In honor of the parliamentary election that was held on Sunday, I'm putting up a shot of one of the Communist Party ads that were all over Kyoto. Communist terminology apparently transcends language and culture; this signs reads
"Now is the time for the citizens to raise their voices!
Against a large increase of the consumption tax!
How long will we do as America says?
End the US-Japan security treaty for a truly independent Japan!"
Now, I'm a little nonplussed by Communists resisting an increase in a tax, but presumably they oppose this one in favor of some massive, gradiated income tax, or just skipping the tax thing entirely and going straight to prison camps and mass murder. In any case, the Communists lost many of the few seats they had in the parliament in the election, so I'm not sure if they have any left at all at this point. This is actually a pretty interesting time in Japanese politics, but I don't have a complete grasp on the situation and it rather long and boring to explain like this, unless you're all just dying to know about exciting things like party mergers, power shifts and the possible emergence of a two-party system. Why, my heart is pounding at the prospect! Summer Blockbuster 2004: "Jiminto vs Minshuto: JAPANAGGEDON!"
English class today was fun enough to keep doing, but nothing too special. We had about 11 people, but we had previously decided to do it gratis, so that doesn't translate into any wealth for yours truly. Seeing all the blank stares when I'm trying to talk is totally karma for my own comatose gaze during Japanese lessons.
I had a politics class today wherein we finished watching the Japanese version of the same old video everyone watches when they learn about Vietnam. I swear, I've seen this exact video made by half a dozen different broadcast companies, all circulating the same tired shots and videos with the same drippy, superficial narration. The Japanese version was just as annoying and uninformative as the American versions, so I was bored out of my skull the whole time. Afterward, we all had to speak for two minutes about our impressions of the Vietnam War, and so I tried to give a brief discussion of the damage wreaked and lives lost by the self-righteous war protesters at that time, but it ended up getting a little long and probably sounded like "America not so bad! Protesters number one stupid! Smell so stinky, me want to die! Godzilla eat Communism, get so sick! He no happy!"
- Gyaa! I'm give up
