Don't Panic

The sky above the port was the color of television, still tuned to a dead channel.

Am back in Chiba. Have only a few hours to go. Not sure what to do. Will probably go and spend last of my cash at Yodobashi on camera film, maybe a tripod and other stuff. Will wander around in a daze thinking about all the things I didn't get to do, and all the things that I did do that were a complete waste of time. And about all the things I have done, that I can't remember that I did. Try and eat some food without being sick (still feeling foul from bad ramen last week, the smell of it makes me what to chuck, but if I find some oshii takoyaki, I can eat that until the cows come home, but I've talked about that before, haven't I ...)

But anyway.

Had my first spak with shop assistants the other day. The Internet Cafe I've been using have this discount points card, so that everytime I spend money I get points, and I can cash them in for a refund when I buy something. In Hiroshima when I first came across this, 2 points got me about 800yen off a book. Exceptional value. At Fukuoka, I earned about 16 points which I was told was worth 5000yen. Well, that was pretty good. So I go and choose a stack of second hand CDs and try to explain that I wanted to use the points to buy the CDs. After much discussion, most of which involved the sales person telling me that 500yen was 1 point. Yes, yes I know that. I want to spend my points. How do I use my poinbts. Why have points? What do you mean, different to Hiroshima. It's the same store? If I took this to Hiroshima, I'd be getting a zillion yen worth of discount. I had to get 60 points to get 1000yen discount? You must be joking? By now, the other sales people had got the CDs ready to package and had added more points to my card thinking I was going to happily buy the CDs. I said, no, I wasn't going to buy the CDs and walked out. I think it was probably the rudest thing I could have done, but I had really, really lost my patience and just could not understand why the same shop had two completely different systems for the same point card in two places.

I've made lots of new friends. I taunted Candians about their lack of Cricket for a commonwealth country but were redeemed by participating in a Tim Tam suck. I've educated the English and other citizens of the great nation that once was Great Britian about how to tell a Kiwi from an Australian (ask them to say Fish and Chips, because it comes out as Fush and Chups, but also because they know that it's a test created by Australians to harras them.) I've met with Americans and held my tongue when anything at all about the "War With Terrorism" comes up in conversation. And I've met with Japanese who all think I speak Japanese like a Japanese person. Which is really, really funny to me.

When I got to Narita (near Tokyo) airport, it was packed with World Cup fans. There were so many aircraft at Narita we just got a set of stairs and a bus to take us to the terminal. There were lots of extra English speaking guides to tell people where to go (in the nicest possible way.) Today's Japan Times has front page articles about how all the Japanese are really, really scared of English soccer hooligans, and groups of maurading drunk soccer supporters arriving at and leaving soccer venues. Their main fear, is how these European's are physically larger than the Japanese. Although the police are trained with martial arts, and have bought new Perspex(tm) riot shields (Oooh, scary) I just don't know how it will go. Korea should be fine, they have student riots to keep the police well trained all the time, and they had the Olympics only a few years back. I wonder how the beer vending machines will go here, I can't see them lasting too long against a pack of supporters pissed as newts wanting another drink.

But I don't think I have any great philosophical wisdom to bring down from the mountain. I think that's because I got up at 6am this morning to catch the flight from Fukuoka, and just lost the plot, sub-plot, music score, script editors, cast, crew, sets and audience. Even the airports work differently here. There were separate check-in counters for luggage to seating arrangements. I've no idea why. I'm just glad the subway got me to the airport really quickly, and my bags are being looked after from Fukuoka to Sydney (I hope) and they took the large box of stuff I had as well, even though my ticket says 1 piece of luggage.

But I will miss Japanese Pop music. It's strangely addictive. Everywhere I've been I keep hearing the same songs. Ones that have been latest release, even on TV ads. Shame I can't afford the CDs.

I found this shop in Fukuoka that everything is recycled. They sell Mountain Bikes that had recycled aluminium in their frames, and carboard bookshelves (can't see them surviving too long with my books) and shirts and suits, plus lots of homewares. Although some of the cloth things were recycled, I can't see how a suit can be made from recycled material. Maybe it was organic cotton. The coolest things were these t-shirts that had a design pattern on the front, so when the t-shirt was old and useless, you'd cut the pattern out and make a childs toy with it. They had food as well, which I don't think was recycled. The design aesthetic was very minimalist, very stylish and very brown. I scored some of their catalogues to bring back, which look just like Freedom Furniture catalogues. So it's interesting to see how, if any, Asian design is starting to come through in Australian contemporary design.

So, unless I have a dash of inspiration in the next 60 seconds, this will be my last overseas post. I'll probably do one more from Australia to wrap it all up, and then close this off. Then I'll organise a fabulous publishing contract, rights for the television series with Michael Palin, and get to travel with him for 2 months around Japan re-doing my trip as a special consultant. Then I'll work for a few years as an English teacher in Fukuoka while struggling at night to create my first novel, ingeniously crafted to be the first of three which will be published to critical acclaim with descriptions like "The first science fiction since Orwell's 1984 to be considered literature." and win the holy trinity of science fiction: the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award and the Philip K. Dick Award. The other two books will arrive with appropriate intervals after the first one (in time for Christmas purchases of course, and movie tie-ins.) Then, I'll return to Australia to live a quiet life in semi-retirement somewhere down the south coast of NSW still writing books and dabbiling in new technology research.

So long and thanks for all the fush.

Nothing is true, everything is permitted

Today I've done nothing of note. Now, you may be wondering why am I posting up something if that's the case. Lets just say it's all about the wind down, the final stage, the end of the story. Folks, I'm coming home soon and well, I'm really, really tired.

I've been watching a lot of Japanese television in my hotel room as I eat my Kombini meals and drinking vending machine beer. I've walked the streets late at night watching homeless people set up their carbaord boxes at the train station and bored kids lpay their guitar and drums, just for the hell of it. I've heard motorbikes race through the streets, only to be followed by the wail of the police siren, or is that an ambulance? People shop to find meaning, and find meaning in their shopping. Large department stores sit snuggly next to bright, neon lit pachinko parlours. Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples struggle for space. Back alley ramen shops and yatai street vendors vie for my attention. A Buddhist monk, begging for alms stands opposite a temporary national lottery booth. People put money with both, a bet each way. The days are getting hotter, the sun burning the roadway, scorching the hastily placed porn advertisments spruking services up to 30,000yen for 120 minutes. And all the while, people move on.

There are apartment blocks, parking towers, office blocks, hotels, parks, shops, bars and izakayas. McDonalds, Starbucks, Coke Cola, Pepsi, Nike, Toyota, Nestle and Sony. And lots of people. Everywhere.

Everyone has a role, and a place. Office Ladies, the 18-25 young things, often working for less money than their male conterparts are easily identified by their homogeneous unforms. Groups of clones walk about at the illusive lunch time break deciding what to buy at which department store. Middle age salarymen falling asleep over their dinner, not wanting to go home. School kids speeding off from one after school class to another. And all of them doing something with their mobile phones. Sometimes even making a call, but more often playing games or sending email.

In the slow downhill slide to obsesity, and one does not easily notice the gradual change. With Japan, nobody is watching the scales of opulence to determine, when and if Materialism Watchers need to be called in.

This space for rent

More shopping, shop, shop, shopping. With a small break inbetween to do some shopping. And maybe after this, I'll go and do some more shopping. Then quick shop to finish up with before the final shop, before heading home to shop again.

I'm not actually buying anything, just looking. I've been trying to get a copy of the Fight Club, or should I say "Faito Kurabu" poster in Japanese for a friend, and if I find that I can possibly get Blade Runner, and a few others that I really like. Unfortunately though, I've seen lots of posters, but they are all US imports, and so all in English. There's been lots of really, really cool anime stuff from movies like Akira and Ghost in the Shell, some Matrix stuff and Astro Boy. But mostly it's Star Wars. Since Star Wars is the current trend, and has such a huge marketing machine behind it that's what most of the toy shops stock. Hopefully it'll be just a passing fad (in Japan, a passing fad? Never!) and it'll settle down. Perhaps when the two Matrix movies come out next year then we'll have better luck with the quality and quanity of merchandise for that one.

One thing I had to get today was a wedding present for my sister. When I got to the department store and had a look around an assistant asked if I needed any help. His English wasn't too bad. Neither were his shoes. He collects shoes, and he hadn't seen any like mine before (Doc Martin Yellow Stitch, size 9.) Needless to say, his were these spiffy black leather ones, with a buckle strap. Mine have started to look worse for wear after tramping halfway across Japan. I should go back and give him the URL for the Doc Martin website (if I can find it.)

Anyway, once I had actually chosen the item, I had to convince the sales person I wanted to buy it. Once done, he then whisked me over to a row of chairs, commented that I must be tired from shopping and plonks me down. He then gets a new item from the storeroom, lets me check that it's okay and there are no problems. Then he wraps it, and does a very, very good job at that (they love wrapping here) and then I can pay for it. The whole experience was exactly that, and experience. Very different to the tin-pot little shops I have normally been going to.

I've also found a good source for Tim Tams, and Tiny Teddy biscuits. Also another Osamu Tezuka shop (the Astro Boy creator) and some other really, really cool toy/general modern Japanese pop material places.

Now all I need is a job.

Back to Reality

It would seem my time here is running out. My initial investigations seems to indicate that for English teaching, there is a large quantity of work available. Other investigations seem to indicate that Japan, as a nation will probably crumble under it's own weight within the 50 years, much as I believe the US will as well.

I've started to read "The Prodestant Ethic And The Spirit of Capitalism." It's very good, although a hard read. The author asserts that Europe and America were at the forefront of capitalistic enterprise because of the coming together of various social, technological and management practices with a grounding in the religious framework of the time. As a historical document it is astounding to see how it relates to modern globalisation. The reason I chose to read it was to try and understand how Japan could have moved so far forward without this basis.

But anyway.

The relationship between excessive consumerism, political will, corporate ethical standards and the education system all lead me to believe that Japan is a shallow nation, built upon the sucess of exploting it's people, the environment and sheer determination of post-WWII to rebuild infrastructure. Although I may see Australia as a Utopian paradise (well, we've still got little Johnny, so it's not perfect, but close to it,) Japan still lags behind in lots of areas. Although I don't expect to be able to apply Western ethical standards that are based in a Judeo-Christian background here, it does seem as though Japan is going down the toilet just as much as all the other Asian nations, perhaps more so.

The excess of materialism, brought on by high disposable income and an Asian preference for outward, surface level meaning has driven the consumer market for years. But as the banking system starts to crumble under the weight of bad debts and gross inefficiencies (they are very paper based, overstaffed and large, even at local brances,) corporate companies start to collapse under unpayable debts (even with official interest rates at 0.00%) and unemployment reaches higher levels, people keep living as they only know how: by shopping. The Japanese people have had to put up with a lot of pain post-WWII in subsidising Japanese companies so products can be exported for cheap prices. Electronics here are not any cheaper than Australia, sometimes costing more. Mobile phones cost just as much, and call rates border on the painful, even for local area trunk line calls. But Japan has 120,000,000 people and 1/6 the size of land of Australia with income tax at about 7%. Prices need not be so high, but they are. But correspondingly, salaries are quite high as well now for the middle class, which represent almost everybody within city limits.

So where's it all going to end up. The infrastructure of polical will is, much like Queensland politics in the 70s and 80s, complete rotten. With the ruling party having power for so long, and the only way they understand to stimulate the economy is to build things, it makes for very powerful construction companies. Concrete politics. Everywhere.

The younger generation, from what I can tell, are driven mad by the emphasis for academic achievement. Syntheic idols, usually represented by J-Pop groups, dominate television. The older generations and family units are breaking down because the male works so hard to provide for the wife and kids, he's never home. The kids don't know their father, the wife goes off and gets her own replacement man and so the father ends up at Hostess Clubs or bars, paying for comfort women. Eventually the wife has enough, leaves home with the kids and the man doesn't even know how to cook for himself.

Everything is just plain wrong.

The nation state Nihon-maru, sailing gently along, is about to go over the not-so-mythical edge of the world. And all its crew and passengers are worried about is what's the next trend or style to follow.

Perhaps, as with the US, this needs to happen. They've lived here in relative comfort (albeith in rather small dwellings) for quite some time. (Now, I know that contradicts my previous statement about the exploitation of workers, but in relative terms, they have it pretty good at the moment, Utopia with a rotten core.) Perhaps, as with individuals, some pain and struggle is required for the whole of Japan. But those who are at the forefront of this, the homeless, are the hidden people. Returning to the social and ethical values of previous centuries may not be the answer, neither would be to fully embrace Western models of social and ethical patterns.

So where does this leave Japan? I've got no idea. But I've got some more shopping to do, so I'll ponder this as I decide how best to spend the last of my yen.