makeup and retake

A makeup (test/exam) is a test taken in school because you were not able to take a previous test. But, I wondered how you call an exam that you take again because you failed it the first time.

My American colleague told me that it should be called a "retake." He also said, though, "it's very rare." In Japan, it's not uncommon. I have taken a retake a couple of times. And one of my Japanese colleagues said she had taken many times.

I think that this difference comes from that of term exams between Japan and the states. In Japan, sometimes the mean score of a term exam is around 50 percent. And 75 percent is a very good score at times. However, as you know, 75 percent is C in the states.

Don't wanna go to the hospital...

One of my colleagues has been away from work for a couple of days. Maybe he has the flu. But, he doesn't go to the hospital. Why? It isn't because he doesn't have any insurance here in Japan. According to my collague, people never go to the hospital unless it is very serious.

Are you young?

One of my American colleagues wondered why most of Japanese teenagers are afraid of becoming their 20s. He said, "20 is very young," and then "25 is young." "30 is still young," and then, "maybe 35 is still young."

I don't know if you can call an 35 year old person a youngster. But, basically I agree with him. Japanese people think about their ages too seriously and it doesn't make them happy so far.

Of course, she is very young.

Probably, most Japanese think that the best time in their life must be when they are high school or college students. In the other parts of the world, people would think 20s and 30s is the best.

She is young without a doubt as well.

Stereo-typed culture: What do you come up with about this country?

Speaking of the United Kingdom,... what do you say? Sharlock Holmes? No, you don't knwo much about the country.

You gotta come up with Mr. Bean. He is the representative of the UK. Who decided? I did.

If you said to me, "Speaking of the United States," I wouldn't continue the sentence. But, I can say that speaking of the United Kingdom, I will always come up with Mr. Bean (not Sharlock Holmes. Sorry, Sharlockians!). Speaking of Spain, the Tomato Festival is my first intuition. Maybe, I haven't been to these two countries, my image against them is somewhat stereotyped.

The Tomato Festival in Spain. Do you want to try it? As for me, nope! Other than that, though, what can you come up with regarding Spain? Bullfight? Maybe you're much smarter than me, buddy.

Golden Week? Why do you call just two days that way?

In the states, the first vowel of the word "vacation" should be pronounced as /ei/. Most Japanese people don't pronounce that way, though. I don't know why. By the way, National Lampoon's Vacation is a popular movie. Anyway, Golden Week might be too short even for a vacation.

One of my colleagues, who is from New Zealand, told me that we shouldn't call these coming two holidays "Golden Week" because they are much shorter than even one week. That makes sense.

Europeans work for vacations. They have different philosophy of life than the Japanese.

This is the vacation, man! But, how many Japanese people can have their Golden Week like this? Maybe, none.

What is Golden Week, by the way? Here is Wikipedia's explanation:

Golden Week (ゴールデンウィーク, Gōruden Wīku?), also known as Ōgata renkyū (大型連休, Ōgata renkyū?) or Ōgon shūkan (黄金週間, Ōgon shūkan?), is a Japanese term applied to the period containing the following public holidays

April 29
Greenery Day, or Nature Day (みどりの日, Midori no hi?), until 2006
Shōwa Day (昭和の日, Shōwa no hi?), from 2007

May 3
Constitution Memorial Day (憲法記念日, Kenpō kinenbi?)

May 4
People's Day, or Citizen's Day (国民の休日, Kokumin no kyūjitsu?), until 2006
Greenery Day, or Nature Day (みどりの日, Midori no hi?) (from 2007)

May 5
Children's Day (こどもの日, Kodomo no hi?), also known as Boys' Day
(端午の節句, Tango no sekku?)

Note that May Day (on May 1) is not a public holiday, but is nevertheless often granted as a holiday by many companies. When a public holiday lands on a Sunday, the next day that is not already a holiday becomes a holiday for that year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Week_(Japan)

Why do we have to say hi?

The school I'm working at has very strict rules, and the teachers and students need to follow the rules. Sometimes I feel as if I belonged to a military rather than a school. On the other day, there was a party called "welcome party" but substantially "punishment party."

You could imagine how strictly I'm asked to greet to them. By the way, why do we have to greet to others. While reading a book by Minoru Becchaku (Betsuyaku), I found the reason. This author seems to be getting famous, but I have appreciated his works since long time ago.

Minoru Becchaku (a.k.a. Minoru Betsuyaku) is a playwrighter, but he writes very funny essays too. He has a sense of humor.

Anyway, after I knew why I have to say hi, I am willing to use any greetings to people at work, who I want to stay away from.

According to Becchaku's work, "How to live our daily life":

幼時我々は親たちに「あいさつしなさい」と常に強制されたのであり，「どうして」という我々の疑問はその度に「うるさい」という言葉で封殺されたのである．（中略）
……あいさつというものは，出会ったもの同士がそれぞれに無害であることを確かめるための手続きである，と一般的にはみなされていて，それ自体は間違いではないのだが，その時我々は同じ世界を共有しているのではなく，全く別の世界にそれぞれ分離されている（中略）つまりあいさつの中には，相手がそれ以上自分自身の世界に近接しないよう警告を発し，同時に，相手を相手の世界に封鎖して閉じ込めようとする，呪術的要素が含まれているのだ．
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　『日々の暮し方』（白水社Uブックス）

Our parents have forced us to greet since we were very young. Our questions about why we have got to greet have always been rejected.

... Greetings are the procedure meeting people need to conduct to make sure that they are safe each other. This explanation isn't wrong, but at that time we find ourselves in different worlds rather than in same worlds.... In other words, a person will use greetings in order to warn others not to be closer to his/her own world and to confine them to their own worlds at the same time.

Happy Easter!

I hadn't noticed that April 8 was Easter until I was told yesterday. Also, I just learned that different countries have different ways of celebrating Easter.

According to Wikipedia:

Canada and the United States and parts of UK
Throughout North America and parts of the UK, the Easter holiday has been partially secularized, so that some families participate only in the attendant revelry, central to which is decorating Easter eggs on Saturday evening and hunting for them Sunday morning, by which time they have been mysteriously hidden all over the house and garden. According to the children's stories, the eggs were hidden overnight and other treats delivered by the Easter Bunny in an Easter basket which children find waiting for them when they wake up. The Easter Bunny's motives for doing this are seldom clarified. Many families in America will attend Sunday Mass or services in the morning and then participate in a feast or party in the afternoon. In the UK, the tradition has boiled down to simply exchanging chocolate eggs on the Sunday, and possibly having an Easter meal; it is also traditional to have hot cross buns.

Scandinavia
In Norway, in addition to skiing in the mountains and painting eggs for decorating, it is traditional to solve murders at Easter. All the major television channels show crime and detective stories (such as Poirot), magazines print stories where the readers can try to figure out who did it, and many new books are published. Even the milk cartons change to have murder stories on their sides. Another tradition is Yahtzee games. In Finland and Sweden, traditions include egg painting and small children dressed as witches collecting candy door-to-door, in exchange for decorated pussy willows. This is a result of the mixing of an old Orthodox tradition (blessing houses with willow branches) and the Scandinavian Easter witch tradition. Brightly coloured feathers and little decorations are also attached to willow or birch branches in a vase. For lunch/dinner on Holy Saturday, families traditionally feast on a smörgåsbord of herring, salmon, potatoes, eggs and other kinds of food. In Finland, the Lutheran majority enjoys mämmi as another traditional easter treat, while the Orthodox minority's traditions include eating pasha instead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter

Flower watching?

The article below was interesting even to me, a Japanese speaker. This author writes in a funny way, but she describes some cultural difference b/w Japan and the US well.

Accoding to the Japan Times:

Saturday, April 7, 2007
JAPAN LITE
The short-lived cherry blossom -- Japan's national identity
By AMY CHAVEZ

The most beautiful time to be in Japan is right now -- cherry blossom season. Oha-nami cherry-blossom-viewing parties are taking place everywhere, and you don't need an invitation to go to one.

As a matter of fact, almost anything you do, as long as it is under a cherry tree, is considered ohanami, (flower-watching).

Stroll along a cherry tree-lined road, and you can say you have done ohanami.

... All you have to do is find a cherry tree and claim it as your own. But hurry, because the trees only bloom for two weeks.

The cherry blossom is the national flower of Japan and for Japanese it is part of their national identity. This brings up some important questions.

Which part of the cherry blossom do they identify with -- the petals, the stem?

Can the Japanese really have a national identity only two weeks long? I guess you have to be Japanese to understand.

With just two weeks to enjoy the festivities, I suggest you get out there and start partying with the blossoms -- your buddies -- right now. But here are a few things to keep in mind.

Be sure to take a vinyl sheet. In the West, we tend to take a nice soft blanket to sit on when we go on a picnic, but the Japanese prefer a large, blue, crunchy, plastic sheet.

The Japanese are champions at matching plastic with nature, so it was determined a long time ago that blue vinyl matches the pink blossoms better than any other color.

... There are advantages to vinyl sheets, however. They are easy to clean up spills on, and they are much easier to flick ants off of.

Oh come on now, don't try to tell me you don't take part in some good "bug flicking" now and then. You see an ant, you ready your thumb and index finger, you line up where you want to launch the little blighter, and FLICK!

... On my planet, the United States, there is no way they'd let you drink outside in public and share your national identity with the trees. But the Japanese acceptance of alcohol is the very reason people in Japan can identify, on a national level, with the little pink blossoms. ...
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070407cz.html

What can't be translated must be translated.

Recently I often read the blog site of Mr. Naota Amaki (http://www.amakiblog.com). This blog is bilingual too, although its blog has far better quality than my blog because of his great insights in politics and knowledge of the English language. However, what worries me is his latest comment. He said that something he felt blogging in English might be meaningless when he writes about non-international topics.


This opinion of him is really rational. But, I don't buy it. I'd like to write something about Japan that has never interested anybody so far. Also, I want more Japanese people to know the United States beyond the information they can get only in the Japanese language and I want to write about it.


Probably Mr. Atsurou Watabe, one of the most handsome actors in Japan, can't be popular overseas.

What can be easily translated into another language must be the neutral part of culture, which is called "glabalization," maybe. But, I belive that real intercultural communication must exist beyond it. I know it is difficult, but I don't want to give up right now. I try to be beyond the limit even if my language skills were limited...

It's hard to make Westerners understand why "Haikei, Chichiue sama (Dear, my father)" is good. Nobody would be satisfied if you tried to appreciate Kazunari Ninomiya, who is so unsophisticated as to doubt whether he is a member of Johnny's entertainment.

I didn't mean to go get a suit.

"I didn't mean to go to the sea" is the title of a CD album by the Flipper's Guitar, my favorite music band.
Today, I was hoping to get a haircut. But, before going to go to a barbarshop, I recognized I would need a suit because I'm going to work for a new school next week. I'm not interested in how I look at workplace that much, so I thought it wouldn't take much time to find a very simple navy one with solid. But, I was wrong. Most suits at the stores were so unique. What is going on in Japan? Finally, I was able to find one, but I couldn't get a haircut. Today isn't my day!

近いうち，英語学校で勤務するので，スーツを買いに行った．何年も前に知人の結婚式のために買ったものしかもっていなかった．別に背広の着こなしなどにはほとんど興味がない．スーツにお金をかけるぐらいだったら，私服を買う．できれば，前職のように私服で行きたかったぐらいである．だから，適当に一番安い紺の無地のものを買うつもりだった．しかし，驚くことが起きた．そんなスーツはほとんどないのだ．

ＣＭでおなじみの量販店の他，最近できた若者向けの量販店にも行って見たが，紺で無地のスーツはほとんどない．黒のものがほとんどで，たまにある紺もかなり目立つストライプが入っている．ストライプなんてちょっと前にはホストクラブの人の制服だったのに……．普通の人なら，ここですごすごと商売上手な店員さんの言葉に載せられてそういうスーツを買うかもしれない．皆が着ているみたいだし，それでいいかな，と思って．

A Swedish girl told me that Japanese people are so fashionable. But, I think that they care about how they look too much.

しかし，それはできなかった．ぼくは，他人の目を気にして「失敗のないおしゃれ」ばっかりチェックしていて，それに外れた人を「ダサイ」とか云って笑いつつ，自分は内心ホッとしているような人間にはなりたくない．そんなのは日本人の悪い見本だ．そう考えると，実は，みんなが流行にだまされて黒やグレイやストライプのスーツをしている中，紺のスーツを着るということはものすごく革新的なことなのではないか．古いものが新しくなるということはこういうことではないか，とさえ思えてきた．そこで，意地になって探した結果，紺の無地のスーツはある有名量販店で見つかった．安かったので，よかった，よかった．
Ironically, the more the Japanese try to be westernized, the more their bad characters as the Japanese will stand out.

本当のことを云うと，紺のスーツを選んだのはぼくがひねくれ者だからだけではない．実は，欧米のビジネスマンにとって，紺のスーツに薄いブルーのワイシャツ（英語ではドレスシャツ），赤（ワインレッドまたはえんじのこともある）のネクタイは定番中の定番である．いまでも，厳しいところは，これに黒の靴や靴下なども加わるのではないか．アメリカでは服装を理由に，経営者は従業員を解雇できるのである（http://www.dba-oracle.com/dress_code.htm）．だから，いまからスーツを買う男性のみなさんは，無地の紺のスーツ（シングル，３ツボタンか２ツボタンかは個人の好みでいい）にライトブルーのシャツ，赤のネクタイ（柄は無地がストライプ），黒の靴下をするようにしてみてほしい．不安な人は，白のシャツともう１色ぐらいネクタイを用意してもいいが，それ以上職場のファッションについて考える必要はないのだ．繰り返すが，これは，欧米の一流ビジネスマンの定番スタイルなので，男性用ファッション誌で「イタリア風スーツを着こなし」とかいう記事を追っかけて流行のスーツを着ている周囲の人間を気にする必要はない．あなたは世界基準のファッションとともに服装にとらわれない自由を手にするのである．

Most Western people wear simply. So, if you don't try to wear a fancy suit, your fashion will be more like that of a US or European businessman.

It rubs me the wrong way!

『プリンセス・マサコ』の日本語版の出版がとりやめになった。また、今日のInternational Herald Tribune紙の日本版（『朝日ヘラルド』と呼ぶらしい）には、フランスの日本料理屋を公的機関がフランスまで行ってチェックする、という内容の『天声人語』の英訳が載った。つくづく救いようのない国だと思う。ぼくの記憶に間違いがなければ、「文化」とは本来「政治・軍事力によらない（国民の）支配」という意味だと思うが、この国は政治力で「文化」を管理するようだ。北朝鮮のことをよくバカにできるものだと思う。ついでに、大衆の娯楽などはcultureといわず、sub-culture（サブカルチャー）といったりするが、日本の大衆娯楽の多くもくだらないことこの上ない。２月に開けて、プロ野球のキャンプがはじまったり、アメリカでプレイする日本人選手のニューズが報道されるが、どうもどうでもいいニューズを勝手にマスコミが盛り上げている感がある。団塊の世代の人たちに媚びているつもりなのかもしれないが、悪いが、長島茂雄氏が紅白戦を見たとか、どうせもうポンコツになって使えない桑田や清原の報道なんてしてどうするんだ。視聴者をバカにするのもいい加減にしろ。本当は、こんな２人を飼っている球団やプロ野球界そのものが批判されていいぐらいだ。勿論、桑田や清原自体には、自分の好きな道を進む権利があるだろうが。

あまりにこれらのことがイライラするので、毒を吐いてみた。

If you have a time to report them, there are many other athletes to be reported, I think...

It seems like the Japanese culture is not controlled by government. The Japanese translation of "Princess Masako" is not going to be published. Also, International Herald Tribune (Japan Edition) put a translation from Asahi Shimbun's column "Global 'sushi police' a dubious endeavor." This article says:

Determined to promote "correct" Japanese food, Matsuoka has begun creating system by which the government will give its seal of approval to overseas eateries that serve only "authentic" Japanese food.
(February 20, International Herald Tribune- Asahi Shimbun)

If I remember correctly, "culture" means something that is transmitted not by political or military power. But, in this country, it is done by the government! I wonder why Japan can look down on North Korea...

Not only the culture but also the subculture of Japan annoys me. Since it is February, the media started out reporting baseball. I don't know why, but they report very very silly news items such as Shigeo Nagashima, who has been retired from his coaching position for a long time, Masumi Kuwata, who couldn't play in Japan any more because of the decline of his physical strength but who was hired by a major league team that does not know the fact, and Kazuhiro Kiyohara, who has not played for a whole season within these years and who doesn't seem to play well this year also. Maybe, they would excuse themselves, like "They are popular," or sometihng really lame. But for their excessive reporting, nobody cares Nagashima, Kuwata, and Kiyohara any more.

Of course, some athletes who are not doing well could be popular in other countries, but...

Since I have got too many frustration about this kind of things, I became blunt.

Young, Alive, in Love!

Is it Chinese New Year today, bro?


According to the dictionary, the definition of Valentine's Day is:

a holiday in some countries when people give special cards, candy or flowers to people they love (Longman Dictionary of American English)

Do school girls need to give chocolates to their teachers? If so, that's lame.

If you have lived in Japan, you may have known that March 14 is White Day, which requies guys to give some gifts to the girls who gave them chocolates on February 14. But, in Korea, they have one more day, which is called "Black Day":

But that's not the end of it; in fact, the ouch factor quickly quadruples, since men are reportedly expected to give gifts of up to four times more than the estimated cost of the chocolate they received.

All of which brings us to the very goth-sounding Black Day, which takes
place April 14, when singles who got totally left out of the chocolate-candy-gift-exchange-comparison frenzy get together at a Chinese restaurant to eat "black noodles" (noodles in a black bean sauce) and drink, all the while bitching about how it sucks to be without a mate, not to mention chocolate.
Actually, the way Moon described it, Black Day sounds totally cool, a love-among-the-noodles version of the Nerd's Revenge, a chance to find companionship even among the blackest of beans. And therein lies the charm of this ritual that has yet to be packaged and marketed to death, unlike its hearts and roses counterpart.

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/cruz/02.11.04/black-day-0407.html

Do you wanna get your own life ruined for real?

This person graduated from this university, as you know.

The worst [read best] rock'n'roll animals never grow up. They act like idiots and we let them get away with it because they make good music. In rock'n' roll it's always better to burn out than fade away into "maturity" -- i.e. making tame and crappy music. But some of these animals seem indestructible.

Fuzzy Logic by Simon Bartz

The Japan Times, 2/2/07

SNL is still what American people love.

This article was about Guitar Wolf, which I know its name but I have never listen to. However, this article made me think a lot.

Is being wrecked a good thing? I have been wondering why people love celebrities who are self-destructive. Okay. Maybe people will grow up when they get over miserable situations. But, why do you try to ruin your own life on purpuse when you don't have to?

More strangely, people who say that they love that kind of comedians, atheletes, and musician never try to take a leap in the dark. I belive that they are such hypocrites.

Well, howver, this is just an introduction and this is not what I want to say now. Sorry, I rubbed you the wrong way, although my mind is not as organized as yours. Anyway, I want to talk about how comedy in Japan is different than that in the states or the UK.

Think about Saturday Night Live or Monty Python. Comedians will play a fool in those shows. How about Japanese comedians? Do they behave like American or British comedians? Nope. Absolutely no! Once most of comedians in Japan started out becoming popular, they will be MCs of a variety show. This is when they give up being comedians and act like people who are watching TV. To be worse, they will be anchor men of a news program and a politician. This is really weird. Comedians are not doing their professional work in Japan. Despite this, some of them become self-destructive and ruin their private lives.

I want to tell you that this difference in comedy between US/UK and Japan could symbolize the cultural difference between the two, but today my mind is burned out.

数日前，電車の中で読んだジャパンタイムズの記事（一番上の英文）の内容が頭にこびりついて離れない．ギターウルフという名前は聞いたことはあるが，音楽は知らないロックバンドについて述べていた．だが，ぼくが気になったのは，音楽ライターが自己破壊的な要素を賛美していることだ．

ロックだけじゃない．お笑いとかスポーツ選手だって破滅的なやつがいいとかいう奴がいる．気持ちはちょっと解る気もするが，冷静になってみるとやっぱりそういう人は偽善者だ．自分は絶対に，安全な地位から離れようとしないんだから．

しかし，云いたかったのは実はこのことじゃなかったりする．イギリスのモンティー・パイソンとかアメリカのスタンド・アップ・コメディではお笑い芸人は身を道化にする．なのに，日本のお笑い芸人はすぐにヴァラエティー・ショウの司会者になって，視聴者の目線でものを語る．これは変だ．そのくせ，私生活だけ破壊的になるのだから，始末に置けない．あーあ．このことからもっと深く，英米と日本の文化を比較したかったのだが，疲れたのでまた．