Regina Glei's Blog, page 30

Small and Big Disasters

Much has been written and reported about the eruption of Mt. Ontake on the 27th of September, so I shall not repeat that here in length. I’d rather like to reflect on the reaction of the media to the event and some personal volcano experiences.

Just quickly to recap what happened: Mt. Ontake is one of over 100 active volcanoes of the Japanese islands. 47 of them (or was it 48?) are monitored 24/7. Mt. Ontake is one of those under constant surveillance. Despite that there was no indication (apparently) that a gas explosion would happen.

Had it occurred in winter, this explosion would probably not have been a big deal. Trouble was it happened on a Saturday noon, in excellent weather, during the peak of the autumn leaves viewing season. Many more people than usual were on the mountain. Had the explosion occurred at night or on a weekday there also would have been far fewer victims. The timing of the explosion was the worst possible.

I’m not exactly an outdoor person and have only been scrambling around three active volcanoes in my life so far: Mt. Fuji, Mt. Aso on the southern island of Kyushu during my student times, and two years ago Mt. Mihara on the island of Oshima. When I was at Mt. Aso (last (smaller) eruption 2004) I got more or less sick from intense sulfur stench and fled the area around the crater very quickly. At Mt. Fuji I didn’t manage to get to the top (it’s last eruption was in 1707). At Mt. Mihara (the home of Godzilla by the way) smoke was rising from various corners but it didn’t smell of sulfur, rather like BBQ = coal. At Mt. Mihara I noticed sensors at several of the smoke vents. I suppose they give off an alarm/alert when the gas-mix changes. The last major eruption of Mt. Mihara happened 1986, a smaller one in 1990.

Now to the media: I found the reporting in Japan about what happened at Mt. Ontake excessive, repetitive and incomplete at the same time. NHK showed the same footage over and over, while avoiding such questions as to why there had been no warning in advance. These were answered only days later when we all got lessons on volcanic eruptions on TV showing the differences between a hot-water/gas explosion as happened on Mt. Ontake and an eruption involving magma. When magma moves there are small (or not so small) earthquakes. There were some quakes at Mt. Ontake too but different from magma movements, so nobody registered them as dangerous or as an indicator that something would happen. On a volcanic eruption scale the Mt. Ontake eruption was minor, but it cost so many lives because of the bad timing mentioned earlier.

What I mean with the reporting being excessive is the dramatic tone and the amount of screen time it got. Well, I guess that wouldn’t be much different in other countries. But despite the eruption being on TV all the time, I felt uninformed and the major question of why there had been no pre-warning to the hikers was left unanswered for what felt way too long.

Now to the small drama that happened yesterday, which has nothing to do with volcanic eruptions.

Every workday I emerge from the subway at Shibuya station in the Hikarie building and am of the habit to store my Walkman and get out the company badge in the elevator hall. I did so Friday morning as well and suddenly was distracted by shouting outside. Looking up provided a view at several fire fighter cars, an ambulance, police, a roped off area and fire fighters spreading a net. The net gave the clue – we have a jumper.

I left the building and police people ushered me away from it – yes, wise move, it happened already twice that someone jumped off the roof of the Parco department store in Ikebukuro and killed not only him/herself, but also pedestrians below him at the always busy station exit…

So I quickly brought some distance between myself and the building. Of course there were dozens of onlookers and I joined them, but it took a while to see the problem. I finally spotted the guy on a part of the building that protrudes from the rest of it. He didn’t behave very suicidal though, waving at people. I was too far away to see clearly, but for a moment it looked as if he was making victory signs. I suppose this was an act of deliberate provocation or he was high on some drug. Local news reported he didn’t jump and is now in custody. There has been no word yet on why he did this.

The reaction of the crowd, myself included, was so interesting. You just have to know and to look. The curiosity of wanting to know what’s going on is utterly overwhelming. I am no exception and snapped pictures of the guy and tweeted them. Rather than “craving for sensation”, it’s burning curiosity – something out of the ordinary is happening and we have to know what it is. You can’t just walk on and go to work, you have to see what’s happening. I found it remarkable though that I could leave and head to work after I had spotted the guy. I did not have to wait for the result of the action happening, but not knowing its nature was too hard to bear…

Norma(l)n

During a recent Tower Record hunt, I came across the movie “Hitchcock” with Anthony Hopkins as the master himself and Helen Mirren as his wife. That can’t be too bad, so I bought the DVD. Well, big stars don’t necessarily make a good movie. While Anthony and Helen did good jobs, the story felt a bit thin, describing the “difficulties” the Hitchcock couple faced when directing and producing Psycho. What the movie lacked was a strong bad guy. The dude from Paramount who nearly refused to distribute the movie and the censor watchdog were not prominent enough to be counted as worthy antagonists. Also the side plot about Alma Hitchcock having a fancy for some writer did not give enough juice for a good counter-weight to Alfred.



The one most striking thing about the Hitchcock movie I found to be the bit of the censor watchdog complaining to Hitch that he showed a toilet in the movie.

I was not aware that before 1960 and this movie, no toilets were allowed to be shown in US productions… and no nudity either. Which I find amazing. In Germany the taboo of nudity on film was broken by the, outside of Germany not so well known (I guess), actress Hildegard Knef. She caused one of the biggest scandals in German film history by being the first woman appearing naked on screen and that was already in 1951 in the movie “Die Suenderin” (the (female) sinner). (I might have seen it a long while back, but I don’t remember it at all and have no clue whether it was a good or bad movie).

Watching this “Hitchcock” thing had the strong effect to make me want to see Psycho again. I have seen it a long time ago, but now I promptly bought it and watched it last night. Hitch was a master indeed. Apart from the psychologist explaining about Norman Bates’ “schizophrenia” in the end, which is all telling, not showing, this is such a bold movie considering it was 1960. Killing off the heroine after 45 minutes into the movie, having an “amoral” heroine to begin with, who sneaks away from the office during lunch time to have sex with her divorced lover, then stealing money. And Norman of course, the amazing Anthony Perkins whose last evil look into the camera is worse than the shower murder scene.

That murder scene in itself, kyaaaa! The room behind the motel’s office with the stuffed birds, the famous house on the hill where Mrs. Bates awaits you. Man, this movie is now 54 years old and has lost nothing of its appeal. Also in our times of ever grander special effects, 3D etc., at the heart of it all is the good, twisted and interesting story. If you don’t have that, all your effects won’t help you. I wish more filmmakers would turn to old master pieces and learn from them. And tonight I’ll watch “The Birds” again, which I happened to order together with Psycho. Hitch, you were awesome.

Believable?

I recently watched the “movie” “Tin Man” or in Japan called “Outer Zone”. They sold it for a 1000 yen at Tower Records. I only realized later that it is a radically cut version of the Sci-Fi channel mini series “Tin Man”. I obviously haven’t seen it, and its ratings in IMDb are actually not that bad, however, I found the thing horrible. This “movie” represents the limit of what you can do with editing a story. Maybe the long version = the entire mini-series is better, but this cut to pieces something was one of the worst movie experiences I ever had.

The story felt choppy and sorry, but the leading actress seemed like the most unnatural actress they could find. Her reactions to what was happening around her were completely unbelievable. She shrugged off life-changing events with indifference. Oh, the people she thought are her parents are not her parents. So what? When she first meets the character Glitch her reaction to the fact that he has his brain removed and a zipper on top of his head is lame rather than cool, and so forth.

The wannabe steampunk look had a ridiculous feel to it rather than making things attractive because it served no purpose and was not an integral part of the story. The artificial people in the first OZ village the heroine goes to are causing the reaction – what the hell is that? What purpose does this story item serve? What does it add to the story that these people are half mechanized?

The Wizard of Oz is a great story and the movie a legend (I’ve seen it, but it’s a long time ago). I remember drama and being awfully scared of the wicked witch of the west.

In this “Tin Man” movie the characters are stumbling from one convenient event to the other: They have to find her father. The dog/creature thing immediately finds access to this city underground. There they immediately find someone who gives them a tip without motivation. Then DG, the heroine, gets abducted by no one else but her daddy. Dah!!! Maybe they need more time to get from A to B in the mini series, in the movie though clues come out of the blue and always fit and are highly convenient.

One of the worst sequences is when DG remembers her past. She walks through the woods, the dog/creature thing tells her to remember an oh, so suddenly she remembers everything.

Horrible plotting, one dimensional characters, no explanations for how the heroine and her entourage travel from a to b – and oh, suddenly they are back at the tower of her sister who is possessed by the evil witch of the west.

Why does the bad sister have followers at all? What’s in it for them? Nothing in this movie adds up and it’s a great lesson for every writer on how NOT to do it.

Your characters need motivation, more than one character trait, and they need to react naturally to what’s happening around them. Your plot needs to be logical, even in fantasy you need to explain how people get from A to B, you must make things difficult for your characters instead of presenting them with the next clue on a silver plate. Great lessons learned, thanks, you do really learn a lot as a writer from bad examples

Ballet Under the Dome

Okay, this blog entry will be a little bit of a stretch – Russian ballet vs. American TV.

I’ve been to my first ballet ever and consider that worth a report and I’m watching the series Under the Dome at the moment and got some comments about it too.

Ballet:

I spontaneously went to see my first ballet ever last Wednesday, The Matthew Bourne “all men” production of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake.



I guess it was a good choice to make this my first ballet ever, since I at least remotely knew something about the story, thanks to a movie I like very much – Black Swan – with Natalie Portman. So there is this princess Odette, who is turned into a swan by a curse and only true love can bring her back or she will be turned into a swan forever.

I kinda expected a “black swan” – the bad sorcerer who turns her into one somewhere but either I didn’t get it or it was missing from the Matthew Bourne production. In the original the hero, Siegfried, is not married and his mother seems to be bitching him around, but in the Bourne production she looked more like his wife than his mother, at least to my eyes.

It was amazing to see just a few gestures establishing their relationship. They looked like they have been married to each other for politics and especially she does not like him and rejects any sort of affection he is trying to show her. Very subtly expressed with just a few gestures and how the dancers posed their bodies.

The swans were impressive, all men and they did an excellent job at looking animal like. I’m kinda interested in seeing a classical production of the ballet where the swans are all girls. With men as swans the esthetics were elegant, yes, but also animalistic. Odette was danced by a dancer called Chris Tranfield (I think) and man, the guy was good. I found the scenes without the swans a bit long and dragging at times, but whenever the swans were around it was interesting and impressive. These dancers don’t seem to have bones in their bodies.

The finale of Odette and Siegfried dying was really amazing to watch. You don’t need words to tell a story. As a writer there are quite some lessons to be learned from that

I shall be on the lookout for more ballet.

Under the Dome:

I’m watching that on hulu and while I liked at least most of the first season it’s starting to be a bit bland in the beginning of the second season. It’s about a small US town suddenly being trapped under a mysterious, invisible and indestructible dome some 30 miles wide or so. Although there is no ultimate revelation yet, aliens seem to be involved. What I find noteworthy about this series are only two things. Uncle Hank from Breaking Bad is playing the main bad guy (quite well) here and the other thing is the Game of Thrones syndrome of killing off major characters like flies… What has Mr. George R.R. Martin done??? He kicked off a trend to kill your characters. While your protagonists should suffer, yes, go through hardship, have tough decisions to make and and and, what good are they to you if they’re dead?

That does not mean like I’ve never killed off one of my characters but I am weary of the numbers. If I counted correctly, within the 15 episodes that I watched of Under the Dome, five major characters have bit the dust, especially during the last few episodes, where it’s more or less one per show. The dangerous thing about that is that the viewer gets used to it, detaches him/herself from the characters, since you have to be prepared that they are having switched their lights out. The character killing only has an impact if you were invested into that character and when it becomes a standard plot device it loses its impact in my humble opinion. The other issue with that is that you need to replace those characters with new ones that you have to draw out of your hat like a magician and that just doesn’t work all the time. I’ll keep on watching Under the Dome a bit more, let’s say until the Uncle Hank (here he is Big Jim) character bites the dust, but I am not invested anymore. However, thanks to Under the Dome for teaching me something about character deaths for my own writing

Actively Disengaged

This autumn I will be stumbling from one leadership related seminar to the next for certain work reasons and the first one took place last week.

While I knew much of the stuff already, for example the Tuckman model describing the phases groups go through – forming, storming, norming, performing, mourning – one model was relatively useful, if only a variation of others.

There is a famous “model” that says that in every company there are 20% achievers, 60% followers and 20% blockers whom you’d like to fire. Another model (somewhere in some Gallup report, I don’t remember which one) calls those three groups, engaged, not engaged and my favorite “actively disengaged”. Ain’t that a cool expression – actively disengaged = they’re complaining, complaining, complaining and are very inventive to find whatever reason to not do their tasks.

So the new “model” I learned, which relates to the engaged, not engaged and actively disengaged categories, speaks of “ability” (a or A) and “motivation” (m or M) – there are four groups here, not only three, and the “dream category” is AM: someone who is highly able and highly motivated too.

Next up are the two imbalanced groups of x) aM – not so able (or experienced) but highly motivated, often ambitious but inexperienced younger employees. And y) there are the Am people – highly able (or experienced) but not so motivated anymore, often your older employees who’ll retire in a few years anyway.

Last but not least is the blocker / actively disengaged group, the “am” group, neither able nor motivated.

Sounds familiar? That’s why I like these models, they indeed do fit to real life.

Models are fine, but in the end, what the heck do you do to get the “am” people to perform? How do you manage to get the actively disengaged people to at least not disturb the rest of the team…? None of the leadership seminars I have gone to so far could give an answer and I am pretty sure that none of the seminars I will be going to in the coming months will have an answer either.

Models generalize in the attempt to help us understand the world around us, but they cannot help with the individual problem of the actively disengaged dude in your team. His or her reasons for being actively disengaged are so diverse that there is no common recipe for how to deal with such people. You have to find a solution for every individual case.

Nevertheless, I shall “enjoy” the bunch of seminars that yet await me and look out for more interesting models describing our daily predicaments at work and elsewhere too

The NHK News That Are Not News Anymore

NHK is the Japanese national TV channel with the letters standing for Nippon Housou Kyokai and their English name being “Japan Broadcasting Corporation”.

Much like the ARD in Germany they are a “public” broadcaster and Japan’s only one. The NHK news have always had the tendency to be a bit Japan self-centric, but I finally must note publicly that they have deteriorated to a ridiculous propaganda wish-wash.

Last Saturday I watched the main news from 19:00 to 19:30 in full length while preparing dinner (it’s rather rare that I watch them in full length) and was frankly appalled at just how awful they have become.

The first 15 min or so dealt with the landslide in Hiroshima, which is bad, yes, but 15 min? Come on. Then it got worse with a sheer endless “report” about some “anniversary” of 69 years since Japanese soldiers were detained in Siberian gulags after the end of WW2. The trigger for this report being some memorial service to commemorate this event.

Next up was the worst “report”: some five minutes or more of blah about a whatever “national” museum that houses whatever national treasures. There was zero news value in this museum thing.

The only “non-Japanese” news was a Chinese fighter flying within ten meters of a US survey plane… (the message of course being China is bad and dangerous and irresponsible). Next up was sports.

No news about the currently pressing issues of Ebola, Ukraine crisis, Syria etc… nothing…

Under the influence of Prime Minister Abe and the marionettes he has put onto the board of NHK, this news channel has deteriorated to a nationalistic, zero news value, propaganda blah with weekly reports about those people North Korea abducted 30 years ago, saber rattling towards China and self-praise. Incredible…

I am saddened and upset. This is not reporting, this is a nightmare.

In NHK’s defense, they did a 30 min “close up gendai” report on Ebola a few days later and their “modern” News-Web news at 23:30 with live twitter feed, iPads and big data analysis is still watchable, but the 19:00 news have become a sad joke. Well, I will keep on watching occasionally to check on where this dangerous development goes…….

Niijima Travel Report – Part 2

On the second full day, I embarked on car adventures again and had a very good car day! I went to Habushiura beach first of all, where I ran into a very nice guy from Venezuela who was camping on the island for two weeks and doing some surfing. We had a very interesting chat before I went off again with the little Daihatsu Move.

My goal was the southern tip of the island. That’s about ten km serpentines through the southern mountain(s). At the end of the road you get rewarded by a nice view of a lonely rock and also a small Japanese self defense forces base.



That successfully accomplished I dared, on the way back, to drive into a one lane road with occasional berths left or right where you have to wait to let oncoming cars pass and made my way to the so called Ishiyama. Unfortunately the view was not overwhelming on this very hot and humid day. Niijima hung inside clouds and visibility was rather poor. After these, for my level, daring car adventures, I curved down to the main harbor for lunch and chill.

Next I rode a different road to Habushiura beach. The beach is as mentioned around seven km long. There is a central spot which is equipped with toilet and shower facilities as well as lifeguards on duty, but the real cool surfers apparently go with their four wheel drives down the beach and down south. I found the car access spot, but it’s a dirt path only for four wheel drive cars and no way I would try to get down there with my beginner driving skills and a little Daihatsu Move. I walked down and admired the crazy surfers who plunge down the dirt path in their cars



On I went to an abandoned looking harbor at the northern end of Habushiura beach, from where you have an excellent view of it if the weather were fine. On the way to the harbor I discovered the other end of the closed road around the mountain that was used before the 3 km tunnel was finished.



That done, I went back through that tunnel and once more to the “secret” beach north of the mountain, then back to the hotel.

Driving went very well supported by generally sparse traffic and by the low speed limits. The highest official speed limit on the island is 40 km/h.

The “problem” is that I had to do more or less the same tour on Thursday again, since the island is small and since that’s all that there is! Lol.

So, on Thursday I did the same tour in the morning, via Habushiura beach to the most southern tip and then again to the Ishiyama lookout. During the ride to the souther tip I had a tail, probably an army guy going to work, who wrung his hands that I rode 30 km/h as required

On Ishiyama lookout a little happening forced me to stay there for a while. A cloud decided to dump its contents onto the mountain and visibility shrank to some 30 meters or so.



I think it was my first time inside a dense cloud. Even after the rain stopped, the cloud remained and I left the shelter of the car and walked around in water vapor. Then the wind blew the cloud away and revealed this stunning view at the islands of Shikine and Kozu. The day before the view had been much more limited, so it had been worthwhile to come up there again.



While I had been alone in the cloud, several cars arrived after it was gone, which resulted in yet another tail who probably wanted me to curve down the mountain faster, but I kept the speed limit ;-). I am still a bit unnerved, when I have someome sticking to my rear bumper…

I had lunch again at the ferry terminal and then went to the only place I had not yet been to, up the bathing beach Maehama until the mountain, cul de sac, end of line, but very pretty and lonely too.



On the way back, I visited a glass factory which seems to be sort of modestly famous. They have quite some modern designs and all pieces are one of a kind and I bought a one-of-a-kind glass mug. I especially like its handle. You can still imagine how they attached it in semi-liquid form.

I passed Habushiura beach one last time, drove again to the defunct harbor and then back through the tunnel to a last visit of “my beach”, where one lonely surfer was tackling the waves. Quite some guts to go into the waters without any company. I watched him for a bit, but he did not manage to get onto the board. It was too hot for watching long and I drove back to the hotel. After a bit of a rest I went down to the Wakago beach and tested the beach barefoot and whew… your feet get almost burned in the hot gravel. The water was astonishingly cold. Back at the hotel and after a shower, the guests were called down for dinner and the landlady pulled me aside and into the mini living room for the landlord and landlady = their private room. There they had prepped a seat for me with a backrest because of my bad back. The landlady had seem me awkwardly kneeling the day before. Jeez, what a service. The landlord was there and talked me up and even gave me a little lucky charm. In return I had to talk about Germany

Dinner done, we all went to the obon matsuri (festival) of Wakago, there the service continued with the landlord buying me cotton candy (well, it cost only 50 yen…). He knows everyone in the village of course and at the beer stall they gave him free beer and me a free soft drink. On to the yakitori stall (fried chicken) and we got free yakitori even though we had just eaten a big dinner. Then the landlord and lady left me, because they wanted to visit the graves of their ancestors. I stayed and watched the hula dancers and more obon dancers including a cute, at least 90 year old guy and even some surfing kids.



It was interesting to see the workings of the village. When we arrived, the landlady gave the organizers of the festival an envelope with money, their contribution to it. They all know in advance who will give how much and at the entrance to the festival is the obligatory billboard with print outs showing which family gave what. Peer pressure, ladies and gentlemen. Then, punctually at nine in the evening an announcement blares – party over! Go home! lol… So party’s over and everyone goes home. Some people presumably go for a second round in an izakaya or someone’s home, but officially the party was over.

I used the opportunity to go to the nightly Wakago beach, the sky was clear for a change and despite some light pollution many more stars visible than ever in Tokyo. Very beautiful.

The next morning was already time to leave. My neighbors woke me up with talking at 6:30 in the morning… sigh… I went for a last walk at the Wakago beach, then waited for the landlord to drive a surfer couple and myself to the ferry terminal and witnessed another village-life event. A woman dropped by, called the landlady and gave her a bunch of fish that her husband had caught and that they can’t possibly eat. So the landlady will serve those fish for dinner to her guests. The smoothness and speed of this interaction said – this is happening all the time. The villagers sort of feed each other

There is still some very traditional roles going on too, at dinner with the landlord the night before, he said to his wife “warui kedo, biru chodai”. “Sorry, but get me a beer”.

He is polite, he said “warui kedo”, but also here, there was a smoothness and naturalness. It’s her job to get him his beer. No questions asked on either side, no discussion needed. Work share: He does the fishing and the driving around of guests and repairing things, she takes care of the hotel and the massive cooking every day for the guests (and her husband).

Finally, it was time to pay. I asked about the car and found out that they usually charge their guests 1000 yen per day for car-borrowing. I tried to pay for the car, but the landlady refused, since I had skipped breakfast and had refilled the tank the day before… incredible. I don’t know if it’s possible to send beer, but I’ll try to find out and will send the two some German beer for him (he drinks nothing but beer, he told me, no harder stuff) and some chocolate for her.

I don’t know if they would have been so nice to me were I not able to speak Japanese, but this is the most generous and caring place I ever stayed at. If you go to Niijima – Uechomaru in Wakago ;-).

The landlord drove a surfer couple and me to the ferry terminal and the seven hour boat ride began in fine (if hot – too hot) weather with fantastic cloud formations above especially Toshima and also Oshima.



The wounds from the big landslide in Oshima last year are still visible.



The slow boat takes of course more than twice as long as the jet ferry, but the jet ferry just has no “ocean going” flair. You gotta feel the wind in your hair and taste the salt on your lips when going to sea.

Apart from the back pain it was a perfect trip. Niijima is a very beautiful place, and I am very proud of my car adventures. This is what I relearned driving for and yes, if I want to live in a place like this after retirement, hell yes, I do need a car ;-)! What’s my next target? Maybe Miyakejima next year? The one that has an active volcano to deal with? Let’s see

Niijima Travel Report – Part 1

Short summer holidays only for me this year due to work issues and so I went off to yet another island. Japan has 7000 of them, so there’s still a lot to explore. Just joking, the figure 7000 includes all sorts of tiny uninhabited rocks like some of those in the photos you will find on flickr.

This time my target was the island of Niijima, some 200 km south of Tokyo and one of the Izu island chain. Formerly I have been to the biggest of them, Oshima, home of Godzilla, and Hachijojima. A thousand kilometers further south, are the wonderful Ogasawara islands.

Niijima lies between Oshima and Hachijojima and can be reached via the jet ferry, if it runs, that is… We had typhoon 11 of 2014 crossing Japan on the weekend before I was scheduled to leave and even though Tokyo and its islands were not in the direct path of the typhoon, we had very high winds and lots of wind means high waves.

I had, luckily, planned a normal weekend at home, before heading out to the island on Monday. Of course I frequently checked the homepage of the ferry operator, Tokai Kisen, and on the Saturday and Sunday there were zero jet ferries going and even the normal ship did not sail. I was actually not expecting to be able to get to the island on Monday. My ferry was the noon one leaving Tokyo at 13:10, and after getting up, I checked Tokai Kisen’s homepage and there were signs saying, depending on the weather we might not go. I called them and the dude on the phone said, the morning ferries had left Tokyo port. Well, um, eh… that means I better go to the harbor, right?

The ferry was almost full and off we went. Even in Tokyo bay the waters were choppy and outside Tokyo bay of course even more so. The jet ferry travels at around 70 to 80 km per hour and rises above the waves on its wings. That had the nice advantage of avoiding up and down movements, but you still see the up and down from your window and the impact of the waves makes the boat jolt as if someone boxed it from the side. It’s rather unnerving and the sounds are scary too. Water is hard at 70 km per hour… An elderly lady behind me was sighing and pressing a handkerchief to her face the entire time not looking very happy. I was a bit apprehensive, but did not feel sick or anything. The ride took about three hours. We passed Oshima and Toshima to our right and both islands were huddled in clouds. Especially the cloud over Toshima looked like a giant Cthulhu-like beast intending to swallow the island. This cloud hugging phenomenon would continue the entire week.

At first the ferry goes past the goal, making a brief stop at a smaller island south of Niijima called Shikinejima. Then it goes back past Niijima and we landed in its northern port.

There my landlord waited for me with a car. We also picked up a family. This family turned out to be not guests but the landlord’s son, his wife, her mother, and two young children of 5 and half a year. I was the only guest of the place that night, since several people had cancelled, unable to come with the ferries over the weekend.

There are two main settlements on the island. The northern one called Wakago and the bigger one called Honso.

Niijima consists of two mountain areas much like Hachijojima with a rather flat plain between them. Again in a copy of Hachijojima there is an airport on that flat part, if a tiny one. Regular (smaller) passenger jets can fly to Hachijojima. To Niijima the biggest planes are small propellor craft with up to twenty passengers only, which leave from Chofu airport in the greater Tokyo area.

I had dinner with the family then and it turned out that my plans to explore the island via bicycle were no good. There is a tunnel through the biggest mountain connecting Wakago and Honso and it prohibited to walk through it or go by bicycle, only by car or bike.

The hotel has the incredible custom to let its guests borrow their cars and they offered me to drive around with their little Daihatsu Move.

I explained my driving status and experience and the landlord offered, well, I can drive you around a little bit on Tuesday morning and then you can decide whether you dare to drive the Daihatsu or not.

After a sweaty night, the air conditioning in my room was out of order and I slept with the door and window open, an electrician came at 8 in the morning (!) and started to work on my air conditioning while I had breakfast. Then, the landlord ushered me into his big Toyota Granvia and brought me up a small and very serpentiny bad, small road to the highest spot from where you have a nice view of Honso settlement and the islands Jinan and Shikine and the southern mountain.



Next we drove around that southern mountain, when it started to rain. He drove then through the “jungle” at the foot of the southern mountain and said, oh there is a well in here, you wanna see it? Sure. So he entered a tiny dirt path, not realizing that there were some drainage gates at the side of the path. The left tire broke in there and we almost got stuck and the landlord forced the car out of it and blew his front left tire in the process. Kya! I took some pics of the well while he phoned the garage, then we turned around and hobbled back onto the road.

Torrential rain started and we waited for a while, but then he drove on somehow and we crept to the garage, which was luckily only a a kilometer or so away. Now I know what it’s like to drive with a blown tire. I shall refrain from doing so if I can avoid it! At the garage, they changed the tire within ten minutes and off we went again towards home, passing by the most famous beach, Habushiura, on the eastern side of the island.



We were back home already at 11:00 in the morning and I sort of had no choice, go by car myself or be bored to death in the Wakago settlement, which sports two tiny supermarkets and a shrine, a temple and a school. Well, there is a beach and a harbor, but that’s it. Island life!

So, some minutes later I sat behind the wheel of the little Daihatsu and off I went.

At first through the long tunnel where you are not allowed to walk or bicycle. Well, the tunnel is some three kilometers long, I can understand that you are not allowed through the tunnel without a motor under your butt.

I went to the most famous beach again, which is rather close to the tunnel to relax from scary driving! Lol. The tunnel is rather new by the way, about ten years. Some thirteen or so years ago when the volcano of nearby Miyakejima decided to become active, several local earthquakes accompanied the activity. Acording to the landlord, they crumbled the old seaside serpentine road around the mountain. After that, the city of Tokyo decided to invest into that tunnel.

I walked a bit up and down the surfer beach, which is a total of seven kilometers long, until the next massive shower came down, which I sat out under a picnic shelter.

On went the car journey to Honso and the main ferry terminal past the only two traffic lights of the island

There are several attractions close to the main ferry terminal. Another beach, more for young children, then a rocky beach, good for snorkeling and shore climbing. Further an onsen with a foot bath, and a real bath under fake Greek ruins, in which you are supposed to wear swim suits. That’s rather rare for onsens, but since it’s visible from the road, it makes sense to have people wear something, not that the drivers are plunging down the cliff distracted by naked people ;-).

Next to the Greek onsen is a big rock that has some World War Two ruins to offer, after a bit of a hazardous climb. Up is much easier than down as I noticed yet again. But since I am writing this, I survived the climb



During a rest at the foot bath, I was the only one who noticed another guest of the premises. A rather big rat rushed around It was too quick for a photo. After this break I went on by car, still following the bigger, two lane roads and rounded the island once. Beyond the tunnel, in the smaller north of the island and “close to base” I decided to get a bit adventurous, thinking I could still walk back to the hotel in case something happens, like putting the car in a ditch! So I drove a small curvy road down to a “secret” beach, that the landlord had recommended. Thanks to no oncoming traffic, I got down the road quite fine and was rewarded with an amazing lonely and utterly beautiful beach, whose pics you can find here. At first I was completely alone there, then a small group of elderly people showed up for five minutes and two surfers, who tried their luck, but rather unsuccessfully, with the waves breaking too close to the shore.

Luckily, I had no oncoming traffic on the way back up either and got more adventurous and drove up a mountain road in serpentines in the hope for a good view, which I got

The road is a cul de sac (I found out later it was actually the start of the old road around the mountain leading to Honso). Just before the end where you have to turn around, a big, at least one meter long, if not longer, brown snake crossed my path. I noticed her in time and could break and she vanished unharmed into the woods, unfortunately too quickly for a pic.

The car mountain climbing accomplished, I rode back down to the hotel, pretty damn proud of having done my first island exploring by car. More to follow

Proof of GISHWHES

So, this blog entry is another attempt at proving that I have helped a GISHWHES Team to complete their tasks.

GISHWHES is the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt The World Has Ever Seen.

One team asked me to help them with task, or item 78: Get a previously published Sci-Fi author to write an original story (140 words max) about Misha, the Queen of England and an Elopus.

I did so and submitted the story to the GISHWHES team on the 7th of August, well in time for the submission deadline.

This blog entry is another attempt at proving authorship of the short story. I printed it out and took a selfie with it too ;-).

Ah, Tini chan – can I put the story here into this blog post? (I’ll edit the blog post and insert the text when and if I get your OK).

It was great fun writing this little piece out of the blue and I dearly hope “my team” will win and will get to go to “King’s Landing”

Okay, just got permission from the GISHWHES team member to put the 140 words story onto the blog, so here it is:

Elopus

by Regina Glei

Misha sat opposite the Queen of England on a picnic sheet behind Buckingham Palace, trying not to puke.

“What happened to your corgis, your Majesty?”

“They were abucted by aliens.”

“Aliens like… um, it…?”

“No, far uglier. They showed me holograms of their pets, this was the prettiest one.”

She patted the Elopus’ head. It emitted a honking noise, like a sneeze, but wetter. A fountain of green slime splashed over the white picnic sheet and the Elopus’ tentacles wriggled in it.

Misha retched.

“It tends to drool,” the queen said. She pulled at one of the Elopus’ tentacles and the thing whined.

“Why did you call me, your Majesty?”

“Because you sent this to me.”

“Why would I do such a terrible thing?”

“You always do things like that.”

Misha sighed. “Yes, your Majesty.”

Breaking Bad and Godzilla Reviews

I know I have severe delay, Godzilla has long screened in Europe and the US, but it just started here ten days ago. That’s my excuse for Godzilla. For finishing Breaking Bad only now, I have no excuse but I’m gonna do a review nevertheless Since, another coincidence, both beasts star Bryan Cranston.

Godzilla

I did a funny thing for Godzilla, I more or less deliberately watched it dubbed in Japanese. It was screening in Shibuya, where I work, only in Japanese, which is quite a rare thing, by the way, usually they offer both, dubbed in Japanese and original at the same cinema. But, Toho cinemas, belong to the Toho group, which also happens to be a production studio and which also happens to own the Godzilla franchise. So maybe there was some strategy or deliberation behind the Toho cinemas in Shibuya showing the Godzilla movie only in Japanese.

It was wonderfully awkward to see Walter While talk Japanese.

Dubbed movies always make me cringe, no matter whether it’s English to German or Japanese, but since the Japanese language is so quite different from English, the mouth movements horribly mismatch.

I liked the beginning of the movie best with its scenes in the nuclear power plant in the fictitious Japanese city Janjira (there is no town like that in Japan), with its nice jabs at the Fukushima disaster. Later on tsunnami images of Hawaii of course also remind us at least here in Japan of the tsunami that knocked out the Fukushima reactors).

After the Bryan Cranston character was dead things went downhill. His son just could not carry the movie. For me he was too “normal”, too colorless, just your common soldier with a pretty wife and cute kid, who is oh so righteous and thoroughly good and oh so ready to sacrifice himself for his people and his country.

I am not sure why Ken Watanabe is currently more or less the best known Japanese actor outside of Japan. He always makes the same face and is pretty boring. There are numerous other Japanese actors who are leagues better than him, for example Toshiyuki Nishida or Koichi Sato or Naoko Takenaka to throw just a few names around – maybe their English is not good and that’s why they don’t get to work with non-Japanese directors???

Back to Godzilla. He looked fat… while I liked his looks in general, especially the ragged rocky island image of the horns on his back, he was a bit too plumb. The two Muto creatures he fights were interesting, if anatomically a bit impossible, I guess. At least they looked like that to me. To have them around made a nice opportunity for Godzilla to survive and be sort of a hero after all. I would have liked that hero aspect of Godzilla to be less emphasized and it kinda made me laugh at the end when Ken Watanabe and Juliette Binoche almost cry for Gojira as he lies passed out in the streets of what was formerly San Francisco and they think he’s dead. I personally could not detect a decent reason for Gojira to fight those two. They’ve done him nothing wrong. Why should he care? If he at least had them for food, but he just throws the last Muto’s head away after killing it. Sure, one shouldn’t argue with logic in a Godzilla movie, but nevertheless. So, all in all there were some good scenes, especially in the beginning but all in all I’ll rather stick with the original.

Breaking Bad

Now that series is some great TV. I loved every bit of it until the end of season 4. That should have been the end, well, but it couldn’t be, I know. I think Gustavo Fring is one of the greatest characters ever created. What an awesome villain and how masterly performed by Giancarlo Esposito. Another hilarious character that will forever stick in my mind is Saul Goodman, what a slimy, nasty fellow, just awesome. The great strength of Breaking Bad is its incredible collection of quirky and yet believable characters. All of them, Marie, Hank, Walter Junior and of course Skyler, Walter White and Jesse are rich and quirky and believable characters. That combined with a thrilling story makes some knock out entertainment.

Where things fell a little bit apart for me were in season five the hole that the death of Gus Fring left behind. It was clear they had to get to Walter somehow in the end, but the late introduction of this Todd dude and his white trash uncle were no replacement for the chill and thrill of Gus Fring.

I also found the argument why Walter wanted to brew again, because he was excellent at something rather weak.

For me the story ended with the demise of the big bad guy = Gus Fring and the end of Walter was lacking motivation in a way. I admire the consequence though of the white trash uncle indeed shooting Hank. I don’t think that in a, for example, 1990ties US TV series stuff like that would have happened.

My respect for the writers for creating such great characters – there is a lot to learn from the writing point of view from Breaking Bad and fanfares for Gus and Saul, please.