"John R. Yamamoto-Wilson" wrote in message
...
I wrote:

Season's greetings.

Michael replied:

And you.

Do you have Chrimbo, sorry Winter Festival, in Japan then ?
And New Year ?

Yes, Japan has a "Christmas". Just to be bookish (might as well, eh,
even if no one else is!), here's a picture of the cover of "The
Sheep-man's Christmas", an untranslated work by Haruki Murakami:

http://rarebooksinjapan.com/murakami...schristmas.gif

---

He's very good. I suppose you have sheep in Japan like everyehere
else, in the more mounainous parts anyway. I like the snowman with
the carrot nose as well.


And just to be bookish too, here's the back cover of my first
ever manga which I recently bought from a favourite charity shop
haunt for 20p.

http://i17.tinypic.com/48zl2fl.jpg

Robot girl (I think)

The front cover is more boring fortunately.

Er sorry. Just so as to avoid any possible misunderstanding.
As you will realise but others maybe won't, the back cover is in
fact the front cover, and the front cover is the back cover.
As you read it backwards.

Just so as to make things crystal clear.

As there was one of the typical little old ladies serving behind the
counter.
The book is in mint condition, well produced, and quite thick
( to use the technical term ) and it's fun trying to follow the
stories just from the illustrations - around 10-20% in colour,

....


And, just to be chatty (unlike the trolls, I think we have earned that
right), the Japanese Christmas consists of endless piped music versions
of all those ghastly American tunes about hypocritical reindeer and good
old boys on sleighs, played in shopping malls, supermarkets, etc.; a
"Christmas cake" made with lashings of fresh cream and strawberries; and
all the love hotels being booked up on Christmas Eve (I kid you not!).

....

The image many Westerners have of Japan is people in Harris tweed
sports jackets, drinking Johhny Walker whisky, and playing Beatles
records. Working very hard and then going totally berserk for short
periods of recreation, so I suppose that image fits.

Speaking of which, there is quite a considerable Japanese enclave
in the part of West London where I live. There are Japanese food
shops, catering mainly for Japanese I assume, and also a shop selling
more general Japanese stuff saucepans crockery etc actually on the High
Street appealing to the locals as well. English, Irish, Polish, Indian
you name it. They've also taken over a very large former Grammar School
with extensive grounds - Haberdasher Aske or it may have been the Royal
Masonic. It's well hidden on a back road so I've only been past it the
once. Its intriguing to think they should want to travel half way
around the world, to live around here. Maybe it's in the hope of
seeing more tweed jackets.

....


The day after Christmas all the piped music and decorations are put away
until next year and Japan gets in gear for New Year which, in complete
contrast to its Christmas, is a deeply religious festival and a time for
the family to be together.

" All it takes for trolls to prevail is for good men to keep responding
to them "

Well, maybe. But I believe the original was *not* an exhortation to
stand by and do nothing.

I know. It was a deliberate reversal.


Sorry couldn't resist.

Neither could I. Basically, trolls just want to be kicked and called
"Bad troll". If that's what they want, I say give it to 'em - do a good
job and send 'em packing!

John
http://rarebooksinjapan.org




michael adams

....