Saturday, April 07, 2007

The Jurisdiction of Social Stigma



I love it. Japan, like many non-English nations has picked-up so much Western culture without reading the warning labels. My kick-boxing teacher, an intimidating Japanese hulk of a man plays up-tempo music during training to keep us in the right spirit. He usually goes with west-coast hip-hop and gangsta, which suits the bare-walls-basement-exposed pipes-Raging Bull-esque ambience of his gym. But today, it was Pet Shop Boys, all afternoon. Hee-hee! It was a surreal juxtaposition. That’s okay, I like the Pet Shop Boys and he’s big enough no one’s gonna call him a sissy, either way.