Mr Hearn and Japanese Spooky Stories

His name is Patrick Lafcadio Hearn; however, he also has a Japanese name, Yakumo Koizumi. He loved Japan, lived in Japan, and married a Japanese woman. Old Japanese folklore attracted him, and he wrote this folklore in English. He was dedicated to preserving the Japanese folklore, which would have been lost otherwise. After being educated in England, France, and the United States, he had come to Japan in 1890 where he worked as an English teacher in Shimane prefecture, which is located on the western side of Honshu Island. He also wrote many colorful, lively stories.

One of his stories is about the "Snow Woman." Mosaku and Minokichi are lumberjacks. One day, they were stranded by heavy snow and stayed overnight in a mountain cottage. During the middle of the night, a white woman's entire body appeared from nowhere and breathed on Mosaku and killed him. She approached Minokichi and told him that she would not kill him.

She asked him not to talk about her to anybody, and disappeared. Years passed. Minokichi married a beautiful, white woman whom he met on his way to his mountain. Their lives were happy and peaceful. They had a baby. One snowy day, Minokichi, watching his wife sewing beside the fireplace, remembered Snow Woman. His wife looked like her that night. Minokichi started to talk with his wife about how he had met a woman who killed his coworker, Mosaku. His wife turned pale. She told him that she was the woman who had met Minokichi and killed Mosaku in the cottage. She reminded him that she had said she would kill him if he talked about the incident to anybody. She continued to say she wanted to continue her life with him, as long as he did not tell the story. She could kill him, but she said she would not because of their baby. Minokichi apologized and asked her to stay. She told him it was too late, and disappeared. Minokichi looked for her the rest of his life, but could not find her anywhere.

Yakumo's stories are not just spooky. They bring melancholy to readers' minds. This story of Snow Woman is not at all a monster story. Snow Woman was almost given a personality and readers can feel her sorrow.

Yakumo could understand and speak Japanese, but could not write it. His wife, Setsuko, translated his stores into Japanese. Modern Japanese people can enjoy old Japanese folklore thanks to Yakumo, who was originally a foreigner in Japan. I cannot forget to mention that Yakumo's stories significantly contributed to introducing Japanese folklore to the world, since all of them were written in English



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Would You Rather Be a Practitioner Or a Critic?

In the scene in the movie "The Matrix" when Morpheus took Neo to see the Oracle for the first time, the Oracle showed him a proverb exhibited in a frame. The proverb stated, "Knowing the path is different from walking the path." I also believe these two things are different. When we drive somewhere for the first time, we check for directions on a map. However, the map does not warn us about snowfall in the mountains or if there is an accident that has closed the roads. This is the difference between "knowing" and "walking." Quite recently I started to see the difference between "knowing," "understanding," and "practicing."

There are a group of people who continuously study and accumulate knowledge. Another group tries to learn more and develop a deeper understanding of a subject of their choice. The difference is how the people use their knowledge and understanding. Some of them use their knowledge for criticizing others. Others use their knowledge to improve themselves. I am not talking about evaluation of who is better or superior. There are great players who are lousy coaches. There are other people, who are not very good as players and instead become prominent coaches or critics.

According to a mental health therapist, there are people who seem to be unable to stop themselves from criticizing others. According to the psychological definition, criticizing is the process of downgrading others in order to uphold the feeling of superiority. Obviously critical people have a desire to look better than others.

We see a lot of people who are always saying bad things about others. They say, "my boss is incapable," or "my wife does not understand the meaning of business," or "this movie sucks." Those people may feel better saying bad things about others. The question is, however, how others feel about the criticism they receive. Sarcastically enough, we tend not to like critical people, even though those critics feel better about themselves. Instead, we tend to like practitioners, who continue to try even though they often fail. We tend to believe that people who fail repeatedly will succeed if they continue to put in effort.

Revisiting the earlier part of this article, criticism can be made by "knowing the path." Only those who have walked the path can explain what it was like. The audience knows the difference between criticism that is either partial or opinionated. In addition, criticizing is a negative action. Negativity belongs to the dark side of our consciousness and society. We tend to admire positive actions rather than negative behavior. Next time when you are criticized, you should do what we do. Be glad to be criticized. Be glad to at least be recognized.




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Is the Traffic Light Red or Yellow?

The expression, "Call white black, and black white," means forcing others to accept a false definition to interpret things in one's favor. The Japanese language has exactly same expression. However, the question was if it is really white we that we see?

It was a while ago when Mr. Suzuki and his wife had an argument on running a red light. Mr. Suzuki was driving and his wife was in the passenger's seat. He saw a traffic light that just turned yellow. He sped up and passed the crossroad. His wife complained that he should not have run the red light; however, Mr. Suzuki did not agree that it was a red light. Mr. Suzuki did not mean to call white black. He believed he was a conservative driver and did not intend to break traffic laws. His wife said that at the very moment when Mr. Suzuki started to pass the crossroad, the traffic light changed to red.

The color of the traffic light that Mr. Suzuki saw was yellow. His wife interpreted it as red. Later, his wife asked if he noticed that there was a mother and a daughter waiting for a green light on the corner of the crossroad. She saw them begin to walk across the road. She said this proved that the light was already changing. Listening to his wife, Mr. Suzuki started to doubt if it was really a yellow light when he started to drive across the road.

Later, Mr. Suzuki received a traffic violation notice. He was charged for running a red light at the crossroad where he had an argument with his wife. Despite the fact that he was 100% sure the light was yellow, in the picture he received, the light was red.

As in the case of Mr. Suzuki, even in the simple judgment of a traffic light being yellow or red, our observations would be different depending on our mental influence. Mr. Suzuki wanted to drive across the road before the light turned red. That might have been his reason to see the light as being yellow. His wife worried about his driving. It might have been the reason why she saw the light as being red. The simple matter of judging color would be influenced by our emotion and thinking.

The above explains differences in people. There are people who are constantly sad, unhappy, and fearful of occurrences in their lives. Others are always resentful, angry, and upset about their experiences. In contrast, there are people who are fearless, brave, and positive even in an adverse environment. There are others who are even pleased, happy, and ambitious to face challenges. Even if one experienced happy occasions, if the person did not have a happy attitude, they would not be happy. Happiness cannot be brought to you, if you are not prepared to be happy. If one has an expectation to be unhappy, they would become unhappy.



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North Wind and Sun

Susan had a problem with her husband. They had been married for 15 years and had long passed their sweet time. They fought regularly. Susan did not like driving. Whenever she was with her husband, she let him drive. John did not mind driving for his wife. However, he did not like that she kept complaining about his driving. He considered himself a safe driver. He did not admit to being reckless because it was not true.

One day, the two were fighting over John's driving. Susan could not believe that he drove over 60 miles per hour on a road that changes into a highway. John argued that it was already the highway and that the speed limit is 65 miles per hour. Susan thought John should not drive at the speed of 65 miles per hour because this was a transit road from the regular road to the highway. Therefore, a driver should be extremely careful and not go over 45 miles per hour, which is the speed limit on the regular road. Both have their own reasons, and both seemed right.

A little annoyed with the repetitious arguments, Susan talked about it with her friend, Joanne, who is seven years older than Susan. Joanne asked Susan why she complained about her husband's driving behavior. She asked if Susan was afraid of an accident. Susan said she did not think it caused an accident. She has continuously said that she wanted to be safe, because she does not want anything to happen to either herself or her husband. Joanne also asked if it came from love for her husband. Susan agreed. Joanne laughed and said it was funny to fight if it was because of love. Susan thought so, too.

Susan thought about her conversation with Joanne for several days. The next time her husband drove her to the gym she had a talk with him. She said, "John, I see your driving behavior changed recently. Your driving is getting more conservative and safer. I am proud of you. I might have said too much on your driving." John was surprised by his wife's remark and did not know how to respond to it. He suddenly felt sorry about how his driving scared his wife, who was not very good at driving. He felt terrible and apologized.

Aesop's "North Wind and Sun" tells us that a harsh attitude will be countered by a harsh attitude. However, if you take a gentle approach, you will get a warm response.






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Is Super Natural Phenomenon a Part of Nature?

It was 1993 when the TV series "The X-files" started. The series was introduced in Japan on DVD in 1994. Japanese TV programs started to show the program in 1995. It became extremely popular and marked high viewing rates. The two movies of "The X-files" were successful worldwide. The X-files seasons and episodes vary. It includes UFO abduction, ghosts, exorcisms, and supernatural powers of people. The X-files deals with supernatural phenomenon. What is a supernatural phenomenon? What are paranormal activities? There are ghost stories all over the world. There is no country that does not have ghost stories. At the same time, there has been nobody who can prove there are ghosts.

How about religion? There is no country or ethnicity that does not have religion. I know there is a dispute about the existence of God. Agnostics do not care if there is a God. Atheists believe that they can prove that there is no God. Then where did the word God come from? Is it just I, who feels that disputing the existence of God itself, either agnostically or atheistically, at least acknowledges the concept of God, directly or indirectly?

When we think about words or concepts linguistically expressed, every language has some words that describe something that does not exist in the world where we live. I can pick some of them here. Absolute is one of them. This world consists of comparative existence. There is no absolute existence. However, human beings know the term absolute. What is the origin of the word? The other example is forever. There is nothing in this world that lasts forever. Why, and how, then did human beings acquire the term? Heaven and Hell are two of other such phrases. There has been no one who has been to either heaven or hell and returned. God and ghost are similar concepts.

Have you never had an experience when walking your dog at night where your dog reacted to something that you did not see? Have you seen your dog growling or barking at the darkness? You looked into the darkness, but you could not find anything. Although I cannot show or prove the existence of the objects that my dog was growling at, I cannot totally deny the possibility my dog was seeing something that I could not see. It would be easy to shrug it off and call our dogs too sensitive, or stupid. However, how can we conclude that they are not seeing something that we cannot see? I sometimes feel that supernatural existence is a part of nature. I cannot deny it even though I cannot prove it. Electricity was a mystery until Thomas Edison proved it. Many of these things may be proven to be a part of nature as time goes by.




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A Dog Named Hachi

It was a long time ago when the dog's story was publicized for the first time. It was even before World War II. Since then, every once in a while the dog is referred to in order remind people who have forgotten something important in their relationships, either with human friends or other species on earth. These things are faith and love. The dog's name is Hachi. This dog's story has been publicized in newspapers, school textbooks, TV, and magazines. In 1987, Japanese filmmakers made a movie based on the story of this dogs' life. "Story of Hachiko" was the title of the Japanese movie. The story was so good that U.S. filmmakers decided to make a U.S. version of the story. The film was released in 2007 staring Richard Gere as a professor and owner of the dog, Hachi.

This puppy was born in the northern part of Japan, Akita prefecture, Tohoku district, in 1923. A professor at Tokyo University adopted him in 1924. Professor Ueno loved dogs. He especially loved the Japanese dog breed, Akita. He had lost two Akita dogs before adopting Hachi. Professor Ueno loved Hachi. The professor took Hachi wherever he went. Hachi was a smart dog; he always remembered to walk the professor to the train station every morning. Then he would return home by himself after seeing his owner off at the station. He would then come back to the station to meet the professor returning home. This continued for about a year.

One day, while at the university, Professor Ueno had a sudden heart stroke and died. Hachi did not know his owner had died. He went to the station to meet his owner as usual. This happened more than just that first day.

He returned to the station and waited for his master to come off from the train every evening since his owner's death. His owner changed several times after the professor's death, but he did not stop going to the station to see his professor, who never came back.

A friend of the professor learned the story and decided to publish the article in a newspaper. The newspaper article struck people. Hachi became a hero dog for people in Tokyo. In 1934 his statue was built in front of Shibuya Station in Tokyo to remember the dog waiting for his owner's return. His statue was destroyed in the later stages of World War II to supplement lacking metal for the Japanese Army in the war. The statue was rebuilt and put in the same place as before in 1948. I cannot forget to mention that many U.S. children gave a donation to build his first statue despite the U.S. being in war status with Japan that time. For rebuilding his second statue, the U.S. Army General Headquarters in Tokyo took the initiative to promote the rebuilding. Many U.S. citizens, both in Japan and the U.S., gave a donation to the rebuilding.




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Elephant Bar in Burlingame, Restaurant Review

I know there are many Elephant Bar restaurants in California. According to their website, they have restaurants in Nevada, Colorado, and Arizona. My wife and I know at least three Elephant Bars that we occasionally visit in our area. The closest to our house is in Hayward. It is on Hesperian Boulevard in the Southland shopping mall. This is the one we eat at most. The other one is on the other side of San Francisco Bay. It is in Daly City, in the Serramonte shopping mall. Since the shopping mall is our favorite, my wife and I eat lunch or dinner whenever we happen to be there. The third one is one in Burlingame. Burlingame is the place where I first lived when I arrived in the San Francisco Bay area. It was the first Elephant Bar restaurant that I dined at.

When I was living in Burlingame and working in the office in Brisbane, I used to lunch or dine in this restaurant at least once a week. This Burlingame Elephant Bar is uniquely located. It is on the Old Bayshore Highway, running to the San Francisco International Airport. The restaurant building is facing San Francisco Bay. Park your car and walk into the restaurant. Although the lighting inside is indirect and relatively dim, the inside of the restaurant is bright during the daytime as the Californian sun shines into the dining area from the bay.

Elephant Bar is a fusion-style cuisine restaurant. They have ethnic style dishes, mostly originating from South East Asian countries, China, or Japan. They have a great variety of salad or vegetable-based dishes. My favorite is Caesar salad. My wife always takes the salad combination with fruit and crab meat. The fruit that comes with the salad varies, such as pineapples, apples, or pears. My favorite appetizer is the salmon tempura roll. My wife's selection is always the Vietnamese shrimp spring roll. They serve fabulous steak sandwiches. Their variations of fish are excellent, including salmon steak, ahi tuna, or rainbow trout.

We like the restaurant's selections for the lunch and dinner menus. However, there is one thing that this Burlingame Elephant Bar has that no other one does. It is the view of the San Francisco Bay. From almost all of the tables and booths, customers enjoy the view over the ocean of the San Francisco Bay during a sunny lunch time. The blue sky of Northern California is a great and relaxing view. Since the restaurant is close to the airport, customers can also enjoy the world famous parallel landing to San Francisco International Airport.



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Restaurant Review, The Slanted Door: Neo-Vietnamese Cuisine

I visited Vietnam for the first time in September 1996. I was impressed in many ways, but I was impressed most by their cuisine. My friend, who was stationed in Ho Chi Minh City, took to me several restaurants he knew. The food I experienced in those restaurants was excellent. Their dishes were very well presented and visually enjoyable. The spring rolls, which were made rice paper, were fresh and lightly seasoned; they were best suited for people had newly arrived in the country and who were tired after their long airplane ride. Chicken-based rice noodle soup was also lightly salted and tasty. Later I learned that the Vietnamese are proud of their cuisine since it is a mixture of Chinese, French, and native Vietnamese influences. Their pride is quite understandable.

Although it is not easy to find an authentic Vietnamese restaurant in Japan, I have found many good Vietnamese restaurants in San Francisco and in the Bay Area. They are generally good; however, I was looking for something more. There had to be a restaurant in this area that served the same amazing food I tasted in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

It was my wife who told me about the Slanted Door after hearing about the restaurant from her Vietnamese friends. I would have liked to have known the reason for the Slanted Door's impressive name, but there was nothing on its website to tell me the reason behind it. The restaurant is located in Ferry Building 1, near the Bay Bridge, and has very good views of the Bay Bridge. There is a bar to the left of the entrance.

The dining floor is located along the bay coast, and there is patio dining outside. The interior of the restaurant is modern and futuristic. I like how the windows facing the bay coast bring in sunshine.

The dining was superb. My wife ordered spring rolls for an appetizer, and I ordered the green papaya salad and oyster. My wife ordered noodles with crab meat for her main course. I ordered the restaurant's famous "shaking beef." My wife loved her meal. She later told me that the restaurant had the best Vietnamese-style dishes she had ever had. My oysters were fresh and tasty, and I loved my beef dish. The meat was tender and juicy. The sauce was the combination of fruity sweet, Vietnamese-style spicy sauce, and a little bit of sour vinegar. I told my wife how good the beef was and she became interested in my dish, although she does not usually eat beef. She tried some and ended up eating half of it.

The only problem with this restaurant is that it is very popular and crowded. Since we went there without a reservation, we needed to kill more than one hour before we got our table. Though it was worth the wait, we recommend making a reservation for lunch and dinner.



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