Diphthongs

When I am not furthering my journalism career (and as a natural corollary, winning the Nobel Prize for Reporting. Yes, I know, there isn't actually a Nobel Prize for Reporting but it's only a matter of time), I busy myself with reading the likes of 'Nuclear Power, Systematic Risk and the Cost of Capital' (a rip roaring, roller coaster ride of a read), 'Acceptance of a Nuclear Power Plant: Applications of the Expectancy-Value Model' (grips the reader from the very first page and doesn't let go until the last) and, eh, 'Phonics from A to Z' (feckin consonant digraphs).

Myself and Sanae are trying to raise Cian as a Japanese-English bilingual. Or, to be more precise, we are trying to raise Cian to be both bilingual and biliterate. The former, being based on the oral-aural use of language, is essentially the innate, natural ability of children to acquire a spoken form of language, or in Cian's case, two languages. This, believe you me, isn't easy to do in an all Japanese language environment, but we are making some progress and there are grounds for future optimism.

(Which leads me to a somewhat churlish aside. Comments on Cian's English ability along the lines of 'His English is very good', or 'His English is nearly as good as our little Johnny's', whilst well intentioned, are not really fair. You are not comparing like with like. The valid response to a comparison with little Johnny's English is to ask how little Johnny's Japanese is.)

Biliteracy however, is a whole different story, or stories considering the small library's worth of 'teach your child to read' type books I have gathered. I am currently wading my way through 'Phonics from A to Z: A Practical Guide' which was written, I am convinced, with the implicit aim of highlighting my shortcomings as both a professional and private English teacher. On page 15 is a quiz designed to test the reader's instructional knowledge of phonetics. Among the questions are:

- A closed syllable is one that ....?

- An open syllable is one that...?

- List all the ways to spell long o.

- Underline the consonant digraphs: spherical church numb shrink thought

- How can you recognize an English word that came from Greek?

Could you answer any of them? Me neither. But I should. Or henceforth need to. Whereas little Johnny is going to encounter phonics in a the formal educational setting of school, Cian is going to have to have to learn it sometime between the Mickey Mouse Club House and dinner. And after a day at the local primary school, much of it spent learning the intricacies of Japanese orthography, not least of which is the fact that it contains three written scripts (to see what it entails, read this link here). And he's going to have me teaching him, which brings up a whole raft of issues concerning the parent-as-teacher dilemma.

So, bilingualism - perhaps; biliteracy - we can hope, pray and practice those diphthongs.

Spring

Spring is slowly beginning to edge in its way into our consciousness over here. It's still not very warm - plus 3 or 4 at most - but it's still warm enough to melt the snow so that now there are more bare, brown patches than there are expanses of frozen white. Time enough then, I decided, to resurrect my long dormant surfing career and catch the first waves of 2011.
And it was shite.
Well, I was shite. The waves were fine, my friend Mike (or, to use the jargon, 'mu surfing brah'), rode one wave after the other as a decent, shoulder high swell rolled through all morning.
Me, I was floundering around in the white water like a geriatric seal, all gasps and curses and lots of very cold water. And man, was I ever out of surfing-shape. Spindly arms flailing away as I got tossed around like a big, old splintered stick. An hour in the water and I managed to 'ride' all of two waves before exhaustion and embarrassment got the better of me and I got out of the water.
Naturally, I blame my wife and son, whose constant demands for paternal/husbanding attention are ruining my chances of capturing this year's Edie Aikau Big Wave Surfing Contest in Hawaii.

Me, prior to marriage and becoming a father.
!

Salt

Forgive the silence - after last week's intensive crash course in disaster journalism, (Twitter, I hate you), it was back to the more mundane realities of life in university and preparing for the new academic year. Though again, I should perhaps be more appreciative of such mundanes all things considered. More than 120 students in our university hail from the Tohoku region and according to an announcement at a recent faculty meeting, a number of them are still unaccounted for.
Nor should we be complacent about the continuing dangers down at the nuclear plant in Fukushima. According to an article in yesterday's New York Times (which you can read here), scientists fear that the residual salt left in the reactors from trying to cool them with pumped in sea water may add to the problems down there. And, as you are no doubt aware, there are escalating problems with radiation contamination in not just in the immediate area, but in Tokyo too. The Economist has an insightful article on the various difficulties, both short and long term facing Japan (and, yes, you can read that here too).
Almost makes me wish I was back in Ireland. Almost - until I watch the latest Primetime report on how Ireland is pretty much going to have to hock itself to the EU equivalent of a pawn shop to try and stave off a sovereign default, and even that might not work.
So, here I am, caught between a crock and a bankrupt place.

Ireland 24, England..whatever

Have just watched yesterday's game and am too deliriously happy to write anything besides

"F*** yeah! Jaysus F*** me that was f***ing magic!!!"

(Still haven't bought TV though. I'm so f***ing happy that I'm afraid to go down to K's Denki in case I come home with a complete, can-seat-50, 3-D home theater system).

No Nuke Newsday

Forgive yesterday's silence - a week of constant "ohmygodwe'reallgoingtodie!!" type news took its emotional toll and i decided to wander off for a bit to refind my inner child. Sanae and Cian have gone away for the weekend (and no, they haven't suddenly turned French). This was planned months ago - Sanae is attending a friend's wedding and she decided to bring Cian along in order to see if she can score some extra wedding cake. I am home alone, dangerously so, as thoughts are turning increasingly towards buying a new television. Yes, I know, it's incredibly shallow of me, given the circumstances, but I figure if we are all going to get fried to a crisp over here then at least I can enjoy watching it happen in high definition.

With 120 watt surround-sound.

Whilst recording it for posterity on a 500GB Blu-Ray disc recorder.

There are some other ongoing bits and pieces to do with events down south I would like to bring to your attention, but for now I am going down to K's Denki to probably spend some serious yen.

Friday Morning

This was in yesterday's New York Times, or at least on their web site. In a report entitled 'Crisis prompts exodus of executives from Tokyo ', (the full text is available here ), they have the following piece on Martin Reilly, an Irishman living and working in Tokyo.

"Martin Reilly, 43, an Irish software designer who works for the French insurance giant AXA, said his company had given employees the option to move, while keeping enough people in Tokyo to maintain operations. Though he said he was not fearful, Mr. Reilly was nevertheless taking the precaution of traveling to Osaka.

“I’m taking my work with me, and I can be back in three hours when this is cleared up,” Mr. Reilly said at Tokyo Station before boarding a train. “I think the chances of something happening are very small. But my parents are going ballistic. If I don’t go, my mother’s going to get on a plane and come take me away.”

Ahh, well, God love him, the poor dear. (Rightfully) more scared of de Mammy than all the talk of d'auld radiation. Plus he's working for a French company, so what else would you expect from them. Gutless feckers.
As a foreigner living in Japan, I am becoming increasingly ashamed at the way the international media is covering events here. They so desperately want their "Panic on the streets of Tokyo" story that if if Japanese people don't provide them with it, they'll go all out in their reporting to instill a sense of hysteric fear in the foreign community and hope it spills over.
I think the magnificent resilience of the Japanese people, their quiet, unwavering resolve to overcome this crisis and their innate, selfless concern for the well being of their fellow countrymen, is both humbling and inspiring. That is the story the international media should be covering.

Worst case scenario's

These words are increasingly being bandied about, a little to recklessly perhaps. I think we should remember that for many thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people in northern Japan, the 'worst case scenario' has already come to pass. So many of them have lost everything - the news here is showing heart-rendering reports of orphaned children, a sole surviving grandfather looking for both his children and grandchildren who all lived with him, and the countless, nameless others who are searching for loved ones.
To be honest, events down in Fukushima, while undoubtedly serious, are proving to be a bit of a distraction. Down there it is still a case of "what if ?" For so, so many though, it is an unbelievably harsh case of "what now ?" Attention should be focused on them and what the world can do to help, rather than endlessly recycling speculative (and untrue) stories about the "eerily quite streets of Tokyo" and how "people are fleeing the city in their thousands".
Well maybe the French are, but good riddance to them. Hand-ball cheating, effeminate, blubbering cowards to the last homme.
There is a link here giving you a live web cam stream from the 'eerily quiet streets of Tokyo' (click on the yellow number 2 icon to see Shibuya).

St. Patrick's Day

La Fheile dhuit my friends. Celebrations, as you can imagine, are a bit subdued in this part of the world, but wherever you are raise a glass or two on our behalf and say "Slainte, Japan".

Wednesday Evening Part II

By contrast this email was issued by the Irish Embassy today, Wednesday at 12.30pm (Japan Time). It is the first, and so far only, contact we have had from the embassy - almost a full 5 days after the earthquake struck. Again, I have posted the email in full, but I have added some comments at the end.

To all Irish citizens in Japan

The Embassy of Ireland is actively monitoring the aftermath of the
recent earthquakes and aftershocks and is paying particular attention to
the situation regarding the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. We
are liaising closely with the Japanese government and EU/international
partners in this regard.

Given the current situation, we are encouraging Irish citizens to
consider the necessity for their presence in the north east of Japan and
the Tokyo region (this is particularly the case for people with small
children or women who are pregnant). Those seeking to leave these areas
should make a travel reservation as soon as possible. We are not
specifically advising people to leave Japan.

The Embassy's website is updated with the latest information as it
becomes available to us as well as appropriate travel advice. This
website will remain the primary method of conveying information on the
situation to Irish nationals in Japan. The website may be accessed via
the following link: www.irishembassy.jp.

We are also advising Irish nationals to closely monitor the advice
provided by their local authorities.

If you are in an affected area, please contact the Embassy (if you have
not already done so) to confirm your status and location or if you
require consular assistance.

I don't know, maybe it's just me, but the general tone of that (very) belated message is at best cavalier, at worst, downright callous in its bland facetiousness. You'd almost suspect it was penned by Brian "We are where we are" Cowen. Yes, I know, in comparison to the diplomatic presence of the British, the Irish mission here is quite small, but we do have a Dept. of Foreign Affairs back in Dublin and you have to wonder what other pressing business they may have involving Irish citizens overseas that could account for their almost non-committal response to events here. Organizing St. Patrick's Day parades perhaps?

Wednesday Evening

A British friend (though in truth, he's a scouser) living and working down in Tokyo, attended a meeting organized by the British Embassy there last night (Tuesday). Via a live conference call link with London, they held a discussion with a number of scientific experts on what is occurring in Fukushima. My friend emailed me a transcript of the conference and I am posting it here in full. It is probably the most sensible thing I have come across since all this began.

Japan Nuclear Update - British Embassy
by Paul Atkinson on Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 6:55pm
I have just returned from a conference call held at the British Embassy in Tokyo. The call was concerning the nuclear issue in Japan. The chief spokesman was Sir. John Beddington, Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government, and he was joined by a number of qualified nuclear experts based in the UK. Their assessment of the current situation in Japan is as follows:

* In case of a 'reasonable worst case scenario' (defined as total meltdown of one reactor with subsequent radioactive explosion) an exclusion zone of 30 miles (50km) would be the maximum required to avoid affecting peoples' health. Even in a worse situation (loss of two or more reactors) it is unlikely that the damage would be significantly more than that caused by the loss of a single reactor.

* The current 20km exclusion zone is appropriate for the levels of radiation/risk currently experienced, and if the pouring of sea water can be maintained to cool the reactors, the likelihood of a major incident should be avoided. A further large quake with tsunami could lead to the suspension of the current cooling operations, leading to the above scenario.

* The bottom line is that these experts do not see there being a possibility of a health problem for residents in Tokyo. The radiation levels would need to be hundreds of times higher than current to cause the possibility for health issues, and that, in their opinion, is not going to happen (they were talking minimum levels affecting pregnant women and children - for normal adults the levels would need to be much higher still).

* The experts do not consider the wind direction to be material. They say Tokyo is too far away to be materially affected.

* If the pouring of water can be maintained the situation should be much improved after ten days, as the reactors' cores cool down.

* Information being provided by Japanese authorities is being independently monitored by a number of organizations and is deemed to be accurate, as far as measures of radioactivity levels are concerned.

* This is a very different situation from Chernobyl, where the reactor went into meltdown and the encasement, which exploded, was left to burn for weeks without any control. Even with Chernobyl, an exclusion zone of 30 miles would have been adequate to protect human health. The problem was that most people became sick from eating contaminated food, crops, milk and water in the region for years afterward, as no attempt was made to measure radioactivity levels in the food supply at that time or warn people of the dangers. The secrecy over the Chernobyl explosion is in contrast to the very public coverage of the Fukushima crisis.

* The Head of the British School asked if the school should remain closed. The answer was there is no need to close the school due to fears of radiation. There may well be other reasons - structural damage or possible new quakes - but the radiation fear is not supported by scientific measures, even for children.

* Regarding Iodine supplementation, the experts said this was only necessary for those who had inhaled quantities of radiation (those in the exclusion zone or workers on the site) or through consumption of contaminated food/water supplies. Long term consumption of iodine is, in any case, not healthy.

The discussion was surprisingly frank and to the point. The conclusion of the experts is that the damage caused by the earthquake and tsunami, as well as the subsequent aftershocks, was much more of an issue than the fear of radiation sickness from the nuclear plants.

Wednesday Afternoon

I am going to be doing a live update for RTE's 'Morning Ireland' radio programme in a little while (approximately 7.15 Irish time). Rather bizarrely I am going to have a journalist from the Hokkaido Shimbun ('De Paper') here in my office observing me. In other words, he's going to reporting about me reporting about Japan.
And yes, I think it's a tad surreal too.
Apparently word has spread about my sure-to-win-the-Pulitizer-Prize-for-journalism reporting from Muroran and the local hacks want to see if some of my cosmopolitan glamour will rub off on them. They sent a young reporter, Yoshida-san, down to the office to interview me and, as luck would have it, while we were chatting I got a call on my mobile from the RTE news-desk in Dublin.
Boy, was Yoshida-san ever impressed. Dublin calling me, live, before his very eyes. He could barely write straight his hands were trembling so much with the excitement of it all.
"Sure, yeah, what?!" I barked down the line, while furiously searching for a pen, a scrap of paper, a cigarette and a naggin of whiskey, in reverse order. Have that hard-bitten Irish journo image to maintain.
"Yeah... Yeah... When? 7:15? Fine, I'll get something together for you. Right. Bye!" and I dropped, yes dropped, the phone back on to the receiver.
Yoshida-san was beside himself, speechless, his whole body now shaking. I slapped him a couple of times just to clam him down.
No, I didn't, but the thought did cross my mind.
Anyway we agreed that he could come back later on this afternoon and observe history in the making. If he calms down.
And I'll let you know how we get on.

Wednesday morning

This just in: Reuters are reporting that after "a bit of a late one" in Mama Tutu's Good Time Bar in Roppongi, Tokyo, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are "a bit under the weather" this morning, and will probably refrain from galloping through the streets until they've had a cup of tea and "and a bacon roll".
Updates will follow.

Tuesday Evening

And so another long day closes over here in Japan. I am up in my office in the university preparing to do an interview for Newstalk, or rather Newstalk!, back in Dublin. They like their scare stories so they do.
It was a cool, crisp night and I decided to walk up to the university. On my way I met some of my students who were going out for a couple of drinks to celebrate their forthcoming graduation. March is the end of the academic year here and they will have their ceremony next Friday. They asked me to join them and I was tempted. Their good kids, I enjoyed teaching them and I wouldn't be averse to enjoying a couple of cold beers with them. I declined but my point is, this, right now, is the Japan I live in. Not what you are seeing on the television and the close on hysteric "Japan is doomed!!" reporting by the international media. Rather, life goes on, and people continue to try and enjoy it.
As so they should.

Tuesday Afternoon

I am sure you are all waking up around now and wondering when I am going to confirm witness accounts that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have been seen galloping through the streets of Tokyo.
Some perspective. Outside of the immediate area - the Tohoku region - life is going on pretty much as normal. People are at work, schools are open, kids are outside playing in the local park and the workmen in front of my office are making a godawful racket jack-hammering the road open. Yes, there is an ever present awareness of how events are unfolding around Fukushima but thankfully pragmatic acceptance rather than blind panic tends to be the general attitude here.
As I said in a previous post the media are, being the media, obviously concentrating on the crowd-pleasing doomsday scenario. But for us up here in Muroran and for the majority of people throughout Japan, that right now is just that: something that is happening on the television in a distant place rather than in our immediate walking-talking here and now.
And the soba, by the way, was delicious.

Tuesday lunchtime

I am not too sure how many more blogs I can begin along the lines of "things are getting grim here". As you can imagine we are monitoring events closely further south, minute by minute at this stage, and yes, the thought has crossed our minds about what to do in the worst case scenario - which unfortunately seems to be shifting from a "what if" to a "when".
Still, it is lunchtime, I am hungry and so I'm off to have a bowl of soba.

Monday evening

I have just done a series of interviews (RTE, BBC, Newstalk) on the situation here and it struck me that I am beginning to slip into full on "Here comes the Apocalypse" mode. I think it is the nature of the media beast that you tend to play up the doomsday scenario at the expense of something a bit more considered and measured. It simply makes for the better news story. And unfortunately I find myself somewhat pandering to that.
I also tend to get asked in hushed tones, 'How bad is the devastation where you are?', to which I should really honestly reply "What devastation?", as there is none. Nada. Zero. Zilch. It is almost surreal how normal life in Muroran is at the moment considering what occurred just over an hour's flight away. But again, such a response wouldn't make for a very interesting story, so I tend to dodge around it and start churning out the grim statistics and speculation about what is/going to happen.
In additon, given people's (understandably) scant knowledge of geography over here they tend to equate the description 'northern Japan' with where I am. However, to be more precise in placing Fukushima and the afflicted nuclear stations, the location should really be described as 'northern Honshu'. Where the stations are is approximately the same distance from Muroran as Frankfurt is from Dublin. In other words, we are not that close. And in no immediate danger. Or even distant danger.
So deep breaths people - despite my journalistic doom-mongering, it's not that bad.

Journalism

I have, by dint of being apparently the only Irishman in northern Japan, become both a de facto journalist and a line producer for RTE's correspondent over here. Given the time difference between here and back home, it has so far involved a lot of late night phone calls and early morning reports "Live from the Gaynor-Takahashi bathroom", as that is the most sound-proofed room in the house. The initial glamour of it all (if even there was any) has long since worn off and both Cian and Sanae are getting pretty irritated by it all.
But as I tell them, as a journalist I answer only to the people, not my wife and son. Which usually provokes a response of "Would ya ever feck off, ya big arse" and a couple of digs. For a hobbit, my wife packs a mean punch.

Devestation

The New York Times have a series of harrowing before-and-after satellite photos showing just how extensive the destruction was.
Click here to view them.

Monday Morning

Another day and more bad news - things are not getting any better over here unfortunately. Latest reports from the stricken nuclear plant down in Fukushima say that there has been an explosion at the No. 3 Reactor. It is, apparently, a similar explosion to the one that occurred at the No. 1 reactor on Saturday. At the moment they say three employees in the plant have been injured while another 7 are unaccounted for.
This, to be honest, is beginning to get a tad worrisome. While here in Muroran we are far way from immediate danger I am not so sure I can confidently say we are far away enough to be comfortable. Chatter on various mailing lists here in Japan and conversations and emails with friends scattered across the country have begun to take on a "What if.." attitude, with various contingency plans being knocked around about getting out of the country if worst comes to worst.
At the same time I don't want to be too alarmist. As I said, we are far to the north, there is a large winter-type, low pressure system coming in from Siberia at the moment bringing with it strong westerly to north-westerly winds and is due to effect us for the next number of days. Therefore, should there be a serious radiation leak it will blow the debris well way from us, out over the Pacific ocean.
Just to put some figures on the distances involved. The current exclusion zone is 20km around the affected nuclear plant. Tokyo is some 240 km from the plant, while Muroran is close on 550 km.

Sunday Morning

There are growing concerns about the safety of a nuclear reactor at a second power plant in Fukushima. Trace elements of radioactivity have been detected in people who were being evacuated from the surrounding area. While we are far away from immediate danger it's no longer case of we are far away for comfort. The second reactor in particular is a cause for major concern as it is a plutonium powered MOX type and if it explodes, well, then, all bets are off. Should extensive radioactive material escape in to the air then you are simply at the mercy of the prevailing winds and all you can do is hope is it blows far away from you.

If ever there was a convincing argument for the abolition of nuclear power, then I think this picture makes it.

These are kids being checked for radiation as they are evacuated from the hinterland around the Daiichi Nuclear Reactor in Fukushima.

Photos of the aftermath

On the Reuters website there is a slide of show of some 81 photographs that gives you some idea of the scale of this disaster. It's worth a look.

Click here to see the photographs.

Saturday Afternoon

As I write we are still trying to get to grip with the scale of the disaster that is still unfolding. Thankfully we have been spared here in Muroran - the news reported a 1 metre combined tsunami/high tide, but there was no reported damage. Mind you the bulk carriers, cargo ships, fishing boats and pleasure boats that usually crowd the port are taking no chances. I watched from a hill top near our home yesterday afternoon as they all steamed furiously out of the harbour to the relative safety of deeper waters. They are still there today, anchored a couple of kilometres off the coast as there is still a 6 metre tsunami warning in place for our part of Japan.

Further south where the earthquake and resulting tsunami was at its most destructive, the attention is currently on the two nuclear plants in Fukushima prefecture. Various system failures have left the cooling tanks essentially inoperable resulting in a dangerous build up of pressure within the tanks. Technicians are hoping to attempt to manually open valves on the tanks but as radioactive levels in the control room where the valves are located are registering levels up to a 1,000 times the norm, this is proving difficult to say the least.

Again, should worst come to worst and the reactors were to actually explode we, here in Muroran, wouldn't be in any immediate danger as the stations are far to the south east of us (see map. Double click on it to enlarge the picture. Look for Sendai on the north east coast of Honshu, the main island - it's between the 'c' and 'e' of 'Pacific Ocean'. Then slightly below and to the south west of that, inland, you will see Fukushima ) and the prevailing westerly winds should carry any radioactive discharge out over the Pacific.

Still, while I can write all that objectively, should things go boom we are all going to be donning lead suits up here.

Thank you

Just a quick note to thank all of you who sent messages. We are, by the grace of God/Buddha/whoever is up there, alright. The light of day this morning has brought more awful images of the terrible damage this earthquake has wrought. Like ourselves, I think the whole of Japan is in a state of collective shock as we try to grapple with the enormity of what just happened. For the moment I just grateful for the thoughtful concern you have all shown and to be able to allay those same concerns.

Earthquake update

I am very relieved to write that Sanae is safely home and enjoying dinner with Daddy and Cian. Her school is right beside the ocean and after the initial earthquake NHK (Japan's equivalent of RTE), there were initial forecasts of a 6 metre tsunami to hit our part of Hokkaido. Thankfully this didn't come to pass but there are still tsunami warnings in effect and intermittent aftershocks continue to reverberate into the evening.

This afternoon's earthquake

As I write this the after shocks from this afternoon's devastating earthquake are still rocking our part of northern Japan. It is indicative of just how powerful the earthquake was that here in Muroran, some 400 miles from the epicenter, we got tremendously shaken. As I write the television news is showing live pictures from Hiroo-cho where both Sanae and I used to live showing a tsunami submerging the harbour. Mind you, this is mild compared to the huge 7 metre waves that broke over the Pacific coast of northern Honshu.

I should, of course, say that we are all fine - myself and Cian are at home while Sanae is still at school. She is fine but incredibly busy trying to allay the panic and fears of all the kids. Hopefully she will be home soon.

I will write later more this evening.

Movies

As part of our ongoing Friday night movie series (or 'The Compromise Rules' as a I like to call it), myself and Sanae watched 'Rachel getting married'. This film, it turned out, was not a romantic comedy, though it did involve a wedding and the lead from 'The Devil wears Prada' (up there in Sanae's top ten list), so I figured we, or rather darling wife, was on to a sure thing. Darling wife no longer trusts my judgement, despite my attempting to make amends the following week with 'Going the Distance'.

(Incidentally, if you haven't seen any of these films, then (a) the rest of this blog may prove a tad abstruse and (b) there is, to be honest, no real reason to see them either - though I'm probably going to catch all sorts of karate hell for writing that.)

'Rachel getting Married' is a sort of 110 minute long ad for United Colors of Benetton with some imposed moments of personal tragedy to rough out the otherwise smooth edges. The director, Jonathan Demme, in a sense can't help himself - he did, after all, win an Oscar for managing to humanize a serial killer - so a liberal love-in where a successful, big golden labrador owning, Mercedes driving, WASP family marries into what seems to be most of the artists from the Blue Note Label, shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. But, ultimately this paean for cosmopolitan liberalism doesn't work because Demme can't contain help himself and pushes his advocacy for multiculturalism too far into an exercise in samba dancing wish fulfillment. In short the movie becomes a dream rather than a form of reality it needs to ground itself in.

Now, if this is (a) a tad pretentious; and (b) a tad unfair on Demme, then I hold up my hand on both accounts. However, watching this I couldn't but make comparisons with 'Winter's Bone' (which, by the way, is also not a romantic comedy, but I think the title may have tipped you off to that fact), a film I had seen back in December. The comparisons were not necessarily of the relative merits of both films as pieces of film making, but rather the type of America they detailed. Whereas 'Rachel getting married' was rich, north eastern liberalism at its best/worst, 'Winter's Bone' was dirt-poor southern gothic (at one stage we see a squirrel being skinned in preparation for dinner). Trying to reconcile these two versions of America made me wonder if they ever could be reconciled. Much is made the US as the land of possibility, but it is also a land of shocking disparity, particularly when you are looking at it from Japan (which it isn't to say that such disparity doesn't exist here - it does, and it is increasing, but relatively speaking, Japan is still a considerably more meritocratic country).

And I'm rambling.

Anyway, there is a brutal honesty to 'Winter's Bone' which, for all its characters' emotional breakdowns and tearful confessions, 'Rachel getting married' never allows itself to descend to. Its ingrained optimism won't permit it. This is not to say its a bad film. I enjoyed both. Though perhaps 'enjoy' is too favourable word. Rather, more precisely, both films made stayed with me as good films should.

Nowadays though, very few do (though this could well be due to (a) the limited number of films I actually watch; and (b) having just cleared 41, I am beginning to slide into early senility). Back in December I threatened you with a list of my best films from 2010, though again 'best' is way too subjective a term. These are the films that stayed with me and which I would rewatch (though, given their content, probably not in the company of my wife):

'The Messenger'

'The Other Guys'

'Million Dollar Baby'

'Winter's Bone'

So there you have it. A grand total of four, and two of them weren't even made last year, but as I said, these were the most impressive movies I watched last year. And yes, I do like a good, "Christ. Isn't life shit" movie, but that's just me. I will return to these at a future date - probably sometime in 2012 - but does anybody out there (though this begs the question: 'Is there anybody out there?') want to share their belated best of 2010 with me/us?

Howzat!

Being a true blood and soil supporter of the GAA, I have never had much time for cricket. Its colonial origins, ever present air of barely contained superiority, ridiculously complex rules and equally ridiculous terminology (wicket, crease, googly, overs, unders, Ian Botham, etc.) are seemingly designed to repel rather than attract the casual sports fan.

The closest I ever got to the game was the occasional summer evening spent on the sun dappled steps in front of the Pavilion Bar in Trinity College. There, overlooking the green swathe of the university's cricket pitch, I would attempt to engage in witty, Waugh-like banter with impossibly slim girls from the distant heart of south Dublin whilst desperately trying to hide my lowly DIT origins. In passing I would note white clad figures seemingly aimlessly ambling about the pitch, now and then toffing a cap to cries of "Oh, I say, well done Henry". All of them seemed to be called Henry. It must have been a membership requirement.

Later on, as the skies darkened, the game ended and the lights from the buses rumbling by on Nassau street reminded you of where you were and more unfairly, where you had to go, I would resentfully curse these Henry's as they ambled into the bar and effortlessly led Fionnuala from Foxrock away for a night of overs and unders.

But.

But after last night's remarkable events in Bangalore my hitherto staunchly republican heart now thrills to the sound of ball on bat, derives immense pleasure from a well executed drive to mid-slip, and I yell with abandon at an obvious LBW speared down the inside leg.

Cricket, yes cricket. You don't need to know anything about the game per se, just that right now, as of the 3rd of March, Ireland (cue Amhran na bhFiann) are better at that quintessentially English game than, well, England.

Scorer of the fastest century in Cricket World Cup History, Kevin O'Brien (or as he's fondly known around these nationalist parts, Caoimhin with the gruaig rua).