As In "Bush Clover"

As we enter September we should be seeing the Lespedeza coming into bloom...which is an awkward and gratuitous introduction to the subject of the non-existence of one of the Prime Minister's closest aides. With a rather astonishing frequency I have been reading of the exploits of Liberal Democratic Party Deputy Secretary-General, Representative for the Tokyo #24 District, Abe Shinzo's Yasukuni cash courier and government spokesman on matters nuclear for no apparent reason Haguida Ko'ichi.

Astonishing in that Hagiuda, the Big Man from Hachioji's actual surname (Link) is peculiar but not entirely impenetrable -- the direct translation of which is "Bush Clover Raw Paddy Field" (somebody please call Monty Python's Flying Circus!).

Reading the misspelling "Haguida" on my screen sends my synapses into conniptions. "What is that, Tagalog? Bahasa Indonesia?" may poor cortex shouts at me at really too early an hour in the morning.

Hagi-u-da. A name to remember in September.

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As for Abe Shinzo and Yasukuni, I predicted back on July 9 that Abe Shinzo would pay a visit to Yasukuni in August.

Well here we are in September...and no visit.

Wrong MTC! You were wrong, wrong, wrong. Nyah, nah, nah, nah, nah.

Yes.

However, if the Chinese government keeps making impossible, ahistorical demands of the Abe Administration as regards Japan's sovereignty over the Senkakus, these as preconditions to a summit (Link) Abe may become so frustrated at Chinese and South Korean intransigence as to visit Yasukuni during the Autumn Festival, which will be held October 17-20. (Link)

And the Latin month name "October" means "the Eighth Month."

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Photo image:
Pale Grass Blue (Yamato Shijimi - Pseudozizeeria maha) resting on Hagi (Lespedeza sp.)
Katsunuma-cho, Koshu City, Yamanashi Prefecture.
September 21, 2008
Photo image credit: MTC