And So It Goes

Merry Finger-Lickin'-Good Christmas from Colonel Santa!

It's Christmas, so here's an old photo of that symbol of a traditional Japanese Christmas: fried chicken.

No, seriously. Many years ago, the marketing geniuses -- and I do not use that term ironically -- at Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan started a campaign to convince Japanese consumers that a traditional Christmas dish is fried chicken. They succeeded wildly, not only to the point that people now need to make reservations to pick up their fried chicken on Christmas Day at "Kentucky" (as the place is nicknamed) and that they've expanded the product range to include "premium roasted chicken" on that day, but also that convenience stores and other fast-food chains have gotten into the act, also offering that traditional Christmas chicken.

Which explains why, last night, the 7-11 near my house had a table set up outside in the dark, displaying the Christmas cakes (another, albeit non-KFC, Christmas tradition) and the chicken, sold by three 7-11 employees, one in a Santa suit and the other two dressed as reindeer.

(The chicken didn't seem to be fried, but grilled, with a sweetish teriyaki sauce on top. Pretty tasty, actually.)

As for The Colonel above: there's a statute of him permanently outside every KFC in Japan, but he only wears the  Santa suit at Christmas time. (There's a purely Japanese holiday where he dons a colorful suit of samurai armor, but that's something for another post.)

Legal thinking, no. Chutzpah, yes.

Hmm, according to this item from Boing Boing, former South Dakota State Representative and convicted rapist Ted Alvin Klaudt is claiming that the very use of his name without permission is a copyright infringement, and that anyone using the name of former South Dakota State Representative and convicted rapist Ted Alvin Klaudt without prior written authorization owes him money. According to the news story:

A letter and an accompanying document labeled ''Common Law Copyright Notice'' said former state Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt is reserving a common-law copyright of a trade name or trademark for his name. It said no one can use his name without his consent, and anyone who does would owe him $500,000...

The letter said anyone seeking to use Klaudt's name would have to file a written request 20 days in advance. It also said he would pursue charges and other legal action against anyone who violated the notice.

Doesn't sound like like legal theory is this guy's strong suit, though chutzpah apparently is. But given that former South Dakota State Representative and convicted rapist Ted Alvin Klaudt is a guest of the state of South Dakota -- and will be for the next 52 years -- I'm not overly worried about the consequences of having forgotten to send him a written request. Besides, I'm pretty sure inmates don't have Internet access.

You can probably already guess what political party former South Dakota State Representative and convicted rapist Ted Alvin Klaudt belonged to.

(Odd factoid about this story: former South Dakota State Representative and convicted rapist Ted Alvin Klaudt's current home is the Mike Durfee State Prison -- which was formerly the University of South Dakota, Springfield before it was closed and converted into a prison. Not relevant, just odd.)

Geek Styl(ing)

So let's say you're a software engineer or computer programmer in search of good hair styling, and maybe some pampering, too. Well, there's only one place to go when you're in Yokohama near the main train station -- and you can treat yourself to Buffalo Chicken Wings right after, too!

Seeing and not seeing people

One slightly odd thing -- to me, at least -- about yesterday was that after we had given up waiting while standing in front of Suntory Hall, I turned around, and the man standing behind us in the plaza, I swear, looked almost exactly like -- Steve Jobs, of Apple. True, this guy didn't have a beard, but I looked twice and yeah, he could have passed for Steve Jobs and not just in dim lighting.

Which is ridiculous, of course: what would Steve Jobs be doing in Tokyo, and even if he were in Tokyo, why wouldn't he be inside the hall with the audience of dignitaries, listening to the speech? Steve Jobs, after all, could probably get Barack Obama to return his phone calls and wouldn't need to stand waiting outside with the rest of the everyday folk.

In any case, found the notion of seeing Steve Jobs when he couldn't be there slightly ironic because a few years ago, I pretty indisputably was looking right at Steve Jobs only a few meters away -- and didn't spot him.

In that case, I was in the employee cafeteria at the Apple campus in Cupertino, California, about to have lunch with an Apple Computer employee who's a friend of mine. I was standing by the pizza section when my friend sidled up and whispered, with a slight nod, "Steve's over there." My first thought was of a mutual friend. "What?" I said, startled, "Steve G_______g is here? Where?"

"No, no, Steve JOBS." I turned and peered in the direction of the salad bar (and a very good salad bar it was, too, by the way), but I couldn't spot the Apple Steve. I gave up pretty quickly, though, because I didn't want to be caught gawking. So while quite probably light reflected off of Steve Jobs hit the back of my eyeballs, my brain never processed the data.

So there you have it: I'm seeing Steve Jobs when he can't be there, and not seeing him when he is there. I'd make a lousy paparazzo.

For Veteran's Day, the USS Oneida

Appropriately enough for Veteran's Day (at least still in the US on the other side of the International Dateline), something I came across just last week, just a few miles from my home across the river.

This is gravestone marking the remains of US Navy sailors, on the grounds of Ikegami Temple in southwestern Tokyo. In all, 117 sailors were killed when their ship, the Civil War-era sloop USS Oneida, was run down and sunk in Tokyo Bay by a British steamship in January 1870. I stumbled over its existence when I read references to it in two 19th-century travelogues about Japan, and immediately bicycled over to see for myself.

From Jinrikisha Days in Japan by Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore (1891)

To citizens of the United States Ikegami has a peculiar interest. When the American man-of-war Oneida was run down and sunk with her officers and crew by the P. and O. steamer Bombay, near the mouth of Yeddo Bay, January 23, 1870, our Government made no effort to raise the wreck or search it, and finally sold it to a Japanese wrecking company for fifteen hundred dollars. The wreckers found many bones of the lost men among the ship's timbers, and when the work was entirely completed, with their voluntary contributions they erected a tablet in the Ikegami grounds to the memory of the dead, and celebrated there the impressive Buddhist segaki (feast of hungry souls), in May 1889. The great temple was in ceremonial array; seventy-five priests in their richest robes assisted at the mass, and among the congregation were the American admiral and his officers, one hundred men from the fleet, and one survivor of the solitary boat's crew that escaped from the Oneida.

The Scriptures were read, a service was chanted, the Sutra repeated, incense burned, the symbolic lotus-leaves cast before the altar, and after an address in English by Mr. Amenomori explaining the segaki, the procession of priests walked to the tablet in the grounds to chant prayers and burn incense again.

No other country, no other religion, offers a parallel to this experience; and Americans may well take to heart the example of piety, charity, magnanimity, and liberality that this company of hard-working Japanese fishermen and wreckers have set them.

From A Diplomatist's Wife in Japan, Volume 1 By Mary Crawford Fraser (or "Mrs. Hugh Fraser", as she is credited), published in 1899, reprinting a letter from 1889:

I must tell you of a strange and touching ceremony which took place in Yokohama the other day. This was a requiem service in a Buddhist temple, for the repose of the souls of a number of officers and men who were drowned when the U.S. warship Oneida was sunk, by a collision with a P. & O. steamer, just in the mouth of the bay nineteen years ago. Lately the wreck was bought by some Japanese gentlemen, who discovered the bones of many poor fellows who had gone down in her. These they brought to shore, and buried beside the bodies of their comrades which had been recovered after the misfortune. Having laid the bones to rest, they thought that it would be kind to do something for the sailors' souls, and organised at their own expense a magnificent requiem service called Segaki, or the Feast for Hungry Spirits. They invited all the foreigners and the American admiral with his officers and men. Admiral Belknap was anxious to take some share of the heavy expense, but the five merchants would not hear of that at all. It seemed to me a kind and holy thought, this unasked benevolence shown to a handful of long-forgotten strangers. A local English newspaper describes the promoters of this charitable function as a “Japanese Firm of Wreckers”!

Mrs Fraser got a few details wrong, I notice: Ikegami is NOT in Yokohama, though it is partway between the British Legation in Tokyo and Yokohama so perhaps the mistake is understandable, and the few bodies which were recovered from the original fruitless rescue attempts in 1870 were buried at the Foreigner's Cemetery in Yokohama.

Later today I'm going to drop by the Japan Foundation Library to look up the story's details.

Going Ape

I came across this, er, statue in front of an house in Mediamae last weekend while on my way to a Tesco Express store I'd been told about. I don't have have the slightest clue what it's about, nor even a halfway plausible theory.

Snowy Light Show at Tokyo Midtown, YouTube version

The low-def, YouTube version of the light show video:

Snowy Light Show at Tokyo Midtown, Vimeo version

A big snowfall hit Tokyo on Sunday, and I took my video camera to see the effect of snow on the landscape. What I got was an eerily beautiful lightshow at the park behind the Tokyo Midtown development in Roppongi... This is the letterboxed, Quicktime version, supposedly in HD. We'll see.

Snowy Evening at Tokyo Midtown - QT version from Calton Bolick on Vimeo.

See the USA...

Inspired by this story on the radio program Weekend America and memories of childhood family road trips in the family station wagon, I thought to myself, what US state parks would you want to spend your family summer vacations at?:

• Big Bone Lick State Park, Kentucky:
  • Located in in Boone County, on Beaver Road between the communities of Beaverlick and Rabbit Hash. The park's name is a translation of the original Shawnee Indian name, referring to the salt licks which drew mammoths, mastodons, musk oxen, giant sloths, and other Ice Age mammals whose bones were found here. Though the bones that paleontologists and fossil hunters found of the dead giant mammals have been carted off to museums and collectors, you can still find the not-dead-yet mammals of the park's buffalo herd. Official site - Wikipedia article - Google Maps.

• Double Trouble State Park, New Jersey:
  • Located in Ocean County and once the company town for the Double Trouble Company (which produced timber and cranberries), this park is part of New Jersey's Pine Barrens, and features a historic village and sawmill. The name probably comes from the park's dam, after spring rains washed it out twice in one season, or, according the the New Jersey Parks and Forestry Division, may have involved "local muskrats that persisted in gnawing at the dam, which caused frequent leaks. Such leaks gave rise to the alarm 'Here's trouble', upon which workmen would rush to repair the leak. One day two breaks were discovered and one worker overheard the shout 'Here's double trouble'." Whatever the reason, when you please don't cause any, well, you know... Official site - Wikipedia article - Google Maps.

• Gay City State Park, Connecticut:
  • Located in central Connecticut, the 1500-acre (600-ha) park is on the site of the milltown of Gay City, defunct since the Civil War. The original name came from the religious sect that founded the community in 1796. To quote the official website, "The Gays soon comprised the majority of the 25 or more families who then lived in the community. The residents kept strictly to themselves, existing as distinctly separate from the neighboring communities." Nothing remains of the town but building foundations, so modern visitors' gay old time can be had by picnicking, fishing, hiking, and swimming. Official site - Wikipedia article - Google Maps.

• Ha Ha Tonka State Park, Missouri:
  • Located in the rugged hills south of Lake of the Ozarks in Camden County, near such central Missouri communities as Roach, Knobby, Passover, Climax Springs, Wet Glaize, and Hurricane Deck, this park features 15 miles (24 km) of hiking trails, sinkholes, caves, and the ruins of a 4-story turn-of-the-20th century stone mansion sitting atop a 250-foot (80-meter) bluff. The name "Ha Ha Tonka" allegedly comes from the Osage Indian for "Laughing Waters" -- though for all I know that actually translates as "Laughable Toy Truck". Official site - Wikipedia article - Google Maps.

• Hungry Mother State Park, Virginia:
  • This CCC park in southwestern Smyth County offers swimming, camping, cabin rentals, boat rentals, hiking, and -- thank goodness -- a restaurant. A name derived from an anti-Indian legend, wherein supposedly the sole survivor of an Indian massacre, a very small child, was found here, uttering the only words the child could utter Of course, nothing I found could even name the GENDER of said child, so believe it if you will. Also the home of a conference site called Hemlock Haven, which is probably best avoided as bookings for meetings of Greek philosophers.  Official site - Wikipedia article - Google Maps.

• Kodachrome Basin State Park, Utah:
  • Yes, it IS a colorful place in southern Kane County, just east of Bryce Canyon National Park, with 4,000 acres (1,600 ha) of canyons and sandstone chimneys, and no, it's not a modern bit of product placement since a) it was named in 1948 by the National Geographic Society, a heavy customer of the product in question; and b) who uses Kodachrome film these days, anyways? (Well, okay, I do and the National Geographic Society probably does, but then, we're old-fashioned). At least it hasn't yet led to more corporate or vanity park namings.  Official site - Wikipedia article - Google Maps.

• Donald J. Trump State Park, New York:
  • Whoops, spoke too soon. Two parcels totaling 436 acres (176 ha) in the tony 'burbs of New York, comprising land donated last year by some New York City businessman whose name escapes me for the moment. No official website, no facilities, not even any gold-plated Port-a-Potties: all there is at the moment are large signs in front and out at the exits on the Taconic State Parkway trumpeting the "park". - Complaints about the "park" - Wikipedia article - Google Maps.

• Possum Kingdom State Park, Texas:
  • West of Dallas/Fort Worth and on the shores of Possum Kingdom Reservoir, created in 1941 and whose flooding of the Possum Kingdom no doubt ended the world-threatening ambitions of the imperialistic dead-playing marsupials. Activities include camping, picnicking, hiking, biking, nature study, boating, lake swimming, fishing, and water skiing over the drowned opossum civilization. Despite the reservoir having "the clearest, bluest water in the southwest", you can't drink the water in the park, no doubt due to all the dead opossums in it. Official site - Wikipedia article - Google Maps.

• Roman Nose Resort Park, Oklahoma:
  • Formerly a Cheyenne winter campground, this state resort is named after a Cheyenne warrior who fought against the white settlers and was killed in 1868. Now visitors can honor his memory at the 650-acre (263-ha) park with activities such as camping, canoeing, horseback riding -- and golfing at the attached 18-hole golf course (par 70, and watch out for the sixth hole). Sure, Roman Nose may have been a brave and fierce warrior, but what kind of handicap did he have, hmm? Official site - Google Maps.

• Worlds End State Park, Pennsylvania:
  
  • When you really have to get away from it all, going about as far away as you can get -- at least according to the people of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. And I thought you'd have to go to all the way to China -- or at least Texas -- to do that. This 780-acre (315-ha) slice of the end of the world doesn't have a lookout into The Abyss as you might expect, but does have hiking, sightseeing, and camping. Official site - Wikipedia article - Google Maps.

Tokuzo Mitsuda

While browsing through Wikipedia today (hey, everyone needs a hobby), I came across the oddest reference in their short item about a British steamship called the S.S. Sauternes, a freighter built in 1922 which sank in a storm off the Faroe Islands on December 7, 1941. Whoever wrote the item saw fit to list the names of every one of the 25 crew and passengers who died in the disaster.

It wasn't the excessive detail which really caught my eye, however, it was one of the names: in the midst of names like "Captain George Albert Perris", "Robert Brown Palmer", and "Donald Fraser"  was the name Tokuzo Mitsuda.

Tokuzo Mitsuda? What the hell was a Japanese man doing on a British Merchant Navy ship in the North Atlantic in 1941?

A little digging turned up very little, once I had plowed through all of the various websites that reuse Wikipedia content (and therefore simply reprint the Wikipedia article). I did find out a little something, courtesy of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which tracks memorials and cemeteries of UK and Commonwealth war dead. According to their entry for Tokuzo Mitsuda, he was a member of the crew of the Sauternes, a 57-year-old Fireman and Trimmer (meaning he worked down in the ship's engine room). Because he was lost at sea, there is no grave: rather, he has a spot on a memorial panel at the Tower Hill Memorial in London, near the Tower of London.

Which, of course makes it a bigger mystery: how did a Japanese man, born in 1884 -- only 17 years after the Meiji Restoration -- wind up in Britain, at age 57, shoveling coal (or stoking the oil fires) in the boiler room of a steamship in the North Atlantic on the literal eve of World War II?* Somehow -- though I doubt I'll be the one to do it -- I sense there's a story here waiting to be told.

*Yes (to forestall the nitpickers) I am well aware that for Great Britain, war with Germany started in 1939. But war between the British and the Japanese did NOT start until 1941, when Japan attacked British colonies in Asia at the same time they attacked Pearl Harbor.