(More) Dark days in Japan

Today Japan had national elections for the Upper House.  They were critical elections because the Liberal Democratic Party - who are anything but liberal or democratic - already has a "super majority" in the lower house.  A super majority - 2/3 - in the upper house will mean that the Constitution can be amended by a referendum that needs only 50% approval. The goal of PM Abe is to amend the consitution to allow Japan to re militarize and participate in wars of aggression.  

In the second Gulf War, Japan was constrained by its constitution and sent support troops rather than fighting troops.  Even though the Chilcot report was released only a few days ago, there seems to have been almost nothing connecting it to the fact that had Japan had a Constitution that was already amended, Japanese troops would also have been fighting in an immoral and illegal war.

The other day I was in Azabujuban train station - probably the nearest station to the Korean embassy.  The Cabinet office has seen fit to put up a propaganda poster  - using my tax money, despite the fact I can't vote against them - demarcating as Japanese, all Japan's contested territories.  When you look at Takeshima a few bare rocks (which Korea has a stronger historical claim to) it's pretty hard to imagine justifying a war over who who owns them...  Although, Japan has a stronger historical claim to the Senkaku than China,  they are indisputably very far from the Japanese mainland. And yet, all Japan's territorial disputes are now included in Japanese school textbooks, not as contested territories, but as Japan asserting its right to the territories.

This week, the LDP has put out a page on its website.  "Dob in teachers who are not politically neutral".   They give as an example saying that changing the constitution will mean sending Japanese to war is not neutral.  Looking at different opinions - otherwise known as source base history - is not neutral.  My history teaching is not neutral - I ask students to think for themselves... I don't tell them what to think.

The government is duplicitous. They want it both ways.  They say they want to foster international "human resources", but it needs to be in the context of instilling Japaneseness.  They want critical thinking  - but not criticism the government or the status quo.  They want tourists from China and Korea and yet insist that the Nanjing Massacre and the stories of comfort women are fabrication.

The reports tonight are that young people voted right. And I can believe it. Not because the young people are fascist, but because they have no political structure to put information in.  They are indulged with saccharin nationalism.  Textbooks with morally superior nonsense like the world admires Japan because  Japanese are polite and have good manners and are restrained... Japan is benevolent and helps the poor children in African and India who are too incapable of helping themselves.  And this in itself need not be nationalistic saccharin, except it is because it's seen as being something that comes with the Japanese DNA, not something that it actively promoted and reinforced by conscious decisions in society.   There are lots of great things about Japan, but asserting that they are great, because this is the consciousness of Japan gives rise to an indulged sense of wanting one's country - and by extension oneself - to be flattered.

I am dismayed, utterly dismayed.  Looking at America - more guns doesn't equal more peace.  Why on earth do the Japanese people - who are extremely anti gun - think that more weapons will bring them greater peace....

It's a very sad day for Japan.

The legend of the Namahage and Goshado

This is a direct cut and paste from the Akita prefecture page on Cultural Assets.

http://www.namahage-oga.akita.jp/english/

Picture: Dedication of a peach to the emperor Wu of the Han/Akagami Shrine collectionIn the ancient Han dynasty of China, the emperor Wu came to Oga with five bats to find a medicinal plant for an elixir of immortality. The five bats transformed into demons and worked hard for the emperor, but one day, the fives bats asked the emperor “Could you please give us just one day to rest?” Eventually they had a break on the 15th of the New Year. They went down to the villages and stole crops, animals, and even young girls. People in the village were distraught and offered the emperor a deal .If the demons could make a thousand stone steps from the beach to Goshado shrine, located on the summit of the mountain, in a single night before the roosters crowed, they would offer a girl to them every year. If they could not, the demons were never to return. Although people in the village expected that it would be impossible to build a thousand stone steps in a night, the demons made the steps easily. When the demons finished making the 999th stone step, people panicked. But the villagers tricked the demons by having village fool imitate the “cock-a-doodle-doo” of the morning rooster’s crow. The demons were so surprised and mad that they pulled over a thousand-year-old cedar, stuck it into the ground, and stormed back to the mountain. They never came down to the village again.

Oga, Akagami, Goshado, Namagahe

From the former lake, formerly know as Hachirogata we went to the coast of Oga Peninsula, On the map below you can see the former lake surrounded by a thin blue line (canal) with roads that are unusually straight for Japan. 

Monzen, a small fishing village on the southern coast of Oga

On the sign here you can see in the bottom left series of maps that Oga used to be an island, when sea levels were higher. The explanation that the road was built by the Self Defence Force in 1959 highlights how relatively isolated the areas is. 

Namahage statue
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Namahage are demons,  oni in Japanese  (but perhaps originally gods) from Oga folklore. In Oga folklore the namahage comes to people's homes looking for naughty children who need to be scared into being good.  It's not just a myth though, appointed people really do dress up as namahage and come to terrorize children... It recently made it to the world heritage culture list.... I guess child protection agencies haven't made it to UNESCO...  Perhaps it's not surprising that it's a rapidly depopulating area...  Namahage, according to at least one version of their history came to Oga from China during the Han dynasty (2000 years ago or so). There are similar kinds of traditions in other Japan Sea towns which would have had historical contact with Chinese trade, so the theory seems plausible

Looking down from Chorakuji Temple 

Looking down from Choraku-ji

I forgot to note what this is...it's at the entrance of the walking path to Goshado

   .

The forest on the way to Akagami Jinja's Goshado.

 

According to a local who I was talking to there,Akagami jinja (shrine) came into being during the Meiji era when the pressure was put on temples to become sites for Shinto worship. The Tendai temple, now a Shingon temple, became a shrine.  I should have asked more specifics about the mechanics of  this... Anyway, Akagami, which translates as red god/s, was the name of the mountain and the temple became a shrine as well.

Torii on the way to Goshado

The path up to Goshado.  There are apparently 999 steps to Goshado... I guess passive aggression got the better of someone and they left out the last step.

Goshado

Spring foliage

Golden Week in Akita - Hachirogata and Gojo(no)me

Golden week wasn't much of a week this year.  Friday 29 (Showa/ Hirohito day) was a holiday.   Tues 3 (Constitution Day)-  was a also a holiday - though a bit of a thorny issue at the moment since the government has made laws to circumvent Article 9 of the Constitution - that Japan not fight wars of aggression or the wars of other countries.  One university I teach at had classes, presumably motivated by wanting to appear as they were dissuading students from partipating in protests aimed at preserving the Constitution, decided to have classes for the day, despite the public holiday. Wednesday, 4th was Greenery Day (celebrating Japan's love of concrete perhaps?) and today is Children's Day (which used to be Boy's day - though girl's day still remains but not as a public holiday).

I popped up to Akita briefly - night bus both ways because although it takes 9 hours,  it's more efficient with time.  On Monday we went on a day trip to Oga Peninsula via Gojo(no)me**  and the former lake known as Hachirogata which was turned into rice fields as vile engineering experiment that destroyed the lake and lake culture to produce rice in a country where rice was already in surplus by the time the reclamation project had finished.
I've put pictures in of the reclamation museum (which Hiro's father did the interior for) here. 
**[I think it goes under two pronunciations, Wikipedia and the local news call it Gojome, but Hiro's mother calls it Gojonome, so I am guessing Gojonome is a dialect form and Gojome is the standard Japanese name.]

First port of call was the Gojo(no)me Michi no Eki. Michi no Eki are a bit like farmers markets with other odds and sods for tourists on sale. In terms of produce the mountain veges were expensive (by local standards) and things like lotus root chips on sale out the front all came from overseas or other parts of Japan... But, the backyard of the Michi no Eki was seriously impressive. The back door opened up into a forest and Hiro's parents were gleefully pointing out the various mountain flowers and vegetables. To my eyes the poisonous ones don't look particularly different from the delicacies... I'll stick to buying vegetables at the vegetable shops...

Behind the Gojo(no)me Michi no Eki

Damako characters at the Gojo(no)me Morning market

The morning market
The real story here wasn't the produce, though the produce wouldn't be found in a Tokyo vegetable shop.  The real story was that everyone selling vegetables was at least more than 70 and more likely more than 80 in most cases. There were no young people to be seen... I guess going to the mountains to pick veges to sell isn't what young people do... a shift at 7-11 would be much easier and more reliable money.  Going to places like this makes me realize I need to improve my Japanese. The dialects would be a bit difficult to wade through, but Japan has changed a lot since these people were young. 

Fish and flowers at the morning market

Canola on Hachirogata

The lake that was Hachirogata that became Ogata Mura

Canoloa on Hachirogata

A naming puzzle - NeWoman

The English on this new shopping area of Shinjuku - NeWoman - looks like the pronunciation is New Woman. The Japanese pronunciation - as rendered by katakana - is New Man... Clueless English, or a gender statement. I assume the former.

Aruki Sumaho - Walking while using your phone.

NTT's commercial speaks for itself:

Protest Japan style

Seen in Komagome yesterday... on the campaign poster for PM Abe, the kanji  - noroi - has been written.  Noroi means hex or curse, so "Hex on PM Abe".  There was no similar message on the poster below, the local member from the same party.  correction, the poster below is from a Komeito member - the junior coalition party of the LDP. She is not from the LDP.
Graffiti is pretty unusual in Japan, political graffiti very unusual, to the extent that Anti Abe graffiti in found in railway toilets was being reported in the national news...
Deep angst or is the population becoming less compliant... a combination, or something else.

Protests and pictures

The protests are broken up by the police. Not in the sense that people can't protest, but in the sense that they keep people from forming a mass group.  They say it's about safety, but it's not because the police buses are parked end to end and if someone did for example have a heart attack, they are locked in by the barricades and the buses

The real reason is to stop the protesters getting a sense of unity, but more importantly to make it impossible to get photos like this:





http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201508300022

Instead the government prefers pictures like the ones below, which make protests seem dangerous, frightening and criminal. In reality though there was so much positive energy last night. People are seeing it as a beginning not an end.






Pictures are power. Pictures win and lose wars.




This is what democracy looks like.






We don't need collective security. Let's vote out the Diet members who voted for this.

The War Bills into law

Police and barricades outside the Diet.
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From the photos above, it looks like Japan is in a state of martial law. It was so ironic that the police were there to monitor the protesters who were scrupulously obeying the law, when the politicians inside were the ones breaking the law
On December 14 last year, the Japanese PM called an early election.  The reason for calling the election was that he wanted a mandate to delay the consumption tax increase and to make economic reform.  In reality, the beleaguered economy has been sidelined in favour of unpopular restarting of nuclear power and the passage of the War Laws. 

There have been protests throughout the year, first small and getting bigger. The 30th August saw an estimated 120,000 protesting in front of the Diet.  That might seem like a modest number, but in reality there has been a stigma on political protest and making overt disagreement.  Typically people look away.  Politics is taboo in the education system.   There is no source based history which presents different opinions of the same issue.  You might find students rattling tins to raise money for UNICEF, but you'd never find a branch of Amnesty International in a state school. 

Last night the government passed the laws at 3 am.  The laws aim to override article 9 of the constitution which made Japan a country that was forbidden from waging war. Now Japan will be able to fight in the wars of its allies (Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria wherever suits the US, on whom Japan depends for "protection").  The overwhelming majority of Japanese people do not want the changes to occur, hence the protests.  The crowds at the protests are diverse, at least by Japanese standards of diversity, but have a lot more young people than the nuclear protests. There have been two basic themes of the protests: Peace and democracy.  

The government has legislated the ability to go to war in wars that are not directly affecting Japan. There has been very little explanation of the scope of the laws. Old people fear conscription. There was talk a while back of moving the start of the university year to September (from April) to align internationally (well at least with the northern hemisphere),  and use the five month gap between school and university as national service.  I haven't heard that recently. Personally, I am sceptical that there would be conscription, but that gap does give rise for concern.  There is a general fear of militarization, especially but not only among the traditional left.  It's ironic that the communists, who should in theory be the party of revolution, are actually the pacifists...   In addition,  Japan has recently changed laws to sell weapons.  Deals between Mistsubishi Electric and Turkey to sell tanks have already been done.   Concerns about militarization have been compounded by a troubling Secrets Act which has created almost unlimited possibilities for what can be declared a secret and is not  overseen by an indpendent third party. These changes are reminiscent of the 1930s and there is a uneasiness that the government is moving towards militarism.

The second concern is that the process has been unconstitutional. There is a process for changing the constitution and it hasn't been followed. Even the government's own constitutionaladviser said the laws are unconstitutional.  It's so audacious. And has come after the Deputy PM lauded the Nazis, and said Japan could learn from the way they were able to change their constitution before the people were aware.

Was very disappointed that ABC Australia missed the second point in their reporting today. 
So that's what was going on at the National Diet.

Tambo Art, Inakadate, 2015

This year's theme at Inakadate's ricefield art was Gone with the Wind.  Hiro's father has a particular fondness for the movie and so we popped into see it on our way to Mt Hakkoda. The detail that they achieve through different coloured rice is truly remarkable.

The second feature was Star Wars.

A tribute to Ken Takakura

Hachimantai 3: Late summer flowers of Hachimantai

I don't remember the names of any except the white one in the top row - umebachi.  Locals are forecasting an early winter. The umebachi is an autumn flower and is already out, but to be fair according to the old Japanese calendar, autumn started last week.

Hachimantai 2: Hachimantai National Park.

From Fukenoyu we went on to the opening where you can climb Mt Hachimantai itself, but since you're already so high, the summit is a stroll rather than mountain climbing. We were there in the summer two years ago but the weather conditions didn't lend themselves to walking around then.  

Hachimantai National Park

The area is well signposted, though only in Japanese.
To be fair, it's not a place that tends to see foreign tourists
who are more interested in the well beaten path between
Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima. (all of which are well
worth visiting). Tourist hotspots in Japan tend to reflect proximity
to a Shinkansen line which is not always the best indicator.

There were quite a few maps, but this one at the entrance
was in need of repair. Otherwise facilities were in very good nick.

Alpine scenery

There are many lakes on the highland

As can be seen on the map above

English here.
We could have hiked to here from Fuku no Yu

Where we stopped for lunch

Walking through the highlands

The cloud meant that were were unable to see far off mountains like
Chokkai san and Akita Komagatake

High level conservation with walking paths through most of the area we walked.
So few people....

Small lakes punctuate the highlands

A good place to escape the Tokyo crowds.

Logistics of Hachimantai

A big part of the reason that tourists don't go to the area, despite it being quite beautiful


 and despite it having terrific onsen





is that the transport is more complex and less frequent than the Shinkansen.   This give you some idea (picture taken in 2013) so don't use for accuracy.

Bus information is now online in English. It probably needs looking at with google maps in the other, but it's great progress to have the information readily available.
Japan Guide has made a  pretty good effort to show how places are connected to other places.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3652.html

The updated English bus timetable for the area is below.
http://ugokotsu.co.jp/english/time-schedules-of-buses-around-tazawako-area

More work still needs to be done on getting hiking maps into foreign language. This would enable people to travel more easily across country on walking paths / hiking trails.

Walking paths from Goshogake