1. Bousouzoku is the Japanese version of American Harley gangs.
2. Unlike American motorcycle gangs, bousouzoku go very very slowly.
3. They also like to swerve around on their motorcycles.
4. Bousouzoku’s motorcycles also make a lot of noise because they don’t have mufflers.
5. If you’re new to Japan, you may think, Oh those poor kids! They can’t afford to fix their motorcycles.
6. However your sympathy won’t last very long…
7. Bousouzoku love to ride at night and be as loud as possible to keep everyone awake.
8. After a week of no sleep, you may be tempted to shoot bousouzoku from your balcony.
9. Bousouzoku members are usually young.
10. They are also not very academically inclined either. If they were, they would be in cram schools.
11. You should never attack a bousouzoku member. Bousouzoku travel in a big group (even if you don’t see the others) and if you fight one, you have to fight them all.
12. Now if you are Jet Li, the above scenario is probably okay.
13. I’ve yet to see the local police arrest bousouzoku.

Czardas. I really like this performance.

When I first came to Japan, I had the following conversation with a Japanese friend.

Me: Do you know Tanaka-san*?
Sayuri*: Yes.
Me: What do you think about her?
Sayuri: She’s a very unique person.
Me: (smile) Oh cool!
Sayuri: (uncomfortable pause) She’s really unique.
Me: Isn’t that a good thing?
Sayuri: Well…no.

*Names changed.

Well, it turned out that when Japanese people call you “unique”, what they really mean to say is “WHAT A FREAK!” in a polite way so that you don’t feel too bad. It’s not some Japlish slang, and every Japanese person knows what the word “unique” means in English. So why is it that unique = freak? I’ll blog about that later this month.

Well, I was talking with two my CPs — Jennifer & DD — about my blog. My main complaint was that I usually don’t have anything to say, so I wanted to shut down my blog.

Jennifer in particular thought I should write about what it’s like to live in Japan. I told her it’s not all that exciting, but she said I only thought that because I actually live here.

Mmmm.

Maybe I’ll blog about Japan…

Myanmar says aid and rescue workers aren’t needed, but they’d like stuff and money:

Myanmar will accept foreign aid but distribute relief itself, an official newspaper said on Friday, after a disaster rescue team from Qatar that arrived in Yangon on an aid flight was turned back.

“Myanmar is not in a position to receive rescue and information teams from foreign countries at the moment,” the government-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper said in a report on the aid operation slowly building up for survivors of Cyclone Nargis.

“But at present Myanmar is giving priority to receiving relief aid and distributing them to the storm-hit regions with its own resources,” the newspaper said.

So other countries are supposed to think that the military dictator and generals will do the right thing? I’m very skeptical. Once aid (either in goods or money) is given, the junta can do whatever they want with it, and nobody will be able to check on them to ensure that the victims received shelter, food, water and so on. Completely insane, I tell you. I can totally understand why some donors are very hesitant because they’re worried that their donation may be diverted for things other than helping the cyclone victims.

• Complete All the King’s Women Fast Draft. ETA: May 14.
• Read four new-to-me books. ETA: May 31.

I can’t believe I forgot to do this. Better late than never.

• Enter the Shomi Contest with Nine. ETA: April 7
• Finish Maass revision on Nine. ETA: April 30. Completed on April 29.
• Read four new-to-me books. ETA: April 30. Read only three.

Sorry I’ve been totally remiss with my blog. I’m still in the middle of Fast Draft, and it’s sucking up all my time. Of course, if that’s not bad enough, I’m also working on a short novella. It’s very different from my usual tone. No body count or anything like that. Actually it’s rather…fluffy…?

All the King’s Women is going to require a ton of revision, but I like it that I’m doing Fast Draft because I’m beginning to understand my heroine’s motive and her relentless drive. She appears a bit ruthless at times, but the reason for her increasingly Machiavellian method is obvious and sympathetic as the story unfolds (or so I hope).

I’ll post more about Fast Draft and lessons learned on May 15.

It didn’t go as well as I wanted. I didn’t start writing until at least 2:30 p.m. Not a good thing.

Still got 20 pages done, barely.

Japan’s Diet forcibly added another new gas tax, effective immediately, right before Golden Week starts. It’s like the US lawmakers adding an immediate gas tax right before Thanksgiving or something. (Golden Week is a long holiday and many people travel during this time)

The new measure will add about $1.20 (US) of tax per gallon.

Japanese gas price is about ¥ 160 or more per liter after the tax is added.

So that makes the new gas price about $6.00 per gallon. (Before the tax measure was passed, it was about $4.80 per gallon.)

I’m not sure how Japan’s democracy works anymore, since according to the recent poll, about 70% of respondents opposed the gas tax, which the government plans to use for road constructions. I guess construction companies’ interests are more important than the 70% of the population…