Halloween

Today in Japan, we celebrated Halloween. Basically, a bunch of parents bring in their kids to a gym, and there are all kinds of activities. This one, however, was in English with things translated into Japanese, rather than being a normal, purely Japanese-language event. We had two groups, each of which were split up accordingly into groups of 8 (8 is an important number in cultures in Asia, especially those that have history interacting with the Chinese). So I had 8 kids, ages of about 4-11, and so did the other 7 teacher/assistants. Everything was broken into 8's, fairly cleanly.

I was dressed as a Samurai, which was fun. I got the costume from Kyoko-sensei, who was basically in charge, as she usually is of almost anything, due to her high status in the community.

In my first group I had the CUTEST little 5 year old Japanese girl in my group. As grandma would say "Just like a doll!" She may have even been 4, but it is a tough call. She kept trying to take my wooden sword. When I tried asking for it back and then giving it a tug, I realized she wanted to play while we did our activites. So I simply picked up my sword as we were about to move the group on to the next activity. She stayed attached until we touched down. I'm glad she was light, haha. What really surprised me was that she was really shy, she just seemed to want the sword. And she wasn't saying anything the entire time until we got to an activity where they had to trick-or-treat with us. The catch was, they'd trick-or-treat as a relay team, trying to ask for these items (named after scary halloween creatures), and then the winning team would get stuff in the end. She was put at the front, and looked pretty uncomfortable. I couldn't move, because I was the one to be questioned. She made her way quietly across the floor, and I heard this 5ish year old voice, in clearer English than most adults every achieve in Japan even after 8 years of study, she said to me "Can I have a Mummy?" I was so shocked it took me a moment to react and distribute said Mummy to her. Who would have known this quiet girl with a thing for swords had almost nativelike pronuciation??

A few pictures:

Maybelle, my Phillipina friend.Maybe the only Catholic other than myself in Miki or even Hyogo.

Trang and Maybelle acting natural, looking at some pictures they took of each other's costumes.

You really can't see it very well in this picture, but that mask on Trang is actually made of the shell of a 2-ring binder, glitter, tape, a ribbon, and glue using only scissors. I made it for her since she expressed a lack of talent in costuming. It turned out really great. The eyes are really smooth and rounded off, in the constantly curving leaf-style. I had no measuring instruments either, and I had to punch the beginning of the eye holes using stubborn old scissors. I'm amazed it turned out so good! These freak moments of artistic and technical talent happen with me about once every 8 years or so though. Check in with me when I'm about 32 for the next one.

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!

A half-dozen or so realizations

1. I have no significant interest in any native speaker of English that I have met in Japan besides Gerald. I have found something interesting about everyone else I have bothered to inquire about.
2. The computer literacy skills of an average Japanese person, age 19, is far, far below that of the USA. Tons of folks have laptops "passocommu" or desktop computers, but out of my class of about 20 I have, every last student has a laptop to bring to class, yet none of them can surpass 10 wpm, and all of them look at their fingers with every button press. No kidding. Yet I've see them type what would be about 40 wpm with tiny little cell phone buttons when they send email by phone. I was also shocked to see that they know almost nothing about their nice computers that I use a few hotkeys, for instance, brings "amazing!" And that I can type while standing sideways next to a computer at about 5 wpm with on finger pulls similar remarks out of many of them. It feels really odd to me, to be around people with about the same level of technology as us, give or take 1-4 years depending on the device in question, yet they don't have skills that would be required of most jr. highers or elementary students in the states.
3. I found out that the man who had called me cute and winked at me (and who has now patted my rear in passing) has a girlfriend who is at this very university.
4. I realized that Dr. Aliponga could randomly decide to tell me to help him with the class he had me prepare a week to teach, then give me a syllabus a few minutes before the bell rings and send me to another classroom. I also realized that I can handle even the rowdy and unmotivated students with little stress to my person (rumors about Japanese all being good students are of course entirely false. They will rise or fall based on will more than anything. They do not expect to have to be awake in class, almost anywhere, ever. As an interesting side note, Insomnia is rare in Japan, and foreigners often remark that Japanese people can fall asleep anywhere they want to, at any time, and almost right away. It seems that way to me too, after rooming with a Japanese man for a year and having seen it all around me for months.)
5. There are major conflicts of interest going on right now in our university, and the players are big, and laced throughout the system. Some people I like are on opposite sides, and I find out more and more just how deep this whole struggle goes. I don't want to be too selfish here, but if this makes me have to go elsewhere for finishing my practicum at some point, I will not be a happy camper.
6. I don't want to be out and about at 9pm. All the squeeky metal doors come whining down, sounding like some kind of dying animal made of steel being tortured. It is really unsettling. This also made me realize that almost every business has security doors, but those that don't experience about a 0%/decade crime rate like the rest. Same with homes. Many are locked. Many bikes are too. But you could walk up and steal one at any place you go if you wanted to. People leave things worth hundreds or thousands of dollars just lying around in their yards all the time like snowboards, motorcycles, road bikes, etc. I left my USB drive that I got for assisting the local specialist in Linguistics and Phonology (my favourites!) in the busy computer lab all day long, and it hadn't even moved an inch, in plain sight. I just can't pinpoint why these folks are so fearful of predations that are essentially non-existant.