Tuesday, March 27, 2007
my signature
It took all morning, but I finally was able to scan my "Japanese Signature" into the computer. As you can see it is quite beautiful. Next, I am going to incorporate it into a "meishi", japanese business card. I find I am always meeting new people, and I really want to have something to give them that is unique. I am thinking of doing some kind of origami/two-sided, color version. Not quite sure yet.
In other news, we spent sunday having lunch with one of my employers, Maki. We thought we were just going for lunch, which was at a very fine French Restaurant, but instead, in her usual irrepressible fashion, we ended up spending the day listening to her tell stories, especially one very long story about her 25 day stint as Mayor of Joyou.
Labels: life in japan
permalink posted at
12:36:00 PM 
Put that way, it sounds kind of nice. Actually the story is more along the lines of Alice's Restaurant meets Serpico. I would love to tell it all (with four part harmony), but in brief, she was convinced by an ad-hoc group of acquaintances of her husband, masterminded by a shady power broker named Yamada, to run for office, because his former puppet had gotten a little too arrogant. Apparently they were having a hard time, 'cause she was the 25th person they asked, thogh she didn't know that. In any event, perhaps naively, she decided to go along with the scheme. She managed to somehow win, when two days after the election, she and a group of her followers became the subject of intense police harassment, which eventually led to her arrest, intensive and absurd interrogation, and detention for a month. Her crime? She paid for dinner. Yes, apparently, she footed the bill at a thank you party for 8 of her supporters. Her intention was merely to show her usual kindness. Unbeknownst to her, this was a violation of the election code. However, in the hands of some overzealous cops in search of promotions, this became a huge scandal.
The story she told, was quite funny, including the way the police were somewhat exacerbated with her sanguine attitude, especially about the food. Her husband, who also got arrested, was apparently treated even worse.
She said that the first thing the other inmates asked her when they put her in detention was "what're you in for?" So I had to briefly explain to her and Yukie about the Group W bench.
Anyway, in the end, she had to pay a fine, and her election was nullified.
The real culprit, though, was the shady Yamada-san, who neglected to advise her properly, despite being the only one who knew everything that was going on, and then tried to cover it up as a get-well party, and who now people feel may have traded information about the "crime" in exchange for leniency on another matter he had outstanding with the local constabulary.
I know what you are going to ask. Yes, she did pay for our lunch. But as far as anyone's concerned, we didn't discuss politics. Got it?