Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo

Today I woke up at 4:30 am to go to the Tsukiji Wholesale Fish Market in Tokyo. I shop in the wholesale markets in downtown LA fairly often, so I was expecting that this would be somewhat familiar.

Though generically similar, this was a whole different animal. (A different Sea Monster, to be more specific.) Giant squid, sea anemones, urchins, and more varieties of clams and scallops than I knew existed. Thousands of varieties of finfish and shellfish arrayed on slabs and in Styrofoam holding tanks, the hall nearly as big as an American football field.

I thought I would be able find Tsukiji by smell from the subway, but I was wrong. I had forgotten the Japanese fetish for cleanliness. Literally thousands of tons of fish move through this place daily, yet it smelled clean and fresh, oceanic in the way that a perfect oyster tastes. Instead I just followed the folks in rubber boots, and that instinct took me directly to the market. I didn't take a lot of photos of the fish themselves, because to photograph them felt like pornography. The array was so sensual it forbade the camera's crude exploitation.

What I was most unprepared for was the frenzy of the marketplace. This place is, quite simply, the agora that the term agoraphobia could have been coined for. A cacophony of whistles shrill as carts and wheelbarrows of fish are sprinted headlong from the auctions to the waiting restaurant supply trucks. The cult of freshness reaches its apogee here. In the main crossroads of the delivery area a traffic cop does a balletic pantomime, punctuated by shrill whistles, conducting the madness with meditative precision.

As a visitor, you have to remain constantly alert to avoid being run over. A single moment's inattention could prove fatal. In the midst of the maelstrom, the intense politeness of the Japanese belies the frenzy. Speedy bows and quick nods are doled out as you dance around the onslaught.

If you ever visit Tokyo, this is an experience not to be missed. (That and the bonus of unbelievably fresh breakfast sushi, only minutes removed from the fleet.)

Read more about the market in Tsukiji: The Fish Market at the Center of the World.

Enroute to Tokyo (A little politeness goes a long way..)

I'm on my way to Tokyo, aboard Korean Airlines Flight 002. I am delighted by the spectacularly good food. "Sushi on a Plane" seem a much better call than the "Snakes on a Plane" movie... (Also a delicious Korean bibimbob , with a toothpaste tube of fiery chili paste on the side!)

It's rumored that politeness goes a long way in Asia, and I quickly find it to be true, even when inadvertent.

After boarding, I got settled into my seat. Just as the chef Steward emerged from behind the curtain, I dropped my glasses and leaned down to pick them up, the gesture of an extravagant bow. Somewhat startled, but obviouly pleased, he immediately returned my deep though inadvertent bow.

From that point on I was the flight crews darling, a polite barbarian in their midst.

I remember being on a California bound flight several years earlier. A Japanese man was returning from the rest room when he encountered a very old gaijin (Caucasian - barbarian - redneck) lady. He bowed deeply, profoundly respectful of her age and experience. She nodded back with impatience. Since she returned the "bow" he bowed again, even more deeply. This exchange continued for several more bows, each more elaborate and deep than the last. She nodded back, more curtly each time. (I suspected her depends undergarments were at the end of their natural life.) He bowed even more reverently, and she finally snorted in disgust and shouldered her way past him, leaving him stunned in her wake.

This seems a profound metaphor for International relations, how easily we can inadvertantly offend in "misunderestimating" (sic) the motives of others. Let's hope greater care is taken in entering the hornet's nest of negotiation around the North Korean nuclear quesion. (or nukular as our oh so gaijin leader would have it...)

USATODAY.com - Page scandal exposes GOP's gay identity crisis

USATODAY.com - Page scandal exposes GOP's gay identity crisis: "Page scandal exposes GOP's gay identity crisis"

What has been missing from the discussions in the media of the Mark Foley scandal is actually the central fact of the matter. Many of Foley's problems are not related to his being Gay, but rather to his being Republican.

"If wishes were horses then elephants would ride department" Notice that Fox News mis-labeled Foley a Democrat on the O'Reilly factor, screenshot at the left. Fair and balanced, n'est pas?)

Foley's alcoholism and totally inappropriate sexual behavior are a direct result of the repression of sexuality in our culture. The war on sexuality is the Republican's stock in trade.

The fact that his fellow Republicans routinely engage in baiting of gay issues creates a climate of shame. There are thousands of gay people in the Republican party (why I'll never know.) They live in a climate of self-hatred that is reinforced by their party's exploitive gay bashing agenda. They are, to an individual, the most miserable people I know.

Think of it this way - take a hose and turn it on full blast. Now try to stop the water flow with your hands. The harder you bear down the greater the pressure becomes. As you stop the flow in one place, the water spurts out somewhere else. Sexuality (of all kinds) operates this way - the more you try to suppress it - the more is flows out somewhere else. Mark Foley's inappropriate behavior is a direct result of a lifetime spent hiding and hating himself. His exploitation of those younger and less powerful is repulsive, but totally in keeping with the hypocrisy of his party.

I know hundreds of well adjusted, productive members of society who happen to be gay. The overarching characteristic we share is an adjustment to our sexuality that is open, freely expressed in healthy ways, and not closeted and hidden in shame.