April 5, 2010 I Am A Cat

Well, I have survived another April Fools day without so much trouble and Easter has passed unremarkable in the Country of the Rising Sun. For the last few months I have been lazily making my way through the book "I Am a Cat" by Natsume Souseki (the English version). Souseki is an amazing writer, but sometimes the book gets a little dry, or I can't seem to follow the purpose behind the main character's (who has no name!) digressions.

I am more fond of Kokoro, which is shorter, and really keeps the reader guessing as they go through the book. Kokoro tells the tale of a young man finding his place in the world through an older man who never really could. It speaks of the trials of love and family relations in a rapidly developing 20th century Japan. Throughout both Kokoro and I Am a Cat, the reader can find the hints and subtleties of what could be called Japanese sexism. At points in I Am a Cat, I often find myself irked at how Souseki portrays the wife and servant characters. They often say things like "since I am a woman, I cannot understand what you are saying".

Many Japanese anime lovers might be prone to tell me that I am being racist when I call the Japanese sexist, but they are sexist, unfortunately. It's sort of a "romantic medieval" sexism, where men want to protect their women, but in this modern day women do not need to be protected--we can do it ourselves! Japanese culture has sexism inherent in it, right down to the building blocks of the language. For example: 女 this symbol means "woman". 安 while this symbol (note the smaller version of the symbol for woman) means "cheap" or "inexpensive".

Japanese are also (though it is slowly disappearing) anti-left handed people. It is considered incredibly rude to hold the chopsticks with the left hand. I feel out of place to say these sorts of things, for who am I to say what one culture believes in wrong? Maybe left handed people really are evil! But I don't believe so, and I believe that the Japanese will be forced to change by modernization.

But for those of you who want to discover how the Japanese think (or used to think), I believe that reading Souseki is a good idea, which is why I've included some links in amazon.com to where you may find the books, but there doesn't seem to be many English versions there. Search Amazon.com for natsume souseki if you buy anything at the amazon provided link, I may be rewarded with cash.

the following links are free and do not give me cash!

But, here is the google books English Version http://books.google.ca/books?id=SYkS-Vj-g3wC&printsec=frontcover&dq=I+Am+a+Cat&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false for I Am a Cat, and this way is eco friendly! (though I personally would rather own the book)

Here is the Chapters.com link http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Am-Cat-Three-Volumes-One-Soseki-Natsume-Aiko-Ito/9780804832656-item.html?ref=Books:+Search+Top+Sellers buy it new for 18.44 (Canadian) or buy it used starting from 12.79

Kokoro (Used: 11.34, New 14.06 (CAD) ) http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Penguin-Classics-Kokoro-Natsume-Soseki-Mckinney/9780143106036-item.html?ref=Books:+Search+Top+Sellers

Kokoro (Free) http://books.google.ca/books?id=obTZP1S0aXMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Kokoro&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false

If you would like to learn Japanese Kanji (Kanji - Chinese characters):
http://books.google.ca/books?id=BCGylyOazSYC&pg=PA436&dq=Tuttle+Kanji+Kana+1945&cd=2#v=onepage&q=Tuttle%20Kanji%20Kana%201945&f=false (free)
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/search?keywords=Kanji%20Kana%20Tuttle&pageSize=10 (various different kinds)

Thank you for reading

May the gods bless

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 ^^