Hillary is here! with updated notes for Feb.17

Although it is nice to have the U.S. Secretary of State choose Japan as her first stop in Asia, I can not help but feel a little frustrated.  Not with the choice, but with the current Japanese government officials that she has to meet. 

 

Sleeping officials are not the most troublesome of worries we have in Japan. (Believe it or not, I actually feel sorry for the guy...)It was reported today that the GDP for Oct. to Dec of 2008 was at it's lowest, shrinking 12.7%

Last year at least 1,300 companies filed for bankruptcy in Japan.  (Among those companies was the nation's largest importer of foreign books and magazines.  )  However, there seems to be little to no sense of crisis in both the government party and opposition parties.  They are both very eager to find faults with each other instead of focusing on passing necessary bills.

Hopefully a little bit of Hillary Clinton will rub off on the government here...

I also hope that the talks she is planning to have with the families of abducted Japanese nationals by North Korea, will be fruitful. 

*The sleeping minister, Nakagawa, has resigned from his post.  The rumors are that he was drunk, not just sleepy.  Oh well, so much for my feeling sorry for the man.

*The last time Hillary was here it was 13 years ago as the First Lady.  She has asked Prime Minister Aso to come to the USA on February 24th.  If he goes, he will be the first foreign guest at the White House for President Obama...wow...Mr. Aso...oh dear....

My Valentine's Day Rant

Coldplay performed today in Kansai, and I didn't get to see the concert.

My husband went though...oh, by the way it is Valentine's Day...and he is out having dinner with co-workers...after they enjoyed the concert...

Did I mention that it is Valentine's Day?

In Japan, V-day is for girls to buy chocolates for their boyfriends, husbands and co-workers.  

There is a separate day, White Day on March 14th, set aside for guys to thank the people who gave them chocolates on V-day.  It is called White Day, because the candy industry in Japan wanted everyone to buy marshmallows...So, it is also known as Marshmalow Day.

Hmpf...

I don't need no marshmallow.   I do like them though...marshmallows...

I wonder if the universe is trying to tell me something as I sit here and type this at 9pm, Saturday night, Valentine's Day....

from one of my favorite sites the hubble telescope

I am going to go read now...

I just "realized" there is no legitimate reason for Valentine's Day to be celebrated in Japan...so there!

Doh! Attention authors! Please be careful when choosing names for your Japanese characters!

I know, I know....I said I wasn't going to write about books on this blog, but this is kind of related to my ongoing "living in Japan right now" theme.  

I found "Digital Fortress"  at the bottom of my pile of unread pbks. I was like, oh, some Dan Brown I haven't read! I kinda enjoyed Angels & Demons and the DaVinci Code, so why not? I already own the darn thing so I might as well read it! I have only read a few chapters so far and I really hate picking bad parts of a book no matter how much I might dislike one...'cause let's face it, it's someone's "baby" and you don't want to scream "ugly!" at it...well at least you don't want to rub it in too much...right?

However, I have to say that the name Ensei Tankado is not Japanese and that I am very disappointed with this error. Japan has a limited number of last names, not that there aren't a lot, but there is a system among the chaos. "Tan" and "kado" just don't go together. (It would have been ok if it were Tanikado.)

I can't say that Ensei is not a first name..it is not impossible, there could be someone out there with that name, but it is not a John or a Dan or a Mike...it would be like calling someone "Weariness" or "Expedition"(that's two different meanings that the word ensei actually has)...again, not impossible, but VERY unlikely.

That's why I didn't even guess that the guy was from Japan until the chapter that introduces him as being born in Hiroshima (even then I thought his mother or father was from another country and that would explain the exotic name).

This is why I dislike reading books by "non Japanese authors" who try to write about Japan or a Japanese character. There are some good stories out there, and many distinguished authors like Donald Keene...but the majority of it is full of mistakes and even if I KNOW it is fiction, it feels like a slap in the face that just wakes me up from the dream of reading...

Sorry, I just had to say this.

Well, back to reading the book...if I finish it I will post whatever "new" things I find out about the Japanese.

Argh...