Rocking in Hakata

日本は安全な国ですか?

この質問の答えは「安全」の意味により変わります。二種類の脅威があります。目に見える脅威と目に見えない脅威です。やはり、日本では強盗やカージャックは稀にしか起こらない犯罪です。目に見えない脅威はどうですか。

この教科書の中に同じテーマに答える作文があります。　しかし、傘や自転車を盗まれることよりもっと深刻な問題があります。例えば、日本の経済的管理は安全ですか？最近ビジネスウィークと他の国際刊行物に日本の銀行の一般情勢がそれほど良くないという意見を説明する記事がよく書かれてあります。日本で銀行に入れたお金は安全ですか？

次に、日本に住んでいる外国人について、人種間差別を受けている人もいるでしょう。私にはこういった悪い経験は全然ありませんが、これがありふれた事だと言われています。この考え方で、私は日本で目に見える犯罪にあまり心配していませんが、それだけで「日本は安全な国だ」と言えますか？言えないと思います。

アメリカは安全な国ですか？

この質問の答えも「安全」の意味により変わります。日本と比べたら、アメリカでは目に見える犯罪の方が怖いです。目に見えない脅威もありますが、ニュースなどで目に見える犯罪がはっきりしています。アメリカで、私の自転車にもアパートにも車にもいつも鍵をかけておきますが、お金に対しては安心しています。しかし、十年後同じことが言えるかどうかは分かりません。つまり、「アメリカは安全な国だ」とも言えません。複雑です。

This was my essay for the prompt at the end of the third book of the Japanese correspondence course that I’m taking through JET (provided by CLAIR). Book 3 is the first book to ask for an essay, but the rest will, in theory, include an essay question. Anyway, the prompt was “Is Japan a safe country? Is your country safe?” Here’s my response. (English is available on this post’s individual page, so click the more link.) Read more…

Deas Customary Drivel, 日本語

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – nothing helps your reading life better than moving to a rural island in the middle of the Japanese Seto Inland Sea. Seriously. So, I killed off The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, which was good but which had a weak ending, and will likely finish up 問題な日本語 before too long. It left me thinking…I have polished off almost all of the books immediately available to me. Most of them were read for no other reason than that they were available and I had free time to kill. I think I may need to put in an Amazon order, or try to find a used English bookstore somewhere. Anyway, looks like things will be quieting down on the reading front until I can get my grubby thumbs on some more pages. Here are some books I’d fancy reading this year.

Fun books:
State of Fear, and Next by Michael Crichton
The Solomon Key by Dan Brown (scant info available here)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

Thinking books:
The Essential Kierkegaard
Letters & Papers from Prison by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics

Any other recommendations from you folks? Anyone know of a second hand book shop in Ehime Prefecture? Ho-hum. Two boring posts in one day. What shall I do? Can’t make that a habit.

Deas Customary Drivel

Please lie and tell Technorati I’m a favorite of yours, add me to your blogroll, and feel free to link to any and all posts that strike your fancy. I’m not looking for the attention that comes with a YouTube deluge, though. Just some more folks interested in the random stuff I talk about.

You might have noticed that I put a small link on the bottom right-hand side of the site, in the Site Meta section. It’s a link to Technorati which will place me in your favorites. Everyone in my blogroll has been favorited by me. I added them in manually. I recommend claiming your blog (if you haven’t) and setting up ping stuff. Anyhoo. Just thought I’d put out a shameless plug for myself. See, world? I’m not lame! (Ok, I am. But not lame enough to stay ranked as 1,204,877th for the rest of this blog’s life.) Cheers.

Deas Customary Drivel

Lately I have been noticing things with knots in them again. Part of this is due to my sudden rediscovery of knots – which happened thanks to my wonky washing machine / “dryer” combination unit that sits on an uneven balcony. Huh? You heard (read) me correctly. My balcony is not level. They made it so that water will drain down, away from the apartment, and out. They make washing machines with flat feet…unlike mountain goats, which have adjusted to standing on a slanted surface. Why is this a problem? Try to spin a top on a tilted surface and watch what happens. It will move downward, acted upon by gravity. The same thing happens to my dryer, which is a columnar tube inside a sleeve. When the tube tilts (due to the uneven balcony) it comes into contact with the sleeve and all kinds of bad things happen. Things like flying laundry, or flying washer-dryers. The solution? Wedge the low end of the unit up into the air using household items I don’t need anymore. I’ve gone through cassette tapes, tupperware containers, and most recently a camping tea tin. Very MacGyver, I know. So…how does this relate to ties?
Read more…

Deas Customary Drivel, Unsolicited Commentary

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Yay for nabe! Yay for parties! Here’s a quick video and a few photos (included in the video) that show my “boys night” style nabe party with Murakami-sensei and Matsuda-sensei from Oshima High School. These guys rule. I hope we hang out again soon. (The[y] both speak English really well, too. But it’s ok with me when they want to speak in Japanese. Makes things more natural. No awkward moments.) Cool. Ok, onto the media.

By the way, folks who could not make it to this party…the next one is scheduled for March 10th. Saturday. Be there or be lacking in nabe goodness. There might even be some Wii Sports hilarity. You know you want in on that.

Deas Customary Drivel, Media, Photos, Video

Ok, I’m a nitpicker, and I admit that. Seriously, though, is it too much to expect the news to get peoples’ names right? Especially when they are the focus of a story? Especially when it’s in the title? Especially when they LINK to the person’s website? Geeze, guys. I am sad for the state of the news media. Where’s the professionalism?

Oh yeah – and any thoughts on the story are welcome too. It’s an interesting case.

Deas Customary Drivel, Unsolicited Commentary