Japanese Subculture - Gokudo (極道)

Enjoyed reading "Tokyo Vice", a non-fiction by American joournalist/writer Jake Adelstein.
The author was a crimereporter for the Yomiuri Shinbun (not the English-language Daily Yomiuri), which is unusual for a gaijin. In his book, Mr Adelstein described his personal encounters with Japanese cops, gangsters, hostesses, etc.. to get his scoops. The book is an eye opener of how entrenched the yakuza is within the Japanese society. Yakuza likes to use the word gokudo (極道), meaning "the ultimate path", to refer to their lifestyle. To many Japanese, they are like the modern-day samurai, the harbingers of traditional Japanese values such as honor and brotherhood. Sort of like the Last of the Mohicans (for some reason the author likes to use the boyscout analogy). In Japan, one can go to any convenient stores or bookstores to find Yakuza cartoons and fan magazines. Within the past decade, yakuza organizations have become experts at real-estate and stockmarket investing, and the size of the yakuza-controlled underground economy is estimated to be at 20 trillion yen. While interviewing his sources, the author interacted with human trafficking victims from Eastern Europe who are lured into Japan by hostess clubs with links to the underworld. His reporting played a significantly role in raising international awareness about towards human trafficking in Japan, which eventually led to the Japanese government adopting stricter regulations against human trafficking. A very provocative book, with a lot of sex and violence, but with lots of humor. For more information, visit the author's blog: http://www.japansubculture.com/

One Helluva Night on Fuji-san

Last weekend, a friend and I hiked Mt Fuji from the Kawaguchi fifth station. From the start, the weather was rainy, and visibility was poor. Due to the long weekend, countless people came to climb Japan's highest peak (3776m). The sight reminds me of the long pilgrim crowds in Mecca. The hut at the eight station was so full that people had to sleep in mummy-pose on long co-ed bunk beds, shoulders pressed against shoulders of people sleeping next to me. When we started to hike again at 1am, the crowd was already reaching its peak. It is amazing how people can put up with such conditions. After another two-hour crawl to the top, we passed the ninth station. After passing the torii gate, about 100m from the top, the traffic simply stopped. After another half an hour standing in the cold and with not much oxygen to breathe, we finally decided that we had enough and started our descent. Thick clouds blocked the sun completely from sight so there was no chance that we could view the sun rise (ご来光). Needless to say, my first hike to the top of the world's most selfish mountain was not a pleasant experience.

Mt Daibosatsu

Hiked Mt Daibosatsu (大菩薩嶺) in Yamanashi yesterday. Mt Daibosatsu is a one of 100 famous mountains in Japan, a list of mountains selected by the legendary alpinist Kyuuya Fukada. It is also the first 2000m-class mountain I climbed here in Japan. The hike takes one through a virgin, lush forest with diverse kinds of trees like beech (ブナ) to oak (ミズナラ) to Japanese hemlock (コメツガ), which is a new experience for me since hemlocks only grow at 1500m+ altitude around here. The diversity of the forest is just simply amazing. On a clear day at near top (大菩薩峠-1897m) , you can see a grand view of Mt Fuji above the clouds. In fact the mountain is known to be a passing place for thunder clouds, but fortunately the clouds did not not look too dark yesterd ay. The peak (大菩薩嶺-2057m) is surrounded by hemlock trees, so there isn' t much scenery. However the place feels so serene and abundant with many kinds of lifeforms, one can smell, hear, and feel the whole forest. A "strange" eery feeling indeed. Although it is a bit far from the city (around 2.5hr by train from Shinjuku), the richness of Mt Daibosatsu makes it a very enjoyable hike.



My little friend. I found another one crawling on my shirt before I had to remove it. Kind of got used to them after a while.


The mountain radio guy. "八ヶ岳, how are you doing?"


Near Daibosatsurei. がすってる.

How to get there:
Take the Chuo Line from Tachikawa (立川) to Takao (高尾), then the Chuo Line (towards 甲府) to Enzan (塩山) station. Take the Yamanashi bus leaving at 9:25 from Enzan station to the Daibosatsu-tozan-guchi (大菩薩嶺登山口バス停). After 15 min of walking up the road, the Marukawa-touge (丸川峠) trail entrance is on the left but one can also walk another 15 min to the Kamihikawa-touge (上日川峠) enntrace. The hike to the top takes about 3hr and one can stop at several huts on the way up. The shaved ice milk (ミルクかき氷) at the hut near Daibosatsu-touge is quite good. The bus from Daibosatsu-tozan-guchi bus stop to Enzan station leaves at 17:10. Bus schedule can be found here http://yamanashikotsu.co.jp/noriai/timetable03.htm

150th Aniversary of Japanese Protestant Church

Today Christians living in Japan commemorate the 150th anniversary of Protestant mission in Japan. Our church members attended the celebration in Yokohama, where around 5000 people gathered. Ever since the Jesuit priest Francis Xavier arrived in Japan in the 16th century, Christianity in Japan has experienced many ups and downs. Now only less than 1% (0.1%??) of Japanese are Christians, a small number compared to South Korea. The speakers seem to acknowledge that a large part is due to the deep schisms within the church itself, with its myriad of denominations eager to expose on their differences, which in turn creates all sorts of confusion. It is simply hubris to think that one can have relationship with the divine but yet does not care about people living under the other roof. However, I think that the biggest concern to the church in Japan is that fewer young people are going to church. It is up to the Japanese church itself to find its own identity and adapt to the currents of time.

Church Violinist

Michael Rabin on Youtube inspired me to unlock my violin again after a long hiatus. Along with Kogan, Milstein, Morini, and Szeryng, he is one my favorite violinists.

Played some pieces at church today. Not a pretty sound... Renshuu, renshuu, renshuu shinai to...

Facebook Article

An article about Facebook taking on Google
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-07/ff_facebookwall

Looks like FB's got the largest people data base second only to the archaic record.
It would be nice if they can add a blog feature as well (dissenters, beware!). And how bout a FB search engine/browser sometime in the near future?

Tsurugidake - The Movie

Still in mountain mood from yesterday's hike, today I watched the new movie Tsurugidake (剣岳）. It is said that Tsurugidake was the last area to be charted in the map of Japan. Although it is not the tallest mountain (Fuji is), Tsurugi is one of the gnarliest (険しい） to climb due to its vertical cliffs. Hiking the mountain requires skill and perseverance, and in the movie, which took 200+days to make, the latter is just as important as the former. Kudos for the crew for managing to shoot the film under such extreme and unpredictable environment. Hopefully they will do an English translation so more people around the world can appreciate the film. In one scene, Miyazaki Aoi said 「いざというときってどんなとき？」 and that cracked me up... Even now, people would have a hard time answering that question.

Mt Tounodake

Hiked Mt Tounodake in Tanzawa yesterday with a group of friends. The trail started from Yabitsu Touge Bus Stop (took the 8:15 bus from Hatano Station) ⇒ Sannotou ⇒ Tounodake ⇒ Ookura Bus Stop, which took us about 6-7hr. Weather was pretty hot, which made the hike 3x more difficult than my last hike in the springtime. People living around Tokyo are really fortunate to be surrounded by mountains. In general, living/working in Tokyo can be quite stressful and the mountains are there to keep the sanity level at check.

I-Phone OS Update

I wonder if anybody had any problems updating iPhone OS to 3.0...
After update, my iPhone asked me to call an emergency number (110?), so something must be wrong. Time to go to Softbank store. That cut and paste thingy sure looks handy.

MBA Talk at Globis University

Last week, I attended the talk at Globis University titled "Will an MBA Make You Happy?" For those who don't know, Globis University (http://e.globis.co.jp/en/gg/) is a management school whose students are typically salarymen or salarywomen (salaryladies?) working in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya. Just recently, the school launched an English-language MBA program called International MBA program (http://imba.globis.ac.jp/index.html) aimed at both Japanese and foreign people working in the Tokyo area. This program is what interested me to attend the talk.

The speakers were Philip Broughton and Daisuke Iwase; both wrote books about their MBA experience at Harvard Business School (HBS). Before entering Harvard, Philip was a successful journalist at the Daily Telegraph. The uncertain future of the newspaper industry and one life-altering experience of being a direct witness to the 9/11 event in New York are several factors that led him to apply to B-school. He told the audience that he wanted more control over his life/career, which sounded entreprenurial. Despite his lack of technical background, he had a fruitful time at HBS. Perhaps many people were surprised to hear that he did not land a six-figure salary at a bank or consulting firm after graduation. Instead, he chose to be a freelance writer, a work that he loves although the pay may not be as good. The Japanese speaker, Daisuke, is an equally interesting character with the same entreprenurial mind. After graduating from Harvard, instead of joining the pack, he helped founding Lifenet Life Insurance Company. Going to a B-school, he said, is like going to the gym, an interesing comparison. It is up to the user what kind of tools and how much exercise s/he wants to use/do.

Obviously, there is no straightforward answer to the question "Will an MBA make you happy?" In the US, a lot of MBA graduates would aim for high-bonus jobs on Wall St. In Japan, however, getting an MBA most likely will not lead to a huge jump in salary, especially in the current economic reality. So getting a part-time MBA with company support seems to make more sense. While studying at HBS, initially both speakers did not feel certain about they were going to do after graduation (even HBS students are mere mortals). When not learning the technical jargons and making connections, it may help if one can spend a bit of time to dig deep and do some soul-searching. And maybe write a book or at least a blog to share with the uniniated...