Japanese has a great deal of contribution into a pecking order which is determined by their age. They have to use so much Keigo or formal ways of language when talking with the older. This rule is almost compulsory in almost all the situations in Japan, except when talking with a member of their family or other situations such as with the older who they have so close relationship that they agree or 'feel' they don't need to use Keigo.
The older is always in higher than the younger. The younger must not talk back the older even when they think the older has said something wrong or unreasonable. The younger must do what the order has told them to even when they don't want to do that or they think it's silly, embarrasing or causing damage. On the other hand, the older can do or act whatever they want.
Youngers are miserable when their older colleague or member of club their belong are cruel. They might be forced to drink so much that they could end up vomit or lose their memory....even die of alcohol. As for the older, they have a reason to do such cruels: they were once forced to do same thing when they were younger. And they follow suit as a tradition.
Some youngers find it pleasure, but others(like me) find nothing but pain and don't like it. And there's probably no way out of it, so people who don't like it have to tolerate anyway.
I don't like the system because it just doesn't make sense. We probably need a pecking order or hierarchy-thing in a company or managing world, but not in a whole life!
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Friday, January 4, 2008
Fukubukuro - Fight for a Bag
Ready, set, go!! Run faster, even fight with others!!
Admist thousands of people, you hear " This is mine!" "No, I've touched it first!!"
And you see people who got a red bag enclosed after they paid $1000 for one happily passing the entrance.
Every year in the New Year's holidays, a lot of stores throughout Japan have "Fukubukuro Sale", where they sell Fukubukuro(Fuku means 'luck' and Bukuro, or Fukuro as its original form without sound changed, means 'bag').
In front of the entrance of a famous big store before its open, there're thousands of people swarm or line. Once the store opens the doors, the awaiting people start craming into the stores for a Fukubukuro. They don't sell so much Fukubukuro, so there're always winners and whimpers. If you really want to get one, you have to get at the stores as early as you can. Waking up in the early morning is enough? It's not sometimes because some Japanese stay up all night in front of the stores. This is Yamato Damashii or Shimaguni Konjo!
Oh, notice that the goods inside are NOT all the same. You don't know what's inside, you only guess they have clothes if you're in an apparel store. And you can't rip it out and look inside, because of its traditional pleasure that you don't know until you bring it home. All the bags look same. You need some Fuku or luck to get what you think worth... you might get what-the-hell stuff sometimes...if with bad luck, all of them are rubbish.
People who go there say they buy it because it's quite cheap or they want to try their luck as the start of the new year.
Price range are huge: JPY10,000 to even 10,000,000(equivalent to around US$100,000). Well I guess the average is 50,000 or so. Usually the goods inside the bag are worth more than its price.
Still yet, I don't understand why people take that risks. The prices sound expensive, and you can't see inside the bag so it probably has some(or all of them if no Fuku) goods that you don't want or need. Why dare buy such an expensive bag that you don't know whether or not all the goods inside are worth buying??
In front of 109, a very popular store among the young, a lot of the young started exchanging the goods they got. They probably change what they don't into what they want. That's a good idea. But I still wonder why not they just look for what they want.
Admist thousands of people, you hear " This is mine!" "No, I've touched it first!!"
And you see people who got a red bag enclosed after they paid $1000 for one happily passing the entrance.
Every year in the New Year's holidays, a lot of stores throughout Japan have "Fukubukuro Sale", where they sell Fukubukuro(Fuku means 'luck' and Bukuro, or Fukuro as its original form without sound changed, means 'bag').
In front of the entrance of a famous big store before its open, there're thousands of people swarm or line. Once the store opens the doors, the awaiting people start craming into the stores for a Fukubukuro. They don't sell so much Fukubukuro, so there're always winners and whimpers. If you really want to get one, you have to get at the stores as early as you can. Waking up in the early morning is enough? It's not sometimes because some Japanese stay up all night in front of the stores. This is Yamato Damashii or Shimaguni Konjo!
Oh, notice that the goods inside are NOT all the same. You don't know what's inside, you only guess they have clothes if you're in an apparel store. And you can't rip it out and look inside, because of its traditional pleasure that you don't know until you bring it home. All the bags look same. You need some Fuku or luck to get what you think worth... you might get what-the-hell stuff sometimes...if with bad luck, all of them are rubbish.
People who go there say they buy it because it's quite cheap or they want to try their luck as the start of the new year.
Price range are huge: JPY10,000 to even 10,000,000(equivalent to around US$100,000). Well I guess the average is 50,000 or so. Usually the goods inside the bag are worth more than its price.
Still yet, I don't understand why people take that risks. The prices sound expensive, and you can't see inside the bag so it probably has some(or all of them if no Fuku) goods that you don't want or need. Why dare buy such an expensive bag that you don't know whether or not all the goods inside are worth buying??
In front of 109, a very popular store among the young, a lot of the young started exchanging the goods they got. They probably change what they don't into what they want. That's a good idea. But I still wonder why not they just look for what they want.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Mountain Wingsuit
Finally, human-beings have become birds...
Is it the summit of entertainment or of craziness?
http://www.biertijd.com/mediaplayer/?itemid=4262
Is it the summit of entertainment or of craziness?
http://www.biertijd.com/mediaplayer/?itemid=4262
Saturday, December 29, 2007
What is Kata?
I labeled kata on the last blog. What is kata? It's a Japanese word and you might not know the meaning, so here I explain it to you.
Kata is translated into 'form', but because it's Japanese, I would rather translate into 'a way, an order of doing something'.
There're thousands of katas here everywhere in Japan: you see they follow them when they eat food, talk, celebrate something, bow, so on and on. As kata comes out of traditions and a tradition will fade out as time goes by, this Japanese original traditions have the same principle. There used to be much more in old days. But there are still many.
As one grows up, they learn katas at home, school and a daily life. I think that learning them is a a very important way to be regarded as an adult in Japan. If you were Japanese thirty's or fourty's and you didn't know much about them, people around you might think you were lower-classed or ineducated.
Though out-of-katas is getting telorated especially among young people, as for the business world, Japanese workers must learn and follow them. Some of them might not be forced to, but again these people are thought they work in a lower-classed job.
Kata is so powerful that it often affects Japanese's mind and thought. Japanese people often say "Shikataganai". You see "kata" in the phrase, and it literally means "do not have any kata" and it implies the speaker thinks there's no ways to put something through so it makes no sense to even try. It's ok to say so after you push hard to manage it somehow, but Japanese often say shikataganai even before they try. This reflects one aspect of the Japanese culture: when a bad thing happens to them, Japanese don't complain, don't argue and accept. They think shikataganai and give up, and think that's how an adult do. If they make a fuss complaining, they are thought childish.
Kata is translated into 'form', but because it's Japanese, I would rather translate into 'a way, an order of doing something'.
There're thousands of katas here everywhere in Japan: you see they follow them when they eat food, talk, celebrate something, bow, so on and on. As kata comes out of traditions and a tradition will fade out as time goes by, this Japanese original traditions have the same principle. There used to be much more in old days. But there are still many.
As one grows up, they learn katas at home, school and a daily life. I think that learning them is a a very important way to be regarded as an adult in Japan. If you were Japanese thirty's or fourty's and you didn't know much about them, people around you might think you were lower-classed or ineducated.
Though out-of-katas is getting telorated especially among young people, as for the business world, Japanese workers must learn and follow them. Some of them might not be forced to, but again these people are thought they work in a lower-classed job.
Kata is so powerful that it often affects Japanese's mind and thought. Japanese people often say "Shikataganai". You see "kata" in the phrase, and it literally means "do not have any kata" and it implies the speaker thinks there's no ways to put something through so it makes no sense to even try. It's ok to say so after you push hard to manage it somehow, but Japanese often say shikataganai even before they try. This reflects one aspect of the Japanese culture: when a bad thing happens to them, Japanese don't complain, don't argue and accept. They think shikataganai and give up, and think that's how an adult do. If they make a fuss complaining, they are thought childish.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
The Order of Writing Alphabets
If you're writing English and somebody says "You've mistaken A's writing order!", you would probably feel weird. But if you were a Japanese 7th-year boy, that's your teacher might say to you while studying English.
Japanese students learn "the order of writing Alphabets" when they are 7th or 1st year in junior high school. That's when Japanese first start learning English at school. I also learned it and I got stunned that I found it might be only in Japan.
I looked around the internet and found that the Ministry of Education(now called the Ministry of Education and Science) made it when Japan started teaching Engilsh after the WW2. But also found the order was based on textbooks from U.K. and U.S.A or their traditional way.
Anyway, this tells us what's important to Japan: an order and a form. We learn how to use chopsticks, how to hold a rice bowl, the order of writing letters, what to eat on the New Year's Day....so on and on.
Maybe I write more about this some day soon.
Japanese students learn "the order of writing Alphabets" when they are 7th or 1st year in junior high school. That's when Japanese first start learning English at school. I also learned it and I got stunned that I found it might be only in Japan.
I looked around the internet and found that the Ministry of Education(now called the Ministry of Education and Science) made it when Japan started teaching Engilsh after the WW2. But also found the order was based on textbooks from U.K. and U.S.A or their traditional way.
Anyway, this tells us what's important to Japan: an order and a form. We learn how to use chopsticks, how to hold a rice bowl, the order of writing letters, what to eat on the New Year's Day....so on and on.
Maybe I write more about this some day soon.
Monday, December 24, 2007
What time workers leave and come back home
What time you come back home from work affects your private time. You could spend with your family and friends if you come back early. If you come back late you just eat and go to bed.
I finish work around 9pm and come back home around 10pm usually. Sometimes 11pm. I hear other country people come back home around 6pm. To them, I might work too long and not normal. But I don't think so. I take a train from home to my office, and I always see a lot of workers at the station around 9 or 10. Do we come to our office like 12am? No, I come to my office around 9am. I take a train from a station near my house to one of the biggest station in Osaka named Umeda, and change to another train to the station near my office. Both when I go to and come back from my office, the Umeda has so many people, and these two trains are fully packed. In these trains in the morning, the seats are occupied, and even the floor! There's no rooms for us to move your leg while standing....it looks like a huge elevator with fully on-board. What's worse than a elevator is that because a train sways every directions, your body was hit and jostled in the crowd.
This shows a lot of workers leave home in the morning and come back late. And by hearing from my friends, watching TV, reading newspapers and so on.... it's pretty normal to Japanese workers.
I finish work around 9pm and come back home around 10pm usually. Sometimes 11pm. I hear other country people come back home around 6pm. To them, I might work too long and not normal. But I don't think so. I take a train from home to my office, and I always see a lot of workers at the station around 9 or 10. Do we come to our office like 12am? No, I come to my office around 9am. I take a train from a station near my house to one of the biggest station in Osaka named Umeda, and change to another train to the station near my office. Both when I go to and come back from my office, the Umeda has so many people, and these two trains are fully packed. In these trains in the morning, the seats are occupied, and even the floor! There's no rooms for us to move your leg while standing....it looks like a huge elevator with fully on-board. What's worse than a elevator is that because a train sways every directions, your body was hit and jostled in the crowd.
This shows a lot of workers leave home in the morning and come back late. And by hearing from my friends, watching TV, reading newspapers and so on.... it's pretty normal to Japanese workers.
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