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.

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.

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.