Kawasaki spent most of the interview talking about i- Shake Sphere, this national project he is working on with some of the top institutes in Japan. It’s supposed to be some kind of new non-invasive surgical technique that will somehow have virtual spheres in your body seeking for substances like cancer cells. Oh, and while telling me all this he emphasized each point by flicking his fan, which was studded with tons of yellow diamante gems–fobulousity to the max.

Emily

My article

For all the Salt Lake City locals…You actually can just walk down to our local eyeglass frame store and pick them up!

Our address is 3203 South 2300 East Salt Lake City, Utah 84109.

We specialize in many hard to find designer frames…ALL of which are 100% authentic.
You can visit our website www.eastmillcreekeyewear.com and call or email to order. There is actually quite a selection Kazuo Kawasaki offers and all lens shapes can be customized just the way you like them!

We still have a few in stock if you are trying to get them before Christmas…but you better hurry!!

Visit our website, email, or call to find out more about how we can
customize a frame for you.

Jodie McAllister, Owner

East Millcreek Eyewear

emeyewear@hotmail.com

[W] 801.485.5820

For women working their way up the corporate ladder, a pair of glasses like those could prove useful in snatching that six-figure salary. ( = vacation in the Bahamas!) For Kawasaki, the payoff amounts to far more. Priced at $400 for overseas buyers, those glasses bump up annual sales by the millions. ( = mansion in the Bahamas!!)

Kawasaki is definitely flying high these days. The engineering professor has been designing glasses – along with syringes, artificial hearts, kitchen sponges and wheelchairs – for decades. He’s done well for himself, but nothing beats this recent boon – all because we Americans are enthralled by the image of a beautiful woman who can do it all.

Image sells. That’s the moral of the story. It reminds me of a couple years ago when every Japanese woman over 30 was going ga-ga over a Korean actor named Bae Yong Joon. He’s the boyfriend who’ll take you for strolls on the beach and draw your name in the sand. He’s the one who’ll cook three-course meals and finish up with an oil massage. He’ll give you roses for no reason other than because he loves you.

The actor wore a pair of glasses, so when word got out that it was manufactured by designer Paul Smith sales went through the roof. Somehow, women thought if they could get their man to wear the $250 specs then their relationship would change for the better. Hah! At best, they could now read the eye chart.

These days, the actor attaches his name to a new brand of kimchi. And of course, everyone’s running to snatch it up. “If I get my boyfriend to eat this, he’ll be more romantic,” they’re probably thinking. Hmm, I wouldn’t bet on it. Get him a stick of gum. That’ll make his kisses sweeter. (^_^)

Himawari

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I could go off on a tangent for what I support for this election (mind you, both parties have had some strong reasons you should really like them) but that’s not the purpose of this blog—and not to seem like I don’t care about foreign policies (or the fact that the US is so close to Russia) but I bring up a topic that links to my blog…Savvy.

Anyone else notice Sarah Palin’s red patient leather shoes last night during the Vice Presidential debate?  I know I sure did, and guessing that most women who are like me and looking at what she’s wearing, this isn’t the first time she’s sported red heals.  Like I say in the title of this blog—click your heals and go home Dorothy! 

Please don’t get me wrong—yes, I think she dressed very nicely and I personally think some of her clothes are fantastic and wish I had them for my corporate waredrobe.  But Gimme a Break when we’re debating about middle class and the economy and Sarah Palin is trying to push on us that she and her family are ‘middle class’ and have had to live under that $150k/yr line.  Yet, she can sport designer duds every time she comes out on stage.  Don’t think that’s exactly how the savvy middle class woman really is trying to live.

I mean, take Sarah Palin’s glasses they’re $375 just for the frames!  Um, hello, what middle class family (yet a lone a middle class family with 5 children) really purchases $375 frames!?!  For those of you who don’t care about the cost and just want to look like her, here’s the “specs” on her frames:

The $375 frames are by Japanese designer Kazuo Kawasaki, and are made from titanium. They are from a collection entitled the 704 series, and her specific style is the 34 grey.

Point being, if she’s going to stand up there and try to make us believe that she’s ‘one of us’ and is that real hockey mom that knows how hard the economy is and that she and her “maverick” of a running mate are going to save us from an economic meltdown, then really show us that.  Don’t go walking out on stage every day with designer duds on….go to The Gap or The Limited and find something nice and professional looking to wear on stage and then tell us that you really understand and live the middle class lifestyle you say you do.  I highly doubt that with her ‘middle class income’ we’d find Sarah Palin shopping at an outlet mall or Marshall’s trying to find a deal off her middle class income—(which I’d like to see what she’s considering middle class income–maybe she has a view on it like she does her foreign policy experience because Russia is so close to Alaska). 

Common now, gimme a break, I can’t be the only one seeing through this!!  Todo is waiting for you Dorothy…off to Kansas you go (let’s see what foreign policy experience you can muster up from Kansas–maybe you can see Europe from there!!)

Yes, Japanese people are overwhelmingly xenophobic and many are racists as well (I didn’t know there was a difference until I came here), so when I first began to notice the support that Obama had here, starting during the primaries, frankly, I was shocked.  I had to get to the bottom of it because it just didn’t jibe with what I had concluded about Japanese people through living with them over the past 5 years.

I have a bunch of private students. In fact, over the course of my stay here, I would say I’ve had about 50 or so. I teach them English and they pay me money…it’s a very cozy arrangement, and everybody’s happy. From time to time, before, during or after lessons, we get into discussions about various things. Cultural comparisons, language issues, and even political issues if their English skill level is high enough (cuz my Japanese still sucks!) I love these moments much more than than the teaching, to be honest.

During these sessions, I’ve learned a great deal. Several students I’ve been teaching for years and so we’re practically friends (aside for the financial side) or at least I’ve established a trust that enables them to step out of their cultural shells of politeness and actually say what they are really thinking and feeling.  They show their true faces. It actually has a name. They call it Hon’ne (pronounced hone-nay-here’s an explanation from wikipedia)… With hon’ne unleashed, I’m freed up to get the true answers to the questions I have.

Being a black man in Japan means you look like every famous black person in Japan. When I arrived here, and for about a year afterwards, it was Bob Sapp, a famous K-1 fighter. Then there was Bobby Ologun, another K-1 fighter and comedian from Africa.  Then Billy Blanks, of Billy’s Boot Camp fame. :

Bob Sapp Mask

Bobby Olugun mask

Billy Blanks (not a mask)

(Is it me or are those mask a little creepy?)

All were and are extremely popular here. I don’t think I favor any of them but I’ll let those of you who know me be the judge of that. For those of you who don’t …well, I am black and I do keep my hair bald usually.

I guess what I’m avoiding saying is no one says “hey, Obama!” when I walk down the street. Not that I favor him either but geez, I’d rather be associated with him then any of those other guys; 2 of which are clowns, so buffoonish I can hardly stand to see them.

Anyway, I ask my students, how do they feel about Obama. The general consensus was: He’s great! It’s amazing what he is trying to accomplish and they sincerely wished him the best. One student who confessed to me that Japanese people, in general, hold a very low opinion of black people, and view them as a people to either be pitied (africans) or feared( Americans) but if Obama gets elected, the Japanese impression of black people will change.

I appreciated his honesty. I knew he was right. Japanese, like people all over the world, recognize that although America is a multi-racial society, throughout her history, the dominant race has always been white, and the leadership as well, and that leadership, while having done some good around the world has also done a great deal of damage as well i.e. Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And he, meaning they (for, unlike Americans, in an homogeneous country like Japan, one Japanese person’s thoughts and feelings can pretty much sum up the nation’s thoughts and feelings, I’ve found, felt that an Obama presidency would mark a drastic change and a profile upheaval for black people.

He also told me something else I found striking. He said the perception of Obama, based on his speeches, his manner, and his grace, reminded them of an Asian. His patience, especially in the face of the types of attacks he’d endured during the primary and even currently, they find extremely admirable, almost Confucius like. It’s a trait that they had not previously acknowledged in African Americans. Conversely, he found African Americans in general to be easily excitable, impetuous, and decidedly impatient.

“Based on what?”

“Based on movies and TV shows…”

I see.

Well, then came Sarah Palin, making a big splash at the Republican convention, with her Alaskan whine, her excessive un-blinking decisiveness, her problematic relationship with the truth, Hockey Mom sporting a $2500 Valentino Garavani jacket, and…and…oh hell, $400 MP-704′s made by Japanese Frame Designer Kazuo Kawasaki.

Kazuo Kawasaki

Unless you’re from an island (not Manhattan) l can’t tell you how much impact something like this can have on an island nation. The world is recognizing one of their own. He might have taken back the Sumo championship from them damn Mongolians. He might have gotten the Nobel Peace Prize for ecological innovations. Usain Bolt knows what I’m talking about. He’s more popular than King Sellasie in Jamaica right now.

Kawasaki said in an interview that he shares what he sees as some common political sentiments with Palin, “I am quite right-wing,” he says.

Well, anyway, the above notwithstanding, Obama is still very popular here (in Japan), but right now he has to take a backseat to the woman sporting a Japanese native’s handiwork. Maybe someone should call her out for not buying good ole North American EyeWear frames.

Japanese frames? How unpatriotic is that?? Next she’ll be refusing to wear a flag pin…

Palin with Un-American frames (-;

Wait a minute…she isn’t wearing a flag pen, is she?

Alaska First (-:

Obama/Biden 08

for more stories about Japan go to: Loco in Yokohama