These random essays are just a random patchwork of randomly coherent, randomly edited bits that randomly result from having roots in two randomly different parts of the world, but are primarily just filling up empty blog space...
As someone who has been living in Japan for so long, I can’t say I always understand recent pop-culture, fads, or current slang in the US, and sometimes the US feels surprisingly foreign to me. Within the span of only a decade in the US, a conspicuous increase in overt machismo, “alpha male” culture, remains largely inscrutable to me. Japan has also changed considerably, and though I am not going to attempt to explain the root cause of recent phenomena, I can say that some of the changes in both nations have coincidentally manifested themselves in very similar ways--though more overtly in the US and more passively in Japan. The “tough guy" imagery, or “tough guise” (coined by Jackson Katz in a 1999 documentary by the same title), is not unique to the US or Japan; in fact, this “tough guise” sub-culture has either become less inhibited, or increased dramatically in a number of wealthy nations. Though easily dismissed as self-expression or harmless posturing, the rise of this sub-culture has been paralleled by a recent upsurge in loud-mouthed, unabashed, vitriolic political extremism. Tough Guy Trivia First, regardless of ethnicity, or the region of rural America, or the reality show a person is casted in, or the particular genre of sports entertainment someone is involved in, or the particular type of subculture someone subscribes to, or how long someone has been ingesting steroids, American pop-culture seems to be becoming surprisingly homogenous, with a similar overlapping "tough guy", prison-gang fashion outcome. Can you correctly identify each photo? Answers (from top left to bottom): 1. The Mexican Mafia: not from Mexico at all, but the leaders of a number of latino street gangs, responsible for shooting countless toddlers on tricycles in drive-by shootings. Don't criticize them too much, these "tough guys" order hits on unsuspecting, unarmed individuals from their highly secure prison cells, and they are certain to use a gang of people to guarantee their success. 2. The stars of US reality show "Orange County Choppers". Remember, steroids can shrivel your testicles, destroy your liver, cardiac muscles, and cause paranoia, irritability and aggression. If you stand with your arms crossed you can puff up your biceps without using illegal steroids. 3. The Aryan Brotherhood. One of the most influential prison gangs in the US. Gangs aren't just comprised of minorities in the US, in fact, depending upon how the word "gang" is defined, white people make up one of the largest percentages of organized crime. James "Whitey" Bulger is a notorious white mobster from Boston who is now on trial for 19 counts of homicide. The Ukranian and Russian Mafia (the world's largest crime syndicate) is making large inroads in the US. Dating back to the Hatfields and the McCoys, organized crime in the Appalachians and Ozarks is now responsible for one of the highest concentrations of meth labs in the US, and these "tough guys" will strongly exercise their 2nd Amendment rights when the "Government" comes to take their military-grade weapons (and bust their meth labs). 4. MMA Star Thiago Silva. Now I won't suggest that this kind of "brawn over brains" entertainment isn't really martial arts, because "Mixed Martial Arts" is a huge money making industry and has a huge cult following in the US. I won't say there is little martial arts involved, beyond kick boxing and wrestling moves either. I will say that the Karate Kid was supposed to teach us that martial arts is something quite different, but the Karate Kid was just a movie, and Mr. Miyagi was just an actor, and MMA is "real". Though they usually require a lot of skill and effort to master, most martial arts can be quite dangerous and it is best that the average person subscribe to the current MMA fad instead. 5. Star of the reality show "Deadliest Catch". Though the star of this show looks like a Ukranian mafia boss, he is actually a crab boat captain in this popular Discovery Channel reality series. Don't criticize him too much, this "tough guy" orders hits on unsuspecting, unarmed crabs from his highly secure boat cabin, and he is assured to use a gang of people to guarantee his success. In reality, not in a reality show, Alaskan crab fishing is still one of the most dangerous occupations in the US with a fatality rate significantly higher than that of most gang members, at 128 out of 100,000, but thanks to increasing safety measures, not bravado, the industry has seen its profits increase and fatalities plummet in the last 10 years. The kind of competitive "fishing derby" tactics used in the reality show, where each undersized boat races to get the largest catch, are a thing of the past. 6. Members of the neo-Nazi skinhead group Hammerskin. These cheery guys have adopted a look once considered intimidating, but their style (a bit subdued in comparison) has now become completely mainstream. Their name sounds like a bizarre skin disease, but they are considered by the Anti-Defamation League to be the most organized neo-Nazi group in the US. Wade Michael Page, a member of the Hammerskins shot six defenseless people at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin in 2011. ![]() Rise of the Tough Guy Cont'd... Curiously, historians have found that dueling in Europe and the Americas was often less brave and most often a lot of bravado. Dueling was highly arranged and organized, sometimes with so many intricate rules--agreed weeks in advance--that the outcome was highly unlikely to result in injury. Dueling pistols from the time lacked proper rifling and had low muzzle velocities, so prearranged distances that made the duel appear more fair could easily be adjusted to make it far less likely for duelers to actually hit each other. Normally, the duel would end immediately at “first blood”, or when one person was wounded. Rarely was more than one shot fired (more shots were considered barbaric at the time), and rarely was the duel to the death, or "à l'outrance”. Duelers would often formally agree to intentionally miss beforehand, preserving the duelers safety while at the same time, preserving their “honor” in the public’s eyes. But, it wasn’t unknown, as was the case of some famous historical duels, for the one combatant to deliberately kill his opponent despite a prearranged agreement to the contrary. Similarly, despite the depiction that gunslingers were bound by a courageous code of honor in popular culture, historians have found that the familiar "duel at sun down" rarely occurred during America's Wild West. California's Gold Rush town of Angel's Camp (ironically named) had one of the highest homicide rates in the nation in the late 1800s, but by far, most of the homicides were not a result of the "duel at sundown" but were just average homicides: victims were often found shot in the back. Similarly, in modern times, gang culture is often about bravado, while often having little to do with bravery. Usually a gang's target is ambushed, unarmed and is usually outnumbered. As part of their initiation, modern gang members are encouraged to shoot an enemy gang member, or sometimes an innocent bystander, unless they otherwise want to face being "beaten in" to the gang (a process that usually involves being beaten by fellow gang members for a predetermined length of time). Usually gang members forego being "beaten in" and choose to fire at an unsuspecting, unarmed victim by means of a moving vehicle, followed by a prompt getaway (a drive-by shooting). The act might appear cowardly, but when individuals are organized according to their own rules with their own affected code of honor, they can be far more intimidating and dangerous to general society. In a sub-culture of rampant bravado, marginalized and fearful people often join gangs for acceptance ("brotherhood, and honor" in their own circles), because there is safety in numbers, and because the powerless can become powerful (gain "respect"). The "loser dog barks the loudest" is an old Japanese expression. At the heart of all of this bravado is often fear and insecurity that drives a vicious cycle of more fear and insecurity. Insecurity is easy to dismiss, but it is often the fearful that the rest of us should fear the most, for it is the fearful and paranoid people who often lash out the most violently against society at vulnerable or unsuspecting moments. Some of the imagery, is almost universal: tracksuits, pajama pants, tattoos, shaved heads, black cars with windows tinted black, and crude to profane speech, are almost universally associated with “outlaw” cultures in many places like the United Kingdom, Russia, or Japan. But some of the stylized bravado is unique to an area and is not always obvious to outsiders. The renegade, “yanki" sub-culture in Japan has been increasing dramatically in the last 20 years. On the surface, it seems to mix a small amount of modern American street-gang style with rural, outdated American trailer-park fashions to obtain a uniquely Japanese (bleached mullets, pompadours, shaved eyebrows, etc) "chimpira” (thug) style. In the past, 20 to 30 years, bleached, yellow to orange hair in Japan was strongly associated with rebellious, but often criminal youth, such as street gangs, or the once common "bosozoku" (motorcycle gangs) who were known for provocative behavior, violence, intimidation and ultra-nationalist imagery associated with Japan’s military past: kamikaze jackets, military slogans, or the kyokujitsu-ki (rising sun flag) used primarily by Japan’s pre-war military. Though, the word “yanki” looks suspiciously similar to yankee, its origin is unclear. In fact, the actual origins of the yanki subculture and the influence, relationship, and the overlap of street gangs with the hostile uyoku-dantai groups (literally “right wing” groups who are Japan’s equivalent to the Klu Klux Klan or neo-nazis) or “yakuza” (organized crime) in Japan, is known to some extent by investigative journalists, but generally unclear. Scholars often considered pre-war Japan a mafia-state, for it is understood that organized crime played a large part in the structure of Japan's military government. Unfortunately, the overlap of organized crime, politicians, the military, and the uyoku-dantai groups who intimidated the population and assassinated prominent politicians is known, but again, remains somewhat murky to this day. Japan's dark underbelly was particularly secretive, unpredictable, and unfathonable for the general population, but like Oz's man behind the curtain, was all the more successful at keeping the population quiet and fearful. In pre-war Japan, people kept their views silent, conformed to social norms, and didn't speak out against the regime for fear of being reported by neighbors and arrested by the the "kempei" (Japan's gestapo). After the war, Japan would acquire a new constitution and would be mostly transformed from its military past, but unfortunately, some things would never change: accused war criminals (pardoned by US officials) became politicians, party leaders and prime-ministers. Even those who operated Unit 731, a secretive chemical and biological weapons facility that dissected live subjects in China, moved on to prominent positions in Japan's pharmaceutical industry. In recent years, Japan's leading political party, "Jiminto" would shift more from the center to a nationalistic political right, and after being taken over by the party's ultra-nationalistic faction, Japan's current prime minster is now Shinzo Abe, the grandson of Nobusuke Kishi, an accused Class-A War Criminal. While warmongering with China, Abe has been promoting legislation that would make Japan's constitution amenable by a simple majority vote, effectively reducing it to statutory law, in order to replace it with a new, radically different constitution that would remove many individual rights and freedoms, and transform Japan's defense forces back into an instrument of war. Furthermore, links between yakuza and Japan's ruling party have been well documented since Japan's military dictatorship, and Osaka's current mayor, Toru Hashimoto's father and uncle were both well established yakuza members. Perhaps, ongoing uncertainty, fear of the unknown, is what keeps many people passive and less outspoken in Japan today, but the lesson to be learned from the past is that when the marginalized and powerless organize, without popular opposition, and when the population becomes fearful, these displays of bravado and intimidation can topple a government, and the results are quite difficult to undue. Japan's military coup was mostly orchestrated by a few thousand but the consequences affected millions and still do to this day. ![]() What is equally similar in the US and Japan, is that the difference between the renegade outlaw and the rest of the population is now more blurred and unpredictable than before: suburban Japanese housewives are frequently seen grocery shopping with bleached hair and tracksuit pants that would have appeared intimidating to the general population in the past. But what is the intent behind such intimidating symbology, if not just free expression? For the participants their actions can be dismised as normal bravado, or an individual fashion preference, but for the authors of these social movements, something else might be going on. At the core of this sub-culture is a growing anti-intellectualism, intolerance, victimization and often misguided anti-elitism. So strong is anti-intellectualism in Japan amongst this growing subculture, that graduates from top universities in Japan often feel compelled to hide their university degrees, or their foreign language capabilities, when encountering strangers for fear of being ridiculed as a "show-off". Japan already has much lower international language abilities than surrounding nations, but in some places, Japanese people speaking English in public can trigger disparaging looks from bystanders. In the late 1990s, right-wing manga author, Yoshinori Kobayashi, published a popular manga entitled "Goman-ism Sengen" (literally "Arrogance Manifesto"), which openly advocated intolerance toward neighboring countries or people who disagreed with his nationalist views. Amongst this growing subculture is a growing "goman-ism" that is expressed as hostile resentment towards general society, perceived leftists and outsiders. Like the growing "redneck pride" or "white-trash pride" movement in the US, this "yanki" subculture claims to be marginalized and ostracized by general society and the hostile resentment towards other members of society is thought to be well deserved. While the behavior is intimidating, self-contrived victimization is used to justify their behavior, and a vicious cycle begins. Curiously an increasing number of people are adopting the superficial aspects of the culture for fear of further intimidation. Though this is just a lot of imagery and posturing on the surface, something more profound seems to be at work in Japan's socio-political environment. ![]() An old Japanese expression says that "the cornered mouse will bite the cat". What is worrisome about all of this "tough guy" imagery is that incompetent, fearful and insecure people are often less capable of playing fairly and often lash out at the easiest targets and at the most unsuspecting moments. Irregardless of the socio-political ramifications of organized bravado, over 90 percent of violent crimes are committed by males, and it is worth considering if their any worthwhile merit to "tough guy" culture at all. Passing trends and avant-garde subcultures have come and gone with a certain degree of curiosity and sometimes controversy, for they were often intended to provoke, rebel, or make a statement about established norms or identity, but rarely did they use so many elements of intimidating imagery, and rarely to the point where it was almost mainstream. People in Japan feel that it is the uncertain political and economic times that is prompting all of this stylized bravado, this “tough guise” which has even made inroads into politics. ![]() If at the heart of all of this bravado is basic fear and insecurity, then insecurity increased worldwide after the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001; yet, to make matters worse this incident would be followed by even more insecurity, fueled by one of the world’s largest recessions since the Great Depression. Political discontent, record low voter turnouts, etc. would lead to something more sinister: extreme right and ultra-nationalist political parties, headed by equally controversial, tough-talking, loud-mouthed, populist politicians, made huge inroads during recent elections in a number of wealthy nations: the Tea party in the US, Wilder’s openly racist Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, Le Pen’s National Front Party in France, or the Golden Dawn Party in Greece, or Toru Hashimoto’s National Restoration Party in Japan. Regardless of whatever delusive, internalized, personal rewards there are to "tough guy culture" at an individual level, at the macroscopic level it marginalizes the participants from their families or society, it keeps the particpiants under-educated, under-employed or unemployable, it creates conflict, derision and division. But, when the "tough guy" enters the political arena, we have to look no further than history to see the disastrous consequences: the rise of fascism before Word War 2. The good news is that so far, the rise of tough-talking populist politicians, and the current level of bravado and public intimidation by white supremacists, or paramilitary neo-nazis or "militias" is hardly as serious as it was in many parts of the world during the Great Depression: the rise of the para-military "blackshirts" (Camicie Nere) followed by the Fascist Party in Italy, or the "brownshirts" (Sturmabteilung or SA) followed by the Nazi Party in Germany, or the para-military Kempetei in Japan. Many people in Japan see many similarities in pre-war Japan and the political climate today, yet even though the future of Japan still remains murky, the good news is that the socio-political climate is already making a turnaround in much of Europe and the US. Does history repeat itself? Perhaps some of us learned a little from history already, but perhaps not enough. Japan is a homogenous nation, supposedly. Japan, next to Korea, seemingly has one of the smallest visible minority populations in the world, at less than 1 percent--though less-visible ethnic Koreans and Chinese make up a larger percentage. In fact, most Asian countries have visible minority populations of 10 percent of more. Some, like the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, or India (the most diverse place on Earth) barely have a majority or have no majority population at all. But, though the ethnic variation in Japan is so mixed that is difficult to differentiate ethnic groups in Japan, Japan is historically multi-ethnic: a mixture of the indigenous Jomon inhabitants, who arrived in Japan around 14,000 BC; Ainu; Yayoi, who settled Japan nearly 2000 years ago from the Korean Penninsula, and later, Han Chinese. But, Japan is by no means the only place that has seen substantial population movements. Not only are the Maori people of New Zealand of polynesian descent, but more evidence shows that polynesians probably originated in what is now modern day Taiwan. Mayans in Chiapas, Mexico share a surprising amount of cultural and genetic traits with East Asians, which is not surprising given that Native Americans most likely originated in what is now Siberia and Northern Japan, and are the most genetically similar to the Ainu people of Japan. Many foreign visitors who have spent some time in Japan quickly realize that Japan isn't as homogenous as they thought, particularly when they recognize how culturally and linguistically diverse Japan is: the Tsugaru dialect in northern Aomori Prefecture is generally unintelligible to people in Tokyo. If one of the most homogenous places on earth is really not very homogenous, how useful is the concept of race? Some caution should be used if we speak of ethnicity, for the concept of ethnicity is still a generalization and a human construct. "Race" is not only a human invention, but a genetic impossibility. These generalizations are harmless of course until people start attaching significant differences to these general categories, but how useful are the generalizations in the first place? First, when it comes to neatly categorizing people, there are almost always too many exceptions to the rule. People referred to as "Negritos" in the Asian countries of Thailand, Malaysia or the Philippines are hardly Asiatic looking at all but share more in common genetically with Australian aboriginal peoples. A French friend in Osaka is often mistaken for Japanese, by native Japanese, but isn't of East Asian descent at all. A Japanese friend in Sakai, is often mistaken for "Caucasian" by other Japanese. Another Japanese friend was mistaken for "Mexican" when she lived in the US. Even if we look at specific traits there are no clear defining characteristics. While East Asians are often born with a "mongolian spot", a pigment mark found on the lower back and buttocks on newborns, at least 20 percent of Japanese aren't born with the mark, yet most Native Americans, many East Africans and 10 percent of Caucasians have the same mark. Many Japanese don't produce ear wax (as difficult as that is to believe), but some do. Some Japanese have straight hair, but many Okinawans, and some people in Kyushu, have wavy, or curly hair. My wife tans darkly when she is in the sun, but her sister is fair-skinned, doesn't tan well, and burns very easily. Probably just as many people in Japan are likely to have a fair complexion as to have a darker complexion. Many people in Japan don't have the epicanthic eye fold (perhaps as much as 40%) that is often such a defining characteristic of Asian people, but many Scandinavian people, particularly the Sami of Finland or the Namibian people of African do. Perhaps a trait has some kind of practical significance if it applies to 95% of the population, but what about 60 percent? Even if certain traits generally apply to a population, there are often far more traits that are exceptions. Apples are generally red and might average 8cm in diameter, but what about small, green apples or yellow apples, are they a separate fruit? In Japan, lobsters aren't a separate animal at all but a type of "ebi" or shrimp. Cuttlefish are a type of "ika" or squid. Many types of tuna in Japan are thought of as separate fish. Difference only occurs when we actually attribute that difference to something. ![]() Race is a social construct; there isn't enough genetic variation between populations to neatly categorize people. But, how good are we at forming artificial categories in the first place? In the photos below, coming from countries spanning the circumference of the world, determine the girl's country of origin (numbered from left to right, top to bottom). Answers: 1. America (Navajo) 2. Mexico (Maya) 3. China (Uyghur) 4. Japan 5. Tajikistan 6. Finland Second, from a genetic perspective, the distinguishing characteristics that we see are purely arbitrary. By focusing on a few genes that make us different, we ignore the thousands of other genes make us the same. While one arbitrarily selected gene might make us appear different, thousands of others might be identical. While there are genetic markers that are found only amongst East Asians, 30% of Japanese don't have them at all, but share thousands of genes found in other racial groups. As much as 15 genes are responsible for eye color, but fewer may be responsible for skin color. Only one gene is responsible for 38% of the range we see in skin color. A person with a different eye color is likely more dissimilar genetically, but curiously, eye color isn't a characteristic that is used to distinguish caucasians from other "races", though skin color is. Disregarding the absurdity of "yellow skin color", in almost all asian countries, one will see such a gradient in skin color that it becomes so arbitrary as a distinguishing trait that we might as well use height as a defining characteristic of race.
The current racial classification system that we are so familiar with dates back to the 17th Century, yet, as early as 1775, in the treatise, "The Natural Varieties of Mankind, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach recognized that the graded transition in appearance from one group to another was so gradual that it was impossible to mark any boundaries. Biologists have long argued that "race" is a human construct and that all humans belong to the species, and subspecies, Homo sapiens sapiens. Humans are too new a species and too intermixed to allow further classification. Not only are most national boundaries arbitrarily drawn amongst different ethnic and language groups, but the whole concept of race, a subdivision of humankind based upon distinct physical characteristics, is a genetic impossibility. The greatest amount of genetic variation is within so-called "races", 85.4 percent to be exact, not between them. Differences between local populations account for 8.5 percent of total human variation; differences between regions (different parts of the world) accounts for 6.3 percent. People are just as likely to be genetically similar to people in other "races" than they are to a person within their own ethnic group. That is, any given individual in one place is likely to have more in common genetically with somebody in another part of the world as a person from their own ethnic group: the genetic code of a person in Paris, France might be more similar to a person in Kenya than Lyon. In fact, people are more likely to find their closest genetic match in another part of the world rather than nearby. The tiny percentage of genes that humans have chosen for human classification are not only inconsistent but scientifically insignificant. Zen Buddhists long ago recognized the limits of human perception and common mental traps. To assert one thing is often to deny something else: to say a cup is "empty" is to deny it is "full" of air. This is of no consequence to the average person, but to call a scuba tank "empty" when it is full of air is quite something else. Perhaps no harm is done when we recognize that racial categories that we use are only generalizations, and as long we don't attach any kind of behavioral attributes or capacities to these categories. But clearly more historical harm has been done than good, and of what use is the concept of "race" anyway? If one of the most homogenous societies in the world isn't really very homogenous, and if the arbitrarily chosen traits that we have used for categorizing people are useless, perhaps it is time to do away with this whole mental trap as a whole. Common perception suggests that culture shock is a brief period of disorientation that one experiences while traveling to a place with unfamiliar surroundings, but few people are likely to experience culture shock from a short vacation abroad. Researchers describe it as a strong sense of frustration and anxiety brought on over time, by losing touch with all normal signs and symbols of social intercourse: the cues, norms and customs that we have all learned, mostly unconsciously, from birth. These can be basic social cues, such as when to shake hands, or when and how much to tip, or understanding the nuances and subtleties of certain words, gestures, or expressions. In Japan, with an unrelated language, and complicated system of alphabets, many newcomers are eventually reduced to toddlers, as they are stripped of their capacity for language, literacy, and rules of social conduct. Surprisingly, useful information about Japan is unusually lacking in English, Japanese news and information is often badly translated, and sometimes there seems to be as much misinformation as there is information. Though most places are far more similar than not, it is of no help if one is uncertain what is the same. Perpetually uncertain, newcomers are forced to assume otherwise. Only after the confusion and frustration of independently verifying each cue, belief, or custom as they are encountered, can they safely assume they are generally the same. As for the minor everyday differences, added together, the myriad of tiny differences that seem insignificant on any individual basis, can make the new society feel so alien in total, that it challenge ones overall sense of reality. Though victims of culture shock often minimize its lingering impacts, and generally keep it to themselves, culture shock can be quite trying to the individual and is marked by sometimes severe anxiety and depression.
After working with immigrant children in the US, and from first hand experience in Japan, I would suggest that culture shock, though it gets easier over time, can potentially last a life time, depending upon how easily the country integrates outsiders, how easy it is to communicate, and how dissimilar the new society is. Immigrants to any particular nation find themselves becoming less "national" and more and more "international" over time, and seeing a variety of good and bad qualities in both the new country and their country of origin, immigrants invariably feel a little out of place in both societies, making them perpetually vulnerable to some degree of regression into various stages of culture shock. In the beginning, the instant cure is to return to one's original country, but curiously, the longer and longer one endures the hardship of adapting to another society, the harder it is to give it all up and return to one's country of origin. Surprisingly similar to Kubler-Ross's more traumatic 5 "stages of dying", researchers have identified 4 (sometimes 5) major stages of culture shock: The Honeymoon Phase: this a romantic period, where individuals see all of the new observations and discoveries in a positive light, and minimize the negative. Though it can seem like a period of "ignorant bliss" it is probably a quite healthy state for vacationers. Usually short term visitors and sometimes long-term residents, feel like "guests in a new society", and thinking or saying anything negative about their "hosts" feels rather disrespectful. The Negotiation Phase: this period is marked by sometimes severe uncertainty, frustration, anxiety and even anger toward the new culture. This period is marked by some form of avoidance. Though world travelers eventually realize that people are generally the same everywhere you go, what one sees as cultural differences are actually a myriad of small differences that added together appear enormous to the newcomer. The more dissimilar a culture, and the less inclusionary, the longer this stage can last. For people native to the new country, most of the differences all seem a matter of "common sense", and it is difficult to see why tiny cultural differences or norms can be so frustrating. Individuals might attempt to avoid the general society as much as possible, but this only perpetuates the inevitable frustration and anger. Sometimes avoidance takes the form of "denial". Rather than confronting their negative experiences, immigrants attempt to deny their negative experiences by shrugging them off as instances of "being in the wrong place at the wrong time", and/or to convincing themselves that their country of origin is "worse" or that their new country is generally "better" in all other respects. While vulnerability makes immigrants easy targets, denial can be so powerful that immigrants often give tremendous benefit of the doubt, and can seemingly ignore, or dismiss unfair treatment or injustices that seem obvious to the native population. The Adjustment Phase: the seemingly never-ending confusion about the new culture declines, and most things start to make sense. Negative reactions and responses to the culture decline, and it becomes possible to generally see the new culture in a positive light. Unfortunately, any new and difficult situation can cause the individual to relapse into any one of the earlier stages. The Mastery Phase: Individuals are able to participate fully and comfortably in the host culture. People are not totally converted but capable of preserving and maintaining traits and perspectives from their earlier culture, such as accents, languages or values, and can be fully bi-cultural. Research shows that most people are never fully able to reach this phase (many return to their country of origin), and once they reach this stage, nothing keeps them from relapsing into earlier stages. Yet, the children of immigrants, the second generation, are almost always in this stage, and themselves become a source for translation or an explanation of cultural differences. At four years old, my daughter is already translating for me. While their parents seem to ignore injustices, their children have little trouble recognizing inequities and become far more active in asserting their own civil rights. How can culture shock be so lingering, difficult, and seemingly maddening at times? Let me start with an example, which is actually quite trivial in a sense, but not so trivial in another sense. Though I am a permanent resident of Japan, some might still think I should be more polite toward my "host" country, so I will begin by criticizing my country of origin. When my wife and I were in Berkeley, California on Telegraph Ave we both wanted to take a break, and have a coffee at a nearby Starbucks, primarily because we assumed it would have an easily accessible restroom. But, after drinking a couple of coffees, which further necessitated our need for a restroom, we discovered that there weren't any. After walking around to different businesses, we didn't encounter the familiar "Restrooms for Patrons Only", but instead, signs that said "No Restrooms Available". Eventually, after what seemed like 45 minutes or so, we found a bar with public restrooms: every bar owner knows that when "nature calls" intensely drunk people will find creative ways of doing things that come naturally. Our long quest for a restroom was annoyance to me, but was outright shocking for my wife, and she couldn't stop talking about it for the rest of the day. How can people be denied their "inalienable right" to use a restroom? Are people lacking "common sense"? Are American's that selfish? How can people be so apathetic? Why aren't people addressing such a horrendous human indignity? Most Americans are familiar with the "restroom Nazi" attitude of some places in the US, but it is nowhere to be found in Japan. Restrooms are readily available all over Japan for patrons and non-patrons alike. I understand my wife's sentiment now, but I didn't understand it nearly as well at the time. Simply walking down the street can be a chaotic experience in some busy parts of Japan, particularly if bicycles are involved, for pedestrians and bicyclists generally don't follow the standard "rules of the road" that people take for granted in other countries. On our street, we have a bike lane and very little traffic, but most people don't use the bike lane, and rather ride their bicycles on the sidewalk. The sidewalk is actually extremely wide, as wide as some streets in Japan, but there are still near bike/pedestrian collisions. Bicycle helmets are still quite rare. For many native Japanese, bicycles are not seen as a more efficient means of transportation, but as a way of getting from point A to B with minimal effort, or as a way of carrying extra things with minimal effort. Bicycles are typically "mama-charis"; old-style bicycles with only one to three gears and generally don't move much faster than pedestrian traffic, though they can complicate the flow of pedestrian traffic considerably. One could assume that this has something to do with profound cultural differences, or different value systems, or differences in etiquette, apathy, or a lack of "common sense". But, a look at Japan's convoluted bike and pedestrian laws (rules) reveals most of the problem. Technically, bikes aren't allowed on sidewalks in Japan except for the case of elderly riders (though the law doesn't mention any specific age) and a list of other vague exceptions. Actually, since bikes technically aren't allowed on the sidewalk, most people are unaware that crowding or forcing pedestrians to step aside, by ringing a bike bell, is technically illegal and can carry a substantial fine, but it happens all of the time and pedestrians naturally step aside when they hear a bike bell. At some time in the past (but many people can't remember) bikes were required to ride on the sidewalk, yet most people don't know the law has changed. Pedestrians are supposed to walk on the right side, against the natural flow of traffic (since motorists drive on the left here), but surveys show that many people aren't aware of the rule, and about 60% walk on the left. Some people still follow the rule and walk on the right, and some apparently confused people walk in the center (where bikes could be overtaking slower pedestrians). If a bike is technically allowed on the sidewalk--and nobody knows for sure--the latest law states that bikes should ride on the side of the sidewalk closest to traffic, but most people are unaware, or can't find any sense in the new law. Are people in Japan lacking "common sense"? Are they apathetic? No, most people are aware of problems with pedestrian and bicycle traffic, but have grown up in Japan and are used to them. That doesn't mean people in Japan are indifferent, apathetic, or used to crowded chaos, but they have grown accustomed to it along with a myriad of other minor social problems, and haven't really considered what might appear to be "obvious" solutions for outsiders. If given enough time, people have an amazing capacity to tolerate even the most miserable conditions, but ironically it is only an outsider who fully recognizes just how miserable they are. Early missionaries traveling to remote villages in Africa saw the villagers living in deplorable conditions. Probably, the villagers thought they experienced difficulties now and then, but life might have appeared perfectly normal to them. If it takes someone else to inform somebody of their misery are they truly miserable? In our native cultures, we go about our days, confronted with predictable patterns and expectations that we have grown accustomed to and fit into our realm understanding or "common sense". Some of these daily patterns are rational and some are not, but regardless they are all normal and predictable to us. Culture shock is not a gradual transition to nonsensical conditions, but an abrupt slap upside the head, a rude confrontation that challenges our own sense of reality and challenges the fine line between between sanity and psychosis. Coping with culture shock is a matter of making sense of things that possibly don't make any sense, but others have grown accustomed to. Like any person's ability to tune out background noise, though a society might have an aversion to a particular problem it can still grow accustomed to it, but for the outsider it is still blaring, irrational and noisy and difficult to ignore. ![]() The practice of martial arts in Japan, known as budo in Japanese--which also is the same word for "grape"--would require a book to describe in full. To simplify, budo can be divided into two categories: red and white (perhaps my bad grape pun should best end here). There are two schools of budo: koryu or kobudo, which are the older disciplines, and gendai budo, which are relatively more modern disciplines. Within the kobudo group you will often encounter the word ryu or jutsu (meaning "the art") attached to the name. There are hundreds of specific old forms, many of which have been lost over the centuries, which all focus on specific techniques or weapons training. Many of the techniques were hard, real combat techniques intended to kill as much as disable an opponent. Within this group you will find some of the most familiar: sumo, ju-jutsu, ken-jutsu, naginata-jutsu, ninjutsu, batto-jutsu, iai-jutsu and so-jutsu. One of the most familiar terms for people in the west is ju-jutsu, which can be described as the art of using indirect force to disable a often armed opponent. There are hundreds of specific schools, one of which is aiki-jutsu, from which modern aikido is derived. Ken-jutsu, is the older form of swordsmanship in Japan, using a bamboo or wooden bokken in place of the familiar, yet deadly, katana (samurai sword). Naginata-jutsu is lesser known in the west, but is the art of using the naginata, a spear-like weapon consisting of a long pole with the equivalent of a razor sharp katana on the end. Naginata-jutsu has been more popular with women since the early 1900s--along with kyudo or Japanese archery. Batto-jutsu and iai-jutsu focus primarily with the technique of drawing, quickly wielding, and returning the razor sharp katana to its scabbard without losing a finger, while iai-jutsu is more detailed, self-disciplined and elaborate, and more resembles the detailed aesthetics of sado (tea-ceremony). Nin-jutsu, the art of the ninja, is perhaps the most contentious, because most of its techniques have probably been lost, largely because ninja, hiding away in a secret mountainous location in the area of Iga in what is now Mie Prefecture, intentionally practiced their unique form of budo in secret. Though, it isn't officially recognized in Japan, many of its modern adherents (primarily in the West) suggest it is more or less authentic, but the real answer will remain, well, a secret. Within the modern school of gendai budo you will find even more familiar terms: kendo, judo, aikido, kyudo and karate. In this category, do meaning "the way" is more of an art form than combat. Karate, which is very popular in the West, is actually from the remote sub-tropical island of Okinawa, and is a modern fusion of local Okinawan and Chinese martial arts. Judo, a modern and more specific form of ju-jutsu, is far more popular in mainland Japan, and is usually taught to some extent in high school, along with kendo ("the way of the sword" or Japanese fencing). Amongst my wife and I, aikido is our personal favorite. It is "the way of meeting one's 'ki' (chi in Chinese) or inner energy". Similar to judo, it uses techniques, basic physics really, that primarily use an opponent's own energy and momentum to disarm or disable their attacker. Kyudo, Japanese archery, is a heavily-detailed discipline that was (and somewhat still is) a favorite of Zen Buddhist practitioners for achieving shin no mushin, ("mind without mind"), an intuitive flow of practice that is free of preconceived notions, ego, fear, and other conflicting or contradicting distractions. If things weren't complicated enough, and I really am making things simple, you can add a variety of interesting weapons and their own schools of use: the bo, jo, han-bo, tan-jo, yawara (a hand sized stick), tonfa (a baton with a side handle that is used by modern law enforcement), nunchaku (mispronounced "numchucks"), sai, kama (a sickle), eku (which resembles a boat oar), tessen (an inconspicuous looking, but all-metal hand-held fan), and shuriken (throwing stars). Probably the most familiar are the bo (which mysteriously means "stick" in Japanese), which is a long staff, and jo, a shorter staff the length of a walking stick. The han-bo, almost exactly half the size of a bo, and tan-bo, about half the length of the han-bo are much lesser known. Less than half the length of tan-bo are hashi, which are used for battling over that last piece of sashimi, and are what people in the West call "chop-sticks". Jo-jutsu, the way of the jo-staff, is the most common discipline based upon a single weapon in mainland Japan, and is often used by practitioners of aikido. The jo, which can be employed with other martial art forms, is probably one of the most versatile martial arts weapons. Curiously, the nunchaku, despite being immensely popular in the West, is probably one of the least versatile, and has no known original kata (choreographed exercises of movement), and it's origin remains controversial. It provides an interesting advantage given that it can strike at unpredictable angles, but can also strike it's practitioner equally well at the same unpredictable angles. Likewise, the shuriken, "throwing star", is well known, but served as a distraction more than a lethal weapon. Often dipped in poison, a ninja would fling them at his assailant, in a last ditch effort, shortly before his own demise. The recently purchased tan-bo, featured in the photo above, look like little more than taiko (Japanese drum) sticks, but are one my favorites. Baton sized, they can be used like a jo, but can also be wielded in pairs, can be dropped into a protective forearm defense similar to the tonfa, and have their own increasingly rare school of tanbo-jutsu, which uses a variety of heavily coordinated strikes, intricate blocks and joint locks. |
About the AuthorAfter 20 years of traveling in Japan, I have found myself living here for the last 8 years. This is a simple web page chronicling my experiences as an international family living in the Kansai area of Japan with my wife and daughter. Archives
June 2014
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