free web tracker soliloquies: 10/03/2004 - 10/10/2004

soliloquies

so・lil・o・quy/- n. [C,U] a speech in a play in which a character talks to himself or herself, so that the audience know the character's thoughts.

Saturday, October 09, 2004

day 2 out of 4

Yes, today was the unexpected break. I locked myself up indoor today, because it seemed like there was a typhoon approaching. It came indeed, at...5 PM. The typhoon brought a salt scenting "breeze", along with strong rainfall and wind. Is this salt "breeze" resulting from the seaside location I live? Or is it because the typhoon generated above the Pacific Ocean, and moved above it all the way here? I wonder why...

I'm really glad about the classes being cancelled, but I can't withstand being "canned" inside like this with nothing interesting to do. A day off is enough for me to recharge myself. It's difficult to make appointments so suddenly...I was able to make myself plans for Monday, but tomorrow's plans are yet to be decided. Sigh...another boooooooooooooooing (yes, 15 zeros) day home? NO WAY!

Well, I do have things I have to do, but it's really difficult for me to actually begin working on these so called "academic stuffs". Once I do get my hands on them, I am able to concentrate for a certain amount of time, however, my first step is always the most difficult.

The storm's "climax" had passed in the place I live already. Tomorrow would be a "taifu-ikka"; a great day, weather-wise. I may go get a haircut tomorrow, if I am unable to find anything to do besides it. Oh, this is what the sceanary looked like from my room during the climax...those innumerable white round things are raindrops.

Friday, October 08, 2004

day 1 out of 4


I had a nice day off from school today, which I assume is what most of the people in my school had done today with the rain and stuff. A day off, is kind of a day where incidents do not occur, so...I can't think up of anything important or interesting enough to write here about the day.

The school notified that school is closed, because of the typhoon. Well, the school had taken actions awfully quick this time. I mean...too quick. The projected landing time of the Typhoon Ma-on is around 6 PM tomorrow. Okay...like aren't we dismissed at six? Now, I have 4 continuous days off
from school in my hands with nothing to do. I had things planned to do after school tomorrow, but obviously they're cancelled, now that school's gone. Like I've written here before, what is with this extreme gap generated in my school? I am either too busy, or too free. Last week was hellishly hectic. This week, we're so...free. Modern people stink at creating leisure, like the guy we learned about last year in our Japanese class said.

I guess I'm going to have to restart working on my thesis then...


Another concern. My father's supposed to depart Japan for his business trip to New York tomorrow. I envy him so badly, since autumn is one of the best seasons in the North-Eastern United States. Nice weather, cool temperature, red and yellow mountains, halloween...enough reasons? Unfortunately, now that the typhoon is approaching, his schedule is unclear. Is he going to be able to depart tomorrow? Of course I'm longing for his safe departure, but at the same time...this sense of jealousy is spurting inside me. lol

Thursday, October 07, 2004

sports festival


Today was my school's 12th Annual Sports Festival. First of all, the fact that I dislike Sports Festivals ever since preschool didn't make me produce enough motivation necessary to heat myself up for the event. It was just a day out in the sun for me, getting the ultraviolet rays from A to C beamed all over myself, including my eyes from the beginning to the end. My eyes are all red and swollen from the sunburn...the color of the dirt spreaded onto our school's ground probably reflect more UV rays than the normal, brown dirts. I can probably say that my eyes are weak against the UV ray, unlike my skin. My skin is stronger what most people would imagine from my appearance, even though it was not strong enough to withstand the intense sunshine in Bali. lol

Anyway, why are sunglasses only seen as a fashion item in this country? They are very effective when you want to protect your eyes from the sun. Of course, Japanese people's irises contain more melanin than the blue and the green eyes of caucaisians, but ultraviolet rays are harmful against everyone. I can guarantee you that if I had my sunglasses on today at the site of the Sports Festival, the teachers' would've have grounded me, and could've gave me a detention afterwards or something. That's how sunglasses are treated here. A great tool, but it hasn't gotten the evaluation it deserves, yet.

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

hierarchical


Multiple elements conjoined has brought me and 2 others to this certain cafe after dismissal today. We stayed there for 2 hours, chatting, thinking, and examining about various things from broad criterias. From one of the topic that derived there today, I recalled this article I saw in this weekly magazine about a year ago.

On that article, it said that Japan would become a hierarchical society in about 30 years. The prediction written there was difficult for me to accept then...the article said that the hierarchical society of their prediction is not a systematical one, but more of an economical kind. The sons and daughters of the rich would remain rich, depriving the chances of the weaker ones. In our modern day society, wealth and power are in an interrelation.
The rich would be able to get better educations than the poor, so schools will become more and more "classed". Therefore, the rich would also be powerful simultaneously, occupying all of the important posts in the society .

I wouldn't say anything specific, or give out any specific examples here, but from the talk we had today, I began to believe that the article is true, and that tendency is beginning to appear already. In this cram school article, which the I-Rui students analyzed once in Mr. Griffin's class, there was this passage that went like this written.

"Though dreadfully Darwinian, Japan's educational system has long been praised as a true meritocracy. ... But now critics say the proliferation of cram schools is making it much more difficult for the children of lower income families to break into the educational elite."

This passage only focues on education...however, I assume this trend can be said in all fields. Finance, education, social status...systematically, all men and women are socially equal, as the right is guaranteed by our constitution, but realistically we may not be. The hierarchical "system" may not include our generation, but our children's future could be decided on the moment they are born, from their parents' social ranking...we could possibly be heading toward the medieval era, socially.

My interest made my type in "Japan" and "hierarchical society" in Google, in order to continue further research. I found this economical analysist guy named Takuro Morinaga, who writes in his books saying that in the near future,

1% of the population will become the A class, with an annual income of 300 million yen or more,
60% of the population will become the B class, with an annual income of 3 million yen, and
40% of the population will become the C class, with an annual income of 1 million yen or less.

This analysis may sound a bit extreme, but his direction seems to be the same. Also, according to Merryl Lynch Japan's survey, there currently are 1,312,000 Japanese whom own more than a million dollars worth of financial resorce, EXCLUDING real estate. Already, 1% of the population is rich. Really rich. But on the other hand, the suicide rate and the number of unemployed/homeless is going up steadily.

The article is beginning becoming more and more practical...

Tuesday, October 05, 2004

immature


I'm really stressed out from all the fuss that is bundled with human relationships. The human nature really disgusts me...prejudice, hatred, dissatisfied faces, absurdity, lack of sympathy...I am not perfect, therefore I should have some of those elements myself. But seeing those things on a daily basis is killing me. Why can't people have more consideration with each other? Lack of leeway is probably the reason...why are we at our utmost limit continuouslly anyway?


Craid David - Walking Away
I'm walking away
From the troubles in my life
I'm walking away
Oh, to find a better day

During the 6th period today, 2 exchange students from Australia asked the EF classes to perform our Kumitaiso. This request really pissed me off, since the demand came in when we were just about to be dismissed, but because of our P.E. teacher's decision, the performance was official, unavoidable.

Well, this is an
international cultural exchange of some sort, so after the performance was declared official, I decided to do my best, to show our traditional(?) culture. I wouldn't say who, but unfortunately, there were these bastards whom fooled around, saying "San-kyuuuuu", giving out and throwing kisses, and waving during the performance. This is like killing our own image ourselves. Japanese high schoolers are indeed immature both physically and mentally, and students in our school are even more immature than the Japanese standards. It's a fact when comparisons are made, but why do we have to encourage and disperse that ourselves? Such a shame. Shame, shame, shame.

Monday, October 04, 2004

nothing to write about


Hi. As you can see from the title, I have nothing to write here. I don't remember recognizing today as a tedious day, or me being fed up of the day, but I conjecture that it just wasn't memorable enough to be stated here. The STEP Eiken Test is upcoming, even though I haven't began the preparation at all. Are my current English skills enough to satisfy the Level 1 criterions? If not, I should begin working hard RIGHT NOW. Work, work, work, work, work!

Oh, I was surprised about this thing today. French class students have their 6th and 7th periods off on Mondays, so like I always do, I joined Yuki and Takayuki after we were dismissed, to head home together. Out from curiosity, I asked Takayuki when he started living in Britain. The answer that came back was "5th grade", which surprised me greatly, since I always admired his superior English skills, and had always imagined a longer span, like 10 years.

When I lived in the States, Japanese kids having their first oversea experiences at older ages, were having miserable times in the local schools there, locked up in ESL classes, and not being able to catch up academically, especially English. Takayuki too, flashbacked today about the difficult times he had in his school. I lived abroad for 6 years from 1st grade, so I assume I have more fluency,
my vocabularies are insufficient. What are the ways to increase my repertory efficiently? Newspapers? Books? Yeah, those two are the solutions probably...

p.s. Today's photo is the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building with its illumination; the one that I mentioned yesterday!

Sunday, October 03, 2004

tokyo tower


Tokyo Tower was illuminated pink along with the Kobe Port Tower and Akashi Straits Bridge today as a part of breast cancer enlightenment campaign. This photo shows how the Tokyo Tower appeared during the last year's campaign. This landmark of Tokyo has changed it's color numerous times in past on special occations.

In 2001, Tokyo Tower was illuminated white as a part of an electronic manufacturer's energy saving campaign. In 2002, the tower was lightened up to blue, as an encouragement for the Japanese National Team during the FIFA World Cup. In 2003, the tower was turned green along with Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, in order to promote the movie, "Matrix Reloaded". As an annual event, Tokyo Tower is imitated into a "candle" on Christmas Eve and Christmas Days, which I was lucky enough to spot myself last year.

When I lived in the States, the Empire State Building had a similar illumination, with more variation. On normal days, the colors cycled around irregularly, but on special days, the illumination used colors which were related to that day. For example on 4th of July, the tower turned red, white and blue. On the opening day of the U.S. Open, the tower turned yellow and red. I favored the change I saw from the New Jersey Turnpike, and it was my daily routine to check out that day's color.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building restarted it's illumination recently. These illuminations give citiy skylines additional flavors, which is a kind of thing I feel good seeing. I wonder what color the Tokyo Tower is turned to, next time I visit Tokyo.