a great country when you think about waste: it is the land of double, and sometimes triple, packaging. But at least they've figured out public transit.
