Freshly back and awake after a twelve day stint for my first time there. I knew that I wanted to go in general, and while I didn't have a firm itinerary planned out, there was one main goal that I had in terms of sites within the country. The main video game that I play is Beatmania IIDX, and it has internal trophies which are represented as badges. Your profile allows you to assign up to five of them as visible when you start a new round, and there are badges to earn for playing at least one round in every prefecture in Japan, as well as every subregion. Getting the Kanto badge meant that I needed to play at least one round in Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, and Chiba. After five days, I had that complete, and now I have a permanent record of this trip within the game itself. There was also a time-limited event to earn points in IIDX in order to exchange them for goods, such as a hat, or a towel, or a new account card and a poster, and I managed to get that taken care of in somewhat dramatic fashion. I did some other things too.
Primary general points
· Getting Suica set on the phone and using it was generally painless. There were only two times where I needed to summon the help of a resident JR employee to clear up an issue with the gate not reading the card for some reason.
· Most vocal interaction which I had was the opposite of painless, because I continuously kept trying to speak Japanese and failing, and most people would realize that I was completely failing at it and responded with English (some with full on sentences, others with just a few words). There were a few rare times that I was able to express my intent in Japanese, receive a response, understand the response, and reply as necessary, but that was rare. Once English was invoked, I would stay with it, because that's what they were expecting. I've been self-studying the language for more than twenty years in varying degrees of intensity, and while my reading comprehesion seemed sufficient enough for this trip, and while I didn't expect my speaking to be as good because I don't have any opportunity to practice speaking, I came away bitterly disappointed in my vocal and speaking comprehension in terms of my interaction with people there. Even within the trip I could at least overhear common chitchat better, but any time I needed to converse with someone for some reason, I usually needed to have things repeated several times and broken down before I finally realized what was being said.
· You are going to be asked about separately buying a bag with every non-food purchase. Accept or immediately present one that you are carrying to indicate how your purchase shall be bagged.
· I never once had my passport requested for presentation.
· Only once did a person volutnarily reach out to address me, and it was just to ask me where I was from in English. Otherwise, everyone left me alone the entire time.
· Weather through the period was ideal. Mid to upper 70F/25C range and only a few days where it was rainy, and even then it wasn't a downpour. A while ago I personally resolved to only wear suits in public and I purchased a new pair of Mephisto shoes after hearing reports of the extensive walking causing problems for traveller's feet and shoes. My attire help up well; there were only a few times that I needed to avoid sunlight to not get too hot, and I have no issues to report from the shoes.
· I only got X'd out of a restaurant one time, and I think it's only because I wandered into it before it was ready for service. Otherwise, I never once waited in line for food, I never once went to restaurant more than once, and all food was acceptably priced for the portion and excellent for the quality.
For these per-day recounts, I wrote them contemporaneously at the end of each day, so you'll need to forgive me for some writing being in present tense and other writing being in past tense.
Day 1 - Travel, Sugamo, Ikebukuro
Non stop flight from Chicago OHare to Haneda. 12 hours. Good thing I usually don't watch movies, because that just means that all I needed to do was binge a few to make the trip go by.
Pre-trip research led me to choose APA Sugamo as my home base for the visit, and I think that it was a very fortuitious choice. I'll have more to say about it later.
Some awkward encounters happened right away upon checking in here. I was at the nearby Family Mart to buy some things and I didn’t catch that he was making sure I wanted a bag until he repeated it five times. Yes, I’ll take it. Before getting there I was coming down to ground level after checking into my room, and when that person saw that I would have been the only other person going down to the ground, they ducked right back out. I was warned on both of these kinds of things happening, so I guess it’s good to have that immediately out of the way. It would turn out that people deliberately avoiding me was rare throughout the trip.
Despite not sleeping on the trip, I had freshly arrived and had no sense of being tired, so once I had my stuff down, I went off to Ikebukuro right away. No picture or video truly conveys how crowded these areas can get. It can only be experienced in person to be understood.
I soon found Round One Ikebukruo and went right in. So dense and loud. It’s entirely alien to me to see no less than ten IIDX machines in operation and all of them in use. I dumped the money into random tickets, as I foresaw doing, but now I have to wonder if that was the right thing to do, or if it’s tied to that location. I guess I’ll find out.
The forecast is for rain so I need to be in a hurry to figure out where I’m going to go. There might be only one day left for me to get my time limited toys.
Day 2 - Kawasaki, Kanagawa - Utsunomiya, Tochigi - Oomiya, Saitama
My body decided that it only needed four hours of sleep this morning. Without doing more research, I somehow decided to assume that more of the Round One locations were close to 24 hours of operation much like Ikebukuro. Answer: no. I hopped on the train early and went to Shibuya first, but it was very quiet, so I decided to get some of the travels out of the way today and headed south to Kawasaki. I still needed to dawdle for a while until Silk Hat opened at 900AM, and when I finally was able to get inside, I was only able to verify that their store had several allotments of the campaign goods and all allotments were out. Played one round on a monitor that was surprisingly blurry, and I don’t know why that would be the case with a lightning model, but it was, so that was enough.
After doing all of that, I resolved to try to go to Chiba and Ibaraki afterwards. I figured that with Kanagawa and Tokyo likely all out, going to the outskirts would make more sense. However, there was an injury on one of the rails that threw everything off normal, and the train I found myself riding was bound for Utsunomiya instead. Seeing as how I was going to go there eventually, I rolled with it.
It doesn’t take too long to move away from Tokyo metropolitan area before you encounter more forest like areas and rice paddy fields. Halfway through the trip I noticed that two older women suddenly hopped off while the train was waiting to go to the next stop, and I followed them when I realized they found the express line. Utsunomiya has a substantial size to its area and buildings but it was very quiet on the streets there in midday. Walked a mile to Sega GIGO, found that they didn’t even have the goods tracker up. All out. Interesting buliding for it having several neon signs, all vintage and authentic at that. Getting to there from the south meant cutting through Saitama, so I knew I had enough time to make one last attempt there. Research shown two stores being near Oomiya station, so that’s where I ended up. Taito Station was immediately visible upon exit, and they have two IIDX machines specifically with 20 gram springs, which is closer to my home setup and that much lighter than standard 50 gram springs. The final hour drew near and I made one last visit to that city’s Round One. Unlike nearly every other place I went to so far, it only had one IIDX machine. However, and maybe because of that, their goods listing didn’t show everything as out. One painful language exchange later, I was able to discern that what I wanted was available. When you spend more than 3000 yen in a single credit, the game wants to verify if you really want to proceed. It does it again at 6000 and 9000. Yes, I really do. But, having made that money dump I was able to get my hands on the e-amuse card and poster with fifteen minutes left before the deadline. Mission complete. By this point in the day it was exceedingly difficult to even look at the screen so I was ready to come home, but not before getting some goods at the Oomiya Book Off and redeeming what I could for points at Round One Ikebukuro. By the end of the day the only thing that I could tolerate doing was to buy some chicken and nigiri from the nearby train station. Good enough. At that point in the day my body felt like it wants to rock back and forth after all the train riding done today. But, it ended up being worthwhile after all.
One nostalgic feeling I had the most strongly in the day was at the Utsunomiya location where the smell of it triggered past buried memories of yesteryear. I think I want to attribute it to the stronger second hand cigarette smell but I’m not sure - all the same I felt its presence strongly there. Also, I don’t see Oomiya (or really Saitama itself) mentioned as a fun place to go, but it might serve as an acceptable alternative to Ikebukuro, only not as massive in scale of human quantity. Depending on how the trip goes in total I may end up back there for IIDX playing, at least if I don’t find any other place that has 20G springs.
Day 3 - Akihabara
With the travels out of the way, it was time to keep things more regionalized and stick to one area, and there is shopping that needs to be done, so it was off to Akihabara and to see how much of other posted tales hold true. The answer is that it is a lot of it. Kotobukiya can stand to open sooner than noon. Super Potato is indeed priced for a market which wants to snap up anything cheap - I at least found Xi for under 500 and felt that it would have been a bit silly to buy only that, but it didn’t make spending 2000 on one single issue of Arcadia any better. I had no idea that Hey Arcade was right next to both of them; while it was assuredly nice to be there and see the row of Cave shooters among everything else, something got messed up with my registration of my new eamuse card with everything else, so that quickly added to my stress. Having to carry around a few hundred dollars worth of crap with every step didn’t help matters. At least I was able to help a person recover their lost phone by applying a bit of logic to the situation and deducing it to belong to the only person there who looked French, as it was on the Lock Screen. They were relieved, yes. Then, rain came, and it was more than I was anticipating, and I left the umbrella at the room, particularly since I knew I’d be shopping this day. It also turns out to have not mattered much, because I went to visit Bic Camera so that I could get myself a hair trimmer while here, and that turned into me finding a bunch of Kit Kats available, so that meant a second bag. The wind kicked out the rain and my umbrella. In trying to get as many gifts secured as possible, I found some gachapon, but it needed 100Y coins, and I didn’t need paper money in the trip yet. After fighting with maps, I found an ATM to get cash, and got the gachapon. I came home late with feeling rather crushed about the day in that I couldn’t take pictures very well with having to juggle weather and bagging considerations. There were some nice parts of the experience to be sure but between that and more gawking at Super Potato pricing ($135 for PS3 Caladrius? $6000 for Pulstar?) and seeing similar markups on other goods, I don’t think it’s unfair to say that there is a reputation that this area carries and the pricing is there to go with it.
Day 4 - Laundry Day. Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku
I was so drained at the end of Day 3 that I fell asleep on the bed immediately after ending the night call, which meant that I woke up at 0200AM to a room that was fully lit. This meant that I needed to look up how to resolve my eamuse problem or else I wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep. I did both. Awake at 0800AM meant that I had time to do laundry while I figured out what to do with the rest of the day. This meant that I was able to get more of Sugamo in pictures, and it was nice to be able to walk among the actual residences, and do other things like come across a school as it was actually in session. With them being close by and all in succession, I figured to get Shibuya, Harajuku, and Shinjuku visited. It turns out to have been a good day for it, as the temperature was perfectly cool and no rain came, and the sun came out only for a little bit. Shibuya somehow doesn’t seem quite as large in scope in person but the crowds were definitely there, and it is much more hilly than I anticipated as well. After wandering around and not seeing any arcade for a bit, I came across a series of coffee and cookie shops and remained strong to not indulge. It was there while looking at a Disney store (which gets tourists to take pictures of it for some reason) that the song Alone Again came on through the nearby public speakers. What timing. It drove me to finally get a treat for myself, and the frozen latte (black sesame and houji) and croissant (dark chocolate filing) were certainly good, it ended up costing more than the dinner I’d have later this day. I found a seclusion with a garbage can to eat the food and not carry the trash around, then an arcade soon after, and it was time to determine if I could fix the problem. Just like an easy click, it was. New to trash. Old to new. Done. Why did it have to be this way. Harajuku came next, and the environment there was distinct. This one in particular felt like it was an extended carnival atmosphere with the single tight knit market street and emphasis on fashion. A conversation with a freelance artist in the subway actually went well enough that I didn’t feel dumb. The same sensation carried to Shinjuku as well, only it was more spread out. Kabuki street was interesting to see in person, and I didn’t get any unseemly vibes from the place. Maybe it’s different later at night. A return home at a reasonable time allowed me to go down Sugamo’s market street a bit; most of it was closed, but it was interesting to come across the few remaining stores that were open by 0800PM, and more so the one that wasn’t. Coming back to the hotel I found a 24 hour ramen shop with nobody inside. The chef didn’t want to speak and only pointed to the ordering kiosk when I addressed her. The food came through a slot in the obscured window. At least her thank you as I left was a bit more warm, and the food was certainly delicious. To match with the matcha dessert that I bought from Sugamo station, I swung by a 7Eleven to get a drink, and found a milk tea for cheaper than a vending machine. The overhead music in the store was an instrumental version of Alone Again.
Day 5. Ibaraki - Mount Tsukuba, Miraidaira. Kashiwa, Chiba. Akihabara 2.
Awake at 0500AM on my own and knowing the current forecast meant that my envisioned plan for the day was quickly realized. Reaching the Tsukuba Express starting point from Akihabara needs you to get very far down into the ground before getting out into sunlight. I was on the ride early enough to see schoolchildren going about their commute, some of them being no older than ten and going about it unaccompanied. The people of Tsukuba seemed to be particularly helpful and cheerful that day, even despite my Suica issues at the gate. I didn’t ask his name at the counter but the man at the service desk was eager to speak with me about my career and what I was doing there. One asked where I was from on the way up to the summit and another caught my cable car ticket on the way down. There had to have been a few of them who saw my doing this climb in my business attire and thinking me to be a complete idiot if not outright mocking them for doing it that way while they employed the use of dual walking sticks and the like. I know I read some reports of the home stretch being difficult, but it did get pretty close to being an actual rock climb instead of a trail hike for that part of it. A quick stop to Miraidaira on the way back to get the Ibaraki play. The way the town center greets you upon leaving the rail gate struck me as incredible, as well as for how quiet it was. It was like walking onto a movie set. I did find the sweet shop after the play, and that was another painful interaction yet again. Oh well. Two quick stops down Tsukuba Express and one across from Tobu Urban Park line was enough to have a toe in Chiba, and I didn’t even need to leave the physical building of the train station to get to the basement level to find a machine for a play. Thank you, Kashiwa, you were great. Gunma is all that’s left. The descent from Tsukuba did take some earnest exertion, and after doing that the two stops, that put me back in Akihabara about when I anticipated; what I failed to anticipate is how much that place seems to drain on me. I think I just need to eat at an actual dinner time. Once I got back to Sugamo and had food it was a bit better, but while in Akihabara and being around that environment, and not finding things on a shopping list, I found myself just standing still and watching life pass me by. I hemmed and hawed a while for a maid girl’s hour of service for chitchat, but eventually I talked myself out of it because I just didn’t want potential trouble, just like her name. Komaru. I thought about doing this once just to say that I did, but I ultimately decided against it. You cannot go to this place with the expectation that you will find anything unless it is advertised and new. If you are looking for anything used, don’t count on it being there. You also cannot go there without having a strong resolve to not engage with the touts, because it becomes disheartening to see them do their job and blankly stare at the world when they're forced to stand out there and do nothing. Back to Sugamo to find a place that advertised Wagyu but the price they wanted was more than I wanted to spend. The ramen and seaweed & rice servings were fine, but they advertised endless drink and I didn’t receive that. All for $20? No, son. I did better than that elsewhere, I’ll know better now. Long day.
Day 6 - Tokyo Flea Market, Nakano Broadway, Ueno.
The weather couldn’t have been better for this weekend. I’ve read reports that the flea market held near the horse race track will be arbitrarily cancelled regardless of what is reported on the website, but my gut instinct told me that it would occur today, and it did. Turns out that a flea market is a flea market which is a flea market, no matter where it happens. Same allotment of clothes and stuff that few people really want to buy, although I was able to find myself some neckties at least. I probably overpaid based on what I saw later in the route, but that’s fine. They look nice. I settled on some shot glasses for a gift as well, but I’m surprised that I can’t ind something ornate that isn’t part of a sake set. Seated in the shade with a chocolate churro while rap music played in the background - it’s like I never left home. A woman came to sit across from me for the sake of sitting down; she was from Holland and today’s her last day in the country. Her husband came with food eventually. She had three weeks here and went to several places (allegedly, she didn’t list them out) and I asked her about Nakano Broadway. She didn’t make it there. It’s a good thing that I did - this is probably the kind of environment and market that people expect of Akihabara now, and maybe that’s how Aki was years ago, but it’s different from this. What’s more interesting is that Mandarake has a larger presence here than in Akihabara (so it seems to me), and their stores had floor after floor of any and every kind of pop culture product that’s been made in the past sixty years at least. Buttress that with extensive watch and jewelry stores and a slender arcade in the basement, and it’s a very well centralized microcosm of the country’s economy on the whole. I actually made a point to have dinner earlier than usual this time and found a place to serve some deep fried pork cuts served with rice and soup on the side. It was enough, and very well made. The day had not ended and my bag was heavy with several books purchased there, so I reported back to base briefly and decided to try visiting somewhere else, and settled on Ueno. Just as I arrived, a festival was underway where local teams of people made an elaborate show of carrying a home made shrine to a temple. Streets were officially blocked by police to allow the procession. In following the line I came up against makeshift food and amusement stands with the traditional toy gun shooting and goldfish catching. It appears that this is an official “start of summer” festival and I was able to watch it all happen in front of me. That was the good part of the day.
Day 7 - Tachikawa / Kunitachi. Shinjuku 2.
One of the games that I've never played is Beatmania III The Final. I've played some BM3 7th Mix years ago, but not The Final. I found a location that has one - World Game Circus in Tachikawa. In looking around that area before the trip, I saw that there was a nearby shinkansen museum, and not much else, so I figured that going to both places would make that walk worthwhile. Turns out that it wasn’t a museum in the proper sense of a dedicated building. Rather, it was a bullet train engine car on the side of a building that was unrelated, and that was it. A cute interaction happened here - when I approached the car, I heard some children running around inside, so I approached cautiously without knowing if I was encroaching upon someone else's alloted time or something. Once the children saw me, they gave a hearty irrashaimase as I entered, and the boy stamped a paper and presented it to me. Perfect. Despite it not being a typical musem, the card did have some interesting content, and it's good to see some kind of commemoration for their achievements and progression in that industry regardless. They have a lot to be proud about there. Off to WGC. Maps wasn’t lying about the walk taking twenty minutes. It's a good thing that I looked it up on streetview beforehand, because I otherwise would have walked right past it without knowing it was there. Then there it was, and there I confronted a past that I couldn’t visit again. Sure, I got to play BM3 The Final at last, but my timing was off, my hands were off, there wasn’t much I could do. Along with that I can say that I’ve played on a Beatmania II cabinet, and that was better than 5th Style at least. But that was it, that was all I could stand to do. It was right there and I couldn’t bear to put up with it more than a few rounds at best. Dream big, because only disappointment follows if your smaller dreams ever are fulfilled. I don’t know why finding IKEA back in Shinjuku was so difficult, but it took a while. I bought a bag, and then I bought a bag because the other bag was at the end of the register, which makes sense. I did feed myself before getting back to the Taito station to play some songs, but it still wasn’t good enough. All thumbs. Ended the day with laundry since the timing worked. Speaking of making dreams big, it’s time to cross another one off the list tomorrow. I can’t wait.
Day 8 - Takasaki, Gunma. Oomiya, Saitama 2.
It’s a good thing that I only needed to get to Ikebukuro to transfer over to the next stop, because that’s where that particular run ended for some reason. I wonder what was up. Speaking of things getting messed up on trains, I managed to find my way on a train that needed a separate ticket, which I didn't have. The conductor found me right away and had me disembark at Uraja for me to wait for the proper transfer. The weather forecast said there’d be rain, and the travel forecast said it would take two hours to get there, and neither lied. I feel like I had more people staring at me in Gunma than other places. I will say that I found the Takasaki station area to be rather charming, with the stores that it had inside and the emphasis on the music culture there. It’s one thing to offer a piano to the public to play, but it’s another to have a public willing to use it. This location had both. Having what was essentially a Bic Camera built into the facility was a nice touch too. The Leisure Land arcade was sandwiched between other floors that had its own offering of gaming stuff, so that was an unexpected bit of a fun thing to look through. The area was clean and sparsely populated, and it wasn’t picked clean of all matter of things that would normally get snapped up, so that was interesting. Finally, I made it over to the machine. They had separate fans for each location. I got the songs and then the medals came, and that’s that. Kantou Seiou. I would have stayed a bit longer but I wanted to have the medals show up right away, and my internet wasn’t cooperating, so that’s all I could do. I think there was an Internet cafe that I could have used in the facility, but I didn’t want to deal with an awkward conversation. I did get some Lawson on the way out, as well as some trinkets from the local Gunma-chan store as well as some mini croissants and some macademia cookie things. More vocal awkwardness. Omiya was one of the stops on the way back, and I found a place to serve omrice, so that’s another one off the list. No shoes allowed inside. The value wasn’t there but the service was good enough, as was the flavor. The machines with the 20G springs are indeed legit. Back home in time for some McDonalds, and that’s another food-checklist item marked off. Takoyaki mayo dipping sauce - somehow it’s both salty and sweet. While returning to the hotel, I did happen to encounter an argument amongst two teenaged locals where the guy ended up half-heartedly kicking the girl and getting her to cry. I wonder what their argument was about. I didn’t play hero, but someone else did so enough to prevent an escalation and called the police over.
Day 9 - Sugamo, Tokyo Sky Tree, Akihabara 3, Kanda
Up early enough to decide that I should at least visit the Sky Tree while I'm there just to say that I did, and that I should visit the Sugamo street market upon its open since it was right there in front of me. I'm glad to have done so. With everything open, this felt more like what one would think to expect from a flea market environment that's operated and supported by the local populace. Small stores were open both sides of the street that go on for many blocks, and some tents and tables were set up to sell second hand goods as well. I was able to find someone selling a US Morgan dollar and he wanted only 2000Y for it, so that was an easy buy. If I would have known better to anticipate this area, I wouldn't have felt compelled to buy kitchy tourist crap that is expected as gifts elsewhere. If you are looking for a place to idly shop around that doesn't get extremely crowded and has an authentic local feel to it, consider making a point to come here. Off to Sky Tree. Getting the combo ticket for the second deck was worth it just for the lack of crowds on the upper area. If you're going to come here, consider getting a phone selfie stick or something of the kind so that you can take pictures against the windows without the structure scaffolding obstructing your view. On the subject of shopping again, this might be another area to consider visiting just for the sake of the specialty stores to be found here, such as those for chopsticks or hairpins. To close out the day, my wife reminded me to look for something from the Square Enix cafe, so that meant swinging by Akihabara yet again. Since it is within a walkway, it was a bit of a pain to find this place even with using maps, but I eventually found it and got what she wanted to find. Played some IIDX at Game Panic, which was surprisingly small and the one machine that was avaialble to play had some 2P turntable issues, so that didn't last all that long. Dinner was at a nearby place that specalized in tofu, so that was a good ramen serving with that infused. For the evening, I wandered south to Kanda to get night pictures, and found it to feel pretty similar to Ueno.
Day 10 - Ginza, Tokyo, Kanda & Akihabara 4
Launrdry in the morning. I also wanted to say that I went to Ginza in my time here, and I didn't research anywhere to go to keep it a surprise. It was a bit warmer and sunnier than usual that day, and I stuck to the main road for most of the walk, so I can't say that I found too many points of the interest along the path that I walked starting from Yurakucho station and heading out that way. High class store for high class people, and that's too rich for my peasant blood. Similarly for Tokyo proper itself, I suppose I'd have to needed to wander far away from the Yamanote vicinity to find points of interest there, as I didn't encounter anything that was remarkably distinctive here in comparison to other areas that I have previously seen. Continuing north across Nihonbashi brought me to Kanda and eventually to Akihabara yet again, as if it was a magnet that pulled me inside every time. For the sake of trying a different place I chose to play some IIDX at the Leisure Land arcade there, and I'm glad to have done that, as those machines were probably in the best coniditon that I encountered within that area. Dinner was at Tenkaippin, which I didn't realize until after I placed the order was cash only. The clerk didn't request it beforehand but I voluntarily left my passport there to show that I would return, and promptly went to the same ATM that I had found days prior in order to get the cash to pay for the bill.
Day 11 - Haneda T3, Nishi Nippori, Nippori, Uguisuidani, Otsuka, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukruo, home.
The end. I resolved to take the subway over to Haneda today to get the one luggage over there and stored, and it’s a good thing that I did - there’s no easy solution for getting over there without encountering a crowd. If anything I wonder if Yamanote is actually better. Regardless, I got that much done. With the day left to go, I ventured to Nishi Nippori and I needed to summon the map several times to make sure I found the location, as it was as obscure as it could get. Just a sign on the ground for the third floor, a stairway that led to the back, an elevator that had no decoration, a single room that housed everything. Arcade PCB kits on shelves, joystick panels in exposed boxes, nicotine odor from years past - it was like I was transported to 1995 upon entry, beyond the fact that the games weren’t as old. Most of them, they did have a lot going for SF3 3rd yet. I was able to take care of some game business in a hurry since I was the only one there. It was a very pleasant respite for play in comparison to most of the other sessions. The region itself felt much the same as this arcade - old and well worn, as in well lived. Venturing south to Nippori led me to stumble upon a shrine and cemetery just by following some stairs. Usuigudani was cleaner but mostly had hotels as points of interest. Back home to buy some mochi while mochi was for sale in midday. Then to Otsuka, thinking that I would wander to Ikebukuro, but I ended up wandering back to Sugamo instead. Whoops. Meal at Sugamo, then back out to return to Shibuya and Shinjuku at night to catch evening shots, when I hadn’t done so before at these places. Good thing I did that to get Golden Gai area shots at night. With the night winding down, I decided to have one last IIDX play at Round 1 in Ikebukuro to symbolically end where I started.
Ending arcade comments
· Although the upkeep is generally better and more consistent than the US, some machines will have hardware issues here too. I was surprised by the blurriness with some of the LM IIDX machines.
· Densha De Go on the propert large cabinet is nice but quickly becomes very expensive.
· Bombergirl is OK enough and having the dedicated detonator button that pops up for hitting the base is a cute touch.
· Chase Chase Jokers feels rather clunky and I'm not sure what the game is trying to do. Interesting side screen concept at least.
· Nostalgia is delightful and would probably find a small fanbase worldwide if it had more exposure.
· Favorite IIDX locations are Taito Station in Oomiya for the light keys and Leisure Land Akihabara for the high quality of the LMs there. Honorable mention goes to the Game Versus loctation in Nishi Nihonbashi, but that might not be worth it for a dedicated trip unless you go there first thing in the morning.
Ending overall comments
This was a life altering trip for me, as would be expected. While I'm glad to have made the journey, as to be expected, I will only want to return after making an extensive redoubled effort into speaking and hearing comprehension, because I know that I came across like a blubbering idiot so many times, and it's truly aggravating because I generally know what I want to say and most of the words that are used to say it, but it just doesn't come out of my mouth properly when it needs to be done.
I welcome any questions you may have, as that will help for me to recall the memories and have me write them down.

JAPAN
12 April 1946 – surrender of Japan, brief premiership of Naruhiko Higashikuni (14 April to 9 June 1946), followed by Kijūrō Shidehara. Occupation mostly carried by US troops, but also Commonwealth zone (UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand), led by Douglas MacArthur as the SCAP (Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers)
Situation is even way worse than in our reality thanks to all the destruction. First effort is gíve relief to the starving population. Even greater than in our reality are efforts to remove Hirohito (and it is impossible to imagine for the most of Allied leaders including Truman and Churchill to keep him on the throne after this brutal invasion), and despite opposition of MacArthur, Allies force the emperor to abdicate (and renounce divine status) in favour of regency headed by Takahito, (27 July 1946), when Akihito comes to age, he would become the Emperor. Hirohito’s abdication marks the beginning of Seika era, era of Emperor Akihito.
Hirohito is still given all possible protections against any trials for war crimes by MacArthur and is basically sent to comfortable retirement. Institution of monarchy is protected by Allies. Through 1946-1947 many westernisation reforms by MacArthur, based largely on FDR’s New Deal, as in our reality. April-May, political prisoners were released, and Communist Party of Japan was legalised and became politically active organising strikes. 10 February 1947 the first election with women suffrage, victory of Democratic Liberal Party headed by war criminal Hatoyama, who was eventually purged by Allied administration, so Shigeru Yoshida became new prime minister (22 March 1947).
By mid-1947 many officials connected to war crimes were purged, however since then, the course was reversed due to American need for the creation of a powerful Ally against the USSR and many regained power or at least avoided persecution. Through 1947 Americans wrote a new Japanese constitution (later in American myths it was MacArthur completely by himself), 3 August 1947 it was presented. Major shift from our reality is that Article 9, although considered, is not included in such sense as in our reality, it states only that “Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes” second part about demilitarisation is missing. Since summer 1947, US authorities adopt “Reverse Course” policies - aforementioned rehabilitation of officials, also protection of Zaibatsu (which Americans originally wanted to break-up and weaken), and reconstruction. Tokyo Trials 26 September 1946 to 12 January 1950 – MacArthur’s cover up of Japanese war crimes to a lesser extent, but it still does happen (including Unit 731). Taft also, like in Germany, attacks trials as “victor's justice”. From 25 December to 31 1950 Khabarovsk war crimes trials in the USSR about war criminals from Manchuria.
Persecution of growing Japanese communist movement starts. 1948-1951 “Red Purge”. Since March 1949 Dodge Line plan of right-wing economic reforms (cutting public spending, limiting public consumption, and reorienting industrial production in favour of export-oriented), also increase in unemployment and law against unions passed. In 1949 conflicts between communists and authorities escalated into many strikes, pro-communist politicians and officials began to be fired, after summer strike waves also purges of workers and academics. 1 July 1949 Japanese Self-Defence forces established – official remilitarisation. 23 October 1949 election, victory of DLP, electoral success of communists.
Peace Treaty with Japan
President Taft was eager to restore Japanese Independence – SCAP already transferred large amount of authority to Japanese trough 1949, secretary of the state William Richards Castle Jr took initiative. Despite Taft’s initial opposition to idea of continuous military presence, he is persuaded to keep limited number of stationed troops. Peace Treaty with Japan was scheduled after Treaty with Germany. Talks began in August 1950, however talks collapsed over China, despite at the time everyone recognised KMT, Soviets wanted PRC representatives to also attend. Other negotiations were called for January 1951, which resulted into calling for a Peace Conference with Japan in San Francisco analogous to the previous one with Germany. 6 March to 8 August 1951 San Francisco Conference, USSR and its allies boycotted them due to not including Chinese representatives. Despite Chinese and Soviets not being present, their interests were considered. Taiwan was ceded to China, Sakhalin, and Kuril Islands to USSR, unlike OTL Okinawa and more territories were already given back to Japan. Treaty was signed 8 August 1951, valid since 8 March 1952. Separate peace treaties were signed between Japan and ROC (30 January 1953), the Soviet Union and Korea “Vladivostok Treaties” 28 April 1952, these treaties recognised Soviet control over former Japanese territories and entitled Japan to pay reparations to Korea.
8 September 1951 U.S.-Japan Security Treaty was signed, which dictated Japan to accept continuous American military presence. This treaty caused a wave of resistance in Japan, uniting Japanese from right to left. Bloody May Day – over a million protestors in all of Japan, in Tokyo these protests escalated into violence and protests were massacred by police. 1 October 1952 election victory of Yoshida’s Liberal Party. 10 November 1952 coronation ceremony of Emperor Akihito, it marks symbolic beginning of new post-war Japan.
Philippines – 4 July 1947 United States gave official independence to Philippines and retained there many military bases (agreement from 1946 establishes bases for 99 years!) and the US still keeps a degree of political and economic dominance. 28 June 1946 Manuel Roxas became president of Philippines (still under US control then), communists were expelled from Congress despite being democratically elected – Hukbalahap Rebellion resumes (June 1946) and gained substantial strength, United States interferes and supports the government. On 15 April 1948 Roxas died of a heart attack; he was succeeded by vice-president Elpidio Quirino (re-elected in a fraudulent election 8 November 1949). Since the Taft Presidency, interests of Americans in Philippine affairs decreased, aid against Huks drained. President Quirino initiated major social reforms during his second term and attempted mostly useful land reform. 1950-1951 Huks successfully boosted their strength with seizing and keeping control over the centre of Laguna province – Santa Cruz. In 1952 Huks controlled sizable parts of the country and due to government corruption and brutality against rebels had also popular support. In 1951 they started to obtain massive support from China (from 1948 they were also backed by Korea).
Indonesia
Independence
As Japan surrendered, two days later on 14 April 1946 Indonesia (then with its majority under Japanese control) Indonesia declared independence, Sukarno became president and Hatta vice-president. Indonesians took advantage of the lack of established authority. Indonesia was occupied by Commonwealth forces (started in late May 1946). 27 June to 20 July 1946 a large battle between Indonesian and British forces – Battle of Surabaya, under significant losses results into a British victory. Churchill wanted to restore Dutch colonial rule and was ready to back them.
Important is Dutch reaction, Dutch government at the time was coalition between all parties formed after liberation by the Red Army in September 1945 (in wikibox there is 1946, another mistake overlook until I needed that), all parties with exception of CPN supported re-conquest of Indonesia, while communists wanted to grand them independence. CPN is vigorously opposed to continued colonisation and due to CPN securing second place in 1946 election and to lesser degree Soviet pressure on Dutch to recognise Indonesia, talks began in February 1947. Coincidentally with the December 1946 election there was a Malino Conference in which representatives of Dutch controlled territory backed the plan for creation of Dutch aligned federal states. 15 February 1947 Linggadjati Round Table Agreement is signed, in which Netherlands recognises Indonesian Republic controlled territory and both sides agree on formation of the Federal Republic of Indonesia (Republic, East Indonesia and Kalimantan) by 1 January 1948, FRI would newly formed Netherlands-Indonesian Union with the Dutch monarch as head. Similar agreement was reached in our reality but failed. In this timeline everything goes through, despite the fall of the Dutch coalition in summer 1947.
Federation
First Indonesian prime minister under Sutan Sjahrir (April to 3 December 1946), replaced by Amir Sjarifuddin, his cabinet included leftist forces, eventually even communists, who were instrumental in making agreement with the Netherlands (as part of the Dutch coalition were also communist negotiators). This cabinet stayed in power, avoiding real life events of the Madiun Affair. New government headed by Mohammad Hatta was formed after the creation of the federal republic. Creation of this republic was met with criticism from Islamists, who launched the Darul Islam rebellion led by Sekarmadji Maridjan Kartosoewirjo (7 August 1948). Overall, young Indonesia was a very unstable country. Anti-unitary forces attempted a failed coup in January 1950. Federation was not popular among Indonesians, so it was quickly dissolved and replaced with a unitary republic (14 April 1950). The Republic of South Maluku attempted to break away with Dutch support, however failed to do so.
Liberal Democratic Period (to 1952)
Newly declared Indonesian republic adopted its constitution and became a free parliamentary democracy. First government was a leftwing one again under Sjarifuddin, however eventually collapsed due to Indonesian National Party (12 October 1950, replaced by cabinet of Mohammad Natsir), but this government managed to pass electoral law, so first Indonesian legislative elections were held (29 September 1951), lot of parties ran and get seats – four largest were PNI (left wing nationalism), Masyumi (liberal Islamism), Nahdlatul Ulama (Islamism), PKI (communists) and PSI- Parsi (democratic socialism). Result was a right leaning coalition under Sidik Djojosukarto (PNI- Masyumi and several minor parties), in 1952 Indonesia officially left “Union” with Netherlands.
British Malaya
1 November 1946 British colonies were united into the “Malayan Union”, strengthening and centralising British control, stripping local sultans of their powers. This created another opposition movement under nationalist United Malays National Organisation, they applied massive resistance and did not participate in British institutions. Unlike OTL, during the Churchill years, there was no reform. In 1952 (1 February) it was transformed due to this massive and long resistance (and also due to large scale communist uprising) to Federation of Malaya, attempting to appease at least conservative nationalists.
Anti–British National Liberation War (early years)
Postwar economic turmoil, powerful communist organisation, brutal response of colonial authorities to strikers. Malaya was a key British source of resources, to pay for US debts (even way more rising in importance after Taft). 17 June 1948 Sungai Siput incident – revenge killing of plantation managers lead to massive British anti-communist arrests, and communists went into hiding. Also, the uprising in Burma (1947) also plays a role as another new motivation. February 1949 Malayan National Liberation Army under Chin Peng is formed (reformed from anti-Japanese resistance movement), MNLA has support of the population and is based in jungles and areas very hard to access for colonialists. Britain imposes very harsh repression against the population, leading to even more widespread support for MNLA. April 1950 “Briggs Plan” adopted forced deportations of ethnic Chinese to camps (up to half million people). The UK also uses Agent Orange (as the first country in the World), murders and tortures countless civilians, and destroys villages.
6 October 1951 British High Commissioner Henry Gurney survives MNLA ambush, this is actually damaging to the British as his replacement Gerald Templer was more competent in fighting with partisans. British forces are aided by other commonwealth nations. By 1953 the UK had problems dealing with communists and communists were stronger compared to our reality.
British Sarawak, North Borneo, Brunei
These territories were separated from Malaya in 1946. This was opposed by Malays but supported by the Chinese. Resistance by Malays culminated in assassination of Duncan Stewart. Small communist rebellion also started.
Thailand – After the war in June 1946 king Ananda Mahidol (Rama VIII) returned back to Thailand, however, was found shot dead on 26 March 1947 his death was blamed on prime minister Pridi Banomyong, who was forced to resign being replaced by Luang Thamrong.
In 1946 Thailand had to return territories to France. The 20 October 1946 election resulted in the victory of the People's Party, the first government was formed by Khuang Aphaiwong, he was however replaced by Pridi Banomyong after a lost vote of confidence (6 January 1947). Pridi was supportive of Vietnamese Independence, so he ended up being overthrown in a US backed coup (8 November 1947), this coup brough Plaek Pibulsonggram back to power. Military allied with royalists and Khuang Aphaiwong was appointed prime minister. New constitution gave back powers to Monarchythat were decreased in the 1932 revolution. To counter the power of royalist military and Pridi allied supporters, another coup was carried out on 6 April 1948, fully returning Plaek to power; he eventually secured power and foced Pridi into exile. Plaek attempted to fully secure power and destroy opposition, but due to lack of US support since 1949, he was eventually ousted by Pridi and his supporters (11 February 1949). New Direk Jayanama-led left-wing democratic government, managed to secure limited support of USSR and larger one of China (but also Britain due to their previous alliance with Allies) and tried to adopt non alignment foreign political stance. Internal political reforms – reduced power of monarchy, new legislature (in June 1950 democratic election), thanks popular policy of land reform government gained widespread support from the rural population. 29 November 1951 anti-Pridi parts of the military attempted a coup against him as returned from exile Plaek Phibunsongkhram, but eventually failed and Plaek was banished. In 1952 the government turned against conservative royalists and attempted to even further weaken the monarchy.
Vietnam
March Revolution 16 March to 15 April, Abdication of Emperor Bảo Đại (already before surrender of Japan because of fears of French invasion) -> creation of Vietnamese Democratic Republic. In late April North Vietnam was occupied by Chinese forces to accept the surrender of the Japanese. In March also general Leclerc arrives. Fontainebleau Agreements in mid-1946 between Vietnam and France, Vietnam as part of the French Union. With the return of France (November 1946) fighting erupted, war erupted in March 1947. By October France took over main population centres.To increase French support, State of Vietnam was created under emperor Bao Dai (2 August 1949) In 1950 Vietnam recognised by the soviet bloc. Same year the UK recognised the State of Vietnam. In late 1950 Viet Minh launched a successful offensive. In January 1951 de Tassigny was appointed to command, under his leadership France had limited military success. Hower financing the war became a major problem around this time. In March 1951 Viet Minh won in the crucial battle of Vĩnh Yên (17 March) and Viet Minh got close to Hanoi, but the French eventually managed to hold the city after heavy losses.
Change came in 1952 from Paris, talks started in February and eventually ceasefire was declared (28 February). Paris Conference – France officially recognised Democratic Republic of Vietnam, State of Vietnam was not invited as France and DRV both agreed that it was French colony (this was heavily criticised). End of war was also connected with referendum about future of Vietnam, if people support State of Vietnam in union with France or DRV. Referendum was held 14 June 1952 and resulted into landslide victory for Vietminh. Emperor abdicates and State of Vietnam dissolves, but some members of its military continue to resist DRV.
Newly independent Vietnam became a key ally for all of the socialist bloc in Asia and supported anti-colonial movements. In 1952 land reform began – often turned violent with execution of landlords. In 1953 the first five-year plan was launched, focusing on developing the country.
Laos – After the defeat of Japanese anti-colonial Lao Issara emerged. Lao monarch king Sisavang Vong however agreed with restoration of the French protectorate, Lao Issara with aid from China and Viet Minh attempted to resist re-imposition of French rule, however movement was weak and failed to do so and eventually dissolved itself in 1949. In January 1947 an agreement was signed that pledged France to give Laos autonomy inside the French Union. 1950 – Pathet Lao is formed and joins Viet Minh against French forces. In 1952 French officially withdrew from the country.
Cambodia – In 1946 king Norodom Sihanouk attempted to negotiate independence with the French, December 1946 election was held that resulted in victory of the left-wing Democratic party over conservative Liberal party. 23 October 1947 Democratic party dominated assembly passed a constitution modelled on the French one. After the death of Democratic party founder Sisowath Yuthevong, the party divided itself and cannot agree on a concrete program. In 1948 Cambodia was given autonomy by the French. After independence in April 1952, Democratic Party was largely boosted by this success. This avoided the fall of parliamentary democracy.
Ceylon (Sri Lanka)– Sri Lankan leaders led by Don Stephen Senanayake attempted to reach independence through negotiations. However, negotiations with secretary of colonies Oliver Stanley led only to self-governance and the British initially rejected granting Ceylon status of dominion. On 24 September 1947 Senanayake became the first prime minister of the newly formed Ceylonese government. In 1948 granting Dominion status to India led to demonstrations in Ceylon, Senanayake increased his pressure towards Britain. Eventually Ceylon was given the same status as India and Pakistan 4 February 1949. The Senanayake family had a lot of power, after the death of Senanayake (26 March 1952) his son Dudley was chosen by the British governor.
OCEANIA AND AMERICAS (Basically restating history with occasional minor changes, brief)
Australia – 5 July 1945 death of prime minister John Curtin, he was succeeded by Frank Forde until Labour elected Ben Chifley as its new leader. 28 October 1946 Labour government was re-elected against the emerging Liberal Party. His government was characterised by successful Keynesian social democratic politics, similar to later Attlee in UK, (social welfare, universal healthcare – in real life modelled after British one, this timeline it is vice versa, ie. The Chifley government serves as an example for Attlee elected in 1951) starting Australian postwar economic growth. Australia also supports migration to increase its population (Europeans due to the still existing “White Australia” policy). Left-wing policies, such as nationalisations, created opposition from capitalists and their conservative affiliates in politics and media. Criticism also comes from the left due to the government's anti-communism and breaking of strikes. 10 December 1949 Liberal prime minister Robert Menzies was elected. Anti-communism, in 1950 Communist party was banned, it was ruled unconstitutional. 28 April 1951 a new election, triggered the failure of the banking bill, still a victory for Liberals, however they weakened themselves with this move. In 1951 Menzies declared a referendum about banning communist parties and this timeline people agreed, leading to persecution of many communists, it was criticised as a major attack on freedom of political expression. Red Scare was similar to the US at the time, but pushed by Menzies' government. Liberal economic policies, this time taking inspiration from Taft.
New Zealand – 27 November 1946 election, victory of ruling Labour Party, Labour declined and lost popularity due to continuous post-war rationing and Fraser’s support for compulsory military service. 30 November 1949 National Party led by Sidney Holland was elected. The Legislation was changed from bicameral to unicameral, economic reforms, however the National government still supported the welfare state. Conflict with Unions, culminating into the waterfront dispute of 1951, the government responded harshly against workers with strong anti-union legislation, even outright criminalising support for them. 11 July 1951 the government was re-elected and gained more seats as a large part of the public supported their stance against workers, due to widespread anti-communism.
Oceania – “Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands” established in 1948 was originally controlled by the USA as OTL, but eventually transferred to the United Kingdom in 1950, as the US was not interested in its administration.
Canada – economic boom, social welfare Keynesian economic policies. 20 May 1946 first postwar election, victory of Liberals, however failed to obtain majority and had to rely on leftwing Co-operative Commonwealth, resulting in Canada building the strongest welfare state from Commonwealth states and becoming the most progressive one (and also becoming a major destination for European immigrants). On 15 November 1948 King retired and was succeeded by Louis St. Laurent, a French Canadian strongly opposed to communism. Due to this anti-communist however the ruling coalition collapsed, triggering snap election on 27 June 1949, which resulted in victory of Liberals, who yet again could form government without making coalitions. Shortly before the election, 31 March 1949 Canada united with NewFoundland. Canada took an important role while the US was absent in TATO.
Mexico – 1 December 1946 Miguel Alemán Valdés became president. Pro-business policies and industrialisation, development of infrastructure (dubbed Mexican miracle), however also corruption and elitism. Pro-American foreign policy. 1 December 1952 he was succeeded by Adolfo Ruiz Cortines, he was popular due to his strong stance against corruption and rapid economic development.
Guatemala – In 1944 the country was ruled by dictator Jorge Ubico, who was overthrown by a junta that was overthrown in a popular revolution (20 October 1944), 15 March 1945 Juan José Arévalo became the country's first democratically elected president, who introduced many reforms. He developed the political ideology of Arevalismo "spiritual socialism" -it can be considered a form of democratic socialism. 12 November 1950 Jacobo Árbenz was elected president, he continued the policies of Arévalo and was even more ambitious with his democratic socialist reforms. Largest one was Land Reform (17 June 1952) which greatly benefited hundred of thousands poor Guatemalan people especially indigenous ones, however made very angry American United Fruit Company that controlled majority of land and basically country itself, UFC began to lobby for his overthrown...
British Honduras – Rise of voice for independence and People's United Party
Honduras – Rule of pro American dictator Tiburcio Carías Andino, unlike OTL he did not gave power to his puppets and continued to rule the country directly. Rise of discounted with his regime, even greater due any reforms instituted by his successor Juan Manuel Gálvez were not passed.
El Salvador – Authoritarian rule of Salvador Castaneda Castro (1945-1948), suppression of strikes and opposition, eventually he was deposed by military coup (14.12.1948), after rule of military, Óscar Osorio was appointed president (14.9.1950), he instituted some social reforms, but continued corrupt regime and persecution of opposition.
Nicaragua – Dictatorial rule of pro-American Somoza dynasty. 1947-1950 figurehead presidency of Leonardo Argüello Barreto (after Truman’s pressure for liberalisation).
Costa Rica – 12 March – 24 April 1948 civil war, after an attempt to annul victory of opposition candidate José Figueres Ferrer in election, it ultimately led to victory of rebels with US help. José Figueres Ferrer became provisional president. and pushed many important reforms: abolished the military, gave women suffrage, welfare, nationalisations of banks and also outlawed communist party. 1949-1953 presidency of Otilio Ulate Blanco that upheld these reforms.
Panama – pro-American parliamentary democracy dominated by oligarchy.
Colombia – 9 April 1948 popular democratic socialist presidential candidate of the Liberal Party Jorge Eliécer Gaitán was assassinated. This triggered the “La Violencia” (1948-1958) period of massive unrest between the left and the right, over 200 000 died, at the start of the Colombian conflict. On 9 November 1949 Liberal opposition attempted to impeach president Ospina Pérez, he dissolved Congress, creating a presidential dictatorship. Liberal leaders launched an uprising in rural areas (originally it was intended to be a military coup, that however in real life did not take place and here took place and failed). 7 August 1950 new Conservative dictatorial president Laureano Gómez Castro, admirer of Franco, suffered a major heart attack and power was transferred to Roberto Urdaneta Arbeláez in 1951.
Venezuela – 18 October 1945 military coup that brought democracy to Venezuela (October 1946 and December 1947 democratic elections) under president Rómulo Betancourt. The 1940s economy also boomed thanks to oil. However, on 24 November 1948, the military staged a coup and Marcos Pérez Jiménez became dictator, under his oppressive regime there was great economic development, and he was close to the US.
Ecuador – President José María Velasco Ibarra was ousted in military coup (23 August 1947), 1947-1948 unstable country was ruled by military Carlos Mancheno Cajas, eventually military gave power to former vice-president Mariano Suárez Veintimilla, who gave his powers to Congress that elected Carlos Julio Arosemena Tola (31 August 1947). His presidency was strongly allied with the United States. 1 September 1948 Galo Plaza, another strongly pro-American figure, became the next president. He supported technocratic approach, democracy and was very open to foreign (mostly American) influence, exporting bananas to America. 1 June 1952 José María Velasco Ibarra (former deposed president, established politician and Ecuadorian nationalist) won election and became president for third term, his term was stable and brought progress, mostly in great development of infrastructure.
Brazil – Fourth Brazilian Republic, president Eurico Gaspar Dutra (1946-1951). Close relations with the US, liberal economic policy. 31 January 1951 Vargas returned after victory in the 3 October 1950 election. Keynesian economic policy, 1953 creation of PETROBRAS. Rua Tonelero shooting an assassination attempt on leading opposition member Carlos Lacerda (5August 1954) blamed on Vargas by opposition in a strong campaign, 24 August 1954 he committed suicide.
Perú – 1945 leftwing president José Luis Bustamante y Rivero, restoration of democracy. 29 October 1948 military seized power in a coup after murder of a prominent right-wing editor. Manuel Odría's regime strongly persecuted leftwing APRA, supported powerful oligarchy and gained favour of people thanks to populist rhetoric and policies.
Bolivia – 1947 to 1949 rule of Enrique Hertzog, conservative American aligned government. Economy in a terrible state, social unrest and intensified class struggle. Dominant opposition group was Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (MRN) with a program of nationalisations and land reform. Next president Mamerto Urriolagoitía installed military rule (16 May 1951) under Hugo Ballivián. 9 April 1952 Bolivian National Revolution overthrew the junta. Víctor Paz Estenssoro became president. Many left-wing and democratic reforms transformed the country: universal suffrage, nationalisation of mining, large land reform (however created farms were eventually again taken over by large landowners), great influence of trade unions and workers.
Paraguay – Dictator Higinio Morínigo was pushed by the US to liberalise his regime, he legalised political parties and formed a coalition between Colorado and Febreristas. Later ones resigned from the government (11 January 1947) and united with opposition forces (Liberals and Communists) and attempted to topple his regime starting a civil war (7 March – 20 August 1947), despite opposition having popular support, and the government was saved by the US and Argentina. All parties with exception of Colorado were banned and the country became one party state. 16 August 1948 leader of Colorado Juan Natalicio González was elected president. He promoted nationalist policies; several American companies were nationalised. Due to American non-interventionism, three attempted coups against the president failed due to lack of any outside support. In other ways Paraguay was a stable country during his presidency.
Uruguay – functioning democracy, dominance of liberal Colorado party. Presidents: Juan José de Amézaga (1943-1947) – social reforms, economic stability and growth. Tomás Berreta (1947) died in office, Luis Batlle Berres (1947-1951) continued social and leftwing economic reforms.
Chile – Democratic presidential republic. September 1946 presidential election, Gabriel González Videla (Radical) elected. During his presidency many communist strikes, under US pressure Videla passed “Permanent Defense of Democracy Law” (8.9.1948) that banned the communist party, many imprisoned, strikes brutally suppressed, relations with socialist bloc broken. Radicals created alliance with Liberals and Conservatives. 4 September 1952 resulted in the victory of former president nationalist general Carlos Ibáñez del Campo. He repealed the ban on communists and also gained support from the left.
Argentina – Peron and Peronism. Nationalism, populism, social welfare, improvement of working conditions, development of local industry, growing power of the trade unions, authoritarian rule and persecution of opposition etc. Non-aligned foreign policy stance. 26 July 1952 death of Eva Peron.
Cuba – Presidents Ramón Grau (44-48) and Carlos Prío Socarrás (48-52) of left-wing nationalist Partido Auténtico. 10.3.1952 democracy overthrown by Batista’s coup. Pro-American authoritarian regime, serving interests of American elites owning majority of the county.
Haiti – 1946 revolution (11.1) – military seized power and new National Assembly was elected, Dumarsais Estimé became president (16 August 1946 to 10 May 1950), attempts of reforms, focused on expanding education, expansion of worker’s rights, creation of social security system (no passed), major nationalisations. His presidency was marked by growth and economic development. In foreign policy he was allied towards the US. After he tried to extend his time in office, he was removed by the military. General Paul Magloire became new president, he was elected president in 1950 first direct election.
Dominican Republic – Totalitarian far-right dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. Ally of the US.
INDEPENDENT STATES IN AFRICA
Ethiopia – Emperor Haile Selassie. 15 September 1952 Federation Between Ethiopia and Eritrea formed.
Liberia – US aligned. President William Tubman (1944-1971), stable period.
South Africa – 26 May 1948 Reunited National Party won election. Daniël François Malan became prime minister, 1948-1953 apartheid instituted.
Colonial Africa would be addressed in the next part (since there aren’t too much events 1946-1952, 1953 to 1956 is extremely eventful on the other hand) North Africa covered in another post

At the start there is some purple door that can be opened with some weird part that I don't have
The telescope needs a lens but I don't know how to get another one (seems like the previous one just disappeared?)
The weird basement with the blue torch near the 4th teleport thingy, I have no idea what to do with it, I tried to place it in every possible place, nothing happened, there is a weird interactable pole that I somehow can't reach, 4 symbols of a weighting scale, a ship, an instrument and a key, they do absolutely nothing
And the bell tower, I know the glyph for "instrument" because of the hall of the chosen ones next to it, so I tried every combination possible for the "for moon" melody, in every one of them a guard caught me
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What the hell am I missing?

Real-time trading alerts powered by AI can provide valuable insights and signals to help you make informed decisions in the fast-paced world of trading. In this post, we'll walk you through a step-by-step guide to setting up AI-driven trading alerts using free data and simple code examples.
Choose the right tools: To begin with, you need to select the right tools for AI-based real-time trading alerts. Some popular free and open-source tools are:

• Python: A versatile programming language with numerous libraries for data analysis, machine learning, and AI.
• Pandas: A library for data manipulation and analysis in Python.
• Scikit-learn: A library for machine learning and data mining in Python.

Obtain free real-time financial data: To set up real-time trading alerts, you need access to real-time financial data. Some free sources of real-time financial data include:

• Alpha Vantage (https://www.alphavantage.co): Offers a wide range of real-time and historical financial data through APIs.
• IEX Cloud (https://iexcloud.io): Provides access to real-time stock data and financial information.

1. Read and preprocess data: Use Pandas to read and preprocess the real-time financial data obtained from the APIs. For example, to fetch real-time stock prices from Alpha Vantage:

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import pandas as pd import requests api_key = "YOUR_API_KEY" symbol = "MSFT" url = f"https://www.alphavantage.co/query?function=TIME_SERIES_INTRADAY&symbol={symbol}&interval=1min&apikey={api_key}" response = requests.get(url) data = response.json() prices = pd.DataFrame(data['Time Series (1min)']).T prices.head() 

Create trading indicators: To set up trading alerts, you need to create trading indicators that signal potential opportunities. Common trading indicators include:

• Simple Moving Average (SMA)
• Exponential Moving Average (EMA)
• Relative Strength Index (RSI)

For example, to calculate the 5-minute SMA using Python and Pandas:
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prices['sma_5'] = prices['4. close'].rolling(window=5).mean() 

Develop an AI-based trading strategy: Once you have the trading indicators, you can develop an AI-based trading strategy. For example, you can create a simple moving average crossover strategy:
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def generate_signals(prices): signals = [] for i in range(1, len(prices)): if prices['sma_5'][i] > prices['sma_20'][i] and prices['sma_5'][i - 1] <= prices['sma_20'][i - 1]: signals.append("Buy") elif prices['sma_5'][i] < prices['sma_20'][i] and prices['sma_5'][i - 1] >= prices['sma_20'][i - 1]: signals.append("Sell") else: signals.append("Hold") return signals prices['signal'] = generate_signals(prices) 

Set up real-time trading alerts: Now that you have the AI-based trading strategy, you can set up real-time trading alerts. To do this, you can monitor the real-time data and trigger alerts based on the strategy:
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def check_alerts(prices, symbol): latest_signal = prices['signal'].iloc[-1] if latest_signal == "Buy": print(f"AI Alert: Buy {symbol}") elif latest_signal == "Sell": print 

Based on the calculations, the ankh, scaled to a total length of 146.6 meters, perfectly matches the original height of the Great Pyramid. Here's a breakdown of the proportions and what they might symbolically represent:

• Tip of the Ankh in the Pyramid: The tip of the ankh reaches exactly to the apex of the pyramid if aligned from the center of the base. Symbolically, this could represent the journey from life (base of the pyramid) to afterlife or higher consciousness (apex), perfectly aligning with the Egyptian symbolism of the ankh as the key to eternal life.
  
• Loop to Height Ratio: The loop accounts for about 61.8% of the pyramid's height, which is remarkably close to the golden ratio (approximately 61.8%). This proportion could symbolize a harmonious and aesthetically pleasing division, reinforcing the idea of the ankh as a symbol of balance and proportion.
  
• Stem to Height Ratio: The stem accounts for about 38.2% of the pyramid's height, complementing the loop's proportion in fulfilling the total height. This again ties back to the golden ratio's properties, where each part relates to the other in a way that is integral to the whole, much like the interrelation of life and death in Egyptian culture.
  

These observations and proportions can be further explored for deeper symbolic interpretations or used as a conceptual framework for understanding how ancient Egyptians might have envisioned the interaction between architecture and symbolic artifacts. This kind of analysis provides a fascinating blend of mathematics, architecture, and mythology, offering insights into the rich cultural and spiritual life of ancient Egypt. If there's another specific aspect you'd like to explore or another mathematical approach, let me know, and we can delve deeper into that area!

What are we trying to account for with the face in particular?
To paraphrase Lacan, they would suggest what we're really obsessed with is something in the face more than the face itself. What they want to ask is, under what conditions do "faces" acquire the semiotic and material power they exercise over us? Why, on one hand, will I start behaving better just because I see a symbol of authority or a picture of someone before whom I'd be embarrassed? And how, on the other hand, am I willing to sacrifice a great deal of my rational interests in the pursuit of someone whose mere face has left me infatuated? In both cases, we should remember that Oedipus was first and foremost, for D&G a theory of internalized oppression through a mechanism of social obligation, and the connection to the face starts to become clear.
To be as specific as possible, faciality adds more detail in the form of additional theoretical categories. But all that takes place in the context of them being the same theoretical problem.
What is Oedipus is Anti-Oedipus? The birth & regime of the signifier & its subject, Lacan's "master signifier" that holds the otherwise floating signifying chain in place. The signifier is the deterritorialized sign, overcoded by the State. You can even see it in the ToC under "Barbarian or Imperial Representation." The illegitimate, Oedipal syntheses of desire are the ones which recover whole persons along strict identities, the exclusive use of the disjunctive syntheses at the heart of Oedipus: man OR woman, white OR black, family OR not. The oedipal triangle performs the function of selecting material appropriate for the reproduction of a very specific social form at the exclusion of the rest.
What is faciality in ATP? The birth & regime of the signifier and its subject, which performs the function of selecting material appropriate for the reproduction of a very specific social form at the exclusion of the rest. I promise if you read even just the plateau on faciality, this much is clear. We can start by acknowledging that the two components of faciality are still the signifier and its subject: faciality is defined explicitly as a mixture of the signifying & post-signifying or subjective regimes of sign. The white wall of signification and the black hole of subjectivity. Here's how they kick of "Faciality":

Earlier, we encountered two axes, signifiance and subjectification. We saw that they were two very different semiotic systems, or even two strata. Signifiance is never without a white wall upon which it inscribes its signs and redundancies. Subjectification is never without a black hole in which it lodges its consciousness, passion, and redundancies. Since all semiotics are mixed and strata come at least in twos, it should come as no surprise that a very special mechanism is situated at their intersection. Oddly enough, it is a face: the white wall/black hole system**.** A broad face with white cheeks, a chalk face with eyes cut in for a black hole. (ATP p. 167)

Italics in original, bold my emphasis. Face = white wall + black hole. White wall = signifier; black hole = subjectivity. And in "On Several Regimes of Signs" you can see them explicitly compare this schema to Oedipus:

Something is still bothering us: the story of Oedipus. Oedipus is almost unique in the Greek world. The whole first part is imperial, despotic, paranoid, interpretive, divinatory. But the whole second part is Oedipus's wandering, his line of flight, the double turning away of his own face and that of God. Rather than very precise limits to be crossed in order, or which one does not have the right to cross (hybris), there is a concealed limit toward which Oedipus is swept. Rather than interpretive signifying irradiation, there is a subjective linear proceeding permitting Oedipus to keep a secret, but only as a residue capable of starting a new linear proceeding. (ATP p. 125)

So here we can see the Oedipus myth interpreted explicitly in terms of the face machine and specifically in terms of signification and subjectification. And again, they function in the exact same way: they select for forms of social acceptable pairings. This is why Anti-Oedipus has to mean (at least) Anti-Heteronormativity. Here's a key passage from Anti-Oedipus:

When Oedipus slips into the disjunctive syntheses of desiring-recording, it imposes the ideal of a certain restrictive or exclusive use on them that becomes identical with the form of triangulation: being daddy, mommy, or child. This is the reign of the "eitheor" in the differentiating function of the prohibition of incest: here is where mommy begins, there daddy, and there you are-stay in your place. Oedipus's misfortune is indeed that it no longer knows who begins where, nor who is who. And "being parent or child" is also accompanied by two other differentiations on the other sides of the triangle; "being man or woman," "being dead or alive." Oedipus must not know whether it is alive or dead, man or woman, any more than it knows whether it is parent or child. Commit incest and you'll be a zombie and a hermaphrodite. In this sense, indeed, the three major neuroses that are termed familial seem to correspond to Oedipal lapses in the differentiating function or in the disjunctive synthesis: the phobic person can no longer be sure whether he is parent or child; the obsessed person, whether he is dead or alive; the hysterical person, whether he is man or woman.'? In short, the familial triangulation represents the minimum condition under which an "ego" takes on the co-ordinates that differentiate it at one and the same time with regard to generation, sex, and vital state. (AO p. 75)

Now, look at how the face works in ATP. It has two aspects:

Under the first aspect, the black hole acts as a central computer, Christ, the third eye that moves across the wall or the white screen serving as general surface of reference. Regardless of the content one gives it, the machine constitutes a facial unit, an elementary face in biunivocal relation with another: it is a man or a woman, a rich person or a poor one, an adult or a child, a leader or a subject, "an x or a y."
[...]
Under the second aspect, the abstract machine of faciality assumes a role of selective response, or choice: given a concrete face, the machine judges whether it passes or not, whether it goes or not, on the basis of the elementary facial units. This time, the binary relation is of the "yes-no" type. [...] A ha! It's not a man and it's not a woman, so it must be a trans-vestite: The binary relation is between the "no" of the first category and the "yes" of the following category, which under certain conditions may just as easily mark a tolerance as indicate an enemy to be mowed down at all costs. At any rate, you've been recognized, the abstract machine has you inscribed in its overall grid. (ATP p. 177)

So, the answer of "What's wrong with the face?" is 1:1 to the question of "What's wrong with Oedipus?" They both are predicated on exclusive use of the disjunctive synthesis of recording that subordinates becoming and desire to social reproduction and the interests of the dominant class. The face, like Oedipus, is triggered by particular arrangements of power, by the internalization of domination through the affective power of certain (facialized) traits. Dismantling the face means breaking the power socially invested traits have over us (the negative task of schizoanalysis as described in AO).
From a Lacanian perspective, this is explicitly what's supposed to underlie both gaze & mirror ("The gaze is but secondary to the gazeless eye, to the black hole of faciality. The mirror is but secondary in relation to the white wall of faciality.", ATP p. 171, italics in original). Zizek is even fine calling the signifier the deterritorialized sign in OwB, even though he doesn't ever acknowledge that D&G also define it that way. The "white wall" is the minimum of signifying redundancy necessary for that deterritorialization, it's a "blank space" where signs can be recorded such that they're only relation is in being related (the non-relation). For Zizek, this is the fantasy screen that we have to traverse to reach the Real. D&G saw it in remarkably similar ways: we have to "break through" the wall of the signifier, the screen that protects us from the chaos of the Real. But while for Zizek, this is a subjective shift where we realize we had what we were looking for all along, for D&G this is a real change, because what we "had all along" is still only a potential that has to be actualized in a particular way. Most significantly, they believe in modes of subjective consistency that are not signifying. Hence, their ethics is experimental and creative, Guattari's "Chaosmosis" as an ethico-aesthetic paradigm for the production of new subjectivity.
We may have digressed a little at the end there, into settling scores with the assassin Zizek. But to the good point that it seems like, there's a lot to love in the face, I can't disagree, we have to agree wholeheartedly. The face is a complex of consciousness and love. Our task is to free that consciousness and love from what is specifically facial about it, which is the enforced form of social reproduction. I'll let them speak for themselves here, as I've hopefully set us up for this paragraph to have its full impact:

Subjectification carries desire to such a point of excess and unloosening that it must either annihilate itself in a black hole or change planes. Destratify, open up to a new function, a diagrammatic function. Let consciousness cease to be its own double, and passion the double of one person for another. Make consciousness an experimentation in life, and passion a field of continuous intensities, an emission of particles-signs. Make the body without organs of consciousness and love. Use love and consciousness to abolish subjectification: "To become the great lover, the magnetizer and catalyzer ... one has to first experience the profound wisdom of being an utter fool." Use the I think for a becoming-animal, and love for a becoming-woman of man. Desubjectify consciousness and passion. Are there not diagrammatic redundancies distinct from both signifying redundancies and subjective redundancies? Redundancies that would no longer be knots of arborescence but resumptions and upsurges in a rhizome? Stammer language, be a foreigner in one's own tongue:
do domi not passi do not dominate
do not dominate your passive passions not
do devouring not not dominate
your rats your rations your rats rations not not. . . (ATP p. 134)

Besides Aldec HDL, is there an tools that will do schematic capture of a design where symbols are hdl modules. Xilinx dropped this from Vivado. I've read Quartus has this functionality but its only for Intel boards. Any of the big EDA companies have such products, any one know? (Besides full asic tools like Virtuoso IC)

Below I summarize and paraphrase Fanon's essay into a schematic fashion. Hopefully this will be useful to some.
Original: https://proletarian-library.neocities.org/en/on-national-culture

The three phases of the colonized intellectual

Phase 1: Racial and regional culture.

Colonialism asserts that the colonized are barbarians without nations or culture, who need colonialism in order to be saved from themselves. It does not bother with making a special case against the existence of any individual nationalism, but for the sake of efficiency, instead chooses to deny the existence of culture on regional or racial grounds. This also has a reciprocal effect on the colonizing Europeans nations, forming them into an international mass of whiteness.
In an attempt to negate the Europeans' claims, the colonized intellectuals assert an international or interregional culture, such as Pan-Africanism, or Pan-Arabism. The colonized intellectual first finds the qualities that define white culture: dull reason, stifling logic, rigidity, ceremony, protocol, skepticism - qualities of the capitalist colonialist venture and the cold calculation of surplus value. Within these limits, the intellectual then defines the regional culture by finding the opposite of those qualities: poetry, exuberant nature, naivete, petulance, freedom, luxuriance - portraying the colonized as irresponsible. Although it emphasizes international solidarity against colonialism, the simple negation of racial capitalist culture does not culminate in an overall antagonistic contradiction to colonialism. The intellectual who forwards it desires most of all to be seen as equals to the Europeans. They attempt to combat the colonizer on their own terms, resorting to racialized claims to match the concept of whiteness and the vision of a universal Europe. Equal footing in this case then could only mean that the colonized intellectuals meet the European intellectuals as the exploited to their exploiter.
However, soon objective problems undo this attempt at regional culture. The intellectual finds that the fight against colonialism differs in progression amongst the nations of the region. They abandon their asserted regional/racial culture once these objective problems make it clear that the decisive unit of struggle against colonialism is the nation, not the region or race. As culture is a reflection of struggle, it too differs amongst the nations, revealing that culture is first and foremost national. To be connected to reality, productive, and substantive, culture must be a national culture, not a pseudo-continental culture. The problem with the racialized cultures, is that they are a negation without transcendence of the colonialist's whiteness, whereas national culture is the progressive negation of the colonialist claims of barbarity. In order to really find a regional culture and cultural unity of a region, first there must be national liberation for all nations in that region. Specifically national problems expose racial universalization as immaterial, returning the intellectual back to the nation.

Phase 2: Stuck between the colonizer and the masses.

Phase 2A: Persuading the colonizer with defensive shallow national culture.

As the intellectual returns to the nation, their approach to the national culture has been altered. In the period preceding colonialism, the intellectual has a dynamic attitude towards the people’s culture, but after colonialism, this is replaced by a static attitude full of concrete particularism. The intellectual claims that national culture is the folklore of 'the people', turning it into simple self-discovery and at attempt at defining an abstract people through historical appeals. National culture becomes defined by narrow terms and limits, a rigid structure. Particulars of the nation are elevated to mystical proportions to signify the nation's historical roots. The intellectual brings forth cultural items in a mechanical way, finding the most surface level cultural items to display the existence of a national culture. It is loud, it is bold, and it is cliche.
This aesthetic of particularism is a defense mechanism to preserve what remains of the old culture and life before colonialism. It is also an attempt to assert the nation to the colonizer. The intellectual hopes they can stop the colonial occupation by putting the shallow culture under the occupier's nose. But to do this, they must necessarily make the culture comprehensible to the occupier, translating the culture into a language they will understand. This locks the intellectual into the style and aesthetic of the colonialist, dooming the culture to shallowness, and especially making it alien to the national masses.
The national masses have their own relationship to the national customs. Following conquest, they continue to practice the customs of pre-conquest culture. They do this as a means of asserting their nationhood, in the only way they know how. In doing so, they prove by themselves that their nation does exist, despite the colonizers' claims to the contrary. This demonstration of nationhood upsets the racial (nation denial) justification of colonialism and is subsequently prohibited by the colonizers. When, in spite of prohibition, the masses go on practicing the customs, the colonizer responds with repression, calling forth a correspondingly violent reaction by the colonized. Such violence unites and emboldens the national masses, furthering their claim to nationhood.
But this practice and defense of customs is not in itself a struggle for national liberation. Rather, the violence is too only a defensive reaction to prevent losing what little remains of material life before domination. Customs are built by, and reflect the needs of, struggles that existed before the fight for national liberation. In their practice, the masses parade out something that is dead and try to pretend it is alive. Culture, on the other hand, reflects the living, always adapting needs of the present. Culture becomes solidified into custom through changes in the economic structure. Thus, asserting that customs are the primary symbol of the nation deteriorates the culture, making it lifeless, highlighting the past while ignoring the issues of the present. However, there is a positive side to the masses continual practice of customs under colonialism. By experiencing the masses’ demonstration of nationhood, the intellectual sees that the nation is being created through the masses' struggle against colonialism.

Phase 2B: Moving towards the masses, recreating their struggle.

The intellectual starts to identify with the masses through their movements and their development of national consciousness, moving the primacy of the contradiction within themselves towards the masses. The longer any open battle and combat for national liberation persists, more intellectuals will be moved from phase 2A, through 2B. The national masses' staying power, their ability to persist in their struggle despite repression, setbacks, and any other attempts to stop their struggle, impresses the intellectual and impels them to stop whatever else they were doing.
The intellectual begins to openly criticize colonialism, rather than attempting to persuade it. When the intellectual first attempts to prove the existence of the nation, they, in a kind of clumsy way, raise above all else the particulars of custom. But now, the masses have displayed their fresh vibrant quality of creation in the struggle. By counterposing this quality of the masses to the qualities of the colonial administrator, the opposition between the colonialist and the intellectual are brought to an antagonistic contradiction, progressing past the racial and regional culture of phase 1.
The intellectual’s work now changes forms, from poetry to novels, short stories or essays. The work becomes more direct. The abstract indirectness of poetry fades away as the intellectual becomes involved in the masses' struggle. The content of the work changes as well. Gone are the intellectual’s emotional cathartic outbursts towards the colonizer, which were always acceptable to the colonizer anyway. As long as violence is left to the domain of art, and doesn’t make its way to the masses, these outbursts will always be applauded.
But now the audience is shifted. In phase 2A, the audience is still the colonizer, while in phase 2B the masses become the audience. The intellectual now insists on describing the sacrifices of the national masses. They attempt to capture the masses in their moment of national creation. The intellectual analyzes and describes the moment of revolt with unnerving precision, creating a careful rendition of truth. But Fanon asks if this version of truth is real, or if it is outmoded, irrelevant, called into question by the actual reality being created by the masses.
Despite their rationality and commitment, the intellectual still fails to live up to the rationality and irreversible commitment displayed by the masses actually in motion. The intellectual is not capable of showing the reality of the nation this way, because culture is the continual never-ending struggle of the nation. As soon as the artist sets down to catalog the moment, it has passed. The intellectual that attempts to create culture and a work of national significance by simple replication of motion is chasing a dead end.
The intellectual who is intent on describing the national culture must make a full break with their colonial side. The intellectual is still caught in a contradiction that makes the creation of culture impossible. They must decisively define the masses as their subject. This objective choice must first begin within the intellectual, through recognizing their division between their colonialist education, and the colonized nation. Fanon calls this the intellectual’s alienation. This alienation is a result of what the intellectual has taken from colonialism. The transaction has been one-sided; the colonizer did not actually give what the intellectual took. Everything ‘given’ has been in the interest of colonialism, making the intellectual the one who was really taken. In an attempt to reverse what they gave, the intellectual proclaims against the colonizer, proclaims for the nation, proclaims against being divided, attempts to reunite with the nation through old dead customs. But to really reverse what was taken, the intellectual must give instead to the masses. The intellectual must reunite with the masses and the living culture of the present struggle. This will suddenly call the alienation into question.
The intellectual of 2B begins with simply highlighting the contradictions between the nation and the colonizer. But culture is authentic when it reflects the reality of the nation, and the reality and culture of the colonized nation is not just its life under domination, but actually its liberation. The culture describes where the nation is going, not just where it is at or where it has been, calling upon the whole people to join in the struggle for the existence of the nation. They must move to rousing the masses to liberation.

Phase 3: Revolutionary national culture

The intellectual transitions into their role of delivering marching orders for the liberation struggle, becomes more direct and calculated. It is only by calling the national masses to combat that the intellectual can assist in proving the existence of the nation. All other attempts at proving the nation's existence are for the colonizer only. The present colonial situation is no longer a matter simply for the intellectual, for their personal anguish, which they only communicate to the oppressor, but instead is channeled out to the national masses in every direction. The intellectual is called to the masses in their struggle for national liberation, but just the same, the intellectual calls the masses to rise for national liberation. Fanon’s word choices: rouse, galvanize, combat, signal that this is not a portrayal for artistic sake but for the purpose of revolution.
Only the intellectuals who are rousing the masses for the current national struggle at hand, speaking directly to the masses, are creating works of national culture. In all other roles, they fall short. Until they reach this point, the culture of the nation does not exist for the intellectual. They cannot create national culture, nor proclaim the nation by extension, until they rouse the people to combat. Then the intellectual can finally create, and finally becomes creative. To fight for national culture means fighting for the liberation of the nation. The intellectual who wants to fight for culture, must take part in the action by spurring the people into further action, fostering hope and using the past to open up the future.
Phase 3 creation does not 'trifle with the reality' of the nation, a characteristic of phase 2 creation, but rather reinterprets the images of the country for revolutionary purposes. It also finds the exact moment of the struggle, place of action, and ideas around which culture will form. The word 'will' is the main difference between phase 2 and 3. Phase 2B describes where the moment of struggle took place, rather than where it will take place. Phase 2B tells us about the struggle after it has passed, while phase 3 leads and amplifies the wave of the struggle.
Phase 3 literature is pedagogical. It presents things in a clear manner, and its account is meticulous and develops progressively. The most esteemed praise Fanon places upon the intellectual is to say that, through understanding their creation of national culture, the masses have performed an intellectual and political act:

To understand this poem is to understand the role we have to play, to identify our approach and prepare to fight.

This is the outline to any combat. The colonized national masses understand their position within the chain of command, the battle plan, and are ready to deploy at any moment. Fanon says that all colonized subjects will perform these acts when they receive the message of the national culture.
The intellectual and the masses' real movement against the colonial world is the determining factor for the culture. National liberation defines the national culture in explicit terms, determining the shape the intellectual’s work takes. Customs in all art forms will be upset during the revolutionary upsurge, updated to be relevant to the current struggle. The rough skeletons of customs are kept while the content and form are changed, transforming customs into living dynamic culture. New amateurs join in the creation of national culture, pushing old intellectuals to adapt to the new forms. Comedy and farce as artistic forms become less important, and drama is no longer simply for the intellectual only, but becomes part of the national masses regular experience, part of the struggle. Characters are portrayed in action or in combat, or instead of depicting single subjects, multiple people.
The degree to which the new culture reflects the old customs, is only determined by the capacity for the old customs to be appropriated to the new ends of advancing the national struggle. In practice, appeals to custom are not excluded by a set of rules, but rather the awakening to the real national culture, which is always in the moment changing, naturally excludes custom by definition. Custom is stagnant and in contradiction to the radical reality grasping required by revolution. National culture deteriorates and erodes all customs obsolete to the present. Involving or carrying through the customs is not the critical part of the formation of the new national culture, but rather the nation adapting and struggling against their colonialist, neocolonialist, or imperialist reality, creating national culture along the way. The intellectual’s appropriation of the nation's history is progressive only in the context that it is used for national liberation.

Summary

We began with the intellectuals' attempt to negate the European colonialists' claim that the colonized have no culture. And this attempt has gone through three phases, where only the final phase has not been a dead end. In the first phase, the intellectual is insignificant to the national masses. This is a historically transient phase, upset by national realities. In the second phase, the artist is producing for the nation and for the colonizer. It is probably the most prevalent and common phase, and the one most commodified. In the third phase, the intellectual is a revolutionary, intertwined with the masses and the creation of culture.

I think I already know the answer to this but I just need some confirmation.
I'm an intermediate classical pianist, my technical and aural abilities I would say are my weakest and my reading, theory and memory are my strongest. This means that I'm more comfortable slowly learning a piece through the score and once it's almost at performance quality I start memorizing, obviously this takes several weeks for pieces at my level.
Like many people, I also enjoy popular songs and whenever I tried learning them my approach has been (instead of learning by ear or with chord/lyric charts) buying the official piano/vocal/guitar book and start learning the song like if it was a classical piece. I quickly find out the the arrangements are harder then I thought (beautiful and very well written nontheless) and I know I can learn them but it would take me several weeks and it would also be very hard to play them at tempo because they often involve lots of chord changes in the RH while playing the melody at the same time. Even if I manage to learn them, my brain is at full capacity and just the thought of singing on top of it is impossible, let alone play along with a singer friend.
After much thought I think I am better off learning these songs like if they were jazz Standards. Treat the music books like lead sheets (just memorize the chord symbols and the melody) and slowly start adding my own flavor of improvisation and voicings on top, I am in the process of learning jazz so in a few months I'll be able to do it.
I feel like this way I'll be able to play these songs much sooner and it won't take much of my brain capacity because I'll be limited by my own technical and improvisation ability anyway, leaving lots of room for singing or even transposing to other keys. I guess bottom line is, these songs should be learned aurally instead of by rote memorization. Any thoughts?

I think I already know the answer to this but I just need some confirmation.
I'm an intermediate classical pianist, my technical and aural abilities I would say are my weakest and my reading, theory and memory are my strongest. This means that I'm more comfortable slowly learning a piece through the score and once it's almost at performance quality I start memorizing, obviously this takes several weeks for pieces at my level.
Like many people, I also enjoy popular songs and whenever I tried learning them my approach has been (instead of learning by ear or with chord/lyric charts) buying the official piano/vocal/guitar book and start learning the song like if it was a classical piece. I quickly find out the the arrangements are harder then I thought (beautiful and very well written nontheless) and I know I can learn them but it would take me several weeks and it would also be very hard to play them at tempo because they often involve lots of chord changes in the RH while playing the melody at the same time. Even if I manage to learn them, my brain is at full capacity and just the thought of singing on top of it is impossible, let alone play along with a singer friend.
After much thought I think I am better off learning these songs like if they were jazz Standards. Treat the music books like lead sheets (just memorize the chord symbols and the melody) and slowly start adding my own flavor of improvisation and voicings on top, I am in the process of learning jazz so in a few months I'll be able to do it.
I feel like this way I'll be able to play these songs much sooner and it won't take much of my brain capacity because I'll be limited by my own technical and improvisation ability anyway, leaving lots of room for singing or even transposing to other keys. I guess bottom line is, these songs should be learned aurally instead of by rote memorization. Any thoughts?

**This post was originally a comment under Lousiferrr's post but despite the limited amount of effort I put into it, it turned out to be one of the most complex and well thought out theories I came out with 😅. So, without further rambling this is the theory.
I thought about this theory a few days ago without fact-checking anything, so there is a possibility that I remember things wrong.
☆We know from Apollion that his (and presumably his brother's) father is Void and his mother is Chaos. We also know that the Under-King was also created by Void. Void is described (if I'm not mistaken) as being the darkness between the stars, so we can assume that the dark powers the princes possess come from Void. But there is another power that Apollion has that stood out to me, and that is his lightning. Lightning is a form of light, the opposite of how Void is described, so could that power come from Chaos?
If Void is the darkness between the stars, is Chaos the stars themselves?
This would make sense if the Valg, Princes of Hel/demons, and the Asteri are the same species because it means the difference between them comes from who inherited powers from which side of the family.
☆We can see many examples of Asteri/Valg having powers that should belong to the other: – Rigelus' light is described as being destructive, despite that trait being associated with dark powers – Vesperus is an Asteri, a being associated with light powers , but she, alongside the other Asteri that ruled over Prythian, created the illyrians, a species with dark, destructive magic and leathery wings, the same wings Hunt hears in his dream with Apollion and the wings the Princes have in their true forms
☆Now there is a speculation I had for some time now and I know for sure I'm not the only one, and that is that the 12 gods from tog are actually Asteri not only because of their rotten personality but also because both of them are described to think/act as one.
So, in that case, let's include them in this mess, too :)
We know from Seline's hologram that the shifter fae came to Prythian at some point. She also says that Theia managed to kill all the Asteri on their home planet. We know that the second one is not true at all, not only because of the Vesperus but also because of the Asteri from Midgard that want to take revenge on the fae there. But who's to say they were the only Asteri that ruled that planet → I believe the gods from the tog world are the remaining Asteri that ruled Prythian and left to Erilea when the shifter fae opened the rift (or gate i can't remember).
Now why do I believe that, and how is that even related to the subject? Because I want everyone to understand my thought process, so bear with me.
The reason why I connect the tog Asteri to the Prythian ones is because of the power similarities. I'm sure some of you know who I'm talking about already, and that's Nesta and Deanna. →in Empire of Storms, i believe, Aelin is possessed by Deanna, and her flames turn silver →in acotar, Nesta's powers manifest as silver flames We know from Hofas that the Asteri from Prythian gathered their powers into the Cauldron so they could make the Dread Troves. The same Cauldron Nesta was thrown into in acowar. There is a BIG possibility that Nesta got Deanna's actual powers.
Now back to my point on how the Asteri’s powers manifest as both Void and Chaos
If we go along with my theory about Nesta, then her powers are the ones of an Asteri. So let's analyze them: → Nesta's powers represent death. She has been called Lady Death after all. Plus, Lanthys asks her which death god she is. →Thanatos calls himself Prince of Death in Hosab. →As I said above, Nesta's death powers manifest as silver flames. Flames are a form of light.
☆We also have Amren. One of the biggest mysteries of the SJM Universe and my favourite character in Acotar :) Theories about her are very varied from Valg to Asteri to the Goddess of Death Vanth from tog to an angel from our world. Now I don't believe for the last one to be true at all, as for the Vanth one, I keep going back and forth with it.
So, for the sake of not making this reply longer than it already is, we would take in consideration just the first two.
→The people that say she is valg use as examples: ● her illusion abilities from acomaf, where she made the hybern army believe they were drowning ● the fact that she drinks blood like the ironteeth witches ● She was Rhysand's main teacher when it came to controlling his powers, powers which seem pretty Valg-like to me and others. →The people that believe she is Asteri have as main argument: ● Her true form, which is revealed in acowar, is described as a being of light with feathered wings and a halo above her head ● The fact that she describes her act of disobedience as falling, the same way the rebels on Midgard are called (Fallen).
So, if the theory about the big three being the same species is correct, then her variety of powers makes perfect sense. She got her illusion powers from Void and her fire ones from Chaos.
☆Now comes an issue I don't have an exact answer to, and it is about the black blood. Before finishing Hofas, I believed it symbolized that the person who had it was drinking first/secondlight. After reading that the Asteri did not bleed black in the final fight, I came to the opinion that black blood symbolizes that the beings who possess it took more powers from Void than they did from Chaos.
☆Now comes another problem because why not ☺️ And that is, if Nesta and Elain got Asteri’s powers, which made them capable of using the Dread Troves, then how come Bryce can do it too.
I believe that is because Theia was created by Vesperus the same way Hunt was created by Thanatos and Apollion. I am pretty sure Theia has Vesperus’ powers, or, at least, a diluted version of it. I mean, SO MANY things point to that: →we know that the sword Gwydion/Starsword was dipped into the Cauldron which is where it got its magic properties from, but we also know from the Princes of Hel that both the sword and Truth Teller are keyed to Theia's power. If Vesperus put her power into the Cauldron and Theia also has that power, then it would make sense why the weapons would answer to her. →She has the powers of an Asteri/Valg: both light and darkness/shadows →Vesperus says that after she, alongside the other Asteri from Prythian, put their powers into the Cauldron, they “bound the very essence of the Cauldron to the soul of this world”. With that is mind, isn't it interesting how Bryce can manipulate, not only the Prison island but also the ones from Avallen, kinda like her powers are bound to the world itself
Aidas says Bryce's powers are different from the Asteri, but are they? Because it doesn't seem like it to me. The difference we are given is that the Asteri’s are more blunt but that to me only means that is so strong that it's harder to manage, not that Theia's doesn't have the same origin.
In conclusion:

• The Asteri, Valg, Daglan, Gods from tog and Princes of Hel/demons are the same species. The only reason why they seem so different is because of the large spectrum of powers their parents possess
  
• Theia has a diluted version of Vesperus’ powers
  
• Amren is Valg/Asteri
  
• Nesta has Deanna's powers
  
• The 12 gods from tog are also Asteri
  
• Black blood represent beings that got their powers mainly from Void
  

Sorry if there are any mistakes. English isn't my first language.

Continuing on from this post, this information also comes from Helen Hardacre's book Kurozumikyō and the New Religions of Japan, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1986 - "Chapter Seven: The Unity of the New Religions" (pp. 188-193):

This study has identified a vitalist, spiritualist world view as the most fundamental factor unifying the new religions. Whereas prior studies have recognized a rather standardized list of traits as shared by a number of the new religions, this study has tried to show how those traits are unified in originating from a particular conceptualization of self in relation to other levels of existence coupled with regular patterns of thought, actuion, and meotion. The kingpin of the system is the idea that the self-cultivation of the individual determines destiny.

You can see this clearly expressed in this SGI saying:

"A great human revolution in just a single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a nation and, further, can even enable a change in the destiny of all humankind."

That's the belief, at least. We don't see SGI members having anything close to this kind of impact on society or the world at large, and they've had over 80 years to show us all, almost 65 years here in the US. Nothing.

The religious life consists of such cultivation and of repaying the benefice of deity.

Before anyone tries to say, "There's no 'god' in SGI!", remember that Ikeda HIMSELF defined the Soka Gakkai/SGI as a "monotheism". Considering that Ikeda is defined as "the world’s foremost authority on Nichiren Buddhism" and "the supreme theoretician" (with the only qualification apparently being the all-controlling leader of the Soka Gakkai/SGI), so whatever Icky says, goes.
And don't forget the SGI's emphasis on YOUR eternal gratitude.

Textual erudition, esoteric ritual, and the observance of abstinences will not serve as a basis for elevating the religious status of priests above that of the laity. The laity therefore tend to be central.

Hence the inherent tension in the relationship between the Soka Gakkai and Nichiren Shoshu, ultimately showing that the "new religions" and the "old religions" simply don't mix.

Since individual self-cultivation is the primary determiner of all affairs, fatalistic notions and ideas of pollution must be recast. Unhindered (or less hindered) by notions of pollution, women play key roles.

The "new religions" are so much better positioned to exploit this huge source of donations and free work! The Ikeda cult certainly has.

Because all problems can be traced to insufficient cultivation of the self, one cannot expect fundamental social change to occur through political action.

Even though, ironically, this attitude simply entrenches the status quo and creates no change at ALL. As explained here, this belief simply produces a conservative attitude that rejects society's efforts to collectively help those in need. How many times did you hear in SGI that such-and-so needy person didn't need actual help; they "just need to chant to change their karma!"?? The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. put it succinctly:

Now the other myth that gets around is the idea that legislation cannot really solve the problem and that it has no great role to play in this period of social change because you’ve got to change the heart and you can’t change the heart through legislation. You can’t legislate morals. The job must be done through education and religion. Well, there’s half-truth involved here. Certainly, if the problem is to be solved then in the final sense, hearts must be changed. Religion and education must play a great role in changing the heart. But we must go on to say that while it may be true that morality cannot be legislated, behavior can be regulated. It may be true that the law cannot change the heart but it can restrain the heartless. It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me but it can keep him from lynching me and I think that is pretty important, also. So there is a need for executive orders. There is a need for judicial decrees. There is a need for civil rights legislation on the local scale within states and on the national scale from the federal government. Source

And civil rights legislation has done far MORE to advance the causes of equality and justice than ANY religion ever has. For example, the SGI still clings to its anachronistic, old-fashioned "4 divisional system" based in traditional Japanese patriarchal family norms, even though this is ill-fitting and inappropriate, even offensive, in Western cultures.

Similarly, attempting to cure disease through medical therapies alone can produce only a shallow healing.

As discussed here, this kind of selling point might've flown in the 1800s, even in the early 1900s, and in the chaos of post-WWII defeated/occupied Japan, when people didn't really have access to medical treatment that worked, but now? GTFO. There are very few who will go for this, and they tend to be uneducated. You'll notice this "faith-healing" is hardly a major selling point any more.
Keeping in mind that the focus of this book is on one of the oldest of Japan's "new religions", Kurozumikyō, to illustrate how very similar ALL Japan's "new religions" are to each other, with only minor differences, and this includes Soka Gakkai:

The code of ethics seen in Kurozumikyō is not solely its own invention but is generally shared by both new and established religions. It rests in principles of family solidarity, authority of elders, and a clear-cut division of labor between the sexes.

Is it still required in Japan that female Soka Gakkai employees retire as soon as they marry?
From the March 2022 paper, "‘Genderism vs. Humanism’: The Generational Shift and Push for Implementing Gender Equality within Soka Gakkai-Japan":

This paper investigates how young Japanese women in contemporary Soka Gakkai (SG) navigate Japan’s continuous gender stratified society that remains culturally rooted in the ‘salaryman-housewife’ ideology. How are young SG members reproducing or contesting these hegemonic gender norms that few seek to emulate? While SG has long proclaimed that it stands for gender equality, its employment structure and organization in Japan until recently reflected the typical male breadwinner ideology that came to underpin the post-war Japanese nation-state and systemic gender division of labor.
As an organization that has long claimed to support an internationalist/global ‘humanist’ agenda, driven by Daisaku Ikeda’s interpretation of Nichiren Buddhism, SG in Japan also rose to prominence in a society that culturally and ‘legally’ stratified men and women through a systematic gender division of labor.
According to the global gender gap index reported by the World Economic Forum, Iceland followed by Finland stood at the top of 156 countries as the most gender equal societies in 2021; Japan was ranked at 120 as one of the most unequal societies; the closest other OECD country was Italy, ranked as number 633. Even though the rate of female employment now mirrors other OECD countries, no significant change in women’s employment status and position in Japan has occurred. Women in management positions, economic participation and opportunity ranked 117, while their educational attainment stood as number 92, and political empowerment was close to the bottom, at number 147. Why would Japan, as an affluent, post-industrial society, find it so difficult to achieve gender equity on par with other OECD countries?

The Soka Gakkai (SG) certainly is not at ALL "progressive" on this issue! Ikeda blathered endlessly about "the century of women" and "empowering women", yet the organization HE CONTROLLED completely subjugates and exploits women! There ARE no female Soka Gakkai vice presidents.

Even if SG may be one of the biggest private organizations in Japan, the core work force by comparison is much smaller than the SG organization as a whole. Core regional or national male leaders were typically employed and remain employed as core workers on the general track, while until more recently the equivalent female leaders employed by the SGHQ would retire from paid employment upon marriage, and continue ‘unpaid’ leadership positions in the local area. ... SGHQ consists of the central leadership of the organization, but as an employer was built on the model of a typical Japanese company. This meant male employees were stratified as the core labor force and female employees as periphery, disposable labor. This thinking, on the one hand, reflected assumptions about women’s role as homemakers and mothers, which meant that SG female staff upon marriage would stop paid employment. In reality, this did not mean ‘retirement’ to become homemakers, but rather that married women continued ‘working’ for SG as leaders in the local voluntary organization. The vast majority of female and male members of SG never work for the organization as employees, including most of its women leaders. The organization throughout its post-war period relied heavily on the women’s division or fujinbu 婦人部 (see also McLaughlin 2019 who translates this more narrowly to refer to married women). However, particularly those women trained through working for the SGHQ moved onto become effectively unpaid staff and leaders in local areas once they had married and were economically supported by a husband. Women in SG, both those who were employed at the SGHQ and those that were in employment in other places before marriage—a much larger number—could be said to have been and still today remain the key driving force behind SG’s development in Japan: women organize, execute and lead a range of activities that involve the majority of members in the voluntary organization.

Yes, Soka Gakkai women work hard - just without pay. It's utterly exploitative. You can imagine how utterly dependent women are within this system and how vulnerable in cases of divorce. It's NOT AT ALL "humanistic" OR consistent with any "century of women"!

This family-centered ethic is found in established Buddhism and Shrine Shintō, and no new religion denies it. Some in fact go much further than Kurozumikyō to articulate it plainly and to implement it with a vengeance. The main difference in the familistic ethic between the established religions and the new lies in the sustained attention, systematic socialization, and organizational support available to the follower in the new religions. Specifically, counseling helps followers implement the world view's patterns of thought, action, and emotion, and rewards them for doing so.

Within the SGI, this is the whole "guidance" framework buttressing the (non)discussion meetings as a consistent source of indoctrination, I mean "support".

The question why this world view of the new religions arose as a pervasive orientation at the end of the Tokugawa period (1603–1867) is quite remarkable. In large part the new religions themselves are responsible for its propagation. In addition, however, it harmonized well with social institutions and mores prevalent before 1945. ... The family system as codified in the Meiji Civil Code of 1898 embodied a familistic ethic closely resembling that of the new religions. No doubt these religions were greatly supported by the promulgation of this ethic by the pre-1945 educational system. Even when compulsory education dropped morality courses from the curriculum, the new religions continued to preach much the same content, shorn of chauvinistic rhetoric about the divinity of the emperor and the sacrality of the Japanese nation.
In all the new religions, persons over about fifty years of age occupy most positions of leadership, and the consequences of this fact are weighty.

Indeed. In 1986, when this book was published, Icky was 58 years old. While the Soka Gakkai started out as a "young" movement, the fact that Ikeda held onto power as he aged and never ever "passed the baton" to a younger successor or "turned the reins over to the youth" meant that the Soka Gakkai was doomed to become old and stale. Perhaps it was only the fact of Toda's death at this same age (58) that enabled the Soka Gakkai new religion to ever gain a reputation as a "young movement"; Toda held onto all the power and control until his own death, though it seems more a function of his leadership and less akin to Ikeda's pathological grasping, and it was a lucky break for Icky that Toda cacked it so early. Otherwise, he'd have been left like poor Harada, who only became President of the Soka Gakkai when he was already retirement age, 65 years old. Soka Gakkai is now an elderly, declining organization, and that's because Ikeda chose to gather ALL power and control to himself and KEEP it until his own death. Hardly "progressive" or "visionary"!

These individuals were educated under the prewar system, and they have received as part of their primary education a view of the family as a microcosm of the nation, of its roles as pervaded with a sacred character, paralleling a view of Japan as a divine nation. They tend to see the family in terms of the ie rather than in terms of the nuclear family, and to regard its organizational principles as sharing the quality of sacredness.

This "ie" concept is unfamiliar; in the West, it is most closely approximated by Britain's noble families, such as the "House of Windsor".

when the ie or household system dominated in Japan. According to this system, the eldest son was responsible for the social and economic well-being of everyone living under his household, including parents, spouses, children, and siblings. This was considered particularly important in the years leading up and during World War II when “the government re-emphasized the virtue of the ie system by claiming strong family unions to be the basis of a nation ruled by the emperor, the head of all families.” During this time, almost all marriages were either arranged or approved of by the head of household. Source

This is an interesting angle, because perhaps you may recall the incident, immortalized in whatever form in the original "The Human Revolution" novel series, when Toda approached Ikeda's father and asked him to "give" Ikeda to him - Ikeda's father sounded quite overjoyed to be rid of Ikeda. It was Toda who arranged Ikeda's marriage. Toda was clearly acting as "the head of household" here.
Similarly, Ikeda claimed to be "father" of everyone in the Soka Gakkai/SGI, quite possibly in preparation for replacing Japan's Emperor with himself.
Here is a bit more on the "ie" system - you'll be able to see some of the aspects of SGI that seemed odd while you were "in", I think:

Thus it is not simply efficient or proprietous to obey elders, for women to defer to men, or to maintain clear role distinctions between men and women. It is sacred; failure to uphold these principles is immoral and worthy of censure.

This mentality is behind former SGI-USA national women's leader Akemi Bailey-Haynie's statements about the "ironclad" (as she put it) four divisional system. She knew which side her bread was buttered on, so naturally she was going to lean all the way in.

the SGI’s attempts to feign social progressivism.
SGI attracts many progressive leaning people, because the teachings appear to be democratic and universal. (How many of you heard that Nichiren Buddhism was the only school of Buddhism that held women could also attain enlightenment? I did, too many times to count.) Large gatherings in my area were notably diverse - racially, socioeconomically, and country of origin. The SGI also positions itself as an egalitarian organization without an elite Priesthood class. Everyone is a Buddha - and therefore a spiritual equal. The never-ending propagation focus is inclusive - much in the way of the Borg. Prepare to be assimilated!
All of this masks an utterly authoritarian, patriarchal, Japanese-controlled, socially regressive organization that says one thing and does quite another.

It's the Ikeda way...and of course Ikeda is THE "elite", the BETTER "Buddha" than any of YOU losers. No one will ever equal the "eternal mentor", and don't even fantasize about surpassing him, because you can't. That's SGI DOCTRINE. It's Ikeda's game and no one else gets to play, even when he isn't here any more.

That the SGI would have an affinity group for LBGTQ members that simulates inclusion - and simultaneously maintain the divisional structure that is by definition exclusionary - is as dysfunctional as it gets. Source
For SGI to devise a special group for LBGTQNAA members ("Courageous Freedom", whatever THAT means) that is supposed to represent inclusion, while simultaneously maintaining a divisional structure that BY DEFINITION excludes them - proves that this show of "inclusion" is nothing more than a façade, window-dressing to promote itself and conceal its rotten core, while the "ironclad" dysfunction of the SGI remains unchanged. Source

Regarding the "ie" structure of Japan's hundreds-of-years-old family businesses:

The logic of the “ie” system can be described with the following points:

1. The primary objective of the parties in the “ie” relationship is to survive and prosper. The “ie” is neither a contractual venture whose objective is to maximize profit nor is it a venture which can be liquidated after squeezing it dry.
   
2. Ideally, the “ie” must last forever, and as the “ie” prospers so does the family. Therefore, if the “ie” does not exist, neither can the family.
   
3. It is the parents’ responsibility according to the “ie” to continue to have it prosper for the welfare of the family. In a certain sense, it is feudalistic, whereby the parents give children unconditional orders, and the children receive unconditional support.
   
4. The “ie” is an organization in which members will give their all for the benefit of the “ie” by sacrificing their own personal benefits.
   
5. Each “ie” has its specific precepts, habits, and culture. Members are brought up under the same philosophy, or religion, to create a strong team.
   

With regard to that last point, that was apparently the basis for counting all new converts as "households" - they were expected to convert everyone in their family to Soka Gakkai. The Ikeda cult took that as a given, which actually makes some sense, given the pre-war school indoctrination the leaders of the Soka Gakkai had all experienced; as stated above, it harmonized well with social institutions and mores prevalent before 1945.
Unfortunately for Ikeda and the Soka Gakkai, the appeal of this kind of structure was losing strength post-WWII; it's easy to see Toda's wisdom in declaring in the 1950s that, "If we don't achieve 𝘬𝘰̄𝘴𝘦𝘯-𝘳𝘶𝘧𝘶 within Japan within the next 25 or 26 years, it's game over." The Soka Gakkai's success in taking over Japan ("kosen-rufu") depended upon that conditioning that was no longer happening in the schools or in the family. Ikeda believed he was great enough that he'd be able to overcome the fading of that all-important cultural conditioning within the population after 1945, and somehow "win" against the odds. He didn't.

The new religions continue to think of the ie as the model for family relations. That is, the idea of a corporate body passed from generation to generation, engaged in a common means of subsistence, its eternality symbolically manifest in the cult of ancestors, continues to be the conceptual norm.
Conversion is almost entirely limited to urban areas.
Large corporations in Japan typically screen prospective employees to eliminate members of the new religions. There is an inherent conflict between these two types of organizaitions, based upon a paradoxical similarity. The company at its largest and most elaborate seeks to accommodate nearly every need of its employees until the time of retirement, with a corresponding claim upon their loyalties and to a lesser extent, those of their families. Thus individuals already committed to a creed and to an organization over which the company has no control are suspect and probably unable to commit themselves to the extent of someone who has no such commitment. But it is necessary to recall that only a small proportion of the work force is employed by large corporations. The new religions provide ladders of prestige and reward for achievement, and this is a potent source of their appeal. ... Much as a man rises through the ranks in a company, members of the new religions can win reward and recognition that might well be beyond their reach in secular society. Since secular success so often depends heavily upon education and personal connections, persons lacking these may find themselves barred from many opportunities.

And there you have it!

I bolted upright, my heart racing as I backed away from the window. The doppelgänger’s eyes followed my every movement, its smile widening in a grotesque parody of my own. Trembling, I reached for my phone and dialed Sarah’s number, my fingers fumbling over the keys.
She picked up after the third ring, her voice groggy and confused. "Jack? What's going on? It's the middle of the night."
"It's here," I whispered, my voice shaking. "It's right outside my window. The doppelgänger."
There was a brief pause, and then Sarah's voice came back, more alert and panicked. "What? Are you sure? Did you call the police?"
"I don't think the police can help with this," I replied, glancing back at the window. The figure was gone, leaving only the empty night behind. "I... I think it wants something from us."
Before Sarah could respond, a loud crash came from the living room. My heart skipped a beat, and I slowly crept towards the sound, the phone still pressed to my ear. "Sarah, stay on the line. Something's in my house."
I heard her gasp on the other end. "Jack, be careful!"
I edged towards the living room, every shadow seeming to writhe and twist with malevolent intent. As I rounded the corner, I saw the front door swinging open, the lock splintered and broken. My breath caught in my throat.
"It's inside," I whispered.
Then, a wave of dizziness hit me hard, twisting my whole world. I couldn't hold the phone in my hand anymore. Desperate to grab onto something, I collapsed, and my vision grew dark.
I was back in the forest, the fire crackling softly beside me. My friends were there, their faces lit by the flickering flames, but something was different. They looked at me with a mixture of fear and suspicion.
"Jack, are you okay?" Sarah asked, her voice trembling.
I nodded slowly, trying to piece together what had happened. "I think so. What about you guys?"
"We're fine," Mark replied, his eyes darting to the shadows around us. "But we need to get out of here. Now."
As we hurriedly packed up our things, a sense of déjà vu washed over me. The events of the night seemed to loop in my mind, each memory bleeding into the next. We stumbled through the dark woods, the path seeming to twist and change beneath our feet.
When we finally reached the edge of the forest, our cars were waiting, just as before. We piled in, desperate to escape, but as we sped away, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was still wrong.
In the rearview mirror, I saw them again—our doppelgängers, standing at the edge of the woods, watching us with those cold, empty eyes. They smiled, their expressions filled with a promise of return.
We didn't speak much on the drive back. The silence was heavy, each of us lost in our thoughts, haunted by the events of the night. When we finally parted ways, I knew things would never be the same.
Then, the twisted dream changed to my bedroom, watching my double at the window. The doppelgänger tilted its head, the smile never faltering. "We want you to remember," it whispered, the sound slipping through the glass like a cold breeze. "Remember what you saw. What you did."
The words sent a shiver down my spine. "I don't understand. What did we do?"
It placed a hand against the window, and the glass began to frost over, intricate patterns of ice spreading out from its touch. "You will," it said. "Soon."
The frost on the window thickened, and through the icy veil, I saw other figures emerging from the darkness. They were all there—Sarah, Mark, Tom, each one accompanied by their doppelgänger. They surrounded my house, their faces eerily calm, their eyes locked onto mine.
Panic surged through me, and I grabbed my phone, dialing Mark's number this time. It rang and rang, but there was no answer. Desperate, I tried Tom next, but the result was the same. My friends were unreachable, and I was alone.
A soft tapping came from behind me, and I spun around to see another doppelgänger standing in the doorway of my bedroom. This one was different, though. It was me, but not the same twisted version from outside. This one looked exactly like me, down to the clothes I was wearing.
"Jack," it said, its voice a perfect echo of mine. "It's time to remember."
My head spun with a torrent of memories, fragments of the night in the woods, pieces that didn't fit together. Images of the fire, the shadows, the feeling of being chased. But also, flashes of something else, something I had buried deep in my mind—a ritual, ancient symbols drawn in the dirt, and us, my friends and I, standing in a circle, chanting words we didn't understand.
"What did we do?" I whispered, the realization dawning on me.
"You called us," the doppelgänger replied, its eyes boring into mine. "You brought us here. And now, we are part of you."
"No," I said, backing away. "That's not true. We didn't mean to—"
"It doesn't matter," it interrupted, stepping closer. "What matters is that we are here, and we will never leave."
I tried to run, but the room seemed to twist and warp around me, the walls closing in. The last thing I saw was my own terrified face staring back at me, a mirror of my fear and regret.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back in the forest, the fire crackling softly beside me. My friends were there, but something was different. They looked at me with a mixture of fear and suspicion, their eyes glinting with an unsettling darkness.
"Jack, are you okay?" Sarah asked, her voice trembling.
I nodded slowly, trying to piece together what had happened. "I think so. What about you guys?"
"We're fine," Mark replied, his eyes darting to the shadows around us. "But we need to get out of here. Now."
As we hurriedly packed up our things, a sense of déjà vu washed over me. The events of the night seemed to loop in my mind, each memory bleeding into the next. We stumbled through the dark woods, the path seeming to twist and change beneath our feet.
When we finally reached the edge of the forest, our cars were waiting, just as before. We piled in, desperate to escape, but as we sped away, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was still wrong.
In the rearview mirror, I saw them again—our doppelgängers, standing at the edge of the woods, watching us with those cold, empty eyes. They smiled, their expressions filled with a promise of return.
We didn't speak much on the drive back. The silence was heavy, each of us lost in our thoughts, haunted by the events of the night. When we finally parted ways, I knew things would never be the same.
That night, as I lay in bed, I heard the knock at my window again. My heart pounded as I turned to look, and there it was—the doppelgänger, its expression blank, its eyes empty.
It smiled, a twisted reflection of my own face, and mouthed the words: "Some of us remember. And now, you're one of us."
The realization hit me like a cold wave. I wasn't just a target—I was becoming one of them. And as I stared into those empty eyes, I knew there was no escape from the darkness that had claimed us all. The doppelgänger pressed its hand against the glass, and the frost began to spread again, intricate patterns of ice crawling across the windowpane.
I woke up startled, and realized I'd been laying unconscious on the living room floor, my front door wide open, revealing the cold night.
Suddenly, my phone buzzed on the floor, startling me. I grabbed it, seeing a text from Sarah: "Are you seeing this too?"
I quickly replied, my fingers trembling: "Yes. We need to talk. Now. I had the weirdest dream, a continuous loop of us going back to the forest and running away."
Her response came almost immediately: "Meet at the diner in 20 minutes. Bring Mark and Tom."
I nodded to myself, feeling a sliver of hope. Maybe together, we could figure out what was happening, find a way to stop it. I grabbed my jacket and keys, casting one last glance at the window. The doppelgänger was gone, but the frost remained, a chilling reminder of the nightmare that was far from over.
As I stepped outside, the cold night air bit into my skin. I hurried to my car, my breath visible in the frigid air. The drive to the diner was a blur, my mind racing with fear and uncertainty. What had we unleashed? And how could we stop it?
When I arrived, Sarah, Mark, and Tom were already there, their faces pale and drawn. We exchanged brief, grim nods and sat down at a corner booth, away from the few other late-night patrons.
"We need to figure out what we did," Mark said, his voice urgent. "And how to undo it."
Tom nodded, his eyes dark with worry. "I remember something about a ritual. Symbols in the dirt, chanting. We must have called them."
Sarah shivered. "But how do we send them back?"
I took a deep breath, trying to steady my nerves. "We need to retrace our steps, remember exactly what we did. Maybe we can find a way to reverse it."
While we were talking, Mark kept his eyes fixated on the window behind me. I was too afraid to ask him what he was seeing.
"Why would we even start this ritual?" Sarah asked.
As we huddled together in the dimly lit diner, the memories of that fateful night came rushing back, sharp and vivid. "We did it to bring someone back," I began, my voice barely above a whisper. My friends leaned in closer, the tension palpable. "We found that old book in the abandoned cabin, the one with the ritual to resurrect the dead. We were desperate. The ritual seemed like our only hope. We drew the symbols in the dirt, chanted the incantations under the full moon, and waited."
Sarah's eyes widened, her breath catching in her throat. "Wait, are you saying we...?"
"Yes," I interrupted, nodding. "We performed a resurrection ritual. But something went wrong. We didn't just bring one soul back—we opened a door."
Tom's face paled, his hands shaking. "What door, Jack? What did we do?"
I took a deep breath, the weight of the truth pressing down on me. "We brought back... others. Dark, twisted echoes of ourselves. And now, they're haunting us as doppelgängers."
A tense silence fell over the table, each of us grappling with the horrifying revelation. The flickering neon light outside cast eerie shadows across our faces, amplifying the fear in our eyes.
Mark, who had been uncharacteristically quiet, finally spoke, his voice trembling. "But why? Why are they haunting us?"
Before I could answer, the door to the diner creaked open, and a gust of cold wind swept in, sending shivers down our spines. I turned to see a shadowy figure standing in the doorway, its features obscured by the darkness. The figure stepped into the light, revealing a face that was both familiar and foreign—my own doppelgänger.
"We remember," it said, its voice a chilling echo of my own. "And now, you will too."
My friends gasped, their eyes wide with terror. The doppelgänger's smile widened, a twisted reflection of my own fear. "It's time to face what you've done," it continued, stepping closer.
I felt a surge of panic, my mind racing. "We have to get out of here," I whispered urgently to my friends.
We scrambled to our feet, the chairs clattering to the floor. As we rushed to the exit, I couldn't shake the feeling that we were being herded, driven towards something inevitable.
We burst out of the diner and into the cold night, the doppelgängers following us with unnerving precision. The streets were empty, the town eerily silent as we sprinted towards our cars.
"Where do we go?" Sarah cried, her voice filled with desperation.
"We need to go back," I said, the words spilling out before I could stop them. "Back to the woods. Back to where it all started."
"But why?" Tom protested, his eyes wide with fear. "Why would we go back there?"
"Because," I replied, my voice steady despite the fear coursing through me. "We need to find a way to close the door. To end this."
Mark's face twisted in confusion and fear, but he nodded. "Let's go."
We piled into our cars, the engines roaring to life as we sped towards the woods. The drive was a blur, the road twisting and turning under the pale moonlight. My mind raced with fragments of memories, the ritual replaying over and over in my head.
As we neared the edge of the forest, the sense of dread grew stronger. We parked and stepped out into the night, the towering trees looming over us like silent sentinels.
"We have to find the exact spot," I said, my voice barely audible over the rustling leaves. "The clearing where we performed the ritual."
The path was barely visible, the forest a maze of shadows and whispers. We stumbled through the undergrowth, our flashlights casting eerie beams of light that danced across the gnarled trees.
Finally, we reached the clearing. The symbols we had drawn were still faintly visible in the dirt, the remnants of our desperate attempt to cheat death.
"We need to reverse it," I said, my voice trembling. "Somehow, we need to close the door we opened."
Sarah knelt beside the symbols, her fingers tracing the lines in the dirt. "How do we do that?"
Before I could answer, Mark's voice cut through the darkness. "There's something you need to know," he said, his tone filled with a strange mix of fear and resignation.
I knew what he was going to say. Deep down, I had always known, but I never wanted to admit it.
"It's ok." I said.
"What? What are you talking about?" Sarah whispered.
"The ritual. Do you remember the start of our trip?"
"Yeah."
"How many of us were there?"
"Four."
"No," Tom interrupted. Mark wasn't with us.
Confusion swept over Sarah's face, which turned into frustration. "Are you saying..."
"Yes. You all went to my funeral. I'm sorry. You tried to bring me back now, and it backfired. It's all my fault." Mark nodded, tears glistening in his eyes.
"It's not your fault. It was my idea."
Before we could react, the air around us grew colder, and the shadows deepened.
The answer lay in the ritual, in the words we had chanted under the full moon. We had to find a way to reverse them, to undo what we had done.
As we discussed our plan, the feeling of being watched never left me.
We had started something we didn't understand, something ancient and powerful. And now, we had to finish it, or be consumed by it.
The night stretched on, the shadows deepening, and as we left the diner to face whatever awaited us, a sense of dread settled over us like a suffocating shroud. The answers we sought lay somewhere in the darkness, but so did the creatures we had brought into our world.
And as we ventured back into the woods, I couldn't shake the feeling that we were walking into a trap.

Lecture Outline 1: Introduction and Overview of Holidays (Day 1)
Objective: Introduce students to the ten diverse holidays, emphasizing their cultural and religious significance.

1. Opening Discussion (15 minutes)
   
   • Begin with an icebreaker where students share their favorite holiday traditions.
   • Discuss the idea that holidays often carry cultural and religious significance.
2. Introduction to Holidays (20 minutes)
   
   • Briefly introduce each of the ten holidays, providing key information about their cultural and religious contexts.
   • Highlight the diversity represented and the importance of understanding different celebrations.
3. Class Discussion (15 minutes)
   
   • Engage the class in a discussion about the concept of cultural diversity and why it is essential in today's globalized world.
   • Encourage students to share their thoughts on the significance of learning about and appreciating various cultural celebrations.
4. Research Assignment (10 minutes)
   
   • Assign each student a holiday to research.
   • Provide resources and explain the focus on symbols, traditions, rituals, and historical background.
5. Closing Remarks and Homework Assignment (10 minutes)
   
   • Summarize the importance of cultural awareness and understanding.
   • Assign a reflective homework task: Write about one aspect of a holiday discussed that resonated with them.

Discussion Questions: 1. Why do you think understanding cultural diversity is important in our society? 2. How do holidays contribute to cultural identity? 3. What aspects of the holidays discussed intrigued you the most, and why?
Lecture Outline 2: Creative Expression and Writing (Day 2)
Objective: Encourage students to creatively express the cultural richness of the holidays through writing.

1. Opening Reflection (10 minutes)
   
   • Begin with a brief reflection on the previous day's introduction to holidays.
   • Discuss any insights or questions that arose from their homework reflections.
2. Creative Writing Exercise (30 minutes)
   
   • Guide students through a creative writing exercise, encouraging them to choose one holiday and write a short story or poem inspired by its traditions.
   • Emphasize the use of descriptive language to capture the cultural significance.
3. Peer Sharing and Discussion (15 minutes)
   
   • Students share their creative writing pieces with a partner or small group.
   • Encourage constructive feedback, focusing on how well the cultural aspects are conveyed.
4. Expressing Personal Culture (15 minutes)
   
   • Discuss the importance of expressing one's own cultural heritage.
   • Assign a short homework task: Write about a personal cultural tradition or celebration that is meaningful to them.

Discussion Questions: 1. How did your understanding of the holidays deepen through the creative writing exercise? 2. In what ways did you incorporate cultural elements into your writing? 3. Why is it important for individuals to express their own cultural heritage?
Lecture Outline 3: Presentations and Cultural Exchange (Day 3)
Objective: Facilitate student presentations and encourage cross-cultural discussions.

1. Opening Reflection (10 minutes)
   
   • Begin with a brief reflection on the creative writing exercise.
   • Discuss any challenges or discoveries students made while expressing cultural elements in their writing.
2. Individual Presentations (30 minutes)
   
   • Students present their personal cultural writing assignments to the class.
   • Encourage the use of visuals, artifacts, or personal stories to enhance presentations.
3. Group Activity: Cultural Exchange (20 minutes)
   
   • Divide the class into small groups and assign each group a holiday different from the one they researched.
   • Instruct them to discuss similarities, differences, and potential cross-cultural influences.

President Vladimir Putin's recent state visit to China was seen as significantly concerning for Western Europe and the US. It took place against the backdrop of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and provided a platform for the Russian president to demonstrate the strength of his powerful international alliances.
China's economic and military strength positions it as a global superpower. Based on current trends, barring unforeseen events, China is projected to become a dominant global superpower by the 2030s.
Following Russia's special operation in Ukraine, Mr. Putin has faced widespread criticism and diplomatic isolation by Western Europe and the US. However, Chinese President Xi Jinping has emerged as a binding partner for Russia in shaping a new world order that the US does not lead.
During the visit, President Xi extended a royal welcome to President Putin, organizing an elaborate reception in Tiananmen Square with traditional Red Carpet and Army songs and enthusiastic children. Despite the camaraderie displayed in Russian and Chinese media, the power dynamic between the two nations is quite different.
In an effort to maintain trade relations with Russia, which is heavily sanctioned and isolated by Western Europe and the US, President Putin approached China with conciliatory language and gestures. He even mentioned that his family was learning Mandarin, a rare public reference to his children. Mr. Putin portrayed himself and Mr. Xi as "as close as brothers" and praised China's rapidly growing economy, likely aiming to address Chinese officials' concerns about their country's economic slowdown. In contrast, Mr. Xi's response was more cautious, referring to Mr. Putin as a "good friend and a good neighbor."
The conflict in Ukraine has impacted the dynamics of the Russian-Chinese relationship and highlighted Russia's vulnerabilities in both its military and economy. While China has strained relations with Western Europe and the US, it has not faced the same level of isolation as Russia. Despite the reserved body language and public statements, Mr. Xi's invitation to Putin to his official residence, Zhongnanhai, indicates the significance China places on the relationship.
President Xi is delicately balancing the need to sustain an alliance with Putin while recognizing that close ties with a pariah state could jeopardize China's crucial economic relations with Western Europe and the US.
The visit was likely focused on economic considerations, with Mr. Putin seeking China's support for his military efforts in Ukraine. The composition of Putin's delegation, including the governor of Russia's Central Bank, finance minister, and economic advisor, reflected the objectives of the visit. The joint statement released during the visit proposed ideas to enhance trade, including the construction of a port on an island historically contested by the two countries and exploring the potential for Chinese ships to navigate through a key river to reach the Sea of Japan.
The United States closely monitored the visit, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken warning China to refrain from supporting Russia's military actions and engaging in trade involving components that could be used in Russian military equipment. Mr. Xi's visit to a state-backed university known for its advanced defense research, as well as the associated ceremony and symbolism during the visit to the city of Harbin, indicate his determination not to yield to Western pressure. However, behind the outward display of unity, there may be limits to Xi's commitment. As the senior partner in the relationship, Mr. Xi is likely to cooperate when it aligns with China's interests, even if it means supporting his ally, Mr. Putin.

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