Christmas Creep

So the never-ending encroachment of store pedalled Christmas Crap (TM) into earlier slots on the calendar is something people in the West are embracing.  Something you might not expect to hear, however, is the stunning inclusion of this early onset transactionitis in the Japanese psyche.

This picture was taken on the first of November, a crazy thing when you consider that no one even celebrates this shit here.  No one buys this stuff!  Why is it out on the shelves?  It's useless crap in December, let alone November.

And then, on November the third I saw this adornment to my local shopping centre/train station.  What in the world is happening?

This encroachment is a full week earlier than it was last year, bringing it very much in line with England and America.  I wonder if next year they'll start before halloween.

Speaking of halloween, there was a very large party in one of the booze districts of Tokyo this year, and police are very much apprehensive of the trouble it caused.  There were a whopping two arrests this year, which is a zero percent increase year on year.  As a result of the sleeping man (incident one), and drunk man who lashed out at coppers (incident two) the police are going to up security measures next year in Tokyo.

The news reported the fact people were having fun as if it were the literal end of the world, that society had fallen blah blah blah.

So if you ever needed proof that the news is a bunch of sensationalist bullshit designed to scare you, look at Japan.  The country is a thousand times safer than your country in all metrics but they're still trying to keep you terrified of nothing.

The system works!

I lied. Again.

Swearing to follow.

So I didn't get round to sorting out the photographs yesterday.

I went home, made myself an amazing bacon and egg sandwich (with a baguette, not normal bread), turned on the computer and played a strategy game about taking over the universe.  The problem with strategy games is that they tend to take a long time.  One that focuses on taking over a few different, extremely complicated solar systems, takes even longer.  The upshot was that I had to go to bed before I even finished the game.  Whoops.

Obviously I didn't have time to put any pictures up, or do anything productive at all.

Then again, I'm going to the gym today so maybe something will get done after I get back.  Maybe.

I'm not going to make the same mistake again.  Perhaps you'll get pictures tomorrow.

In other news:  This extremely enlightening article highlights how we all became fat bastards.  By extremely enlightening I actually mean patronising, obtuse and uninformative.  The writer divulges such gems as, 'contrary to popular belief, we as a race have not become greedier or less active in recent years,' to then go ahead and say, 'Genetically, human beings haven't changed, but our environment, our access to cheap food has.'  'We're being bombarded every day by the food industry to consume more food.'  'As a result[of this access], burgers got bigger and chips got fattier.'

So which is it?  We are eating more, or we aren't.  Make your mind up, jesus.

One of the experts (gunning for the drinks industry) illuminates the argument with this gem: 'the evidence says that obesity is caused when people consume too many calories without the exercise to balance it out.'

Really?  REALLY?  Christ almighty.  If someone says something so fucking obvious that it makes your toes curl, it's probably best not to put it into the article.  This writer is awful.  Then again, the BBC takes the internet section of its business seriously in the same way people take clowns seriously.  I don't mean the sad French kind, by the way.

Anyway, maybe photos will arrive tomorrow.

Maybe.

5Km Run, Cancelled

It turns out the deadline for the 5Km run application was at the beginning of the week.  Due to some crazy stuff that happened in the office, my boss wasn't able to spare the time to complete the application.

I was up to 4.25 Km at 13 Km/h.  This equates to a substantially lower speed when not on a treadmill.

I was sad that I couldn't participate, so I bought myself a gingerbread man shaped cake.  Alas, I have no camera on hand to take the picture, so you'll have to imagine it.  It's Christmas themed, with a bread cane, earmuffs  and a little present (also some kind of bread product) underneath.  It has a delirious smile.

In other news, it's rather cold now.  No snow, as of yet (I think England wins on the cold and snow front right now) but I'm hopeful.