Oh~ those were plants on that wall... d_d b_b
at first I thought they were hands...

Dejima - what is that, a house for gaijin ants?

(Heh, forced perspective)

i want to climb every wall, too.

I could have sworn those were HANDS sticking out of the rocks in the 5th panel. After I saw your pictures I realized it was just a type plant...

I would be a horrible interrupter of art ._.

Dammit, Japan. We have lights that run without whale oil. We need those whales for holding off alien probes.

Oh the temptation.
At least of the foreign countries to get arrested in, Japan isn't the worst. And you speak the language so you can explain that the wall was just too great to not be climbed

I'll be going to Japan later this summer for a couple of weeks and it's interesting to see what you're going through while you're there.

Climb ALL the walls!

Hahaha the telltale sign of a climber - when someone stares longingly at every stone wall.

Come down to the southeastern states and climb your heart out outdoors sometime. You won't regret it.

Ok, that's a scaled-down model of Dejima, right? 'Cos even wth perspective, that's too small.

All that rock climbing is turning you into the climb-happy monster they want you to be.

So. Climb. Able.

Is whale eating still a broad thing, or is it a thing more and more of the past? A few friends of mine from Japan reject completely eating whale, but I don't know if this line of thought is generalized...

So, in theory, Japan is only ever catching one types of whales: Minke whales which have a stable population between about a half a million and a million. Japan has caught about 500-600 per year for the last several years (all from down near Antarctica). So, in theory, it's sustainable (although the fact that they claim that they're only catching whales for research is an obvious lie). However, in practice, people have bought whale meat from Japanese markets and tested the DNA and concluded that other species of whales are present, including species with substantially smaller populations such as Humpback, Fin, Orca, Bryde's, Sei, and Western Gray Whales. Japan has also legalized the selling and consumption of whales killed in nets as by-catch (meaning that they were using nets to try to catch something else, but caught the whale or dolphin by accident). Although most nations report at least some deaths due to entanglement of large whales (including humpbacks and fins, which average about 30 and 70 tons respectively), Japan has been showing surprisingly large numbers of whales killed as by-catch. As a result, there is strong suspicion that the allowing of commercial trade in by-catch is allowing underground unregulated commercial whaling of endangered species.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090623120846.htm

They also eat Dolphin meat, specifically, there's an annual dolphin drive which kills large numbers of Dall's Porpoise and smaller number of other dolphins and porpoises which are mixed in. The population of Dall's Porpoises near Japan is estimated to be about 100,000 and they've been catching about 15,000 per year recently. So, this is likely to be unsustainable. There are populations elsewhere of about another 700,000, so it's not an endangered species at the moment. Legally dolphin meat is not supposed to be labeled as "whale" in Japan, but in practice, this law is often not observed. It's also quite high in mercury.

As a result, of all of this, I would strongly recommend against eating whale in Japan. When I visited Japan, I felt tempted to try it just because I didn't know when else I'd have a chance and it isn't as though they were killing a whole whale just for me, but once I understood the whole set of facts, it clearly wasn't something that I wanted to have any part in.

Holy crap!

I think my dad knew that guy, they went to college together! I'm totally blanking on his name, but apparently he visited Japan, noticed the lack of beer, and was just like "I need to change that", so he did!

I want to visit Japan so badly! Those pictures are awesome (and I'm loving the travelogue)!

I went to Nagasaki during the two years I lived in Kyoto, and it was one of the most interesting places I visited. And the walls are indeed fantastic (though apparently not good enough, I'm willing to bet some foreigners climbed over them way back in the day!) In all fairness, if Yuko HAD climbed them, the Japanese police probably would have been so confused they wouldn't have done anything...

Went to Dejima too! It is really weird to walk through that town/museum if you are from The Netherlands. There are a couple of videos in Dutch and stuff, really funny. The Portugese were in Japan first but long story short the Dutch focused on trade instead of spreading religion, which resulted in 200+ years of exlusive trading!

Love the comic, pictures and atmosphere that radiates from your work. Also jealous of your (guilt)trip to that wonderful country. Make sure you go too next time Ananth!

ALL of the walls are walls of temptation.

.....sei-an city??

When I visited Dejima, I thought it would make a great subject for a novel. Lo and behold, one of my favorite authors wrote it - The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.

In HS, I had a teacher transfer in from Alaska. She had previously been working on one of the Alaskan Islands, close with the natives who have whaling rights still. As an offer of thanks for her service to the community, she, a European, was gifted some of the whale meat. She shared some of it with us (stores well in the freezer I guess) and I did have some. Fried. Some of the guys took her challenge to eat it raw (which the natives apparently did). I can't recall what it tasted like... would it be too cliche to say chicken? :D At least it wasn't traumatic, but equally not memorable in any positive way either.

My partner lived in a suburb of Nagasaki for three years and I visited her there just before she moved back to the US. It's the greatest place I've ever traveled; we can't wait to go back someday. <3

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