Bad Yam Day

I let the first train go, well, I had the time to spare, I’d designed it that way. As this was the Yamanote line at 7:30 am I knew there would be another train along before I could finish humming the chorus from Lilly the Pink, and indeed that turned out to be true. There was one other person waiting next to me, he had also let the previous train go, also waiting for the next one in the hopes of getting a seat. When the doors opened some passengers got off and me and the other waiting person guy got on as soon as we could. He was moving too slow for my liking and took a seat opposite me. I saw a single available seat opposite the door and took it. I looked over the other guy: piggy eyes behind bad glasses, bad haircut and scarecrow clothes... “Bit of a freak” I thought, “Glad I’m not sitting next to him…” Pleased with myself I got my book out and opened it.
There are several things that can turn an uneventful train journey into an unpleasant passage of time trapped on a metal tube from which there is no escape. One of these things hit me in the face like a large dead fish soon after I started to read; it was the breath of the man sitting on my left.
What is it with Japanese salarimen and oral hygiene? What is so difficult about washing your teeth before you go to work? OK, coming home late in the evening everyone’s mouth has had time to ferment a bit – what with lunch, afternoon coffees and cookies and God knows what else. But at 7:30 in the morning everyone should only be 30 minutes past a good teeth scrub, and perhaps even a gargle and swoosh with the Listerine.
One thing to blame for this is the Japanese Salarimen’s habit of eating breakfast on the way to work, and what a breakfast it sometime is – raw onions and natto are the main ingredients of the oral crimes against humanity.
I could rant on for quite a while about the abomination that is the rotting and fungus filled beans called natto. The Japanese of course take a pride in eating something that everyone else regards as a failed experiment in chemical warfare, or putrefaction. One of the frequently asked boring questions Japanese is “Do you like natto?” The correct response to which is, “Oh no, I don’t like natto, I can’t eat it…” Which in turn produces a smug, satisfied smile of national pride.
Anyway, back on the Yamanote my neighbour was letting out the occasional sledgehammer mouth blast that would make me recoil and turn to the right.
When I did turn to the right I discovered I was sitting next to another freak. He was sniffing loudly, and it sounded as if he had a lot to sniff. A lank haired man in his late 20’s, he was leaning forward messing with a large tatty greasy looking black bag, from which he produced an entire box of tissues and proceeded to blow his mucus filled nose, and he blew and he blew and still the flow flowed.
I wasn’t able to concentrate on my book so well at this point. I was simply staring straight ahead of me and making the occasion side-glance to see what snot boy was doing. What he was doing was rolling up a tissue and pushing it up his nose. Perhaps this was the only way to stop the flow.
I turned away and got another blast of laser breath. I grasped my nose and held my breath. Why is it that all stinky-mouthed people are mouth breathers? Can’t they breathe through their noses and keep their foul mouths closed?
On my right snot boy was rummaging in his bag and brought out a plastic folder decorated with little stickers… oh no, what next. He opened up the folder to reveal postcard size photos of young girls. He was leaning forward, his shoulders round and stooped as if trying to hide. The photos appeared to be agency shots because I could see an agency’s name on each picture. Perhaps he worked for a talent agency and he was reviewing some hopefuls for a morning audition… perhaps. Or more likely he was some sad otaku who collected the cards and couldn’t resist flicking through them, even on the train.
At each station I hoped either, or better both of them would stand up and get off, but they didn’t. They stubbornly stayed sitting down, stopping me from enjoying the concluding chapters of Dave Gorman’s Googlewhack Adventure. I had a 28 minute journey, and even with only half of it completed I was buggered if I was going to give up my seat just because a couple of freaks were making things uncomfortable. My only counter freakiness is being foreign and I used it as best I could. It usually works for well for me – I sit there, reading my book and looking foreign and often people will not sit next to me. Great! I get the extra space and safety from oral odor attacks. But today, perhaps because they were there first, my foreignness didn’t bother them at all.
Finally with about 8 minutes to go stinky mouth got up and left but before I could shift over to his seat someone else sat down. The otaku was sniffing and snorting deeply and pouring over his photos. I got up and moved to the doors and a few minutes later I was walking down the steps at Shimbashi station, in a much worse mood than I had been 30 minutes before… I’ve got to reread Viktor Frankl…

I went down to Tully’s and was lucky to get a window seat – some people left just as I was ordering and I threw my bag on the chair. A short ice latté and a chocolate chip cookie and wrote some journal stuff.
There was a foreign girl sitting at one of the tables and she reminded me of someone. She looked at me when I got the seat, but I’m not sure if it was a:
“You bastard, I was going to sit there when those people left…”
kind of look, or a:
“Oh, hello other foreigner, wouldn’t it be fun to talk to a stranger over a coffee for a while and then go our separate ways, our life lines meeting for a brief time, perhaps never to cross again, but fate brought us together at this time and at this place, maybe there is something we can share that will enhance our lives some how, and even if there isn’t it still interesting to talk to a stranger…”
Perhaps she was thinking the former…
As usual the place filled up soon after I sat down. I much prefer empty cafes and Tully’s was getting mighty crowded. I drank up and decided I had time to go to the bank and buy those dollars.

It was hot today, in fact it was bloody hot, in fact it was so bloody hot today that I can't adequately describe just how bloody well hot it was today, in fact I think the heat has addled my poor brain, so if you'll excuse me I think I'd better have a cup of tea and a lie down...

So, August 6th, a notable for day for two reasons: first, it’s the anniversary of the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima, and secondly (and more importantly) it’s the anniversary of the day I arrived in Japan, an anniversary that becomes more embarrassing each year.

14 years ago…exactly 14 years ago as I’m writing this about the time the plane landed (8:45am) Steve, Jackie and I walked out of the airport building at Narita into our first hot Japanese summer day, found the limousine bus stop and took the bus downtown. That first night we stayed in the Asia Centre in Aoyama. But I could only stay one night, not having booked, and so on that first day I found a room in gaijin house in Meijiro and moved there the next day.

As for the Hiroshima bomb anniversary, I have very mixed feelings about it. I don’t like the way the Japanese have made themselves into the victims of the war when in fact they were the agrressors, they started it, and they killed a lot more people all over Asia than died in Hiroshima. Also if the bomb hadn’t have stopped the war then, it would have dragged on for a couple more years, killing thousands on both sides. Of course dropping the bomb on a populaed city like Hiroshima ad Nagasaki was a terrible thing, but no more terrible than the Rape of Nanking by Japanese soldiers. The Pacific war was the responsibility of the Japanese military dictatorship of the period. All death, destruction and suffering can be placed at their door. It just goes to show you what a powerful force stupdity is when taken to extremes.
But that doesn't excuse the current Japanese leaders. They have put such a spin on the bomb that I think a lot of Japanese people now truly believe they were the victims of American agression. The Japanese have never come to terms with what they did; have never shown real remorse because they don't believe they did anything wrong. And that says something very disturbing about the Japanese pscyche.

14 years…I can’t believe it. I feel a little foolish at having lost control of my life in this way, or have I? Am I perhaps missing the bigger picture? I know I have ignored a lot of opportunities in the last 14 years, most notably the chance to learn the language. 14 years ago I wouldn’t have thought it would be possible to live in foreign country for that long and not learn the language, but I have proved it is possible, and that is an achievement in itself! Yes! … who am I kidding?
In 14 years I could have started several successful businesses (English schools perhaps), written a couple of books on Japan, completed a masters course or two, traveled extensively all over this country, wormed my way into several high paying teaching positions, had numerous exhibitions of my paintings (which I could have painted in the time)…etc But I didn’t.

But then again I know several people who have been here as long as me and they haven’t donethose things either. That’s not an excuse for me though – never compare yourself others, too closely, everyone’s circumstances, background, motivations are different.

Will I be here to bad mouth Hiroshima next year? Who knows. I would much rather be living in England, but England is England 1990 - the past is another country.

Patrick didn’t wake much in the night that I remember but he woke this morning before 5:30 and wouldn’t go back to sleep and didn’t want us to sleep either, but we tired to. He crawled around and finally at 5:30 I got up and took him into the living room. We played and read some books for a while and then I got his breakfast ready. At 6:15 Harumi was still asleep so I gave her a call and she got up and took over breakfast so I could get mine and then get ready for work.
Left at 7:00 and got to Carrefour at 8:00. Sakurada came in and announced that today he was the only student. I groaned inside but smiled outside. Sakurada, I now realize because if the 2 hour we spent only talking to each other, has fucking awful listening and grammar. His listening skills were making me lose my patience with him; he sometimes couldn’t understand a simple, straightforward question or word!
Left just before 10:00 and was home just before 11:00. On the train I finished the Bill Bryson book (A Short History of Nearly Everything) , and what an excellent book it was, I can see a re-read of it a year from now, if not before. The final chapter was about the rise of humans and the destruction and increasing number of extinctions we have caused. It was a depressing thought to finish on.
I am becoming increasingly interested in ecology and life on the planet, diversity and the threats to it. I wonder where I should go with it? I’d like to do something to try and stop the destruction of parts of the planet’s eco-systems, but what can I do? I think if more ordinary people knew of the wonders of this planet, knew the miracle that is life and our own existence, the oneness of all life on this planet and knew what we were doing to the planet, then things would happen.
Knowledge is power.
The 19th and early 20th centuries (and before) were times of amazing ignorance and bizarre attitudes to the planet and the other living things we share it with. It’s only in the last 50 years or less that people have begun to understand about life on Earth, a lot of that due to TV and people like David Attenborough and the great nature documentaries that have been made. In fact he has probably done more in the cause of changing attitudes towards the environment than anyone else, at least in the UK. But the same has been happening in the USA.
I wasn’t quite sure what to write when I used the word "environment", because sometimes we make it sound like there are two parts of the planet: our part and the part where everything else lives. We treat it as our planet (obviously) and often refuse to share it with the creatures and the plants that where here millions of years before we were even down from the trees, or even before we decided to go up the trees in the first place. Because we can’t think in terms of the vast stretches of time the Earth works to, we tend to regard things in terms of human time, and so 3,000 years is seen as a very long time, when in reality it’s not. We kind of think we have been here for a long time, but we haven’t. Also we think that all the history and the Earth and evolution was building up to us and we are the pinnacle of the process and the end. Another big mistake that create the dangerous attitude that we own the place and everything on it.
I wonder if nature has something in store for us? A little balancing things out. We are just the fleas on the Earth’s back and one day the earth will scratch or jump into a river and we will be gone. All species eventually become extinct – the average length is about 4 millions I think. Something like a pandemic, a climate breakdown, a nonotech grey goo, something...
What’s annoying though is our fucking ignorance and arrogance, a terrible combination. I think in a way we are undermining our very existence by the things we do. We perhaps shouldn’t worry about the impending extinction of other species rather we should look to our own extinction, caused by our own stupidity, greed and lack of perception.
Anyway, good book and I want to continue learning more about the things he wrote about; about how the Earth works and how life works.

"God is not dead but Alive and Well and working on a Much Less Ambitious Project"

Graffito in a Greenwich, England, pub, reported in The Guardian,
27 November 1975