Time

One thing that has been bothering me since I got here is that you can hear the "hour bell" as many as 4 times an hour throughout any given neighborhood. Seems impossible? Well, school bells chime the hour bell, without the "dong dong dong" afterwards to mark the hour that it is. So at 4:20, the hour bell rings. 4:30, the hour bell rings again. There are never 1/4-hour bells on these things, just the classic hour bell. They rarely happen on the hour, besides some schools that mark the beginning and end of school, or in community centers that are open precisely from 6 am to 6 pm (they mark the opening and closing of the school with a bell.)

This is a classic Japanese adaptation. They do this with almost everything, cultural, technological, linguistic...anything from the outside. Anything that I have seen here that is thought of as Western either has the form without the meaning (very common), the meaning without the form (rare), or neither (and who knows why they think it is Western, but they do).

Halloween is celebrated on the 21st here in Midorigaoka. We dress up, make games for the kids, and have a good time. However, Halloween is a marker to show that winter is beginning. But here, it is still Summer, and tomorrow is the marker for winter beginning? We haven't even seen the beginning of Fall yet! Then again, Americans are pretty bad with this too. Example: Catholic holidays misappropriated by Protestants. St. Patty's Day? St. Valentine's Day? Why do some people celebrate holidays of people they claim are evil? That one is baffling to me.

But with the Japanese, all things outside are transformed that can be. The only exception is when something is manufactured on the outside and they can't change it.

Sure, sometimes this is for the better, and they come up with a new way, but sometimes, the heritage of the original item is destroyed, or its purpose is lost. Like the saw-tooth roofed factor with it's windows facing North, bell chimes, holidays, and cowboy boots. It isn't really all that terrible, but I can't help but think the more the Japanese adopt other people's ways, the closer they get to being self-destructive westerners, sacrificing their previously sustainable, peaceful culture. They were one of the last advanced yet not economically self-destructive nations on the planet, but now they operate like we do, on the expense of the 3rd World and non-replenishable resources. They're stuck with our ways, whether they know it or like it now. I just hope there is something left of this great culture when they finish assimilating fully into the world.

At least they recycle up to 52 different categories of items!