Setting down roots

I had my last ever Japanese class this week, at least at my current school. It should have been a melancholy moment, but it felt so good. And now I have just one more test to do next Sunday and I am free. Please send out all your positive energy for me on December 3rd.
I have a problem with what I want to blog about today. It's not exactly that I have nothing to say. It's just that the things I have in mind are such downers that I don't want to think about them.
For example, right now in Japan the big news is a terrible trend towards junior high school kids committing suicide. Last year, 115 young Japanese killed themselves. It appears most deaths were a result of bullying or exam stress. But to be honest, the topic makes me so depressed that I can't bring myself to analyze it.
Then I thought I'd tell you about the Japanese movie I went to see on Thursday evening. It was called 手紙 - tegami - The Letters. But it was also pretty depressing.
I had been looking for a nice light story to forget my stress. From the poster, I had thought it looked like a simple romance. I was so wrong. I came out ready to jump under a train and delay some commuters.
The film was about the discrimation and social exclusion Japanese families encounter when a member of their family commits a bad crime and is sent to prison. Heavy stuff.
I must say though, I'm still now thinking about the themes brought up in the movie, so it can't have been all that bad.
I would really like to know if the same discrimination exists in other countries. Tell me what you think: In your home countries, if a member of your family was imprisoned for murder, do you think you would be driven from your home, fired from your job, and denied the chance to marry your loved one? I just don't know.
Another thing the film has done is to motivate me to look out for more books by the same writer. 'Tegami' was based on a novel written by Keigo Higashino. It won the prestigious Naokisho literary award here in Japan. I'm thinking one of his other books will be my next challenge when I finish up the exams next week.
So if all the above aren't cheery enough, what's left for me to write about. Well not much.
The one thing I did find fascinating last week came up in a discussion in my last ever Japanese class. Do you know that in Japan, if you go and visit someone in hospital, you should never bring a potted plant or anything that's alive and has roots? This is incredibly bad luck and quite bad manners. It signifies that you expect the person to be hopsitalized for a long time. The image given is of them setting down roots in their sick bed.
Just another example of the choppy social waters I have to navigate daily. Who'd have thunk a nice Christmas cactus or something would cause such offense.
The irony was that only moments previous I had given the boss of my school a very elaborate potted plant arrangement as a token of my gratitude. I wasn't brought up in a barn! But in this case, it surely didn't cause offense. She was very happy. But it looks like I'm setting down roots in the blasted school. I tell you, if I fail my finals and have to repeat next year, I am never setting foot in a florist's again.
Quick youtube update before I go. My video of the cicadas is now up to almost 12,000 views. My sister's singing... 18!

Por mi madre

Mam, this is for you. I rememeber sitting watching this together and you crying with laughter. It brought back many happy memories. Perfect comic timing. Enjoy.

My future job

There was a programme on Japanese TV the other day. It was about the Japanese boom in France. The Land of the Rising Sun is incredibly popular with the French right now.

The show featured the third annual Japanese Expo in Paris. Young Parisians go there to pick up the latest styles in food, clothes, interiors, and so on.

From a Japanese (‘We’ Japanese) perspective, the French have got some of it horribly wrong. Hello, sushi with a side of white rice? Can you say ‘constipation’?

But other ideas offered a fresh slant on Japanese living. It was cool to see these chic ladies wearing traditional workmen’s cleft boots (地下足袋 - jikatabi - as pictured above) with their couture.

Anyway, the programme confirmed what I should do for my next career. I totally need to become a trend spotter for some think tank or high-flying consultancy or something.

What do you think was the hottest item at the Expo? What do you think all the trendy Parisians wanted above all else? What do you think I’ve been talking about since the inception of this blog? That’s right, the Japanese washlet / electronic bidet toilet, that’s what!

I’m so ahead of the curve. If the consulting doesn’t work out, maybe I can start a business importing and installing these conveniences in all the smart capitals of Europe. Anyway, want to go in on the business with me?

Smoke gets in your eyes

Japan is very smoker-friendly. Cigarettes are dirt-cheap. It costs about 2 Euro for a pack of twenty. You can find 24-hour automatic vending machines on most street corners. Most restaurants and cafes offer no-smoking seats, but there’s usually no barrier or special air conditioning system.
As and aside, I remember being in a café in Ginza with my brother years ago. I was in a no-smoking seat. The dudes beside us, being in smoking, held their cigarettes practically in our faces. Rent is very expensive so shops are often small and cramped. But come on!
All the above goes towards explaining why, in Japan, 48% of men and 12% of women smoke. This compares with about 25% for both men and women in other developed countries.
The Japanese government, looking at all the European countries that are turning smoke-free, is considering adopting a similar policy here.
They hope to bring the male consumption rate down to 25% and the female to 5 % in the next five years.
I think they’ve a long way to go to shift a generally positive attitude toward tobacco.
I submit for evidence the above photo. It was taken of a cigarette vending machine near my house.
In case you can’t read it, I’ve transcribed the advertisement. I really don’t think you’d get away with this ad in any other industrialised country.
And as a bonus, it’s another prime example of the ‘what-the-heck’ English in use over here.
Smoking is a good friend of mental activities.Being free and easy, your heart makes you enjoy smoking!A figure giving off a woman’s shadow,A figure being suggestive of vitality and joysAnd sorrows in businessAnd a figure of a man working hardAre all in enjoying smoking.

Crazy Interweb

You know, I just have to say that the internet is one crazy mixed up place.
Do you remember back when I wrote my first haiku that I recorded a short video?
I just pointed my digital camera at some trees and recorded the cicadas song. That's all it was - thirty seconds of green leaves and insect noise.
Well I have just been informed by youtube that that video has now been viewed 9,146 times!!!!
I mean what is going on? And I thought I was wasting my life away online. One poor sap has even subsribed to my account, preumambly in the hopes that I will come up with another such masterpiece.
Seriously, some people out there need to get themselves a hobby.
Oh and in case you were wondering, the video of my sister singing 'Bad Day' in karaoke has been viewed a grand total of 17 times!
Locusts, not humans, are clearly where the music market is going these days.

Dodgy English

Teaching English in Japan can feel like an uphill battle. Zoom in on the picture above. It's an example of the verbal knots students sometimes tie themselves in.
This photo is of a sign outside a restaurant not far from my house. I don't know how much foreign custom they get with that sign. I shudder to think what the menu must be like.
The scary thing is that, now that I've been here so long, and now that I speak Japanese, I totally understand what they're trying to say.
In the wrong hands, a dictionary is a dangerous weapon.

Lil Bro, ya sure ya still wanna come a visitin'?

Honestly, who would live in Japan? Last week we had a tornado that killed 9 people. Then tonight, there was an 8.1 earthquake up north and now the whole country is under a tsunami warning. It's lucky I live in the mountains!