Tokyo Graffiti: Summer Lifestyle

It has been a while since I reviewed an edition of the magazine Tokyo Graffiti, because it was in truth a little plain during spring. But the late Summer edition heralded a new high in the magazine's achievements (which are many) so I shall return to singing its praises.

The September Tokyo Graffiti had as its topic "a collection of Summer Beach photos", its cover adorned with a series of pictures of girls in bikinis. But the contents were so much more than mere beach babery, and well worth comment.

Of course this edition had its regular entries: Tokyo Beauty and Tokyo Handsome, shots of individuals and couples on the streets in Tokyo, a page devoted to "beautiful older sisters", the recently-added "Grandpa's diary" (2 pages devoted to an old man's life story, in pictures), "sexy boy calendar", Tokyo local style and "living by yourself Gallery" (pictures of 1 room Tokyo apartments). These were up to their usual high standards, but were surpassed this month by the special feature, a series of multi-page spreads depicting Tokyo summer beach life.

First was a couple of pages of beach fashion, boys and girls displaying their choice of clothing. This was followed by a few pages of "bikini beach girls" who were, as is usual for Tokyo Graffiti, not of the usual strain of typical girls, but the ones the photographers thought were a little quirky or unique. All were, of course, supernaturally skinny (because supernaturally skinny people in this country are normal). Bikini beach girls were followed by "bikini girls on the street", women in bikinis returning to the beach carrying things they had bought.

This is of course standard Tokyo Graffiti fare, pictures of peoples' fashion. But after this it got interesting. Next was "Couples on the beach", a 2 page spread consisting of a picture of a girl sitting in the sand, with in the background her boyfriend running dramatically towards the camera, carrying cold drinks for both of them. The accompanying caption described them and gave information on their beach fashion.

This amusing little section was followed by "what are you eating now", 2 pages of perhaps 100 photos of people eating, all wearing swim suits and all saying what they are eating at that time. Most of the girls were eating water melon or shaved ice; most of hte boys were eating noodles or sausages. Everyone had to be pulling a strange expression while they ate.

Lastly came the three best parts of the magazine. First, "various leisure seats", a 2 page spread showing friends and couples lying down on their beach mat. The beach mat is, of course, a big plastic tarpaulin spread on the sand, with crazy patterns painted all over it. Some had penguins, some letters, some sunflowers, one a big green elephant. Following this was "The energy of young man", photos of men doing stupid things in the sea, mostly involving jumping or splashing.

And lastly, best of all, "Ukiwa puka puka girls", pictures of women floating in the sea in their inflatable rings. Japanese girls seem to have a universal floating style, which involves suspending themselves in the ring with their arse in the water, feet dangling in the air and hands splashing in the water. Since I am too scared of swimming to even consider turning on my back anywhere near the sea, I am incapable of imagining how this feels. But Japanese women (and it is always the women who do this) seem very familiar with the experience. The Tokyo graffiti crew, in addition to taking a photo, had asked the girls "What are you floating on?" The answers are less than a sentence long but are beautiful in their simplicity:

• the current era
• fashion, or the current fad
• the speed of time
• being satisfied by a person I like
• music
• a boy

So we see Japanese people at their summer play. The magazine doesn't stop here either, also taking pictures of families with their minivan, young women letting the air out of their float, and bodybuilders on the beach at Tomiura. Of course these pictures and scenes carry with them the usual sense of life and times in Japan: cuteness, everyone getting along, happiness and playfulness. Summer has brought out the best in Tokyo Graffiti, just as it brings out the good cheer of the people of Japan...

選挙パーティ！！

土曜日はオーストラリアの選挙でした！！！オーストラリアは、州によって違うせいふがあっても、全国せいふもある。土曜日の選挙は全国（れんぽう）せいふの選挙でした。

最後の１１年間に、「The Liberal Party」（保守党）はオーストラリアを治めた。私はこの保守党が悪いです。アボリジニーや環境やせんそうや外国人などに関して、その保守党の考えがとても悪いです。だから、今週末の選挙なら、私は保守党が負けてほしいでした。

普通に、オーストラリア人は、選挙ときに、選挙パーティを行う。日本に住むなのに、「The Delightful Miss E」と南半球友達と一緒に選挙パーティを行った。写真は以下：
　



















友達も保守党がまけてほしいでした。本当にうれしい日でした！保守党のはいぱいは、１９４９年から、一番大きいはいぱい！も、「John Howard」と言う総理大臣が自分の府をまけるかもしれません（結果がまで決めてない）。私達は、インタネットで、全てのニューズをアーストラリアのテレビで見えました。とてもうれしかったです！！オーストラリアのせいふは、また左に変わりました！！！本当にいい日でした！

Koyo in Hiroshima

Last weekend the Delightful Miss E and I went to Hiroshima to do some much-needed winter shopping. In between the hustle and bustle of another hard weekend in Hiroshima we found time to visit the Delightful Miss E's favourite Hiroshima haunt, Mitaki Temple, for a little Autumn leaf viewing (Koyo). More (and better!) pictures can be seen at the secret diary of the Delightful Miss E. Hiroshima has a splendid mix of bustling big city fun and secret spots for reflective silence, making it far and away the best place in Japan to experience all the different aspects of this topsy-turvy land.

Making Friends in Japan

Depicted here is the Endearing Miss C, looking cheerful as ever alongside the Delightful Miss E, despite being photographed in her last day at work. Until recently Miss C worked at "Cafe EAD", a little cafe near the lake in Matsue. This is where we originally met her, though we made friends at the University of Shimane, where she was studying art in the Faculty of Law and Literature. Since this photo was taken, Miss C has moved to Kyoto to commence working at a Wedding magazine publishing company in Osaka.

Miss C is perhaps typical of the kind of person it is unusual to make friends with when one moves to a foreign country. She speaks very little English, and while she lived in Matsue she was very busy at 3 jobs and study. Every second week she travelled to Tokyo to participate in a photography training course (hence all the extra work). As a consequence we didn't see her very often. Fortunately for us, the Endearing Miss C is a very calm, patient and relaxed kind of person, so she was never shy of meeting us or challenged by our language differences even though, in fact, our language differences were sufficient to give ordinary people the complete willies. Neither the Delightful Miss E nor myself are near to being able to sustain an interesting conversation without at least the help of a dictionary, and preferably also the assistance of our interlocutor. None of these problems phased Miss C in the slightest.

I have heard that it is difficult to make friends in Japan, because they are shy and reserved and perhaps also because they see foreigners as too radically different for ordinary conversation. While this may be true in some cases, I have found that the limits of my ability to make friends here are usually set by me - I often don't have the time, the language difference seems so hard, and I wonder why Japanese people would want to challenge themselves with this problem when there are so many Japanese people they can make friends with. However, since meeting the Stunningly Handsome Mr. Hiroki in Tottori, then Misses H and K, and on to the various kickboxers here in Matsue, it has proven quite easy to make friends. Miss C is merely the latest example of how wherever one goes it is quite easy to find people with whom you have enough in common to sustain a decent friendship.

The biggest problem with making friends here in Matsue has actually proven to be the opposite - the frustration of losing them. Perhaps because it is the country, perhaps because they are students, but it seems that a lot of friends here disappear through moving on. I moved from Tottori, my kickboxing friend Mr. Y returned to Yonago, and now Miss C has migrated over the Mountains to Kyoto. These sudden disappearances sometimes make the whole effort - particularly with students - seem wasted, though they carry with them a certain poignancy, happening as they do in October (Autumn, the end of things) or April (Spring, their renewal). So it is, perhaps, that after the dark days of this looming winter have passed, I will again find the possibility of new companionship. Let us hope that this time it lasts past the fall of next years' leaves!

Neba Neba never never...

Here we see a truly terrifying sight - the stunningly Handsome Mr. Hiroki, eating Natto. This video was taken with the intention of showing the world just how terrible this stuff is, and how fiendish the man who willingly eats it every day for breakfast. Please post your opinion in comments...

Maples in a storm

Today the Delightful Miss E and I travelled to Mt. Daisen with the stunningly handsome Mr. Hiroki and his friend Miss H to view the maple leaves, which are now just a week away from the full glory of their turn. Unfortunately winter is setting in atop Mt. Daisen, and we arrived in a ferocious hailstorm. It was only 4C when we entered Daisenji, the same temple we had been in a month earlier with Miss E's uncle, so even holding the camera steady was something of a challenge. On the way to Daisenji from a more remote viewing spot we passed several cars stuck on the road, slipping and sliding in place due to the thick hail that coated the road. Despite the weather the Maples were glorious, and with luck in the next 2 days we can take some photos in clear, and slightly warmer, weather.

The Daily Wanker 2007 Photographic Hall of Fame

Here at the Daily Wanker we pride ourselves on the air of arrogant self-congratulation which we maintain throughout the higher echelons of management. Although the pinnacle from which we gaze beneficently down upon the masses is so lofty that we can barely see your toiling bodies, we still feel that you should be able to take the time out from your short, brutal existence to contemplate the sublime beauty of the world around you. And what organisation has better described and catalogued that world in the last year than the Daily Wanker, for whose greater benefit you mere peons slave endlessly?

In order to celebrate the delicate blend of hubris and condescension with which we have deigned to entertain you over the last year, the Daily Wanker has arranged an exhibition of its best photographs, which (since you are too busy slaving under our lash to visit in person) we have chosen to present to you through one of our online subsidiaries, which you can visit here.

Because our normal collection of illustrations has been slowly growing larger, but declining in quality, we have established this new, elite exhibition in order to make it easier for you, our loyal serf, to gaze in wonder upon the marvels of those higher beings for whom it is your destiny to toil selflessly. Perhaps if you spend sufficient time gazing upon these wonders - we at the Daily Wanker sincerely hope - you will be able to better yourself and in some small way move a little closer in your bestial nature towards our own perfection. Of course, your base natures are such that you are probably not even reading this, let alone enjoying rare art. It is the Burden of superior beings in these times, I suppose, that we must endure the indifference of our lesser man...

... nonetheless, in hope that your souls can be elevated, we will continue to add our best pictures to this collection as they become available. We at the Daily Wanker can only hope that you enjoy looking on them as much as we have enjoyed bringing them to you.

Matsue, Daisen, Autumn photos unposted

I have been intending to put these photos up for some time now. They are photos of Autumn life in Matsue and surrounds. Posted here with only the briefest comment, for your delectation.

Green tea and sweets, at Mihonoseki.








Cleansing water, Daisen Temple, Mt. Daisen












The gate, Mt Daisen Temple












Autumn leaves at Shimane University (taken by the Delightful Miss E)

tsubureru, a new verb*

A few weeks ago a Certain English Language School here in Japan collapsed after a brief period of confusion and chaos, during which its teachers were not paid on time and their rent - which had been deducted from their pay by that Certain Company - was not paid at all. Most of the teachers abandoned by that company are now at least a months' pay out of pocket, and desperately looking for another job. It so happens that this company used to employ the Delightful Miss E, though she had the good sense to jump ship (or hop ship, as the company logo might be more likely to do) in April, before the trouble started.

There is an awful lot of rumour flying around about this company, but one particularly striking rumour is that it employed upwards of 5000 foreign English teachers, and about 4000 of these were Australian. A certain fact is that this company had extremely dubious work practices**, including obviously underpaying its teachers, overcharging them for the rent it deducted from their pay, and giving virtually no sick leave or annual leave. It even penalised staff who did not call in sick before a certain time.

Many of the lower level managers in this company were Australians, and it is a salutary lesson about both Australians and people that, although these people came from a country where honest dealing and fairness at work are considered something of a national imperative, as soon as they were given the power to behave badly in their workplace, they took it. The most notable examples of the types of abuse they were offered were the little black book, and the apology. Both of these abuses were very popular with the lower level managers, who employed them well beyond the level required to be simply keeping up appearances for their own safety.

The little black book is a book in which management were encouraged to write down anything bad or "inappropriate" which staff said during their breaks or lunch times. Such "inappropriate"*** topics could include things like critical comments about students (even in cases where the students were masturbating in class, and the like!); discussions of topical issues in the newspaper; or comments about the Company itself. Needless to say, such a black book kept in an Australian workplace would soon disappear, and any low-level manager caught writing in it would be given an earful. How amusing, then, that the same people who would consider such a book abhorrent in their own country take so well to it here...?

The apology is the requirement that staff apologise to the Japanese desk staff if they are late or sick. Even if that sickness were caused by, say, being hit by a bus. The apology was expected in such cases to include flowers and a gift. Of course, the Japanese staff also had to do this apology to each other - but in practice they were never late or sick, so no problem. Naturally we all apologise to our coworkers if our sickness inconveniences them; but in this case the staff are instructed to do it by their management (those same Australian creeps...) and even, sometimes, expected to do so semi-formally.

The salutary lesson here is that while Australians may consider themselves to be the land of the fair go, the speed with which they embrace petty fascism when the cultural barriers are removed makes it pretty clear that they only extend that fair go as far as strong unions and good workplace laws force them to. Take those protections away, and it'll be "raus! raus!" all the way home...

And, for an entertaining side note, most of the staff at this Certain Company aren't exactly what one would call the sharpest blades in cutlery draw. They are also generally drawn from a pool of young, middle-class kids who don't understand industrial struggle. Were one to visit the forums, such as gaijin pot or lets japan, on which these people post - and I would advise against it, for many of the posters are an odious and sleazy bunch - one would see an amusing example of how modern, young, middle-class white collar workers react to their industrial world collapsing around them. In short, they run around flapping their arms and abusing each other for 2 months, and then when the chips are clearly down - off the table, in fact, and being vacuumed up by the cleaner - they begin to think of organising some kind of protest. If every cloud has a silver lining, then the only silver lining I can see for this one is that 4000 Australians may soon return to their home country with a much clearer idea of what they need to do to defend their rights at work.

*tsubureru, to collapse - I learnt this verb on the week that it happened
** one shouldn't assume - as many new arrivals at this Certain Company are wont to do - that the company in question represents standard Japanese corporate practice. While it is certainly true that workplace practice here is different to Australia, many Japanese have been horrified by this Company's behaviour, and the manner of its senior executives is very much beyond the pale of Japanese corporate behaviour. It is perhaps a case unto itself... or it was...
*** "inappropriate" is fast becoming my most-hated weasel word. Generally when people use it they mean to say "wrong", "rude", "immoral" or the like, but they are scared to be judgemental. And when management say it, usually they mean "something which makes our lives inconvenient"