Kanji characters have a certain mystic that attract many people to have one or several tattooed to their body. I recently met a young girl who wasn’t really interested in Japan or learning Japanese, but loved, in her words, Kanji symbols. She was very proud of the Kanji character tattooed on her hip. She told me it meant “power”. I didn’t have the heart to tell that the kanji was wrong. Somehow she ended up with a pretty much meaningless Kanji on its own. It is used with other Kanji to mean cooperation, association and and whatnot. I wondered if she had fallen victim to a nasty practical joke or if what she wanted was lost on translation.
You might feel justified making the assumption that tattoo artists know Kanji and would do the research for their customers. However, most tattoo artists know little about Japan, Japanese culture and Kanji. A Japanese friend told me about an American he met who had a tattoo on his bicep that translated meant “council worker”. The American thought it mean “samurai”. As you can imagine he wasn’t very happy when he found out.
Don’t let this happen to you. If you going to get a tattoo it is up to you to do through research. It is up to you to make sure you are getting exactly what you want. A good place to start is David Mc Gimpsey’s My Japanese Tattoo ebook.
You could also get some Japanese friends to help you out with choosing the right Japanese Kanji character. You could also consider getting a kana character – either a hiragana or katakana symbol. Kana symbols on their own don’t really represent anything, but some do look very cool.
Japanese Kanji
Japanese Kanji, although based on Chinese Kanji, is indeed unique. Many Kanji do represent meaningful and beautiful cultural values, ideas and concepts unique only to Japan. Some Kanji look incredibly beautiful. There is nothing quite like watching a Shoudoka, a Japanese calligraphy master, put brush to paper. Keep in mind most Kanji just represent or mean the same old words we use everyday. Some Kanji don’t even mean that much just on there own. If you are considering getting a Kanji tattoo you obviously want to make sure you get it right. You don’t want to be parading some bizarre Japanese symbol around.
I can honestly say that after living in Japan for ten years I have never experienced any racism in Japan. Racism is almost non existent in Japan. I am talking about hate driven racism. Discrimination , however, is something common place and not just limited to non-Japanese living in Japan. The group, not the individual, is primary importance in Japanese society. As a result minority groups and individuals are discriminated in Japan, including Japanese.
When applied to Japanese society, equality is often take to mean that one is treated just like other members in a group to which one belongs, and fair treatment is guaranteed as long as one observes the groups internal rules. If you are not of the group then you won’t be treated equally. Not being part of a group or not being allowed to part of a group is known as “nakama-hazure”. In most countries this type of behavior would be typical in the school yard. In Japan it is common place regardless of age.
Bullying is recognized as a huge problem in Japan. Japanese are conditioned to be homogeneous from a very young to such a degree that anyone who doesn’t fit in is somewhat deserving of being bullied. Without a doubt, Japanese who voluntarily deviate from mainstream norms are subject to discrimination usually due to sexuality, religious beliefs and political views and academic backgrounds.
To the majority of Japanese, the worst way in which they can be discriminated against is by what is referred to as “mura-hachibu” or village ostracism. In olden times, this meant to be excluded from social interaction with other in one’s village. In modern Japan, it means to be excluded from one’s group, so that members are likely to face difficulties. They may not be invited to social gatherings. They may not be offered help when needed. They may have delayed promotions at work, and so on.
Being An Outsider
I often feel fortunate to be a minority living in Japan. Japanese have no expectation of me to be Japanese in any manner. So I am free of cultural complexities such as “giri” and “enryo”. There have been moments were discrimination has boarded on racism, but I know that I am and always will be an outsider in Japan so I rarely take such social discrimination personally. I have been refused service in bars and shops, my Japanese has been made fun of, car doors have been locked by drivers as I have walked by their running cars, and strangers have ignored my request for directions on the odd occasion. Nothing too terrible, but just reminders that I am not of the majority.
So expect a little discrimination when you come to Japan and try not to take it personally. Keep in mind, that anyone in Japan, such as minority groups, can be subject to discrimination in Japanese society. The Japanese concepts of equality and discrimination are defined by feelings based on case-by-case situations rather than by clear-cut laws and/or principles.
Sakura is the name for the celebrated and beautiful cherry blossom trees of Japan. I hope you enjoy this video, I spent two weeks documenting the Sakura trees in my local area. I was amazed how quickly the trees changed over night. The cherry blossom trees were in full bloom for less than two days. I don’t think you can find anything more beautiful than watching Sakura petals fall and scatter. Japanese culture at it’s most beautiful!
Somei Yoshino
Japan’s most beloved variety and the one I documented in the video is the Somei Yoshino. Its flowers are nearly pure white, tinged with the palest of pink. The flowers bloom, and usually fall within a week in Spring.
There are over 100 sakura varieties. In the video you can see Shidarezakura, weeping cherry blossom trees which have branches that fall like those of a weeping willow, bearing cascades of pink flowers.
The Somei Yoshino Cherry Blossom
Cherry-Blossom Front
Annually, the Japanese track the Sakura Zensen, or Cherry-Blossom Front. Nightly forecasts follow the weather segment of news programs. The blossoming begins in Okinawa in February, and typically reaches Kyoto and Tokyo at the end of March or the beginning of April. Then it proceeds north, arriving in Hokkaido a few weeks later. Japanese pay close attention to these forecasts so that they can plan “hanami”.
Hanami
Drinking and having a picnic under Sakura! Japanese will organize “cherry blossom viewing” parties usually with family and co-workers. They will go to parks to drink, eat and enjoy a few hours of well earned rest under the beautiful Sakura.
Here is a letter from a student I got a while back in Japan. I thought I would share it with you.
Dear Nick,
Thank you so much for your enjoyable lessons every time! After class last week, I was thinking about what you told us. I do understand you have some stressful life in Japan. I know travelling and living in another country is quite different. I think Japanese people are generally kind and friendly but it would be hard for the people from other countries to live in Japan. The way of life, the tradition, local customs, human relations, and so on.
Tajimi is a small town and we hardly get to know non-Japanese people in everyday life, and most of us speak only Japanese. If you lived in some other big cities like Tokyo, Kobe, Yokohama or Nagoya, you life might be comfortable. You are such a nice and friendly person who tries to understand our culture and way of living, even though you have had some unpleasant experiences. you are fed up of being asked something rude, for example, “Are you American?” They wouldn’t know it is rude.
Since the World War II ended, Japanese people have been strongly influenced by the USA. Probably “Gaijin” means “American” for them. I guess. Well, I have textbooks called “Modern English”. I got in the 1970′s, and the first dialog is written like this. “Excuse me. Are you American ?” “Yes, I am from New York”. When I heard your “grumble” last week, I remembered this dialog. In those days the characters in the text were only American and Japanese. I have a recent English textbook for junior high school students, and the characters are American, Australian, Indian, Chinese, Tanzanian and Japanese. Excellent, isn’t it?!
I cannot express well what I think, also my listening comprehension is still poor, but I enjoy learning English from you. It’s good to know the words we learned at school or from dictionaries but native speakers don’t use actually. Looking forward to you next lesson.
Yesterday, I had a bit of a blue ( an intense argument) with one of my Japanese friends regarding a question he asked a foreigner. Several weeks ago at a small festival some foreigners were selling kebabs. I wasn’t sure where they were from, but was quite sure they weren’t native English speakers. It didn’t really matter. I just wanted to order one of the kebabs they were selling. We spoke to each other in Japanese when I made my order.
Then one of my Japanese friends happened to by walking by. Naturally we greeted each other and had a chat. I was eating my kebab at this time. He saw I was eating my kebab and saw the foreigners. As they were working they were speaking Japanese loudly and fluently. They were busy serving customers. My Japanese friend walked over to one of them and asked “Where are you from?” in English. The foreigner ignored the question and just continued working. I told my friend off saying he shouldn’t have asked him that question and also that he should have spoken to him in Japanese and not English.
So yesterday when I met my friend again we argued. He is a very good friend so we are blatantly honest with each other. We were drinking and he brought up the incident and said he had done nothing wrong when he asked the foreigner were he was from in English. I disagreed and tried to explain myself and gave him some advice. My argument was that Japanese should speak to foreigners in Japanese in Japan at first point of contact. Most Japanese assume foreigners can’t speak Japanese. Japanese will rarely give foreigner the benefit of the doubt. I also said his question was pathetic and inappropriate. The “Where are from?” question and resulting conversation becomes almost a weekly ritual in Japan for foreigners. Needless to say you get sick of Japanese asking you the same questions.
Japanese are socially challenged and by there own omission generally fear foreigners. This is something you will have to get used to and not take personally in Japan. It is a result of lack of “worldly experience”, and experience in communication with people in general. Japanese are poor verbal communicators. In fact Japanese pride themselves that they can communicate feelings and thoughts to family members without the spoken word. Japanese have strong assumptions about all foreigners and are conditioned , almost programmed, to ask the same questions. At the core of each of these questions is the underlying statement – “you are not one of us”.
So here they are, the questions you’ll soon hate to be asked if you
live in Japan for an extended period of time.
1.Are you American?
2.Where are you from?
3.Can you eat Natto?
4.Do you like Japan?
5.Have you ever eaten sushi?
It gets worse!
Some Japanese won’t even give you the courtesy of speaking directly to you. Often when I am with Japanese friends if we meet other Japanese questions will be asked about me, but not directly to me. They are the same silly “where are you from?” questions, but your friends will be asked the question instead . It is quite surreal because you feel ignored yet you are the topic of the conversation. Now, I think in most countries this kind of behavior is rude and generally unacceptable, but in Japan because of the “outsider mentality” in is common and a natural social reflex custom. Then if you point out that you can in fact speak Japanese often what happens then is the conversation ends and you are ignored.
