VS Tricolore

I know it is a waste of time to make simple things more complex. But, this topic gradually becomes controversical now in Japan.

You must have the friends to superimpose Tricolore on thier Facebook profile photo. So might you.
The aim must be to support French people injured by the terrorists. It is a very simple reason.
Sad thing happened. We felt sad. So, we want to support the people involved. It's a straight feeling. We can understand and share the feeling. We don't have to discuss this issue any more.

However, soon emerged the people questioning of this action in Facebook.
They say, "Why is France special? How about Siria? The day before the terror in Paris, more people was killed there."
Hmm. Certainly the number of dead people is more in Beirut than in Paris.
You got a point. Maybe.

Immediately, the objection to this opinion has occured. "Yes. France is special."
Their reason is based on Realism. They say, "It is meaningless to compare the number of dead people. Like it or not, France (or Western country) has a stronger impact on the world. It is natural for us to think of France first."

We can easily anticipate the heavy reaction to this opinion from Sirian and thier supporters. I also dislike the realism.
But, from a simple statistic, I have to accept the biased opinion.
We must remember we are talking about the issue in Facebook.
Now over 30 million French people are using it. This number is far more than the population in Siria (About 20 million). I don't have the data of the number of Sirian Facebook users, but it must be less than 3 million(*).
It means Facebook users have the possibility to have French friends more than Sirian friends. That's why, it is certainly natural for them to focus on the the things in Paris.

I don't have French and Sirian friends. So, I don't have the motivation to add colors on my FB profile photo. It's a simple reason.
However, I want to add one more reason why I don't do that.
Because, French guys are included in the terrorist group. I am thinking French people have the unsolved problem which they have to solve by themselves. It has existed from 2005 riot in Paris. Many French people (their parents were immigrants.) have complaint to French society.
If still so, it might make complex feelings to wave Tricolore.


* Among the top 40 countries with FB users, No.40 is Norway. 3 million people are using FB there. We can assume there are less than 3 million FB users in Siria.

VS Travelling in Japan

Last week, I went to Kanazawa city for my business on Sunday and Monday. It's located in the north-western Japan. The city is famous for gorgeous arts and crafts. Kanazawa has not been the capital but it used to be called Little Kyoto.

On Tuesday morning, I was in Kobe city. The port town has looked multi-cultural. I enjoyed walking on the street of one of the biggest China town in Japan. On the same day afternoon, I was in Kyoto. It must be my hometown and the very classical town, but I find something new every time I am here.

Back to Tokyo. I participated in the reception party with US Maine State people. I took a photo with the governer Mr.LePage.

On Thirsday, I flied to Kochi prefecture. It is my mother's hometown, so I came here many times in my childhood. But, my last visit was over 20 years ago. It's a long long time.
This city is isolated from any other cities in Japan. The 89% of Kochi is the forest. From the viewpoint of busy city residents, the city might look lonely but we can feel very relaxed here. Of course, as usual, I enjoyed delicious local food.

Now it is more popular and sometimes cheaper for Japanese to travel abroad, but we can still find many attractive things in Japan. Even I(Japanese) think so. Foreigners must think more.