Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Unexplainable Emotions

No I am not in a depression, nor am I homesick. Quite on the contrary the fact that there are only some 2 months left does make me feel a little sad. I have decided on which day I will be able to eat brown bread with cheese and bought boxes to ship my belongings, which means the end is beginning to draw near. But this sentimental talking will undoubtly come back later, the emotions I want to talk about are related to the game which has 22 men running after a round object and desperately trying to kick it in the goal of the opposite party. Since elementary school I have a liking for soccer, not only for watching it, but also for playing it. It’s the only thing so far in which a part on the left side of my body, namely my left foot, does function properly. (Really I can’t catch or throw balls with left, even worse can’t handle either fork or knife with my left hand). Soccer has not the same position in Japan as baseball, but especially after the World Cup of 2002 in Japan and Korea it gained in popularity. Which can be seen in the fact that there a quite some people who follow the matches, at least followed those of Japan. As said in the previous post one of the themes that I am recently very interested in is patriotism and nationalism. Reading Benedict Anderson`s book Imagined communities which offers strong evidence that nations are imagined communities, the present World Cup shows an example how far those imagined communities have become a reality in the minds and feelings of people all around the world. During the World Cup the difference in nations are forgotten, racism is less present, and the majority of the people supports their national team. So for the first match of Japan against Australia my dorm was filled with Japanese and foreigners alike. From all around the rooms shouts to encourage Japan were shouted, girls and boys alike. Of course the crowd went wild when with an enormous amount of luck the ball ended behind the Australian goalkeeper in the goal. The crowd got on my nerves with their unrestrained happiness about a goal which in my opinion should not be counted because the goalkeeper was obstructed. So I decided to support Australia to get a draw and make the game equal as well. I had to wait till 10 minutes before the end but then hell broke lose for the Japanese because the Aussies managed to score 3 goals. This was for me also a little bit too much, but the Japanese were utterly devastated. Many devastated themselves to grasp the nearest bottles of alcohol to forget the pain. I couldn’t understand their fanaticism but I only had to wait a couple of days to find myself sitting in front of the television, stressing about 11 guys in orange uniforms who had the noble task to get the ball in the goal on the other side. I found it very strange that I made such a fuss about those particular 11 guys and less about the 11 of Germany while they are geographically equally as near (and the Belgians as well, if they had participated).
And while I was comfortably sure that the Netherlands were proceeding to the second round after winning two games (although I am sure that my hair again turned some shades more grey after the match against the Ivory Coast) my French friend was really uptight. Everything depended on the last match, and when French hadn’t scored during the first half of the game, he was close to tears. Luckily for him they managed to win their game and proceed to the next round. But the 1/16 finals (is that a word?) was the place where the Netherlands this time stranded. In a game where the referee was not afraid to show a red card, the tension of the players rose to the top and also over it. The fact that those games took place at 4 o clock in the morning took is toll and although I had dragged my self with a enormous deficit of sleep in front of the television my emotions weren’t roused by the accidents happening on the screen. And with my head bowed down in regret I fell asleep and hoped next morning that I dreamed it all. Ofcourse not! But if I thought we were unlucky the match Australia against Italy proved that things could be worse, far worse. That is a simulated fall resulting in a penalty that is scored in the last minute of the match.
And nothing left to do than bow your head and think why it is that those 90 minutes of guys running after a ball can ruin your day.

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Catching Up With The Ever Expanding Flow Of Experiences

Although I was planning to quickly knock up another update to inform you about all the serious stuff, contrary to the image you could have get from the last post, I am also doing, I just couldn’t get round it. And the reason is that we are doing some projects for school which I am taking pretty seriously. I know that in this blog I have never informed you, about the exact content of what I was doing, as in studying, at University. One of the reasons is because it was basically all stuff related to improving my Japanese, such as reading text, writing essays and holding speeches. We also had lectures concerning a whole range of subjects loosely related to Japan and it’s culture, and because it was not a succession but all were stand alones it really depended on the subject and the teacher if it was interesting. Those classes are finished now but that doesn’t mean there is nothing left for me to do.
But we had the really nice opportunity in the second semester to also take some of the regular classes the Japanese are taking, although we can’t take the exam (which is not too bad, because as for credits for my home-university I receive none). In the end there are 4 classes I am taking, namely the Japanese Constitution, Law and State, Japanese Philosophy and Film Studies. All 4 are really interesting, with quite inspiring lectures who know what they are talking about. One of the things that did struck me was the total absent of reading material in preparation for the class, or otherwise assignments that had to be prepared in advance for the exams.
In the framework of my program I am following two literature classes, as well as a seminar in sociology for which we have to conduct fieldwork. With 2 friends I am investigating into youth deviant behavior, as well as general feeling towards, high schools (age range of 15 to 18 years) and what relation this has with ranking of the school. Japanese High schools all offer the same curriculum but it depends on how good you master this curriculum if you are able to process to a good university, which again is helpful for finding a good job. So in Japan there is a ranking of schools that are very successful in getting a lot of their students into good universities. Our fieldwork consist of conducting interview with people who are now in Kyoto University, as well as people who are working in the entertainment industry about their school experiences, the attitude of their schools towards behavior that broke the school rules, such as underage smoking, drinking, using drugs, going to pachinko parlors.
It`s really nice experience conducting this sociological fieldwork in the country that you are studying. I have totally no previous experience in doing this kind of research nor do my friends, but it offers us an opportunity to experience doing an anthropological /sociological research, in stead of just reading about it. We are expected to write a paper of 30 pages concerning this subject.
Apart from that paper we also have to write an individual paper of 25 pages in Japanese. My subject for this research is Kato Hiroyuki, who as first Japanese introduced German culture in Japan. My major interest in him stems from the fact that in his personal beliefs he made a big turnabout from being a promoter of Human Rights to dismissing the existence of Human Rights. This change was most likely heavily influenced by German works he was reading. In my paper I am researching what kind of idea’s especially with regards to the relation between state and individual were espoused during the 1890`s and influenced Kato in changing his opinions. As well as and what kind of influence Kato`s writing had on the government stance regarding those issues.
And as a preparation for this big paper, we also have to write a smaller one, which I do about the proposal of incorporating `patriotism` in the school curriculum.
All and all, I spend quite some time, reading books, or behind a computer screen, so I call it a day for this post. And I will abandon this screen in favor of a T.V. screen to watch the World Cup.