網干祭り - Aboshi Matsuri

Another weekend, another festival. In the weekend after the Kenka Matsuri, there was another festival in Aboshi (guess it's some ward in Himeji city), the Utsuki Hachiman Jinja Aboshi Matsuri on October 21st and 22nd, 2005.

This festival also had some yatai (portable shrines), although I didn't noticed any mikoshi (the ones they clash during the Kenka) and there was a different one that I can't remember the name now which, unlike yatai, people don't carry it on their shoulders, but only pull it.

But the thing I really wanted to see in that matsuri was chouchin (some kind of traditional Japanese lantern) fight, i.e. men holding bamboo sticks with a chouchin attached smash the sticks against each other (against other STICKS, not against themselves). But I just figured on Friday morning that these kind of fight would happen only on Friday, so desperate calls telling everyone to change their schedules...

I went to that festival with the same group who went to the Kenka, but this time we met other (foreigner) friends there. We were near the chouchin fight place, however we could only see it from a certain distance... Although the festival wasn't so crowded as the Kenka, near the fight was even more than it, perhaps... I even tried to get closer and take some pictures, but after being pushed, pulled, compressed and thown a couple of times I gave up. Some people of the group did manage to get closer, though. Maybe I'm losing my ability to walk through crowded places...

Well, according to what Silvia posted in her blog (she managed to get close enough of the thing) one person goes in the middle of the circle and then he starts to sing and ask everybody to fight, then people holding the lanterns gather and start to smash the bamboo sticks into the lanterns. It is dangerous to people who are watching it because of the flying bamboo and chouchin fragments which sometimes hit people who are nearby. Why many of fall's festivals are fight-oriented, I wonder... Stress relieving? XD

Also, just one note... Digital cameras are really bad to take pictures at night...

The festival ended a little later than I was expecting. No time to get the last bus to Shosha... and it's cold at night lately... Already like winter in my Brazilian hometown... (How could some people wear only mawashi?) So some of us stopped at a friend's house in Aboshi talking and drinking (yes, I drank a little this time... but my resistance is still low and I continue preferring juice to alcohol).

Rote or understand?

While checking my mails and preparing my pic albums I was reading the news and one editorial caught my eye. That's about learning methods. I'll quote the two first paragraphs to give an idea of the contents:

"One characteristic of Japanese universities is that they provide highly specialized education for undergraduate students. This is partly because high-school students receive a high level of science education. In fact, their knowledge level in math and physics is one of the highest in the world. Thus, first-year undergraduates in science departments are ready to take highly specialized courses.

Elementary and junior high-school students also receive a relatively high level of science education, and their scholastic ability, as well as that of high-school students, in international achievement contests is also tops. However, the level of scientific thinking among adults is ranked 14th in a 15-nation survey of those aged around 30, one conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)."

Japanese students have great levels of science education... and I mean it. I've talked to some Japanese students at the university. About exact sciences, that is the part of education that I'm able to compare now, they learn things like calculus, differential equations, different electric circuits resolution techniques like using nodes (I wouldn't be surprised if I discover one day that they learn things like Thevenin's theorem...). Classes are more a less from 9h to 15h... Monday to Friday. Plus other things such as sport clubs activities. To the point that one student said to me that she has more idle time as a university student than as a high-school student (and she's taking around 20 subjects for this period). Perhaps that is really true if one doesn't have a part-time job.

So, they have basically the same things we have in Brazil: Math, Physics, Chemistry, P.E., History, Geography, English, Mother language (Japanese or Portuguese), Biology. Some schools, especially girl's schools have some other things, but I won't discuss that. But science stuff is seen much deeply. Is that a good thing? Could be. But I wouldn't agree so easily.

Seems like, although science level is high, it's not aquired by understanding things, but by roting and focusing university entrance exams. Doesn't look so different from that in Brazil? Well, I don't know about other high-schools, but mine at least had teachers that tried to make us understand and memorize things. At second year of university I met a teacher who enphacized more thinking and less roting... I still don't know if in a little exaggerated way, but that was a good lesson in the end.

If one learn only br roting, one's used only with the situations memorized, while by understanding, not only the knowledge stays in one's mind for long, but it's also possible to extrapolate, diversify and discover new things. Maybe that's one reason why Japanese are so good in science, but not so good in languages, for example. Also it's said that they're good in getting other people's ideas and improving them, but not in developing an new one on their own.

Don't know if that's true or not, but it shows what overuse of roting can cause. In a meeting between Japan's Prime-Minister and U.S. President (not the current). The Prime-Minister was talking in English:
J: "Who are you?" (Actually he tried to say "How are you?")
U: "I'm [President's name]. And you?"
J: "Oh, me too."

Maybe, based on set phrases he tried to estabilish a good impression, but as the situation got a little different of what he memorized ("How are you?"; "Fine. And you?"; "Oh, me too."), things went wrong.

Lately, I wonder if high-school education in Brazil isn't going the same way. I don't think it'll go back to memorizing names and places instead of background and reasons in History (it's still done here), but as the competition to enter a good university becomes fiercer, maybe schools may end up emphacizing more roting... I just hope they don't cross the line. Some university professors complain about students being too used to the roting way already... The ability to have high level classes earlier in university is surely something, but is it worth?

"The problem is that high-school education in Japan is oriented toward university entrance examinations. Because of this, little time is spent developing the abilities and attitudes required of adults, such as abilities to debate, to read and comprehend, to think scientifically and logically, and to collect and analyze information."

Well, that's it. Happy Halloween.

Fixing, festivals and prejudice

Fixing

Well, just some information about the blog first. Finally I changed the encoding from Shift-JIS to Unicode UTF-8. Hope that way Japanese characters and Portuguese accented characters will be able to coexist. Don't even remember why I chose Shift-JIS in first place...

Em bom português, agora os acentos finalmente vão aparecer. Algumas pessoas que postam comentários usam eles, e por causa da codificação o texto estava aparecendo truncado. E essa codificação também permite caracteres em 日本語. Mesmo assim, acredito que vá continuar os posts em português sem acentuação. O meu teclado, como a foto abaixo mostra, é em estilo japonês (observe, por exemplo, a localização da arroba... se é que dá pra ver isso na figura) e, apesar de ter configurado a teclado em português (brasileiro), quando mudo a configuração as teclas são configuradas pro formato do teclado brasileiro... só que no teclado japonês.


Então, por exemplo, no teclado japonês, o início de parênteses é feito com shift+8 e mudando pra português passa a shift+9. E esse tipo de coisa eu tenho que simplesmente lembrar. No começo tudo bem, já que estava mesmo acostumado com teclado brasileiro, mas agora já estou me acostumando com o teclado japonês e é irritante toda hora errar o símbolo que se quer colocar.

Festivals

Walking around the university, I noticed some advertisements for the university festival from November 19th to 22nd. Here's a picture.



Good chance to check what a university festival looks like. Just seems a little long... I wonder if there'll be events everyday... And another thing that caught my eye was the slogan "everyday is carnival". (Impossible not noticing it, right?) Not for any strong reason, though. I just remembered a situation with my Japanese teacher when I was telling some impressions about Japanese festivals such as the Kenka Matsuri and she said that's more a less the same impression that some Japanese have about Brazil's carnival (carnaval)...

Prejudice

And I was reading some posts at Claus's blog (for a change... I think I should stop always mentioning his posts... but the topics are interesting) about Brazilian Immigrants in Japan. It has a link to an article which "explains somthings about Japanese immigration and emmigration" and have a story about prejudice against foreigners. Quite an intersting one, especially for those who believe that there's no prejudice in Japan and all Japanese will recieve foreigners with open arms (don't laugh... I've met someone like that already...). Brazil also has its amount of prejudice anyway... and in the disguised form that I believe is one of the worst...

This time I'm not posting an direct link to the article, though. Check his site for the link if you'd like to read it.

Cherry

That one happened a little before first term (semester) exams. I was with some Japanese friends at the university's cafeteria. As usual, they were talking among themselves about many things that I couldn't understand completely, but I was participating the conversation as much as I could (which wasn't that hard since one guy occasionally asks me something about Brazilian "culture").

As the topic turned out to girls (and they were all male engineering students), they started to have more interest in inquring me. Well, asking the gaijin about girls wasn't that surprising, especially after one of them mentioned his view of Brazilian girls... Sexy. But the first question they asked completely floored me.

"Are you cherry?" Exactly like that... in English.

Now what question is that? After thinking for a while I gave up and supposed that was a meaning for cherry that I didn't know and that acually existed, so I searched for that word in my electronic dictionary (it saved me more times than I can count). No matching meaning in Oxford. I asked for more explanations and they told not to say that word aloud... Hum... dirty word?

I asked one of they to type it on the dic and he went to the Jap-Eng dictionary. Nice... Katakana-go (Japanese words created from foreign languages words such as "miruku" for milk). I know that some words have their meanings changed when turned to "katakana-go". He typed "cherii" and the result is really "cherry". But that dictionary also shows some synonyms and he wasn't satisfied with them. So, a word that has a meaning apart from dictionaries? Doesn't look good...

He then typed another word in Japanese (that I won't write) and then the meaning he wanted appeared. I looked at the English meaning and what was there...

...... Virgin.

?!?! Asking this before most common ones like "do you have/have you ever had a girlfiend?" or "Is there someone you like?"?! Usually the order of the questions asked reveals something... I don't want to know the meaning of that order, though.

Ah, and later they asked the "other questions" as well. Only the "first kiss" was missing (and, again, I don't want to know the meaning). And remember that we were at the cafeteria that, although wasn't crowded, was far from empty. They even demanded to point at one girl there who was more like "my type"... And some went to look at her closer later...Anyway, at the time I was surprised. But now, after seeing stranger things and listening to some stories from some friends who are teachers or other sources, it's not so surprising anymore. Just didn't know the "dark" meaning of "cherry" (and that Japanese could ask that kind of questions out of the blue)... Wonder how the original meaning was distorted... Might it be related with the Japanese cherry blossom (sakura in Japanese)? Besides, there's a music called "Sakuranbo" (the original Japanese word for "cherry"). If we put that meaning in the music...

灘のけんか祭り - Nada Kenka Matsuri

I just love how travellers' guides sometimes softens the truth... The Nada Kenka Matsuri is the most famous festival in Himeji (and the biggest kenka matsuri in Japan), so I just had to go check that out, right? Searching for some information before going I noticed something written on my guide:

"Kenka Matsuri (...): Portable shrines, shouldered by half-naked youths, jostle each other and the bearers vie to show their skill in balancing the shrines."

... Almost.

The festival was being held on October 14th and 15th, 2005. I was planning to go with some friends on 15th, but it rained a lot and the festival was postponed. So, we went to the festival on October 16th.

Since it's a famous festival, obviously it was crowded... REALLY crowded. Thankfully Jon "attracted" (being "gaijin-looking" surely has some advantages...) a "senior citizen" who used to participate the festival and he acted as our "local guide" explaining somethings (like the height of the yatai, a.k.a. portable shrines, and the height of the temple's portal are related so that the upper part of the yatai must be removed when passing through the portal... Something like when people put off their caps to show respect.) and guiding us to the good spots. So we were able to see some interesting things of the festival, like the mikoshi fighting and climbing the hill.

Now some explanations. According to the Metropolis Tokyo web site, "Nada's fighting tradition harks back to the Edo period (1603-1867), when Japan's emperor dispatched an armada to the Korean Peninsula. The clashing and grinding actions of the yatai during the festival mimic those the sailors used to dislodge offensive crustaceans from their ships' hulls en route to battle."

So, usually the first day is dedicated to some rituals and preparations for the next day, when each village brings its yatai/mikoshi (yatai is the beautiful-looking one and it's not used in direct clashings. Mikoshi are simpler and often end up with some damage) and men carry it from one shrine to another, and there're some kind of "rings" in the way so they can "destroy" the other villages' mikoshi/yatai. (The yatai rarely even touch each other... it's more like one team breaking others' balance... but for the mikoshi it's real clashing.)

Since it's a shinto festival, it's somewhat anti-feministic. The festival itself emphasize machismo for the violence itself and for the fact that only men can participate. Women aren't even allowed to touch the shrines, flags and these kind of things (our "guide" invited Jon, Rezaur and me to try lifting the yatai, but not Silvia). Besides, with cigarettes and beer, some may turn violent. And another thing that makes me think... Drunk people carrying portable shrines with weight up to 3 tons?! No wonder this festival is classified as having a certain hazard level... I heard that in some years there're even some deaths... Didn't noticed any, fortunately...

Ah... and another thing that is noticeable from the pictures is that people carrying the yatai/mikoshi wear mawashi (that sumo wrestler's "belt"). This website says that there's something related about strenght/stamina and nakedness (I really don't see the relation... neither the person who wrote that site...)... Yeah... that's strange...

More information in the following web sites:
Nada Kenka Matsuri Information in English
姫路・松原八幡神社-灘のけんか祭り

More Misc

Almost a week without any posts... hum...

Ah,well. Last week was pretty busy anyway. Classes all the week and a festival in the weekend (Aboshi Matsuri... I'll try to post comments about that soon...). Japan is full of festivals in autumn (fall)... most of them have their roots in rituals/partys/etc. to thank gods for a good harvest (rice harvest is done during fall). Come to think about it, if that's the case, there're some strange ways to "thank" the gods... Fighting, for example. I'll write more details when commenting the festivals.

While I prepare the matsuri posts (and the "Reminiscences" series), some other links with opinions and news.

"Weapon geeks in Japan aim for more firepower" - I' ve read about the referendum in Brasil about prohibiting the sale of guns and ammunition. And I guess the final result rejected that, right? This article is then a little late, but it shows an interesting thing about how "legal" weapons can be modified and become more powerful... And how people seek that. So, in the end, although Japan is a "country where citzens aren't allowed to have deadly guns" the reality may be a little different...

"M6.2 Hits Kanto, Tohoku" - Actually, this is old news already. This earthquake happened some days ago. This is just to put something to the people who wonders about earthquakes in Japan. And this year, it seems like most of natural disasters (typhoons and earthquakes) are striking the Kanto region... And I was told that they really don't strike often in Kansai (I'm liking this place more and more...), although things like the Great Hanshin Earthquake reminds me that this region is not completely safe. However, so far I haven't experienced such things... yet.

"Best to dig deep and study a language from its roots" "Learning a language is a cultural journey, too" - Just some interesting articles about language learning, and focusing a bit Japanese learning foreign languages. The interesting point is asking why learn a foreign language...

"Aso calls Japan 'one race' nation" - I saw this one at Claus's blog (again...). "Aso described Japan as having 'one nation, one civilization, one language, one culture and one race. It is nowhere else in other nations'"... Yeah, sure... Are we talking about the same Japan? Anyway, I'll even avoid commenting this one too much...

Reminiscences - 京都 (Kyoto)

Volta aos posta em portugues e as viagens de verao. Depois de Nara, o proximo destino nas ferias de verao foi Kyoto (15 a 17 de agosto de 2005).

Kyoto foi fundada em 794, inspirada na cidade chinesa Tang de Chang-an. Ostentou a posicao de capital do Japao durante o periodo Edo, quando a balanca do poder passou para Edo (atual Tokyo). Apesar de nao possuir a vitalidade economica de Tokyo ou Osaka, Kyoto eh famosa por sua cozinha (kyo-ryori) e diversos monumentos e jardins que acompanham as mudancas sazonais.

A ida foi direto de Nara com a Silvia. Kyoto eh praticamente um polo turistico, com muitos lugares a visitar. Assim, a viagem foi dividida em tres dias, com companhias diferentes.

No primeiro dia, junto com uma bolsista brasileira, fomos ver alguns pontos na area noroeste.

• Kinkaku-ji: O classico "Pavilhao Dourado". Um dos principais cartoes postais de Kyoto. Construido por Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (nome no estilo japones. Sobrenome primeiro), que aos 37 anos abriu mao de seus deveres oficiais (mas nao de seu poder) para dedicar-se ao sacerdocio. O pavilhao eh uma replica exata do original, destuido por um incendio criminoso em 1950, totalmente folheada a ouro e encimada por uma fenix de bronze. Estranhamente nao se pode chegar perto da estrutura ^ ^;
• Ryoan-ji: Construido em 1450, o lugar ganhou fama com seu jardim de pedras, uma interessante composicao de cascalho branco e 15 pedras, considerado a definitiva expressao do zen-budismo.
• Ninna-ji: O enorme portal Ninna-ji mantem a memoria de uma epoca que este templo, da seita Shingon, possuia um conjunto de 60 subtemplos. Vitimada por incendios, a obra ficou reduzida ao tamanho atual (que ainda leva duas horas para se fazer o circuito completo). O Kondo (salao principal) e a imagem Amida ainda sao tesouros nacionais do Japao. Nessa atracao, infelizmente estava quase na hora de fechar, entao conseguimos ver as estruturas apenas rapidamente.

As companhias do segundo dia foram um colega japones (cujo primeiro encontro foi meio estranho... Um dia o professor de Economia Industrial mencionou os "alunos estrangeiros" na classe e ele apareceu depois, falando que queria praticar um pouco de ingles com a gente... Huh?) e dois amigos dele. Dia dedicado a alguns pontos turisticos na area sudeste e sul.

• Ginkaku-ji: Nome atual de Jisho-ji, tambem conhecido como Pavilhao de Prata e considerado uma obra prima em materia de jardinagem e paisagismo. Originalmente o templo serviu como refugio nas montanhas para o xogum Yoshimasa (1358-1408) que, em homenagem ao avo, que havia revestido Kinkaku-ji em ouro, pretendia cobrir o seu palacio de prata. A guerra de Onin frustrou o plano. Realmente, comparando ambos o pavilhao Kinkaku-ji eh mais impressionante, mas os "arredores" do Ginkaku-ji sao melhores...
• Kiyomizu-dera: Por mais de 1000 anos, peregrinos tem subido as encostas para oferecer oracoes a imagem de 11 cabecas de Kannon e beber da fonte sagrada (kiyomizu quer dizer agua pura). O complexo como um todo eh impressionante, por exemplo a varanda do salao principal, construida sem pregos. Nos arredores existe um santuario dedicado a divindade do amor, e alguns amuletos nesse sentido estao a venda (nao, nao comprei nenhum desses...)
• Nishi e Higashi Hongan-ji: O aspecto austero dos dois templos atesta o poder e popularidade da seita Jodo-Shinshu. A disposicao dos dois templos eh identica, refletindo a mesma origem. Cada um tem um enorme Goei-do (salao do fundador) e um alojamento menor Amida-do, para a imagem do Buda Amida. Infelizmente, algumas partes dos templos estavam em reformas na epoca.
• Toji: Embora esse templo nao tenha a exuberancia de muitos templos de Kyoto, este impressiona por sua importancia historica. Seus Budas tem observado a cuidado da cidade desde que Kukai fundou o templo em 796, sendo o local de onde os fundamentos religiosos da cidade surgiram. O pagode de cinco andares de Toji abriga as imagens de quatro Budas e seus seguidores (mas nao se pode entrar no pagode para ver). Com 55m, eh a estrutura de madeira mais alta do Japao.

Bom, nesse dia ainda fomos ate um restaurante brasileiro (churrascaria) em Kyoto, que o colega japones achou na internet. Mesmo nao sendo exatamente a mesma coisa, deu pra matar saudade de carne de verdade e dar umas risadas vendo os japoneses que estavam numa churrascaria pela primeira vez. Se algum dia voces tiverem uma oportunidade dessas, vale a diversao... E quem disse que acabou? Ainda era o dia de um evento pos-Obon em Kyoto, o Daimonji. Nesse evento, grandes fogueiras nas colinas que circundam a cidade sao acesas, marcando o fim do Obon, e as fogueiras acesas fazem desenhos nas colinas como o kanji "dai" (o unico que conseguimos ver). Pena que dura pouco... as fogueiras ficam acesas por cerca de 15 ou 20 minutos apenas. Ao contrario do primeiro dia, quando voltei pra Himeji, nesse dia fiquei na casa da familia desse japones, que sao de Kyoto (apesar de nao ser na regiao central)... uma mini experiencia de Home Stay, falando coisas do Brasil e afins...

Terceiro e (meu) ultimo dia. Dedicado a pontos turisticos variados que ainda nao tinham sido visitados.

• Nijo-jo: Com poucas das fortificacoes importantes de outros castelos do Japao, Nijo eh mais conhecido pelos interiores ornados e pisos rouxinol. estes foram projetados para que, quando alguem pisasse, reproduzissem o som do passaro, avisando sobre possiveis intrusos. O castelo foi criado pelo xogum Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) como simbolo de poder e riqueza do recem-instalado xogunato em Edo.
• Parque Imperial (Kyoto Gyoen): Com seus majestosos pinheiros e lindas vistas eh um verdadeiro oasis no coracao da cidade. Aqui se encontram o Kyoto Gyosho (Palacio Imperial) e Sento Gyosho (Palacio do Imperador Aposentado), mas cuja visitacao deve ser agendada previamente. O que, em bom portugues, quer dizer que nao entramos nesses lugares...

E de vota a Himeji...

Ah, sim. No caso de alguem ter notado uma foto estranha com garrafas PET (um tipo de plastico) entre as fotos de Kiyomizu-dera, essa foto deve-se ao fato de eu ter lido este artigo na epoca... E coincidentemente eu encontro um caso dessa estranha supersticao...

Weird misc

Just some links while I prepare something decent to post here.

"Camera geeks take aim" - About the kind of otaku addicted to cameras. Some pay for picture sessions with models...

"No point in going if you can't wait in line" - The strange relationship between lines and people's interest in attractions.

Handwriting

I think everybody has had some friend or teacher whose handwriting is hard to understand. Although the alphabet used is the very same, as time goes on people's handwriting usually turns out to something different than textbook calligraphy. Some are beautiful, some ugly, some hard to understand and so on... And having contact with other handwriting styles helps us to recognize things written in a style different of our own.

Well, that's not only for alphabet (here called "romaji"). Japanese characters naturally have this kind of peculiarity. The shodo masters have what could be called good calligraphy, and Japanese schools usually teach standard handwriting.

Now to the Dark Side...

During classes, I've noticied that many characters written are a little (or sometimes a lot) off compared to the the "standard way". Add the fact that my kanji comprehension not good and I end up often copying what teachers write on the blackboard just like copying a drawing, having no idea of the meaning of the word of even which character is that. Sometimes I figure out later what's the character, but usually not.

Well, I'm not criticizing... that's natural, but it's kinda complicated when it's not the characters you're used to. And as I've never seen real Japanese common handwriting before, I still don't have the sensibility to distinguish some characters while Japanese (and some foreigners that have stayed for long) can do it easily. However, in some cases handwriting is so strange that even Japanese have trouble trying to find out what's written (deja vu...).

That's a thing usually overlooked on Japanese classes, but that people coming to Japan will face someday... hehe... Anyway, classes about handwriting pratically don't exist... the only way to get used to it is having contact with it and learning little by little, right?

Now some examples to show what I'm talking about. Surely, since I tried to copy them like drawings at first, my examples are even worse than the original writings... Also, those are not standard handwriting, just some interesting examples I have.

First, the writing for the kanji "ji" (magnetic) used in words such as "jiki" (磁気 - magnetism) or "jiba" (磁場 - magnetic field).

Second, the kanji "zatsu" (miscellaneous), used in words like "zakkan" (雑感 - miscellaneous thoughts) or "netsuzatsuon" (熱雑音 - thermal noise).


Some questions to finish. The kanji drawn on the left is equivalent to (a), (b) or (c)?


The answer is (a)... "aida" (during, between)

Second and final question: The kanji drawn on the left is equivalent to (a), (b) or (c)?


The answer is (b)... "kaze" (wind).

Well, imagine those things appearing during classes, for example... You have to copy, pay attention (at least to catch the reading of the character) and understand the thing later...

For those who have read the previous post... I guess it may be just impression, but I think there're more police cars around this area lately... XD

The boys in blue

I was planning on returning the "Reminiscences" today, posting, finally I should add, pictures from Kyoto. But a strange (but funny somewhat) thing hapenned today and I'd rather talk about that.

Ok. I have one class in the morning and one in the afternoon on Wednesdays. It just happened that I noticed a little after lunch I'd forgot some notes for afternoon class. As I live near the university and I came by bike (so it wouldn't take 20 minutes to go and return), I was cycling back home to retrieve it.

In the midway, there was a police car and two officers. I don't know what they were doing, but as one saw me he asked me to stop. No idea why he asked, but, anyway, I still had some time, so I stopped.

In the dialogue that followed, he asked if that was really my bike (through the Japanese Indirectiveness Translator it'd be something like asking 'did you steal that bike?'... ^ ^; Really... only in Japan this kind of things happen... I wonder if a real thief would answer that he'd stole it...). It's my bike, although it was only lent to me. No sweat answering this kind of question, but I wondered why would he ask that out of the blue.

"There've been some bicycles being stolen in the area" was the response. I know that well, some friends had their bikes stolen already. And that's one of the few things that are stolen more frequently in Japan. But I started to think that he thought I was one of those thieves for what happened later...

First, his behavior changed a little after (finally) realizing that I wasn't Japanese. Second, he seemed upset when I said I couldn't remember the name of the person I borrowed the bike from, although I made it clear that it was borrowed (not stolen) and some people would confirm that. Third, the "reason" why he stopped me was because he "didn't see any lock on my bike". Hum... I use one I bought at a 100 yen shop (something like the $1 shops or the "lojas de R$1,99", but the variety of items is astonishing) which stays in the basket when I'm cycling (so he really couldn't see any), but I saw other bikes using the same kind and some like that passed through during the conversation (there were two officers, remember? And one was talking to me)... This excuse sounds a little lame... Fourth, the officer strangely became silent when somebody was walking around, only resuming the conversation after that person was a little far away (out of listening range)... And fifth, the other office approached and started to write some sort of number that was written on my bike. Then I started to get angry... I believe that here, too, mothers usually teach kids to ask for permission, right? Where's the famous Japanese politeness, anyway?

But, anyway, I'd read already that it'd better not start a discussion with a police officer, but play humble instead... So I did that and it worked a little. At least the reaction went to something I'd classify as "neutral". And some time later, when the conversation reached a point where "there's nothing left to talk" he dismissed me, however only after emphasizing I should return the bike to the owner... WHAT!? Now it's illegal to borrow things!? Ah, I was late already, so I just said the Japanese "hai" (yes) and left. Interesting thing is that many Japanese use this word as "yes, I understand", not as "yes, I agree/will do" like most westerns, hehe... Hey, don't get me wrong! I will return the bike. But he didn't say when, so I'll return it just before returning to Brazil XD...

And one final note. All that happened when I was going home. When I was returning to the university (less than 10 minutes later) they weren't there anymore... Interesting... I'm starting to agree with this article...

Kids on TV: exercises and public security

Para aqueles que preferem posts em portugues, foi mal. Mas to com uns visitantes internacionais agora (quem le ate acha que to podendo...) e vou ter que aumentar um pouco o numero de posts em ingles. Mesmo assim nao vou deixar de escrever na minha lingua materna (... pq esse vocabulario agora?). Os relatos das ferias de verao serao mantidos em portugues. So quero ver quando acho tempo pra mexer nas fotos... Daqui a pouco chega o inverno e ainda nao terminei os albuns de verao...

Ok, back to English. During some idle time on Monday I decided to watch TV (a decision that I sometimes end up regretting... Here too seems like most of the good stuff is only on cable/satellite channels). There was a report about the Sports Day (yeah... and it's even an official holiday). In this day some schools test their students' physical ability (elementary and junior high schools mainly, I guess) and the results showed that, although certain features like avarage height have raised/improved, seems like physical abilities are decreasing. To arrive at that conclusion they compared data such as "Average time taken to run 100m" or "Average distance they can throw a ball" with the results of those measures years ago (with other students, of course).

Uh... I don't know... but I think such tests weren't necessary to get that conclusion. Kids don't play outside so often. Some barely have time to play because of activities such as cram schools. Even at university not all students are members of some sport club or even exercise frequently. And that's not only for Japan. That applies to many other countries (Brazil included). Here there's also another thing. This is the land of Game Boys, PlayStations and other eletronic enterteinment... I was not that surprised when I saw on the news other day something about the revival of "analog toys". The point was to improve communication and exercising.

Another thing I saw on TV was a show in which two kids (brothers and/or sisters) go shopping alone for the first time to buy somethings mom asked (simple things. The point is the "adventure"). Note: I know that some Japanese look lots younger than they really are, but none of the kids seemed to have more than 5 years old.

That's to think about public security. I don't think this kind of thing would be possible in Brazil... I've been writing about strange things in Japan. Time to praise a little. Although the fact that Japan is a relatively secure country is well known, we usually aren't aware of that, only realizing the difference after returning. Yep. It's easy to get used to good things to the point you don't even notice them anymore...

And Japanese kids are cute... Like when returning home, a boy whom I guess was no more than 3 years old (and tripped falling on the floor at least 5 times) just sat in the street saying "tsukareta" (I'm tired) and not willing to move. Much to the despair of her sister (around 5yo I guess). And later the crying of both when returning home and seeing mom and dad again... Hum... maybe I should review my opinion. Seems a little tough to the kids... But the boy saying "tsukareta" was funny...

Strange thing: I wonder if nobody really tried to help the kids or if they cut parts on which somebody offers to help. Can't imagine that nobody would try to help two children sitting on the walkway and crying...

Kansai and Hanshin Tigers

Some basics first. Kansai or Kinki is a region in the southern half of the Honshu island (Japan's biggest island). For those more in the known of Japanese Geography, it's defined as the cities (fu) of Osaka and Kyoto and the prefectures (ken) of Hyogo, Mie, Nara, Shiga and Wakayama. For some it's only the Kei-Han-Shin (Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe) region, but I won't discuss that.

Well, I believe that's one of the best places in Japan to live. And many people I know agree with that. As far as I know, natural disasters don't strike here so often and transportation between cities is relatively good (for example, the frequency of shinkaisoku - "super rapid" - trains if compared with the Tokai region). But probably the best thing is that people are more friendly. I haven't been to other regions for long, but that's my impression so far. People tell more jokes naturaly, are more expressive, and even the local dialect, the Kansai-ben (that I'm trying to learn), is more expressive and funnier than standard Japanese (a.k.a. Tokyo dialect).

Another interesting thing about Kansai is the relationship with a local baseball team: the Hanshin Tigers. From the book "Colloquial Kansai Japanese" (PALTER, DC; SLOTSVE. Tuttle Publishing, 1995): "Living in Kansai is synonymous with rooting for the Hanshin Tigers. Even people who hate baseball will say they hope Hanshin wins. (...) This is not to say that Hanshin is a good team (...). Most years find them languishing in the cellar of the Central League, which only seems to increase their lovability as the underdog." A little exaggerate, maybe. But not by much... "The Tigers home stadium is Koushien in Nishinomiya, between Osaka and Kobe and near the base of Mt. Rokko." And it just happens that Nishinomiya is a sister city of my hometown in Brazil: Londrina. (Which reminds me that I should go there someday...)

And one might ask why I'm telling all that. Well, it's a different information about Japan, isn't it? But there's another reason. Hanshin won the Central League this year and, as a result, many stores in the area are doing bargain sales. Some friends are taking the oportunity to buy things, like last Sunday when one was showing some "fall clothes" or Monday, when I went shopping with another friend (actually I ended up just watching... Don't even know why...). Think I should try buying at least some winter clothing, although money is short after summer vacation (ah... that was the reason...). Sales will go until next Monday, I guess.

Just another curiosity about Hanshin Tigers. When the team won the Japan Series for the first time a strange episode occured. A statue of Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken (some franchising "McDonald's-like") was thrown into the Doutonbori River (in Osaka). There're many versions of this story. The following is extracted from the "Colloquial Kansai Japanese"

"When Hanshin won the Japan Series for the first time in 1985, the fans went crazy. One group gathered at the Nampa Bashi over the Dotonbori River, and as people called out the names of their favorite players, someone would jump into the river. However, when they called out the American player, Randy Bass, who helped lead the team's success, there were no foreigners in the crowd to represent him. The closest thing to a foreigner they could find was the Colonel Sanders statue in front of the nearby KFC restaurant, which they threw into the water."

"The restaurant never replaced the statue, and soon afterwards Hanshin went into a deep slump. Some people claimed this was due to a jinx wrought by the Colonel himself. When, in 1992, it looked like Hanshin would win the Central League pennant, the shop finally replaced the statue. However, knowing the character of Hanshin fans, the management chained the statue to the front of the restaurant. Unfortunatelly, the team blew the last few critical games and failed to win the pennant. Maybe they shouldn't have kept the Colonel chained down."

And, this year, when it seemed like Hanshin would win the Central League (something that did happen this time), some sort of "barrier" was put at the Nampa Bashi to prevent people from jumping into the river. Even so, I heard that some did jump, although less than previously...

Being a nikkei in Japan

I should apologize to some people for writing in English again. Anyway, the topic today is about one thing that probably every asian-looking person has already experienced in Japan (Japanese don't count in this one, though...), and I think it's one of the reasons why some dekasseguis (japanese descents who return to Japan to work) complain about treatment they recieve here (ok, in this case there's more to it, like the feeling that some Japanese have about "foreigners taking our jobs"... And that's quite interesting coming from a population whose workforce is decreasing...): they usually think that we're also Japanese. At least initially.

Some funny situations may come of it. For exemple, once when I went to a restaurant to drink (in my case, soft drinks) with Silvia and some (North-)American friends. One of them had a Japanese better than mine (and I still think he has, although he denies it), so he usually orders things. But the waiter came straight to me (the only male japanese-looking person in the group) to ask for the order, and he was a little surprised when my friend ordered our drinks instead of me...

Also, in places like supermarkets and stores, when I didn't understand completelly what someone told me, sometimes I ended with a Japanese making a face like "What's wrong with you? Why can't you speak proper Japanese?"...

There's also a good side. You don't get stared so often and you can stay in the crowd unnoticed (hey, sometimes it is a good thing, really...). and, if you can keep a conversation for some time and only later they realize that you're not Japanese sometimes thay get impressed. So, being looking like Japanese is bad when you want to be treated like a foreigner (hum... perhaps the word "tourist" fits in some situations, too...), and it's good when you don't want it.

Well, but yesterday I noticed that I'm also starting to behave like that. Another friend of mine told me about some JETs who live in Himeji who get together on Saturdays to play frisbee (actually the game has a different name that I can't remenber now...). As I arrived, I asked one person that was leaving about the game and if I could join. That person looked like a Japanese person, and there were some Japanese playing also, so I started the conversation in Japanese, but she was actually (North-)American, and, as I started the conversation in Japanese, she thought the same thing about me. And the others also thought I was Japanese at first...

Guess I've been here for too long... Or is it just a biased thing here?

Back to school again...

Time to take a break from the summer trips and the "Dark Side of the Force" things. Classes started this week. Summer vacation is over and it was good while it lasted, but it's time to resume study.

The impressive thing is that, although I almost didn't study Japanese during vacation (and most conversations, I had were in Portuguese or English), I feel that it has improved. Strange, huh? One of my Japanese teachers also mentioned that. Guess it's time to quote one of my sisters: "you learn when you don't study"... I'm thinking about conceding that...

Back to the subject, classes started this Monday, but, oh, I don't have classes on Mondays... But I had some questions to the student affairs section and to the coordinator for international students. AND some things to post here and mails to answer...

Tuesday. First class of the second period. Nobody that I know in the same class... But I could understand a good part and the teacher seems quite nice. I have interest about the subject, also. Second class. This time I saw some familiar faces who told me that the teacher is said to be "kibishii" (severe/harsh). I wonder why... The only different thing I've noticed is that there'll be a small test after every class. Ah... that makes things a little difficult, but that's good to push myself (I'm becoming lazy here after vacations). I doubt that's only for that. Well, there's still plenty of time to figure it out.

Another class. This one a continuation of a first semester subject, so the students are mostly the same. And the teacher is nice.

Wednesday. Another class with the first tuesday' teacher. This time he didn't look so nice. Is it because it's a freshman laboratory class? (Actually we only use the computer in this one.) Guess so. After class (and a report...) he turned to his "previous" self. Later, Japanese class (yes, this is the only class I want to name for now) when we talked (and wrote a little) about our summer vacation (pretty original, huh? Not so simple to do in Japanese, though).

Today's class introduction was something I've heard many times during classes in Brazil. A little boring, but I think it'll get better (and harder) later.

And between classes I realized how many people I know already... People that I can call classmates, colleagues or friends... people from the same class, club, lab, other international students whom are good to meet again. And here I am getting off the topic again...

And after today's Japanese class Silvia and I were asked whether we could do a explanation about Brazil next month. The country's a little more popular now because of a NHK drama called "Haru to Natsu" (links with further explanations in Portuguese, English and Japanese) which has the emiration to Brazil during the... 30's I guess... as background (why the word "Terra Nostra" just came to my mind...?). And, even better for them, we are nikkeis (japanese descents). So we might have our ancestors' stories to tell...

Oh, and the class in which half of students usually fail that I mentioned when talking about my grades was the first tuesday class. I wonder whether it'll become impossible later or if I still may have some hope because the teacher changed from the previous year...

Reminiscences - 奈良 (Nara)

Finalmente, relatos sobre a viagem pra Nara (13 a 15 de agosto de 2005).


A ida talvez tenha sido a mais tranquila de todas as viagens. A tarde, tranquilo, estacoes determinadas e sem estresse. Dessa vez sem Seishun 18 Kippu tambem. Nao compensava usar um.

Nara foi a primeira capital do Japao, absorvendo ideias do continente asiatico, convertendo-se no grande centro do budismo e no destino mais oriental da Rota da Seda. Mas, ao contrario de Kyoto, ainda conserva um ar de interior. A cidade nao parece tao grande (e acho que nao eh). De acordo com o guia, Nara eh "um simbolo de tranquilidade".

Fora da epoca de Obon talvez...

Ja na estacao, as coisas tavam movimentadas. Alem da epoca de Obon, quando muitos japoneses ja viajam, Nara tem o evento To-kae nessa epoca (que vou comentar a seguir). Pra terminar, no dia de chegada, era dia de hanabi na regiao de Ouji... Bom, depois de encontrar a Silvia e fazer o check-in no hostel de Nara, resolvemos ir ver o hanabi junto com uma japonesa, Y. Pra variar, cheio de gente... Pelo menos pra ver o hanabi voce so tem que olhar pra cima. Eh uma especie de espetaculo de fogos de artificio. Foi o meu primeiro (e unico ate agora) no Japao, e estava muito bonito.

O segundo dia foi dedicado aos pontos turisticos.

Todai-ji: Construida em 752, tinha o objetivo nao so de abrigar a imagem do Grande Buda de Nara (o maior buda indoors do Japao), mas de consolidar a posicao da cidade como capital do budismo.

Kasuga Taisha Jinja: Um dos mais conhecidos centros xintoistas. Apesar da construcao original ser de 710, a estrutura foi demolida e reconstruida a cada 20 anos de acordo com as normas de pureza e renovacao xintoistas ate 1863, quando passou a ser preservada. Na chegada do santuario e nas passarelas podem ser vistas 3 mil lanternas de bronze e pedra (eu nao contei, mas dao um efeito impressionante quando acesas, como foi possivel ver durante o To-kae)

Kofuku-ji: Apesar de restarem poucas das 175 constucoes do conjunto original, algumas construcoes permanecem como o pagode de cinco andares (que ja foi incendiado cinco vezes).

Horyu-ji: Considerado o berco do budismo japones, o conjunto Horyu-ji contem algumas das estruturas mais antigas do mundo. O templo foi erguido no esforco de consolidar o budismo lado a lado com o xintoismo como um pilar do sistema da crenca japonesa.

Ao anoitecer, encontramos um bolsista brasileiro que mora nos arredores, Anderson, e uma Alema que participou de um programa de home stay com a Silvia e saimos pra ver o To-kae. Explicacoes sobre o evento podem ser encontradas nessa pagina (.PDF). Durante o evento, a cidade eh iluminada por velas acesas nas principais areas e vias (turisticas) da cidade, formando um belo espetaculo. E nos tivemos a sorte de aparecer em um dos poucos dias no qual a janela do Buda do Toudai-ji fica aberta durante a noite, possibilitando ver o rosto do Buda do lado de fora do templo...

De Nara, no dia seguinte o proximo destino foi Kyoto, mas esse eh assunto pra outro post...

Ah, antes que alguem resolva perguntar ou fazer uma piada sobre os cervos (veados, saindo do politicamente correto). Existe uma quantidade consideravel em Nara vivendo soltos por ai, em geral nas proximidades do Parque de Nara, mas nao exclusivamente. Cervos eram/sao considerados "mensageiros dos deuses". E gostam de senbei (especie de bolacha japonesa). Compre um pacote e tenha certeza que voce se vera cercado desses animais (esperando um descuido seu pra abocanhar o senbei, ou que voce ofereca). O engracado eh que eles avancam nas pessoas que compram, mas nao perturbam os vendedores. Respeito japones ou ja levaram muito na cabeca mesmo?

O que se le...

Acredito que alguns queiram que eu coloque os episodios estranhos pelos quais eu passei no Japao. Ate tenho alguns, e penso em coloca-los um dia, mas, infelizmente, minha vida nao eh tao emocionante quanto alguns podem pensar. Geralmente o que leio ou ouco dizer me choca mais que as experiencias que tenho. Esse post eh uma combinacao de diversos artigos que li ultimamente. A maioria esta em ingles, contudo...

Ah, sim. A seguir estao textos baseados nas reportagens (em alguns casos existe ate um pouco de extrapolacao). Nem sempre correspondem as minhas experiencias por aqui ou mesmo minha opiniao geral.

Mulheres parecem ter uma vida dificil no Japao. Sejam elas nativas ou estrangeiras. As nativas as vezes tem problemas com certas "maos bobas" no trem que forcaram alguns trens no Japao a implementar vagoes so para mulheres em horarios de pico. Mas, em parte, isso acontece pela natureza delas de nao revidar (um japones que tente fazer isso na maioria dos paises ocidentais pode nao voltar pra contar a historia...) e o fato de boa parte dos japoneses nao interferir mesmo quando veem esse tipo de coisa ("bullying" em geral. Nao me lembro bem do equivalente em portugues, mas eh o velho "os mais fortes judiam dos mais fracos". Alguns nao interferem por medo de serem envolvidos na situacao. Isso de certa forma acontece em outros lugares tambem, nao?)... ("Trying to keep the train-groping perverts out of touch"; "Groping for Answers on Gropers")

Tambem tem a eterna preocupacao com a beleza ("Beauty: Japanese women's never ending quest") que, apesar de ser comum em certo grau com mulheres de varias partes do mundo, aqui a pressao parece ser maior que no Brasil, pelo menos ("Japanese People Say the Darnest Things" - leia a quarta historia). Mas parece que o ambiente nao ajuda. Pelo visto, muitas tem auto-estima com relacao a propria beleza baixa devido a falta de elogios, por exemplo ("Complexities of Beauty"; "Japan gripped by obsession with pure love"). Hum... talvez eu consiga arranjar alguem so fazendo um pouco de cavalheirismo entao? Pode valer a tentativa... Sera que eh tao simples? Mas, se for o caso, deve-se cuidar do que se tem. O artigo "Divorced from their Children" mostra uma faceta geralmente desconhecida da lei japonesa no qual a esposa nao eh obrigada nem a dar direitos de visita as criancas no caso dela ser japonesa e estar no Japao...

Sobre estrangeiras... Bom, quem tiver interessado, de uma olhada em "Gender Issues in Japan" (one, two and three). Mas, de fato, eh bem mais comum um estrangeiro se dar bem com uma japonesa que o contrario. (Talvez ate a chance de dois estrangeiros "combinarem" seja maior...)

O nivel de machismo aqui tambem eh maior. Geralmente da pra viver (mas ser homem nessas horas ajuda, nao?), mas algumas vezes aparecem coisas perturbadoras... Do artigo "Sex attacks rise during summer": "(...) he suggests that criminalizing aggressive behavior during summer may be a mistake, since the guys' biological reactions often seem to override their common sense." Que!?!? Quer dizer que pessoas que nao conseguem conter sua "segunda cabeca" nao devem ser caracterizadas como criminosas!? Espero ter errado a interpretacao...

O artigo "Bad boys, bad boys" tem algumas historias de estrangeiros com a policia. Agora... ja ouvi falar de pessoas fazendo justica com as proprias maos (ou contratando "servicos particulares" pra isso), mas especialmente no ultimo exemplo no artigo "Punishers gain revenge for you" chega a um nivel assustador...

Outros artigos:
Sobre liberdade de imprensa (para os que nao sabem, a midia aqui tem um certo nivel de censura)- "Brought to heel"
Sobre educacao. Os pontos sao mais ou menos os que acontecem no Brasil: pais colocando os filhos em "cursinhos" para conseguirem aprovacao nas melhores universidades e a queda no nivel dos universitarios. Claro que a escala eh diferente... E uma coisa interessante eh que uma das razoes no ultimo caso eh a queda no numero de jovens... - "Japan's colleges facing 'meltdown'"; "Cram schools cash in on failure of public schools"
"Girias de Otaku" - "Getting ready to gab with a geek"
Sobre escolhas de nomes - "Thinking of naming your baby 'Spiderman'? Think again"
Precos de funerais - "What not to do in Japan: die"
Uh... Diferencas em tratamento na justica entre japoneses e estrangeiros? - "Scales of justice"

So deixando claro. Eu estou curtindo bastante o Japao, e nao presenciei nem metade dessas historias. Sao so coisas que li por ai e espero que grande parte nao seja verdade (mas nao tenho muitas esperancas...). Na verdade, to ate mais preocupado com a minha volta depois de ler sobre dois casos que aconteceram com familias de dekasseguis na Zona Leste de Sao Paulo e em Mogi das Cruzes. E acredito que nao seja o unico... Como esse pessoal nao sabe que nao se volta mais com tanto dinheiro do Japao e nao sabem distinguir dekassegui de estudante, talvez seja o caso de ate tomar mais cuidado com o que escrevo aqui...

Propaganda no trem

Continuando um pouco a categoria "bizarro", nesse final de semana estava indo pra uma excursao de estudantes estrangeiros da provincia de Hyogo (sobre a qual, como sempre, pretendo comentar em outra ocasiao) quando encontrei um anuncio estranho no trem.



Ok... ja tinha lido algumas historias estranhas sobre sexualidade no Japao, mas sempre aparece algo que consegue me surpreender. Mesmo para os que nao entendem japones, acredito que o "Ingres" de uma ideia do anuncio. Apesar que a foto ta mal batida, nao? Foi mal. Mas creio que as palavras "sex", "how to sex" e "book" sejam legiveis, pelo menos.

Detalhe que esse anuncio estava dentro de um trem. Diversos tipos de pessoas andam em um trem, incluindo criancas e outras pessoas que acredito que nao deveriam ser expostas a esse tipo de propaganda ainda... Ah... Depois de ver uma pessoa lendo o jornal dentro do trem na pagina que parecia ser o equivalente a pagina de "massagens" no Brasil (mas essa tinha umas fotos de mocas em posicoes... hum... sexys...) isso nem devia me surpreender tanto...