A Yakuza gang war in Tokyo, my trip to the concrete jungle of Tokyo, and how the wisdom of China is at work in Japan today

Japan has a reputation for being a peaceful place with very little in the way of violence, giant monsters emerging from the sea and smashing Tokyo notwithstanding. This happy image was somewhat shaken this week when a minor gang war broke out in Tokyo, with several shots fired back and forth and one gang boss killed. Japan's Yakuza have been around for centuries, and usually go about their business in a very orderly fashion, with the major groups -- Yamaguchi-gumi in Osaka and the smaller Sumiyoshi-kai and Inagawa-kai in Tokyo -- respecting each others territory. This harmony was broken when some members of the 3rd-ranked Inagawa Group of Tokyo allowed the traditional protection money collected from restaurants and bars in Roppongi to go to the Yamaguchi group, which amounted to the Osaka mafia muscling in on territory that wasn't traditionally theirs. Some arrests have been made so hopefully we've seen the last bit of fighting. The Yakuza like to pretend they're modern day Robin Hood anti-heroes, but their various criminal enterprises, including ultra-high interest loans and protection scams, cause great harm to people. The term Yakuza is a phonetic play on the numbers 8, 9 and 3, which add up to 20, representing the worst possible hand you can get in a traditional card game played since the Edo Period.

Yesterday I went to Tokyo on business, just a 45-minute Shinkansen ride away. Whenever I visit Japan's capital I experience a brief period of localized culture shock as I adjust to having that much concrete and steel around me, and having my own personal space cut down to a fraction of what it is in our home prefecture of Gunma. My eyes always go a little wide when I see the, er, extremely beautiful and fashionable women riding trains or crossing the famous "scramble intersection" in Shibuya, so different from the more down-to-earth females back home that it seems to my eyes like the difference between regular television and HD-TV. Even the men are image-conscious in Tokyo, reading magazines like Smart or Myojo and no doubt being subtly influenced by the endless stream of boytoy "talents" from Johnny's Entertainment, Japan's most successful talent management company. Passing through Shinjuku, I spied one extremely fashionable youth who was busy playing with a pink Nintendo DS, and it occurred to me that in Japan today men and women are in open competition to see which set can be more fashionable and stylish -- an odd phenomenon that probably wouldn't happen in the U.S., unless I've really been away too long.

In a very real sense, the culture of Japan flows from China, just as everything in the West from laws and courts to roads originally came from ancient Rome and Greece. China is so much a part of Japan's history that you couldn't express ideas without thinking in kanji, the pictographs that Japan imported along with Buddhism in the 6th century A.D. (this is in contrast to the two Koreas, who have largely decoupled their language from kanji in favor of the "purity" of the home-grown hangul writing system). Just as elements of classical languages survive in our speech ad infinitum, the Chinese language pops up in Japanese from time to time, for example in the poetic phrase shimen-soka (she-men-SOH-kah), which means "being surrounded by enemies on all sides and totally betrayed." The wisdom of China also survives in the form of proverbs that the Japanese have imported, such as the old standby ningen banji saiou-ga-uma, which means "All human affairs are like Saiou's horse." This refers to an old Chinese story about a man named Saiou whose horse ran away, making everyone say how unfortunate he was. "How do you know this is a bad thing?" he asked. His horse came back, bringing another horse this time, and when people congratulated him on his good luck, he asked, "How do you know this is a good thing?" He then or bad happens, no one can say for sure if it is truly a good or bad thing in the end. It's kind of like marrying an 80-year-old billionaire -- in the end, who can say if it will be a good thing or not?

Today is February 9th, which according to the usually-incomprehensible- to-gaijin Japanese numbering system is "Meat Day" (Niku no Hi, 肉の日), since 2/9 can be read ni ku meaning meat in Japanese (refer to Yakuza, above). Today is also my wife's birthday, so we're off to enjoy Korean Barbecue, a popular delicacy in Japan. Have a nice weekend!

Remember that J-List provides a great service for our customers: a custom calligraphy message on a Japanese shikishi writing board, which lets you get anything written in Japanese, from your favorite slogan to a message of love to a cool kanji for use as a tattoo or you name rendered in kanji or katakana. The message boards are very nice, featuring high quality thick paper, and are suitable for framing or just displaying in any room.

Here are today's "really cool products" that I thought were especially noteworthy. Note: the J-List links below may be for adult products and should probably be considered "not safe for work." To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link.

	Gokuh Sep 2006 vol. 182 - Final Issue! The last issue of Gokuh -- I am really sad, actually, as I've been reading this magazine off and on for many years. Hrrm, for J-List related purposes only, of course. The articles, you know.
	ai -- Ai Takahashi. The lovely Ai Takahashi of Morning Musume, in her bold and cool photobook.
	Azuing -- Azusa Yamamoto. Really cute Japanese idol and actress. If you happened to catch the '24' Calorie Mate commercials, she was the one driving the van ("I have to get to Shinjuku!").
	Pole Dance Sex -- Mina Fukuhara. Mina Fukuhara is really an amazing thing to behold in ths new DVD release.
	Love Exercise -- Rola Sato (Laura Sato). Rola Sato's latest release. She's popular because she looks a lot like Aya Ueto.
	Getting Wet ~ Adventures in the Japanese Bath. Ha! A cool book that tells you every about the onsens that I love so much.
	Rei Ayanami PVC Figure -- Evangelion. Dynamite new Rei Ayanami igure. Love it.
	Tenori Mamegoma -- Panda Goma . I've never thought of how cute a cross between a baby seal and a panda might be. Now I know!
	BLEACH Characters Figure 4th Edition -- Full Set *Set of 5*. Cool new Bleach character toy line, with full sets in stock.
	Figure Tsushin vol. 1 ~ with DVD A new figure magazine has been launched, with loads of pctures and a DVD to enjoy.
	Techno Line Ball EX Ball Pointed Pen -- Light Green. Enjoy some stylish Japanese pen action from Zebra.
	Akihabara Electric Appliance Store -- Full Set *Set of 5*. Wow, cool new series from Re-Ment. I mean, any toy line that gives you a miniature flat screen TV and takoyaki maker is cool.
	Kanji Quiz Toilet Paper. Quiz your Japanese skills while you poop. Back in stock!
	Venus Pillow -- Oppai Breast Pillow. Hehe, I love the thought that somewhere, J-List customers are using this wacky item to bring some calm into their lives.

Some random images. I have in my home a brand new Magic Window from 1973, which set me back a bit on eBay. Just thought I'd show it to you.

Made and printed in the U.S.A. Pretty spiffy.

Not a great picture of my setup at home (which will be upgraded to a Mac Pro if Apple would *deign* to get a new machine out for us). I've never seen these Japanese notebook computer racks that hold your laptop upright for cooling purposes. They're quite nice to use.

That's?

Kicking back at the family restaurant we go to a lot for lunch, called Joyful, a name which somehow makes me happy. This is the steak part of the menu.

Of course, at a cheap place like this a "steak" is always a "hamburg steak."

Of course, the highlight of the manu is, Yuko Ogura appearing in it. Don't ask me, I don't know what she has to do with Hamburg Steak.

The reality of "learning Japanese," Japan's special relationship with garbage, and the history of the Japanese Postal Mark

One thing I've heard from foreigners who have recently come to Japan -- and which I've probably uttered myself a long time ago -- is the phrase "And then, when I've learned Japanese..." This is amusing to me since you never actually "learn" any language in the sense of suddenly becoming completely competent in all aspects of its use. A foreigner living in Japan naturally stakes out the important areas of his life or work and attains working fluency in those areas, usually not bothering with aspects of the language that will probably never touch him. After four years of study in college and a decade and a half of living in Japan I'm able to function in a wide variety of situations here, including business settings, dealing with family and friends, ordering a pizza and giving directions to my house, attending funerals and weddings and so on...but if I were suddenly thrust into the world of a banker, a politician or a daiku carpenter who builds houses using traditional Japanese techniques, I'd be completely lost. Similarly, my wife is perfectly functional in English in most cases, yet when its time for the CSI broadcast on NHK, I know she'll flip the TV into Japanese mode since the show lies outside of her established linguistic boundaries. As your life meanders on and the way you use language changes, naturally your language skills will change too. When I became a father, I realized that I didn't have a clue how to speak Japanese "baby talk," so I started that aspect of my language education. In the process of running a Japanese company I've had to learn how to read contracts in Japanese to make sure I didn't accidentally sign away my house or something, and now I'm quite comfortable with most Japanese legalese.

Every morning my car greets me and gives me my daily "What day is today?" trivia point, informing me that today is Ice Cream Day (May 9), Natto Day (July 10), Haiku Day (August 19) and UFO Day (June 24), and so on, and every time I get in my car I never know what wacky and esoteric new information I'll be presented with. Tomorrow is "Japanese Postal Mark Day," celebrating the establishment of the unique symbol used to indicate a place where you can find postal services here, which looks like the marriage of a capital T with an equals sign, or like the katakana symbol for te (テ）. The Japanese post office was established in 1871, just four years into the reign of the new Emperor Meiji that proved to be a watershed moment in the modernization of the country. In 1887, as part of a national revitalization effort, the Postal Service announced that the English letter "T" would be the new symbol of the Post Office of Japan. Ten days later, the ministry sheepishly admitted that they had mis-read their own symbol, and the actual symbol of Japan's postal organization was the one that's in use today. The "postal mark" symbol is officially registered with the International Standards Organization and is included in all Japanese fonts on personal computers.

One of the first words a foreigner who comes to live in Japan learns is gomi, the most common term for garbage in Japanese. The reason is that Japan -- a nation that ranks 63rd in the world in terms of land area yet 10th in terms of population -- must understandably take some special measures to make sure its trash situation doesn't get out of hand. As newly arrived gaijin must learn, trash can be disposed of on designated days, and must be separated into various categories (burnables on Tuesday and Friday, non-burnables on Wednesday, organic trash every other week) and disposed of in approved bags you can buy in stores in that city. Although the words "environmentally conscious" don't spring to mind when you think of Japan, with its custom of covering the sides of mountains in concrete on the off chance there might be a rock slide someday, the country has been recycling for decades as one way of reducing the amount of trash generated by society. When you buy shampoo or bathroom cleaner, you're presented with a choice: a regular plastic container, or a cheaper refill-only package that lets you refill the bottle you've already got at home and cut down on what you throw away. There are many laws on the books requiring that you take special steps to safely dispose of old cars, computers and televisions, and it's common for home electronics stores to take away your old stuff for free when you buy something new, to save customers from the hassle of paying a recycling company money to take care of their old junk.

In addition to an extensive line of cool Japanese T-shirts and super-warm hooded sweatshirts, all printed with loving care by our staff in San Diego using the best printing methods for years of use, we also sell embroidered hats featuring cool and wacky kanji logos and anime designs for you to wear on your head. Many of our most popular T-shirt designs, from our "Cheshire Totoro" to our "Otaku" parody of the Oakley brand to our world-famous "Looking for a Japanese Girlfriend," are available on high quality Vintage Chino Twill Caps made by Alternative Apparel, featuring soft "bio-washed" fabric, an adjustable brass buckle for "set and forget" size adjustment, and handy holes in the top to keep your head cool. Today we've got a new addition in our hat lineup: the three cute cats from the Mona Neko, three cute ASCII characters from Japan's famous 2ch BBS who love to drink, dance and always have fun. Check out the new hat now!

Here are today's "really cool products" that I thought were especially noteworthy. Note: the J-List links below may be for adult products and should probably be considered "not safe for work." To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link.

	Urecco Gal DVD Oct 2006 . Urecco Gal has really changed, there's no denying it. Gone are the ultra-stylish girls showing their bubblegum nudes. This new Urecco Gal comes with a massive 4 hour DVD in place of it.
	Love Pola -- Misaki. Beautiful photobook featuring Misaki, shot as a series of bold polaroids in a love hotel.
	HISUI -- Mayumi Ono. Cute-as-a-button Mayumi Ono is looking great in her newest photobook.
	Sexual Esthetic Full Course -- Kaho Kasumi. Why do I love the elegance of the Japan side of "ero" over, say, much of what I see in the U.S.? The elegance of this woman is part of the answer.
	A Graceful Degenerate of Lesbian -- Noa. Enjoy the very beautiful Noa as she shows you how to perform with other women.
	Japanese Hat - Beware of Perverts. New embroidered hat for you, featuring the popular 2ch characters Mona Neko, who sing the Numanuma song.
	Fighting Heroine Insult Princess 22 ~ Touki Ryoujyoku vol. 22. A brand new Fighting Heroine Insult Princess, in which real characters from anime and video games right the good fight against tentacle monsters.
	Oishiku Meshiagare (Delicious Seduction). An aptly named manga about delicious seduction in a variety of short stories.
	Replication Space ~ Fukusei Kukan. Why is this cool? I can't put my finger on it, but they recreated a part of old Japan back in the Showa Era with perfect faithfulness. Looking at these pictures is calming, somehow.
	Bata Bata Mamegoma. Awww, this is the cutest Mamegoma plush I've ever seen. Not only is he (she?) soft as all get-out, but he (she?) flaps his (her?) tail when you press the right place.
	HIragana Learning Tape A *Three Refills. This is, um, celophane tape that helps you learn Japanese, starting with hiragana. Wow!
	Miniture Geta for Display. Cute little Geta to display in your home, or wear if you have extremely small feet.
	Sanko Soy Sauce Rice Cracker . Mmm, my favorite type of senbei, bar none...
	Soyjoy -- Mango/ Coconuts Flavor *Energy Bar. A cool new healthy energy bar that's got tons of soy inside.
	Tomica 114 -- JSDF Light Armoured Vehicle. Cool! Japanese miltary vehicles in the Tomica series.
	Saber *Kisekae* Figure -- Fate/Stay Night. Wow, a figure of Saber that you can dress up in different outfits.
	Kanji Sticker -- Moe "Cute". We got some cool kanji stickers in, with beautiful designs and fun meanings.
	Best of YesJapan Volume 1. It's back! Our good friends over at YesJapan have the most entertaining and useful 4 hours you can imagine. Go on a date with Keiko, and learn to be annoying in Japanese!
	Nintendo DS Can Pen Case. Nintendo DS fans, here is the ultimate pencil case.

Since I'm talking about shampoo, here you go, some pictures of shampoo. Yes, I did get some rather odd looks taking these, thanks.

I've often thought this would be a good name for shampoo... This is one of the refill only packages, of course.

Another one. This one is Nuance Airy, whatever that is.

Wash your hair with black, sooty charcoal, yes!

From across the room, Tommy Lee Jones was silently watching me with eyes that were somehow sad.

Shrinking the Earth and watching Football, all about the word "sumimasen" and the four islands of Japan

That old planet Earth, she just keeps on getting smaller and smaller, and it's a lot of fun to sit back and watch the process unfold from the other side of the world. When I came here back in 1991, Japan was a lot farther away from the U.S. than it is now -- there was no Internet as we know it back when, of course, and calling home required biting the bullet and paying the $4-5 per minute to KDDI, definitely not a fun prospect. But since that time technology has really blossomed, pushing the "convenience quotient" for living in a strange place like Japan to dizzying new heights. The revolution in communication in the past decade and a half has been nothing short of incredible -- cheap international calling with "callback" services, the arrival of email, speedier communication with instant messaging and Internet video conferencing, and Skype -- I can even keep my cultural knowledge fresh thanks to Youtube. When I got here, there was exactly one source of news in English, the Far East Network radio station for the U.S. military, but now our cup runneth over with choices including podcasts from the BBC, NPR, NBC and more. Just as the maturity of the web has made it easy for people from all corners of the globe to order ninja boots or Black Black Caffeine Gum or Hello Kitty Mayonnaise Cups for your bento lunch from J-List, sites like Amazon.com are a huge boon to poor gaijin like me. I've finally attained the Holy Grail of Convenience for an expat in Japan, though, the absolute highest plane of Techno Nerdvanna -- being able to watch the Superbowl live, as it happens, courtesy of a Slingbox. It sure beats seeing the game with announcers giving the play-by-play in Japanese, something I just can't get used to.

You may know the Japanese word sumimasen, which generally corresponds to "excuse me" and is one of the more useful phrases to learn, but like most aspects of this place there's a little more to it than appears on the surface. First and foremost, sumimasen (soo-mee-mah-SEN) is used in any situation where you need to apologize for something small, such as causing someone inconvenience by bumping into them in the street, calling the wrong number, or ordering curry with fried beef intestines accidentally because you couldn't read the kanji in the menu, then asking for something else instead. Many situations which would call for a "thank you" in English work better with sumimasen in Japanese, something I learned at a public bath a few weeks after first arriving here. We'd stayed a few minutes after closing time, causing minor inconvenience to the staff who no doubt wanted to get home, and as we left my Japanese coworker said sumimasen to them ("we're sorry for taking too long in the bath") rather than the phrase I would have used, arigato ("thank you for letting us stay a few minutes past closing time"). When I asked about this, I was told that "'Thank you' sounds cheap. 'Excuse me' is a better word for Japanese people." The sumimasen phrase is also used when asking for service in a restaurant, and one difference between Japan and the U.S. is that here, it's okay to loudly use the phrase to indicate that you're ready to order, whereas in the States you usually close your menu and sit quietly to be noticed most of the time. Like many Japanese phrases, you can use the all-purpose word domo (which loosely means "very") to add a layer of politeness -- domo sumimasen! ("I'm really sorry!").

There are four main islands that make up the volcanic chain that is Japan. Honshu ("main prefecture") is the largest, about the size of Kansas or Idaho in terms of area, and most Japanese cities are located on this island. Honshu is divided up into five regions, which are Tohoku, the northern tip, where it snows all the time and people talk more or less with a New Jersey accent; Kanto, the large plain where Tokyo is located; Chubu, central Japan, where Nagoya is; Kinki, where you can find Osaka and Kyoto, and apparently where all the kinky girls live; and Chugoku in the west, whose primary characteristic is that it has no special characteristics. Kyushu is the large island to the south, where foreign influence historically enters Japan first, be it Buddhism from China and Korea, Christianity during the pre-Edo Period or the AMC movie theatre chain today. Kyushu's name means "nine prefectures" but this is a misnomer since there are only six now, however Shikoku ("four lands"), the fourth largest island in Japan, does sport four prefectures, including Ehime, famous for pearls and mikan oranges. Last but not least is Hokkaido (ho-KAI-doh), the large island in the north, very much the "breadbasket" of Japan, and products from butter to milk to ice cream are sold with the image of Hokkaido on the package.

Here are today's "really cool products" that I thought were especially noteworthy. Note: the J-List links below may be for adult products and should probably be considered "not safe for work." To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link.

	Mecha Ii -- Ann Nanba. Always a pleasure to go on a virtual date with Ann Namba...
	Sisters Donburi (region 2). Oyako-don is a delicious dish that is chicken and scrambled egg (parent and child, or Oyako) on a donburi bowl of rice (don). This is "sisters" version of this, er, concept.
	emerge -- Maki Miyamoto. Lovely new photobook featuring Maki Miyamoto's beautiful body.
	CFNM ~ Beautiful OL's Foot Jobs. An offering for fans of CFNM, which is clothed female, nude name.
	Nozarashi Kiko - Enpitsu no Tabi ~ Basho Matsuo. Learn good Japanese penmanship and poety at the same time.
	Junichi Nakahara's Beautiful Nuri-e 1 ~ Utsukushiki Nurie 1. More fun 'nuri-e' coloring books for grown-ups.
	Oreo White Crunch. Yum, a new variety of Oreo Cookie Crunch bars from Nestle!
	1/6 Scale Black Bunny Girl Pre-Painted Haruhi Suzumiya Figure. A fabulous figure of Haruhi from the #1 anime series in a long time. Such detail! Kawaii!
	Sesame Street *Hanafuda* Clear Holder. Japan-motif Sesame Street stuff? Way cool!
	DX Chopsticks for Celebration. Lovely chopsticks worthy of a wedding or more.
	Chirimen Hello Kitty Wishing Board -- Yellow. Maybe your wish will come true if you use this cool Hello Kitty wishing board from Japan -- several colors available!
	Japanese T-shirt "Dirty American Devil" - Camouflage Limited Edition. A classic shirt, this is the Japanese word -- kichiku beihei meaning literally "American soldier beast" that you'd never expect to have on a T-shirt.
	Bontan Ame -- Japanese Traditional Soft Candy. This is the traditional Japanese candy you can eat, wrapper and all, since it's made of rice.
	Peach Princess's "X-Change 3". A classic game that brings the original X-Change trilogy to an end. Play it now, if you haven't already!

Yes, it was nice being able to watch the game. Although now it made my update late by two hours...

Isn't this car cute? It was in my Flickr window so I thought I'd show you. I think there are lots of things we can do to use less fuel, if we'd all just learn to love slightly smaller cars. This is made by Subaru.

We bought a new TV, an Aquos. Of course the first thing I had to do was hook up my Atari 8 bit emulator to it and play me some M.U.L.E.

It's also good for a virtual fishtank.

Looks pretty real, doesn't it!