Shinigami love apples!

Culture note 1: Eating an apple whole in Japan is called Marukajiri (lit. Round Biting) (Ma-roo-ka-jee-ree)

Culture note 2: Eating an apple in Japan is believed to cause Kaburitsuki which near as I can tell means that because of the way you are eating the apple, you will bash in your gums and bleed all over the place.
Never had that happen... ever. (Ka-boo-ree-tsoo-key)

Culture note 3: Eating an apple in Japan while walking is seen as similar to hocking a loogie onto the sidewalk. It's apparently really that bad in the manners department. Of course this is only generally speaking, I think.

Trivial note 1: One of Death Note's Shinigami (death gods/soul reapers) had a penchant for apples and often eats them marukajiri in the anime, manga, and live actions movie versions of Death Note.

Now that you are armed with that information, please proceed to the core material of this post.

I was walking out of the school while munching on my apple (like I do about every day) when I got stopped by the principal. She was gesturing strangely and saying something I could barely make out through the windows of the school office. I thought she was just teasing me about my marukajiri, like everyone else seems to want to do. This thought wasn't helped by her exaggerated tone, and weird apple-eating mimicry gyrations she made as she repeated over and over again "Dame," "Dame," occasionally even making an X with her arms for added effect.

(Dame, btw, means "No! No good! Don't do that!" when said in succession.) (Da-may)

At the time, I just smiled and kept walking. She was most certainly not going to make a good conversation partner. After all, when Japanese people revert to speaking in simple, single words, it is because they've assumed a mental posturing that is insulting to me. They assume that you are a small neanderthal monkey incapable of basic communication in their "very difficult" language. Of course, it's only made more difficult by these inane attempts at communication.

I was technically on the way home, so I had just slipped out of my slippers into my normal shoes and was about to leave school grounds before this all happened. However, upon exiting I saw another teacher on smoke break. Seeing a chance, I immediately sought out his thoughts on what just happened. This was a shot in the dark because I'd never actually held a conversation with this teacher before longer than a couple minutes, but he was more likely to prove to be a communicating adult.

So while he smoked, I ate my apple, and we chatted.

I asked him if the principal was serious and whether I should stop eating the apple I was already eating. (Wouldn't that be a waste!) He basically said something similar to "it would be better if you just joined me here until you finish that apple." Translated through the English cultural barrier that means something closer to "Don't even think about walking anywhere while eating that apple, idiot."

My stream of consciousness is running like mad as I continue chewing my apple to gain time. "Ouch! that was harsh.. but at least he's using full sentences... gotta focus on the positive.. the positive .. ugh, I'll have fun sorting this one out later... " >_<

While I recovered, he said in plain terms something about eating apples while walking is Dame. My response was quick and far too direct for Japanese communication, but it was basically "Eh? Really? I've been doing that since I came to Japan and no one has done me the favor of ever telling me that."

-insert dejected look here-

Then I asked a string of questions that would sound utterly simplistic and pandering in English but just happen to be the best way to sound curious in Japanese. I had a short five to ten minute conversation with him as I scarfed my apple down. About the time I finished my apple, the teacher was kind enough to tell me that I had ten minutes to get the train station... and then smile while saying "If you hurry you can make it right?"

Before taking off running, my response was "了解、焦ります." (Literally: Roger that, Hurrying.")
Yes, it sounds stupid, even in Japanese, I think.

The results of my conversation with that teacher are basically contained in culture point #3 at the top of this post, but apparently, it is extremely bad manners to walk and eat anything in Japan. I repeat, anything. Eating an apple is okay, just not while walking. The reasons given for this were basically two-fold. (1)Some teachers are afraid that the students might start imitating me, but (2)the principal is particularly nervous that people in the neighborhood will start spreading rumors about the local ALT eating apples while walking.

Sadly, I do not know the cultural reasons for Japan being up in arms against eating while walking.

However, the breakdown of the above reasons are as follows.

(1)Japan for whatever reason has, in general, a serious manners taboo about not sitting down or at least staying in one place to enjoy your food. Teachers, per their position, have not only a responsibility to educate their students but to set a good example as well. This seems contradictory to me because I see students in Japan often eating at their desks in the classrooms, mainly at lunchtime, but even between classes. However, they never eat in the halls, and near as I can tell, there is a punishment if they do.

Thankfully the teachers won't mind if I eat my apple in the office while sitting down even if it is marukajiri. So, I will continue to do it that way.

(2)Okay, so for this one you're probably thinking something similar to my initial knee-jerk thoughts. Right, so what if the neighbors spread rumors about me eating an apple while walking? I mean, I do eat apples while walking, so where is the harm in that. It's just the chatter of some busy bodies.

Well, let me work a little cultural translation magic for you. The phrase "spread rumors about you" (噂をする) doesn't mean just that they are simply talking about you. The phrase has the connotation of stating that they see you as 不良 (furyou)... which transliterated means "not-good," but is more like "delinquent" or like the "bad" in the phrase "bad company" (不良仲間). If you have this kind of image, it can reflect badly on the school because in Japan people are not thought of as individuals but are thought of as individuals of this organization, that group or whatever. So, I would be causing problems unwittingly and unnecessarily for my fellow teachers.

So, moral of today's story? It took some strange comical antics on the part of my principal for me to finally learn that something I was doing was considered bad manners by Japanese people. I'm still trying to fully convince myself that I should be grateful for that.
But, I am grateful that I now know.

Even if it took almost eight months of me eating apples marukajiri for someone to tell me.


^- That is one 不良 looking guy, eh?

For whom are you living?

So, do you live for the sake of someone else (ie. others), or do you
live for yourself?

I usually like to think I understand my answer to this deceptively simple-sounding question, but because of the earthquake/tsunami disaster stuff up North, I’ve been doing an excessive amount of thinking recently. Some of my musings on this topic are contained here, and hopefully they aren’t all that rambling.

So first of all, I am, at my core, part gamer. I say this warily because I know that I don’t rank up there with the masters at Street Fighter, Tetris, Super Mario etc, nor would I claim much in the way of skill. I do, however, claim passion and experience. Also, the previously mentioned game’s are probably beside the point, because I usually indulge in the solitary RPG or adventure type games.

Well, despite the traumatic situation in maybe a fifth(probably less) of Japan, here in Hiroshima you’d think nothing was happening. Life goes around me as normal. I went out and did darts on Saturday. I even played Border Break: Air Burst for about an hour. (Tangent: Border Break is one of those hardcore games you find at an arcade that only the serious gamer can even understand the basic controls.) Then I got to wondering; isn’t it interesting how we spend our limited time on this planet so frivolously?

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t going to turn into some sort of kudaranai (worthless) discussion on how evil video games are or some other rubbish like that. Video games are at the end of the day, a form of entertainment like any other that is probably best done in moderation.

Logical Tangent Alert: Of course, given my usual tendency to head butt new obstacles after hitting the ground with both feet running, moderation is from my perspective something best done in moderation… as they say “moderation in all things” (most people just forget that moderation just happens to be a thing too.)

Keeping this in mind, entertainment is usually best done in moderation for another reason. Moderation of gaming makes it sweeter; treat it like an all-you-can-eat buffet and it just grows bland. Varying opinions abound, I'm sure.

But I digress.

On a more broad scale, I am simply wondering why we, humans, aren’t always doing something of external value. External value benefits more than just ourselves and even usually has a limited "lasting factor." However, I suppose that answer is that many of us just turn inwards and become selfish creatures. Which I suppose then brings up the dilemma of "is this a good thing?" Being selfish is, of course, not a good thing, but “me time” or doing things for yourself becomes a vague category and is in fact probably a necessity for most.

So how does this fit into the seemingly bipolar atmosphere in my life at the moment? A place, on the opposite end of the island that is Honshu, is in possibly the worst state it has ever been, period, but life goes on as normal where I am. In fact, the number of people commuting to Nagarekawa (the nightly party district for Hiroshima) and the arcades (why do you think I know?) doesn’t even seem to have taken
a hit.

On a more personally social level, I’ve even noticed that I’ve put up a shell around me that makes it look like I’m going about my normal life, but I feel like there is
this itch on my heart that I can’t hope to scratch. I even find myself pondering “what if’s” like “if only I lived closer to the recent events perhaps I could be volunteering and be useful. Then again, would I just get in the way?” Perhaps you aren’t thinking this way, but I am.

(READ CAREFULLY)
Not that I’m not doing it, but I feel like donating would be just throwing money in that direction. While donating is a very good thing indeed and I recommend you do it, it just makes me feel like I’m trying to clear my own conscience and walk away from my worries. It’s a start, but insufficient to alleviate my desire to help. I want to get my hands dirty so to speak.

Then it hit me. I’m pondering this because it is my personality to prefer to be in a position where I am helping people, enriching other people’s lives, or I suppose (gasp) teaching.

Tangent: I have trouble thinking of myself as a good mass educator. I just want you aware of one thing; I have my own philosophies concerning education and growth that put me in opposition to most public education systems… despite the fact that I work in one. This doesn't prevent me from doing my job, or doing it well for that matter. I just prefer to do what I can for my students real learning.

Anyway, back to the personal me:
I prefer to be actively learning either on my own or by helping others…which is probably why I switched more than half of my entertainment forms into Japanese. Initially, dictionary at my side, I couldn’t proceed a few clicks in a game without looking up a myriad of unknown vocabulary and kanji. Now, the issue is just speed of
understanding and the occasional particularly tough or specialized vocabulary that involves some guesswork or a Japanese-Japanese dictionary to understand. Movies that lack subtitles make this guesswork very difficult sometimes.

So, having attempted to follow the advice of the Oracle at Delphi (Know thyself) I turned the questioning beyond myself. Thinking about it, I realized that I obviously can’t put myself literally into the mind of another, but I can mentally peruse the possibilities that I would usually only perceive if my I chose to go off some sort of self imposed “deep end.”

Therefore I came up with this situation; what would happen if my gaming interest went off the deep end again like it did for three months in high school? What sort of mental positioning would I have to do to prevent the cognitive dissonance at that time and extend that situation out into the rest of my days? (Not a goal by the way)

I looked around, in my minds eye, and I thought, well, the Otaku category of people in Japan is a unique example. Or perhaps even the pachinko gamblers. Ignoring the ones, of course, that have a social life, family etc by having properly balanced the real world and their entertainment form. What I find that I am puzzled by are the
people who fall into addiction and burn out their entire lives on their solitary passion. I would have to descend into a tier 6 depression in order to potentially move in that direction. Or in other words, I think the thing most necessary for me to have such a single-minded selfish passion would be a total paradigm shift.

I would have to come to believe that I was the most significant individual on Earth. After all, how else could I justify that kind of use of time, talent and treasure to myself? Perhaps, I would even have to sincerely come to believe that “ignorance is bliss” so that I could ignore the rest of the world and go on day by day with my selfish pursuits. I know I would have to find a way to shut down my cognitive
dissonance antennae because my current standards of value wouldn’t allow for such waste...

So my answer to my initial question in its most simplistic and enigmatic form is “yes.” You live for yourself by living for others. Factoring in that personalities vary along a plane of extroverts and introverts, what this means is that you don’t ignore your own entertainment time but instead that you take your personal entertainment in appropriate doses, and you never let it take priority over friends, family, work and other “real” responsibilities.

In concluding, by means of me trying to pull this wandering mess of a blog post together, I do have a point to make.　 And well I know it is completely cliche to bring up matters of how dire situations really test our mettle, I must say that I hope this situation in Japan is finding you NOT panicking but gaining new knowledge and learning what you can do for your fellowmen.

Now, let’s see how well I can live out my own thoughts. Wish me luck.





(BTW, this was written between the 13th and 15th of March 2011, while I was having some down time at work. The great earthquake in Japan was on the 11th.)

PS.. if even one of you gets on my case for saying "fellowmen" and bringing up that PC nonsense... I will write you a blog post on why PC is for those with closed minds and an inability to think. Why? Because you obviously didn't get the point of my post. Get your priorities straight. So there.