registered alien - Japan Blog

2 Dreams

7/18/2020

Sunday, July 19, 2020.

2 dreams

I had a couple of dreams in May that I remember. I wanted to tell people about them - but there is no one to tell.

First, I dreamed that there was a poltergeist in my daughter’s bedroom. I was standing in her doorway watching objects fly around the room. Then I felt something embrace my legs, as if a young child was hugging me. I seemed to know the spirit was the ghost of a 6-8-year-old little girl. After hugging me, she tried to close the door on me. At the time, I knew I was dreaming. I thought, “This is a dream. I should wake up.” But I couldn’t force myself awake. I naturally woke up soon afterwards anyway, in the middle of the night. Then I dozed off and had another odd dream.

Second, I dreamed that actor Bruce Willis was working in a Thrift Store. Since 2017 I have been downsizing and then outright purging the contents of my storage locker in Canada. Those contents are mostly books, but also include furniture, old school notes, and assorted domestic knick-knacks that I collected over the years. More and more I have resorted to Thrift Stores in my hometown to redistribute my books, so thrift stores have been much on my mind, especially during vacation. Now, many of my books are scored, or underlined, because I habitually do that. I study the hell out of my books. At the Thrift Store, Bruce Willis was a staff member sorting through boxes of donations. I dreamed that he was going through my books and throwing off into a large garbage bin all the books marked by underlining. That was almost everything. So, I dreamed of watching one beloved book after another being tossed aside casually and dismissively. I woke up feeling very angry towards Bruce Willis.

The Park Museum

7/4/2020

Sunday, July 5, 2020.

The park museum

In the summer of 2015, I found someone's teeth in Royal City Park in my hometown. I kept them because I wanted to start a museum - a museum of stuff I find in the park. I figure if someone is dumb enough to lose their teeth in the first place, then maybe they're better off without them. I want to say "don't deserve," but then I might be accused of being judgmental, racist, homophobic, ageist, and an anti-dentite.

Coronavirus Conspiracy

7/3/2020

Saturday, July 4, 2020.

Coronavirus conspiracy

This morning I had this Facebook exchange with one of my brothers. It was fun. I wasn’t serious. I look on it is a simple, fun writing exercise. If anyone thinks that it’s inappropriate to treat the coronavirus pandemic in this manner, I have a lot to say - damning things - about Canadians’ cultivation of the crisis, their complacency, and their inflated sense of entitlement. Since writing this piece, two family members (a brother and a cousin) have come forward claiming first-hand knowledge of, or acquaintance with COVID-19 victims.

Me:    About the novel coronavirus and the COVID-19 pandemic, I can't help but notice that in the midst of all the news and near-panic, I don't actually know anyone, or know of anyone, who has the disease let alone died from it. More than that, I don't know anyone who knows or knows of anyone who has/had the disease. And finally, I don't know anyone who knows anyone who knows anyone who either has, or had the disease, or died from it. All I know is what's reported in the media. That's the entirety of it from my personal perspective. Could it be, as I wrote jokingly in January, that there IS no novel coronavirus and that it's all a government-generated lie to more easily control the public? A conspiracy by corporations to sow fear and spur consumption with the goal of generating quarterly gain for the super-wealthy 1%?

Brother:    I know two people who's parent got Covid 19...1 survived, one died (different families)....I know one couple who's husband dies of Covid...so it is out there....to be fair...all of them are American Friends...I personally am aware of one co-worker who's wife had it and he was off work for 3 weeks before being cleared to come back....It is out there.

Me:    I think my lack of direct knowledge in these matters might be a measure of my natural social isolation. I don't know many people, I never 'go out' with friends (because I don't have any friends), and whenever I am not working I habitually stay home, anyway. I have to admit that these last few months of official isolation and self-quarantining have been among the happiest of my life.

These last few months of official isolation and self-quarantining have been among the happiest of my life.

Brother:    We are homebodies as well, we've been practicing staying at home for years...so for us this is OK...just miss the international travel....new slogan...wear a mask or a casket.....you're choice

Me: When I was in Canada in March, habitually wearing a mask everywhere, I was met with curiosity, derision, dismissal, and even hate - hate mail in the local newspaper and even hate mail from a city councilwoman. Now everyone is on about masks like they've forgotten their March idiocy. Now, Canadians are going on about masks with the enthusiasm of evangelized converts. In March, North America was already 2 months behind the game, having broadly ignored the WHO contagion warnings from the end of December - even being complacent towards the state of international emergency that the WHO declared in February, weeks before the declaration of a pandemic. In March, I'd already been dealing with the coronavirus for a couple of months and was well versed in hygiene protocols. Vindication is sweet, but grovelling apologies would also be nice. And, the most satisfying of all would be if those people who dismissed my spring time eulogies to the virtues of the mask would hurry up and die already. But I could be wrong.

Plastic Shopping Bags

7/2/2020

A woman uses her own shopping bag at a convenience store in Tokyo on Wednesday. Stores nationwide are now charging for plastic bags.

Thursday, July 2, 2020.

Plastic shopping bags

On Wednesday, July 1, 2020 all retail outlets throughout Japan began charging customers for the use of plastic bags. Single-use, reusable plastic bags were not outlawed. They are still produced and used. But the new requirement is an attempt by the government here to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in the country’s rivers, forests, streams and, ultimately, surrounding oceans by attaching a direct monetary cost to the villain, plastic shopping bags that is supposed to act as a deterrent. Maybe it will.

I didn’t know about it until that morning when I went to the local convenience store. I suppose Japanese have known for a long time that the law was coming, which shows how out of the loop a language deficiency can make one. As it turns out, domestic and international pressure to reduce plastic bag use in Japan had been growing for several years. Political pressure was applied during the Group of 20 Osaka summit in 2019, and the government announced a plan to start charging for plastic bags starting on April 1st. That starting date was late moved to July 1st.

As of Wednesday, July 1, 2020, anyone who shops at convenience stores, supermarkets, department stores or shops where single-use plastic bags were previously distributed free of charge will now have to pay for such bags. A large number of stores prepared for the new rule by handing out complimentary reusable shopping bags in advance to encourage shoppers to use them, and many stores introduced a plastic bag charge over the last few months.

It’s considered an important and overdue measure in the campaign to reduce the amount of single-use plastics, which is a major waste problem, but it’s hardly a solution. Many people also use shopping bas as garbage bags. Plastic shopping bags are generally strong, flexible and can be tied up easily. If shopping bags are not available, people may buy more plastic garbage bags, which means the amount of plastic reduced by restricting shopping bags could be made up by the amount of plastic in garbage bags. Or, people may just opt to pay for plastic shopping bags that used to be free.

It might be said that the government (the Trade Ministry) knows the new law is unlikely to reduced plastic waste and doesn’t’ claim that it will. If that were the actual goal, it would just ban plastic shopping bags. The Trade Ministry confesses that the aim of the law is to make consumers acknowledge the plastic waste issue - forcing people to assess whether they really need plastic shopping bags in the first place.

The move against plastic is more a business decision than an environmental decision. But that does not prevent it from being framed as an environmental issue.

The environmental movement is anti-Nature.

It's sad that the environmental crusade against plastics aims to retard planet Earth's 4.5 billion year quest to get what it has long wanted - plastic. The environmental movement is anti-Nature. It might be said that the human species evolved for exactly this reason - to make plastic for the Earth, to be the Earth's plastics vector. Other species were selected and thrived for a time, but their failure meant that Nature selected them for extinction until, finally, homo sapiens emerged as the species best suited to this plastic endeavor. I can guarantee that Earth doesn't care at all about plastics. And I can guarantee that the Earth is not at all harmed by plastic bags, plastic cups or straws - or carbon dioxide, or pesticides, or warming ambient temperatures, or deforestation, or species loss, or melting glaciers, or shrinking ice caps, or even nuclear waste. Nuclear waste does not harm the planet! The planet doesn’t have a problem. It’s human beings who have a problem. It’s human beings who are screwed. We are harming ourselves and the environments that sustain us. The Earth is just fine, and Nature doesn’t care about us - only that we supply the Earth with plastic.

The lack of humility is disenchanting, and the pretention is unbecoming.

Planet Earth has been bombarded by asteroids, boiled in lava, frozen under ice; mountains have risen and eroded away, and most animal life that has ever lived has passed into extinction, and yet it’s still here. And people think that after all this some plastic is going to destroy the planet? The anthropocentric arrogance of it is nauseating. Sometimes it appears that environmentalists don't care at all about Nature - I mean, not in the abstract. What they care about is a having a nice place for themselves to live in and occupy - in other words, even more self-centered, anthropocentric arrogance. The lack of humility is disenchanting, and the pretention is unbecoming. That does not mean that this pollution-retarding measure is wrong, only that our fairy tale about it is a gross affectation.

Nuclear waste does not harm the planet.

I remember when I was a child the virtues of reusable plastic were hailed as the savior of endangered forests and protector of the natural environment, just as the virtues of the automobile were once eulogized as the savior of our cities from the filth and health hazard of equine manure and human offal. What was old is new again. Right now, plastic is the enemy, but in the future, it might fit differently into our evolving ethos. I don't want people to think that we, today, are the epitome of environmental awareness and ethical rectitude. Despite our plastic clean-up efforts, our descendants will curse us for the backward beasts we really are just as we now curse those who came before us and delivered us to our current predicament. Even malicious people sincerely believe they are operating with the best motives, so this plastic obsession impresses me less than it seems to impress others.

But I could be wrong.

Dental Story 4

6/30/2020

Friday, June 18, 2020.
Dentist

I had a dentist appointment today for cleaning, "shiseki jokyo." I was supposed to go in March for my regular visit, but no work and no money because of the coronavirus situation put the kibosh on that. I was happy to finally get it done, though. Good oral maintenance is the cornerstone of a happy life.

Don't go into the long grass!

6/27/2020

Saturday, June 27, 2020.

Don't go into the long grass!

I like this grass in my neighbourhood. It's long. I'm always reminded of the movie "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" (1997, directed by Steven Spielberg) - which is the second film of the series - when English actor Harvey Jason, playing Ajay Sidhu, Roland Tembo's hunting partner - shouts "Don't go into the long grass!" I always remember that line when I see long grass. Of course, the fleeing, panicking dinosaur poachers DO go into the long grass, which is where the velociraptors cut them down. As soon as Ajay warned them not to go into the long grass, we knew everyone would do it. They kind of have to in order to make the movie spectacular. "Don't go into the long grass!"

Smarties

6/26/2020

Friday, June 26, 2020.

Smarties

When You Eat Your Smarties
Do you eat the red ones last?
Do you suck them very slowly, or crunch them very fast?
Eat that candy-coated chocolate, but tell me when I ask
When you eat your Smarties,
Do you eat the red ones last?

In the long ago days when I used to eat Smarties, I ALWAYS ate my red ones last.

Forbidden Books

6/26/2020

Friday, June 26, 2020.

Forbidden Books

Books are very dangerous. It's a virtual death sentence to posses, read and talk about some books.

With all that’s going on these days with politically correct language and thought-control, and hyperbolic racist consciousness and policing in society, it would be impossible to talk about (not to mention teach) the important Quebec separatist manifesto White Niggers of America (Oxford, 1968) by Pierre Vallières (1938 - 1998). I have a copy. I've read it. I imagine in Canada today I could be reprimanded at my work for having a copy, and maybe even fired for discussing it - especially on today’s various social media. I would never be allowed to speak its title on a broadcast or in a lecture. But if I want to study my country I must learn about indigenous people; I must learn about European colonization and settlement; and, I must learn about Quebec’s history and Quebec separatism - which included reading and talking about White Niggers of America.

It's like Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses (1988) that earned Rushdie a fatwā calling for his death, issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then Supreme Leader of Iran, on February 14, 1989. I have a copy of that, as well. I also own a copy of the commonly outlawed The Anarchist Cookbook (1971), Mein Kampf, Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book, and The Communist Manifesto, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. I also own and have read several times Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), which is a perennial favorite of book-banners, and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), too. It’s easy to imagine how the Bible could be next. So, books are dangerous, especially used books, which are less traceable because they have no designated owner and an itinerant nature that defies control.

Finally, words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assault of thoughts on the unthinking. Words should assault you. And, if you are offended - if your feelings are hurt - so what? Censorship is motivated by a desire to control. It’s unseemly in a democracy. As for forbidden words - there are no bad words. As long as a word means what it says, it’s a good word. How people feel about word meanings is their own problem. I mean, it's less a problem of language than of psychology. One doesn't throw away words, because they might be useful some day.

COVID-19 statistics

6/24/2020

Wednesday, June 24, 2020.

COVID-19 statistics

I took this picture in Shinjuku on Sunday, June 21, 2020. As you can see, people are collapsing and dying in the street, evidence that the Japanese and Tokyo governments are lying to us about the severity of the coronavirus in Japan and the veracity of the reported infections and deaths.

European Space Agency

6/19/2020

Saturday, June 20, 2020.

European Space Agency

On May 30th, the European Space Agency celebrated its 45th anniversary, having been established in 1975. With its rapid development of the Ariane rocket and using the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou, French Guiana as a spaceport, the ESA rapidly overtook both the Americans and the Soviets in space exploration. While NASA and Roscosmos (the Russian Space Agency) do their much-publicised launches and Space Station missions, the ESA has quietly and steadily gone about its own agenda.

It launched its first low-earth orbit satellites that same year. By the mid-1980s it had jumped ahead of all other major nations in its development of the International Space Station (ISS). By the mid-1990s it had its first permanently-occupied Moon research station - Lebeau Station - and by 2000 it successfully launched a crew on its Deep Space Airbus to Mars and returned them safely to Earth. In 2009 it christened its Voltaire Mars Base and in 2017 it successfully landed a data-collecting rover on Thebe, an asteroid-looking minor moon of Jupiter.

It is currently expanding its Lebeau Moon Station to accommodate as many as 60 permanent, full-time scientists and their families, expanding the ISS, and preparing its fourth Mars mission, scheduled for 2023. They are anticipating a permanently-occupied Mars facility by the early 2040s, expanding on equipment and materiel already put in place on the planet’s surface. The ESA is petitioning the United Nations to allow it to declare the portion of the moon where the Lebeau Station operates as French territory, a principle that could cultivate fantastic and belligerent escapades in space by the great powers. Failing that, the ESA would like to see the Moon partitioned in a way similar to the current zones of influence in Antarctica. Sanctioning the principle of space colonies, however, seems extremely dodgy.

Or not.