The Death of Hulk Hogan

Reporting on the death of Hulk Hogan got it all wrong. Of course, mainstream media is mostly a lot of drivel, so it was expected. But even alternative sites and their usually astute commentators really missed the boat on this one.

Hulk Hogan’s passing was not just a pop culture icon kicking the bucket at the relatively young age of 71.

It was the death of a man of historic importance, comparable to Jesus, Gutenberg, Galileo, Einstein, John F. Kennedy.

It was the death of America’s newest Founding Father!

Hulk Hogan represented a cosmic shift in the way America conducted its internal affairs and its entire relationship to the rest of the world!

No more wussy negotiating. Now we yell! No more timidity and cooperation. Now we threaten and coerce! Forget about polite speeches and fluffy oratory. Now it’s bombast and bellicosity!

And no more false humility: America is exceptional! America is indispensable!

AMERICA IS #1!

You got that? We own the world and we’ll run it the way we see fit!

So . . .

Good-bye to all those barriers to the full expression of America’s greatness and power. Try to stop us? We’ll bomb the shit of you!

Indeed! Hulk Hogan was in the ring what America now is on the world stage. Loud, raucous, boisterous, belligerent! Arrogant, menacing, ruthless!

Yes folks, it’s show time for the New Hulk Hogan-style America! We’re the greatest! We’re the most awesome! We’re the most powerful! And we’re dangerous!

So don’t even think about messing with us. WE’LL FUCK YOU UP REAL GOOD!

Granted, everyone knows pro wrestling is fake. But this just reinforces my point. American democracy is fake. American diplomacy is fake. It’s all posing, posturing, chest-beating. Just like with pro wrestling, the American citizenry is locked into a stupor of willful denial, a suspension of disbelief. We don’t need substance. We don’t need reality. We want drama! We want a good show! We want spectacle! We want the GOOD GUY — that would be the U.S. — to WIN and WIN and WIN.

So let’s give Hulk the credit he deserves. While it’s doubtful that Hulk Hogan single-handedly was responsible for this profound shift in American politics, he was entirely emblematic of what America has become and now will always be.

Hulk Hogan was the Founding Father of the New American Century.

God bless this amazing, patriotic man! And may he rest in peace!

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

The Death of Hulk Hogan | John Rachel

Life In Japan: City Boy Gardener

Yes, we’re at it again. Playing in the dirt, stocking our shelves and fridge with fresh, healthy vegetables.

Actually, as many Japanese do who are not officially farmers, we do this every year.

Mind you, growing up I didn’t have a garden. I lived in a mobile home park and our yard was about the size of a throw rug. And it was suburban Detroit. Detroit was not exactly famous for its farms at the time. It was the Motown sound and automobiles, i.e. groups like the Four Tops and Supremes providing the rhythms for tearing up the dance floor, and gigantic factories belching smoke to provide the world with family transportation. The population then was over 2,000,000. Now it’s less than 750,000 and I’ve heard — have not confirmed this with a personal visit — now there are actually huge tracts of abandoned property and Detroiters are growing all sorts of organic veggies. Right in the city! Amazing how things can change!

Anyway, so far we’ve already harvested more onions and potatoes than we can possibly use. We give a lot away.

The garden pictured above is at the early stages of producing the next round. We’re raising tomatoes, green peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, butternut squash. And of course, we planted a nice amount — fifty-five plants, to be exact — of black beans.

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

Life In Japan: City Boy Gardener | John Rachel

Life In Japan: Building a Catio | John Rachel

A catio is a cat patio. It offers an outdoor space for kitties that are mostly kept indoors.

Frankly, it breaks my heart that our three cats can’t run “in the wild”, doing things that are quite natural for them to do: chase butterflies and birds, crawl through undergrowth, roll in the grass, smell flowers. But our house backs up on a forest. There simply are too many predators. We have foxes, raccoon dogs, Japanese badgers, huge hawks which can pick up a full-size cat and fly away, snakes, occasional wild boars.

And then there’s the monkeys!

Yes, we have several large families of Japanese macaques living all around us. Sometimes they just look for food, sometimes they are aggressive, as when one jumped on the hood of my step-daughter’s car and ripped off her windshield wiper.

The catio will let them enjoy the outdoors without fear of being attacked or otherwise terrorized.

I can’t say that building it was a simple, straightforward process. Without blueprints or any model to work off of, the only option was to make it up as I went along. So I did. Aside from creating an enclosure which kept the kitties in and predators out, I had to make it typhoon proof. Even though we’re pretty far inland, two or three times a year we get serious typhoons with steady winds of up to 80 kmh (50 mph), gusts even higher. My catio is secured to a cement foundation. So in a worst case scenario, it might collapse but it certainly will not blow away.

Anyway, here are a few photos of putting the catio together, and finally the kitties enjoying it.

Next we’ll do some interior decorating: plants, ground covering, ladder, shelves, maybe a hammock. Fountain? That would be nice!

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

Life In Japan: Building a Catio | John Rachel

Life In Japan: Panda Heartbreak

The Japanese LOVE pandas! Why? Because Japanese love ‘cute’. And pandas are about as cute as they come, at least in terms of animals “in the wild”.

China provides the pandas for the entire world. The first pandas were given to Japan in 1972 as a gesture of friendship, when relations between the two countries finally became normalized. Since then, many pandas have become temporary residents of Japan. Currently, there are six: two are in the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo, and four live at Adventure World in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture.

Japan’s favorite panda was Tan Tan. She lived at the Kobe Zoo from 2000.

Sadly, Tan Tan passed away just last year. The outpouring of grief across Japan was extremely intense. Japanese people were so attached to her, they responded as if they had lost a member of their own families.

Unfortunately, the heartbreak doesn’t end there. It seems that all of the contracts for loaning pandas to Japan are all ending very soon. By end of summer, at least as things currently stand, there will be no more pandas here. They are all being returned to Chengdu, China, the panda capital of the world. Most of the pandas living in Chengdu — there are literally hundreds of them — are not confined but allowed to roam in a natural habitat.

As I previously mentioned, there are four pandas living at Adventure World. Masumi found out they are scheduled to go into quarantine in May, then be sent back to China in June. Two days after she heard the announcement, we got in our car and drove 3 1/2 hours to get a last glimpse and say our good-byes.

By the way, Japan did a very good job of breeding pandas. Over the years 17 new pandas were born at Adventure World. When they reached maturity, since they belonged to China, they also were sent back “home”.

Adventure World is aptly named. It’s a family-oriented fun adventure built around a huge safari park, home to a wide variety of animals, large and small: one hippo, four rhinos, too many monkeys to count, lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes, bears, at least one cheetah, giant tortoises, flamingos, an amazing variety of exotic and tropical birds, penguins, seals, otters, dolphins, on and on. Most of the animals are surprisingly tame. For example, visitors can feed a lion, the hippo, the rhinos, giraffes, monkeys, etc.

There are all sorts of rides. It’s been decades since Masumi and I rode a jet coaster — known in the west as a roller coaster — so we spent four minutes on that ride laughing and screaming at the top of our lungs.

We opted to “walk” the safari route rather than ride in the safari train, which allowed us very close proximity to some of the animals. Masumi stood right next to a giraffe, which gives you a head-spinning grasp of how tall and totally weird these creatures are.

Of course, there are restaurants and souvenir shops stuffed with panda paraphernalia. Most of the employees wear panda ears. There’s a panda train, panda bus, panda food, panda pavilion. I’m wondering how this park will survive if they are unable to negotiate new panda contracts very soon.

Considering it was essentially a “sad” day, in that we were bidding the pandas a farewell, we had a rollicking good time!

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

Life In Japan: Panda Heartbreak | John Rachel

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

Life In Japan: Panda Heartbreak | John Rachel

Life In Japan: Cherry Blossoms 2025

It’s that time of year again. Cherry blossoms! Because of the cold winter, which dragged on longer than usual, the peak of bloom was about a week late. But worth the wait!

Last Friday evening we walked around Sasayama Castle. Of course, the city lights up the trees and the castle, providing a truly magical landscape.

Next day, we walked around the castle while the sun was up.

This was the weekend of the annual Cherry Blossom Festival, which meant there was a lot going on: food booths, boating, even a jazz band.

Can you tell I really like living here?

[This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com]

https://jdrachel.com/2025/04/16/life-in-japan-cherry-blossoms-2025/

Life In Japan: Cherry Blossoms 2025 | John Rachel