Rant/Assessment

Disclamer: I am writing this blog as a log of my experience in Japan, not as a documentary of the the country. This means, in addition to describing the place I am in, I will be expressing my emotional experiences through words. At times, this means material may be bias or even offensive. These posts represent impressions I get from my experiences, not necessarily lasting opinions, thus, accept them for what they are and recognize that we can not always have positive thoughts about everything.

I’m finding myself frustrated by japan. The one thing I miss is the internet. If I had an ether net cable, I could connect here, but that doesn’t seem to make much difference. Japan is a very group oriented place, meaning; personal/individual belongings are not as important as benefitting the group. One might see this as an obviously positive system; ego is suppressed and progression is accelerated. The problem with this outlook is that with a group, any task takes much longer than when done individually due to the time coordination requires.

japan is very paper (and document) oriented, despite foreign conception of a high-tech country. It is true that electric innovations are fare more prevalent than in the US (vending machines for everything, expansive 携帯 functionality), but paper, fax, and copies continue to rule. Internet and e-mail are secondary to documentation. This makes doing anything frustrating (and usually involves service charged).

For example, we are required to check a bulletin board “several times per day” and check physical mailboxes two times per day. This increases time spent in simply going physically to these times. If e-mail or a website was employed instead, this hassle could be avoids (as could copy charges). However, Japan has decided to make the internet an expensive commodity (yet to be explored by me) and CJS will not give us accounts for about another week. Luckily, I was brought to my mailbox during orientation (Friday) when I received a memo about my host family coming to meet e (Sunday). The note had been there since Wednesday. I will have to handle this myself, as orientation was an all-day event on Friday and the CJS office is closed on weekends.

Japanese people are also required to cease use of a particular car (though it is perfectly fine to buy a new one afterward) after a certain number of years, as it is considered a major inconvenience if one breaks down in traffic. I have seen a few BMW’s, an Audi, and a Mercedes, but mostly; Japanese people drive Scion-like Nissans or Toyota’s (Nagoya is famous as the birthplace of Toyota). The vehicles on the streets are fairly common and very homogenous.

I am developing the theory that the strict rules of conduct in Japan are the reason for Japan’s strangeness. In particular, the raging cuteness of advertisements and products as well as drunk behavior. My theory is that it is unnatural for people to be kept so tightly bound to tradition and regulation, and that, the only way people can find happiness in this struggle (remember, Japan has the highest student suicide rate in the world) is to indulge in the opposite type of behavior. Women seek simple pleasure in making themselves, their homes, and their belongings cute, even childish (something very unrestrained). Both genders seem to enjoy getting smashed, at which time girls tend to break the Japanese “no touching” rule. They will hold each other’s arms (like a distanced hug), touch each other’s hair, and lean on each other. People become very boisterous.
I am starting to see Japan as comparable to Dubai; there is rapid growth because the individual is being stifled, and while this accelerates progress, it does not seem to improve the quality of mental health in life.