Questions about Japan
One of my cousins, Joy, emailed me some questions about Japan, and what I originally thought would take just a couple of days, has taken me more than a month! Part of that was being busy at school, but I also wanted to incorporate pictures and answer them as best I could. Some of the pictures I pulled off the web, but the majority are mine. Japan is a wonderful place, and I rarely go a day without experiencing something new.
Enjoy!
GENERAL:
Where are you? How much of Japan have you seen? Do you ever get to travel in your free time?
I live in a little town called Meiwa, and the characters mean something like Bright Harmony. Meiwa is in Gunma Prefecture, Gunma means Herd (flock?) of Horses (but I don't see so many horses, just on special farms a little more north, but they are delicious!). Anyway, I tend to ramble. Meiwa is very flat, it's located on the north side of the great Kanto Plain. So in the winter, when the air is clear, I can see snowcapped mountains all around, including Mount Fuji which is several hours away from me. About 30 miles away the plains end and we get into the Japanese Alps. Meiwa is famous for pears, peaches and grapes, we also have many rice fields. I'm about an hour from Tokyo by train, so I go there often to buy books, go shopping, see concerts or grab a cheeseburger from Hard Rock.
I haven't seen as much of Japan as I would like, but I have been to Kyoto twice, and I can't count how many times I've been to Kamakura. I have also been to Morioka once and Sendai twice (these are cities in the north.) I really want to go to Hokkaido, Okinawa and Osaka.
In my free time, I travel sometimes. I've been camping, hiking around temples the mountains, and travel to places that are in my region. I've also been to Cambodia, Vietnam and Hong Kong during some of my vacation time.
What do you do for fun? Does your community have public libraries? Do they carry English-language materials?
For fun, I go to the movie theatre, hang out with my friends, go to the mall, and I like to visit historical places such as shrines, temples and castles. Three times a year I watch Sumo in Tokyo and I like to go to museums and concerts too. I belong to a group of people who own samurai armor, so sometimes, we are invited to participate in historical festivals and we all wear our armor and march in parades. That's a lot of fun for me.
Our town does have a small library, and a very small English selection. They have some books in English about Japanese culture, all the Harry Potter books and a few other books. Their selection is so small that I read through all the books in my first year! There are also some VHS tapes, dvds and Laser Discs (giant dvds the size of a record) with some English movies.
Who will you cheer for in the Olympics now? Ummmmm, I don't really know!
How homogeneous is your community? Have you faced any discrimination being American? Are you around any or many other Americans or foreigners?
There are very few foreigners in my town. There are a couple of people from Bangladesh, another American who teaches English at the 2 Elementary schools, and a Romanian woman and her son (who is one of my students). In the town to the west, there is a large Brazilian community, and in the town to north, I've met a person from Sri Lanka, and I'm friends with the 1 Australian, 1 New Zealander, 3 Canadians and one American who teach at the 5 middles schools and the all-girls high school there. There are also some people from the Philippines and Taiwan in the area also. But almost everyone is Japanese! Most foreigners tend to live in the large cities like Tokyo or Osaka.
I've never really experienced discrimination for being an American. Many Japanese people are fascinated about foreign countries, so sometimes people just walk up to me in a store or a restaurant and ask me questions about my country and how I like Japan. There are also times when I go into a restaurant and they hand me an English menu automatically, sometimes it's not the complete menu, so I use the Japanese one. But how do they know I don't speak French or German?
But sometimes it's weird looking different than everyone else, sometimes old people and young children stare at me. If it's an old person, I will ignore them, but if it's a kid, I'll make a funny face or something, or try to say hello to them. In every situation, it's important to be polite so that people have a good impression of me and my country.
Have you ridden the super-fast trains? Been pushed by a pusher? (Pictures of the guys in white gloves crack me up. Do they push people's behinds, we wonder?) I love riding the super-fast trains! I've used them on four separate occasions. We call that train the Shinkansen, and the fastest Shinkansen is the Nozomi that goes between Tokyo and Kyoto. I've ridden it twice, once for a school trip and once with my mom and Charis came to visit. It's very smooth and fast. There is a snack cart, vending machines and bathrooms on it too. With passengers it travels at a speed of about 188 mph, but it can go much faster (apparently 300mph) when there are no passengers, but for safety reasons, it doesn't go that fast. It can stop very quickly in the event of an earthquake. It is also the best safety record, in over 40 years, there has only been one derailment (in the niigata earthquake of 2004) but no one was injured! The only death has been when the doors closed on a passenger, but now there are employees standing along the station platform and sensors in the doors to ensure that doesn't happen again.
I've never been pushed by a pusher, but I have seen them! Behinds are probably off limits, but arms, backs and briefcases are ok. Sometimes, when I go to Tokyo, the trains get so crowded, that I can't even move my arms, and I think, if there is an earthquake and the train gets stalled and I have to get stuck like this for an hour while they check the tracks, I'm going to freak out! Charis and Mom also experienced the crowded train phenomenon while they were in Tokyo!
Do you buy or use many products made in other countries? We have so many Chinese-made toys, and almost ALL our stuffed animals, it turns out, are made in China. Does Japan sell much made in the USA?
The Japanese use quite a bit of made in China products also, but that tends to be of poorer quality than products made in Japan where production standards are quite high. Therefore I'd say that domestic products are more desirable, but they are more expensive too. Mitsubishi, Hitachi, National and Sanyo make a lot of electronic appliances that are used by many Japanese people. I don't see many foreign cars either, almost everyone drives Japanese made vehicles. But some of the things that come mind that might be American made are sports equipment and clothing, especially snow and water sports. Snowboarders probably think North American and European brands are more fashionable, whereas surfers probably use American made boards. Sometimes I'll see clothes that are made in America too, like blue jeans and shirts. Nevertheless, products imported from North America and Europe tend to be expensive too, for both their quality and shipping prices.
What's it like being Christian in Japan? Are there other Christians? Are Christians given a hard time?
Japan is a very open country, and my Japanese friends (and occasionally a foreign friend) sometime ask me questions about my beliefs. I even have made friends with one Japanese family who is catholic. Today, about one to two million Japanese are Christians (about 1% of Japan's population). Missionaries came to Japan in the 1500's and were somewhat accepted, but towards the end of that same century, Christianity was banned and several were executed, but in 1873 freedom of religion was reinstated and the Christian population has been slowly growing ever since. Most Japanese that I have met tend to refrain from declaring any kind of belief, but they will practice rites from both Shintoism and Buddhism, but only a few people will actually really deeply believe in one or the other. For example, I have a good friend who is a Buddhist, but he has no problem going to a Shinto Shrine and praying there. Most people will have a Shinto wedding and a Buddhist funeral.
FLORA, FAUNA, & FOOD:
What kind of birds do you have? (Joy's become quite the bird lover.) I just asked my co-workers and they gave me a list of birds in the area and other popular birds in Japan, because I don't know much about birds. Ok, here goes: Sparrows, Swallows, Swans, Larks, Crows, Seagulls, the Japanese Bush Warbler, Ibis, Crane, Duck and Pigeons. Cranes live in Hokkaido, but I think during their migration they stop in Meiwa, because I've seen these beautiful tall white birds, with a slight orange coloration on their chests, but nodoby has been able to tell me what they are, and I know I'm not seeing things.
Do you eat much seafood? Yes, the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean produce amazing seafood. There are giant crabs that are delicious, but if I ever encountered one in the ocean, I would scream and run away.
Sushi? Yes. What kinds? I love all kinds of sushi, but my favorites are salmon, tuna, sea urchin and salmon eggs. Do you eat out or cook in your kitchen? I buy a lot of premade food from the store, for about five dollars I can get a full meal with rice, fish and some pickled vegetables. I eat out about twice a week, and I cook a couple times a week too. I make salads because it's easy. Do restaurant chefs chop & grill as in our Japanese steakhouses? Ha ha, no they don't, or at least I have never seen it done here. We have restaurants where you sit around a table, and they bring food and you cook it yourself on the tables surface. It's a lot of fun, these are my favorite places to eat at. We have tables with a charcoal grill built into it and you orders strips of meat and vegetables and you grill it yourself, that is delicious too.
What's the record low temp. where you live? The record low is around -5 degrees Celsius (23 degrees F) and in the summer, they say that my area is the hottest in Japan because of it's geography. Do you have 4 seasons? There are 4 distinct seasons, and in summer we have a rainy season for a couple of weeks, and during this time the humidity is unbearable. My second year in Japan, my air conditioner broke, and it took them almost 4 weeks to replace it, it was awful. There is also a typhoon season much like our hurricane season. Have you seen or climbed Mt. Fuji? In the winter, when the air is clear, I can see Mt. Fuji from my house! I think I will climb it this summer. There is a saying that a wise man climbs it once, and a fool climbs it twice.
Are Japanese very environmentally conscious? I think they are very environmentally conscious. Recycling is mandatory here, we must separate all our garbage, but the details are different with each town. In my town I have to sort garbage into clear glass, brown glass, green glass, broken glass, aluminum, tin, batteries, plastic bottles, burnable garbage, aerosol containers, and cardboard. It's really a hassle, so I try not to buy aerosol containers, glass and metal. Burnable garbage is collected twice a week, but the other recyclables are collected once a month, on a sunday, from 9am-12pm. I always miss it.
Do they try to conserve water? Is it true that they bathe up to their necks? Yes and yes. I just asked one of the teachers I work with and she said that the water should go up to your neck in the bathtub, and if I fill mine up, it goes right to my neck. Everyone in the family shares the same bathwater too! It's ok though, because before they get into the bath, they take a shower and so the water stays clean.
Is bonsai really very popular? Unfortunately, bonsai is not very popular. Taking care of bonsai is a hobby for some people. I have a friend whose father cares for them in his spare time.
SCHOOL:
Do Japanese students go on Saturdays? Japanese students used to go to school 6 days a week, I'm not sure when they changed it, maybe 10 years ago. Now they go to school Monday- Friday. School hours are from 8:25 to 4:00, but many students stay until 5 or 5:30 to practice sports. They also have many sporting events on the weekends, so it still feels like they go to school on Saturday and Sunday. The teachers are also very busy. More than 180 days/yr.? There is a one week spring break, about a month off for Summer, and another week off at new years (the most important Japanese holiday). They also get the 15 National holidays off if they fall on a school day. I counted the days on our school calendar for 2008-2009 school year and it was 204 days. The worst part about being a teacher in Japan is that even though the students aren't at school, the teachers still have to go!
Do they wear uniforms? Yes, the students have 3 uniforms. There is a formal uniform that the students have to wear on Mondays. Jacket and pants for boys, and Jacket and skirt for girls. They also have a matching sweat suit to wear during the winter, it's more relaxed so they wear it most of the time. There is also a t-shirt and shorts for the summer. Since we don't have air conditioning in the school, the students wear it almost every day during the summer. What do the teachers wear? Most teachers wear a track suit, some casual clothes, or some of the male teachers wear suits. Usually blue jeans are off limits. Also, everyone has a pair of indoor shoes and we change into them when we enter the building.
Do students bring those cool little compartmentalized lunch boxes? (We saw some at WFU''s museum of anthropology when Joy's class went there in 2nd gr.) Those are called bento. In my town, we have a school lunch kitchen that delivers food to our schools and we make our own lunches on trays. But when we take trips, or have an event on a Saturday (such as a sports day, or a Parents Observation day) then the students bring a bento. Also, you can buy a premade bento at every convenience store and grocery store in Japan, sometimes restaurants offer them too. 
Do the students actually help clean up their schools every day? Yes! After 6th period, there is a short 15 minute cleaning time. The students divide into groups of about 5, and are assigned different areas of the school.
What's the 7th-gr. curriculum like? Do Japanese students study Western Civilization or the US in 2nd grade? In 7th? (As we study Japan in those grades.)
AND MISC.:
Have you worn a kimono (Joy's)? I've worn other traditional Japanese clothes, but no kimono yet. Do men (mine)? Yes, men also wear kimono, but the design is slightly different and not so flowery, usually darker. There is a lighter kimono worn during the summer called Yukata. The picture below are 3 of my friends wearing yukata.
What's Japanese music, movies, and theater like? Popular Japanese music (called J-pop) is very poppy. Among young girls, boy bands are popular. These songs are usually very upbeat and have a positive feeling. There is an older style called Enka, which is more ornamental and tends to be melancholy and sad. Japanese movies are as varied as American movies. There are dramas, movies based on Japanese comic books, animated movies, love stories, horror (The Grudge and The Ring and One Missed Call are examples of Japanese horror) and instead of westerns they have Edo period movies about Samurai or Old Japan. Japanese have several kinds of live theatre, there is Noh, Kabuki and Bunraku. Noh originated in the 14th century and the actors wear masks and speak and sing in a monotonous voice. There is usually a chorus and music accompaniment and it's mostly performed outdoors. Kabuki is from the Edo period (16th-18th century and traditionally has only male actors play all the parts. Kabuki plays are about historical events, moral conflicts in love relationships and the like. The actors use an old fashioned language which is difficult to understand even for some Japanese people. They speak in a monotonous voice and are accompanied by traditional Japanese instruments.
The kabuki stage (kabuki no butai) is a rotating stage and is further equipped with several gadgets like trapdoors through which the actors can appear and disappear. Another specialty of the kabuki stage is a footbridge (hanamichi) that leads through the audience. Doesn't it sound interesting? Bunraku is traditional Japanese puppet theater that has its origin in the Edo period. Bunraku and Kabuki are closely related with respect to the content of plays. Bunraku plays are also accompanied by the music of traditional Japanese music instruments. The puppets are about one meter tall and are manipulated by up to three persons. Every person is responsible for a different part of the puppet. Thanks to many years of experience they are able to make the puppets appear alive despite the fact that they are visible on the stage. I've seen bunraku on tv and at first I thought they were real actors but after watching it for a few minutes, it struck me that they were only puppets and I could see the puppeteers. It was amazing though.
In Tokyo, there are also Broadway productions translated into Japanese. Right now Cats and the Lion King seem to be popular.
How do you say "shut up"? Urusai! How do you call someone an idiot? Baka!
This is very interesting.