French Rescue Japanese Ambassador

I might have some details wrong here, but recently French soldiers in the Ivory Coast rescued the Japanese Ambassador from his embassy during the fighting that's been going on there.

I think the Japanese gov't should have refused the offer of military aid out of principle. The French are bad for sporting a military, especially one that can interfere in other places.

Golden Week: must be a better way...

The Golden Week holidays could be very long this year. Could be an actual week, which in Japan is like having a month off in most places or in the case of France, a year.

(First an aside: got asked what Golden Week is called in America. Replied, I guess Golden Week but it's a Japanese holiday. There is no GW in the USA but a US newspaper reporting would say "In Japan, many Japanese are enjoying Golden Week holidays now..." and then the usual shock that America, the land of holidays, doesn't have a Golden Week holiday because we all know that Americans take more holidays than anyone else on the planet.)

So this is the Golden Week holidays this year (O = holiday X = usual workday.)

O O O X O O O

So in my case, that X in the middle means I have to work for one hour, starting at 4pm. Actually more like 3 hours since it takes me an hour to drive to the school, an hour for the lesson, then an hour to drive back home. Plus, probably half my students won't come so that means the lesson is pretty useless and I'll have to do it again four days later anyway.It means I have to stick around and wait until that x is finished and I have a day to get somewhere, a day to enjoy it and a day to get back. Kind of like the x day's schedule times 24.

Why not give people 14 days off but only 12 hours at a time? It makes that much sense.

So I suggest to people, not as a criticism, just as a kind of stand up comic sort of way, wouldn't it be nice if, instead of this sort of thing happening year after year, the gov't decided to shift those three O's one day to the left. So people could take a full week off, or chose which three or 4 days to use for camping and so on. Instead, the whole nations futzes about some days and tries to cram a year's worth of relaxation into one high pressure, over priced, traffic jammed three days.

So in other words, same number of holidays, just more usable.

- Quite a few people say "Hmm, that makes sense. But it'll never happen, keep dreamin'"

- A few get uppity and say the usual uppity response "It's the Japanese way!" like it's an ancient tradition that their great grandparents died for. (It's not. They're recent holidays that have already been fiddled with a few times during the years I've lived here.)

- A lot, I'd say half, respond with this vague feeling that they can't really explain why, but it would just be bad. Somehow bad. People having a useful day off would be bad. They already have a day off (Those 6 "O"s above. They're not going to the office those days.) But somehow making those holidays practical and useful, would be bad, almost decadent.

Again, I emphasize. I'm not saying people should have more holidays and work less. I'm saying the holiday time alloted could be easily scheduled better.

I mean would you rather sleep for 8 hours straight or for 2 hours four times in a day with several hours of grocery shopping in between?

I used to get the same reactions about other holiday that would show up on Tuesdays or even sundays. Why not move it to Monday or Friday so people get three day weekend. 1. It'll never happen 2. It's Japanese way 3. It's bad

But about 5 or so years ago the gov't did exactly that, moved a lot of holidays to Monday and the sky didn't fall and everyone seems to have forgotten it used to be different.

Kirk, no! Japanese aren't late!

Happened again.

I had a meeting with a superior at a new job. The guy showed up about 10 minutes late.

I didn't say anything because well, he's kind of my boss, and two, he seemed pretty harried himself. He gave a perfunctory apology and I assumed he had a good reason and we went about our meeting.

His being late caused me to be about 3 minutes late for my next appointment.
I got there and the people I were to meet were very angry. They explained, as if it were of deep cultural significance: "This is bad. Japanese people aren't late!"

I just wish people would, ok fine, go ahead and get miffed I'm late and leave it at that but there's no need to drag the "Japanese" thing into it. All it does is take a small, ordinary problem and exacerbate it by making it seem a cultural line has been crossed. The fact that a Japanese guy (my superior) was the cause of it only adds to the injury.

Was she Japanese? Again.

This is a long , grim story not really fit for here. Short version is I saw a girl jump off a bridge the other night and hang herself. I tried pulling her up by the rope and cut up my fingers in the process. Eventually I got the rope cut, pulled her out of the river and she lived. (As far as I know, the cops haven't told me anything.)

Obviously she was the one who needed the attention but I was pretty shaken up too. I didn't need a lot of hand holding but even just a "good job" or even a "how ya doin? you ok?" kind of thing from the emergency crew would have meant a lot.

Instead I got shoved around, not literally, and made to feel like a burden, like I made more paperwork for the cops. I got sent to a crappy late night ER downtown that I didn't really want to go to, and while the med student was brushing dirt and pebbles out of my sores with a disposable toothbrush, I realized that they just thought I was a drunk who fell into a dirty river, as the cops hadn't told them anything.

So I said "Yeah, when I actually saw her jump I couldn't believe it. It was like a dream. And she had taken her shoes off and laid them out carefully, and set her cell phone on the railing carefully. I was so surprised by it all."
So the med student / doctor(?) said "Oh, so you saw her jump?"
"Yeah. It was weird. Before she jumped I knew it was going to happen"

Ok, so guess what he asked me next? Go on... it comes up a lot in this blog.

The doctor, who presumably is a smart guy with a good education, speaks a bit of english, etc etc, asks me: "Was she Japanese?"

I mean, why, why, why, do people always ask that? Of course she was. Just like the doctor is Japanese, and the tooth brush nurse is Japanese, and everyone in the building is Japanese, and the next building, and the taxi drivers outside, and the guy who runs the movie theater next door.

For some reason people thin that since you're a foreigner you exist in a foreign reality distortion vortex filled with foreign food and foreign things only. So anyone else finds a woman who jumped off a bridge and gets her to safety, they'd just go "Uh huh. Wow." But if it happened to me, they'd say "Was she Japanese?"

I told the story to a new large class and about 1/4 of them went "What a dumb question!" and 3/4 of them didn't see the point. They were waiting for my answer like "Well? Dont keep us waiting? Was she or wasn't she Japanese?"

Ok, ok, you're right, I live in a city with a population of 300,000 of which a small fraction are foreign, and after a night out downtown with friends I hadn't seen in a long time, I see a rare an terrible event, a woman almost succeeds in killing herself by jumping from an isolated pedestrian bridge with a rope around her neck, and since I'm american, odds are pretty good she is too.

Foreign movies violent, J movies sublime

NOT that I care that much --- I don't have a thing against Japanese movies, nor am I denying that many foreign (ie American) movies are violent or action based. But it comes up repeatedly , people shake their heads, wave their hand dismissively and say "Ugh, American movies are so violent. Never watch 'em. I like Japanese movies. Cute and heartwarming."

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UK film board stops sale of Japanese horror movie (AP)
Source: AP2 hours, 36 minutes ago Buzz up!

LONDON - Britain's film board has taken the unusual step of banning the sale of a Japanese horror DVD for what it says is violence so extreme that it's inappropriate for audiences.

The British Board of Film Classification says the movie "Grotesque" is essentially just an "an unrelenting and escalating scenario of humiliation, brutality and sadism."

It says the movie's nonstop scenes of torture — including amputation, castration and evisceration — make it impossible to edit the film in a way which would make it acceptable for British viewers.

The board's decision makes it illegal to sell or distribute the film in Britain. Two other films in the last four years have been banned.

The board rates about 10,000 films for DVD release annually.

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Had a group of young (30ish) people ask me what video games are popular in America. Of the top of my head, I think the Sims came to mind as a big hit. Yeah I know alien shoot 'em ups are popular too, but loads of people play online chess, American football on xbox, heck even silly things like fishing simulations. But in that lesson, the students laughed and said "I bet most american games are about fighting." Again, sort of overlooking all the Japanese games, recent and classic, about street fighting, swords & dragon kind of games, war simulations. No, doesnt fit with the brand image of bonsai and tea ceremony and kitty chan. anything else gets filtered out. The filter is a two way street, if that mixed imagery makes sense. Non-violent American stuff gets ignored, violent Japanese stuff gets ignored, and no one has to think too hard about conclusions they formed years ago based on limited info.

Again the usual caveat: Americans are guilty of a similar process, as I'm sure people all over the world are. Point is it's dumb, eh? And I'm writing about Japan's case.

Gaikoku (foreign country) is dangerous. More swine flu.

My student came back from Hawaii. She had a great time sightseeing and taking intensive English courses for a week.

But everyone she met upon returning to Japan was worried about her and her teenage daughter catching swine flu. A friend of hers who is an elementary school teacher, and therefore an expert on flu pandemics, said that anyone who goes abroad should stay at home for three days after coming back to Japan, to see if symptoms develop. Doesn't matter where they go. Just "gaikoku" (= foreign lands.) Go abroad, you get sick. Travel in Japan, safe.

My students thinks its silly but since Japanese primary school teachers also serve on the board of the State of Hawaii Health Commission, she stayed at home for three days after she got back to Japan.

Her son has been living in Kansai (Osaka and surrounding area) for 4 months now as a university student. It's got many cases of swine flu. Schools were shut down. No one asks if he is ok, and no one would expect him to be quarantined when he comes back to Kochi for summer vacation. Another student in the class is going to Kyoto (next to Osaka, with cases of its own) but she's not worried about catching swine flu. Would she be afraid to catch swine flu if visiting Hawaii? Yes.

Yup, the US prefers China.

It happened again today.
The "America prefers China, wahhh!"

Chinese officials were in Washington for high level talks. They want us to keep the dollar form collapsing, and we want them to keep buying dollars, and maybe even some of our stuff.

So Obama got on the podium in front of the world's media and said "American has to choose between China and Japan. Nations are only allowed one friend. And even though we always push Japan around, Japan who always humbly does our bidding and never gets anything in return out of the relationship --screw you , Japan! it's over baby. You suck. Here, sit on my upturned middle finger, nah, you'd like that wouldn't you? Ha, I'm putting our finger sitting photos on facebook now that I'm dumping you. China is better in bed than you are. Take a hike, us and china here gonna love each other long time."

Or from what I gather from my students, something to that effect.

You see, what I heard him say was something like "In the 21st century, the relationship between the USA and China is very important, perhaps has the greatest effect on the economy and environment of our planet. We must work together."

Which just about any newspaper editor in the world would tell you if you asked him.

But it's taken here to mean "Obama / the US / Hillary 'likes China' and therefore 'doesn't like' Japan."

I remember how during the democratic primaries my students said Hillary would be no good because she "didn't like Japan." She liked China. (She had said similar comments before that. I think she said "Do I like Japanese food? No way, I fricking hate everything about Japan. You won't even catch me eating instant cup noodles, so much do I not like that place when compared to their bigger more terrifying neighbor, China. Give me Chicken and Cashews number 42 over frickin raw fish any day. 4000 years of history and they never learned to cook with fire?"

And years before that, apparently Bush would be "better for Japan" (ha ha ha ha ha ha ... ok let me catch my breath) because Democrats didn't 'like' Japan. I'm serious, I heard this a lot. Even if the like / not like thing were true, I couldn't believe how many people, had they been able to vote in a US election, would have been swayed by this factor alone.

"Some guy in the coffee shop said Bush likes Japan more than Democrats do. Hmm, I guess I should vote for him. He will base all his geopolitical decisions on that preference."

As if international diplomacy were a matter of choosing one country forever and "liking" it and turning your back on all others. Or at least japan.

Somehow I doubt there are Brits and Germans and Ozzies crying "Oh, America doesn't like us anymore! They like Japan!"

I think I might have posted about this, but I was right several months ago: The US went out of its way to
1. make sure Hillary's first trip abroad as Secty State was to Japan
2. Make sure THE FIRST FOREIGN HEAD OF STATE INVITED TO THE WHITE HOUSE WAS FROM JAPAN (ASO)

They did this cuz they knew the Japanese populace would get in a tizzy if we shook hands with a Chinese official.

Anybody remember that? Nooo. You know how I am, (I even told them several months ago "Please remember this guys, because I know soon you're gonna say 'America like China'") If they do, it's probably further evidence of betrayal, like buying a girl flowers before you go cheat with her sister.

Ok- I agree, the US is nuts too.

This has nothing to do with Japan.

Was just reading about the movement of "Birthers" that won't give up trying to prove that Obama can't be President because he somehow isn't a natural born citizen. C'mon....

Even if they were right, even if Obama could be disqualified on those grounds, I have the feeling there are more than a few among them who were perfectly satisfied with John McCain's meeting the same requirement (born in the Panama canal) and hope that the Constitution can be amended so that non-natural citizens, such as Arnold Schwarzeneggar, could become President. After Obama is removed from office, of course.

Arrest of Black Scholar Gates

A Harvard Scholar, Henry Gates Jr., who is black, was arrested in Cambridge after breaking into his own home. The police say he was belligerent and uncooperative, while others say it was a case of racial discrimination. It is big news in the States now.

One of my students said how surprised she was. Surprised is usually a way of unconsciously saying "I think that's f**ked up. That sort of f**ked up sh*t would never happen in Japan." more politely. If I ever beg to differ with people's take on events or recollection of facts, they tend to reiterate "But I was surprised!"

Eg:
"And then they put the cat in a bottle. I surprised!"
"The cat wasn't actually in a bottle. They changed the photo with computer software. It's a bad joke."
"But cruel! I surprised!"
"No, it's not a real photo. A cat couldn't survive that long in a bottle."
"In Japan, no. I surprised!"

So what happens is the surprise tends to trump reality.

Anyway, that's not really what I'm posting about. Kinda digging myself into a hole here. I'm not sure what happened in the Gates case, I can see both sides. And yes, it is kind of messed up. But three things I noticed here are 1) the Japanese news media's tendency to highlight how racist the US is 2) Japanese people's self righteous reaction to these injustices 3) my friends' and student's remarkable skill at imagining ways in which such a thing could not be possible in the fairytale Japan of their collective psyche.

So my student wasn't actually dwelling so much on the man's race, more like on the every-man-for-himself attitude that they envision the US to be. Kind of like the way the societies of evil alien races or marauding mongol hordes are portrayed in movies. ("What, you disagree with me? You think we should use the death ray on the hospital instead of the capitol building? How dare you defy me!" Then the alien general kills the assistant and goes ahead with his subversive assistant's superior plan anyway.) So what shocked her was the fact that: a neighbor called the police on another neighbor! She insisted that in Japan, neighbors all know each other and get along and would be able to recognize each other and would never call the police on one another.

So if two guys were seen screwing around with a door in an apartment building, or a car on the street, there is no way some old lady in the neighborhood would call the cops. Japan is harmonious and "heartful." (a term that comes up when people are drunk.)

I didn't mention that I've had the police called on me for jogging, and for apparently taking drugs and making a huge racket while cooking a pork chop one night. (I was in my house cooking dinner but somehow one of my neighbors discerned that I was on drugs.) Nor the numerous spots on morning "news" shows about crazy neighbors feuding, old men breaking into homes to steal panties or money to pay off gambling debts, women poisoning curry at local block parties. It happens everywhere. Not that big a deal, just wish people would acknowledge that it happens here sometimes too. These go into a separate bin for domestic consumption, and the circuits connecting that stored data are switched off when international news is being processed.

Anyway, this isn't so much about the case of Mr. Gates, she's probably already forgotten those details. I think what she took away from the news report was that the US is indeed a violent, aggressive society where nobody cares about anyone else, unlike harmonious Japan where neighbors look out for one another.

Who knows, maybe there is some truth to what she says. I've seen people collapsed in the street here before and no one has bothered to call 911.

Swine Flu, USA dangerous

My student (adult female, age about 45) and her teenage daughter are going to Hawaii for a week to study English, take a tiny stab at living abroad, and to have a nice vacation.

The woman's husband was all worried she'd catch H1N1 (Swine Flu) while there. Discounting the fact that even if Hawaii were a hotspot for H1N1, the risk of infection would still be small, let's look at other factors at play here.

Osaka recently closed many high schools for a week because of H1N1 flu outbreak. With most of those young people, an age group at greatest risk of infection, then spending their new holiday at karaoke, sharing microphones in small enclosed rooms, the wisdom of this move could be questioned, but the fact remains that it was big news that the megalopolis of Osaka was a swine flu hotspot. Kochi (where I write this) just got its first few cases too. Big news locally.

As far as I know, Honolulu has not had to shut down any schools or take drastic health measures.

I would imagine, it's the Honolulu authorities who will be scared about flights coming from Osaka Japan. They'll probably fumigate my student's plane.

So why would her husband be scared?

I think it's the deep seated assumption that foreign places, especially the US aren't very well organized and therefore, in a word, dangerous. If Japan has a problem like this, it's assumed that it must be worse someplace else. People seem surprised to learn that the US has basic things like a social security system, volunteer fire departments and so on. Sure hurricane Katrina was a fiasco, but US doctors and scientists are always on TV for discovering new cures, performing radical operations that can't be done anywhere else, finding water on other planets, winning nobel prizes and so on.

I'm not trying to brag or claim the US healthcare system isn't in need of an overhaul. But if the student had been going to Germany (I don't know how bad the swine flu is there but does it matter?) I think the husband wouldn't worry. After all, it's Erurope (well, not Spain or Italy, or Portugal, or maybe England anyway they don't really count unless it's a food or arts conversation) and not just Europe, but Germany, hey, that's where they invented aspirin like 150 years ago. (Ask any Japanese over the age of 40 why they think Germany is on the cutting edge and there's a good chance that one will come up. Ask them to name a famous German computer printer or mobile phone maker and watch the gears collide while they do a Stereotype System Reboot.)

Anyway, I guess what I'm saying is I think it's another example of the "USA =McDonald's / Coke / crappy movies and crappy cars / fat racists" trumping the "USA = loads of nobel prizes / great universities / high tech powerhouse / culture of volunteering and tolerance" especially when played with the "Japan = prosperous hard-working modest harmonious live-for the-greater-good / samurai spirit / we love nature nation" and not "Japan = isolationist / declining economic power mired in debt / scandal ridden / ineffectual gov't / desperate horny salarymen taking sex tours to Asia / child porn powerhouse and rape video game / prosperity based on chemicals, steel, earth moving machines and motor vehicles that burn fossil fuels and depend on free international trade."

Don't attribute these off the mark generalizations to me -- they're just the way I hear people & reporters portray the respective countries.

Anyway, I retold the story to other students and as soon as I got to the "worried about swine flu" but before the "isn't that funny?" part, **everyone** had the same reaction: raised eyebrows, pursed lips and nods of agreement. Oh yes, Hawaii, swine flu, that is a worry.


After I explained my take on it (maybe it's the Honolulu authorities who are worried? Maybe the US has a few trained doctors around?) most people agreed at least that the trip wasn't risky.

Let me put it another way: in the past few months I've had adults and teens say they are going to visit or will be residing in the Osaka area. Not one person has expressed worry that they'll catch swine flu during their 3 day or 9 month stay.