Neography 2.o  -

We went for a short walk today, to a new supermarket that opened a klick or two from us. Maruetsu, it's called - part of the giant Daiei conglomerate I think (the logo is the same). It's one of, if not the first 24-hour stores in the area that's not a corner-store. It's very lovely inside, with a wide variety of stuff, some I've never seen before. The problem is... The prices! They're mad, they're crazy high. They've taken the idea of a supermarket with a huge selection and combined it with the convenience store's 24-hour schedule and prices. If they really wanted to fly I think they should have gone with the supermarket pricing instead. We won't be going back.

Just a followup to my last post, here's a few more ridiculous things you might not know about Japan:

Foreign perspective on Japanese politics: "hopelessly corrupt and run by yakuza."
A bogus two party system: If this trend continues, the health insurance system itself will go bankrupt.
The looting of Asia: 30 million murdered and thousands of tons of gold hoarded by Japan.

Every couple of days there's a special on TV about Kim Jong Il, the bizarre lunatic leader of North Korea, or how the North Koreans are freakishly brainwashed and no doubt dangerously mad. If you were a goverment intent on confrontation with a country, wouldn't you belittle them in front of your people first?

Freaks me out. No one has rights in japan. no consumer protection, no medical protection, no legal protection. If _anything_ goes wrong I'm so far down the list of people to be helped I might as well swim home. Between their faltering economy, belligerent attitude toward N. Korea, political reform... It's a nation run by blind, angry old men with money. The faltering economy, belligerent attitude toward N. Korea, lack of any kind of reform... Subservient to a deranged America...

What should I do? Trying to decide what next to do with our lives... Japan's out because it's a country headed for a meltdown, Canada's troubling because the internet and celphones are so astronomically expensive there, and we can't get the same quality of food we can here, and Australia seems to be a one-way solution: where we can fly from Japan to Canada for $500 return, it costs $2000 to do the same from Australia. Welcome to Australia, chaps. You can't go back.

I love the alure of my life back in the Okanagan, my friends, the roads, the mountain biking (which can't be underestimated in my evaluation priorities), the weather, the snowboarding... But that's basically it. Social and leisure paradise, economic disaster. The jobs in Kelowna are ludicrously bad, the IT sector pays less in Canada than any other developed country and since everyone runs their own business the competition is cutthroat. It's not healthy.

If I want a nice car, I can get 'em cheap in Japan, but can't import anything to Canada that's not 15 years or older. It's for safety, see - no new cars that aren't specifically matched to Canadian standards, but you can import any 15-year-old bomb you like. Everyone knows standards were stricter back then.

So here I am, agonizing about it. Everywhere sucks. I think I'd rather go back to Canada and be a social animal, with the biking and the movies and game nights and hanging out with my old friends, to hell with money and internet... But christ, I can't even run a webserver in Canada, if it's not prohibited by the ISP's AUP the costs of bandwidth at a hosting facility would murder me ($200+ per month!). The cost of a 100mbit line in Canada: $1788/month, $2000 to install it, and you pay for your bandwidth. The cost in Japan: $80. In South Korea: $30. Australia's worse than all of the above. Hell, in Japan I can get unmetered cellular internet at 2.4mbit speeds for $40/month! That's mobile broadband faster than a cable modem for less cost!

I love Japan, but I can't stand the fear and uncertainty. The justice system - isn't just, the political scene is a farce, the medical systems are hellishly broken, industries practically unregulated. It's frightening.