The first impressions I have of China...

 

1. I was not late for boarding. However, they assumed I was.  Japanese were like, "No need to rush, got 20 minutes" but Chinese were like "Why the hell didn't you run?" Hmmm....

 

2. 3 Car accidents in plain view 40 minutes into the country.

 

3. Homeless guy grabbing my shirt. I only had yen.

 

4. Excellent food.

 

5. Family fueds.

 

6. Yellow sky, pollution.

 

7. Noisy nights.

 

8. 10 million people.

 

9. Excited and fun.

 

What are my goals here?  I don't know why I'm here.  Maybe to see the place where I was born.

 

This will probably be my last entry in my stay in Japan.  I`ve had a lot of fun.  I enjoyed myself.  Time to move on.  China, are you ready?

I`ve spent the last few days trying to convince the few people I know in Japan that I am not crazy.  Maybe I am crazy, but I`m a little tired of meeting new people and meeting people in circumstances where I don`t want to talk to them.  But being a foreigner in Japan, other foreigners seem to like to get together.  However, I learned this weekend that if you get an English teacher drunk enough, he will forget that you (if you`re asian like me) are not Japanese, but Canadian.  Why is that?  Do Asians really look alike to a foreign eye?  I went from a normal conversation with a guy in the beginning of the night to having him say to me, "You know, your English is really good.  Where did you learn?"  Too bad, Mr. Genius, I learned English the same way you did, it`s my first language.  Sure, I know how to speak Cantonese and now a little bit of Japanese too, but really, I am an English speaker.  But it`s good to know that I can be Canadian to a sober white man, but I become Japanese as he becomes intoxicated.  Wow.

 

Anyway, I then went to Osaka and I went to an Aquarium there.  I took the pictures of some korean tourists who thought I was Japanese and so kind of left me alone.  When I bumped into them inside the Aquarium again, they asked me to take some pictures of them again.  Then, they asked me "The question" : Where are you from? and I said Canada.  Immediately, I went from, "Average Japanese guy" to them saying "You are so cool!"  What made me cool?  I`M Canadian?  Or am I Japanese?  Does it really matter?  For once, during my stay in the foreign lands of Asia, I`d like to know if I am liked because I am David or really, is it because I`M Canadian/Chinese/Japanese/Korean fricking whatever it is that makes me likable.  It`d be nice if it was because I was likable and not because my (perceived) nationality is why I`m likable.

 

Oh well, at least they took me to lunch.

 

 

It`s not survival of the smartest anymore.  It`s the survival of the wily and sneaky. It`s about how many alliances you can form, who`s got the bigger guns, who able to simply invade and destroy without thought.  It`s easier to simply find someone else to do it. The smart ones are being pushed away by brute force, lying and cheating and whatever little insecure tricks they have up their sleeves.

My boss is a gigantic man who pleasures in destroying the morale of the company because he is sad himself. By making us feel like crap, he has control over us.

A purely capitalist society would have people surviving and those who can`t make it, won`t.  But nowadays, we have many people going, "That`s not fair! Why is that rich guy who invented a new device to help all of us getting better treatment in the hospitals and getting to live in a big fancy house? Why should he get everything and why can`t I have it too?" Probably because the one complaining is sitting down complaining and not doing anything.

But all those cries get heard and they take away from those who work hard to make their living.  And now it`s been reversed.  You don`t have to work hard or have a good idea to be successful.  All you have to do is cry and whine that it isn`t fair and someone will give you what you want.

When I was growing up, I sometimes had other kids beat on me cuz I had nicer toys or when I was older, my parents bought me a car.  Well, I had people calling me "spoiled asian kid", but so what? My parents worked their asses off to give me those luxuries and they told me every day that when I`m old enough to be on my own, I better get used to doing that for myself.  And yeah, I have been doing that since. So I`m no longer spoiled cuz I don`t even have a car, but but Ihave to work hard to just go on living and it feels much better than having my parents hand me everything.

So, I guess the point of that is what I said before, there are more people simply begging for help than doing it themselves and they don`t feel any kind of remorse for taking others hard earned cash.  I mean, I made my money, why is someone taking it away?  I guess sometimes I dislike taxes.

But I think it is important to have some way of giving to those who need help.  I don`t think that it`s right to take opportunities away from people who are helpless, completely helpless.  For example, my cousin is mentally challenged.  He`s a great chef`s assistant.  He is able to chop and dice and prep food easily.  He was a dishwasher, but he wanted to do something else.  So the manager let him try out being an assistant.  Turns out he`s better than the other assistant`s in the restaurant so he got the job.  But if he had no support when he was younger, he`d never be able to get this far.  So it was our education system, paid by our taxes that helped him.  So taxes are all right.  But there are people who take advantage of that, and I think a lot of it is seen with the homeless population. 

I might get flamed, but I think a lot of homeless people are perfectly capable of finding work and getting their life back on track, but refuse to do it due to whatever petty excuses sympathizers like to come up with.  Sure, some are comlpetely off the wall and can`t be helped, some are mentally challenged.  But my cousin and his band of merry gentlemen are all mentally challenged, but they worked hard just the same.  The able bodied ones who refuse to work are the ones that I have a problem with and maybe that`s where the fittest comes in.  I know there are people out there who can`t find work, but at least they`re looking.  honest people shouldn`t be punished but encouraged, but it seems like for every honest person, there has to be 5 dishonest ones who break the cycle, who put a strain on our economy and social well-being.  They are the ones who whine and whine until somehow, a few of them make it up to the top.  And when they get to the top, they want to horde their wealth and power, forgetting that they got there by stealing from the honest people who really wanted to help.

あけましておめでとうございます！

 

こにちはみなさん！　お元気ですか？　僕は元気です！

 

さ　２００６年　が　おわりました！　とても　たなしいがった！

 

anyway, have a good 2007