Quickies

I have lots of things to catch up today... Guess that fall in Japan is full of events, so my weekends that I usually dedicate to homework, study and chores are taken by other things. The result is that I get desperated on Mondays and busy for the rest of the week. Since the university "Culture Festival" will be held on the next weekend, I think this rythm will continue... So, I'll just post somethings to keep the blog rolling.

Payphone

Mobile phones are almost a must in Japan, and almost everyone has one. Even the cheapest models are more advanced than most of models found in Brazil. I'd even dare to say that they're becoming mini-computers and some may be used to pay bills and watch TV, for example (things like e-mails and camera feature are already commonplace). Some would say that they're lowering people's intellect and I believe they have a point... but maybe not to the extent they usually take.

One would think about payphones in Japan. There are some, of course. Sometimes people still need one, and usually tourists, for example, don't have mobiles that work in Japan. Even so, I guess there're not so many as in Brazil (although I should state that they're usually in better condition... if you know what I mean...).

So, last Monday I was looking for one payphone to call my family. I've done that before, and I have one I usually use near - 5 min walking - home. But this time it wasn't working (I dunno why) and I started looking for another one. That took me about 30 minutes without finding any until I remembered that tourist comment I wrote before and decided to look near Shosha-zan (a mountain with a temple on the top of it. Some scenes from "The Last Samurai" movie were taken there) that's somewhat a touristic place.

Later I figured out that I passed near one while looking in the neighbourhood, but I couldn't see it because of a vending machine and a sign that were on the way...


"You look like Japanese"

That's something I hear quite often. I even wrote a little about it already. But somethings happened lately that make me think I might look more Japanese even than some Japanese...

First, comparing myself with Silvia. She's another Brazilian exchange student here under the same scholarship program as mine. Also, like me, all of her grandparents are Japanese and, as a result, she's also "Japanese looking". But she seems to be less mistaken as a native Japanese than I am... And I'm less mistaken as Korean/Chinese/other Asian ethnicity than she is. Example: during summer vacation, when recieving guides to places we visited, not rarely I was given the Japanese version guide while she recieved the English version... sometimes without even asking.

Second, there was a case lately that the person even doubted that I wasn't Japanese. Even though I was talking in "broken Japanese" he thought I was kidding. Maybe because, although it was broken Japanese, I have been recieved compliments for my good pronunciation... That I don't have a strong accent when I speak in Japanese. Plus the fact that I'm using Kansai-ben (local dialect) words and expressions quite often (and that may be a problem after going back to Brazil... or when having to speak politely). I agree that I use Kansai-ben, but I really don't think my pronunciation is that good. I have to agree, though, that my personality isn't so easygoing like most foreigners here. And that might colaborate to my "Japanese-looking image".

But when people start thinking that, between you and a Japanese, the latter is the foreigner then it's time to really think about it...


Articles

And some things I've read to finish.

"People Power" - This one is actually representing all the articles I've read about the "US forces realignment in Japan". In short (but slightly mistaken) could be "Japanese government wants US forces around, but people from some Prefectures, especially Okinawa (which has some bad episodes with them), don't want them in their territory". That's a complicated issue, but I lack details about it...

"Nobel laureate set to be garlanded in cliche" - Well, I'll quote part of this one.

"Perhaps the most virulent denigration of American policy dismissed as "anti-Americanism" in the 1950s was seen in Latin America. Opposition to the U.S. got so heady that Vice President Richard Nixon was physically attacked on a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, in 1958. Americans at the time were wont to say, "They hate us down there, and after all we have done for them!" (Perhaps President George W. Bush entertained just such sentiments on his recent journey to the region.)

But what was the "all" that Americans had done for the people of Latin America? The U.S. underwrote the brutal and utterly corrupt dictatorships of Somoza in Nicaragua and Batista in Cuba. America intervened in Bolivia and later in Chile. The United Fruit Company virtually ran Guatemala, and the CIA engineered a coup d'etat against that country's constitutional government.

What did ordinary Americans know of all this? Almost nothing. The press painted it all up as if America was bestowing freedom and unlimited wealth on "our neighbors to the south." Many more Americans would have more readily recognized the face of Chiquita Banana (the colorful symbol of the United Fruit Company) than that of the president of Mexico."

"Fooooo." - Another HG-related post. This one is more disturbing...