Commando God

So this kid is called Kintaro.  He looks like a god who is sneaking up on a giant fish, about to eat it.

But the truth is somewhat less bizarre.

きんたろ。  This boy became a particularly famous samurai because when he was a child, he fought a bear and won.  Kin means money, and gold means money, so I assume the gold laden, giant fish flag with a revered samurai keeps the coffers full.

This is the sign for a restaurant (of sorts) near my house, it's far more interesting than the building itself.  I don't really know what the proprietor is doing in the middle of nowhere, but it's been open for a year (at least) so it must make money somehow.

And just to prove how 'in the middle of nowhere,' it is; this is the view from outside my school.

I can't control the order of the pictures, so here are some other flags.  These ones don't have commando gods about to go Arnie all up in the house, but they're covered in gold - suggesting people everywhere value money more than, say, good health.  Good to know!

This poster confuses me.  First of all, the woman looks like she's being tortured just out of shot.  That smile is the most fake thing I have ever seen in my life.  It's the stuff of nightmares.

Secondly, they're eating rice but wearing eggs on their head.  What.

And part C references the fact they're wearing yellow Judo suits with red belts.  Why?

It rained rather heavily on Monday (I have a two day turnaround with my new camera, apparently) so on the way back from the gym I ended up trying to get some wet weather shots.  It's surprisingly difficult to get a shot that indicates it's been raining, so I ended up with nothing of interest.

I quite like this shot of one of my adjacent apartment buildings, just because the darkness blends into the building, making the light parts really stand out from the page.  Aside from that, not of any interest.

This is another shot into the rain - water all over the lense.

This is what the inside of most of the middle school classrooms look like.  They hold about thirty-five students per class, which means I didn't frame the whole class.

It's funny because these classrooms are a bit bigger than the elementary school ones, but they can have 40 kids in them.  40 Year 6 kids means they have literally no room between their desks, no room to breath or move.  Imagine being stuck on a transatlantic flight for eight hours every day, in economy class.  That's what it's like.  Except the food in the plane is better.

That same apartment complex.

A green fish flag!

I don't know what green means, but it often represents growth, new beginnings, fertility - that kind of thing.  That's my guess and I'm sticking with it.

I bumped the ISO to 6400 and you can see the noise of the camera.  It's the digital equivalent of grain on old film I suppose - and most people think it looks ugly.  I don't mind it, however.  I'm going to put a proviso in here and say too much is a bad thing, obviously, but at these levels I have no problem with it.

LET'S ALL BE FRIENDS.  FUCK THE NON-AYRIANS (Arian? Aryan? How do you spell that?)

Now for a mini rant.

In Japan, every single western foreigner is blonde with blue eyes.  Even though I have weird eyes and brown hair, every foreigner is blonde with blue eyes.  Disregard the fact that blonde people make up less than 20pc of those living in the south east of England, or the fact that not everyone who is blonde will have blue eyes - EVERYONE WHO IS WESTERN HAS BLUE HAIR AND BLONDE EYES.  Wait a second, there's something wrong with that last sentence.

Anyway, the one person who isn't blonde, is ginger.

For the sake of christ himself, why bother with stereotypes if they have no bearing in reality whatsoever.  At least some of the stereotypes I know of, use reality as their foundation.

This is just an illustration of my point - if I took a picture of every foreigner who is blonde with blue eyes, I'd never be able to remove my hands from the camera.

The Japanese-German wartime bonds manifest in surprising ways.  I wonder if this is a long-running joke on behalf of the germans, or whether the idea of blonde/blue is so deeply ingrained that it has just become normal?

Conspiracy theorists GO!

This was the only shot I was able to take, showing rain as it was falling.  It must be to do with the impromptu backlighting from the car.  That's definitely a piece of information worth noting.

A small fish flag, showing the commando boy/god.  I think they airbrushed the blowpipe out of his hands for fear of militarising their students.  What am I saying - they teach their kids to march and perform military turns during their ceremonies, and make them stand to attention/at ease during said events; the blowpipe wouldn't be any more militaristic.

The last picture (praise be to commando boy!).

＃EDIT#

I read a few BBC articles today, one of them was immensely profound in my eyes (and probably only in mine) but the others made me laugh.

This article is patently ridiculous, and is made better by the fact that the guy passed a breathalyser (sp?) test.

This article shows why the BBC (or any organisation) can't be trusted with reporting 'facts.'

'Of the 200 hard disks collected, 11% contained personal information.'

We then scroll down further and read:

'Nearly half (48%) contained some information, 11% of which was deemed personal information.'

So which is it?  Is it 11pc of all the hard disks, or 11pc of the 48pc that had information on them?

To be honest I don't think this is a malicious attack on the intelligence of human beings everywhere - more an oversight borne of excruciating dullness within the writing staff.  My point being, this is at best vague to the point of misunderstanding (by myself, admittedly not the best commentary on a writers failings) and at worst, wrong.

A crux worthy last line - if they can get something so simple wrong, how do they fare when treating something with genuine complication?  (Hint: they don't)

And the last article is something I could write about ad infinitum.  (Latin scholars, behold the destruction of your dead language in the hands of a luddite!)

Here, it's a long read (by BBC standards) both for its actual length, and the difficulty of some paragraphs forcing you to read twice.  (I struggled with some of the points, which, at the risk of battering you over the head with it, doesn't really mean much)

I don't agree with everything that's written.

'We would give birth to only one baby per couple - this way we would not overwhelm poor, suffering Europeans with our desire to travel outside our villages...'

This part, for example, comes across massively embittered.  I don't know of any western-led forced sterilization programmes occurring within any African nations, but to humour the writer for a moment, let's assume there were some incentivised programme for a reduction in birth rate.  We have seen with china, and are currently seeing with India, that massive increases in population can have great economic benefits.  The engine driving these economies is a workforce that outnumbers their western counterparts 5:1, with pay many times less than the actual value of their work.

If we take the liberty of saying 'Africa,' when we actually mean the constituent nations, (thereby lumping every country together, something I abhor about how the continent is perceived within Japan) then they are at risk of following the same path.  Sure, it would theoretically be great for production, and might open opportunities within certain economic sectors, but their country will not survive.  The beauty, of which many people are fond, would be destroyed through industrialization.  Beyond that, large numbers of people cannot be sustained.  There are breaking points.  China wouldn't have enacted drastic culling measures if the problem weren't severe, and once India wakes up and smells the faeces, they will start lowering their population.

From the inside looking out, I can, without a doubt, see why any such plans might seem like external pressures forcing our ideals on others - but we cannot survive as a species with this rate of growth in the developing world.  The vast majority of people live in third world countries, the west is not the prime creator of human beings.  To mock us, when we are 1/6th of the global population is short-sighted; to accuse us of xenophobia while blaming the west for your problems - hypocritical.

As for the energy concerns within Africa, (although not raised within this article) every criticism is warranted.  We force renewable tech onto them to ensure we have all the non-renewables for ourselves.  There's not a single way of vindicating such actions, especially considering we won't allow them nuclear options (presumably for fear of dictators making nukes, as opposed to our elected leaders who wouldn't even pass a psychological evaluation to get into our respective militaries).

The writer is falling into a huge trap by suggesting that African nations cosy up with china, however.  They've already started investing in raw resources within Africa, and they'll doubtless treat the various nations with far more respect than the west will ever give.  The problem comes in ten years time.  When the African nations owe the chinese, in the same way that south american nations owe the U.S.A, or various nations have previously owed England.  When the chinese cash their cheques, there will be enormous ructions.  People will die, is the bottom line.

Whether china is a worse option than us is entirely debatable.  Whether china is any better than us is not - the country that holds all the bonds is the country that dictates terms; those terms will never be favourable for the 'little guy,' in the long-term.

To suggest one superpower is 'better,' than another is disingenuous, we are all selfish assholes out for the betterment of our own elite.  Africa has to stand on its own two feet, but it can't do that under the shadow of Europe or china.

The fact the writer is so vehemently anti-west shows how badly our meddling has gone.  I wonder if we'll ever reconcile our mistakes (I've given up hope that differences between anyone be reconciled, that is a literal (and I do mean literal in the literal sense) impossibility).  It's doubtful, what with the well of human stupidity extending deep within Africa, Europe and America; but I guess we can be hopeful.

As I said before, I could write forever about this article, but I'll stop there.