A couple weeks ago I was leaving school. My supervisor’s homeroom was responsible for cleaning the downstairs hallway and the principal’s room that day (the kids clean the entire school every day after classes finish), through which I must go in order to exit school. A few of them saw me, yelled my name, and then stood around me in a circle all talking at once. Every time a kid came out of the principal’s room, it was, JESSIE!, and the circle got bigger. There were about fifteen chattering ichinensei girls by the end.
Then, one of them says, Jessie, new Japanese word!
New Japanese word?
She continued. Do you know ‘tehepero’?
Tehepero?
Ahhhhhhahhhh, kawaii! Yes, yes, she said. Do you know?
I had never heard this word before. What does it mean. I asked.
They all looked at each other. Hmmm. It means…
She put her hand against the side of her head, tilted her head, and made a high-pitched, anime character-like squeak. Eh-heh.
I blink my eyes.
They repeated the gesture. It means, Eh-heh.
Eh-heh? I asked, and tilted my head in like fashion.
Ahhhhhahhhhh, kawaii!
I roll my eyes. Okay, girls, what does – tilt head, Eh-heh – mean?
They all look confusedly at each other again. Hmmm. It means…Very Shy!
Very Shy?
Yes, yes, they say.
I blink my eyes again.
Eh-heh – repeated gesture – means very shy?
Ahhhhhhahhhh, kawaii! Yes, yes. Very Shy! New Japanese word!
Uh, okay, girls. I’ll see you tomorrow.
Exit Scene.
----------------------------------
Next Day, after class, different classroom with different group of girls.
Two other ichinenseis, whom I swear had not been there the day before, come running up to me after class.
Jessie, Jessie! Do you know tehepero?
Yes, I do! It means – tilts head, Eh-heh – very shy.
Ahhhhhahhhhhh, kawaii! Yes, yes!
They run away giggling.
My JTE looks at me and says she has never heard that word before.
That’s because I'm pretty sure they made it up.
-----------------------------------
UPDATE: I have since done some re-con about this word. It, apparently, is a real word, but I was told by a seventeen year old boy that it is a word only fifteen year old girls use. Eh-heh.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Kids Say the Darnest Things
The following are all quotes from student essays from my various schools – all sannensei and ninenseis (juniors and seniors). A lot of these came from essays they wrote about various social issues in regards to Japan, and I have arranged them based on topic and have included helpful topical headings. Please note, original spellings and grammars have been maintained for the integrity of the authors’ intentions.
These kids are brilliant.
• On the aging population:
“Old people should be kept by their children. If some of them have no child, I think they invite their own misfortune.”
• On the nature of love:
“I’m for the plan for two reasons. One is that we can probably do everything for our own favorite person. The other is that we are alive because of love.”
“But I think ‘love’ is important. However it’s easily beaten by vice.”
“I think, at least, love is stronger than money. But, love is weaker than friendship. If I must choosed love or friendship, I would choose friendship. Friendship can break love. However love can’t break friendship.”
“I think love is useless our lives and money is stronger than love. First, although we have a lovely feeling or love someone, love doesn’t any affects our lives. We can do without love. The other, I think money is much stronger than love. We can do without love, but we can’t do without money.
• On foreign policy:
“You should refrain from recommending many Japanese cultures to her simultaneously and pretend to respect American culture.”
• On Marx:
“It is impossible to make everyone in the world have the same amount of money. There are poor people and rich people.”
• On saving the environment:
“The word ‘mottainai’ is used so many in Japanese life. The word means, ‘Let’s save more energy.’ If a man keeps water running, let’s say him, ‘Mottainai!’ and he would stop the water soon. U.S.A. is very large country, so you [Jessie, the American ALT] are the first person that use the word ‘Mottainai!’”
“Mottatnai is used when
Oh, sorry, I don’t know.”
• On perseverance:
“On New Year’s, I’ll visit Grandfather, but next year is very important for students because we have an exam. That exam is in order to enter the gate of university. So, next year may kill us.”
These kids are brilliant.
• On the aging population:
“Old people should be kept by their children. If some of them have no child, I think they invite their own misfortune.”
• On the nature of love:
“I’m for the plan for two reasons. One is that we can probably do everything for our own favorite person. The other is that we are alive because of love.”
“But I think ‘love’ is important. However it’s easily beaten by vice.”
“I think, at least, love is stronger than money. But, love is weaker than friendship. If I must choosed love or friendship, I would choose friendship. Friendship can break love. However love can’t break friendship.”
“I think love is useless our lives and money is stronger than love. First, although we have a lovely feeling or love someone, love doesn’t any affects our lives. We can do without love. The other, I think money is much stronger than love. We can do without love, but we can’t do without money.
• On foreign policy:
“You should refrain from recommending many Japanese cultures to her simultaneously and pretend to respect American culture.”
• On Marx:
“It is impossible to make everyone in the world have the same amount of money. There are poor people and rich people.”
• On saving the environment:
“The word ‘mottainai’ is used so many in Japanese life. The word means, ‘Let’s save more energy.’ If a man keeps water running, let’s say him, ‘Mottainai!’ and he would stop the water soon. U.S.A. is very large country, so you [Jessie, the American ALT] are the first person that use the word ‘Mottainai!’”
“Mottatnai is used when
Oh, sorry, I don’t know.”
• On perseverance:
“On New Year’s, I’ll visit Grandfather, but next year is very important for students because we have an exam. That exam is in order to enter the gate of university. So, next year may kill us.”
Friday, March 2, 2012
Graduation Day
I think winter might actually be starting to melt away here. The snow banks are smaller, the wind less biting, and the temperatures rising a little at a time. Also, the sun doesn’t set at 4:30pm anymore. Now it’s more like 5:30!
Yesterday was the graduation ceremony for the sannenseis. Although I don’t know many of the sannenseis at my base school (I know, like, four), I went to that ceremony, because it was my base school’s, and I had been warned that it would be a rather dull affair. Graduations in America are loud, and there is a lot of clapping and yelling. In Japan, the students wear their regular school uniforms, they march into the gym to clapping, and then no one claps or makes any noise for the next hour. Each homeroom teacher reads out every student’s name, the student yells “hai” back, stands up, and then sits down when their class list has been read. A few speeches happen. The gym is very cold. The students all file past the teachers on their way out of the gym, and though most kids looked like they were trying to hide grins, several girls were very obviously in tears and trying to hide those behind their long hair. At least, they don’t have to wear ridiculous square hats which serve no purpose other than to hold a tassel.
It all made me think about when I was in high school and graduating. American graduations are far more “Yatta!” kind of affairs, in which everyone is happy to have finished. There is a lot of clapping and yelling and speeches where people make stupid jokes that everyone laughs at. Japanese graduations are somber, times to reflect on the great weight of the future and show appreciation for the people who have made it happen. They are very different kinds of things.
I was told graduation parties do not exist here, and I find that to be a gross misfortune. Do students not know that parties are when you get lots of money?! Apparently not. If they did, obviously they would have graduation parties. Additionally, the ceremony was on Thursday morning, and on Friday there was regular classes for the ichi- and ninenseis. I had assumed that the sannenseis wouldn’t be at school, because, obviously, they had graduated. But no. A lot of them were at school today, in their uniforms, running in and out of the teacher’s room with essays and homework all day. And I’m sitting here wondering, What the hell are you people doing here?!? Go home. Go to college. You’re done. Graduation ceremonies mean you are done, and you don’t have to come to school anymore.
Again, apparently not. I have no idea what they are studying for, because as far as my understanding of the system goes, all of them should have gotten into university already, and if they haven’t, than they are fat out of luck until next year. I could be wrong. I tend to wrong about these things pretty often.
But either way, congratulations to my kiddies who are moving on life! At other schools, I know I am losing some of my favorite classes and favorite students, and I’m already thinking about how difficult it will be next year when I lose my ninenseis, whom I am much closer with at all four schools. However, these thoughts are sad. Let us dwell on the badass futures these kids have. Oi.
Yesterday was the graduation ceremony for the sannenseis. Although I don’t know many of the sannenseis at my base school (I know, like, four), I went to that ceremony, because it was my base school’s, and I had been warned that it would be a rather dull affair. Graduations in America are loud, and there is a lot of clapping and yelling. In Japan, the students wear their regular school uniforms, they march into the gym to clapping, and then no one claps or makes any noise for the next hour. Each homeroom teacher reads out every student’s name, the student yells “hai” back, stands up, and then sits down when their class list has been read. A few speeches happen. The gym is very cold. The students all file past the teachers on their way out of the gym, and though most kids looked like they were trying to hide grins, several girls were very obviously in tears and trying to hide those behind their long hair. At least, they don’t have to wear ridiculous square hats which serve no purpose other than to hold a tassel.
It all made me think about when I was in high school and graduating. American graduations are far more “Yatta!” kind of affairs, in which everyone is happy to have finished. There is a lot of clapping and yelling and speeches where people make stupid jokes that everyone laughs at. Japanese graduations are somber, times to reflect on the great weight of the future and show appreciation for the people who have made it happen. They are very different kinds of things.
I was told graduation parties do not exist here, and I find that to be a gross misfortune. Do students not know that parties are when you get lots of money?! Apparently not. If they did, obviously they would have graduation parties. Additionally, the ceremony was on Thursday morning, and on Friday there was regular classes for the ichi- and ninenseis. I had assumed that the sannenseis wouldn’t be at school, because, obviously, they had graduated. But no. A lot of them were at school today, in their uniforms, running in and out of the teacher’s room with essays and homework all day. And I’m sitting here wondering, What the hell are you people doing here?!? Go home. Go to college. You’re done. Graduation ceremonies mean you are done, and you don’t have to come to school anymore.
Again, apparently not. I have no idea what they are studying for, because as far as my understanding of the system goes, all of them should have gotten into university already, and if they haven’t, than they are fat out of luck until next year. I could be wrong. I tend to wrong about these things pretty often.
But either way, congratulations to my kiddies who are moving on life! At other schools, I know I am losing some of my favorite classes and favorite students, and I’m already thinking about how difficult it will be next year when I lose my ninenseis, whom I am much closer with at all four schools. However, these thoughts are sad. Let us dwell on the badass futures these kids have. Oi.
Friday, February 3, 2012
This Blog is Not About School.
2011 ended. I get it. But with the rush of recommendation lists which appeared towards the end there (even Urban Outfitters had something to say), and my mad purchasing of said recommended albums and wishlist-ing of Kindle editions, I am still in the process of sorting through all the good stuff that happened last year. Mostly music, some books. Here's some of the 2011 stuff I liked.
A Lover's Dictionary - David Levithan
This is a bit in the vein of Buechner's Wishful Thinking. Every "chapter" starts out with a word, presented in alphabetical order, and a definition. In the explanations of each word, the plot of the novel comes through - that of two anonymous lovers (their respective genders are also left unspecified...TWIST), and how they come together and break apart. The story is all bundled together by something of a meta-commentary on how words come together and break apart as we do. It's simple, but effective. Art imitating life, indeed.
Zonoscope - Cut Copy
My perusal of the "Best Albums of 2011" lists revealed one main thing to me - that people were really into their ambient rock this year. And Adele. Everybody loves Adele. I mean, I enjoy a good ethereal downbeat (and Adele...although I do think she should appear in photos standing a lot more often) as much as the next person, perhaps even more so, but I can only take so much before I want to scream at the song, Please, sir, I would love some consistency, and maybe even a chorus! Enter Cut Copy. This album was the best I could find that balanced those two things - the ambient rock everyone is so fond of these days, and the comforting structure of a "regular" album. There are choruses, as well as ethereal peals of sound. The best of both worlds.
Of course, there are plenty of other things to say about 2011. It was a good year for me. I graduated college and then moved to Japan. I would say that's substantial. So please enjoy some of my choice art. Let me know what you liked. There is plenty of goodness to be had out there, from this year as well as last.
A Lover's Dictionary - David Levithan
This is a bit in the vein of Buechner's Wishful Thinking. Every "chapter" starts out with a word, presented in alphabetical order, and a definition. In the explanations of each word, the plot of the novel comes through - that of two anonymous lovers (their respective genders are also left unspecified...TWIST), and how they come together and break apart. The story is all bundled together by something of a meta-commentary on how words come together and break apart as we do. It's simple, but effective. Art imitating life, indeed.
Zazen - Vanessa Veselka
This is all the post-apocayltpic poetic prose one needs for the year. The novel leaves the specific circumstances of the world a bit vague - all you really know is that things are bad and that they are only getting worse - but amid pseudo-terrorism, vegan restaurants, and minor characters with names like "Mirror," a heartbreaking narrator desperate for truth and significance out there in the harsh, harsh world comes through. Zazen is stream of consciousness meets hipster freedom fighter meets post-modernism's baby sister. If that sentence isn't enough to convince you, nothing will.
Civilian - Wye Oke
There really wasn't anything I didn't like about this album. The title track hit it big there for awhile, and was on numerous compilations and such, but the whole album is definitely worth getting. NPR liked it. You should too.
This is all the post-apocayltpic poetic prose one needs for the year. The novel leaves the specific circumstances of the world a bit vague - all you really know is that things are bad and that they are only getting worse - but amid pseudo-terrorism, vegan restaurants, and minor characters with names like "Mirror," a heartbreaking narrator desperate for truth and significance out there in the harsh, harsh world comes through. Zazen is stream of consciousness meets hipster freedom fighter meets post-modernism's baby sister. If that sentence isn't enough to convince you, nothing will.
Civilian - Wye Oke
There really wasn't anything I didn't like about this album. The title track hit it big there for awhile, and was on numerous compilations and such, but the whole album is definitely worth getting. NPR liked it. You should too.
Zonoscope - Cut CopyMy perusal of the "Best Albums of 2011" lists revealed one main thing to me - that people were really into their ambient rock this year. And Adele. Everybody loves Adele. I mean, I enjoy a good ethereal downbeat (and Adele...although I do think she should appear in photos standing a lot more often) as much as the next person, perhaps even more so, but I can only take so much before I want to scream at the song, Please, sir, I would love some consistency, and maybe even a chorus! Enter Cut Copy. This album was the best I could find that balanced those two things - the ambient rock everyone is so fond of these days, and the comforting structure of a "regular" album. There are choruses, as well as ethereal peals of sound. The best of both worlds.
Of course, there are plenty of other things to say about 2011. It was a good year for me. I graduated college and then moved to Japan. I would say that's substantial. So please enjoy some of my choice art. Let me know what you liked. There is plenty of goodness to be had out there, from this year as well as last.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
m/other : ALT Edition
Last week I had my classes at Kanaashi, my agricultural school. For those of you who have been paying attention, you will remember that I adore this school. The kids are exceptionally friendly, and something(s) hilarious happens every time I have class.
Here's what happened in 2B.
Last month when I was there, we did a Jeopardy-style game in a bunch of the classes. So this time, wee had trivia questions in five categories, but instead of the worth of the questions being pre-decided, the kid who answered rolled a die and got fake money for whatever amount s/he rolled (a cartoon picture of me was on the $100 bill).
The category: People.
The question: Who is the prime minister of Russia?
The first guess: Jackie Chan.
Now, this albeit creative answer really confused me for a minute until my JTE wrote out the word "Russia" on the board, and then "Rush Hour" underneath it. Apparently, the class was a little confused about the difference between these two similar-sounding things (the Japanese pronunciation is nearly identical). I give them props for even knowing about the movie, seeing as it came out in 1998 when most of them were only three or four years old.
And this mistaken identity - which we cleared up, don't worry - was followed by one of the answers to the question, "What is Jessica-Sensei's favorite color?," (Yes, I was also one of the five categories) being "You're beautiful," and me giving out a stack of fake money for flattery. This is something I have done before and will shamelessly do again. At least they are flattering me in English. I think half the boys in that class are also on the baseball team, and I have yet to meet a baseball player here whom I don't like (unlike in the States, where most of them are asses). My JTE is the baseball coach, and I know he runs a pretty tight ship with those boys. He has had me start class by myself once or twice because he was busy scolding some of them in the hallway. But they are good kids, and they have a lot of respect for him. So it's all good.
In other news, it has been snowing loads here the last few days. A couple weeks ago we had a heat wave, where it got above 40 degrees for a couple days! That, however, made everything a slushy mess, which has since turned into a frozen, slippery mess. It has also screwed my bus-to-station schedule - buses basically show up whenever they feel like it now, and the time-table has gone to hell. This has in turn made catching trains a bit of a nightmare. One morning last week, I just gave up on the buses and grabbed a taxi that was going by instead because I refuse to be late for school ever again.
Hope everyone is well! Seattle, I have zero sympathy for your weather conditions. I'm looking out the window and thinking, if it was snowing like this in America, I would not have left the house. And yet I do. It's a whiteout right now, and we continue to press on. I am perpetually cold here.
All my love!
Here's what happened in 2B.
Last month when I was there, we did a Jeopardy-style game in a bunch of the classes. So this time, wee had trivia questions in five categories, but instead of the worth of the questions being pre-decided, the kid who answered rolled a die and got fake money for whatever amount s/he rolled (a cartoon picture of me was on the $100 bill).
The category: People.
The question: Who is the prime minister of Russia?
The first guess: Jackie Chan.
Now, this albeit creative answer really confused me for a minute until my JTE wrote out the word "Russia" on the board, and then "Rush Hour" underneath it. Apparently, the class was a little confused about the difference between these two similar-sounding things (the Japanese pronunciation is nearly identical). I give them props for even knowing about the movie, seeing as it came out in 1998 when most of them were only three or four years old.
And this mistaken identity - which we cleared up, don't worry - was followed by one of the answers to the question, "What is Jessica-Sensei's favorite color?," (Yes, I was also one of the five categories) being "You're beautiful," and me giving out a stack of fake money for flattery. This is something I have done before and will shamelessly do again. At least they are flattering me in English. I think half the boys in that class are also on the baseball team, and I have yet to meet a baseball player here whom I don't like (unlike in the States, where most of them are asses). My JTE is the baseball coach, and I know he runs a pretty tight ship with those boys. He has had me start class by myself once or twice because he was busy scolding some of them in the hallway. But they are good kids, and they have a lot of respect for him. So it's all good.
In other news, it has been snowing loads here the last few days. A couple weeks ago we had a heat wave, where it got above 40 degrees for a couple days! That, however, made everything a slushy mess, which has since turned into a frozen, slippery mess. It has also screwed my bus-to-station schedule - buses basically show up whenever they feel like it now, and the time-table has gone to hell. This has in turn made catching trains a bit of a nightmare. One morning last week, I just gave up on the buses and grabbed a taxi that was going by instead because I refuse to be late for school ever again.
Hope everyone is well! Seattle, I have zero sympathy for your weather conditions. I'm looking out the window and thinking, if it was snowing like this in America, I would not have left the house. And yet I do. It's a whiteout right now, and we continue to press on. I am perpetually cold here.
All my love!
Friday, January 6, 2012
If Only Every Classroom Had a Kissing Machine…
And now for something a bit different…
Common Misconception About Japan #1: That Everyone and Everything is Technologically Savvy and Up-To-Date
False.
Maybe it was all those travel shows I watched or the fact that half the appliances in my American house had Japanese names or maybe I just watched Lost in Translation too many times (okay…I only saw it once), but before coming here I had this idea that the entirety of the country of Japan had fancy, fancy techy stuff, that even the common man walked around perpetually plugged in. I didn’t think that the whole country looked like the pictures I had seen of Tokyo, all lit up, shiny, and eternally flashing advertisements for ramen and karaoke, but I did think that, at least, government-run facilities (i.e., my schools) and the people who worked in them would utilize technology like they utilized chopsticks – with skill and efficiency.
I have come to discover, however, that not really any of this is true. None of my classrooms, even at my top school, have computers or projectors in the classrooms. There are separate technology rooms and computer labs, but even these do not have anything as fancy as Smartboards or document cameras or things that seemed pretty much vital for my classrooms in America. I haven’t been able to locate a color printer in any of my schools. The computer the school lets me use is running Windows 2000 (granted, the full-time teachers do have nicer computers). Most of my teachers can barely handle transferring files via flashdrives, and for all those spiffy Japanese cellphones, most people are still rocking fairly basic models (they do pimp them out with ginormous stuffed animals and wacky colors, however). After talking to Rick and Martha in Kyushu, I think this is pretty much the state of affairs everywhere. Students don’t take or use computers in class – which I think has more to do with an inbred need for homogeny than lack of resources – and I have only seen one sensei use a computer and projector in class for something other than what I was doing.
And yet…some of the hottest tech is coming out of this place. In a way, the Japanese mindset would say that if one school had those resources, than every school would also need those resources, and I can see how that could be a pretty daunting if not unattainable goal, since technology is always improving and consequently going out of date. But the inclusion of technology into classrooms, and even daily life, doesn’t really seem to be on the radar for most Japanese. Students freaked when they saw my iPhone. Teachers want to know everything I can tell them about my Kindle. And these things are as common as driver’s licenses in the States.
So, all this to say, that despite your (and my) preconception that all of Japan is booming with endless access to out-of-this-world technology, that’s just not the reality that I have seen. All of Japan is not Shibuya Crossing, despite what Sophia Coppola would like us to believe.
In their defense though, I doubt the life of anyone would be much improved by creepy things like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PspagsTFvlg
Common Misconception About Japan #1: That Everyone and Everything is Technologically Savvy and Up-To-Date
False.
Maybe it was all those travel shows I watched or the fact that half the appliances in my American house had Japanese names or maybe I just watched Lost in Translation too many times (okay…I only saw it once), but before coming here I had this idea that the entirety of the country of Japan had fancy, fancy techy stuff, that even the common man walked around perpetually plugged in. I didn’t think that the whole country looked like the pictures I had seen of Tokyo, all lit up, shiny, and eternally flashing advertisements for ramen and karaoke, but I did think that, at least, government-run facilities (i.e., my schools) and the people who worked in them would utilize technology like they utilized chopsticks – with skill and efficiency.
I have come to discover, however, that not really any of this is true. None of my classrooms, even at my top school, have computers or projectors in the classrooms. There are separate technology rooms and computer labs, but even these do not have anything as fancy as Smartboards or document cameras or things that seemed pretty much vital for my classrooms in America. I haven’t been able to locate a color printer in any of my schools. The computer the school lets me use is running Windows 2000 (granted, the full-time teachers do have nicer computers). Most of my teachers can barely handle transferring files via flashdrives, and for all those spiffy Japanese cellphones, most people are still rocking fairly basic models (they do pimp them out with ginormous stuffed animals and wacky colors, however). After talking to Rick and Martha in Kyushu, I think this is pretty much the state of affairs everywhere. Students don’t take or use computers in class – which I think has more to do with an inbred need for homogeny than lack of resources – and I have only seen one sensei use a computer and projector in class for something other than what I was doing.
And yet…some of the hottest tech is coming out of this place. In a way, the Japanese mindset would say that if one school had those resources, than every school would also need those resources, and I can see how that could be a pretty daunting if not unattainable goal, since technology is always improving and consequently going out of date. But the inclusion of technology into classrooms, and even daily life, doesn’t really seem to be on the radar for most Japanese. Students freaked when they saw my iPhone. Teachers want to know everything I can tell them about my Kindle. And these things are as common as driver’s licenses in the States.
So, all this to say, that despite your (and my) preconception that all of Japan is booming with endless access to out-of-this-world technology, that’s just not the reality that I have seen. All of Japan is not Shibuya Crossing, despite what Sophia Coppola would like us to believe.
In their defense though, I doubt the life of anyone would be much improved by creepy things like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PspagsTFvlg
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
あけましておめでとうございます!
Back from Christmas!
After being out of Akita for almost two weeks, I am back at the office and back to the snowglobe that is my city. Although I missed it terribly, it was nice to get out of the snow for a while, to Miyazaki for Christmas and Tokyo for New Year’s.
I do believe I had a right proper Japanese New Year’s. I was at Sensoji Shrine in Asakusa (one of the most famous-y shrines in Tokyo) at midnight when the bells rung 108 times, which took almost a half hour due to the long pauses, the much bowing, and the old men who rung them. At ten in the morning on January 1, we beat mochi with the guys who ran the hotel we were staying at. Mochi is a traditional Japanese food eaten on New Year’s. You put the rice paste stuff in this hollowed out tree trunk-like container, and then smash it with giant mallets resembling Thor’s Hammer. You do this for a long time. Then you can eat mochi balls in several different ways. There was a plate of sugar and brown granules of some kind (I don’t ask questions), or the mochi dipped in soy sauce and then wrapped in nori (which was surprisingly delicious…and nori is seaweed), and then mochi added to soup. All drunk down with beer and sake. At eleven am!!
We also visited Meiji Shrine on New Year’s Day to wish our luck for the next year. The first shrine visit of the year is a really important part of the Japanese New Year, and Meiji Shrine being the other famous-y shrine in Tokyo, it was flooded with families coming to start the year off right. The organized chaos of the massive crowd was a testament to the efficiency of these people – if that many people assembled anywhere in America, the line would be out to the street, and people would be getting tasered. But guards with nice signs featuring a cartoony animal and ‘please wait a moment’ let people up to the shrine in waves to throw in money, bow twice, clap twice, and bow again, before praying and then making their exit. Even with the surge of bodies, we were only in line for thirty minutes, a feat which would easily have taken a few hours in America.
I had visited Udo Shirne when I was in Miyazaki with Rick and Martha before Christmas, and the place had been covered in rabbits, since 2011 had been the year of the rabbit. Meiji and Sensoji shrines were instead covered in pictures of dragons! And arrows, and all kinds of imagery I didn’t really understand. I asked my Japanese teacher to explain some of the things to me, but it’s still a struggle to look at Asian art and architecture, and to understand the images and the concepts and the worldviews that are going on there. In Europe, I understood how cathedrals and churches worked, because I understood the imagery and the worldview that made them work. Here, I don’t, and I am beginning to appreciate how much worldview affects how a society is built up, both ideologically and physically. Architecture has nearly as much to say about what a society believes as its laws and customs do. Everything I see is something I need to learn, and very little by very little I am putting pieces together that make Japan make more sense to me. The Japanese want foreigners to understand their culture, to ask questions, and to think about it. I’m trying to get better about understanding and asking those questions.
A big thank you to everyone who sent me a package or a Christmas card or a letter (I had a whole pile waiting for me when I got back to my apartment, and it was like second-Christmas!). I hope you all enjoyed your holidays!
For your edificiation:
How to write "Happy New Year" in Japanese - あけましておめでとうございます
How to say "Happy New Year" in Japanese - Akemashite omedeto gozaimasu
After being out of Akita for almost two weeks, I am back at the office and back to the snowglobe that is my city. Although I missed it terribly, it was nice to get out of the snow for a while, to Miyazaki for Christmas and Tokyo for New Year’s.
I do believe I had a right proper Japanese New Year’s. I was at Sensoji Shrine in Asakusa (one of the most famous-y shrines in Tokyo) at midnight when the bells rung 108 times, which took almost a half hour due to the long pauses, the much bowing, and the old men who rung them. At ten in the morning on January 1, we beat mochi with the guys who ran the hotel we were staying at. Mochi is a traditional Japanese food eaten on New Year’s. You put the rice paste stuff in this hollowed out tree trunk-like container, and then smash it with giant mallets resembling Thor’s Hammer. You do this for a long time. Then you can eat mochi balls in several different ways. There was a plate of sugar and brown granules of some kind (I don’t ask questions), or the mochi dipped in soy sauce and then wrapped in nori (which was surprisingly delicious…and nori is seaweed), and then mochi added to soup. All drunk down with beer and sake. At eleven am!!
We also visited Meiji Shrine on New Year’s Day to wish our luck for the next year. The first shrine visit of the year is a really important part of the Japanese New Year, and Meiji Shrine being the other famous-y shrine in Tokyo, it was flooded with families coming to start the year off right. The organized chaos of the massive crowd was a testament to the efficiency of these people – if that many people assembled anywhere in America, the line would be out to the street, and people would be getting tasered. But guards with nice signs featuring a cartoony animal and ‘please wait a moment’ let people up to the shrine in waves to throw in money, bow twice, clap twice, and bow again, before praying and then making their exit. Even with the surge of bodies, we were only in line for thirty minutes, a feat which would easily have taken a few hours in America.
I had visited Udo Shirne when I was in Miyazaki with Rick and Martha before Christmas, and the place had been covered in rabbits, since 2011 had been the year of the rabbit. Meiji and Sensoji shrines were instead covered in pictures of dragons! And arrows, and all kinds of imagery I didn’t really understand. I asked my Japanese teacher to explain some of the things to me, but it’s still a struggle to look at Asian art and architecture, and to understand the images and the concepts and the worldviews that are going on there. In Europe, I understood how cathedrals and churches worked, because I understood the imagery and the worldview that made them work. Here, I don’t, and I am beginning to appreciate how much worldview affects how a society is built up, both ideologically and physically. Architecture has nearly as much to say about what a society believes as its laws and customs do. Everything I see is something I need to learn, and very little by very little I am putting pieces together that make Japan make more sense to me. The Japanese want foreigners to understand their culture, to ask questions, and to think about it. I’m trying to get better about understanding and asking those questions.
A big thank you to everyone who sent me a package or a Christmas card or a letter (I had a whole pile waiting for me when I got back to my apartment, and it was like second-Christmas!). I hope you all enjoyed your holidays!
For your edificiation:
How to write "Happy New Year" in Japanese - あけましておめでとうございます
How to say "Happy New Year" in Japanese - Akemashite omedeto gozaimasu
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