Seppuku - The good old days

Japan has the highest suicide rate of any country not formally part of the Soviet Union. 24 out of every 100,000 people kill themselves (.024% of the population). That's more than half the suicide rate in America and that's alot of people. It seems like a lot more people when so many of them do it by jumping in front of a train. Suicide is tragic and all, but....

For 3 days straight I've been late getting to work because of 'Human Accidents' on the Tobu Tojo Line. 3 days in a row! That is absurd. Now, I don't condone suicide by any means. I think it's cruel and unfair to put the people who care about you through that just because you are unreasonably impatient. You're going to die eventually anyway and as long as you're alive you can do SOMETHING (Anything!). But I also beleive people should have control over their own lives so if you are going to do it GET CREATIVE. Jumping in front of a train is pathetic. Everyone does it. It has no meaning and its not even tragic; its just messy and annoying to the thousands of soul-less salarymen waiting to get to work. If your life is so bad you don't want to live it, at least go out in a spectacular way. At least don't make your last action on earth so utterly boring. This is the country where Seppuku (Harakiri) used to be honorable! So why aren't more Japanese doing it?! I blame westernization.

What happened to the good old days when saying sorry was about slicing open your stomach and letting your guts spill all over the floor? When you had nothing left to do, you did just that! And you know, if you could arrange it, someone would cut off your head so it didn't take hours to die. With McDonaldization comes castration?

I turn you all now to my favorite suicide; that of Yukio Mishima. Let's look back and embrace it; because all good suicides should involve an attempt at government overthrow.

(Link will be poster later today. Cheers!)