JokesforFish.com

Please note that the following post is about Japanese culture. As such, it contains gross generalizations and uneducated opinions based on my limited experience. Please don’t assume all Japanese people anything, much less fit narrowly into my general observations.

Lately, the OB list-serve for a club I joined while I was studying abroad in Tokyo has been full of recollections of the March 11th earthquake from alumni who were in the affected areas. These accounts are probably the most honest, forthright commentary I’ve ever heard from a Japanese source on the subject. Even living in Japan, it’s not often that one gets a peak into the collective Japanese soul (as it were), so it’s easy to overlook the fact that the Japanese have recently faced a disaster that touched essentially every part of their society and shook it to its core. I suppose in some ways the fact that the disaster’s effects have been reduced to a radio background noise says something about the determination of the Japanese people to carry on life as normal.

I found myself thinking about that as I explained the concept of “shou ga nai” to a ALT friend of mine who had been experiencing some frustration with his Japanese colleagues. The phrase more-or-less equates to “there’s nothing I can do”, with flavors of “it can’t be helped” and “shit happens” thrown in, and along with its cousin “mono no aware” (the inherent transience of things) it’s a concept that is central to the Japanese world view. As my friend put it, “I guess you’d kind of have to see things that way if you lived on an island that tried to wipe you out every few years.”

It’s perhaps natural (from a western, or particularly American, perspective) to read about a concept like that and equate it with a loss of hope or with giving up.  The Japanese, however, seem to almost take it as a personal challenge to find purpose in the face of anything life can throw at them. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed since moving here, it’s that most Japanese people approach their day-to-day life with a surprising amount of single-minded resolve. Social customs are rigorously upheld (evidenced by constant choruses of “Mata okoshi kudasaimase!” and “Irasshaimase!“), every purchase is carefully and neatly wrapped, every plate of food is cooked to perfection and carefully arranged to look like the picture on the menu, and almost anyone you meet on the street will gladly guide a poor, lost foreigner to whatever destination you’re seeking. Part of this, of course, ties to the idea of maintaining social harmony, but I can’t help but feel that there’s a certain element of “nothing’s worth doing that’s not worth doing correctly.” Certainly, whenever things are done incorrectly there is an impressive amount of bowing and faces carefully calculated to look sufficiently apologetic.

This attitude also applies to the Japanese response to disasters like the one Japan faced on March 11th, 2011. In each of the emails I’ve received from my OB list-serve, the author found himself redoubling his efforts to overcome obstacles that stymied him before the earthquake, or pitching in to help rehabilitate his community. One guy told the group that he felt useless because he couldn’t do more to restore his office building to functionality, but was glad that he’d at least made his research lab usable by sawing off the door (which had been broken by the quake). In other words, to a man they each made the best of the situation and remained determined to return to normalcy as quickly as possible. While it’s true that this certainly could be one response I might see from fellow Americans during a crisis, it’s also true that some of the most seminal images we have of Katrina and other natural disasters in the States are of people standing around looking lost and helpless. A year after the fact, I don’t recall seeing a single image of a Japanese person doing anything but working hard to salvage what they can and move on. It’s a striking difference in the way that our two cultures perceive disasters, and I find it very interesting that a culture renowned for its “can-do attitude” and conviction that humans make their own fate (that’s “Internal Locus of Control” for you business students) responds to adversity with disbelief and inaction, while a culture known for a certain dependence on harmony and order and a high level of comfort with the fact that things are frequently out of their control (“External Locus of Control”) responds without hesitation by picking up the pieces and moving forward one foot at a time.

I think lately I’ve been focusing a lot on the hard parts of living in Japan – and I’ll be honest, there are a LOT of hard parts. Stories like these, however, remind me that the Japanese are people to, and that there’s a reason I’ve devoted so much of my life to studying Japan and Japanese culture. No matter how hard life here can get, it’s good to be reminded that the Japanese (like every culture) have something relevant and powerful to offer to the rest of humanity, and that, in a sense, they’ve entrusted me and my ALT colleagues with the difficult task of helping their next generation to share that something with the world at large. It’s a humbling thought, though personally, after reading stories like the ones I’ve been receiving, I just hope the students learn from me even half of what I learn from them,  their parents, and their teachers.

Tags: Anthropology, Japan, Ramblings

I’ve been talking about posting the pictures from my trip to Koya-San for a while now, and now that I have some down-time I’m finally going to do it! While Thanksgiving didn’t really happen for me this year, I did take the opportunity to go with many of my fellow JETs to Mt. Koya in Wakayama Prefecture, the soul and founding place of Shingon, or “Esoteric” in English, Buddhism in Japan. Mt. Koya was first settled in 819 by the  monk Kuukai, also known after his death as “Koubou-Daishi”. He mastered Shingon Buddhism in China and considered it his mission to introduce it to his native Japan. As such, Koya (the name of the town as well as the mountain) became a religious mecca of sorts, supporting around 120 temples in a very small area as well as the largest cemetery in Japan. The town, like many places in Japan, is a dichotomy of tourism and spiritual isolation which results in some surprising experiences and concessions. For instance, there are few (if any) hotels in Koya. Visitors stay at one of the many temples which offer lodging to travelers.

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Tags: Food, Japan, Traditional Japan, Wakayama

Japan doesn’t really do Christmas the same way the rest of the world does. In many ways, Christmas in Japan is kind of like Valentine’s Day in the states. Generally, kids get lots of candy and maybe some small presents (though, not everyone does this) and the family might gather to share a Christmas Cake. For the most part, though, it’s an excuse to throw parties, or to spend a romantic evening with someone special to you. In Japan, Christmas is a time for miracles, for letting children’s imaginations run wild, and for wondering at the ingenious marketing tactics that convinced Japan that the rest of the world eats KFC for Christmas dinner. The fact that Christmas happens to coincide with the two-week “Winter Break” in Japanese schools has more to do with the much more important holiday of New Year’s in Japan than it does with Christmas, though it’s easy to forget that as an English teacher. My life for the past few weeks has been a non-stop whirlwind of Christmas presentations, games, and arts and crafts. It’s not the most productive time of year as far as teaching the kids English, but one can hardly expect Elementary School students to sit still and pay attention when a vacation (and all the pomp and circumstance – and yes, presents – of the New Year’s celebration!) is just around the corner! It has been pretty interesting for me, though, to learn from my students just how incomplete the Japanese image of Christmas is. They know about Santa Claus, but have no idea where the tradition came from or what it actually signifies. They know all the tunes to the famous western Christmas songs, but almost no one can explain what the lyrics mean. It’s like the movie Nightmare Before Christmas (which is quite well-known by a certain generation of Japanese), where Jack takes the parts he likes (read: understands) about Christmas and throws the rest away. Why stick with tradition when you can make improvements?

I’m finding that this attitude permeates a lot of modern Japanese life. One other really good example is the phenomenon of “wasei-eigo” (和製英語), or “English made in Japan”. When Japan incorporated western ideas and technologies into its society during the Meiji Restoration and after WWII, they borrowed a lot of foreign (mostly English) words to describe the new things being brought in. In some instances, though, the existing English words were too long or difficult for Japanese preference, so the words were shortened or altered (or in some cases entirely fabricated) to suit the needs of the Japanese. This resulted in words like “handoru” (from “handle” – “steering wheel” in English), “jetto ko-suta-” (from “jet coaster” – “roller coaster” in English), and “makudo” (“McDonald’s” in English). Certainly these changes made it easier for the Japanese to incorporate new and strange-sounding words into their vocabulary (to the point where, these days, a native English-speaker who doesn’t know a word in Japanese can simply say the English word in a manner that apes Japanese pronunciation and have a good chance of being understood), but true-to-form the Japanese have actually taken it a step further: they no longer even recognize the original pronunciation as valid. Don’t believe me? Try asking a Japanese person where “McDonald’s” is. You’ll get a blank stare. They won’t have any idea what you’re talking about. Say “makkudonarudo“, however, and they’ll at least know what you’re talking about (though, they’ll think you’re weird for not abbreviating it). Some Japanese you might encounter will even insist that their pronunciation is correct! Naturally, this can be a bit frustrating to someone trying to teach the English language to young (and sometimes apathetic) Japanese. (I was actually called out once for going to extraordinary lengths not to spell things out in Katakana – one of the Japanese alphabets – and had to explain to the teacher that I didn’t want to encourage the kids to think of the words in Japanese syllabic pronunciation… I’ve since given up on that with the older kids.)

Just to clear my conscience with regards to my Japanese friends and teachers, it’s worth noting that the English-speaking world most definitely does this same thing with Japanese loan-words (like karaoke, typhoon, tempura, etc. – try pronouncing them in the correct Japanese manner to an American if you don’t believe me). What makes Japanese use of English loan words extraordinary, in my opinion, is the fact that they tend to shorten or invent words where the existing words don’t serve their purposes.

Where Christmas is concerned, however, I tend to point out to Japanese who ask me that Japan has generally adopted the best parts of Christmas anyways. I can certainly understand enjoying present-giving and good cheer without all the religious trappings, and fastidious attention to tradition is hardly the point of Christmas. In my mind, my job with regards to Christmas is more to share new and additional ways to have fun with the holiday. That’s why about half the Elementary Schools in my town now have VAST collections of student-created paper snowflakes. The dirty looks the school principals have been giving me are totally worth it!

I’m heading home for Christmas next week, but since most of the time between now and then is down-time I might have time for another post… So many pictures to share, and so little free time to write posts in! Instead, I’ll just leave you with some Xmas Cheer™ from Japan!

Xmas Donuts at Mister Donut in Japan!

Strawberry Snowmen waiting to be adopted (by my stomach)!

“Please don’t eat me! I have a wife and three starving children!”

Too bad for you, mister Green Tea Snowman. Too bad for you.

… Alright, so I might have had to force myself to eat the eyes first. Was icing in just the right place to resemble tears REALLY necessary, Mister Donut?

E

Tags: Anthropology, Christmas, Food, Japan

So, I guess catching up is on hold. Today, I’m going to talk a little about community involvement instead.

When I signed up for JET, I think I had this image of moving to a small Japanese town and becoming immersed in the culture and daily life of the place by virtue of the circumstances. I’d heard so many stories from previous ALTs that it didn’t occur to me that I might not be that lucky. Consequently, I was a little surprised when I arrived to find that my town is actually a little bigger than many in this area, and that my Board of Education (the body responsible for the schools in the town, and my employer) is very hands-off. They don’t really seem to care what I do, as long as I show up where I’m supposed to and get my work done. Unlike my friends in the prefecture, who seem constantly dragged to a never-ending stream of festivals and cultural events, I find myself needing to actively seek out involvement.

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Tags: Food, Japan, School Life

The problem here is not that I don’t want to blog. The problem is that I feel obligated to catch any potential readers up on what’s happened in the last two and a half months, and that I’ve never been very good with posting about things that happened a while ago. Blogging, for me, is a form of catharsis (25-cent word of the day!). When I blog about something, I digest the experience in written form, collect opinions from readers (mostly “off-camera”, as you may have guessed), process the added input, then move on. Rehashing things that happened three months ago just doesn’t fit that MO. It  feels forced somehow, especially when I’ve already posted about the events somewhere else. I do feel like the blog needs to be updated, though, so I’m sure it will happen eventually.

At the moment, I’m more focused on the fact that my wordpress installation seems a little glitchy. It has, for instance, eaten no fewer than three versions of this post – one of which included almost a full catch-up to the present. So… I’m gonna blame this one on WordPress. Screw you, wordpress.

READ THIS FIRST!

In the article linked above, Michael Ellsberg comes to a bit of a startling conclusion. He posits that college education hampers creative drive, harming American’s competitiveness by churning out a disproportionate number of doctors, lawyers, and engineers (professional jobs); along with a high number of writers, literary critics and historians. Wait – what? First off, it sounds like we have the two sides of American politics right there. I mean, has anyone else read the supposed diatribe by a college professor that’s been making the rounds recently that describes doctor, lawyer, and engineer as the bastions of conservative professions? I’m pretty sure writers, literary critics, and historians stereotypically fall on the opposite side of the political divide. So right off the bat, this guy is telling us that both political parties have it wrong.

Well, at least his argument fits the general sympathies of the time.

Also, how is “disproportionate” ever going to be a fair portrayal of “pretty much every other discipline except the right one”? Because, really, that’s what he’s saying. He’s saying that there’s only one RIGHT discipline. That being, of course, entrepreneurship. And naturally, it’s not one that can be taught in colleges, so we should just tell everyone that they should go out and found a business instead of going to college. If everyone was getting out there and starting new businesses the American economy would fix itself, right?

Except that it wouldn’t. For starters, what about all those entrepreneurs who fail? Granted, I don’t have numbers, but there’s at least one study that suggests that the success rate is about 1/3. Imagine if one out of every three Americans succeeded in creating a “successful” (defining “success” is a whole other ball game) business and the other two were basically failed entrepreneurs with no “hard” skills. How, exactly would that work? Who does he think makes these businesses succeed? I guarantee it’s not *only* the entrepreneur. As Ellsberg himself mentions, start-ups NEED talented workers to succeed. Where does he think these come from? Are talented workers only people who magically understand their field of expertise with no formal training or education? Can you see your neighbor taking it on him or herself to learn Calculus just so he or she can be more competitive in the job market? Can you see middle class Americans everywhere doing it?

But I digress. Let’s assume that everyone is equal, and we should all be trying to be high-powered entrepreneurs so that we can create jobs.

It’s true that the category “entrepreneurship by Americans without college degrees” has seen some pretty spectacular success cases. I still don’t buy his argument. That model just doesn’t work for 90% of America (or 90% of humans in general). For a start-up to be successful, the entrepreneur behind it needs creativity. Creative product or service, creative structuring, creative hiring – whatever it is that makes their business successful. Even assuming that increasing entrepreneurship should be our end goal, creativity is like anything else with human beings: it’s different for everyone. Some people need formal education to prod them in the right direction. Some people don’t. Some people will be interested in creative careers, some people won’t be.

I get that Ellsberg’s point is that we should be trying to focus on turning out more entrepreneurs, but I don’t think that blaming academia is the solution. Colleges and Universities (“colleges”) are the way they are in the US because their alumni have proven to be successful historically. Colleges are well-known precisely because their graduates have gone on to do great things (and in many cases gift large sums of money to the institutions that they credit with their success). Even if you accept that the “world has changed” and “what worked in the past doesn’t work now”, it doesn’t follow that colleges don’t perform a valuable role. The students who attend those colleges are products of their times. If our economy is defining success as entrepreneurship, then the students who are highly-motivated and attend college will use the resources of that university to succeed in that environment or, if they don’t value what the college has to offer, they’ll leave. I know this because my graduating class (’08 all the way!) alone has many members who are already highly-successful entrepreneurs – and that’s only three years after graduation. Can you really say that their creativity was stifled because they chose to graduate? Incidentally, many of them started their businesses before they left the school and chose to graduate anyways.

If these people are genuinely creative and talented enough to be a successful entrepreneur, don’t you think they’ll know enough to gauge whether graduating from college is a good investment for them? Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg did. They left college when they found opportunities that appealed to them more. I hardly think that someone who’s smart enough to invent the next iPod will fail to see the cost of staying.

Those that stay do so because colleges are more than what they teach in class. Smart people who go through college know that they’re not really there for philosophy class or even economics class. They’re there to learn how to reason from their professors and how to live from their peers. I don’t remember much from my freshman year statistics class, but I do remember the people who suffered through it with me, the negotiations it took to talk our professor into building a break into the class, and how long it took me to figure out what the professor wanted to hear from us on the essay portions of our tests. What is that if not “networking”, “sales” and “comfort with failure”?

I concede that not everyone needs that push. For those who do, however, college is still the best way to get it. Don’t blame college for the failure of American students to develop entrepreneurial spirit.

Emery

Tags: College, Education

Shocking, isn’t it? For a country as advanced as Japan, you’d think it’d take less than two and a half months (closer to three, really) to get a home internet connection sorted out.

You’d be wrong.

About a month after I arrived in my new home town we were hit by a major Typhoon (Typhoon #12 to the Japanese media, or Typhoon Talas to those of you in the west) which knocked out train service, power, and most of the wiring around town for internet services. Pre-existing internet connections have long since been restored, and the trains are running to my town again, but apparently they weren’t able to complete enough repairs to set up new connections until Friday. So, finally, I have an internet connection at home!

I’m working out a few kinks in the blog software, and trying to make sense of what all’s happened and how best to present it here, but now that I have internet access the blog WILL be receiving regular updates.

Emery

Tags: Beginnings, Japan, JET

Yes, yes – I skipped a part. I’ve been so busy packing and storing and saying goodbye that I haven’t had much time in front of a computer these past few weeks. I owe you (all one of you who reads this) the missing part at some later date.

For now, I’m sitting in the Chicago airport with less than an hour to go until my flight to Tokyo leaves. For the record, that’s 10 flights complete!

It may be a little while before I can post again. Apparently it can take up to a month to get internet set up. Look forward to Part 3, as well as tons of pictures of my new home when I get everything up and running!

Emery

New York, New York!

Remind me to re-examine whether or not I consider AC a “necessary” condition for sleeping, because DAYUM. Aside from that, though, I had a great time. Ate some good contemporary food at Hillstone (whose chicken tenders, which are not on the actual menu, perfectly walked that line between “cooked” and “as tender as if they weren’t cooked” – definitely a different take) and some truly superb Japanese food at Sakagura, and returned to Ess-a-Bagel for another marvelous breakfast. There may also have been an epic quest for Red Velvet cake, which involved encountering snooty waiters in multiple restaurants, a man who was (probably) not having sex in a bathroom stall at the Waldorf-Astoria, and more city blocks traversed than I really care to admit. Ultimately, it’s a little disappointing that the night DIDN’T end in the world’s best Red Velvet cake.

The wedding was also quite fun (indoors wedding FTW!), and was by far the most unique wedding I’ve ever been to. I doubt they’re reading this, but my heart-felt congratulations go out to Gabe and Jacob – I cannot imagine two people better suited to one another!

Finally, there was the small matter of a 7-hour stay in JFK which, while not the longest amount of time I’ve spent in one airport at once, seemed rather grueling given my sleep-deprived state. Despite my misgivings, not too much exciting there. I briefly pondered founding a religion to honor and glorify AC, and I discovered that my phone’s charger works for my kindle. Naturally, any thought of studying died with the latter discovery. Why study for the GMAT when I have book three of the Song of Ice and Fire to finish?

After a whirlwind 48 hours at home, during which the movers finally dropped off the rest of the stuff from my apartment in Arlington, I’m now headed off to Seattle to say adieu to the lady love. Flights 4 and 5 await me!

Tags: Food, NYC, Seattle, Weddings

I have 10 more flights between me and my flight to Japan in July 31st.

Flights #1 & 2 are today, and are carrying me off to NYC!

More pictures/stories when I get back?