4 - Wednesday, Junuary 27, $988 - North Shore News YEARS AGO, during a visit to Tokyo, my friend and I were picking our way through the whirling neon cornucopia of the Shinjuku district, when we decided to stop at an outdoor restaurant for some noodle soup. It was that time of night shortly before the subway closes down when some of the men staggering happily through the streets had turned blue from drinking. It wasn't just a trick of the kalcido- scope lighting. They actually had changed color. As we went to sit down on a pair of stools, the woman behind the counter started making rude gestures at us, shooing us away as though we were bad-smelling dogs, which, indeed, we no doubt were, relatively speaking. That didn't make it any more pleasant an experience. My friend spoke just enough Japanese to understand she was telling us to go away because ‘‘you don’t belong here."’ The customers — about a dozen men — were definitely frowning at us, Japanese inscrutibility notwithstanding. “Is this racism?"' | asked my friend. It was hard to tell. It might just be that the apparently public catery was in fact a private club or reserved for locals only. You run into uptight natives wherever you go. In all fairness, it was probably a display of Japanese xenophobia more than anything else. No sense starting a riot. We left, our feelings bruised, muttering , under our breath. Otherwise, as a rule, I found the Japanese to be almost maddening- ly polite and pleasant. Even on the subways, they managed to preserve a fabulous psychological distance from each other — and from me — even if we were all crammed together like sardines. Being a touch ton young to have any personal memories of fighting the Japanese, and having always wanted to go there, for some peculiar reason, I loved Tokyo and would like to return to sec more of Japan some day. Hirohito certainly presided over an extraordinary renaissance. He has been in power since 1926, only the third emperor since the shoguns handed power back to the imperial dynasty. Otherwise, he is the 124th in an unbroken line of emperors going back 2,000 years. The last four decades have seen Japan rise from the ashes, certain- ly, but in matters of population, she has remained a phoenix ina bottle. The Japanese have been content to trade and travel, containing their mass restlessness, if indeed they feel it. A il Japan would ask for in exchange would be California. A joint U.S.-Japan trade zone would be set up, allowing millions of Japanese workers ta migrate to a place in the sun, relieving pressure on the cold, crowded, often smnoggy home islands.” But that little glimpse of the xenophobia vas informative: a reminder fox my innocent little postwar self of the other kind of energy latent in that amazing civi- lization on the other side of the Pacific, so ancient and futuristic at once, so prone to collective para- noid grandiosity. These thoughts are prompted by reports that Emperor Hirohito is fading and that his son Akihito may s00n mount the Chrysanthe- mum throne. More than even the coming end of the millenium, this change is expected to reflect a new Japanese tone in the world. ‘Whatever else he did in history, On the North Shore since 1955 PARTS & Sinan FOR VACUUM CLEAMERS Parts Dept. open 9:00 to 5:39 Mon. to Fri, Sat 9 to $ Vacuum parts, bags & tools or bring your cleaner in for servicing. 1629 Garden Ave., North Vancouver 987-2251 in-home service for ail major appliances ts as near as your phone. "The Only Thing Lower Than His Grades Is His Self-Esteem. Sylvan understands how tough it 8 can be for a child who is falling F behind in school, And how good it can feel when failure tums to B success, Sylvan can help your child. At Sylvan, we can help your child develop the self-confidence and the 4 courage to do better in school. Sylvan's proven approach to leam- ing has already helped thousands of g children. In a stress-free environment of positive encouragement and per- sonal attention, we provide ® Individualized instruction » Experienced certified teachers © Innovative teaching methods ®@ Reading, Math and Algebra programs © Proven success Call today for more information. Theres no obligation. Certainly, something bonds them together in a way that few races are. And because they hap- pen to be superbly capable of pro- viding what the world wants and selling it so successfully , the country’s fortune continues to grow astoundingly. With great wealth has come the question of how to exercise great power. Some intriguing and throat-clearing ideas are beginning to emerge. One such proposal was recently put forward by Masaaki Kurokawa, a top executive of what is now the world’s biggest securities company, who suggests that the yen and the American dollar should be merged into a joint currency. Japan's export advantage would be wiped out at a stroke and the world trade surplus crisis would be ended. All Japan would ask for in ex- change would be California. A joint U.S.-Japan trade zone would be set up, allowing millions of Japanese workers to migrate to a place in the sun, relieving pressure on the cold, crowded, often smoggy home islands. Another idea, put forward by a construction consortium, is for the Japanese to build a giant scawall in a shallow region of the Pacific, drain the water, and erect a super-city where, again, millions of Japanese would migrate. A third such notion I've read about concerns retirement resorts in various tropical countries, where planners from Tokyo would build actual communities exclusively for millions of aging Japanese citizens to spend their remaining days. Restlessness. Stirring. With the passing of the Mikado, expect changes in Japan @ Ruth Spall introduces a new dimension in cosmetic consciousness. 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