tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75374667533682775592024-03-12T21:50:37.296-07:00This must be the place.Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.comBlogger170125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537466753368277559.post-83886235856321589782014-12-03T23:29:00.000-08:002014-12-03T23:34:01.715-08:00Pregnant in Japan? 5 Things You Need to Buy.You don't actually <i>need</i> any of these things, but if you're pregnant in Japan and you get them, your life will be a lot easier and more comfortable. Here they are, in no particular order.<br />
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<b>1. Nissen Body Pillow & Feeding Pillow</b><br />
Especially in the third trimester, sleeping becomes a challenge. You basically have to build yourself the perfect little fort out of carefully positioned pillows and blankets to feel comfortable and to get any sleep. And when you're in the right position, you need to commit to it because turning over in bed takes major skill and practice. I feel like one of those cicadas at the end of summer that lands on his back and doesn't have enough strength or momentum to flip over unaided. Don't worry, though. You will get up to pee at least twice a night, so you'll eventually get to sleep on the other side.<br />
<br />
This body pillow is nice, because you can position it between your knees and hug it to your head so that your hips won't hurt in the morning. I used to just used two pillows between my knees, but they'd sometimes fall out during the night. There's a little clip around the pillow so that it can convert to a feeding pillow once the baby is born. And the washable cover can be easily removed. You can find these pillows in baby supply stores all over the country, and I'm sure the brand doesn't really matter.<br />
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<b>2. Modern Hara Obi
</b><br />
This is a modern Hara Obi. Very easy to use. It's velcro, so there's nothing to wind around or tie up. My mother in law started begging me to wear one when she first found out I was pregnant and not planning to use one. The baby will get cold! The baby won't be sufficiently protected if you fall! You will have a complicated labour if you don't wear a shrine-blessed Hara Obi that you got done on a dog day! Some of my older co-workers started nagging me about it, as well. The <a href="http://borninjapan.net/2008/11/07/leaking-culture/">traditional Hara Obi is fully explained here</a>, much better and more succinctly than I could hope to do. Basically, the old Hara Obi is 10 metres of white fabric that pregnant Japanese women used to wind around their stomachs in the olden days. It's a tradition based on old wive's tales. My husband bought this one for me just so that we could tell his mom I had one without lying.<br />
<br />
But somewhere in the middle of the second trimester, I started realizing that I wasn't able to walk as fast as I used to walk. And sometimes, during long walks I'd have to put my hands under my stomach to support it a little or it would be uncomfortable. So one day, I tried wearing the velcro Hara Obi to work and never looked back. It was so comfortable that I can't leave the house without it now. It's basically a soft bra for your huge stomach. It uses your hips to hold up and support the bottom part of your stomach. I never get cramps or Braxton-Hicks from walking anymore. It's the best thing ever.<br />
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<b>3. Muji Maternity Jeans</b><br />
Anyone who knows me knows how obsessed I am with Muji furniture, but their clothes are usually hit-or-miss. Like most clothing companies in Japan, they tend to make a lot of one-size-fits-all (フリーサイズ)dresses that fit like 3-person tents. But their maternity jeans are incredible. No bulky adjustment bands like other maternity jeans often have. Just a soft front panel and the rest is stretchy denim. The kind I have are just called "MUJI Skinny Jeans" in S size / dark denim. I also have the same pair in light denim. I think they were somewhere around 4000 yen. They're not "jeggings" or sweatpants made from denim-looking fabric. They're actual jeans, very comfortable and flattering.<br />
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<b>4. Muji Bean Bag Pillow
</b><br />
I'm sitting in mine right now. I only have 25 days left until my due date and I do not want to move from this pillow during any of them. It's hard to breathe when I lie on my back, but it feels good to stretch that way, so this pillow allows me to get the perfect almost-lying-down position. This picture is from an ad, but it may as well be a picture of me.<br />
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<b>5. Erba Organics Stretch Mark Oil</b><br />
This stuff is so good. Nobody told me how itchy your skin gets during pregnancy! I guess it makes sense, since everything is growing, but around week 15 I got really, really itchy. And now (week 36) the skin around my ribs is really tight and painful when I sit in certain positions. I know that no oils have been clinically proven to prevent stretch marks, but I recommend this oil because as soon as anything ever feels tight or itchy, that feeling goes away instantly after I put this stuff on. It also smells really good. It's a mild smell that I doubt would bother anyone experiencing morning sickness.<br />
<br />
I've used this oil every night since the week I got the pregnancy test results. Now I'm in week 36 and I still don't have stretch marks, but people tell me they can show up as late as the day before labour, so I'm still just hoping for the best.<br />
<br />
I thought I would make this list to offset the much longer list of things they just don't sell anywhere in Japan.<br />
<br />
<b>Prenatal vitamins?</b> Japanese women do not take them, Japanese doctors caution against them and no stores sell them. Get them from iherb.com or ask a kind relative to send some.<br />
<b>A contoured changing pad or changing mat of any kind? </b>Good luck with that. The sales clerk at Akachan Honpo told me she just used "a towel on the floor" for her babies. Not even the staff at foreign chain stores like Babies R Us have heard of them. They're incredibly cheap and absolutely everywhere back home, but Amazon charges over 100,00 yen for shipping and when my dad tried to ship one to me at the post office, he was quoted an even higher price. So I'm trying to make one myself, without a sewing machine. So irritating.<br />
<b>Flattering maternity shirts?</b> Hope that you don't get too big to fit into regular sizes in Japan, because anything with the word "maternity" on it looks like someone glued ruffles and lace onto hospital scrubs.<br />
<b>Gripe water?</b> What do people do when their child has colic or the hiccups? They ride it out.<br />
<b>Baby swings? </b>This is the exact swing my brother has for his baby. They got it for less than 100 CAD.<br />
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That's just the very start...Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537466753368277559.post-55413840942275383522014-11-10T06:06:00.000-08:002014-11-10T06:06:13.200-08:00"Where's your husband?"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>33 weeks and <b>HUGE.</b></i></div>
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<i><b><br /></b></i></div>
Commenting on other women’s bodies isn’t something that anyone with any tact should do, and I don’t think most pregnant women are very happy about random people telling them how big they’ve gotten. But the fact is that many people lack tact and blurt things out like children do when they see a pregnant person. When an acquaintance sees me for the first time after a few months and exclaims, “Wow! You got so big!” they don’t mean to be rude. And that happens a lot. I’m just trying to suck it up and remember that yes, I have gotten bigger and that’s because there’s a baby inside of me. Having gotten bigger is a visible sign that my pregnancy is progressing and I’m that much closer to having a child. It’s not a criticism of my body. It’s just an observation. An unsolicited observation, but not something to get offended about.<br />
<br />
But sometimes it gets old. My co-workers see me every single day. And every single morning without fail, one particular security guard and two or three secretaries greet me with, “Your stomach has gotten bigger, hasn’t it?” (In Japanese) when I arrive at the office. Every single morning. I realize that they just mean this as a greeting. It has temporarily replaced “good morning” as the thing people call out to me when I arrive. I usually just give a standard response: I just smile and say, “Yes, it has.” or just “Good morning.” But some days, it annoys me. I’m ashamed to say that twice, I’ve been a little snarky. Once I replied, “Yep, that’s because I’m pregnant.” And another time I replied, “No, not any bigger since you told me that yesterday.” But every other day, I’ve replied nicely. My maternity leave starts next week, so I think I’ve done a pretty decent job putting up being told how big my stomach is multiple times a day every day for months.<br />
<br />
The worst is when acquaintances give me incredulous looks and tell me over and over again that I’m HUGE when I know I’ve gained exactly the amount of weight the doctor has recommended and I’m actually not that huge compared to most pregnant women. I get that they just mean my stomach is huge (And it is huge compared to what it looked like before! And I’m happy it is – there’s a baby in there!) but it’s still a little irritating to hear. My mom gained 40 KG (90 lbs) when she had me, because it was in the 1980s back when pregnant women were encouraged to eat for two. I’ve gained 8.6 KG (19 lbs) and I’m due next month. When people tell me I’m HUGE, most of me gets what they mean, but part of me is annoyed because I’m not as huge as I could be if I didn’t eat well and exercise every single day. Part of me is indignant like, <i>do you want to see huge? Because give me a lazy month of slacking off -- I could show you huge.</i> I want to eat a massive bowl of fried rice right out of the pan and four salted avocadoes and a whole bag of dried mangoes and fall asleep at 7:00 PM without washing the dishes or doing these prenatal exercises. So really, the thing about me that’s HUGE right now is my effort and willpower. The point is just if you’re sensitive about comments people make about your body, you’re in for a tough pregnancy because people are going to make comments. At least nobody has tried to touch my stomach without asking or give me rude advice. People actually haven’t been that bad at all. I just needed to rant.<br />
<br />
Oh, except for this.<br />
<br />
The one thing I think is completely out of line is the amount of times people have asked me whether or not I’m married. I’ve gotten this question at least twenty times from co-workers, midwives and people who work in the shops and cafes in my neighbourhood. There is nothing good about this question and it is completely inappropriate. I’m still shocked every time someone asks.<br />
<br />
I’ve also been asked “Where’s your husband?” twice at ultrasounds. Such a potential minefield of a question. Even for women who are happily married and the pregnancy was planned, this question isn’t a nice one. I was so taken aback by it both times. How does anyone respond?Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537466753368277559.post-80775555084303171122014-10-27T04:43:00.001-07:002014-10-27T04:43:49.538-07:00Meeting other mothers in Japan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
I’ve written before about how much I like the anonymity of living where I live here in Japan. Strangers never start conversations with me or even acknowledge me, and that’s the way I like it. But I thought things might be different when I got pregnant. I thought that maybe other pregnant people might start noticing me and starting conversations with me. I thought other pregnant women might start giving me “the nod” of acknowledgement on the train. But that hasn’t happened. I don’t really care too much – it’s just as much my fault, since I’m not initiating contact with the pregnant women I see either. But part of me wishes I had the courage to start up a conversation with the women in the waiting room of my maternity hospital or try to make friends with someone in the same situation. My sister and my sister-in-law are both pregnant right now, so I’m very fortunate. But it would be fun to have a “mama-tomo” to hang out with in my city.<br />
<br />
In Japan, there’s little risk of offending women by assuming they’re pregnant when they’ve just gained some weight, because almost every pregnant woman uses the pregnancy tags (pictured above) issued by city hall. That’s not to say that the occasional imbecile won’t still congratulate a tag-free woman and ask when she’s due, but it does mean that if you see a pregnancy tag on a woman’s bag, you can freely assume she’s pregnant.<br />
<br />
Yesterday, I spent the best lazy Sunday with my husband. We stayed in bed until noon. We woke up and made some udon (with fresh sudachi and grated daikon) and listened to some music. Then we made coffee and went to this open market in a very large park sort of far away from our house. He had never been there and I’d only been there once, before I even moved to Japan, so it felt like a real date. I found a sweater and some Miffy toys and books for the baby that only cost 50 yen. We split a chocolate ice cream cone in the park and walked around until it got dark. Really fun.<br />
<br />
After that, we went to an Indian restaurant a few stations away from the park. Five minutes after we walked in, another couple walked in and were seated right next to us, so close that our tables were almost touching. And she was the exact same size as me. She looked over and smiled and asked how far along I was. Our due dates were five days apart! And her husband was the kind of guy my husband really gets along with - a quiet, humble, unassuming guy. It was like we were on a really great blind date with each other. They were so natural to talk to, and there was nothing awkward about the situation at all. I really wanted to ask for the girl’s contact info after dinner, but I wasn’t brave enough to do it. In any case, they live over an hour away from our house. We just said goodbye and left after dinner. It was nice that it finally happened, though. I finally got to have a random conversation with another pregnant woman in Japan.<br />
<br />
I think I’ll join a class when my maternity leave starts. My maternity hospital offers prenatal yoga, prenatal aerobics as well as classes on breast feeding, bathing, etc. Maybe I’ll meet some nice new mothers who live close by in those classes.<br />
<br />
Do any of you have advice for me? If you have a child in Japan, how did you meet other future mothers when you were pregnant?Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537466753368277559.post-27772608437243735622014-09-25T19:36:00.003-07:002014-09-25T19:36:31.063-07:00Hello, Stranger.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: MS Pゴシック;">
</span><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Century;">In 2011, I met a man on an airplane to
Shanghai and he has sent me a letter on the morning of my birthday every day
for the past three years. I’m not usually good with dates and only remember
this one because I had been on holiday visiting my friends in Denmark when the
Tohoku earthquake hit and my boss advised me not to fly back home to Japan
until everything was calmer. So I stayed with my father until my boss called me
back. That’s the only reason I remember that it was March 23rd, 2011.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: MS Pゴシック;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0mm 0mm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Century;">I was waiting for an airplane back to Japan
via a stopover in Shanghai, and my flight was delayed. Some flight attendants called
me and a few other passengers to the counter to confirm our special meals. (Most
people know this already, but anyone can order a special meal when they book
their plane tickets. The special meals can be based on allergy, diet or
religious restrictions. I have two friends who are flight attendants and they
recommend always booking a special meal regardless of diet preferences simply
because those meals are likelier to be fresh. I usually get the AVML because no
matter what airline I’m on, it’s always some type of decent curry dish with
jasmine rice. Even my husband orders special meals sometimes now, and he can eat
anything. Try it sometime.) <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: MS Pゴシック;">
</span><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Century;"></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Century;">The man I have been sitting next to in the
airport has ordered the same meal. When we go back to our seats, he starts
asking me questions about our special meals. He tells me he is Sikh and that’s
why he doesn’t eat meat. My Indian cooking teacher in Kyoto is Sikh and the
area where I went to high school for two years had a lot of Sikh people, but I
had never met a Sikh vegetarian before. He explains his unique way of
interpreting his religion and that starts us on a really easy conversation that
lasts until we board the plane. Later, just after the seatbelt sign turns off I
feel a tap on my shoulder and it’s Manjinder, telling me that the aisle seat on
his row is free and asking if I’d like to hang out with him for a while. I do.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: MS Pゴシック;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0mm 0mm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Century;">Manjinder has a pleasant voice, a really
calm personality and a good sense of humor. We are the same age, born in the
same year. He’s Canadian but is on his way to his brother’s wedding in India
and is really excited to see all his relatives. He’s extremely tall and well-dressed,
in a tailored shirt and jeans with a small turban that makes him look kind of dashing.
He has big brown eyes and a short beard. He has a sarcastic streak and teases
me in a way that made me ask if he has younger sisters. He’s easy to read. I
feel like we’ve been friends for a long time. He has good stories. He tells me
he’s engaged to a girl he has only seen in photographs, but that his mom has
met her and he trusts his mother’s judgment. He tells me about his days in
university and about how hard it is to find a job he actually finds fulfilling.
He tells me about all the job interviews he has been doing and he does all the
bosses voices in an entertaining way. About four hours in, he is calling me by
a nickname. He tells me his hobby is photographing plants and then he shows me
some of his photographs. Hours go by quickly and we eat our meals together.
They’re exactly the same. I never end up going back to my seat. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: MS Pゴシック;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0mm 0mm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Century;">The flight is a long one and we start
getting tired. We have three pillows between us and take turns laying on
pillows stacked up on each other’s laps. When I put my head on the pillows, he
rests his hands on my head like my mom used to do on ferry rides when I was a
little kid. It feels really nice. Both of us get to sleep a bit. Later,
breakfast is served and we eat it in silence. We’re almost in Shanghai. He
takes some money out of his wallet. It is blue money I’ve never seen before
with a picture of Gandhi on the back. Manjinder writes his email address on it.
I give him a 1 Krone coin from Denmark and we trade. The Krone has little hearts
on it and a hole in the centre just like the Japanese 5 yen coin. I write my
email address in a little notebook he brings out. We hug goodbye in Shanghai Pudong
International Airport. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: MS Pゴシック;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0mm 0mm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Century;">A few weeks later, I get a message from him
with a picture of a dark red flower that he took. I reply to him and he doesn’t
respond until September, when he sends me a long letter wishing me a happy
birthday. And he has done this every year since then. Every message he sends
gives me an update on his life (he is married now to the girl he told me about;
he ended up getting one of the jobs he interviewed for shortly before we met;
he has had three articles published in journals; his mother is doing well) and
I always reply with an update about my own. We don’t follow each other on any
social media platforms and only contact each other once a year, on my birthday.
I don’t know how he remembers every year but he does. He even times it to Japan’s
time zone so that I get it at 8:00 AM on September 26<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> every year. Even
though we only met once and probably will never see each other again, he’s one
of the coolest and most thoughtful people I’ve ever met. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: MS Pゴシック;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0mm 0mm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Century;">I keep the 100 rupee note Manjinder gave me
on my desk at work to remind myself to be less guarded and more open to meeting
people around me. There are really good people all over the place.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: MS Pゴシック;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0mm 0mm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Century;">Today is my birthday and right after reading
Manjinder’s birthday message, I saw this post on Joanna Goddard’s blog about
<a href="http://joannagoddard.blogspot.jp/2014/09/hello-stranger.html">talking to strangers</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: MS Pゴシック;">
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Century;">I usually never make small talk (or even
eye contact!) with strangers. I’m friendly and I care a lot about my friends,
but I’m a little shy with new people and I’m naturally an introvert. One of the
things I like about living in Japan is that there’s no pressure to have
conversation with anybody on public transit, in lines or in any other
situation. Nobody ever talks to me and I don’t talk to anyone else. That’s the
way I like things. My mother is my complete opposite. She chats with everyone
and easily makes friends with people everywhere she goes. Which type are you?
Are you more inclined to chatting up strangers or staying quiet?<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: MS Pゴシック;">
</span>Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537466753368277559.post-87173237159403351892014-09-01T02:42:00.003-07:002014-09-01T02:42:40.566-07:00Happy News<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp2-ahcSLWnuYL3TG3wTTcPKu84vCFb5BWwWoga1K8E51SIoFiSSy89xyYRTpX4_7lbHwGlDGrBR_Z-ZeGr_uGiYpMmoFJ5dNaxWLHyCvxWBW6IuY-zG8uBbfrUfsXmxOILe1fzXfaIBpb/s1600/1912439_10152640123805359_7540891956718223137_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp2-ahcSLWnuYL3TG3wTTcPKu84vCFb5BWwWoga1K8E51SIoFiSSy89xyYRTpX4_7lbHwGlDGrBR_Z-ZeGr_uGiYpMmoFJ5dNaxWLHyCvxWBW6IuY-zG8uBbfrUfsXmxOILe1fzXfaIBpb/s1600/1912439_10152640123805359_7540891956718223137_n.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
I’m pregnant. Very excited. Pregnancy has been surprisingly fun! Every woman deals with things differently, so I’m learning not to expect anything and just to let things happen. I didn’t get any morning sickness, mood swings or intestinal troubles, but I have gotten some other symptoms I’d never heard of, like insomnia and very itchy skin on the parts of my body that are growing! The pregnancy is over halfway finished and I’m hoping the whole thing will stay as good as it has been. I really can’t complain about much.<br />
<br />
We are turning our spare room into a nursery for the baby. I started off wanting everything to look a certain way, but I’m starting to realize that babies don’t care what colour their walls are or what types of paintings are hanging above their cribs. I lived in a rural, northern town where my father was posted for my first year and my mother used to run a hot bath and set up a small cot in the washroom at night because the rest of the house was so cold. My husband slept on a long futon with the entire family and didn’t even have a room of his own until he was ten. So we figure that whatever we make of this nursery, it’s a huge upgrade over the bathroom and no room at all. We’re keeping the wall colour as it is, and getting most of our baby stuff used from recycle shops or friends.
<br />
<br />
We also finally got our kitchen renovated and I’m so happy about it. We tore out all the old carpet in the living room and covered the floor with a hardwood pattern and throw carpets. I love how clean everything looks now. I’m hoping this new kitchen will inspire me to cook more interesting meals.
<br />
<br />
So grateful for good friends and a great family.Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537466753368277559.post-2550364344468490882014-08-07T01:29:00.000-07:002014-08-07T01:32:33.092-07:00How to register a non-Japanese baby name in Japan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyWbxZtH7CM5hrizZMbgBnc04zW2a8bIBzwTpX8jFnAMrWffoQs8Ds6CqNT7RT6lCtkbYT6Bi-VNurH0j6fkbwFnf7ih11h20_UkHFcMuKtb6ce24yd2g_II6C3xNHuvD0mne7pCctCOk7/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyWbxZtH7CM5hrizZMbgBnc04zW2a8bIBzwTpX8jFnAMrWffoQs8Ds6CqNT7RT6lCtkbYT6Bi-VNurH0j6fkbwFnf7ih11h20_UkHFcMuKtb6ce24yd2g_II6C3xNHuvD0mne7pCctCOk7/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" /></a></div>
<br />
<telerouge gmail.com="">Naming a <a href="http://openprivatelife.blogspot.jp/2014/01/japanese-baby-names-boy-mixed-half-japan.html">bi-cultural baby in Japan</a> can be difficult. Choosing the name is easy. If you don’t care about middle names and your plan to give your baby a Japanese name, it’s all easy. But it gets tough if you want a specific spelling (you want to name your baby Lisa, not Risa, for example, even though it’s technically a Japanese name) or if you want a non-Japanese name or especially if you want a middle name. Here’s an example to show you what you need to do to register the name you want in Japan.
</telerouge><br />
<telerouge gmail.com=""><br /></telerouge>
<telerouge gmail.com="">You’re a Canadian citizen and your partner is a Japanese citizen. You’re having a baby boy and you’re planning to name him George because that’s the name of your partner’s favourite Beatle and because George sounds very similar to the Japanese name 城二 pronounced Jōji in Japanese. You want his middle name to be Anders because that’s your father’s name. </telerouge><br />
<telerouge gmail.com=""><br /></telerouge>
<telerouge gmail.com=""><b>Problem One: The middle name</b></telerouge><br />
<telerouge gmail.com="">Japanese koseki (family registries) and documents don’t have a space for a middle name. </telerouge>That means that if you want your child to have a middle name, it will be tacked on to the end of your child’s first name with no space. On the Koseki, driver’s license, passport and any other official document, your child’s name will be Georgeanders. On the roll call at elementary school, the teacher will read your child’s name as Georgeanders. It’s unwieldy, ugly and marks your kid as different right from the start. Plus, it’s not the name you chose for him.<br />
<telerouge gmail.com=""><br /></telerouge>
<telerouge gmail.com="">I thought that an easy way out would be to register the child without a middle name on all the Japanese documents and then register him with a middle name on all the Canadian documents. That way, he would still have a middle name in a country where middle names are normal, but he wouldn’t have a middle name in a country where middle names are not done and the name would just be mashed together with the first name. </telerouge><br />
<telerouge gmail.com=""><b>Verdict: </b>Too bad for you. Choose between no middle name or squished middle name. </telerouge><br />
<telerouge gmail.com=""><br /></telerouge>
<telerouge gmail.com=""><b>Problem Two: The bad romaji spelling</b></telerouge><br />
<telerouge gmail.com="">If you give your child a name that can be pronounced in both countries, you want to make sure that the name won’t be written in ugly romaji on the birth certificate. </telerouge>For example, you want the spelling to be G-E-O-R-G-E and not J-O-J-I or even worse, J-O-U-J-I which often happens when there is no ō character available.
I emailed the consulate and they replied within the hour, explaining that if you officially register the kanji with the katakana pronunciation and spelling that you want, they will honour it. That means that little Lillian won’t have her name spelled Ririen even though you made her katakana name リリエン and baby George won’t have to be Jōji or Jouji on paper.<br />
<br />
But be careful: if the name you want has kanji, be sure to go to the city hall (ideally before the baby is born) to make sure that you check whether or not the reading (yomigata / 読み方) is acceptable by Japanese law. If the baby is born and you register the kanji you want without checking to see if the yomigata you want is acceptable, the Canadian passport will only recognize the standard spelling of the kanji**. Meaning that your child might end up with a completely different name on his Canadian passport.<br />
<b>Verdict:</b> Problem solved, kind of.<br />
<br />
Here are two possible middle name solutions or compromises.<br />
<br />
<b>This is what you want his name to look like: </b><br />
His Canadian passport: George Anders Maeda<br />
His Japanese passport: George Maeda<br />
The Koseki: 前田城二 (Maeda Jōji)<br />
<br />
<b>Compromise One: </b>Just give him the middle name on everything.<br />
His Canadian passport: George Anders Maeda<br />
His Japanese passport: George Anders Maeda<br />
The Koseki: 前田城二アンダース(Maeda Jōji Anders)<br />
<br />
The good part is that this doesn’t cost any extra money or take any extra time. The bad part is that his name reading will still appear as ジョージアンダース or Georgeanders on school registries and official documents like the Koseki. You’ll just have to talk privately with his teachers before school starts and explain that your kid goes by 城二 spelled George. Hopefully most people will understand. But probably a few people won’t.<br />
<br />
<b>Compromise Two: </b>Don’t give him a middle name at all and then get it legally added in your home country.<br />
His Canadian passport: George Anders Maeda<br />
His Japanese passport: George Maeda<br />
The Koseki: 前田城二 (Maeda Jōji)<br />
<br />
The embassy told me about another option, which is to register the name without a middle name on all official documents and then go to the vital statistics agency in your home country and do a legal name change to get the middle name added. This way, you’d completely avoid having a middle name in Japan but still have a legal middle name on all Canadian documents. The downside to this option is that it takes up time and money.<br />
<br />
It’s a bit of a hassle, but completely worth it if the middle name you chose is going to look like an abomination in romaji, like if Casey Franklyn Maeda is going to be MAEDA Keishifurankurinn or Veronica Lynnette Tanaka is going to be changed to TANAKA Beronikarinnetto. The fee will vary depending on your country and the laws in your particular province/area, but it shouldn’t be more than around 100,00 yen in total.<br />
<br />
Personally, because of the names we’ve chosen, we’re going with compromise two. The middle name we want has a th in it and looks like a romaji nightmare. The first name doesn’t look bad, but because of the c/k l/r v/b Japanese rules, it isn’t the spelling we want when it’s in romaji. I think that since we’ll be living in Japan in the early years, it will be worth it to get the name legally changed back home after registering it in Japan with a regular yomigata and without a middle name.<br />
<br />
** I can only think of a dumb example of this, but it’s a true story. So a few years ago, a Japanese couple named their child Raito with the kanji character 光 meaning “light” in English and this was permitted by Japanese law. But if it hadn’t been permitted, your little Raito Johnson could become Hikari Johnson on her foreign passport because the standard reading for ジョンソン光 is Hikari Johnson. So if you want an unusual reading for the kanji you’ve chosen, check at city hall first!<br />
<br />
Also, if you’re going to name your kid Raito, you deserve whatever problems you get. I can’t give you a better example because I can only think of one decent example, and it’s the name we’ve chosen for our baby. And that’s a secret. Sorry.<br />
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Do you have any examples or stories about registering a baby name in Japan? I'd love to hear them.Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537466753368277559.post-9232600944793974252014-07-14T19:34:00.001-07:002014-07-14T19:34:37.116-07:00Most Food Cultures are Pretty Monotonous.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnpXlaDLH8bBXjY1yxO5u3qlChZ2n4aBcVpead4ty2z2XB6o1yqcwfY2RHpSKZvCSCiNVNYrgP114KQfdbInQonhW6dABvz284hYbFMee-YSACStbjCPLAh_HrBWUB8NgYqHTgHCr29sGy/s1600/coconutmilk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnpXlaDLH8bBXjY1yxO5u3qlChZ2n4aBcVpead4ty2z2XB6o1yqcwfY2RHpSKZvCSCiNVNYrgP114KQfdbInQonhW6dABvz284hYbFMee-YSACStbjCPLAh_HrBWUB8NgYqHTgHCr29sGy/s1600/coconutmilk.jpg" /></a></div>
I was watching TV with my husband last week when some programme about Papua New Guinea came on. Two Japanese chefs went to a rural village by the sea to learn about the local food and see if they could find and introduce a Japanese food that the locals in the village would like.<br />
<br />
We watched as a local grandmother came out of her house with a frying pan and began to cook. Breakfast was some sort of tropical fruit and coconut milk mixture. Lunch was a kind of fish with coconut milk. The snacks were all coconut-based. Dinner was also rice and something with coconut milk poured all over it. My husband was incredulous: <i>You’d think they’d get sick of eating coconut milk at every meal, wouldn’t you? I mean, I like coconut milk but couldn’t imagine growing up in a country where they use the same flavor base for almost every dish. </i><br />
<br />
When he said that, I just burst out laughing. That’s exactly what I said when I first moved to Japan. Traditionally, Japanese breakfast is a dashi-based miso soup, a bowl of rice and a grilled fish. Lunch and dinner include piles of fish and seafood prepared in different ways. Even the dishes without visible seafood included are usually made with dashi powder or fish-based soup stock. Snacks could be anything from dried squid to shrimp-flavored senbei crackers. Fish, fish, fish. <i>Don’t people in Japan get sick of eating fish for every meal? </i>Those were probably the exact words I used.<br />
<br />
I heard the same complaint from a Japanese friend who did a homestay in Canada. Cheese. <i>Cheese, cheese, cheese.</i> Grilled cheese sandwich and soup for lunch. A cheesy lasagna for dinner. Cheesecake for dessert. String cheese packed in the lunchbox her homestay mother made. To her, it was disgusting to have to eat cheese in every dish, all day, every day. And she was right. We were all right.<br />
<br />
My husband had a point. Coconut milk in every dish sounds unappetizing. I have a point. Fish in every dish sounds gross. And my homestay girl friend had a point. Cheese for every meal sounds disgusting. But not to the people who are used to it. I’d say that most cultures have their “thing” food-wise, and people who are raised within that culture don’t usually notice the monotony and repetition like a foreign person does.
Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537466753368277559.post-46774066904397107162014-07-10T00:31:00.002-07:002014-07-10T00:31:25.419-07:00Katakana is the worst.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIm2gl3-84ZxK7qM9zZArVFEEagDw4xmk7783vtWBzwOgFlp488g2__pRHP2w-owTcVKoibQTk116RCN1d1q1wHItV9g3JmuHike4QRgBb7-VNiVWOy6nUyy92oBpNYFGEyP2g8K6xtyLg/s1600/katakanabad.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIm2gl3-84ZxK7qM9zZArVFEEagDw4xmk7783vtWBzwOgFlp488g2__pRHP2w-owTcVKoibQTk116RCN1d1q1wHItV9g3JmuHike4QRgBb7-VNiVWOy6nUyy92oBpNYFGEyP2g8K6xtyLg/s1600/katakanabad.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
I got a new part-time job and it’s really interesting. An amateur translator translates a document from Japanese into almost incomprehensible English and my job is to make it look professional. The document I received today looks like it was just put through Google Translate, so I’ve been working for hours on it even though it’s only two pages long.<br />
<br />
For some of the paragraphs, I find it easier to just look at the Japanese version and translate it into proper English right off the bat. It’s easier than trying to decipher what reads like a secret code in translation. But the thing that I’m finding frustrating is all the Katakana. I’ve always felt this way, but this project is really underlining for me how damaging Katakana is for the future of the Japanese language.<br />
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Here is one example taken directly from the project I’m working on right now:<br />
Japanese: ストリートマインド<br />
Translated English: Street mind<br />
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What does “street mind” mean? It’s not an English expression, but Japanese people will think it’s an English expression because it’s made up of some English words and sounds kind of Englishy. Since I’ve never heard my friends use it and can’t look it up in the dictionary, I have to ask a Japanese person young enough to know what it means. I already asked one Japanese friend, but said he thought it might mean “edgy” or “hip” but wasn’t sure and that I should ask a girl.<br />
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I’m guessing it might mean something like “what’s popular on the street these days” in terms of fashion, music and art. But that’s just a guess. I’m just guessing based on the context: the document is for a Japanese apparel website that wants to expand to Hong Kong.<br />
<br />
This is only one of thousands of examples of how heavy reliance on katakana is turning a beautiful language into a crude type of pidgin hybrid that is useful to nobody. All style and cool-sounding foreign-y phrases that don’t make sense in any language. Seriously, you should read the Japanese version of this document. It’s so, so bad.
Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537466753368277559.post-30863727423457490562014-07-09T17:34:00.001-07:002014-07-09T17:36:37.921-07:00Boycott Watami: The Izakaya you Might Want to Skip<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY9iin7tQ_QTynFlXogvC4AfVOvVDp4imu0z2bBuiE33ZlaNaaqn6erufO1nU6-XUZUFMBKj0Ac08LlYZCcoeGdXkZaZYlH3GFThb0kZb8VgA6-J6U86xfnYCVTYpPcPtSMv9uGX2O9Vsf/s1600/watami.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY9iin7tQ_QTynFlXogvC4AfVOvVDp4imu0z2bBuiE33ZlaNaaqn6erufO1nU6-XUZUFMBKj0Ac08LlYZCcoeGdXkZaZYlH3GFThb0kZb8VgA6-J6U86xfnYCVTYpPcPtSMv9uGX2O9Vsf/s1600/watami.JPG" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
Watami is a popular restaurant chain here in Japan. I’ve been to Watami more than a few times, and probably so have you. While the food hasn’t been especially memorable, the interior is often dark and atmospheric. The tables are fairly secluded. Sometimes called Za Watami, it’s just a regular Izakaya chain, with average food quality and average prices. They’re all over Japan. There’s even a Watami a block away from my house. One night, while walking past that restaurant, my friend Emi asked me if I knew that Watami was considered a “Black Company” and told me about why she had stopped going there.<br />
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Apparently, the Watami business conglomerate has been rated in the top five on the list of <i>Black Companies</i> in Japan since 2012. <i>Black Companies</i>, called ブラック企業 (<i>black kigyou</i>) in Japanese mean companies with unethical work and hiring practices. Companies with high instances of sexual harassment, unpaid overtime, grueling workloads, low pay, and discrimination against temp workers (among other things) are what can put a company on the literal “black” list. Japanese <i>Black Companies</i> are also usually hostile to unions and don’t abide by the proper laws regarding maternity leave and overtime pay.<br />
<br />
Miki Watanabe is the founder and CEO of the Watami Corporation. That’s him in the picture at the top of this post. Besides being known as a cold workaholic with a god-complex, Miki Watanabe is also famous for unsuccessfully running for Tokyo governor in 2011. Citizens protested his run because of an unsavoury incident that happened in 2008 and made the Watami Corporation into a classic example of a truly unethical, exploitative work environment.<br />
<br />
The Watami Corporation is now infamous for illegal and unfair treatment of employees. After Miki Watanabe published his own inspirational book in 2008, all employees were forced to buy it. The cost of the book was deducted from employee’s paycheques. Then, at monthly mandatory early-morning training seminars, employees were tested on their ability to recite passages from the book. Watanabe also mysteriously deducted 1000 yen per month from their paycheques (remember that this is an Izakaya chain where most employees are young part-timers working for minimum wage) for “social contribution” whatever that means. Also included in employee training manuals was the motivational slogan, 「24時間365日死ぬまで働け」which in English translates to,<i> 24 Hours a Day, 365 Days a Year: Work to the Death</i>. Unfortunately, at least one employee took this phrase literally.<br />
<br />
In 2008, the Watami Corporation was in the news when a young employee committed suicide after being forced to work too much overtime. Mina Mori, the 26 year old Watami employee was forced to work 141 hours of overtime in only one month. But her death wasn’t enough: Watami founder Miki Watanabe refused to meet with the family of the deceased and took over five years to even apologize to them or offer his condolences.<br />
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<i>“According to an interview with a former Watami restaurant manager conducted by Takarajima magazine (September 2013 edition), upon hearing the news of Ms. Mori’s suicide, the ex-manager wondered if it was really just 141 hours. During his time at Watami, he regularly worked from 7am to 12am with almost no break, making his monthly overtime over 300 hours.” </i><br />
From:<a href="http://www.tofugu.com/2014/04/25/awful-japanese-black-companies/"> Awful Japanese "Black Companies" </a><br />
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The same article interviews a manager in Kyushu who regularly found notes personally written by Miki Watanabe enclosed in the envelope with his pay stubs. The notes read things like, “You should reflect on your sales this month by killing yourself.” Seems like a nice person to have as a boss. After the suicide negatively impacted Miki Watanabe’s bid for Tokyo governor, he changed the company slogan (the charming <i>work to the death</i> one) to a milder,「仕事とは、生きることそのものである」meaning <i>Work is Life Itself.</i> Because working at a shitty chain restaurant is more important than anything in life.<br />
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So if you ever find yourself looking for somewhere to eat one night, you might want to skip the Watami chain. There are better restaurants and Izakayas with tastier food and a more ethical business model. People like Miki Watanabe don’t deserve your money.<br />
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<b>After all the bad press, Watami has changed the name of some of their restaurants to <i>Gohan</i> and <i>Ginmasa</i>. But they’re still owned by Miki Watanabe. </b><br />
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If you want to read more, here are some good links in English:<br />
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<i>‘Black Corporation’ Watami Changes Name, Keeps Bad Reputation </i><br />
<a href="http://www.japancrush.com/2014/stories/black-corporation-watami-changes-name-keeps-bad-reputation.html">Japan Crush </a><br />
<br />
<i>Awful Japanese “Black Companies” </i><br />
<a href="http://www.tofugu.com/2014/04/25/awful-japanese-black-companies/">Tofugu </a><br />
<br />
<i>Black Company </i><br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Company_%28Japanese_term%29">Wikipedia </a><br />
<br />Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537466753368277559.post-38612136718889087192014-07-07T20:28:00.001-07:002014-07-07T20:29:55.121-07:00A Story about a Giant Japanese Spider.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh46zfQOwGGXPBmYmbhgljkunaHoQAt32NtJD1Ze8ldo5nYkAqkDMP60EkDePAgG8x7vIX4BN_GfCbDKYMrASm8WWl3CEE4ciw9DqwRE2Oyfqk6Nx68MVzUiopc4_2B7nWqjhCCLT_L-sHX/s1600/Cute_Spider_by_SaraStar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh46zfQOwGGXPBmYmbhgljkunaHoQAt32NtJD1Ze8ldo5nYkAqkDMP60EkDePAgG8x7vIX4BN_GfCbDKYMrASm8WWl3CEE4ciw9DqwRE2Oyfqk6Nx68MVzUiopc4_2B7nWqjhCCLT_L-sHX/s1600/Cute_Spider_by_SaraStar.jpg" height="194" width="320" /></a></div>
This is one of those stories you might not be to be able to understand or sympathize with if you don’t live here in Japan. After typing out this story and re-reading it, I was struck by how much my idea of what constitutes <i>normal</i> has changed over the years.<br />
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I didn’t realize it before moving here, but Japan’s summers are actually pretty tropical. Summers in Japan are extremely hot and humid, and the insects here are huge compared to anything I’ve seen back home. Mold develops quickly (within days) on clothes and in showers. Flowering plants thrive. And no matter how clean and new your apartment is, you will get the occasional cockroach if you live anywhere below the third floor. They fly in Japan, and can enter the home through drains or open windows. They’re also really big. This is all just part of living here in the summer.<br />
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There’s one species of spider called the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heteropoda_venatoria">Heteropoda Venatoria</a> (In Japanese, it’s called the <i>Ashi Daka Gumo</i> and it usually spelled in <i>katakana</i>, like this: アシダカグモ – Don’t do an image search unless you want nightmares) that many Japanese people consider lucky to have in the house.<br />
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<i>The Ashi Daka Gumo</i> is a huge, fast, tropical spider. It isn’t poisonous to humans. It doesn’t spin webs, so there’s nothing to clean up or act as a visual reminder of the horrible-looking creature sharing your home. It’s fast and catches prey through high-speed chases, which means it’s good at hiding and you’ll hardly ever see it. One <i>Ashi Daka Gumo</i> can kill up to 100 cockroaches a month. (The big ones have even been <a href="http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/08/20/scary-japanese-insects-are-our-friends/">known to hunt bats</a>.) They also kill other, smaller spiders and centipedes that might be poisonous. Older Japanese people are usually happy when they find a huge “lucky” spider living in their home. My friend’s grandmother even has a massive spider living in her shower area. This is quite common in Japan.<br />
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So here’s my confession: we have had a spider living in our basement laundry room for the past two years. The spider is massive, slightly smaller than my hand. It’s dark brown. It’s really fast and it gives us the creeps. The first time I saw it, I think I dropped the laundry basket and ran upstairs screaming. But the thing is that I’ve only seen in twice in as many years. It just hides down there. It doesn’t bother anyone. And it never comes out of that one room. Two years ago, we decided not to kill it. We decided to just let it stay there and get rid of mosquitoes and any other bugs that might try to get into our house.<br />
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And then two weeks ago, it came upstairs.<br />
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We saw it on the wall near our second-floor landing. Our walls are white and it looked like a child’s drawing of a sunshine in black sharpie on our wall. My husband asked me what I thought about killing it. He wanted to kill it. Both of us are afraid of spiders. I liked the idea of trying to trap it and set it free, but finally I agreed to let him just kill it.<br />
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So he killed it.<br />
He killed it with a Swiffer.
And then last week, for the first time in four years, we found a cockroach in our kitchen.<br />
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When I saw that cockroach, I felt so much regret that I almost started to cry. I felt so bad for killing our lucky spider. It really hit me how useful that spider had been. I’d much rather have a spider in the house than roaches. I got <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsKbwR7WXN4&feature=kp">this song stuck in my head all week</a>.<br />
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And last Sunday, we spent all day on <a href="http://www.survivingnjapan.com//2011/07/how-to-prevent-and-kill-cockroaches.html">cockroach prevention</a>. We moved the entire bookcase upstairs, set Combat traps up all over the house and cleaned the kitchen and refrigerator area until it was immaculate. Then, after I went to sleep, my husband did a spray. He found one cockroach. We think it was the one that we saw after killing the spider. We’re hoping there was only one and that there won’t be any more. I’m hoping that when we get our new kitchen put in (when will we get <a href="http://openprivatelife.blogspot.jp/2014/01/2014-is-year-of-kitchen.html?q=kitchen">our new kitchen</a>??) we won’t have to worry anymore. And if we find any other huge spiders in our house in the future, we are absolutely not killing them.<br />
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I feel like there’s a parable in this story somewhere. Or an analogy, like the Dan Savage quote: "Dump the honest foot fetishist and you will marry the dishonest necrophiliac." Kill the innocent spider and you’ll end up with disgusting cockroaches in your house. Something like that.<br />
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*Credit for the cutesy <a href="http://sarastar.deviantart.com/art/Cute-Spider-139608537">spider clipart </a>image: I don't want a picture of a real spider or cockroach on my blog. You're welcome.Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537466753368277559.post-80467448022672910502014-06-30T22:07:00.001-07:002014-06-30T22:07:28.717-07:00Japan isn't always a safe country for women: Stories<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQpjm8daX5X-biyOKk26qJK0bATJue8CFY4YSmIDUsYO_ZUwoDYxHqIAH66HHTOt6P5SxsTXRhY6VMj4RgAhSqkhDeok6iRc4djr87uTWYjVZE4picUEsy5BEeTVLpdu3WbAOH6yaIPCd-/s1600/crowded+train.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQpjm8daX5X-biyOKk26qJK0bATJue8CFY4YSmIDUsYO_ZUwoDYxHqIAH66HHTOt6P5SxsTXRhY6VMj4RgAhSqkhDeok6iRc4djr87uTWYjVZE4picUEsy5BEeTVLpdu3WbAOH6yaIPCd-/s1600/crowded+train.jpg" /></a></div>
Today I found this article about <a href="http://injapan.gaijinpot.com/live/starting-in-japan/2013/01/31/safety-japan-foreign-girls/">how to stay safe as a female living here in Japan</a>. I read it all the way through, agreeing with every point and loving the sensitive way it was written (realistically, without either sugarcoating or paranoia) before realizing it was written by Vivian Morelli. I wish there was an English version of 「<a href="http://maggiesensei.com/2009/10/21/%E3%81%95%EF%BC%9A%E2%80%9D%E3%81%95%E3%81%99%E3%81%8C%EF%BC%81%E2%80%9Dsasuga/">さすが</a>!」because I’d use it here to show how unsurprised I was. <a href="http://vivianlostinseoul.blogspot.jp/">Vivian</a> is the best, and you should read the article. <br />
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I’m always reluctant to share stories like this online, since I like to focus on the positive things about this country. Everyone already knows that Japan has a problem with perverts. It’s a stereotype by this point. I usually like to reinforce the fact that there are so many kind and decent men living here in Japan who wouldn’t dream of hurting a woman. I even married one. But I think anyone reading this blog already knows the good. I think one of the biggest problems is that people who don’t live here tend to overplay the “wacky Japan” stuff, focusing on the extreme minority of creeps who steal underwear and touch women on the train, while people who live here tend to downplay the idea and feel that Japan is a really safe place for women all the time. Neither is completely true.<br />
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<b><i>Japan is a relatively safe country, and I feel fortunate to live here. On any given day, I usually feel perfectly safe anywhere I go alone, regardless of the hour. That said, I’ve experienced more unwanted harassment here in Japan than I have in any other country.</i></b> I think that Japan is a safe country, but it’s not always the safest country for women. Maybe it’s because I’ve only lived in big cities, but I have never met a woman in Japan – foreign or Japanese – who hasn’t had an encounter with a deviant here. The stories I hear from women are usually low-level as far as deviant behavior goes (most women are likelier to encounter someone exposing himself than to deal with actual assault) but all of the experiences have been frightening, disconcerting and sometimes even traumatizing for the women involved.<br />
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These are ten true stories that my friends have told me. Some of mine are included. All the names have been changed. I’m not writing these stories to be sensational but instead to remind all of us to be careful and not let the relative safety of Japan lure us into dropping our guards. There are good people and bad people in every country. You might notice that I didn’t include any cases of incidents where drinking was involved or any incidents that happened in clubs or bars. Unfortunately, incidents occurring in those types of situations are all too common in any and every country. All of the following examples are from times when a woman is least likely to expect that anything negative might happen to them.<br />
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1. The Zara in Shinjuku is really crowded, but there’s one escalator that goes between the 2nd and 3rd floor and is used less. Nora was on the escalator when she heard a weird whisper like someone trying to call an animal. She turned around and there was a man touching himself behind her on the escalator while looking up her skirt. So scary. Nora tried to tell a security guard, but he was wearing a mask so she couldn’t describe his face.<br />
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2. When Eriko was five years old, she was separated from her mother at a department store and a man took her to a corner and put his hands inside her clothes. Someone saw him and called a security guard, who told her mother what had happened. She was only five years old, so she doesn’t remember the actual incident, but she remembers what happened afterwards. Her mother started crying hysterically and immediately (that same day) took her to a hair salon to give her a short little-boy cut. My friend remembers being afraid that her mother was crying and later, she remembers her father punching a wall when he heard about the incident. After that day, Eriko was dressed almost exclusively in long pants and drab colours, and her hair didn’t grow long again until she was in her 20s. The experience really scared her and made her feel ashamed, like she had done something wrong.<br />
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3. Katie was walking in a crowded park with her cousin, who was just visiting Japan. An old man (mid-60s) with a very high-tech looking camera was in the park taking pictures of trees and other things. He approached them, told them in English that they were very beautiful, and politely asked them if he could take their picture. They allowed him to take the picture, and he thanked them. They thought he was just a cute old man, kind of an amateur hobby-photographer. But then he showed them the pictures he had taken: he had zoomed in and only taken a picture of Katie’s cleavage. They were so shocked and grossed-out at his creepy eye-contact and smile as he got their reaction after seeing the pictures. He then ran away like a coward, but Katie said she was really mad at herself for not taking the camera and breaking it. Or for not reacting in any way at all. They were both just so surprised that they were frozen. Katie said she felt especially awful that her cousin got this negative impression of Japan on her first day in the country.<br />
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4. Sometimes, Kendal does English lessons on Skype lessons to supplement her income. She started off doing lessons with anybody, but only teaches children now because she finally got sick of all the men exposing themselves and saying creepy things to her during the lesson.<br />
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5. There’s a very clean, beautiful park in a nice part of Kobe where Michelle used to go to read a book on a park bench during her lunch break. She stopped going after catching a public msrbator staring at her from behind a tree on three different occasions in a space of only two months. Twice, she thinks it was the same man, which really scared her because she thought he might be a stalker. On all three occasions, he fled by bike when she discovered him and started screaming. The third time, she wasn’t screaming in fear but in anger and disgust. She screamed that she was going to tell the cops, and she did end up filing a report. Now, whenever Michelle walks through that park alone, she holds her camera in her hand on video mode, ready to take a video of the man to bring to the cops if it even happens again. She eats lunch at her desk now, or with friends.<br />
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6. When Ayane was in high school, she was groped so many times on her morning commute that she said that she started having to get creative. She would line up for the train every morning and then just as the train approached the platform, she’d run to another line to confound gropers, who usually line up behind girls they’d like to target. Ayane said that she thinks high school girls should be allowed to wear regular clothes to school and change into their school uniform when they arrive because there are so many men with uniform ftishes. She and her friends used to wear sweatpants under their skirts on the way to school, which is against school rules in Japan. They would get in trouble for it, but she said the punishment was still better than being assaulted. She said she used to cry on her way to school sometimes because it just made her feel so powerless. Now that she’s an adult, she says thinking about it just makes her angry.<br />
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7. Jessie works in the media and has an online presence. She suddenly started to get weird emails sent to her in broken English from a man who told her where she had been that day and what sorts of things she had been doing. This really scared her because it felt like stalking behavior. It was so creepy for Jessie not to know who the man might be. He could be anyone she walked part on the street. She began to feel suspicious of everybody.<br />
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8. Sophie was attacked from behind while walking through a park on her way to work. It was in broad daylight in a residential area in Saitama. He tried to drag her towards some bushes, but she was able to kick and fight him off. After he ran away, Sophie screamed and screamed, but nobody came out of their houses to see what was going on. Since she had just arrived in Japan and couldn’t speak Japanese, she called her boss to come to the police station and translate while they filed a report. She remembers being horrified when one of the police officers listened to the ordeal with a smile on his face the whole time, looking like he thought it was pretty funny. A lot of Japanese people laugh or smile when they’re nervous or put in an awkward situation, but she didn’t realize this cultural difference back then and was really offended. Sophie lived in Tokyo at the time and was commuting two hours to Saitama five days a week. She lived in a nice neighborhood, but her apartment was old and had no guard or security system for the building. After the attack, she became paranoid that her attacker would follow her to her house, where she lived alone. Once, about a month after the attack, a strange incident happened. Someone knocked on her door, one night at around 11 PM. She wasn’t expecting a visitor. When she tried to look out of the peep-hole, it was black as though someone was covering it with his finger. She started to panic and waited in front of her door, barely able to breathe until she heard him walk away. Sophie called her friend who lived down the hall and told her to come over immediately. When the first arrived, Sophie opened the door and saw that someone had left a bouquet of red roses lying on the ground in front of the door. The incidents may have been completely unrelated, but it completely terrified Sophie, and she asked her boss to transfer her to a completely different part of Japan. This story is atypical and in no way are occurrences like this common in Japan. But unfortunately, stalking is a risk.<br />
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9. Emma used to live on the first floor of an apartment. If you’re a woman, especially a woman living alone, she says that you should try to get an apartment on the second floor or higher. The first floor makes things easy for peeping toms and for anyone to steal underwear and other items hung on the laundry line. Emma had a bunch of underwear and even a bra stolen off her line. Emma’s Japanese girlfriend told her that if you live on the first floor, it helps to hang one or two items of men’s clothes on the outside line just to make it look like a male is living there. Dry your lingerie inside the house or hide it behind a towel if it’s outside. Keep your curtains drawn when you’re in the house alone. Finally, Emma ended up moving to a new place. The first floor is also the likeliest to have cockroaches, which also factored big into her decision to move.<br />
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10. Risa told her (female) co-workers about being groped on the train on the way to work, and she was surprised when they were totally unsympathetic. One told her “it was probably just because you’re so pretty” and another woman told her that she should start wearing pants instead of skirts with her suit because wearing a skirt is like an invitation. Sad.<br />
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Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537466753368277559.post-25122069046338986092014-06-25T18:34:00.001-07:002014-06-25T18:34:55.661-07:00Which is better: a baby boy or a baby girl?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRsQOKWpRyddKGt_ll_EQ7cag5py4dbFTeMu_kuF0aG8LIFmI1G2pym546PaLlQsra37zgNyjklNUFId9_pPEwt-oG9SBLwbj-5ilzhKqZhR2gXn3vm_dIvhYpimI_pZiaOhwaEzjYIbjL/s1600/BABY_BOY_AND_BABY_GIRL_MODEL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRsQOKWpRyddKGt_ll_EQ7cag5py4dbFTeMu_kuF0aG8LIFmI1G2pym546PaLlQsra37zgNyjklNUFId9_pPEwt-oG9SBLwbj-5ilzhKqZhR2gXn3vm_dIvhYpimI_pZiaOhwaEzjYIbjL/s1600/BABY_BOY_AND_BABY_GIRL_MODEL.jpg" height="320" width="279" /></a></div>
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First off, I’m aware that this is a horrible topic for a blog post. It’s boring for those of you who aren’t interested in children, and it’s bound to offend somebody. So feel free to skip this. I’m basically just writing it for my sister, anyway.<br />
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My sister is pregnant right now and desperately hoping for a girl. She already has a boy. She’s convinced that it’s common to wish for one gender over another when you’re pregnant, and I think she’s right. I mean, everyone just hopes for a healthy baby, but I think many people secretly have a preference that they don’t usually want to share. Except that I really don’t have one at all. If you had asked me a few years ago, I would have said I’d choose a boy. But now I’m just as happy about the idea of a girl. Really.<br />
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These types of posts are usually just full of bad gender stereotypes about blue / trucks vs pink / dolls, but I have been asked to make a list of the reasons I’d personally be happy to have a girl and the reasons I’d be equally happy to have a boy. I’m spelling certain words using a * because I’m tired of getting spammed by p*rn sites when I spell them out properly. I’m not just being prudish.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>BOY </b></div>
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<b>1. All my friends have boys </b><br />
I don’t have too many friends with children, but all the parents I know have boys. This would make asking for advice and collecting used clothes and toys simple.<br />
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<b>2. Sexism in Japan </b><br />
Almost every woman on Japanese television speaks in an intentionally high-pitched baby voice and plays dumb for the audience. Almost every woman in Japanese TV commercials is either a 1950s Stepford-style housewife or a sexy high school girl. The sexism in Japan is well-documented and you’re already familiar with the statistics. The <a href="http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201406230042">Shiomura incident</a> last week was only the most recent example. Disgusting. <br />
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<b>3. I’d worry less about his safety </b><br />
I’m not convinced that Japan has any more pedo*hiles than other countries, but I certainly think they have easier access to children here in Japan. Public transportation means that a lot of people will easily be able to meet and come into contact with my child. Because my house has no yard, I imagine my child will be playing in public parks a lot. And just in general, Japan has a lower awareness of “stranger danger” and I see kids playing unsupervised in the parks here all the time. That combined with the stories I’ve heard from almost every single one of my female friends would make me a paranoid mother if I had a daughter. A little boy can also become a target, but it’s less likely. It’s like that quote: If you have a boy, you only have his p*nis to worry about. If you have a girl, you have to worry about every p*nis in the world.<br />
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<b>4. Fear of being replaced </b><br />
I’m joking. But my husband would completely spoil a girl. He’d give her anything she asked for. And teenage girls almost always side with their fathers and fight with their mothers. I did. It would be really difficult having a teenage girl. It would be kind of fun to be the only female in the house.<br />
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<b>5. I just like playing with little boys</b><br />
I have always preferred babysitting little boys. I don’t know why.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>GIRL </b></div>
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<b>1. It’s easier to name a girl </b><br />
We have already thought of a girl’s name. It is harder to think of a boy’s name. I’ve already written about <a href="http://openprivatelife.blogspot.jp/2014/01/japanese-baby-names-boy-mixed-half-japan.html">naming a bi-cultural baby boy</a>.<br />
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<b>2. No future wife </b><br />
She might have a wife in the future, but statistically it’s less likely. I have a great relationship with my mother in law, but having a bad one is so common it’s a trope. Having a girl would mean bypassing that.<br />
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<b>3. Girls reach milestones faster </b><br />
Little girls often start talking faster than little boys. This means less struggling to interpret the desires of a frantic, hysterical child with no vocabulary.<br />
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<b>4. Girls get better baby clothes </b><br />
Girl’s baby clothes are usually cheaper and cuter. There is more variety. Also, a baby girl wearing clothes from the boy’s section (or free hand-me-downs from my friends who all have boys) doesn’t make anyone blink, but a little boy in a stereotypical girly pink dress might provoke unwanted comments from strangers or make people think I am a crazy person who really, <i>really</i> just wanted a girl..<br />
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<b>5. Asian woman abroad </b><br />
Socially, I have noticed that it seems to be easier for Asian women living abroad. Asian men seem to struggle more with making friends and romantic partners. I know a lot of Japanese women who never had any problems dating or integrating into life in Europe or North America, while I’ve met a lot of men who were pretty lonely during their time living abroad. I’m just basing this on personal observation, but a lot of the loneliness might have been because of a language barrier that my child may not have, and because most of my guy friends who lived in the West were very, very short, a problem my future child is unlikely to have just based on genetics.<br />
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Again, I'm sorry about the topic. Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537466753368277559.post-66695086226099723312014-06-25T00:32:00.000-07:002014-06-25T00:32:05.246-07:00Bukatsu: Japanese Sports Clubs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEFyK5T75whSiSLwSc-PZSs3CnUWo3Qw0VMSDLEbeHfTY_cefJhUWU_VVzJHMqNIXYNp-lb53DiVuTBZKBKZMuNQX3gvyN15vlNhr5bMvpnSZxKGxc9o7xpka1B1VpPBPMf_j9DmvgFIes/s1600/bukatsu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEFyK5T75whSiSLwSc-PZSs3CnUWo3Qw0VMSDLEbeHfTY_cefJhUWU_VVzJHMqNIXYNp-lb53DiVuTBZKBKZMuNQX3gvyN15vlNhr5bMvpnSZxKGxc9o7xpka1B1VpPBPMf_j9DmvgFIes/s1600/bukatsu.jpg" height="211" width="320" /></a></div>
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The <a href="http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2014/06/22/issues/consuming-school-clubs-worry-foreign-parents/#.U6pkfkD6gwo">Japan Times</a> has a really interesting article on <i>bukatsu</i>, Japanese junior and senior high school club (usually sports-related) activities. This article is definitely something that anyone possibly planning to raise a child in Japan should read.<br />
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I think that sports are really good for teenagers. Joining a sports team can be a great way to make friends, keep physically fit, get time away from constant screens and build confidence. I would love to put my future child into sports of he or she shows any interest at all. I just wish that kids in Japan could join a sports team without it becoming an all-consuming time-suck. Japanese kids in <i>bukatsu</i> practice every day after school and on weekends. Sometimes, they even practice before school. They usually practice during summer vacation, as well. The article talks about the lack of moderation in Japanese <i>bukatsu</i>.<br />
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<i>“Australian mother Melissa understands only too well how bukatsu can permeate into every spare waking moment of a teenager’s life. Her younger child is a member of the high school dance club and practices not only mornings and evenings, but even at lunchtime most days. </i><br />
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<i>“Generally I think kids doing sport is good, but why can’t Japan get the hang of moderation?” asks Melissa. “Basically they are training them to be great salarymen — work 18-hour days without complaining and without having another life.”” </i><br />
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It also talks about the poor teachers who are often roped into being volunteer coaches for the teams. My brother-in-law is a teacher at a Japanese high school and he’s also the volunteer coach for the table tennis team. Table tennis is just ping pong, not even a “real” sport to a lot of people, but he hasn’t had a Saturday off in over a year, and he coaches his team over every single holiday. He doesn’t even get New Year or Obon off. And since coaching for <i>bukatsu</i> is a volunteer job, he’s not getting paid for any of these Saturdays. I feel sort of sorry for him, but he never complains.<br />
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I don’t like the idea of forcing a child to do things he isn’t inclined to do, but I think that every child should have a chance to be exposed to certain things. Kids should be made to practice a musical instrument (the kid can choose the instrument) for a few years at least. Kids should be made to do some sort of physical activity of their choice. Kids should be taken to museums and on trips, even if they think it’s going to be boring. Kids should be made to study a second language for at least a few years. I think exposure is really important. And I also think that you can learn to like things though exposure. I hated cilantro with passion until my first boyfriend’s mother started serving me food with cilantro in it that I was too polite to decline every time I went to her house. Now I like it. I used to hate long-distance running until my close friend guilted me into doing an hour-long run with her every night. Now I love it. I think it’s nice when kids are able to be exposed to a variety of experiences. And <i>bukatsu</i> inhibits that exposure.<br />
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If teenagers are practicing for their sports activities from 5-7 AM before school starts, I think they’d be tired during their classes and less likely to learn, be curious and retain information. And if they are practicing for the same sports activities every Saturday or Sunday, this cuts in on family time or time that could be spent doing other things with other friends. I just think that <i>bukatsu</i> cuts in on the variety of activities teenagers should be experiencing. I might be wrong – a kid without <i>bukatsu</i> might just be spending more time in front of a screen or doing drugs in the park like they’re in a Harmony Korine movie. But I’d like to give a kid the benefit of the doubt.<br />
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Another reason I’m not a huge fan of <i>bukatsu</i> is strictly an issue of cultural difference. I’m personally not a fan of <i>bukatsu</i> because I think the <i>senpai-kohai</i> culture in Japan is sort of gross when it’s taken to the extremes these kids take it. Older kids make younger kids clean their gear and carry everything. Sometimes, younger kids are bullied and treated badly. I don’t like the idea of someone feeling entitled to order another person around and talk down to him just because he was born six months earlier. And I find the simpering <i>kohai </i>boot-licking thing really unattractive, especially in men. I went on a date with a guy once who was very attractive until I saw him with his older co-worker later that night. The groveling really got to me. I wouldn’t want my child to grow up thinking that behaving that way is desirable. I do understand, however, that it’s just a different culture. There are probably plenty of things about my culture that Japanese people find off-putting, unfamiliar or even gross.<br />
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All that said, my husband and his sisters loved their <i>bukkatsu</i>. My husband was on the track team and his sisters were both on the basketball team. Being on these teams really gave them something to look forward to and it was a great way for them to keep physically active. They have nothing but great memories. And it didn’t turn them into drones or make them buy wholeheartedly into the idea of interacting with others based on strict hierarchy. My husband is very artistic with a lot of other interests. He started his own business where he can be his own boss. And his sisters are similarly independent with good social skills. I’m not completely opposed to the idea of <i>bukkatsu</i>. It’s actually really hard to <i>ruin</i> a kid forever, no matter what culture he is raised in.<br />
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1. Have you thought about this? If you’re planning to raise a child in Japan, what do you think about <i>bukkatsu</i>?<br />
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2. What do your Japanese friends or partner think about <i>bukkatsu</i>? Were they involved in club activities when they were in school? Was it a positive experience for them?<br />
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3. I know that some of you readers teach in Japanese high schools and junior high schools. Do you have first-hand experience with any of these clubs? What do you think about the kids who join them?Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537466753368277559.post-61959303008874438022014-06-23T20:36:00.000-07:002014-06-23T20:37:59.952-07:00Your Life in Weeks<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuGTdPNp7XtwCsIS0yIaiVQ6NIQfaTAq8XLByCmy4MQXHGoD_2Yx0uglq-0culIQZ-Q5dgXi70zhyphenhyphentcqPRb_3lARU2LZ7TohgHKZTCOgQf6WHgll6sZHMADuAd9EX4uugGF8_pyxOkuDsE/s1600/Lifeinweeks.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuGTdPNp7XtwCsIS0yIaiVQ6NIQfaTAq8XLByCmy4MQXHGoD_2Yx0uglq-0culIQZ-Q5dgXi70zhyphenhyphentcqPRb_3lARU2LZ7TohgHKZTCOgQf6WHgll6sZHMADuAd9EX4uugGF8_pyxOkuDsE/s1600/Lifeinweeks.png" height="320" width="202" /></a> </div>
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This is a visual representation of a 90 year human life in weeks. For me, it's both exciting and terrifying. Every square on this chart represents a week in your life. I printed it out and coloured all the finished weeks with a hi-lighter. Then, I circled all sorts of weeks that have been especially significant or interesting ones for me. If you are also <strike>a nerd with a lot of time on your hands</strike> the type of person who loves to make lists and document your life, you should really try it. Depending on which weeks you choose to circle, it will also help you clearly see your priorities. And it will help motivate you to create more of the same type of memorable weeks for yourself in the future. </div>
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Here are some ideas for dates to circle:</div>
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-Childhood milestones </div>
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-When you lost your virginity </div>
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-The first time you met certain people who have affected your life<br />
-When you first read the books that have affected your life </div>
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-Educational milestones (graduations, etc)</div>
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-Career milestones (new jobs, promotions) </div>
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-A perfect day (vacation, family reunion) </div>
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-The first time you did certain things (moving out of the family home, going abroad)</div>
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-A divorce or a death of a loved one (not all significant weeks are obviously positive)</div>
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The chart is <a href="http://explore.noodle.org/post/87993274058/these-weeks-are-all-weve-got-the-average-human">from this site</a>.</div>
Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537466753368277559.post-6715529067753832142014-06-11T21:02:00.000-07:002014-06-11T21:02:24.091-07:00Bartering Skills in Japan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAp0esITTDAPs9FFcjAAxVe63O2nOieHOmq3wzHMfcTe67sRWbvgJzCTEaXD3xeQVYr4OSplWDxH03DRydHmPO4_lO4CE53-tZ0XlMefYWQm2dltgHxO8nmhc0dNONoJYDZYddx23dbmQr/s1600/barter.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAp0esITTDAPs9FFcjAAxVe63O2nOieHOmq3wzHMfcTe67sRWbvgJzCTEaXD3xeQVYr4OSplWDxH03DRydHmPO4_lO4CE53-tZ0XlMefYWQm2dltgHxO8nmhc0dNONoJYDZYddx23dbmQr/s1600/barter.gif" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
I wish bartering were more popular here in Japan. I wish I could teach people a skill in exchange for a completely different skill. I know there are a lot of opportunities for language exchange here in Japan, but I wish more types of exchanges were common. My old roommate lived in NYC for a year and was decent at English so she used to teach English to a girl in exchange for tennis lessons. But this is the only example I’ve ever heard of this happening.<br />
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Sometimes, if what you want to do isn’t “a thing” here in Japan, you just have to make it into one. House parties, for example. People don’t have house parties in Japan, and I missed them. Back home, I had always lived with roommates and our houses have always been fairly fun and social. House parties are cheaper than <i>izakayas</i>, with no cigarette smoke, better drinks and more potential for fun. Four years ago, in the house I shared with two of my girlfriends, we would have house parties every month. Ayaka, one of the roommates, even met her now-husband in our kitchen. At the largest party, we had over thirty people packed into a small apartment. Sometimes we had themes, sometimes we did birthday parties or holiday parties. Sometimes we cooked fancy things and sometimes we did dessert-potlucks. Sometimes we had games and music playlists, and other times we had nothing planned at all. Sometimes we made dress-codes. Sometimes we asked guests to bring specific types of drinks to share with everyone. The parties were always a lot of fun, and there were always new people coming over to keep things fresh.<br />
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I personally don’t have a lot of teachable or marketable skills, but I have a few. I have two languages I could teach. I’ll bet I could teach a yoga class or be a motivational running coach for someone. I’m really good with healthy weight loss and if someone met with me twice a week for coaching, I know they’d come away with a more toned body. I could also babysit. In exchange, I’d love to learn to play tennis, make furniture out of wood, do hair and makeup or get better at cooking. I’d also like to start a book club with people who have decent (similar) taste in books.<br />
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Specifically, though, I’m thinking about my future child(ren) here in Japan. Lessons in anything are expensive and intense over here. I’d rather just make my own “lessons” with a good group of friends and share them for free.<br />
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English, for example. I’m not rich and I’m not going to put futurechild into a private, international school for many other reasons. So I’d love to have four non-Japanese friends to barter a casual, Saturday English school with. Here’s the idea:<br />
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All the kids come to the house from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. There are English games, songs, snacks, spelling practice, reading practice, dress-up games and whatever else kids do. (Honestly, I don’t know anything about teaching English to children, but my sister is a preschool teacher who owns her own school and my step-mother was a first-grade teacher for thirty years, so I’ll ask) I’ll take them to the park or to an aquarium, zoo or museum. Sometimes they’ll just be playing. I’ll make them a lunch and keep things light and fun. The only rule will be that everything has to be in English.<br />
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If I can get four other NJ mothers or fathers to commit to taking all the kids one week a month, this will be free and good for everyone. It will mean three relaxing Saturdays a month for catching up on all the stuff you don’t get to do when you have kids, and one insane day a month where you have at least four kids in your house all day. It will mean that your children have one day a week of English immersion with friends. And it will be free.<br />
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I’d also love to barter other things besides English when I have kids. I’d love to give futurechild ballet lessons, soccer/football lessons and a ton of other lessons that I won’t be able to afford in Japan. But I am pretty confident in my ability to teach children a few things in the future. I could tutor / give a kid lessons on the following things: English, French, geography, world religions, science, swimming, <i>Eiken</i>,<i> IELTS, TOEFL, TOEIC</i>, history, mathematics (up to junior high), participating in speech contests. I’m sure, if you think about all the lessons or interests you had as a kid, you’d be able to come up with a rough list of random teachable skills you have. I want to find people to trade lessons with. I’d also love to trade foreign-language children’s books and board games with other people. They’re expensive.<br />
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Again, this is just something I’m thinking about for the faraway future. I don’t even have any kids yet. But I like this idea a lot. I hate spending a lot of money on things that I think should be free in principle. I also like the social aspect of depending on friends and helping each other raise decent children together.
Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537466753368277559.post-37592898286066134442014-06-10T00:06:00.001-07:002014-06-10T00:07:19.289-07:00What is a hiroen? (Japanese wedding etiquette)I’ve been to so many weddings since I got married a year and a half ago, and all of them were so different. Two couples were a non-Japanese person and a Japanese person. Two couples were both non-Japanese people. Six Japanese weddings, including two that I got to be the <a href="http://openprivatelife.blogspot.jp/2013/07/japanese-wedding-hiroen-money-guests.html">uketsuke</a> in, and two others where I was in the bride’s family. One with a very visibly pregnant bride. One where the couple was gay. One super fancy wedding where the couple was extremely rich. One in a forest. One on the edge of a lake in the dark. Every wedding was different, but all of them were a lot of fun. The differences were what made them special and memorable.<br />
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The hiroen is a very important part of any Japanese wedding, and one that I’ve only seen at wedding where both partners are Japanese. (I didn’t have a hiroen at my own wedding, mainly because I didn’t want to charge my wedding guests 300,00 yen to show up. I also didn't want my boss to give a speech in front of my family and friends!) The hiroen comes after the ceremony and before the after party. I guess the best way to describe it would be as a fancy lunch with a lot of set rules. Here is what generally happens at a hiroen.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqlv3nl5Kug2Xc7N8er8OoHAKIdhoaYQIH3wPk8Bv52-NSVLdh1FQnYLRj3JmHFhYHPWfIxH_kmK_dichmegFoyUWLtRs7iduk6tH-RhQXbsIQ71j3pY_EoCbK3bzWSdmgRqjuFMI9-p3s/s1600/hiroencake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqlv3nl5Kug2Xc7N8er8OoHAKIdhoaYQIH3wPk8Bv52-NSVLdh1FQnYLRj3JmHFhYHPWfIxH_kmK_dichmegFoyUWLtRs7iduk6tH-RhQXbsIQ71j3pY_EoCbK3bzWSdmgRqjuFMI9-p3s/s1600/hiroencake.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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1. At about half of the Japanese weddings I’ve been to, the hiroen begins in a garden in front of the actual venue, where guests are encouraged to mingle with each other and are offered a really simple drink in a really small glass. Usually there’s a choice of oolong tea, juice or some kind of fruity alcohol. Sometimes there’s no drink, because you really shouldn’t be drinking before the official toast.<br />
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2. Go into the dining hall. It’s beautiful. There are usually chandeliers and mirrors all over the place. You’re seated at an assigned place with your name on it. The family members of the bride and groom are at the back of the room. The friends are at the front. The bride and groom are at the front of the room, sitting on a little stage so that everyone can see them and take pictures of them. Your glass is filled with champagne. Don’t drink it. There’s a card on your plate. It’s a letter written especially for you from the bride. It must take hours to write all of the letters. Put it away before things get spilled on it.<br />
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3. Two people come up to a microphone at the front of the room and give speeches. The people are almost always the boss of the groom and the boss of the bride. Twice, I’ve seen a friend do it. Then, another man will come up and make a toast. If the man is an old man, don’t touch the champagne. It’s going to be a long speech. If the man is young, feel free to hold your champagne glass while he talks. It will be short and energetic.<br />
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4. After the toast, the waiters will come around with the first course, and the MC will get on the microphone and introduce the bride and the groom. She’ll probably tell you about where they’re from, what their favourite childhood pastimes were, how they met, and their plans for the immediate future. You can eat while the MC is talking. You can try to eat everything they serve you, but keep in mind that there are about seven courses. The food will probably be a Japanese version of French food. The food at Japanese weddings is excellent, though. If you’re close with the bride and the groom, you can use this time to go up to the stage and get your picture taken with the bride and groom before everyone else starts to. The bride will change outfits <i>at least </i>twice, so make sure to catch them all.<br />
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5. At this point, there will usually be a movie, probably made by friends who aren’t at the wedding. Since Japanese weddings cost so much, a lot of acquaintances, co-workers and new friends aren’t able to attend, so they make a video showing their congratulations. You’ll see them later that night at the after-party, which is called the <i>nijikai</i> in Japanese.<br />
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6. If you’re just a friend of the bride and groom, feel free to skip this part. But if you’re part of the family, this will be the time when you take a big bottle of beer and walk over to the tables where the other family’s members are sitting and offer to pour them beer. And people will come over to you, as well. If someone tries to pour you some beer, don’t refuse it. That’s rude, especially if you’re a man for some reason. (I’ve seen women politely refuse) Just let them pour it and thank them for it. Same as if you see someone with an almost-full glass: pour a token amount in just to congratulate them and be friendly. Everyone gets kind of drunk at the hiroen, but nobody gets drunk enough to start dancing, making a scene, talking loudly while speeches or movies are happening, or being sick. Everyone just gets kind of red and friendly. Keep it under control.<br />
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7. If they had kids in their wedding: music from a children’s movie or TV show will start to play and the ring bearer (called the ring boy in Japanese) and the flower girl will come up and get a present as a thank you for being in the wedding.<br />
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8. Before the main course even comes, the cake will be cut. For some reason, it always takes me by surprise and I never get a proper picture of the cake being cut. I just always hear clapping and see a big crowd at the front and suddenly, it’s done. Sometimes, the bride and groom will feed cake to each other. They never smash cake into each other’s faces. Twice, I’ve seen the mothers get called up to the stage for “last bite” which means the last time the mother will ever get to feed her child. Both times I’ve seen this, the mothers have cried. Do people do “last bite” in any other country?<br />
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9. After the cake cut, two of the brides close friends are called up to the front of the room. A little bit is said about them. They are the escorts who will lead the bride out for her first costume change. I’ve been called up once. I was really flattered, because it’s usually the bride’s best friends who are called to do this. The escorts walk the bride to the door, bow and leave. After the bride leaves, the groom calls up two of his escorts. If he has brothers, it will usually be one of them. If he doesn’t have brothers, it will be one or two of his friends. He bows and leaves. The escorts come back to the hiroen and keep eating.<br />
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10. Another video will be shown at this point. It will probably be the baby pictures video. After that, the lights will go dim and the bride will make her second entrance in a new costume. She will either be wearing a traditional Japanese wedding kimono or she’ll be wearing a dress that looks like something out of Gone with the Wind. It will be colourful and have tons of ruffles. She might be wearing a headpiece and she’ll definitely be wearing a sparkly necklace. Everyone will rush up to get pictures with her in her new costume. If she’s wearing a wedding kimono, the groom will be in hakama. If she’s in a dress, the groom may or may not get a costume change. Sometimes he only changes part of his outfit, like from a necktie to an ascot. Japanese groom outfits are often surprisingly gaudy. The fabric is often shiny, and the colour is often pure white or silver. The bride and groom will walk around with a candle, lighting the candles on everyone’s tables.<br />
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11. At this point, things usually get a little weird. People (usually co-workers or people on a sports team with the groom) will do strange performances that are a surprise to the bride and the groom. These performances often involve costumes, imitations of TV comedians, choreographed dances and quite likely partial nudity. Enjoy.<br />
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12. You get cake. Sometimes there’s a whole dessert buffet. Sometimes, a tray of pretty desserts is brought to your table along with the cake.<br />
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13. The parents of the bride and the groom are brought to the back of the room and are spotlighted by two big spotlights as the main lights dim. The bride stands in front of her stage with a microphone. She is also spotlighted. She reads a letter to her parents that she wrote. Some of the letter is scripted (there’s always a formulaic apology about causing “meiwaku” and not being a good daughter) but most of it is really heartfelt and beautiful. Everyone cries. I have never not cried at this part. Afterwards, sometimes the groom reads a letter to his parents and sometimes he doesn’t. Nobody listens too much to the groom’s speech because they’re all wiping their eyes from the bride’s speech. The groom’s speech is short. Then, the bride and groom go give a present to their parents. The present is usually a beautiful bouquet of flowers for the mothers and a boutonniere for the fathers.<br />
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14. After this, the wedding is basically over. There might be another movie, another costume change or another weird performance, but just as likely not. Look under your chair. There’s a heavy, glossy paper bag under there. It’s called the <i>Hikidemono</i>. It’s full of beautifully wrapped presents. There are always two kinds of snacks (and I’ll bet one is a Baumkuchen) and one of these four things: a nabe set, a set of cups, a heavy catalogue you can order a gift out of, or a set of towels. Congratulations. It’s the most expensive set of cheap towels you will ever own. Don’t open any of these things until you get home.<br />
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15. The hiroen is over. As you exit the dining hall, the bride and groom will say goodbye to you and give you a small present as big as your hand. There’s some type of cookie in there.<br />
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16. The family members will go home, and the friends will all head to the <i>nijikai</i>. More people who weren’t at the wedding will be there. There will be tons of games with prizes, people flirting with each other, and more than likely straight guys kissing each other. After that, the bride and groom usually go back to the hotel and the roudiest guests head to the <i>sanjikai</i> (the after-after party) and this will continue until everyone gets tired and either goes home or goes to karaoke. A lot of Japanese people meet their future husbands and wives at weddings.<br />
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Other things:<br />
-Don’t worry: you will never be asked to give an impromptu speech.<br />
-Don’t clang your fork on your glassware. The bride and groom will not kiss.<br />
-There’s no dancing.<br />
-Try not to eat or drink much beforehand. They feed you so well and give you so many drinks.<br />
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Enjoy the hiroen! They're actually pretty fun!<br />
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<br />Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537466753368277559.post-54358138900292801972014-05-12T22:42:00.003-07:002014-05-12T22:42:45.801-07:00I am not a character from 90210.There is one type of person I try to avoid in Japan but somehow keep running into. This type is a person has been heavily influenced by American sitcoms, holds stereotypes about what a non-Japanese woman is going to be like based on bad TV and treats me accordingly.<br />
<br />
Usually it means speaking extremely loud English at me, coming too close to me, giving me a nickname right off the bat, telling me things about myself that are always all wrong (You can’t eat <i>natto</i>, can you? So you’re an <i>Eikaiwa</i> teacher? You are homesick, aren’t you?) and engaging me in long stories about their study abroad experiences in places that I’ve never been to and know nothing about. I know literally nothing about Perth, for example, or where “the twin cities” are but have been talked to about both places at length.<br />
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I don’t go to Irish pubs or language-exchange parties or places where I imagine these types of people might thrive, so the only times I ever find them are at <i>hanami, bonenkai</i> and weddings.
And now I have one for a co-worker. Luckily, she’s not in the same office as I am, but when she sees me on the way to the washroom or wherever, she screams the nickname that she has given me and runs over like we’re best friends. She stands really close to me, only speaks English to me, touches me on the arm and shoulder constantly. She speaks in a really excited, giggly valley-girl way with lots of “omagerrd” and “like” thrown in. And tons of very personal questions. And she always tries to tell me about the old TV show <i>The O.C.</i> like I’ve seen it and know who the characters are. I haven't and I don't.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_toczxERaFFoyOLXSLVOLXumZRQ84YNCILTu0-B1ba8LJHTSf3b5CWW7YBo1i3oqYmeeK3GT1C9vYtivRMMA7bZjRg7O3c8ynlASh57Iw4k8MUJ4lFSwtgmMoRz04-38ihnO9WFbOqGe5/s1600/nevergoingtobe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_toczxERaFFoyOLXSLVOLXumZRQ84YNCILTu0-B1ba8LJHTSf3b5CWW7YBo1i3oqYmeeK3GT1C9vYtivRMMA7bZjRg7O3c8ynlASh57Iw4k8MUJ4lFSwtgmMoRz04-38ihnO9WFbOqGe5/s1600/nevergoingtobe.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i> How she wants us to be.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNJUvyOBdbesBevcBOspsOo5K5XSUFiH-ZgGHV4VxIb97J8jOH7cGQaPo10oyDKFJlfflMFbl4PAAnL17aXdmr2ghxEqCz34f1kr-Gwd5PlrIpxSmIIkZdNDALX36xgUuf3qd_WN1jy428/s1600/iwish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNJUvyOBdbesBevcBOspsOo5K5XSUFiH-ZgGHV4VxIb97J8jOH7cGQaPo10oyDKFJlfflMFbl4PAAnL17aXdmr2ghxEqCz34f1kr-Gwd5PlrIpxSmIIkZdNDALX36xgUuf3qd_WN1jy428/s1600/iwish.jpg" height="192" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>How I want us to be</i></div>
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If that was her actual personality, I’d think she was just an eccentric person who loved all things foreign, but it isn’t. When she interacts with other Japanese co-workers, she’s quiet and professional and normal. It bothers me so much. I deliberately try to avoid her when I see her coming. Once, she came up behind me first thing in the morning while I was on my way to work and tried to link her arm into mine. <i>BFFs, just hanging out, linking arms on the way to work together. </i>I jumped away from her, totally not expecting to be touched from behind on the road to work, and she just laughed like a maniac about what a funny “scaredy-cat” I was. The lady cannot read body language at all.<br />
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I know I’m the only non-Japanese person in the office and sometimes people will go on stereotypes (co-workers who make a big show of holding the door and saying <i>ladies first</i> in English for me, finding both a pair of chopsticks and a fork at my place during a company lunch while everyone else is given only chopsticks) and it doesn’t bother me in any way. Some of that just comes with living here, and a lot of it comes from people just trying to be thoughtful. But when someone is so bad at reading me that I have to actively go out of my way to avoid contact with that person, there’s something wrong.<br />
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Have any of you ever met this kind of person? What did you do to change the situation?
Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537466753368277559.post-62838664143505182612014-04-21T22:13:00.001-07:002014-04-21T22:15:27.831-07:00Bans on Food Photography: Yes or No?<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqphHiz9SHeCONHmiG9d1wEgRYWaOz79lOE0MCJENIWn1d57Yp0wRyGniC8lOPirEj46lWkDKzhMlmIOZnMvri0AwQC8L4duxmu0kBeZk6P_6849B-SjgOUJHIMx_MkfI_Og1OXGQSQUye/s1600/alliance+graphique.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqphHiz9SHeCONHmiG9d1wEgRYWaOz79lOE0MCJENIWn1d57Yp0wRyGniC8lOPirEj46lWkDKzhMlmIOZnMvri0AwQC8L4duxmu0kBeZk6P_6849B-SjgOUJHIMx_MkfI_Og1OXGQSQUye/s320/alliance+graphique.jpg" /></a> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Fine, then. A blurry, ugly photo from your website. </i></div>
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I would never go to a restaurant that bans people from taking pictures of their food. The idea of a photography ban just seems weird, especially in Japan because every time I go out to eat (especially with girls) the first five minutes after the food comes is spent taking pictures of the food. It was like this in Japan even before social media took off. Lots of people like doing it, for whatever reason.<br />
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A ban on flash photography would be fine. A ban on noisy photography (you can get a silence app for your Japanese smartphone or use a real camera) is also fine with me. Flashing lights and noisy beeping interrupt conversations and disturb other guests.<br />
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I hardly ever feel the need to document my food, and unless I'm on vacation I usually forget to take photos of anything at all. But I don’t like the idea of a ban on photographing food because it’s my food and I paid for it and I can do what I want with it as long as it doesn’t bother anyone else.<br />
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I have a story about this one restaurant that I went to once in Kobe called <a href="http://tabelog.com/hyogo/A2801/A280102/28000319/">Alliance Graphique</a>. It’s in an old building that looks very cool with high ceilings and dark brick and polished wood. They bake their own bread there, and it’s in a neighbourhood I like. I had seen the restaurant before and had wanted to go for a while, but right when we walked in the door, the server acted rude and looked like she wished we hadn’t come. It was late on a weekday and we were the only two customers in the place. We ordered drinks and a little appetizer to share. Everything came really late, and the drinks weren’t especially good, but nothing to complain about. Then, he went to the washroom and I waited at the table, sipping my drink. I forget why, maybe I thought I had an eyelash in my eye or something, but I opened the mirror app on my phone to check whatever it was. I was the only one in the room at the time besides the server in the corner. But the server came over in a huff, doing the ダメ arms at me and explaining that there was no photography allowed in the restaurant. As though I was trying to photograph an uncleared, already-eaten appetizer plate or a half-finished gin & tonic. With my iPhone. In a dark room, alone. I was so annoyed. I’ll never go back there, and I tell people this story all the time. There are so many great restaurants with great ambiance and nice staff. I felt like I wanted to take a picture of <i>her</i> before leaving, but I didn’t. <br />
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So I'm completely against banning food photography in restaurants. Do you have an opinion?<br />
(I'm for banning Google Glass and Jack Johnson in all restaurants, though)Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537466753368277559.post-61176260820536992462014-04-21T18:52:00.000-07:002014-04-21T18:52:12.643-07:00Help me. I need new shoes.<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBqvuXDEbkKpZ7_UcYjZdY0pYlSAOfv1JWWCbzFAi794qQPLn_GMpCk1d_PilRCOsd65iY2SsXSMKH1xs_1DyKbbcGQyTZOTTxisr3Gt9wK8pFUu33mAsnpvksKApj0VSvTGUp9dQLgqZJ/s1600/classic-keds.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBqvuXDEbkKpZ7_UcYjZdY0pYlSAOfv1JWWCbzFAi794qQPLn_GMpCk1d_PilRCOsd65iY2SsXSMKH1xs_1DyKbbcGQyTZOTTxisr3Gt9wK8pFUu33mAsnpvksKApj0VSvTGUp9dQLgqZJ/s320/classic-keds.jpg" /></a> </div>
I have three favourite types of shoes that I tend to buy over and over again. One type looks like a classic pair of Keds, in either white or black. The other type looks like a cross between penny loafers and moccasins. The other type looks like a canvas ballet slipper with the strings cut off. All three are slip-ons without heels; they are cheap and go with everything. They also have no support whatsoever and are not good for my feet.<br />
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Last year, I heard that my grandmother was going in for surgery to get bunions filed off the sides of her feet. And that sounds horrifying. So I’ve been thinking that I should probably be buying better quality shoes with more support, and taking care of the feet I have. Recently, I’ve been trying to casually make myself go shoe-shopping. I hate shoe-shopping so much.<br />
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If you have any ideas about shoes I should look at, please let me know. Here are some details about the type of shoe I’m looking for. It needs to meet all these requirements, and so far I have not found any that do.<br />
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<b>Good quality, lots of arch support, etc </b><br />
I walk a lot. More than the average person, for sure. I walk to work every day (one hour each way) and I spend my lunch breaks walking. Taking walks with music is one of my favourite things to do in life. But I tend to wear 800 yen shoes that have the same amount of arch support as I would be getting with bare feet.<br />
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<b>No animals </b><br />
It’s hard to find decent shoes that aren’t made of animal skins. I don’t wear shoes made from animals and every high-quality shoe that I ever think looks cool seems to be made of leather or has some suede on it.<br />
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<b>Plain, simple, classic, not trendy </b><br />
I want shoes I can wear while I walk to work that I can also wear during work. I don’t want to be hauling different pairs of shoes around. I don’t want any decorations, buckles, weird heels or decorations. I don’t want to notice my shoes, or to have anybody else notice them.<br />
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<b>Slip-ons </b><br />
I have some great shoes that fit all the requirements, but I never wear them because they have high tops and laces and I need a shoehorn to get them on quickly without taking time to loosen the laces. Japan is a country for slip-on shoes since you’re constantly taking off your shoes and changing them. I have a black canvas pair of Van’s high-tops and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dr-Martens-Vegan-1460-Boot/dp/B004SI1SHE">this pair of Docs</a> but I never wear them because they take too long to do up and take off. <br />
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Do you have any ideas?
Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537466753368277559.post-50895409724235058882014-04-15T20:27:00.001-07:002014-04-15T20:27:57.052-07:00Japanese Words with No English Equivalent: Tekitou<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPocRi6MSFXrOBTXh24R5cWT5FdkGcdOq6dAJYU7-hcP7Cx-abTMga9PUrikQHUlZviWPvi9dIMP2WqsK1hDbYnyjOB7DM9MUm1l2v2MngmfjdhFSSwcC18VO0SSXtAE1ZdbMBaqwbN9-N/s1600/homertekitou.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPocRi6MSFXrOBTXh24R5cWT5FdkGcdOq6dAJYU7-hcP7Cx-abTMga9PUrikQHUlZviWPvi9dIMP2WqsK1hDbYnyjOB7DM9MUm1l2v2MngmfjdhFSSwcC18VO0SSXtAE1ZdbMBaqwbN9-N/s1600/homertekitou.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
適当 <i>Tekitou</i>: This is a word that can have a good or bad meaning depending on the context and the values of the person using it. If it’s used in the negative sense, it can mean something like vague, unserious, or half-assed. In a positive way, it can be used to describe something done casually, quickly and without too much effort or stress. Relaxed or lazy, depending on the context.<br />
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Some people use it as an expression on its own. Like if your roommate washed the dishes but the plates still have small pieces of dried egg on them, you can shake your head and mutter, “<i>tekitou</i>…” as you re-wash them properly. Or, it can be used to describe someone’s personality: If Valentine’s Day is important to you but your boyfriend just hands you one of those convenience store chocolate boxes still wrapped in the Family Mart bag, you can complain to your friends about how <i>tekitou</i> he is.<br />
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You can use the word<i> tekitou</i> when you want people to be more relaxed and chill about things. Like if you’re planning a picnic and one of your friends is delegating tasks to people like it’s going to be a royal feast, you can use the word tekitou to tell her that it’s not going to be a very big deal, just a small picnic, and not to worry about it if she forgets anything.<br />
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Or if you’re teaching a class (a lot of people who read this blog are teachers, so this is for you) and you do a handout where students have to make flash cards. You want them to draw pictures and cut the flash cards out, but the main point of the lesson is actually memorizing the words. But your students get their rulers out and agonize over making perfectly even cards. Then they stress out over the pictures, making absolutely sure that every colour is appropriate and every line is correct. They erase and restart everything. You just want to tell them, “look it actually doesn’t really matter what your cards look like.” You want to tell them to be more<i> tekitou</i>. You probably shouldn’t tell them, but you can think it in your head. Now you have a word for it. You’re welcome.<br />
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Just keep in mind that calling someone<i> tekitou</i> is usually seen as an insult, and describing yourself as <i>tekitou</i> will make you seem lazy. So be careful with it. But I love this word. <br />
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<i>You can do it any way you want // You can do it quickly // You don’t have to stress out about it. </i><br />
適当にやっていいよ。<br />
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<i>These documents aren’t important. You can do them up any way you want. Nobody's ever going to see them anyway. </i><br />
これ重要な書類じゃないから。適当にやればいいよ。誰も見やしないんだから。<br />
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<i>You don’t have to deal with that guy very seriously. </i><br />
彼は適当にあしらっておけばいい。<br />
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<i>I’m the only one who ever puts in any effort; he’s so half-assed about everything. </i><br />
私ばかり頑張って、彼は適当です。<br />
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If you live in Japan, you need to read this really great article about <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/japanese-words-with-no-english-equivalent-2014-4">Japanese words that have no English equivalent</a>. The article is really accurate and the examples are funny and easy to follow. There are a few other such words I have found (like <i>tekitou</i>) and I’m probably going to write about them in the next few weeks.
Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537466753368277559.post-22034822993735143902014-04-15T18:46:00.003-07:002014-04-16T18:50:30.476-07:00Japanese Actors and Actresses that I Like<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Last month, I recommended some decent <a href="http://openprivatelife.blogspot.jp/2014/01/japanese-movies-actor-drama-actress-film.html">Japanese movies</a>*. Then I realized that so many of the Japanese movies I like have the same actors in them. So here is a little bit about a few of my favourites.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Tt9RbGYSfskiqKvNUDpoYfWqCAdHLAU1xhtzXUUgxhzlSWnV22SZXZQAWG3kdxs3M2ThyIIoVzlW7F02Y_IpkTV4uSgQwo5OI5ONBH7e53_TnbUDLZdZcBABPriD9y8HNlyL82kHkCmt/s1600/Aoi+Yuu+-+Dandelion+022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Tt9RbGYSfskiqKvNUDpoYfWqCAdHLAU1xhtzXUUgxhzlSWnV22SZXZQAWG3kdxs3M2ThyIIoVzlW7F02Y_IpkTV4uSgQwo5OI5ONBH7e53_TnbUDLZdZcBABPriD9y8HNlyL82kHkCmt/s1600/Aoi+Yuu+-+Dandelion+022.jpg" height="320" width="302" /></a></div>
<b>Yu Aoi (蒼井 優)</b><br />
She was so much cooler before she <a href="http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/zV1STKI9Q9M/maxresdefault.jpg">started</a> <a href="http://ww1.sinaimg.cn/bmiddle/6782c928tw1dl7ao43dyfg.gif">hawking</a> <a href="http://i49.tinypic.com/m7b7ef.jpg">absolutely</a> <a href="http://cdn-ak.f.st-hatena.com/images/fotolife/O/O_Shumit/20101203/20101203184507.jpg">every</a> <a href="http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/tYzPYJMxEvE/maxresdefault.jpg">product</a> that has ever been sold in Japan. Seriously, click all those links and then multiply them god knows how many times. Aoi Yu used to be so beautiful and cool in a gamine way. I have one of her photo books. She’s basically a member of SMAP now.<br />
<i>You might know her from:<a href="http://openprivatelife.blogspot.jp/2014/01/you-know-i-usually-do.html"> </a></i><a href="http://openprivatelife.blogspot.jp/2014/01/you-know-i-usually-do.html">Lily Chou-Chou</a>, Honey & Clover, train ads, TV ads, bus ads, billboards.<br />
(Good lord Aoi Yu. Is the money really worth your dignity? I still love you, though. For <i>Dandelions</i>.)<br />
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<b>Tadanobu Asano (浅野忠信)</b></div>
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You already know him. He's the coolest and easily the most
masculine Japanese actor who has ever appeared onscreen. I like pretty,
androgynous people probably more than the next girl, but sometimes when
I'm watching a movie I want to believe that the guy onscreen is actually
be capable of doing the things he does. Asano sells me, 100% and I'm a
little bit scared of him. That's how cool he is.</div>
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<i>You might know him from: </i>Nejishiki, Zatoichi, Love & Pop </div>
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<b>Masako Motai (罇 真佐子) </b></div>
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This old lady is pretty great. She always plays this sour, prim, sarcastic unmarried person.</div>
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<i>You might know her from: </i>Kamome Shokudo, Toilet</div>
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<b>Satoshi Tsumabuki (妻夫木聡) </b></div>
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For some reason, a lot of movies with this guy in them are subtitled in English. That’s originally how I discovered him. I used to go through Tsutaya picking up videos with covers that looked like they wouldn’t be totally horrible and then checking if they had subtitles. This guy is actually kind of hot, so that was a bonus. I'll love him forever for basically teaching me Japanese.</div>
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<i>You might know him from: </i>Sakanatachi, Waterboys, Sapporo beer ads</div>
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<b>Joe Odagiri (オダギリ ジョー) </b></div>
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This guy is the opposite of a <i>Johnny’s</i> guy. Very masculine and stylish in a good way. He’s also a musician. He always looks like he doesn't really care that much. My husband likes him.</div>
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<i>You might know him from: </i>Scrap Heaven, Kuuki Ningyo</div>
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<b>Masanobu Ando (安藤 政信)</b></div>
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Have you seen <i>Battle Royale</i>? He was the blonde guy with the antisocial personality in it. He’s not actually in very many movies and I always wonder why not because I really, really like him.</div>
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<i>You might know him from: </i>Battle Royale, Sakuran</div>
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<b>Bae Doona</b></div>
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This girl is Korean but she’s in a lot of Japanese movies. A lot of actresses in Japanese movies allow themselves to be dolled up like idols so that they never get to become serious actresses. This girl hardly ever wears makeup in movies and is always really believable.</div>
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<i>You might know her from: </i>Linda, Linda, Linda, Kuuki Ningyo</div>
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<b>Ryo Kase (加瀬 亮)</b><br />
Somehow I find this guy really forgettable even though I love him and he's in so many good movies. The company that manages him is the one that Tadanobu Asano runs.<br />
<i>You might know him from: </i>Dare mo Shiranai, Honey & Clover, Scrap Heaven<br />
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<b>Chiaki Kuriyama (栗山千明 )</b><br />
She’s an obvious choice. The vicious schoolgirl from Kill Bill and Battle Royale is still a cool actress. I’m not really into cute, so she is definitely more my taste than the average sweet, pretty, bland actress.<br />
<i>You might know her from: </i>Kill Bill, Battle Royale, Scrap Heaven, Ju-on<br />
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<i>*All the movies I've listed are movies I recommended in my last post about <a href="http://openprivatelife.blogspot.jp/2014/01/japanese-movies-actor-drama-actress-film.html">Japanese movies</a> I recommend.</i>Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537466753368277559.post-71940253395438496792014-03-23T22:54:00.003-07:002014-03-23T22:57:39.870-07:00My first Japanese Roommates<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I’ve had four roommates here in Japan. The first two were E and M, from when I first moved here. Most of my current friends know all about the second roommates I lived with here in Japan. In fact, the second roommates introduced me to a lot of my current friends. But the first two were also wonderful, and I went to M’s wedding yesterday so I feel like writing about them now.<br />
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1. We used to have cake parties every week. Every week, one of us would pick up three mini slices of different types of cake and we’d sit in the living room trying them.<br />
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2. There were cockroaches in our apartment sometimes. I had never seen cockroaches in my life and I’m deathly afraid of them and so were E and M. One of us would wake up the others screaming in a way that would have been called “blood-curdling” in an R.L. Stine novel and all of us would jump out of bed to help. It was so disgusting and we were all genuinely scared, but we’d be laughing hysterically the whole time and jumping all over the furniture so the cockroach experiences ended up really bonding us.<br />
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3. There were also pigeons on our balcony that would wake us up at 5 AM every morning with their sounds, and the whole balcony was covered in shit. So one day we spent a day buying cheap used CDs and making mobiles to scare the birds away with. This worked for about a week, and finally we just had to buy a net and string it up to block their access. But it was fun brainstorming ways to foil the pigeons. Our house was actually pretty awful, as you can probably infer, but it was only 280,00 yen a month and quite big. Also within walking distance to work and the biggest part of the city.<br />
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4. Once, we were all feeling sad on Christmas. Christmas is a romantic holiday in Japan but E had just gotten out of a long-term relationship and M was also single. It was the first year I couldn’t afford to go back home for Christmas, and I missed my family. So we decided to have a three-person Christmas party where we bought each other presents, ate tons of mandarin oranges and watched <i><a href="http://openprivatelife.blogspot.jp/2014/01/japanese-movies-actor-drama-actress-film.html">Kamome no Shokudo</a>.</i><br />
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5. There was some drama where on three different occasions, our front door lock was filled with rubber cement or superglue. We had to call the police and change our keys three times. It was weird because our apartment had a guard and a pass-code, so it had to have been someone in our apartment complex who was doing it. And it was only happening to our door, never to anyone else’s in our apartment complex. So the police installed a special light and a camera in front of our door that monitored all movement and sent the details to the local police station in real time. They took it very seriously and the rubber cementing ended. We lived there for a full year afterwards and nothing weird ever happened. And it turned into a joke where every man in our apartment complex was a creepy possible suspect and we’d make up stories about them.<br />
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E and M only spoke Japanese and I was an extreme beginner so now we laugh about it, wondering how we ever communicated enough at first to have become such good friends over the years. I still don’t really remember how we communicated, but I think it worked so well because we had similar personalities and lax attitudes towards chores, which is essential for getting alone with roommates. You have to be on the same page about chores and noise and personal space, and we were. We were actually really perfect together as roommates. I love being married but sometimes I get a little sad that I’ll never have another chance to live with girlfriends.<br />
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I was really touched at the wedding yesterday, because M asked E and me to do her wedding <i>uketsuke</i> – the groom has two men and the bride has two women to accept the <i><a href="http://openprivatelife.blogspot.jp/2013/07/japanese-wedding-hiroen-money-guests.html">shugi-bukuro</a></i> from the wedding guests, sign them in and give them their assigned seats for the <i>hiroen</i> party. This is my second time being asked to do the <i>uketsuke</i> at a Japanese wedding, and I’m set to do a third one in May. It is actually thrilling because it means being trusted to carry around a non-descript paper bag full of anywhere from 20,000 to 50,000 dollars in cash collected from wedding guests. So I love doing the <i>Uketsuke</i>.<br />
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There are usually at least two costume changes at Japanese weddings. There’s the first wedding dress, for walking down the aisle. This usually has a long and impractical train. Then there’s the second wedding dress, for starting the <i>hiroen</i> party. This one is easier to walk in and is usually either Western style or traditional Japanese wedding kimono style. The third one is a brightly coloured glamour gown, often red or crimson. Between costume changes, one or two of the bride’s best and closest friends are called to the front of the room to escort the bride to get changed. And she chose us to be her escorts. They are basically the Japanese equivalent of bridesmaids. They are the bride’s best friends.<br />
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I was so shocked and touched that M chose us to be her wedding escorts, because when we lived together our communication was so spotty that I didn’t realize how important to her I had been. She had been very important to me, but I never realized she had felt the same way. M and I would watch a lot of bad Japanese TV together (<i>Ainori! Orange Days!</i>) and she’s probably one of the main reasons that I was able to learn Japanese. She also taught me a million Japanese food-related things that seem obvious to me now. Like how you should always get those small plastic bags at the convenience store for wrapping natto packages in so that they don’t sit in the garbage unwrapped and stink up the house. Embarrassingly, she was also the one who revealed to me how fattening mochi actually is, just like that guy in Mean Girls revealed to Regina George. I guess I had thought it was “just rice” until M told me that eating mochi at night is exactly the same as eating chocolate cake before bed. As soon as I stopped doing that, I went back to my normal weight. I still love mochi, but not as a late-night snack anymore. She introduced me to Mixi (basically the Japanese Myspace) and Japanese social media that helped my kanji reading a lot. M was a dancer when we lived together – one of those dancers you see dancing in groups in the shotengai at night. She was a fun girl to live with.<br />
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E moved to New Zealand right after I got married, and she just moved back a few weeks ago so we had a lot of talk about this time and went out for a few hours after the wedding. We hadn’t seen each other for over a year and it was amazing how fluent her English has gotten. She’s an easygoing girl with a great smile who is really into travel and wine. She has been to all sorts of interesting places and has similar random obsessions (Persian history?) that nobody else shares with me. I think these girls will be important, lifelong friends to me.<br />
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On another note, I always wonder why the concept of bridesmaids hasn’t caught on in Japan. Most Japanese weddings are done in the Western White Wedding style and so many Japanese women already love dressing in matching outfits. Why do you think it hasn’t caught on? Is it because Japanese people have fewer friends than people in other countries tend to have? Because in my experience, this is true. It’s hard to make real friends here and people usually keep their friends from elementary school throughout their lives. Also, weddings here are so expensive to attend (guests are required to give either 300,00 or 500,00 yen in cash to the couple upon arrival, and most women get their hair and makeup professionally done) that only the closest of friends are invited.<br />
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Also, yesterday’s wedding made me so grateful to my parents and their post-divorce maturity. M’s parents are also divorced and her mother gave her an ultimatum: she wasn’t allowed to invite her father to her wedding. M refused to ban her own dad from her wedding, so her mother refused to come. I can’t imagine the stress and pain that must have caused M to know that she could only invite one parent to her own wedding. I can’t imagine forcing a child to choose between mother and father. I’m so glad that my parents both came to my wedding and that both brought their partners and were completely civil and friendly to each other the entire time. I love living in Japan and I love Japanese culture, but the way Japanese people divorce is brutal for all parties, especially the children. Just completely unnecessary, and puzzling to me given how much emphasis is put on <i>gaman</i> and stoic public face in Japanese society. You’d think they could suck it up for a few hours for the sake of the kid. Luckily M’s dad was a total charmer at the wedding. He was just the life of the party, playing the drums and the saxophone as a one man band and pouring beer for everybody. She must have missed her mother but she just looked completely happy and I know that she truly was.<br />
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Sorry for this long diary-entry of a post. I also went to Okinawa and did a lot of fun things I'll write about when I have more time.The baby in the picture was from M's wedding. So cute.Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537466753368277559.post-29973504146843637562014-03-02T19:55:00.000-08:002014-03-02T19:55:18.874-08:00The New PollutionEmbarrassing things happen to me all the time, but here’s the most recent one. It usually takes me about 20 minutes to leave the house showered, made up, dressed and fed. So that means I’m usually in a sleepy daze as I leave the house, and waiting for the coffee to properly kick in as I walk to work. There is one point in the road where the tissue people always stand (in big cities all over Japan, advertisements are printed on small packets of tissues that are handed out freely on the road) and I usually always grab a pack of tissues from them. This morning, my eye was itchy and I immediately opened the pack of tissues to wipe my eye with one. I didn’t look at the pack at all until I pulled the “tissue” out and brought it to my face and realized that it wasn’t a tissue but a sanitary napkin. Who hands out samples of those on the road?? I didn’t see anyone notice it, but I’m sure someone must have seen the tall blonde-haired girl wiping her eye<i> with a pad</i> while walking down the road. Ugh. Hopefully the salarymen were all as morning-dazed as I was and nobody saw that spectacle.<br />
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March is going to be the best month for me. It is already shaping up to
be incredible. On the first day of March, I had an elaborate photo shoot
with my friend Emi in Kyoto and went to a dress-up party that had an
<a href="http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/">Awkward Family Photos</a> style photobooth set up in the host’s bedroom. Yesterday I spent the day with friends, walking around the city. We were supposed to be looking for a wedding dress but mainly we were just stopping in a million cafes. Next week, my cousin is moving back and my friend is having a birthday party AND THEN Rachel comes back to Japan. The week after that, I fly to Okinawa with four people I really like. The rest of the month is going to be filled with day trips, hikes, a wedding and a hanami. But then two horrible things have also happened this month, and both involve medical issues and people I really care about.<br />
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For those of you in Japan: did you notice the sky last week? That otherworldly white fog? That was pollution that blew in from China. The Japanese government issued a warning to ten prefectures last week telling us to avoid going outside for longer than 30 minutes a day, not to hang laundry outside, not to leave the windows open and to wear a special mask when walking around out of doors. The warning is called PM2.5. PM stands for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particulates">Particulate Matter</a> and the Wikipedia for particulates is really comprehensive. It is full of information like this:<br />
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<i>The WHO estimates that "... fine particulate air pollution (PM(2.5)), causes about 3% of mortality from cardiopulmonary disease, about 5% of mortality from cancer of the trachea, bronchus, and lung, and about 1% of mortality from acute respiratory infections in children under 5 yr, worldwide." Researchers suggest that even short-term exposure at elevated concentrations could significantly contribute to heart disease. A study in The Lancet concluded that traffic exhaust is the single most serious preventable cause of heart attack in the general public, the cause of 7.4% of all attacks. </i><br />
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The particulates are thought to cause all sorts of Cancers, birth defects, heart attacks, Alzheimer’s, asthma and other respiratory diseases. Looking at the sky last week really made it feel real. It was scary and disgusting. Today, the sky looks normal again.<br />
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While I was reading about the warnings, I found a comment on a news website left by a reader signed in only as “Zengoku” but he or she left a comment that is worth reading:<br />
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<i>Though Westernization and Industrialization has it's benefits, things such as this pollution is also the result of such so called progress. </i><br />
<i>In the Western World during the Industrial Revolution many countries suffered from things as pollution from coal, child labor, and loss of means of living, it wasn't until the people developed such things as unions and government policies on environmental protection in the West did the the West reach the standards they have today. Developing countries and other nations should keep this in mind. </i><br />
<i>With China's move towards industrialization the need to develop clean environmental policies which preserve the natural resources of wealth of the land is of utmost importance. </i><br />
<i>In North America is only 20% of the population of the World, yet it consumes 80% of the world resources. It is unsustainable. There are already notable drains of the livestock of fish, oil, and other natural resources. At this rate we won't have much of a planet left to live off of. </i><br />
<i>The sooner countries like China can implement this the sooner they can preserve some of the wealth of their land. Pollution is a heavy cost as the land and natural habitat can be destroyed and not useable for generations. Never forget that it is the land which gives us food and life.</i><br />
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Maybe because of Japan's polluted white sky, but a friend recommended a book to me and I can’t wait to read it. It’s called <i>Annihilation</i> by Jeff Vandermeer. You can read the first chapter of it <a href="http://io9.com/read-the-mesmerizing-first-chapter-of-jeff-vandermeers-1520682658">here</a>. So far, it looks like exactly the kind of book I can get really absorbed in. The kind of post-apocalyptic type of book that gets deeper and deeper the further you read. Or any book about having to survive in an unstable landscape, especially if the landscape involves anything to do with plagues or pathogens. My obsession with this type of story probably started with reading John Wyndham’s <i>The Chrysalids</i>, Aldous Huxley’s <i>Brave New World</i> and Margaret Atwood’s <i>The Handmaid’s Tale</i> in high school. The last time I felt it was during my <a href="http://openprivatelife.blogspot.jp/2013/01/lost-tv-marathon-book-sawyer-kate-locke.html?q=lost">obsession with <i>Lost</i></a> last year and I guess last night when I started playing <i><a href="http://openprivatelife.blogspot.jp/2014/03/tokyo-jungle-is-best-game-ever.html">Tokyo Jungle</a>. </i><br />
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I’m not into the ones about technology or cyborgs, zombies or machines. I’m not into sci-fi or fantasy and definitely not into historical fiction. I’m into futuristic things involving quarantines, religious prophecies, LSD experiments, environmental pollution, dictators, cults or mutation due to nuclear warfare fallout. Kind of specific. And they have to be well-written to the point that the writing doesn’t distract me but I’m not picky about them being classics of literature. I don’t mind escape fiction; I was surprised to find I liked the first <i>Hunger Games</i> book and even <i>Sphere</i>, an airplane novel by the guy who wrote Jurassic Park. If you have any similar books or movies to recommend to me, please do. Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537466753368277559.post-59167906851990036922014-03-02T16:29:00.002-08:002014-03-02T16:29:41.369-08:00Tokyo Jungle is the Best Game Ever.<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghntCe3dQBuTAGsKE3GkdQcJlwXTWCGm5YG4YSoIAJ_1aFcrvZhvWqRww697JDEDA7G_FO_MDwr22bqhKXYzq1oBHDjhWKHfAIS5jBwEZgMsfmOyRmPSp86PlDHtrYgnJwZwQL8ttIGcv7/s1600/TOKYO-JUNGLE1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghntCe3dQBuTAGsKE3GkdQcJlwXTWCGm5YG4YSoIAJ_1aFcrvZhvWqRww697JDEDA7G_FO_MDwr22bqhKXYzq1oBHDjhWKHfAIS5jBwEZgMsfmOyRmPSp86PlDHtrYgnJwZwQL8ttIGcv7/s1600/TOKYO-JUNGLE1.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a> </div>
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I don’t usually play video games, but last night I discovered the best game ever. We played it for three hours last night. It’s a PS3 game called Tokyo Jungle and it’s so cool. The story is that it’s set in the future and humans are extinct. All these animals are fighting for survival on the streets of Shibuya. It’s mostly pets and animals that have escaped from the zoo. You start off as either a deer or a Pomeranian dog and both are cute but I got so into the deer that I don’t even know the back story of the Pomeranian so I’ll just tell you about the deer.<br />
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You start off as a deer and you’re running through the streets trying to find edible plants. Every real-time minute of the game is a year, so you have to find the edible plants quickly or else your hunger meter will go down and you will starve to death. And there are predators, mostly dogs and hyenas, that can kill you but you can hide in the bushes when you see one coming. Every minute that goes by, the game gets more polluted and visibility goes down so you can’t see the predators as easily. And the plants go bad after a few years so even though you need to eat them to survive, you’ll be poisoned if you eat them years into the game. You don’t die from the poison but you get slow and sometimes convulse. And if you don’t mate by age 15, you’ll die and the game will be over. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNDykXWau93-Y4Cn_Huqbtwnz38eIcAcIDb9lu7EgxCjhienoULsGwrJQuIYOqW44SHW5pZweEY4DVpYAshPPVQUqSLk3FBn5j5OxzSVoeNpjcIVxv2kvINhPzsTAq5Lyc3Q-8ZQktJxAD/s1600/tokyojunglemate.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNDykXWau93-Y4Cn_Huqbtwnz38eIcAcIDb9lu7EgxCjhienoULsGwrJQuIYOqW44SHW5pZweEY4DVpYAshPPVQUqSLk3FBn5j5OxzSVoeNpjcIVxv2kvINhPzsTAq5Lyc3Q-8ZQktJxAD/s1600/tokyojunglemate.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Mating is pretty funny. </i></div>
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The point is to eat all the edible plants and stake out your territory with flags. If you explore enough territory and eat enough ferns, you’ll become an alpha male and start exuding pheromones that female deer will be attracted to. The pheromones just look like pink hearts all around you. So then you have to find the females with pink hearts coming out of them so you know they’re attracted to your mating hormones. When you find one, she’ll follow you and then you have to make it to a home where you can mate. When you mate, the screen goes dark and you hear a howling wolf and see hearts all over the place and then when the light comes on again there are a bunch of miniature deer all around you and those are your babies. So then you become one of the babies and I guess your first character / generation dies. Because deer only live for 20 years or so. So basically that means you have to just start again as the next generation of deer, eating enough edible plants to become an alpha male and attract a suitable mate. It’s very realistic, very circle of life.<br />
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When you get enough points as the generations of deer, you can unlock other animals and work your way up to powerful carnivorous beasts. When you’re, say, a grizzly bear, you can attack other animals and fight with them. You can also make alliances with certain animals and form fighting packs. Depending on the animal you are, there’s a back story. If you’re a beagle, the back story is about a hungry Beagle that has to overthrow a tyrannical Tosa Inu. The Beagle builds an army out of his pups to fight the Tosa, which is the boss he has to face at the end. But while this plot is going on, there’s another sub-plot about a band of hyena that you can form to defeat the Beagle and take over his territory. And while this is going on, there’s another back story about a lioness who creates an alliance and takes over the area of Shibuya near the subway and has to defend it against this boss kangaroo and his sidekicks, who are really strong rabbits. So basically it’s full of animals and every breed has its own story and objective. That essentially means that I’ll be playing this game for the next fifty years or so because there are 80 different animals to unlock, and 50 different breeds, including an Australian Silky Terrier and a gazelle. One reviewer called it <i><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/12/18/tokyo-jungle-review-part-one-prepare-to-die-psn/">basically Grand Theft Auto with lions</a>. </i><br />
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For now, I’m good just being the deer.
Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537466753368277559.post-73644967187317044962014-02-23T16:22:00.001-08:002014-02-23T16:25:31.697-08:00Cheesy Japanese Cult Anime<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This meme came from an actual educational anime movie made by Aum Shinrikyo, the Japanese doomsday cult. The anime was made before the 1995 Tokyo subway Sarin incident, which is to this day the only terrorist attack to be committed on Japanese soil. If you want to read more about the cult and the terrorist attack, I recommend Haruki Murakami’s book <i>Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche</i>. If you just want a quick overview before watching this unbearably cheesy deathcult anime, here is the Wikipedia link about the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarin_gas_attack_on_the_Tokyo_subway">Tokyo subway Sarin incident</a>.<br />
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The voice in this <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLO7ucjEMis">cheesy anime video</a> is that of Shoko Asahara, the partially blind, overweight man who became a god-like guru to hundreds of Aum Shinrikyo members in the 90s. He had his followers convinced that he was Jesus Christ and wrote a few books that mixed in the I-am-Jesus stuff with conspiracies about the British royal family, Jewish mysticism, freemasonry and other things teenagers google when they’re high. I tried to watch the video but gave up about seven minutes in because it was too boring. So I’ve only been partially brainwashed, I guess. You should watch it because the first minute or so is pretty hilarious. The gist of it is a cartoon version of Shoko Asahara (looking a lot more like Jesus than Asahara really does) in a robe, sitting in a lotus position, flying around the world while very 90s looking numbers and letters cross the screen horizontally, kind of like they did in the credits at the end of The Matrix. Shoko isn’t a very good singer, but he tries his best I guess.<br />
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Anyway, now you know where that Jesus Desu internet meme is actually from.<br />
You’re welcome.
Unknownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11359711036785102407noreply@blogger.com0