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forest of ten
First, a link: this blog has an interesting comic published which sparked off a rather intense discussion of human rights, culture, racism, etc, especially as these topics relate to Japan. Said discussion is very extensive, but it makes for interesting reading. Most of it is also intelligent, which I appreciate. And, as it should be with good debate, you find yourself constantly changing your mind as the discussion continues and those on opposite sides (or even different sides of the same side) answer each other and bring up new points.
Be informed, and make up your mind for yourself. That's my general rule.
* * * * *
I woke up at 5:30 this morning to a loud sound similar to the crunching of an aluminum can, the bizarrely musical tinkle of shattering glass, and a loud electronic wailing that put me in mind of an ignored alarm clock on steroids. The first two sounds lasted a mere second; the third lasted for ten minutes. By the time the policemen who arrived at the scene of the car crash finally managed to shut it off, I was well and truly awake.
As was most of the neighborhood, of course.
After several attempts to go back to sleep, I finally gave it up as a bad job. At 6 AM the weather was still cool, the sky a perfect blue around the perfect white clouds . . . so I decided to go for a run out into the rice fields.
And I decided to take my camera with me.
I love trains. I love that I can hear the trains from my apartment. Unlike my father I do not love them for themselves, but because I have so very many memories tied to them. I love them, too, for the places that they can take me, for the promises they hold. I love to watch them, sliding so smoothly along their tracks.
According to my shakuhachi sensei, only ten years ago Tanabe was a virtual backwater, nothing but rice fields. As you see we still have rice fields, though we also have a great deal more development.
As above, so below.
Wildlife in Japan is rather different from what I'm used to in the US (no squirrels, not around where I am, anyway. Probably due to lack of trees), but it certainly is present if you look for it.
A local graveyard. One of the things that's very striking about Japan is the way the spiritual and the mundane exist side-by-side, and are in many cases intermingled. As you see here, there's no wall between the graveyard and the fields, just a low earthen rise.
Graves themselves are also quite different. Cremation is the rule, not the exception, and graves take up much less space. They are also passed down from generation to generation.
This is the first one I've seen like this, though.
Leaving the graveyard . . .
Along the river . . . rivers are very much tamed entities in Japan, at least those I've seen. Even the one we went whitewater rafting on had concrete banks in places, and other "improvements" along it.
A suburban castle.
Yes, that's the moon back there above the rooftree.
Only in Japan . . . the tiny little church near my apartment is also home to a preschool.
The people who live here have flowers and plants out year-round. An interesting and creative way to have a garden without having one.
My neighborhood Jizo shrine.
I wonder just how many years it took to convince that tree to grow that way?
Be informed, and make up your mind for yourself. That's my general rule.
* * * * *
I woke up at 5:30 this morning to a loud sound similar to the crunching of an aluminum can, the bizarrely musical tinkle of shattering glass, and a loud electronic wailing that put me in mind of an ignored alarm clock on steroids. The first two sounds lasted a mere second; the third lasted for ten minutes. By the time the policemen who arrived at the scene of the car crash finally managed to shut it off, I was well and truly awake.
As was most of the neighborhood, of course.
After several attempts to go back to sleep, I finally gave it up as a bad job. At 6 AM the weather was still cool, the sky a perfect blue around the perfect white clouds . . . so I decided to go for a run out into the rice fields.
And I decided to take my camera with me.
I love trains. I love that I can hear the trains from my apartment. Unlike my father I do not love them for themselves, but because I have so very many memories tied to them. I love them, too, for the places that they can take me, for the promises they hold. I love to watch them, sliding so smoothly along their tracks.
According to my shakuhachi sensei, only ten years ago Tanabe was a virtual backwater, nothing but rice fields. As you see we still have rice fields, though we also have a great deal more development.
As above, so below.
Wildlife in Japan is rather different from what I'm used to in the US (no squirrels, not around where I am, anyway. Probably due to lack of trees), but it certainly is present if you look for it.
A local graveyard. One of the things that's very striking about Japan is the way the spiritual and the mundane exist side-by-side, and are in many cases intermingled. As you see here, there's no wall between the graveyard and the fields, just a low earthen rise.
Graves themselves are also quite different. Cremation is the rule, not the exception, and graves take up much less space. They are also passed down from generation to generation.
This is the first one I've seen like this, though.
Leaving the graveyard . . .
Along the river . . . rivers are very much tamed entities in Japan, at least those I've seen. Even the one we went whitewater rafting on had concrete banks in places, and other "improvements" along it.
A suburban castle.
Yes, that's the moon back there above the rooftree.
Only in Japan . . . the tiny little church near my apartment is also home to a preschool.
The people who live here have flowers and plants out year-round. An interesting and creative way to have a garden without having one.
My neighborhood Jizo shrine.
I wonder just how many years it took to convince that tree to grow that way?
no subject
lots of fun at finnegan's wake
ye gods and little fishes
having seen these pictures, i'll understand if you never leave japan. i'll be furious, of course. but i'll understand. i've never seen a place be so... you.
all love and tofu shakes and sparking swallows of red,
me!
no subject
I knew I shouldn't have clicked that blog link though. *sigh* I'm compelled to read these types of discussions to the end, and never once has that experience been either informative or satisfying. I hope you don't mind me ranting a little in your journal, but I really need to rant somewhere and I don't want to join the conversation. I'm not at my happiest here and I'm probably too inflammatory. But man. I got pretty irritated.
**start rant**
The Kyle guy is satisfied with living in Japan but can't fathom how anyone non-Japanese would want to be citizens because they "are not and never will be Japanese." Whoa there. Maybe human rights is a Western morality play, but all of his posts smack of "Westerner ashamed of being Western." His view of the West is so negative (b/c yeah, "slavery" was a Western/Christian invention, of course. I'm glad several people have already called him on that) that it's impossible for him to picture the Japanese accepting Westerners, ever. It apparently has not occurred to this guy that maybe some Japanese will actually agree with Coal and Arudou, because in any population you will always find somebody to agree with any opinion. So hey, I guess maybe those Japanese don't belong either.
Someone else decides to cheer the Japanese for being racist because that indicates how they're standing against the "dumbing down" of culture, forgetting that 1. Westernization would not happen if there were not young Japanese/Chinese/Korean people eagerly gobbling up gucchi bags and MacDonald's, and 2. not all Japanese are racist. And what is his/her deal against "Nihonphiles"? Because my god, obviously it's impossible for me to love a country that much if I knew what's REALLY going on in there. Look at his points. Korean girls getting slashed by razors after the Korean missile shot. Terrible, yes, but unless every single Japanese individual leaped up and cheered when they heard this, you're gonna have a difficult time convincing me that this sort of behavior is indicative of Japanese mentality, as the poster seems to imply. And I love how he/she thinks this sort of thing only happens in Japan, which is apparently a single xenophobic monster beneath its Hello Kitty exterior. This is the best line: "Japan will become like everything else, monotanous, debased, decentralised, and moribund." Uh huh. How seriously do I want to take a guy's argument when it's clearly being motivated by bitterness against Westernization? I love how a society is apparently running itself into the gutter if it takes on some Western qualities. Maybe he doesn't realize this, but in his efforts to protect those poor, stupid cultures that will OBVIOUSLY throw alway all of their old traditions, willy nilly, in the face of Westernization because they don't know any better (an assumption insulting in and of itself), he just called Western *culture* gutter trash. I can't take a guy seriously when he looks down on another culture as "debased" just because it is widespread.
no subject
The non-Japanese individuals currently living in Japan who are "avoiding" gaijin (Kyle and Tamyu in particular) are just as bad as the Japanese people who are discriminatory. While I agree that those people they've pointed out are pretty scummy, way to go for then deciding that it must mean most gaijin suck. No, sorry, most gaijin whom YOU HAVE ENCOUNTERED suck. Have you encountered all of the gaijin in Japan? So you've heard of a Filipino couple who skipped out on their rent. So there's a Chinese family who did tons of damage to the apartment before leaving the country. Well, damn those foreigners! I suppose you then ignored the numerous JAPANESE people who have done the same? (Tamyu's points are more reasonable after this post though.)
The thing that irritates me about too many of these posters is that, while they may be making intelligent points over all, they are basing everything they say on personal experiences and then assuming that applies to "every gaijin" or "every Japanese." Even saying "the majority" or "most" is faulty. Of course, the most ridiculous one was the guy who invited friends from Osaka over, only to find that they were "repulsed" by his body hair. He then concludes that he will never visit Japan, because of course EVERY SINGLE BLOODY PERSON in the country will think like his friends from Osaka. Now happily, that guy didn't even get a response because he was such a tard, but subtler versions of his attitude is rampant in far too many posts for me to be comfortable with the discussion. This is the problem with that guy who went on his rant against multiculturalism: "And that is what sits always under the smile that takes your cash, and makes you feel at home, as a temporary means to an end." Note the "always." Way to go, making broad generalizations! And also, there's that guy who's never encountered racism in Japan but hears about the "real" Japan, that intolerant mindset, the racism, the sexism, yadda yadda yadda and is immediately convinced that it must be present. This is an even worse argument than "personal experience so it must be true," this is "I heard it said, so it must be true." He ends with "The japanese are notorious for circumventing the inconveinent." Well, gee, just like EVERY OTHER HUMAN BEING on the planet.
So, to sum up: either they're discriminating against the West, or they're discriminating against the Japanese. Their arguments are based on what they've encountered or what their friends have encountered, or worse yet, what they've heard. Or else they quote wrong facts to support their otherwise correct statements: "Values are not universal, and I always approve of countries which stick to what works for them- e.g. Switzerland (no foreigners allowed, and women happily do what benefits society most- raise kids)."
I think only a few people (two or three) actually pointed out that neither this comic nor any of the personal experiences amount to what most or even many Japanese actually think about the issue. The entire exchange just feels so flawed because they're using terrible logic. Smart people, bad debaters.
I will say that once they got off this racism discussion and went on about whether or not the bill is a good idea, the arguments got more bearable.
Sorry I ranted. I always seem to rant whenever I comment in your journal entries.^^;;;; (God, this thing took almost 2 hours to type.@_@)