The Truth about Sushi

It's Pow Wow Time Again...

An 8 year old Aztec boy in full regalia at Cleveland's annual Edgewater Pow Wow.

Unfortunately I'm back in Japan, just in time to miss it all. Luckily I was able to make a breif cameo at Cleveland's annual Pow Wow at Edgewater Park before getting back to work after a 10 day stay in my home sweet home of Ohio, known to almost every Japanese person I meet as the Good Morning State (^-^)/.

The last time I had the privledge of attending a Pow Wow was almost 2 years ago at Mohican, before begining my new life as a JET in Japan. You can read more about Pow Wows and see a lot more pictures here and here.

A young girl showing off her wonderfully colorful shawl during the fancy dance competition.

An Aztec teen sporting an impressive headdress at Edgewater's annual Pow Wow.


A young grass dancer tearing up the arena in some wicked regalia.

An aztec battle dance.

Suicide: The Enduring Way of the Samurai?

Random picture of the day: A Pontocho geisha perfroming in Kamogawa Odori. Pontocho is one of Kyoto's 5 hanamachi, or geisha districts. This image has absolutely nothing to do with the following post. (^-^)v

Japan's total fertility rate, an indicator used for international comparisons of birth trends within individual countries, fell for the fifth consecutive year, hitting a record low of 1.25.

At the same time, suicides in Japan topped 30,000 (32,552) for the eigth straight year.

Not a good combination.

Japan's suicide rate is one of the highest in the world-- triple that of Great Britain, and double that of the United States. Suicides started to rise in 1998, when the country was mired in an economic slump. Since then the number of suicides has exceeded 30,000 every year. Males account for more than two-thirds of the total, with health problems and economic woes being cited as the most prevalent causes, respectively.

This year the number of students committing suicide reached 861, up 9.8 percent. University students accounted for more than half of the total, along with 7 elementary school pupils, 66 junior high school students, and 215 high school students .

Japan's cult suicide scene is also growing, with the number of Japanese killing themselves in groups rising steadily in recent years, from 34 in 2003 to 91 last year.

No religious prohibition exists against taking one's own life in Japan, condemning it as a sin or affront to god. Confucianism, in fact, sanctions suicide as a form of protecting one’s honor or protesting injustice. Suicide was once a form of ritual atonement for samurai, a poetic, redemptive act of purpose, considered to be both heroic and beautiful. Today it is a means of escaping failure and saving loved ones from embarrassment or financial loss.