Forget the flu, will vaccine work on the unique Japanese?

There are folks who are worried about the potential danger of swine flu this autumn. The US is predicting a 30-50% infection rate. With the crowded subways in Japan and the likelihood of many to go to work ill regardless of the consequences, the condemned might reasonably expect more. Achuuuu...AAAACCCCCHUUUUU!!!!!

I was concerned until my Colleague from Down Under explained how it was all bull and that we should believe it only "when a movie star, politician, or other famous person dies from it." I was relieved to hear that, especially since any already delayed vaccine would be further delayed until it tested safe for the supra-human Japanese body.

The Japanese government might not be able to import vaccine to combat the new type of influenza the H1N1 virus, or swine flu -- before autumn, when an epidemic of the disease is feared will intensify, as experts want pre-import confirmation that the vaccine is safe for Japanese patients, sources familiar with the matter said. The Hour

Years ago I received an e-mail asking if I was interested in participating in a testing program to determine the effects of certain medicines in the bakagaijin body as opposed to the Japanese. I somewhat unkindly turned down that thoughtful invitation to be a guinea pig in nihonjinron studies.

I know there can be some differences between certain groups of people as far as tendencies for some illnesses. I have heard a number of times---even from a pharmacist in Japan---that the gaijin body, always being bigger and apparently less-evolved, is less sensitive to medicine than a Japanese. (How do you determine a Japanese body? Is there a special Japanese DNA?)

So I find it a bit strange that when we were in the US and my wife would visit a doctor, dentist, or pharmacist, that they did not have a special Japanese-only medicine. As far as I know they used the same medicine as they did for normal humans. Must have been the change in diet.

No more language study

You know it's gonna happen sooner or later. Disregarding the fact that Google translation is such a joke that it it's barely worth using, sooner or later there's going to be software that can actually translate into a reasonably correct sentence/idea perhaps even equal to the level of a first semester student. Of course, it probably won't work with Japanese since that is such a mysterious language that even the simplest sentences cannot be accurately translated or understood:

"Only the Japanese can understand an implied meaning of indirect message which is quite confusing to non-Japanese, if it is translated into English."

A British woman who lived in Tokyo* for a number of years before moving to Australia, has been working on an interesting project related to an instant messenger which will theoretically allow folks who speak different languages to chat together in their native language---as long as it is not Japanese, of course.

No hours, weeks, months, and years of language study. You'll even be able to watch good movies like Yureru and grasp the very useful phrase fuzaken ja nee (ふざけんじゃねえ), which as I understand the meaning---if it is actually understandable by a non-Japanese---would be an appropriate response to Mr. De Mente (below).

*Her often hilarious Japan posts were in 2005-06.

Of Dirty tap water, Autumn leaves, Nature, Trash, and Depression

Saturday morning, as I sat in Kawasaki talking to some guy who saw me studying kanji and decided to invite himself over to chat (you know, a supposedly "shy" Japanese), he began to question me about all the usual---Is Japanese difficult? Is kanji hard?; Where are you from?; Are there any Japanese there?; Can you drink water from the tap in the US?*; and so on, my mind began to wander to the subject of bovine feces (i.e. BS) and naturally on to nihonjinron.

In his book, Dogs and Demons**, Alex Kerr wrote about how folks in modern Japan were somewhat less conscious and respectful of nature (among other things) than they were in the past. One of the smaller examples he wrote of was how people were so quick to trashcan fallen leaves in the autumn.

When I was a kid, folks back home got rid of fallen leaves too, but there was no great hurry to sweep them away as soon as they fell. We never went into the woods or parks to sweep leaves off of dirt trails as we do in Tokyo, for here one must keep nature naturally natural for the convenience of humans. And, perhaps, to give the older gents something to do for their pay.

While in a nearby park a few weeks ago when the leaves had just began to change colors and fall, I was surprised at how hard it was to find any on the floor of the park. Then I discovered the reason. The park trails had been swept clean of the ugly yellow and red fallen leaves to reveal the beautiful mud-brown dirt below. (One could assume that this was done so that nobody would fall on wet leaves until one recalls that if a rare snow falls, the same trails would be snow and ice-covered until it melted.)

Then, last Friday as I was walking down a local street specifically to look at the autumn leaves, I was pleased to see that those leaves were also being swept up as soon as they fell.

Ahh, Japan. Where we humans make nature more natural than nature itself.

When the world economy seems ready to collapse into the biggest disaster since the Great Depression (and for some reason, few whom I meet seem to be concerned) perhaps I should worry about other things.

*Alas, another fine example of nihonjinron. I have run across a number of people who seem to think that Japan is the only country on earth which has safe, drinkable tap water.

**A very controversial book to some---mostly non-Japanese---as Kerr was critical of modern Japan.

More nature than any other country

So I have recently been informed. I like to go out in the woods as often as I can. This ain't often in Tokyo.

About 2 hours from Tokyo is Nikko which is fairly convenient for a one day trip. I last went there in February. As I was hiking up a trail to the top of a 3,000 foot plus hill, enjoying the sugi trees (planted as a crop by the bureaucrats years ago) and hinoki trees and the silence (rarely did I even hear a bird), I suddenly heard a loud, disturbing noise. No, not a sneeze from one of the many who have developed an allergy to the unnaturally over-abundant sugi trees, but a fellow hiker with his transistor radio at full blast. (That's him in the photo.) Apparently, this is a traditional way for a lot of old guys to enjoy nature. Fill the silence with AM radio. Scare away any living thing within hundreds of yards.

I stopped and let grandpa pass and stayed back taking photos and just enjoying the walk for a while. Unfortunately, I could not walk slowly enough and once the trail started up hill, grandpa slowed to a crawl. I wanted to pass him as I sure didn't want to spend the next two hours listening to his radio. He wouldn't move off the trail even slightly to let me pass either---as I had done for him. So I went through the woods and around him an nearly ran up the next two slopes to get away from him and his noise. Later as I had stopped on the other side of the top of the hill to take photos, I heard Rajio-ojiisama again. I put away my camera and took off down the hill. Rajio-ojii actually tried to speed up after me for some reason (wanted to get in front to block the trail again or entertain me with the radio?) Unfortunately for him, he fell flat on his a**, and I kept going.

Nihonjinron and the baka gaijin

I suppose one can understand the belief in nihonjinron---the myths of Japanese unique uniqueness--among many Japanese. After all, it is nearly a religious belief, and religious beliefs tend not to be strongly supported by science or evidence which would hold much water among non-believers. (I know, I grew up a believer---though not much of a follower---in a very religious area of the US. Then I done screwed up and got an education which helped me turn agnostic.) However, I have a special problem with non-Japanese followers of nihonjinron. You would assume they might be naive waifs just off the boat, perhaps with a special interest in becoming another Karate Kid, or some other Zen-seeking ninja-type.

But occasionally, you can find them among long-term residents. Rare, but they're around. I found one this evening. I overheard a conversation between an American guy from a mid-Rocky Mountain state in the US discussing weather in his home state. He has been in Japan for a decade or so, and he started going on about how he especially liked "Japan's four clearly distinct seasons." I damned near puked. I could hardly resist saying something like "Is that unusual? Is it unique?" But since I was not a part of the conversation, I figured I'd better keep out. He might have called me a rude baka gaijin had I said something. Perhaps the seasons are only clearly distinct compared to his hometown in which they all blend into one (?) I still have trouble understanding how it could even be possible for Japan, at its latitude, to have such unusually distinct seasons, but that is part of the "science" of nihonjinron. Like religion, a non-believer/non-member, can't understand until he/she is washed in the blood. Or sesame oil or whatever.

It ain't the first time either. I found an essay on the internet written for some Japanese competition in which the author----a Finn---wrote about Japan's four most clearly distinct seasons.

Anyway, I have to enjoy the world's most uniquely distinct autumn in Tokyo. I will look out my window tomorrow morning at the colorful green trees after a crisp 62 degree night and thank the gods Izanagi and Izanami for creating such a magical place. The fact that the Japanese have a special connection with nature will allow me to see this change in all the vast, unspoiled parks and natural areas in Tokyo.

Fortunately, I am not back home where I could barely tell the season except for the big change in temperature, the increasing differences in day/night temperature, the colorful leaves in the many forests, the first frost on the grass in the morning, and other such barely noticeable indistinct things.

Fujiwara's version of Logic.

Fujiwara spends a lot of time in his book, The Dignity of the Nation, explaining his stunning new revelation that "simple logic" can't solve all the world's problems. He claims that Mr. Spock-like westerners cannot understand this shocking new piece of Fuijawarian neo-bushidoism. (The English may get it to some degree---I assume. He does not say so, but he does imply that the British are less logical than Americans because of their use of humor over logic. They're more clownish than rational?)

Masahiko-sama claims that at a school graduation in Japan, a student asked why it was wrong to kill someone and none of the teachers could answer.

He then takes the universal statement, "It is wrong to kill a human being" then uses logic to show that the statement is logically flawed. He points out that there could be 50 reasons why it isn't wrong, and 50 more why it is, which in his mind shows that logic is useless here. And then he uses his razor-sharp mind to inform us that it is more than just a question of logic!!! Who would disagree? Naturally it is more, but that does not preclude the use of logic to attempt to explain it or to challenge it.

However, what he did was show that the initial statement itself is is an overly-broad universal statement. All one has to do to show the flaw in a universal statement is to show one instance in which it is not true, and Fujiwara-SAMA did so. He then makes an absurdly nonsensical leap to conclude that since he has shown that the initial statement might be debatable with logical arguments on both sides that logic doesn't work here!!!! According to him, you cannot provide a logical explanation for the above statement, so you just have to accept it as true: It is wrong to kill a human being because it just is. Fujiwara says so. Don't think, don't question, just shut up and believe the elites of Fujiwara's neo-bushido dream world in which the non-elites have no rights except the right to complain. (He contradicted his own argument in reaching this conclusion, but he is very good at contradicting himself throughout the book.)

Fujiwara does not seem to understand that the reason that it is difficult to logically explain the rationale for such a universal statement is because it is a universal statement and likely logically flawed right off the bat. Yes, it is hard to logically explain a logical fallacy.

However, as I mentioned, there are some who do believe that killing is always wrong and those with perhaps a bit more intellect and knowledge than Fujiwara could use logic to support their position. After all, a Quaker or a Buddhist, or simply someone who opposes any killing could come up with logic to support their position. Doesn't mean the logic is always perfect or that one could not logically argue the opposite. Again, Fujiwara seems to have little understanding of what logic is, or he assumes his audience has no clue. What does that say about Fujiwara and his opinion of the people of Japan?

His book is based on attacking logic and asserting that one must just accept what they are told. Forget using your brain. He comes up with dozens of strawman arguments (e.g. westerners, especially Americans, believe that logic can explain everything and solve all problems), hilariously absurd errors in facts about American society (Americans take typing in English class and don't study English and that's why none of them can spell as good as he can), selective amnesia about Japanese history, and more. He is inconsistent throughout the book, arguing one way on one page and the other on the next. But then again, since he has shown logic to be useless if it does not support his argument, there would be no need for him to do much more than just make assertions and claims based on his neo-bushidoist fantasies.

I could write another book---as could a reasonably intelligent American third-grader provided he or she isn't too busy shoplifting when folks aren't watching---on this thing. I will do some more posts, but then again, I don't think he is worth it. He does represent a current of thought in Japan, one that supports Abe and others of the nationalist right in many aspects. It is amazing to me that anyone except for the most ardent believer in the myths of Japan could take any of this even slightly seriously. Most of it is extraordinarily silly. I expected more, even from a nihonjinron writer.

Sorry for any spellling mistakes as I done never taked English in English class, I done taked typerighting. I remember different, but I cannot logically argue with Fujiwara. I taked typerighting in Enlish class cause he done said so.

It's NIHONJINRON !!!

wareware nihonjin!!!!

Japan lost to Australia in the World Cup on Monday. It is big news in Japan naturally, so I get to discuss this with a lot of people. A lot of the focus is on "bad advice" from the foreign (Italian, I believe, manager) to the pure Japanese players, and from one intellectual about how it was due to physical differences between the Australian team members and the uniquely unique pure Japanese. In fact, this difference is caused by the fact that them thar semi-beast foreigners are meat-eaters, and the pure Japanese ate rice and fish historically. (You know, fish like whale meat which the Japanese government claims is a traditional Japanese food.

Only a couple of people have said the loss may have been due to the fact that the Japanese team sucks and has no offense. They said that in private when there were no other Japanese to offend.

Once again, everything is explained away by the "we Japanese are special" and them thar furriners are interfering with our pure nature.

6 Jult 2006: Gotta take some of this back. A lot of people now recognize that the problem was the Japanese team and players. I have such a pet peeve about the nihonjinron myth, that I (and a lot of people) sometimes jump to hasty conclusions.

Nihonjinron--the Myth of Japanese Uniqueness

Here is a link to an interesting article on this nonsense. http://www.debito.org/PALE/ (See Nihonjinron: Identity, Misconception and Controversy
by Brent Poole.)

Especially interesting is what happened to the author to stimulate his interest in the subject which he discusses at the end of the article. Good for him that he did not prostitute himself to play henna gaijin (weirdo outsider) on TV for a few bucks like many do here. (I have to admit guilt, because to some extent, that is what an English teacher does in Japan. Most especially the eikaiwa entertainers.)

Granted, most foreigners are aware of this myth. Unfortunately, many believe them to be true. Look at the success of the absurdly nonsensical Last Samurai movie. Whenever a Japanese (or baka gaijin) starts a sentence with, "Japan is the only country..." or "The Japanese are the only people who...," you can usually consider what follows to be pure horse manure.

For a good example of nihonronjin and its absurdity (with rebuttal) look at : On Language and Japanese Rational Thought Processes Guest Forum: Where there's no 'will' there's no way By Shin-ichi Terashima, University of the Ryukyus at :
http://www.debito.org/PALE/PALEautumn99.html#tomei