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Curzon
Author

Curzon

Date

June 18th, 2006

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Crazed Uyghur!

Regular readers may remember that I traveled across Vietnam, China, and Japan last December and January (for the ultimate purpose of taking up residence in Tokyo). That travelogue is almost complete, and I hope it will be worth the wait when I roll it out next week or so. However, as I was putting on the finishing touches, I found this beautiful photo taken by my traveling companion that I just had to share: a Uyghur merchant in Kunming selling the prized Xinjiang nut cakes. This hard, high-calorie desert comes as an enormous slab that requires tremendous effort to cut. And as you can see, my friend snapped this photo at juuuust the right moment.

Click for the full-sized image.

Comments to this entry

BillyBob
June 18, 2006
2:45 am
haha! priceless.

the mortified Chinese woman in the back is a nice touch too.
Jing
June 18, 2006
3:03 am
Got a question for you Curzon, or really any speakers of Japanese. How is "general" (the military rank not as in generic general) rendered in Japanese. The reason I ask is because I only just realized that shogun is really just an abbreviation which is the same as the chinese Jiang Jun which simply means general. Since shogun has a specific socio-historical context in Japan, I want to know are contemporary military commanders such as former general powell or shinseki described as shoguns or does Japan use a katakanized english word for it? Does the "SDF" share the same designation as a foreign commander or is there a difference?
Curzon
June 18, 2006
3:40 am
å°” Ã¨Â»Â? is the generic character for a military general and is used frequently in that context. The full name of the "Tokugawa Shogunate" that ruled Japan from the 17th-19th centuries is å¾Â?夷大å°” Ã¨Â»Â?. Colin Powell was, as a General of the Army, called "Shogun," or more specifically 陸è»Â?大å°” . Most historical and foreign miltiary generals are called "shogun."

However, the SDF is a whole different kettle of fish and _very_ PC. See the full rank list "here,":http://www.jda.go.jp/j/defense/jda-sdf/kousei/index.html and note that most titles are written 官. Even tanks and fighter jets have their own PC names -- the illusion that it is not a proper military is highly respected. Nor is it likely that this will change when the Ã¥”ºÂ½Ã©ËœÂ²Ã¥ÂºÂ? (Defense Agency) becomes the Ã¥”ºÂ½Ã©ËœÂ²Ã§Å“Â? (Defense Ministry) and the 蔡ªè¡”ºÃ©Å¡Å  becomes the 蔡ªè¡”ºÃ¨Â»Â? (both Self Defense Force in English).

BTW, if you actually used a real email address, we wouldn't have to have these off-topic conversations in unrelated posts :D
Jing
June 18, 2006
4:37 am
Yeah I know, but I get enough "grow 6 inches in a week" emails as is and I'm not looking for more. Seriously, I hate spammers and even worse are the phone spammers who call me at 9 pm in the evening. They even call and spam me at work, fax too! But thats a whole nother kettle of fish...
Curzon
June 18, 2006
4:46 am
Jing: First, you will never recieve spam by leaving a real email address when commenting at ComingAnarchy.com. Second, may I recommend gmail (which has an awesome spam filter).
Jing
June 18, 2006
5:00 am
Hmmm I don't know why I haven't switched to gmail, it's just that I'm sort of set in my ways, I think I've been using hotmail since middle school.

Anyways, speaking of spam. Does Japan have an issue with unsolicited email/phone calls. Seriously I get phone calls just about every day to refinance/consolidate/take out a loan/etc from some guy named "Joe" who I can tell by his accent does not come from the midwest.
Curzon
June 18, 2006
5:20 am
OMG, _hotmail_? :shudder: Serves you right!

Yes, Japan has spam. Adamu at MF has some fun examples in the archives. But if you want to discuss this further, email me.
Younghusband
June 20, 2006
7:12 pm
That sure was a handy chart Curzon, thanks.

And Jing, I highly recommend you get gMail. Both Curz or I could send you an invite if you like.