Lost In Translation

Merry Christmas

Just wanted to say Merry Christmas from Bali. The weather hasn't been completely cooperative (frequent downpours-it is the rainy season after all), but we've managed to see some beautiful sights (vocanos, jungles, terrace rice patties, seaside temples), do some fun stuff (white water rafting, visit a reptile farm, boat cruise), and eat some great food (western and Indonesian), and we've still got four more days.

Greetings From Bali

I've been in Bali for about four days now and the weather has been disappointing. We knew it was the rainy season, but were hoping for the best. There have been down pours everyday with patches of good weather, enough to get a little sunburn).

Bali is very beautiful we've done a couple of daytrips to some temples and a volcano, and we plan to do more and go whitewater rafting soon. The food is excellent and inexpensive. The people are very friendly and speak excellent English. We ended up staying a near an area that has some really cool, stylish bars, Semiyak in South Bali, probably the best on the island and we're quite near a stretch of great restaurants as well. I guess it's because Bali is like the Hawaii of Australia.

People that live here are still worried about tourism and hope that people will come back. The majority of the people on Bali are Hindu and you see offerings in front of shops all over. I love the nasi goren (Indonesian fried rice), and satay (grilled chicken on a skewer with peanut sauce).

Off To Bali

Today I am going to Bali and I'll be there for 10 days I hope to make some posts from there. Check out the hotel we're staying at only $28 a night!

Book Notes: Vollman and Culture Essays

13 Stories, 13 Epitaphs is the second book by William Vollmann that I've read and I still am not quite sure what to make of him. The first was Butterfly Stories, a sordid tale of a journalist and photographer in Thailand chasing hookers, looking for the one with a heart of gold. 13 Stories is somewhat similar, homeless, jobless, addicted drugs, and several whores. It's hard to judge his writing without considering the content he writes about, which is usually derelicts and people on the fringes of society. It makes me feel uneasy and uncomfortable, I can't relate with the characters and don't find much redeeming about his stories, it doesn't seem like he has an overall plan, it's not necessarily a morality tale. Has anyone else read him and what do they think? I think I've had enough of his novels.

I also read a book of essays called Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress edited by Samuel Huntington and Lawrence E. Harrison. It is basically an interesting discussion about how cultural values affect the progress of societies. I can't say that there were a lot of answers why some societies are able to develop easier than others, ant here seems to be plenty of disagreements between the various essayists as to why this is. Furthermore, most of these essays are written from a pro-free market perspective. That is the preferred model of a developed state is the US versus say Sweden. A lot of food for thought though.

I have finally finished reading Junichiro Tanizaki?s masterpiece, The Makioka Sisters. It has been hailed as Japan?s greatest postwar novel, and it is epic in the same size and scope as Tolstoy?s War and Peace. It gives an intricate portrait of a family in transition, a sort of upper-middle class family from Osaka coming face to face with the changing world. The two sisters Yukiko, represents the past, and Koi-san the future, which are in contrast to one another. It is also a great character study of four very different sisters and the people in their lives, all the while revealing in great details the attitudes and mores of society. In this sense it also reads like a Jane Austen novel with it?s obsessions of making a good match for the family and keeping the family name in good light not matter what.

$90 Melons-No Kidding

I've often expressed dismay at the $90 melons. Here they are, apparently these ones with their perfect circular shape and stem attached make them valuable. It is a common gift during this time of the year. In the summer (ochugen) and in the winter (oseibo), it is a traditon to give presents to clients and customers as a way of promoting good will and maintaining good relations with people. Then again it begets the obligation of returning the gift.

White Noise

Here's your feindly local nationalist railing against foreigners at Shibuya Station. They usually ride around in black trucks. There doesn't seem to be as many as there used to be and they seem pretty harmless compared to the ones who did things like assasinate the mayor of Hiroshima in the past.

Keep Your Backpack Out Of My Face

Here's another public service poster in the subway asking people to be considerate while wearing a backpacks.

Tabasco Express

This is one of the cars on the Marunouchi line, which I use everyday from Myogadani. It makes a sort of horse shoe around Tokyo and when I first moved to Tokyo I used to live on the other end of the horse shoe in Shin Koenji. It's kind of inconvenient, because the subways stop running earlier than the trains, so sometimes I get stuck taking a cab home from Ikebukuro or farther late at night. But, all in all, being in Tokyo is good enough.

Yokota Air Base

A friend of a friend from Hawaii, who is in the army reserve, was visiting in Tokyo, and offered to take us to the base in west Tokyo for some shopping. It was also a chance to make a pilgrimage to the only Taco Bell in Japan (see below), it was a trip I've been wanting to make for years. Stocked up on deordorant, cold medicine, and took advantage of the cheap prices to get some magazines, DVDs (Glenngarry Glen Ross, Blade Runner, Barton Fink) and a CD (The Strokes Room On Fire-limited choices).

The Simpsons Season 3

I finally finished watching Season 3, and it has many classic episodes (Lisa's Pony, Flaming Moe's, Sparate Vocations, Bart's Friend Falls In Love, etc...). In fact I can remeber watching a lot of these over and over after coming home from drinking when I was living with Mike, Gaje, and Greg. As Matt Groening said on the box, "...this makes Season 2 look like Season 1." There 's a lot of great commentary as well. Worth every penny.