As a keen swimmer from another island at the opposite end of the Eurasian land mass, it has been interesting to contrast Japanese attitudes towards the sea with those of my compatriots, as well as with other countries I have visited or lived in.
More specifically, what I am talking about here is getting in the water. In my experience, many people living in coastal or island nations - even fairly cold ones like my own - enjoy swimming in and being in or on the sea. In Japan, however, this seems to apply mainly to surfers or wind surfers. When I have spoken, as I often do, about my own love of swimming in the ocean, reactions range from mild (he’s just a strange foreigner) to strong (he’s bonkers). But why is this? What accounts for the almost phobic dread many have here of getting in the briny? There are many reasons, I think, but I am certain I know one of them, and it’s a belief I find every bit as strange as some might find me.
Isn’t it cold? This is the question I am often asked when I tell people that I swim in the sea, even when I’m talking about swimming in summer. Of course, people have different ideas about what ‘cold’ is, but for me the question is still a very strange one. It is like asking a runner in the Fukuoka Marathon (held in a fairly cold month) if she is cold. She isn’t cold because she is running. I am not cold in the sea because (1) I am swimming and (2) Kyushu is hot in summer by any standards. This ‘isn’t it cold’ question says something to me about how many Japanese view the sea and why people don’t get in it. Basically, it is a permanently, unchangingly cold place, no matter what the season is or what one is doing in the water.
As I said, I think there are many reasons why relatively few people here get in the sea, even when the weather is hot. Others, in my opinion, include different ideas about modesty, a dislike of getting sunburnt (females especially), and the fact that learning to swim in a 1.5 meter deep pool (rather like learning to ride a bicycle without taking the training wheels off) is perhaps not the best preparation for swimming in the ocean.
To finish, while I’m on the topic of the sea and local beliefs about it, I’d like to put a particularly popular one to bed once and for all! Here it comes: The Jellyfish appear after Obon. If I had 10 yen for every time I have heard this, I would be a rich man. It is incredible how many people think this is true! Well, I can personally assure you all that it is not! One reason I know it is not true is that I’ve been stung by them long before August. By far the main reason, however, is that jellyfish do not know when Obon is. I am not a marine biologist, but I would bet my life on this claim being correct. Yet another reason is that for anyone who cares to look there are large numbers of jellyfish to be found in June, no more than a kilometre away from the school. And this has been true for a long time. I admit that this ‘jellyfish after Obon’ fantasy may have had some veracity in pre-industrial times, before man-made climate change, but it is not even close to being true anymore.
Anyway, that’s enough this week from an Englishman in the Sea of Japan!
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During the last twenty plus years I’ve reflected a lot on the differences and similarities between my own country (the U.K.) and Japan. In this blog entry I’d like to share my reflections on the topic of music - popular music. I don’t think there are many similarities here, so I’ll be talking about the differences.
I’ve long thought that the music each country produces is a reflection of sometimes stereotypical national characteristics and how they manifest in each society. Japanese society is characterized by politeness, obedience, group thinking and an unwillingness to give offence, and in my opinion the music of many bands here mirrors this. Go to a Dreams Don’t Come True or Mr. Child concert and you will hear crowds singing along politely to nice music which is inoffensive to the point of being anodyne.
I admit that heavier bands in Japan (like B’z?) are, on the surface, different. They strike rock star poses, wear sunglasses all the time and make moody rock star faces - all things that good rock stars everywhere should do! But Rock and Roll has its roots in teenage rebellion. Of course, I know that many British and American rockers of my generation are balding, pot-bellied multi-millionaires in their 70s, so the notion of teenage rebellion is now ridiculous, but many of them were the genuine article at one time. However, in a society as conformist as Japan’s is, this rebellious pose is to say the least unconvincing. I just can’t help imagining the boss running onstage during one of their concerts and telling them to get back to work immediately. Japanese rockers are just as much a product of their milieu as the groups mentioned above.
As for society in Britain, despite its ‘afternoon tea’ image, it is or can be a lot rougher, more aggressive and confrontational. Individuality and irreverence are, in my opinion, defining characteristics of the average Brit. Put all this together and you get something as neanderthal as Queen’s We Will Rock You, or as aggressive and nasty as 70’s Punk Rock. Plus a whole lot more!! A musical punch in the face, and a million miles from the pleasant, happy clappy offerings of J Pop.
Another difference I’ve noticed between our two countries, mainly because of my day job with female university students, is different priorities. The following conversation is not verbatim, but I’ve had a number of exchanges just like this with students:
Me: What are you doing this weekend, Yuki? Yuki: I’m going to a Prince and King concert. Shoe is so cute! Me: Cute? But what about the music? What’s the music like? Yuki: Music? I don’t know, but Shoe is kawaii!!
Basically, for many young people here - at least the people I’ve spoken to - the quality of the music seems unimportant. Kawaii and image are everything! This is not the case in the U.K. These things have a very short shelf life. If your music is terrible, you won’t last long.
I think I’ve said enough, but before I finish I should say that although I miss England (the place!) I prefer society here. I really do. I just think the music it produces is…how can I say this….a bit tame.
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Not long ago, on the occasion of my wife’s birthday, my family and I dined in a very small Izakaya in Nishi ku. As usual the food was very good - it nearly always is in Japan. What was not so good, however, was the music. I’m not talking about the type of music played. This was an extremely eclectic mix, from Jeff Beck to Rap to J Pop idols (I’m guessing the proprietors were trying to cater to everyone’s taste - or lack of it). I’m talking about customers having to shout across the table in order to have a conversation.
If one omits the hellish din in pachinko parlors, the situation above is perhaps an extreme example in terms of the volume, but the incessant background noise almost everywhere in Japan - apart from the library - is something I’ve never really understood the need for. Why must there be music in a swimming pool? Why does there have to be music in a supermarket, a convenience store or a restaurant? What’s the connection between such places and music? Is there something wrong with silence?
I have asked a number of Japanese friends and acquaintances this question and even introduced it as a topic in speaking classes. So far the range of answers has been narrow. A few people said that music creates a good atmosphere, and perhaps it does if you happen to like what is being played (what if you don’t?). Most others, though, had never considered the question and appeared completely baffled by it. It was rather like asking them why they breathe. ‘Surely background music in a shop or restaurant is as natural as the goods on the shelves or the food one is served? What are you talking about?’
Nothing really. It’s just another observation - another perspective - from ‘An Englishman in Japan’. What’s more I’m getting old, and old people tend to find noise rather jarring. At the end of the day it’s your country, and if that’s what you like to do it’s none of my business.
I’d like to finish on a bright and hopeful note! I mean ‘bright and hopeful’ from the point of view of this lover of silence. When I first came to Japan the Mr. Max song played non-stop in that store from Opening to Closing time! It was bad enough for the 10 minutes or so one was shopping, but can you imagine what it was like for the people working there!? It must have been like the Chinese Water Torture! It must have driven them insane! Anyway, as you can see, I’m using the past tense. Some time ago my local Mr. Max stopped doing this. Well done Mr. Max! I hope your example is one that many others will follow.
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It’s 4.30 am on Sunday the 30th of October, and I have just woken up. As always I look at the BBC News on my smartphone, and as always it is not good: an appalling tragedy in Korea during what was supposed to be some kind of celebration; Putin denying grain to millions worldwide because the brave Ukrainians have the temerity to fight back against his brutal invasion of their country… I could go on and on and on in this vein.
I have often said in this blog that my Japanese is very bad. Given the length of time I have been here it is shamefully bad, and there are times when I do feel that emotion. Oddly though - and in connection with the above - there are also times when I am not unhappy that I have such poor Japanese skills. Let me explain.
It was my choice to read the BBC News. I could have not done so, in much the same way as I avoid certain social media. I’m not comparing BBC News (I do trust the BBC a little) and things like Twitter, which I regard as a cesspit of shrill opinions, outright lies, truths, half truths and god knows what else. What I’m talking about is the information overload in today’s world (nearly always negative information), even if one does not use social media. I’m talking about the feeling that one’s head is going to explode if one more bit of data goes into it. At least this is the way I feel. And this is where my poor Japanese comes in. In Japan, a lot of what is going on goes over my head: sounds and marks on paper that I don’t understand enough of and that I can tune out - a kind of reducing valve. In my own country this would of course not be possible. Unless I locked myself in the bathroom all day every day, a mass of data would be coming from everywhere, whether I liked it or not. And given the state of my country, this would indeed be mostly negative!
I am not saying that my ignorance of the Japanese language is bliss. Absolutely not! But in a strange way, I really think that it helps me stay sane.
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Warning: This blog entry is quite a long one. It is about Japan, but I need to talk about my own country first.
Like many of my countryfolk I was saddened by the recent death of HM Queen Elizabeth the 2nd. May she rest in peace. What I was definitely not saddened by was the recent departure of that blonde buffoon Boris Johnson, a man sadly lacking in the qualities Her Majesty displayed in spades throughout her reign and for which she was widely respected, even by people like myself who are skeptical about the monarchy. I’m talking about dignity, self-sacrifice, discretion and plain class. Anyway, to the point…
In his farewell speech Johnson rattled off in his usual machine gun style a long list of his government’s positive achievements (more Foreign Direct Investment, more wind-power, more nuclear reactors to help us solve our energy issues, more trains…..more of everything except crime). Had I believed it I think I might have taken the next plane home! Unfortunately, though, Johnson inhabits a parallel universe. What he failed to mention, but what both he and the British people know full well, is that the nuclear plants will be built by French companies - hopefully with finance from China; the wind turbines are made mostly abroad; trains (which Britain invented but doesn’t make anymore) are made for us by foreign companies like Hitachi. I could continue in the same vein for a long time, but I think you get the point.
He also knows that the Foreign Direct Investment he is so proud of attracting is simply a euphemism for British companies no longer being able to provide jobs for British workers, so we have to rely on foreign companies to do it. Related to this, anything worth buying has been sold off to foreign buyers: Mini Cooper cars, top football clubs, prime real estate in London, new IT start ups that look promising and are quickly snapped up by holding companies in the Cayman Islands…..you name it. And it doesn’t matter who the buyer is. It might be ‘Sovereign Wealth Funds’ (often shorthand for middle-eastern petrostates) that are looking to ‘sportswash’ their human rights records (Manchester City football club). It might be Putin’s kleptocratic cronies, who apparently own mansions all over the posher parts of the capital (it is no accident that London is called Moscow-on-Thames or Londongrad). It might also be foreign billionaires who wouldn’t know the difference between football and cricket (Liverpool FC, Chelsea FC and Manchester United). The list is endless. The whole country is for sale, and of course it hardly needs saying that it’s people like Johnson who benefit most from it.
You may wonder what all this has to do with Japan. Well, it’s the contrast! Sure, we live in a globalized economy, but I just cannot imagine a Japanese prime minister standing up in Parliament and boasting about this kind of ‘Foreign Direct Investment’, or acquiescing to Japanese companies being bought up en masse by foreign buyers. And I cannot imagine the people of Japan thinking of the situation in Britain as anything other than humiliating. Would Japanese workers be comfortable if a foreign buyer interested in nothing but a quick profit (so-called vulture capitalists) made a bid for their company? I don’t think so. Would the Japanese people be ashamed if they no longer made their own trains, nuclear reactors and big ships? I’m sure they would. Would the fans of Tokyo Giants be pleased if their team was bought by foreigners with no interest whatsoever in baseball and who saw the club purely as a commercial enterprise? No, I am positive they wouldn’t. Actually, given that most people in the world have no interest in baseball (it seems to be on a par with Sumo as a global sport) such a takeover is very unlikely to happen. Who would want to? But you know what I mean, and I think I’ve made my point. I just can’t imagine any of this here.
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