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culture
OKAY. The brief window of vulnerability has now passed. We now return to our regularly scheduled program of callous indifference. I had actually attempted to write a new entry twice since the last one, but both times random accidents occurred and the entire thing fell into the abyss about the time I finished writing it. I'm really in the mood for some screaming Mexican right now. You know, the real deal, like some adobada, asada, or chorizo, or something, with tons of cilantro, lime, and salsa in a nice tortilla. mmm. Mouth is ... watering... aaahhhggh. It's not easy to find a good Mexican place, you know. It helps if you speak Spanish. Which I don't. Now for greyarea's News Nook! This local kid, name of Wesley Juhl, got suspended from school for things he wrote in his online journal. Just remember, kids, anything you say here can and will be used against you in a court of law. (I tried to find his actual blog, but failed. If it still exists and anyone knows where it is, I'd love it if you'd let me know.) I asked Junko once to describe Japanese culture in one word. She said, "shame." At the time I didn't realize how accurate that really is. More recently, I was talking to Junko about the amazing dichotomy I'd noticed between the personality of the typical modern Japanese person (quiet, polite, considerate, patient to a fault, vaguely worshipful of American pop culture) and the negative characteristics of much of the Japanese soldiery during World War II, with their raping of Nanking et al, their comfort women, their racism as rank as any Nazi, and their all around appalling cruelty (much of which was firmly supported by the Japanese populace at the time). She said, "All Japanese are soliders at heart, just like those. They're scary." Wow. How's that for a scathing indictment of your homeland? In all fairness, Junko's one of the ones who's jumped ship, so her opinions don't necessarily jive with those of the average Japanese person. But jiminy cricket, man... it ain't easy to get to heaven when you're going down, greyarea
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