Life In Japan: Artistry

Artists next to Sasayama Castle capturing the beauty of the moat and all that lives in and around it.

I realize that ‘artistry’ is a sloppy choice for a title. It’s a broad stroke which embraces many activities, from musical performance to jewelry making. But here, I’m using it in the narrowest sense, referring to painters, capturing with deft strokes what and how they see their world.

It might silly on the most superficial level to be “celebrating” something as anachronistic as painting. Ages ago, it was the only way to give a permanent visual record of a person’s appearance, a still life, a landscape, a battlefield, a coronation, a vision. But things have dramatically changed.

Now we have smart phones and digital cameras, technologically cranked up to always take perfect photos. We have dash cams, body cams, Go-Pros that capture everything in real time, not as stop-action stills but as streaming visual records of reality, as it happens.

Better yet — from some perspectives — we have software that can take all that imagery and transform it. Take a photo of that basket of fruit on your table. Process it and you end up with a Rembrandt or Van Gogh or Monet. Want a Titian? Import some angels and naked bathers into the photo you took at the dog park. Add Jesus or Mary or the Twelve Apostles. Looking for a Jackson Pollock? Easy. Just do your own digital drip painting while riding the Tilt-A-Whirl at Six Flags.

Congratulations! You’re an artist!

Want celebrity status? Photoshop yourself having dinner with Angelina Jolie or playing poker across from Christopher Walken in Las Vegas.

This creative “flexibility”, of course, applies not just to visual arts but across the board. There are apps for writing stories or entire novels. Apps for composing music. Apps for making up jokes, pick-up lines, compliments on your grandmother’s new hairdo.

What a wonderful world we live in, eh? Everyone is a creative genius, a star, the life of the party, admired by . . .

Uh . . . well, somebody. Anybody?

Is anyone paying attention?

You really have to wonder where this ends up. If everybody is capable of doing everything at the highest level, no one will stand out. No one will be special. No one will be admired for anything. Except maybe the huge variety of apps they have on their Galaxy or iPhone. And if someone gets a jump on you, hey, no problem. Just go to the app store, do a quick search, put in your credit card and voilà . . . you’re the new Beethoven or Hemingway.

Meaning . . . it’s not about what you actually do. It’s about what you can get done.

In a revealing aside, let’s look at the world’s glamor stage of wealth. There are a few names which are constantly in the news. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Apple Corporation. Elon Musk is the wealthiest person on the planet. He didn’t design, engineer, or make anything which created his fortune. Jeff Bezos doesn’t make anything either. He sells stuff. Bill Gates didn’t invent the computer or any of the software which runs on the PC. He didn’t even invent the graphic user interface which made him famous. He stole the “windows” GUI, the concept and code. Steve Jobs certainly didn’t invent the telephone. To be fair, he was the driver behind the smartphone revolution. But the technological breakthroughs — the grunt work — the actual design and building, were performed as work for hire by his employees. None of the “big names” actually innovated anything. What they did is create the entrepreneurial conditions for the innovations they are credited with. To be blunt about it, they are heralded as geniuses, on the world stage, for one reason. They each amassed huge piles of money. You have to ask: Is this what achievement looks like now? Is merit no longer related to talent, but purely a function of net worth?

So look at these members of my home town. Is it possible they somehow don’t know about all of the wonderful innovations we have at our fingertips? Are they stuck in some world that’s centuries old?

What's wrong with these people?

When the weather is nice, this is a common sight around Tambasasayama.

I’ll tell you what’s right with these folks. They understand that it’s what you do, not what you own or can buy, that’s fulfilling. That it’s the journey, not the destination, that sustains the soul and adds value to life.

It took me a long time to figure this out.

But I finally did.

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

Life In Japan: Artistry | John Rachel

Life In Japan: New Kid on the Block

There’s always a surge of excitement when a new face appears on the scene. My village in Hyogo, Japan is no exception to this universal rule.

Yes, there’s a new kid in town. Her name is Mei, and we affectionately — already she has been accepted and embraced with an easy familiarity and an outpouring of love — call her Mei-chan. I have to say right up front, she’s a real charmer.

The home where she lives is quite close by. The houses here in the country are certainly not on top of one another. But it’s an easy walk from my front door to my neighbor’s home. Here is a photo taken from in front of my house of Mei’s new digs.

It’s a pretty typical Japanese home, traditional elements with lots of modern mixed in. Since my neighbor is a farmer, there are additional structures to house equipment, seeds, hay, tools, etc. That’s his rice field growing right in front of his house, quickly approaching the time for harvest. Farming is, of course, demanding work, to put it mildly. It’s certainly good to have extra hands on deck to help with the chores. I’m sure Mei will do her part to keep things running smoothly.

Now, without further ado, let me introduce you to the new kid on the block.

Mei-chan, a baby goat that speaks better Japanese than I do.

New kid? Get it? Ha ha ha ha! Okay. Not all that funny. But I’ve always been a compulsive kidder. The most repeated question I get is: “Are you serious?” As if I would know.

My neighbor has his hands full at this point. Of course, goats eat everything. Which is what makes them useful for weed control and clearing debris. But their omnivorosity — yes, I made up that word — embraces just about anything that will fit in their mouths, which can result in unintended destruction of everything less rugged than titanium. Right after this next photo was taken, Mei tried to gulp down the flowers in front of the house.

But how can anyone get upset? She’s just so darn cute! I’m reminded of this about twenty hours a day, when Mei declares her joy at just being alive, not that I’m privy to the nuances of goat speak. “Be-he-he-he! Be-he-he-he!” fills the airwaves morning, noon, and night. But she’s far enough away, I don’t find this especially annoying. In fact it’s pleasant in some odd fashion. It sure beats “Cock-a-doodle-doo!” or “Oink oink!”

I wish I had something profound to add here. As you know from reading my other writing, I usually like to close on a cosmic note, concluding with some epic morsel of wisdom.

I guess I’ll just settle for this elocution tip: ‘Mei’ is pronounce like the month of May.

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

Life In Japan: New Kid on the Block | John Rachel

Life In Japan: ‘Japan Pom Pom’

They claim proof in this video that age is a state of mind. Well, I’m not quite convinced of that. If a toddler just had a different attitude, he could start using chopsticks or master the Argentine Tango? When your heart stops beating or your kidneys quit functioning, it’s because you’re looking at things wrong? I don’t think so.

At the same time, state of mind is important in achieving a balanced, healthy perspective on age, whatever the number turns out to be. That’s the real message and it’s a good one.

At my advanced age, I love Japan, and Asia in general, because here they don’t demote or disappear people just because they were born a long time ago. The youth culture — should I say ‘youth-worshipping’ culture? — of most Western countries requires that old people be written off as persona non grata, once they get crows feet, or most certainly when they are no longer reproductive-capable. Or as my now deceased friend, British TV character actor David Rayner, liked to say: “We become invisible.”

Morita-san here is in his 70s, his parents in their 90s. They lived with him until they passed away, a few years after I took this photo.

By contrast, older folks here are respected, often revered, assigned a special, important place in their communities and families. Where it’s standard protocol in the West to get gramps and grannie into a retirement home or elderly care facility — out-of-sight out-of-mind — as soon as the old codgers agree to live in a pre-death camp, here it is extremely common for the oldest members of the family to live with their sons and daughters and their spouses until they die. I had an English student in his 70s whose parents, both pushing 100, lived with him and his wife until they passed away. This is customary.

At 84.67 years, Japan has the second-highest life expectancy in the world, right behind Hong Kong. This is largely attributed to diet and an excellent health care system. I’m sure “state of mind” plays some role. First, Japanese expect to live a long time. Second, they do not let age hinder them from fully participating in society, at whatever level makes sense. Many refuse to retire and work into their 70s, 80s, 90s. I wrote back in November 2020 about Silver-san, aka Jinzai Centers. Jinzai — 人材 — means human resources. But what makes these work centers special is they only employ people over 65.

Then again, it’s not just about work. Contrary to stereotypes about Japanese people, they do like to have fun. Which brings me to the central topic of this piece . . . Japan Pom Pom!

As you already suspect, this is a cheerleading squad. But what makes it unique is all of the ladies in it are over 55, the average age being 70. Their nickname is ‘The Cheerleading Grannies’. It’s the brainchild of Fumi Takino, an 85-year-old resident of Tokyo, who wolfs down pizza, and drinks beer and Coke like a 16-year-old high school exchange student.

The video at the top tells the entire story. I really have nothing to add, except this: If you’re feeling old and thinking about just surrendering to deterioration, convinced that your “old age” has condemned you to hopelessness and inevitable decline, watch the Cheerleading Grannies. If you don’t find it a shot of inspiration or a strong case for unfettered optimism, I’m confident you’ll at least enjoy a smile.

Bonus video: If you’re really in need of a good jaw-dropping, check out this performance by 94-year-old Johanna Quaas, from Germany — the oldest active gymnast in the world!

Age is a state of mind? Only if your state of mind is ageless.

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

Life In Japan: ‘Japan Pom Pom’ | John Rachel

Life In Japan: Rice Art Honoring a Great Champion

Posted on July 23, 2022 by John Rachel

I’ve been meaning to write about “rice art” for quite some time. But an announcement this week gave me the necessary push, so here it is.

Rice is usually planted here by weird-looking but truly ingenious machines. But as my neighbor is doing above, the job is then completed by hand-planting any areas which the machine can’t reach.

One notable exception takes place a few minutes from my house at a local B&B.

Here the entire field is planted by hand. The observation tower is there for good reason. Because when the rice comes in, here’s what it looks like.

It varies from year to year but my take on this piece is that it’s the Tambasasayama City mascot, a highly romanticized wild boar. Trust me, they’re not at all cute. If fact, they’re downright ugly!

In any case, here’s why I mention any of this. Probably the greatest skater in history — at least I think so — Japan’s own Yuzuru Hanyu, just announced that at age 27, he’s retiring from competition. He’ll still be skating, of course, but not in such demanding, high-stress situations as the Olympics and the myriad of clashes for primacy that surround it.

While looking at this story, I discovered a very special tribute to this great athlete, done as only the Japanese do things.

Rice art. What would be the equivalent in the U.S.? Wheat art? Corn art?

I’ll leave that to your imagination.

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

Life In Japan: Rice Art Honoring a Great Champion | John Rachel

Life In Japan: ヤクザ Raccoon Dog Attacks Again!

I was at the grocery store the other day and spotted some delicious-looking ears of corn. With the current exchange rate, they were about 80 cents each. A real bargain!

But I quickly said, “Nah! We have fresh, organic corn coming up and soon ready to pick in our vegetable garden.” At least six at last count.

I got a photo of our ヤクザ vegetable thief as he passed behind our house.

As you can see from the above photo, we’ve taken some drastic measures in our ongoing battle to protect our veggies from the local raccoon dog. Since everything is growing so well, there’s a lot at stake. Thus everything is surrounded by netting, stretched tight and securely staked to the ground. We — at least I — felt confident we had defeated the furry freeloader regardless of his determination and cunning. To be entirely candid, I though the little fellow was dead. Just last week, a raccoon dog had been hit by a car on a busy street not far from our house. As far as I was concerned, he was long gone from this life here in quiet, rural Tambasasayama.

Well, I was wrong on all counts. Because the day after I took a pass on the supermarket corn, our Yakuza [ヤクザ] raccoon dog was back. He dug under the netting, went full infantry on our corn, feasted on it, then devoured some tomatoes, before moving on to holding up a bank or kidnapping some school child. Okay, maybe I’m going overboard. Anyway, this is what no respect for private property and bad table manners looks like . . .

Tragedy in the midst of an otherwise blissful life.

Actually, we have no right to complain. I mean, if you want to look at this objectively, this is his natural habitat. If we humans didn’t have better lawyers, he’d be having us arrested for trespassing. And even more to the point, there’s plenty to go around. Truth is, we can hardly keep up. We’ve gone through the lettuce and now have pepperoncini, tomatoes, scallions, cucumbers, eggplant, zucchini, butternut squash, potatoes, and I don’t know what else coming out of our ears — lacking ears of corn, of course. Even so, fair play dictates that the coon dog raider could have left, say, two of the ears of corn, so we’d have some idea what they taste like. Obviously, this particular raccoon dog has issues.

In terms of the near future, we’re looking forward to a bumper crop of one of the items that has made Tambasasayama famous. You can read more about it in my other attempts at signaling my agricultural sophistication, or is that horticultural enlightenment? Yes, I’m talking about black beans, aka soybeans. Here we are planting forty-eight seedlings, a tad bit late but not such as to compromise our ultimate success. And by the way, we grew the seedlings ourself, starting with — I know this came as a huge surprise to me — SEEDS!

Bear in mind, I grew up in Detroit area, where the only things that grew in abundance were plumes of automobile exhaust and racial tensions. All of this is new to me, and to be entirely honest, exciting in some completely non-exciting way. The excitement is internal as I see all of this unfold, maybe the way a person who was raised in the tundra by wolves would be awed the first time they saw an iPhone.

The real payoff in real time is that we’ve gotten some truly awesome, homegrown, organic, cultivated-by-our-own hands, nurtured-by-our-own-spectacular-personal-vibes vegetables to show for it.

Capping my little report here on the unfolding drama of life in rural Japan with a hugely vast understatement: I sure don’t miss the exhaust fumes and race riots of my youth, nor do I long for the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds, horizon-to-horizon cement, and frenetic frenzy of contemporary big city life at all these days — not at all.

I think I finally found my calling.

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

Life In Japan: ヤクザ Raccoon Dog Attacks Again! | John Rachel

People Power – Part 2: Focus and Unite

Distractions divide us and guarantee we’ll never talk about essential core challenges. The egregious, central obstacles to “promoting the general welfare” are never mentioned by the talking heads, the pundits or politicians, to whom we look for guidance and leadership.

Distract and divide promises catastrophe, even to those who use it to further their sinister agenda. It’s astonishing how myopic most of the people at the top are, eh?

The control of everything by a tiny, short-sighted ruling elite is now total and the consequences are apocalyptic. We helplessly watch as their pursuit of wealth and consolidation of power has resulted in a merciless war being waged against the 99.999%, the trashing of the ecosystem, and destruction of any prospects for humans ever living in harmony with either — that is, co-existing cooperatively and constructively with one another and living sustainably on the only planet we can call home.

There are three major battlefields for this amoral and sociopathic assault and we rarely have meaningful discussions about them, are forced to wade through a swamp of deceit and disinformation to even identify and try to address them, or are consigned to having non-sensical discussions which have no possible impact on outcomes.

Wealth Inequality:  The funneling of wealth upwards has accelerated and long ago passed the threshold of irreversibility. 24,000 people die a day from starvation, while guys like Bezos, Gates and Musk have so much money they couldn’t spend it all in a million lifetimes. Corporations continue to consolidate and a handful of investment firms literally own everything. The system rewards monomaniacal pursuit of obscene levels of riches and opulence, the media lionizes self-aggrandizement. Every major religion has posted the warnings. Maybe they’re onto something.

War and Peace:  War has become a religion and ‘peace’ an expletive. The U.S. economy is now built around and defended by endless wars and requires world conquest to continue satisfying its rapacious appetite. Arrogance and hubris have replaced civility and common sense. We are now confronting two major nuclear powers at the same time, Russia and China. The U.S. won’t back off and Russia and China will not bow down. Total war would be the last chapter in human history. No need to return the book to the library. Books and libraries would be radioactive dust.

Ecological Destruction: Notice I didn’t say ‘climate change’ and this is intentional. Because this exemplifies precisely how the cabal uses a worthy topic to defeat any hope for real reform. Climate change is one component of a war on the entire ecosystem which supports all life, which includes ocean depletion, toxicity of air and water, species extinction, soil depletion, desertification, deforestation, promotion of monoculture, not to mention the assault on the human organism with poorly tested medicinal drugs, chemicals, herbicides, pesticides, food additives, industrial and agricultural pollution, manmade radiation, the intensification of exposure to electromagnetic waves, gene “therapies” and genetic modification of foods, on and on. We are directed to focus all of our attention on climate change, a battle we might at best win — likely will not win at all — over the next five decades, at the expense of all other perilous policies and undertakings, working in sync to compromise and probably destroy the prospects for survival of life on Earth. Pretty clever, eh?

Distract and divide assures that these three destructive trends work synergistically. Wealth inequality is created and sustained by war, war itself makes the rich richer, the military is the number one institutional source of ecological destruction, ecological destruction drives desperation and creates the conditions for war over resources and resource-rich territory, wealth inequality puts the decisions about the health of ecosystems in the hands of those who are incentivized to externalize the damages their pursuit of wealth creates — dumping it in the laps of the 99.999% — likewise with the decisions to go to war. It’s an endless, accelerating, self-reinforcing, negative feedback loop — a race to the bottom in terms of quality of life and a hopeful or even survivable future for the masses of humanity. We are too distracted to assess and discuss them rationally and constructively, too divided to put up even a weak fight.

All three of these globalized pathologies likewise reinforce political control, as power is in parallel funneled and concentrated upwards.

Reversing any and all of this can only be achieved with focus and unity by a huge percentage of the global population: unwavering focus and unassailable unity directly targeting those responsible for the unfolding catastrophe.

There are two courses of action with the potential to break and defeat this skewed, oppressive, top-heavy, hierarchical system.

1) Imprisoning or killing the rich and powerful.

. . . and/or . . .

2) Vanquishing their control of all private and government institutions, then restructuring the entire system.

Neither is pleasant or easy. It seems, however, these two options are still on the table.

But let’s be clear. They won’t be for very long. Historical opportunity never arrives at a convenient time or when we expect it to. And it can disappear in a flash.

Moreover, while totalitarianism, oppression, abuse of power, class warfare, enslavement certainly never arrive at a convenient time, even a superficial glance at human history tells us these are what we can always expect.

Google ‘sociopaths’.

History also teaches us that the more ennobling, inspiring periods of history, those occasional surges that we deem progress, result from substantial numbers of people focusing on the challenges and uniting their energies, dedication, determination, creativity and time.

Focus and unite . . . the only solution.

Of course, often there have been violent revolutions — refer to #1 above — which create the conditions for comprehensive legal, systemic reform and restructuring — refer to #2 above. While nothing dictates that they are inseparable, again referring to history, we usually see them conjoined when the battle is in full swing.

I regret having to conclude with this, but there is a third possible course, the product of unprecedented technological advances, the direct result of humankind’s incredible ingenuity. Both our capacity to 1) generate life-terminating levels of toxicity in the environment and 2) produce weapons of war with total lethality for life on earth, puts the ultimate spanner in the works. We are in a race against time. If we continue to poison the planet and/or unleash the fury of nuclear war, other options become moot considerations. The end of the end game will be the end. Period. No sequel. No do overs.

Focus and unite . . . the only sane and possible solution.

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

People Power – Part 2: Focus and Unite | John Rachel

People Power – Part 1: The Only Possible Path to Peace

Here’s the premise. If anyone can find a flaw in this logic, please let me know . . .

• The majority of US citizens want an end to war and reduced military spending.

• The defense budget can and must come way down.

• The DOD is not going to defund itself.

• Congress is not going to defund the DOD.

• The wealthy ruling elite makes huge amounts of money from war.

• As a captive of big money politics, Congress exclusively serves the ruling elite.

• Thus, Congress and their wealthy patrons will never willingly reduce defense spending.

• Only THE PEOPLE will take the initiative to shrink defense spending and end the wars.

• Current elected representatives are not listening and will never listen to THE PEOPLE.

• We must replace those now in office with ones who listen to and serve THE PEOPLE.

• So, the only path to peace is WE THE PEOPLE uniting politically and demanding it.

• We only vote for candidates who make an ironclad commitment to peace and diplomacy.

If there’s something missing or out of place here, please give us some helpful assistance. We’re always looking to improve our thinking.

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

People Power – Part 1: The Only Possible Path to Peace | John Rachel