March 29, 2010 Cultural Insights of Japan (with bias)

When a person from the west (or anywhere outside of Japan) thinks of Japan, they are bound to think of Tokyo. Although a small country striving for uniformity, Japan still manages to have a wide range of differences, and so measuring Japan in your mind as merely Tokyo, with all its amazing technologies and fashions, would be like thinking of America and only picturing New York.

I live in Nagasaki, Japan. Four hundred years ago, Nagasaki was the heart of cultural and innovations in Japan. It was the Tokyo of today. Nagasaki, due in part to the atomic bombing, is no longer a liberal, cosmopolitan state. Though many people in Nagasaki dream of one day living in Tokyo, the people of Nagasaki (only about 450,000 people) cannot compare to my home town (4,004 people) when it comes to having big dreams. Japanese people often have this mindset that keeps them at home to carry on their family's work. Of course, I believe that the Japanese government prefers this as it keeps their "finely tuned" sociatal machine running functionably. There certainly seems to be a scant amount of different options for all-girl high school students when it comes to choosing a university. In the Province of Nagasaki (and not the city where I live) boys and girls are sent to Agricultural Schools, and they are given no chance to go to universities focused on anything else, unless their family somehow makes enough money to send them to a school in the city. Why? Because the Japanese Government realises that they need farmers to continue feeding their people. (Only 40% or so of the country's food intake is grown in Japan)

I understand that the need of society must sometimes overweigh the individuals, of course, or else how can a society be run effectively? In Japan, if given the choice, young people are going to choose to be professionals in Tokyo than farmers in backwater Nagasaki. So the government cannot allow these young people to have so many choices, because without farmers the state of Japan as the second best economy would not survive for very long. However, I also believe that people deserve chances. I am a North American born and bred, and so by looking at this issue from a North American point of view, I can also say that impeding the right or the future of the individual is wrong. I don't care about money. I don't care about who has the higher GDP. I do care about whether or not my brothers and sisters in this world are given the ability to follow through with their dreams. If the daughter of a farmer doesn't want to marry a farmer, but wants to teach Japanese history in an American university, or become an architect in Saudi Arabia, she should be able to! She should at least be given all the information and choose whether or not she believes she is skilled enough to follow those dreams!

Today it was a little negative, but Japan has some really good things going for her too!

May the Spirits of Earth bless.



Japanese Learning Resources
www.manythings.org/Japanese
http://www.japanesepod101.com/
http://www.funnelbrain.com/ search Kanji Flashcards (I have sets up)
http://www.chapters.ca/ excellent book store, try anything by Tuttle (of course, check it out on http://www.ebay.com/ and http://www.amazon.com/ for some amazing deals and to save paper!)
If you are interested in going to Japan, check out your nearest Rotary International (they are many big cities and small towns and offer exchanges for high school students) or contact your university. You can also do a native English speakers teaching job for a few years, without any teaching experience required.
For some tastes of Japanese music, here are two of my favourites: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz2sq44fhhc and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRaAuItkvAY

Thank you ^^