My name is Jeff, and have been a friend of Paul's for nearly a decade now. In May of 2009, I was able to live one of my dreams, and visit Japan for the first time. Having limited knowledge of the Land of the Rising Sun, I had created a skewered view in my mind of what I thought Japan was all about -- a mystical land where ninja, samurai, and robot dogs roam the streets. Where porn was plentiful, and parking disputes were settled with swordfights. Where I, at 5'9" tall, would be a caucasian giant among men.
Turns out, I was half-right. Certain expectations were met. Still, not a day went by when I wasn't confused, amused, or downright shocked by certain aspects of Japanese society. In the next few decades or so, I'll occasionally pop into the world-renowned, critically acclaimed "Just Another Day in Japan" blog, to share some of these bizzare occurances with you.
But first, a small bit about me (as who we are often shapes the way we perceive things). As mentioned, my name is Jeff, a somewhat long-time friend of Mr. Blue Shoe himself, Paul. Born and raised in NYC, where I've lived all my life, and at the time of this posting, just a few weeks shy of 30. Whereas Paul defines himself as a Catholic, and proud conservative, I am technically Christian, though religion was not much of an issue growing up, and a registered Independant, though I lean to the left. Politics and religion are two topics we tend to tiptoe carefully around, for the sake of our friendship. And while Paul admits to enjoying a tall, frosty libation from time to time, I am proud of my straight-edge lifestyle, and openly discuss it (or defend it, when necessary).
What we do share, though, is a fondness for video games, a similar sense of humor, and an interest in Japan. I'm happy and honored to be a new contributor to the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Just Another Day in Japan," and hope the millions of Paul's fans enjoy my occasional entries. Until then...konnichiwa!
I mean, sayonara. Give me a break...it's not like I live there, too.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Press Start to Join!
I'm doing my best on this blog - I'm still tinkering with the look of it and doing my best to update regularly with attention-grabbing posts. Keeping a blog can be hard work. So I'm pleased to tell you that a friend of mine will be popping in every now to help me tag team this shiz.
One of the primary reasons I'm glad to have him helping out is because he's fresh. By that, I mean that he visited me in Japan this year, but aside from that his experience in J-Land is limited. In other words, he can help provide a less jaded and worn perspective on the Land of the Rising Sun. He'll probably be better at pointing out things I've grown too accustomed to to notice anymore. I look forward to it. Expect a post from him soon.
よろしくお願いします.
Japan and Dating: Part 1
Generally speaking, when you put yourself out there, things will end in one of two ways...
Scenario - 男(Guy): "I like you! Please go out with me...!"
Possibility A - 女(Gal): "I...I like you, too."
Possibility B - 女(Gal): "I'm sorry!"
My knowledge of dating and relationships in Japan is limited, as is my own personal experience in the area. That is to say I have some, but not nearly enough to qualify me as an expert. Still, I thought it would be interesting to have a look at some aspects of this part of Japanese life.
First, I'd like to talk a bit about the comic strips above. They come from the first three pages of a manga I started reading recently called Rangeman. On the first page, some offscreen guy says "あなたの事が好きです！！！付き合ってください！！！" I like you! Please go out with me!
She stammers "わ...私も" I...I...also...
On page two, she finishes "私もあなたが好き" I like you, too.
As we can see, this is taking place on a big monitor on a building. Looks like Shibuya, in Tokyo.
Finally on page three, we see that this guy has just laid down a similar line, but this girl isn't having it. "ごめんなさい..." I'm sorry...
For today, I want to talk a little bit about these lines, as they seem to be pretty common fare. If you are familiar at all with manga or anime or Japanese movies in their original language, you'll have noticed that there often comes a time when a character will struggle through a great deal of embarrassment and tension and tell some girl that he likes her. He'll usually say something like:
"あなたが好き" (anata ga suki) or sometimes just "好き" (suki), or some variation. There really are a ton of ways to express the same thought. If the guy is lucky, the object of his affection will reciprocate. "私も好き" (watashi mo suki). If not, however...we come to the dreaded "ごめんなさい" (gomennasai). Yup. If she doesn't feel the same way, she'll tell you she's sorry and then probably walk away laughing cruelly.
This formula pops up all over the place. Often the guy will toss in a "付き合ってください" (tsukiatte kudasai). Back in college, there were these female Japanese exchange students who I was friends with. One of them clearly had a thing for me, so I decided to ask her out. First, I consulted with a friend of mine, who was an older Japanese graduate student. She advised me to tell the girl how I felt and then throw in a "付き合ってください." That was the first time I ever heard it. I did so, and I wound up going out with that girl for about two years.
I find the whole thing quite interesting and (unsurprisingly) uncharacteristic of the Japanese mentality. I say unsurprisingly because Japan is a country of harmonious dischord. Contradictions abound. In a culture centered around vagueness and being indirect, where did this come from? Directly saying "I like you"?
It's worth exploring, but I'm not sure how often this kind of thing actually happens in real life and how much of a romanticization it is. Perhaps it is a luxury of youth. I say this because, as I will talk about in Part 2, I have also come across a great deal of secrecy and discretion in Japanese relationships. But more on that next time.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
A Weighty Date
August 6th is the anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Honestly it's not a date that Americans are generally aware of. Nor have I seen much in Japan to publicize the date, although I believe there is an annual memorial ceremony that takes place in Hiroshima.
For Americans and Japanese alike, it is a gravid topic. Many Americans feel we were justified in what we did, as evidenced by a recent poll. I used to think so, too. World War II had been raging for 6 years, and after the losses incurred in Europe and predictions of the millions of both Japanese and Americans who would die in an invasion of Japan, a resolution was needed.
After visiting Hiroshima a few years ago, however, I changed my mind. I wouldn't go so far as to call Truman or the US military war criminals, but I think their decision was a mistake and made in haste. The actual reasons we dropped the bomb are debated, and I'm not going to discuss them here. Our motives may have been noble, but the ends do not justify the means.
The first time I visited Hiroshima, I felt very awkward and uncomfortable. Being an American there, one feels scrutiny where there is none. I know I felt an (perhaps) irrational guilt. Visiting the Peace Park and Atomic Bomb Memorial Museum was a very moving experience. The group I was with also gifted by a speech given by a hibakusha (被爆者), an atomic bomb survivor. Her story was very sad, and I won't recount the horrors she shared. My visit did convince me, though, of Hiroshima's noble goal - not to assign blame, but to make sure atomic bombs are never used again.
Nuclear proliferation is a complicated subject. I don't have any hope for global nuclear dearmament. I don't strongly support the effort, because I don't think it's a practical goal; unfortunately, some countries will probably always need such weapons as a deterant. I do pray that nuclear weapons are never used again.
The A-Bomb Dome - the closest building to the blast zone to remain partially standing.
Insects...of insanity!
When I was a kid, TV had all kind of imaginitive shows and cartoons - a wide and varied amount of magical and fantastical stuff. Remember cartoon movies like The Hobbit and The Last of the Unicorns? David the Gnome, with trolls and wizards and fairy kings, birds that talk and fish that sing?
One of the animations I most fondly remember was called Flight of Dragons. It was a Rankin/Bass production (those guys who made all the holiday specials) based loosely on the book by Gordon Dickson, The Dragon and the George. Anyway, it occurred to me the other day that someone on the production team must have been to Japan. If you have ever seen it, there is one scene where two of our heroes - Sir Orin and Peter (in dragon form) are assaulted by the sandmirks - horrible beasts who, by some magical chittering sound, fry your brain and induce insanity. Well, I'm convinced that for the audio element of the sandmirks, someone came over here and recorded some Japanese cicadas.
Now I'm not sure exactly how widespread these insects are. We have them in America, and growing up in New York, every summer they would make their appearance and every fall they would seemingly disappear as quickly as they came. I don't remember them being much of a nuissance. Here, though, they can drive you to near madness. They are friggin loud! It's probably not so bad in the cities, but in the suburbs and countryside, where we have trees...ugh.
Ugh, cover your ears!
Don't let them fry your mind!
Let's Enjoy Japanese: It's easy to say
Most of my readership at the moment probably has little to no Japanese experience, so this kind of entry may die out. For now, however, I've decided to periodically write about 日本語 (nihongo - Japanese language). I've been studying for about 5 years now and have spent a total, on and off, of roughly 19 months in Japan. If I were a cleverer or more diligent man, I'd be fluent by now. Neither being the case, though, I'd gauge myself as Upper-Intermediate. Two Decembers ago I passed the JLPT level 3, and next year I think I'll be gunning for level 2.
Anyway, if anyone is curious at all about the language, feel free to ask questions and I will answer to the best of my ability. If let to my own devices, I'll probably just post some seemingly random words and grammar points of various difficulties. Oh, and in case you were wondering about the title of the post, "Let's enjoy __________" is a standard English pattern that students learn over here, and you see it all over the place. Why, just last week I helped teach an open-house demonstration lesson. The title of our offering was, of course, "Let's Enjoy English."
Now let's get down to brass tacks. Japanese is a difficult language for English speakers - according to the US State Department's Foreign Service Institute, Japanese ranks a 3* on a scale of 1-3, with 3 being the most difficult (the asterisk denotes extra difficulty, perhaps akin to a half step up). Pronunciation, however, is not an element of that difficulty. Quite the reverse - for native English speakers, Japanese is very straightforward. It is the Japanese who have trouble with English pronunciation, as there are many sounds present in our language that do not exist in Japanese. Plus, there are many rules and exceptions in English. "Read" and "red" can share the same pronunciation. Sometimes.
Here is how we pronounce vowels in Japanese:
あ - A - sounds like the "a" in "father"
い - I - sounds like the "i" in "marine" (English's "ee" sound)
う - U - sounds like "oo" in English, such as in "cool"
え - E - sounds like the "e" in "end"
お - O - sounds like the "o" in "old"
The great thing is, no matter in what order the characters appear or with what consonant partners, their sounds always remain the same. Hence さ (sa) + け (ke) = さけ (sake; meaning liquor) is pronounced "sah-keh."
Please, for the love of God, remember that - "sah-keh," not "sah-key."
Update: It's noteworthy, as pointed out in the comments, that in some words vowels sounds may be slurred or dropped. This is not a rule, however - just an alternate pronunciation.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
What's in a name
Japan's August 30th general election is fast approaching, and Japanese voters are to be faced yet again with an almost certainly unresolvable problem. You see, Japan has been governed for over 50 years now by the same political party, generally criticized for being corrupt and ineffective. Its main, more liberal rival is viewed as equally corrupt but with less experience. These days I've been seeing a lot of signs for a third party, which I had never heard of until just recently. Despite the sound of it, this is a real party: the Happiness Realization Party, when translated into English. From what I've read they are quite crazy, and yet (perhaps it's the crazy in me), some of their platforms don't seem that outlandish. You can read about them in this Japan Times article. I find their choice of name to be the perhaps the most surprising thing about them - while marketable, it does sound very cultish, indeed. Their religious beliefs are also quite surprising, but less so once their party name is considered.
Particularly appealing to me are their aims to bring more foreigners to Japan and remilitarize (while striving to overcome Japan's "colonial mentality"). I am somewhat mixed on their desire to inject religion into Japan. If you know me, you know that I am religious myself and am by no means an opponent of policies partly influenced by religious considerations. However, I do draw the line at establishing any kind of State religion, which seems more likely what the HRP means to do.
That aside, Japan does need more people, and since the Japanese seem unwilling to have more babies to bring up their population, they need immigration. Unfortunately, due to strict government regulations it is difficult to obtain a Japanese residency and nearly impossible to obtain a citizenship. The government's desire to preserve Japan's homogenity is understandable, given its culture, but also ultimately self-destructive. If Japan doesn't get a significant amount of young workers in the coming 50 years or so by one means or another, the country faces an impending economic collapse.
Rangeman!
Recently I decided that my Japanese has been languishing and that it's time to step up my study efforts. You may be able to relate if you've been learning a language for a long time - after a while you start to search for new and varied methods of study. I have textbooks and kanji lists that I could be using. I also have Harry Potter still checked out from my school's library, but I haven't been able to break through that invisible barrier I hit on page 67. I needed something that would expose me not only to new grammar, vocabulary, and kanji, but do so in a context. Books are great for this, but unfortunately they are also an extraordinary effort for me at the moment.
I've never really been able to get into comic books. As a kid I had a few - maybe a dozen or so, tops. I love books, and I like art (assuming the two to be different things here for the sake of my point), but for me, comic books have always been a watered down combination of the two. Much of the appeal of a good book is the ability it has to fuel one's imagination. When you provide the reader with pictures, it seems to me that you are "doing the work for them," so to speak. I mean, what is a comic book but a half-assed cartoon - less illustrations than an animation and no voice work. Sure, comics have redeeming factors, such as their standalone medium, and don't get me wrong - some comics have truly beautiful artwork. I have just always preferred a good book. Maybe it's for that reason, plus the desire to connect somehow to Japan without becoming a "Japan fanboy" that I have avoided manga for all these years. The three key elements necesary for the genesis of such an entity are manga, anime, and video games - the cornerstones of the temple at which they worship. Once all three are present, the building blocks are in place for that "anything Japanese is awesome" mentality. I prefer to avoid absolutes like that outside of the spiritual realm.
The other day I decided to break with my tradition for the good of the language. Yes, I bought some manga. My selection method probably leaves much to be desired, and I'm sure comic book and manga connoisseurs would be disappointed in me. I checked out a local specialty recycle shop, for lack of a better term, which deals chiefly in clothes, video games, and manga. A recycle shop, by the way, is for our purposes a used goods store, although the place I'm talking about has new products, as well. This place has aisles and aisles of manga. Aisles and aisles. What's a guy to do? I approached it the way I approach shopping for clothes. I looked around for a few minutes, seeking something not too dull but not too gaudy, which would serve to get the job done. Search time was a major consideration. I'm pretty satisfied with the results.
Behold -- Rangeman!
Skimmed the first first book and it seemed acceptable, so I bought (all? the first?) six on the shelf for a neat 1008 yen (roughly $11). I'm a decent way through the first one now, and it hasn''t disappointed. The book tells the story of a 16-year-old boy named Renji (in English it would probably sound more like "Range," hence the title), opening with a scene in which he declares his affection for a girl and is rejected, resulting in his 99th successive "defeat." As the story progresses, we see both that Renji is desperate for a girlfriend and that he doesn't know how to deal with ladies. Not only is he desperate to the point of obsession, but he has some strange, if not overly romanticized ideas about how to sweep a girl off her feet. Add to this a sprinkling of social awkwardness and inexperience and you have a recipe for failure, as his track record demonstrates. You would think he'd have learned by now. I must say, though - 99 cracks at getting a girlfriend by age 16 is quite impressive.
At the point I've reached, he has finally secured his first real date (kind of...he tells her to meet him at a certain train station and runs away without waiting for an answer) with a cute but coarse girl who was underappreciated by her ex-boyfriend because of her unladylike manners. Incidentally, Renji met her by being hit by her motorscooter...twice. After consulting with and ignoring the advice of his friends, who tell him that his plans are dumb, he decides to go wait for this girl 3 hours early, so that he can brag to her that he waited a long time for her arrival. He oversleeps, however, and wakes up with, *gasp*, less than two hours to spare. This is where things turn from Japanese romance cliche to a different kind of Japanese flavor. On his way to the train station where he's meeting her, he cuts through a park and is bowled over by some scrawny Power Ranger-looking dude. All of a sudden, some professor with a striking resemblence to Dr.Wily rolls up in a heart-shaped, mini UFO-thing and begins arguing with the Power Ranger guy, as a huge badass-looking robot appears out of nowhere and starts ambling towards them. The Power Ranger and Dr. Wily have some kind of argument - the Power Ranger yelling that he wants to quit and have a girlfriend, and Dr. Wily trying to persuade him to stick with it. Ultimately the Ranger runs away, and Dr. Wily notices Renji, who is sitting on the ground trying to figure out what's going on. Thinking that this is part of a movie scene being filmed, Renji tries to run past the metal goliath, only to get smacked down robot-style. Dr. Wily grabs him with one of his claw-arms and tells him that his only choice is to take the Ranger's place. Renji starts to get seriously PO'ed - he just wants to make it to his date. Then the robot steps on the flowers he had brought for the girl and there is murder in his eyes. Literally, the kanji for "to kill" replace his pupils. The good doctor promises that if Renji does as he asks, he will replace the flowers (which cost roughly $150). He gives Renji a ring and tells him some magic words to say, then turns him loose. Renji puts on the ring and shouts the magic words and all of a sudden is transformed into Rangeman - a jacked Power Ranger. After making short work of the robot, he collects his cash from the Doctor and runs away to his date. After a moment, however, his powers fade and he is left naked and feeble in the street. He hides in some bushes and misses his date.
I have to go back and reread that part, but it seems that the Rangeman's powers are fueled by love or lust or some kind of romantic passion.
Anyway, it's an interesting comic, and I am planning some follow-ups for this post...so stay tuned.
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