Friday, May 23, 2003
A lazy day since I still haven't made it out of the house. Resting, chatting, checking email and working on html page for JBoss. When I go abroad, I usually feel pressured to use my time wisely, to always be out there exploring and talking to people and seeing different things. At this stage, I'm a little museum-d out and getting over the "Lonely-Planet" impulse to want to do every cultural thing on the list to feel I've fully experienced the place. But I am painfully conscious of the fact that while 6 weeks would be long as a tourist, it is a painfully short time to study the culture and attempt to get a grasp on the language (ha!). I still have a funny feeling in my mouth when speaking English--too bad I can't just select a menu item to pick the Japanese-language option and automatically have whatever I say come out in Japanese. I'm listening to Berlitz tapes on the train, but it's going to take a while to sink in.
Yesterday was a very full day. After class we went to the Edo Museum and Sumo Tournament. The Edo Museum initially didn't seem too interesting, but I got more into the modern part of the musem. First, it mentioned how Admiral Perry and Harris came to Japan and forced Japan to sign these treaties, making it sound like America was strong-arming to get what it wanted (that hasn't really changed!). I vaguely remember Admiral Perry from school but we never really learned about the full chain of events and reaction in both the U.S. and Japan in the history books.
There was also an extensive section on World War II. It glossed over the causes of the war, not mentioning Pearl Harbor at all and briefly mentioning the Manchurian Incident and establishment of Manchuku in NE China. Maybe Japanese people would automatically know what these were so they thought it wasn't necessary to stress that point. The main focus seemed to be how everyday people in Tokyo were affected by the war, mainly suffering because of the incendiary bombs of the Americans. It stressed how many civilian people died and much of Tokyo was destroyed in these air raids. It mentioned the capture(?) of Guam and Saipan as making these raids possible, something I was ignorant about since these two territories are never mentioned at all in school and I only recently learned Saipan even existed while I was in Korea. The exhibit also talked about the aftermath once McArthur came and pushed reforms on the Japanese government. "Democratic" reforms apparently included a press code prohibiting criticism of occupation policies and regulations.
I was very torn by this exhibit, especially in light of the recent war in Iraq. One aspect is what exhibit said: "The media caused military craze among people through enthusiastic reports of news and heroic aspect of soldiers in battle" which is exactly what happened during the war here. How much did Japanese or Americans really know about what was going on? Did they feel just as powerless as I do to change things or did they have blind faith in their leaders to do what was right for them? I think that WWII was different with more direct threats as shown by kamikaze pilots and Pearl Harbor. Watching "Paradise Road" before I left and seeing the National Museum in Korea, which showed how the Japanese used Koreans as sex slaves and forced labor during the war, left a totally different impression from the one I received in this museum. The aftermath of the Iraq war where America tries to change countries into its own image and profit as much as possible in its rebuilding seemed to be what happened in Japan as well, though they ended up keeping the emperor.
In contrast, sumo was not nearly as heavy fare. I was surprised at how noisy the tournament was with people yelling out things and cheering. I had read that Japanese are pretty quiet and controlled at sports events, but this crowd was definitely enthusiastic. There were several really good bouts that lasted beyond 5 seconds, two of which resulted in the guy falling backwards into the audience, nearly squishing the other sumo and some guys in suits in the second row(that would be a horrible way to die!). At the end, the winner got a gold bow-shaped object that he twirled around like a baton. I met a Mexican girl who was with a very international group of Rotary exchange students. Since she's been here for 8 months, she knew the sumo wrestlers and was a big fan of the Hawaiian guy who was not competing because of injuries. This was the first time in a while she had spoken Spanish since she uses English to communicate with the rest of the group and has been learning Japanese in school. She mentioned the difficulty of being Latina here because the culture was colder. According to her, the Nordic students had a much easier time since they were used to being from a "cold" culture.
The day is more than half over so I should try to wrap this up. A few scenes I want to record before I forget:
Monday when I was with the group from Temple, Kyle took us to this skyscraper to see the sunset. It was taking a while so people sat down, some spreading out on the floor to take a nap. A police man came and approached Kyle exchanging words with him. I couldn't understand anything but it seemed like the police wanted us to leave and Kyle seemed to be talking back to him almost cheekily. When the police left, it turned out that we just had to stand up but could stay there. Kyle called it a "Japanese moment" since the police said we had to get up so as not to disturb people but Kyle was saying that noone else was around. Seeing how we were a bunch of somewhat shabby looking students that were spread out every which way, I would take the Japanese view on this though. I was a little surprised to see Kyle talk back the way he did--would he have dared try that with a police officer back home who wasn't as polite as the one here?
That evening, my Japanese mom (hence forth J-mom) mentioned she had lost her wallet so was very worried. It contained her driver's license, insurance card, and identification card. Even though she was born and raised in Japan, since her parents are Korean she is still Korean. When she married a Japanese man, she was going to try to get her Japanese citizenship but was frustrated by the thick stack of paperwork she would have had to fill out and the 5-6 years she would have to wait. Her two kids are Japanese because of their father but she must still carry her alien registration card. I didn't quite understand the story of how her parents came to Japan. I think it was during the time of Japanese occupation of Korea but think it was more of a finding work issue than the forced relocation of that timeframe. I will have to interview her more later.
The next day, I found myself hunting for my deodorant. I am very conscious of sweating when being in such contact on the train and my J-mom confirmed it--they think we smell bad. Oh well. On a related topic, I saw a commercial with several attractive women dancing to music and making sure to raise their arms to show their bareness. The ad was for a razor for women and seemed to reflect what we were talking about class about media reinforcing cultural norms. Certainly it is not that clearcut in the U.S. since I was not a major reader of teen magazines. I think I've seen several commercials for shaving legs, but never for shaving armpits, something that I was just told by my mother to do.
I met a Brazillian girl in the student lounge. She is a regular student at TUJ and has been in Japan for a while since her parents are businesspeople, but was quite nonchalant about not understanding Japanese at all, saying it wasn't necessary in Tokyo. I was a little taken aback by this attitude--it's one thing when you're old or poor and struggling as with some of the immigrant community in the U.S. But if you're young, educated, well off, and living here for the forseeable future, what is your excuse? Why wouldn't you want that extra connection with people?
I asked her about the Brazillian community here since I heard there was quite a lot of Japanese that went to Brazil and then came back. I was considering this as a possible sub-research topic but when I went online I discovered at least 5 books written on the subject in the fast few years so think it's probably already been done enough. Interestingly enough, I couldn't find anything on the whole Western man/Asian women couples phenomena which I was also thinking about as a possible subtopic. Most books on interracial relationships in the U.S. focus on black-white relationships and trying to search in Google brings up all these personals sites.
I still hope to focus on usability and mobile technology/SMS issues in Japan, although I am working on how I will get my data. I was hoping to hook up with this keitai research group at a local university, but they only meet once a week and it couldn't be arranged this week. I also contacted a professor who has done talks for CHI so hopefully I will be able to meet with him next week as well.
Yesterday was a very full day. After class we went to the Edo Museum and Sumo Tournament. The Edo Museum initially didn't seem too interesting, but I got more into the modern part of the musem. First, it mentioned how Admiral Perry and Harris came to Japan and forced Japan to sign these treaties, making it sound like America was strong-arming to get what it wanted (that hasn't really changed!). I vaguely remember Admiral Perry from school but we never really learned about the full chain of events and reaction in both the U.S. and Japan in the history books.
There was also an extensive section on World War II. It glossed over the causes of the war, not mentioning Pearl Harbor at all and briefly mentioning the Manchurian Incident and establishment of Manchuku in NE China. Maybe Japanese people would automatically know what these were so they thought it wasn't necessary to stress that point. The main focus seemed to be how everyday people in Tokyo were affected by the war, mainly suffering because of the incendiary bombs of the Americans. It stressed how many civilian people died and much of Tokyo was destroyed in these air raids. It mentioned the capture(?) of Guam and Saipan as making these raids possible, something I was ignorant about since these two territories are never mentioned at all in school and I only recently learned Saipan even existed while I was in Korea. The exhibit also talked about the aftermath once McArthur came and pushed reforms on the Japanese government. "Democratic" reforms apparently included a press code prohibiting criticism of occupation policies and regulations.
I was very torn by this exhibit, especially in light of the recent war in Iraq. One aspect is what exhibit said: "The media caused military craze among people through enthusiastic reports of news and heroic aspect of soldiers in battle" which is exactly what happened during the war here. How much did Japanese or Americans really know about what was going on? Did they feel just as powerless as I do to change things or did they have blind faith in their leaders to do what was right for them? I think that WWII was different with more direct threats as shown by kamikaze pilots and Pearl Harbor. Watching "Paradise Road" before I left and seeing the National Museum in Korea, which showed how the Japanese used Koreans as sex slaves and forced labor during the war, left a totally different impression from the one I received in this museum. The aftermath of the Iraq war where America tries to change countries into its own image and profit as much as possible in its rebuilding seemed to be what happened in Japan as well, though they ended up keeping the emperor.
In contrast, sumo was not nearly as heavy fare. I was surprised at how noisy the tournament was with people yelling out things and cheering. I had read that Japanese are pretty quiet and controlled at sports events, but this crowd was definitely enthusiastic. There were several really good bouts that lasted beyond 5 seconds, two of which resulted in the guy falling backwards into the audience, nearly squishing the other sumo and some guys in suits in the second row(that would be a horrible way to die!). At the end, the winner got a gold bow-shaped object that he twirled around like a baton. I met a Mexican girl who was with a very international group of Rotary exchange students. Since she's been here for 8 months, she knew the sumo wrestlers and was a big fan of the Hawaiian guy who was not competing because of injuries. This was the first time in a while she had spoken Spanish since she uses English to communicate with the rest of the group and has been learning Japanese in school. She mentioned the difficulty of being Latina here because the culture was colder. According to her, the Nordic students had a much easier time since they were used to being from a "cold" culture.
The day is more than half over so I should try to wrap this up. A few scenes I want to record before I forget:
Monday when I was with the group from Temple, Kyle took us to this skyscraper to see the sunset. It was taking a while so people sat down, some spreading out on the floor to take a nap. A police man came and approached Kyle exchanging words with him. I couldn't understand anything but it seemed like the police wanted us to leave and Kyle seemed to be talking back to him almost cheekily. When the police left, it turned out that we just had to stand up but could stay there. Kyle called it a "Japanese moment" since the police said we had to get up so as not to disturb people but Kyle was saying that noone else was around. Seeing how we were a bunch of somewhat shabby looking students that were spread out every which way, I would take the Japanese view on this though. I was a little surprised to see Kyle talk back the way he did--would he have dared try that with a police officer back home who wasn't as polite as the one here?
That evening, my Japanese mom (hence forth J-mom) mentioned she had lost her wallet so was very worried. It contained her driver's license, insurance card, and identification card. Even though she was born and raised in Japan, since her parents are Korean she is still Korean. When she married a Japanese man, she was going to try to get her Japanese citizenship but was frustrated by the thick stack of paperwork she would have had to fill out and the 5-6 years she would have to wait. Her two kids are Japanese because of their father but she must still carry her alien registration card. I didn't quite understand the story of how her parents came to Japan. I think it was during the time of Japanese occupation of Korea but think it was more of a finding work issue than the forced relocation of that timeframe. I will have to interview her more later.
The next day, I found myself hunting for my deodorant. I am very conscious of sweating when being in such contact on the train and my J-mom confirmed it--they think we smell bad. Oh well. On a related topic, I saw a commercial with several attractive women dancing to music and making sure to raise their arms to show their bareness. The ad was for a razor for women and seemed to reflect what we were talking about class about media reinforcing cultural norms. Certainly it is not that clearcut in the U.S. since I was not a major reader of teen magazines. I think I've seen several commercials for shaving legs, but never for shaving armpits, something that I was just told by my mother to do.
I met a Brazillian girl in the student lounge. She is a regular student at TUJ and has been in Japan for a while since her parents are businesspeople, but was quite nonchalant about not understanding Japanese at all, saying it wasn't necessary in Tokyo. I was a little taken aback by this attitude--it's one thing when you're old or poor and struggling as with some of the immigrant community in the U.S. But if you're young, educated, well off, and living here for the forseeable future, what is your excuse? Why wouldn't you want that extra connection with people?
I asked her about the Brazillian community here since I heard there was quite a lot of Japanese that went to Brazil and then came back. I was considering this as a possible sub-research topic but when I went online I discovered at least 5 books written on the subject in the fast few years so think it's probably already been done enough. Interestingly enough, I couldn't find anything on the whole Western man/Asian women couples phenomena which I was also thinking about as a possible subtopic. Most books on interracial relationships in the U.S. focus on black-white relationships and trying to search in Google brings up all these personals sites.
I still hope to focus on usability and mobile technology/SMS issues in Japan, although I am working on how I will get my data. I was hoping to hook up with this keitai research group at a local university, but they only meet once a week and it couldn't be arranged this week. I also contacted a professor who has done talks for CHI so hopefully I will be able to meet with him next week as well.
Comments:
Post a Comment
