it's election time!

earlier today, i voted in today's gubernatorial election. just a few interesting reflections:

1. in order to vote, all eligible residents are mailed a registration form.
2. the registration form needs to be taken to the polling place.
3. upon presenting the registration form, you are given a small piece of paper with an empty box.
4. in the box, you write the name of the candidate you wish to vote for.
5. you put your ballot in the box.

and that was it. there weren't any local measures or anything like that. there weren't any bubbles or computer programs. the whole thing seems so simple...i don't remember voting like that since elementary school student council elections. even my junior high school and high school used scantrons i think.

although it has already been announced that shintaro ishihara (wikipedia) has been reelected for his third term, there was no way that i could vote for such a xenophobe. my vote went to shiro asano (wikipedia), who represented the primary opposition against independent ishihara, who leans very far to the right. but just from watching news reports about who tokyoites voted for, it's really shocking to hear public sentiment.

being the biggest city in the world (in terms of population), many residents believe that having such an outspoken leader is necessary to maintain order in an already relatively strict society. and seeing that minority groups represent such a small percentage of tokyo (as well as the fact that unlike myself, almost none of them are eligible to vote), their rights must be hedged to ensure the well-being of the dominant japanese population.

coming from liberal san francisco, conservative tokyo is definitely a new experience. but as long as people are still being marginalized and justice is not a reality, then there still is lots of work to do. 35 million people to work on...they don't call this a struggle for nothing.

the life and times of japan's greatest athlete.

in the past three weeks, i have sustained two serious sports injuries. but such is the life of athletic freaks of nature like yours truly. let me elaborate...

1) while setting record after record on ridge racers 2 for psp, i developed a decent blister on my left thumb. however, in all attempts to do my part for the entire racing community, i played on. i beat the game and simultaneously rendered my left thumb useless for the next week.

2) today, a couple coworkers and i hit the pitch (if you could even call it that) to prepare for our upcoming nova teachers' futsal tourney. seeing that soccer is a game primarily employing one's feet, i managed to amaze even myself by messing up my right shoulder. you see, the ball was kicked way over my head. since i am a lazy bloke and didn't feel like chasing after an overkicked ball, i jumped up and stuck my arm out to catch it. my right arm bent back, something felt strange, and now i can't lift my arm past ninety degrees. but since someone else kicked the ball too far, i have decided that this one isn't my fault.

oh well. at least my alter-ego had a helluva debut with ten strikeouts in seven strong innings over the kansas city ymca all-stars.

too bad about my bruins...

...but it's alright. they done good this year. now i can focus on the warriors playoff push!! and what's this, do i smell BASEBALL!?

the past few weeks have been MAD busy, in a very unproductive, yet awesome way. it is currently the sakura season here in japan. i did "hanami" (flower viewing) a few times this past week and it is definitely an experience. just going out to the park, eating/drinking far too much, singing, playing games...all under hundreds of sakura trees and millions of falling pink petals. it's surreal, to say the least. sadly, my pictures do not do justice to hanami. please come next spring and experience it for yourself!

also, reason #7654321324 why i love tokyo. last night, i was getting home from work around 9:40pm. i ran into a friend of mine that lives nearby and he told me to go over to his restaurant for a second because there was something we had to talk about. the restaurant is in the next alley...so literally just feet from my house. so i go to the restaurant, a few other older men from the neighborhood association (including my uncle) begin to trickle in, all of us wondering what is going on. then my friend announces that last night was the final night that his restaurant would be using asahi beer. starting today, they will switch to sapporo draft beer. thus, it is our job to finish the remaining asahi beer so that he doesn't have to throw it away. suffice to say, good times were had, and it didn't cost anybody a single yen!

although i have been professing my love for japan a lot lately, just wanted to add that this country is still far from perfect. last week, one of the employees at my company was brutally murdered and the killer is still on the run.

although that was super messed up, i really think that this response by the father as delivered by the british ambassador to japan is not helping the situation at all.

also, while i never really liked monta mino in the first place, this article makes me hate him more. but the way the article seems to shift blame on the victim is also pretty disgusting.

sigh.