Melody - Love Story (A Japanese Pop Song).

Melody - "Love Story"

nagarete yuku hitogomi no naka
ushiro sugata zutto mite ita
unmei no itazura de deaeta kiseki o dakishimete
kizutsuite mo ii setsunakute mo ii
ima dake shinjite

mogaite egaite yuku koi monogatari
mienai asu tsuzuri nagara
kodoku ni tatazumu toki soba ni itai no
mayowanai youni

mimi ni nokoru anata no koe o
mabuta tojite omoidashiteru
modokashisa ni tsukarete dare ka o kizutsukeru no naraba
yasashii egao mo mune utsu kotoba mo
wasuretai keredo

mogaite egaite yuku koi monogatari
hajimarazu ni owaru no nara
kokoro ni kagi o kakeru
kanawanu koi ga mezamenai youni

omoi o tsutaeraretara
hoka ni wa nani mo iranai
kodomo mitai ni sunao ni naku watashi o
anata no te de mezamesasete

mogaite egaite yuku koi monogatari
mou ichido koe o kikitai
todokanu hodo ni tooku hanarete ite mo
mayowanai youni

mienai asu tsuzuri nagara
kodoku ni tatazumu toki soba ni itai no
futari itsuka sugao no mama deaeta nara
tsuyoku dakishimete

"Rabbits Are Delicious" - Misheard Lyrics - "Furusato" 故郷 - Hometown.

There is a song that I heard on this documentary about Fukushima. Since I am Japanese (Japanese-Canadian), the lyrics touched home. Even though Japan is not where I was born; even the Nikkeijin who were born outside of Japan hears a siren-call to Japan, the land of their ancestors.

The English Lyrics are as follows:

"I chased rabbits in those mountains
I fished in that stream
I still dream now and then about those days as a child
How I long for and miss my hometown
How are my father and mother?
Are my old friends okay?
Whenever it is rainy and windy
I recall my happy childhood in my hometown
Some day when I’ve done what I set out to do,
I will return to what used to be my home The mountains are green there in my hometown."

The Japanese Lyrics in Romaji (romanized Japanese) are as follows:

"Usagi oishi kano yama
Kobuna tsurishi kano kawa
Yume wa ima mo megurite
Wasuregataki furusato.
Ikani imasu chichi-haha,
tsutsuganashi ya tomogaki,
ame ni kaze ni tsuketemo,
omoiizuru furusato.
Kokorozashi o hatashite,
itsunohinika kaeran,
yama wa aoki furusato,
mizu wa kiyoki furusato."



It is one of my favorite songs and one of these days, I do hope to get a chance to visit Japan. I do wish to go to Kyoto and pay my respects to my ancestors and to bring a part of my father's legacyback home to Japan.

For the people who don't get the titular joke. Oi-shi (chasing) is also pronounced similarly to the word oishi which is "delicious", so periodically it confuses the heck out of people when they think they heard "Rabbits are delicious in those mountains". I've never tasted rabbit meat...so I wouldn't know.

Here are a few other versions that are favorites:

Il Divo singing in Japan one year after Fukushima.


Japanese Self Defence Force Concert

This is so poignant as every time the Self-Defence Forces deploy to places like Afghanistan (where Japanese soldiers have been captured by the Taliban), they don't know if they'll see their hometown again. So this is especially fitting


No matter what, it speaks of the love and the longing that Japanese feel for their hometown or country. In my case it would be Kyoto, where my ancestors, my uncles and my cousins lived and worked.

Busy Running Around

Frankly today is a busy afternoon. 1 round of dishes. Stuck out here in Langley waiting on my wife to collect a book from the library at Kwantlen - Langley campus.

Now sitting in Kwantlen Campus parking lot bored out of my mind waiting till she gets back from that library so that I can get back to cleaning up the house.

Nuclear Madness - Part 1 - Primary Targets

No-one thinks of Nuclear War at any time, it's not a very enticing image at the worst of times let alone the best. After watching Cold War - the Series on Youtube, I've been pondering just how safe Canada would really be in the outbreak of a war situation. With Putin and Co. posturing in a way that reminds me eerily of the Cold War relations between the former Soviet Union and the United States, we may have left the Doomsday Clock a little too far away from zero. Not to mention, China and their ever increasing posturing by creating ICBMs that can reach the North American continent.

Most of my friends and I live in Vancouver or the Fraser Valley and we don't think much of how much the Fraser Valley/Lower Mainland would be affected in the wake of an all-out nuclear exchange between the United States and Russia or any of the nuclear arsenals of any capable nuclear nation. We're all too concerned with our every-day lives, but I figured I'd ponder as to what sort of targets would be attacked and/or could be attacked by Russian nuclear missile forces.

In an all-out war, Canadian bases would be considered as alternate bases that US forward forces could deploy from after their home bases were targetted and taken out by SS-18s. These and international airports would be considered primary targets. These targets are the main bulwarks of defending our continent from armed invasion. Fighters, bombers and trasnports could deploy from international airport runways, so those will also be targetted. So what sort of weapons would target the international airports and Canadian bases. The SS-18 can be scaled from 1MT to 20MT. These would be the logical choice for taking out a high-priority target such as an air force base or an international airport. However the 90 missiles will be targetted more for US ICBM sites, CONUS Air Force Bases and more than likely, the missiles targetting primary targets in Canada would be 800Kt SS-26s or sea-based ballistic submarine launched nuclear surface to surface ballistic missiles.

Comox Air Force Base
Abbotsford International Airport
Boundary Bay Airport
Vancouver International Airport

Considering how scary this scenario is just by taking a look at the damage area, it's a wakeup call to first response units and Emergency Disaster units in the Lower Mainland.

In further posts, I will go into more of what other resources in the Lower Mainland will be considered targets. I suspect that any nation that is going to launch an ICBM strike is going to go for a scorched earth approach and target every possible resource that we have.

Finishing Up Living Room, Hallway and Kitchen

There are three places that require working on if we are to get the living room, hallway and kitchen clean. The hallway closet, and the stuff piled on the shelf, no matter how it looks, it doesn't look neat enough. It just looks like magazines piled on the shelf.

I've got a solution for this problem by doing this:

the small containers will take care of the brochures. And I have magazines that need to go in magazine holders: both photography magazines as well as aviation magazines. This will enable the magazines to have secure and sturdy support and it won't fall over when I go to remove a book.

I'm also hoping to take the hallway closet and put some containers on it so that it makes the towels piled in the hallway closet neat and tidy.

Trying to get this place clean, the way I want to get it clean and organized, is very costly. But it needs to be done, because I don't want to have to do another large cleanup which I have had to do every single year since the time I've gotten my own place and married.

The hallway closet solution would be something like this:

With the towels and sheets neatly folded and placed in 4 of these, it will make the closet a lot neater. And it will also make the area a lot tidier. When the towels are used, they will go immediately into the laundry hamper and when the laundry is done, the towels will be immediately folded and placed back in the container. That way it doesn't look as though the towels and sheets are overflowing.

If the house is organized right, the tidying will go a lot easier

Going absolutely APE-SHIT!!!

What a mess, I've been busy damned near all day, with breaks to feed Storm. I haven't eaten at all today, yet and I've been going full blast since I woke up this morning. I want to get this cleanup done right so that I don't have to do this kind of clean up again. I got no problem with maintaining the place. I just don't want to have to do a massive cleanup every f*ng year like I have for the past 12 years.

We need to get a rug cleaner. The kids spilled hot chocolate powder on the floor and the carpets are stained all to hell.

The Living Room in progress

The Closet cleaned up.

The space between the fridge and the door.

Also cleaned up the printer stand.

The top of the pantry has been cleared off and restructured.

Top of stove cleaned off.

Which Actress Could Play Mara.

Mara is an in-depth character. She's tough, sarcastic, opinionated and all the things that Luke Skywalker would end up geting irritated at first with, but falling in love with eventually. Now a lot of people would cast Nicole Kidman, or Uma Thurman because they're focussed on the physical resemblance. But a part of the Mara role would be whether or not the actor could come up with the innate traits that Mara has, her abrasiveness, the bitterness that stems from being a pawn in the machinations of Palpatine. I don't feel like Nicole Kidman has the experience in her repertoire to play a tough, abrasive, bitter ex-Imperial assassin. Gillian Anderson has that innate toughness.

And her looks do match...especially in this pregnancy photos.

Now ideally it would be nice to have Shannon McRandle do the character of Mara as she was the one that was originally picked to be Mara Jade for the CCG. But in case they could not get Shannon to do it, with her family requirements, I would say that Mara would next best be served by an actress who gets the gist of the character and has had the experience playing the angst-ridden, sarcastic, former assassin who falls in love with Luke Skywalker.

I think this painting of Mara Jade was influenced a lot by Gillian Anderson

A few more links of photos of Gillian Anderson with long hair

Maxim Photoshoot
Gillian as Mara after the Nirauan drenching?
Gillian as Mara in a little black dress? Hmmmm?
Gillian in a green sweater Would be nice to see her in a black bodysuit.
Another shot of Gillian.

Yes, she definitely would work as Mara Jade.