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So it's goodbye from him:
This remarkably prescient rip of the omnipresent Shepard Fairey Obama poster (and man, did Shepard Fairey become insufferably smug in every interview I saw of him after that took off - great poster though) I snagged from a blog that pessimistically suggested that Japan wouldn't vote for change. Oh ye of little faith.
I watched the rolling coverage of the Japanese election with Yuki last night, and it was a lot of fun. I mean, it was interesting for her and really fun for me because I'm just a geek for politics like this. I just love watching the seats tot up, and while my Japanese remains very far from understanding a whole election night special, I could easily keep up on the big things. In fact the more I watched the more it reminded me very much of the New Labour landslide in 1997 (man, I can still remember John Snow standing infront of an actual computer-generated landslide, covering John Major - or was that on the Friday Night Armistice?) with many big Jimin-to (the LDP, Aso's beaten party) politicians being defeated by smaller Minshu-to (DPJ, Hatoyama's winning party) politicians, who were then interviewed on TV and couldn't stop beaming. It was fun, and a big enough swing to raise my eyebrows and even to stoke a little hope for change in the fires of the ol' heart.
Even if, as is very possible, very little changes in a switch from a conservative/right wing coalition to a more centre-left government, it's still striking for me that so many Japanese people voted for this change. It's a sign of my expectations that, when I read Aso's quote about "the DPJ have no experience, they don't even know how to run the country!" I worried that he might actually sway a lot of voters. Japan (like England, like America) is sick in a number of ways, but it's still a country that can change for the better, and like Obama's election, this is at least the first step towards that. Of course in the UK I've got nothing to look forward to other than apathy and a conservative government being elected by default next year, but I can enjoy the election in Japan at least.
In other news - Junichiro Koizumi's son, Shinjiro? Pretty hot.
No wonder he got elected. And Japan needs to get rid of hereditary policies in politics as soon as possible because that shit is just pathetic.
Oh, and apparently Hatoyama is a freemason? Whatever, fine, let the freemason's run the world if they're going to provide free education. Everyone's always like "Freemasons! Illuminati! Boo! They'll take tax payer's money and use it to clone dinosaurs with Walt Disney's head and then shoot them at the moon!" but frankly, who knows? Maybe they're in charge of a vast world-wide conspiracy of good guys? Ever think of that?
P.S. - I don't really think Hatoyama is a freemason.
I posted recently about my slight, but unchecked, affection for Love Game - the TV drama that gives over-acting its bad name back.
Well after thirteen episodes the first series of Love Game came to a conclusion last night in a fittingly overblown fashion involving such shocking events as poisoning, stabbing and cabbage throwing. Allow me to recap the plot of the episode for you, otherwise I know you'll feel left out.
The Love Game this time focussed on a seemingly good hearted bento girl, who slaved humbly away in her bento shop saving for the cheapest wedding dress to marry her boyfriend of some years. The challenge: a zillion yen (or whatever the amount is, I forget) if she can marry him within 24 hours. The twist? That he's actually got another girl on the side, the rich daughter of a politician, that she didn't know about. The other twist? That during a scuffle in a park the previous year he killed a homeless guy by accident, so the good hearted girl, even though she's good hearted, decides to blackmail him into marrying her and dumping the rich girl as she (the humble, good hearted, working her fingers to the bone girl) is the only one who knows he killed the homeless guy.
Remember, my Japanese isn't good, Yuki translated a little for me every now and then, but I probably missed some subtleties. Still, the show's only half an hour and this plot seemed... somewhat squeezed in considering everything is paced to allow for inordinately long dramatic speeches and about six commercial breaks.
Then the politician reveals he knows about the humble girl, and the boy who's in the middle of all this realises he has to make a choice... and says he'll marry the good hearted, humble, salt-of-the-earth girl - secretly intending, of course, to kill her.
Oh yes. Murder, the only rational solution.
The mysteriously beautiful Love Game woman realises this and steps in, trying to stop the humble girl from going to the chapel, since she'll be killed. The humble girl says - I know, but this boy's all I got, and since my whole life's come apart since you offered me this deal - I'll let him kill me.
Oh, and before that the Love Game woman went to get all enigmatic at the bento shop and the humble girl threw cabbage at her. Just thought I'd mention that. At this point the politician has been forgotten and his daughter was only in the show for two scenes.
But even now it's not so simple, that's why I'm writing all this out, it was like The Outer Limits with social-climber Tokyo-ites and infidelity.
The events at the chapel were the icing, the filling and the cherry on top. The plot was torturously revealled, but I'll break it down so it's easy for you mouth-breathers to follow.
The boy's at the chapel with a flick knife in his hand and murder on his mind. The girl arrives bearing secretly poisoned bento with which she (surprisingly) intends to do him in. He suddenly realises that she must have poisoned his bento, so he switches it for hers while her back's turned but actually, although she had been intended to poison him, she had a change of heart at the last minute and decided to poison herself. Hence, the poisoned bento had been hers and he ends up eating the bad one. She finds the knife... they struggle and he ends up with it and she says - you might as well stab me since I've poisoned myself anyway. At that point he starts coughing up blood.
Later he also stabs himself for good measure.
It was quite something.
All this fun reminds the mysterious Love Game woman of the boy who bled to death in her arms (on that roof top she wakes up on in the closing credits, I knew that had significance) and she resolves to unlock all the missing parts of her memory. The final Love Game... is hers.
Indulgent? You're welcome.
Just a quick post today. I'm overjoyed that Obama won, I hope it's a good sign for the future, and I hope that things in Britain will turn around so that I'm not reading shit like this:
Brown and Cameron in Obama Clash
...and actually wishing I was an American right now. Seriously that "first of a new generation of world leaders" line from Cameron makes my flesh crawl.
But putting that aside, America - well done. I'm off to find some right wing blogs and bathe in schadenfreude.
