Click on picture to enlarge.Emails from Kirsten & Naoto
November 2002
Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 16:06:47 -0800 (PST)
Subject: School Festival and Intercultural Geeks
Dear Friends and Family
I am currently enjoying a five day weekend thanks to Josai's annual school festival. Naoto is going to go fishing today for our supper. Soon the weather will be too cold for fishing (or so he says.) Mia and I will spend the day reading all her new Japanese books and maybe watching some Teletubbies Mark and Jana brought us. She loves the teletubbies. I find them cute, but slightly disturbing.
School Festival
From elementary school to college, schools in Japan have a "school/culture festival" every year. Usually students get out of classes for one or two days in advance to prepare for it. They get the day of the festival off, and another day at the end just to clean up.
(warning! digression. Which brings me to a related point- the vaunted superiority of Japanese schools. People talk about how much Japanese students are studying and how the school year is longer in japan, etc. etc. What people don't realize is that the school year may be longer, but there are more holidays and festival days and sports festival days adding up to probably around the same amount of class time. I am only going to be teaching 13 days in the month of November because of all the holidays)
The school festival is created by the students. Groups of students (from clubs, friends, or classes) get together and decide to either a) sell food to make money for their club or b) research something and make a presentation.
My only problem with the festival this year is that students expect their teachers to help them out by buying something from their particular stand. I didn't have that much money to spend! I have so many students (from this semester and last) who saw me walking around with Naoto and Mia. They would inevitably run up to me and say "teacher teacher, buy some udon/hotdogs/dumplings/banana chocolate roll ups/tea/bagels/Brazilian feijoada/Nepalese curry/Korean savory pancake/Chinese daikon dumpling" (just to name a few)
I felt so bad saying no to most of them. I hope they won't hold it against me in class.
Naoto's basketball buddies (who are also Josai students) complained that Josai's school festival is boring. They weren't even going to come to the second day. However, I enjoyed it. Some of the highlights were:
*the Chinese daikon dumplings
*Naoto yelling at two of my current, punk students who came up to see Mia. He told them "you have to study!"
*Seeing all the high school girls cruising the festival in their plaid, uniform skirts rolled up to just barely decent height on their thighs
*Seeing a presentation on Chinese/American diplomatic relations
Intercultural Geeks
I was watching a joint Korean/Japanese evening drama the other day with Naoto. I am pleased to see joint ventures of this kind because of the strained diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Oooh boy, the main male character (Korean) was a hottie. There is no doubt that he would be considered handsome in any country. (it takes a lot for me to call a Korean or Japanese handsome, usually because the standard actors are a little effeminate for my taste)
This led me to ponder why certain people are obviously beautiful across borders, and why some people are probably only considered cute in their home country. (Naoto still doesn't think Julia Roberts is that beautiful)
This led me to think about the fact that in any particular class of mine at Josai, it is fairly easy to pick out right away who the geeks, the jocks, the class clowns, and the punks are. You can tell this from hairstyles (the geek hairstyle is internationally the mussed and greasy one), clothing choices, and eye contact. (or lack there of)
I wonder if by some chance I could watch videos of prehistoric humans, maybe I would be able to pick out the geeks back then, too?
I suppose being a geek is an intercultural thing. I tend to cherish the geeks in my classes. They may not smell the nicest, but at least they do their homework on time and answer questions in class. (besides, I feel protective of them since I am a geek, too.)
love and light,
kirsten
p.s. The picture is of Mia, neighborhood girl Mayumi, and Naoto in the front window of our tatami room.
Click on picture to enlarge.
Date: Sat, 9 Nov 2002 04:30:09 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Choshi and Spoiled
Dear Friends and Family
Hi there. Just a quick note to tell you that I have added a little travel story about a recent trip to Choshi ( a port town nearby where we live) onto our personal webpage (www.geocities.com/kblincoln/personal.html)
It's on the very bottom (sorry about the slow loading time)
Spoiled
Although I spent most of my life in Cleveland, Ohio, where the winters are not exactly mild, and although Naoto lived for four years in Jamestown, North Dakota, where the inside of your nose would freeze within two seconds of stepping outside your door, we have become wimps.
We just spent four years living on the California Coast. We are not used to the cold.
Oh yes, and despite Japan having the technology to put cell phones with digital movie and photo capability in the pockets of everyone over the age of 12, and to have talking bath heaters, and despite Japan being willing to waste millions of dollars each year on vending machines every two blocks all over the country, they are not willing to spend money or technology on CENTRAL HEATING.
Yes, let me repeat, there is NO CENTRAL HEATING. They use area or room heaters. I suppose this saves money, but it sure makes going to the bathroom, or getting out of the shower an experience about as pleasant as going to the Dentist.
I admit. We have been spoiled by California. We are not fit to live anywhere else.
Sigh.
Love and light,
Kirsten
P.S. At the first stop on our trip to Choshi, we let Mia out to play in the sun a little. She got a little slap happy. Naoto started leaping over her. I watched. It was fun and frolic. Here's the picture.
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on picture to enlarge.
Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 02:27:42 -0800 (PST)
Subject: the danger zone and exclusionary practices
Dear friends and family:
Lots of little things happening in Mia news. For one, she is starting to only wake up 1 time a night! (Hallelujah) Okay, so she also wakes up around 5 in the morning, but she goes back to sleep by herself. (and there was much rejoicing)
Also, she is on the edge of first words here, I know it. She responds to "papaya" for some reason, by trying to echo it. Naoto told me today that he told her "don't touch the coffee" to day at playgroup and she nodded her head and said "hai". I don't know if I believe that one...
The danger zone
I am at the point in the semester now where all the flakey students have so many absences they've flunked themselves out of my class. What is left are the serious students, and the students who know how to work the system (do the least possible to get by). That makes my job heck a lot easier. I don't have to go running after students and tell them that this or that is due or that they missed this or that in class.
Unfortunately, I have lots of seniors in my classes. That means I run the risk of having my supervisor (or someone else he owes a favor to, or some gullible administrator) coming to me at the end of the semester and saying "just pass this guy. He only needs this one credit to graduate." or "let him take the final again, see how he does" or any permutation thereof.
Yes, the end of second semester is the danger zone for all morally upright teachers with principles.
One teacher has already quit over a similiar situation last semester.
I don't know if I have told you this before, but, I have already discussed with Naoto my reaction if that should happen to me. I will give my supervisor two choices:
a) come to my class and explain in Japanese that the decision was made to pass this one student by a higher authority and against my wishes
b) I will quit then and there.
Naoto's looking for leads on jobs if I should have to quit at the end of the semester. However, I think it won't come to that.
Meanwhile, I am documenting everything like crazy so I can prove why a student has failed or not.
Exclusionary practices
I was looking at the Japan Times News online and found this article about a lawsuit in a small town in Hokkaido. (for more information, see http://www.debito.org/otarulawsuit.html)
Two foriegners and one American-born naturalized Japanese citizen brought suit against a public bath for not allowing them to enter the premises because they were "not Japanese" (although one of them, David Aldwinckle is a Japanese citizen.) He went there two times, actually. Once with a fellow activist (before he was a citizen.) Then again a year later David went with his Japanese wife and two little daughters after he became a citizen. His wife and one daughter (who looked Japanese) were allowed in. David and his blonde-haired daughter were not allowed. Apparently the other patrons would be scared away by them. This is where Kirsten flashes on an image of somebody refusing Mia entry somewhere because she "doesn't look Japanese enough.'
They won the lawsuit against the public bath, but they didn't win their lawsuit against the town of Otaru for not enforcing an anti-racism treaty. I dug deeper and found out that Japan is one of only a few developed countries that has no official laws agaist racism.
Hmmm, explains a lot, actually.
Apparently the Otaru bath house incident is representative of a growing "anti-internationalization" situation going on in Hokkaido.
The two main culprits behind this anti-foriegner feeling? Russian soldiers and American servicemen.
Apparently they are drunken, rowdy, sexually aggressive, and break things.
So I can't get all huffy puffy about how Japanese are just really racist. I can understand not wanting to allow American servicemen (I don't know about Russian sailors) into bath houses. (you know that sometimes the outside baths are coed- just a little towel around the privates)
This is an example of racism on both sides, I think. The Japanese thinking "all americans are bad and scary" and the Americans thinking "this is Japan so I can do things I wouldn't want my mother to find out about."
If it was my bath house, I am not sure what I would do.
love and light,
Kirsten
P.S. Mia has officially chosen her transfer stuffed animal. It is a sea otter (rakko in Japanese). We bought it on a whim from a rack of stuffed animals. She pointed at it and said "ha." Now she sleeps all curled up with it. Isn't she cute? It makes me want to go back to Monterey!
Click
on picture to enlarge.
Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2002 05:31:10 -0800 (PST)
Subject: organic food and quiz shows
Dear Friends and Family
Attached is the Lincoln/Suzuki should-have-been-christmas photo. We tried to take a picture with the local Colonel Sanders (dressed up as Santa for christmas). However, Mia was unaccountably terrified of him and would not let us get a picture. She cried every time we got close to him. I think she was afraid of Colonel Sanders. Smart girl. In other Mia news, she is a cruisin' girl now. She likes to be "walked" around the house (we hold her arms for balance and she takes steps.) She has had a cold for the past three days, so unfortunately her night time wakings went back up.
Mia tries to answer questions now. She nods her head and says "hum." I don't know if that means yes or no, however.
She likes to point out spiders on the wall, and her favorite song is "If you are happy and you know it." (she likes the clapping parts) Organic food
As I have said before, Naoto and I are ordering a box of organic vegetables once a week from a local service. I would like to do more, but truthfully it is pretty expensive here. I justify the cost by imagining how much less nasty pesticides are going into Mia's body this way.
Anyway, the cool thing about the box is that you never know what is going to show up in it. One week we had daikon, potatoes, cabbage, comatsuna (green, leafy vegeatable) pumpkin, and one apple. This forces us to look up recipes for what we have rather than deciding what to eat first and then buying the stuff.
1) It gives us more variety in our diet!
2) We are eating healthy, obscure Japanese vegetables
all the time now
I am learning all these cool recipes I WILL NEVER USE AGAIN after we leave here. Why? Because you can't buy comatsuna, mountain potato, or burdock root widely in the U.S. So there.
Quiz shows
Have I talked about quiz shows before? I will now talk about two interesting things about quiz shows in Japan. Nope, let me amend that, one interesting thing and one annoying thing.
The interesting thing is that quiz shows here are about 10 times more interesting than those back home. U.S. quiz shows are usually just straight trivia questions (other than the price is right or wheel of fortune) However, Japanese quiz shows are usually little mini-lessons in culture. For example a quiz show might send reporters to the Congo and show scenes of people making and eating Congonese foods. Then they will ask people to guess how a certain food is prepared or something like that.
The annoying thing is that all the contestants are famous tv actors or that bland genre of celebrity called "talent" here in Japan. It is just hard to get excited about a celebrity winning a trip to Hawaii. It's like, oh yeah, that rich, beautiful person really needs another perk in their life.
It would be like Joey, Rachel, Ross, Monica, Pheobe and Chandler all being on a quiz show. Would we really care which one gets 10,000 dollars to take home when we know their salary for one show is like a million dollars a piece or something crazy like that?
I like to see real people win stuff on tv. It makes me feel all warm and cozy inside.
Even the Japanese version of "Who wants to be a millionaire" and "Weakest link" uses celebrities. I mean, get real, they are already millionaires!
love and light,
Kirsten
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on picture to enlarge.
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 19:44:16 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Censorship and Drugstores
Dear Friends and Family
The emails are just coming fast and furious, eh?
I guess I am shoring you all up for a long silent period when I will be traveling to Seattle to visit relatives for Christmas.
Mia got the official seal of approval at Dr. Akiba's yesterday on her one year checkup. She is completely average in height and a little over the average in weight.
We are now thinking about trying to wean her off of four bottles a day and get her to take a sippy cup during the afternoon and morning instead.
She doesn't like it so far. Sigh.
Censorship
Naoto saw this program on Japanese TV about how some socially isolated mothers are getting all their child rearing advice online now. Many of these mothers have husbands who work in different parts of the country, or are just the normal 6 a.m.-11 p.m. salaryman who never partakes in the joys of familyhood.
You could say some of their questions are naive. (my 3 month old son wakes up at night, what's wrong with him!) I am sure there are mothers just as naive in the States, however, these mothers were on tv!
Anyway, Naoto started checking out the webpage/forum this tv show got its mothers from. It is a webpage supported by NHK, the official channel of Japan. It is similar to PBS in that it is wholely supported by "viewers like you" (although it's a law here that you have to pay- not optional), has no commercials, and tends to be somewhat educational in programming.
The NHK morning drama/ housewife soap opera doesn't even let the main characters kiss- that's how conservative it is.
Back to Naoto and the webpage. Someone posted a question about skin rashes on babies. As Mia is sensitive city in that department, Naoto and I have learned a little about different lotions. For instance, Johnson and Johnson (a name I trusted unquestionably and associated with babies my whole life) makes a baby oil from petroleum products. It may not be the best thing in the world to put petroleum/oil on your babies' sensitive skin (instead you should use plant-derived products, in case you were wondering)
Naoto wrote that in a message. Two days later, the message was gone. He was suspicious, but thought it might just be some kind of error. He wrote the same message again. A few days later it was gone for the second time.
Can you say "censorship?" anyone? (Yes, Johnson and Johnson is a sponsor of NHK)
My little free-speech
soul was horrified. Naoto didn't seem all that upset. Drugstores
So the hospital/clinic where we go for Mia's skin problems has this great little set up. After you get your prescription, you go down to the lobby. There, two nice, old ladies in white lab coats help you fax your prescription (computerized) to any drugstore you want. The great thing about his hospital is that there are FIVE drugstores within a two minute walking distance of the front door.
So there is competition.
The first time we went to one, I thought it must be special promotion day or something. They all stood in line at the door and said "welcome" and "enter" in Japanese. They used our names and exclaimed over how cute Mia was. They bade us sit ourselves down and brought us Healthy tea (although the kind of tea changes each day)on trays with wet napkins.
Oh yes, there is an incredible children's play area overstuffed with toys. Naoto said that the one time he went there alone, they tried to take care of Mia for the 10 minutes it took to fill the prescription. She would have none of it, of course, but it was the thought that counted.
Sigh. I love competetive markets! :)
Now if only we could get the same thing going on at the post office, I would be in heaven!
love and light,
Kirsten
P.S. The picture is from halloween. For some reason I've been taking non-digital pictures a lot and had nothing new to show! You can see my office mate counseling a student in the background. Those are her bookshelves. Yes, I have an office. I still can't believe it myself!
Click on picture to enlarge.
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 03:32:34 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Cross Cultural Icons: famous names and the power rangers
Dear Friends and Family
It was a rainy Monday this morning. I think about half of my students showed up. It's hard to blame them when all I want to do is crawl into my futon and drink coffee.
The semester is winding down. Now is when I spend all my office hours giving make up tests, counseling failing seniors, defending my decision to fail a student who has only shown up three times and done no work, and basically help students pass my classes.
Do I sound bitter? Actually I had a fairly good day today. One of my "I just don't understand what is going through his head" students suddenly got his act together today.
My petty heart was also appeased by a little groveling on the part of a student over his allowed amount of absences. I gave him a second chance, but there was much bowing involved.
Cross Cultural Icons
Guessing Names:
Okay ladies and gentlemen, pop quiz. Can you name the
following Western stars who are popular in Japan?
Burapi?
a) Mel Gibson
b) Brad Pitt
c) Mel Brooks
Jenilope?
a) Bullwinkle (rocky and bullwinkle show)
b) Conan O'Brien
c) Jennifer Lopez
Leosama? (sama is the ending Japanese give to names for kings/emperors)
a) Sean Connery
b) Colin Powell
c) Leonardo Dicaprio
See the end of the message for the answers. Um, how to explain? Japanese is pronounced consonant/vowel/consonant/vowel. You can't have a consonant without a vowel after it, kind of like Italian. So any Western name gets vowelized. Thus my name (a nightmare in any language) becomes Ki-ri-su-te-n.
Also, names tend to get abbreviated. So Kimura Takuya becomes KimTak, and the amusement park Great America becomes GreAme.
Does that help you guess?
Mighty Morphin Power rangers;
Okay, I haven't actually watched the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in the States more than once. (okay maybe three times, but just to make fun of it, I swear)
I do watch the "Harikenjas" which is the current incarnation of the show the Morphins were based on here in Japan. (easy to understand in English, okay)
As I watched last Saturday morning, I realized that the five rangers in Harikenjas had some interesting stereotypes/archetypes as compared with that of the American show.
Take colors, for example.
Red is the "main character guy" in both shows. In the American one, he is a short-haired, ruggedly handsome young man. In Japan, he is a long haired beautiful man of the type called "Bishonen."
Bishonen are young, feminine to Western eyes, beautiful boys. Their popularity goes back in Japanese history quite a long way.
The Japanese don't have race issues like we do. So no Yellow, Asian Ranger or Black African-American ranger. They have Yellow geek-ranger and Blue handsome, ruggedly male ranger.
Both Japan and the U.S. reserve the pink ranger for girls.
Then there is the green ranger. He is the "rival" for leadership in both series.
So in the States he is a ruggedly handsome dude. In Japan he has long hair and is a Bishonen type.
Okay, so now that I have revealed that I know far too much about the Power Rangers in two countries, you may ask, what's the point?
The point is, America seems hung up on tokenism with race/sex. Japan seems hung up on feminine young men. Who's to say which is healthier for little kids to be watching?
Love and light,
Kirsten
p.s. The photo is mia and naoto on a local train to the Chiba Zoo. I have love/hate relationships with zoos. Mia cried at everything bigger than herself, but seemed to like petting mice and rabbits.
Quiz answers:
1 b 2c 3c
Click on picture to enlarge.