No news really, so I'll do some philosophising.

Driving into Kochi City yesterday, I was thinking about how Japan is so hard on the brain. Every day something happens that would, if I were at home, drive me to insanity. The tree for example. If that had happened on the boulevard in front of Nancy's old place, there would have been protest. People would have wanted to know, "What in the hell?" The City would have been held accountable for the use of taxpayer dollars, someone would have phoned the Star Phoenix who would have put the tree on the front page with a headline embarrasing to the City. The City would have issued an apology, the person responsible would have been held accountable. In other words a big stinky stink would have been raised. But here? "Oh, well so-and-so likes chopping down trees, and he had nothing else to do, so we sent him out with the chainsaw." Case closed.

Or, I might illustrate Japanese rural landuse planning. First, let's start with the pachinko parlor, ususally two storis of blazing neon and flourescent light. Next to the pachinko parking lot, a rusted metal shack. Next, a ten-story apartment block. Next, a rice patty. Next, a mountain. Next, three beautiful Japanese homes, untreated wood bleached from the rain, tiles glinting in the sun. Another pachinko parlour. A gigantic shoe store. A shinto shrine. Another metal shack. A Wal-Mart (here, Fuji Grand). A rice paddy. It's as if someone rolls a dice out onto a map. Roll a six, up goes a pachinko parlour, roll a one and in goes a rice paddy. The randomness is hard on the brain.

So, anyway, I was thinking about how it's hard on the brain here. Which got me thinking about other places I've visited. New York, although crowded, loud, noisy and smelly, was energetic. It wasn't nearly as draining as a trip into Kochi City is. Same thing for London, which was way more chilled out than Manhattan. Vancouver comes close, if only because of the stark contrast of East Hastings to the rest of the city, sparkling and bright one block over. That contrast was hard on the brain, but nothing compared to Kochi City. Then it dawned on me, that the only time I felt so flabergasted was trying to figure out the trains in Frankfurt. I was in Germany figuring that my one year of university German would be enough. Then I realized I didn't understand any German, and my brain went "Aaaachhhh! I hate this stupid place!"

It's my lack of language that's hard on the brain. Never knowing what people are talking about, or why they're all running around all of a sudden. Of course there's no explaining our poor tree, or rurual planning, but there is some explaining a lot of other things. The hampster, for example. The one with his head stuck in a hole three sizes too small, with the colour commentators laughing it up. Certainly if I understood the language that would make perfect sense.

So anyway, my philosophising on the drive to Kochi City made me feel better. I realized that Japan makes sense, I just can't figure it out. Yet.