I have no idea what that is
My time in Japan may have been relaxing, but the plane ride there was not. I was positioned in that seat that all the flight attendants feel honor-bound to crash into with their carts. I woke up at one point to find a diminutive, maniacally grinning attendant standing on the edge of my seat to reach the suitcases overhead. I went back to sleep. I decided that if she enjoyed teetering on the edge of my seat with a warped smile so very much, then I would just let her do her thing.
(There's no picture, but what you're imagining is probably right on.)
My best friend from middle school, Miku, and I stayed with her mother and grandmother in Japan while I researched an article. We go a long way back—back to the day I informed her, even though we barely knew each other, that we would be best friends forever. Clearly, she gave the madness a chance.
Miku
Her mother is adorable. She dyes her hair purple and frequently dons matching shoes and nail polish.
Miku's mom (yes, I made them try on the wee hats)
It was interesting to communicate with Miku's grandmother without the use of language. We mostly just did a lot of necking (I kid). Actually, what we did was a lot of knitting--or they did, at any rate. I just watched.
Miku's grandma
It was truly a touching generational sight to see Miku, her mother, and grandmother crammed together on the Lilliputian sofa (I’m telling you, everything is smaller there) knitting, while I was undoubtedly committing some crude sin of manners somewhere, unbeknownst to me. Consequently, Miku took great pleasure in dubbing me “Big Bird in Japan” because I always seemed to be cracking us both up by towering over everyone and doing the wrong thing.
Me
Frankly, I did feel a bit like a giant. Everything about me was at least three times larger than the other ladies. On subways, I hid my sizable feet under the seat, safe from the disbelieving eyes of my fellow passengers. I learned the hard way when I stretched those babies out in front of me and almost made a tightly wound, petite woman faint.
My Sizable Foot
My time there amounted to a sort of one-woman-vaudeville of embarrassing Americanisms. I mean, here I was in a city where people obeyed rules. Nobody even jaywalked, for goodness sake. How could I explain to them that my people take great pride in this skill?
In spite of all this, Japan was very calming for me. I attribute this to the many shrines we visited.
One such shrine
And the beautiful graveyard nearby
At the risk of sounding like an Eat, Pray, Love kind of American gal, there were many moments that felt spiritually relevant somehow. I woke up early the first morning and wondered why the inside of my head sounded so different there. I suspected that so much time working in front of it had turned my brain into a kind of computer and that going to Japan had shut it off—in a good way. I was no longer a machine. (Update: I am home now and once more mechanical.)
When I set out for Japan, I was aware that I was in the midst of some kind of transition. Many things felt in flux, the biggest one being my career, which always reaches in and touches other areas of my life. I hoped that I would find some answers there. I was looking for a sign.
My heightened state of malleability made me more open to the transcendent experiences and extra resentful of the part of the culture that seemed to suggest that, in order to be beautiful, Japanese women had to become something other (although, I suppose you could argue that that's true everywhere). Let's just say that I was more in the market for a mental transformation.
Vintage Japanese advertisements targeting women
Current Japanese advertisements
Let me put it to you this way: They have these photo booths that are supposed to make you "kawaii," which translates as cute or pretty. How do they accomplish this, exactly? By westernizing conventionally Asian features. That's right, eyes are widened, eyelashes lengthened, and skin, eyes, and hair lightened. In addition to the implication that being pretty or cute means looking caucasian, there was one other disturbing issue to be reckoned with--together, Miku and I witnessed what happens when a whitey gets whitified:
Yes, that thing on the left is me
And in case you think my indictment of the booths is an exaggeration, take a gander at this:
"Beauty booths" aside, my Japan trip was rather grand. The last night, we went on Miku's uncle's roof to light sparklers. He was sweet and awkward. I made the mistake of trying to hug him the first time we met. He seemed not to know what to do with that, but he continued to show his quiet love by offering us green tea approximately once every five seconds for the rest of the night.
All photos taken by Miku (except for the one of her and the photo booth one. Good gracious, how could you ever accuse her of taking such a thing???).
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Comments
Interesting idea that your "head" sounded different. Fun to think about.
Great article.
I just came across an article where a Japanese designer made approx ( I can't remember) 100 different rooms (with innovative dividers) out of one little studio...it must be hard.
Gishi-wajin-denn, a history book on Japan written in China around the third century BC, says, “There are no cattle, no horses, no tigers, no leopards, no goats and no magpies in that land. The climate is mild and people over there eat fresh vegetables both in summer and in winter.” It also says that “people catch fish and shellfish in the water.” Apparently, the Japanese ate fresh vegetables as well as rice and other cereals as staple foods. They also took some fish and shellfish, but hardly any meat.
Shinto, the prevailing religion at the time, is essentially pantheistic, based upon the worship of the forces of nature. According to writer Steven Rosen, in the early days of Shinto, no animal food was offered in sacrifice because of the injunction against shedding blood in the sacred area of the shrine.
Several hundred years later, Buddhism came to Japan and the prohibition of hunting and fishing permeated the Japanese people. In 7th century Japan, the Empress Jito encouraged “hojo,” or the releasing of captive animals, and established wildlife preserves, where animals could not be hunted.
There are many similarities between the Hindu literature and the Buddhist religions of the Far East. For example, the word Cha’an of the Cha’an school of Chinese Buddhism is Chinese for the Sanskrit word “dhyana”, which means meditation, as does the word “Zen” in Japanese. In 676 AD, then Japanese emperor Tenmu proclaimed an ordinance prohibiting the eating of fish and shellfish as well as animal flesh and fowl.
During the twelve hundred years from the Nara period to the Meiji restoration in the second half of the 19th century, Japanese people enjoyed vegetarian style meals. They usually ate rice as staple food and beans and vegetables. It was only on special occasions or celebrations that fish was served. Under these circumstances the Japanese people developed a vegetarian cuisine, Shojin Ryori (ryori means cooking or cuisine), which was native to Japan.
The word “shojin” is a Japanese translation of “vyria” in Sanskrit, meaning “to have the goodness and keep away evils.” Buddhist priests of the Tendai-shu and Shingon-shu sects, whose founders studied in China in the ninth century before they founded their respective sects, have handed down vegetarian cooking practices from Chinese temples strictly in accordance with the teachings of the Buddha.
In the 13th century, Dogen, the founder of the Soto sect of Zen, formally established Shojin Ryori or Japanese vegetarian cuisine. Dogen studied and learned the Zen teachings abroad in China, during the Sung Dynasty. He fixed rules aiming to establish the pure vegetarian life as a means of training the mind.
One of the other influences Zen exerted on the Japanese people manifested itself in Sado, the Japanese tea ceremony. It is believed that Esai, founder of the Rinazi-shu sect, introduced tea to Japan and it is the custom for Zen followers to drink tea. The customs preserved in the teaching of Zen lead to a systematic rule called Sado…a Cha-shitsu or tea ceremony room is so constructed as to resemble the Shojin, where the chief priest is at a Buddhist temple.
Food served at a tea ceremony is called Kaiseki in Japanese, which literally means a stone in the breast. Monks practicing asceticism used to press heated stones to their bosom to suppress hunger. Then the word Kaiseki itself came to mean a light meal served at Shojin, and Kaiseki meals had great influence on the Japanese.
The “Temple of the Butchered Cow” can be found in Shimoda, Japan. It was erected shortly after Japan opened its doors to the West in the 1850s. It was erected in honor of the first cow slaughtered in Japan, marking the first violation of the Buddhist tenet against the eating of meat.
An example of a Buddhist vegetarian in the modern age: Kenji Miyazawa, a Japanese writer and poet of the early 20th century, who wrote a novel entitled Vegetarian-Taisai, in which he depicted a fictitious vegetarian congress…His works played an important role in the advocacy of modern vegetarianism. Today, no animal flesh is ever eaten in a Zen Buddhist monastery, and such Buddhist denominations as the Cao Dai sect (which originated in South Vietnam), now boasts some two million followers, all of whom are vegetarian.
The Buddhist teachings are not the only source contributing to the growth of vegetarianism in Japan. in the late 19th century, Dr. Gensai Ishizuka published an academic book in which he advocated vegetarian cooking with an emphasis on brown rice and vegetables. His method is called Seisyoku (Macrobiotics) and is based upon ancient Chinese philosophy such as the principles of Yin and Yang and Taoism. Now some people support his method of preventative medicine. Japanese macrobiotics suggest taking brown rice as half of the whole intake, with vegetables, beans, seaweeds, and a small amount of fish (optional, but not required).
In his 1923 book, The Natural Diet of Man, Adventist physician Dr. John Harvey Kellogg writes: “According to Mori, the Japanese peasant of the interior is almost an exclusive vegetarian. He eats fish once or twice a month and meat once or twice a year.” Dr. Kellogg writes that in 1899, the Emperor of Japan appointed a commission to determine whether it was necessary to add meat to the nation’s diet to improve the people’s strength and stature. The commission concluded that as far as meat was concerned, “the Japanese had always managed to do without it, and that their powers of endurance and their athletic prowess exceeded that of any of the Caucasian races. Japan’s diet stands on a foundation of rice.”
According to Dr. Kellogg: “the rice diet of the Japanese is supplemented by the free use of peanuts, soy beans and greens, which… constitute a wholly sufficient bill of fare. Throughout the Island Empire, rice is largely used, together with buckwheat, barley, wheat and millet. Turnips and radishes, yams and sweet potatoes are frequently used, also cucumbers, pumpkins and squashes. The soy bean is held in high esteem and used largely in the form of miso, a puree prepared from the bean and fermented; also tofu, a sort of cheese; and cho-yu, which is prepared by mixing the pulverized beans with wheat flour, salt, and water and fermenting from one and a half to five years.
“The Chinese peasant lives on essentially the same diet, as do also the Siamese, the Koreans, and most other Oriental peoples. Three-fourths of the world’s population eats so little meat that it cannot be regarded as anything more than an incidental factor in their bill of fare. The countless millions of China,” writes Dr. Kellogg, “are for the most part flesh-abstainers. In fact at least two-thirds of the inhabitants of the world make so little use of flesh that it can hardly be considered an essential part of their dietary…”
Misturu Kakimoto concludes: “Japanese people started eating meat some 150 years ago and now suffer the crippling diseases caused by the excess intake of fat in flesh and the possible hazards from the use of agricultural chemicals and additives. This is persuading them to seek natural and safe food and to adopt once again the traditional Japanese cuisine.”
It's funny how the Japanese use non-Asians as an ideal for beauty. However, most Westerners find Asian women very attractive.
As to the paleness (or whiteness), that predates Western influence, it seems even in ancient Japan the whiter a woman was the more beautiful she was considered.
I should post some of my Japan pictutes.
BTW, did you ever got to Harjuki and see the takenoko?
R
I must write about Japan, about living near the graveyard with its mama-san bars, and my impressive students (one guy had identified a brain disease), and the toilet that attacked me, and the time my school made me an appointment with a blind masseur who didn't speak English and I was a surprise for him, the time I got kicked out of a club for kissing another girl on the dance floor and how I was never afraid on the street in Japan.
Gwool: I thought the title might draw a few people in, mwa haha
gardenia: I'm starting to think all cultures are a bit schizophrenic
Ben: It really did charm me
Lou: Now that would really be something new for me professionally
Bellwether: If you like it, there just might be something to it:)
Skeptic Turtle: you should
sophieh: now that I would have loved to see
Harry: I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed the stroll
Chuck: why, thank you
hyblaean-Julie: my pleasure. thanks for taking the time to read
Anne: Oh I don't know how interesting my life is. if you had only seen me last night
snarkychaser: that sounds so interesting. Let me know if you remember the name…
Gabby Abby: I got back less than a week ago. Thanks for not saying anything about the feet:)
Fingerlakeswanderer: thanks, buddy
trilogy: it really was
blindogjohn: I totally see the pro wrestler thing. I love that
Lea: please do. I look forward to it
Trudge: Takenoko=nutty. loved it. Yeah, I was thinking how funny it is that these women are westernizing their features in these booths when most of my guy friends are asiaphiles.
Sirenita: So glad to hear that I could contribute to your calmness and so wonderful to see you around again. I would love to read about your time living in Japan.
Welcome back. Your city missed you.
"At the risk of sounding like an Eat, Pray, Love kind of American gal, there were many moments that felt spiritually relevant somehow."
Many interesting observations on the idiocyncrasies in Japanese (and American!) culture. BTW, even an American born Asian can feel Amazonian in Asia.
Very enjoyable post and well worth reading! _r
Maria: thanks a lot!
Grace: Glad to hear I wasn’t alone in the giantess department
Ladyslipper: glad you enjoyed it
Jonathan: I’ll definitely take you in my duffle next time
Anu: glad to hear that my odd title lured you in
Patrick: my pleasure
Linda: wow, just read the post. Unbelievable
Joan: what a great thing to say. Thank you!
Rerere: what an interesting take on it. You really went back-and-forth on that one
MiddleAgedWomanBlogging: we definitely need to get a field trip together
Leah: ha, try 10. no joke
Tip: to understand Japanese culture better, do a bit of research on "uchi" and (vs) "soto" - also "honne" and (vs) "tatemae". For even more fun, try out "mono no aware".
Another fun one is "Sore wa chotto muzukashii", a phrase the literal translation of which is something like "that might be a little difficult" but that really means "no frakkin' way!"
Another tip: stay away from the pork if at all possible