A day in the life of the working poor-Japan

Working poor in japan. I was one for a long time in Ireland.

Following on the heels of risutora (layoffs due to corporate restructuring) and domesuthikku baiorensu (domestic violence), another unpleasant English borrowing has found its way into the contemporary Japanese lexicon: Wakingu pua (working poor) appears on the cover of not one, but two business magazines in the same week.

A day in the life of the working poor-Japan

When the old rules change

Then came the new run of cars that aren't worth buying used. They're poorly made to start with and they have fewer user-serviceable parts. Most of the "old grandpa" cars are gone. Add to that the new realities of emissions testing, smaller parking spaces, and changes in insurance, and suddenly doing things our old way is no longer an option.

When the old rules change

Imperial baby joins his mother

I hope Princess Kiko remains in good health.

Imperial baby joins his mother
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060908a4.html

Princess Kiko gives birth to boy. 1st heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne in 41 years
http://www.crisscross.com/jp/news/383384

Spoon theory

As I tried to gain my composure, I glanced around the table for help or guidance, or at least stall for time to think. I was trying to find the right words. How do I answer a question I never was able to answer for myself? How do I explain every detail of every day being effected, and give the emotions a sick person goes through with clarity. I could have given up, cracked a joke like I usually do, and changed the subject, but I remember thinking if I don’t try to explain this, how could I ever expect her to understand. If I can’t explain this to my best friend, how could I explain my world to anyone else? I had to at least try.

The spoon theory

everyday terrible reality

Of course, of course! This is exactly the kind of world in which I lived, this hostile society where anything can happen at any time and me, powerless to stop it.
beam-me-up-someone

Dignity, Not Modesty

The problem with talk of "modesty" is the underlying implication, even if sometimes unintentional, that feminine beauty is shameful. I know it made me ashamed, and I certainly didn't get that from my parents. But this facet of "modesty" talk, if even admitted to exist, is quickly dismissed as accidental and of little significance compared to the all-important task of protecting men and boys from their helplessness before their own thoughts.
http://veronimitch.blogspot.com/2006/09/dignity-not-modesty.html

A Cradle Song

The danann children laugh, in cradles of wrought gold,
And clap their hands together, and half close their eyes,
For they will ride the North when the ger-eagle flies,
With heavy whitening wings, and a heart fallen cold:
I kiss my wailing child and press it to my breast,
And hear the narrow graves calling my child and me.
Desolate winds that cry over the wandering sea;
Desolate winds that hover in the flaming West;
Desolate winds that beat the doors of Heaven, and beat
The doors of Hell and blow there many a whimpering ghost;
O heart the winds have shaken; the unappeasable host
Is comelier than candles before Maurya’s feet.
http://www.bartleby.com/146/7.html

In the grey skys of connaught you can see how he wrote this.

The Collar-bone of a Hare

Would I could cast a sail on the water
Where many a king has gone
And many a king’s daughter,
And alight at the comely trees and the lawn,
The playing upon pipes and the dancing,
And learn that the best thing is
To change my loves while dancing
And pay but a kiss for a kiss.

I would find by the edge of that water
The collar-bone of a hare
Worn thin by the lapping of water,
And pierce it through with a gimlet and stare
At the old bitter world where they marry in churches,
And laugh over the untroubled water
At all who marry in churches,
Through the white thin bone of a hare
http://www.bartleby.com/148/5.html

A couple of thoughts on the poem,
you reach the celtic land of the dead by sea and yeats was traditional in these beliefs.
So I would see this singing of going home to the land of the dead and using the charm
of looking through the hare bone to see back to this ireland (where they marry in churchs compared to the old beliefs where you marry outside).

french terms

Bel Esprit (French).
A vivacious wit; a man or woman of quick and lively parts, ready at repartee. (Plural, beaux esprits.)
http://www.bartleby.com/81/1627.html

Bel-à-faire-peur.
A handsome, daredevil of a fellow.
http://www.bartleby.com/81/1626.html

Be’jan.
A freshman or greenhorn. This term is employed in the French and Scotch universities, and is evidently a corruption of bec jaune (yellow beak), a French expression to designate a nestling or unfledged bird. In the university of Vienna the freshman is termed beanus, and in France footing-money is bejaunia.
http://www.bartleby.com/81/1625.html

Bayard (Chevalier),
Pierre du Terrail, a celebrated French knight (1476–1524). Le chevalier sans peur et sans reproche.
http://www.bartleby.com/81/1500.html

Between Bels two fires

Between Bel’s two fires. Scylla on one side and Charybdis on the other. In Irish, Itter dha teine Bheil, in a dilemma. The reference is to the two fires kindled on May Eve in every village, between which all men and beasts devoted to sacrifice were compelled to pass.http://www.bartleby.com/81/1633.html

Bell phrases

A ceremony in the greater excommunication introduced into the Catholic Church in the eighth century. After reading the sentence a bell is rung, a book closed, and a candle extinguished. From that moment the excommunicated person is excluded from the sacraments and even divine worship. 1 “Bell, book, and candle shall not drive not back.”—Shakespeare: King John, iii. 3. In spite of bell, book, and candle, i.e. in spite of all the opposition which the Christian hierarchy can offer. (See CURSING.) http://www.bartleby.com/81/1643.html

Give her the bells and let her fly. Don’t throw good money after bad; make the best of the matter, but do not attempt to bolster it up. When a hawk was worthless, the bells were taken off, and the bird was suffered to escape, but the advice given above is to “leave the bells” and let the hawk go.http://www.bartleby.com/81/1642.html

Ringing the bells backwards, is ringing a muffled peal. Backwards is often used to denote “in a contrary direction” (tout le contraire), as, “I hear you are grown rich—” “Yes, backwards.” To ring a muffled peal, is to ring a peal of sorrow, not of joy. 5 In olden times bells were rung backwards as a tocsin, or notice of danger. http://www.bartleby.com/81/1642.html