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A Psychology of Open Seats and Personal Space

I ride a lot of trains in Japan but am fortunate enough to not have to ride on the crowded, standing room only trains very often, nor for very long when I do. I suppose that is one advantage of commuting longer distances. In Kyoto, I live on a northern fringe of town serviced by a separate line that I ride for about 9 minutes (5 stops) to get to one of the larger arterial lines that takes me in Osaka. Many lines have a few different trains, from the local that stops at every stop on up to the tokkyuu (special express) which makes very few stops. Tokkyuu are much faster because they make fewer stops, but are only convenient if you live near one of those stops. And if you can catch the train at the terminal, as I do, you are usually able to sit down in one of the forward facing pairs of seats that only the longer distance, faster express trains have. The commuter trains have inward facing bench seats that run along the sides of the car, opening more space for the standing customers.

Even though the tokkyuu has forward facing seats, none of them are assigned; it's all first come, first served. There is a special section dedicated for the elderly, infirm, and pregnant that manners dictate should be relinquished if needed by such individuals, but overall, its just a matter of getting an open seat. There is no entitlement or ownership to any of the seats on the train.

As a result of this equality, anyone can sit in any open seat. Yet everyone lays claim to and respects others' claims to a pseudo-ownership of sorts. In most cases, (middle age men are horribly rude by any standard) when a person comes to sit in an open seat next to an inhabited seat, they give a slight nod or mumble "excuse me" as they sit in the open space. Sometimes they have to essentially beg to be seated if the person who was already seated has filled the empty seat with a coat or bag. It is as if people feel that placing a bag there somehow grants them exclusive use of the seat that someone else could sit in.

But even more surprising is that sometimes this exertion of ownership is honored by the person who would sit down. Many times I've seen someone standing when there are open seats filled with a briefcase or something. Often the owner of the briefcase will realize this and move their object at which time the standing person will take the seat, always with a significant show of gratitude expressed by a deep head bow. Again, it is as if the person who was standing felt that they didn't have the right to ask the person to move their bag so they could sit down. I find that rather amazing, and not entirely explicable by the Japanese concern for others that is so often misunderstood as a predilection for politeness and manners. Correction, it is explainable by the aspect of Japanese cultural psychology, but it not part of the standard regimen. It's an almost pathological expression of it (but I suppose others may see it as a supremely virtuous expression of it).

But this whole dynamic of ownership and entitlement changes on trains that have assigned seating. The trains I have described above all cost the same regardless of whether you take the slow local or the faster tokkyuu. Some lines also offer premium tickets for faster, more comfortable trains that include reclining seats, coat hangers, restrooms, and deluxe and smoking cars. The shinkansen bullet train is the most striking and well known example of this class of train. The trains have an added super express fee for these amenities.

I've been riding one of these super expresses since we've moved in with my in-laws for the last 6 months and noticed differences in how people relate to each other with respect to personal space and use of the seats. Because the super express fee gets you an assigned seat, when you go to sit down, you have entitlement to the open seat next to someone who is already sitting down. Many people still offer a gesture of politeness when sitting, but the sense of "I'm sorry for impinging on the space near you" is drastically reduced. Sometimes there is even a veneer of contempt for using the "owned" space of the new arrival.

Physically there is no difference between sitting next to someone on a reserved seating train and a open seating one, but people behave differently. Maybe I'm getting impressed by simple things, but I found it intriguing that the rental of the space in a reserved car would impart attitudes that diverge from the public commons example of the open seating car. I'm not criticizing or mocking the behavior, as I do it too, but it seemed like another nice example of the ways that people in common social space create, subscribe to, and sustain collective definitions and values.

Lastly, there is one other element of the perception of ownership of an open seat that applies to both reserved and non-reserved cars. It is nice when no one sits next to you because you have a place to put your bag or drink or whatever. When my wife and I travel together, we sit together (naturally). If the seats across the isle is entirely empty, I'll often use them, but if the window seat (furthest from me) is occupied, I cannot bring myself to use the open seat. Yet why not? The person sitting in the window seat doesn't have any exclusive claim to use it, yet I can't bring myself to set my bag there. It feels like I'm invading their space. Indeed, I would be invading their space, but that space wouldn't be theirs in any definable way (like if I were to put something on their lap, for example) since I could easily sit in the empty space if needed. But I couldn't use that space for utilitarian purposes.

Odd creatures, humans are, with there psychological methods that not only create these boundaries but then ascribe such powerful value to them that they cannot bring themselves to violate them without discomfort.

Come, invade our personal space and post a comment.

Japan is so quaint sometimes I could just pee

Japan is so quaint sometimes I could pee. For the most part, it's very similar to life in any developed country (well, I admit I haven't lived in any except for the U.S. and Japan, but still). But there are occasions when its traditional values leap out, often highlighting an innocence and naivete long lost in much of the rest of the developed world.

Last week was the annual seijinshiki, the coming of age ceremony that signifies the 20 year-old's passage into adulthood. They are now legal to drink and smoke, can vote, and have the full power of the law pressed upon them for crimes. They are expected to be able to carry adult responsibilities and make adult decisions, yadda yadda yadda.

But this is a big deal, seriously. The Japanese are big on ceremony and ritual, you see. A number of my students came up to me after class to show me pictures of them dressed up in their extremely fancy kimono with fur stoles, very pretty. These ceremonies are highly anticipated and thoroughly enjoyed.

But there can be trouble in paradise.

There were trouble makers afoot, raising a ruckus and attracting all sorts of media attention. The news covered these hooligans for almost a week. Mostly males, they were hooting and hollering during the official speeches, walking up and down the aisles (dressed in beautiful formal attire), starting fights (mostly yelling matches using the most vulgar grammar and guttural tones), even jumping on stage to tug at and tear down some of the posters hung in their honor. Some were drunk (20 is the legal drinking and smoking age in Japan, but with vending machines all over, it's widely violated) and there were even women gathered with the smokers outside! THE HORROR!!

It was reassuring to see such a relatively minor issue take such precedence in the news. Even though I'm trivializing it, these were truly disruptive assholes out to ruin everyone's good time in some perverse draw for attention. It's common among bousouzoku gangs, just being annoying by modifying their cars with the loudest possible muffle and outrageous lights and fins (I should get pics) or riding around slowly on a motorcycle just gunning the engine to annoy. In a nation that prides itself on manners and consideration for others, being publicly inconsiderate is the best way to rebel and flaunt the rules.

There was another big scandal that bears mentioning in the same vein. There is an annual race at a particular shrine in Tokyo that is run by many people, perhaps semi-comparable to the Bulls of Pamplona. People line up behind these big doors which are swung open at the specific hour and they race for luck. Older people run along for the thrill of it, but the people who line up really early are in it to win. You get a special prize and are always on the news and it's a nice feel-good moment.

Last year, one guy was in the lead but he slipped and fell. This year, he collaborated with some friends and lined up early enough to be the first behind the door. Then, when the door was opened, he took off but his friends linked arms and held the rest of the crowd back. Their motivation wasn't to cheat out others as much as to give the guy what they felt was his due from the previous year.

Only problem was that this is a popular even, always covered by the news, and it was immediately obvious what had happened. It was blatant that the compatriots had obstructed everyone else, and the guy who won ended up shamed and apologetic. He returned his prize and apologized for the incident, but this too was big news for a few days.

So while I at times fret because I'm so out of the loop vis a vis happenings in the U.S., at other times I'm kind of glad to be. Japan is not without its problems and shortcomings, but it does retain particular elements of life and society that are very nice to have about, and I'm sure that I would miss them if I ever move away.

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On Leaves, Cleaning, and Parking on the street in Japan

This morning I drove my wife to the station and returned home to find a small pile of leaves on the street near the curb where I park my car. It was about 9:30 in the morning, maybe closer to 10:00, and there was no one around. I parked my car, on top of the leaves (there wasn't anywhere else to park, and my "spot" is so well established you can see it when the car is gone) and went inside to eat breakfast and have coffee.

About 10 minutes later I was enjoying a fried egg bagel and hot seeped bean extract when the door bell sounds. My mother-in-law usually answers, but she was wooing the baby to sleep so I went to see who it was, expecting a delivery or mail. It turned out to be the next door neighbor who explained to me that she had been cleaning the street but had forgotten to bring her garbage bag with her. While she was fetching it, I happened to return and cover up her leaf pile and would I be so kind as too pull my car forward.

I wasn't amused by this rather odd request (it's just a pile of leaves about the size of a dinner plate) coming during my morning refueling session, but to avoid causing any neighborhood strife I complied and slipped on my sandals to move forward. As I got in the car, she reminded me to stay put once I pulled forward so I could put it back once she had cleaned up. Sheesh! So I sat there for a minute or so while she scraped the leaves up (she was 'sweeping' with a dustpan: KKKkkKKKkKkRKkkrrzzkzkkk!) and then she gave me permission to put my car back.

It wasn't a big deal and I wasn't upset, but it struck me as odd. If it was me, I wouldn't have done what she did. My wife mentioned that most Japanese would have avoided parking over the pile, an effort that wouldn't have gone unnoticed by this lady, whereby she would have thanked me profusely for not covering up her pile and she'd apologize for causing me an inconvenience. I knew that this was how it usually plays out, but when I arrived I decided that if consideration for others is really such a priority, she could have had the consideration not to scrape her leaves up in my parking spot.

But like I said, this wasn't a big deal or problem, just a quirky little experience I had with a middle-aged Japanese neighbor. I don't actually have many stories to tell because I don't deal with Japanese people outside of formal or family settings much. Behavior is circumscribed and dictated by roles in these situations, so there isn't much to talk about (athough I could explain how pissy my father-in-law gets if I don't say "Tadaima!", a set phrase that every Japanese person utters when returning home that predictably means "I'm home"). It seriously puts him in a bad mood if I don't say this. I don't know if it's a respect thing or what. It is funny when he throws his tissy fits, like when he got upset the other day when I asked if anyone else thought the TV was a little too loud. It's his house, so I shouldn't snipe, but it IS funny.

Okay, back to the dissertation. Close to 40,000 words now, about 120 pages maybe. 5 days to go.

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Manners in life and death

Even though I've lived in Japan now for over 4 years, there are naturally many many things about live here that I'm not familiar with. I learned a few things about the formal side of Japanese social life this weekend.

The Japanese preoccupation with manners and the appropriate honorofic and humble behavior are well known. The smallest actions in Japan can be employed in the expression of honor and humbleness. Last week, my father-in-law's aunt passed away at age 92. The funeral was Sunday, and I watched my mother-in-law prepare for the funeral. She had to prepare a couple envelopes with money in them. The larger envelope was for the family, the smaller for the priest who adminsters the services. Formal occasions are always hosted by the family and guests are expected to give rather substantial monetary gifts, mostly to offset the cost of hosting a funeral or wedding.

The envelopes containing the money are addressed with a brush pen. My mom-in-law first chooses a grey inked pen because it is a subtle shade; can't have harsh black ink in someone's face. The smaller envelope got a 100 yen or 500 yen coin and is given to the priest. The larger envelope (there is a standard design for these formal money-holding-envelopes) was for the paper bills. There is a sash of sorts around these envelopes, which are used at weddings, birthdays, New Years' and the like when giving monetary gifts. The sash has a bow, and the two ends curve down from the bow. However, manners recommend that for occasions that happen only once, such as weddings and funerals, the sash is turned around facing up. I had heard of this before and thought it had something to do with luck being held in the upturned space, like a horseshoe, but that apparently is incorrect.

Of course, the special funeral envelope didn't have an actual sash on it. The sashes are typically gold and red and rather gaudy, much too festive for a funeral. The funeral envelope has it printed on the envelope in a muted grey. At least the envelope my mother-in-law used today looked like that; maybe the other gaudy envelopes are used, or maybe there are gray sashed envelopes.

Then came the money itself. When giving cash in Japan, you are supposed to make sure you get crisp, clean, new, fancy, fresh bills. Many times money is given at the beginning of the year, for weddings, or for births. The symbolism of fresh money is so important that there are cash machines at the bank that will spit out fresh clean bills or change your old ones.

However, this is inappropriate at a funeral because it gives the impression that one had planned or expected the death of the deceased. Money is supposed to be worn a little bit (but not too much, mind you!!) to show that their passing was sudden and surprising and that you didn't have time to go get something fancy for them.

Now all of this isn't hard and fast law. I guess there are plenty of people who don't pay attention to this (we got some money after the baby was born that came in an envelope with an upturned sash, evidently indicating that they only expected us to have one child), and it isn't considered a major social foul if these rules aren't followed. But I was amazed at the depth of thought, the amount of symbolism built-in to all of it, and my mother-in-law's natural acceptance of it all. Whether it be a personal, cultural, or familiar failure, I have a hard time subscribing to this sort of societal expectation and obligation. But as an anthropologist, it's pretty interesting to see and experience.

Then this evening I got another glimpse of some of the things that a person can be expected to be aware of. Some friends got married last summer and are having their wedding reception this winter and invited us. The invitation comes with an RSVP postcard, self-addressed to the groom. This address includes the humble equivalent of "Mr." The part that we had to fill out had spaces for our names, addresse, and phone number, all of which were indicated with an honorable expression. Translated, it had space for "Your honored name, your honored address, and your honored phone number" but I have to say that it isn't nearly as awkward in Japanese. There actually is just a single kanji character that is prefixed to those of name, address, and number that indicates an honorific. This is actually important, because we are supposed to cross out the honorific prefix in our reply, rendering the words back to a normal, non-honorific form. And of course we cross out the humble "Mr." on the return address side of the card and write in the honorific version of sama.

Attention to this kind of stuff would wear me down, but my wife is good at it and I like the fact that we are able to be a part of continuing this traditional institutionalized system of respect and manners. It'll be interesting to see how my daughter grows up thinking about it.

In the pits with the Ferrari F1 team

Last Thursday I was invited out to serve as a translator for some Japanese people who had met a few members of the Ferrari F1 team a few days prior. The Japanese F1 race in Suzuka is the last race of the season and the track is only about 20 minutes from my wife's parents place, where we've been staying the last few months since the baby came. I wasn't sure what to expect but figured it was a chance to get some free food and drinks if nothing else, so I went along for the ride.

I met two Italian mechanics who work on Michael Schumacher's car. I got some interesting info about life on the circuit as well as some of the details about how a team is run. They were really nice guys, handing out Marlboros to everyone (provided by the sponsor) and taking pictures with their new Olympus cameras (also sponsor-provided). It was exciting to be so close to the action in an entirely un-close way. They gave us some recently autographed pictures of Michael as well, which was cool enough.

The two guys I met actually build the cars, taking them apart and putting them together. There are three subdivisions to the team: One for Schumacher, one for Barrichello, and one for the T-for-test car. Each team has a 6 man core that does the mechanicking, as well as an engine man, a gear-box specialist, and a body panelist. During the race, all the mechanics come together as pit crew; the guys I met change the front left and rear right tires. Their job is to put the tire on.

I don't have opportunity to watch many races during the season since most are shown late at night. It's an amazing sport though. They are called drivers but they are more like pilots of precision aircraft. The machines are insanely specialist pieces of art. I got to go to the 1999 race, the last season that Schumacher didn't win. He is set to take his 4th driver's championship in a row. He is awesome. Ferrari is only three points ahead in the constructor's championship though and it will be a tight race to lock that up. They brought two T-cars to Japan instead of the normal single backup, just to insure that they can field two drivers in a worst case scenario at the end of the season.

The team suffered a bit of a setback today though. The race takes place over three days. On Friday there are time trials that set up the schedule for the qualifying lap. Each racer only gets one qualifying lap, so it has to count. The better you race on Friday, the later you get to qualify on Saturday (why this is a good thing, I'm not so sure, but a later qualifying slot is better).

However, it started raining today midway through qualifying runs, so the racers who botched Friday and had to go earlier today ended up with better track conditions. Schumacher ended up 14th in a field of 20, and his brother Ralf, who is racing on the Williams/BMW team that is only 3 points behind in the constructor's race, went off course and got thumped back into 19th place. So the starting positions tomorrow are all topsy-turvy. Barichello, Shumacher's Ferrari teammate, messed up his Friday runs but benefited in the end and snagged the pole.

So it sounds like an interesting race for tomorrow. When I got to go see the races, Mika Hakkinen had already clinched the championship so the race wasn't as much fun as it could have been if more had been riding on it, but this year's should be good. It is expected to rain as well, which adds a lot of uncertainty to the mix. I don't envy the stress of my Italian pitcrew friends though, as this is a real pressure cooker for them.

Maybe next year I'll go to the races and go down and see them in the pits. They invited us this year, but only one of us had tickets. The guy that is going is some weird collector who used to have about 40 classic Ferrari race cars from the 1930s up to the 1970s. I can only imagine what the collection was worth. He's sold a lot of it off and only has about 10 cars now, he says, but he still has enough prestige to be one of the guest drivers who parades the actual race drivers around the track prior to the race start.

I saw ASIMO today!

The missus and I were out on errands today and swung into the food court at the local Takashimaya department store to get a sandwich. On the way out, we realized that we were only 15 minutes away from an ASIMO demonstration so we hung out for a few more minutes. I've seen it on TV before and it was pretty cool to see in the metal, I suppose.

The robot (the name stands for Advanced Step in Innovative MObility, a thoroughly Japanese acronym if I've ever seen one; I used to think it was a Japanized salute to Asimov, author of I, Robot) walked out on the dais and talked to the crowd for 15 minutes. It would periodically wave, hold its hand over its eyes and peer into the crowd, waved, and make other assorted movements. The arms and hands were very fluid.

It also did a lot of bowing. It had this horridly annoying and entirely un-robotic (and hence rather undignified) high pitched voice. It gave us information about itself (age (2 1/2), height (~125 cm), weight (~52 kilograms), etc. Then it recited a bunch of business phrases while bowing, essentially pretending to work at the department store. The PR lady who worked the mike and set up the jokes and conversation offered ASIMO a job, an offer that ASIMO pointed out was unnecessary as it was working for the company today and hence already an employee.

Sadly, the hand movements didn't match up with the talking much. I couldn't tell if the movements were pre-programmed or remote controlled, nor if the voice was recorded or just delivered live from someone backstage. The timing of the dialogue was good, but the movements could have been a bit more coordinated. The illusion of life wasn't really sustained.

The robot did dance the hula for us and sang the Hanshin Tigers fight song. It was a horrible singer which set up another joke about where the robot blamed his Tokyo area programmer for doing a bad job with the Osaka area team song. It would prompt the audience for applause after it did such tricks as drawing circles, triangles, and squares, dancing, and whatnot. It also talked about how hot the weather is and wished it had come to Kyoto earlier to see the Gion festival. When the host invited it to watch other festivals in August, the robot held his hands to eyes and "cried," explaining that his planners didn't do a good job planning his itinerary and it would be gone by that time. It was kind of cute.

The worst part for me was when it turned into a commercial whore and spent the last 3 minutes telling everyone to belly up and pay their money for the Atomboy exhibition on the 7th floor and inviting everyone to the all-you-can-eat-and-drink beer garden (only ¥3000 for men, ¥2700 for women). I felt bad for the poor bot. First it had the godawful voice assigned to it and then it hawked ostentatious goods. I suppose they have to finance the research somehow and it doesn't really do much but promote the Honda name. It would have been cooler if it had mingled with the crowd or done something a little less formulaic that highlighted its mobility abilities, but oh well. It was still neat enough to see.

Of course I didn't have my camera with me. I carry it often just in case of stuff like this, but Murphy travels to Japan (or maybe its his cousin Mitsunori?) and cool stuff only happens when I don't have the camera with me. I got some pics on my wife's phone camera, but she hasn't emailed them too me and they are pretty low quality anyway. I'll post them when I get a chance though.

Did you know that kids under 14 get away with murder and rapists are good for society in Japan?

I like living in Japan, enough so that I currently intend to live here for as long as I can. It has all (well, most) of the creature comforts of the U.S. and I'm surrounded by people with fundamentally different ways of perceiving and processing world, a constant stimulation. It's a great environment for preventing one from become to rigid or enamored with a particular way of thinking.

All is not paradise in Eden though. Japan still suffers from some serious conservative thinking. There was a big discussion a couple years ago at a Sumo tournament where tradition dictates the Osaka prefectural governor hands the trophy over to the tourney champion. Only problem was that the Osaka governor is a woman, and women aren't allowed on the dohyo, the raised mound of sand that the wrestlers compete on, due to their "impurity." To be fair, society was split on this, but enough people felt that traditions were to be preserved and the exclusion of women from the dohyo was felt to be an important tradition for some reason by a fair number of people. Some wrestlers even stated that they would quit the sport if she stood on the dirt to give this trophy. She eventually stepped out of the way and avoided making a big stink about it, letting the vice-governor hand it over. That really disappointed me, but it was something I could handle.

But two things have happened lately that really have me up in arms. I'll start with the least shocking. Waseda University in Tokyo has just discovered that a group of male students created what has been dubbed a rape circle (circle is used in Japan to describe clubs, like a knitting circle, only they have circles for everything: chess, tennis, manga, anime, mahjong, radio broadcasting, whatever). These guys were part of a party circle that organizes parties, roughly the Japanese equivalent of house parties at colleges in the U.S.

Only these guys would prey on girls. Scout freshman on campus, recruit them to come to the parties, then liquor them up and gang-rape them. It's been going on for a few years now and they just got busted.

This isn't the bad part though. After this happened, a politician, speaking at a news conference with many other people, casually observed that these rapists were genki, which means spunky, cheerful, energetic, full of pep, in good health, etc, and that society needs people like that. When asked to clarify, he didn't catch the nuance in the question that implied that what he was saying was grossly inappropriate.

Encouragingly, the news media and society in general are upset about this, but what pisses me off is that nothing happens. He isn't going to lose his job and will likely win reelection due to the bass-ackwards election system they have here in Japan (I'll explain that later). This type of behavior and these types of attitudes persist with impunity. I suppose that progress is being made, as seen in the criticism in the media, but sheesh. Trent Lott lost his job as Senate leader for a much more innocent comment than that. And this type of mentality among politicians explains a lot with regard to the downward spiral Japan is stuck in.

But the really really really really really messed up thing:

Last week, a 4 year old boy was kidnapped from a store, taken 2 miles away to a parking garage where he was assaulted and then thrown from the roof of the building, whereupon he died. This crime itself was infuriating to me. I typically have low expectations for what humanity is capable of doing, but to throw a baby off a roof... I don't think capital punishment is really worthwhile, but I have a hard time convincing myself that anything you could do to the perpetrator short of killing them wouldn't be acceptable.

Well, yesterday they caught the guy.........and its a 12-year old junior high school kid!!!!. But the real kicker is that under Japanese law, okay, you might want to take a deep breath before reading this, and don't have any coffee in your mouth :

Children under 14 are exempt from criminal law.

That is not a typo. If you are under 14 in Japan, you can't be charged with a crime. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Bash in windows, walk. Spray paint a bus, walk. Kill cats, dogs, and zoo animals, walk. Throw a 4 year old boy off the roof of a carpark after trying to rape him, walk.

Well, he doesn't entirely walk. He may have to go to this special camp for trouble-makers where he has to talk to a counselor. But this is only for a year. Basically he'll get a lecture, and that is it.

More details are still coming to light, but it appears that the kid may also be responsible for a string of child rapes in the area as well a rash of cat and dog murders. It looks like he was trying to rape the 4-year old this time too, but tossed him over the edge when he started crying or screaming.

As if I haven't piled it on enough, lawmakers had to deal with a similar type problem over a murder a while ago. I don't know the details off the top of my head and writing about this got me all worked up again, but essentially some juvenile committed some atrocity but couldn't be punished because kids aren't held to the law. So they talked about changing the laws, and I think all they did was lower the age the laws are applied to by a year or two. But they didn't take the needed step of creating juvenile criminal law, and this kid is going to walk.

Okay, I think I'm doing writing now.

Wow, a week without words

Sorry faithful readers, for the lack of content. I've been on the road a bit lately, with a seminar in Kobe and a few days at the in-laws. I contemplated giving up this space because, even though it doesn't take up so much time, it does take some, and time is something I have little of these days. I figure if I can't do something consistent enough to build and maintain a readership, it isn't worth doing.

But then I realized that I do enjoy doing this, its a nice distraction. So I'm going to keep at it, and perhaps some of the rest of you would be tempted to try your hand at it. If you even have the slightest hint of a twinge of a possible desire to try it out, go for it. Don't even think about if what you say is worth reading. If its worth your thoughts, it worth publishing here. Can't be any worse than what I put up.

While I'm going on like this, I want to lay out a bit about how busy my life is, maybe we can have a competition or something. The big thing going on right now is my PhD dissertation, final copy due first week of December or so. I need to get a general introduction with outline done by the end of June for my prof to okay, and then give her a working draft by September so she can read and comment by October so I can revise and edit for the final draft.

Her involvement is complicated by the fact that she is a Slavic language linguist and I ended up as her student only because my original advisor abandoned his position at the university here while on sabbatical in the US (presumably for another job but he may have died, no one knows for sure) and left me floating. I washed up in her lab, which is a mixed bag. I have total freedom, the flip side of which is I don't really have any support and work in an intellectual vacuum. Sometimes I really wonder if the work I'm doing is worthwhile, because I don't have a sounding board to bounce ideas off of and get criticism and stimulation from.

So that is why I'm also involved in these seminars and conferences. The seminar last weekend in Kobe was actually a pragmatics seminar, not really my bag, but it was an opportunity to rub elbows with other researchers and get some socializing in on the side. I also have a presentation next week in the lab at school (the outline of which is due Friday but won't get turned in until Monday) and then a major conference presentation the following weekend at the Asian Studies-Pacific regional conference at the University of Hawaii. The weekend after that is another conference in Tokyo.

The beauty of all this writing and conferencing is that my field studies aren't complete and only half of my data is translated. To add icing to the cake of Nute, I start teaching 3 days a week on Tuesday. That actually may turn into a benefit though as it adds structure to my life which hopefully translates to productivity.

I still make time to browse the news and contemplate life so I should be able to find stuff to drone on about here (hey, did you know that the FCC is going to permit massive media conglomerates to take control of the flow of information on Monday?!), but if you come to notice a lack of activity, its just that I'm busy. If you do happen to enjoy what I write about, please don't give up on me, as I will continue to post, always aiming for consistency, but settling for blasts of multiple posts on days when I find time.

And with that, I'm back to work. Cheers!

Panawave to the rescue!

Last Tuesday brought an extra zesty does of surrealism to the daily trip of living in Japan when a reporter found the Panawave Research Group camped out on a secluded public road in the mountains in the middle of Japan. Apparently one of the members of this wacky group fell ill and they've been forced to set stakes and recuperate for a bit.

But they are a freaky bunch; they believe we are under Communist micro- and radio-wave attack that is destroying the earth and causing global warming. They wear all-white outfits and face masks becuase it protects them. They also wrap trees, bushes, guardrails and streetsigns in white cloths, to protect them too, I guess. The mountainside around their current encampment is shrouded in a white and looks like a freaky BlairWitch toiletpapering party. They have all-white painted cars, trucks, and vans, even a front-end loader that they chased away a group of journalists with. Not quite as good as a killdozer, but it scared the hell out of those reporters.

They effectively control the road, stopping motorists from passing through and shutting out the media. They believe the cameras emit deadly radiation and are thus to be feared. The day after they chased them off with the fron-end loader, the reporters came back enmasse. They were greated by a bunch of guys holding huge uncut plywood sized mirrors who walled off the road with reflective protection. It was push and shove for a bit. The cops showed up and in classic Japanese police fashion urged everyone to "just calm down." No arrests were made.

A local mayor "invited" them to leave but they turned it down for the sake of the ill member, who has cancer I think. I'm rather surprised that the local government doesn't have the will or power to forcibly remove them. If they were acting the way they are on private property, fine, but to take control of a road, bundle up the local flora, and assault the press would bring the pain on my side of the mountain ocean. Try that shit up Pine Crick and see how gets microwaved.

To top it all off, this group was behind an abortive attempt to capture Tama-chan the seal for an unknown reason. Fortunately the attempt to net the community pet seal failed and she will be allowed to stay in the polluted waters until she dies of chemical and heavy metal poisoning. At least she has honorary citizenship in Japan, which is better than 3rd and 4th generation Korean and Chinese folks born, raised, and living in Japan get.

I couldn't find any good pictures of the Panawave group in the mountains. I'll see if I can get some video footage though.

More Japanese Convenience

After decrying the inconvenience of Japanese cuisinary service, I must balance that out with a report of the other element of Japanese society so well known overseas, consumer electronics. Customer service in this regard, in my experience, is superb, as long as you are in the warranty period. If you are no longer warrantied, don't even try to convince, cajole, plead, beg, or whine your way to an exception; just pay the money to get it fixed.

But if you are in the warranty period, just make that initial phone call, explain that the appliance doesn't work, and they send someone to your house within 48 hours to fix it. The cool thing is that they bring modular parts with them and swap it out in the living room. I'm sure this is the same thing they do if you send in your VCR or whatever, but its kind of cool to have the guy open up the VCR/DVD combo deck, remove a couple screws, yank the whole tape apparatus, and replace it new from a box. Thanks!

Same thing happened today with my digital satellite tuner. My reception has been shit lately, full of pixelated artifacts and dropped signals. We called in yesterday and today a guy shows up and switched out the circuit board. Slick. I think I actually fixed the problem beforehand by wiggling the cable at the dish end and tightening the connector by the quarter turn it was loose, but that doesn't matter.

Even Apple Computers has been great. My remote for the iPod frayed at the end. I filled out the online service form and got a brandnew remote with headphones 3 days later. I dropped my iPod and it died last week; today I got a replacement machine (I did have to send in the broken one, but they sent me a box and accepted the shipping charges). Based on reports from other people dealing with Apple in the US, it doesn't seem like the service is that great. I suspect that the Japanese expectations are carried over in that corporation here.

I guess in the end it isn't all that revolutionary that repair come to your home and fix stuff there, but it's still cool. Considering that most Japanese families have a stay-at-home wife, there is someone there to receive the repairman. Plus people rely on public transportation so much more here, and its hard to ask a housewife to carry a VCR on the train and then on to the local repair shop.

It's also a good example of Japanese over-employment, but I'll talk about that more later.

Yet another reason I like living in Japan

When I moved to Japan about four and a half years ago, I didn't expect to settle down here. Japan was cool and all I thought, but America is where its at. I could handle living in Japan, but I'd rather be in the States.

I've since come full circle since then.

Since I've lived here so long, I've come to realize that just about everything you can get in the US you can get over here, with the exception of Taco Bell and Papa Murphy's Take-and-Bake pizzas. But I'm fat enough as it is without these scrumptious offerings and it makes them taste all the more dandy when I do visit home.

I get cheaper high-speed internet access and pay-per-view pron (but I still can't figure out why a nation so fixated on sex insistes on mozaic-fuzzing all the action spots. I have a great apartment near the mountains but can be in downtown Kyoto in 20 minutes, Osaka in little over an hour. Sure, I'm far from family and friends, but even if I lived in the States it doubtful that I'd see them much more often than I do now.

But beyond this material existence, Japan is full of, well, Japanese people. That means they aren't Americans. Don't get me wrong, I love America and I love Americans, but sometimes they are fucking retarded. The whole political climate, both with regard to individuals and the government, can't really compare to the freedom that I get in Japan. I'm not bashing America at all, but I don't get frustrated with dealing with Japanese in the same way I do with Americans.

Well, I do get frustrated with Japanese people some times, and yes, its because they are fucking retarded, but its in a rather different way. But I don't want to talk about how retarded Japanese people are or bash Americans today.

Japanese society is really changing and isn't as idyllic or polite or friendly as it used to be, but its still pretty good. Young people give old people their seat on the train and cigarettes carry a warning that ciggies are unhealthy so "let's be careful not to smoke too much."

Last week on my way to Rugby practice, my sunglasses fell from my pocket as I was riding my bike. I have these clip-on lenses that snap around the regular lenses that I carry in a separate case. No, not those dorky generic flip-up things that clip on the bridge of the glasses that my dad wears. These came with the frames.

I was despondent at the loss. I've had these glasses for 5 years now and haven't lost the sunglasses. I wear them all the time and couldn't bear facing life without shaded bliss. I was preparing myself for my first encounter with a Japanese optometrist (my frustrations with Japan almost exclusively stem from interactions with the retail sector).

I retraced my steps (pedal cycles?) from the practice ground to home but didn't find them. I didn't expect to really, and was afraid that even if I did they would be broken. There is a police box (koban) near the park by my house and people will sometimes turn in found items there. No dice on that attempt either, but the old cop was really nice and offered to call down to a neighboring koban to see if anyone had turned in something there.

And lo and behold, someone had turned my sunglasses in.

This is probably an anticlimatic story for anyone whose read this far, but I was seriously blown away. Perhaps I was just being unnecessaily pessimistic, but I didn't expect to get them back if I didn't find them myself. In the US, I wouldn't expect to find anything.

I went down and got my sunglasses. The cops there also gave me the phone number and name of the guy who found them and told me to be sure to call him and thank him for turning them in. I did, and he was really excited. Turns out he's been studying English for 15 years (he sounded 60+) and was tickled to talk to me in English a little bit. I told him he sounded great and paid him back for my good feelings.

I still couldn't believe I got my glasses back for a couple days, but I did. Some old guy found them and made the effort to take them to a local police box in case someone came looking for them. I know a guy who has lost his wallet 4 times and gotten it back 3 times with everything inside. I know that isn't unheard of in the US, but I think a 75% rate is a bit higher than you can reasonably expect in a US city of 1.5 million. Tokyo isn't quite as good as other parts though, having adopted an indifferent attitude not surprising when you have that many people in that small of an area.

So that's my tale of Japan. Although it isn't a friendly as it used to be, its still pretty good. People are nice and considerate and it seems like the Golden Rule is in effect more often than not. I can live with that, you know.