Territory Dispute - China

As you all may well know by this point, Japan has been involved with some territorial disputes over the past century. Although these are nothing new to the region, the situation has escalated recently. It all boils down to Japan's imperial times when it wanted to claim land to expand its national resources. Japan is in the precarious position where the only resource it has is fish, and even that is iffy with the recent overfishing and the 3.11 disaster.

Two different situations are escalating at the moment. The first is the issue with China. Japan claims the chain of eight islands as part of its territory. Located in what the Japanese call the Japan Sea, the islands are called the Senkaku Islands. They were found to be uninhabited and subsequently added to Okinawa prefecture in Southern Japan. In the 1970's, Japan announced that the Senkaku Islands were a prime fishing location and that they might have significant oil/gas deposits. China calls the islands the Diaoyu Islands, and insists that they have been used for centuries for fishing.

In September 2010, a Chinese fisherman tried to land on the island. He crashed into two Japanese coast guard vessels and was soon arrested. China cancelled a planned trip by 1,000 Japanese students to China in anger. Japan eventually released the fisherman and his crew, but insisted they not try to land on the islands again.

On August 15, 2012, the situation has escalated further. 14 people from Hong Kong sailed to one of the Senkaku islands and tried to land on it. 7 people managed to get to land. The Japanese Coast Guard released their video of the event. It shows a Coast Guard vessel firing water cannons and Hong Kong activists throwing bricks.

Chinese media has been very critical of the event and has asserted that the Japanese law is "worthless" and not meant to be followed since the lands are claimed by China. There are talks of boycotting Japanese products in China, though whether this will be successful, no one knows. Chinese activists have reportedly burned cars in protest. Another man stole the Hinomaru flag off of the Japanese ambassador's car after two vehicles boxed him in. The Chinese government has denounced the way which the Coast Guard handled the issue. It is also trying to reign in its own citizens before they further complicate the issue.

In contrast, Japanese activists have traveled to the islands to raise the Hinomaru flag on the island to reassert Japanese sovereignty over the land. Activists are stationed on top of a large van in Shibuya, shouting nationalist slogans that the islands belong to Japan and that people should stand up for the territory.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has tried to do a survey of the Senkaku Islands, but this proposal was rejected. Instead, the government has offered to buy three of the islands for 2 billion yen from the Kurihara family, who owns the property.

Sources:
"China-Japan Islands Row" (BBC)
"Ishihara's Senkaku survey Request gets thumbs down" (Japan Times)
"Japan Coast Guard releases footage of Senkaku clash with Chinese activists" (Japan Times)
"Chinese media hail activists" (Yomiuri Shinbun)

Of Suzumebachi

Before we begin the main topic of this post, I just wanted to link a little something here for everyone to appreciate back home. It's about the contaminated food, specifically milk that people are worried about overseas. According to this article, it'd take you 58,000 glasses of milk to reach the level that would be considered harmful. Last time I checked, even people who love milk don't drink 58,000 glasses in a rapid period. Here's the article for you to enjoy: Radioactive Milk.

And now onto the main event: Suzumebachi. Suzumebachi are one of those terrifying things in Japan that Japan doesn't want to admit exist to anyone outside of Japan. This is because "terrifying" does not even begin to describe them. Suzumebachi is Japanese for "sparrow hornet." These hornets are several inches long with a wingspan to match. In comparison, make a fist. The hornet is about the length of that.

The suzumebachi are particularly aggressive, especially toward lawnmowers, and other loud noise. They will attack bikers and other people passing too close to the nest though. Unfortunately, since they're hornets, the nest is the trees where you can't see it. You only know you're close to the nest when you start seeing suzumebachi.

Being stung by one will require you to go to the hospital. Since the venom deals with the nervous system, it's fairly dangerous. If you get stung just a few times, you can die. Every year, there are dozens of people who die from them.

Perhaps the worst part of all of this is that the suzumebachi does not live necessarily in a remote area away from people. Of course they're in the forests, but they also live in the cities. For some reason, they really seem to like the area around Ritsumeikan University. I remember the first time I saw one, my friend stopped me and told me about them. The second time, I was walking to the bank with a friend, and I stopped and stared at the largest hornet I had ever seen in my life. These things just hover in the air, looking ridiculously threatening. In my opinion, you should never be able to the see the stinger of a hornet. When you can, you know it's going to be bad.

They also live in Tokyo and other major cities around Japan. Basically, if you find a nest, you call someone to get rid of it. It's not a good idea to take it down yourself.

These hornets became pretty famous recently due to videos that have been circulated around the web. 30 hornets went and destroyed a nest of 30,000 bees. If you're a beekeeper, these things are your worst enemy. Because I believe that everyone should have equal access to appreciate the terror, here's the video: 30 hornets vs 30,000 bees.

However, if you're a beekeeper who keeps Japanese honey bees, you're better off. These bees have developed a strategy to take out the hornets. Literally, they can withstand a higher body temperature, so they'll swarm the hornet and overheat it until it dies. The video is HERE. So, this begs the question, why not keep Japanese honey bees instead? The answer to this is that Japanese honey bees do not produce as much honey, so it's more profitable to keep the others.

If you're feeling adventurous, here are some pictures:
Suzumebachi

Nest

Wiki's Suzumebachi Page (Japanese Only)

One Japanese bug down. At least one more to go. If you want a sneak peek, check out Mukade. In the meantime, I'm off to Tokyo tomorrow! Take care all!

Michelle

Of Christmas & New Year Part I

So I took a little trip to Tokyo for the holidays. It was a great experience to see people and to also experience a little culture and some traditions as well. Of course, I'd like to post the entire experience here, but it could probably make up a book, so instead I'll do the highlights in a series of posts.

First off, I went and saw a really cool movie called 相棒 (Aibou), meaning "Partners." It was based on a very popular TV series here in Japan, which I believe is on its ninth season now. The series is about a couple detectives, who are extremely smart. In fact, they're despised most of their division because they tend to just take cases they want and never take cases that they are assigned. However, since they always solve their cases, they're never fired. The movie is focused on a hostage situation, and the results that come from it. I'm not going to lie. It was not exactly easy to understand, but it was very good for my Japanese. I did get a fair amount, but by no means everything. Since it was a suspense-type movie, there was lots of plot twists and such, so although I did get most of the key stuff, by no means did I get everything. However, I watched a lot of the TV series after as well, and it was a blast. I'm really happy I got to see it, and for anyone interested who speaks Japanese, I'd strongly recommend it. You can find the movie's website and trailer here: Aibou Official Website.

After that, I went with Taisuke to Yokohama（横浜). Yokohama is really a beautiful port city. Not only does it have a lot of history - for those history buffs out there, you'll remember it as the place where Commodore Perry's Black Ships landed to open up Japan to the rest of the world - it also is extremely modern and a lot of fun explore. We went obviously in the hopes of seeing the ocean, but also to see Yokohama's famous Chinatown. It's the biggest in Japan, I believe. Although it was a little cold, the trip was definitely worth it!

Yokohama's Famous Skyline

We went on a huge pier to go look at the sea, and I snapped this picture

There was also an outdoor ice skating rink. Although I'm really lousy at it, it was a blast! I can't remember the last time I went ice skating, and this is by one of the main monuments. That big red warehouse is famous for being a big red brick warehouse. I don't know why it's famous though.

Chinatown. We had some delicious Chinese food here.

Making mochi for the new year. This is rice that has been hammered into a sticky substance kind of like goo. It's very delicious and is one of the many osechi-ryouri （おせち料理), or one of the traditional New Year's foods.

We also went to Chichibu（ 秩父), a country town outside of Tokyo. It took us about 2 hours to drive there, and it was probably my favorite part of the trip! Tokyo is really a convenient city since it's so big you can find anything and you can get anywhere quickly, but it's also very crowded, especially around the holidays. So, it was really nice to get out of Tokyo and into the country for a little bit. It was my first time in the country in Japan, and I'm so happy I got to go! While I was there with Taisuke and his family, I got to meet his extended family and we also went exploring. Got to love exploring!

We went off and climbed the mountains behind his grandparents' house. It was great to go hiking again and to get some fresh air. We were able to see everything below us, the houses, the scenery, and the river flowing through it all. I can't even begin to describe how beautiful it was!

Some sort of farm. We thought it might be for rice, but rice doesn't grow in the winter, so we're not sure what it was.

Because they had just rerouted the river, we did go and play by it, but it was really cold. So we ended up walking on the original riverbed instead for most of it, skipping rocks in puddles, and playing on the ice patches. It was really interesting to see the original riverbed, since the rocks were worn smooth over time.

In classic Mego style, I realized that I'd never played with bamboo before, so Taisuke and I set off on an adventure to go gather some. Although we saw something that I thought was bamboo, it was only sasa (ささ), which is a type of bamboo, but it's not the big kind. Rather, it's only a thin flexible type that can't really be used for what we wanted. So we hike to where there was a bamboo forest, takebayashi (竹林) ,
in the past, but it had been cut down. Luckily, all of the bamboo was still there, so we sorted through the piles to collect a good one. This piece of bamboo is about 15 feet (3 meters) long. And we carried it down the mountain and back to the house. Taisuke, in his "I can make anything with a pocketknife" attitude, announced that he would teach me how to make cups and chopsticks. While he was at it, he'd make a flower vase for good measure.

The finished product after a couple hours work.

Since it was really very cold, we decided to head back inside to warm up under the kotatsu. A kotatsu is a type of table which has a heater underneath. It also has blankets fastened to it to keep the heat in. Basically, you sit with your legs beneath is, curl up, talk with people, and more than likely, take a nap. I found them absolutely fascinating since it was my first experience with one, so I kept checking underneath to see how it worked. There's a little switch that you flip on, and it heats. There's no worries about getting burned or anything, since the heater is covered, but you definitely stay warm. 

The kotatsu and one of the rooms in his grandparents' house. Their house is designed in the traditional fashion, so it's really beautiful. The floor is tatami mats and wood.

Unfortunately, the Chichibu dialect (秩父弁) is extremely difficult to understand, so I felt bad because I couldn't understand everything his grandparents said, but it was a lot of fun, and I'm glad I was to go. Here's a final shot of everyone, excluding his mother because she was taking the picture at the time.

And that's the end of the first few days.

Michelle