Random thoughts on Japan

[larabell]

Just to be sure... these are mostly all generalizations. I have one Japanese friend who lives nearby who always manages to be considerate, even to people he's not likely to ever meet again. And I knew one young Japanese guy who used to leave work (in a Japanese company) around 5 or 5:30 every evening because he wanted to spend time with his family. And these behaviors we're discussing are certainly not absent in our own cultures, either.

I agree that "people are people everywhere". We're colored by the culture in which we are raised but a lot also depends on the specific person. And when you're a foreigner in Japan, any behavioral trait you see that you don't particularly care for is easily mapped in our brains as being endemic to Japanese culture -- but I've seen some pretty rude people where I come from, too... and some very polite ones. I do feel there's more of a disconnect here and that may be because people have politeness beat into them rather than letting is come out from their own hearts... or it could be that I'm still seeing things through Western-colored glasses.

BTW, my reference to schools was a reference to Japanese schools. I have little experience with American schools in Japan but I would suspect that if one wanted to get into a Japanese University, one would have to follow the same exam-first, school-later model. It's just strange to me because, where I come from, you attended school first, learned the material as best you could, and *then* had to pass the exams.

[larabell]

I know the term and I also heard it was a cross between obasan and "Batalion". I'm pretty sure that if I'm still here by the time I'm 70 or 80 yrs old I'm gonna be just as pushy as the obatalion. I wonder if there's a similar slang term for ojisan.

[Rube]

Originally Posted by larabell

I know the term and I also heard it was a cross between obasan and "Batalion". I'm pretty sure that if I'm still here by the time I'm 70 or 80 yrs old I'm gonna be just as pushy as the obatalion. I wonder if there's a similar slang term for ojisan.

Yeah, "Ojisan" lol. You'll often here them refered to as ganko ojisans and so on.

This isn't a thread to just talk about the stuff we don't like in Japan, I'm just saying every place has it's own version and I think it takes a while before us gaijins even understand that. I think it's a shame that Japan isn't as known for the stuff that goes against the image.

I wouldn't worry about being so P.C., I'm counting on people knowing what the vibe is. That's one thing that is so great about Japan, not so much into that P.C. stuff.

And I was talking about Japanese schools, my kids just go to normal school here.

You don't see a lot of the joy of learning in kids here like what I experienced growing up. My general observation is that it's like no kid left behind policy on steroids. (heavy emphasis on test scores as sole indicator of success). Kids actually enjoy their cram schools more. Just nuts.

[larabell]

Originally Posted by Rube

You don't see a lot of the joy of learning in kids here like what I experienced growing up.

Really??? As far as I can tell, my kids love going to school (ku-ritsu) and I'm often taken aback at some of the insights the older one has brought home over the past couple years. I was bored silly with school when I was his age (of course, going to a Catholic school probably didn't help). It's hard to tell how much of what he learns is from school, how much is his own personal interest (he likes to read about Japanese history, for some reason) and how much is from being exposed to non-stop media. And both my kids have been doing the "challenge" series from Benesse since before 1st grade so that also exposes them to a lot of interesting stuff.

The older one does like juku better than daytime school, though. The younger one doesn't seem nearly as motivated and may well end up flipping burgers for a living.

[Rube]

That was a brain fart, I meant that they don't encourage that feeling in school here like in the school I went to, but I went to a private school with a very high teacher student ratio. Kids here to love to learn the same as anywhere.

[Rube]

Living in Japan means that you probably have never seen a Kardashian.

Most of Japanese TV sucks as well but for different reasons. Reality TV here used to mean Denpa Shonen, which is a show I used to like. Of course anybody who reads the online news sees all the various headlines through the years.

Any country where a Kardashian is made a star shouldn't have nukes plain and simple. Not that anybody should, but that's just scary.

[Rube]

What is that experession? Insanity is repeating the same thing again and again and expecting a different result? That pretty much sums up education here.

My kid just started middle school, he has about an hour or basketball practice before school and then a few hours after school before he gets home in time to go to cram school. He leaves home at 6:15 in the morning and finishes sometimes as late as 9pm.

He's 12. You couldn't get away with making an adult work that hard and yet they don't think twice about making kids do this because......they had to do it when they were kids. Well god damn, do they really think things are going to turn our different for our kids? For all the studying and practice they do in this country you'd think they would expect some real results. Where are all the gold medals at the olympics? Where are all the nobel prizes? Where are the happy healthy well formed individuals? It's no wonder that people are driving their cars into people at kyoto and stuff. No wonder everybody complains about stress and stomach cancer. The only wonder is why on Earth they can't put it together and figure out their system sucks.

The ex told me, "Well everybody has to do it." Same stupid excuse that the nazis used.

I get my kids from high school thank god, then they can start to live and enjoy life. End of rant.

[lorgnette]

I like the trust and dedication in Japanese friends. One time I mentioned I like fugu, and when it was the right season in December, a friend researched and found a tiny three generation sushi place. I will always remember the lengths they went to enable our family enjoy a dish I read about.

[Rube]

There certainly is that good host thing running through a lot of Asia. What's strange is that a lot of foriegners end up with more traditional Japanese experiences than most Japanese. How many of us have seen kabuki?

[Rube]

Thank god we vacation when we want to. Was watching the news this morning and saw a bit on a 1.5 kilo line for some stuff which is in right now. Never seen so many people happy to be waiting in line. Wasn't there talk about off setting the holidays between the east and west?

Learning about roof balconies. They always seemed so awesome. Now that I have 60 sqaure meters of it the neighbor tells me in the summer the balcony will melt foam beach sandals. Set up my automatic watering system for my veggies and flowers using grey water from the bath, very cool and even eco like. Now I'm looking at 240,000 yen to have the balcony covered in super afro turf stuff that is supposed to reduce temps by 10 C. I am so scared of the summer. My place is all floor to ceiling glass with sun morning to night.