Ok, I’m putting off Singapore for the moment.  Why?  Because it’s going to be a long entry and it’s past midnight at the moment.  And I’d rather discuss two movies I watched today.  Singapore was pretty fun, but too structured for me to completely enjoy it, besides the last day when we got to go on a tour of Little India and basically freeroam together.  And it was practically all Chinese food, which I dislike.  So right now I’ll suffice by saying it was overall positive, but I’m happy to be back in Japan.  For the record, I don’t like hot weather, and prefer a cold climate over a very hot one.

So, first up is Hotel Rwanda.  I watched that today with Yudai at my house.  His choice of movie not mine, I had absolutely no interest in it really, but he apparently wanted to see it.  In the end, it was very sad, but a good movie.  It’s those kind of ‘based-on-true-event’ stories that make me hate the world.  I will never understand what drives genocide.  I believe a comparable situation is happening in Darfur at the moment, and, as they say, history does repeat itself.  So if you can watch Hotel Rwanda and not feel anything towards situations of genocide that are happening across the world, congrats, you can call yourself an American.  A quote from that movie that stood out was something along the lines of ‘People will watch this footage, say ‘That’s horrible’ and go back to eating their dinner’.  So.  True.  That was refering to footage of a village being slaughtered.  In particular, a lady getting a machete in her back and neck multiple times.  There’s a point where I feel I can’t address people anymore about it without screaming in their faces.  What is not understood here?  Hate. Is. Bad.  Racism, which is what Hotel Rwanda focused on, will get you nowhere.  Discrimination based on race, religion, sexual orientation, beliefs, ANYTHING…it’s all USELESS.  And yet people still find the nerve to keep that alight in their mind.  Myself?  I do have a problem with racism just based on looks for a certain race.  Yes…I’m admitting it.  But the sooner people realize they have a problem, the better.  Because hiding it really isn’t going to do anything good either.  We all have our problems, and trying to pretend like we don’t will just set us up for a bigger fall.  So I need to work on what I need to work on, and I’d highly recommend that we all take a step in the right direction.  If everyone did, the world would be a lot better.  I’m honestly just sick of all the hate that’s in the world, and it’s hard for anyone to like anything filled with hate.

That was a lot more than I was going to say on that…but, it just came out.  I have experienced racism in Japan against myself, personally.  Purposefully hurtful.  Twice I think.  Anyways… Yudai and I watch a lot of DVDs now.  It’s just become a fun thing to do to hang out.  I don’t have a PS2 or anything over at the Toyooka-sans house, but, there is a DVD player!  Yudai has a PS2 though luckily (haha).  And his father’s cousin died like yesterday.  And the funeral was today.  Very sad, although he didn’t know her.

The second movie I watched was The Descent.  Very scary movie, rated R in America but only ‘Above 15′ here.  Usually, I don’t watch horror movies because books outpace them tenfold.  Movies will use gore to visually shock, while books can be a lot scarier because they set a certain mood and it’s a lot better than shock factor.  Movies based on Stephen King books however I usually watch.  IT is up next on my ‘to-watch’ list, although I think I’d rather read the book first.  So, the reason I picked up The Descent was reviews.  I had read a fair amount of them, and the movie piqued my interested because it was said to be an actually good horror movie.  Which doesn’t come around very often, trust me.  And it was really good.  It’s about a group of women who go spelunking together.  Sometimes it’s what you don’t see in this movie that makes it so scary…because you get to see what’s hiding, and then you don’t.  And as the camera screens around the darkness, you don’t know who’s next or where the enemy is.  And then factor in some other elements between the women and it’s awesome.  Gore?  Yes…it is pretty bloody.  Not used too much for plain shock value though, and it’s not cheesy.  I watched Freddy Vs. Jason, and while entertaining, that just had blood and shock-value-deaths.  And the ending for The Descent is just awesome.  The whole movie is good in my opinion, so if you’re into the horror genre, I’d suggest it.

I did go a lot further on Hotel Rwanda than I planned.  But what I said is what I believe to be true, that there is a whole ton of hate in this world that goes through unchecked, and for no reason or the fact that we can’t understand something.  I could list a hundred recent news articles about death that are fueled by hate.  The general population of the earth obviously doesn not understand what’s so … obvious.

And, venturing in the political realm for my last bit of update, I thought I’d let you all know that I can vote in the 2008 election.  Hilary Clinton looks like the early candidate of my choice personally.  I can’t help but look at how America was when Clinton was president and think we have a shot at it again with her as President, and the ex-President close at her side.  Although if I see any more scandals I’d be sorely disappointed.  At the moment I’m feeling neither Democratic or Republican though.  The Rep has been tarnished in my view forever though, and I can’t help but feel like I finally opened my eyes after coming to Japan.  That party really has nothing to offer our country anymore in my opinion.  Democratic control though, I can’t say I agree wholly with their platform either.  I’m stuck with a fairly liberal point of view at the moment, and dissatisfaction with the liberal party.  I could go on about how our country’s politics are dreadfully faulty though.  It needs a reform badly.

Tomorrow I have a break from school!  Yay!  Not sure what I’ll do though.  Hopefully update on Singapore, eh?  I have lots of pictures to upload too!