Conference you must attend

My yoda-esque Japanese supervisor asked me to attend a conference he has co-organized in Korea. Due to the limited number of days my sponsor allows me to be outside of Japan, this meant that I could not attend GECCO, one of the best conferences in EC. Although I had no intention to do this, my other supervisor (gaijin supervisor) said there is no option. So I cancelled the trip to GECCO and so that I can attend a conference that is remotely related to what I am doing. I say remotely because my presentation in the control of swarm robots for exploration of unknown environments was put in "Green& Environment Technologies" session. Need I say more? 

IEEE we must pay. 30% profit, expect they. Know, do you not? Hmm? Hmm?

And of course the conference is "peer reviewed", but I did not get any comments on my paper (I know its an amazing piece of work but still there was bound to be something to comment on:P). This IEEE sponsored conference is giving me a headache (yet again!); how on earth can I stand up in front of 3 people (presumably everybody presenting will show up) and talk for 20 minutes about something they have no interest on?

MMhhhhhmmmhhh???!!

This was the response I got when I asked a few mechanics to replace a leaking hose in my car. I already had a replacement hose, I just needed somebody with the tools to get them switched. None of these mechanics actually had a look at the part that needed replacement, they were just intimidated by the brand of the car, "OPEL" (Vauxhall). They did not have the ability to say, "no, I can not do it." But they suffered internally and externally trying to come up with an answer. After a long pause and a lot of encouragement from us, a few of them said, "Nihongo no kuruma dake" or  "Made in Japan dake", translation: Japanese cars only.  The others asked me to return when their boss is around. When prompted with the question, "do these cars use different wrench sizes and nuts?", the answer was the same, "MMhhhhhhmmmmmhhhh?!?".

No visitors allowed

After a recent "incident", the university decided to prohibit the international students from bringing any visitors to their dorm rooms. Friends or family, no-one is to go up to a student's room for any reason. The announcement comes with a threat written in red. It reads along the lines of; in case a visitor is found to in one of the rooms, the resident responsible for that room will be asked to move out of the dormitory.

Here is the incident that resulted in this ban on visitors: One night a female resident saw a group of  Japanese men walking freely and chatting loudly on the females only floor. She felt scared and reported to the administration. 

So the administration thought the best way to handle this situation was by prohibition. 

This reminds me of the typical orientation session one might receive at an Izakaya (a tavern). The first five minutes of your visit at a tavern may not be spent ordering drinks and food, but listening to a lady give a presentation about drunk driving, and how nobody should do it.

Taking responsibility as a person seems such a difficult task sometimes, and establishments are doing everything they can to eliminate any unwanted responsibility they might get from the actions of individuals. 

A Japanese lady's prerequisites for a potential partner

I want to marry a gaijin says the pretty woman with a 2 year-old daughter. I am quick to reach a conclusion by following my flawless logic:
She has a strong character so she must be looking for a partnership on equal grounds.
She has a child so she is looking for someone to provide more than just money to her child.
She is keen to follow her career and will not stay home to be the typical Japanese housewife.
The one complaint she had about her ex-husband was that he never wanted to spend time with her, he just preferred sleeping when he is at home.

While all this is true, it turns out they are not the main reasons in her search for a gaijin.  She talks about how much she loves London. She wants to go there and continue her career in this magical city. So it all boils down to one ultimate reason: her desire to live in London. Thus the search is very specific: the man must be British, and willing to relocate to London. Why British and not any other person who can move to London? I did not ask, and I do not want to.


The romantic relationships in Japan can only be described as bizarre. The common pattern seems to be:
-Woman finds a man with a stable job.
-They get married.
-Woman quits her job.
-The couple have kids.
-Woman is now "a family member", which means she is like a sister or perhaps a mother to the man.
-Romance and Sex ends.
-The couple look outside to satisfy their romantic and sexual desires (soaplands, health delivery, sex-volunteers, boyfriends, girlfriends...).
-Man retires from work.
-Woman sues the man for hiding his second salary from her, and spending all of it on his girlfriends.
-The court orders the man to pay half of all the money he spent secretly from the woman.
-They live happily ever after.

I have been reading a book about the "sex, marriage, and the modern Japanese woman", so I am heavily influenced by this. It's an amazing book detailing real-life cases of romantic relationships in Japan. The whole book is full of mind-blowing information, and to a non-Japanese feels like a study on extreme-cases, but the author disagrees. From what I have witnessed so far the case-studies provided in the book are rather average in Japan, and that what makes it so mind-blowing.

Here is the link to the preface of the book. The preface alone is a great read.

http://goodbyemadamebutterfly.com/preface/