obligatory
archives
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
- March 2004
- February 2004
- January 2004
- December 2003
- November 2003
- October 2003
- September 2003
- August 2003
- July 2003
- June 2003
- May 2003
- April 2003
- March 2003
- February 2003
- January 2003
- December 2002
- November 2002
- October 2002
- September 2002
- August 2002
- July 2002
- June 2002
- May 2002
- April 2002
- February 2000
recent
What will those clever Japanese come up with next? I finally found a new washing machine and am quite amazed that it does everything with the press of one button. (I still have to put the clothes in it, but I am training Guri to help out)
For the past 2 years I have been using an old style machine that I found in the garbage. I had to do everything by hand... pour in water, stop the water at the right level, turn on wash, drain the water when it was done, move all the clothes to the spin machine, then back to rinse and back to spin and so on...
I guess it is kinda sad for mom, with mother's day coming up and all to find that I am no longer her son... I have broken the chains of cheapness inherited from her. I could have gotten the same kind of "do it yourself" washer for about $200 cheaper. Instead I wound up paying $300 which is really way too much, but I blame Japanese consumers for that. I found cheaper machines but they are too far from my apartment so that I have to get it shipped. Unfortunately customer relations means nothing to Japanese companies. Just as banks, the phone, gas, and electric companies close at 4 pm, while everyone is still in work, ATMs have the same hours as the bank teller, delivery companies and appliance stores will not deliver past 6pm. And the Japanese consumers shrug and put up with it.
An friend of a friend of mine is a magazine editor and would like to interview a young foreigner about Japanese young people and working in Japan. Of course I said yes, but it makes me nervous. Am I really qualified to comment on Japanese youth? I know a few maybe (although 90% of the people I hang aournd with are at least 5 years older than me), but that is hardly representative of Japanese youth as a whole... besides the "youths" I know are all freaks in that they talk to or hang out with Gaijin.
I recently came across a story by an American writer living in Japan. (If I can find the link I will post it) This guy was talking to people in America who probably had no idea about Japan. Even though most things he said were technically true, it was quite a one-sided picture he painted. Some good aspects some bad, but all extreme and extremely generalizing (is that a word?). For me to listen, it is nothing more than amusing stories, but I have experience to know what is exaggerated and what is not. It frightens me to think that many of his audience knows nothing about Japan, and takes what he was saying as fact. Right down to the end of his story where he stated that his personal goal for being in Japan now was to rescue all the helpless Japanese women from the evil society be teaching them whatever they need to know to be strong, forceful, and oh yeah, smart.
I think all Japanese women should be thankful to have such a chivalrous gentleman on a white horse and all...
It reminds me of Memoirs of a Geisha which was a good read, and I enjoyed it, but it was supposed to have been the narative of a former Geisha, and the main character was actually quite strong and impressive, even so, the book seemed to revolve around the idea that everything she did and acomplished she owed to the male hero. I found it hard to fool myself into thinking that it was not in fact the narative of the "modern" weastern man who wrote it.
I know this idea of chivalry is seen all over both Japan and the US, it just rubs me harder because I see so many men coming here looking for the "perfect Japanese wife" who is weak and obediant and everything that requires a galliant gentleman to take care of her and rescue her from evil. What rubs me the most, is that because I am seeing a Japanese woman myself, I am naturally lumped into the same category as these people, and she is viewed as the rescuee.
Anyway, that was a long rant which I must take some time to reread some day... but getting back to the point...
I hope that in the interview I don't come across spouting generalizations and such crap about either Japanese youth or how us gaijin feel about Japanese youth... I am hardly representative of American's even less representative of foreigners in Japan, and I can't see the Japanese people I know as being representative of Japan.
galleries
