Basic Black

あけましておめでとう！ Happy New Year

The banner on the wreath is a blessing of safety within the household. Lots of businesses and homes hang these 注連縄 shimenawa rope decorations in front of their doors. For safety, mine us hung in the genkan of my apartment. The landlord doesn't allow decorations on the door.

Why do I have a shimenawa wreath? It's a habit I learned from the year I lived in rural Ehime Prefecture, when my dear neighbour, the kimono teacher, madea wreath by hand and hung it on my door. She said I and my apartment could do with the blessing for the coming year.

This guardian deity meets you at the gate when you walk up to 布施弁天 Fuse Benten where I did my お参り omairi, a first visit to shrine or temple,

Benten is represented by the flow of water and the beauty of flowers. The temple is often very quiet when I visit any other day of the year. I sometimes make the 20 minute bike ride on a Sunday, and often have the whole place to myself. Once, the priestess invited me in to see the hand coloured devotional paintings made by parishoners. But this time, there was a line of people waiting to ring the gong in front of the offering box. There was a performance of 獅子舞 shishimai, the lion dance accompanied by drums and flutes played by children.

Resolution #3 is to make a one-day pilgrimmage between the three famous Bentendo temples. Fuse Benten is one of the three significant ones belonging to a branch of Shingon Buddhism. The other two are on Enoshima Island in Kanagawa and the Bentendo in the middle of Shinobazu Pond in Ueno. I'd have to start early. The trip is over 100 kilometers.

Reducing the plastic in my life

Today's shopping at Nagasaki-ya was under 1000 yen worth of groceries. In the basket, you can see spinach, carrots, a piece of salmnon, some lemon chuhais, a whole daikon radish, and a bag of udon noodles.

You'll see, too, the pink "No bag, please" card. If I bring my own bag, place this pink "No bag, please" card in my basket and carry my point card, the cashier gives me a stamp for each bag I refuse. After 20 no-bag points, I get a 100 yen discount.

The effort required to bring my own bag (usually my bookbag or whatever bag I brought to work with me, or a furoshiki or repurposed bag I have recieved from shopping) is negligible, yields me a small monetary reward, and makes household waste a little lighter. This year, 2007, I have endeavoured to reduce my plastic bag pile to nil, and very nearly succeeded. The only contributions were from guests. I keep all reusable plastic packaging (plastic sleeves from advertising and the like) in a bag above the fridge, and put it to work when I need to protect valuable papers.

I've been following Envirowoman's plastic free blog, a chronicle of one Vancouver woman's endeavour to eliminate plastic products and packaging from her life for one year.

Kudos to Envirowoman. Trying to follow in her footsteps in Japan is extremely difficult for this expat Canadian living in Japan. Japan has a great record for recycling appliances and paper, but I wonder where the plastic goes to, and what happens to it post-consumer use. Well, the Japan Times recently documented the incineration of plastic waste, and begins to explore the idea of burning the unburnables in Tokyo. It makes me nervous about throwing away that plastic sushi tray. Where's it really going?

So I'm throwing my efforts at consuming less plastic because I fear it is impossible to eliminate it from my diet. Virtually everything I buy, from rice crackers to fruit to noodles, is packaged in plastic. If I were to buy in bulk or one item at a time, I might be able to reduce plastic packaging, but it is impractical and expensive for the single Japanese resident. One orange is more expensive when you cost it out, and buying in bulk presents storage problems that are unique to the Japanese domestic environment.

So, for now, I'll work on getting my plastic consumption down in 2008, but barriers to eliminating it appear to insurmountable right now.

I'll still look for advice and information at Japan for Sustainability and see what information I can glean.

Meanwhile, I had a wonderful and healthful dinner of , making the most of a piece of salmon, chopped carrots and daikon radish, flavoured with miso paste, and accompanied by a side dish of Korean kimchi. If I eat whole foods, I eat better right away.

The remainder of the day's shopping haul will go into a container and turned into Japanese-style tsukemono pickles. Made with love, no extra plastic required.

Learn English and feed people, too

Laundry's done, sent my new years greeting cards to the family, puttering in my pjs at home. This is homework avoidance at its finest.

All this domesticity is a cover for organizing my notes and writing reports. Ideas percolate while I'm doing other tasks, of course. A strange effect I attribute to living outside my first language community... I'm frequently at loss for words. My literacy in Japanese is weak, sure, so I can't blame my lack of verbiage on Japanese crowding out my language skill. It's more likely that I simply haven't used these words frequently enough, and I'm not reading English regularly outside of my university reading packets.

Listening to National Public Radio on the Armed Forces Network this evening, I heard a report about Free Rice, a website that combines vocabulary practice and a donation of rice to The World Food Program. Go play! Get rice! How cool is that!

Okay, back to homework...

Vancouver to Tokyo beauty and squalor

I've been so homesick for Vancouver's landscape lately. Some of my happiest memories are flying along on my mountain bike on the new seawall near Coal Harbour, the morning light on the North Shore mountains. Yes, it is beautiful. Terminal City encroaches on the rain forest edge, but sometimes I wish it were the other way - the trees marching down into the city, the bears fishing from the landings, the eagles picking off the rats in the alleys.

It hurts when I remember the crappy things in Vancouver - the Downtown East Side, ground zero Wastings and Pain Streets (Hastings and Main on the street signs). The loss of the Woodwards building. The chrome and concrete anonymity of the buildings.

Mark Mushet in The Tyee documents the abject landscape of Vancouver. Oh, the photos take me back. Vancouver, like Tokyo, has little architectural heritage. But unlike Tokyo, Vancouver never suffered earthquakes or firebombing like Tokyo did. The city simply lost its classic buildings to progress. Artist Michael Kluckner has drawn, painted and documented the loss of Vancouver's heritage and the grim development of the city.

Tokyo's so ugly. You can see Aoiko's photos of ugly Japan. You won't see a temple or garden amongst those images. Urban Japan, Kanto especially, is one big jumble of parking lots, rice paddies, housing developments, factories and office towers. Looking out of the train window on the Joban Line, you won't see any buildings more than 20 years old. Everything is relatively new but tatty. Tokyo itself has some fantastic modern architecture. Mark Brown documents the glorious new buildings and public spaces in Tokyo's 23 wards.

My favorites are Omotesando Hills with its ever changing lighting facade rippling behind the keyaki trees, the Tokyo Opera City Tower, the expanse of different stone and gravel vistas with water all around so peaceful; the gleaming golden unchi (poop) atop the Asahi Beer Hall, visible from the Sumida River.

Immigration or not

I love Statistics Canada. They record and disseminate oodles of information about Canadians, our languages, our people and their origins. This week, Reuters reports, likely drawing from StatsCan press releases, that one in five Canadians was born in another country. My brother and I were the first two kids in my father's family, and the second and third kids in my mother's family, to be born in Canada. Everybody else came from somewhere else.

There are few stats on illegals in Canada. The entry in the Canadian Encyclopedia says there could be between 50,000 and 200,000 illegals in Canada. Immigration has no way of regulating undocumented people.

Amazingly, it is estimated that there are about the same number of undocumented workers in Japan. Just like Canada, foreign workers legal and illegal do the dirty work in Japan, jobs Japanese won't do. While some folks in Canada are calling for documenting labourers who didn't make refugee status in order to keep them in the Canadian work force, Japan tolerates the undocumented in their midst but does not account for the numbers.

Japan's population is aging, but the immigration policy does not introduce new people to the country or the workforce. The demographic time bomb is ticking - by 2050, fully 40% of Japan's population will be golden agers.

'Net and missing Daikomyosai

Civilization has come to my Armory-cum-bedroom in funky Kashiwa City - I have a 'Net connection at home! The first attempt left me bewildered, and with a whiff of surreality. A little man came to my door, armed with official looking name tag, clip board, and mysterious gadgets, looked my apartment up and down, whilstled through his teeth and said No, can't do it. The flex ducts wouldn't accommodate such a thing, he claimed. Besides, your air con unit is in the way of the one inlet for ducts, he said.

Well, this week, Harry Tuttle times two arrived at my door, a young fellow who wouldn't look me in the eye, and a terribly friendly older, wiser fellow who talked my ear off. It took them about 15 minutes with tea break to snake a line from what looked like an oscilloscope to find the portal and fire the proton pack to collect incorporate Sumerian deities...Wait, wrong movie. Well, they plugged me in and installed a cable modem ( and now I've got 'Net 24/7). At home, anyway.

This is my consolation for a week of being so tortuously close to Daikomyosai, but obligated to be at work and write stuff for school projects. The only chance I'll get anywhere near training is tomorrow night, if Shiraishi sensei is on for a post-game review.

Many wonderful moments with people happened in the last few days. we took pictures of visiting ninjas under gorgeous flaming maple trees at Kamakura; fortuitous timing put me on a train with two slightly lost kunoichi who I helped navigate the spaghetti that is the JR East rail system, then joined them on a shopping expedition (fabric and stationery!); some kind train passengers on the Joban Line consoled me when I dropped my mobile phone which exploded on hitting the deck; a slightly tipsy salaryman on his way home wished me a happy life before tottering off the train at Matsudo Station; the noodle guy on the Shinagawa Station platform slipped me an onigiri in thanks for my patronage (I hit him every week on the way to Ayase training); the Kashiwa Information ladies treated me to yuzu citrus marmalade and got me up to date on Kashiwa events so I can inform visiting ninjas; my sempai came over for dinner and spoiled me with a belated birthday present despite the fact that his isn't finished yet (gomen, ne!).

See? I can't complain.

Teacher and culture clash

This week, I've been reading essays about the native versus non-native teacher debate. The English language educator A. Suresh Canagarajah argues that, although English native speaker teachers have teaching skills, they may not have recieved the training that is necessary for teaching students from other communities. He says, that native speaker teachers are often chosen based primarily on their English speaking ability. Canagrajah says "Such undue emphasis on the linguistic status/proficiency of the teachers excuse them from understanding the local languages, cultures, and social conditions of the communities where they are teaching."

I believe it is essential that, as the non-native (non-Japanese) and the native English speaker in the context in which I live, I owe it to my colleagues, students, community and myself to work on learning the cultural and linguistic context of Japan. I don't profess to know all about a culture (who could say that about their own culture?!) but I work on my Japanese language skills, get to know people (Japanese and long-time foreign residents) and learn about the commonalities, sensitivities, and struggles between my culture and Japanese culture.

You keep yourself out of trouble if you do, and pay a high price if you don't. Gillian Gibbons, a teacher in Sudan, is now famous as the teacher accused of religous blasphemy for allowing her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad. Sure, this case is as much a symptom of the hysteria regarding blasphemy after a certain controversial cartoon that resulted in riots and firebombings. Ms. Gibbons has her supporters amongst the community who say that she never intended any harm, and I seriously doubt there was any malice. She was simply doing what good English teachers do best - giving students a choice, allowing them agency in the classroom.

New immigration policy in Japan

Click on the image left to see an animated protest against fingerprinting foreigners on Debito Arudo's website.

Japan adopted the US fingerprint policy for all foreigners, whether they hold work visas or not. At immigration, Japanese line up at one check point, and all foreigners at another. The only people exempt are foreign diplomats, military personnel, minors (under 18 years old), and long term Chinese and Korean residents. The fact that I work, volunteer, make pension and tax payments, and list my apartment in Kashiwa City as my residence doesn't mean anything.

The horrors of this system for permanent residents and family members leaves me wondering...What happens when a Filipina mother and her Japanese child arrive at immigration? Are they seperated into the two immigration lines?  What about a foreign resident who owns property in Japan but objects to the policy? Does that mean that, at immigration, if he or she refuses the fingerprint check, it's good bye Japan, good bye property?

Japan's ministries have been really sloppy with information in the past. Do I really want my data in the hands of government agencies that have a poor record of accurately storing and keeping private information? How long do they intend to keep this info? Who do they intend to share it with?

Is the fear of foreign terrorists justified? Think of all the terrorist attacks to do with Japan. Aum Shinri Kyo attacked the Tokyo subway system with sarin gas killing twelve people and sickening thousands. The Japanese Red Army is responsible for hijacking a Japanese airliner, blowing up buildings in Japan and an attack at a foreign airport. Just like the US, terrorist attacks in this century until 9/11 were committed by citizens of the country. In Canada, terrorism in the 1970s and 80s was conducted by activists (Squamish Five) and left wingers (Front de liberation du Quebec) born and raised in the country.

Before 9/11, the highest loss of life in a terrorist bombing was the 1985 Air India bombing over Ireland which killed over 300 people, 280 of whom were Canadians.

Canada didn't bomb the Punjab to dust, or require fingerprinting of all foreign nationals after that attack.

Nova novices

G.communication picked up failing Nova Corporation last week, but after reading about the first steps on the Japan Times, it makes me wonder if there is anything Beyond Nova for these hapless former Nova teachers.

Asahi confirms that the tsunami of unemployed Nova people is swamping the job market. Nova fallout means that there are many more applicants for jobs posted on websites. The company I work for has seen as many as 80 applicants in a week to some of our posted jobs.

And so few of the applicants could fill the positions my company hires for. For the most part, the high schools are asking for experienced, Japanese-speaking teachers with some kind of teaching certification. Nova teachers seldom come with either teaching experience or training, and few speak Japanese. The lack of experience and spoken Japanese shortens teacher longevity in fast-paced school situations. I saw that high attrition when I worked for another recruiting company in Japan that hires non-teachers.

It just got a lot harder for a young foreign person to get his foot in the door in Japan.

Tokyo Medical

In the latest edition of Tokyo Weekender, the spotlight is on on medical clinics in Tokyo that serve the foreign population.  Caroline Pover writes about medicine in Tokyo, and tells about her misdiagnosis by Japanese doctors she had trusted with her life. The Weekender's survey of medical Tokyo clinics is really telling. Few of the clinics that are frequently indicated as catering to foreign patients rank above 5 points on a 10 point scale. While it is true, the response was smalll, I think the survey indicates there are some serious problems with the practice of medicine in this town. Would Japanese people disagree? Not likely.  All kinds of problems have been exposed - illegal prescriptions at clinics, files being made public, pregnant women refused by hospitals.

I had very good care when I visited specialists in Tokyo and area. The only thing I found uncomfortable was being kept in an open examining room with half a dozen other people waiting. I prefer that my own details be kept confidential, and I really don't want to know about Mr. Suzuki's psoriasis. When I lived in Ehime Prefecture, I was aghast when I walked into the office the week after a medical check to find my results on my desk for all to see rather than in an envelope. Everybody kept remarking all day that I was a fine specimen!

Abroad, when you get sick or suffer an injury, symptoms see to be worse because medical care is so alien. You don't know what the local remedies are, none of the non-prescription drugs are familiar brands and you can't read the labels with confidence, and prescription medicines have different names in other countries. Add this stress to your initial problem, and you get worse.

I'm lucky I've been healthy all this time in Japan,  and if I do have a problem, national health covers me. As long as I'm concious, I can speak for myself in Japanese. I still need a good course in Japanese verbal self-defense, though.