Your Japanese word of the week is...

"shushou" 首相 which means prime minister. I bring this up because...... well...... no reason really.... it really was just some word I learned today.....

In case you don't know, Japan's government is stubbornly old-fashioned on the inside. As an example, many on the inside still harp on family lineage as an indicator for political ability, as if governing was some sort of genetic trait passed down through the generations. And we've all seen from a certain US President from Texas that it's clearly not the case.

The other thing that I should note about Japan's government is that the main ruling party is comprised of smaller parties that can (and do) disagree with other. As such, the bickering often results in prime ministers changing as often as the weather with around 4 or 5 different ones holding office for the two years I was in Japan. The current one, Mr. Taro Aso, seems to be meet with extreme disapproval, at one point last year sinking lowering in rankings than the aforementioned G. W. Bush... that's bad...

But I digress... as the weeks wind down, I'm not really doing much but training (above is all the interns, Arakawa Sensei, and Okano-san having a apres-training dinner) and just hanging out. Last Sunday I was in Odaiba for the Tokyo Special Import-car Show. Held inside a big exhibition hall at the Tokyo Big Sight, it is, as the name implies, a show dedicated to "import cars". It even included a huge section of used imported cars for sale which, in Japan, means loads of German and American cars.

Better than the cars for sale was the actual "car show" part which included loads of uber-expensive cars. More even, I'd wager, than the Tokyo Auto Salon in January. The ultimate in expensive cars was the Ferrari Enzo (above) which is the most recent (2003) hyper car from Ferrari, named after the company's founder. Oddly, I used to think this car was, while interesting, actually not that pretty, since "cool" and "pretty" mean two completely different things in car styling.

But seeing it in person is entirely different, since the car uses its size and shape to justify its styling cues. You actually become rather absorbed seeking out the various details and staring in awe at just how small yet large the whole car seems. The wheels are also much better than the standard ones. Most interesting, however, is seeing it side by side with the 288 GTO just behind it. Old cars seems to look exactly like they do in pictures, so a pretty car is always pretty (and the 288 GTO is indeed very pretty). Modern cars, with their overly stylized creases, look and feel completely different from their photos.

Like this one. It's a Bentley Continental GT with some insane bodykit (This being ASI's 800bhp Bentley Tetsu GTR). And while the picture is clear, it's hard to grasp just how ridiculous some of the things are with no frame of reference. That front grille, for instance, is actually large enough to swallow 3-yr olds whole.... maybe Testu is slang for vacuum in Japanese =P...

Til next week =P...