Certain Deviations & Yakuza News

No news is good news I suppose. I registered for my classes without incident on Tuesday morning. Since then I’ve sat through a number of orientations which usually sound promising at first and then quickly devolve into mind-numbing paperwork lectures, or end up applying primarily to undergraduates.

I received the results of my medical tests today. In typical Japanese fashion I scored within acceptable limits for an adult male on every single test, and on many tests was in the optimum area, and yet my final rating was still A2(with A1 being best). My A2 rating came with the following explanation – “Certain deviations were found, but there is no need for concern.” Ooooook…

I’ve scoured my test results (and there are many) several times and cannot find any deviations excepting that I am 6 lbs under their accepted standard body weight for my height – duh. My RBC count was excellent, as were all my other blood test results. My cholesterol clocked in at 141 and my medical certificate flatly states that a range between 140 and 219 is optimal, so I pretty much nailed that one. My vision is perfect, my blood pressure is spot on, frankly I would love to know what my “deviations” are! Perhaps they’re mental?

Another interesting result from my testing was that they measured my body fat to be 18.0%. Those of you who know me probably find that to seem a *bit* on the high side. My only explanation is that they must use a different measuring system over here. The acceptable range for men is 14-23%… Honestly I have no idea why it’s that high, but conventional wisdom about physical appearance (In terms of a specific body fat level, for males anything under 10% is pretty low and you will usually start to reveal your ab muscles.) puts me down around 8 or 9%, not 18. Oh well…

I went to the supermarket this afternoon as I was running low on just about everything besides rice. Yes El Guapo, in Japan I would say there is a plethora of rice.

Jefe-san, what is a plethora?
Jefe-san, what is a plethora?

I was also running low on cash. So I walked into the supermarket with just over 3400 yen (~$34) and walked out with around 2 week’s worth of food for 3150 yen. Not too shabby. Of course now I have to cook all this stuff, an eventuality I am not yet fully accustomed to.

The Japan Times ran an article on the current state of Yakuza the other day. (PDF backup) Personally, I find the Yakuza (Japanese mob) fascinating in light of Japan’s overall violent crime rate. FYI, recently Japan has had an average of .58 murders per 100,000 citizens. By comparison, the United States has had 6.32 murders per 100,000 citizens. So you have this duality in Japan wherein individual acts of violent crime are exceedingly rare, and yet the underworld is vast, extremely well-organized, and for the most part exists in an tense cease-fire with the government, although lately there have been increased crackdowns. To quote the article I’ve linked above – “Police tended to look the other way because of the tacit understanding that the mob would avoid killings outside of their own ranks, and would at times provide authorities with information.” These sorts of stories rarely make it stateside, so I thought you might like to read it.

There’s a very pleasant slow drizzle outside my window at the moment. Tomorrow promises to be an easy day, although I have mountains and mountains of paperwork to turn in on Friday. Classes start Monday and to that I say ‘finally!’ I’m eager to get started over here, and that’s a rare thing for me.

Take it easy, I’ll keep posting as life happens…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *