mio-depiction of auschwitz-birkenau
We are soon setting off to exchange some traveller's cheques for cash with which to consume the world's resources. Because Japan is afraid of foreigner scum they like to have separate little buildings to deal with them. It is a pleasant walk past a mental illness doctor's (scour the pavement for dropped medicines) an unemployment centre called "Hello Work!" (cheap vending machines for jobless no hopes) and some OL-esque cafes.
- The foreign currency exchange place is a front for a real estate business, you can browse the office blocks available while you wait.
- It took queuing in three banks to give us the location of this foreign exchange place.
- Despite using my best nippongo "traveller's cheque" (said in japanese accent) "o kankin shitai desu" (then I can improvise on the ending depending on how groovey I am feeling, or trail off, mouth hanging open)
- I dislike saying english words in a japanese accent. It is worst in MosBurger when ordering chips, which have become "hot fried potato"
- Prefer to say thankyou now in restaurants and places, but can't bring myself to pronounce it "sankyou". 
mio-depiction of the hopefully helpful woman in the bank-type place
auschwitz and the traveller cheque
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I recall it's virtually impossible to find a cash machine that accepts Western VISA cards and the like in Nihon. Why is Japan so reticent to enter into financial relationships with occidentals? Is it because they already have so much money of their own?
ReplyDeleteWell it works both ways, I was in a 2nd hand clothes shop in Shoreditch, and observed the exasperated saleswoman saying in full view of her 2 Japanese customers "Bloody Japanese, always take loads of clothes off the rails then try to pay with a card that doesn't work"
Haha in your face Japanese credit card system - now you're the gaijin!
Would they realise you were saying English words with a Japanese accent, and would they take this as an affront? Hmm. Ask Ms.Coppola - her rampaging racism knew no bounds.
ReplyDeleteJapan has had a problem with Western money since the failed bid to control the 'sphere of influence' - or something of the sort - pre WWII. They wanted it all for themselves. Rival Empire that they were never allowed. Their hatred of Western scum dollarz'n'poundz today stems directly from this unfair denial.
Seriously Malale, as I said, histories are good - they tell us much of what is happening today. It's all been pre-ordained. Like a computer game - each with its own trigger and special places to beat or lose.
Lovely Auschwitz picture by the way.
ReplyDeleteI have been to Auschwitz 1 and the camp at Birkenau, Auschwitz 2. The gate with its lovely message and the railway line entrance are both very horrible indeed - such a long, straight track. It's the ruthless efficiency of the whole operation that gets you. That, and massive piles of shoes and spectacles too.
Hard to describe, but there is something thick, tangible in the air. Very, very unsettling. There is a lake at the far end of 1 that is still grey from ash.
Does this Auschwitz interest have anything to do with your new novel concept that I failed miserably to decipher?
the atomic bomb and mass structured genocides underlie all actions taken. this is why i am not keen on dancing. It is like invaders from another universe where the worst weapon made is a glowing traffic policeman stick, or the large lollipop of a lollipop lady.
ReplyDeletehistory is unhistoric, but it is histrionic.
- lots of 10,000yen notes have been found all over tokyo. I haven't got my hands on one yet, but I scoure the gutters and the children passing by.
-the japanese are still isolationist in many ways. I have heard a few anecdotes about japanese (usually the women who buy the expensive handbags) going to italy and saying "look at all the gaijin!".
- it is not as bad as the americans who traipse everywhere internationally and masturbate over everything. This is what actually happens.
-the english japanese word thing : because they have adopted these words, but rendered and learnt them in such a way that they cannot recognise the original version. Leads to a sort of comic humiliation, that starts to grate after a while. The japanese language is the greatest humiliation of my life so far.
--(the above)-- good way to end a conversation, it appears
ReplyDelete