During one of the regular haranguings often given to the students at my school by the teachers (as all teachers in all schools in Japan are wont to do), I remarked on an interesting difference of culture.
Of course, it's not surprising, as it IS a different culture.
It has to do with the notion of getting work done. In Canada and America, I get the sense that when someone implies or states that it's time to get down to the REAL work, there's this idea of rolling up your sleeves, perhaps loosen your tie a bit. I would imagine that this is because getting work done in this sense implies that it will require getting dirty, or doing heavy lifting etc. In other words, there's an emphasis on the idea that the real work involves the physical.
Compare this with Japan, where, at least according to the speech given by the Guidance Teacher (note that this is not a guidance counselor as we know it, but rather a teacher who is in charge of the disciplinary policies of the school), getting down to work involves cinching up the tie and making sure everything is tucked in and neat.
I'll surmise that this comes more from the idea that a neat appearance with promote a more serious mien and mental attitude, that play-time is over and it's time to WORK, as work is serious business.
Showing posts with label Japanese culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japanese culture. Show all posts
3/18/2009
3/24/2008
Spring time...
...is here in Japan.
Evening, sports fans. Spring break began for me last Wednesday after school. The last day of the school year, and at 4:20 I was out of there. I had after all an enkai to go to. Well, no tales of my drunken shenanigans (revelatory though they were). I woke up the next morning at the crack of noon.
HANGOVER: Enter, stage left.
Actually, thanks to some precautions it wasn't too bad. So, what did I do for the next four days?
hikkikomori
That comes from the combination of two words. The first is hiku, which means to pull away from. In this case, it means to pull away from society at large and social interaction specifically. The second word is komoru, which means to coop oneself up somewhere, in this case at home.
Its actually a social phenomenon that is affecting a number of otaku-types in Japan, and is the harbinger, dare I say, of a very serious pestilence affecting Japanese society in this post-modern world.
But that's not what I'm getting into in this post, so we'll leave it at that.
Indeed, I stayed home for the last four days, and by day four I was itching to go out. I was going to go see a dance recital (gods that makes it sound so lame) done by some of my graduated students, but inclement weather kept me home. Well, they got their ticket money from me, so my appearance was optional.
I did have a plan though, and that plan started to come to fruition today. This week I have all afternoons off (not free mind you. I'm using up my vacation days). So this week I will be organizing and cleaning my apartment. I purchased today a wonderful new bookshelf, which now houses all my magazines, English books, and art books, as well as my 1/100 MG Gundams (and other sundry things). This too was revelatory, because I realized that I have inherited by mother's crazy desire to clean. I nearly had a panic attack when, towards the end of the move, I looked around at the disarray I had created. Well, unlike my mother, I know how to deal with a panic attack. One slug of whiskey later, and I mellowed out, grabbed a trash bag, and gathered all the clutter that was pissing me off.
Well, that's the new shelf. Holy crap I've accumulated a lot of...crap.
Tomorrow I tackle my pantry cupboard, as well as perhaps start sorting through the all the paper in my house.
On an unrelated note, I paid off some more bills, and I came to the realization that, at virtually no impact to my lifestyle here in Japan, I've reduced my consumer debt by a considerable amount. When I first came to Japan, I had something like $2700 debt on one of my Visas alone. All told, I think I had something close to $5000. But as of today, I'm down to under $1800. Total. Spread over 3 cards, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. That makes me pretty damned happy.
And last, but not least, to placate my many gourmet fans, I present tonights dinner (sans the beer, which is only for show).
Evening, sports fans. Spring break began for me last Wednesday after school. The last day of the school year, and at 4:20 I was out of there. I had after all an enkai to go to. Well, no tales of my drunken shenanigans (revelatory though they were). I woke up the next morning at the crack of noon.
HANGOVER: Enter, stage left.
Actually, thanks to some precautions it wasn't too bad. So, what did I do for the next four days?
hikkikomori
That comes from the combination of two words. The first is hiku, which means to pull away from. In this case, it means to pull away from society at large and social interaction specifically. The second word is komoru, which means to coop oneself up somewhere, in this case at home.
Its actually a social phenomenon that is affecting a number of otaku-types in Japan, and is the harbinger, dare I say, of a very serious pestilence affecting Japanese society in this post-modern world.
But that's not what I'm getting into in this post, so we'll leave it at that.
Indeed, I stayed home for the last four days, and by day four I was itching to go out. I was going to go see a dance recital (gods that makes it sound so lame) done by some of my graduated students, but inclement weather kept me home. Well, they got their ticket money from me, so my appearance was optional.
I did have a plan though, and that plan started to come to fruition today. This week I have all afternoons off (not free mind you. I'm using up my vacation days). So this week I will be organizing and cleaning my apartment. I purchased today a wonderful new bookshelf, which now houses all my magazines, English books, and art books, as well as my 1/100 MG Gundams (and other sundry things). This too was revelatory, because I realized that I have inherited by mother's crazy desire to clean. I nearly had a panic attack when, towards the end of the move, I looked around at the disarray I had created. Well, unlike my mother, I know how to deal with a panic attack. One slug of whiskey later, and I mellowed out, grabbed a trash bag, and gathered all the clutter that was pissing me off.
Well, that's the new shelf. Holy crap I've accumulated a lot of...crap.
Tomorrow I tackle my pantry cupboard, as well as perhaps start sorting through the all the paper in my house.
On an unrelated note, I paid off some more bills, and I came to the realization that, at virtually no impact to my lifestyle here in Japan, I've reduced my consumer debt by a considerable amount. When I first came to Japan, I had something like $2700 debt on one of my Visas alone. All told, I think I had something close to $5000. But as of today, I'm down to under $1800. Total. Spread over 3 cards, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. That makes me pretty damned happy.
And last, but not least, to placate my many gourmet fans, I present tonights dinner (sans the beer, which is only for show).
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