Japan in Agnoek

Wave Goodbye and Say Hello

2006-09-28T14:41:00.000-07:00

I had wanted to finish this blog earlier but unfortunately life got in the way and I never took the time to sit down and write this last entry. Just like the absolute beginning, my feelings are mixed up. It is extremely strange to realize that 3 weeks ago I was still in Japan having a very nice time, but on the other hand back at home it feels like I never went away. The reintegration process goes smoothly, my time is filled with studying, going to parties and hanging with friends, just like life should be.
Being back also means that there is no real need to keep this blog any longer up to date. Having a blog was a nice way to reflect upon all the experiences I had and what they did to me and what they mean to me. Expressing your experiences in words is extremely difficult, and in many cases I wanted to express something personal but also relate it to my general opinions about Japan, which might needlessly have complicated my writings.
Those who have read the blog, I salute you! All those people both in the Netherlands as Japan who have kept an interest in my wellbeing, thank you for being there for me.
And who knows, perhaps to another time.

Agnoek

What Do You Think About Japan?

2006-09-02T15:19:00.000-07:00

When I was at Kansai Airport, I was approached by a bunch of middle school kids with a huge cardboard saying that they would like to ask foreigners some questions about Japan for their English class. When asked if I was willing to answer their question what I thought about Japan, I expressed that it was one of the difficult questions to answer. Thinking that they would pick up the hint that I was not entirely in the mood to be answer all the standard question one can ask foreigners in Japan, it turned out that Japanese politeness is gone when it suits them. And the smiling teachers without any reservation put the microphone in front of a very unwilling me. In the end I did answer the questions, angry at being dragged into a situation in which I did not want to be, but at the same time not feeling like making a scene and discouraging all those little kids to ever speak English again.
By now it’s been 11 months I lived in Japan this time and only a few days left. One knows things will come to an end, but it never really kicked in. Perhaps that is the reason why I don’t like being asked about my feelings towards Japan, it makes me realize that my experience here will soon be over. Rereading my first post I realized that the reason I came to Japan was to improve my Japanese. Although I am sure I really did improve on listening, talking and reading I am not entirely sure if I got everything out of the language which I could. But to be honest the part of acquiring language skills over time grew less important and the wonder of the first weeks also ceased. But in place of that I began to feel very comfortable and very at home in Kyoto. But on the other hand the fact that you know you only have one year, made we want to make good use of it and see a lot of Japan.
I am happy for all the experiences I had, and all the people that were there to share them with me. My classmates, the people living in my dorm, my Dutch classmates in Japan, people I met in bars, restaurants, on the streets. Thinking back all the images of this year keep tumbling over each other, some still very clear, some blurred, things I forgot that happen, things I remember as clear as yesterday.
This does not mean that when I am looking back this time at my previous experiences there are not a number of things I would have like to do in another way. But on the other hand I probably had to get trough all my experiences until this moment to realize that if I would do things again in certain cases I would do exactly the same and in other cases I would choose a different approach.
Nearing the end, I have to say goodbye to everybody and leave them behind in Japan, not knowing what the future will bring for them or for me, and it are those precious memories of all the experiences that I will be able to carry back to the Netherlands.

The Sun Also Rises

2006-08-22T06:56:00.000-07:00

While in the last entry, still two months lasted, it now has come to the phase were only 2 weeks are there before I will be able to taste my first piece of bread with good old Dutch cheese. The reality that the year really is over and it very soon will be time to go home, where my former student life will start almost immediately from the word go, starts kicking in. My classmates Bram and Paul already left Japan some weeks ago, but today another 6 Dutchies carried their overweight suitcases in a plane in order to get them back to Schiphol. As well as a person who did the same programme as I in Kyoto. The next time I will see the airport, it will be me who is leaving. Life in Kyoto has very comfortable and it also felt like a natural home, but with the end date of your stay in mind, you also realize that there are still a lot of things you want to do before you go back. Although unfortunately I was not able to do everything I wanted to do, because there are still reports that need to be finished, I was able to do a number of things that are related with things generally seen as representative symbols of Japan.
As somebody aptly described it, it is an interesting phenomenon that in a country where such an emphasis is placed on a slim body, where diet products are as easily obtainable as normal foods, the `national` sport is one in which fat guys are worshipped. Sumo, is of course the sport I am talking about. In the weeks prior to the day I was going to see it I became knowledgeable about the names of the different sumo-wrestlers as well as the names of the myriad ways in which one could bring an opponent to defeat. Our seats were pretty good and we spend the whole day hanging around on cushions watching people, who just judging by their sheer size I would advise not to sport, throw their bodies into each other, grapping each other at the string in order to get somebody on the ground or out the ring. Although these guys weight around the 150 kilo`s or even more, it is just not only fat that they carry around but also an enormous amount of muscles. One of the things that surprises many people is that they actually eat only one meal a day, although it’s a huge portion and is accompanied with an equal amount of beer. But being the biggest does not mean that you are able to win your matches, tactic and balance seem to be equally if not more important.
Sumo tournaments are hold 6 times in a year, 3 times in Tokyo, and in Fukuoka, Osaka and Nagoya. We went to Nagoya because the Osaka tournament had passed without me realizing that I could pay it a visit. And while I and a German friend called Marc, were in Nagoya we decided to pay the ancient shrines of Ise a visit before returning to Kyoto. Riding on the train and seeing the countryside passing by, I realized that quite a long time had passed since I had seen countryside and real forest. I said we went to visit the shrines, but actually the shrines are not open to public, one can only estimated what they look like from their roofs that tower above the walls that separates visitors from the shrines. I say shrines because there are two shrines, one called the Outer shrine and one called the Inner shrine. The Inner shrine is dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu, from who the Imperial family according to mythology descends. Because of this link with the Imperial family, the Buddist influences on this shrine are far more limited than with any other shrine. The shrines were located in a beautiful natural setting, and for the first time in quite a while I was again astonished by the beauty Japan sometimes has.
The last icon I encountered is in a sense both the peak of my one week vacation in which I finally went to Kamakura and Nikko, as well as the peak of my year in Japan. Together with an enormous group of Japanese and foreign tourist, including my friends, 2 Indian guys and a Swiss girl, we climbed the Mount Fuji. We set out climbing around 10 P.M. and I arrived at the top around 5.30 AM just in time to see the sun peak above the clouds and producing a spectacle of yellow, orange and red colors. I was not quite sure what to aspect, but in the end I really felt like a young child again trying to conquer the mountain. It turned out that unfortunately we had taken the wrong route back and so we ended at a totally different place than from where we started. With the luck one sometimes needs, we were able to be back in Tokyo on time to catch the night bus back to Kyoto. In the bus I also noted that the protective sun cream I had used was not enough and that my face had turned almost the same color as the round circle in the flag of Japan that represents the sun. In my last two weeks I will shun the sun and concentrate in getting all my acquired stuff into boxes that can make a trip over the ocean, the remains of my essay and farewell parties, in which I have to say farewell to this sometimes beautifull land of the rising sun.

Unexplainable Emotions

2006-06-27T07:34:00.000-07:00

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.

Catching Up With The Ever Expanding Flow Of Experiences

2006-06-10T02:52:00.000-07:00

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.

Golden Week

2006-05-27T23:21:00.000-07:00

With a shock I look at the latest date of my blog entry and the actually date, and I realize I have forget to update you on a number of things. First there is the notorious Golden Week, in which the whole of Japan decides to go somewhere or to return back to their birthplace (of that of their (grand) parents). This huge traffic leads to capacity rates of trains for which the Dutch National Railways would do a murder, such as the major JR line between Kyoto and Tokyo had a capacity rate of 160%.
Although Kyoto is reputed for being overtly crowded during Golden Week, due to a number of appointments I decided to stay in Kyoto. But to be honest, I didn`t go in to Kyoto so much during daytime. And no, I did not all of a sudden turn into a Hikikomori. I spend all my nights and mornings around the party area, which is basically 2 rows of streets, packed with bars, disco`s, pub`s, noodle places, snack places (for all those dutchies, these are not the places for the French fries but you can order a tidy bit to eat and pay an enormous amount for it, because the woman behind the counter, is there to talk with you and ease your tension), normal hostess bars and the likes. By daylight the area around Kiyamachi looks kind of rundown, with it`s advertisement for all the fun there is on offer during nighttime. The other area, formerly the second geisha district, called Pontochou, has remained much more of it`s history and looks like you would expect of a former geisha district. Both places lighten up after dark, with the neonlights turned on, and the host, all dressed in oversized suits, hair dyed blonde, and touped up in something which I coined the fluffy style, try to lure single ladies into an appointment. The lady equivalent of the hosts, the hostesses accompanying a severely drunk Japanese businessman as well as the older guys in fronts of the buildings, the Japanese mafia, patronizing the buildings they own, and they are the ones you inquire after certain hosts.
And while the nights were busy drinking and chatting, I also made use of the Golden Week, to visit an amusement park with friends, climb my first mountain (or probably it`s more a hill) and to visit Lake Biwa and a very nice castle town. But it was not all just play and fun, with a professor of a girl in my program we got an introduction to some of the history of Kyoto of which I had never heard of before. I knew that in Kyoto there had been an influx of Koreans, and that there were probably area`s where the so called burakumin ( a group of Japanese being discriminated, usually said because of their decent of people who did jobs considered dirty, such as butchery) lived. We concluded this very interesting day not in a bar, but in a really nice Korean restaurant.

Encounters

2006-04-26T22:33:00.000-07:00

Haus der Begegnung, or in English house of encounters, is the name my international student house carries. As for encounters, it means to come across something you have not come across with before. This name does not only refer to just the encounters with the students and researchers residing in the dormitory, it also implies that the dormitory actually stimulates those kind of encounters. To give this words a concrete meaning, my dormitory has certain institutions to ensure that those encounters take place. One of those is, that our dormitory has so called house parents, a professor and family living in our dormitory, as well as a team made up by the people living in the rooms. I’ve been asked to become the secretary of the team during this spring semester, so this makes me even more active in the activities the dormitory is employing. Because the new school year has started almost the half of the 33 residents of our dormitory is new. And the task of the team is to coordinate that all the chores that have to been done are organized as well as carried out. One of the recurring events of encounter, is a thing called common meal (which is actually not correct English, but it does convey the meaning of eating a meal all together) which takes place every other Friday. And all of the residents have the task to cook one time and to help one time during the semester. But there’s more to be organised such as a seminar, a sports day and a weekend trip.
But the 2 events that have occurred up till now, the first common meal as well as a welcome party were placed into the hands of the new team members. Now was it not organizing those events, but preparing the actual dinner for those. And those having any experience with my methods of cooking (also included those, not having any experience because of fear of my cooking methods) knows that I am the type who looks in the fridge to find out, what is in there and is still eatable, and tries to make something eatable out of it. And here in Japan, the need that I actual cook declined even more, because of wonderful inventions such as onigiri (riceballs), sushi, as well as instant noodles which you can get your hands on 24 hours a day, as well as the numerous small restaurants that offer you a good deal for your money.. Because it was required that I actual would cook I decided to look for recipes on the ever so wonderful internet. Recipes always have a tendency to either include at least one ingredient of which I have never heard of, let alone have any idea where to find it. So I decided to stick to those dishes which fall under the category very easy to make student food i.e. pasta and crepes. With the ingredients were readily available, I knew what to do, the only thing I forgot that preparing dinner for approximately 20 persons takes some more time than for 4 persons.
So there I was, together with 2 friends, at 3 o’clock still baking crepes. But all hardships were forgotten the next day when we sat around the tables, having nice conversations, and I saw all the food that we had prepared disappear into hungry mouths.
Pleased with the success of my pasta during the common meal, I decided to stick to that, as my dishes for the welcome party. Perhaps because of the common meal experiences it was decided that we would cook even more, because more people were expected. The only thing I had forgotten was that more pasta, also meant that I would encounter even more onions and garlic that needed to be peeled and to be sliced into little pieces according to the recipe. And so I spend 5 hours on Saturday cutting onions, garlic, spinach, ham and cooking 4,5 kilo’s of pasta. And finally at the party my encounter with all kinds of foods that I was neither hungry nor wanted to encounter many other people. As always after the party was over a number of people stayed behind drinking and chatting, and with a group we decided we were going to continue the party in a karaoke box. And there I sang all my tiredness of me and luckily I did not encounter somebody who felt that he should expose any critic on my singing abilities (which I admit are fairly limited). Tired but satisfied I went back to my dormitory, and made use of another function, which is not in the name but I always feel is part of all the places I consider my home, namely retreat. Back in my room, made cozy by books, cd’s and some works of art, I felt happily asleep. And for all of you, especially those who I promised I would cook once, I hereby invite you to come over when I’m back and encounter one of my pasta’s.

Home Far From Home

2006-04-13T03:39:00.000-07:00

Back in Kyoto, after spending a very pleasant time in Kagoshima, Nagasaki and Hiroshima, it was snowing. But luckily the weather was no parameter for the time I was going to spend with my parents, who arrived one day after I got back at Kansai Airport.
Although it was very real, even now in hindsight it seemed rather a dreamlike experience that my parents really made it all the way to Japan. I am talking here about my parents who went for more than 20 years in a row to Germany and until than I haven’t been able to find much urge to explore the huge parts of the world where they had never set foot on.
When I was for the first time in Japan it was discouraged by my exchange organization that the ‘real’ parents were going to visit there child because it might harm the integration process of a child into their host family. And it’s true that when I went to my host family in December I felt at home. But at the same time, I feel also at home in my own room here in Kyoto.
Back in the Netherlands, I felt like home when I went back to my parents, but at the same time I feel my room at Leiden is my home.
The transition from one family to another family was a much bigger change then from living in a dormitory in Leiden to living in a dormitory in Kyoto.
Adapted towards living on my own, doing my own things at my own space, my parents came and naturally a kind of family life, how short lived it was, occurred. Of course during the years our ways of living became different, but we very soon adapted and kind of went back to a kind of situation like 3 years ago.
The major change was that because we are in a country, where I speak the language, I know the way, I know the things to do and see, I know what kind of food is available, I was guiding my parents around. So in a sense the parent child relation changed, and I became the one who on the one hand felt responsible for the welfare of my parents, that they were enjoying Japan, that they could understand a little bit of my fascination. On the other hand I am still their child, and they treated me in this way, warning me to dress warmly enough and so on, which is in it’s own respect kind of sweet.
And although the environment might change drastically, and I sometimes to rub to believe that it were really my own parents standing in front of a huge temple, people don’t tend to be so much different even if you haven’t seen them for half a year, one year and even four years.
And so my mum had brought her camera and more than 20 rolls of film to catch everything which caught her attention. And to no great surprise, she was extremely thrilled to be exactly in Japan during the time that the cherry blossoms are in bloom. My personal opinion is that this Japanese obsession with the cherry blossoms is a little bit too much, as is the number of cherry trees. But my mom turned into a faithful follower of the cherry blossom forecast.
And as a thank for the very pleasant time we spend together the page underneath this gives a little peek into our explorations in Kyoto, Nara, Osaka and Himeji. And especially for my mom a picture of her and a very big cherry blossom. (just to make up for the 6 months you have to miss me ;-)

A Peek Into A Short-Lived Family Life

2006-04-11T06:28:00.000-07:00

Dostoievski On The Shore

2006-04-08T21:11:00.000-07:00

With cheeks red of shame, I see that the last entry of my blog is somewhere in February while we now entered April. And one way or another I have to try to bridge the gap, not only to update for those faithful readers, but also for myself to recall my experiences, feelings and thoughts of the last month, which I want to share with you, and not just give a brief account of all the places I have visited. Like many others, I decided that I wanted to flea the cold, and go to the more subtropical Okinawa. Okinawa, advertised as being paradise on Japanese soil, with wonderful weather, great beaches and laid back people. But Okinawa also has a history, which many of the people still carry with them and also is clearly to be seen on the island. I’m talking about the American Occupation. After World War II whole Japan was occupied for almost 7 years, until 1952, but Okinawa stayed under American Occupation until 1974 and a lot of the land is still occupied by military bases.
We stayed in Naha, the major city, which is just like all cities in Japan, a tumbling of buildings in ugly greyish colours. While the main street was bustling with tourism, it became very evident the majority of the people were pretty poor, judging by the houses they were living in. Next to tourism, many are reliant on the American soldiers for their income. Many Okinawans on the one hand want to get rid of the American soldiers because there happened some accidents and also the bases occupy a lot of land and destroy the beaches and natural landscape, and on the other hand they don’t want them to go because then they loose their main source of income.
Looking for paradise beaches, we went to the first beach we saw on the map, and we ended up at a beach of which I still do not know whether it was natural or not, but in the see the Japanese had made a huge fly-over, destroying whatever possible beautiful view we might have had. The weather was still nice but the view was bad, so it was a great moment to indulge me in the book I was carrying for a week around Okinawa, ‘The Idiot’ by Dolstoivski.
This being the first day of our trip to Okinawa, we were sure to find more beaches, and hopefully the one’s with a coral blue sea and sandy beaches. And two days later we decided to give it another try and we took the bus in the direction we were told, and we got out at a place where the beach seemed nice to us. It was a wonderful sight as long as you looked in front of you, to the sea and the beach and not back to the hotel to which the beach seemed to belong. And almost the minute we had changed clothes and laid or self down for a laid back time at the beach, some Japanese youngster came and asked us if we were willing to join them in a game of beach volley. And of course in our sunny mood but not total confident about or once at high school acquired volleyball skills we would pass the test. But or challengers turned out to be as skilled as we, so there was more diving for the ball than anyone being able to return it.
So long Dolstoievski! Although fairly sunburned, tired and with sand in our shoes, this was still not exactly what we came for to Okinawa. We were looking for beaches with on the background nature and as less tourist as possible. Our last resort was a little island in the sea, with only 300 inhabitants. We went there by ferry, and almost the first thing we were confronted with, when we arrived were broken down cars without any number plates, perhaps in some ancient past used to cross over the island, which seemed rather strange to us, because the island was tiny. The beaches were almost deserted, loaded with all kinds of subtropical shells which we of course started gathering. The island inhabitants were mostly elderly people, still tiling their own vegetables. It seemed to me a nice way to spend the time after one’s retirement, although, I could not exact imagine me tiling my vegetables, but I could imagine me reading nice books.
But not before long the sky turned grey, and the rain started pouring out as if to make sure that every living creature would be soaking wet. We did not have a single dry thread on our clothes, and hurried our way back to the ferry to get back to the mainland to have a shower and nice dry clothes. I finally read ‘The Idiot’ not on the shore, but on the 20 hour trip by Ferry which brought us back from Okinawa to Kagoshima. And what has an Idiot got to say about it: Even in paradise it can rain.

The A-Bomb

2006-02-24T06:16:00.000-08:00

The A stands of course for Atomic, but for me the A also stands for the Ambiguity I feel with regards towards the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the representation of history on both the American and Japanese side.
This Tuesday I visited for the second time the Atomic Bomb Museum in Nagasaki. Although I knew what to aspect, I still was blown aback by the pictures of the impact of the bomb on the city, it’s destructing power, the fires that worsened everything after the exploding of the bomb, the survivors, the injuries most likely caused by the radiation.
The museum focuses on the actual bombing and the effect it had on the people. It also has a little section for some of the forgotten victims, the foreign people living in Japan when the atomic bomb was dropped. Especially the fairly large Korean community who under the colonial rule of Japan in Korea had been brought to Japan to work, have been neglected by both the Korean and Japanese government for a long time. Although I can understand that the museum chooses to focus on the actual bombing and the suffering it causes, I do miss the explanation of the historical background of the dropping of the bomb. Because the dropping of the A-bomb is intrinsically linked with Pearl Harbour, the Japanese atrocities committed in Asia during World War II. By neglecting this background it also steps over the question if the dropping bomb was as much a necessity as until now is claimed by the U.S. Government. The museum does give clues that it might not have been as much needed as is claimed. According to an American classmate it is still thought in most High Schools that the dropping of the A-Bomb was necessary to end the war quickly and thereby saving the lives of the soldiers that would be used when the U.S. would do a land invasion, as well as the lives of the people under Japanese occupation, for example working on the Thai-Burma Railroad. There is the conviction that Japan would continue fighting until the bitter end, having the woman and children standing ready with wooden sticks to attack the American soldiers. Another reason is that after the atomic bomb Japan surrendered unconditionally, giving up all it’s colonies, which might not have been case if the atomic bombs had not been dropped. But there are also indications that Japan was on the verge of collapse, being bombed from the air, and virtually being blocked off by a naval blockade. Japan had declined the Potsdam Declaration basically because it asked for unconditionally surrender, and was seeking contact with Russia the only country with which it still had a neutrality pact, to negotiate peace on better terms than unconditionally surrender. Russia declared war with Japan on the same day as the first Atomic bomb was dropped. And according to some the argument for dropping the bomb on Japan, had reasons other than only ending the war quickly, such as paying back Japan for Pearl Harbour, preventing the Russians from occupying Japan, and showing that all the money that had gone to Manhattan Project was not wasted. Unfortunately, the museum also did not provide much information on the reasons for dropping the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki as well as the ultimate surrender by the Japanese.
After the dropping of the A-bomb, the city of Nagasaki focuses on the promoting of peace, Japan got the so called peace constitution, drafted by the U.S. in which Japan was prohibited to have an army. Now more than 50 years later, Japan is the 4th biggest spender on it’s military, although they are still called Self Defence Forces. The ruling party in Japan, the LDP, wants to change article 9, the article in which Japan is denied the right to have an army. One of the main arguments is that Japan wants to be taken serious by other world powers, not only on economic terms but also on military ones. Japan also lives under the threat of possible atomic bombs made in North Korea. And the U.S. are fighting a war against Iraq that they can’t win.
The museum does make you aware of the enormous damage the atomic bomb caused, and that humans should not use this weapon once more against other humans.

Somewhere in between

2006-02-16T02:49:00.000-08:00

There is enough place to park to park my bike on the campus, I can study in the library with all my books spread out, and there are no cues for the cafeteria. My dormitory seems to be deserted. All the signs are obvious, it’s vacation! The first semester (for the Japanese the second and thus last semester of the school year) has finished. Although stating the obvious, it remains remarkable how time has a habit of passing, very very quickly. And leaving me behind in a kind of contemplating mood, thinking about everything that has happened, the things I have done and seen, and the things I’ve learned the last 5 months. In Leiden by now, all the Japanese language training should have come to an end. Until now my program has consisted mostly of Japanese lessons, or lessons in Japanese about subjects related to Japanese culture. And I find it surprising how many kanji (Chinese characters) I still come across that I can’t read. Seeing friends reading books in Japanese without apparently any difficulty, it feels like I still have a long way to go. But there’s no other possibility than try to walk the way so I also bought my share of Japanese books through which I am now plunging my way, with a little help of my friend, the electronic dictionary. On the other hand, I can now understand fairly all the lectures the Japanese teachers give, while being in a Japanese High school I was never really able to figure out what they were talking about. And I am even able to talk with Japanese people about subjects related to more tentative area’s such as politics, so somewhere I must have made some progress. Next semester we will have the opportunity to also take lectures and classes together with the Japanese students in Japanese. And we will also have to write a 25-page essay in Japanese about a freely chosen subject. And almost every single week the subject of this paper changes, depending on which subject has caught my attention. There are so many really interesting things concerning Japan of which I would like to know more that I have more than enough idea’s to produce 5 papers.
Because the real intellectual content of my lectures was not always that high, I have the feeling that I learned most outside school on a whole range of subjects. Not only the process of really living on your own, using daily life Japanese, but also meeting people with interest in subjects I hardly knew anything about such as Kyoto school philosophy, post modernism, theology, the homeless in Japan, have broadened my view on the world but also made it more difficult to find out what the subjects I am really interested in. But I guess that I still have more than enough time to find out what I really want with my life. Or perhaps I am never going to find out and just live from the one day to the other day, enjoying what it brings and just let time do what it has got to do. But for now I am all going to put those thoughts aside and kicking of the vacation with a schooltrip for 3 days to Nagasaki, Shimabara, Unzen and Kumamoto.

Setsubun

2006-02-08T07:28:00.000-08:00

Although Kyoto is still shimmered with cold, some shrines are preparing for the coming spring and the festival that welcomes spring called setsubun on February the 2nd and 3rd. The shrine in the vicinity of Kyoto University, called Yoshida shrine is famous for it’s setsubun. Especially because the performance of the devils and the casting them away with beans is said to be still resembling how it was performed in former times. The devils represent all the evil one accumulated during the year and by ousting it all out, one enters the new year again with a pure heart. Some of my teachers were quite enthusiastic about it and recommended every one of us to go and see it. It was hard to miss, because the road in front of the main entrance where usually some 5 obentou (lunchboxes) sellers stand, was now covered with stands offering all kinds foods to the huge crowd that decided to ignore the rainy snow and climb up the temple to have a look what’s going on. Those stands you can find around any bigger temple and they are always offering the same kind of foods, yakisoba, yakiniku, chocobanana’s, food that should resemble French pancakes. Nice of course, but not very exciting. I must admid that I missed the real performance by the devils so I perhaps missed the real interesting part. Although standing in the row to buy something from of those stands, one devil had a go at me and But I went to the burning of all the omamori that were bought last year and which protecting charm had faded away over the year, making it necessary to buy them anew. The whole inner yard of the temple was cramped with people, and the paper and wood caught surprisingly fast fire although it was still lightly snowing. Although for me the whole festival wasn't as exciting nor really traditional as it was said to be still a huge crowd came to the shrine, even from neighbouring cities just to see the festival. Somehow, I had the feeling I had seen similar things before and I missed a kind of individual flavour to the whole festival. And strangely enough individual flavour is something one comes across quite often, at café’s and bars. One characteristic is that they are almost always very small giving room to only 30 people at most for a bar. But it also gives them a kind of intimacy, as if you know the people who are inside, a kind of living room feel. And not the kind of living room feel many café’s try to embody in their establishment, but really the feeling as if you are in their living room. One of the reasons is that usually the place is connected with the room where the owners live. If you just go through one door, you are in the middle of their lives. A feeling that not only comes over me when visiting a café, but also going into the second-hand bookshops as well as when I am buying fresh vegetables. And sometimes you can see the family sitting in their living room. Because so many establishments give are expressing their owners taste in both interior as well as music, the nightlife is quite differentiated. You can find bars specialized in heavy metal, hard rock of the 70’s, bubbling r&b, tribal techno, roots reggae and dub across the nightlife district. And I hope that with the coming of spring more people decide to turn a space into a nice cafe or bar, hopefully fulling a new spring of individual expression.

Utsubo Park

2006-01-27T07:54:00.000-08:00

This Friday I went with a friend to an exhibition of contemporary German photography at the Museum for Modern Art in Kyoto. The exhibition was called Zwischen Wirklichkeit und Bild: Positionen der Gegenwart. The exhibition is about contemporary German photography from the 1980s to today. Their are pictures byt the leading figures of German photography since the 1970s are Bernd and Hilla Becher, who photograph industrial buildings. They always take black and white pictures of those industrial constructions, like water towers, factory halls and mineshaft, in the same clinical manner: a front and profile angle provide a clear and objective documentation of each structure, the building is placed in the centre of the frame and isolated from its environment. One of the intriguing things is that they take those pictures of those structures and by putting them together all these structures kind of get a personality and one can see the differences in structure although their function stays the same. The other thing that stroke me was the total absent of humans in their pictures, although the buildings are there because of human efforts.
At the same time as I was at the art gallery, my German friends were in Osaka at Utsubo Park shooting material for a documentary we are making about the homeless living in that park. There are 30 homeless living in tents in Utsubo park. Most of the homeless are single males and in their between the 50’s. They got laid off by their companies, usually in construction work, and being unable to pay the rent they end up on the streets. Usually by doing all kinds of petty jobs, including those for the yakuza, they are able to get some money to keep themselves in live and be able to buy the material for building a tent. The estimate is that there are about 10000 homeless people in Osaka and that more than 200 of them die in one year because of starvation or because they freeze to dead. Osaka wants to evict the homeless from the Utsubo park and turn down the tents, because in May there’s going to be held the 'World Rose Convention 2006' and they are afraid that all those blue tents with homeless people in front of them is going to give them a bad image and that it might hurt tourism. The homeless received a official order from the city to leave the park, and as an alternative they are offered a place in a shelter also called "self independent centers". Which sounds as a reasonable alternative, but the trick is that they are expected to have found a job and be able to get back in society in a few months, and thus they have to leave the shelter after a month. Because a great number of the homeless has not had a regular job for almost 10 years, the actual chance of finding work is really limited. Which basically means that they are back on the street again but this time even without a tent.
It’s obvious that the homeless do not want this to happen, so the homeless of Utsubo park filed a law suit against the eviction order of their park from Osaka city. My friends and I have followed the homeless of Utsubo park with a video camera for almost a week. We filmed them at their tents, but also in their actions to call attention of both the public as well as Osaka city for their case. Today it was announced that the homeless have won their lawsuit against the city of Osaka but the question is still whether or not the park is going to be evicted on Monday the 30th.
If buildings are capable of getting personality when grouped together I also hope that the city of Osaka can see those homeless people also being distinct human individuals, who all have their own stories, and all had a live as an ordinary citizen before they were homeless.
And we think it is worth that their sides is also heard, although we know that we also blur the distinction between reality and image by making a documentary about them. But for them it is the hard reality, that they are now facing the fact that one of the most basic needs, a space for living, is going to be destroyed.

Chikushino

2006-01-21T04:24:00.000-08:00

The second part of my winter vacation brought me to the southern part of Japan, back to the island Kyushu. To be more precisely it brought me back to Chikushino-shi, basically a suburb of Fukuoka. I was invited to spend new year with my host family of 4 years ago.
It’s strange to notice that a world that one the one hand was the reality I lived in for one year, but seemed so far when I was in the Netherlands, still existed almost unchanged.
I am always nervous when I see people or places again that I haven’t seen for a long time, but both the persons as well as the environment had hardly changed. And after the first excitement of seeing each other again had faded away, it felt like those 4 years in between had never existed, they kind of faded away, that’s how natural it felt to be back in their family life even it was for only one week. After Tokyo, the speed of life was way more relaxed, I was not there as a tourist but as a guest in a family. Toasting in front of the TV we entered 2006. On January the first we went to Dazaifu Shrine, where we prayed for a good new year and I also bought omamori, a kind of amulets that protect you or enable you to achieve you certain goals. I bought the omamori for good results at school. Also in Dazaifu there had recently opened the 4th national museum of Japan, this being the only one of it’s kind in Kyushu. And because it was located in Kyushu, one of the focus points is international relations, because the ports through which those relations took place were mainly located on Kyushu. So they concentrated on the relations with Korea and China but also with the Netherlands. With my hostfamily I went to a special exhibit of Chinese treasures, and later returned to see the permanent exhibition. At the station there was also a banner for the Olympic Games of 2016, for which Dazaifu was competing. So although by now means as sparkling, one can see that Dazaifu is trying to make her way up in gaining fame as a city. By the kind of lucky coincidence what you sometimes encounter, 3 friends of mine who study in Nagasaki were at the same time in Fukuoka. And we were all able to watch one intriguing fact of consumerism in Japan. The winter sale start on the 3th of January and already early in the morning people are cueing in order to be able to get a fukubukuro, a bag full of brand clothes. The trick is that you pay far less than what is the actual amount of money for the clothes, but on the other hand you don’t know what is inside the bag. The shopping area was extremely crowded on this holiday, loads of women carrying bags and bored-looking husbands and boyfriends dragging behind. Later it appeared on the news that people almost fought about the bags, and used all parts of their bodies in order to be able to buy such a bag. Without having bought any clothes I returned back to Kyoto. But my heart felt as if I had done the best buy in the world, because my host family had told me that as long as I was in Japan I could regard their home as my home, and I was always welcome. And that’s something more worth to me than all the money spend on clothes on the 3rd of January.

Tokyo

2006-01-17T04:22:00.000-08:00

I am on the 30th floor of a building in Shinjuku and looking over a tremendous number of lights, white and fleshy, yellowish, and red flickering ones as far as my eyes can reach.
It’s incredible that there are so many people on the move, the lights of cars in a line is like an never-ending snake crawling to Tokyo, sometimes crossed by trains full of commuters going home. But still I am here, together with Wataru, a Japanese friend but currently studying in the Netherlands, who was here to visit his Italian girlfriend Adriana, and a good German friend of mine, Constantin. It seems a little miracle that we were able to meet each other in this tremendous city. Just a brief meeting with people from all over the world, a moment in time, all gazing over the vastness of Tokyo. How to describe my experience Tokyo, a city with at least 12 million inhabitants, numerous parts with all their own distinct character. I and my travel mate Constantin decided to try to go all kinds of different parts to get a kind of kaleidoscopic experience of Tokyo, both covering the tourist as well as the back alleys. The rustic feel surrounding the Imperial Palace, with all kinds of joggers passing us by, all neatly dressed in sporting gear, taking a break from life. But also the flashing lights, the crowd, the constant movement of Shinjuku, and the fashionable youth in Harajuku, standing at the corners, some singing songs, others doing tricks on their skateboards. The cramped subway, people who almost loose their shoes in their desperate try to catch a train, although 5 minutes later the next one will come, equally crowded. My favourite district, the book district, with neatly organized bookshops, quite different from those in Kyoto where the books usually are piled up everywhere at the shop and you have to be really careful not to hit anything. And if you continue walking you’ll end up in the heaven for anything electric, Akihabara. And of course I had to visit the district which at first appeared at my study books, Ueno. Around Ueno Station there have emerged all kind of little shops selling a number of different kind of goods, people are bargaining, people are screaming for attention. It has the feel and air of a market place, which stands in contrast with the usually shops that sell brand names. And especially in Ginza, where one can find most of the flag stores of all the European and American brands that the Japanese are so fond of. A visit to the famous Yasukuni-shrine with it’s infamous museum, which has really a lot of information but sometimes not exactly the information I learned in my history classes. At 5 o’clock, after a 2 hour nap, back on my feet to visit the fish market in Tsukuji, all different kind of fish, which I could not discern, but they were all going to be sliced to be pieces to be consumed. And Constantin and I did or share, to eat fresh sashimi at a little restaurant in the neighbourhood. But not only our stomach had to be filled, but also our cultural appetite. After seeing Noh in Kyoto we also wanted to experience Kabuki, and we watched a dance and a play. It was nice that one could see the elements similar to Noh but also the differences, it does not have the monumentum of Noh, but has an attraction of it’s own, by it’s fast dances, which clearly show the actor’s ability.
And before I knew I was back in the bus, gazing out the window to this enormous city, totally worn out but still feeling the adrenaline of all the different experiences running through my veins.

On The Move

2005-12-19T01:56:00.000-08:00

Almost three months have passed, I arrived in Kyoto when it was wonderful weather and could even wear a t-shirt, now the colours of the leaves have changed and they have fallen down. By now they are covered with the first layer of snow.
On Friday I went to the national museum and saw a wide variety of Japanese art. One of the interesting aspects of Japanese art is that you can see by what it is influenced. The major cultural influence is off course China but you can also see traces of Indian influences and even Greek which where transmitted through China. It’s remarkable how far some of those influences were able to travel. Equally remarkable is to me how small the world sometimes seems and how easy everything and everybody moves around.
I met loads of new people from all over the globe, ranging from Mongolia to Brazil and from Finland to Israel. I had encounters with Dutch people who I had not seen in years.
And if you want you can drink Russian tea, have Italian pasta, Indian curry, German cookies and so on. During the winter vacation I am also on the move I will leave Kyoto for the big metropolis Tokyo, to experience what life is in that ever pulsating city. And then I will go to Fukuoka to celebrate New Year with my host family. So you won’t be bothered by me until we are living in 2006 so I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
And especially Janske who is going to join the stream of people on the move, enjoy the ride and have a wonderful time in Italy!

Sint Nicolaas Surprise

2005-12-14T08:05:00.000-08:00

On Saturday the 3th we had an excursion to Korean town in Oosaka, where the so called Zainichi 在日, people of Korean descend live. Earlier I already wrote something on the legal status of being a foreigner in Japan. One of the rules is that as long as you don’t have any Japanese blood in your veins you are not able to become Japanese. And this exactly the point where the problems for the Zainichi start. They are of Korean descend, but most of them are the second of third generation, and are brought up in Japan, and also speak better Japanese than Korean. And only because they don't have Japanese blood so they are regarded as foreingers. This not only means that they have to carry a alien registration with them allmost all their life, but it also causes a lot of questions about their identity. On the one hand they are foreigners in Japan, but on the other hand they are not Koreans either. When they visit Korea they are seen as tourist. The only form of identity that is left for them is that of Zainichi, descendants of Koreans living in Japan. According to the Japanese teacher, many of the Zainichi still suffer from discrimination, partly because of their status as Zainichi but also partly because of their status as being a foreigner. One specific form of discrimination is that Japanese parents don’t want their son or daughter to marry with a Zainichi, which results in the fact that they Japanese and Zainich do not intermingle and thus the Koreans intermarry and their children stay foreigners.
I was also going to change of identity and I was going to become the representation of a foreigner in the Netherlands: I was going to be Zwarte Piet (Black Peter) on Sunday. I was asked to become him, for the Dutch Japan Association of the Kansai Area. I met the guy who was Sint Nicolaas before he changed his identity into Sint Nicolaas when I was going to change into Zwarte Piet,and once more the fact that the world is extremely small was underlined. I had met this Sint Nicolaas before, to be more exactly he had lived in the village next to Asten, the village where I have spend my youth. I came in contact with him and his Japanese wife because I was featured in one of the local newspapers and they gave me a lot of useful information before I went for the first time to Japan.
As tradition requires Sint Nicolaas and his companions arrived in the harbour by ship, greeted by the children singing Sint Nicolaas songs. Zwarte Piet was generous in throwing candy in to the crowd, but they also could not resist the temptation to try what kind of effect it had on the Japanese. Some thought we were Santa Claus who lost the way and arrived to early in Japan and others just stared at us in amazement, but all were grateful to receive some candy. Here as well as in the Netherlands, children were afraid of Sint Nicolaas and Zwarte Piet, but they had to face them anyway in order to receive a small present. This Zwarte Piet was glowing to see such a familiar scene at such a strange setting, but still it had something completely Dutch. And I realized that I was more Dutch than I had ever though, and that it was strange that one had come all the way to Japan to realise it.
And I hope that the Zainichi also have a kind of proud of being in Japan as a Korean descendant as long as they are not incorporated in Japanese society.

Noh

2005-12-05T06:37:00.000-08:00

Although not as abundantly as temples and shrines there are still a lot of Noh theatres scattered around in Kyoto, an indication for it’s continuing importance as an art form.
Noh is a chanted drama that evolved in the 14th century out of various popular and aristocratic art forms. The subject of a Noh play is usually taken from a famous historical story or classical Japanese literature. Somewhere in November the Noh-club of Kyoto University organized a play, which attracted a lot of foreigners who seized the opportunity to see Noh for free. The performance of the Noh club can faithfully be described as “contemporary” Noh because besides the male Japanese actors, who are the only actors in traditional Noh, there were also actresses and a foreign student. The fact that the women roles were now really performed by women and not by men gave a different flavour to the Noh-play. The responses of the audience on the play differed, some left the theatre early, some felt asleep during the whole play, some fought their sleep and there were people who tried to get as much out it as possible.
Although I was one of those slackers who bravely fought against the comfortable feeling of dozing off I was still impressed of their performance and thus wanted to go with some friends to a professional play. The choice was a joint performance by the Kanze and Kongou schools, 2 of the 5 major Noh schools. The total performance consisted out of 6 dances, 2 Noh plays and a Kyogen play. The dance is one of the important elements in a Noh-play, and the dances are the main dances of certain plays which are performed solely derived from their context. The actors don't wear their costumes and masks and their performance is not accompanied by a choir, only by instruments.. The 2 Noh plays are the major plays while the Kyogen is a comic interlude inbetween. This time we were one of the few foreigners and we were definitely young in a audience which mostly consisted out of people in the autumn of their years.
Again seated in a too comfortable chair, my attention was this time whole heartily drawn towards the stage where people in beautiful costumes pronounced in a slowed down speed pre-modern Japanese, making it fairly impossible to follow what they are saying if you do not have it written down in modern Japanese. But because of this somehow twisted way of speaking and singing in one, they are able to do give their language a deeper layer, one with emotion. I was marvelled by the ability these actors have to express emotion with their emotionless masks. With a lack of attributes the actors still fill whole the stage with their presence and take you with them to the stories that they are representing, although not in a real realistic sense. The actors are accompanied by traditional Japanese instrument and by a choir, that not only follows the actors movements but is also an indicator for the events that are going to happy. They are really important in creating a special kind of atmosphere in the theatre.
From the beginning being in a Noh-theatre feels different from being in a normal theatre, because of it’s stage, that looks like a temple under a starry night. And as public you are part of the environment in which the play takes part. The Kyogen is a humorous play that is based on the power of exaggeration and repeating. The physical part of the jokes I could understand but unfortunately a number of playful jokes with the language didn’t get through. Te dances were in the student play one of the most uninterested parts, in which the majority of the people indulged in other businesses, they made the strongest impression on me this time. The actors this time being without mask still hold their head in such a way that it looks like a mask and still they were able to transmit emotions, at least to me. While normally seldom stirred by a dance, two of the six dances made a real impression on me in the sense that I can still see parts of them if I think of them and close my eyes.
And thus in some strange way Noh and especially it’s dances have captured a part of my heart.

Demo

2005-11-22T23:56:00.000-08:00

The president of the United States of America, George W. Bush, visited Kyoto November the 15th and the 16th. As the first guest ever he stayed in the Imperial Court Guesthouse.
In advance of this visit, the surroundings of the Imperial Palace have been stacked with policemen in order to prevent a possible terrorist attack. In their risk calculations they put highest priority on foreigners. So when I was biking towards class I was stopped by a policemen under the guise that he wanted to check whether or not my bike was stolen and therefore he had to call another policemen to tell him the number of my bike.
At that time I just accepted it as one of the strange things that can happen to you, but now I realise it was out of possible terrorist attack considerations. At the university campus a very big cardboard, announcing that there was going to be a demonstration against Bush, greeted me at the front gate. Being always in a hurry to be on time in class, I never really read what it was saying. But one of my friends did read it and he told us that on Tuesday there was going to be a demonstration. 7 people including me were interested in going and to have a look what Japanese demonstrations were like. We would meet each other at the campus at 7 o’clock and than join the campus. At 7 o’clock we were there, but no one else. We figured out that my friend also did not look that well on the cardboard and that we had to go to a different place. So we hiked downtown and there we heard and later also saw the demonstrators and we joined them for the last 200 meters of the demonstration, which was crossing the street and ascending some chairs to end at a road for pedestrians, which runs next to the main river of Kyoto, the Kamogawa. There I got the chance to have a better look at my fellow demonstrators and to my surprise I saw lots of elder women and men but almost no students while the demonstration was organized by students of Kyoto University. Moreover most of them were wearing both sunglasses as a head and some even had a scarf in front of their mouth so that they were unrecognisable. When we asked why they demonstrated in this outfit they pointed at the people of the bridge, who were also wearing the same kind of outfit, and explained that they were the police, who were taking pictures of the demonstrators. These pictures would be distributed among the major Japanese companies and the demonstrators could not get a job. This also explained at least partly the very few demonstrators, people that might be interested in going refrained from it out of fear of the consequences. Another reason was that apparently young Japanese did not have a real interest in politics, they don’t really care by whom they are ruled.
I was shocked by this curtailing of the democratic right of demonstrating and freedom of expression. It limits the way in which people can express an opinion that differs from the opinion of the government. And it feels like it is a small step from a government that limits your freedom of expression to a government that subscribes what you should think. So I decided to go to the second demonstrating on Wednesday, this time also wearing a hat and a scarf. Again some 80 people gathered and under the escort of 700 policemen we went on our march around the Imperial Palace. I am afraid that Bush did not even hear us, but I think it is a good thing to raise your voice in an environment were they try to stop you from expressing your opinion.

In the world of giants.

2005-11-16T07:52:00.000-08:00

This weekend I went on a trip to Tenri and Nara together with my fellow students of Japanese religions. Tenri is a Japanese city named after the religion that has it origin there, Tenri-kyo. And more than 50 percent of the people that live in Tenri are believers of Tenri-kyo and you notice this immediately because they all were clothes on which the name Tenri-kyo is written. Tenri-kyo is the oldest of the so called new religions of Japan.It was founded by a female peasant, Nakayama Miki, who underwent a revelatory experience in 1838. Her followers refer to her as Oyasama (lit. Honoured Parent) from this date onwards. We went to their Head Quarters, which an enormous temple-complex in the middle of the city. The main shrine complex in Tenri centres around the Jiba, which is believed to be the central point from where human life stems from. One of the interesting aspects is that the Jiba can be worshipped from all sides, it literally is the centre of devotion. The whole structure resembled a really great Buddhist temple, it was really massive and it even had a kind of ancient feeling hanging around it, while it actually isn’t that old.
The focus of the Tenri religion is to attain yoki yusan, the 'joyous life', on Earth through charity and abstention from greed, a self-serving life, hatred, anger and arrogance.
One of the other characteristics that stands out is that in Tenri one regards the human body as a thing which is borrowed from God (Oyagami) while our minds are our own. Because of the fact that our body isn’t our own we have certain duties towards the God, namely to live a joyous life and also to bring joy to those around us. We were shown around and later also got a lecture about the history and teachings. There were also students of the Tenri-University and we could ask each other questions about our religious beliefs. Afterwards we went together for dinner and then we bought some beers and shoushu (strong Japanese liquor) to continue our conversation in a more relaxed way. Around 12 o’clock some were getting sleepy while others were getting hungry and although I didn’t fell in one of the categories, I went out with the people who wanted to eat the famous Tenri-ramen. In the Ramen-shop we got the luminous idea to see another side of our Japanese friends by going to karaoke. First, we settled for 1,5 hours of singing but we were enjoying ourselves so much that we went on and on and on. One by one the Japanese left us, the crazy foreigners singing rock songs. At 5 o’clock we got kicked out of our box and after walking back to the dormitory we could enjoy a half hour rest because at 6 o’clock we had to be awake again in order to go to the Tenri morning service. Kind of dazed and still under influence we went into the cold morning and saw that at 6.30 the whole temple was filled with people in order to do the morning service. I tried to follow them in doing their service, which consist of a practice which is called te-odori, the hand dance. It looks like a kind of sign language which they perform, while they at the same time are saying prayers.
After going to their museum, we took the train to Nara, the first real capital of Japan. Autumn had coloured the whole city in various kinds of red an yellow colours. Moving along old-fashioned roof-covered shopping streets we went up to go to Todai-ji, presumably the biggest wooden structure in the world. I have to rely on the same adverbs I have used before to describe it: it’s huge, enormous and massive. You feel so little in the presence of this enormous construction build by the same small humans like you. And than to realize that probably the present building is only 2/3 in size of the original one. The building is so massive because it contains a Buddha of gigantic stature, almost 15 meters tall. It’s not exactly the original figure because in the ninth century an earthquake knocked over his head and both in 1180 as well as in 1567 his right hand was melted in a fire. I have been before to Nara but still I was gripped by the enormousness of both the Buddha and the temple and my lack of sleep only contributed to the feeling as if I was walking in a place build for giants. In this state of being half-awake we went to other temples in the neighbourhood before we arrived at 5 o’clock at an Anglican church, with the appearance of a Buddhist temple. And although you would think that it is strange that a western church has such a Japanese appearance it made absolute sense. Of all the buildings we had been to during the last two days, this definitely had the most religious feel attached to it. Perhaps because this was a human size church, not one for God or for giants.

A Japanese Heart

2005-11-09T05:55:00.000-08:00

In a previous post I talked about my unpleasant encounter with a banana-pizza, a foreign dish turned upside down into something to suit the taste of the Japanese (and perhaps also curious foreign visitors). Until now I’ve kept my mouth shut about what I consider to be the worst smelling and tasting thing that you can come across in Japanese cuisine, natto. To get the image right, the English translation is fermented soy beans. In spite of the obvious drawbacks, like having a bad smell, the Japanese are generally fond of this thing which they put on their rice and spaghetti. And most foreigners can’t stand the smell let alone the taste.
During a wonderful BBQ I told a Japanese friend that I couldn’t bear eating natto which made him exclaim that it was really delicious and that it was a shame that I couldn’t appreciate it.
If I didn’t like natto I would never be able to have a Japanese heart. I told him I was not really in need of a second heart and would be quite happy with the one I have.
But it made me think back of my days in Fukuoka when I wished that I could blend in some more with the Japanese, not always being the foreigner. Of course classmates and my host family saw me in a different perspective than just a foreigner, but still that’s what you always were. In Kyoto there are so many foreigners that you more easily blend in the street life.
But for long-time residents the question of the Japanese heart or to be more specific the Japanese nationality still remains. No matter how long you live in Japan you are not able to get the Japanese citizenship and not able to vote in the elections. You always stay registered on your Alien Registration Card. The question becomes even more penile for children born out of marriages of mixed nationalities. Before reaching the age of 22 they have to decide whether or not they want to have the Japanese nationality or not. They have to make a choice between being Japanese or being the other nationality. There’s no middle road, you are not able to have two passports.
When I got home from the BBQ a package from the Netherlands had arrived and Saint Nicolas (Sinterklaas) had brought me loads of Dutch candy. The good old man was kind of early but he surely did make my Dutch heart jump up and down.

Value Creation Society

2005-11-06T16:52:00.000-08:00

As previously stated the image of Japan you have depends on the things you see or are willing to see in Japan. And of course in which area you interest lay. Because I am following some courses on Japanese religion it is not really surprising that I have some opportunities to visit religious institutions. As part of our study program we went to Soka Gakkai, one of the biggest “new” religions in Japan. We already had some lectures on other “new” religions (generally speaking the religions that originated from 1868 and later) but not yet on Soka Gakkai . Our teacher wanted us to go there without to much previous knowledge so that we first had our own impression before it was coloured in by him or by the media.
So here I go: Their headquarters/main building was just a big block in Osaka. It was not really pompous, but it didn’t look like a religious institution either. Inside, we first entered a hall which looked to me as a museum where they kept all the prices. It had awards, and big pictures of the handing over of doctorates to the present president of Soka Gakkai International, Daisaku Ikeda. There was nothing in the building that reminded me of the Buddhist background of Soka Gakkai. We were directed towards another smaller room, there our delegation was placed opposite of the delegation of Soka Gakkai, all men and everybody was wearing black suits.
We started off with an introduction of Buddhism and the place of Soka Gakkai in Buddhism.
Soka Gakkai belongs to the group of Nichiren Buddhism in Japan. Nichiren was a thirteen century Buddhist monk. And he discovered the "ultimate truth" in the Lotus Sutra, a Buddhist scripture. The two main points he found in this sutra are: All individuals are manifestations of Buddha nature. And all individuals can achieve Buddha hood at any time. After this general introduction we could ask questions. What I found remarkable there was how sure they were about their beliefs, our questions didn’t cause any doubt, and their frequent quotations of the president of Soka Gakkai, Daisuke Ikeda.
I asked was why they don’t teach any religion in any of their elementary, high schools and university. They seemed to be proud about it and stressed various times that didn’t have any religious classes. Instead they try to incorporate the Soka Gakkai values in the whole school curriculum. They told me that it was because of the indoctrinating religious teaching about so called State Shintoism in the period before World War II, which is said to be partially responsible for the behaviour of the Japanese during WWII. I was surprised because I would thing you could also have religious classes without solely focussing on one religion, but showing that there are more religious views in the world. Than I asked if they could elaborate some more on the values they were trying to teach, because until that moment what they told me is that peace, culture and education were the things they promoted. Although of course this is a very nice position, I think it is not something that would be disputed by other religious groups or secular people. But unfortunately they couldn’t explain to me how they gave this hands and feet, except for the fact that their leader Ikeda, had wrote a number of interesting books in cooperation with international scholars about this kind of topics.
The basic practice of Soka Gakkai they told me is the daily chanting of "Nam-myoho-renge-kyo" and reciting Gongyo (Expedient Means Chapter and Life Span Chapter of the Lotus Sutra, which takes about 5 minutes to recite). Most important in this study are the collected writings of Nichiren. And now comes the crucial point of Soka Gakkai: it’s followers believe that through chanting one becomes energized and refreshed, both spiritually and mentally, and most important, more prosperous. So by chanting you can help to improve you financial position, which is a great impetus for people to try the chanting.
After the meeting we moved on to the Soka Gakkai Museum, which was not so much a museum about the history of Soka Gakkai in the Kansai region but it mostly focussed on the visits of president Ikeda to the Kansai area. So my impression was that there was a great focus on their spiritual leader, even surpassing the teachings of the Buddhist monk Nichiren who is said to be the founding stone of Soka Gakkai.

More than words...

2005-10-30T06:37:00.000-08:00

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

2005-10-22T19:27:00.000-07:00

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

2005-10-15T23:57:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-10-07T20:14:00.000-07:00

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

2005-10-06T05:52:00.000-07:00

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……

Reprise

2005-09-26T18:39:00.000-07:00

I’m going back to Japan!
Although I’ve spend almost one year in Japan during my high school period it still feel very odd to realize that I’m again going to the other side of the world.
Things have changed overtime.
The first time I was absolutely blank, I had not a clue about what to expect, what Japan would look like, how the people were and I couldn’t tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese.
I had the thriving need to get away and experience something different, adventurous far away from home. It was kind of by coincendence that I ended up being in Japan.
Because I did not expect much, because I couldn’t imagine how everything would be, I got far more than I could ever had dreamed of.
This time everything is more complex. There’s no longer the Sturm und Drang to see and conquer the world and get away from my old, known, enviroment.
This time I'm going to Japan because I want to go to Japan and learn more of the language and experience the culture in all its facets.
But at the same time I’m much more aware of what I leave behind in the Netherlands.
But there's still the same feeling of enthusiasm and curiosity about what I will find in Japan. I’m going to a new city, going to meet all kinds of students from all over the world, experience a different kind of Japanese.
But first I’ve got to say goodbye to everybody and allthough it’s the second time I’m experiencing this, it’s still far from easy.