July 15: Today I hitchhiked in 11 vehicles from Niigata city to Hirosaki city in Aomori Prefecture, a distance of about 430 kilometers. The highlight of this trip was car #9 with two lawmakers of the Akita Prefecture Parliament, driver Obara Masateru and front seat passenger Numaya Jun who took me from Akita City to Odate City, a good distance of around 100 kilometers. They told me to call them Teru Kun and Jun.

It’s an absolute first for me to get picked up by active politicians! Once I was picked up by the former mayor of a city of 50,000 people, Mr. Kobayashi of Niitsu city, but he was retired then and not serving in any public position.

Well, you can imagine the fun I had talking to these guys and telling them all the things I heard about crooked American politics! Two Illinois governors in a row, George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich were arrested and convicted on corruption charges. George Ryan is sitting in prison and will be there till July 4, 2013, and Rod Blagojevich was recently convicted and about to go to prison.

Teru Kun and Jun became Akita Parliament members just last March. They said they’re good guys who will not be corrupted by money. They promised never to take a bribe. I tend to think they are sincere because they had nothing to gain by picking me up, and they gave me presents when parting, an expensive looking bottle of grape juice, Japanese daikon and cucumbers. And they seemed to know nothing about the Secret Societies in America that formulate policy behind the scenes.

Japanese public servants receive quite good salaries, perhaps double of many other countries. Teru Kun and Jun acknowledged that they are well paid, but said that the budget of a politician is quite high and they have to struggle to make ends meet. The meeting in Odate they were required to attend would cost them 10,000 yen each. They referred to themselves as “poor politicians.” Indeed their car was nothing fancy, just a regular type of vehicle that most salary men drive.