“ethics experts” and coming to terms with enjoying flattery

Been a bit since the last blog entry. Let’s see, what happened…. – mostly I guess I got into a routine.
Today I went to a debating circle (club) only to discover nobody is there – *shrug*. Yep, I’m so desperate for some political interaction I went to a debating club. I’m sleeping weird hours here. 6pm till 11pm and 5am till 12am was the times the other day.

Today a professor (probably western) is opening the universities first political circle. So that’s a good thing. Will do that in a few hours.

ate my roo meat. Ordered more. Funny story – Brazilian friend of mine tried some, and loved it. So he ordered 6.85kg of it which we hacked at for the better part of an hour in order to fit into his freezer. Now I’m having a boomerang sent over from Australia – so I might be missing Australia a bit.

I am taking two subjects this quarter, both business subject. The better on regarding Organisational behaviour. Both of them require lots of teamwork. For one I must write a 5000 word essay in a group of 4. Sigh…
Although studying business is interesting. I think in some regards they are silly and in others less so. All this rationality nonsense, they don’t touch that poisoned fruit. They seem to be happy with being practical about this: humans are XYZ and we need to work with that to make good business decisions. So we learned about cognitive biases and the such. However they do have some silly idea on how ethics works. In the business class the teacher spoke in a serious voice and generally giving the sense that this is a respectable thing of “ethics experts”. That’s it. That’s the punchline. And I’m just sitting there gawking at her as she speaks of this. So she looks at me. And I ask: “how do you become an ethics expert? See because I studied philosophy for 3 years and this is the first time I hear the term.”

It was astounding. That whole episode was full of amazing things. Like when the teacher repeatedly and unintentionally kept defining the term Rights with the word Rights. Or after I had found myself explaining numerous logical problems with several arguments the teacher asks me “are you suggesting companies shouldn’t care about ethics?”

But it is fun seeing the economy from the other side. Amusingly, they seem to think they are the agents of moral change (from my other business class on business ethics) . Kind of like if there is a culturally accepted ethical violation in a business it will go away because a middle manger guy decided it will by standing up and questioning the system. Instead of all that nonsense they should teach them how to effectively rat on their bosses and cartel laws so they can help the state do its job. They seem to be completely unaware how economic incentives affect life & businesses. In a way looking at economics study from the outside has made me revisit some of its less idiotic elements. 

But a large portion of my time is spent reading my own stuff. Which would be much easier if my internet wasn’t shit. Which is a surprise considering I’m in Japan.

I miss language. I already went through the whole “being illiterate in a new country” thing. I assure you it is not a good time. Now I get to do it again except this time I can hardly tell if its Japanese, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean or w/e. and same with the people btw – bloody exhausting .

got to know the humans whose room is located close to my-own. Are they “Friends”?  – people from home keep asking me. Depends how you define that word. Personally I see little point in doing so. It doesn’t seem like a useful activity. But I have a bad attitude to demarcation.   

Handed in my essay to the thinktank. If I win I get 3000$. More then what I earned doing a month of basic training in the army. I want to win. Less for the money and more for the fame. I have to accept that I enjoy recognition, compliments and flattery – so if you are trying to win me over, try that.

Ask for a copy if you want to hear my take on Australian democracy & ideas for improving it.

Strange happenings and general occurences

Strange things happen here on a regular basis – I just share the highlights. This instance was downright astounding. So generally speaking every month we are supposed to have a floor meting. A bit lame but w/e. Turns out a central aim of this floor meeting is to do a quiz. What quiz? Perhaps something to encourage some political knowledge to compensate for the fact the is no civil society here? Maybe some general knowledge quiz to inject some worldly knowledge into the general discourse?

Alas instead the 15 – 20min quiz was a garbage quiz. Making sure we know where to place different items. There appears to be no logic behind the placement of the rubbish. some Plastic is burned. Other plastic products are not. It got to the point the questions spoke of specific products like a Pringles Tube.  But honestly my natural tendency to question the way people do things here has weakened as it seems like I’m just collecting questions with no hope of getting answers.

For example – attitudes to sex and the reality of life here are two very different things. On the one hand conversations, humour and the such seem to be indicative of an opinion that sex is not for the public sphere. On the other hand the sex Hotels (there is a graveyard themed one), schoolgirl uniformed prostitutes being normal and a groping problem on trains so bad they implemented separate train carriages for each sex to inhabit if they so choose, wouldn’t this indicate of a much more liberal experimental mindset on the matter? Weird sods.

Actually “weird sods” has become a sentence I have resorted to quite a bit here. Along with “MERICA!” which is vital for expressing my feelings regarding some of the things I hear from my American friends. Most disturbing of all is that 3 out of 3 asked report that leaving home for them was when they left their state to the state from which the would fly to Japan from – not when they left the country. They seem to see the other states inhabitants as foreigners – creepy.

began classes. Surprisingly the subject I was most looking forward to on Law, media and society I dropped due to the unsatisfactory nature of the performance of my lecturer, to put things politely. On the other hand I am now happily enjoying two business subject – a politics and economics student. I walk around amongst the business students feeling like a spy and lolling at all the things I’m learning about how businesses operate that many economists seem ignorant of.

Got my meat – kangaroo meat. The full glory of this will hit me later on when I eat it. Unfortunately I buy food with my eyes so I didn’t have room for it in my fridge so I had to invade the fridge of my little Brazilian friend. On this topic I may or may not be permanently shaping the way the Japanese people’s opinions of Australian eating habits. By the time I leave too many of the shy little Asians will be walking the earth with the false Idea an Australian eats mostly Potatoes, semi raw meat , kangaroo meat and raisins in average day.

been enjoying my archery although looking at Australian regulation it seems my dream of killing a kangaroo with a bow and arrow is much more complicated then I first envisaged – cross that bridge when I reach it.

found a live crab in the supermarket. I will upload a video of this and of my strange experience with the garbage quiz after I post this.  Also it turns out that its perfectly normal for study time to be midnight in Japan.

Japan is the only country where the fish is raw and the towels cooked the Japanese/Brazilian minority saying goes.  I agree – a baffled razi thought after receiving a warm towel in a restaurant where he sat on the floor on a pillow with his legs in a hole under the floor. Its also a country where daily life and organisation is one differently. On a daily basis I interact with the potential gains of intergovernmental cooperation on the local/ menial levels. It sure would be nice to know how the Japanese get their buses to always be on time right down to the minute.

last point I leave to the personal realm. It appears there is a 6 out of 6 consensus amongst my peers that I am “too facts oriented”. Naturally were someone to label me as “facts oriented” I would be flattered – but “too facts oriented” suggests there is a level of facts orientation that is excessive. This is clearly absurd. As such I will ignore this mass delusion and continue life.

p.s I generally don’t give relationship advice on mass but bumped into this graph in my Organizational Behaviour business class on the workers choices when in a workplace he is not happy with. Apparently a large proportion of unhappy workers simply remain loyal for extended periods of time instead of being more active on the matter. This was certainly not what my lecturer thought was in everyone’s (employer and employee’s) best interest. Make of it what you will for your private lives.

	destructive	constructive
active	exit	Voice concern
passive	neglect	loyal

last day before classes start.

First day of classes tomorrow. My classes for my first quarter (semester is split into 2 quarters in which different subjects are taken each quarter.)  are :
Law, media and society
business ethics
Organisational Behaviour

and second quarter I got another 4^th estate related subject. Just preemptively bow down now before the king of the 4^th estate.

burned my hand taking a pot back to my room after checking if a pot works on our stove.  It does. Spent the next while petting a frozen dead chicken.

Speaking of helpful dead flesh – ordered my kangaroo. 500g of tail and almost 2kg of rump – mmmmmmm

continued the great Australian tradition of telling foreigners about dropbears and wolfspiders. Either I’m very good at lying or these Japanese people are very gullible because I made up some insane things and they bought it all. so if you meet any Japanese people who ask you about the sawed off shotguns we walk around with for self protection and the 3 meter long trees in the suburbs where dropbears attack people thinking there are food and sometimes break their shoulders and collar bones – maybe its my doing. (told them its a ruse later)

had a quite hysterical moment when my Japanese floor-mates who are studying Korean were mocking the language in-front of me.  On group talking gibberish mocking another gibberish language in gibberish.  In other news Korean pop (called K pop here) is really poplar here.

I had recently participated in the odd cardboard washing and drying ritual, without even thinking about it. The power of Social institutions…

joined the Kyudo club (archery). This is one of the many many clubs that exist on campus. participation is all clubs is 100% free and involves, in many cases, uniforms, drums, swords ect…
Nobody I have asked appears to know where the money is coming from. they almost appeared confused that i care I’ll add it to the long list of things I need to find out before I leave.

Kyudo is 6 hours a week – I’m way too excited for everyone’s safety .about gaining this skill.

I am not dealing with the lack of civil society here. People just do not speak about worldly matters here. Joke is i should have expected this because I actually read about this; Japan is one of the few cases of a functioning democracy with a very weak civil society. (more like bloody invisible)

An amazing civilization that burns mountains

Official entrance ceremony to APU. Apparently I was meant to dress in my traditional national dress. Even if I knew about it I wouldn’t what to bring  (crocks, shorts and a bush hat?)

Several super lame speeches – everyone ignoring the tiny oriental tree sitting  next to them on a table as they speak.
Then The FLAGS showed up. Taking the stage with matching red jackets and speaking passionately and with big smiles about the glories of joining them. Their “family” as the called it will apparently make sure i am not lonely, grant me friends, help me with University procedure and rush me to hospital if i hurt my ankle while dancing in the city. Honestly i don’t have the words to explain how creepy and cult-like they were. And if i did you wouldn’t believe me. I will attempt get a video of the ceremony – for this and for the highly skilled Korean, Japanese, Indonesian and Chinese dances that followed it. 

BTW. The locals burned a mountain…  (will upload proof after I post this up.) it appears to have something to do with a festival of sorts. Nobody could really tell me why they do it. But it was pretty. This country is so so very strange. i don’t even have time to recover from one cultural shock before another arrives

For example. Every day at 9:50 a message goes off telling non-residents to leave the uni. This message was going off even during the study break when hardly anyone was here. Every. Day.
But they are efficient. We had health checkups. So efficient. From one station to the next in perfect precision and in record time.

on the way back i saw what i thought was a dinosaur themed theme park. it was later explained to me it is a “Hotel”. they exist all across japan in different themes and the idea is that you go there with your partner and fuck in a different atmosphere. dinosaur themed, underwater themed ect.  creepy creepy sods

Found alcohol sold in milk cartons. Vending machines with cigarettes and alcohol. Bananas coated in chocolate. A shop (in the middle of a normal shopping centre) that sells socks. All the socks were finger socks. One day i will find an explanation, perhaps, to why an Asian country had such a large proportion of its adds consisting of white people.

turns out anime is mainstream Japan. One piece, Dragon Ball and Pokémon are strong themes in the arcade in the local mall and more generally.

Had my food aggress upon me. See after the small black octopus wasn’t so bad i tried the large pink one and the clams. Both were quite not to my taste but the clams has a bloody thing inside them. I don’t know how the little eight legged crab like creature survived being frozen but i find myself in an almost endless state of shock and surprise here.

considering how this entire university is host to only 5700 students the library facilities are downright phenomenal. Certainly surpasses the services at my uni (where we have over 22,000 students) .

i was treated to a show by the Japanese government. Fireworks exist in every country essentially but here it was something truly special. A very large crowd sitting in silence along a beach as 2 or 3 ships fire fireworks into the air in coordination with the songs playing on speakers. In addition over 50 coordinators walking around creating easy paths of access to the seating and after the show getting the street ready for the influx of pedestrians by stopping traffic. The whole thing was done with such curtsy, order and atmospheric wonder that i was most certainly impressed by this different way of doing things. It reminded me of an idea I had a while back of using federal coercion and the internet to force global sharing of ideas, solutions, tactics and problems between local governments around the world.

Last point is about the beauty of trust economies. buses here are quite expensive. certainly at-least twice the cost of Australian bus rides. and still payment for the ride is done at the end of the ride as one gets off the bus. the front doors are for exiting and the back doors are for entering. tickets can be purchased in many places but if you lack one money suffices. the white gloved driver has no part in the process. the tickets are placed in a machine (i will attempt to photograph this) that swallows them into the bus. the magic here is that there is literally nothing to stoping me from saving meself some money and not putting anything in the machine. imagine how much more efficient transportation would be if the level of societal trust enabled people got on at the back and exit from the front… 

p.s correction – rubbish can be taken down everyday but only in the designated 30 min with the room number visible on it.

I am a bunny rabbit

There is something somewhat irritating about constantly hearing a language you do not understand. This, however, makes for some interesting events. Like the other day;  I was in my room talking to a friend on skype and there is a knock on my door. Open. Look. Girl. Asian. Small. Want?

vegemite. She wanted vegemite. Or something related to “vegemito”. I don’t know how much she understood of my attempts to explain to her that not only do not posses vegemite but I have never even tasted it. She changed from polite to panicky when my friend (overhearing our conversation from skype) burst into laughter. Panic see because she felt like she was interrupting me, which she was. She left without any vegamito. I may procure some from the holyland (the real holyland, not the one with the wars and no natural resources)

Its funny – in Australia some people look at me as a foreigner and overseas people see me as Australian. And all i want is some kangaroo meat…

Went to an event called “connecting the world”. First hour was gesture games. I have, unfortunately, become all too familiar with this strange foreign initiation ritual. For those of you who do not know what I mean imagine a group of overexcited tiny Asians herding me in loud squeaky voices  to form a circle amongst fellow humans. The poster indicated there will be a circle of people of all colours holding hands while standing, larger than life, surrounding our beloved globe. Instead I stood in a circle amongst people all looking very different then me and very similar to each other not understanding them, half the instructions (as the cheering from the fanatic hoards blocked out the English explanation following the Japanese one) and the purpose of my pain.

Now I must imitate a rabbit. If only it was so simple. I must memorise and mimic the actions of all the people before me in the circle while saying their names while doing the actions of the animals they were told to mimic. After imitating an elephant, some bird and possibly a mute Asian on fire I got to experience being a full grown man stomping on the ground as a rabbit does while saying RA-ZI.  With my final shred of dignity eliminated when I saw the kitchen cooks laughing at us I heroically planned my escape. In my defence it was 2pm and the event was scheduled to end at 5.

Unfortunately I had given my new masters of pain my wallet and phone as I was concerned they might fall out of my pockets if physical activity was to be done. After an hour of group competition of throwing a ball in a cup i saw my chance to escape when a ten minute break was called for. I politely and nonchalantly got my items and scurried out of there like a cockroach in the light.

less depressingly I found a possible source of Kangaroo meat. An American who sells and ships meats on the internet in Japan also sells roo. Including tails. Until that messiah arrives I, heroically; once again, bought some local foodstuffs. Specifically a small black octopus, a large pink one and a fish. One out of three was tried tonight and was actually quite good.

last night was odd.  “Tarikikee party” they called it. The basic idea is that you take a machine  that looks like a cookie platter with more holes but smaller that is also capable of cooking the foods in said holes. Then you make half of it normal Tarikikee and half of it is filled with anything from Pepper to lemon to Korean spice. Then the party is based around the tenseness in the air as people eat the unknown substance in turns and then discover if pain or pleasure awaits them. The rest of that night was spent chatting with a Yemeni about how sad/ bad/ hateful/ the middle east is and how it has gotten worse.

went to the city to buy things. As a young boy I was taught a wise lesson and the first chance I get I ignore it…  Never go shopping hungry. I may actually posses too much meat atm.

saw an American girl with a silly bracelet. The silly little thing counts how many steps she takes per day and sets her “walking goals”. Possibly more hysterical, It cost 170$. Personally i think those things would work better if electric shocks were integrated as a tool of conditioning within that system but w/e. The whole thing became more amusing as her response to my amusement/ hysterical ridicule was repeatedly stating how its “from her mom”. I should try that in a political debate once: “YOUR IDEA IS CLEARLY STUPID!”  – “no it is not my friend. You see, i got it from my mom.”

I met an American guy and we talked PPE for a bit on the bus. Then we talked for 4 more hours outside of a bus. Some days I like to think that David Hume is looking down on me and smiling in approval on my work as an ambassador from the Land of Learning to the Land of Conversation.

Some of the stories I have been hearing from the Americans here about life there are bloody horrifying. First world horrifying, but still horrifying.

P.s – i saw Pokémon themed chopsticks sold with Pokémon themed chopstick holders. This looks like something i should possess.

I HAS MEAT

Humans rejoice! For I now possess meat.  sharing this glorious moment with the world is actually the main point of this post.

it was a 1.5 hour long journey down a mountain to the city of Beppu and required me to navigate heroically on animal instinct alone, because i sure can’t read the road signs. I also wish i knew what the products on offer were,  but alas…  However i now possess meat!
also –  It was a pretty mountain to walk down.

i have now stabilized my diet to consist entirely of: eggs, meat, potato + a few fruit.

its hard to describe the look of shock on the tiny Japanese girls face when, after a more minor shock at seeing me eat meat, i told her i eat meat in Australia every day.
I, on the other hand, managed to mask my shock and horror at the shape of their “vegetables” much better.

Also – you have 30min (between 10:30 and 11pm)once a week in which to take out your rubbish. Obviously you must remember to place your room number with a marker on it so they can track the rubbish back to you. (stop laughing. This is my life now)

Rice-ice-cream is a thing. Japanese commercials…. wtf. Also – you might think the west is commercialized to the point of corruption  – well, atleast we don’t have bloody radios and mini TVs sitting alongside the fish in the supermarket trying to sell you things.

Aside from this I met 2 Australians. both from Latrobe. First time meeting them – unexpected.       met a Vietnamese fellow who wants to live in Australia on day who appears to be in a perpetual state of being  hateful at China – nothing to worry about I’m sure.
enjoyed being tall some more.

Had a fire drill. It was quite lax. at the end they handed a dozen or so people fire extinguishers to practice using. Which is one way of getting people interested in safety i guess.

Unit selection is a 26hour “click war” in which “there will be winners and losers” and a Japanese fellow tried to sell us a phone for one hour during student orientation (some things never change).

had to watch a student-made video on avoiding Boy/ Girl problems like “body touch, stalking and how to respond to violence” . it was highly stupid. and i refuse to (exact quote) “not respond” in case of violence.

had a very long and difficult conversation with some Japanese girls trying to explain to them the concept of ”black humor”. There is no word for it in Japanese…
Eventually they got it by me giving an example of the Israeli comedian who said:
“the most important thing we found out in our search for the missing Malaysian plane is where Malaysia is.“

we (me, a Brazilian and a fellow from Yemen)  tried to figure out how they live with such limited human touch AND no black humor. We weren’t getting anywhere at figuring out how they get through the day until someone pointed out Japan is the world’s top at smoking, drinking and suicide.

This is however not true ( they are in the top 20 for all 3 however) But not having black humor surly can’t be healthy.

Bought a pot i now know i can’t use. Fun fact: classes start on April 9^th.

Pringle made me do it

Hello humans

My story starts in Melbourne. then Cairns, Narita Japan, then fukuoka airport, then a bus ride for 2 hours. so somehow i actually didn’t end up in Syria. however i did have the pleasure of sleeping in narita airport for my 13 hour transit.

on my way to tokyo i met a human from Brisbane. A chef, a few years back he was a small business owner with a business worth 1.5mil making him 300k a year with a Japanese wife and 2 kids. then his wife’s mental illness got worse and he slowly but surely lost everything. now he is 33 with 500$ total travailing to Japan, probably for the last time, to pick up his kids from her parents place because she is not going to recover. Also he now works in a CSG mine in Queensland feeding construction workers that are “animals” and apparently not very nice to girls.   on that optimistic note i continued into a strange land. and i do mean strange. there was a bloody hologram of a girl greeting me into narita airport.

did a lot of reading on the way (refer to facebookposts for best of) . got picked up at every security checkpoint in Melbourne and Cairns. “Totally by chance” the middle eastern looking male travelling alone thought to himself. Food in narita was horrible. Tentacles from a MRE looking bag. Yay. Ran around for a bit trying to recover my hard drive that I thought I left on the plane – it was in my bag the whole time.

enjoying  being tall and i can’t stop saying “cheers”. Did some super weak and PC friendship intro activities. met some Americans, Indians, sri Lankans and Koreans on my to uni and in uni. yet to meet any Australians or middle eastern people.  Realized how only the Americans are laughing at any of my jokes. For example: We walk up to a water fountain on the tour and she says: “this is our water fountain, it is the symbol of our uni, it not working atm.” So i said “i hope its not symbolic” – Americans got it. later enjoyed 1.5hours and a broken wire setting up internet.

strange things about said uni: all carrots sold are wrapped in plastic, milk cartons are to be washed after use, cut up and hung on a cloth line in the communal kitchen to dry out – for recycling, floor 1 is only for boys and floor five is only for girls and the other 3 are mixed. This is to accommodate people “who not want girls or boys on their floor”, to get in to dorm one needs a card. You swipe it and it lets you in by unlocking the door for 30 seconds – plenty of time for some else to waltz in – silly small people don’t get security. Big sign in the showers saying “pls do not cut hair here” – apparently thats a problem here cause barbers are expensive.

in-between contemplating what random groups in society i want off MY floor I realised that what we consider to be food and what they consider to be food can be expressed in a ven diagram of two circles kissing. I will attempt to address this later when i travel to the city to get meat. – can’t now because of a thunder warning which means everyone needs to be indoors.

lots of rules. Lots of validation of national Japanese stereotypes. OH. And i asked guide person about any problems i should be aware of. After some pressing she told me the westerners tend to think its ok to walk around with no shirt in the dorms. It is not.

feel free to post questions about my life in the middle of rural (and mountainous and foggy) japan on my facebook timeline.