Truly meditate on the idea

I think as anti-consumerism becomes more fashionable, those who are less inclined to think critically about their lifestyle choices will perhaps adopt a less consumer driven lifestyle if it means they gain social status. The problem there is that a fashion trend usually emerges out of a number of individuals' perception of being unique. People still outwardly despise doing something because everyone else is doing it. How can we instigate radical change amongst the general public if the most powerful force we have available to us self-destructs as soon as large numbers of people have been convinced?

When will it become cool to work together? When will it become cool to care?

In Japan it seems this self-destruct mechanism takes much much longer to come into effect - I have never before seen such joyous displays of the thousandth identical Hello Kitty pencil case. Japan also has the most astoundingly organised and effective ethos of group cooperation I have ever experienced - the group is always more important than the individual. The group ego outweighs the individual ego. Consequently, Japan may be seen as a country with a towering ego - one big collective mind contemplating itself. This, in turn, affects Japan's ability to associate and cooperate with the rest of the world - a meta version of the problem seen in a lot of Western communities. I believe this powerful force of group cooperation is trapped inside a country with such a profound sense of its own identity that it is blinded to the ability it has to instigate radical change in our global society. I'm sure this group phenomenon is found in other countries as well - but certainly not enough to be considered common knowledge. And now Japan is feeding out its best bits - the manga/anime and the kooky gadgets, for fear that we won't accept its true nature (as most egotists do). Perhaps this is the beginning of the uprising of the group mind. Japanese culture is sanctified among individualist societies through the accepted medium of pop-culture, preparing the way for collectivist ideals to be adopted.

Then, the question will be: what do we choose to do with this immense force of collective humanity?

Ideas are pathways to action.
The road seems longer when you don't know how far you have to go, but
A journey with a friend is shorter than a journey alone.
So let's keep walking.

Fireflies and fear of commitment

Last night I felt very pleased with myself for having the discipline to bike 40 minutes into the city to go to zazen (sitting meditation) at a temple in the city. After the session as I was trying to find my way out through the maze of stone pathways that leads back to the real world, the ladies who had been there ushered me over to the pond to see the fireflys. They were like children, gushing with awe and amazement at the tiny glowing bulbs floating over the water. There were about 5 of them and a lady grabbed one and tried to put it in my hand but I flinched and dropped it. They laughed at my reaction. For some reason they then decided to grab me by the arm and lead me all the way over to the building where people were practising tea ceremony. I had been to watch once before but recently found out that you're supposed to pay money and actually learn the technique.
Having been ushered so forcefully to the building I went inside and was served some tea and watched the detailed choreography of the ceremony. A lady in her kimono was serving. She shuffled out of the kitchen room and placed the pot of matcha powder and the bowl side by side in front of her with great delicacy and precision. Only to be told by the monk that she should put them closer together and slightly further away from her. She tried about 4 or 5 times to get this exactly right. Isn't it amazing that these people pay to learn how to serve tea?! Anyway I was allowed my turn to drink some tea (which also must be done a certain way) and continued watching. After this I had a chat with the lady who served me using my stunted Japanese and somehow ended up saying that I wanted to learn tea ceremony but my Japanese wasn't good enough. (I think the reason I said this was purely because I knew how to say it). This went down much too well for my liking and soon I was being given papers and being told where to go to buy the right cloth and fan and case etc and come EVERY week. So now I am expected to turn up next week and study tea ceremony and its just this kind of discipline that my stomach responds to with, "No! No!" So I now have to choose between never showing my face at Zuiganji temple again, thereby giving up my zazen priviledges, or commiting to weekly tea ceremony training for a whole year...

It's kind of like pushing off on a water slide when your rubber mat isn't in the right position and you spend the whole ride down in an extremely awkward position trying really hard to readjust it but you can't do anything about it until your dumped in the pool at the bottom. Only to have to climb all the way up the stairs again just to get it right... Kind of...

Kamiyama

This weekend was the Earth Day festival in a little mountain town called Kamiyama. "Kami" means god or spirit and "yama" is mountain. I arrived on the second day at noon. After a 3 hour drive through winding mountain roads that are as wide as alleyways with hairpin corners and sudden drops on either side, I was happy to make it in one piece.

Kamiyama has a program called "Artist in Residence" where, every year, an artist or two from anywhere in the world can come and live in Kamiyama for 5 weeks and work on their art projects while getting to know the local people. It is a very small and close-knit community and they like to get involved. You can read all about it here: http://www.in-kamiyama.jp/en/art They have an NPO organisation and, as the website says, work to keep their community as environmentally friendly and economically independant as possible. So this festival helped to raise money and awareness for their community on Earth Day.



When I arrived a group of Taiko drummers were performing. This group performs every year at the prefecture's Awa-Odori dance festival and also at other gigs around the place. Their drumming is amazing! But I couldn't help but feel like an outsider. Of course, this feeling is nothing new to me as a foreigner in Japan, but when faced with such a closely knit community like that, the feeling is somewhat accentuated. Whats more, these beautiful people didnt seem to have any of the traits that usually make me feel alienated around Japanese people. Nobody was wearing highheels. There was no shiny, straight and perfectly trimmed hair. Nobody seemed to be having mindless heady gossip about where they were going to eat or what their boyfriends were doing. Everyone was just really relaxed and happy, totally unassuming and completely welcoming. So why then was I having so much trouble relaxing? Maybe I had just gotten so used to my Gaijin status that I couldn't break out of it..

Anyway, in Japan, if you are a member of a sub-group of people, be it the punks, the goths, the Yankees (bleached haired kids) or whatever, you are clearly identifiable by your appearance. These kids follow all the rules for clothing and hairstyles and even mannerisms TO THE BOOK. So these lovely people at the festival were all dressed in the most beautiful tie-dyed and embroidered loosely fitting clothes. When I first arrived in Japan I would scoff at this kind of thing, thinking, "Well you think you're being so unique and rebellious when really you're just wearing a different kind of uniform to the other groups." But since then I've realised that this isn't really a fair judgement to make, because they probably don't think they're being unique or rebellious at all. It's more likely that they are proud and happy to be representing their group with such fidelity. If you draw your identity from your group then you want to be damn clear about which group that is. Hence the immaculate uniforms.

Hey! Back to Kamiyama! I was really happy to be at a festival where there were bands playing outside and people sitting on the grass and delicious vegetarian food and markets selling heaps of handmade treasures! And to my absolute delight an old man with a long grey beard and the biggest smile incessantly danced his heart out! Even to the point of stripping down to a loin cloth! My two favourite music groups of the day were a trio called "Eurasian Rung" and a couple who invited up a whole host of different people as guest musicians. Eurasian Rung had a digeridoo, sitar and taiko drum. They had that lovely fluid and easy feel to them that allowed them to build up the rhythm and bring the audience with them. I couldn't STOP myself dancing. The couple was a lady who played an Erhu (2 stringed vertical violin) and a man on keyboard and dig. This lady was AWESOME. They way she used her voice was creative and playful but aaalways musically sound. She started a call and repeat game with the taiko drummer, making the most complicated and rythmically challenging voice licks she could think of and challenging him to imitate her. He succeeded most of the time. She was absolutely beautiful.

So all in all I'm happy (and relieved) to know that there is a community of people not too far away who are alive in ways that I love and can hopefully be a part of sometime in the near future.

Gambatte?

At Japanese schools, the teachers all have their desks in the same room. So all day I am lesson planning and studying Japanese to the sound of shuffling papers and conversations in a language I don't understand. This was quite hard to get used to, because when I'm trying to come up with new ideas (as I always am for English lessons) I usually need my own space and absolute quiet in which to think clearly. It's also a good setting in which to become completely paranoid that EVERYONE is talking about you. But I have mostly gotten over that by now..

So anyway, the teachers are all in one room, and students are always coming in and out for various reasons. Everytime a student enters the teachers room they call out a loud "Shitsureishimasu!!!" "Sorry to interrupt!" or more accurately, "I'm interrupting!" So of course, some of the boy students use this as an opportunity to be particularly loud and obnoxious. One day, after a thundering "Shitsureishimasu!!" from one of the students at my Technical Highschool, an English teacher commented on how polite this young man was being. 'Polite??' I thought. Surely thats a prime example of how young boys take every opportunity they can to be smart-asses? But she explained that his loud speaking was a way of being respectful towards the teachers.

I then thought about the daily ritual of saying good morning to every teacher you come across, and how I've never managed to really get the technique down for making it feel natural and not painfully awkward. I suppose part of the reason is due to my awesomely conspicious foreign face - the most crazy thing a Japanese person could EVER encounter. But I also think perhaps my shy and guarded way of saying it is also partly to blame.

So I decided to experiment. I made a point of saying good morning or good day to people I passed in a very firm and deliberate way. And I found that I received a more positive response from people and generally felt more acknowledged.

My theory:
Japanese society is based on the concept of "Gambatte" or 'perserverance.' My half-assed greeting style is a symbol of lack of commitment or weakness. In a groupminded setting, this weakness is not something that needs to be supported or sympathised with. When the group is more important than the individual, energy cannot be wasted on trying to scaffold weaker members, and so little attention is paid to people who are performing below the standard set by the group.

Western society:
But maybe this positive reaction to a display of confidence is not peculiar to Japan and maybe I am learning just as much about behavioural communication in my own country.

I welcome any criticism from the reader, as my interpretations are definitely not air-tight.

I have been in Japan for 10 months, and the longer I've been here, the more blurred are the lines between what is unique to Japan and what is found the world over. Mys basis for comparision is a little too far gone! Hopefully this blog will help me to be objective toward my own ideas.

So I've been here for 4 and a half months and over that time, its become apparent to me that an understanding of Japanese culture can be difficult to put into words, due to the very nature of it. It seems to me to be based in a very corporeal, ritualistic setting, as opposed to the heady, idea ridden style of 'the west'. This, I suppose, is an interpretation I have been toying with over the past while, and the more I partake in the traditional activities here, the more that interpretation seems fitting. So here are some tales about a few particularly Japanese things I have done over the past few months:

Cultural experience number one:
I'd mentioned to my friend Uchiyama that i was interested in learning about Buddhism here and what meditation was like, so she offered to take me to a Buddhist temple for meditation, even though she never usually goes, which is soo nice of her. She hardly speaks any English at all but she still offers to take me places all the time and I have heaps of fun hanging out with her, its a good way practise my japanese too. So anyway it was really cool! Everyone sat on cushions in the tatami room at Zuiganji temple. There is a big display of ornaments and stuff in the front half of the room. The monk sits in front of these and plays a gong at varying intervals. Then the group recites this mantra type thing called the "hanya shingyo" all in japanese of course. Then everyone sits still and silent together for an hour! Time went by amazingly quickly too. Uchiyama and her friend Hana, both in their 50's, were hilarious... They were shuffling around and fidgeting and uchiyama kept almost falling asleep! It was such a cool experience to be that still and silent (well almost!) with people for such a long time. I went again by myself a fortnight later, and got invited to tea ceremony afterwards - japanese people are sooo sooo nice and welcoming! but tea ceremony will have to wait until one of the next paragraphs...

Cultural experience number two:
Last week i went to a Shoudou club at another temple in the city with Uchiyama. Shoudou is japanese calligraphy. We began the session by rubbing some dust on our hands, eating a clove (gross) and lighting three incense sticks. and bowing to the shrine of course.. There were about 6 or 7 other ladies there, all definitely over 50. Its actually really suprising that i can enjoy hanging out with a bunch of old ladies! It feels like they're alot more young at heart than people of similar age in NZ. The language barrier makes it hard to tell though.. So we spend an hour tracing kanji. I started iff trying to do the normal sized ones, but it was alot more difficult than i thought! so i was given the extra large "training wheels" Kanji to trace. Kanji are the complex characters adopted from Chinese and they are near impossible to learn.. The ladies went through the pronounciation for me in japanese, but i still had no idea what it meant, so i explained that i would take it home with me and figure out what it meant in English. But then they said that even THEY didnt know what it meant in Japanese, that it is just a string of words/sounds with no meaning!! And that what we were tracing was actually called the "hanya shingyo" ... Amazing!!

Cultural experience number three:
Tea Ceremony. I've done this quite a few times since ive been here, at different places like school festivals and temples. I was really happy to be able to do it with a teacher at my techincal school, because she was teaching some other students so i was able to learn about all the specific methods that are involved. Everything has to be done in a particular way, even down to the folding of a napkin and how you set it down on the table. The basic idea is that, in proper tea ceremony, people take turns at being the server of the tea and being served the tea. There is a certain way to serve and be served. And the enjoyment comes from the pure ritual of the whole thing. At first i didnt understand why people did this kind of thing, because, from my perspective, drinking tea is drinking tea and thats all there is to it. you should be able to drink tea however you want to drink it, right? whats the point? But the whole thing is basically a form of meditation, as i realised when an hour had gone by and all i had been doing was pouring and drinking tea!! and it wasnt like id exactly been caught up in conversation, cos my japanese is terrible... so yeah, as i said, its really hard to articulate the exact significance of this kind of thing, but all i can say is that it really ties in with and compliments the lifestyles of people here.

number four! a taste of the local crafts:
the two main traditional crafts that are specific to this area of japan are the indigo dyeing (throughout tokushima) and the otani pottery (mainly naruto area). i went to a pottery class at my technical school with some students parents. we used little hand spun wheels to make little bowls and cups and stuff. i went to the class intending to be experimental with the clay and make some kind of crazy sculpture thing, which i love to do, and was kinda disappointed when everyone started making bowls and cups exactly the way they were told to. Since then i have realised that being original/experimental is really not important to people here. Here, the enjoyment comes from going through the required steps to make something simple and to the point. This was strange to me at first, but after being here for a while and doing some of these activities like tea ceremony and calligraphy, I've come to understand that it is the process that is important, and not just the glory of the final product (like with tea ceremony, drinking the tea is merely a part of the process of making and serving it). So this was just kind of a normal pottery class. the otani pottery is special because they use clay straight from the ground in naruto and fire it right onsite in a natural underground kiln. The professionals make huge pots, the size of three 10 year old kids. After they have made and glazed the pots to perfection, they 'ruin' it by smearing some bleach on the side, and this is the signature of the pot, to make it distinct from any other.
I was lucky enough to dye my own handkerchief at the indigo dye studio at my agricultural school on their festival day. There are techniques for sewing and scrunching up the material to make specific patterns. i sewed five flower shapes onto mine and then pulled the threads so they bunched up. Then i dunked the cloth into a huge pot of the natural dye (it was actually a giant otani pot too!). The dye is quite thick and gets really frothy like sea water on the top. You hold it under for three minutes, then out for three under for three etc until you get the desired colour. mine didnt turn out very well though.. its a long process and amazing that they still do it that way! i now understand why its so expensive to buy the indigo products too..

Thats enough for one post! More to come later..

Hajimemasu!

Let's begin!
Here's a place where I will recount some of my experiences while living and working as an assistant language teacher at some highschools in Tokushima, Japan. I'll attempt to make them concise, but forgive me if I tend to get into alot more detail than is necessary. The differences between my own culture and that of Japan become clearer everyday, and I love that this understanding continues to grow and change. I hope to communicate some of this understanding through this blog. I will try to be as objective and balanced as possible, but of course this is just my perspective, and a warped perspective at that. The language barrier makes it difficult to be sure about any interpretations, but as long as we don't generalise or assume, we should be ok.

Please enjoy!