Just recently a French speaker arrived at Tokyo Times through this rather intriguing route.
It could have been merely an innocent search, or more worryingly a damning critique of this site.
I fear it could be the latter.
A French letter
General
Tyson the good
Mike Tyson has recently been making a lot of appearances on Japanese TV (although all of it filmed in the U.S., as he isn’t allowed into the country). And after reading this over at Hammersuit, I now know why.
But for reasons unknown, on these shores Tyson seems to have gained the reputation of being a thoroughly decent fellow. An example of this was as at school yesterday. The students were involved in a game that had them writing a short story in English. To my surprise, one of the groups started their story with the line,
“Mike Tyson is a very nice boy.â€
It has to be said, that certainly makes a change from the usual descriptions aimed in his direction.
Lavatorial laureate
This week, Masaki Kinoshita was given a 14 month suspended prison sentence for spraying anti-war graffiti on a public toilet wall in Tokyo. With Japan’s troops now in Iraq (which creates all kinds of constitutional questions), and the frustration that Mr. Kinoshita must have obviously felt, I still can’t condone such actions.
But in summing up, the Judge came out with this statement. “He virtually covered the whole wall with large characters, and spoiled its beauty, resulting in a situation capable of making users uncomfortable and unhappy.”
Now I’m guessing the Judge doesn’t use public lavatories very often, as the word beauty is not a word one usually associates with such places. And as for feeling uncomfortable and unhappy, I thought that was a normal reaction upon entering a dark, damp, and foul smelling public convenience.
Apparently not.
Magic mountain
Whilst winter in Tokyo is relatively pleasant, with little rain and clear blue skies, there’s no getting away from the fact that it’s still cold. And despite Japan having the image of a high tech wonderland, most houses are, to put it bluntly, bloody freezing. Double glazing and central heating are sadly mere flights of fancy. Instead, people make do with oil burners and air conditioners. A sorry state of affairs it has to be said.
But one advantage of the cold and dry conditions is that Mount Fuji becomes visible from Tokyo. With its almost perfect conical shape, and snow-capped peak, it is a thing of breathtaking beauty. This wonderful picture (which I wish I’d taken) says more than my words ever could.
Appearance is everything?
And to think that some critics accuse the Japanese of being superficial and obsessed with appearance. Where on earth do they get such ideas from?