Kim Jong Nam

Come on in. Grab a seat. Let's talk politics.

Me and politics haven't been to close recently, we've been in a test seperation period, seeing other anthropomorphic theoretical paradigms, super-intelligent shades of the colour blue, whatever. But this morning I got to thinking about the old ball and chain again. And here's why.

The eldest known son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has left his residence in Macau and is in Beijing preparing to travel to Pyongyang for his father's 65th birthday, South Korean media reported on Monday. (CNN)

The article goes on to talk about how this prodigal son, Kim Jong Nam, has fallen out with his father over a botched attempt to get into Japan on a forged Dominican passport, (he says he wanted to go to Tokyo Disneyland) and is no longer named as the successor. Moreover, he has been the target of at least two assassination attempts. Kim Jong Il, getting on at 65, has been mumbling about passing on his rule to a military junta, and has set up an Obama-style investigatory committee to this end.



And that's not even considering the implications of the son of one of two remaining communist dictators in the world being permitted to carry on his playboy lifestyle in an international gambling centre in Chinese territory. I hadn't realized before the degree to which the Chinese and North Korean governments were, uhm, interwoven. It also indicates that Great Leader Kim considers his first born expendable. It also adds a new twist to old news like this:

"It's another piece of the puzzle," said Jorge Godinho, an anti-money
laundering expert at University of Macau.

Macau is where North Korea did most of its international banking until late
2005, when Washington accused the city's Banco Delta Asia of helping Pyongyang
launder money and engage in other illicit activities, and threatened to take
action.

The Macau government, under U.S. pressure, froze $24 million in North
Korea-linked accounts, prompting Pyongyang to boycott the six-way talks for over
a year until December. (Reuters)

The Reuters article also has a more detailed breakdown of the dynstic tribulations in the hermit kingdom. It's fairly fascinating.

Anyway, I think that's about all the time I have today. My parents and sister are back in Toronto and I am so far behind on my thesis paper it's not even Seinfeld.

Next time: Chinese bio-fuel plantations in Africa!

Duhn, da-da-da duhn, duhn, duhn, da-duhn!

I've been watching a lot of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Amazingly fun movie, though Cloud does wander into melodrama and teen angst every so often. At least when Vincent broods he's not a douche about it.

I'm watching it in Japanese, no subtitles, and I get slightly less than most of it. I've been struggling over the last few days to find a good English substitute for two lines though that come at the end of the movie. They are

皆の所 minna no tokoro

and

皆で遊ぼう？ minna de asobou?

Most of the problems I think I'm having come from the word 皆 minna, which in English is sort of equivalent to "everyone" though it is used much more freely in Japanese. The first line literally translates as "everybody's place" but in the context of the movie it is used to refer to the Lifestream, this sort of Schopenhauerian mystic force for good composed of myriad souls that flows over the world protecting it. When you die your ego floats up to the Lifestream and merges with it joyously, and in this sense "everybody's place" is a euphemism for Heaven, or something like it. But I'm having trouble coming up with a euphemism in English that sounds half decent. "everybody's place" just feels so peurile.

The second bit, minna de asobou, is even more difficult to render into English, mostly because I don't entirely understand the usage of the particle de in the sentence. Also the verb form of asobou while easy to render into English sounds terribly unnatural, at best archaic. It's used all the time in Japanese though, so I'll have to come up with a standard translation at some point.

The verb literally means "let's have fun" or more awkwardly because it's a question "shall we have fun?" The left half, minna de, either means "with everyone", which is more natural, or "as everyone", which is maybe more accurate if less mellifluous. It makes sense in the context of grand metaphysical myths like the Lifestream, but not much else. If you put it all together in English you come out with something looking like "shall we have fun with everyone?" or "shall we have fun as everyone?", neither of which is very appealing.

Anyway, that's my problem of the week. At some point I should find a copy of the movie with subtitles, so that I can take a look at how the professionals forced the language into submission.

I'm back to Tokyo tonight on the Japanese-really-fast-train. I have a meeting with my thesis advisor in an hour and a half, and I need to be getting off to school. Also, need time to work out for the first time in three weeks. Busy busy busy.

Photo Dump 3: Nagasaki, Kumamoto and Beppu

I've earned a short respite from translating for my tireless, tourist parents. I came back to Nishinomiya late last night, head back up to Tokyo Wednesday evening. Today I have class and work, and then I need to hack together a more detailed breakdown of my thesis due in early March. Busy busy busy, so photo dump, photo dump, photo dump.

I really wish Google would let you upload more than one image at a time. It's like blogging in the Dark Ages. I don't know how St. Augustine managed.

Nagasaki Peace Park

Nagasaki China Town and Confucian Shrine

Kumamoto Suizenji Koen

Beppu Jigoku (The Hells!)

Photo Dump 2: Karatsu and Imari

My parents and I got into the small Kyushuan town of Karatsu on Sunday. It's famous mostly for its pottery, made largely by the descendants of Korean potters brought over to Japan during Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invasion from 1592 to 1598. We spent two nights in this lovely 旅館 (ryokan, Japanese inn) and toured around the kilns in town and in neighbouring Imari. Karatsu is better known for its earthenware, Imari more famous for its porcelain. It's great, I'm learning all sorts of pottery-related Japanese words while translating for my parents. I now know how to say, for instance, porcelain, fired ware, and kiln in Japanese, and I know what the first level of a stepped kiln is called, (you can see a couple below) and how to refer to each successive level. It's very, very good practice, though to what end exactly I'm not entirely sure.

Anyway, the rents are already sleeping, and I don't want to wake them up with my typing, so it's another photo dump.

PS: It's really great having my parents here. Did I mention that bit?

Photo Dump 1: Tokyo

Tokyo was a blast, but we walked basically everywhere and my legs hurt to no end. I'm heading off to Kyushu with my family tomorrow morning, and am way to busy to give you a detailed rundown of what's hip and with it in Tokyo, so here's the thousand-word version. In reverse order, just to really confuse you.