Cultural misconceptions, the Japanese work ethic & other sweeping generalisations

I`ve touched on these issues in other entries...never resolved the first one; how gaijin may (or may not) be viewed by the Japanese in terms of the latters` fabled otherness. Part of the root, for teenagers at least, could be their English language textbooks, as these are probably their only reference to the English speaking world, apart from Hollywood or Fawlty Towers at a push. All the schools in Kawasaki use the same textbooks. In one of the first lessons, they learn that the English character, Ms. Jones (notable for her blonde hair and blue eyes), doesn`t like octopus. So, by the time they reach the second grade, most of the teenagers of Kawasaki have learned “I don`t like...” in the context of a westerner emphatically disliking octopus, complete with remorseful expression & “no-way-on-Gods`-earth-will-I-eat-that” hand gestures. That I find octopus even remotely palatable seems to shock many a Japanese person, none more so than the students.

Who can blame them for making this assumption? If it were solely up to Tricolore 3, I`d think that all French Bakers were terminally horny to the point of cellular collapse if their lusts went un-sated.

This phenomenon can work the other way. As well as giving peculiar impressions of the culture of the target language, your own society can be reflected in the same sense. Whilst looking for some activities on the Kawasaki City website, I discovered a “matching problems to solutions” card game, with such classics as “If you see a fire?” “Call 119”, “If you‘re hungry?” “Eat something“. The one that stands out for me is “If you’re tired?” “Drink some Ripobitan D”. Two questions instantly spring to mind;

a) What the hell is Ripobitan D? *
b) What`s wrong with a bit of kip?

I was presented with a delightful image of Englishness through a Japanese travel guide to London, the useful phrases section at the back having a victimised tourist chasing a mugger shouting “Robber!” That may come from a direct translation of the verb in question (Oi! isn’t taught at this level) - certainly when translated literally, Japanese verbs betray part of their national character - take “eat” - tabemasu. The conjugation goes “I won`t eat” - tabenai, “you WILL eat!” - tabe, “if I eat” - tabe ba and “let`s eat” - tabemashou. That a verb conjugation exists especially for the group is so Japanese you can smell it. The group is all important over here. Everybody does everything together - the word “tomodachi", although meaning "friend" has deeper connotations than the english word - a tomodachi is somebody you went to school with and did EVERYTHING with them, all the time. Solidarity within the group is paramount, but it can turn into one of those quirks that, to the alien, seems utterly bloody ridiculous. It's sometimes considered over here that the last person to leave work is the most hardworking & talented employee of the lot. I've walked home from a cathartic beer of a friday, past the school I live opposite to see the light in the Teachers room on after midnight. Murakami sensei, from that same school, didn't go home for THREE DAYS one week, staying in a capsule hotel in central Kawasaki...although I have heard stories of teachers staying behind playing Solitaire until eight at night, just so they wouldn't be the last to leave...

This brings me to the Japanese work ethic which, as I`m sure I`ve said before, is utterly bonkers. Whilst the lazy ALT was sunning himself during Golden Week, every teacher was at school from the crack of dawn, giving up this magnificent opportunity for some well-deserved rest, in order to run club activities. Kyomachi teachers are in school before me, and I live virtually across the road (although that`s probably a reason why). A lot of the students spend evenings and weekends in Jukus, or cram-schools, as entrance exams into the best High Schools and Universities are tough...but you’re pretty much set once you get there.

At five o`clock, in most work places you go to, there is a little chime that seems to say “Aaah, now it is five. Our days work is done. Come, let us go home, so that we might relax” (it also plays on tannoys in the street). This chime means nothing. Most teachers will still be in school a good two or three hours afterwards. There`s almost an unspoken expectation to put as much of yourself, to the detriment of everything else in your life, into your work. This spirit of self-sacrifice probably contributes greatly to the generally amiable Japanese demeanour, but you can take these things too far. A Samurai wouldn’t have thought twice about eviscerating himself and having a friend decapitate him if he felt he’d somehow messed up his job. Not that I’ve ever seen that at school. I have however, heard of a boy being hospitalised for three days by pushing himself too hard in a basketball tournament. Komada sensei, who runs the basketball club at Kyomachi (and fed me that alarming anecdote), is constantly knackered due to the massive workload he has. Our lessons are usually thrown together at the last minute. By contrast, Suzuki sensei is an unstoppable teaching machine - when team-teaching with her, Komada sensei and I are but marionettes to her omnipotent puppeteer. This has been re-confirmed for me by teachers at Nakanoshima Junior High, where she used to work (the Japanese education system having a policy of relocation if you‘ve been in one school for ten years). She`s a legend in her lifetime.

All that said, what`s the biggest problem I face when trying to teach English to teenagers? Motivation. Some things are true the world over. Here`s something else you can never escape from.



Never mind the Illuminatus...this is the real world-controlling conspiracy.

In other news, me ol` Uni-Mucka Dave has started his own blog, the uncompromisingly titled No Compassion Without Suffering. Not for the faint hearted.


* Ripobitan D is what you`d call a “Genki drink” (not an official title), “Genki” meaning “full of energy and vitality”. Genki drinks, to me, demonstrate the quintessentially Japanese attitude of “get up and go!...and keep going!”

YAY!

...Kyoto part 2 & Osaka

We decided to have a butchers at the Imperial Palace. Having got up too late for the morning tour, we ended up having to kill time in the area waiting for the afternoon slot. Midst standing around going "lawks-a-mussy, it`s hot" we popped into Rozanji.



Not the most outstanding temple we saw, but it`s easy to get jaded with temples in Kyoto. The Imperial Palace didn`t strike me as being worth the wait either, despite the lovely garden bit...





But no matter...off we went to Ryoanji,



which houses what is apparently the ultimate example of a Zen Rock Garden



The allignment of the stones is supposed to have a different meaning for everybody who looks at them...I though they symbolised conflicting sides of human nature, a separation from the Divine and the means by which to return...Matt thought they were a bunch of rocks...

Then Kinkakuji.



I was especially keen to see this having just read "The Temple of the Golden Pavillion" by Mishima Yukio, based on the events of 1950 when the Temple was burned to the ground by a deranged Zen acolyte, obsessed with it`s beauty and his own ugliness. Mishima paints a gripping and I thought, contrary to whoever wrote the introduction, moving picture of his descent into madness. Cracking read, great writer. I`m currently tackling the tetraology he left at the publishers the day he committed seppuku in 1970.

But that`s all too heavy for an entry about holidays, & monkies are cuter by far than ugly Zen psychotics.



Man and monkey live in pseudo-harmony at Iwatayama Monkey park, a sort of reservation up a mountain west of Kyoto. Amazing experience, having never been that close to the things before. Whilst stopping to take this photo



one of chaps walked past my foot. Having lived with twenty-four cats at one point, animals at my feet are nothing strange...but a monkey?! Yay!

One of the best features about this place is the shack where the monkey-careres do all their admin, and tourists can feed them from behind a wire mesh. Nice reversal of the zoo scenario, the observers being on the inside...but of course, the monkies were observing us & our tourist trap bags of sweet potatoes.





That last photo was taken with the uncanny skill and precision of Matthew John Falconer Banks, may his name be praised.

Having walked through a great deal of Kyoto and climbed a mountain, we decided our last day would be one of relaxation...we still ended up climbing a mountain though...



Kibune is the kind of area that would be described in Bristol as "gert posh". As well as a couple of temples, it`s home to a number of Ryokan that open their doors to the general public from June until September, serving traditional Japanese food on tatami covered platforms over a river.



Wow that was tasty...I read somewhere that it`s considered bad manners not to clean your plate, so when presented with a lovely ayu (FISH!), I proceeded to polish off every bit...the head was pretty tasty, but to all future ayu munchers, don`t eat the guts...

The second part of this trip, involving the aforementioned mountain hike, took us to Kurama.



Legend has Mount Kurama as home to the Tengu, goblins with red faces and gigantic noses. There was a statue of one of the beasties after the mountain walk which, sadly, I neglected to snap...those of you who know Matt can probably see the fellow.

At the very top of the mountain, as well as a stunning view of lots and lots of trees (don`t get many of those in Kawasaki) was the final temple we saw...



...no more temples! Gaaaaaaagh!

Having climbed two mountains in just as many days, we decided the time was right for an Onsen...we had a warmer at a Sento, which is like an indoor Onsen...basically, you wash yourself thoroughly before getting into a communal bath which is REALLY HOT. Then you spend your time hopping between that and one which is REALLY COLD. Hours of fun...well, two at most, as you tend to turn into pudding after a while.

An Onsen is different from a Sento in that it is outside, up a mountain, and the bath is full of mountain spring water.



I couldn`t resist it. Surrounded as I was by naked men, I thought it best to take a photo quickly and discretly. A pity I didn`t turn the flash off...

So that`s it for Kyoto. Matt was getting a plane back from Osaka,



...and I wanted to go there anyway as it`s the home of The Boredoms, so I felt a pilgramage was in order...I found nothing to suggest that it was their home, but what I did find was an alarming number of Jehovah`s Witnesses.

Osaka is pretty industrialised, as it was virtually destroyed by American bombing in World War II...this of course has keft it open to garish advertisements...



...and many an opportunity for daftness.



Having being cultured out in Kyoto, Osaka was all about ending the holiday in the way that only two Bolton boys in Japan can...KARAOKE!



As the songs line up at the same rate as the beer, I invariably turn into my mother. There we`re singing the Stone Roses "I am the Ressurection" at the top of our roaring northern voices.

Yay! My summer. What a blast. Having being financially ruined somewhat as a result, I spent the next two weeks living off a diet of rice and water & whatever I could catch with my bare hands. If anybody else fancies coming over...?

There`s probably not going to be an entry for a while, hence the inordinate fatness of this one. Thanks for your patience, and watch this space...

WIDOMSH - Kyoto, part 1

Apologies to all those expecting an entry yesterday (or the day before)...blogger`s being weird of late...

So, disillusioned with 21st century Tokyo with its pollution, noise, MILLIONS OF PEOPLE and seven quid beers, we ventured into Kyoto for a more cultural experience of Japan. We stayed in Yuhara Ryokan, a Ryokan being a traditional Japanese guest house - cue lots of posing in Yukatas...



Yuhara being the name of the sweet (and slightly shrivelled) old lady who runs the place, and her slightly neurotic, but undoubtedly dedicated-to-his-work son.

So yay! Kyoto, once the capital, is the heart of historic Japan. Miraculously, it was spared American bombing in World War II (unlike neighbouring Osaka which was virtually destroyed), so HERITAGE is the key word here. From what I`ve heard about Yokohama-ites from other Japanese people, they sound like people from Bath, or Canterbury, or Oxford, York, Cambridge, or anywhere else in the world with a bit of historical prestige that attracts lots of tourists...you know the people I mean...

Kyoto is home to Gion, famous as a Geisha district - Geisha aren`t strictly prostitues (that`s at the discretion of the Geisha & her clients). Geisha are trained in music and dance, cultivate a sense of humour and keep up with current events - they are hostesses (sort of) for the absurdly rich. We went to Kyoto hoping to spot at least one - bless our Blighty boots if we didn`t see four of them wandering around within two hours of arriving...didn`t see any more since then...

Kyoto`s all about temples, and we saw a fair few of those. The first one, Heian Jingu, was OK, notable for it`s lush garden bit



but really, there was not much else to it. Just round the (very big) corner was the Budo Martial arts centre, where pugialists gather to do cool stuff...like judo, sumo or archery



Then onto Nanzenji...it`s named after father Nanzen, a priest in the Zen parable, "Father Naznen kills a kitten". Basically, two groups of Zen acolytes found a kitten mooching about, and began arguing over who had ownership.. Nanzen stepped in, held the kitten aloft, his sword against its throat, saying
"If anybody can say one word, then this kitten will be spared."
Nobody said anything, so Nanzen killed the kitten. The next day, the Zen acolyte Choshu, who wasn`t present during the incident, comes to Nanzen and puts his shoes on his head. Father Nanzen then says
"Ah, if only you had been here yesterday, then that kitten would still be alive."
Make of it what you will. That`s Zen for you.

Sadly all my pictures of note there were taken with my SLR...no chance for weblogging there...Nanzenji was great, lots of room to wander about, unlike one of the BIG temples that everybody goes to see...



Now, that`s lovely, but there were too many tourists & the place seemed cordoned off a tad...never mind...

Despite an 11 o`clock curfew, we still managed to find a cheap cocktail bar. Cultural Japan or not, we were two Bolton boys on our Jollies.

Although I promised you monkies, time will not grant me this boon...I had internet time coming out of my ears in the Library...now when I actually have stuff to do on it...watch this space.