Oh, has it been that long already?

Goodness I think it has been.

Kan he? I'm not so sure...

So, what's been going on. Well, in Japan, not a lot that I can really remember, hence the fact that I haven't bothered posting anything. One snippet this morning, though, is that Primae Minister (The Man who) Kan is quickly becomming (The Man Who) Kan't (if, of course, he became (The Man Who) Kant and then went around quoting dear old Immanuel all day long, for example "Happiness is not an ideal of reason, but of imagination" or "All thought must, directly or indirectly, by way of certain characters, relate ultimately to intuitions, and therefore, with us, to sensibility, because in no other way can an object be given to us.", or even "Act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world", though a few might argue with that, especially over one's personal definition of 'safely'; anyway if he had done this sort of thing then I think he'd be onto a winner, or at least a position within a university's philosophy faculty, but he hasn't, he's tried to be a PM, and a Japanese one at that).

Where was I? Oh yes, our man who Kan is, apparently, on the way to becomming the most unpopular PM Japan has ever had, and as you can imagine, that's up against some pretty stiff opposition. The real problem is this:



It's not the bit at the end that is doing our man down, poor support though that may be. No, the problem is at the start. For some insane, perhaps Japanese-only reason, every new PM, no matter who it is, always starts off with an approval rating that is really high. I guess it is a hangover from the fall of the previous guy, who, no matter who it is, will have stunk by the time he left office (think Silent Shinjo or Fuckwit Fukuda, anyone after them would have seemed like a renaissance man), which basiclly means that anyone who comes in is set up for a fall. I mean look at Kan's approval rating when he started, nearly 70%, no one is going to sustain that so it's a long slippery slope downhill

That said it does look like he had a pretty good rally there in the middle, towards the end of September... ah, that was when he was fighting the odious Ozawa for control of the party and, indeed, the country, no wonder he looked good then...I'd have looked good standing next to that crook! But anyway, apart from that, which had nothing to do with actual governing, it's all downhill, and it's the same for every single politico that takes the job on. It could be that he's in charge of a lousy party in a deadlocked house (a bit like Obama) but he's just not really doing anythign about it - I was tryign to think of some things that have happened that would have upped, or downed, his popularity, but I'm struggling apart from the Ozawa thing. OK, I expect that was a foot-in-mouth gaffe from a senior minister and a cabinet member-in-bribe scandal, but these are run of the mill events that happen to all PM's. But maybe that's it, they're all rubbish and it just takes a few months for everyone to realise. So it makes me wonder why they bother as I am certain that when (TMW) Kan goes, a new guy or [reality bending delusion] woman [reality bending delusion/] takes over, it will all happen again. Oh well...

Cricket News now

Ennnnnglaaaaaand! Ennnnnnglaaaaaand! etc

Come on you rubbish Aussies! An innings and 71! In Adelaide! (the first time we've beaten you by an innings there for 118 years!) And you couldn't even roll us over in Brisbane after taking a 220 run lead in the first innings! 517-1! ha ha ha ha hoo hoo hooo wa-ha hah  ha etc etc

But pride cometh before a fall and we're not at home to Mr Cock-up, so watch out boys as a wounded Aussie is a tricky beast.

And other stuff

Er, well, we're still on course to head to Blighty for Christmas, leaving a week tomorrow as it happens - looking forward to that.

Also on the cricket front I, along with some other staff, took the primary cricket team down to near Mt Fuji for a cricket tournament a few weeks back. Great fun, I took charge of the B team (naturally) and we out-performed even our own sky-high expectations by winning two games and coming within a whisker of making the semi-finals (though a good job we didn't as the games we lost were by embarassing margins and a semi would have been a similar proposition) - but it was a cracking weekend and the kids all had a jolly time, which is what it's all about, and, in the end, cricket was the winner (as well as Gunma CC A team). Anyway here's a photo (our chap's batting):

And last but not least, it's chilly here, but not as cold as England! What's going on? I do not expect to spend a 2 week holiday on a bench in Heathrow as no traffic is moving anywhere in the UK - sort it out!