Life In Japan: Working Together

My lovely wife just told me that our village has “work days” coming up, the 13th and 27th of June. When the weather is accommodating, one member from each household reports at 8:00 am for a work day — it’s always a Sunday — and we do whatever needs to be done to keep our village clean, attractive, and functional.

I can’t begin to tell you how cool I think this is! Despite living in a variety of different cities and towns in four of the fifty states in America, I’ve never encountered anything quite like community work days. The attitude there tends to be “let someone else take care of it” or “the government should do it, since we’re paying out all this money in taxes.” Well, Japanese pay taxes too, but there are still things that need to get done. The local citizens take pride in helping out.

Mind you, the only other country I’ve been in that’s as clean as Japan, is Switzerland. Trust me, it’s very unusual to ever see litter anywhere here, but on the off-chance that a candy wrapper or soda can should get left on the ground, that’s one possible work day assignment, collecting the rare cigarette butt or plastic bag lying around. Since there’s practically nothing to pick up, we usually apply ourselves to other more fruitful tasks.

We each get to take home one of these flower planters,
the rest will be distributed throughout the village,
along the more frequently traversed lanes.

On the 9th, we’ll be cutting and clearing weeds and bamboo from Noma Village’s shared property — that not owned by individuals — then planting flowers around the community center (photo at top of this article) where we meet for various activities. For example, see Annual Neighborhood Barbecue and Annual Neighborhood Curry and Bingo Party). Finally, more flower planting in portable boxes which will decorate the area.

On the 27th, we’ll be cleaning up the grounds for our local shrine. This will mostly consist of hacking away at weeds, clearing overgrown brush, cutting vines from the trees. Here I am last year with my neighbor Yamamoto-san doing exactly this.

The other big set of duties for work day get-togethers is maintenance of water irrigation ditches and pathways, vital for keeping our crops growing. 95% of what we grow is rice and soybeans, the other 5% is vegetables of different sorts.

I guess there might be naysayers and cynics out there who because they haven’t grown up in Japan, don’t understand this type of community spirit. But from what I’ve personally seen, the locals love it! Not only are we doing something useful and beneficial for ourselves and our neighbors, but it’s a chance to spend three or four hours together. The social aspect is just as important as its functional contribution.

Hey! If you happen to come visit me and it’s a work day, I’ll bring you along. You can see for yourself what it’s all about, make yourself useful, and as a bonus, get a free bottle of tea and a pastry when we take a short break at the halfway mark. It’s a win-win!

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

Life In Japan: Working Together | John Rachel

Life In Japan: Himeji Castle

I can’t believe Tom Cruise didn’t put me in his movie!

Have you seen the James Bond film You Only Live Twice? At one point 007 was being given ninja training and those particular scenes were filmed at one of the most famous castles in Japan, Himeji Castle. It’s also known as the ‘White Egret Castle’ because its intensely white walls and majestic architecture apparently makes many folks think of a huge bird taking flight.

More recently, Himeji is associated with the Tom Cruise movie The Last Samurai, but that was actually shot at the nearby Engyoji Temple and Daikodo, a mountain village once used for training of priests.

In any event, the castle is almost seven centuries old, dating back to 1333 CE. I won’t begin to attempt summarizing its long, glorious history. I will, however, offer a few interesting facts and highlights.

Himeji Castle is the largest castle in Japan, its architecture is prototypical of all such castles, it is made of stone and wood, has extensive fortifications dating to Japan’s feudal times. From Wikipedia: “The castle complex comprises a network of 83 buildings such as storehouses, gates, corridors, and turrets (櫓, yagara). Of these 83 buildings, 74 are designated as Important Cultural Assets: 11 corridors, 16 turrets, 15 gates, and 32 earthen walls.” Registered December 1993, Himeji Castle was one of the first locations designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Japan.

It has been remodeled and rebuilt a number of times. Significantly, however, it survived the massive firebombing campaign of WWII, which leveled the entire surrounding town. A firebomb actually landed on the top floor but failed to detonate. It also survived the Great Hanshin Earthquake — aka Kobe Earthquake — of 1995. Himeji is only 50 km (31 miles) west of Kobe.

Though it’s only about a 1 1/2 hour drive from my home here to Himeji, I’ve only visited the castle twice. It’s spectacular and deserves greater attention, for sure. Here are a few photos I took my first visit, then more recently when a friend from the Netherlands visited.

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

Life In Japan: Himeji Castle | John Rachel

BOOK REVIEW: Cancel This Book: The Progressive Case Against Cancel Culture by Dan Kovalik | John Rachel

Dan Kovalik’s latest is a much-needed, laudable enterprise, courageously sounding the alarm about a tyranny being perpetrated in the name of moral and social renewal. Similar to genocide, it is cultural cleansing, a systematic destruction of what its proponents singularly deem uncomfortable, unsavory, perhaps threatening to them and their adherents. Cancel culture is militantly aggressive, unforgiving, ruthless, aimed at vilification and final extirpation of anyone who disagrees with or in any way resists its unbending, non-negotiable agenda. Its stormtroopers are the PC Police, what I prefer to call the Woke SS. They answer only to themselves, respecting no other authority. Outside opinion, body of law, history, revered traditions, honored social practices and norms are irrelevant. Attempts to introduce any of these into conversations with them results in brutal retaliation. Their chosen battlegrounds include mainstream and alternative media, social media, the boards and HR departments of both corporations and academic institutions, and more recently the production studios for both TV and cinema.

What authority the woke mob claims is based on an inversion of the mechanism which has underpinned moral imperatives in the rich philosophical traditions of both East and West. Traditionally, after rigorous and thorough dialectic, we did what we did because it was the right thing to do. By inverting this, all that is done in the name of woke activism is right because it’s what they do. The woke have dispensed with the cumbersome process of arriving at moral truths by free, open, and constructive conversations, then respectfully and judiciously soliciting consensus and compliance. By unilaterally deciding they are on the right side of history and all important issues, their actions are deemed a priori correct and unassailable. It’s remindful of the German nation being led to believe in the 1930s that they were a super race of ascendant humans, thus their actions could not be evaluated and judged by external standards. Super men and women were only capable of superior and unchallengeable action.

As Dan Kovalik illustrates eloquently and in great detail, providing excellent support and documentation throughout, the woke search-and-destroy cultural scourge has antecedents and parallels in other areas of social and political life. Hypocrisy and self-sabotage are equally evident.

The U.S. has anointed itself as the exceptional, indispensable nation, chosen by history, consecrated by destiny to lead the world. Thus …

We wage war on nations to establish peace. We overthrow democratically-elected governments to promote democracy. We destroy functioning governments, kill innocent fathers, women and children, and create massive refugee crises, to promote and protect women’s rights, seed and nurture freedom. In our never-ending struggle against racism and ultra-nationalism, we malign China, fuel hatred of Russia, embargo and sanction Islamic countries like Syria, Iran, destroy Libya. In our embrace of multiculturalism, we suffocate the economies of Cuba and Venezuela, separate brown children from their parents and put them in cages. In our respect for and devotion to human rights, we arm and support Israeli apartheid of Palestine, the callous destruction of a whole people.

Now don’t get the wrong impression. It’s all good. You see, we’re America and everything we do is good.

This, of course, is the exact same mentality we see unfolding now in our own country. Woke is R2P on our own soil.

From its initial appearance on the American scene, the entire woke movement struck me personally as humorless, oppressive, facile, misguided, an anathema to creativity and free expression. Since those early days, it has become dangerous and frightening. Woke is turning the culture and politics of our nation into a huge snuff film.

I genuinely fear for the safety of this brilliant author. I’ve read and reviewed several of his other books. His scholarship is impeccable and his presentation highly inspiring. I especially loved the conversational tone which generously populates Cancel This Book. But all his works are powerful, accessible, readable. Author Kovalik has taken controversial positions in the past. But taking on the goon squads of woke is his boldest and most admirable effort. Without free discourse from all possible sources, the dystopia of woke is exactly what you get. Maybe the members of the woke thug battalions get their thrills from turning America into a wasteland. I personally don’t see much of a future in it.

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

BOOK REVIEW: Cancel This Book: The Progressive Case Against Cancel Culture by Dan Kovalik | John Rachel