I think this is the first ever spam comment I have written in Japanese that was not caught by Akismet. Here’s the comment:

The reason I knew it was spam, of course, is because of the website at ‘watchbrief’. Take a look below and you can see what Google Translate made of it.

The interesting thing to me is what it reveals about how I think about spamming.

For some reason, the idea of spam originating from Japan seems distinctly un-Japanese.

I mean how crazy is that? How crazy is it that I should form an opinion on where spam is and is not likely to originate in the world based on the flimsiest of social understandings?

私はそれがどのように狂っている？意味それは私がスパムであり、社会的な理解のflimsiestに基づく世界に由来する可能性がないところで意見を形成するべきであることをどのように狂っている？

Giving Up On Relationships and Giving Up On Sex

I read in the newspaper recently that young Japanese people are giving up on relationships. They would rather cocoon themselves in their rooms with their computers.

Here’s an article from the Guardian about the Japanese giving up on sex. Under the headline Why have young people in Japan stopped having sex? it cites these figures:

A survey earlier this year by the Japan Family Planning Association (JFPA) found that 45% of women aged 16-24 “were not interested in or despised sexual contact”. More than a quarter of men felt the same way.

Some years ago I spent three months in Japan. I went the length of the main island and visited and stayed with 23 different families as well as staying with two religious communities.

I had no affiliation with the religious communities and was invited (as with the other families) simply on the basis of increasing cross-cultural awareness.

I really should write about it sometime, before it fades from memory.