Of unprecedented generosity and unremitting bastardry

Last night, Hayley and I went to a banquet at the house of our venerable landlord, Tsuchiya san. On the menu was Sukiyaki, basically high quality beef, thinly sliced & cooked at the table in a pan of soy sauce and sugar with a variety of vegetables and tofu. It was huge. He also presented a massive dish of sushi, about fifteen varieties, so the negligible journey home was accompanied by an invisible orchestra of timpani.

Our host wasn't eating much, spending most of the night cooking for us. We felt a little self conscious about that, but he didn't mind, and informed us that he had to keep below a certain weight, for the good of his health.

The Japanese Ministry of Health has approved an equation for determining your relative height to weight ratio. I, for example am roughly 186cm tall, and I weigh 80kg. For the equation, you need to put a decimal point after the 100 for your height, and multiply it by itself, thus

1.86 x 1.86 = 3.4596

Then divide your weight by the answer above.

80 ÷ 3.4596 = ?

If your answer is between 20 and 24, then you are, by official Government standards, healthy. Myself scoring 23.12406 means I could be healthier, but I've always known that. Hayley (despite her adoption of my uncompromisingly large diet) is remarkably within the gap.

Given that it's a rarity for the Japanese to entertain at home, this was something of an honour, so we bought desert, in the form of dango and cakes shaped like fish, stuffed with soy bean jam. These, however, were immediately offered up before his Shrine to Inari, the Shinto Rice Deity, and his family Buddhist Temple, adorned with pictures of his parents. Buddhism and Shinto are intimately linked in Japan.

Tsuchiya san went on to talk about the history of Japanese Buddhism and how there is no religious conflict within the country. True, Christians were persecuted in the Edo period, but that probably has more to do with social, political and cultural factors, rather than being an ideological disagreement.

Tsuchiya san is a member of the Soutou sect of Buddhism, although his family has been traditionally associated with a different sect. He is enthusiastic about Soutou Buddhism because he feels it is the root of Japanese culture.

I may be accused of oversimplification by any Buddhists who might be reading, but Soutou Buddhism works on the principal that Buddha nature is inherent in everybody and everything, and it doesn't need to be attained, just harmonised with. Simple rituals, such as the Tea Ceremony, or Zazen, are intended to realise this clearness of mind and spirit. Soutou Buddhism has rules for every aspect of life, from opening doors to going to the toilet.

For a people famed for avoiding the direct and embracing the general, at least when it comes to communication, the Japanese can be sickeningly specific. This is understandable when one considers their complicated religion and language, where a slight mis-pronunciation can result in wildly different meanings, but the condition takes a near pathological twist when it comes to matters bureaucratic. Today, I have returned from the local ward office, defeated in my attempts to avoid paying a bill I don't think I should.

Humph...entries like this make me want to resurrect the late Blog of Anger...basically, Health Insurance is mandatory out here. When I arrived, my illustrious employers provided me with an insurance plan they recommended. Unfortunately, when it came to an old injury flaring up again, this proved to be as useful as a chocolate teapot. In order to avoid paying the catastrophic fees I incurred for a bout of tonsillitis earlier last year, I had no choice but to sign up for the National Plan...and how glad I am that I did.

I've complained about this in another entry, that an injury in need of therapy was provided with painkillers, but now it seems that they want me to pay for a years worth of cover, namely the first year I arrived, when I was on that money-pit advised by the bastards I work for. Today has been a bitter test of my Japanese and basic tolerance of mankind.

That was a bit of a tangent wasn't it? Didn't go anywhere other than complaining either...I seem to have lost touch with my Buddha nature.