If they had a version of The Office for Japan, I can’t see how it could read as anything but depressing. It would also have to be 3 times as long but have the same or less content. And no one below management could use the confessional. And no one would watch it until a member of SMAP took over as the boss in a totally unironic hero role.

There have been various rumors that John McCain is such a maverick that he deliberately is running a bad campaign to make sure Barack Obama wins.  Kind of loony conspiracy chatter, but nonetheless amusing.

But after reading some other stuff online, about how McCain wanted Joe Lieberman as his VP candidate and the Republican National Committee wouldn’t go for it, he perhaps picked Sarah Palin because he knew the RNC would accept her, but the majority of American people wouldn’t, kind of in a “if I can’t run my own campaign to win how I want to, I’ll make sure to take you down with me” plan.

Or maybe I’m just beginning to join the tinfoil crowd too…

Much like Japan and English, the problem with Japan and “foreigners” isn’t just that there’s a dearth of real education about them, but that people are educated incorrectly about them.

“Foreigner” here is not a blank waiting to be written on with information about someone’s background, interests, language, etc. unknown and somewhat apprehensively and slowly being filled in. It’s a vast swath of misunderstandings and misapprehensions about what everyone outside Japan is and does which are roughly equal in consistency and unity to what everyone inside Japan is and does.

Japanese people eat fish, while foreigners eat meat. Japanese people speak Japanese, while foreigners speak English. Japanese people are shy and reserved, while foreigners are rude and bombastic. There is very little of the idea that the 98% of the world that is not Japanese might actually have 98% of its diversity as well. Actually, probably more than that, since Japan has a particularly strong sense of ethnic identity (and hence unity and uniformity) for a nation its size.

Educating people about anything outside Japan, at least once they get past 2nd grade and have been more or less officially inducted into the Japan Club, is as much erasing false information as it is imparting true information. This would be less frustrating if the TV didn’t so reliably act like a massive misinformation coordinating machine, giving everyone identical and identically wrong ideas about how the rest of the world is.

Today I popped out to grab some milk and since it was just one or two things, I went in to the local Plus, which is something of a black hole when it comes to customer service. Although I’ve not seen the woman cashier who’s got more testosterone than most guys and is a real bitch to everyone in a while, I can’t exactly say the service has improved much.

An example of that was how today, when one of the employees was going to go on her break and wanted to buy some smokes and a thing of juice, she cut through the line of people and was rung up by the other cashier. Okay, she’s an employee, but I know from my wonderful days in retail that that’s just something you don’t do, like yell at the customer and say “You’ll forget and be back soon enough!” Yes, I’ve seen that.

That’s part of the reason I go shopping at Tesco. While I’d prefer to support a Hungarian chain, Tesco just has a better range of products (being a hypermarket) and the customer service there is indifferent, not rude. I know that’s hardly an endorsement, because it’s not meant to be, but given how so frequently the employees of a store make it seem like they’re doing you a favor (no asshole, my coming in and spending money there is what keeps you employed) it just gets frustrating.

What’s quite rare is the occasional friendly person, which is quite jarring, to the point that you’re almost thinking if you’re on a hidden camera or something. It’s rare, and I always try to be friendlier in the hopes that the person stays that way instead of morphing into a ball of hate, which quite a few are.

Things are improving, and I’ve found a few places where the customer service people are actually quite friendly, but those places are still not found frequently enough.

“I have read about him, and he’s not… he’s not… he’s an Arab.”

“No ma’am.  He’s a decent family man, citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues.”

Am I the only one who sees the problem with this juxtaposition?  What if his name were Ahmed Hussein and he were in fact a Muslim instead of Barack Hussein Obama the Christian – would that render McCain completely unable to defend him as decent, a family man or a citizen?

Witnessed today in the parking lot of a local supermarket:

-A woman opens the door of her parked car and dings the Mercedes sitting next to it.

-Her daughter, looking to be about 5 years old, gets in the passenger-side door and immediately kneels backwards, facing the rear window. Doesn’t put on her seatbelt.

-The woman sits down in the driver’s seat with a sleeping baby in her lap and starts the car – and this may redundant to point out, but not putting on her seatbelt either.

-Grandma gets in the back, doesn’t seem to notice the churning cauldron of death in the front seat.

-Car pulls out and leaves, and by doing so statistically makes the parking lot the safest place in the Northern Hemisphere.

Since I go running out at Margit Island and went out there this summer to try and get something resembling a tan before heading toward the pale shores of Albion, I’ve come across quite a few things that are rather odd or just bizarre.  Not sure what it is, but something about that place attracts the weirdos.

• There is a woman toward the southern end of lover’s lane, who shouts at the wind.
• The incredible noise-making baritone guy.
• An old guy who goes running about an hour before sunset runs wearing thick black mitts on his hands.
• The guy who doesn’t know how to politely perv in public.
• Topless sunbathing in clear view of passerby on a main Budapest road.
• Karl Marx.
• Urban regeneration.
• A guy selling the Hungarian version of the Big Issue, aka the homeless magazine, harassing people trying to sunbathe.
• The most impressive mullet outside of the NHL. Ever.
• Some dude playing his guitar, trying to get girls interested, while sitting on a bench, in the pouring rain.
• Guys perving at the people at the Palatinus swimming complex through the fence by the running track. I slowed down, but I didn’t stare.
• Foreign tourists with their trophy wives who are about twenty years younger and have had enough plastic surgery to keep a polystyrene factory running for another year.
• Girls handing out fliers for something. I really don’t know what they were for. I was distracted by their shorts, which is being a bit generous in terms of how long they were. Okay, that’s not weird. It’s just cool.

If I get together more things, I’ll let you know.

Don’t you hate when those unwanted Soviet relics get in the way?

Okay, I promise pretty soon I’ll actually start posting random thoughts and other things as opposed to just pictures.  Blame work and the thesis.

are disappointing only if you expect them to taste like bananas. Otherwise, they’re basically slightly tastier potatoes.