Eric the Nomad

Something to Hide?

2008-03-28T17:12:00.001-07:00

The first person I would think ready to comment on the subject of ethics in journalism would be a Christian newspaper or other ultra-right-wing-fundamentalist monthly. Hmmm. Not so much. In the search for answers about ethics in journalism, this author found that the major local newspaper of the area was eager to answer questions about ethics in journalism but some the Christian publications, both local and abroad, preferred a more “loose lips sink ships” approach. “Und jus’ who are you writink zis awtikal for? Vat is yoouer nem und identifikashun numba? Und ‘ow can I confirm, vat iz zis, Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writer’s Guild, is a legitimate organization?” Or the other extreme, “Are you recording this conversation? You never know who might be listening. No, actually, we’re getting out of the newspaper business, you may have heard . . . never mind what I meant by that! I’m actually selling this rag, you want to buy it? I’m getting out of the business, see . . . no, I don’t want to answer any questions! Gotta go! [click]”

I couldn’t believe that last conversation really took place until I heard the familiar automaton on the other end of the line, “If you’d like to make call, please hang up and dial again . . . “ Of course, I exaggerate slightly, I do mean slightly though. Those snippets really do capture the essence of the responses I got from the Christian publications that I contacted.

Jim Kershner of the Spokesman Review newspaper, on the other hand, was kind enough to answer my questions.

E: For you, when is the line crossed between serving journalism and serving the subject of your journalism? In your opinion, does accepting discounts or freebies blur that line?

JK: We never accept freebies or discounts. Anything beyond a cup of coffee or something trivial like that crosses the line. There is no reason to accept anything, except possibly a homemade brownie. That would be just rude to turn that down. But in general, accepting something like free lodging puts you in the awkward position of having accepted something that other people would pay for. It is much simpler to simply turn it down. Otherwise, you always have that nagging question in the back of your mind about whether you were swayed or not.

Also, he provided a link to their values statement online. It turns out that editors had just been hashing this out as I contacted Mr. Kershner. The values statement is very well done. After I read parts of it, I got the impression that the SR considers itself very mission oriented. They believe that they are there to serve the public not themselves or their Pulitzer Prize seeking egos.

In contrast, the negative or null responses I got from the half-dozen or so Christian publications, plus what I’ve read of them, give me an unfavorable impression. I am given the impression that whenever there is an agenda to be imposed, the temptation to make that the sole reason for the publication is dangerously tempting. Christian journalism all too easily becomes Christian propaganda.

Having said that, I do exclude more reputable mags like Christianity Today and Weekly World Magazine from that generalization. It does make me wonder though why “Christian” journalism as a label is necessary. Why shouldn’t it just be good journalism that flows out of a believer who seeks truth and the faithful reporting of it?

McDonalds from 5 Points of View

2008-01-07T21:54:00.000-08:00

DJ
The sign on the outside said McDonald’s but it wasn’t the same as the McDonald’s in Tarrytown. This one didn’t have a play place with a ball crawl and slide. A picture on the window showed Ronald McDonald and Grimace. They were coming to this McDonald’s on Sunday. DJ wouldn’t be here though. He would be New Castle on Sunday. DJ wasn’t in New Castle yet nor was he in Tarrytown anymore, he was in between. The food took too long and Debbie mommy forgot to take the pickles off his cheeseburger. Hank daddy did get him a strawberry shake though. DJ never had strawberry before, it was good. Did they have McDonald’s in New Castle? Would that one have a play place with a ball crawl and a slide?

Katrina
Oh, the nails on the five-dollar-an-hour cashier were utterly hideous! You could just tell that were fake and probably done at that place by Walmart off the interstate. The wandering eyes of the pimply faced sandwich maker casually looked Katrina over as she turned in the application. As if! This place would be a wonderful subject for her cultural diversity report in social studies. How many minorities does it take to mop up a grease spill after the lunch rush? ‘Affirmative Action at its Worst’ could be the title. What were they using to clean the bathrooms, orange soda? That’s what it smelled like.

Bennie
McDonald’s coffee was usually the best. Something was slightly off today though. Maybe they got the mixture wrong. That sometimes happens on the soda machines. You just get carbonated, tasteless bubble water or it is entirely too sweet. The coffee was too strong today, maybe too many beans ground too fine. That must be it.
Cheryl isn’t here today. She would have gotten it right. Instead, Michelle is working the front. Cheryl would have made sure the table was clean before he got to his seat, which was hard and cold. The seat opposite him was empty, just a yellow empty space reflecting the harsh glare of sunlight. Yellow is such a bright color for a seat, it was so wide open like an empty billboard. Bennie sipped his coffee and stared blankly at the poorly used advertising space across from him.

Milt
Was that French music they were playing over the loud speaker? Milt couldn’t remember whether it was the French or the Swiss that favored the accordion. Maybe he would just have to take a leisurely trip over to Europe and find out first hand. The closest Milt was getting to France today, though, would be the special sauce on his Big Mac. It must be French dressing or is it Thousand Island? It must be French, why else would it be called ‘special?’ Milt found this last conclusion amusing and he giggled to himself with his mouth full of “two-all-beef-patties-special sauce (let’s not forget that)-lettuce cheese-pickles-onions –on a sesame seed bun.” What a catchy tune!
Wow! The place was hoppin’! This particular McDonald’s was one efficiently running machine. Everything thing seemed to run so smoothly here. There had been a grease spill in the back and five employees swarmed on it to wipe the mess up before someone had an accident. The lovely cashier at the register with the sparkly nails was right on top of things delegating tasks to her fellow McDonaldland comrades. Like a well oiled machine, from the timing of the fry machine beepers to the spic-n-span smelling bathrooms, this store was run like it should just like Milt’s life.

Tracy
An untouched Mega-Mac lay smack dab in the middle of the papered brown tray. Equally un-munched upon French fries were stationed to the left and on the right side of her mini-hamburger-building was her un-sipped shamrock shake. Oblivious to the world around her and her food as well, Tracy feverishly punched buttons on her cell phone.
Who else needed to know? Who didn’t know yet? Half the staff here at McDonald’s already knew. Michelle at the register reminded Tracy to super-size her meal because now she was eating for two. Two? What if it, they, were twins? It didn’t matter though, boy, girl, whatever! Maybe one day she could bring him here and he would pull the pickles off his cheeseburger like the blonde-haired boy sitting in the next booth over.

Excerpt from JUST ANOTHER ROBOT play

2007-10-05T20:29:00.000-07:00

[Originally performed at Crossroad in Nishinomiya, Japan, March '07...in Japanese. This is a translation]

TAROKUN
I'm...bored and lonely.

EGO
What?

TAROKUN
Bored! There's nothing to do, no
one to do it with and no time with
which to do it. I need a change of
pace. Maybe I should get a new
apartment.

EGO
What good is that going to do you?
I don't know, it would be newer,
cleaner than this place.

EGO
This place was once newer and cleaner.

TAROKUN
I just want to start over though,
get a new perspective on life or
something, make some new friends.

EGO
What's wrong with the friends you
have now?

TAROKUN
They don't have time for me. Or
maybe I don't have time for them.
They work like I do. I feel like
just another robot. I go to work at
8 o'clock and I get off at 6. I'm
too tired or hung over to do anything
on the weekends. Besides, Yuki got
married, Haruo got moved by his
company to Yokohama and Kyoshi has a
new girlfriend. There's no one left.

EGO
But don't you have a few drinks
afterwards with the guys at work
sometimes?

TAROKUN
They are not my friends though.
They are my co-workers and my boss.
I have to go. That's not friendship,
that's networking, that's
"nomunication," part of my job.
I'll never get a promotion if I don't
go out with them.

EGO
What about that young lady you went
on a date with last month? You
haven't called her in a while. Why
not?

TAROKUN
Hmmm. Could that be because she
looks like a horse and laughs like a
seal? Besides, she's boring.

EGO
What do you mean by boring?

TAROKUN
She never does anything interesting.

EGO
Oh, you mean kind of like--

TAROKUN
Don't say it!

EGO
YOU?

TAROKUN
(just looks and Ego
for a beat or two
and then hangs his
head in his hands)

EGO
What do you want?

TAROKUN
(standing)
I want...I don't know what I want
exactly. I just feel lonely that's
all.

EGO
What would your life look like if
you weren't lonely?

[Appearing not to listen, Taro picks up the remote control
and turns on the TV and sits down again.]

TAROKUN
It might look like that. See how
happy they are? They have a new
apartment with new appliances.
(switches station)
These guys are happy about pizza.
(switches station)
There, that man, now he looks happy.

EGO
(reads like an
announcer from a
commercial)
Maybe if you drove the car he's
driving, drank the tea he's drinking,
you'd have the girl he's having and
you'd be happy, too.

TAROKUN
But that's not real! I know that's
not real!

EGO
What is real?

THE END

Back in the States

2007-09-09T07:39:00.000-07:00

We've moved back to the States, but I'm living on campus at Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute. A hundred or so Japanese women just invaded the campus and have been fawning over my six-year-old daughter and taking pictures of her. In that way, I guess I haven't left

It really is nice to be home though.

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

2007-03-30T22:58:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, looking at our calendar and counting the days until we had to start work at Mukogawa again, Brenda and I realized that we would have to go to Hiroshima the middle of the following week if we were to go at all. So, found a friendly travel agent at local department store and booked a three day, two night stay in Hiroshima via the Shinkansen, the world's fastest train.
For more on the Shinkansen see this link.
Pretty slick looking, huh? The weather behaved very nicely for our stint in Hiroshima. This was our first trip as a family without any Japanese friends along to help us translate, book or explain everything to us. We had a great time. We saw the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum that presents an extensive and graphic exhibit of the facts of the atomic bomb explosion at Hiroshima in 1945. We skirted the kids past the more graphic displays. It really is something though.

This watch stopped at the time of the blast. The hand that wore it was in a display case to the left. Just kidding, but not far from kidding, seriously. Some of the photos are very graphic and yes there are some human body fragments (skin, hair, fingernails) on display as well. Scary stuff. The truth that the museum wants the observer to take away is that nuclear weapons are a bad thing, put them away.
There were some other features of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park worth noting. This is called the A-Bomb Dome.

It was a building that was 490 feet away from the hypocenter of the blast. Its ruins were preserved (there's a contradiction in terms for you) so that future generations could witness the destruction of nuclear weapons.

2006-12-03T04:19:00.000-08:00

Eigamura

We had the chance to visit Eigamura in Kyoto. Eigamura is kind of like a Japanese version of a cross between Universal Studios and Knott's Berry Farm. Just as the America has had its love affair with westerns, Japan has had its fascination with the Edo Period of their history (1603-1867). Eigamura　映画村　means movie village. This amusement park specializes in films made about the Edo period. It's like Knott's Berry Farm in the way that much of it is set up to be like a Japanese Village from that era. They had staged Samurai fights as well as a ninja show in a theater that was very exciting.

The guy in the middle was one of the actors in the ninja show, the one on the right is a ninja throwing a star or knife or something at someone on the stage below (that ninja was played by a woman.) They often jumped or fell from such heights throughout the production.

They do actually film movies here so the sets look authentic.

Mitokomon 水戸黄門, the longest running TV show in Japanese history also films here.

With over 1000 episodes aired, Mito Komon is currently the longest running Japanese TV drama in history.

The main character, Mito Mitsukuni, is based on Tokugawa Mitsukuni, one of Tokugawa Ieyasu's grandsons (son of Tokugawa Yorifusa) and lord of the province of Mito (now Ibaraki prefecture). Born in 1628, he was a scholarly recluse best known for researching the Dai-Nihonshi, a history of ancient Japan. Late in his life, he adopted the literary name "Komon" (Yellow Gate). The stories are based on popular legends about his incognito rovings around Ibaraki. Of course, in the series, he also puts right any wrongs wherever he finds them.

The plots are basically the same. Accompanied by his faithful attendants, servants and ninja, Mito Komon wanders around the countryside, helping those he finds oppressed by corrupt officials or evil landowners. A violent struggle typically ensures near the end of each episode, at which point one of his attendants flashes Komon's inro, a lacquered case bearing the Tokugawa crest, thus revealing his true identity and proclaiming, "Here before you is Lord Mitsukuni of Mito, uncle of the Shogun." Realizing they are facing someone who wields incredible power, the evil doers drop to their knees and grovel. Suppressing their rage as being outdone, the episode ends with Mito Komon always putting everything right once again and then continuing on his journey. --Pasted from http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Mito_Komon

It's very much like the A-Team except this one has been going since 1969. We found a Mitokomon exhibit where it showed all the casts that have played in it since 1969.

They also had modern films and genres here including the power rangers. They had very loud live show as well.

It was a fun day. Again, thanks to Sonoe and Ryoko for showing us around.

Kyoto and Kiyomizudera

2006-11-23T04:15:00.000-08:00

Kyoto was nice. Rain was in the forecast but it didn't. It was cloudy. We went to see Kiyomizudera 清水寺　(pure water temple). We got a little lost on the way once we got to Kyoto, but eventually we got a cab there. It was crowded with lots of other tourists. You'd have thought it was a weekend.

We did some shopping and we saw the temple as well. It was very relaxing not to have to worry about the kids or cater to their needs. We also went to see the 紅葉　(red leaves). I wouldn't say the autumn leaves are as spectacular as the northeast in the states but it was pretty.

It was also nice not having our tour guides around, Ryoko and Sonoe. With all those other distracting elements not being there (the guides and the kids) I found I was much more relaxed and didn't freak when my wife wanted to spend some money on getting gifts for friends back home. I even participated and got a yukata for myself. Brenda helped pick it out.

The Familiar Made Unfamiliar

2006-11-01T21:35:00.000-08:00

One of the most baffling aspects of life in Japan for this westerner is the concept of the familiar being made unfamiliar. That is to say there are many conventions here that are from the west like baseball, fast food, fashion (or the lack of it) and retail stores. At first the illusion of normalcy can make one feel at home until you realize something is not quite right. For instance, in an electronics store there will be slogans printed on the walls:

The sign is in English. Do any of the employees speak English? No. Do even half the people who are ever in that store, whether customer or employee, read English? Probably not. Why bother? I don't know, but it is very common. You will pass by many young men and women sporting t-shirts bearing sentiments in awkward English. What would that young Japanese woman do if some foreigner just walked up to her and, without previous introduction, asked her out on a date? He'd just be doing what her shirt read, "Ask Me Out On a Date!"

So, what do you do in the States when at one o'clock in the morning you get the munchies and you have nothing in the cupboard? You jump in your car and head for the nearest 24 hour store like a 7-11 or something. They have those here. Maybe you would be interested in a hot dog, nachos or a slice of pizza even if it has been under a warmer for a few hours.

However, they are not going to have your slice of pizza, nachos or hot dogs (actually, sometimes they do have hot dogs or corndogs--they're not very good!)

What is that stuff? It is the equivalent of a slice of pizza, nachos and hot dogs in Japanese cuisine. Sometimes you'll find squid, octopus, konyaku and various things that you will never find in my mouth.

They do have more familiar items for the finicky western palette.

Ah yes! Corndogs and yakitori in the plastic thingy there. In another compartment just to the left you'll find some dumplings filled with curry or red beans. Yumm!

McDonalds is pretty standard wherever you go. In Japan they do have some quirky additions like McShrimp Burgers, Fish Nuggets and the Japanese love to have a fried egg on their hahmbahgah or cheezubahgah.They are not bad I must say. And McDonald's coffee is still the best!

Love Hotels in Japan

2006-10-02T21:08:00.000-07:00

In Japan, people seem to literally live right on top of one another because it is so crowded. Kid's are plentiful and their schedules isogashii (busy). A housewife certainly has her hands full trying to put on dinner on with only a two burner stove. A husband as the committed breadwinner has also a busy schedule and networking after work in the company's favorite pubs certainly does delay him from coming home before midnight. What is a couple to do? How do they get alone with each other and spend some "quality time." Well, in Japan they have "Love Hotels." The concept of a love hotel is very similar to what they might call a sleazy hotel in the States. You know what I'm talking about even if you've never been there. It's the "no tell" motel or the one that charges by the hour. In Japan though, they aren't considered sleazy, they're considered quite normal. They are also called "fancy hotels." Although, it's perfect for the married couple to get away from the kids, you can imagine that this venue also attracts its share of adulterers, fornicators and mistresses.

They usually have interesting names, in English, with neon signs and kitschy decor:

Here you have the City Inn Za Za, Private Space, and Welcome Always.

If you do go into a love hotel, it's quite obvious what you are going there for but no worries, I've read elsewhere that the need for anonymity is met in spades. There is no one in the lobby but there are pictures of the rooms and you select your room by pressing a button. You then pay for it at a black window by slipping the appropriate amount of cash to a faceless person behind it. You are then passed your key. But what if someone actually sees you go there and park your car. No fear! They even have that covered (literally!)

As you can see, blinds prevent you from seeing who gets out of a car and courtesy boards prevent looky loos or jealous husbands from easily identifying the license plates of the cars. And yes, bargain prices for shorter stays:

The rates at this hotel seem to be based on a 6 PM to 12 AM stay on weekdays. Members get a discounted rate.

If you want to see the interior of one of these establishment, you're going to have to go to Japan and investigate yourself because I'm not so bold and if I were...I wouldn't be writing about it for the public.

Delay Fees for Those Who Hate Their Family

2006-02-05T02:39:00.000-08:00

Standing on a train platform in Japan is fascinating. There are local trains and express trains and on some lines many variations in between. The local trains make every stop on the line whereas an express train doesn't, therefore at some stations an express train will just go whizzing by quite fast, too. You can tell when a train is about to arrive because they play music telling you when that a train is coming. On the Hanshin line the music is the tune, I've Been Working on the Railroad. If the train is an express and you are at a non-express station there is a different type of music. If you are at a end point station (one where the train is going to 'turn around' and go back the way it came) it sits for usually about 5 minutes then a third type of music will play and that is when people start running even if they wearing high heels.

Sometimes I've wondered what would happen to a person if they stood too close to the track when an express train went whizzing by. Some have discovered on their own, usually intentionally. Committing suicide by train is one way that some commit suicide in Japan. A friend of mine told me that is the way preferred by those who hate their families. You see, the trains run on a tight schedule. Thousands of commuters are relying on the train to get them to their destination or their connecting train on time. If you consider time equal to money, that is a lot of money if a train gets delayed. As you can imagine, someone jumping in front of a train could cause significant delays. Therefore, the railways companies charge the surviving family of the deceased a delay fee. Often the fee runs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. So it is said that person hates their family if they commit suicide in such way. Very often it is discovered afterward that the person who did the deed had a beef with her mother-in-law over her husband or something to that effect.

This is platform and the railway is below. If you look on the left side of the photo on the left, you'll see a train approaching. A potential jumper would wait until an express train was passing by the station.

The photo below: in the foreground you can see how fast the train passes by and how close the platform is to the passing train.

Eduardo's Bad Day

2005-11-25T20:31:00.000-08:00

It was a bad day for everyone, especially Eduardo Haybiff. Monday started out hot and humid with that dumb dog barking at 6:30. The scabby wart on his head was bleeding again. The barking dog wasn't what got Eduardo of the apartment building that fateful morning. The racket was being created twelve stories up. Eduardo could see a woman beating a futon hanging over her balcony. Pop pop pop! "Stop that noise!" Eduardo yelled.

Startled, she lost her grip on the futon. The impact knocked Eduardo's head clean off. At least there was no more scabby wart to pick at.

Mail and Kanji

2005-11-22T17:19:00.000-08:00

It's strange the things that you take for granted. Like being able to read. I read really well...in English. I don't read really well in Japanese.

I received a notice in the box on our front door. It's like a mail box but we don't get our real mail there. We get some flyers, but mostly it is for bills and for 'unable to deliver' notices. The latter is what I received yesterday. Actually, I received two of them. One of which was from the Higashinishinomiya Post Office (The East Nishinomiya Post Office) stating that there was an attempt to deliver a package but nobody was home. No biggie. There is enough English on the notice for me to pick it up. I've done this before. It's the other notice that I'm worried about.

The other notice is all in Japanese writing. It's not a matter of knowing the meaning of the words. I can't even piece together the words because Japanese doesn't use a Roman alphabet (usually). Japanese uses three (mainly) different scripts, kanji (Chinese characters), hiragana alphabet (syllable symbols) and/or katakana alphabet (syllable symbols specifically for foreign words). Roman characters (Romaji) are sometimes used for the benefit of Japanese speaking foreigners. Hiragana and katakana aren't really that difficult as they are just symbol substitutions for sounds that an English speaker is already familiar with. Both sets are divided into symbols representing consonant/vowel combinations かきくけこ

Kanji are symbols representing entire words and, as I have been finding out, it isn't simply a matter of memorizing the 1,945 or so necessary to be considered literate. Context dictates the pronunciation as well as the meaning because the kanji themselves are not very often specific as to the type of word they are (verb, noun, adjective, etc). Plus, the pronunciation can be further dictated by the use of hiragana tags. Then on top of that there are compound kanji characters. Some characters have multiple meanings. For instance, the　神　(ko) in 神戸　(Kobe) and the 神　 (shin) in 阪神　(Hanshin) are pronounced differently. Oh yeah, and then of course the aforementioned 阪　(han) becomes "saka" in Osaka　大阪。Taihen, desu ne? (Troublesome, isn't it?)

I know about 450 kanji which brings me to about a third grade level here in Japan. I have a tendency to stress a bit when I get a notice with my name (in Roman characters) on it, with a time and date printed on it when I wasn't home, and from a place I cannot discern. There is a phone number on it and a Japanese speaking person on the other end.

I feel particularly helpless in situations like that. I have no control and limited recourse. I could take the notice to someone who reads kanji and speaks fluent English. This is not very common. We do know a few of these at my wife's job, but that is lot more effort than one immediately wants to put out. Knowing that resource is available though, does alleviate the stress. Another option is to take the chance and just call to try to discern where the notice came from.

I did the latter. Finding someone who spoke enough English to shore up for my very limited spoken Japanese was difficult but managable and between the three or four of us, I was able to glean that the notice was from the post office and was related to the other notice that I received. It took a good fifteen minutes or so to figure out the two notices were related. The man said that he'd back to me. Sigh.

Confusing the matter more was the fact that I received three other packages that day after I encountered these notices, two at one time and then a third, an hour later. Were they all tied to that or those notices? Did the guy at the post office call the delivery person en route and have him/her redeliver? I called back but I forgot the guy's name and I got a purely Japanese speaking person who could not or would not help me out. If you've ever lived here, you understand the reality of the latter. Then a little later I received a call explaining that the package in question would be delivered later on that evening. Oh. I went round and round with this person a few times trying to discern if the packages that had been delivered were related to the notices. This wasn't simple because of the language barrier. The lady was thoroughly confused when I told her I received three packages that day ("eeeeh?"). I got off the phone under the impression that all packages had been delivered and everything was squared away. Wrong.
A fourth package arrived around 9:00 PM that night.

I could have just been a little more patient and waited until Thursday to take the 40-minute bike ride to and from the post office to pick it up.

The Night of Bad Things

2005-10-21T03:02:00.000-07:00

[This story was inspired by how polite people are in Japan, always bowing and profusely apologizing if there even seems to be the slightest misunderstanding. It makes you wonder. The photo is a creature that greeted my upstairs neighbor, Frank, at 2 AM after a night of heavy drinking.]

Damaris: You’ll want the deadbolt lock.

Nan: Damaris, I’m so glad that you could help us out here I would feel lost without you guys.

Damaris: No prob. You’ll want some of those window locks, too.

Nan: Why am I getting all these locks and things now? I was told that East Choppu was a safe place to live.

Damaris: It is. It’s paradise. You don’t know true freedom until you’ve lived here. I’m telling you, Nan, Sam and I never plan on returning to the States. The crime rate is practically nothing. Oh, you may want to grab some candles or a kerosene lamp. It’s just that with the holiday here you may want to take some precautions.

Nan: What holiday is that? New Year’s is still a ways off. I know that is a big deal around here. What holiday?

Damaris: Tonight is Akubutsu no Yoru. Literally, it means bad thing’s night or the night of bad things. It is sort of a day of reckoning around here. Not so much a celebration as it is a day where enemies are free to settle their accounts.

Nan: What?!? I’ve never heard of this. You would think that this would make it to a news program back home or something.

Damaris: It probably won’t…they keep a lid on stuff like that and you’d be wise not to attempt to get the word out, they watch Westerners very closely about it.

Nan: This is surreal. You’re joking right? No?

Damaris: No need to worry, Nan. You and Paul are Westerners and you haven’t ticked anybody off around here. Akubutsu no yoru or aku yoru is the day when the police basically turn their heads and everybody is allowed to have at each other. Didn’t you notice how everyone around here is so polite and overly concerned with not offending each other?

Nan: Yeah.

Cashier: 700 niin somasete…Dimaninato.

Damarisa: Buchi Dimaninato. Anyway, it can get to be mayhem around here. You just lock yourselves in and play some loud music and try to shut it out. The government cleans up the next morning. But only on this one day a year. That is why it is so peaceful the rest of the time.

Nan: Wait, clean up?

Damaris: Yes, clean up. Bodies, broken windows and things like that.

Nan: Oh my. We’ll you know me I couldn’t hurt a fly.

Damaris: Good thing, too.

Nan: Whaddya mean?

Damaris: Well, it’s said, but I hardly believe it, that even the animals take part in the holiday. It’s said that the remains of animals and/or humans mauled by animals have been cleaned up on such a day, but I’m sure that is just an urban legend. I wouldn’t put stock in it though.

Nan: Oh, my…

Damaris: Nan, what’s wrong, you’re white as a ghost.

Nan: I stepped on a baby spider this morning. I wonder if it's mother is still alive.