Posts From Japan

I've been so busy these last two weeks that I haven't (mercifully, some would say) had the time to write. Covering the work of two teachers has its downside.

I was pretty non-compis until the beginning of last week, and not really enjoying myself. Missing Nadia (we are not often apart) was a large part of that, compounding my sense of dislocation.

This week I started to feel more myself here, a little more connected to familiar things and situations. It gave me the chance to play the detached observer, if such a thing can be said to really exist. In Japan, that can be a lot of fun, especially where those strange conjunctions occur between Western practice and its transplanted application here.

For example, Valentines Day. A silly thing at the best of times back home, the Japanese have made it, effectively, into a two day practice. February 14th is a day for women to give chocolates to a male friend, while White Day, a month later, is the time when men are supposed to reciprocate.

I was explaining the original practise to a sales assistant when she said 'It's very strange that you should change the day in that way.' Of course, you'll understand that she thought that St Valentines was a Japanese invention! I don't think I even flinched, since this kind of insular thinking is not uncommon here. I didn't have the heart to point out that St Valentine wasn't a Japanese martyr and that Christianity didn't visit these shores until the 16th Century. No matter.

On a completely different note, a Japanese sumo wrestler, Tochiasuma, won the January basho today. Its unusual because a Mongolian, Asashoryu, has dominated the top division for the last 2 years. A lot of the action in this basho was very exciting with competition for first place very tight until the last few bouts.

Remembering

After Pat Robertson's most recent blunder (re- Ariel Sharon), I remain puzzled at what right-wing evangelical groups have to offer humanity. I mean, about God.

A few years ago I was involved in a very difficult, perhaps life threatening, event in my life. One day, I heard a Scottish preacher read this poem by Robert Browning over the radio. It gave me an abiding strength that, to this day, I cannot account for. I could never find it in any collection of the poet's works, probably because( as I later discovered) it was a fragment of a larger poem. By accident, I found it on the net a few weeks ago.

'A Martyr's Epitaph' from (`Easter Day'.)

I was born sickly, poor, and mean,
A slave: no misery could screen
The holders of the pearl of price
From Caesar's envy; therefore twice
I fought with beasts, and three times saw
My children suffer by his law;
At last my own release was earned:
I was some time in being burned,
But at the close a Hand came through
The fire above my head, and drew [10]
My soul to Christ, whom now I see.
Sergius, a brother, writes for me
This testimony on the wall --
For me, I have forgot it all.

Being here

There are things I love and well, don't love, about this country. I suppose you could say the same about anywhere. I have never been treated to such spontaneous kindness as I have here in Japan, nor with such indifference or suspicion.

For a foreigner, it is a place of extremes. One of my new students, who has met me on one occassion only, offered to baby sit my as yet unborn baby after he comes to Japan. Not just politeness mind you, as the offer was repeated several times. On the other hand, I still, and probably never will, feel entirely comfortable here. It's not just paranoia, though there's always a measure of that in anything I do. I realised again today ( and its a process I need to go through everytime) that non-Japanese are outsiders and will forever be so. In some cases (say, where a foreigner has married a Japanese, learnt the language fluently and made every effort to integrate) the effect is one of gradual disintegration, followed by alienation and anger. I know personally of a few cases.

As for me, I suppose I'm disappointed, then surprised that I should feel this way.On my first visit here, I accepted the stares and occasional screwed-up face with wry amusement. Later on I started to feel, well, pissed off. The novelty of being different soon wears off and is replaced by a desire to be completely invisible.

This evening, Satoshi, one of those many Japanese whom I love, called me up to see how I was and to offer help with the computer. Isn't it always the case that generalisations are best left unsaid or unwritten about?

Nothing is black and white. Nothing.

Made it.

I'm somewhat rushed as I have classes starting soon. I haven't really got my head around things yet, since the trip here was so rushed and the change from summer to winter has me spinning. At least the computer I bought on Wednesday works and the internet is up and running. A bit of a miracle given the to-dos of the past with connecting here!

Everything much the same as we left it 8 months ago except we have fewer students (sob) and the school's financial position is a little precarious. I think its a hard row these days for little conversation schools, no matter how good the staff are.

Missing Nadia a lot. Its such a different place without her.......

Japan

This might be my last post for a while. I have to hop on a plane tomorrow to help out a teacher at our conversation school in Japan, and we are without a computer(there) for the interrum.

It may only be for a few weeks, but leaving Nadia at this stage in the pregnancy is very painful for me and I'm feeling sad. If I'm busy, which I surely will be, then the time may fly. Well, I hope so........

ashita ikanakereba narimasen.

Brush cutting.

Yesterday, I heard the American President tell a group of wounded US soldiers that he had something in common with them. He has been 'wounded' by a brushcutter (called whipper snippers here) whilst cutting brush on the ranch, but in the end, had triumphed over it.

I keep waiting for this man to show a glimmer of talent, or Presidential gravitas, or even plain old common sense. I keep wondering if he really is as inept as he first appeared in those debates five years ago, whether there was any depth beneath the swaggering one-liners and simplistic notions. I confess I'm disappointed that nothing has emerged to contradict my initial opinion that Bush is unequal to the task of leading anything, let alone the world's most powerful nation. More Americans, it seems, are finally coming around to this view.

Happy New Year

What a scorcher it is today! We've already been for a swim and the mercury is pushing 37 mid-morning. And more to come.

An uneventful NYE which a few of us spent on a rockplatform at Wenty Falls. It was cooler there and we had a good view of the sweltering city below, all heat haze and dust. At 9pm the first fireworks went up - tiny coloured plumes on the horizon. We didnt wait around for midnight so Nadia and I caught the harbour celebrations on TV. I enjoyed it but really, most of the celebrating has a perfunctory nature, as if people are going through the motions because of social convention. I think a lot of people in Western societies are hungry for communal festivals, which, since the decline of religious faith and practice, are pretty scarse.

I don't think that shopping malls have lived up to their calling as the new cathedrals. Sure, folks hang out in their cool buzzing environments。There's talk of of them becoming complete recreation centres, as new city centres and meeting places. It's funny that you see so little litter in malls and so much in the local environment. Perhaps just another mark of our falsely placed loyalties. All hype and glitter and the next new thing.

Nevertheless, Happy New Year to everyone!