Wait, where am I? Oh, right, if it's Friday it must be the United States
In my last post, I mentioned that there were indications that I may be returning to Addis Ababa አዲስ አበባ in the not-too-distant future. Two weeks later, however, it seems very little has been done on making that possibility a reality. In the meantime, we've agreed that my wife and daughter will return to Taiwan next month, where once they've finished quarantine, they can have some semblance of a pre-COVID-19 life in a country that could teach this country a lot of lessons when it comes to dealing with a pandemic. I can only hope the separation won't be a lengthy one, but that will depend on way too many factors that are out of my control.
The east is red, as the Chinese Communist Party likes to say
As I write these words, we're on Day 152. Since there have been no significant developments since my last post (including on the Ethiopian work front), I'm going to rant about a few things. I recently joined a Facebook group devoted to beautiful photographs of things Japan. For the most part it's a harmless page (save for the inevitable bots), but it's pretty apparent most of its members have never traveled to Japan and therefore have some wildly inaccurate impressions of the country. In addition to some spectacular (if enhanced or Photoshop) shots of things like Shintō shrines, Buddhist temples and Mt. Fuji 富士山, some people share images of fairly mundane urban scenes, which nonetheless draw numerous comments as to how beautiful everything is in Japan!
The west is also red
The other day, however, someone shared a photo of a homeless encampment in Shinjuku 新宿, and a lot of people were amazed, just astounded, that Japan could have homeless people! One American woman, in particular, never thought she "would see homeless in Japan", due to the Japanese being a "very proud people" with "a strong family and community connection where they help each other" - even their "homeless are neat and clean in their surroundings"! Nothing like generalizing about 126 million or so individuals. She went on to claim to have lived in Japan for over twenty years and to be a frequent traveler there, a statement which left me dumbfounded. I mean, I first arrived in Tōkyō 東京 in late January 1989, at the height of the "bubble economy" バブル景気, when everyone thought Japan was going to buy up the world, and even back then the city had a sizeable homeless population, which grew in size once the asset price bubble burst. And yet this woman somehow, in supposedly two decades of living in Japan, managed not to see any. Talk about living in a bubble!
Along the Mount Vernon Trail
Another member took issue with posting such a picture, a fair point to make considering the group is dedicated to the attractive side of Japan. However, when I pointed that it doesn't hurt to periodically remind people that Japan isn't a utopia, I was criticized for being "negative" (not the first time that's happened!). This person (a Romanian living in Canada) also stated that he wouldn't be surprised if I had never visited Japan. Ahem...after reading him the riot act regarding that last comment (a dick move on my part, I know, but sometimes people have to be put in their places), he accused me of living in a "parallel world". Yeah, it's called "reality"! I advised him that if he was distressed by seeing images of homelessness in Japan, he could visit a maid café メイド喫茶 in Akihabara 秋葉原. Funny, I haven't heard from him since...
At Gravelly Point looking toward Reagan National Airport
These folks are generally harmless in their naivety and preconceived notions. What is more odious are the cheesecake photos and, in particular, the comments they in turn generate. There are lots of pictures shared with the group of attractive, demure young Japanese women, usually under the pretense of kimono 着物 or yukata 浴衣 appreciation. A typical example:
Yes, she's good-looking, but photos like this not only reinforce stereotypes of Japanese women that clash with reality (trust me on this!), but generate uncomfortably creepy responses from mostly middle-aged men - lots of declarations of how "cute", "lovely", "beautiful" and so on these women are (some written in clumsy Japanese), along with emojis, hearts, roses etc. There are apparenty a lot of perverts all over this world suffering from serious cases of "yellow fever" (apologies for the political incorrectness).
Look, it's a runway! Maybe we'll see a plane take off!
Now I should point out that I've also been accused at times of having this particular fetish. After all, I lived for long, roughly equal periods of time in Japan and Taiwan, and during those years I was hardly a monastic celibate...
...not to mention my wife is Taiwanese. But in my defense, while living in Vilnius and Addis Ababa, I've found myself lusting after ogling leering at fantasizing about admiring the beauty of Lithuanian and Ethiopian women. It's more a case of "When in Rome, do as the Romans", although seeing as I'm married, the "do" part is better replaced by "like".
A plane, a plane!
Now that I've successfully extricated myself, I can move on to the next subject, that of "assholes" in the mountains of Taiwan, according to this article in Thursday's Taipei Times. It seems the writer is greatly bothered by the number of hikers who choose to bring along radios with them while traversing the mountain trails. After the story was shared on Facebook, it generated a predictable backlash among the resident waiguoren 外國人, who, like the Japanophiles mentioned earlier, don't appreciate any discouraging words on the "kindest people in the world". As one person so stupidly put it, "it's their country"! Oh, and looking at that last person's FB profile seems to indicate a very pronounced certain fetish.
While I would've toned down the asshole comments, I can sympathize with the writer. I used to hike regularly in the Dakeng 大坑 area of Taichung 台中. Even on weekdays, when there would only be a handful of hikers on the trails, there would be those who would bring along radios with them, to listen to music or talk shows. For someone like me who enjoys the solitude that mountains should provide, it was frustrating to have to listen to such intrusions, though I never asked or told anyone to turn down the volume. Even worse than the radios were the small karaoke shacks 卡拉OK that dotted the hillsides, the sound systems of which would share the "singers'" performances with the entire mountain range.
Now I'm not a cultural anthropologist, psychologist or sociologist. But I used to teach English to young children in Taiwan, which means I'm qualified to explain what makes Taiwanese people tick in an extremely general way (or so the Internet leads me to believe). According to my expert armchair analysis, because the majority of Taiwanese live in crowded, noisy urban areas, peaceful environments such as mountains produce anxiety that can only be addressed by familiar sounds. So the carrying of radios is a soothing reminder that they're not alone while walking around in nature. And because I used to work in 補習班, I'm right and my opinion is the only one that matters.
Enough about Japan and Taiwan. Here in the U.S. not much has changed, unfortunately, both on a personal level (still here, waiting for word on when I can return blah blah blah), and on a national level. As you can see from most of the photos posted so far, I'm still going on long walks down to and along the Potomac.
The sweat never ceases
On Friday I reached two hours going one-way on foot from Ballston, passing Gravelly Point and reaching Reagan National Airport. In total, I took over 24,000 steps in an outing that lasted almost 260 minutes in total.
A boat landing at Gravelly Point
Two hours in one direction is about my limit - I've already worn holes in the athletic shoes I brought with me from Addis. Also, I'm getting tired of the scenery running between Theodore Roosevelt Island and the airport, having done it so many times now. From next week I'll try and expand my horizons by walking in different directions...and in a new pair of shoes which I've had to order from Amazon.
Farewell scenes like this?
I'll leave you with some weather videos, taken from our balcony. Until next time...
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