"Michael Cash" <mikecash@buggerallspammers.com> wrote in message
news:ql5m6199i3v3o5att6nf0phhg804gk1juj@4ax.com...
> On Sun, 24 Apr 2005 09:29:43 +0900, Raj Feridun
> <rferid@NOSPAMyahoo.co.jp> brought down from the Mount tablets
> inscribed:
>
> >On Sat, 23 Apr 2005 21:06:25 +0900, tm <tm@tmoero.invalid> wrote:
> >
> >>Raj Feridun wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>> Aaaaaaaaaaah memories! A year and a half ago it was a similarly
> >>> sardonic message by the same pundit that dragged me out of the lurking
> >>> shadows. I am so happy to see that glorious thread yet lives on
> >>> Google: http://tinyurl.com/7eel8
> >>
> >>No offense raj, but i'd really rather not reminisce about your old
> >>threads. Move on, step into the future.
> >
> >Yeah, I know what you mean. I was TOO good back then. Time is the
> >great equalizer.
> >
> >That wasn't my thread. That was another of Ed's anti-Japan rants that
> >I simply couldn't find the good sense not to step into like a pile of
> >dog doo.
>
> I could do an anti-Japan(ese) rant that would make Ed look like a rank
> amateur.

Hey! I've been holding back so as to retain the upscale tone of FJLIJ.

Seriously, every now and then I have to vent some of the steam. Not all of
it, but just a smidgen. You might have to drive in Japan, but I have to...
well, I have to live here!

Thank gawd I live out in the sticks. I couldn't deal with Tokyo unless there
was plenty of beer available. My days are mostly sitting outside waiting for
some delivery-person to drop off a package, or maybe hawk a Watchtower. The
rest is lots of birds singing and listening to the trees, while dreading the
return of my wife where she will turn on Fuji TV and I'll have to hightail
it up to my office before I start going crazy.
>
> These days I have to purposely restrict my exposure to things that
> would serve to further inflate my negative opinion of the Japanese as
> a group and try to limit myself to exposure to my immediate real-world
> Japanese acquaintances so I can have daily reinforcement of the fact
> that they're not ALL assholes.
>
> A big part of the problem in my particular case is that 99% of the
> time I have for observing the Japanese is when they are on their
> absolute worst behavior (i.e. when they're driving). Some people might
> contend that people are at their worst when they're drunk, since
> alcohol removes many societal inhibitions. But while alcohol might
> allow some people to reveal their mean, combative, irritating, or
> otherwise asocial sides, it also gives us a fair proportion of happy,
> friendly, and gregarious drunks. For the Japanese, gripping a steering
> wheel releases far more inhibitions than gripping a bottle does, yet
> doesn't lead to anyone acting in a more friendly or courteous manner
> than they do when *not* under the influence of a steering wheel. So
> taken all around, you'd be more likely to come away with a favorable
> impression of the Japanese as a group if you spent 12 hours a day
> surrounded by drunken Japanese strangers than if you spent 12 hours a
> day surrounded by Japanese strangers at the wheel.
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Michael Cash
>
> "Clowns to the left of me and jokers to the right, Mr. Cash.
> Clowns and jokers."
>
> Prof. Ernest T. Bass
> Mount Pilot College