JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
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Confrontation
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U.S. Navy investigating how parts fell off aircraft near Atsugi
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California court to decide if SeaWorld whales are illegal 'slaves'
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Kuroki reported pregnant 2 weeks after denying relationship with Akanishi
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- Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in Kanto region
- RCS (RCSコーポレーション), Kanto
- Salary: ¥180,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month includes performance bonus
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- Assistant Language Teacher - TOKYO - late-March start
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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- Assistant Language Teacher - Kanagawa Prefecture - late-March start
- Interac, Kanagawa
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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Himajin
I misread one line , Tmarie......."foreigners with no kids and no j-spouse that fly them."
It makes even less sense now that I've read it correctly . How does THAT take away from the tradition? I knew a foreigner who used old red and white 'yasu uri' store banners for curtains for her kids' room. Does that somehow detract from Japan as well, and show it to be hollow?
Perhaps sales of carp to foreigners should be banned, as well as that of Christmas trees to the Japanese .
forehead slap
And no, the OLs may not like the giri-choco bit, but they DO IT because it's part of the SOCIAL fabric.
Posted in: 'Kizuna' takes many forms in post-disaster Japan, including marriage and infidelity
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Himajin
You used it as an example, in fact the first example of those you listed, of how bad or non-existent family ties are here, it only follows that one would wonder 'only here?'
"And I could give you the example of my j-family where the two brothers haven't been on speaking terms for years. I could give you examples of numerous families I know that have kids that aren't on speaking terms. "
is not indicative of the majority of familial relationships in Japan, or anywhere else.
"Though I don't know of any other country that tries to push the "family is the most important thing" line like Japan does"
Really? On one hand you say that the Japanese have poor family ties, and now you say that they push family more than anywhere else? 'Family is the most important thing' is endemic to American advertising, organized religion, holidays (to be spent with family only!), holiday TV programming, and Hallmark Cards, and the Republican party :-D
"The carp that companies fly - regards of if they have kids or not? It's like comments on Muslims who have Xmas trees and how Christian they are. You're confusing tradition with values. Heck, I know foreigners with no kids and no j-spouse who fly them. "
That somehow takes away from it? Au contraire, it demonstrates the sense of community you think doesn't exist here. A company flying the carp is a public wish for the health of the children in their community. Your childless friends can't fly them? It's hollow somehow? Perhaps it's memories of happy childhoods that makes them want carp. Perhaps they wish for children. What I wonder, is why does it eat at you so?
"You think people visiting cemeteries during obon? Ha! Indeed some do but a survey this year of my students had about 20% visiting. Oh right, they must be lying about that... "
It's the grandparents' job while they're alive, the sons' after they're gone, and then it comes to kids like your students. I can see you're not going to the cemetery, at any rate......August 12th, 13th, 14th, no one's there and the cemeteries are barren? I call bullshit, loudly.
"Respect to invite coworkers? Nope. You have to. It is protocol. "
Good God, woman, what is "protocol" based on BUT respect?
"Japan isn't one big happy family. There families aren't all happy. There are families that have huge issues with abuse, drugs, depression, petty like family spats... That's my point. You can use the snide comments about the US (not American) but the US doesn't go on and on about how important family is."
Oh yes they do go on about family! I now see why you don't know that, if you're not American. No one ever said that all Japanese families are happy. I just don't see how a ritual of a 'word of the year' and the word "Kizuna" being chosen because of 20,000 people's lives being destroyed can SO get your panties in a twist.
It's too bad you hate it here so much. If you examined your own culture you as critically you'd see equal examples of things done 'just because'.....how many Christmas cards are sent as the only contact with old friends and family in other countries?
As for my remarks about the US , they are actual statistics, and so I think you and some other posters need to get the beams out of your own eyes as far as the disintegration of Japanese society is concerned. You don't think anything is skewed about a 40% unwed birth rate, and a 50% divorce rate? Nothing?
Posted in: 'Kizuna' takes many forms in post-disaster Japan, including marriage and infidelity
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Himajin
And that only happens in Japan......please......
Ohina-san is celebrated within the family, if it were dying out those doll sets still wouldn't be selling like hotcakes every January to February? Those without space buy even just the main two dolls in order to celebrate. Kodomo no Hi as well... go out into the countryside and look at all the carp streamers. I'll admit that they're nearly impossible to have in a city, though. Our son has a set, the largest carp is 5 or 6 m, can't exactly fly them from a mansion balcony :-D Because Ohina-san and Kodomo no Hi 'arent covered in the media' means they are no longer celebrated? I don't quite follow the logic on that one. Would you be willing to place a bet that the majority of those traveling on Obon are jinan, sannan etc? And that they went to the cemetery before they left? DH is chonan so traveling during Obon is not an option for us, but anyone else not in charge of the butsudan or ohaka is welcome to, as far as I'm concerned.
One can't see both? I do....... The cemeteries in your J-family's home town are barren at Obon? I don't think so.
It's a gesture of respect to invite one's superiors from work to a wedding, again, pointing to the significance of the ceremony from a societal standpoint. The wedding money tradition (and funeral money tradition for that matter) come from a time when this country was much poorer and no one could afford to put on a wedding or funeral by themselves, so the money rotated around within the village. It's common courtesy to give what you've been given, the Japanese are more official about it by keeping a record. You do realize that most likely people in your country also reciprocate wedding gifts of similar value? People DO think about that when giving a gift. Surely you've seen advice columns in newspapers with indignant letters about 'cheap wedding gift after we spent a fortune'? You're used to it, it's internalized, where Japanese customs are not, and seem alien to you.
Once I became an adult, I felt that birthday parties were kind of moot. Talk about 'get drunk with work or friends' excuses! From my standpoint, grown adults getting miffed at not having a birthday party is weird. The Japanese aren't very into 'Look at me,me,me!' If there isn't dancing and a band at weddings, it isn't a celebrations? Tell that to the Mormons, I'm sure they'll be surprised....in short, because things aren't celebrated in the way you think they should be/the way you remember doesn't invalidate people's feelings about those milestones.
"Sitting in a room over the holidays and all staring at the TV is not family bonding. Nor is dad working 12-14 hours a day, not seeing his kid and being stuck in a loveless marriage. Neither are the custody laws on one parent getting the kid. Neither is the once a year greeting card that family sends to each other. "
Are you talking about the US, or Japan here? At any rate, it's not up to you to decide that how your family interacts is how all families interact. Student accounts don't count either, they won't come out and say 'I love my parents ...you can't try and push your cultural norms on people, and then declare those people's lives lacking when they don't adopt them.
I find it ironic that people coming from countries were drunken teenagers, crime, vicious custody battles, unwed birth rates at an all-time high at 40% and divorce rates of up to 50% are declaring Japanese society 'deteriorating'. Where's my box of Bufferin?
Posted in: 'Kizuna' takes many forms in post-disaster Japan, including marriage and infidelity
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Himajin
tmarie-"There is little to no social bond or family bond in this country. "
AmericanForeigner-"I agree with tmarie that there are little to no social bonds or family bonds in this country."
Really? Hatsumode, Hinamatsuri, hanami, Kodomo no Hi, golden week, Obon, Ohigan, aki-matsuri, shichi-go-san, roujinkai, jichi-kai, odd for a country with 'no social or family bond'...
JohannesWeber-Everything here is opinion. And it seems that a very common perception is that social bonds in Japan** do not meet the standards many immigrants are used to.**
And there, I think, we have it. True, Japanese families don't hug and kiss on leaving and coming home, don't say 'I love you' 100 times a day, but that doesn't mean that families don't love each other, just because they don't demonstrate it in the ways you do.
Posted in: 'Kizuna' takes many forms in post-disaster Japan, including marriage and infidelity
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Himajin
Too bad I missed it! I fell asleep just as the news was starting last night.
Posted in: Let's fight!
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Himajin
One in every 50** applicants**.
Women not qualifying for some jobs doesn't always mean sexism. Either you can cut it or you can't. I don't think it's wise to have lower standards so women can join something. Meet the standards or fail seems fair to me.
Posted in: Japanese woman speedway racer killed in crash
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Himajin
Kind of an anti-Santa...
Posted in: Scary guy
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Himajin
theResident is correct. One lighter is allowed except on Japan-US routes.
Posted in: Sydney-bound JAL flight turns back after seat fire
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Himajin
Oh for Pete's sake, kids that age cry when they meet Mickey Mouse...
Posted in: Scary guy
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Himajin
Not only Japan, but many Christian sects also include or in the past included some kind of pain or at leat discomfort, as in wearing a hair shirt, a shirt made out of goats hair, sometimes interwoven with twigs or wire.
"The tradition of wearing hair shirts is part of a practice called the mortification of the flesh. Mortification ranges from a simple denial of pleasures to actually committing serious injury, as in the case of medieval flagellants who whipped themselves during the time of the Plague. Mortification is said to be an expression of faith, and it is also meant to train the soul, expelling sin and promoting pious, faithful behavior. Extreme mortification is no longer in vogue in most Christian sects, but more mild forms like fasting are an important part of religious faith for some devout Christians."
In Mexico in some towns people get crucified for reenactments of the Passion. Now they tie them to the crosses, but the used to both nail and tie them.
Posted in: Now that's cold
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Himajin
The article was about using nicotine patches, not smoking...the government is not trying to get you to smoke.
My MIL with Alzheimer's was beginning to be a fire hazard while smoking. She had smoked for 60 years, no matter how hard we tried to convince her to quit. She has (controlled) high blood pressure, diabetes and extremely high blood lipids(also now controlled) , all the precursors of a stroke but she wouldn't stop smoking. As she entered late Stage 5 to early 6 with the Alzheimer's she was dropping cigarettes everywhere and burning clothes and blankets as well as smoking a tremendous amount as she was forgetting she had already smoked several times. We tried a nicotine patch. It was hard to get a result as she has no short-term memory...she'd light up, take a few puffs, feel nauseated, put out the cigarette......and repeat it several times a day, but eventually she was able to make the association between smoking and not feeling well and she has stopped smoking and no longer needs the patch. She was quite alert on the patch, I have to say. Now that she has stopped the patch she seems a bit lethargic and her thinking is more confused, so it seems that in her case at least the nicotine was good for some added clarity of thinking.
Posted in: Nicotine could ward off memory loss
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Himajin
I was not equating the local psychiatric hospital with a prison....just giving an example of facilities generally built away from housing areas. Another is old-age homes. The older ones in the countryside I know of are built in the woods, away from everything else, perhaps by not having cars always going by, they reduce the temptation for a flight risk? In general, old age homes, psychiatric hospitals and prisons were built at the edges of municipalities, and now the towns have reached their doors.
Posted in: Inmate escapes from Hiroshima prison
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Himajin
Probably the prison was out in the middle of nowhere to start and the town grew and encroached on it. Our local psychiatric hospital is so, it was built at the edge of the mountains amid the rice paddies, now it's crowded with homes, shops, and a train station.
Posted in: Inmate escapes from Hiroshima prison
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Himajin
I'm grateful for all that Heda and others have done, it's commendable!
Things may have changed, but in Kobe in '95 many insurance companies wouldn't pay on earthquake insurance in the case where houses in Nagata burned...they insisted the houses were lost to fire, not the earthquake, even though it was the earthquake that toppled gas and electric heaters.
I really do hope the same thing wasn't pulled in Tohoku.
'9 months on, and still..' Only 9 months. 9 months since one of the biggest disasters in history. Kobe was on a smaller scale, and it took just this area at least 5 years to start to look normal. The enormity of the tragedy in Tohoku is nearly unimaginable.
Posted in: Tsunami refugees dig in for harsh winter
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Himajin
Not in my neck of the woods! Here, no matter how cold it is, everybody opens up all their windows every morning. What a waste of energy, to reheat the house back up from 3-4C every morning.
Posted in: 21 suffer from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning due to charcoal fire at restaurant
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Himajin
gaijininfo, DH and I rented that too! LOL! Who really reads the back of the DVDs? Do you remember what the actual title was? It was a real dog of a movie if I remember it correctly.
Posted in: '24' movie to begin shooting this spring
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Himajin
In a restaurant, do you check to see if the ventilation is on?
Carbon monoxide is odorless, colorless, tasteless and in the initial stages non-irritating as well....how were the chemistry teachers supposed to know?
Posted in: 21 suffer from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning due to charcoal fire at restaurant
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Himajin
McKinley managed to push the couch to the front door to create a barricade, but that didn't stop the intruders.
"He was from door to door trying to bust in," McKinley told CBS affiliate KWTV. "I don't know what he had in his hand besides the knife. I believe he actually had a hammer in his hand at some point because he was hitting that back door with it."
McKinley called 911 and was on the phone with the operator during the entire 21 minute ordeal. She even asked the operator if she could shoot the intruder.
"They said I couldn't shoot him until he was inside the house," McKinley said. "So I waited until he got in the door and then I shot him."
Police said that Justin Shane Martin, 24, died at the scene and his alleged accomplice, 29-year-old Dustin Louis Stewart, ran away, but was later brought to police by his parents. He is currently in jail.
McKinley's mother told KWTV that Martin had followed her daughter around at a rodeo about two years ago.
She also said McKinley recently bumped into Martin at a convenience store, and that on Thursday night he showed up at her door, introducing himself as a neighbor. McKinley told her mother she did not know who he was until she pieced it all together after the shooting."
I always wonder, though, if people can't shoot to wound, and not kill...
Posted in: Oklahoma woman asks 911 operator for permission to shoot intruder
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Himajin
There are! I never noticed them! They are checking the video...I guess I never realized how ubiquitous cameras are.
Posted in: Woman's body found beside Route 428 in Kobe
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Himajin
To laugh.......
Posted in: Softbank to release record-long TV ad featuring 'White Family'