Thursday, January 1, 2004
In Japan, 1st of January is a very important day. In fact it started since 31st December on New Year Eve, family gathering, dinner, watching TV, eating lengthy soba, or going to Shrine on midnight, etc., a really busy day.
On the 1st, postcard-size New Year card will arrive in the morning on each household. Reading the New Year greeting has become one of my favourite things to do on this day. A couple of years ago, since internet has come into each household, e-greeting card has replaced some of the percentage as a choice of sending greeting card. Somehow there are still lots of people who still send and write, and post it even at the last minute. New Year lasts till 15th of January. I guess the delight and joy that a piece of card carry means more than just a click.
I have quite a few friends, old and young, that I keep sending and receiving it though we have not met for some time. So, every year with this little greeting, I know they are doing well, got married, have another baby, etc. And they also know how I am doing when they see the numbers of name under the family name increases each year. You don't need to write much, and the pattern of writing is almost standard, but you can read lots of information between the lines. With additional a line or two, it keeps the relationship long and forever. It's amazing, isn't it?
People who want to be creative, trying not to follow the clichê, you can see give them creative for a year or two, but their talents of writing will be gone after that. They got nothing to write anymore! They even give up sending cards. So, conventional expression in fact helps a lot, just follow it, then you know why you don't have to say much all the time. That's the way to do it. Don't challenge tradition as there is nothing to challenge there.
So, every year at this season, it's the time that I think of the past, know my friends, and feel relieve if they are fine, feel sad to know some who already passed away. It's this little card that carries the magic. That's why I like it very much.
Say like the Japanese, Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu. To keep the relationships last forever, pick up another line.
Kotoshi mo yoroshiku onegai moushi agemasu.
Happy New Year!!!
Give Me Some Rooms, Will Ya?
Sunday, January 11, 2004
As the Germany says, this is an old coffee. This post was written in last April, somehow things change rapidly and some of things might be untrue now. But, the bottom line of the writing attitude is, I think, basically quite the same. Information is dead, you are alive, read on your own risk.
Give Me Some Rooms, Will Ya?April 18, 2003
I used to think that journalist writes journal, so journal was something with extra value, not like a composition or essay I handed in to my English teachers. But when I found out that the word journal actually derived from Latin—means daily—I was the height of astonishment. So, I was a journalist since my mum passed away! Well, a journal is different from a diary.
Pepys' Diary, as explained at its "about page":
This site is a presentation of the diaries of Samuel Pepys, the renowned 17th century diarist who lived in London, England.Diarist could be some kind of profession that gain respect from a society, and diary is written not for personal purposes but rather to go public in the first place when it was attempted.
I think diary for Japanese or Chinese might be more personal. It is not written to be publicly read, or it is not meant to be publicised. Eventually people do publish famous novelists' letters and diaries, but I think the person who wrote it didn't mean to make it public though most of them did bare in mind that there's a risk that it might be read someday. But nowadays, the word diary might have changed its real meaning.
Jujube-san, a nickname, who runs a site called SAHELNET (in Japanese), and blogs this column titled The Wind from Sahel (Saheru no kaze), in Japanese.
In his writing, there is an entry titled Public Space which I thought it's interesting to bring it up here. The long paragraph that he quoted from CNET Japan about Japanese prefers diary than blog describes something about how Japanese attitude differs from the others from overseas. (Tacitly, it is compared to the European in general.)
Most of the personal homepage that Japanese have always started with a big greeting title like "Welcome to My/Our Home(pages)!" or the resemblance. Even though it is online, the Japanese still thinks that the homepage is like a home open to anyone who visits the home and read the page, not a public space that for everyone. The articles says that is how the general Japanese think about the home and the concept of public on the net.
There were some Japanese reject xml, a new technology where it gives information to the public who are interested in reading the contents of a journal in a different format openly. The thinking to let other getting the info on ones website are not that popular. If the above say is true, then psychologically it means someone (XML user) has invaded their homes and simply taken the contents without their knowing. That was the thinking behind the rejection of xml, I think.
The quote goes on with a comparison of the structure of a house. When you get into a Japanese house, once you take off your shoes at the genkan (porch) you are already stepping into the Japanese house. But at overseas, a private space refers to personal rooms and not the living, and the living is still considered as a public space, and so on.
Jujube-san suggested that, the living is a salon for European, a public place or a place to socialise with people. that's why for Japanese it is okay to talk something very personal even at an ima (Japanese living room) as it is part of the home.
Japanese are a bit too shy to blog, may be. There are no rooms in public!
M Sinclair Stevens19 April, 2003
I think about public and private spaces a lot too. I come from a very large family and it was hard to ever find a quiet spot alone in the house to muse and write and paint, to be alone with my thoughts.
When I was in college I read Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own" in which she theorizes that there had not been many women artists and writers (at that time) because they had no room alone in which to work.
I think the desire for privacy is a geographic issue, but not a difference between the East and West. Rather, Japan and England are both island nations of limited space. I think people there long for some small space of their own.
Certainly the contrast hits me when I'm hiking in England's Lake District. Even "in the country" there are people and houses everywhere. But when I hike around my sister's house in northern California (north of Lake Tahoe), I can walk for miles and not see anyone or any house or car or planes or telephone wires. There's absolutely no sign of humanity. My sister's house is always open and full of neighbors. I think because she's surrounded by so much space, she has less need to define a space of her own.
The Way to Go Around
Monday, January 12, 2004
My mother-in-law is a nurse herself, and is working at a small clinic, taking care of people who are older than her as she is an old hand.
She wrote to her daughter my wife the other day. Apparently she went to another hospital for her own inspection recently. And found that she might need to stay for a week for treatment. At that point, my wife was indeed worried as she imagined she might need to go back to her hometown and perhaps take care of her father and grandmother for a week or two when my mother-in-law is under hospitalisation.
I am asking you a favour, she wrote in the letter.
"I went to the hospital, and the hospital seems only have young nurses who are rather insensitive and careless. They should have at least a few elderly nurses as there are quite a number of aged patients who would prefer someone who understand their worries. The aged people need people who care for them, not the young and careless nurses to make them nervous.
I am asking you a favour, could you access to the below http://handwritten.url.that.she.copied.from./~ somewhere.html, write a suggestion, signing as anonymous will do, and ask the doctor to hire elderly nurses for the aged people."
Laughing while accessing the net, my wife went to the given url and posted "her" suggestion.
The Book of Tea and Bushido
Sunday, January 18, 2004
The Book of Tea is a book written by Okakura Kakuzo in English originally, published about 100 years ago (1906) in New York. It's become popular since, and till now the things written are still very fresh and applicable to the contemporary life.
If you don't mind read it online, in fact you can download from here and read it. The page is in Japanese, from the almost bottom part, you will see a link start with the name "File" something, click it to save it on your computer. I am not sure if the grammar mistake was made while retyped or originally as it was. If you want to enjoy the original one, get one. It's too cheap, less than $2 from amazon.
The first Japanese version was translated later in 1929. I read the 99th edition, printed in 2002, which still was a bit hard to understand for me though enjoyable. Hard to understand means as it is translated into rather classic Japanese, but contemporary Japanese at that time, I presume.
In Japan, there are a few revised editions, translated into modern Japanese. I don't mean modern Japanese isn't good, but reading a few pages at the bookstore, I find that it has lost its essense from the original. Something unavoidable I guess, whenever it comes to translation. Plain language is rather boring, as it basically carries only one meaning, that's what you get, when "to be frank and to be precise," like in business.
Almost at the same time, there was another Japanese who wrote in English originally about Bushido, published in 1900. The writer Nitobe Inazo is the Japanese on 5000 yen note currently, though soon it will be replaced by Higuchi Ichiyo (1872—96), a Japanese female writer. You can find a few original articles about Nitobe at here (Nitobe Inazô: A Man for Today's Japan), here (Remembering a Great Educator and Pacifist), and here (An Excerpt from Nitobe's BUSHIDO).
Not directly related, but look back on history, one realises that globalisation is nothing new, and it is something which will never be achieved, sad to say. Don't say that I am pessimistic. Things basically don't change. It didn't, it doesn't and it won't for the better.
And why we have been trying to put our hands on each other's shoulders, swing left to right and back, put on sunglasses, and try to sing "we are the world" all the time? For what? Not that the sun is too hot, rather, we are quite passionate, yes, hot in heart about knowing others but not oneself. Each of us is rather blur when comes to recognise oneself. It's only at the time when we see others, we then can see things clearer.
Again, that's the blind point.
How True Can Writing be?
Sunday, January 18, 2004
I was wondering how the lives of the common people out there, especially European. And the way to know them, I don't seem to think of any better way than to live with them. Such a big dream. When at a younger age—the age of naive—, books was a convenient mean to know the people who live on the other side of the planet. Later TV replaced books, and now internet has replaced TV basically.
Someone says, diary or blog, is to write to oneself, the one in future. Despite the contents whether it is a happy or a sad (or more complicated emotion it can be) incident, when writing, it is a kind of relief, a way to let go your feeling, and that makes one feel better. When you let go something, you might not be the same person anymore, you might have changed, as you already managed to get rid of the negative feeling, and now you are not that unhappy. Though it might hurt someone when try to be honest. So, real writing isn't meant to be published, I think. In order to let the whole world likes you, you got to be timeserver or an opportunist when come to writing.
When I was in university, I never heard any professors encouraged us to write, keep writing, write it down. But, I find lots of people, online, who encourage others or their students to keep writing. That's something I find it interesting. People who want to write will write, why try to get the whole world to write history? And as I said, writing doesn't write the truth, rather it writes the lie. It only catches a fact or a historical moment which it doesn't represent now.
Take a look at any books about history, give yourself with a high speed in reading, you can finish reading about European history of the Renaissance within a few hours from a book, let's say. But, did the Renaissance happen within a few hours? Can history be shorten within a few hours? So, do you really know the history? Perhaps you want to know about what magic the writing plays for you within the few hours.
Don't be serious about what I write, I am just relaxing my tension on a weekend.
Happy Chinese New Year!
Thursday, January 22, 2004
Oh, I am working in Japan!
Similitude
Saturday, January 24, 2004
In Japanese, there doesn't seem many words when to describe earthquake though Japan has such a high frequency of getting it. It's called jishin basically. In English, I have heard of "tremor" before. Is there any other words? I think I have heard of another expression, but forgot now. When there is an earthquake, at which area and where, you get the magnitude of 3 or 4 (7 is the most serious one) at the below area, and no worry of tsunami, etc. from the news.
The first time I came to Japan at a Japanese house, I happened to experience it. Wow, I was so panic, like what to do, what to do? Earthquake! But the Japanese seemed like nothing happen, pointing at the light shaking in the air, jishin, and continued watching TV. So steady.
Another word in Japanese, there is no difference in blue and green, it's one word, "ao." Not that there isn't other word to represent green (midori), but, the ignorance of green color is quite funny to me. Though nowadays, ao represent more of like blue, midori is used when to avoid confusion. Still, it doesn't change the ignorance of the colour of green. What is behind the thinking, I wonder. Colour blind? It can't be.
On the other hand, I have been trying to figure out the word sense in English.
He is sensitive, he get hurts all the time. (negative?)
Come on, be sensible, think of what the consequenses of your action might cause to other. (positive?)
That magazine always uses title which are too sensational. (negative?)
Wow, that's fabulous! That's really, uh, sensational! (positive?)
Have you watch the movie, Sense and Sensibility? Do you catch the meaning of its title? I mean, it doesn't make sense to me. (positive?)
Why it doesn't develop into more different words? Isn't that too ambiguous? Could that be, the way the Anglo-Saxons feel about things are rather, uh, insensitive? Don't get me wrong, it is not used with a negative nuance. Perhaps the Anglo-Saxons are more into macro than micro when come to sensibility. But, if they are macro-like, they probably won't use a word with minor changes and to come up with so many meanings, huh? So, what is it all about?
As long as those words make sense, that's ok. Yeah, just like the Japanese, as long as the earthquarke doesn't hit right on the floor where one stand, it's fine.
Comment about Comment
Saturday, January 24, 2004
Everyone writes about this topic. Nothing new.
After I turned off the comments feature, I feel some sort of relief. Not that I don't want to get any comment, but it's rather difficult for me to comment back. It is strange to say so, but when I get a comment, I think some people want to have my response. So, I feel to write something in return, sort of like thank you for writing a comment.
But the thing is, when I reply to it, I don't seem to be "replying." Eventually I write something too far away from the topic or even from the comment as well. Furthermore, I might get carried away too far, and don't know what I was writing myself. I think it's some "reaction" towards some "action," like when you read, anything new comes into the head, there will be some new ideas pop up, and words and expressions jump out of the head, and we call the movement in the head as thinking, something like that.
Anyway, for the convenience of those who care to write, as you can see, I am putting it back, with blogkomm. So, do you like me more now?
River Won't Wash It
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Very nice photos taken at Ganges River. Just look at it, there seems so many stories waiting to be told from the photos. Amazing.
I had a friend who went to India a few times. She likes the country very much. After she came back to Japan, she had been trying get a part time job at Indian restaurant. No luck though.
There was once, she went to the Ganges River, and her Indian friend kept asking her to get into the river to bath, said to wash away all the sins. She looked at the river, it didn't look so tempting, with the muddy colour. Her friend asked her to try once. She didn't know how to reject his kindness, simply said,
"the river cannot wash away my sins as I am too sinful."
Tanka, a Japanese Poem
Thursday, January 29, 2004
I have lots of interests in writing, since when I was in my secondary school especially the last two years before I finished it. But, at that time, what I had been thinking didn't based on one language, and I wasn't conscious of language though it was a big issue. It's sort of like a small little boat hanging in the middle of Pacific Ocean, getting nowhere.
More personally issue, when I write, due to the fact that computer helps a lot, English is rather "visible" for me. I don't have an English voice in me when I write. Sometimes I can type a word but cannot pronounce it. This happens to me for Chinese language as well as in Japanese. It's as if I live on an "outside" culture all the while.
When I learned Japanese, my teacher used to say, read it out loud to see the sentences were understandable. It helps a lot, in a way. It is not my mother tongue though I have conquered the language barrier to a considerable extent. But, I sensed the limitation. That's why I envy people who can compose a poem, which basically means a native.
Recently I have been trying to compose tanka, a Japanese poem with 31 syllables. Haiku is more popular, with the 5-7-5 syllables. Tanka is 5-7-5-7-7. What makes it difficult is the rhythm which I still cannot catch on well. At one point, I gave up the rhythm, instead I try to catch the 5-7-5-7-7. So, it's like trying to fill in the blank. But, from there I learned that in fact how limited my vocabulary is.
Believe it or not, when I write in Japanese, I can be very arrogant. But, after I started to compose tanka, gosh I am so ashamed of myself for knowing so little about Japanese! The words that I know don't seem to fit in the shythm well. I am like trying to rock'n roll on a kabuki's stage! I am sure I look more funny than a clown.