Okinawa

Do you know the song "Shimauta", a song written by a band called "The Boom"? It became the Argentina soccer team's official theme song for the world cup. "La Cancion de la Isla" is a cover song by Alfredo Casero: sung in Japanese. Many of the Nikkei people in Argentine a are descendants of Okinawa immigrants, and of course the tune feels familiar to them since Shimauta is based on Okinawan music.
Okinawan music has a very unique scale: do mi fa so shi do. This plus their language also being very different from regular Japanese, we can't help noticing that they have a different heritage. That said, though, music is a universal communication tool, as has become obvious from the Argentinean experience.
If you read the lyrics of Shimauta along in context of the history of Okinawa: then you start to understand the significance of the terms. "Deigo no hana ga saki (Deigo flowers came to bloom)" is the time around when the war started, the US occupation was "Arashi ga kita (storm came)", "Deigo ga saki midare (Deigo flowers run riot)" denotes the war between Japan and US being started by the fierce Peal Harbor attack. By the time "Deigo no hana mo chiri (Deigo flowers die, falling as fluttering petals )" in June, the resistance in Okinawa was over. Deigo is Okinawa's state flower, also called Erythrina Orientalis Murray. I hope the "Towano yunagi wo (forever the calm water)" will be delivered "Umiwo watari (across the ocean)" with this song.

Honest Politicians

The 108th Mayor of the City of New York, Mr. Michael R. Bloomberg has become a poster boy for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) foundation. They're trying to get Marijuana usage legalized in the Unite States. His comment was "You bet I did. And I enjoyed it." The ad says that finally there is an honest politician.
Hmmmm, "Honest politician," is an unlikely combination of words. It's not that I have any particular prejudice about Mr. Bloomberg, but the "politician" itself has the connotation of "dishonest" to me.
The news these days is full of politicians and their scandals. I think we're all starting to get fed up with the bribery and carrying on, and can't put aside the feeling that almost everyone's is somehow involved in the sleaze at Kasumigaseki. Compared to the daily embezzlement of public money, smoking Marijuana doesn't seem that big of a deal, indeed, it's legal in some countries.
Mr. Bloomberg's comment was quoted from the New Yorker magazine before he announced he was running for mayoral office. So, he was not an "honest politician" at that time. He was a simply honest person. I wonder if he would say such things now...?

Free Time

Do you like domestic chores? A research company in Michigan reported that Japanese men spend 4 hours per week for housekeeping. This is about 1/4 of what men in the US do, and 1/6 of men in Sweden. Although I thought the Japanese average would be higher, I expect that the reason it isn't is that Japanese men are away at work longer, and therefore have less time to spend for housekeeping. But the survey was taken before the current economic slump, so maybe Japanese men really will be able to spend more time at home on housework in the future.
Another interesting point from the research is that Japanese spend more time for leisure! Especially Japanese women -- whose TV hours are far longer than anywhere else. Hmmm, that could be me... it's so addictive!
What do you spend most of your time doing?