is am are was were
Unknown "heal my soul" Loving - 16 years, 1 month, 12 days ago

Money is nothing but a means to an end in Japan. Where a foreigner might think of money as something that is to be cherished, or hoarded, Japanese view money for what it is; a piece of paper or a coin.

Customs and celebrations even have a monetary label attached to them. On New Years the children of the home often get a “New Year’s Gift” from their parent and relatives. Gift in these terms is one of money. The younger the child is, the less the amount of cash: say twenty to thirty dollars, but as they get older, in junior and senior high schools, they can receive from one hundred to one thousand dollars equivalent of Japanese yen.

As the same as youngsters in other countries, they spend it on material goods while a few of them put it away for a rainy day.

Weddings are most surprising, as instead of cookware and bed sheets, those invited to the ceremony must pay around $150 for their seat, and relatives sometimes pay in excess of $300 depending on the family.

Sickness is also something that is considered to have monetary involvement. In the hospital or for a funeral, co-workers and family chip usually chip some money into a pot to give to the bereaved.

The upside is that the money circulates. While you spend some cash on your brother’s children, they will likely return the cash to you. You also don’t have to worry about lines at the store after Christmas to return the gift you really didn’t want in the first place, but accepted with a grin and a fake surprise.

I really don’t see any downside to bills replacing material goods. It still shows you care, and the money can be actually used: instead of a back massager that works half the time you can use the money to get a real massage, or help put your kid through college.
Unknown "heal my soul" Loving - 16 years, 4 months, 14 days ago

Upon further reflection I'm beginning to understand that people, in general, are difficult to be with. Co-workers, people in the street, the drive-thru, on campus, they are all "outside" people. (Even these at times are hard to stomach.) They wear masks that have been given to them since they started interacting with "society." Once home these masks are hung on the wall, not like a hat or a coat that is easily discarded upon returning from work, but carefully placed over the mantle, like a symbol or an idol to their ideal, or the idea of a perfect, self.

Trouble is, most of these people often get lost in their own selfishness and greed that they forget to strive for the perfect self: they get lost in the idea that they are already perfect so well that when it comes along that they are, in fact, shown to be wearing just a mask, the twisted, sneering face surfaces, squinting and shrieking at the sun.

Being humble and understanding is a daily struggle with ourselves, to shed what years of training society has instilled in us.

Thin is good.
Atkins is God.
Cosmo is the bible.
Maxim is the tools.
Bigger bust.
Bigger buldge.
Tighter abs.
Firmer butt.
Everything cosmetic.

Opinions of individuals start and stop at the skin.

And I believe it's this struggle towards the goal, no matter how futile it may be, that makes us better people individually and as a whole.

Strength through adversity?

It's easier to change ourselves than the rest of the world.

Men and women.
Unknown "heal my soul" Loving - 16 years, 5 months, 1 day ago

Comedy and humor, on the whole, is a concept that is lost to most foreigners, and vice-versa for the Japanese.

You might see some strange shows on youtube with huge kanji when people talk before they perform some strange act like jumping through a foam body or electrocuting themselves or someone else on what looks like a bizarre and twisted game show. Please understand that "getting" Japanese humor is not something you achieve overnight. It's a process that entails everything from logic to "just accepting it."

Many times I see strange things that still, in my fourth year in this country, turn my head and raise an eyebrow or two. The mantra "cause that's how they do," seems to constantly pop in my head as the action they do and the consequence have no congruency.

Much of Japanese humor is low-brow. Hitting, physical punishment, getting dunked in water, these are things everyone can relate to: heck I've been hit in the head before, it hurts! So the struggle the contestants make is genuine, instead of the Western-style "We're sorry, thanks for playing, here's $200 for playing."

Verbal humor isn't as visual as Western humor. We make jokes to create images in our head and then twist them in a way to result in something so strange and ill-conceived that we fear it, don't understand it, and smile. Japanese humor is more or less word-play. For example, "Arumikan no ue niha, aru mikan." "A tangerine is on an aluminum can." Sounds pretty strange, but the fact that aluminum, "arumikan" sounds a lot like the existence of a tangerine, or mikan, "aru mikan," makes the joke funny. These kind of rhyming jokes are called "oyajigagu" or "old man joke."

The best part about the humor is that on TV, celebrities often will subject themselves to these tortures. In Western cultures, a movie star, musician, or comedian are often revered as Gods by the viewer, or at least greater in value than that of any normal blue collar worker. In Japan these personalities may go on TV to subject themselves to humiliation and the like, but I like to think of it as the, "everybody's human" exercise. They may be good singers, but they still get a softball to the coin purse sometimes just like everyone else.
Unknown "heal my soul" Loving - 16 years, 5 months, 8 days ago

Riding on the train I often get sideways glances, looks, and from the very old and very young I get downright stares.
This gets even more interesting when I don a kimono, or a business suit.
As much as I enjoy dressing up, sometimes it feels good just to throw on some worn jeans and a sweater that's been laying around.
My Saturday students don't seem to mind.
In a country with a severely declining education and birthrate.
These cats really gotta start living in the 21st.
Unknown "heal my soul" Loving - 16 years, 5 months, 10 days ago