Friday, September 29, 2017

Occupation: Writer

Each time I've checked into an accommodation I've had to fill out a small form to give my basic information. One of the items that's always asked is my occupation. Technically I'm unemployed at the moment, but I don't believe a man can only have a vocation in the context of regular employment, so I don't state that I'm unemployed. Also, the Japanese probably don't like the idea of unemployed foreigners showing up in their country for extended periods of time. Instead of stating that I'm unemployed, on every single info sheet I've claimed that I'm a writer, which is a true statement. My means of earning money will inevitably change many times over my life, but writing is my true occupation, and I will continue saying that I'm a writer throughout this entire trip.

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Japanese Face Masks

If you've seen photos of people in Japan, you've probably noticed that some of them wear face masks. The reasons for doing so are mundane, ranging from reducing the spread of disease and protecting against seasonal allergies to merely hiding an undesirable facial blemish. I, however, decided to concoct an alternative and much more exciting reason for the Japanese to wear face masks. The "true" (i.e. totally fake) reason some Japanese people wear face masks is that they are descendants of ancient ninja clans. One of the most sacred rules of being part of a ninja clan is that your face below the eyes must be hidden. In older times ninjas would dress up in their usual black attire to meet this requirement, but those sorts of outfits have gone out of fashion in the modern era, so ninja descendants instead dress in contemporary clothes but wear the face masks to stay true to their heritage. And now you know why some Japanese people wear face masks.

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

My Fellow Gaijin

As some of you may know, the term "gaijin" is a Japanese word that refers to a foreigner that the Japanese don't like. Although a derogatory term, I have fully embraced it as a joke, since humor is one of the most effective tools for neutralizing the power of things like it. I say this just so everyone knows that if I use the word gaijin I am doing so knowing full well what it means but also demonstrating that it has no ability to hurt me or others if we simply disarm it. With that intro out of the way, lets get to today's writing piece.

Sometimes I joke about being a travel snob, but there is one way in which I sort of am. I cannot deny that it feels good to be the only western tourist in an area out here in Japan. It's like I've found a little place that no other westerner knows about and I can brag about it when I get back home. When another (western) gaijin shows up or I arrive somewhere and find it already populated by gaijin, I sometimes feel strangely disappointed, and maybe even frustrated. Interestingly, I know I'm not alone in this feeling, as I've clearly seen it on my fellow gaijins' faces when they arrive somewhere and then notice that I'm already there. They thought they had come across their own special spot in Japan, but nope, some other gaijin ruined it all for them by his mere presence. Psychologically, I'm guessing that this all goes back to the appeal of secret knowledge and that a lot of us want to feel like we've got a one-up on other people by knowing about a hidden place that others aren't aware of. I'm unfortunately not above this level of pettiness yet, but hopefully by the end of the trip I'll embrace the fact that it's perfectly fine (and expected) to be seeing my fellow gaijin wherever I go on this trip.

Friday, September 15, 2017

Arrival in Japan

Two days ago I landed in Japan. Things have been busy since then but I wanted to publish a post confirming my arrival, so here I am typing this out on my phone while watching some sumo matches in Tokyo's sumo arena. Whenever I'm able to write something more substantial I will, but until then just know that I'm alive and well.

Monday, September 11, 2017

The day before departure

Today I’m at my parents’ house in California awaiting my departure to Asia. Tomorrow I will board an 11-hour flight that will take me straight to Tokyo. Then the whirlwind adventure begins. I will publish writing pieces to this website whenever possible while I’m overseas, but I ask for your patience as there will likely be many times when a several days go by without anything going up. When I get back from Asia I’ll hopefully have a full plate of stories to write about and share with you.

Friday, September 8, 2017

Wolfhounds

I’ve known for many years that my grandfather fought in the Korean War but until recently I didn’t know much about his service. My grandfather never talked about his time in the Army and I had gotten the impression that it was a difficult subject that he didn’t want to relive, but with my upcoming visit to Korea I thought I ought to take a chance and gently probe him for some details. A few days ago I called my grandfather on the phone and after talking about we were both doing and my trip to Asia I posed some general questions to him. To my surprise he didn’t seem to have any issue with answering my inquiries. It may be because I avoided any questions about specific combat experiences, or maybe this whole time I’ve misjudged his feelings towards discussing the war. Whatever the case, I’m glad I got what few details I did. Being in his late 80s, my grandfather’s memory is starting to fail him, and the little bit of military paperwork he has stored at his house doesn’t say much, but I got just enough to start reconstructing the basics of his time in Korea.

My grandfather wasn’t sure which Army division his unit was in, but he remembered that he was part of the 27th Infantry Regiment, which is known as the Wolfhounds. Going online, I found that the Wolfhounds were (and still are) part of the US Army’s 25th Infantry Division, and that they have a fairly interesting origin story. The Wolfhounds got their name in 1918 during the Russian Civil War when they were part of the American Expeditionary Force deployed to Siberia. Although nothing much politically came of the expedition, the 27th Infantry Regiment gained a reputation for their relentless pursuit of the Bolsheviks and thus the Wolfhounds name came about. The Wolfhounds insignia is a Wolf’s head and has the Latin phrase Nec Aspera Torrent, which translates to something along the lines of “Frightened by no difficulties” or “No fear on Earth.” The latter translation sounds a bit cooler, so I’ll take that one. In 1950, during the early parts of the Korean War, they saw heavy action defending the perimeter around Pusan, and over the course of the war the Wolfhounds took part in all ten of the campaigns undertaken by the 25th Division. My grandfather entered the Korean War sometime in 1951, and it must have been late 1951 because he said at that time the war had become a stalemate near the 38th Parallel. As a Staff Sergeant he had a squad of men under his command and his platoon used a combination of 57mm rifles and mortars. He thinks it was the regiment’s 4th Platoon but he’s not certain. His area of the war was somewhere near what today is the DMZ, with no major towns nearby. That doesn’t help me narrow down his unit’s location but I guess that means he wasn’t anywhere near Seoul. Speaking of Seoul, he did get to visit the city sometime in either 1952 or 1953 and he said there wasn’t much left of it at the time, which isn’t surprising given that it changed hands four times during the war. The Seoul I’m going to see in a few weeks will be a whole world apart from what he saw. I told my grandfather that I would be visiting the Korean War Memorial in Seoul and if there was any sort of plaque or monument to either the 25th Division or the 27th Regiment I’d get a photo of it.

At that point our conversation started to wrap up and I soon said goodbye to my grandfather. Our chat had lasted about 23 minutes, but in those 23 minutes I had gotten more information on my grandfather’s time in the Army than the past 23 years. I’m hopeful that after I get back from Korea I’ll be able to follow up with my grandfather and maybe dive a little deeper into his experience, though if I hit the limit of what he wants to talk about I’ll have to respect his wishes. Regardless, I now have another little piece of my family’s history that I didn’t previously know about, and should for some reason anyone ever ask me about my grandfather’s time in the Korean War, I can tell them that he was a Wolfhound.

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Uncharted 4 Survival Mode

With all the stress of work and travel preparations I have found gaming to be an even more welcome diversion than usual lately. The trouble has been that I’ve been feeling like playing something new, but I committed myself to not start any new games until after I get back from Asia. Thankfully Uncharted 4 had me covered and solved my little conundrum by giving me a new experience in a game I’d already played. Earlier this year Uncharted 4’s developer Naughty Dog released a new multiplayer cooperative mode called Survival, in which three players have to survive waves of enemies, sometimes while completing particular tasks and sometimes with special modifiers to the gameplay. I had never tried out Survival Mode up until now, but that clearly was a mistake because I’m really digging it. In fact, I had to pull myself away from Survival Mode last Saturday because I was going overboard and spending too much time on it. I wish I had tried out Survival mode earlier and had more time to play it, but I suppose it’s better to be late than to never show up at all.

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

I’m gonna watch some fat guys push each other around

My ticket to the Tokyo national sumo tournament arrived in the mail. I was starting to get worried that it wouldn’t show up in time before I left, but it thankfully cleared US customs quickly and showed up at my residence with a few days to spare. This ticket represents one of the few splurges I’m making on my Asia trip and will hopefully make for a good story to one day publish here.

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Not Enough Time

I am in the final days of planning for my trip to Asia. Much of my efforts are now focused of gathering ideas of things to see and do while in the various places I’ll be visiting and it’s clear that even though I’ll be Japan and Korea for six weeks it’s simply not enough time to do everything I’d like. I knew at the beginning of planning that this would be the case, but it’s still a little saddening. Well, I guess anything I miss I’ll just have to put on a list of things to hit should I ever get a chance to go back.

Monday, September 4, 2017

Joel Osteen’s House

Joel Osteen found himself in the headlines during the ongoing crisis in Houston when word got out that his mega-church was closed when floodwaters overtook the city. Consequently he has been under a deluge of criticism, and one of the most common comments I’ve seen and heard about him lately is the fact that he owns a house that is valued at about ten to fifteen million dollars. I’m no fan of the Prosperity Gospel ideology that Joel Osteen peddles, but when people bring up in isolation the fact that he owns an expensive house my first reaction is to say “And?” I fully understand the point people are trying to make, but I think they’re making that point poorly. Joel Osteen owning a house worth ten to fifteen million dollars does not, by itself, damn him. Being rich doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a bad person, and there’s no rule that says religious leaders have to be poor. The relevant issues would be how Joel Osteen got rich and, more importantly under the current circumstances, whether or not he is using his wealth to help the Houston community during the flooding. When you bring up the value of Joel Osteen’s house you should immediately follow it with some sort of comment about how he should use the resources available to a rich person like him to bring aid to the displaced people of Houston. You could also mention that it’s reasonable to expect that Joel Osteen would be trying to help out, given that he’s a minister. If, however, you merely keep parroting the line about him owning an expensive house as if that were somehow evil in and of itself, then you show yourself to be rather lazy in making an argument, and you might even be exposing yourself as having some sort of inherent disdain for rich people.

Friday, September 1, 2017

12 Years Ago

12 years ago yesterday, my college roommates sat me down in front of a computer and made me join Facebook. The social network had existed for a few months at that point, however up until that day I had been hesitant to join because I had seen how it could consume peoples’ lives. On that day, however, my roommates told me to get with the program and I gave in. In the 12 years since that day I’ve seen Facebook dramatically change from the relatively innocent and fun-loving platform into the global empire that it is today. Several times during those 12 years I’ve thought about quitting, but here I am, still a member after all this time. Yesterday Facebook provided me with a fun little video celebrating my anniversary, which I suppose I should thank Facebook for since I would have completely missed the date had it not told me. So much has happened since that fateful day 12 years ago, and I can’t help but wonder at what Facebook, and indeed the world will look like in the next 12 years.