So after the incident at the bank with the crazy Japanese dating system, I looked into it. Apparently the traditional way of keeping track of years for a long time before World War II was the "imperial year." Imperial year 1 was 660 BC, thats before fucking Christ. For those keeping track at home, thats less than 100 years after the Roman empire's "Founding of the City" year of 753 BC.
Imperial year 1 was when the famous Emperor Gemma founded the Japanese empire. Wowser. This country/government is old. And we nuked it and remade it in our own image. Lame guys, lame.
Its currently imperial year 2670, but apparently the American government wasn't big on the dating system with years dating back before Christ when they took things over after WW2. Now they keep track of dates based on their effectively powerless heads of state emperors. When one dies, the year gets reset to 1, its currently 22 Heisei.
I went to a big mall in Yokohama city the other day called "Lalaport" (or in Japanese - Raraporoto) that finally gave me an impression of the Japan I expected. I really must be living in the 'burbs where I am, this place had all the subway pushers and suffocating crowds a man could want. But only a few minutes walk away was this totally peaceful and relaxing vista by a river/cannal or something. I sat there for a while in the NICE WARM SUN (haha, canadians) reading. Was nice.