Vacation is a State of Mind - How to Get The Truly Wonderful Things in Life

"Vacation used to be a luxury, but in today's world it is a necessity." - Unknown 

Japan sure has a lot of holidays. I like that about Japan. I mean, who doesn't like holidays? "Holiday" means that it is time to spend away from work and with family. 


Too bad not enough people take advantage of that.


It's a Saturday and the start of a three-day weekend here in Japan. I hope that I can take this holiday and use it to rest more and spend more time with my son and other children.... 


I shouldn't say "hope. I should say, "I will." I must have the state of mind that "I do" and not "I hope." 


"I hope" is a pretty terrible business plan. 

Barbecuing trout that we caught fishing near Atsugi

This post is for you good folks with children. Everyone who has children thinks, "Our children grow up so fast." But I think, more often than not, that's where the thinking stops. We should add to that thinking, "How can I add to what little time I have left with these kids?" We must always remember to stop and smell the roses along the way.


My son is now 8-years-old. Why, just the other day, it seems, he was a baby.


Heck, it seems just like yesterday, he was born. I can remember it well. He was born at about 2:30 in the morning at a hospital in Tokyo. My wife's parents were both there. My son being born was a big deal for them as he is the first and only boy in the entire family. Everyone else has had girls. Being "number one son" is a very important and traditional role in Asian societies.


I remember after he was just born, for about the first two years of his life, I would take him in the stroller for walks everyday that wasn't too cold or raining and go to the park and back. It was about a one hour walk, round trip. Starting when he was 6 months old, until he was six-years-old, I would go to bed with him at night, every night, and we would read books together. I like to think that's why he is such an advanced reader. He had read the children's classic "Charlotte's Web" by the time he was 4 years old. I did that religiously until he entered into first grade.


Within three months of first grade, he was jumped up to second grade and his school work load increased and, with that, time with dad decreased. That was almost two years ago. Now, he is in 3rd grade at school. 


Everyone has memories like this about their kids too. 

My son and second daughter, Sheena

Now I look at him and I just sigh. He will soon be nine. He has his own iPad, computer, friends at school... He goes to Karate class, takes music and piano lessons and spends time with friends. Heck, he has an hour or more of homework every night and piano practice too! Sure, he still likes to spend time with mom and dad, but I know from experience that, from 4th grade, kids really start to spread their wings and will, little by little, stop spending so much time with mom and dad. 


Time goes by so fast.


One thing that I saw in his room last night that made me chuckle and remember my own experiences as a child and times with my own father, rest in peace, was a book that he had checked out from the school library. It was entitled "How to Beat Your Dad at Chess." I picked the book up and laughed. Surely, beating your dad at chess is a mountain to climb when you are a boy. Once you do it, you will see other mountains to climb. But this book shows that still dad is #1... But not for long. 

I write this blog post now because I want to stress to you fathers out there and remind you that, even though Christmas just ended and the New Year's Holidays are over, that doesn't mean that we should go back to "business as usual." Yes, of course we must work and feed our families, but isn't it also a good time to access what we have and to try to appreciate it more?

Isn't it a good time to slow down and to try to enjoy what we have while we have it?

Yesterday, I met a friend at the grocery store whom I hadn't seen for quite a while. We exchanged pleasantries and he asked about my work and I asked about his. The part of the conversation that really stuck in my mind was his final comment,

"At least we both have jobs. I know a lot of people who are out of work." Come to think of it, I reckon that I do too. We are lucky, we have jobs and we have families.

I know, though, far too many fathers who are chasing the all mighty dollar and exchanging their time with their families for money. I don't mean some of their time, I mean all of their time. I know fathers who are away from their families for months, even years. I think they have lost sight of the purpose of work. 

In Japan, we have what is called "Tanshin Funin." Father's are transferred away from their families and miss out on seeing their children grow up. I even know one family where the father lived away for over ten years! Does it surprise dear reader that, ultimately, those parents divorced?

I'd never do that. While I might transfer for a few months or maybe six, I quit I'd quit my job instead of living away from my family on a semi-permanent basis. Why? Heck, the kids are only children once. What is the price of missing out on seeing them and growing with them?

Of course, the example above is an extreme case, but how many of us dads leave for work from early in the morning and do not come home until after the kids are asleep and we do that six days a week? On Sundays, we are so dead tired that we sleep all day? How is that enjoying life and spending time with the kids? 

What do we work for? We work to feed and house our families so that they can be happy. How can a family truly be happy without the father around to enjoy all the fruits life gives us daily?

I have often written about how I write down my goals for life and for that day in my notebook. I do it religiously everyday. I have written before about that One Step to Becoming a Better Parent and More Successful in Life:

I write down my goals every day religiously in the morning when I wake up and, not only does doing so help me to achieve them, it also helps me to relax and stay much more focused through the day. Who doesn't want to stay more focused in this day and age when our "in-box" includes, for most people, several e-mail accounts that are constantly filling up as the day goes by and consistently altering our priorities? Add on an Internet world filled with Social Media like Facebook and Linkedin accounts to attend? Twitter is no longer for just sending messages to your friends, but it too, has been co-opted into the business world and your boss orders you to use them, or blogs and SNS, to get the company message out...

How in the world can anyone today get ahead of the pile in the "in-box"? Any person in their right mind would be stressed.

.....let me point out that writing down your goals and purposes is like having a sort of road map to where you want to go. When you write them down, they enter your subconsciousness and they cause your inner brain to focus upon the Law of Attraction. If you do not write down where you want to go — if you do not have a map — then how will you know where you are going?

I recently have started writing down two more things in my daily notes. I wouldn't call them "goals" necessarily, but in the effort to create the "Law of Attraction," I write them down to try to make sure they come true. Those two goals are:

1) Thank you god for all the wonderful things I have and all the truly wonderful things I am about to receive.

2) All my loved ones are healthy and prosper.

From today, I think I am again going to add something more:

3) I spend one hour today with my son playing a game or reading a book together.

Dads (and working moms) remember that family fun and spirit of Christmas you had the other day? Remember the warmth and feeling of "family" when you share time together? Isn't there a song that says, "I wish everyday could be like Christmas?" Of course, we have jobs to do and bills to pay, but remember over this weekend and at every chance you get with your kids to make those moments special. 

Like I said, I know everyone is busy, so lastly, here's a quick tip to help you:

Trying to spend more time with your kids is tough, but here's a simple way to do that better. Here is a good way to better the time that you do spend together and it's so simple, if even for only a few moments a day: 


Whenever your child talks to you give them your total attention; put down that newspaper or cellphone; Close the computer laptop. Look them straight in the eye and show complete interest in what they say when they are talking. Give your child your total self and complete undivided attention. Give them your all. Listen - really listen - to what your child has to say.

Show your child that you love them and respect them. As I wrote in Most Men Die With Regrets:

Share time now with your children because now isn't coming back ever again. Give your child a hug and spend time with them while you can.

The future is coming sooner than you can imagine. Don't kid yourself. No matter how much time you spend with your children, one day, you'll wish you had spent more. Do it now. 

Today is the start of a wonderful weekend. Start making great memories and spending more time with your children today.


NOTE: Lastly to help you more appreciate what we have, please enjoy this wonderful short video sent to me by my dear friend Paul Kitabayashi. It brought a tear to my eye.

Have a wonderful weekend!

A Message for Fathers: Most Men Die With Regrets

... They die that way because they became fathers and then, one day, they realize that they missed out on their child's childhood. My 80-year-old father mentioned this to me before he died this year.

What a waste.


Most men don't realize this until they are in their late 50s through 80s - until they die.


I am one of the lucky few. I realized it when I was in my mid thirties. The reason why I was lucky enough to realize it is because most dads get married and then they have two or three children within a few years. They also consistently repeat the same mistakes with the second and third child that they made with the first child. Then they don't get a second chance. They raise the children together, of course. Not me, my kids are 20 years apart in age.


I have four children. Julie (27) and Sheena (22) were born to my first wife. That wife and I divorced after seven years of marriage and I raised those two girls by myself. I remarried three years later and Wendy was born. When Wendy (17) got sick as a baby and then recovered from cancer, she wasn't able to live with her sisters for at least 6 years due to chemo-therapy treatments so her mother and I divorced and Wendy went away to live with her mother. 


I remarried again for the third time and Wray (8) was born.


Julie and Sheena often had trouble at school and sometimes with the police when they were teenagers. I regret that I didn't spend enough time with them, but with trying to pay to raise them, I didn't have the time I needed. I hired several nannies and they raised them. One nanny was the main one, but she wasn't full-time. I will always regret that I missed their childhood and didn't spend the time with them that I should have.


So, one day, my second wife, a wonderful woman, married me and my two daughters and Wendy was born.


When Wendy got cancer, I was devastated. One day she was fine. The next day she couldn't walk. A few days later she was in the hospital for the next 2 years. Then, when she was released she had to move away to save her life. I will always regret that I missed her childhood and didn't spend the time with her that I could have.


But, like I said, I am lucky. God gave me more chances (so, perhaps there is a silver lining to divorce). I don't want to miss Wray's childhood. When he was born, I often took care of him. I spent time with him and took him for walks everyday for the first two years in his baby carriage. Then, from age 1 1/2 until 7, I went to bed with him every night at 8 pm and we read books together before going to sleep. I make his breakfast at least 320 days a year and eat dinner with him at least 3 or 4 nights a week. I still do.


I always try to come home before 5:30 pm.


I want to live with Wray with no regrets. God gave me another chance I won't waste it. I cannot get back the time with my other children but I can make sure that I don't repeat my mistakes. I will always regret about my first three daughters, but I am trying not to regret with Wray.


You fathers please listen to me. Take my advice. 


Yesterday, Sunday afternoon, the piano school Wray goes to had a Christmas piano concert. I looked at the crowd in attendance. I estimated that there were 27 moms and about 5 grandmas there. The dads? A pretty poor showing. Seemed like 7 fathers and 4 grandfathers. With 27 moms, there should have been 27 dads but there were only 7. Where were the others? What is so important that they miss their child's performance?

The children all performed their hearts out and smiled brightly when their performances ended. Even when it wasn't my son playing, I cried at some of the performances.


Here were these innocent, pure and bright young children playing their hearts out for their moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas. Oh what a joyous occasion it was.


What an even more joyous occasion it could have been had those other 20 fathers bothered to attend. I wonder if any of those fathers were you, dear reader? Or were they you at a different time at a different occasion?


Where were those fathers? Were they Golfing? At home sleeping? Working? Like I said, ultimately what is more important to all of us than our children?


Think about it my friends, what do we work for? Why do we chase the all mighty dollar?


We do it to give our families a place to live and a roof over their heads and food and a happy family.


Think about that last part, "... a happy family." Is a family truly happy when the father is not around? Take, for example this Christmas concert. How many Christmas concerts will your 8-year-old son or daughter perform at? Well, when you stop to think about it, kids are only eight once and Christmas comes only once a year.... That means once.


How often can you go golfing or work or sleep on the couch?


I hope that you, in the New Year, will think about what I am saying. Like I wrote, very few people have the luck to have raised children that are 20 years apart in age. I do. Listen to what I say. 


Share time now with your children because now isn't coming back ever again. Give your child a hug and spend time with them while you can. 

The future is coming sooner than you can imagine. Don't kid yourself. No matter how much time you spend with your children, one day, you'll wish you had spent more. Do it now.

The Best Christmas Present I've Ever Received - And You Can Give it Too!

Is it just me or are there any others who think the Christmas season in America (Japan too) has become an orgy of crass commercialism? Of course, that is a rhetorical question. I think most people do.

Christmas is no longer is it the heart-warming family get-together tradition of days long gone by. Christmas today has turned into a mad dash towards debt and poverty. It's not only debt and poverty concerning money and lifestyle, it is a poverty of the soul. One need only look at the news about "Black Friday" and the violence to see what Christmas in America has become. 


The only reason we celebrate Christmas at my house is that we have an 8-year-old. I could never be such a Grinch to deny a small boy Christmas.


Whatever happened to just getting together with family and friends and enjoying each others company? It's sad what has happened to the "Season to be jolly."


In that spirit though, I'd like to relate today about a great present I got when I was a kid... It is a present that I have received over and over these past 44 years. That was a wonderful present I received from a classmate of mine when I was a kid in Minnesota. His name was James Rudd and the present wasn't in a box. It was on his face and in his heart. Every time I see a box brightly wrapped as a present, I see Jim Rudd's face and that moment, the spirit of him, comes to visit me and I receive that wonderful gift yet again.


Even though I cannot transport my children into the past by use of a time machine, I want my children to know and experience the true joy of giving and receiving. Towards that end, I always try to relate to my kids the story of James Rudd.


When I was in forth grade, James Rudd, "Jim," wasn't really my good friend. He was a classmate. I am quite ashamed to admit that I think I wasn't very friendly to Jim because he was sometimes bullied by the other kids so, in order to make sure that they didn't bully me, I foolishly joined in in making fun of Jim. Jim was a down to earth dorky kind of kid that might remind you a lot of Opie Taylor from the Andy Griffith Show.

 Opie Taylor

In those days, at Christmas time, the kids in the classroom all shared in Christmas festivities by buying one present. The catch was that you didn't know who you were buying the present for! The rules were that each child could buy one gift of no more than two dollars. Each child would wrap the present and bring it to class and put it under the tree. When it came to the last day of school, before Christmas holiday, each child would draw a name out of a hat and receive the present from the person whose name they drew.


I was quite unhappy that I drew Jim Rudd's name because he wasn't "cool" and was kind of dorky (look who's talking!) I think I was so unhappy about that drawing that it showed up on my face for everyone to see.


When I went to the tree to grab the present Jim prepared, Jim came to sit in front of me at my desk. 


In those days, I was a World War II nut. I loved building plastic military models of planes, ships and tanks. Especially German tanks. I thought those were the coolest. Of course, in a class of 30 kids, with each kid buying one present to be selected at random by another child, there was no way to know what you were going to get.


To expect a King Tiger tank was probably setting myself up for a big letdown.


I got that letdown when I opened the present from Jim. It was a plastic model alright, but it was a plastic model of an old Spanish Galleon. I didn't like it at all. I am once again sad to admit that my disappointment probably greatly showed on my face even though I tried to hide it.

But then, after opening the plastic model, was when Jim Rudd gave me the present that he has been giving me every year since then. It was the present that has warmed my heart all these years. It is the story I have told my children repeatedly and am now sharing with you.


With disappointment on my face and sadness in my heart, after opening the present I looked straight into Jim eyes and he looked into mine. With the utmost sincerity and enthusiasm brimming over Jim smiled brightly to me and said, 


"Mike! I hope you like it!"


I could see from his eyes and his words that he meant it from the bottom of his soul. My heart melted and I thought, 


"Gee! What a really sweet, nice guy!"


Mere words on a paper could never express the way I felt at that time. Here was this incredibly sincere boy giving me a present (that he picked himself and thought was really cool) and was hoping that I would like it as much as he did.


He gave me something that he wanted! Not only that, he gave me sincerity, enthusiasm and a warm spirit of friendliness and a feeling that I will never forget until my dying day: With just one smile and six words, he gave me the true spirit of Christmas.


Jim Rudd, you gave me something that I have always remembered and I will never forget it. I recall it every year at every birthday party andChristmas and every gift-giving celebration. I wish I could give such a wonderful gift to someone someday.


I will cherish this memory all my life. And now, Jim, you allow me to share it with others. James Rudd, wherever you are, thank you so much sincerely from the bottom of my heart.... and Merry Christmas!

Japan is Freer Than the USA #3

The recent blogs about how bad the USA have become have really hit a nerve with some Americans. I keep getting more comments from one guy who seems like he just can't stand it when someone makes a remark like "Japan is better place to live than the USA." 


This entire conversation started with an letter I received from a friend. I reprinted it in "Japan is a Much Freer and Better Place to Live Than the United States." The letter, from an ex-pat American living in Northern Japan was just a slice of life that, for me, represents how much better and safer and freer Japan is than today's USA. 

PIANISTAR HIROSHI

I used the anecdotal story in the letter to say Japan was a better because Japan has much less crime and much more personal freedom than today's USA does.


This reader got upset and made some strange remark about how I always talk about facts, but had no facts to back up my claim. Gee? The statement "Japan is a Freer and Much Better place to Live than the USA" is a pretty subjective statement. Do I even need to back up subjective statements with facts? 


If I say that the Beatles are better than the Rolling Stones, is it normal to be asked to show some sort of proof? 


I think, like in the letter I reprinted, the fact that kids can play on the beach without adult supervision shows a very safe society without fear of crime and the ability to smoke or drink in public - while small things - and something that one cannot do in the USA anymore - are a sign of a society that shows common sense. These things are in very short supply in the USA police state. Small freedoms add up to a lot of freedom.


He wanted facts about why I thought the USA has lost it. I gave him an entire list of them.   


The first on the list, "The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and the largest total prison population on the entire globe" should have ended the discussion, but it didn't. 


This is an embarrassment to every American. They should be ashamed. But, once again just shows another problem with the USA; A lack of freedom of the mind.  

"None are more hopelessly enslaved than 

those who falsely believe they are free."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Some of the other items on this list should have ended the argument too... They were: There are more reported rapes in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world. There are more reported murders in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world. There are more total crimes in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world. The list went on.

Anyway, for the sake of fairness (and fun) let me print this reader's letter in entirety. His comments are highlighted in yellow.

Anonymous said...

As the writer who so rankles the blogger enough to warrant a follow-up blog post,

Don't flatter yourself. This is a blog. Good bloggers interact with the readers I think that is common knowledge

I would like to respond that I agree that the military industrial complex, the drug war, and our privatized prison system represent detestable facts. 

OK. That's a huge chunk of what life is the USA is all about nowadays. The military industrial complex is responsible for the drug wars, foreign wars, loss of freedoms (even the loss of freedom of speech)... But he wants to move on and ignore the 900-pound goriila in the room. He writes: 

But so is Japan's 99% conviction rate. 

It strikes me as odd that a person from a country that has so many lawyers and such massive litigation going on all the time, that they point out to anything involving the legal system. And, he is not looking at the entire picture. Japan has a high conviction rate because lawyers and the police will not go to court unless they are pretty damned sure of winning. Here's your proof of that: 

J. Mark Ramseyer of Harvard Law School and Eric B. Rasmusen of Indiana University examine if the accusation is in fact warranted. In their paper ("Why Is the Japanese Conviction Rate So High?") they examined two possibilities. One is that judges who come under the control of central bureaucracy are pressured to pass a guilty verdict, ensuring high conviction. Another possibility is that, given that non jury system under inquisition system has predictable ruling on guilt, prosecutors rarely ever bring a case which have even minute chance of failure.  

Entire Japanese court ruling is accessible in digital format and the two academics examined every case after WWII in which the court found the defendant not guilty. The result is mixed. 

...by examining the individual cases, the two academic founds that all of those cases which negatively affected judges career had political implication (such as labour law or electoral law) and that the facts of the case (i.e. the defendants committing the accused deed) itself was never in dispute. However, Judged delivered not guilty verdict on technical basis such as statute of limitation or constitutional argument, which was subsequently reversed in higher court. In cases in which the judge delivered not guilty verdict because they ruled that there are insufficient evidence to ascertain that the defendants did the accused deed, the judged suffered no negative consequence. For this reason, the paper argued that Japanese judges are politically conservative in legal interpretation but are not biased in matter of fact.

In the matter relating to Japanese prosecutor being extremely cautious, the paper found ample evidence for it. In Japan, 99.7% of case brought to court result in conviction while in U.S. it is 88%. 

According to a cited research, In U.S. the 22% of federal case and 11% of state case, the accused contest the guilt while in Japan, the ratio is modestly less. The paper attribute this difference to greater predictability of the outcome in Japanese case. This is due to two reason. One is that it is judge rather than jury who determine the verdict. As judged "have seen it all before" and the lawyers on both side "have seen them seeing it" as they can read judge's previous ruling, which include written reasoning for previous verdict, the way judge think and argue is very predictable.

So is the deep control the LDP government exerts over the press. 

This guy has got to be kidding me, right? Talk about people in glass houses throwing stones! Are we talking abut a guy from a country complaining that the government controls the media? A guy from the very same country that has a lap dog media that cheered the USA invasion of Afghanistan, Iraq? This point is so absurd that it is laughable. Perhaps the LDP "controls" the media? It can't be any worse than the USA whose media cheers on wars that bomb and kill hundreds of thousands of brown-skinned men, women and children 24/7. Let's not forget that the USA also has a public that gave its president a 92% approval rating while doing so. 

So is the power of the bureaucracy and the corruptive, malignant influence of amakudari. 

Seriously. This is another joke again, right? Never heard of Washington's revolving door? This guy complains about revolving door politics and business yet  he comes from a country where a president's son becomes president 8 years after dad? Name one other country like that! Quick! 

Like father, like son

So what I have a problem with is absolutist statements like "Japan is freer than the U.S." 

No. He has a problem with a subjective statement like "Japan is Freer Than the United States." Even so, I stand by my subjective statement, "Japan is a freer nation and a better place to live than the USA". I've given a list of facts and data. I've even given anecdotal evidence and the guy gets difficult - and rude on top of that! 

But, I know the truth is that he probably fears what I have made an opinion on is too close to home and is an ugly truth. People just don't like to admit it and they get mad at someone like me stating so. I suspect that he's had this argument with others before and is taking it out on me. The Internet is full of articles on America's loss of freedom. And, as if it really matters what I think. A good example for this guy's chip on the shoulder attitude is like a guy who buys a crap car. He knows he bought a lemon and the car is no good, but doesn't like it if you tell him that.  

Why does the guy get pissy with me? I don't know. I never insulted him! Why do Americans take everything so personal and are so abusive? Do a Google search on "America is Losing Freedom" and you'll get 61 million results. Do a Google search on "America Police State" and you get 108 million results. This guy needs to wake from his slumber.

And I have serious doubts about whether your way of defining freedom are sound. 

Gee. I gave an anecdotal example. The reader asked for data. I gave him that too. Japan has much lower crime, a much safer society, people live longer, universal health care, the best public transit system in the world, people have more respect for each other (say, if you drop your camera in the park, it will probably still be there a few hours later when you go looking for it), and many small personal freedoms that are not available in the USA, etc. etc. 

Make no mistake about it. These above are freedoms. At the very least they are the freedom from fear and worry.

You write so much about critical thinking but I find obesity, divorce rates, and drug abuse have little to do with a society's freedom. It seems you conflate lifestyle choices with freedom, misrepresenting your argument. 

This guy is confused and needs to read more and study. For one, obesity is not a "lifestyle choice." Obesity is a disease. Obesity is a prison. Does anyone in their right mind think people want to be fat? Two, drugs? Drugs are a sickness and a sort of prison too. Healthy people do not abuse drugs. America's well documented problems with over-the-counter and illegal severe drug abuse is the sign of a very sick society. Divorce is just another sign of unhappy people. Nobody wants to get a divorce either. They do it when they find that they need "out." This is caused by many factors; extra marital affairs, drug and alcohol abuse, money, etc. etc. Getting a divorce is a very expensive process it is not a "lifestyle choice." Either way, a high divorce rate is also a sign of a very ill society. 

A lifestyle choice is things like how people dress, wear their hair, where they want to live... These things he mentions are not lifestyle choices by any stretch of the imagination.

It would have been much more sufficiently argumentative had you described the difference as one of quality of life rather than freedom. Linking your Lew Rockwell articles doesn't mean diddley-squat to me. I don't give a hoot who Rockwell is. The guy carries nothing in the way of legitimate scholarship as far as I'm concerned. Just another American fringe movement. 

This guy complains about subjective statements but thinks "Quality of Life" is less subjective than "Freedom"? I don't follow that reasoning at all. He also wrote, "I don't give a hoot who Rockwell is. The guy carries nothing in the way of legitimate scholarship as far as I'm concerned. Just another American fringe movement." Well, pardon me, your royal highness! Lew Rockwell only gets between about 600,000 to 1.8 million unique users per day and is the #5,677 most popular blog on the entire Internet. Not bad when there are over 1 trillion sites according to Google. That blows away sites like New Republic. He also only has some of the best political and social writers in America today (and Canada and Europe) on his roster. And, just because this guy is not clued in and doesn't know, Lew Rockwell is the #27 most popular political website on the Internet in the entire world today. 

And what the hell is a "free market anarchist?" Would love to read your blog on that one.

This guy sure likes to act intelligent but he isn't well-read, is he? Not only does he need to read more, but he also needs to learn how to use Google search engine. Open Google.com. In the box type in "Free market anarchist." You will see nearly 4 million results. Gee! It's so unknown that there's even a Wikipedia page for it. 


I'm sure as usual it will be extremely offensive.

Well, have a nice day to you, too my friend. The only thing offensive here is this guy's self-centered attitude. I write a statement that Japan is a freer place than the USA and mention safety and smoking and drinking in public and he calls that offensive? Someone certainly has a problem here. 

This guy is the perfect example of one more thing about Japan that blows the USA away. In the USA, way too many people are very rude and argumentative. If you go to, say, a bar and state an opinion about something like politics (or some other trivial matter) if someone disagrees with you, you could get into an argument. Or worse, you could get into a fist fight. Or even shot! Americans are famous the world over for being loud, interrupting each other all the time, being argumentative and boisterous.

But, in Japan, if you state some opinion that someone disagrees with, you won't get into a fight. If I say something like, "Tokyo is a better place to live than Osaka." The typical Japanese reaction would be, "Oh?" And that would be the end of it. But not that American. He gets angry and rude. Typical.

This reader is in serious denial. Its because of people like him that the United States keeps going downhill: You can't get better until you get out of denial and face the problems truthfully.

I remember living in Southern California a long time ago and thinking, "This would be the best place to live in the world... If only there were no people."


Another good reason Japan is a better place to live: People have manners and still have respect for each other. Something that seems to have died off in far too many Americans long ago. This reader doesn't seem to have much.


For more on how badly life has gotten in the USA, read; "18 Signs That the Collapse of Society is Accelerating." I highly recommend reading the commentaries by Americans who despair the decline of that country.


UPDATE: Escape From America
Life is mellower almost anywhere else, says Jeff Berwick.

Japan is Much Freer Than the United States #2

This part two of an article I wrote about how the USA is not a free country at all anymore and that Japan is a much better place to live hands down.


I received several mails from irate Americans who just can't handle the truth about how much of a hellhole that country has become. One guy even wrote::


I find it amusing that this blogger constantly ballyhoos the importance of facts and then writes an editorial with the provocative headline above without any exercise of facts save you can smoke in restaurants and drink at the beach-- if that's your definition of freedom, then I feel sorry for you. This is black-and-white writing, emotional, if not hysterical.

If you're going to be provocative at least put a little effort into it. This just feels like lazy writing. And your characterization of Japan is maudlin.


Look who is talking about being maudlin! Check the rear view mirror for knee-jerk emotional reactions, my friend. Why do I need to re-state old facts that everyone - who has been paying attention - already knows? Take off the rose-colored glasses and read on....


Here's some selected tidbits from Lew Rockwell.com from an article entitled, "Number One? 20 Not So Good Categories That the United States Leads the World." Here's your freedom facts. (Read them and weep): 


#1 The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and the largest total prison population on the entire globe.


#2 According to NationMaster.com, the United States has the highest percentage of obese people in the world.


#3 The United States has the highest divorce rate on the globe by a wide margin.


#5 The United States has the highest rate of illegal drug use on the entire planet.


#6 There are more car thefts in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world by far.


#7 There are more reported rapes in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world.


#8 There are more reported murders in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world.


#9 There are more total crimes in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world.


#10 The United States also has more police officers than anywhere else in the world.


#11 The United States spends much more on health care as a percentage of GDP than any other nation on the face of the earth.


#12 The United States has more people on pharmaceutical drugs than any other country on the planet.


#13 The percentage of women taking antidepressants in America is higher than in any other country in the world.


#16 The United States has the largest trade deficit in the world every single year. Between December 2000 and December 2010, the United States ran a total trade deficit of 6.1 trillion dollars with the rest of the world, and the U.S. has had a negative trade balance every single year since 1976.


#17 The United States spends 7 times more on the military than any other nation on the planet does. In fact, U.S. military spending is greater than the military spending of China, Russia, Japan, India, and the rest of NATO combined.


#19 The United States has the most complicated tax system in the entire world.


#20 The U.S. has accumulated the biggest national debt that the world has ever seen and it is rapidly getting worse. Right now, U.S. government debt is expanding at a rate of $40,000 per second.


I'm being maudlin when I rail on what the USA has become? Ha! I'm maudlin!? These facts I have linked to above are old news. It is astounding, though, that many Americans seem blissfully unaware of them. If anyone should know these facts, the Americans should.

Oh, and if that's not enough, at Lew Rockwell.com there's more. Read: "Number One? 20 Not So Good Categories That the United States Leads the World." Also,   a reader wrote to Lew and added on the blog:

About that USA #1 article you published. Curiously the author didn't mention the USA as:#1 in nuke and other WMD stockpiles.

#1 in WMD sales to other countries

#1 in lawsuits and lawyers per capita and, of course,

#1 in invading other countries!

Smoking & drinking are small things? Yes. That's why Japan blows away the USA for freedom. In the USA you can't even do these small, trivial things. Is that my definition of freedom? Yes. What's yours? (Feel free to choose from the multiple choice list above).