Relationships are complicated things. As Joe Rogan said on his Podcast, "some people are really fucking careful what relationships they get into". And then there are people like me. I won't say that I fall into relationships, but the fact is I absolutely do. If I have a profile in my past, it's that I don't usually know the person I am going to date before a relatively short period of time before. That short period of time can be really quite brief.
The benefit of getting to know someone before you start dating them is that you can establish if your compatible. But, what makes people compatible. Is it good conversation? Is it similar activities and interests, or is it simply attraction? I would say for a lasting relationship it must be the first two, and that the last one simply grows on you.
But you meet all types during your experiences in this world, and you see all types when you watch films, or even read books. That means that there is no template no one solution for all the different approaches to dating, or mating.
What do people look for in a partner? I think someone who has a passion for what they are doing is the most attractive quality. If your doing something that don't really love than you can't be that happy. Although people do things they don't like all the time. It's best to be in the zone and be really into whatever your doing, and then the time will pass quickly. You want the time to pass quickly when you are working, and slowly when you are with a loved one or on vacation. In a sense you could say that the happiest person is the person who things pass smoothly and easily. Isn't there something tragic about that. Count no man happy who is still alive, for misfortune might soon befall him, I think that is from some Greek Tragedy.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Today I came to work. It was extremely humid outside. In fact it has been humid for the last few weeks. The summers in Japan are like that. I believe a number of the days were clocked at 39 degrees Celsius. I'm drinking lots of liquids and trying to be in a room with air conditioning whenever possible.
Last night I went to bed rather late. Actually, it was around 2:30 or later. I feel kinda of trippy today, like I just didn't get enough sleep, so I'm a bit tired for this day. On Saturday to Sunday I slept 1 to 12, so about 11 hours.
I went to the gym in Harjuku the other day, it was a lot of fun. I love that caveman type basement they have at the Harjuku Gold's. You got some nice black and white posters of Arnold and other Mister Universes. Lot's of cavemen around doing savage lifting and exercise.
It would be nice to be in better shape. I think my peak must have been in November and December. I was just eating lots of high quality protein, and sushi. I lifted more than I have ever lifted before. I was even doing almost 10 chin ups.
I've been thinking a lot about the different opportunities I can take advantage of. It's clear there are heaps of opportunities out there but you need to really uncover them. In these tough economic times you need to keep a positive mind frame and keep in touch with positive people around you.
I tried to email some people on the weekend. Some of them replied others did not. I am thinking of one person in particular. Relationships are complicated, or maybe I'm complicated.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Emotions
I was listening to some really interesting lectures on the TVO podcast show Ideas today.
The first was by the political philosopher and linguist Chomsky. He briefly described the crisis of Democracy that occurred during the 1960's. Basically on both the liberal and conservative side there was a fear that what was happening in the US was an excess of democracy. Therefore there were proposals to reduce the influence of the average person in the democratic process. One such development has been the drastic reduction in funding to post secondary education
It is striking that in Mexico they have free education, or very low tuition. Of course when the government tried to bring forward legislation increasing tuition student mobilized massively to fight against the proposals, just as occurred in Quebec. The result was that tuition was not increased. You can contrast this with what took place in the rest of Canada, and in the US where people passively accepted the decision to increase tuition fees and barrow huge amounts to finance education.
I also listened to a lecture by the Canadian Science Fiction writer Cory Doctrow, about attempts being made to prevent Computers and other mediums from infringing copyright laws, and how this is doomed to failure. I rather enjoyed that lecture. He proposed that instead of building within computers a program that prevents downloading or recording of data that infringes, you empower consumers to police themselves. One good example he gives is of each person having a radio transmitter and this enabling the locating of people whose transmitters happen to be malfunctioning. I was already persuaded that the current attempts to stop infringement are doomed to failure, and his lecture merely solidified that perspective. He doesn't really get into the legal aspect much though, which is not surprising given his lack of a legal background.
But the contrast between a hammer and a rifle is quite a good one. Computers have become all purpose tools so it simply makes little sense to try to make them so that they can't be used in certain ways.
Finally I listened to this debate between a professor who thinks we don't need religion and the scared, and one who thinks we still do. It was basically an argument about John Lennon's phrase in "Imagine", there is no heaven, it's easy if you try...." etc....
It got down to semantics at a certain point. There were the creations of straw men to a certain extent. If I were arguing the perspective of the anti-religious person, I would stress the free-thinking an investigative aspect. How religion is organized by necessity into hierarchical systems almost exclusively. It is of course possible to imagine religion without that but where can you find it?
I think that is the most powerful attack on religion. But, I haven't read Daniel C. Dennet's book "The Good Delusion", although I did read the Hitchen's "God is not great".
There was a big bone of contention about chimps. Are chimps good by nature or violent. The religious guy made big hay of the idea that chimps were violent and therefore humans are naturally violent also, ergo religion is not responsible for violence. But, this treats humans as simply natural creatures. Thus we must see that even if humans are by nature this way surely they can be different through reason. So the fact that humans are naturally violent doesn't really mean anything.
I would go after religion through the critique of metaphysics (Kant, Hume) and also through Darwin, evolution. There are no transcendent mental states and therefore there is no knowledge of God outside of experience which is bounded by space and time. Even the observer effect remains in the Kantian idealism which is not the kind of idealism of Bishop Berkley, but simply an idealism of human measuring. The religious guy made hay of the observer effect in quantum physics, which in my mind doesn't really get you that far either.
I also went to the gym and did some weight lifting. I ended by advising the brother of Josh on his legal dispute with the city of Toronto. I believe he may have a claim under the copyright act for the destruction of his work by the city, when they painted without warning over his mural.
The first was by the political philosopher and linguist Chomsky. He briefly described the crisis of Democracy that occurred during the 1960's. Basically on both the liberal and conservative side there was a fear that what was happening in the US was an excess of democracy. Therefore there were proposals to reduce the influence of the average person in the democratic process. One such development has been the drastic reduction in funding to post secondary education
It is striking that in Mexico they have free education, or very low tuition. Of course when the government tried to bring forward legislation increasing tuition student mobilized massively to fight against the proposals, just as occurred in Quebec. The result was that tuition was not increased. You can contrast this with what took place in the rest of Canada, and in the US where people passively accepted the decision to increase tuition fees and barrow huge amounts to finance education.
I also listened to a lecture by the Canadian Science Fiction writer Cory Doctrow, about attempts being made to prevent Computers and other mediums from infringing copyright laws, and how this is doomed to failure. I rather enjoyed that lecture. He proposed that instead of building within computers a program that prevents downloading or recording of data that infringes, you empower consumers to police themselves. One good example he gives is of each person having a radio transmitter and this enabling the locating of people whose transmitters happen to be malfunctioning. I was already persuaded that the current attempts to stop infringement are doomed to failure, and his lecture merely solidified that perspective. He doesn't really get into the legal aspect much though, which is not surprising given his lack of a legal background.
But the contrast between a hammer and a rifle is quite a good one. Computers have become all purpose tools so it simply makes little sense to try to make them so that they can't be used in certain ways.
Finally I listened to this debate between a professor who thinks we don't need religion and the scared, and one who thinks we still do. It was basically an argument about John Lennon's phrase in "Imagine", there is no heaven, it's easy if you try...." etc....
It got down to semantics at a certain point. There were the creations of straw men to a certain extent. If I were arguing the perspective of the anti-religious person, I would stress the free-thinking an investigative aspect. How religion is organized by necessity into hierarchical systems almost exclusively. It is of course possible to imagine religion without that but where can you find it?
I think that is the most powerful attack on religion. But, I haven't read Daniel C. Dennet's book "The Good Delusion", although I did read the Hitchen's "God is not great".
There was a big bone of contention about chimps. Are chimps good by nature or violent. The religious guy made big hay of the idea that chimps were violent and therefore humans are naturally violent also, ergo religion is not responsible for violence. But, this treats humans as simply natural creatures. Thus we must see that even if humans are by nature this way surely they can be different through reason. So the fact that humans are naturally violent doesn't really mean anything.
I would go after religion through the critique of metaphysics (Kant, Hume) and also through Darwin, evolution. There are no transcendent mental states and therefore there is no knowledge of God outside of experience which is bounded by space and time. Even the observer effect remains in the Kantian idealism which is not the kind of idealism of Bishop Berkley, but simply an idealism of human measuring. The religious guy made hay of the observer effect in quantum physics, which in my mind doesn't really get you that far either.
I also went to the gym and did some weight lifting. I ended by advising the brother of Josh on his legal dispute with the city of Toronto. I believe he may have a claim under the copyright act for the destruction of his work by the city, when they painted without warning over his mural.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Working out at Gold's Gym
I've just got a renewed membership at Gold's Gym here in Omiya. From last Friday I stared going. On Friday I did back, Saturday I went to Tokyo and did chest at the Shibuya location. Sunday I took off, simply because when I showed up to the gym around 9 p.m. it was already closed. On Monday I went and did legs, and yesterday I went and did my shoulders.
The Leg workout was pretty crazy. I must say that right now I'm really feeling it. It has been awhile since I really worked out my legs that hard, and they are quite sore.
Exercising your leg muscles is extremely important of course, since they are much more primary to your locomotion than any upper body exercise. I think also in terms of abs and weight loss they are absolutely crucial.
I've started to track my calories using a program that has a pretty good database of foods, even those found in Japan. I am also recording all my workout on the exercise App for my iphone.
I can already see some fantastic results even after being back at Gold's for less than 1 week. First, I am sleeping much much better. The muscle fatigue means that despite any attempt to think and stay awake my body is simply naturally tired and therefore unable to do so. The sleep is much more restful and complete than it would be otherwise. There is no easy comparison between sleep from one period and sleep from another, this is especially true if you are comparing the experience of being asleep. But, upon waking up you know very well the difference between having achieved REM sleep and not having achieved a significant amount of it. That difference can be recorded in a app like sleepclock, which uses the iphone gyroscope to gauge when you enter and exit REM sleep.
I'm getting a handle on my diet as well. Simply recording the food you eat can have a huge effect on what you put in your body. Do you really want to write down that you ate X quantity of fried chicken or doughnuts?
The next step is drinking enough water, which is itself aided by that diet app. It has a nice graphical interface that records your water intake. You want to make sure that it fills up, so it actually graphically represents the empty water glasses that you didn't fill, and there is no text, so you really get a nice visual effect of your water consumption.
The Leg workout was pretty crazy. I must say that right now I'm really feeling it. It has been awhile since I really worked out my legs that hard, and they are quite sore.
Exercising your leg muscles is extremely important of course, since they are much more primary to your locomotion than any upper body exercise. I think also in terms of abs and weight loss they are absolutely crucial.
I've started to track my calories using a program that has a pretty good database of foods, even those found in Japan. I am also recording all my workout on the exercise App for my iphone.
I can already see some fantastic results even after being back at Gold's for less than 1 week. First, I am sleeping much much better. The muscle fatigue means that despite any attempt to think and stay awake my body is simply naturally tired and therefore unable to do so. The sleep is much more restful and complete than it would be otherwise. There is no easy comparison between sleep from one period and sleep from another, this is especially true if you are comparing the experience of being asleep. But, upon waking up you know very well the difference between having achieved REM sleep and not having achieved a significant amount of it. That difference can be recorded in a app like sleepclock, which uses the iphone gyroscope to gauge when you enter and exit REM sleep.
I'm getting a handle on my diet as well. Simply recording the food you eat can have a huge effect on what you put in your body. Do you really want to write down that you ate X quantity of fried chicken or doughnuts?
The next step is drinking enough water, which is itself aided by that diet app. It has a nice graphical interface that records your water intake. You want to make sure that it fills up, so it actually graphically represents the empty water glasses that you didn't fill, and there is no text, so you really get a nice visual effect of your water consumption.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
USA CORPORATE LAW/POLITICS, regulating contributions through shareholder approval.
After "Citizens United" you had a situation where corporations can contribute unlimited sums to elect candidates that are favourable to their firms. This has the potential to corrupt the political process in the USA. One solution is to have the shareholders pass resolutions requiring 75% shareholder approval for any campaign funding.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/opinion/15bogle.html?src=rechp
This article argues for just such an approach.
I see a couple of problems. Firstly, even though this is coming up in the case of Home Depot, it is unrealistic to believe that sufficient votes can be gathered to approve such resolutions in a majority of companies. Moreover, insofar as the contributions can be said to improve the finances of the company by electing candidates who are favourable, it seems that that executives can legitimately claim that they are acting to benefit their corporations, and hence are protected by the business judgement rule. Would shareholders want to handcuff management when it is apparent that funds might be usefully spent electing a pro business candidate? To take a simple example. Suppose that there are two candidates, one proposes increasing taxes on fuel, and the other does not. If you are the CEO of an oil company you obviously have a duty to shareholders to oppose the candidate who is going to decrease your profits. Most large shareholders will realize this and act accordingly.
In addition, this might suffer from the same problem with regard to executive pay. It is rare that shareholders can successfully pass restrictions on executive pay despite there being almost universal benefits for doing so.
Having re-read the case I have to conclude that there has to be some merit to the decision. For example, various media companies are linked to certain businesses. A good example is General Electric owning NBC. If they can use their media wing to promote policies that favor the company as a whole, I don't see why other businesses can't do the same. It is worthwhile to keep in mind that prior to Citizens United those elected to both the Senate and the presidency favored big business over the average citizen. It is only in Congress that you have something approaching effective representation. Therefore, I don't see this decision as making a huge difference in the grand scheme of things. More importantly it is unfair for some companies to have influence through ownership of media to spend unlimited amounts, whereas others cannot. It is additionally true that there is currently a breakdown between traditional media, and new media which uses the internet. There is no longer a clear distinction between owners of media and users.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/opinion/15bogle.html?src=rechp
This article argues for just such an approach.
I see a couple of problems. Firstly, even though this is coming up in the case of Home Depot, it is unrealistic to believe that sufficient votes can be gathered to approve such resolutions in a majority of companies. Moreover, insofar as the contributions can be said to improve the finances of the company by electing candidates who are favourable, it seems that that executives can legitimately claim that they are acting to benefit their corporations, and hence are protected by the business judgement rule. Would shareholders want to handcuff management when it is apparent that funds might be usefully spent electing a pro business candidate? To take a simple example. Suppose that there are two candidates, one proposes increasing taxes on fuel, and the other does not. If you are the CEO of an oil company you obviously have a duty to shareholders to oppose the candidate who is going to decrease your profits. Most large shareholders will realize this and act accordingly.
In addition, this might suffer from the same problem with regard to executive pay. It is rare that shareholders can successfully pass restrictions on executive pay despite there being almost universal benefits for doing so.
Having re-read the case I have to conclude that there has to be some merit to the decision. For example, various media companies are linked to certain businesses. A good example is General Electric owning NBC. If they can use their media wing to promote policies that favor the company as a whole, I don't see why other businesses can't do the same. It is worthwhile to keep in mind that prior to Citizens United those elected to both the Senate and the presidency favored big business over the average citizen. It is only in Congress that you have something approaching effective representation. Therefore, I don't see this decision as making a huge difference in the grand scheme of things. More importantly it is unfair for some companies to have influence through ownership of media to spend unlimited amounts, whereas others cannot. It is additionally true that there is currently a breakdown between traditional media, and new media which uses the internet. There is no longer a clear distinction between owners of media and users.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Ecological city: Tokyo
Despite the recent nuclear disaster, tsunami, and earthquakes, there is a lot to admire about Tokyo. There are a number of incredibly ecological things about the city. First, public transportation system. Second, parks and green spaces. Third, widespread use of bicycles. Fourth, the housing. Fifth, the eating habits of the Japanese.
The first thing that strikes many visitors to Japan is the excellent bus and subway systems. You can easily catch a subway by walking in almost any direction. There are numerous stops, both under ground and above ground. Moreover, even once you leave the city proper and go into the countryside you still find many train stations ready to take you to the downtown core. While the public transportation system is not cheap, it is also not that expensive. You do not pay much more than you would in Canada, and trains are everywhere. The time tables are adhered to quite well, so you can time your trip exactly. You miss one train and the other one is there several minutes later.
Despite there being a dearth of space, you can find beautiful parks in almost any section of Tokyo, or any smaller Japanese town. The parks are well maintained and have nice flowering trees, and also often large lakes. You can find many avian species, fish, and animals of all kinds using the facilities. Children, the elderly, and couples of all ages also enjoy sitting in the parks.
Despite being a huge metropolis you have many people using bicycles from all walks of life. If you go to any part of Tokyo and especially the downtown core you find piles upon piles of bicycles. In short it is a widely used form of transportation. Correspondingly it is well regarded by all city dwellers. There is absolutely no stigma attached to using a bicycle. You can ride on both the sidewalk and the street with very little fear of being hurt by motorists or scolded by pedestrians. In fact, when you trying to bicycle by a person, it is often they who apologize for blocking your path.
Most people live in one room apartments, and even wealth families have small houses by comparison with North America. However, this is a very beneficial situation as it requires far less heating and energy to live in one of these apartments. In addition, since there is much less space for belongings there is less opportunity to amass large quantities of objects. The small apartments and density of housing also works to make the public transportation routes that much more efficient.
The first thing that strikes many visitors to Japan is the excellent bus and subway systems. You can easily catch a subway by walking in almost any direction. There are numerous stops, both under ground and above ground. Moreover, even once you leave the city proper and go into the countryside you still find many train stations ready to take you to the downtown core. While the public transportation system is not cheap, it is also not that expensive. You do not pay much more than you would in Canada, and trains are everywhere. The time tables are adhered to quite well, so you can time your trip exactly. You miss one train and the other one is there several minutes later.
Despite there being a dearth of space, you can find beautiful parks in almost any section of Tokyo, or any smaller Japanese town. The parks are well maintained and have nice flowering trees, and also often large lakes. You can find many avian species, fish, and animals of all kinds using the facilities. Children, the elderly, and couples of all ages also enjoy sitting in the parks.
Despite being a huge metropolis you have many people using bicycles from all walks of life. If you go to any part of Tokyo and especially the downtown core you find piles upon piles of bicycles. In short it is a widely used form of transportation. Correspondingly it is well regarded by all city dwellers. There is absolutely no stigma attached to using a bicycle. You can ride on both the sidewalk and the street with very little fear of being hurt by motorists or scolded by pedestrians. In fact, when you trying to bicycle by a person, it is often they who apologize for blocking your path.
Most people live in one room apartments, and even wealth families have small houses by comparison with North America. However, this is a very beneficial situation as it requires far less heating and energy to live in one of these apartments. In addition, since there is much less space for belongings there is less opportunity to amass large quantities of objects. The small apartments and density of housing also works to make the public transportation routes that much more efficient.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Thoughts on earthquake
First, some personal observations. I was watching the Ume (Plum) trees when the great earthquake struck. I can honestly say that at the time I was in shock, but that the effects while surprisingly strong did not indicate outright destruction around me. As the Bus proceeded up the main street in Mito, I could see some cracks in the pavement, broken glass, and in some places shattered facades, and crumbled bricks. When we got out of the bus and went up to the station it was clear that everything was shut down, the power was out and lots of bottles were smashed. Outside the station people were milling about. I noticed a couple of Chinese girls taking pictures. I myself started to film, but I also realized that the aftershocks were likely to come and it was better to get in an open space away from big buildings.
Together with Yumi I stood around for a bit, before we decided to follow some of the groups of workers making their way to a evacuation center, which was basically the school grounds of a large elementary school. Once there there were heaps of people milling about, and aftershocks coming now and then. We eventually left there and made our way back to the station. Long lines had formed around the taxi stand, and in addition all the buses were stationary. We waited around in the cold for a bit before going into a building entrance that was opened, and then a bus which had the heaters turned on. After that we made our way to the highschool near the station where they had set up blankets and space heaters. Along with a bunch of other people we would spend the next couple of days there just waiting.
The weather was quite nice the following two days but I spent most of it just sitting on the floor trying to stay warm. The Japanese were incredibly ordered and calm under the circumstances. We were fed at regular intervals and the various people camped out shared whatever food they had. The elderly women, who themselves had been in Mito to view the Ume trees had copious amounts of food on hand. I was continually surprised when they would bring out yet more food. They had an especially large quantity of Nauto, the famous fermented soybean dish.
I also managed to use my iphone to keep everyone updated on my condition. It was remarkable that even when the cell phone voice network was down I was still able to access the internet and post messages. Once the power was restored I was able to borrow a charger and keep my phone charged. Finally, on Sunday we had had enough and decided to try to get to Tokyo. We got a bunch of people together and rented a car, and drove to the last station that was still connected to the Tokyo grid.
That was 10 days ago. I had planned on going down to Osaka, after arriving here in Tokyo but I never made it. Yumi was distraught at the notion of me going down there.
So much has changed in the past week. Basically the western media was screaming murder about the radiation danger from the fires and explosions at the plant in Fukushima. I was in turn bombarded with warnings from my friends and relations on Facebook. At the same time BBC experts were saying there is nothing major to worry about. Nevertheless I thought seriously about going down to Osaka, not the least because I really enjoy it down there.
Well as suddenly as the delirium built it evaporated, thus confirming that it was all trumped up in the first place. But, I`m still a little nervous about proceeding North back to Ibaraki. I`ve spent the last week here in Tokyo and really started to enjoy the lifestyle here again, not to mention I`m well aware the at the US advises a distance of at least 80km from Fukushima, whereas Hitachi is only 100 km away, not a huge margin of error. Of course at the same time the Japanese are saying you should be at least 30 km away, so maybe the proper distance is a medium between 30 and 80?
I have heard that many foreigners have left Tokyo, but thus far I`m not entirely sure that this is the case. I will call some of my friends to confirm. I know I ran into a girl who was president of Temple, and she told me that most of the TUJ students had already left, and Temple in fact had rented a plane to fly a number of them out.
I guess the few days dealing with the earthquake took a lot out of me, because I`m only now beginning to feel more rested and normal. I certainly didn`t feel like the event was traumatic at the time but maybe it was. I have no idea if on a subconscious level I wasn`t deeply disturbed.
For awhile I thought this might be one of those profound life changing moments, where you realize what is important to you. I`m not sure that this has happened.
I will say that all that I`ve experienced confirms to me that the Japanese more or less have it right, and that we in Canada or less right, and in the US even less. The storm that struck New Orleans is proof enough that a similar event in the US would occasion massive unrest and crime, simply because of the difference in social conditions, and the atomistic social life.
Together with Yumi I stood around for a bit, before we decided to follow some of the groups of workers making their way to a evacuation center, which was basically the school grounds of a large elementary school. Once there there were heaps of people milling about, and aftershocks coming now and then. We eventually left there and made our way back to the station. Long lines had formed around the taxi stand, and in addition all the buses were stationary. We waited around in the cold for a bit before going into a building entrance that was opened, and then a bus which had the heaters turned on. After that we made our way to the highschool near the station where they had set up blankets and space heaters. Along with a bunch of other people we would spend the next couple of days there just waiting.
The weather was quite nice the following two days but I spent most of it just sitting on the floor trying to stay warm. The Japanese were incredibly ordered and calm under the circumstances. We were fed at regular intervals and the various people camped out shared whatever food they had. The elderly women, who themselves had been in Mito to view the Ume trees had copious amounts of food on hand. I was continually surprised when they would bring out yet more food. They had an especially large quantity of Nauto, the famous fermented soybean dish.
I also managed to use my iphone to keep everyone updated on my condition. It was remarkable that even when the cell phone voice network was down I was still able to access the internet and post messages. Once the power was restored I was able to borrow a charger and keep my phone charged. Finally, on Sunday we had had enough and decided to try to get to Tokyo. We got a bunch of people together and rented a car, and drove to the last station that was still connected to the Tokyo grid.
That was 10 days ago. I had planned on going down to Osaka, after arriving here in Tokyo but I never made it. Yumi was distraught at the notion of me going down there.
So much has changed in the past week. Basically the western media was screaming murder about the radiation danger from the fires and explosions at the plant in Fukushima. I was in turn bombarded with warnings from my friends and relations on Facebook. At the same time BBC experts were saying there is nothing major to worry about. Nevertheless I thought seriously about going down to Osaka, not the least because I really enjoy it down there.
Well as suddenly as the delirium built it evaporated, thus confirming that it was all trumped up in the first place. But, I`m still a little nervous about proceeding North back to Ibaraki. I`ve spent the last week here in Tokyo and really started to enjoy the lifestyle here again, not to mention I`m well aware the at the US advises a distance of at least 80km from Fukushima, whereas Hitachi is only 100 km away, not a huge margin of error. Of course at the same time the Japanese are saying you should be at least 30 km away, so maybe the proper distance is a medium between 30 and 80?
I have heard that many foreigners have left Tokyo, but thus far I`m not entirely sure that this is the case. I will call some of my friends to confirm. I know I ran into a girl who was president of Temple, and she told me that most of the TUJ students had already left, and Temple in fact had rented a plane to fly a number of them out.
I guess the few days dealing with the earthquake took a lot out of me, because I`m only now beginning to feel more rested and normal. I certainly didn`t feel like the event was traumatic at the time but maybe it was. I have no idea if on a subconscious level I wasn`t deeply disturbed.
For awhile I thought this might be one of those profound life changing moments, where you realize what is important to you. I`m not sure that this has happened.
I will say that all that I`ve experienced confirms to me that the Japanese more or less have it right, and that we in Canada or less right, and in the US even less. The storm that struck New Orleans is proof enough that a similar event in the US would occasion massive unrest and crime, simply because of the difference in social conditions, and the atomistic social life.
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