Half-Way

So I’ve reached the half-way point without any threatening issues or dilemmas, which is a relief. I’m actually finding this whole experience to be too easy. Before I arrived the fact that going on exchange for a year is “such a challenge” was hammered into me, so that now in the middle of the experience it’s all quite surprising at how easy it is. All you have to do is sit back and go with the flow, say yes to every opportunity no matter how much you think you’ll hate it (ie. Pro-league Baseball games), and say sorry and bend to bow when something goes wrong. If you can do that without provoking anybody* or offending your own belief system** then you should have no problem, though I consider myself fairly lucky since not everyone in the world can do that. In some ways I think the fact that this is too easy for me could have consequences. For example it’s unlikely I’ll be remembered (whatever that means, apparently I should impress my personality on  people so much that they never forget me), which I suppose is a bit sad compared to the South American in my city who does many things wrong but will be laughed about fondly after he’s left. Still, I suppose it’s a good thing that I can adapt so well as to not draw any extra attention?

*(South Americans)
*(Very Religious People)

I’ll also write about my current feelings about Japan up to now, I’d like to compare it with what I think at the end in five months. I’ve been thinking of how to say this without coming off as conceited but I’ve concluded that the biggest reason I dislike (and I use the word sparingly) this country is because it’s a society based on aesthetics. The appearance of everything is what matters the most in almost every aspect. The fact that everyone is obsessed with food proves my point and that’s not an overstatement. I know that many people comment on Japan’s love of food and it seriously irritates me. The first question people ask me is if I eat Japanese food and what my favourite dish is.
To be honest I find traditional Japanese food repulsive. Uncooked fish or meat sided with beetroot pickles and seaweed wrapped daicon deep fried (tempura sushi) in oil and sitting in soy sauce, and a dab of wasabi mixed with uncooked slimy squid is inedible to me. Actually, it’s more than inedible. Paper is inedble, traditional Japanese obento is as good as poison. Anyway that’s by far not the only food in Japan, nor is it the only Japanese dish that exists and I cannot eat. Food is what consumes the most money, time and pleasure of my host family and I’m sure that it’s the same for millions of other people around Japan. It’s almost pretty much the only thing that causes any discomfort between me and my host family and I refuse to believe that I’m to blame. I’ve spoken to several gaijin in Obihiro who find the culture’s obsession with food unbearable. If you love food, this is the country for you – but for me food isn’t something that you can “love” or “hate”, it’s just something that is necessary to live. For Japanese people, food is loved by one and all and they spend literally hours a day eating (without putting on ANY weight) or talking about it. I should add that I have actually put on five kilograms since arriving in Japan so don’t think that I consider all Japanese food inedible.

That’s besides what I was discussing. Food doesn’t have anything to do with Japan’s thirst for order and beauty. It’s the display of foods and the amount of food shops and restaurants that amazes me. There is an industry in Japan that deals with the plastic modelling of menu dishes, and outside every single restaurant there is a large window which displays these rubber food items. They usually look more real than the actual dish I order but I think it’s interesting that they place such high importance on the appearance of the top layer of the bowl than the ingredients actually put mixed into it. Sure, it helps to know what your food looks like before you eat it and it makes my life a lot easier since I can’t read the menus but everyone crowds outside the shop looking at how the food is displayed before even recognizing what the dish is or what sort of food goes into it.

The sheer amount of restaurants in my city astounds me every night if I travel around enough. Perth is ten times the size of Obihiro, but Obihiro has ten times the amount of restaurants or food stores. Most are Ramen stands (noodle bars, I suppose) which usually have only two or three tables and a bench in front of the kitchen with stools for individual customers. Every one of these is packed on Friday nights and weekends and during the day they’re usually empty, but there’s one around every corner no matter what part of the city you’re in.
I think most people who are reading this from Perth have no idea just how large consumerism is in Japan and from what I understand, just as big in China, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan. I don’t usually endorse everything Wikipedia articles state as fact but it has a knack of saying exactly what I want to. This article
 says everything I could about what I think of “consumerism” in Japan. For example consumerism is the equating of personal happiness with the purchasing material possessions and consumption Convenience Stores will probably be the one thing I miss most when I return to Australia and they’re about as common as vending machines. According to the Japan Vending Machine Manufactures Assosiation website, there are 5,582,200 vending machines in Japan, or one machine for every 23 people (I also found that on Wikipedia). Vending machines are where I spend most of my money actually. I don’t drink water anymore, I’ve acquired a strange obsession in the form of refrigerated, bottled, green tea called Occha. It is the most delicious drink I have ever had and I buy about three or four bottles a day from one of the four vending machines located in a fifty metre radius from my house.
I should mention that almost every food item sold in convenience stores are each wrapped so intricately that there would be street protests about the waste of it in Australia. When I buy biscuits or something sweet each individual biscuit or lolly is also wrapped in it’s own wrapper. It’s quite amazing at how unnecesary it is, I can’t understand the point of wasting so much time and plastic but I suppose it makes Japanese people feel safer and happier knowing that their chocolate koala is double protected from the outside world. One thing I do like about Japanese food products is that they’re all easy to open. In Australia I always struggle to open a packet of chips or something that is plastic and vacuum packed and it usually ends in the contents being spilled all over the floor. In Japan everything works like it should, so where there is a red arrow on the corner of plastic wrapped products, it actually rips properly in a smooth straight line and there is no harm done to the contents inside. It’s a stupid observation to write about, I know, but you have no idea how many times I’ve marvelled at the ease of opening something. That will be something I’ll have a hard time getting un-used to.

Japanese consumerism and the phenomenal product display is not limited to food. The second most prevalent displayed items are Disney merchandise or kawaii items. Hairclips, phone chains, phone ornaments, teddy bairs, fluffy things, just general “things” that are miscellaneous to the point of being incongruous. People buy the stuff and decorate themselves advertising the fact that they are infatuated with kawaii miscellany (what I would call Crap). Girls at school have a trail of large fluffy toys and pink bells with tassles connected to cute Disney characters hanging down their school uniforms which is all connected by a simple ring to their mobile phones. If you walk into the shops that sell this sort of Crap you could get dizzy from all the smiling faces staring at you from the hundreds of Disney characters on the shelves. The shops also have an assortment of confectionary which you can pick and choose and then shovel into a multi-colored cup. One time, just to see the reaction of the shopkeepers, I got one tiny little jellybean and asked how much it was by itself. The shop assistant took it gently from my palm and carried it with both hands to the front counter where she weighed the jellybean. When the weight did not react she went to ask her superior how much one jellybean should cost. They had a little discussion on what to do and apologized profusely when they told me I would have to buy two or more jellybeans. What shocked me the most was that they then put the jellybean into a little plastic lock bag and placed it into the trash can! I could have eaten it, or they could have, or they could have just put the jellybean into the bin without a plastic bag and without snap locking the bag.

Okay, onto the next thing that I’ve been thinking about a lot. What is “popular” in Japan is as far from “challenging” as you can get, if that makes sense. I’ve been wondering how to describe this and it is difficult but it’s just such an obvious phenomenon (and problem, in my opinion) that I have to mention it. It’s no surprise that people idolize the beautiful people and celebrities from Japan and America but it’s why they idolize them that I find strange. The most obvious example I can think of is the boy band Kat-tun. They’re six boys who look about 15 but are actually around 20 or something who wear makeup and flamboyant clothes who sing and dance to millions of Japanese teenage girls. Their songs are about love and friendship, of course, and their dances are….”sensational”. They promote being cool, fit and beautiful in the most predictable way and seem like more of a children’s band to me than High-5 which is the only Australian equivalent I can think of. They have their own TV show as well, where they perform all sorts of different acts that are meant to enlighten the audience of the band member’s personality. They do quizzes and little games where they compete with each other and the winner performs a well rehearsed song and dance with flashing lights and costumes which I think are very “unique”.

 

People love this sort of stuff. I’m not saying that Australians idolize politicians or authors or people associated with a bit more intelligence, but at least there’s challenging trends out there which make you appreciate it more than how baby-like that guy’s face is or the way he is standing on the stage with lights shadowing his face and smoke erupting out from behind him. Japanese metal and rock bands do exist but I’ve discovered that the “fans” of these sort of genres also like American pop (I recall writing about the guy in my class who thought Kelly Clarkson would impress me).

This leads me to my next point which is just speculative thought and no more. I think all the problems I have with Japan (which I admit I love studying and talking about) comes down to the fact that Critical Thinking is not taught at schools. The part of their brain where the capacity to look at their own society and comment on it critically is safely Glad-wrapped and vacuum packed - and labelled with a cute character saying “This is confiscated since 1946!” - into the farthest corner of their minds where only a long-term stay in a foreign country could unwrap it. Apart from the cruel cases of ijime (bullying) in Japanese primary schools, most people here are colorful jelly and peace on the outside, even the young men and teenage boys who have piercings everywhere and drop out of school early. What I find most strange is that they’re all very intelligent, my class is by far smarter than me even though they’re a year younger. I don’t know how fair the word shallow is, since it’s not like it’s a conscious attempt to suppress any questioning thoughts on Japanese culture and social order. I just get the feeling that there’s something empty or lacking in them, it’s very small but it’s connected to the desire to complain. Complaining about mundane events or things is so rare in my class that I’m more shocked than anything else. There is one girl who complains about her homework and she is the most annoying girl I’ve ever met and her classmates feel the same about her but I think she’s an exception. If people ask me if I’m cold and I say “Yes, very”, they seem surprised at first and then try to find something to warm me up or ask me if I’m okay and warn me not to catch a cold. It’s so odd, especially since I complain about almost everything. This entire blog would be antithetical to what everyone here thinks I’m writing about. Everybody does what they’re supposed to do without questioning, complaining and I’m sure even thinking about doing otherwise. This is all just speculative though and my own thoughts which I know most people would disagree with.

Now I think it’s time to finally describe what I love most about Obihiro. It’s wet. Very, very, wet. It’s currently Summer, the rainy season, and it rains every single night while the sun usually shines during the day making it the best possible location for plants to grow. Of course I don’t take back that this is the ugliest city in the world but there are a few parks around the place which I find so amazing and exciting that I spend a lot of my time reading, writing, or studying Japanese there. Japanese greenery is thick, there are forests everywhere outside of cities and when you look at them you cannot see past the first tree. Thousands of brilliant greens leaves, usually small too, cover enormous trees which look like living symbols of wild, natural beauty. The grass beneath them is covered by green moss and moist earth giving each step a feel of damaging the nature of things, which is helped by the thousands of insects, big and small which inhabit the area. Insects are something I was not prepared for when I came to Japan, I always thought Australia had it bad. Not that I hate insects, in fact I love them, and going to a park which has been allowed to develop naturally really takes me away from the ugly, treeless city. It seems like a separate world, only linked to civilization by the moss-covered and half rotten wooden planks that wiggle through dense green. Often there is also a man-made stream, or fountain which seem to show off how abundant fresh water is. There are hundreds of natural streams and rivers that run through Obihiro, my house is in fact directly opposite one which has plants on the banks which seem to grow at twice the rate the council chops them down. The main river through Obihiro, Tokachi River, is unfortunately banked by golf courses which seem to be the social forums for every married man living here. Even in the streets of Obihiro, there are green weeds or flowerings vines which grow through the cracks in the roads and pathways remade every year by hundreds of earthquakes. There is one tree, though, which has the most revolting smell I have ever known. I don’t know what it’s called but it has small white flowers arranged in cylinders on branches with big, flat leaves. The flowers expel this stink which smells of something too ripe, it’s not a rotten or decaying smell, it’s just so malodorous and fetid to the extent that after the first time of nearly having to stop my bike to retch I have to whizz past holding my breath. Apart from that tree there are no others which seem ugly in any way. For those of you who don’t come from Perth and are wondering why I find lush greenery so amazing, my home city seems to be the centre of the hole in the ozone layer where in Summer everything “naturally kept” is crispy, yellow and sandy. Even in Winter, what we call the “bush” or “scrub” is thin with leaves on the eucalyptus trees hanging flaccidly and only the slowly aging leaves on the ground which makes natural “forests” not very interesting. I’m sure the mountains around Tokachi from one year could provide Perth with enough water to last a hundred years. Unfortunately in Obihiro, there is not a great many animals. A few birds, mainly crows. I’ve seen three squirrels in the parks I’ve visited and apparently there are a few bears in the mountains and a great many foxes which are very cute, I saw one eating Onigiri discarded on the road. That’s about it, not that Australia is much more exciting but I thought that with this amount of lush vegetation there’d be a few more furry animals to inhabit it. I suppose it’s the snow which will arrive in November and will look as if it obliterates every green plant living at the moment.

Well I think after the long break I took from posting here that should suffice. I’m currently on Summer holidays so I finally had time to write this and get rid of all the thoughts about everything that’s been bothering me these past couple of months.