Kawaii!!!

Enough of all the self-reflection, back to a bit of Japanese culture for you.
Kawaii – 可愛い . If you look up the definition of this word on the internet, it comes up with, ‘cute’ and ‘loveable’. However, I feel my electronic dictionary has better, or should I say, more definitions of the word, such as ‘charming’, ‘lovely’, ‘pretty’, ‘precious’ and ‘tiny’.
It may be one of the most versatile words in modern-day Japanese.

People who have visited Japan, even those who are quite uninterested in it and have heard about it from home, will know that Japanese are obsessed with all things cute, big or small. This goes for toys, key chains, things around the house, clothes. Think pokemon. Think hello kitty. Think Care Bears. Think high squeaky voices that even normal little kids don’t naturally have. Why else do they have ‘moe’ (pronouncedmoh-eh), those girls with pig-tails, in milk-maid type costumes with big eyes everywhere in their anime and manga? (anime is the televised version of manga). Storeclerks will insistently shout welcome in japanese in the most horrid nasal voices for anyone who walks past, as they somehow feel this may entice people into their store. For girls, to look cute is the ultimate attractor for men. This is why they are obsessed with pastel pinks, blues and beiges in their fashion (you cannot imagine how difficult it is to find hard deep reds or purples in the shops here).
Ok, so you get the picture. This is some of modern Japan that is common knowledge.


Bento, or lunchbox, fillers


Hello Kitty


Moe girl


My favorite, mameshiba, talking soy beans

And it is not just a girly obsession, contrary to what one may expect. Boys will have things hanging from their bags like big stitch dolls at the age of 21. I have heard men say ‘kawaii’ as if it’s the most normal thing in the world.


Astroboy, the 'cutest' boy manga

Though obviously not in the high squeaky voices that girls do it in (last year, at my school, there were these girls that shouted “Ester! Hi!” and waved. Whenever I waved back I would get the most ear-piercing KAWAIIIIIIIII!!!!. Even my teacher said it was pretty bad).
I was shopping the other day, and there were t-shirts that some girls would look at and they would constantly say : “ah, kawaii ne!”, meaning it’s pretty, or cool. They would never use the Japanese word for cool (‘kakkoi’) unless it refers to something that men have that make them handsome – they do say ‘hansamu’ but usually to ask which boy do you like, you ask who is ‘kakkoi’. So for anything to do with girls, they use ‘kawaii’ instead, even if they don’t mean the literal mean of cute. This is the difficulty with Japanese – occasionally they have limited adjectives (e.g. the word ‘omoshiroi’ means both interesting AND funny. WHAT?)

On Sunday, I was wearing a yukata (summer kimono, made of thin cotton material) in town, and the amount of times I heard the word ‘kawaii’ shot in my direction… This probably meant they didn’t think we (my friend and I) were cute, like pokemon is cute. As mentioned before, girls who are pretty, or beautiful, are referred to as ‘kawaii’. By men and women. And in this case they probably thought it looked odd to see Japanese clothes on foreigners. I guess it’s the word they use when they can’t really think of anything else to say, and it’s usually always positive in it’s meaning.

So whether it means, cute, pretty or precious, if it is said to you, or about anything, it is a positive thing. Though it is quickly become the most worn out word I can imagine!


AKB48, a group of girls singing typical J-pop, in high-school uniform

Friendships in Japan

Being out here in Japan, so far away from everything and everyone that’s comfortable to me, I often get asked questions like are you happy? And one I often feel is very related: what do you like about Japan? In fact, when I tell Japanese people that I do really like Japan they sometimes give me the look of a weirdo and ask: but why?

I feel it usually revolves around the same issue: people. As a matter of fact, I feel this often dictates for me how much I enjoy any given place.
For example, I don’t like Paris. Controversial as that may be, I don’t like it. It’s so dirty, and most of all the people are the most unfriendly ones ever; I feel ashamed for tourist who go to Paris and think that those people represent all Europeans! I really liked my time in the rainforest in Borneo. This is partly because I was with animals and that in itself is enough to make me happy but the guides were really cool and down to earth. And I had some great times in New Zealand, hanging out with a friend from university in Wellington and getting up to no good, or down south biking with a bunch of Aussies and a German girl.
So as much as food is a great benefit of travelling so are the people you meet. And to me this can make a world of difference.

What does this say about Japanese people you ask?
Now, this is a tricky question. I would not hesitate to say, hands down, that Japanese people are extremely friendly. They will do to extreme lengths to try to please you, and even if you can’t speak the language they will still more than happily chat away to you in Japanese as long as you keep giving them a little headnod (which some have caught on to know the meaning. I find some Japanese people still don’t fully understand that when I shake my head it is a negative thing).
Partly to do with some Japanese who speak English but never have the chance to practice it.
And there’s probably many a Japanese out there who rarely interact with foreigners and get some sort of weird kick out of doing so.

Once you transfer yourself into their world, however, you start to realise this is very shallow behaviour. By that, I mean that this is what they do to people they meet once. I don’t even really work for a Japanese company, but once you start to get to know some of those people better, it starts to feel very insincere. They still try to help you out, at least, those who have some understanding of how difficult it must be living in a country where you have absolutely no understanding of what goes on around you, but friendly offers like ‘we should have a drink sometime’ become merely a status of how close you are rather than a genuine offer. And there’s always the issue that you’re an outsider. I reckon, even if you’ve been here for 20 years, they will still consider you an outsider. Understand their culture fully but you’re never one of them.
To the question: why do you like Japan? I often say either old culture, or Japanese people, but I don’t know how much that latter answer is really true…

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about this question – am I happy? I was planning a hiking trip in Hokkaido by myself, for which I’m yet again, by myself, but I’m currently thinking of changing my plans and joining some friends in Singapore for a week. I wasn’t feeling too bothered about not going to Hokkaido anymore, which is strange, because I’ve always wanted to explore as much of Japan as possible. Why? I think on the trip I’ll be lonely, only to return home and to be… lonely.
As I am giving myself a little bit more free time, which I really should be doing throughout the whole year anyway, and with summer coming up, the issue of friends always comes up. Needless to say, I really miss my friends from home, and I just can’t find people like that here. Many foreigners here are either in the ALT mode – i.e. always moving around teaching in different places so they don’t even try to get close – or are just not the kind of people that I get on well naturally with – a lot of Americans with a different way of thinking, a lot of loose girls actually, or people who are really into their Manga.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve made I would say about 2 friendships that I know will last, but one of them is only here for 3 months and then is gone again.
Thinking about this made me very UNhappy, and I started thinking about home.

But then I’ve come to realise that I’ve put the emphasis on my friendships all wrong. When I really come to think about it, the people I like a lot are, in fact, Japanese, who live here, and know a little about foreign culture. And as soon as I realised I had my priorities all wrong and that I do have people I can rely on but I need to focus more on them, I all of a sudden became a lot more comfortable in my skin.

So, am I happy? With everything being foreign and difficult for me here (yes, still, it’s been over a year, but I think there are thing’s I’d always have issues wit) I have my good times and my bad times. Sometimes I have my busy times where I don’t really have time to contemplate such deep questions. I love the place. It’s just the company that I need to work on.

Yakuza

In my recent sick-and-stuck-at-home state, I read a book called “yakuza moon”, written by a girl whose father used to be part of the Yakuza.
This phenomenon has always interested me as many people believe Japan to be the safest country in the world, which it may well be, but they also have their own Italian mafia called the Yakuza. To make it even more ridiculous, unlike the mafia, the yakuza is not secret, they have offices with family emblems on the front and want to show civilians (who they call ‘katagi’) that they are part of the yakuza – by the way they dress, by showing off their full-body tattoos and apparently even they way they walk is slightly different. Their history as a legitimate feudal organization during the Edo-period almost makes them part of Japanese establishment.

The police call yakuza boryokudan (暴力団) which means violence group, but the yakuza like to call themselves ninkyodantai (任侠団体) which means chivalrous organization.
Most of their current income comes from ‘protection rackets’, extortion schemes in which one coerces another to pay money for ‘protection’ services. They have these in shopping, entertainment and red-light districts. Yakuza are heavily involved in the sex-related industry – they are known to buy girls from China and the Phillipines cheaply and create prostitution rings, or smuggle uncensored porn.

The problem is that they are sometimes seen as semi-legitimate – in fact, after the Kobe earthquake the Yamaguchi-clan of the Yakuza provided faster disaster relief than the government. They are not stealing money, as theft implies covert action. Also, they local business like merchandising, loan sharking and gambling houses are run by non-yakuza who pay protection fees.

They apply the typical Japanese oyabun-kobun relationship (as mentioned in those posts about Japanese society). This relationship and loyalty to a particular oyabun is formalized by sharing sake. This loyalty then comes before than of family members, and most yakuza are men. If you have something to apologize for (also leaving the yakuza) you have to cut the tip of your left little finger first – the way you hold a traditional Japanese sword, the main grip comes from the lower 3 fingers and the thumb and index finger only grip it loosely.

There are currently more than 87,000 members of the Yakuza today in Japan. They can mostly be found in port cities, such as Osaka or Kobe. The Yamaguchi clan is the biggest today, with about 50% of all Yakuza members belonging to this clan. Their headquarters are in Kobe, and the current oyabun is Shinobu Tsukasa.
Other big clans are Sumiyoshi-Rengo (about 20,000 members) and Inagawa-kai (15,000).

Although the book didn’t really satisfy me too much in gaining insight into Yakuza operations, it did show how easily a girl gets sucked into that kind of a lifestyle, bleaching their hair, doing speed, and then doing sex to get the drugs. Most of these girls find ‘salvation’ by getting a job working as a hostess bar, but that did shock me – how common it seems for Japanese businessmen to have a girlfriend on the side of their marriage they provide well for.

Japanese society is just as, if not more, messed up than any other society.