Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

I rented a very interesting porno DVD. This may not be called "Porno" because it has no sex scene and rarely showed girls' nude.

This is kind of porno by amateur actors. The story is like reality program setting. A girl takes men's public bath with only one towel. She seemed very shy. Naked guys around her looked at her erecting their things.

The film was shot in Japanese famous hot spring places. The DVD contained several episodes. In each time different girl tried to get into men's bath. Girls seemed to be semi-pro actress for porno. They acted like ordinary girl doing bold thing being so embarassed.

Guys were kind of hired amateur actors or ordinary guys who were interested in getting in the porno films. Their faces and private zones were censored.

One of the most interesting guy was Gaijin (foreigner) guy, who was tall and muscular white man. He showed up in 2 episodes. One episode is a girl with a towel came into the bath tub which he was in. He boldly showed his erected thing to her. Then he talked to her in English and poor Japanese. He introduced himself as Jack, American travelling in Japan. But a girl tried not to respond. But he was eager to communicate with her.

After she got out of the bath, she was interviewed by the staff and said "his thing was really big."

The other episode was the same guy was in the undressing room of the bath. He was toweling himself dry and wearing cloth after taking a bath. Then a girl came in. At first he said "Hey, this is men's room." But later he said "Don't worry. Come on in. Take it easy" showing his private zone. Then he spoke to a girl in English "Where are you coming from?" Do you like hot spring?" She responded in her poor English. She seemed to enjoy talking with him. He was so glad, too. In this episode, he said he lived in the town.

He was a really nice actor.

I've bought a DVD of that show a few years ago. I've watched it many times. I highly recommend all the people on the earth to watch it.

The show was produced amid the fear of coming war in Iraq by Alliance Atlantis. It caused controversy because the show featured Hitler as living man not just as evil guy.

Maybe the producer was worried about the atmosphere in the U.S. after 911 was like the one in Nazi-Germany.

Focal point of the film is indifference of ordinary people of that time. People did not want to care about politics because they were too tired of hearing serious news.

But the result of such indifference was Auschwitz.

In the show, there was a journalist who became counterpart of Hitler. His name was Fritz Gerich. He established the newspaper "Straight Path" to criticize Hitler's Nazism. But at the end, he was murdered in Dahau concentration camp after Nazi regime took over all the authorities of Germany.

Fritz wrote letter to his wife, it said "Urge others to speak up even what they say is unpopular."

That impressed me a lot. That may be most difficult thing on the earth but necessary to change things better.

The other thing that impress me was a leader of Storm Troops, Rohm was gay. Rohm was Hitler's long time comrade and Hitler knew Rohm was gay. Interestingly enough, Nazi murdered hundreds of thousands of gays in concetration camp along with Jews and Roma (Gyspsies).

I will visit Berlin and Auschwitz soon. I will telll you what I feel about the sights and their histories.

I rented a DVD of Micheal Moore's documentary film "Sicko."

The film described how terrible the U.S. medical system is. 50 million of Americans don't have health insurance. Even if you have one, the insurance company wouldn't pay for your treatment by making up technical problems.

Once you get a serious disease, you might bankrupt. Insurance companies and the government don't want to provide national health insurance like Canada, England and France. Of course, in my country Japan does. You government prioritizes money over human lives of the poor people. They say national health insurance is socialist idea that restricts individual freedom.

My opinion for the realities presented in the movie was that America is no longer role model for the world. Such scary society. Spending so much money on invasion of Iraq and other parts of the world, killing innocent civilians outside the country and leaving sick people die inside. Pathetic!

Well, I wouldn't say my country is best nor other country in Europe. But USA is trush. I know nice Americans personally but where they come from is sick land.

Recently I've been regretting that I tried to imitate as many things from USA as possible in the past. There are things I should learn from them but they have things I never want to learn from.  

Overall, the country is arrogant, corrupt, and undemocratic society. Who wants to live?

President Bush was assacinated in Chicago. Who killed him?

Of course, this is the fiction. Janre of mockdocumentary, but it looked very real.

After the assacination, the U.S. government used this fear to justify amendment of Patriot Act, tightening the freedom of citizens. Muslim man was arrested but there was not enough supporting evidence to convict him but he was convicted by the jurors.  

Why? This is the same old fashioned rhetoric. Once awful thing happened, no one can have objective view.

It was well-made documentary although it was a fiction.

But I wasn't very impressed. I am kind of tired of such anti-Bush propaganda films such as Micheal Moore's "Fahrenheit 911."

Yes, Bush was wrong. He did the wrong things. So did other politicians in the world. It is just easy to criticize the politicians but what are behind the actions they make? Think about it.

Even Gore was elected as President of the U.S., he might have dispatched troops to Iraq. Accusing just one politician for all the wrong things in the world doesn't actually change the world better.  

The Austraian government made an official apology to the Aboriginal people. The Prime Minister said "sorry" to the Stolen generation who were taken away from their families to concentration camps to be assimilated to white values.

I've seen the movie "Rabbit Proof Fence." Three Aboriginal girls forced to live in the camp apart from their parents escaped from the camp to go back their home by tracking down the rabbit proof fence. That was based on a true story. What a terrible thing whites did to them. This Aborigines' sad history was mentioned in the You Tube Video about whaling issue. Some scenes of the video showed Aborinial people and subtitles "Australians treated Aborigines inhumanely." The video was viewed by the Australia's foreign minister. It is now removed. But it was very interesting. The theme was Australians' anti-whaling is racist sentiment against Japanese.

Now we feel like Aborigines who were taken away their identity and culture. What is wrong with hunting whales and eating the meat? You are not only protesting whaling because of the extinction issue. You think whales are special animal that even there were plenty of it in the ocean, anyone should not hunt even one of them.

Your government showed the photos of captured whales being transported to the fleet from the ocean by the anchor. Cruel? Haven't you ever seen the photos of the meat factories? See this video.   

Are you extracting meat from cows, pigs and kangaroos without killing them? Are you living in the Disney fantazy? Learn the history of your people, there were Australian whaler ships in the past.

I shall stop eating Australian beef because cows are cute and intelligent. That is how you think.

I do not think your country is civilized nation. You might poison the beef like what Chinese did to us.

It is just fair to decide not to eat the meat imported from the people who criticize what we eat.  

The photo of whalemeat sashimi served in a restaurant in Tokyo.

This morning, I learned a very shocking news that an Australian actor, Heath Ledger died in his Manhattan apartment.

I've known him since I saw the movie "Brokeback Mountain." His act was superb. He turned out to be very American cowboy. His horse riding was great, too.

I would like to extend my deepest condolence on the sudden death of this great Australian actor.

But sorry, I don't like his home country, Australia because of whaling conflict.

I ate Aussie beef, tonight. But that's it. I do not think I would visit that country in my life.   

The film was about a woman who taught English at Long Beach High School. The school became decayed after integration program. Non-white students occupied the school and then good white students had gone. Most of the students had problems in their families.

A young teacher, Gruwell played by Hillary Swank taught her students how to live with confidence. It is based on a true story.

The main theme of the story is "Express yourself and learn how to live."

Learn how to live in the ghetto like Anne Frank did.

I know a woman who were a high school teacher. I think she was already retired. I remember she came over to help me with my life in US. She was so kind to me.

She said the message she gives her students was "There is no fair." The family she was born was very poor. She worked so hard to get a teacher's credential. Her father was half-Native American. She told me the stories of her father's experience.

I understand these words as I grow up. This is what a teenager should know before entering the grown-up society.

We want to complain but things don't change so easily just like the song "Waiting on the world to change."

But there should be a way out. The world is not perfect but can change better little by little. Don't do wrong things by your emotion.

Even after I left the U.S., we exchanged the emails each other from time to time.  

I was sometimes very rude to her because I had been so childish. I miss her so much. What is she doing now?

I hope I can see her again. Her name is Joyce Becker. She told me she was awarded a "Teacher of the Year" Award in California several years ago. She graduated from UC Berkeley. She was a teacher in San Diego.    

I rented a DVD of animated movie "Cars." The story was one rising racing car "Lightening Maqueen" got accidentally stuck in a forgotten town on route 66. He met cars in the town and learned how to live life. Funny and heart-warming story. Pictures were very detailed and beautifully drawn.

The world of cars living like humans was a great idea.

Looks like cars are living things for Americans. Yes, I know that because I used to drive in the U.S.

My car was '89 Mitsubishi Galant Sigma. 3 liter, 4 door sedan. Kind of luxurious car. I loved that car. I named him "Nobunaga" after famous Samurai lord in 16th century.

Everyone who drove my car said "moves smoothly like Cadillac." I was glad to hear that just like I was the one who was given such compliments.  

I drove from San Francisco to Los Angeles. 7 hours, that was longest drive in my life. The roads were wide. 1.5 time wider than Japan's. He was very nice friend to me.

When I left the U.S. and sold him to new owner, I gave him beer for the farewell.

Well, I guess that is the memory of 20th century. This is 21st century. People are well-aware of environmetal crisis. Cars are releasing green house gas. Also, what we have to pay attention is crude oil is running out. The oil is said to be run out in 40 years. That is why oil price is getting high recently.

We need to use public transportation instead of private cars to reduce emission. Not the time to enjoy driving.

It is critical time to think about future of our precious earth. Change the current lifestyle for our humankind to survive in this century and next century.

That is the main theme of 21st century.

Hope all of us have a happy new year.   

I rented the DVD of Morgan Spurlock's reality program titled "30 Days." People in the program experience different worlds including film producer Spurlock himself. He is tall and looks like cock bird.

I first know him by the film "Supersize me." The show described his experience of eating only McDonald's hamburgers for 30 days. He described the obessity issue of America. How McDonald made Americans so fat and unhealthy.

After the success of this film, he then made the documentary programs with the same rule, that is people experience different worlds for 30 days.

There are 3 programs I liked.

1. Morgan and his girlfriend decided to live their lives by minimum wage. They learned minimum wage cannot support standard level of lives and the law should be amended to increase the minimum wage level. If you would be so poor that you cannot even afford to see a doctor.

2.  An atheist woman lived in dedicated Christian family's home. There are not so many atheists in America, whereas in my country most people are. Dedicated Buhdists, Christians and other believers are minority and sometimes regarded as weird. In the U.S. Chrisitanity has strong influence in life. Christians cannot understand atheist way of living. Atheists feel oppressed in America. Kind of surprising to us, because America is a new country, why is it so religious?

3. The most impressive program, Cuban immigrant American who came to the U.S. legally when he was a child lived with illegal immigrants family. The Cuban man hates illegal immigrants and supports the governments tougher measure on the illegal immigrants. The family was just normal and happy loving people. The oldest girl was brilliant and thinking about going to the college. It was a big surprise to know that illegal immigrant girl could go to high school and got good grades and participate in golf tournament. Her school teacher supported her goals to achieve. She applied for Princeton and local college.

When I was in California, during 1990's, there was a referendum named Proposition 187, that bans providing services to illegal immigrants. There was a big anti-immigrants movement going on. I kind of understood people's anger towards illegal immigrants. They did not come to the U.S. legally. I never consider them good citizens.

In the program, the Cuban man went to Mexico to meet the relatives of the illegal immigrants family. Where they used to live was like rubble, I could understand why millions of Mexicans crossed the border just like the Cuban man did.

Blaming them cannot really solve this problem. This is the issue of global economy.

The program may include some kind of set-ups just like other documentary shows. But you can learn the importance of learning different worlds by real experiences.

Thank you, Morgan.

I was surprised to know an American actor who is famous for acting British sailor who arrived in 17th century Japan in the famous TV mini-seires "Shogun" was gay. He came out 4 years ago on TV interview program. If you want to know more about it, please visit this site.

In the mini-series, he made very impressive line of dialog. A British sailor named John Blackthorne was saved by Samurai lord. A woman who took care of him was so worried about his health. She recommended him to do pillowing with a woman or women. But he declined. Then a woman said "how about boys?"

Blackthorne was upset and said "I am not God Cursed Sodomite. My intimate customs doesn't include boys."

But the actor who played that role was. Very strange.

 In the interview, he said that he was so enthusiastic about playing that role and worked so hard getting the job because at that time Sean Connery was a big candidate.

Why was he so enthusiastic? He said he read the novel of the "Shogun." Maybe he learned what was Samurai's sexual life was by the book. As I described in this post, Japanese men's sexuality in the medieval to pre-modern period was bi-sexual. Samurai lords had gay lovers very openly. Some of their love stories became legends. The head of Japan, Shogun did have gay love affairs with his retainers.

Maybe Mr. Chamberlain wanted to jump into the period and the country where his way of loving people was considered normal. 

His act in the mini-series was very realistic and convincing. He really wanted to be Samurai. Samurai was free sex lover.

By the way, there was also a famous actor who came out as gay and is related to our country. Mr. George Takei, who played an important role in "Star Trek." I am very surprised to know that, too. I've seen him more than 10 years ago in Japan Town, San Francisco. I remembered he made a speech about Japanese Americans rights and harsh history.

If you want to know about him, please visit this site.