The Opinionated Traveler

Space Exploration vs. Feeding the Poor

2009-06-04T10:31:00.000-07:00

So, the other day, I applied for another position as a writer, (at present, I am already a martial arts writer for GaijinPot.com) and was told that the selection process has been narrowed down to myself and 2 other candidates. In order to expediate their final decision however, they decided to give us all a test. We were told that we had to write about whether the US government should continue to fund space exploration programs, or whether they should cut funding to NASA in lieu of concentrating on feeding the poor. Interesting question.

In any event, I contemplated the question overnight, and formulated the following response in an hour. (Actually two- when I wrote it, I was under the impression that I had 500 words to work with, when in actually, I had to argue the point in 325. I took me another hour of editing to successfully shave it down to that.)

I will attach the essay, so please feel free to comment on it, as I'm curious as to whether or not my vision is still clear and my arguments still logical after having to cut out 35% of it. Douzo.

THE SPACE QUESTION

In dealing with an issue such as this, I think the underlying question is always the same:
Given the fact that we are living in a broken system that has perpetuated incredible social woes, do we halt our progress for the sake of stopping to fix the problems, or do we simply ignore them and keep going? On an individual scale, it’s like asking someone who has gotten themselves into debt trying to start a business if they should quit that business to get themselves out of debt.

The answer is NO. What they need to do, and ultimately what we need to do is the same thing- adapt our strategy to kill two birds with one stone. This can be done by shifting the focus to fields of space research that are also applicable in solving the issues of the poor as well, namely, developing sustainable forms of food or energy production in harsh and unforgiving environments.

Given the rampant environmental degradation and in many places, desertification of the third world, effective self-sustaining food and energy production in harsh, unforgiving environments continues to be a serious issue. This issue must also be resolved before we can think about long term space exploration.

Furthermore, by focusing on these elements of research, and conducting the research in areas which are all already suffering from these problems, we can also educate and employ the local people living in those areas as well.

The greatest advantage however, of addressing both issues in this matter is that the development of creative solutions in these two areas would necessitate bringing in a multitude of learned individuals from a myriad of different fields who’s difference in specialization may have not previously afforded collaboration.

So, in summation, I do not believe the answer to this problem is either A or B, but C. As Einstein once said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Citation:
Albert Einstein, Albert Einstein Quotes, page 8, http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/albert_einstein_8.html, May 25th, 2009

Interconnectivity and a pain in my ass...

2007-12-21T07:06:00.000-08:00

So, in my last blog, I wrote about how despite my age, I’ve gotten relatively few injuries from learning Capoeria and Gymnastics. Naturally, it would have to follow that I would get my first major injury after writing that. I was attemping a gainer (a backflip done jumping off of only one leg) , and I ended up coming down on my head. Thankfully, I was smart enough to have extra mats out when I tried it, (again, the ‘older = wiser’ thing), but that still wasn’t enough to stop my head from being pushed back farther than it’s supposed to go on impact, and I ended up pinching the nerves in the back of my neck.

Since then, for the past month and a half or so, every time I use my neck to look down or bend over to tie my shoes, I get the sensation of a giant toothache in the left side of my ass. Beyond that, if I push into, or massage other parts of my back, I get the same sensation in a different part of my leg. Fascinating. It’s like I accidentally installed a ‘push here for pain’ program into my dome-piece for a ninety day trial. (As injured nerves heal at a rate of about a millimeter per month, I’m going to assume I’ll have at least that long to deal with it.)

At any rate, given just how many times I have to ‘push a button’ while going about my daily activities, I couldn’t help but awe at the interconnectivity of the nervous system… and consequently wonder why it is that it people never seem to realize the importance of interconnectivity in searching for answers to things.

Eastern philosophy and religion (Buddhism and Taoism in particular) have always spoken of the fact that everything is tied to everything else, and Quantam Physics has, in this century, finally given that jewel of knowledge to the western mind.

At the same time however, the idea of constantly applying that knowledge to problem solving doesn’t seem to have permeated societies on either side of the globe and most people still seem to see their problems (and more importantly the solutions) as being disjointed and separate things. As a function of that, we all continue to create a multitude of elaborate solutions to all of the problems we face instead of simply looking to simplify.
Let’s take three common problems plaguing the average American citizen right now. 1) Managing one’s money, 2) environment degradation, and 3) dieting. How do most people solve these problems? 1) Trying to cut one’s spending, (or worse borrowing to pay off debt) 2) taking time to recycle and 3) paying for an expensive designer diet meals, diets plan or exercise machines. Three separate problems, three separate solutions.

Now let’s look at some simpler solutions:

Get a water purifier, and stick to drinking water from it.
1) It’s a relatively small investment, and the money spent will will soon be recouped in the savings from not buying soda (or even bottled water).
2) Time will be saved as one no longer has to recycle their bottles or cans
3) Energy will be saved as there will be that many less bottles to be recycled.
4) One sleep will sleep better,(and as a function of that, create more fat-burning chemicals while they sleep), be less hungry (half the time you feel hungry it’s just because your slightly dehydrated, and your body can’t tell the difference), exercise much more efficiently, and in general wake up more energized, and more likely to want to exercise in the first place.

Ride a bike or walk whenever you can.
1) Saves money on gas
2) Doesn’t pollute
3) Great exercise (Despite how many different forms of exercise I do, and how much time I spend training, I still find adding a mile or two walk to my day is still the very best way to consistently lose weight).

Snack on fruit.
1) Except for the exotic variety, most fruits are as cheap or cheaper than junk foods.
2) They also have considerably less packaging than snack foods (or if you buy them fresh, no packaging at all) and whatever waste left over is totally bio-degradable.
3) As carbohydrates, fruits are fast-burning, and snacking on them in-between meals is a good way to curb one’s appetite and speed up one’s metabolism without having to worry about it being stored as fat.

Eat less meat with every meal.
1) As I currently live in Japan, I can’t comment on the prices of meat in the states, but given the skyrocketing of oil prices, I have to assume it’s only going to get more expensive- in Japan it already is.
2) Meat production in general requires an incredible amount of oil. Beyond that, the amount of animal waste (in particular pig feces) that is produced is enough to make the rivers that they are fed into toxic; and as we’ve seen with Mad Cow (and the fact that no one wants to buy American beef anymore) businesses cutting costs in feeding the animals is facilitating the growth of all kinds of diseases we’ve never even seen before.
3)As Americans, we consume considerably more protein then our body ever really needs anyway. (Particularly in one sitting.) Much like anything else, our bodies can only use so much of it at a time, and the rest will either be excreted or stored as fat. (Which again, just goes back to wasting money.)

Eat smaller meals, and shoot to completely clean your plate every time.
This is something that I learned from eating with Japanese people. (And there, looking young and trim well into one’s late 30s is the norm-not the exception).
1) If you are exercising a lot, you should be eating a lot. This doesn’t mean however that your meals should be very big. Again, your body only use so much of the nutrients you take in, and excretes the rest. If it stores anything, it stores the energy as fat. Once again, you are just wasting your money. Keep your meals small, snack on fruit, and drink more water. (All of which is relatively cheap).
2) Even organic, bio-degradable waste is still waste. If one cleans their plate, there is none.
3) Smaller meals mean not giving your body any extra energy to store, and as aforementioned, if one gets hungry, they can always snack on fruit, and drink more water. (Both of which will help burn fat).

These are just a few examples of a methodology of problem-solving that seems to me to be way more efficient than trying to solve problems one at a time, and given how many smart people there are out there, I have to wonder why more problems (particularly global ones) aren’t being solved this way.

One nice solution that I came up with myself is the idea of community compost piles for organic waste. For one, it would greatly cut down on the amount of waste that we have to dispose of. Secondly given the fact that rain forests in Austrailia, Brazil and South America are currently being desertified, it would give the average individual or the average community the ability to contribute to the solution by constantly creating fresh soil, and then profit those communities by both getting rid of that waste AND making money by selling it to desertifying countries for a slight mark-up from the cost of transporting it to them.

I have seen a few other solutions like this proposed, but far less than I think there should be. I don’t know why that is… but I think I’ll ponder it further whilst I walk of the toothache in my ass.

Success and Age

2007-12-21T07:03:00.000-08:00

Not too long ago, I was watching a Japanese variety show involving of a bunch of contestants from a myriad of gymnastics backgrounds. They all had to walk a plank placed across a body of water that was about 60 meters long (180 ft.) and about ½ a meter (1.5 feet) wide- and here’s the kicker- they had to do it on their hands.
The youngest of the contestants was only 20. He was a member of the Japanese national gymnastics team, and was without question the single most muscular Japanese guy I’ve ever seen. The oldest was 38- almost twice his age- and a former member of a Chinese acrobat group. In-between them were a multitude of other contestants of different ages and gymnastics backgrounds (including a Japanese Capoeira master I know in his late 20s).

As the contest progressed, virtually every contestant fell near or before the half-way mark; not because they didn’t have good enough balance, but simply because their arms and backs always became too fatigued to maintain it. After watching so many contestants fall, slip and slide of the plank, I began to wonder if it was even humanly possible to do- until the Chinese acrobat stepped up to the challenge. He started off along the plank in much the same way that everyone else did- albeit a bit slower. As he went along, I thought nothing of him… until he had passed everyone else’s falling point. Briefly after that however, his arms started to shake, and I thought that he too would soon fall- but he didn’t. Instead, he lowered his body down, locked his arms, and then used his stomach to hold his body off the ground while the fatigued muscles in his back and arms rested. Eventually, after a while (30 seconds or a minute or so), he raised his body back into the handstand and continued on, slowly, but surely. The break he took was costly for his time, but even so, he was the first one to actually make it to the finish line.

After that point, the other contestants seemed to shift focus- it had been established that the finish line could actually be reached, so the remaining contestants’ objective was no longer simply to make it- but to beat his time on top of it. With that, all the remaining contestants made it considerably farther than those who had gone before him, but in order to beat his time, no one else stopped to rest, and consequently no one else made it to the end.

Finally, the time came for the 20 yr. old gymnast. The guy’s muscle mass and agility were simply amazing- and he showed it as he quickly and easily progressed across the plank. As he, like everyone else hadn’t stopped to rest, his time was half of that of the Chinese acrobat- and as he reached the last 2 meters of the stretch it seemed fairly certain that he would be victor of the day- until he too became too fatiqued and fell- with less than a meter to go.

As my 29th birthday passed last week, and I reflected on the few injuries I’ve gotten while spending the past 7 months learning to do both gymnastics, and Capoeira, I noticed that they were considerably fewer and farther between compared to all the injuries I got when I started taekwondo training at 15. I came to realize that with age comes a certain understanding of not just the things around you, but of who you are as well. As a athlete this translates into knowing your body well enough to know what you can do, and know what you can’t. The Chinese acrobat won the competition because who knew he could never walk the length of the plank without resting, while everyone else assumed they could.

Perhaps this is why most athletes peak in performance in their late 20s- despite the fact that their body’s learning curve is slowing down, and injuries take longer to heal- they simply make less mistakes to begin with.

Historical and Rhythmic Significance of the word `Mutha Fucka` in hip-hop.

2007-10-12T19:09:00.000-07:00

For the past month and a half now, every Saturday, myself and one other British friend have been giving seminars on the differences between GAm (General American English) and RP (British English), and thus far, amongst the most interesting topics I`ve been able to present on has been on the historical and rhythmical significance of the phrase `Mutha Fucka` in hip-hop music, and consequently General American English.

Given the fact that the word `fuck` actually outdates the discovery of the Americas, the history and signigance of that was left to my British partner, whilst I focused in on MF, which apparently was developed solely in the states, and as the saying goes “Is as American as apple pie.”

From what I`ve found out, the word was originally developed by young slaves as a derogatory term for their masters who were both having affairs and at times, literally raping their mothers. Given the fact that it was only used by slaves (who dared never say it around their masters) it remained relatively unknown among the rest of the American population for hundreds of years until it was officially recorded in 1918. Even after that however, it still remained a dialectical term used only in AAVE (African American Vernacular English) for several decades after that. Although with time it began it`s proliferation outside of the African American community, it still however stayed closely tied with it, and naturally found it`s why into hip-hop music where it still plays a much more prevalent role than in all other forms of music.

Many theorize however, that the reasons for this aren`t simply because of its historically close ties with African American culture. While standard American English speaking usually utilizes either an Iamb (stress, unstress, stress, unstress- EX. What time is it?) or an Amphibrach rhythm (U, U, S, U, U, S- EX. It’s the time to get busy.) Hip-hop music utilizes the reverse of an Iamb (S,U,S,U), a rhythm pattern called a Trochee. As such, one reason that MF is probably used so much is because it also happens to be perfectly Trocheeic. (Mutha Fucka), and in addition to that, it’s quadra-syllabic structure also means that it would fit perfectly into a 4/4 metre.
Beyond that, in looking at the structure of the word myself, I also noticed that all four of those syllables utilize the same vowel sound (in this case, a schwa, which also happens to be the simplest and most commonly used sound in spoken English) and as such, rhythmically, it has perfect assonance; a value that phonetically makes it easy to both hear and say, and traditionally was one of the strengths of Shakespearean literature.

So what’s the bottom line? Despite what everyone may say about the level of profanity in hip-hop music, apparently, it isn’t all just “for the fuck of it”;)

The 5 People You Meet in Heaven

2007-08-31T03:49:00.000-07:00

Recently, I completed a book called “The 5 People You Meet in Heaven.” The main idea of the book is that, heaven, more than anything, is understanding the course of your life, and as a function of that, being able to make peace with it. As the story goes, upon your “arrival” you are greeted by 5 people. These five people are different for everyone, because they are simply people who passed away before you. The common thread between them however, is that they are all people who’s life had intertwined with yours in a major way-sometimes without you even knowing it- and they were simply waiting there to tell you about it.

Oddly enough, if it wasn’t for the fact that both of us are still very much alive (at least unless God is playing some kind of a joke on me right now) I would say that I met one of my 5 this past week.

Not too long ago, I was contacted by a former student of mine from my Peaceboat days (i.e. when I was sailing around the world as an English teacher with a Japanese NGO) who has recently become seriously ill. As the email came from more or less out of the blue, I was really caught off-guard by it, but naturally when she said she wanted to meet, I certainly wasn’t going to say no.

We met for dinner at an Okinawan restaurant not too far from where she lived, and caught up over the past few years. We talked about the people we both knew, who we kept up with, and who we didn’t, and life in general since we had both returned to dry land. She also told me of her personal history, (which I new nothing of), the loss of her loved ones, and how it was that she came to be facing her condition alone.

Despite how much of a downer all this seemed to be however, I was surprised at how relatively light our conversation remained, and when I commented on it, she told me it was because she knew what happiness really was, and that ultimately, it was thanks to me.

Reminiscing on the first time I had met her (which until she reminded me, I couldn’t even recall), she said that before she decided to go on the 3-month cruise, she was scared that she wouldn’t be able to learn English or handle the cruise itself because she was deaf.

At the time that I met her, she had come in to try an English class at that NGO’s Tokyo Office, and I was the one who was teaching. I gave her the lesson with a group of other students, and in the exact same way that I gave it to everyone else. I had noticed that her speech was a little bit unusual, and she asked me to repeat myself a lot- but this was an English class afterall, so I didn’t particularly think anything of it. She seemed to do just fine.

After the class, she told me that she was actually deaf and hearing through aids, and she asked if I thought she could handle the 3 month intensive program that we offered on the ship. With that, I told her that I hadn’t even noticed that she was disabled, and I thought she be just fine. At the time, I wasn’t trying to encourage or flatter her- I was just speaking honestly. She was obviously a smart woman, she asked questions when she had them, and now that I knew was her issue was, I could help her to work around it. Even if it was more challenging for her, objectively, there was no reason why she couldn’t do it, and as far as I was concerned, it was as simple as that: If she wanted to, she could.

Anyway, to make a long story short, as she told me, it was then that she decided that she could really do it, signed up, and went on to have the best three months of her life. She had said that that that three months had not only empowered her and opened her eyes to the outside world, but gave her a sense of peace that she brought back with her. She said that it gave her the ability to always look back on that time, smile, and remember what it means to be happy. She told me that this-more than anything- is where she is drawing her strength from now, and that she wanted to meet with me simply to say thank you. I was completely blown away.

After listening to her, although the parallels with the book’s main concept didn’t click immediately, one analogy that I had read in it did…. The author had said that people, (especially children) are like fine glassware: they absorb the prints of all who handle them. And I guess the funny thing about life is that we never really know just how big of a print we can leave.

Success, Intelligence, and Aggression

2007-03-20T03:34:00.001-07:00

As many of you have may well noticed from my writing, for some time now I've been on this intellectual quest to find out what exactly the underlying form of success is. For as many books as I've read by people who've done great things, the vast majority seem to always be contextually based- (how to succeed as a business person, how to succeed as a basketball player, how to succeed in real estate, etc.) and very few of them seem to expound on what the commonalities of all of these different journeys are as opposed to simply the particulars and the results of each one.

Futhermore, in reading the biographies and autobiographies of people who have done great things in their time, and having spend the past 4 years working for and spending time with self-made millionaires in the international entertainment industry and business community, I've also come to realize that despite increased levels of wealth, respect, and achievements, a great deal of the people who do great things still have an understanding of the world based solely on the particular angle that they see it from, with no particular desire to change that- much like the rest of us.

To be sure, I've met some pretty amazing exceptions. I recently worked as a bodyguard for the leader singer of a rock group who spent his New Years vacation studying Energy conservation techniques in New Mexico, and the two businessmen whom I feel have taught me the most about business both had vast book collections on every topic imaginable. Still, however, I felt as though having a really wide base of knowledge, and/or the desire to round-out one's thinking and to rid it of inconsistencies and falsehood-despite how intellectually painful of a process that may be- was not nearly as common among the rich and successful as I figured it would be.

In one way however, that conclusion seemed to make sense- in order to be extremely good at something, you have to study it all the time. In order to study it all the time, you can't spend your time studying other things. And a fair number of people who become rich, famous and successful (but certainly not all) do so, because in one particular way, they can perform to a degree that no one else can. As such, as a commodity, they are extremely marketable. Personally, it was actually this realization to a large degree that caused me to fold my dream of going to the Olympics for Taekwondo in favor of coming to Japan to find a new way- I just wasn't willing to give up my college education (and everything else), for the sake of only training for the years and years it would take to achieve that goal. It simply wasn't worth it to me.
Beyond that, that conclusion also seemed to explain why it is that both pop culture and politics always seem to be permeated with both moral mediocracy, and short-sightedness. (Like for example the fact that most of America's millionaires, (who are supposed to constitute our moral leadership as well as financial) be it in business, pop culture, or politics have spent the past 20 years ignoring scientific warnings of Global Warming and just burying their heads in the sand about it- more or less just like the rest of us.

In any event, if a well-rounded mentality that allows people to make faster, deeper, and more creative mental connections for problem solving, and a desire to grow by constantly searching out the weaknesses in one's own mentality or perspective weren't common to everyone who succeeded in being rich, successful, or at least the best at what they do, I had to wonder what other element could be causing their level of success. And I found what I believe to be the answer while working at a camp for kids in Chejudo, Korea this past winter.
While working at the camp, I had a lot of really great, really talented students, but two in particular who truly stood out- and both of whom in the end were rewarded as being the two top kids for their class. One who went by the English name, "Bobby" (who I named myself) and the other who went by "Eric".

In this blog, I'd like to not only delve into the differences in their respective characters, but also how those differences panned out in thier respective success at the camp.

Bobby
When I first met Bobby, he was extremely quiet and shy, and I didn't quite know what to make of him. He didn't speak to other kids so much, and initially when we'd study, he'd get so frustrated that he would come to tears. That, in and of itself clued me into the fact that he was different somehow...although it took me a minute to figure out how. As time passed however, I began to see little things that zeroed me in on what exactly the issue was: He was way smarter than average. For one, when another teacher tapped out the moris code for S.O.S. he actually knew what it was. And when I asked him how he even knew what moris code was (let alone an actual code), he just said. "I don't know...I read a lot." This kid was an elementary school student mind you. In another instance, when I tried to make things a little easier for him, so that he wouldn't get so frustrated, he wrote me a note that said:

"Teacher, the amount of work you give me is fine. I don't want any less. (How often do little kids say that?) I wanna be better at it. Why can't I do this well?"

With a little digging though, I came to find out that his issue was that for only being an elementary school student, he was somewhat of a math and science prodigy, and could easily outperform most middle school kids in both fields. The reason he was so frustrated with English was because even formal language study requires a lot of trial and error, and no matter how smart you are, there are times where you just don't get it. He was frustrated because from his own perspective, he couldn't learn fast enough, and having to learn simply through trial, error and making and correcting mistakes was inconsistent with the framework he had already developed to excel in math and science. Once I and my assistant teacher, Young, explained that to him however, he understood that, quit crying, set about the goal of adapting his thinking to that end, and began to quietly excel through concentrating his energy on understanding the logic of the processes.

Eric
Eric on the other hand, despite the fact that he wasn't the biggest kid, nor the best English speaker in class, established himself as a leader right away. He excelled in all areas, more than anything else, simply because he hated losing to other kids. Despite his size, all the other kids seemed to respect him, and he seemed perfectly at home with having that respect. In terms of learning the language, he seemed relatively unconcerned with the particulars of it. What he enjoyed, was getting the right answers, and if there was one, getting the prize at the end. If there was no prize or no competition involved, he didn't particularly care.

A classic example of the dynamic of the two of them was when we would play hangman for 'happy stickers' (A camp currency used for buying snacks and things). Eric routinely dominated the game by constantly getting his hand up before other students, and throwing out as many guesses as it took for him to figure it out. Bobby, on the other hand, half or more of the time if I asked him quietly and personally at the onset of the game, would tell me exactly what the answer was- but then refused to engage in the game simply because he wasn't sure of the word's spelling, because he knew that happy stickers meant less to him than to the other students in class, or because since he already knew the answer, he saw no particular reason to partake. He would simply busy himself with other things.
When I offered a taekwondo class for fun, Bobby joined and was the fastest learning and most adaptable student I had...but he was also almost perfectly passive. For the most part, he seemed more concerned with figuring out the logic of the system itself than with actually doing it. Eric on the other hand, never actually tried the Taekwondo class- he was already too busy playing (usually in a leadership role) on every sports team he could get his hands on...where he regularly revelled in his victories, and lamented his losses. In the end, as aforementioned, both boys ended up with lots of rewards at the end of the camp- Eric, by far brought home the most things from the 'happy market', and won an award for being the most hard-working student. Bobby on the other hand, had almost no happy stickers, but he brought home several awards simply as a function of the quality of the work he would produce- for example a speech he wrote and delivered on the important of producing non-violent videogames.

In comparing these two boys, this is not to say that even these two personality types are the only kind that will lead to success. I had another student who went by "Rose" that I'm sure will be extremely successful based purely on her almost perfect confidence in herself, and outstanding (and seemingly unshakable) moral fibre. Another example was 'Rosa' who I'm sure will be reknowned as an amazing animator- simply because she was so passionate about it, and even at her young age, had already started studying Japanese for the sake of pursuing a career in it.
What I did feel however, was that in comparing and contrasting these two, I had a much stronger understanding of how it is that different people find their way to success. I could understand how it is that I've met some wealthy people who are so wildly intelligent, but others who, to be frank, were quite the opposite. Or on the converse, I could also see why some people who are so wildly intelligent people can have relatively mediocre or -even low- incomes. (And example of the latter, being some of the other foreign English teachers I met working on Peaceboat- who had learned as many as five languages on their own, but spent most of their time working for NGOs or living in empoverish countries- where they make next to nothing.

As if on cue, I had also recently read that being passive by nature is more strongly correlated with intelligence than being agressive or really competitive. If that's the case, than that could also explain a lot too, as it would naturally imply (and the studies backed it up) that the best, sharpest, and most amazing thinkers of any given society are, on average, in Academia (where there is not too much in the way of glory or money, and rewards are almost entirely intrinsic) whereas most of the most competitive people are in business, sports, and entertainment (where suprise, suprise, there is a lot of money and glory). I think the tragedy of this is that it naturally infers that the most intelligent people are generally always at the wimp of the most competitive. What are the success-oriented intelligent people to do then? My answer I guess, would be to learn to be competitive. When in Rome.

At a glance: 30+ ways to differenciate between peoples in Korea and Japan.

2007-01-09T06:31:00.000-08:00

Having lived for an extended period in both Korea and Japan, people have asked me on several occasions if I can tell the difference between both peoples on sight. In response to that, (and more or less as an act of intellectual masturbation), I decided to write out all the different ways that I've come to tell the two peoples apart, and then publish the list on this blog.

I don't think there's anything in here that either side will find to be offensive, but if anyone notices anything, I would appreciate their saying so. Also, in reading it, please keep in mind that these are simply generalizations based on observation. I didn't do any research into this, and as is always the case with describing people, there are always exceptions to be found.

Also, please keep in mind that 3 out of these 4 categories are only directly relevant in their respective countries. Fashion generalizations, as with Body Type and Mannerisms, can (and almost always are) modified by the country one lives in, regardless of what nationality we may be. I know I, for one, have picked up all kinds of mannerisms from both Koreans and Japanese people, and if it wasn't for the fact that I'm a 6' 2" black male, I might have ended up being mistaken for either. At least my Korean and Japanese friends seem to think so.

In any event, the hardest group I've found to differenciate are Koreans raised in Japan, but even so, a lot of the criterion for faces and body types still hold true. In riding the trains in Tokyo, I still see enough and can differenciate enough Koreans (which I can verify once I hear which language comes out of their mouth) that I feel comfortable publishing my thoughts on it. Who knows how many I may be silently missing though. Anyway, keeping all that in mind, I hope that you all enjoy reading this list, and may, in some way, find it helpful.

Facial Features:
1) Insomuch as I've seen, between the two, outwardly curved nose bridges are only found on Japanese people. Both peoples occasionally have freckles, but I've seen them much more commonly (and much more pronounced) on Japanese people.
2) Koreans tend to have higher cheek bones and flatter faces. Japanese faces are generally rounder. (Although not always).
3) The epicanthal folds around the eyes tend to be more pronounced in Koreans, making their eyes, on average, appear narrower. Japanese people tend to have rounder eyes and also larger pupils.
4) In Korean eyes, the upper epicanthal fold comes down to meet the lower fold in the inside corner of the eye (as opposed to the lower fold coming up to meet the upper fold across the median of the eye), giving the inside edge of the eyes of Koreans a really distinct curving "wedge" shape.
5) As a function of this unique shape, when many Koreans smile, the shape of the eyelids makes an upward curve that peaks in the center of the pupil.
(*And interestingly enough, For those of you who have ever seen a traditional smiling Korean mask, this is how the eyes are always portrayed)
6) Also, in Koreans there is an extra crease along the lower outside of the eyes that is also distinctive. I have seen that feature on some Japanese people, although not nearly as commonly or as pronounced.
7) As a function of the amount of tea that people drink, browning of the teeth is more common in Japan.
8) Raised Canines are more commonly seen in Japan.

Mannerisms:
1) Culturally, as a function of the percieved importance of social harmony, Japanese people tend to be outwardly less emotionally expressive around people who they know, but not very well. Particularly when it comes to negative emotions. At the same time however, they can very expressive around total strangers (i.e. 'outgroup' people who's opinions are of no relavance) or very very close friends (in-group). Koreans (much like Westerners) are generally quite expressive regardless of who is watching.
2) In addition to this, the Japanese style of communication is usually quite indirect, and requires a lot of reading between the lines, while Koreans tend to be quite expressive about their full range of emotions.
3) Koreans are generally more outwardly physically affectionate, whereas Japanese tend towards being much more reserved in public.
4) Koreans friends (both Men and Women) tend to hold hands a lot. Oftentimes as they are walking along, and or when talking to each other. In Japan, although one does see couples holding hands from time to time it's not common, and for friends it's even more rare.
5) Koreans tend to drag out the last final syllables more when they speak.
6) Japanese people move their mouths much less.
7) Koreans tend not to be offended at getting poked fun at, and can see humor in their eccentrisities. Japanese people tend to be much more serious about their outward appearance.
8) Although in both countries, people tilt their head when they are confused, in Korea, that tilt is usually accompanied with a hissing sound as the breath is drawn in through the teeth. In Japan, it is usually accompanied with the word 'a-re?' spoken in a short breath.
9) The sense of privacy is also quite different between the two countries. Koreans seem to absolutely share everything, but as a function of that, there is little in the idea of privacy. In Japan although when in groups of friends, they share everything, much like in the west there are very well defined limits to what is shared and what isn't.

Body Type:
1) Koreans tend to be taller and thicker (I'm assuming as a function of the fact that they eat more protein). Japanese tend to be a little shorter, and thinner.
2) Japanese people tend to have thicker legs and longer torsos than Koreans.
3) Koreans have wider feet.
4) Some Japanese tend to have more body hair. (which I'm guessing is a result of having a mixed ancestry with the indiginous inuit people who were actually caucasian- which I'm guessing is also why they tend to have bigger eyes)
5) The funny thing about this however, is that as a function of the fact that they don't have much, Korean men tend to admire body hair. Japanese men don't.
6) As a function of their diet (i.e. the fact that they tend to eat much more garlic, and saltier foods)Koreans tend to have a stronger natural body odor than Japanese people do. (Which I don't mean as 'BO' or in any negative sense whatsoever).
7) Again as a function of the difference in diet, (Korean food is a lot saltier)people in Korea will at times have a faint white residue left on their clothing after sweating. (Although for the most part, you can only see on dark clothing).
8) Bowed legs and pigeon toes (the latter especially in women) are much more common in Japan.

Fashion:
1) Koreans tend to wear baggier, looser fitting clothes. (both men and women). Japanese people tend to wear much closer fitting styles.
2) Japanese men tweeze and shape their eyebrows. Korean men don't.
3) On average, Younger Japanese women wear higher heels (and shorter skirts) than Korean women. (Which I'm guessing is a function of the fact that they are shorter and they do so elongate their figures. (Not that I mind that or anything ;)
4) Koreans tend more towards wearing their hair in it's natural color, whereas dying hair is much much more common in Japan.
5) Also, when they do die hair, People living in Korea tend to do so in streaks, whereas in Japan, it's much more common to die hair uniformily.
6) Korean women, when wearing their hair in buns, do so with a bun on the back of their head, and the 'scrunchies' they use (if that's what those things are called), tend to be more elaborate and/or formal looking.
Young Japanese women usually use a simple rubberband, (if anything at all), and make the bun by winding the hair around itself. Also, more often than not, they make the bun on the top of their head instead of the back.
7) 'Funky' and/or alternative clothing styles are more common in Japan than in Korea.

Making the weight: How I dropped 8kg (17 lbs) in a month

2007-01-09T01:19:00.000-08:00

Wassup folks.
My apologies for being MIA for so long, but Chuck's been a busy brotha. It's frustrating because it feels like there's a lot of different things I'd love to sit down and write about, but the past half-year has been a busy one. In any event, in response to those of you at home and abroad who've spoken to me about weight loss and maintainence, I decided to write out and post exactly how it was that I lost 8kg in a month's time while preparing for that kickboxing match. (See "A fighter's tears" in my other blog, "To chase a dream").

As you can see, I've posted three images on this blog, the first was taken January 9th, 2006. When I first put together this plan with one of my best friends, personal trainer, Chad Johnson. (Whom I also mention in the blog on sex & success). The second picture was taken on March 9th, 2006- 2 months later. The last image at the end of the blog is how I look right now. It was taken immediately after my second run on this diet (unfortunately, I got lazy in April, and strayed and after a trip back home to the states that summer, had gained the weight back). At the time, I had one month to lose 7kg for a kickboxing match in Tokyo, and the photo was taken immediately after that fight. The second time around, as I had to lose the weight in half the time, I introduced the fast I mentioned at the end. At this point, it's been over six months, and I still look more or less as I did in that final picture.

Anyway, I hope those of you who asked find it helpful, and for the two personal trainers who helped me put the program together, please feel free to comment with tips, corrections or additions.

1) Eat 4 or 5 times a day (this will speed up your metabolism) BUT make sure they are small meals (under 500 calories). This will give your body the green light to burn food quickly (instead of trying to store it) because there's a constant source of food coming in.
*If you want to lose weight, DON'T eat less frequently. This will actually trick your body into thinking that there is less food available, and it will slow down it's metabolism in response.
*Also, in you starve yourself, your body will burn it's muscle first to hold on to it's fat reserves.

2) Always eat something for breakfast. Think of the literal meaning of the word: Breakfast.
When you are sleeping you are going a long period of time without eating. Your fasting. If you continue that fast into the day, again, your body will think it's because there's no food available and slow it's metabolism. Also, make sure that breakfast is high in protein.

3) When you eat stay away from a lot of slow-burning carbs. (i.e. breads, pastas, potatoes, and rice. For the sake of balance, I usually will eat some, but not very much. Instead, make sure your diet is high in proteins, and you get all your viatmins and minerals from dairy products, and fast-burning carbs (fruits, vegetables).

Your body uses slow-burning carbs for energy, so if you cut down on them, (but eat enough of everything else so that 1) your metabolism doesn't slow down and 2) you're still getting everything else you need), your body will turn to it's fat for energy.
For myself, the only time I eat slow-burning carbs is approximately 2 hours after a workout. At that time, I've read your body needs everything.

4) Drink lots and lots of water. At least 2L a day if you can. The more water you drink, the more effeciently all of your body's systems run. When you are well hydrated:
-Your workouts are much more effecient
-Your sleep is much more effecient (and your body produces more of it's fat burning chemicals while you sleep)
-You aren't as hungry (half the time you are hungry, you're really just thirsty, and your body isn't differentiating).
-Your skin even looks better (from what my model friends tell me).
-You wake up feeling fresher and more energetic. (at least I know I do).

5) Get as much sleep as you can. Remember that everything in your body is a part of a whole system. Like drinking water, getting a lot of sleep makes everything run smoother. As I've mentioned before, I've also read that your body produces a lot of it's fat-burning chemicals when you are sleeping.

6) Exercise 4 times a week if possible. Giving your body 48 hours of rest, (every other day) is optimal. 72 hours rest should be the most you give it. Working out every day doesn't give your body a chance to heal properly. But on the other hand, keep in mind that your body will only adapt to change as necessary. If you wait too long between work outs, your body will heal everything in it's basic form instead of thinking "I need to grow stronger to handle this" Because of this your chances of hurting yourself are greater. (Which is why weekend warriors tend to pull and tear things so much).

7) Your exercise should be at least 40-60 minutes. Keep in mind that your body has to use the food it's holding before it can use it's fat. Again, this does NOT mean you should starve yourself before a workout, because if you do, 1) your muscles will have no energy to run on, and 1) you'll be really tired, and 2) you're more likely to injure something.
(Believe me on this one. in being out here chasing my athletic dreams on a shoestring budget for forever, I've gained extensive experience in both starving myself, and injuring things, and they always go hand in hand).

8) If you do injure a muscle during a work out, ease off of it immediately BUT don't give up on it. Finish the workout if you have to, but don't push it. Also, let it heal to the point that you can begin to feel comfortable (up to you) and then start lightly stretching and strengthening it again increasing the degree that you push it with each workout.
DON'T stop working it out completely. 1) Because it will take forever to heal that way, and 2) because when it does, it'll heal with lots of thick and inflexible scar tissue. If you go back to lightly exercising on it (but not pushing it too hard) the tissue that will grow back will be stronger and more pliable.
Also, again, drinking lots and lots of water, and getting lots of rest makes a substantial difference in the healing process. Not coincidentally, that's also the case with recovering from colds (or anything else for that matter) a lot faster. It's all about water & rest.

Lastly, check your weight regularly- if possible, everyday, and if possible on the same scale. The fact of the matter is, when you are losing weight the change happens gradually. So much so, that chances are even when you are losing wieght, you won't notice it for a while. For me, I don't see a difference until I've dropped about 10 lbs or so. As a function of that, the only way to gauge your progress is to wiegh yourself regularly. Aside from the fact that it's a great (and steady) source of encouragement when you are starting off, it will also tell you if what you're doing isn't working, and after you've achieved your goal, if you are backsliding at all.

About fasting: While training for that kickboxing tournament, as I mentioned to you guys in my other blog, I was expected to lose about 17 or 18lbs in 4 weeks. I lost the first 9 or 10 lbs in about 3 weeks doing all this. Still being 7 lbs short, I did my homework on how to do it, and went on a semi-fast for the last week.

Here's what I did:
Morning: Yogurt, with whey protein mixed in to keep muscle strength.
Afternoon: A 12 oz of vegetable juice to keep vitamins, and minerals in your system and to keep sugars up.
Evening: A half of lemon mixed with honey in a single cup of water. (Eating the whole thing, rind and all).
==> This is because from what a personal trainer friend told me, oz per oz, lemons have more vitamins and minerals than almost anything else you can eat, and he suggested it.

Believe it or not, insomuch as I stayed really physically inactive, and didn't move around much, I actually felt fine. Just more tired than usual. No headaches, stomachaches or anything. (I was given the idea from a former roommate who for political reasons did a 3 week fast in Costa Rica. He also told me he felt fine the whole time.)

In general, I think the dangerous thing is letting your bloodsugar drop and/or being too physically active while you're doing it. Beyond that, it's probably a good idea to drink more water than I was, but at the time, I was trying to make a wieght cut, so I wanted to lose water weight too.

Beyond that, after the fast, eat 1 or 2 meals with tons of slow-burning carbs to replenish your system, and then from there, go back to only eating fast-burning to keep it off.

"Speaker for the Dead" & the lost perspective of the Palestinians

2006-09-20T07:02:00.000-07:00

Recently, I finished a book entitled "Speaker for the Dead" by Orson Scott Card. In the book, the main character, (and the first speaker) was a former soldier who's wartime efforts led to the anniliation of an entire alien race, and out of guilt, he decided to author a book about who they were from what he believed to be their own perspective.

In the story, as generation after generation passed, and the popularity of the book spread, so did the practice of "Speaking for the Dead" and 'Speakers' began to go around from place to place, learning information about people who've recently passed away, so that they can speak- with an outsider's objectivity- on behalf of them.

Although personally, I can't say I've anniliated any alien races in my lifetime, I did still feel like I could empathize with the main character in wanting to share the perspectives of those who I feel are never spoken for.

Having a Palestinian best friend in high school, and having spent months working alongside a Palestinian friend while doing international volunteer work, I had always wished that there was something I could do to share their perspective with the world. Particularly after having gotten into heated debates with other American friends, and realizing that the Palestinian perspective on the Israel/Palestine conflict was something that they had simply never heard.

As much as we hear about them on TV, personally, I don't feel as though we know the Palestinians at all. As an African American, I can personally vouch for the frustrations of having people say they understand the culture that you come from when in actuality all they've ever done is looked at it from a distance.

One example was when I was studying at a university in a foreign country and a professor (someone with a Ph.D mind you) said :" The principle reason why Japanese cars are so well-made is because Japanese people are diligent and hard-working. The reason American cars aren't, is because there's a bunch of lazy black guys sitting around in the factory drinking beers."
Perhaps my opinion is biased, but as an African American, I like to think that we're not 'lazy'. I've known quite a lot of hardworking African Americans (particularly in my own family) and if anything, oftentimes I feel we're not given credit enough for coming as far as we have. This is not to say that the Japanese work ethic is anything less than what it's acclaimed to be, but merely that the differences in our respective positions have to be taken into account before any such stereotypes can be drawn. In achieving the economic miracle that they did, the Japanese people had the full support of their government, the full support of our government, full access to education, and strength and coherence within their community. We had none of the above.

In addition to that, we also had to deal with the decimation of our family structure due to the introduction of the crack trade into our communities, and the lack of investment that stems from overbearing stereotypes of both us and our communities being dangerous and volatile.

If there's one thing I've learned from traveling and living in multiple cultures, it's that you cannot understand someone simply by watching their behavior. If you do, you naturally impose your own system of logic on the them (as well as your own situation) and then spend all your time wondering why they act so 'illogically'.
I only know this because as a foreigner living here in Japan, in the past, this is something I've been guilty of myself. Watching from the outside in also deprives you of the ability to see the issues that lie beneath the surface and may not be directly visible. (Such as the aforementioned decimation of the African American family structure also causing the rates of childhood depression to skyrocket to 10 times that of more affluent American communities).

As much as we hear about the Palestinians as terrorists, and see images of the damage that they do, we rarely hear about how a lot of the people doing it are women and children who's lives or families have been wiped out by Israel's continual expansion and/or military action.

Personally, until I looked into it, I had never heard about how almost 40 groundwater wells have been confiscated from them, or how Israeli bulldozers have destroyed some 35,000 meters of agricultural and domestic water pipes (which, in turn, deprived some villages of their only source of water).

I also hadn't heard about the house demolitions, invasions and curfews that have left 75% percent of them below the poverty line, and 30% of their children suffering from malnutrition. I hadn't heard at all about the Separation Wall that the Israeli government is building to 'protect' it's citizens, that will cut them off from even more hospital access and other basic life necessities...while also conveniently taking 50% of their land from the West Bank.

An Israeli friend once told me that their government tightly controls all media that enters and leaves it's state. Maybe that's why I had to dig to find these things out. Or maybe I'd never heard them because our government has a lot of financial interests tied up in Israel, and there'd be no advantage whatsoever in giving us the opportunity to empathize with the Palestinians. Particularly since the Israeli government seems to be demonizing them for the same reason our government demonized the Native Americans; ( i.e. to justify wiping them out instead of having to share the land) so there's no point in our trying to justify stopping them anyway. Perhaps however, that's the exact reason that we should stop it from happening. Particularly since it's our military and financial backing that's making it all possible. Isn't one time bad enough?

Personally, I would rather not look back as an old man, and think 'You know...It's a shame what happened to the Palestinians...". Regardless of how small my voice may be, I would still rather raise it now, and question whether or not our support of these action is really a good idea. Especially while there's still a chance of changing them. If we really are conducting a 'War on Terror", wouldn't that necessarily include questioning whether or not our actions are contributing to the development of it? (Is it a coincidence that this recent terrorist attempt flared up after Israel started it's offensive campaign into it's Arabian neighbor countries? Maybe, but maybe not.)

Perhaps the Palestinians are not the extremist, terroist culture that our media makes them out to be. Perhaps they use suicide bombs not as a weapon of choice, but because their bodies are the only weapon that they have left, and they're tired of fighting tanks and well-armed soldiers with rocks and homemade slingshots. Perhaps, what they are, much like the aborigines of Australia (who's population is now only 1/100th of what it used to be), our own Native Americans, and the original Ainu people of Japan, is a people who are struggling to fight their own extinction on the land that they, their parents, their grandparents, and their great grandparents have always lived on. You tell me: Is this a perspective we've heard from our media?

In summation, I'd like to end this blog with a few quotes that I thought you may all find interesting. Since becoming Prime Minister of Israel, the Israeli government claims that the 1956 quotes from Ariel Sharon are 'Palestinian Inventions' but I'll leave that to you to decide.

"I don't know something called International Principles. I vow that I'll burn every Palestinian child (that) will be born in this area. The Palestinian woman and child is more dangerous than the man, because the Palestinian child's existence infers that generations will go on, but the man causes limited danger."

"I wanted to encourage my soldiers by raping Arabic girls as the Palestinian women is a slave for Jews, and we do whatever we want to her and nobody tells us what we shall do but we tell others what they shall do."

Ariel Sharon, in an interview with General Ouze Merham, 1956.

“We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population.”

- David Ben-Gurion quotes (Polish born Israeli Statesman and Prime Minister (1948-53, 1955-63). Chief architect of the state of Israel and revered as Father of the Nation, 1886-1973)

“This is my homeland, no one can kick me out.” -Yasser Arafat

Special thanks to Iba Farrah, main researcher in health behaviors of school-aged children in Palestinian Territories, for providing information to supplement this blog, and to writer, Tim Wagner, for his input before it's publishing.

Sex, Success and their Patterns of Correlation

2006-08-07T22:42:00.000-07:00

While staring at the murals of naked women all over the walls of a 'love motel' I recently stayed in on a trip to Seoul, I couldn't help but ponder just much time I, (and every other guy I know) spends thinking about sex.

In addition to that, as I was there by myself on a shoestring budget, (and it was totally unlikely that I was gonna get any) I couldn't help but put a philospohical spin on it. It was either that or push-ups. Looking back, (or more aptly, looking around), caused me to reflect on a passage from a book I had read by Napolean Hill, called Think and Grow Rich. In that book, the author had suggested that oftentimes men who had achieve great levels of success are highly sexual in nature, but that they never achieved that success until they were in their 40s. The author hypothesized that this is because at that point, they are settled in, their sex drive has calmed down a bit, and they are turning their mind to other things. Intrinsically, in kind of a bizarre way, it seemed to make sense. For most of the guys who figure them out how to score early enough in life, all that drive, all that ambition goes into chasing after the opposite sex. I think as guys we've all known the dude who has no trouble with the opposite sex, and we also all know that that's all he ever talks about.
Conversely however, we've also all read about the guys who did achieve a lot of great things when they were young, and suprise suprise, most of them did so -at least in part- because they weren't concerned with the opposite sex. In the case of Muhammed Ali, from what I'd read, it's because he was never really good with them. (This is also the case with an All-Japan Judo champion I know.) In the case of Leonardo and Michaelangelo, I had heard that it was because they were gay and sexually frustrated. This also makes me wonder what was really going on when they named all the Ninja Turtles. If any of you are interested in writing a version of that Da Vinci code, I guarantee you'll have at least one reader ;)

Could it be that that's why Christianity and Catholicism put so much emphasis on celebacy as a path to living a righteous life (i.e. to keep the focus?). A good friend of mine who chose to remain so until he married is also the only person I've even known to have the discipline to develop an absolutely perfect looking body. If that's not a prime example then I don't know what is. It's enough to make you wonder if John Wayne Bobbit would have been better off without the 're-sewing'.

Coming up as a kid...and teen...and finally young adult, I always felt plagued by the fact that I was such an audaciously late bloomer. But then again, looking at where I'm at and what I'm doing now, as a function of it, I guess I should count my blessings.

Success, Relaxation and their Pattern of Correlation

2006-08-05T07:07:00.000-07:00

Today I've spent the day in the airport waiting for my flight to return to Tokyo from Seoul. Thanks to the wonders of visa complications (or lack of visa complications I should say) I wasn't able to join the flight that I was scheduled for, and as such have had quite a lot of time to think while I wait for my flight tomorrow morning. (That and read the pamphlet the little Korean Jehovah's witness gave me).

Anyway, in refecting on my trip and how smooth it was (overall ;) , I couldn't help but notice that 1) I recently I always seemed to have just enough of everything, (food, time, money, etc.) and 2) that that that means that a decision that I made a year ago is finally starting to come to fruition. What I had decided was to give myself more than enough.

Right around this time last year, I went to a sports club to teach Tae kwon do as I usually did. At the time, I had a headache from not sleeping enough, my stomach was tied in knots from not eating enough, and I had a torn hamstring, and pulled muscles in both calves. I was in absolutely no condition whatsoever to be exercising (let alone teaching anyone else how to), and when none of my students showed up, I wasn't just relieved, I was happy. Oddly enough however, despite the fact that the martial arts room was usually packed on Saturday, no one else showed up either. It could well have been that it was a national holiday or something and being the ignorant (and illiterate) foreigner that I am, I simply didn't know it. For whatever reason however, I was alone- and I was grateful for it.

Instead of going home, I took a few minutes to go through a light Tai Chi routine (which I usually did to assess my body's physical condition) and then stretched out. As my room in my apartment at the time was no bigger than an unfolded rubix cube, I was happy to have the space to do it. After that, still instead of going home, I simply laid down on the mat and let my tightened muscles relax. Connected as they are, my mind eventually followed suite, and I came to notice something. That not just the room, but the whole building was absolutely perfectly quiet. There was no noise.

And it occurred to me at that moment that despite my best efforts at achieving my goals, that's what I was missing. Silence. As any ring fighter will tell you, you can't perform well when you're nervous. 1) Because you expend way too much energy and you exhaust yourself, and 2) because you can't think clearly, so your responses to stimuli (i.e. a fist or foot flying at your face) are never optimal. The point of practice and ceaseless repitition is not just for building muscle or stamina, it's for building confidence in your movement and correspondingly, mental relaxation. It was something that I'd taught a million times, and something that I knew to strive for when I fought, and yet something that I had never really internalized. With that, I decided that the difficulty with my situation didn't stem from my own inability, it stemmed from my lack of relaxation. Relaxation that I knew could easily be achieved if I started giving myself more than what I thought would be enough of everything. Intrinsically, it made sense. All the books on financial management I had read said to save at least 10% of everything you ever earn. Why? So that you have more than enough. When rough times come, you have something to fall back on, and as such, never have any reason to loose your cool.

With that, as I walked out of that gym -epiphany in hand- I decided to re-write every plan I'd laid out for the next year. If I gave myself 1 month to get something done, I extended it to 3. If I had a budget of $100 to get something done, I'd find a way to do it on $30. As such, if I achieved what I set out to do- I would be ahead on my schedule and my money, not trying just to keep up. Although I didn't know it at the time, this was also analogous to a certain business success ideal: Underpromise, and overdeliver.

In both life and business I'd been working the other way around. And I was paying for it with continual frustration and loss of respect in my social network.

Bruce Lee once said that before one studies a martial art, a punch is simply a punch. But then as they study, it becomes more than that. It becomes a process; a system; effort, and learning, and then after it's all been internalized, and the mind silences, a punch, once again is merely a punch. Albiet a waaaaaaaaaay better one. Now, as my efforts at mental relaxation internalize themselves, the 4 year struggle to produce my company's first product line comes to a close, and I prepare to make the leap from part-time model/actor to full-time, we'll see just how much stronger my punch has become.

Suicide, Success and Nature Finding Balance

2006-07-19T19:09:00.000-07:00

Living in a city where suicide happens on a fairly regular basis, one can't help but think about it. Particularly at those times when it stops the trains and makes you late for work. As such, I thought I'd take a minute to share my thoughts about it.

The funny thing about life is that in order to truly know happiness, we must also have a taste of sadness too. In order to truly enjoy the great highs it has to offer, for one reason or another, we always have to fight our way through the great lows in the process- sometimes with little more than faith to guide us on our way.
Personally, I think it stems from the 'tao' of all things and the dualistic nature of the universe that we live in. Facing sadness on the way to happiness, and failure on the way to success is simply how nature finds it's own sense of balance. It is the overcoming of failure and sadness, afterall, that gives us the strength to maintain and manage success and the happiness that comes from not taking that success for granted. I think all of us have met the rich kid who was born with everything, but remains miserable, or heard about the lottery winners who splurge their money in a year's time, or seen the one-hit-wonders who succeed in no time, but then go out just as quickly.
On the opposite side of the coin however, there are the stories of how Britney Spears failed on Star-Search, Bill Gates hospitalized himself multiple times building Microsoft or how Colonel Sanders proposed his fried chicken recipe to over 100 people before someone finally decided to invest in KFC.
As dissimilar as all of these events may seem, ultimately, they are all manifestations of the same process. - nature finding balance. And I think it is those who know that- and are guided by it- are the ones who really truly get somewhere in life.

The unfortunate thing however, is the potential for success that the hardships of life can give us do not always come to fruition. Oftentimes, we give up along the way, and all those battles that we fought, don't become our training ground- they become our reason for depression. They become our reason to hate life, and among those unfortunate souls who never pull themselves out of it- they become a reason to end it. Either they don't know, or they loose sight of the fact that the hell that they are suffering through- despite how awful it may be- is their greatest asset. They don't know that life, God, the 'Tao” or whatever else you want to call it- has deemed them worthy of a test- the ultimate test, really – the test of pure faith. And they don't know that most of the people who have achieved the greatest levels of success in society, have done so because they fought their way through it. As unknown as they may be, the aforementioned stories of Bill Gates, Colonel Sanders or Britney Spears are not exceptions-they are the rule. In searching for ways that I can succeed myself, I've found that in studying the lives of any person who achieves great success, similar battles (or tests) can be found- the fact that Mary J. Blidge used to be a teenage prostitute or that Michael Jordan missed the highest number of baskets in the history of the NBA, being but a few examples.

Perhaps, at least in the states, that is the media's fault for deifying these people and their success instead of showing them for the real people that they are, who fought the real battles that they did. Perhaps, it is the fault of the society that we live in, where children aren't being raised with the mental (or in many cases, even familial) support structure to handle these battles. Perhaps, as suicide doesn't seem to limit itself to any particular race, creed, or social class, is simply a naturally occurring facet of the human existence itself. Regardless of it's reason however, one thing is certain, the tragedy of it not only lies in the loss of a human life, but in the loss of a potential warrior to inspire the rest of us.

Recommended Readings on Taoism, and nature's balance:
The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet by Benjamin Hoff
The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra

Difficulties facing Japanese learners of EFL

2006-07-19T00:06:00.000-07:00

Not too long ago, a friend of mine who's doing research on the topic asked me for my thoughts on English teaching in Japan. As it was an open-ended question, and seemed to flow right into the last blog that I'd written, I decided to put it into blog form. Comments welcome!

I've been an English teacher for approximately six years now, roughly five of which was spent in Japan. Thus far, it's been an interesting experience to say the least, and after spending so much time here, I still find myself asking the same question that I've heard posted time and time again by those that come here: Why is it that people in Japan have such a hard time speaking English?

I've come to deduct that, like any complex question, the answer itself may not be particularly difficult, but involves looking at it from more than one angle. I think there's a myriad of factors that come into play in facilitating the difficulties that Japanese people face in communicating in English, but in particular, culture, lack of easy opportunities for practice and the Eikaiwa system itself all constitute major reasons. I'll describe each in detail as follows:

As aforementioned, the first major factor that creates difficulty in Japanese people's ability to communicate in English is culture. As anyone who has ever been there will tell you, (in particular in Tokyo), Japanese people are notoriously shy and cautious around people that they don't know. Being able to both think in, and produce speech in a foreign language requires a great deal of mental effort, and as a function of that, as with excellence in anything, mental relaxation is the key to quick and accurate responses. In Japan, everyone is required to study English for 6 years in Junior High School, and in general, most everyone seems to maintain a working base of grammar, and are capable of conveying and understanding meaning through reading and writing. One of the biggest problems blocking their ability to actually produce speech is simply their nervousness. Anyone who's ever given a speech can tell you how much more difficult it is to produce when you are shy (even if you know the material), and for the average Japanese person on the street, talking to foreigners represents a particular challenge that they rarely feel they are prepared for; even if just in casual conversation. This is particularly the case when talking to western foreigners. Although economically, Japan is relatively egalitarian, socially most people are either oriented towards looking up or looking down at people who are different from them; not simply seeing them as being in the same position on the social ladder. Given the economic, military, and political strength of the west, many Japanese see Western foreigners as holding a stronger relative position in the scheme of things, and may view their lack of shyness (and oftentimes humility) as an indication of their 'superior position'.

At the same time however, it is equally likely that a great deal of this shyness simply stems from lack of exposure and the uncertainty that comes with dealing with someone who looks, walks, talks, and acts completely different from you. This brings us to our next factor; lack of opportunity to speak. As aforementioned, mental relaxation is a key attribute to effective and quick thinking, both of which are necessary for language production.

Unfortunately however, the only way to develop it is through enough repetition and practice that one's mind can learn what factors to take into account in making decisions, and what factors not to concern itself with, thereby allowing it to relax and hone it's processes. In the case of Japanese language learners this offers a particular challenge in terms of the fact that for the average person, there are very few opportunities to get this repetition at home. This is further complicated by the fact that those foreigners living in Japan- in an attempt to make things 'easier' for them- will oftentimes speak to them in broken English themselves, thereby depriving them of the only interactive model they have available as what natural English is supposed to sound like. Although traveling abroad in search of opportunities to speak naturally may be a viable option for some, they may still be hindered by the aforementioned nervousness they feel around Western foreigners, and many will settle into groups of other traveling Japanese so as to avoid the need to communicate individually at all.

This may not particularly be the case when traveling to other areas in Asia (where Japan holds the strongest relative position), but at the same time, in the speaking opportunities presented by communicating with others who learned English as a foreign language, key elements such as accurate grammar and pronunciation may or may not be present, even if the person whom they are communicating with is capable of a greater level of articulation in English.

This, of course, leads Japanse students of EFL to their last available resource, the 'Eikaiwa', or English conversation school. Having worked extensively at a myriad of Eikaiwa in Tokyo, I can attest to the fact that they can truly give Japanese students the simple practice of speech that they very much need to improve. Unfortunately however, oftentimes, the function of the demand being higher than the supply necessitates they may also be staffed by people with little to no education in the field of English teaching (or even in education in general), and the models of learning that they put forth may or may not be entirely accurate. (Take, for example how may Eikaiwa texts have face-to-face dialogs that start with the word 'Hello'. In English, hello is a telephone word and is rarely, if ever used when native speakers greet each other).

Another problem facing English learners at Eikaiwas is the fact that, as much as staff and management may care about their students, the fact remains that business is business. As such, and as a function of the fact they have to remain competitive with other schools, oftentimes a students' constant buying of new materials is of more relevance than that business than whether or not they are actually learning and progressing at a pace that is suitable for them. As any Eikaiwa teacher will tell you, students may be advanced to a higher class before they are even competent with the text, grammar or functions that they are given, leaving it to teachers to find the delicate balance of keeping things moving for the capable students while still slowing things down enough so as not to leave the low ability students behind.

The Japanese, School Education, and Creativity

2006-07-18T23:57:00.000-07:00

The differences between the American system of school education and that of Japan fascinate me. Not only because of the differences in how they are structured, also because of the differences in 'intellectual output' they produce as a result. As a foreigner living here in Japan, we have all heard Japanese people mention that they struggle with efforts of creative thinking. I think we have all heard the stories of how the new CEO of Sony (and a few other prominent Japanese companies) have in recent years, become foreigners, and how this was due to a lack of confidence in the current administration to successfully lead these companies in 'new directions'. Although, as with any social issue, I'm sure this 'lack of creativity', comes about as a function of a multitude of different factors, I personally believe that it stems mostly from the educational system that's in place, and it's emphasis on multiple choice answers. This is NOT to say that in the west we don't use our fair share of multiple choice too, (in particular for any and all forms of standardized testing), but only that there are also allowances for creative thinking and expression, and this is what I think is missing from the Japanese system.
Oftentimes in life, we are faced with multiple choices, but that doesn't however mean that those choices are the only ones available. When faced with a selection of A, B, and C, it is only the creative thinker who can imagine the D, E, or in some cases, even F. Is it these people who generally go on to do great things, and it is in this arena that we, as westerners shine. (One example of this being Einstein, who instead of choosing between multiple theories on the behavior of light, simply said that the whole system of observation was wrong to begin with).
As an English teacher, I also think that this particular issue is in part why Japanese students tend to have a harder time producing in English than many of their other Asian counterparts. Conversation, being the fluid and dynamic process that it is, requires a certain ability to think on one's feet, and improvise. The idea of 'going with the flow' may not particularly come naturally when one is raised in an environment of constant 'multiple choice solutions'.
To be sure however, as aforementioned there are other factors that come into play. Given the fact that the Japanese word for 'different' is also generally used to be 'wrong', and the fact that society revolves around rules of thumb such as “The nail that sticks out is the one that gets hammered into the wall”, one can assume that any situation requiring free and autonomous thought wouldn't be a comfortable one. Particularly when they are dealing with a foreigner- someone else who's thinking is a complete and total unknown. The subsequent shyness that would result can be, (and as many other English teachers will tell you, is) debilitating. On another note, the lack of the latter cultural element-shyness- may explain why Korean students seem to do a little bit better with creative production than their Japanese counterparts. (Particularly given the fact that the school systems are set up in a virtually identical matter).
At the same time however, despite all these factors, all one ever needs to see is a Japanese variety show, improv comedy act, or break dancing competition to know that they're fully capable of being every bit as creative as we individualistic-minded westerners are. Perhaps their creativity simply stems from group efforts, or perhaps, it could be that they're simply not creative around us.

East vs. West - Saving Money

2006-07-18T22:48:00.000-07:00

A long time ago, a friend of mine once told me a joke that I’ve since taken to heart. She asked me, “How is money just like food, water, air, and sex? To that, as is natural for my personality, I came up with a long, drawn-out, and historically-illustrative thesis, to which she replied, “…uh…yeah all that too…but besides that, it only means something to you when you’re not gettin’ any.”. That was the better answer I thought. And that is the punch-line I use when I tell people this joke myself. (My answer wasn’t very funny and it takes too long to regurgitate).

The funny thing is though, right now, we as a Americans are getting a lot of it, (actually, more than anyone else on Earth), but it still means more to us than ever. Why? Because we don’t know how to save it. One of the biggest differences that one notices between Western (in particular American) financial habits and those of Easterners, is that for the most part, people in the East are really really good at saving money. Although I would imagine that there are also some cultural factors that help to facilitate that difference, (such as an emphasis on putting the family first instead of one’s own individual wants and desires), insomuch as I know, the biggest reason for that is due to the different set ups of the government. The Japanese economy and the particular style of Capitalism they developed, (which, in the past few decades has come to be the model for a multitude of other Asian countries) seems to have been set up such that it would be financed by the savings of it’s citizens. As a function of that, things were laid out in such a way, (such as needing cash up front to move or buy homes, or a lack of general social ’safety nets’) to instill in those citizens that in order to survive they needed to learn to save.

In the States however, given our particular position in the world, this is a policy that we’ve very much been raised without. As a function of the fact that 1) everyone else is still using the US dollar as the international standard for currency, and 2) we, as contemporary citizens have had the advantage of being in the richest place on Earth for as long as we, our parents, (and more than likely, our grandparents) have ever been alive, we’ve become accustomed to idea that having debt is natural and unavoidable, when in actuality, it’s neither. At least it isn’t for so many Japanese who wonder why it is that so many foreigners who come here can’t seem to get themselves together financially. I should know; I was certainly one of them. In that respect, having learned how to save money on my own out here, I wish that more Americans could step outside of the system that we live in to see this, and the myriad of other advantages of doing things differently. Particularly since knowledge gained is certainly something that can always be brought home (I know my financial survival skills certainly will be).

And given the fact that even our government can't seem to balance it’s own books lately, I think that in the future, it won’t just be an advantage, but a necessity.

Good reads how to save money:
The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley
The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason

Who I am...and why I go by 'Chuck'

2006-07-18T22:40:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon to all readers. My name is Charles, but most of my friends call me Chuck. For myself, that name generally conjures up images of large guys with mullets in varsity jackets and high tops, driving around in old school camaros taking people’s lunch money, but I generally always go by it anyway.

Why, you ask? Certainly not because I have a mullet, or have ever owned a varsity jacket or Camaro. (Although I did have a few sick pairs of high tops back in the day). I use it because it’s just plain easier to say than ‘Charles’. If you don’t believe me, put a bunch of saltines in your mouth and see which one you can roll off the tongue easier. This is particularly the case in Asia, where folks struggle with their ‘r’s and ‘l’s. Asking people to pronounce a name that has both an ‘r’ and ‘l’ back to back is just a brutal process for both their tongues, and my ears, so I’d much rather just save them the trouble.

Who (or what) I am is a traveler, and for the past 7 years, I haven’t just lived in Asia- I’ve visited virtually every corner of the globe. Traveling as a student, teacher, and volunteer, I’ve been as far north as the Artic Circle about Norway, and as far south as Ushuaia, at the southern tip of South America. I’ve done treks in rain forests, have stayed in buddhist temples in Thailand, and have even worked as an assistant on a Safari in Kenya. Why? Because believe it or not, I wanted to learn how to fight. I started off my travels as an olympic-style tae kwon do player who came to Asia for training. While training in Korea however, I discovered that the more time I spent outside of my comfort zone, the quicker and more adaptable my mind became- something that I thought would be invaluable in the ring. In addition to that, I also saw parallels in what I was trying to learn to do in the ring, and what I actually was doing while traveling- that is, constantly adapting to a continuous, fluid, and at times unpredictable situation. And the better I got at it, the calmer I became- both in and out of the ring. So it was that I developed my addiction.

At present, I live in Tokyo, Japan, and am an actor, model and business owner. As I mentioned before, I’ve been out here for 7 years now, and plan to stay for another 3 whist I build my company’s business and pursue a career in Asian Action Cinema. In part, I am writing this blog simply to explore my own mind- to masturbate philosophically if you will- as I live here and experience life as it is out here. At the same time however, I want to write it to share with you, my family, friends, and hopefully readers, the things that I’ve learned. I hope that you all can enjoy it, find elements of it insightful -or in the least, worth arguing over- and entertaining. In the least, I hope that you can grow from reading it, in much the same way that I grow by trying to articulate my thoughts to you. Thank you for taking the time to read these entries as I hope you will, and I look forward to any comments (even the critical ones) you may have of anything I have to say.

Chuck Johnson