This may not seem like a novel idea to those of you, who have actually been voting since they turned 18. However, I until now have spent my adult life in the U.S., of which I am not a citizen. As strong of an opinion as I have of the President, I’ve become accustomed to being a bystander in political matters. Therefore, it took me by surprise when I received my voter registration in the mail last week for Japan’s parliamentary elections. I’m excited about this as I am about going to the dentist (maybe slightly less since voting isn’t painful).

The problem is, I’m really not that informed about the candidates, whose campaigns mostly consist of screaming their promises on a megaphone and shaking hands at major train stations (I think it’s supposed to show their humble attitude or something). I’m not a big fan of the current prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, but we don’t vote for the prime minister, so it hardly matters.

I probably should’ve paid better attention to the Pig-mobile that goes around enouraging people to vote. Or I’ll go take a look at the poster boards to see, which face I like the best. The sad thing is I don’t think parliamentary members change much in the country. It’s still a country run by bureaucrats for the most part.

I’m still going to vote though since the booth is close to where I live, and for the principle of it. If I don’t vote, I won’t be able to give PMK a hard time about voting (or not voting) in the November elections, which I do care about.

This from the June 26 issue of the Daily Yomiuri (which is a legitimate mainstream English language newspaper):

“The recent decision by weekly magazine Shukan Post to stop publishing photographs of nude women with their pubic hair visible does not appear to have affected the magazine’s sales, suggesting that the novelty of such provocative photos has waned…”

The article quotes the managing editor of the Shukan Post saying the following:

“We thought it was unnatural to deliberately hide those parts of the body… We published the photos based on their artistic quality and because we believed in freedom of expression. I think our readers accepted the publication of such photos, but their necessity has inevitably faded with the deluge of nude pictures available on the Internet and through other sources.”

I think the excerpts say it all.

An Oklahoma state judge is being charged for masturbating and using a penis pump during court sessions.

There’s really nothing more to be said about the topic except that it’s apparently not uncommon because when I did a Google search on “judge” and “masturbating” to find a link to a story, I also turned up a story on a French judge, who was caught masturbating in court.

I have to admit to a lack of imagination as far as this is concerned. I have no idea how a judge would get into a situation like this. Do they get turned on by court proceedings? If they were bored, why wouldn’t they do something normal like chew gum or something?

I bet I got your attention with that header, but it’s not what you think. I’m talking about Otohime or “Noise Princess”, the little machines found in bathroom stalls in the ladies room. You press a little button, and it makes a flushing sound, so no one can hear you pee. The more advanced ones have automatic sensors.

Before Otohime, women actually flushed while they pee’d — this was deemed unecological and a waste of water. I can’t speak for mens’ rooms, but ladies’ rooms have other “convenient” items as well. I was in one today that had a little dispenser with disinfectant. You dispense a little bit onto toilet paper and wipe the seat with it.

Bathrooms in homes often come with washlets — “an oasis of serenity and comfort”. Specifically, it comes with a seat warmer, which is actually really nice in the dead of winter. It also comes with a bidet like shower thingie that people like as well. The newest models have a sensor so the lid automatically opens up when it senses your presence.

You may wonder why I’m going on about bathrooms. It’s because I received a complaint that people won’t understand my “Mysterious Japan #2″ entry. This is meant to be the definitive entry on Japanese bathrooms.

A high school teacher in Fukuoka forced a 17 year old student to write an apology in blood for dozing in class.

He took the boy to the staff room, gave him a box-cutter and told him to get going.

The incredible thing is that there were no repercussions for the teacher and the boy remains in his class.

There are 820,000 alcoholics in Japan, according to a Japanese health ministry survey. That’s about 1.9 percent of men and 0.1 percent of women. The mystery is that in 2001, a health ministry survey found over 2 million alcoholics. It’s unbelievable that there is more than a 50 percent decline in alcoholics in the past 3 years especially since the general perception here is that alcoholism is on the rise as unemployment rates also creep up.

Of course, whichever number is correct, the actual number is probably higher since a lot of alcoholics are in denial. Friday evenings can get interesting in Tokyo train stations. You see women, who are too drunk to walk in a straight line, on their way home by themselves. You see men, who have to get off the train before they reach their destination because they feel sick. I once saw a girl helping her boyfriend throw up in the trash can on a train platform. It’s absolutely disgusting.

The unfortunate thing is that drinking is a fairly important part of work because that’s how you build relationships. I haven’t been going out all that much, but I go out a bit and even though I’m not a big drinker, PMK has noticed that I’m definately drinking more than I had in the U.S..

Summer in Japan is extremely hot, humid and generally yucky. The only good thing is that there is enough packaged ices and ice creams to put Ben and Jerry or the Good Humor man to shame. A lot of the ices come in single packages for about 100 yen to 150 yen ($1 = about 110 yen) each, and most stores have a huge freezer case full of them, in addition to boxes of ices, so it’s perfect.

My current favorites include “Ice box”, a cup of fruit flavored chips, and “Kachiwari”, peach flavored ice chips with bits of peaches in them. At about 14 to 60 calories for a huge cup, they’re awesome because they cool you down immediately. PMK’s favorite is the CRUNK bar, vanilla ice cream on a stick covered in chocolate and crunchy bits. It’s pretty good, but probably too heavy when the heat really comes on, and you don’t feel like eating much of anything.

I was flipping through my TV guide/women’s magazine and they had a feature, where they tried about 50 kinds of ices and ranked the top ones. The ones I’m dying to try include a golden kiwi flavored ice, apple ice with bits of fruit, caramel flavored ice cream in a wafer sandwich, and a strawberry ice cream bar.

I’ve been poking my head into almost every convenience store I pass to see what they’ve got.

DoCoMo, Japan’s largest mobile operator, announced plans to launch a line of new phones , equipped with smart chips, that can store money and personal information.

It’s ultimately intended to replace cash, credit cards, identification cards and electronic plane or train tickets. A special scanner reads information off of your cell phone when you touch the scanner with your phone. The idea is that your cell phone will become like a wallet. You’ll still need to carry a real wallet to carry cash but it should be a lot lighter.

DoCoMo is the first operator to come out with this, but No. 2 “au” (pronounced AY-U) also says it’ll launch similar phones next year.

I’ve been looking through a guidebook on summer events, and it’s gotten me really excited about fireworks. Japan is serious about its fireworks, and firework history goes way back. Unfortunately, this also means huge crowds.

Some of the big ones:

*Tokyo Bay fireworks — 13,000 fireworks, 80 minute show, 720,000 viewers
*Sumida River fireworks — 20,000 fireworks, 80 minute show, 950,000 viewers. This annual show is 270 years old, the oldest in Japanese history and the most famous.
*Sakura International Inbanuma fireworks — 22,000 fireworks, 2hr20 min show, 320,000 viewers
*National Firework Competition — 15,000 fireworks

Other notable ones:

*Koto fireworks — possible to watch fireworks from a distance of 1.5 kilometers.
*Edogawa and Ichikawa fireworks — launches 1,000 fireworks in 5 seconds.
*Tonegawa fireworks — boasts largest single firework with diameter of 320 meters.

One of the nice things about Japan is that it’s relatively easy to find clean, public restrooms.

In the U.S., you can easily find trash cans everywhere, but it’s difficult to find a public restroom. I can speak from personal experience that Times Square in New York is especially difficult.

In Japan, public restrooms are readily available but you have to carry your trash because trash cans can be hard to find. I’ve carried a newspaper around for hours because I couldn’t find a trash can. When I go to my grandmother’s nursing home and I take her lunch, I take any leftover trash with me when I leave.

I think I prefer carrying my trash to planning out my bathroom trips.

Japanese women talk freely about being constipated. But when they go to the bathroom, they run the noise maker to cover any sound.

(Thanks Khanh!)

It’s rainy season in Japan. It’s warm, humid and most definately wet (though this week has been beautiful so far). The only saving grace is that umbrellas in Japan are insanely cheap. $3 gets you a standard size plastic umbrella and $5 gets you and extra-large. Let me put this another way: A standard umbrella costs about the same as a tall Starbucks latte or a container of detergent.

This means that they’re practically disposable. If you get caught in the rain, it’s no big deal because you can run into the nearest convenience store. I’ve already collected two in my office and three at home in addition to three nicer umbrellas I own.

If the Economist had an umbrella index instead of a Big Mac index, I bet Japan would be considered one of the cheapest cities among first world nations.

PMK’s favorite t-shirt right now is his Trogdor, the burninator shirt. He wears it once a week.

His only gripe with the shirt is that they forgot to make Trogdor “majestic” — he is apparently supposed to have a few lines above his head to make him look like he’s got majesty. Whatever, if you ask me, but of course, PMK lodged a complaint.

Fortunately for him, the creators take Trogdor’s majesty just as serious as he does. They gave him $5 off.

There is chatter in the Japanese Internet world about a possible scandal that mainstream media, including foreign press, have so far avoided reporting on.

Here is a Babel Fish-translated excerpt from a June 12 issue of tabloid magazine Shukan Gendai:

“Yesterday (10 days) in the House of Councillors national emergency legislation special committee, Saito of the Democratic party which stands in question… the person “dances” with Internet, the letter, Koizumi rape judgment “”, that it quarried out. It referred concerning the compensation for damage judgment which picks up the doubt which we assume that Prime Minister Koizumi past committed rape incident… Judgment of problem the March this year, those which the man inside capital causes in Tokyo district court… Judgment first oral proceedings is opened in May, next week it is the schedule where 2nd argument is done on 15th.”

It’s a horrible translation but you get the gist. Shukan Gendai is not the most reliable publication, but since I’m not sure about the legal ramifications of personally writing about this sort of thing on a blog, I figured the safest thing was to present this article.

According to the Internet, some mainstream media have looked into the allegations but they’re proceeding cautiously. I assume there are questions about how these allegations came to light now four decades after the first incident, especially in an election year. I haven’t heard any confirmation about the June 15 hearing date either, but I’m sure we’ll hear more about this if true. If you can read Japanese and want to know more, here’s a good link. A search of key words also turns up some interesting links.

I find people in Tokyo to be generally aloof and private.

I shared an elevator the other day with a woman, who was getting off on the same floor as I was in my apartment building. Since there are only three units on each floor , it’s awkward to not at least say hi. I tried to catch her eye, especially since I thought she might be my neighbor, but she refused to look at me. When we got off, she immediately pretended to look for her keys. I would have taken it personally, but this sort of thing is a fairly common occurence.

At work, I bump into people that I “sort” of know all the time in the bathroom. Most of them never say “hi” or even crack a smile. The other day I was getting into the elevator at work when I spotted my colleague walking toward me. I waved to him before I got in the elevator and held the door open from him. When he got in, he told me he had expected me to have gone ahead without him because people don’t usually hold doors open for you in Japan.

I remember the dining hall in the dormitory I lived in when I was in Tokyo during college for a year. There were about 20 small tables and everyone ate by themselves in silence facing the same direction, watching television. It was the eeriest scene. Needless to say I never ate there.

It does make me wonder, are Americans too friendly or are Japanese too aloof?

Every day around lunch time, women crowd the ladies room to brush their teeth. It makes me wonder why then do they have such bad teeth.

Bill Parcells put his foot in his mouth again. He referred to surprise plays as “Jap plays.”

I was most interested in the comment by the Japanese reporter, who was at the press conference. He said he didn’t find the remark offensive. I took a quick survey (ok, just three people including myself) in my office and they didn’t think it was offensive either.

I wonder if this is the kind of remark that might seem more offensive to Japanese Americans, whose loyalties were questioned during World War II and who have personally experienced discrimination. Of course, it could also be that Japanese nationals lack awareness about world history and their place in it, although that reasoning doesn’t really apply to my office mates.

The Associated Press got caught by a hoax.

I had a near brush once when I was in San Francisco. I was sent to cover an anti-yuppie rally on a weekend, but something wasn’t quite right so I didn’t file the story. It was a good thing I didn’t because it turned out to be an elaborate hoax staged by the SF Weekly to prove that San Franciscans will protest for anything (which is probably true) and that most reporters are frauds. The SF Weekly ran an article the following week that trashed every media outlet that reported on the rally by name, specifically targeting certain journalists at both the San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle.

A few years before that when I was a news assistant, I remember editors scrambling to confirm a supposed story about a teenager that committed suicide after her tamagotchi died.

Rule number one for Japanese executives addressing an international audience should be, “Never say ‘I don’t know’.”

I attended an investor conference yesterday, where an executive of a certain company gave a presentation. During the question and answer session, he was asked several questions to which his answer was “I don’t know.”

In Japanese, “Shiranai” (I don’t know) is a way for executives to avoid answering your question. Even if they know the answer, if they don’t want to tell you, they say “Shiranai.” In English, it just makes them look stupid.

I once heard of two Japanese executives who went to investor conferences in New York. One of them said “I don’t know” to questions so often investors wondered why the company sent such an incompetent guy and why he traveled so far when he was so unprepared. An executive from a rival company, on the other hand, deftly fielded all questions, ranging from technical to financial and marketing. American investors loved him.

The irony was that the first executive was from a much more internationally-minded company than the second.

A colleague of mine sent this link to me. It’s a page off of a description for Gold’s Gym in Japan.

Here is a word-for-word excerpt:
“Introducing also the sunburn machine the up-to-date equipment of course!
If normal being to keep burning gradually little by little, it does, but the up-to-date equipment of GOLD’S GYM relatively being quick, shortly at period to the sunburn skin being accustomed is a special feature. The sunburn room of horizon vertical type is each 1 room, adjusts to needs and can choose type.”

I’m willing to bet they used Babel Fish or some other translation software.