Hokkaido Trip
Day 1 (12/12) - Noboribetsu (Part 2)

We then went to Jigokudani (Hell Valley) and the town of Noboribetsu.


Plaque


Me


Desolation



I wonder what I'm doing wrong




Shrine to the Earth God or something


Steaming landscape


Me


A glance back at civilization








Pool at the end of the walkable area in the valley


"Please don't put coins in it"
Evidently not a lucky pool




Artistic shot


Not-so-artistic shot.


Birds. I'd think they'd die of the sulphur fumes.


Visitor Centre information panel: how much calories you'd burn on the various treks versus how much you'd burn lying down

Lake Kuttara is ranked second in transparency among Japanese lakes. Wth. Do they have instruments to measure these things?!


Hotel room. For us to sleep on, the staff pulled out mattresses from the cupboards.


A more advanced toilet bowl than the last one


This model includes a vaginal douche as well as a butt washer and butt warmer. There's energy saving and a timer also. Don't ask me. (More on Jap toilets)

I went for a pre-dinner walk.


At first I thought this was just a god.


What happens after you insert 100 Yen.


More animatronics


Oni (demons)


Pachinko Parlor

At a 7-11 I saw a magazine behind the counter: 'Watermelon'. There was a girl in a bikini showing off her, err, watermelons.

I don't know how the townsfolk stand the smell of the place. They're probably used to it, like people who work in medical centres and students in one of my classes this semester. On the upside if you fart willy-nilly no one will ever know.


Shiroi Koibito I got at Chitose Airport


Dinner. Lunch was a lot (I didn't finish the rice) but dinner was even more.

I tried to go to an indoor hot spring (onsen) in trunks but was chased out by the attendant, so I missed this 'once in a lifetime' experience, just as I would similarly turn down a 'once in a lifetime' scat experience.

"My husband gave me a necklace. It's fake. I requested fake. Maybe I'm paranoid, but in this day and age, I don't want something around my neck that's worth more than my head." - Rita Rudner

***

"There is a story, probably apocryphal, about two altruists caught in a burning building, with the only exit wide enough to take one person at a time. The first altruist said to the second, 'After you', to which the second replied, 'No, I insist, after you.' And so they went on, each as deeply entrenched in his altruism as the other, until they were both consumed by the flames. Some feminists, noting that I have used the masculine pronoun to describe the two altruists, would no doubt point out that the moral of the story is the stupidity of male rationality."

--- Altruism and its limits / CL Ten, in Altruistic reveries : perspectives from the humanities and social sciences / edited by Basant K. Kapur and Kim-Chong Chong.

Hokkaido Trip
Day 1 (12/12) - Singapore-Narita-Handea-Chitose-Ainu Village (Part 1)

Unfortunately, on this trip I was on a guided tour. It wasn't too bad though, not being too rushed and having only one Chinese meal. There weren't any children above maybe 13 travelling with their parents though, and over the next few days I was reminded why.

My mother saw the reporting time wrongly and was kiasu about coming early, so we ended up arriving >2.5 hours before the reporting time.

At Changi I saw a flight codeshared between 4 airlines (to Brisbane, with Qantas, Jet, Air France and British Airways). This was the most I'd ever seen.

The automated clearance at immigration needs some work: it told me "Welcome to Singapore". Also, those at the entry point need to say "Welcome BACK to Singapore", since the gates can only be used by Singaporeans anyway.

The JAL pre-flight self-aggrandisement video (which is new, at least compared to May) was hilarious. It definitely beats being bored to tears with announcements made in bad English. They proclaimed that 'Safety is maintained by all 5 senses'; I pity the poor guy who has to taste engine oil. Another great line: 'Joy of watching an airplane take off'. Given how many flights some airports see, working in JAL must be an orgasmic experience. Perhaps the best bit, though, was the maintenance and ground service staff (the ladies who get to wear the pants, being second-class) waving to the airplane as it took off.

At Narita I saw a girl in a half-thigh length skirt, heels and no stockings (the weather was about 5-7 degrees, I think). I was muttering about the damn Japs, then I saw her Singapore passport. Singaporean girls are morons - wearing Uggs in Singapore, and this in Winter.

The new fingerprinting of all foreign visitors to Japan is silly. They want not just one but both fingerprints. The interface for taking your picture is colourful, in the typical Jap style, and flashes lines like: 'Ready?' and 'Thank you!'. To enhance cooperation, they should make it like Neoprint machines - if nothing else giving users a preview of what's taken would help picture taking.

The immigration officer asked me if I was in Japan for pleasure. How seedy-sounding. I'm not a Japanese businessman - I don't go to other countries to have orgies in hotels with prostitutes! Then the Customs Form asked me if I had any illegal or immoral items, or child pornography in my possession. No, I didn't have any Japanese pornography in my possession (they have 15 year olds in their porn mags, albeit clothed).


The toilet emits the sound of rushing water when you sit down to cover the noises you make while doing business (it sounded more like a noisy pipe). See, this is why there's global warming!


Your infant can watch you shit. I don't know what the metal pan is - maybe it's a target for your shit (or it's a sensor)


The disabled, babies, pregnant women, young children and the elderly are all happy, and no wonder - they have priority boarding!


The first enhanced Jap toilet bowl I'd ever seen. You flushed it by touching a metal panel on the wall. I don't know why. I couldn't figure out the deodoriser.

We then left Chitose airport for our lunch place.


Lunch - ramen


Advertisement - for the girl or for Hokkaido?


Accept no imitations


Bear and Seal meat. Mmm (I got 2 cans on a later day).

We then went to the Shiraoi Ainu Museum (Poroto Kotan), a replica of an Ainu village. It was appropriately called a Museum, since the Ainu long ago integrated into Jap society (the museum showed the Ainu as of 150 years ago), and the people there were actors.


Map of the area. They have a Top 100 waterfalls in Japan, Top 100 walking trails in Japan, Top 500 'best paths inviting to walk in Japan' and '100 Best Aromatic Scenery in Japan' (that place stank). Wth.


Ainu chief statue


Ainu's Harp (my name) demonstration


Ainu ritual
They had a woman singing a lullaby to a doll before this


The Chief


Frozen lake


I don't know why the lake came out like that.




Me at Lake


Drying salmon


Inside hut. The picture below is of an Ainu woman, not an Ainu man. They tattooed their upper lips. Ugh.


Ainu Dog


Ainu Bears


Ainu Dogs


Stupid Cat, and one carved in wood Ainu style

"A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures." - Daniel Webster

***

Something sent by My Little Bird:


Derren Brown "instant conversion"
Atheist, sceptic & mentalist Derren Brown poses as James Lawrence who claims to be able to convert atheists into believing in God with a touch of his hand.

He manages to appear to Slay in the Spirit! Obviously this is demonic imitation meant to confuse and mislead the faithful.


Part 1:



Part 2:



Explanation in description:

First important point here: Derren Brown in an atheist and ultra skeptic. He is against all kinds of magical thinking. Second point: the thing that makes him so brilliant to watch is that it is unlikely that he uses confederates or stooges. And before we get too carried away here, the tricks Derren has used in all three videos are nothing other than those used by the average stage hypnotist. What makes it look so amazing is the presentation; it is made to look like magic, but then the man himself then debunks the explanation. He is nothing other than a charlatan, which he openly admits. In fact, he carries out these displays of magic so he can use psychological trickery and sleight of hand to show that charlatans can, indeed, dupe people so easily. The tools at work during the conversions are a combination of compliance, obedience, expectation and simple hypnotic suggestion

... It is very easy to gather personal information about people who apply for tickets to a show, which can then be used in the show itself (remember the first two conversions are very different in nature); this is a trick used by evangelists such as Peter Popoff. We are already aware of people falling back during a conversion; this image is indelibly linked with religious conversion. Additionally, before the presentation, Brown has already made people aware that he can convert people with touch. In other words, his audience is primed even before the presentation has begun.

The correct ambience is created by the carefully controlled lighting (known to increase suggestibility) and the fact that he is standing at the front above the audience behind a makeshift pulpit (thus becoming an authority figure). Anybody who is aware of the work of Stanley Milgram will see how powerful obedience is: we can very quickly abandon our morality and existing beliefs under pressure from an authority figure. What makes Brown more authoritative is the presence of the evangelist, who leaves in shock halfway through the presentation, sending out signals to the audience that something scary is going on, thus inadvertently playing into Brown's hands.

Listen very carefully to the second conversion, where he tells the participant that he will catch him: by doing this, he is giving him a suggestion that he will fall backwards that is harder to resist because it is indirect. He also creates fear in the participant by telling him he will not be hurt, therefore using what is known in hypnotism as a "negative suggestion": putting an idea in his head that he might be hurt by stating the opposite. Easy to reproduce: if I say: "don't think of a pink elephant", you think of a pink elephant. So, by invoking an emotional reaction, he has already exerted control over his participant. This will increase his suggestibility.

The statement he makes to the first participant is "you don't believe in anything", accompanied with body language deliberately designed to appear judgmental. Never underestimate the importance of non-verbal communication. Note how he doesn't mention God at this stage: "you don't believe in anything." He is very sneakily amplifying her skepticism to look like cynicism, thus embarrassing her. And he does this so casually, in a way that makes it look like he was talking about God. This is a very powerful technique used by barristers and attorneys to catch defendants and witnesses off guard. Additionally, she may think that the rest of the audience are already converts (we know from watching the clip that they were not, but individual members did not appear to know each other). This would then make her feel even more uneasy. This brings in the final variable: compliance. Notice how the whole crowd falls after seeing the first guy do it. In the 1950s, Asch showed just how powerful compliance is (even more powerful than obedience). Have you ever wondered why we change when we get into a crowd? How a bunch of respectable people with successful careers suddenly turns into a mob of violent and dangerous hooligans at a football match? Compliance is an inordinately powerful phenomenon.

To conclude, Brown is using a combination of tried and tested psychological techniques combined with hypnotic suggestions. It is easier than you think to do this kind of thing, hence the prevalence of scumbag evangelists and mediums. So, although there is nothing magical going on here, there's nothing fake about the psychological techniques: the Chinese thought reform program used precisely the same these techniques to convert people to Communism.

By Simonmaal - James Randi forums

"He was one of those men who think that the world can be saved by writing a pamphlet." - Benjamin Disraeli

***

Men's fantasies don't handle curves like they used to - "Research now shows the magazine's models have been getting thinner since Marilyn Monroe first stretched across its pages in 1953. All but one of those selected as men's fantasy women since 1992 have been medically underweight, an analysis of the women's weight-for-height ratios found. The fact the trend was continuing showed that men's idea of gorgeousness was not an immutable response, but was tied to fashion and culture, researcher Martin Voracek said... The editor of Australian Penthouse, Graham Brown, agreed the trend was towards thinner models, but said Australian men preferred substantial figures in their centrefolds and cover girls. Men's magazines generally pictured fleshier women than those portrayed in women's media. "Guys actually like cleavage. Men like breasts, they like bums. [Catwalk models and Hollywood actors] are literally clothes horses. When you don't have clothes on, it's a different kettle of fish altogether. "Someone like Cameron Diaz is too thin. She hasn't got any breasts or curves and she's obviously hungry. You can't have a hungry woman on the cover. It has to be a happy woman.""

A theory that just won't die - "One of the most common intuitive problems people have with conspiracy theories is that they require positing such complicated webs of secret actions.... how could hundreds, if not thousands of people complicit in the murder of their own countrymen keep quiet? Usually, Occam's razor intervenes. Another common problem with conspiracy theories is that they tend to impute cartoonish motives to "them" -- the elites who operate in the shadows. The end result often feels like a heavily plotted movie whose characters do not ring true. Then there are other cognitive Do Not Enter signs: When history ceases to resemble a train of conflicts and ambiguities and becomes instead a series of disinformation campaigns, you sense that a basic self-correcting mechanism of thought has been disabled. A bridge is out, and paranoia yawns below... "We have all kinds of weird conferences," said the concierge the next morning. "I mean, not to say this is weird. Last year we had one that was all tall people."... "Let me tell you, for years, I've been waiting for there to be a military coup to depose these traitors," he said from the podium. "Yeah!" shouted some men in the audience. "There actually was one weekend," Mr. Fetzer went on, "where I said to myself, my God, it's going to happen this weekend, and I'm going to wake up and they will have taken these guys off in chains.""

Spluch: A Tourist Tried To Cook Lunch In A Safe! - "A hungry American tourist bit off more than she could chew when she tried to cook lunch in her hotel room. Staff at the Hermitage Hotel in Mount Cook were called to her room after the guest complained she couldn't get her pizza out of the microwave oven. When puzzled housekeepers visited the $300-a-night room to investigate, they discovered she had put the pizza in a personal safe and activated the airtight lock on the vault."

All I Got was this Lousy Che T-Shirt - "Communism killed 100 million people and all I got was this lousy t-shirt"

'Oldest human being' dies at 116 - "Hryhoriy Nestor, a bachelor who was thought in his lifetime to be the oldest person in the world, has died at the age of 116 in Ukraine... In accordance with his wish that there should be no crying, a hearty meal was served of his favourite dishes: warm potato and herring, and cabbage with home-made sausage... Mr Nestor, a former farm labourer, put his long life down to the fact that he never married."

Vintage Advertising At Its Worst - "Blow in her face and she'll follow you anywhere... You may think she's just your 'gal' but she may be everyone's pal. Prophylaxis prevents Venereal Disease... More Doctors Smoke CAMELS than any other cigarette!... They're happy because they eat lard"

Marrying for money - "According to a survey by Prince & Associates, a Connecticut-based wealth-research firm, the average "price" that men and women demand to marry for money these days is $1.5 million... Fully two-thirds of women and half of the men said they were "very" or "extremely" willing to marry for money. The answers varied by age: Women in their 30s were the most likely to say they would marry for money (74 percent) while men in their 20s were the least likely (41 percent)... 61 percent of men in their 40s said they would marry for money. Smock says that as men get older, they become more comfortable with women being the breadwinners."
Once again, we find that men are less materialistic than women.

Party drugs a hit with wealthy in Singapore - ""Every couple of years, they (the police) go out and get people so everyone is way too scared to do drugs," said a British lawyer, who declined to be named. "The drugs of choice here (for foreigners) really are women and alcohol."... But tough laws are still not enough to stop some drug users. "It's the same as having unprotected sex. You do it because it feels better. But if you get caught it's the worst high ever," said the wealthy student who declined to be named."
Given how drugs ruin your life, you'd expect them to lose all their riches. And it seems harmless marijuana got crowded out. Oh well.

YouTube - Sexy Chinese 中國國歌 - "Sexy Chinese 中國國歌 symbolizes sexy Chinese Free Traveler girls selling sex in Hong Kong!"
They should do one for Singapore.

Lab Notes : Why Doesn't Evolution Get Rid of Ugly People? - "In a groundbreaking study, biologists at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland have figured out why, at least in one species: genes that are good for males are bad for females and, perhaps, vice versa. The scientists studied red deer, 3,559 of them from eight generations, living on Scotland’s Isle of Rum. They carefully noted each animal’s fitness, who mated with whom, how many offspring survived, which offspring mated and with what results. Bottom line: “male red deer with relatively high fitness fathered, on average, daughters with relatively low fitness,” Edinburgh’s Katharina Foerster and her colleagues conclude in tomorrow’s issue of the journal Nature."

"Physicists like to think that all you have to do is say, these are the conditions, now what happens next?" - Richard Feynman

***

Quotes:

may yo n'airs (mayonnaise)

My unoptimistic expectation is a 3 point (pessimistic)

The pictures are kay'shd already (cached)

[Student to female student on foolscap Is that your pad?]... My friend says Nepal is like a pad between Indian and China. It prevents massive bloodshed.

[Me on an exam question: So many french words.] *Laughs* Well done. You summarised the question.

[Me: Joy shared is doubled.] Joy shared is doubled. If I get pao pao cha [Ed: Bubble Tea] and share with my friend, I get half... You must think critically.

How many of you have never taken an NUS exam? *some hands go up* There's a long list of instructions but I don't feel like reading it out. I can pass it around later if you want to read it. Basically sign out before you go to toilet and wash your hands before you come back.

[On the exam] How nice to see you all

[On difficulties in doing philosophy] I'm too used to writing in a lit style... We don't think logically.

[On why he wants to wax] I can't stand the idea of hair on my body anywhere except my head... I want to feel the smooth texture of my skin... [Student 2: You know ***, I thought it'd be interesting to find a guy who wants to shave, but now that I've found one I find it disgusting.

I managed to sit through 2girls1cup, 2girls1finger. I didn't manage to sit through the MDA [video].

[On a McDonalds dessert run] Eh Gabriel, we have 2 girls, 4 guys and 6 cups... Not to mention a dog and a rabbit as well.

[On wearing someone else's dress] Do I need a reason to do things like this? I'm a girl. Despite feminist tendencies.

I sleep topless. [Student 2: Because he's gay.] I'M NOT GAY. Why do gay people sleep topless? [Student 3: To turn themselves on]

[On a Heroes marathon when he's already seen the episodes] I just wasted 8 hours of my life. [Me: You got to enjoy my snide remarks] That's true. [Student 2: You got to look at it from a racial angle.]

[On her alma mater] You must understand that KC is a school of cheerleaders and dancers... I think some KC girls say their prayers before cheerleading. [Male Student: 'Let my thighs show']

[Bitching about someone] There was one night we stayed over in PGP. It was the worst night of my life. [Student 2: You slept with her?]

[To someone on forming a homage quintet] You can be Ginger Spice. You've got the biggest boobs.

"A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the word you first thought of." - Burt Bacharach

***

Me: critical discourse is not welcomed in singapore
particularly not in religion

Friend who goes to CHC: um yes i will agree with you

i feel like as a christian
i'm just being fed cotton candy floss
the nice practical happy feel good aspects of christianity
esp at a megachurch
with powerpoint preaching

sounds great
but i feel the disconcerting need to throw my mind away
in order to follow God at times

although it was alot better in boston this summer
since new england preachers are usually really intellectual

i went to the Park Street Church in boston
the preacher is the top student at harvard
it even has its own wikipedia article

oh well

...

i guess at times
maybe as a christian
i fear reading and argument so persuasive
so powerful ala bertrand russell
or richard dawkins

and my self theory preservation manner of existentialism is threatened
so i'll rally against it vigorously
scared i might have lost everything
i've put so much time money and effort into


Someone: i cantbelieve that guys like dumb girls

you know what? even girls believe and perpetuate such mindset

someone told me to stop being so smart
i take it as an unpleasant compliment


MFM: I was in bolehland
even the mcdonald's there is worse


Tim the Great: on Bartók III:

It consists of three movements, and noticeably deviates from the composer's earlier works in that it contains tonal themes, and lacks much of the dark coloring and complex rhythmic features common in earlier works.

there's a TUNE, thank God

This, combined with a substantial abatement of his medical condition, allowed for a great change in the composer's general disposition. The drastic changes in the composer's emotional and financial state are often considered the primary causes for the third piano concerto's seemingly light, airy, almost neoclassical tone, especially in comparison to Bartók's earlier works

that means hor, modern composers are screwed up.
fucked in the head and poor


Someone: priest in my parish is prc and has weird accent

he read gospel as "john was the greatest of all prophets" but sounded like "perverts"


Me to someone who got her phone stolen in China: ah china
full of thieves

how did you store it?

Someone else: in my pocket. :\ in a moment of carelessness

it was like, a group attack. like those kinds you hear of and think "oh that won't happen to me, i'm looking after my things well" and WHAM.

my relatives and I (wtf all females lah, =A=;; and only one male, my brother) were walking down the stairs to the subway in shenzhen, and then suddenly it got damn crowded on the stairs and people started pushing me from behind and some people stopped moving in front

so one guy created a diversion and threw/dropped a pair of keys at my left leg and pulled my left pant leg

lol i kicked him
but at the same time, one of the guys pushing me slipped his hand into my pocket and pulled my hp out

at that point i did't realize that it was my hp and just shouted "NI MEN ZAI GAN SHE ME" because they were like pushing me and stuff and only 5mins later i found out that my hp was missing when i wanted to message people about the wtfery of the whole thing

=A=;;;;;;;
kafj;aerje;r chinathieves :\

Me: guys very good meh
hurr hurr
don't be so sexist :P

oh well
why was it in your pocket?!?!
they sound as bad as gypsies heh

Someone else: it was in my pocket because my hp was irrremovable unless someone reached in and pulled it out
because my legs are fat

LOL really all girls wad
two women over fifty
two other women, skinny as hell
how to fight againt a group of young chinese men!

Me: ........................................

so much for irremovable
you need to gain more weight

Someone else: yah, i need to become like moses lim
or wear tighter pants

Me: girls means useless meh
hurr hurr

Someone else: yessssssss
pretty much so
esp in these kinds of situations

Me: because they squeal and wring their hands only right

Someone else: yah
like my cousin saw the guy throw the keys but didn't do anything about it
=A=;;;;;;;;;;

i mean, she could have said "EH WTF" or i don't know
some ungirly thing
=A=;;;

Me: heh

my friend was saying
you see some one-armed guys
but you never see one-armed girls

because if guys have one armed trapped under a rockfall, they will nibble their arms off and escape with their lives
but if it's girls they will whine and moan until they die of starvation

Someone else: exactly!

guys would at least struggle
girls would just die from the rockfall because their heels got caught in a crevice

or they would't chew their arm off because they just got a manicure and can't bear to leave it behind

Seen on eBay:

"this is a n original pink lady fleshlight. It is used a few times but Washed and sanitized in the dish washer. I now have a girlfriend!"