Dead Gaijins

[Mulboyne]

This is a good friend of mine... I am gutted.

That's sad news. I met him for the first time only a few weeks ago and thought he was a very good bloke. My thoughts are with his family.

[Bucky]

Robert Aitken dies at 93; American Zen master Aitken, one of the first Americans to be fully sanctioned as a master of Zen Buddhism, emphasized a path to enlightenment through social action.
August 10, 2010|By Elaine Woo, Los Angeles Times

Robert Aitken, an influential American Zen master and writer who emphasized a path to enlightenment through social action, died of pneumonia Thursday in a Honolulu hospital. He was 93.

His death was confirmed by Roland Sugimoto, administrator of Honolulu Diamond Sangha, a Zen Buddhist network with more than 20 affiliated groups around the world that Aitken founded more than 50 years ago with his late wife, Anne Hopkins Aitken.

Aitken was one of the first Americans to be fully sanctioned as a master of Zen Buddhism and trained several generations of Zen Buddhist teachers. He established the Honolulu center as a lay community that was particularly notable for an egalitarian approach that was welcoming to women.

"He made Zen Buddhism workable for Westerners," said Michael Kieran, who studied under Aitken and now oversees Diamond Sangha's main temple as master teacher. "He removed a lot of the patriarchal language from the tradition, which had been mainly transmitted to us through the monastic tradition."

Known for his commitment to social justice, Aitken helped found the Berkeley-based Buddhist Peace Fellowship. He also wrote 13 books, including "Taking the Path of Zen" (1982), a classic primer on Zen practice, and "The Mind of Clover" (1984), a highly regarded exploration of Buddhist ethics.

Born in Philadelphia on June 19, 1917, Aitken moved with his family to Honolulu when he was 5, after his anthropologist father went to work on the staff of the Bishop Museum there. He grew up in Hawaii and California, where he completed high school.

His introduction to Zen came with the outbreak of World War II, when he was a civilian construction worker on Guam. He was captured by Japanese troops in 1942 and spent the duration of the war in an internment camp in Kobe.

more

[Mulboyne]

[YThd]_giaUGRAqY4[/YThd]

Mainichi: Irishman found dead on Gunma road, hit-and-run suspected

The body of a man found early Sunday morning on a road in Tomioka, Gunma Prefecture was later confirmed to be that of Alan Buckley, an English teacher from Ireland, police said. The police said they received a call that a man was lying on National Road 254 at around 3:25 a.m. The police suspect that the 32-year-old Irishman may have been involved in a hit-and-run accident. He was not wearing any clothes and appeared to have been drinking, they said. Buckley arrived in Japan in July 2009 and was teaching English at three primary and lower secondary schools in the city under the JET program, or the Japan Exchange and Teaching program, organized by local and central governments.

[Mulboyne]

Mainichi: Irishman found dead on Gunma road, hit-and-run suspected[/QUOTE]

The police have arrested a suspect.

[IkemenTommy]

He was not wearing any clothes and appeared to have been drinking

WTF? Do we have a dead Irish Kusanagi kun now?

[Samurai_Jerk]

[YThd]_giaUGRAqY4[/YThd]

Mainichi: Irishman found dead on Gunma road, hit-and-run suspected

I wonder if he was passed out on the road already and the truck driver just thought he hit a big tree branch or something. What a fucked up way to die. I hope he we so out of it he didn't feel anything.

[Kokusai]

There was a Korean student visiting Japan last month from the USA (Atlanta GA).

Story goes he was at an Izakaya with his mates somewhere in Tokyo, then took off for the night in Shinjuku with out telling anyone. Police found him the next morning beaten up real bad. Last couple days spent in IC ward at a local hospital. He later died from heavy brain damage.

[Bucky]

There was a Korean student visiting Japan last month from the USA (Atlanta GA).

Story goes he was at an Izakaya with his mates somewhere in Tokyo, then took off for the night in Shinjuku with out telling anyone. Police found him the next morning beaten up real bad. Last couple days spent in IC ward at a local hospital. He later died from heavy brain damage.

Been there, done that.

[Kokusai]

Been there, done that.

Well done.

[Mulboyne]

Kyodo: Vienna Philharmonic member dies on Mt. Fuji

A contrabass player for the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra died Wednesday in a fall on Mt. Fuji, police said. The musician was identified as 41-year-old Georg Straka from Austria, who was heading to the top of the mountain with another Austrian, according to the police. Straka was visiting Japan for the orchestra's concerts from Nov. 1 to 10, but there was no performance scheduled for Wednesday.

[McTojo]

more

What...? He ain't no Zen master. It's impossible for Westerners to achieve emptiness, especially after years of colonization of other races.

[Yokohammer]

It's impossible for Westerners to achieve emptiness.

Sounds like you've managed pretty well.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Sounds like you've managed pretty well.

Tremendous!!!
And it would reverberate even more with hollowness that only weighing 250lbs can create!!!

[McTojo]

Sounds like you've managed pretty well.

funny...I actually chuckled. That's pretty jacked up, you know!

[Greji]

Tremendous!!!
And it would reverberate even more with hollowness that only weighing 250lbs can create!!!

Did you figure in the weight of the motorbike and goggles?

[Taro Toporific]

[floatl][/floatl]
Jack Seward, leading expert on Japan, dies
japantimes.co.jp ~ Friday, Nov. 19, 2010
Jack Seward, a U.S. Army veteran and Japan expert who served under Gen. Douglas MacArthur's staff command during the Allied Occupation, died Nov. 10 in Houston. He was 86...
...Seward wrote 45 books covering a broad spectrum of fiction and nonfiction. His first published work was "The Cave of the Chinese Skeletons" in 1965, a partial reflection of his storied years as an intelligence officer in Japan. His best known work was "The Japanese," published in 1972. Selected by the Readers Digest Book Club, it sold millions of copies and was the most widely read book on Japanese culture at the time.
His longest-selling book was "Japanese in Action," a commentary on the language and how to study it, originally published in 1969. He wrote numerous supplementary textbooks for Japanese studying English...more...

"If a respected foreigner in this country wished to gain the extra good opinion of his native friends, he could do no better that become their willing guest or victim at a typical Japanese dinner and get as drunk as a lord so he had to be shoved into his car and escorted home by two or three pretty but efficient maids. It would elevate his credit in their eyes as nothing else could. It would show his implicit confidence in and his appreciation of their friendly attitude toward him."

Japanese in Action
--- by Jack Seward

Refer to:
http://tomcoyner.com/nihongowa.htm

[Greji]

Jack Seward, a U.S. Army veteran and Japan expert who served under Gen. Douglas MacArthur's staff command during the Allied Occupation, died Nov. 10 in Houston. He was 86...
...Seward wrote 45 books covering a broad spectrum of fiction and nonfiction.

I knew Jack Seward to the chagrin of Charles and I considered Jack one of the best J-linguists I had ever met. He also didn't pull any punches, like when he wrote in one of his books that he only knew a couple of good Japanese linguists( I think he said four or five) and Edward O. Reischauer wasn't one of them. In all fairness, he also said he didn't consider himself in that select group as well.

An old CIC hand and a great mate to lift a pint with! RIP...

[American Oyaji]

R.I.P. Jack Seward.

Lost in Translation would not have been nearly as intersting without him.

[Mulboyne]

Chalmers Johnson has just passed away.

[Taro Toporific]

Chalmers Johnson has just passed away.

The "Dead Fukuzawa Society" listserv of Chalmers Johnson is sort of a way the Godfather of all snarky Japan forums like the FG.

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://twics.com/~briank/fukuzawa.html

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

The "Dead Fukuzawa Society" listserv of Chalmers Johnson is sort of a way the Godfather of all snarky Japan forums like the FG.

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://twics.com/~briank/fukuzawa.html

Shite...I thought he was the name of a Japanese baby soap....

[Greji]

The "Dead Fukuzawa Society" listserv of Chalmers Johnson is sort of a way the Godfather of all snarky Japan forums like the FG.

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://twics.com/~briank/fukuzawa.html

I'll give him an R.I.P., but can't go further considering our days on DFS.

[terebi_fanatic]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wnB5XjsmK8

not sure if it was mentioned before. Rodger swan, vlogger on youtube, died around a year ago.

I'm not sure but it was a medical complication, think it had something to do with his liver.

[Taro Toporific]

not sure if it was mentioned before. Rodger swan, vlogger on youtube, died around a year ago.

I wasn't familiar with Swan's huge body-of-work video blogging his arrival in 2007 (I have items in my frig dated before 2007).

Rodger Swan, episode 1, arrival in Japan September 19, 2007.



Random post closer to his death



Last post January 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bObFMQYpbX0

[rooboy]

Sorry but Ican't really get into feeling sorry that somebody who arrived in 2007and started telling everybody by video blogs about his 'important' life in Japan has carked it. Bad luck n all but come on, do we really need another gaijin blogging about things flogged to death years ago?:rolleyes:

To make it worse he looks like the mean as catshit American boss who was my first ever employer in Japan. A real mother of a con artist.

On another note can Americans tell us why so many fucking Americaijins top themselves in Japan? I happened to look at some fucking state dept website for the US and 15 or maybe 16, just glanced, gaijins topped themselves from Jan 2006 to end of June 2010. That sucks, life aint so bad here, I could understand if was Korea but come on, Japan?:confused:

[FG Lurker]

Sorry but Ican't really get into feeling sorry that somebody who arrived in 2007and started telling everybody by video blogs about his 'important' life in Japan has carked it. Bad luck n all but come on, do we really need another gaijin blogging about things flogged to death years ago?:rolleyes:

I didn't know the guy and had never seen his vlogs before they were posted on FG. I doubt they were intended for anyone living in Japan and were most likely for friends and family back home. (It's probably hard for you to believe but some people actually have friends in real life...)

In any case he's dead and unable to defend himself. I doubt he did anything to you in life so how about fucking off and leaving him the fuck alone?

[yarichin01]

Sorry but Ican't really get into feeling sorry that somebody who arrived in 2007 and started telling everybody by video blogs about his 'important' life in Japan has carked it. Bad luck n all but come on, do we really need another gaijin blogging about things flogged to death years ago?:rolleyes:

Two words:
Fuck You

Have some respect for the dead you slimy cocksucker

[Samurai_Jerk]

On another note can Americans tell us why so many fucking Americaijins top themselves in Japan?

Probably because there are so many piece-of-shit loser Aussie eikaiwa teachers on working holiday in Japan. First exposure to them is enough to make anyone give up faith in humanity and want to kill himself.

[Mulboyne]

Sankei report (Japanese) says a 19 year old New Zealander has died of stab wounds at his apartment in Wakayama. A blood-stained knife was found nearby.

Police have not yet indicated whether the man was assaulted or if the wounds were self-inflicted. They have heard from friends that he may have had girlfriend troubles recently but are still at a very early stage in their investigation.

[FG Lurker]

Sankei report (Japanese) says a 19 year old New Zealander has died of stab wounds at his apartment in Wakayama. A blood-stained knife was found nearby.

Police have not yet indicated whether the man was assaulted or if the wounds were self-inflicted. They have heard from friends that he may have had girlfriend troubles recently but are still at a very early stage in their investigation.

Sounds like he was sticking his dick in crazy. RIP.