Gaijin Biker

I've moved.

2005-12-02T22:07:00.000+09:00

Not that I'm doing anything radical like actually posting or anything, but I've moved to http://www.gajiinbikers.com/wp/ and tied the blog into the rest of the Gaijin Bikers in Japan site.

Hirayu Onsen Touring 2005

2005-10-31T21:45:00.000+09:00

「秋のタイフーンツーリング」 SPLENDOR 平湯キャンプ2005 あさ7時、石川PAにて予報は雨だけど、今のところぽつぽつ程度。ほそっちといずみちゃんは楽して軽で参加。全員揃った。ニッシーの結婚パーティーで当たった「チャーリー君」が初参加。八王子料金所で修ちゃんと合流して、行くぞ! ハーレーは安心して走れる状態ではないので疑似Zで参加するオーエン SPLENDOR公式ツーリング初参加のくっしー双葉SAで休憩。カッパは防寒対策だけで、まだ降られてない。皆が恒例の乗馬写真の為に集まらなかったことでちょっと淋しそうなウーチーちょっと寒いけど調子よく走る。ほそっちが運転、いずみが撮影、パレード体制じゃん! ウーチーを撮ってあげようとしてもいつも誰かにカブられたらしい寒がりなノブチャンショベル二人組高度が段々上がっていくと背景に色も入ってくる修ちゃんとFXS 松本で下りたら結構青空が見えてたけど、今日はそれが最後だった。松本から出たら、すり抜け出来ない道で大渋滞にはまっちゃった。事故で車が全く動かない。ここで結構時間のロスがあった。山に入ったら本格的な雨になって、しばらく走ると由佳ちゃんのCBが止まる。フューズが飛んで、携帯でショップと相談しながら原因追求。近くのお店のガレージを借りて、銀紙などの色々な手を使って調べたら、どうも問題はライトらしい。つけなければ走れるので取り敢えず現地までいくことに。雨が本降りになって、気温も下がっていくけど、やっぱり紅葉が綺麗。現地について、乾杯! この天気じゃもう移動は嫌だから近くで飯&風呂コースに。キャンプ場の隣の店「平湯の森」の新しくなった休憩所でみんな爆睡。この後、わしのカメラがダウンしちゃったので、以下の写真は全部クッシーのもの。夜の宴会ではSPLENDOR、Heaven & Hell、Sexy Dynamites、BRCと楽しい仲間が大勢集まって、各地の美味いもんが次々と出てくる。遠慮せずに腹一杯になって幸せ! (ちょっとは遠慮しろって? マサたちがわざわざ持ってきてくれた讃岐うどんを何杯食ったかわからん。) 皆さん本当にご馳走様でした! 焚火係がいい仕事をしてくれたよ。こんなこともやってたの? 朝は嘘のような快晴! わしはテールランプが消えてたのでばらしてみたら電球が切れてた。まさか誰も持ってないだろうと思って笑われる覚悟で「誰か持ってないか」と聞いたら、H&H末さんが予備に持ってた! 本当に助かりました。集合写真 SD香川支部のあやぱんまんこれからも凜ちゃんの応援をよろしくね! 今回こういうネタが多かった。いいなぁ。 H&Hのカッチョいいバイク達初日は雨で行けなかったので、新穂高の「深山荘」で朝風呂紅葉の山を眺めながら混浴由佳とオーエンのパレードが出会いの二人川の水も意外と気持ちよかった。紅葉は本当に綺麗だった。外人バイカーズと山あがったらクッシーが色々アート写真を撮ってた YOSとFLH ノブとFXSTC 由佳とCB750K1 野麦街道を走って、木曽周りで塩尻。ライトを使わなくていいように明るい内に帰りたいので中央道を飛ばす。双葉で取り敢えずもう一度銀紙でライトを点けて見ることに。なんと大丈夫になった! フューズを変えてOK! でもここで気づいたのは、YOSのナンバーは振動で折れてどこかへと飛んで行っちゃってた。かなりすっきりした後ろ姿で帰ることになった。車組は渋滞になったらついていけないのでここで第一解散。ウーチーの回転灯で紅海のモーゼ風に長い渋滞を切り開きながらすり抜けして、八王子料金所で解散。お疲れさま! 幹事のマーシーに感謝! H&HやSDの皆さん、また会いましょう!

Bikers and Brotherhood*

2005-09-08T23:14:00.000+09:00

The last post was for all my Japanese biker friends. I apologize to any anglophone readers who weren't able to read it, but this post is for you. (Yes, both of you!) Last weekend was the first annual Matsumoto Camp, a new rally sponsored by Heaven & Hell MC, a biker club from Matsumoto city in Nagano Prefecture. I've known these guys for years, and we usually meet up a few times a year at other rallies like the Vibes Meeting, the Love & Peace Ride, the Brotherhoods Meeting, and the Hirayu Camp (which is run by SPLENDOR, the club I belong to.) One thing I love about rallies in Japan is the moment of arrival at the campsite, when the bikers you know all yell out your name and rush up to shake your hand and welcome you. People you've maybe only met once before, people you look forward to seeing at every rally, people you haven't seen in a year or more, bikers of all ages and from all over the country who rode all the way there to see each other—everyone is expressing the same feelings. There's something we share that can't be easily articulated—the joy that we've reached a place where like-minded people can gather, a place where bikers can be bikers. It's more than just camaraderie; it's true brotherhood. You also feel this during the last few hours heading towards the rally, as you find more and more bikers heading the same way, and you know they're all enjoying the same roads and feeling the same anticipation. At the campsite itself, you can wander from campfire to campfire, knowing that you'll be welcomed with food and drink and good times. Last week's Matsumoto Camp was perfect in all these ways. Because it's a first-time rally, it was small—less than 200 bikers—so the sense of family was even stronger than usual. The site was on a mountain overlooking Matsumoto city, with enough space that you could park your bike by your tent and enjoy a beer by the campfire while admiring the view. I'm already looking forward to next year. *Language geek stuff: It bothers me that English doesn't have a word as evocative as "brotherhood" that isn't gender-specific. After all, many of the bikers I feel this way about are women. In Japanese, it's even worse because the Western concept of brotherhood is culturally difficult to express. In Japanese culture, the heirarchy between older and younger siblings is pretty strong, so the sense of equality expressed by "brotherhood" is lost in translation. But hell, who needs a word for it when we're living it?

Matsumoto Camp 2005 (& Grand Slamバスケ合宿)

2005-09-04T18:48:00.000+09:00

今年から新しいイベントHeaven & Hell主催の「松本キャンプ」。わしは所属のバスケチームGrand Slamの合宿とスケジュールがカブっていたが、幸い方向が同じ信州なのでちょっと無理して両方参加することに。泊まりは先輩N島さんの蓼科の別荘。金曜の夜、晩飯食ってから出発。日付が変わるころに別荘に着いて、早速サーバで生ビール! 別荘のガレージはイングリッシュ・パブ風にしていて雰囲気のいいところだ。でもこのパブのインテリアはすごいよ。 N島さんはバイカーでもあり、ビンテージバイクをいっぱい飾ってる。古いDucati750から CB750 K0までここで飲むとビールが余計美味く感じるんだ。バイクの上の梁にバスケ用のシューズも並べてる。気持ちよくビールが進み、結局朝4時まで飲んじゃった。何のために来てるんだよ! これじゃ朝の練習は酒抜きにしかならないだろう。でもうちらはやっぱりそういうチームかも。睡眠時間が短かったけど、空気が綺麗で静かな所なので意外と良く眠れて、二日酔いの割りには気持ちのいい朝だ。(?) パブガレージの入り口。宝くじとかに当たったらわしもこういうのを作りたいなぁ。そして茅野の体育館へ練習しに行く。写真構成はアイディアとして悪くないと思うけど、やっぱりバイクが遠すぎるね。鈍った身体を無理に走らせて、いい汗をかいてから仲間と別れてビーナスラインへ。ハーレーにしてからこの道を走ってなかったのがもったいない。やっぱり見事だ。二日酔い&運動疲れでもこんな景色ならずっと元気に走れる。走りが気持ちよすぎて写真を撮ることなんか忘れてしまった。 (67号の最後の方の急な下り坂+悪路はちょっと辛かったけどね。) 仲間が待つ「美鈴湖森の国」へ。やっぱりミーティングに入って、久しぶりに会うバイカーたちに暖かく歓迎されて、握手を交わすこの瞬間が大好き。バイクの横にテントを張れる最高のロケーションだ。 (マーシー、場所トリありがとうね。) 松本の夜景を上から見下ろせるこのキャンプ場は本当に理想的。仲間の格好いい鉄馬たちを眺めながら乾杯! 食べながら会場の真ん中の方から聞こえるブルースとロックでかなりいい感じ。トリはH&Hのメンバーたちのグループサウンズ! どんどん盛り上がる! 老若男女でノリノリ! ♪バンバンババババババババン!♪ どこのキャンプサイトに行っても盛り上がっていて、感じのいい仲間ばっかりだった。富山のSexyDynamitsを初め、色々な人から食いもん&お酒をもらってお世話になったよ。日本のバイカーって最高! このミーティングはロケーションも規模も客層も何もかもが好みで、高津組の毎年恒例のイベントになりそう。本当はこのスケールがベストだと思うけど、この評判じゃ来年は倍の人数になりそうだね。 H&Hの皆さんお疲れさまでした。朝は事情あってカズ&GO!とちょっと早めの出発。直帰のつもりでも、やっぱりお城に惹かれ、ちょっと立ち寄っておやきを食べることに。 GO!号と松本城普通は高速乗ってからこんなにすぐに休憩することはないが、カフェインがきれてて睡魔にやられそうだったので、取り敢えず諏訪湖SAで「美人」を遠くから見る。偶然SPLENDORのジョーさんもいたので八王子まで一緒に走った。時間帯が早いおかげか、ツーリング今まで経験したことない渋滞なしの中央道でスムーズに調布まで。そして凜ちゃんが待つ我が家へ。こんなきっかけを作ってくれた松本Heaven&Hellの皆さんに感謝! 酒&飯を恵んでくれた皆さん、一緒に盛り上がってれた皆さん、ありがとう&お疲れさまでした! 最高のミーティングだったね。富山のsexy dynamitsニケの写真はこちら GO!の「つーぶろ」はこちらから Heaven&Hellタケの写真はこちら

How far would you go for good noodles?

2005-08-30T13:00:00.000+09:00

This weekend was the CLUB SPLENDOR Kitakata Ramen Touring & Camp. Kitakata is a town in the middle of nowhere in northern Japan that's famous for its ramen noodles. It's about 4 hours from Tokyo and has lots of great uncrowded roads on the way. The guys in the club I ride with have been doing this run for the last 17 years, and yes, the ramen really is that good. The usual pattern is to get up early to make it there by 10 AM when the shops open, and go from shop to shop sampling as many different types of ramen as possible. My stomach can't handle as much as it did when I was younger, but I make a special effort on these trips, because this stuff is seriously grubbin'. (Does anyone say that anymore?) This time my buddy Go and I took the long way around Lake Inawashiro to the campground and got some amazing views of Mount Bandai. (Go also live photoblogged the trip using his 3G cameraphone.) Up some spectacular twisties to the campsite, then back to town for more. With full stomachs, we head back up the mountain, relax in the onsen (hot springs), and then head to the campsite for draft beer. In the morning we all (only 30-40 bikes this year--in the past we've had 50-60) head back down to town for one more meal before heading home. Nothing like a bowl of hot noodles for breakfast to cure a hangover. I couldn't bear to skip the Katsudon (pork cutlet), which is also famous, so breakfast was pretty filling. More pictures (with comments in Japanese) can be seen at the Gaijin Bikers main site.

Thank You Tokyo!

2005-08-07T21:13:00.000+09:00

Saturday was the Stinger's wedding run and party.

We've been doing these parades for years for various biker friends and friends-of-friends, and it never gets old. Throw the happy couple in the back of a convertible, surround it with Harleys, ride around Tokyo waving at everyone like you're celebrities, and people everywhere stop to stare, wave, take pictures, applaud, and shout congratulations to the happy couple.

It really feels like the whole city is celebrating the couple's happiness, and after a parade I always find that the smile muscles in my face are sore from overuse.

In a country where noisy bosozoku bring down the image of bikers, it's great to have events like these parades and our Merry Run to show people the positive side of biker culture.

Our parades have gotten such favorable reactions that some biker friends of mine who run a small event management company have started offering the service for a small fee.

More pictures can be seen at the Gaijin Bikers main site.

由佳とオーエン、結婚おめでとう! 末永くお幸せに!

A lesson in Japanese roadsigns

2005-05-16T22:41:00.001+09:00

At first glance, this looks like "road closed", doesn't it? But look at the beautiful winding mountain road on the other side, and the perfect weather. It couldn't possibly be mere accident that there's just enough space between the barricades to ride a motorcycle through, could it? Same road, a few kilometers on: This looks even more convincingly like "road closed." In fact, to the uninititated, the Japanese "通行止" would seem to mean exactly that. But no, "通行止" really means "closed to those in vehicles with more than the optimal number of wheels(2), and to those without adventure in their hearts." We only had to move three of these roadblocks. It was great riding, though a little harrowing to be leading the pack on this particular run. Not to worry, we are responsible citizens--we moved the barricades back into place after riding through.

"Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen."

2005-04-20T12:12:00.000+09:00

Pope Palpatine I Update: I'm kind of embarrassed about this post now, as the joke turned out to be obvious enough that people all over the Internet did it better than I did. (The funniest thing I saw was the Wikipedia article on Ratzinger where someone temorarily changed the picture to Ian McDiarmid's face.) I didn't even get around to photoshopping blue lightning in or anything.

One reason I love living in Japan

2005-04-11T23:05:00.000+09:00

Irozaki, Izu Peninsula Sakura Touring Update: This was going to be a real blog post with acutal content, but it's such a pain to get blogger to do anything recently that I just don't have the energy left to write it. Enjoy the pictures.

What's in a name?

2005-03-18T20:01:00.000+09:00

The other day I had a long discussion with Bitch Ph.D. in the comments at Unfogged about women keeping or changing their names at marriage. My basic argument is: a. I parse "fist name + last name" as "individual name + family name". b. My concept of marriage is two individuals founding a family. Therefore, it makes sense for all individuals of the newly-formed family to have the same last name. The problem for me then becomes one of what that name should be. In my case, for a number of reasons, my wife chose to share the family name I was born to. I understand that many people have different concepts of both a and b, and those people should of course be under no obligation to change their names. I am only arguing that this public expression of family unity can outweigh other concerns like not wanting to reinforce a patriachal institution. Bitch Ph.D., whose blog I read regularly and whose opinion I respect quite a bit, was saying that women taking their husbands names was appalling. Ordinarily when someone judges my actions wihout knowledge of my cricumstances or decision processes, I either ignore them or tell them to fuck off. In this case, however, as a fan, I found it difficult to ignore that she was in effect judging my wife's choice with no knowledge of the context of that choice. (I know her comments weren't meant to be taken personally, but it was difficult not to react to them personally.) We had an interesting (to me, at least) discussion about the issue, and she has many valid criticisms of the practice. I believe that they are outweighed by the argument above alone, but as this is a matter of balancing the values involved, reasonable people can disagree about this. During the discussion I refrained from bringing up the other reasons why we chose to share my name, because I thought it would be a digression, but since some of those reasons are interesting in their own right (and because I want to get it off my chest), I thought I'd post about them here. We are an interracial couple living in Japan, and we had to overcome a lot of racist bullshit in order to get married, so racial and cultural issues are a bit more personal and immediate to us than gender issues. My wife gets a kick out of the fact that merely stating her name is a big publc "fuck you" to those who think she's a race-traitor. Keeping her parents' name would also be seen by many as an attempt not to rock the boat, to keep her choice of a foreign husband in the closet, and to hedge her bets in case of divorce, since everyone knows those Gaijin men tend to be unfaithful. We also felt that, given that any children we have are going to be dealing with all sorts of racial issues growing up, sharing a common family name could reduce the number of confusing identity issues to deal with. There were also less important aesthetic issues like the cool factor of an anglo-saxon name tacked onto her common Japanese name, and that she had never liked her surname to begin with. Her surname attached to my name really didn't scan well, so we rejected that on aesthetic grounds. She also strongly dislikes her father, and welcomed a chance to separate herself from him symbolically. And of course there are the reasons that are really just excuses, like the sheer volume of paperwork and bureaucratic nonsense we would have had to go through to choose another option. It is here that I have to agree with Bphd's assertion that it's less of a "choice" if government and society coerces it. But we had to go through bureaucratic nonsense to change her name to something that can't be written in Chinese characters, so this wasn't a major factor anyway. So maybe we are failing to send a message that helps subvert the patriarchal norms of society, but I think we're sending other powerful messages to society on other fronts. As for gender issues, I know that our openly egalitarian family structure has caused fights in more than one neighborhood household where the husband has until now expected to be waited on hand and foot. In the context of the cultures and societies in which we live, we all sometimes have to make choices between imperfect alternatives, and I believe that we should generally withhold our judgement of others' choices until we understand that context.

Is this the Gaijin Biker you're looking for?

2005-03-10T21:08:00.000+09:00

A lot of the traffic to this site comes from google or yahoo searches for "Gaijin Biker", and I can't help but think that most of those people are looking for the other Gaijin Biker, who posts at Riding Sun. Even if that's not who you were looking for, I recommend checking out his blog, although I rarely agree with his politics. Even if you were looking for me, you probably want The Stinger & Big Ben's Gaijin Bikers in Japan which my partner and I have been running since 1999. It has lots of pictures and information about touring and biker life in Japan. We started it as a bilingual site but the newer stuff is all in Japanese, and we have a pretty cool community of Japanese bikers posting on our BBS. 日本語で「外人バイカー」と検索してここに辿り着いた人はまず「外人バイカーズ」をお探しでしょう。 Update: fixed Riding Sun link to new domain.

Riderman!

2005-02-19T16:48:00.000+09:00

Since most of my readers are coming here from Riding Sun, and I'm listed as one of the "Kamen Riders" on his sidebar, I thought I should mention a weird Japanese biker friend of mine who travels under the name of "Riderman". This guy travels around in a homemade, and extremely detailed, Kamen Rider outfit, and greets passing bikers not just with the traditional wave or peace sign, but by standing up on his bike and doing the henshin pose that Kamen rider uses when he shape-shifts. This is a picture from many years ago when we met up with him at Lake Akan in Hokkaido.

Hey, look over there!

2005-02-16T21:09:00.000+09:00

Many right-wing bloggers use the "Hey, look over there!" move when the misdeeds of the Bush administration or the US military are pointed out. The charge is usually that since others are doing worse, it is unfair to single out the US for criticism. (Often the charge is phrased in more inflammatory language: aid and comfort to the enemy, borderline treason, kneejerk anti-Americanism.) My main response to this is that the actions of others are irrelevant to whether or not we have done wrong, and changing the subject just makes it more likely that we will make the same mistakes in the future. GB at Riding Sun quotes Arthur Chrenkoff deriding what he imagines to be the reasons for lack of outrage at misdeeds by those who aren't American.

[a]American misdeeds are the worst in the world; [b]There are worse misdeeds in the world, but that's to be expected of others, so who cares? now back to American misdeeds; [c]American misdeeds are the most offensive because America holds itself to a higher moral standard than others; [d]American misdeeds deserve the most attention because by publicizing them within the Western world, you actually have the greatest chance of effecting change. (This is a sort of backhand, and often unintended, compliment to the strength of the American political system.)

Now, [a] is just a strawman. (Maybe you could find someone saying this, but you can find idiots who believe any given idiocy. The mainstream left is not that divorced from reality.) [b],[c], and [d] , however, are actually pretty good reason for Americans to focus on American misdeeds. As an American citizen, I am morally responsible for the acts of my government. This means that when agents of that government do wrong, I take it personally. Especially since I still believe (perhaps naively) that the US is the greatest nation in history when it lives up to its ideals, I hold my country to a much higher moral standard than I hold other countries. In my mind, this is the definition of true patriotism. (By the same token, on an idividual level I don't expect other people to live up to the higher standards I set for myself.) Outrage about American misdeeds is also more productive. America's enemies don't care what I think--in fact they are likely to be happy to have caused my outrage. There is nothing I can effectively do sitting here at my computer that could possibly affect their actions. On the other hand, if I express my outrage at US misdeeds, there is a chance that this could lead to policy changes or at least a dialog. In a democracy, dissent and criticism are a necessary part of the process, and can make a difference for the cause of justice. The world has many evil people in it. Rapists, murderers, sadists, and sociopaths can be found everywhere, and getting worked up about every evil just wears one out. Of course the atrocities of others disgust and anger me, but I choose not to focus on them because my rage will only make me tired and unhappy without doing any good. So call my outrage "selective" if you wish. I prefer to think of it as rational.

People who don't use Blogger can safely skip this post.

2005-01-19T22:50:00.000+09:00

This Hello Bloggerbot thing is pretty cool. Posting pictures is much easier, since you don't need a hosting service. Unfortunately, this time of year there's nothing in particular I want to post, but that should change once touring season starts. Also, I have to thank GB at Riding Sun for pointing me to bloggerhacks for the cool new comment system. Now all I need is commenters.

Merry Run

2004-12-29T18:34:00.000+09:00

On Christmas Eve, a bunch of my biker buddies and I rode around the streets of Tokyo dressed as Santas, reindeer, snowmen and such, distributing smiles, candy and Christmas spirit. This is a couple of the ladies who ride with us posing on my hog. Those interested in seeing more pictures should check out my Merry Run page. (I wrote all the captions in Japanese since the page is mostly for my Japanese friends.) I love Christmas in Japan. Everybody uses it as an excuse to be happy and have a good time, and it's completely untainted by the actual Christian nonsense that gets forced down your throat in the States. I can wave and smile and yell "Merry Christmas!" to people I don't know on the street, and they smile and say "Merry Christmas"(actually meri- kurisumasu, the closest you can get phonetically in Japanese) back, and there's no religious baggage attached--everyone knows it's just an excuse for a winter festival anyway. After reading about all the ridiculous claims by Christians in the States about being oppressed by "Happy Holidays" I am truly thankful that I am able to celebrate Christmas in a secular society. Christmas should be fun--a celebration of giving and joy for people of all creeds and people of no creed, with pretty lights to brighten a dark winter night--and that's what it is here in Japan. So a belated メリー・クリスマス to everyone, and best wishes for a happy new year.

業務連絡

2004-12-18T21:42:00.000+09:00

It's amazing how little time is left for blogging when raising a 2-year-old. This post is mostly just here so that my slightly hyberbolic response to the November elections isn't the last entry. I've got all sorts of things I want to express, but I get most of that out of my system by posting on our BBS on the main Gaijin Bikers in Japan page. I figure the world can get by somehow even if I don't regularly publish my thoughts here. It even looks like the biker gaijin blogging niche is being adequately filled by a guy whose handle is the same as this blog's title, my sole commenter, Gaijin Biker. I will therefore feel no need to post here unless the spirit moves me and I somehow actually have time to write something. Instead, I will continue my meaningless crusade of pedantic anti-pedantry comments at other people's blogs.

Now we can talk about it.

2004-11-07T22:44:00.000+09:00

If I thought anyone read my blog, I would tell them to go read any of the recent posts at unfogged and apostropher. I understand why this kind of talk was verboten before the election, but it feels really good to have people whose opinions I respect finally expressing it. Separation of Church and State, baby! This has always been the main reason I vote against Republicans. I care about the economy, and war, and incompetence, and dishonesty, and most of the other major reasons people have given for opposing Bush. But honestly, even if Bush had been clearly superior on all those issues, I still would have voted against him because I believe in secular democracy. I would never say that the religious right in America are worse than the terrorists or the Taliban or Saddam, but I sincerely believe the RR are a bigger threat to America. The US could afford to lose a few major cities to terrorism and still remain fundamentally unchanged, but if we become a country where religiously dictated morality is enforced by the government, we are no longer America. Bush, Delay, Hastert, Santorum, Demint and others have made it clear that they fully intend to take several large chunks out of the wall between church and state. Small issues like "under God" in the pledge and Ten Commandments monuments are the canaries in our coalmine. The major struggle of our time is not "Freedom vs. Terror" or "good guys vs. Terrorists" or "Christianity vs. Islam" or even "the West vs. Islamofascism". It is the Western tradition of pluralist Enlightenment rationalism vs. Fundamentalism in all its forms, and in that struggle, frankly I'm not sure which side the Bushies are on. We're talking about Reality-based government vs. Faith-based government. Whether the Fundies are Christian or Muslim makes no difference to me; I know which side I'm on.

something fishy in Yamagata

2004-10-12T22:16:00.000+09:00

I rode up to the Vibes Meeting Harley rally in Yamagata this weekend, and some friends from Toyama brought me 鱒寿司（masu-zushi), a famous ekiben (train station bento). After getting drunk I went to thank them for the food and made an embarrassing careless mistake which also turned out to be a double pun. Instead of masu-zushi I said masu-zake, which is something else entirely.　鱒(masu - trout)寿司（zushi - sushi) is just as one would expect, trout on rice, whereas　升（masu - wooden cup)酒(zake -sake) is rice liquor served in a square wooden cup. I think my beer-addled brain went looking for a compound word starting in masu and grabbed the first thing it found. Then it failed to get an error message before output because sake can also mean　鮭(salmon) which is a pretty similar fish with a pretty similar taste.　升酒？鱒鮭？ますます頭がおかしくなる。

What is it with me and comments?

2004-09-30T21:52:00.000+09:00

I feel like I have all sorts of substantive things to say about the issues of the day, but looking over the comments I've posted to other blogs recently, it seems like I rarely bother unless it's to post something pedantic about other people's pedantry. The inability of most native speakers to correctly write the English language depresses me (and makes my job harder because I have to find a way to adjust my machine translation grammar parser to accomodate the mistakes) but I feel like I could deal with all the misplaced apostrophe's[sic] and mispelings[sic] if it weren't for the pedants who go on about nonsense like split infinitives and sentence ending prepositions and which vs. that. Of all the offensive things out there begging for comments, why is it this that moves me? (Though I gotta say I felt validated when blogospheric superhero and uberbabe Belle reacted the same way to the "whomever" business.) Militantly anti-pedant pedantry, that's what the world desperately needs today.

Go Go Godzilla!

2004-09-30T21:36:00.000+09:00

After just having a conversation about the spelling of Godzilla over at Curves and Corners, I was amused by a question on the Japanese version of the quiz show "Millionaire" tonight.

Which letter is not found in the English spelling of "ゴジラ”（Gojira)？ a. D b. Z c. J d. L

The contestant, captain of the Japanese Women's Olympic soccer team, found the question difficult enough that she used the lifeline.

ブログを始めたことだけど…

2004-09-27T22:42:00.000+09:00

癖にならないように我慢しないとね。睡眠時間がどうなるかちょっと心配だ。

What do you call a partner nowadays?

2004-09-27T22:19:00.000+09:00

While writing the last post I found myself wanting to refer to my partner, "the Stinger", but stopped myself because it feels like the word "partner" has been corrupted to the point where most people reading would assume that I meant my "lover". I'm all in favor of the concept of marriage and other loving relationships evolving with the times, but since some people have appropriated this word for that purpose, I no longer have a way to refer to the guy who's the Billy the Kid to my Captain America, the Yoshitsune to my Benkei, the Chewbacca to my Han Solo. Has the word "partner" gone the way of "arousal", "explicit", and "intercourse"?

I've been linked by a semi-prominent blog...

2004-09-27T11:57:00.000+09:00

..and the only thing I've got up is the meeting schedule for my run to a biker rally last week, and that's in Japanese! I guess I need to put up a real post of some sort. Since it was Neal that did the linking, I might as well make this one language-related. Last week we rode to the Brotherhoods Meeting, a biker rally in the mountains of Nagano Prefecture. Great riding and a great rally, but the name's a little weird, and being one of the token Gaijin I got asked a lot of questions about it. Since the name is most often written in katakana(the Japanese syllabary) and with no spaces between words to help non-anglophones parse it, most of the Japanese bikers I talked to were under the impression that "hoods" was a separate word, and wanted to know what it meant. This also lead people to abbreviate the meeting as "BHM" (BrotherHoods Meeting) in email and BBS comments. Also , since the katakana rendering of "brotherhoods", "burazafuzzu" in Hepburn romanization, contains the hu/fu sound(a bilabial sound somewhere between f and h), many people abbreviated it as "BFM". Then there's the matter of pluralizing the normally uncountable noun "brotherhood". At first I thought this was just another non-native mistake, but it turns out that it's intentional. This rally is a meeting of several different MCs(motorcycle clubs), i.e. several diffferent "brotherhoods". Most of the bikers wore their "colors", but it was understood that event was not the place for rivalries and feuds. It turns out that almost no one, even the Matsumoto MC that worked as staff for the meeting, was aware of what the name meant, and most people were really happy to have it finally explained to them. A few people said that understanding the name added to their understanding of the rally and gave it a deeper meaning for them. I guess I don't really have a point to make here, except that it can be nice being a roving linguist biker sometimes.

Brotherhoods Meeting

2004-09-16T23:41:00.000+09:00

待ち合わせは中央道談合坂PA午前8時です。

There's no way I'm going to find any time to do this right.

2004-09-15T21:54:00.000+09:00

...but why let that stop me?