A lost parrot, tornado and microaggression

I'm a bit short on inspirational blog topics tonight. I didn't get to the computer until pretty much my Cinderella hour (9.30pm), so you'll have to put up with some links to some interesting recent Japanese news and blogposts.


A lost parrot who chirped his address to police, see the story and video here.


Yesterday a very unusual tornado hit a city just north of Tokyo and killed one person, injured quite a few others, see the story/video here. Yesterday was a strange day. Mid afternoon the sky went very dark. Where we are we had a bit of thunder and a bit of rain, but not a lot. The temperature also dropped considerably.


The same blog posted a story about a change in the system here, meaning we won't have "Alien Registration Cards" anymore. There are a number of changes coming and I'm not really clear on what they all are, but many seem to be positive. I just think it will be positive to not be officially an "alien", which is a rather harsh word, really.


And here's a strange one: nearly three times more people die while in the bath in Japan than die in automobile accidents! Go and have a read here.


And a new word "microaggression", explained here is defined as: 

"Microagressions, particularly those of a racialized nature, are, according to Dr. Derald Wing Sue in Psychology Today (Oct. 5, 2010), "the brief and everyday slights, insults, indignities, and denigrating messages sent to (visible minorities) by well-intentioned (members of an ethnic majority in a society) who are unaware of the hidden messages being communicated.", 

 In Japan this includes people regularly saying to foreigners, "You speak such good Japanese!" — after saying only a sentence or two, or being surprised that you can use chopsticks.


Now I'm headed to bed. Sorry this has been a rather disjointed post today.