Loco in Yokohama: Just Keep Smiling
I almost included this post in #1 don’t be you or #3 learn that Japanese. But, I’ve found #4 Just keep smiling to be such an integral part of all the accomplishments I’ve achieved here in japan that it deserved its own post. Whether it’s basic communication or finding employment or making friends or just keeping people from giving me a reason to elbow them upside the head. IT WORKS!
Now, if you live here, you’re probably thinking, though Japanese people do tend to smile often, especially the girls, I don’t think they smile all the time. And, you’re right. They don’t. But, they can do whatever the hell they want. It’s their country. They can emote til their hearts content. But, sorry, from my experience, foreigners don’t have that luxury. Not here. We (meaning especially un-Asian foreigners for we can be identified readily) scare the HELL out of them! (さらに…)
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )10 ways not to go loco in yokohama: #1-don’t be you!
This from Loco in Yokohama: I know it’s difficult to do anything life altering. I didn’t come here planning to alter my life. It just kind of happened and I fought it every step of the way. Which only made it more intense, and more interesting I’d like to believe…the results of which I am filling my blog with. But, for those of you who are planning to come to japan or have come here already and just want to have fun and not upset the status quo- Japan’s or your own- too much in the process I have compiled a list of ways to make the potential life altering experience of living in Japan less…life altering.
Of course, if you’ve been here 3 years or longer, and assuming you aren’t loco already, you’ve put together your own list of ways to survive life in Japan. It’s the rare foreigner, I believe, that hasn’t had to significantly adjust his thinking, behavior, lifestyle, and so on, in order to adapt to life here. And perhaps like I, you feel the better for it.
The following list I’ve been putting together in my heart and mind for several years. I’ve tested each one and they have proven to have a high success rate. They’re not 100% but they range from the high 70s to the low 90s percentile. Whether or not they’ll work for you, I really can’t say. And any feedback you have on my list is of course welcomed.
The reason I specify Yokohama is because I know Yokohama well. I also know Saitama and Tokyo well, but, though Japanese are indeed Japanese, I do believe that people have different experiences depending on their area or region. I’ve met foreigners who live in Kansai and were utterly surprised when I told them about some of my experiences here. And I’ve met Nihon-jin in the countryside whose reaction to foreigners was significantly more dramatic and intense than the usual. (さらに…)
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Young People Flocking to Japan’s Communist Party?
12,000 join JPC since September last year, 30% of new members are young people
During the period between September 2007 and October 2008, 12,000 persons joined the Japanese Communist Party (JCP). The JCP held the 5th convention of its Central Committee in September last year. About 30% of the 12,000 are those who are in their teens, twenties and thirties.
Many of the 12,000 said that they joined the JCP to change society, which “treats young people as disposable.” In Chiba Prefecture, many farmers became JCP members, with one saying: “In order to revitalize agriculture, politics must change.” In defiance of the controversial health insurance system for those aged 75 and older, people in their sixties and seventies joined the JCP.
A 22-year-old male member, who had taken part in the Oct. 5 national youth rally, said: “Japanese politics is at the beck and call of the United States. That is a fundamental factor in a society in which people have difficulty making a living. I want to make a society into one in which it is easy for the socially weak to live. After watching JCP Chairman Kazuo Shii’s questioning in the Diet, a young man, a factory contract employee, visited a JCP office in Kanagawa Prefecture to join the party. He said: “I want to change the abnormal working conditions.” (さらに…)
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )by the time i get to shibuya…
Some of the older heads here at BT have previously shared their various encounters and experiences on “riding the train in Japan” on the BT Forum. Here is an interesting post by Loco in Yokohama:
“Imagination without action is dreaming. But, my imagination is my life and sanity preserver. Without it, I’d drown for sure. For example, take this morning. When I got on the train it wasn’t very crowded, so I was able to find a seat easily. There are about 10 stops between mine and Shibuya, my destination, and at each stop the train gets more and more crowded. And, as each passenger enters through the door nearest me they are presented with the option of sitting beside me and sitting elsewhere. The latter is taken. Even if the other available seat is at the far end of the car, and the choice is a sure bet next to me and a low percentage chance of capturing another seat, you better believe they go against the odds. But, actually, the people with options are not much fun. They don’t stop and think…it’s a no-brainer, and so it’s clear that the only thing that occurred to them was to find a seat elsewhere. It’s when all the other seats are filled that it becomes interesting, and that’s when I really begin my daily game and my imagination gets its daily workout.
I don’t know exactly why Japanese people are afraid of me, but I have some ideas. And that’s how I entertain myself these days, which is a vast improvement over the anger I felt everyday last year. Based on my observations, the limited knowledge I’ve accumulated through teaching and getting to know students over the past three years, various conversations I’ve had over that time, and, admittedly, my utter frustration at not being able to affect change, I can imagine the conversation some people are having with themselves upon seeing me seated beside the coveted seat: (さらに…)
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Foreign students to fill the halls
Japanese universities look abroad in hopes of upping their sagging enrollments
Rie Yoshinaga had a wide range of colleges to choose from.
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| Globalization: Of the 6,000 students at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Kyushu, nearly half come from abroad, as does the faculty. Classes are taught both in English and Japanese. TOMOKO OTAKE PHOTOS |
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Having studied at a high school in Canada for 10 months, Yoshinaga, an 18-year-old native of Oita Prefecture in the northeast of Kyushu region, is perhaps more globally minded than many of her peers. She says she seriously considered applying for Australian universities — one of the closest English-speaking countries to Oita — until she realized there was an international university right in her hometown.
Yoshinaga is now a freshman at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU), whose 99,000-sq.-meter hilltop campus commands a panoramic view of Beppu Bay, and where nearly half of the 6,000 students come from abroad, representing 87 countries. Half of the faculty are foreigners, and classes are taught both in English and Japanese. Proficiency in Japanese is not required for international students seeking admission, but once they get in, international and domestic students undergo intensive language training in the two languages, so that when they graduate, they should all have perfect bilingual — or trilingual, depending on their native tongue — capabilities.
“I found this university attractive because, while it is located in Japan, it is international,” Yoshinaga said, noting that she had no interest at all in other Japanese universities. “I thought that, if I studied here, I could study Japan and its relations with other countries, including the rest of Asia, whereas if I went to Australia, I would be looking at Asia from an Australian perspective.”
In the eight years since its establishment, APU has built a solid reputation for providing a multicultural and multilingual learning environment for all its students — a rare example among Japanese universities, where foreign students are a tiny minority and often segregated into their own programs separate from local students. APU has also breathed new life into a dying onsen (hot-spring) town, by providing a yearly inflow of 6,000 young students who spend their cash locally, and through joint research projects with local governments and industries. (さらに…)
Meiwaku, makes you want to holler!
It’s the morning rush and the only train that can get you where you need to go on time will be hissing to the track in two minutes. Meanwhile you have to buy a ticket.
But the guy ahead of you at the ticket machine has stopped cold. Instead of plinking in his coins, he hops back and forth with his neck craned at the rail map on the wall, searching for his destination and the price that he has to pay.
And you, with your money in hand and your watch ticking, bite your frustration and in your mind steam . . . “Meiwaku!”
You hustle to the platform and wait for the next train — one that will now get you where you need to go 10 minutes late — when suddenly a sound from the nearby stairs jars your senses worse than fingernails digging into a blackboard.
Slap! Slap! Slap! A college girl in hard soles is zipping down the steps after a train of her own. With each stride her shoes assault both the concrete and eardrums of every person on the platform, many of whom, no doubt, would like to help her meet her train. Head on.
The girl herself is oblivious. She never notices the dark clouds that rise from people’s heads, clouds that spell . . . “Meiwaku!” (さらに…)
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Japan as Seen by Foreigners
[display_podcast]
Here is an interesting video that gives insight into life in Japan. I don’t know if I will have time to subtitle this since I will have surgery soon.
Enjoy!
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Why do foreigners have different views on Japan?
An interesting discussion on why foreigners have bipolar views of Japan:
“Living here in Japan has really opened my eyes to the hearts and minds of the minorities here in Japan (myself included), and the immigrants back home in the States.
Before living here in Japan, I would from time to time make a wise crack or two about certain minorities back home due to how they always “stuck together” and always spoke their foreign language in the presence of “us Americans”. “How rude of them to speak that language so loud in public when we can’t understand”, I remember myself saying to my friend in that grocery store line not too long ago. Now I am in the “ethnic minority” category, and I find myself doing the exact same type of things that those minorities were doing in the U.S. which annoyed me and my friends so.
When I realized this, I felt terrible, and decided to alter my thinking to a more proactive and positive disposition. Only through blood and sweat can one realize fluency in reading, writing, and speaking Japanese. Once one has come to terms with this unalterable reality, then half the battle is won. Effective communication in all its forms within the Japanese construct is the only key for 99% of those who strive for a fruitful life here.”
Join the discussion here!
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )![Lake Dillon and a Tree [In Explore]](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53731226172_4004cbfea4_s.jpg "Lake Dillon and a Tree [In Explore]")
Black Tokyo Japan 