Compromise and Conceit
Infernal adventuring…
Category: Japan
-
Back from Beppu and continuing my reports on the book War Without Mercy that I introduced here before my travels commenced. I’ve finished the section on allied and Japanese war atrocities, which were numerous and terrible on both sides, and which I briefly mentioned in my previous post, and now I’ve also read the section…
-
This book uncovers some unpalatable truths about Allied behaviour in the Pacific War, 1939-1945, in the context of an analysis of how both sides in the war (Japanese and Allied) used extreme racist language to fuel an orgy of violence and atrocities. The author, Professor John W. Dower from MIT, attempts to address the twin…
-
Here is a selection of local micro-brewery beers that I have recently sampled, assembled on my kitchen counter as a representative cross-section of these companies’ offerings. The two with the owl logo are from Hitachino Nest, whose bespoke brewing plan was explained to me and Sergeant M a few days ago. The others are all…
-
Is bespoke brewing a uniquely Japanese phenomenon? My friend Sergeant M is in town from Australia, so last night we went for a few drinks in Kichijoji. After dinner at Bloomoon we headed to holic beer bar, which serves a wide range of imported and local brews. Sergeant M is a fan of microbreweries, and…
-
Following up on a similar post last year, I present another random dungeon table from the Japanese RPG Make You Kingdom. This table is also for generating rooms in one of the kingdoms you invade, but the theme is “man-made” or human-engineered rooms. Again, the rooms are rolled randomly using “d66”. For a d66, you…
-
Apropos of nothing, here is the website of one of the brothels that operate in my local suburb, Kado Ebi. I walk past this brothel (actually, it’s a soapland) on my way to my favourite restaurant, Bloomoon, or when I’m passing Kichijoji’s hammock cafe[1]. It says a lot about the attitude towards sex in Japan…
-
I have a colleague – let’s call her Miss P – who lived in Australia for a few years, in Melbourne and Perth, and has a bank account there (with ANZ). She had some questions today about her account, and has tried calling a few times but is daunted by the English required, so today…
-
In my experience energy conservation is often given short shrift as an effect means of carbon emissions reduction, especially by opponents of the concept of anthropogenic global warming (AGW), and by people with an economics bent who see conservation in an anti-progress framework. In this framework, conservation is seen as an idea promoted by “hairshirt”-wearing…
-
The hardest battle of my war so far has been the occupation of Pearl Harbour, which took just over a year and was bitterly fought on both sides. Final victory came after a year of fruitless land battles, a near-successful starvation campaign on my part, the death of probably 30000 merchant seamen, the near total…
-
In my previous post, one commenter asked how the Japanese handle election politics. As far as I know, voting in Japan is non-compulsory, elections are held on a Saturday, and they use first past the post (though I’m not sure about this). I don’t follow politics here much, but I think Japan could probably be…
Compromise and Conceit 