West yearns theosophici
Cheap surface sophomoric
Hidden wells of essence
Assured path dependence
Extraction logic lays
Foundations of silt may
Scaffold Babelian
Towers Orwellianii
AI, crypto glimmers
Continental fractures
Farmers come warriors
Turned two-bit team players
Verseiii island kintsuge
Ginza hush neon hue
Buzz belies ordered hew
Harajuku stans bring
Sakura blossoms springiv
Salarymen gift bondsv
Stumbling ‘tween barrooms, broads
Peacetime dedication
Fitness reservationvi
Hands betray refinementvii
Bind fam’ly to island
Manners, tradition, graceviii
Respect gates ancient place
Capital fits labourix
Like blade into razor
Lindy-test saviour
Verse 10x size neighbour
Forge island kintsuge.
- Since Hilma af Klimt and no doubt well before her even! As seen at Tokyo Modern Art Museum, on now until June 15, 2025:
- What, you think Surveillance Capitalism is anything other than an urban-scale recreation of small village morality? ↩
- “Verse” as in “versus” but y’know… one syllable. ↩
- It’s that time of the year in Tokyo!
- These motherfuckers working 100-hour weeks are oh-so-seriously the backbone of Japanese industrial sustainability. How else to transmit intergenerational tacit knowledge than getting shitfaced together every goddam night? Certainly as soon as American started leaning towards “work-life-balance” it industrially imploded, and France/Germany are only barely holding on these days, while the work-yourself-till-the-bone cultures of Russia, Israel, China, and Japan are redefining 21st century geopolitics.
- The level of physical fitness and mobility of the average Japanese person is off-the-charts. I don’t even think Israel comes close, but then again the Jews took a 2,000 year reprieve from fighting for their homeland, whereas Japan has been doing it for 5,000+ years without break! ↩
- The manual intelligence of the Japanese people is literally off the charts. From the focused construction worker to the simplest cashier to the dutiful bartender, every motion is executed with intention, precision, and elegance. It’s honestly astounding the degree to which the entire nation seems to possess gigabrains in their fingers. By comparison, they really do make us westerners looks like the spear-chucking knuckle-draggers we are. ↩
- The only things binding “multicultural” North Americans together are horrendous and ever-revolving fashions, be it the likes of keto diets, Pi Day, or human rights. Unfortunately we have no external existential enemies to bind us together like the Koreans or Japanese have, so instead we’re “free” to indulge in ever-increasingly degenerate and bizarre amusements while we struggle to self-reinforce the moral fibres of our populations with impotent combinations of mass digital propaganda, crushing tax burdens, barbarian (ie. martial value) infusions, socialistic memes, and Puritan vibes, all with the net result that we’re veering far closer to historical Byzantium than Ancient Rome. Yet still we vie! ↩
- When the measure of “success” in your society *isn’t* to retire on a beach as soon as fucking possible, but instead to do one’s honest best out of respect for nation, it’s amazing what kind of quality of infrastructure and architectural construction is possible! Literally every single building here is crafted with an ethic of care that makes zero sense in the strategically extractive (ie. “diverse”) west. But then again that’s why only 17% of Japanese even have an international passport, compared to 70%+ North Americans (ie. literally everyone who can afford to leave however briefly). But hey, that’s what makes Japan an actual nation, and the West, well… not. After all, a nation is that which you’ll die for. And if you won’t die for your “nation“, then it’s just a state and you’re just a visitor.
Sorry, I don’t make the rules. ↩