Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1
Vietnam
Chapter 2
New Home
in Kofu
Chapter 3
Hong Kong
China,
&
Korea
Chapter 4
Yamanashi
Chapter 5
Society
Chapter 6
Hospital
Chapter 7
Nikko
Chapter 8
Holiday
Greetings
Chapter 9
Culture
Chapter 10
Holiday
Trip:
Kansai
&
Kyushu
Chapter 11
Mores
Chapter 12
Hankos
& Brush-
writing
Chapter13
Friends
Chapter 14
Festivities
Chapter 15
Okinawa
&
Nagasaki
Chapter 16
Hong Kong
&
Australia
Chapter 17
Special
People
&
Events
Chapter 18
Coming
to
Japan
Chapter 19
Letter to
Editor
Chapter 20
Teaching
English
Chapter 21 Hamamatsu
Chapter 22
Women's
Relation-
ships
Chapter 23
Reflections
on
Education
Chapter 24
Nephews'
Visit
Chapter 25
Thailand,
Korea
&
Home
Chapter 26
Taking
Stock
Chapter 9
Japanese Culture
December 13, 1995
Dear Friends,
We decided to start our next newsletter now while there is a lull. Things will begin to get hectic in a few days and we probably won't get back to the letter until after our holiday trip.
For awhile, we thought there might be no more newsletters. In spite of dire warnings from many sources, we have been "typical" Americans. We were eating and drinking while using the computer and it was bound to happen! A cup of tea got spilled. The computer fizzed, chirped, and died. An emergency call was placed to Marie's son, who gave invaluable advice and after about a week or so of sitting and resting, it miraculously revived itself. And we may have learned a lesson.
Do you remember what the Japanese said about the problem with the seatbelts in the Hondas? After they were discovered to be defective, the Japanese said that there was nothing wrong with the seatbelts. It was a problem with Americans, who eat and drink in their cars, causing the belt's apparatus to jam. (Both of our cars have been recalled to fix the defective seatbelts, since we have come to Japan -- and we must admit that we are guilty of eating and drinking in our cars.) Similar thinking by the Japanese was exhibited a few years ago when the U.S. was putting pressure on the government to allow the importation of more beef. The Japanese government said that a reason why they didn't comply with the U.S. request was because the Japanese don't eat much beef because they have smaller intestines than Americans and, therefore, can't digest as much beef as we can. (Keep in mind the Japanese do have a sense of humor!)
In one of our more recent letters, we mentioned that Japanese teachers are married to their jobs and have no home life to speak of. They are truly "owned" by the school. Just after we wrote that, Tom was summoned to a meeting of the English department on a Friday afternoon.
Japanese meetings seem interminable. There is no give and take as in the US. If someone expresses an opinion, a silence usually ensues. Supposedly, everyone is pondering the idea. In fact, they are often waiting for the person to realize that no one agrees with him. That process can take a long time. One teacher at Tom's meeting had the exasperating habit of interjecting a viewpoint just when the group was ready to go to the next question.
The purpose of this particular meeting was to discuss the entrance exam. Girls have a fairly extensive examination they must pass in order to be accepted into the senior high at Eiwa, even if they have completed their junior high years at the school. The exam is also given to applicants who have completed junior high in other schools. The exam is 6 pages long. Each question had to be scrutinized down to the finest point of grammatical usage. An American teacher was asked to read each question, so that the group could consider it more fully. At one point the teacher asked (sarcastically, Tom hopes) if she should also read the punctuation marks. Since no one at a Japanese meeting ever says, "That's a dumb idea," she proceeded to do it. At that point, all Tom could think about was Victor Borge's classic routine of giving sounds to punctuation marks.
The meeting to review the exam lasted for five hours, without completing the task!! Box lunches arrived at 5 o'clock but remained unopened until the meeting was over. Tom came home, minus a box lunch, at 7:30 on that Friday evening. He was not happy and was heard muttering that he would have liked to run the meeting!
The following Monday, there was another meeting after school in order to clean out the supplies. We wonder what would happen in the US if teachers would suddenly learn that there was a meeting to start at 3 or 4 on a Friday afternoon. However, at Eiwa, Friday afternoon meetings are the norm, rather than the exception. The "contract day" is over at 5:15, but the only people who leave at that time are the foreign teachers. Most stay until 6 or later, even on Fridays. And, yes, some come in on Saturday.
Another thing we talked about previously continues to confuse us. The ever-present rules. We keep trying to figure out what they are. Tom asks his students at school and we observe behavior, trying to do things the right way. Now it has become somewhat of a private joke between us, but we are still sorting. Which side of the sidewalk to walk on? The Eiwa students say the right side. However, there seems to be no consistent pattern with this. In some train stations the arrows to direct pedestrians are on the right; in others they are on the left. And here in Kofu, it doesn't matter which side of the street we walk on. Either way it is a game of "chicken."
Bicycles are supposed to be ridden on the left. The left side of the sidewalk? The left side of the street??? From our frame of reference, bicycles ( ridden by everyone from very small children to adults in their 80s) go wherever they choose. They also park wherever their owners choose. Once a teenager parked his bike in front of the post office door just as we approached. It was assumed that we would walk around it. In an unJapanese action, Tom picked up the bike and moved in out of the way, much to the chagrin of the student. We are amused to see masses of bicycles parked in areas that have prominent signs stating, "Bicycle Parking Prohibited" (in English and in Japanese.) We asked a Japanese friend about this and he just nodded and agreed.
Cars also seem to be driven wherever people choose. The areas of Japan that were not destroyed in the war have streets that are too narrow for modern traffic, and there are too many vehicles for the streets. Parking is also a major problem. Therefore, it is not unusual for cars to drive onto the sidewalks, park on the sidewalks, and park in the streets when people do their shopping. Since eye contact seems almost nonexistent, we wonder why there are not more accidents. We've determined that it is because people have excellent reflexes.
When people do have accidents it is never considered one person's fault. Each person is considered to be partially responsible and is assessed a percentage of blame by the police. The last time Tom was here, a teacher at Eiwa was broadsided by another car that ran a red light. The Eiwa teacher was 10% responsible for the accident, and it was quite costly for him.
Last night, the news carried a story about the growing problem of abandoned cars in Japan. It costs the owner $100 to get rid of a car and the scrap dealers are making less money because of tighter government rules about disposing of parts, so it's easier to just to let a car sit. Some cars have been abandoned at the airport in Tokyo and have been sitting there for several years. Administrators at the airport are "discussing" what, if any, action they should take.
So we remain puzzled and frequently learn what they are after we violate a rule. When we run into other foreign teachers in Japan, a common theme of the conversation is that it is difficult not to be paranoid while here, due to this "rule" situation. (Another example.... two days from now there is a party for the 10th grade teachers, but Tom still doesn't know where or when it is going to take place. He was informed that it was happening about 3 weeks ago, but has received no further word.)
One of the things we have recently learned is that we have been using more than our share of energy. Water and gas. The electric consumption is okay as far as we know. But both the water and gas companies have informed us that we are using more than expected. Mr. Nakayama assured us that we are not using too much water. He said he uses more, so we feel okay about that. However, recently we were visited by a lady from the gas company who came into the house to see if we were doing everything according to the rules. We weren't. We discovered that we are supposed to use gas only for about an hour a day. It is to be used for heating the water for taking a bath and for doing dishes. Other-wise, the gas is supposed to be turned off. That means that we are supposed to use cold water for all other things, including washing hands, doing laundry, etc. We heat water on the stove for Tom to use for shaving, and since the hot water for doing dishes is not hot, we heat water on the stove for that also. Because Japan has to import 97% of its energy resources we can understand why they are very concerned about conservation, and we will be cautious now. We also are learning daily about how wasteful we Americans are.
The big news stories in Japan are the US bases in Okinawa (The governor of Okinawa refused to sign the order for the US to continue to use the land for bases. The prime minister of Japan, Murayama, is taking it to court to overturn the governor's decision); the Aum trials (an ongoing saga); bullying; the financial crisis and bank scandals. But the biggest story of all for about four days running was about the infestation of Australian red back spiders! It was the news headline on numerous occasions, and posses went in search of deadly spiders, which were endangering the country. Children in schools were warned about them. Numbers of collected and killed spiders were announced daily. Spider experts from Australia and Japan were special guests on the news programs. Only a week or so later, did the paper report that the spiders had been in Japan for several years and that they were not all that harmful. Experts injected spider venom into mice, trying to kill them but were not always successful.
Meanwhile, Tom, who is a devout believer in interactive TV, was heard to shout, "What about the bullying?" "What about the political corruption?" "What about the bank scandal?" as countless reports informed us of the latest spider count!
We have noticed that there often is little follow-up with what we consider to be interesting and important headline stories. We have heard nothing more about the teacher who went on trial for killing a student. Nor have we heard anything more about the physician who murdered his wife and two small children.
There has been much in the news about the bullying problem, since there have been three recent suicides of junior high students, as a result of bullying. In two cases, the students wrote notes, which named the perpetrators. And in both cases, police interviewed those students. One boy said in his note that he was bullied by friends because his father no longer wanted the boys at his house to play. They had been picking on a younger sister. A girl who committed suicide was bullied because she had transferred from another school and her hair was a lighter color, and she was accused of dyeing it.
When Tom covered the topic of bullying in his ethics class, the girls indicated that the main reason that students are bullied by others is because they are different in some way. They also said that students are reluctant to help because they would then become victims themselves. They indicated that they don't believe it is a problem at Eiwa. But one doesn't know for certain. It is a difficult problem, because it is "shameful" for anyone to be different in this culture, and suicide does not carry the shame that it does in western cultures. All the schools which had the recent interviews denied the problem prior to the incidents.
Lest you think we are being negative about Japan, we don't mean to sound that way at all. We are loving being here. We are just trying to give an accurate representation of the culture as we see it. And if we were foreigners in the United States, who knows what observations we would make. (One example: People put off fireworks all the time here to celebrate almost anything. Once Tom commented that fireworks were illegal in the US. When asked why, he stated that they were dangerous. The reply: "But people can have guns in the US").
We are aware of many problems in Japan, even though it is our second home, but we are also more aware that there is no place like home and neither of us can ever imagine living anywhere except in the US, no matter how much we like to travel.
A few other observations: Androgyny. We noticed many people who we cannot tell whether they are male or female. Others have shared this observation with us. It might have something to do with body build, or hairstyles, or clothing, but especially among younger adults, it is a phenomenon we cannot fail to notice. Students in schools all wear uniforms, (little boys' uniforms have very short shorts even in this cold weather), so it is obvious with them which sex they are, but out of uniform it is a different story.
There is much pressure for women to be thin. We watched a television show which was a documentary featuring "slimming" products. One young woman said that she had used 15 different slimming products -- including Chinese seaweed soap, and numerous other lotions. She already appeared to be bone thin. We have made some observations that anorexia might be a problem here, but it is not anything that is talked about.
We have been wanting to write for some time about garbage. That's right -- GARBAGE. Gomi in Japanese. It is quite an intriguing subject here. When we first arrived we were given a schedule for refuse pick up (all in Japanese) with a map of pick up locations. Tuesdays and Fridays food waste, plastic bottles and Styrofoam are collected. We got that right. Several days a month, recyclable paper, cans, bottles, bicycles, heaters, and gas burners are collected. We goofed the first time with this one and found our trash back on our doorstep with a note. One day a month, umbrellas, light bulbs, washing machines, TVs, clothing, and dishes can be discarded. The days differ, as do the locations. With little storage space in the home, people have no choice but to throw away the old, when they buy something new.
You can not imagine Marie's excitement the first time there was a major "Gomi" day in front of our apartment the first month we were here. (Tom had witnessed the spectacle before.) The night before the pick-up huge burlap bags were dropped off and stacked on the sidewalk. About 5:00 A.M. the festivities began. A neighborhood trash contingent set about sorting, organizing, and carting off the trash. They were mostly middle-aged and older women in aprons and gloves. A few men helped them. What a racket! And what fun! We really wanted to get a videotape, but didn't want to be so obvious and were embarrassed that we had already messed up the trash once. So we wanted to keep a low profile. Since then we realize that not only gaijin get confused about the appropriate gomi. We have witnessed university student neighbors being questioned about their trash. Neighbors in our building have also found their trash back at their doorsteps. We could guess why they would know what was ours, since we probably are the only ones in the area who read the English language newspaper. We wonder how the "trash patrol" knows who the other trash belongs to!!
We're not certain how much we have told you about our neighbors who are university students. They live three doors down and are members of the track team and are Japan's reigning long-distance running champions. The university has a history of enrolling students from Kenya who are noted for their ability. Apparently the school is quite well known for their runners. When a former teacher from Canada visited recently, she mentioned that the Yamanashi Gakuin University team usually wins the major cross-country race in Canada. The students told us that they travel all over the world to compete.
These guys are an amazing group. We have become quite friendly with a young Kenyan (his English is the best) and he has filled us in on some of their activities. They run 60km a day! Their first run is at 4:45am. When we are leaving to walk to school about 7:50, they are back in the parking lot of their building, doing stretching exercises and cooling down. They then run or bicycle to their university, which is between four and five miles away. They have other runs at other times in the day. We asked our acquaintance when he has time to study, and he shrugged. He indicated that he is running or competing most of the time, but we understand that he is majoring in Japanese and plans to stay and live in Japan when he is done at the university.
The other topic that is always discussed when interacting with other gaijin is that of the Japanese hospitality. We've written much about that before and we continue to be amazed by the generosity of spirit we encounter, many times from complete strangers. The services we use are worthy of note. The people with whom we deal regularly often give us little "extras" to show their appreciation for our service. The photo shop enlarges one or two pictures from each roll, the "tempura shop" lady throws in extra food, Marie's massager, Mrs.Hanawa, reduces the rate most of the time and today the kerosene man delivered fuel to us on a day when the shop was closed.
One day, a week or so ago, Marie stopped in the local wine shop while Tom was preparing dinner. She was gone a long time, and he wondered what was going on. Neither of us had been to that shop for almost two months, and when Marie stopped by, the owner's wife called to her husband and they both summoned their 16-year-old daughter. They asked their daughter to ask Marie, in English, if she would give private conversational English lessons. Consequently, Hisae, a very shy young woman, who is in 10th grade, will begin her lessons this week. We think her command of English is better than she realizes, but she needs more confidence. We initially saw her father the first day we arrived, when we bought soda from his vending machines. We wonder if he had been waiting for us to come back, if he had checked us out through the neighbors, or how he decided to ask us.
Because we couldn't arrange a trip to Thailand over the holidays, we have opted for a tour of Japan. It will be the height of tourism in Japan and our travel agent is having a difficult time making all of the arrangements. We have had to make several revisions because many hotels are full. At the moment, our plans are to revisit Kyoto and see some new sights and spend additional time at places we saw in 1993. After Kyoto, and probably Nara, we will go to Himeji, a castle made famous in the U.S. by the movie, Shogun. It's the last castle in pretty much its original state. After Himeji, it's a long train ride to Aso, on the southern main island of Kyushu. Aso is famous for its hot springs and Mount Aso, a huge volcanic crater. We had hoped to spend four days there, just relaxing, but the hotels are full and the one available has rooms beginning at $520 a night (2 meals included!). We will, instead, spend two nights there -- in a less expensive inn and go to Kumomoto on New Years' Day. Kumomoto castle was one of the last holdouts in the 1870's against the new emperor and modernity. They say if you look closely you can see the marks of bullets in castle walls. We'll look and let you know. After a day in Kumomoto, we will go to Nagasaki for four days. Tom thinks Nagasaki is a more interesting city than Hiroshima, because there is so much more to its history than the atomic bombing. The Dutch were there very early on, it was an early center of Christianity in Japan (Francis Xavier) and there is the Glover House -- home of a Scottish arms merchant in the 19th century and where "Lt. Pinkerton" met "Madame Butterfly". Also, we plan to visit one of the famous sites of pottery-making (Imari) outside of Nagasaki.. After Nagasaki, we fly to Tokyo and head back to Kofu.
Himeji -- "White Heron" -- Castle
A few weekends ago (December 3/4) we had some very nice times with Japanese friends. On that Saturday evening, the Nakayamas, Kasais and Jackie (an Eiwa teacher from Illinois) had dinner with us. The meal was typically American -- lasagna. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and, afterwards we had a warm evening of talking and nibbling on fresh fruit and Marie's Texas sheet cake. People left late, by Japanese standards, 10:30. Tom showed Mr. Kasai pictures of the yard and the area where we want to put our Japanese garden. Mr. Kasai has a beautiful garden in his backyard and tends dozens of bonsai of his and those of friends and his father-in-law. He promised to come over, with Mr. Nakayama, when he retires -- in 6 years. We think we will start without him!
Love and Peace
Tom and Marie
P.S. Please remember Tom's 60th birthday on Feb 3rd. Thanks. Marie
