More than words...

There’s a proverb that states that one picture can say more than thousand words. Since I reached puberty I held the view that one picture could destroy what more than thousands words had carefully build up. I had and still have a preference for books without any illustrations and usually could appreciate movies adapted from books but always liked the book better.
Thus I am perfectly happy with a blog which only consist of my written accounts but there have been remarks from some people that they would like some more visually attractive things to look at.
I like pictures but for me they can’t compete against those little dots of black inkt on paper.
Words possess so much power! They can take you away to worlds you never have been to, can give you new insights about life, can cease wonder and can make you sad or happy.
But words also can pose problems for you. Not just a succession of words, such as a very difficult book, but even just one word can. How can you describe and explain the meaning of a word to somebody else? This is not only the problem of a language student trying to build up a vocabulary but also of academics who use certain words in their books to describe a situation. As an academic you always have to give an account in which way you are using a word and what you are implying with it, because words can carry certain connotations.
One of the most difficult words in the academic discourse is the word culture. I will refrain from exploring all the different meanings that word can have but I want to share with you what my classmates thought would fall under Japanese culture. Because one teacher asked us to name a thing that we associated with Japanese culture. We started off with sadou (the way of the tea), calligraphy, mono no aware, bushidou (the way of the warrior), Zen but soon we moved on to karaoke, manga, anime and convenience stores and not to forget the pachinko halls. I guess that the image you have of Japan partly depends on the things you are interested in and thus what you would like to see in the culture. What strikes me in Japanese culture, is the diversity that you can come across, ranging from very stylised forms from the past to the ultra modern flashy places where people can replace the real world for a virtual one. In Leiden I tried to study the various aspects of the culture by reading books and now I am here I am surrounded by and drowned in all parts of it’s culture , including some that are not really taught at the university. Even though we got a lecture about food culture in Japan during Modern History where we learned that the Japanese used freely their own creativity to make something new out of existing dishes, the banana pizza was a little bit too much of Japanese culture for me and my poor stomach. And thus for once I will let a picture do the talking.

Crash Course

The Japanese have a profound liking for self-introductions (自己紹介 in Japanese) and I have not, after giving more than 15 of these. At every gathering with people you haven’t met before it’s a standard procedure for Japanese that you shortly introduce yourself . Because I (and the rest of my class) just recently arrived in Japan we were required to hold many of them. Not only at all kinds of formal meetings but also at the beginning of our class every teacher asked us to hold this short speech about yourself. Most teachers just listened to what we had to say, occasionally ask a question and after having introduced themselves, they at last begin with their class.
However, one teacher followed a slightly different path. He apologized to the Chinese and Koreans in our class for the recent visit (October 17, 2005) of Premier Koizumi to the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo. Yasukuni shrine was founded in 1869 and was build in order to commemorate and worship those who have died in war for their country and sacrificed their lives.
Since October 17, 1978 quietly fourteen class A war criminals (of the second World War) have been enshrined at Yasukuni among 2.5 million people who had died in the various wars Japan had fought. When this was revealed in 1979, this started a controversy which rages to this day. The controversy is that the Japanese pay reverence to the war criminals enshrined at Yasukuni. The countries that have suffered from Japanese imperial embankments since the Meiji Restoration (1868) are angered because they feel that the Japanese by venerating these war criminals do not account for their deeds in the past. The stance of Yasukuni shrine is that in Shinto one believes that the souls (御霊 - mitama) of the deceased remain in this world to be celebrated by their descendants. It was believed that the souls of the deceased would watch over the good fortune of their descendants together with the ancestral Kami (神 usually translated with gods) and would cause pain or trouble if not. So for their celebrations it does not matter whether their deeds during lifetime are to regarded as good or as bad.
The controversial nature of the Yasukuni shrine comes to the foreground if a prime minister goes to visit the shrine.
Countries that suffered from Japanese imperialism see such action as the attempt to legitimise Japanese militarism and as a revival of right wing nationalism. And these visits have important consequences in the foreign relations Japan has with it’s neighbouring Asian countries.
And in domestic affairs there is a debate going on if the visits by the Prime Minister to Yasukuni shrine a violation of the constitutional principle of the separation of religion and government are.
The Japanese themselves are also very divided in their opinions with regard to the Yasukuni shrine and the visits by Koizumi. Their opinions differ from finding it offensive for the people in countries that suffered from Japan’s imperialism to people who see Prime Minister Koizumi visits as an affirmation of the strong politics he is pursuing by not giving in to the criticism of other countries.
I was pleasantly surprised that our teacher expressed so clearly his standpoint in a country where a teacher can loose his job if he refrains from singing the Japanese anthem (which has a connection with the Imperial Japan of before 1945)
So even an self introduction can result in a interesting begin of a class.

Course of Life

In my dormitory there is a really nice mixture of Japanese and foreign students and researchers. This brings you into contact with people who come from area’s of the world of which you know almost nothing about or just barely the cliché’s. Moreover people are engaged in different kinds of study and research. This has let to a range of interesting talks.
Some just the standard accounts of foreigners not understanding some things in Japanese culture and life. But also talks going far further than this kind of chit chat.
When an Indian researchers in physics, more specific the universe and black holes, saw me studying my Japanese he was so kind to remark that he did not see any value in learning another language. According to him it was absolutely not useful to waste precious years at studying a language in which you would never be able to speak as good as in your mother tongue. It was just idling your time away, it didn’t bring you any further in the real questions of life. He asked me what my goal in life was. And if studying Japanese bring me any further in my life? What was for me my purpose in life? It all came down to the questions Monthy Python asked in their The Meaning of Life: why are we here and what’s it for? But just the same as them I know the question but am not able to answer them.
As a researcher his purpose in life was to find out how the universe functions and what our place is. The meaning and purpose of life is something many philosophers have contemplated over but as far as I have found out everybody’s got to figure it out for himself. Studying Japanese probably doesn’t bring me any closer to the answer why we are here as mankind on eart. But it is the outcome of things that have happened before in life, some on purpose and some by accident.
My whole life is the result of some things I had an influence my self on by choosing and other are just the outcome of happy coincidences. The fact that I am now in Kyoto is the result of numerous things, in some I had a hand in others I didn’t have a thing to say. The main reason I am here is to study the Japanese language but in my dormitory I also met two German boys who studied Theology and are now here to study various forms of Japanese religion. And with the bit of luck you sometimes need my time schedule for my Japanese studies program is arranged in such a manner that I can also follow some classes (in English) about Shinto, Buddhism and Religion. These classes are giving by the NCC Center for Japanese Studies.
As for the questions of life I don’t have the answers. But I am really happy with what life is giving me for opportunities . And even if there is no purpose why I am living I still feel lucky about the many things I came across and were able to do in my life.

Being handicapped.

The English language ability of the Japanese people is well known. They are famous for their misspellings in English, usually called Engrish. And although it is very funny to see those misspellings on all kinds of products, like food, shampoo and soap and especially shops, It’s a bit of a sour laugh I’m having. Because I am exactly experiencing the same kind of difficulties in a language which isn’t my mother tongue.
In the two years in Leiden I learned quite some kanji but here in Japan they are everywhere, on every street corner there are peeking up unknown ones. It’s definitely going to help me to learn all 2000 of them but for now I’m only feeling puzzled.
For all those foreigners they luckily the roads nowadays have romanji underwriting and temples and shrines are also sometimes indicated in Japanese. But still many warnings and explanations are in Japanese and if you then don’t know the kanji’s you’re at loss.
So at times I feel quite handicapped in my daily life, when I don’t know whether or not I’m allowed to do something. This kind of handicap is not a real problem because many Japanese understand that you’re a foreigner and you're Japanese might not be sufficient and they forgive you if you make mistakes.
A long time the attitude by the Japanese towards the physically or mentally disabled persons in Japan was not so kind. Although there were of course handicapped people, approximately 3,5 million, you would not come across many just walking around the streets. There was still a taboo against them and disabled people resided at special centers or were kept at home.
The thing that surprised me when I went to a temple in the Gion district was not that it was clearly indicated in English but that they had a special entrance for wheelchairs. And come to think of it, in the 4 days I’ve been strolling the streets I have come across at least 8 people in wheelchairs. And I can’t recall seeing one 5 years ago, neither in Fukuoka or Nara.
I’m not sure what caused it but it seems like disabled people are finding a place in the Japanese society, not on the side like before, but more integrated in the rest of society.
I can’t tell how far this process of integration is but it sure seems like the first necessary steps have been undertaken.

Out of time

And you've been so busy lately
that you haven't found the time
To open up your mind
And watch the world spinning gently out of time

Tell me I'm not dreaming but are we out of time?

( Blur – Out of Time)

It looks like airplanes are build in such a way to let you forget that you are flying really really high in the air, taking you to another part of the world. Small windows, meals served almost every 2 hours and a wide range of media entertainment. They didn’t have to that for me. I was so tired once I got in the airplane that I dozed off during my first (and also last) movie The Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy and stayed that way during the rest of the trip.
Before I knew it the so familiar landscape of green grass with some cows was replaced by grey and brownish buildings tumbling over each other and flashing lights urging people to buy cigarettes or alcohol. Those were my first glimpses of Kyoto from the train window. And everything seemed vaguely familiar. I know’ve seen this kind of scenery’s before or something which looked like it, but it’s strange to see them again. But there's no doubt about it, I’m back in Japan again. But before having the opportunity to see more of Kyoto I had to experience another aspect of Japanese culture, seemingly endless bureaucratic procedures. I survived them all and finally got the opportunity to breath in the bursting air of Kyoto.
It was overwhelming, the smell of all kinds of delicious Japanese food, the irritating noise of the traffic lights and the huge numbers of people on foot, bicycles and cars. There are vending machines on every street corner, and all the shops, selling all kinds of good, have ads to urge you to buy their ware. My head was spinning and that combined with my jetlag kicking in, made it seem like everything was there just the way it should be, but I was kind of out of place and out of time. But luckily enough, there are places full of quietness that bring you back to yourself. Kyoto is extremely rich of temples, which are all worlds on their own.
I went to the Imperial Palace of Kyoto to enjoy the garden and the beautiful buildings. While you can only see those if you go on a group tour, I signed up for the Japanese spoken tour. While being kind of late I joined the group later. I recognized a vaguely familiar figure, watching this persons back. Taking a better look proves that I’m not mistaken…
It really is Miss de Poorter, my former teacher of Japanese.
So perhaps the world is also a little bit out of time……