Life In Japan: Excellence Begins Young

Every modern country is struggling to deal with the pressures of new technology, pressures which are accelerating exponentially as new technologies accelerate in number, sophistication, and appeal. YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, games, smartphones, tablets are all in the mix, offering on the plus side unparalled opportunities for learning and communication, quick and easy ways of getting things done, but on the negative side pulling our focus, scattering our energies, wasting our time, and attenuating our capacity for deep, extended concentration.

We deal with this as adults. Similarly kids are more distracted and tempted with the fun, ease and convenience of technology than ever before. With each passing day, there are more and more technical shortcuts for just about any task.

Now with AI, we apparently have at our fingertips a tool to get just about anything done . . . EFFORTLESSLY! Type, hit enter, BINGO! A new song, a new poem, a novel, an article on just about any topic, a plan to conquer the world!

Maybe I’m too stuck in a legacy paradigm — after all, I am a product of celebratory mating prompted by victories over Germany and Japan . . . a Baby Boomer! — or maybe there are truisms which simply are timeless.

Here’s one I believe makes sense: Human satisfaction and personal reward is not necessarily in getting something done, but in doing that something, i. e. the effort to do it.

You can buy a computer program that plays an incredible game of chess. But the real reward comes from playing an incredible game of chess.

Same with music. I know I could buy some AI software which writes on command whatever kind of song I might want to hear. Is that supposed to somehow compare with the incredible child-like joy, the exhilaration I get from writing — however good or bad it turns out — a song myself?

That concept is not lost on teachers here in Japan. My wife, Masumi, teaches music in a nearby school system. She competes with computer games, the internet, iPhones, yes the entire array of distractions which her elementary students carry around with them — and the increasingly pervasive levels of ADHD which the foregoing produce — still manages to teach her kids how to play and how to appreciate music. She deserves a medal!

Masumi loves to show me success stories she comes across, examples of how the educational system in Japan serves the real needs of students and doesn’t abandon its core mission by pandering to the latest technological fads.

Here are two such examples. These are not Masumi’s students, because she teaches grades 2 through 6, elementary level. These examples are — are you ready for this? — nursery school kids! That means 5 and under! Try to process that as you watch the Yayoi Nursery School orchestra play a piece from Phantom of the Opera.

Here is a performance at the Toddler Music Festival, playing excerpts from Camina Burana.

Are you impressed?

I know I am!

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

Life In Japan: Excellence Begins Young | John Rachel

Life In Japan: Time Machine

I’ve lived in Japan, coming and going, for sixteen years, and I’ve discovered that every major city in this country has a unique personality. This really should come as no surprise. Would anyone in the U.S. think that Miami and Detroit aren’t dramatically different? Cleveland and San Francisco? Seattle and Washington DC?

But we carry preconceptions, prejudices when we go to foreign lands. We are at first probably overwhelmed by the dramatic shift in scenery and gravitate toward cultural commonalities, seeing all the things that cities and communities and the culture in general have in common, meaning in this instance, identifying and focusing on what we expect to see wherever we go in Japan: those cultural, social, religious, architectural features which make Japan . . . Japan.

Eventually, hopefully sooner than later, the scales fall from our eyes and the perceptual filters are replaced with more sensitivity and perceptiveness, a clear and objective view.

It took a while for me. I’m no different than anyone else who grew up in the West, saddled by prejudices and misconceptions, stereotypes we are relentlessly bombarded with in the bubble of U.S. “exceptionalism”. We get these from every direction: the media, movies, television. For example, I imagined Japan pretty much all looked like downtown Tokyo. The amazing truth is, 70% of this country is covered with forests. This is a land of stunning natural beauty, not cement, glass and glaring lights.

Eventually, I began to objectively “process” what I was seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, tasting — this last one being very important in such a food-centric society.

As anyone who follows me here knows, I live in Hyogo Prefecture with my Japanese wife, Masumi — we just celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary! We live close to three major cities: Kobe, Kyoto, and Osaka. Talk about distinct personalities! Kobe is our favorite, though Kyoto is the one best-known by international travelers for its geishas, and exotic temples and shrines. Osaka is exciting and fun, to say the least. But Kobe is originally the home of Masumi’s family, though they’re now scattered about.

Over the course of our courtship and marriage, we’ve been all over Japan, from Hokkaido in the north — a stone’s throw from Russia — all the way down to Hateruma, the southernmost island in Okinawa — a stone’s throw from Taiwan.

Even so, there was one place 13 hours west of us by car, we yet had to visit.

NAGASAKI!

It’s easily the most Westernized city in Japan. See for yourself.

Maybe I should have called this article ‘Life In Japan: Culture Machine’. As you can see, we weren’t just transported in time, but were given a taste of a completely different culture, that of Europe in the 19th Century.

While I thought Masumi looked spectacular, I can’t tell you how ridiculous I felt in that outfit. At the same time, I’m generally feeling pretty ridiculous these days. Should I embrace a whole new persona on Facebook? To heck with peace. Fire the cannons!

By the way — and I’ll make this short and sweet — the reason for the “Westernization” is very straightforward. During the Meiji Restoration, Japan finally opened itself up to trade with the West. The influx of traders was led by the Portuguese, then the Dutch, who carted everything they needed to feel at home in the Land of the Rising Sun: clothing, diet, churches, religion, architecture, etc.

This is not to suggest the Japanese welcomed the cultural “pollution”. In fact, at first visitors were confined to an artificial island in the harbor of Nagasaki, so they couldn’t mix with the local population. This area is called Dejima. It has been reconstructed near the original wharf, which is where we took a few photos. When ships arrived, the sailors and businessmen had a military escort take them to directly Dejima. Obviously, there was some interaction within the confines of the island, as the traders made deals with the local Japanese. Also, since there were no women accompanying the travelers, Japanese consorts were allowed in to service the needs of the all-male population. But for a long time mobility was extremely limited.

As we all know from the McDonald’s restaurants in Paris and Beijing, cultural creep can be insistent. Eventually, more and more of the West infiltrated Nagasaki. Houses and churches — though for many years Christianity was aggressively oppressed by the Japanese — eventually were built outside of Dejima on the mainland, and it is these remaining structures which give Nagasaki its truly distinctive Western character.

[ This originated at the author's personal webpage . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

Life In Japan: Time Machine | John Rachel

Life In Japan: Nagasaki Streetcars

Japan is among the most technologically advanced countries in the world. It has phenomenal IT, the most efficient transportation system, including 3,384 km (2103 miles) of high-speed rail lines, with beautiful sleek “bullet trains” traveling at up to 320 km/hr (199 mph).

Japan has a robust high-technology manufacturing sector, which includes many world-class electronics firms like Panasonic, Sony, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Sharp, NEC, Canon, Nintendo, Toshiba, Casio. And it’s home to many major automobile manufactures — Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Subaru, Suzuki.

At the same time, it is a “hybrid” society which is protective of age-old customs and traditions, preserving those legacy institutions and practices which are defining characteristics of Japan as a nation and culture.

I had a dramatic reminder of this ability to balance the efficiency and appeal of the modern with the utility and charm of the traditional, in my first-time visit to Nagasaki last weekend.

Streetcars!

There are dozens of streetcars — also called trams — rumbling and squeaking and clanking all throughout downtown Nagasaki. And it’s definitely the best way to get around. They’re fun and very inexpensive. Regardless of distance, it’s 140 yen ($1.05) for adults, 70 yen for children. You get on. You get where you’re going. You get off. And how convenient! No descent into the cavern of a subway. Just stand at one of the many stations spaced every two or three blocks — which are everywhere — climb aboard, check in with a pre-pay electronic card like the one I have (beep!), which incidentally works on every public train, subway, bus or tram everywhere in Japan . . .

Then pay on your way out (beep!), smile at the driver, step down to the station platform. You’re on your way. To Chinatown, Glover Garden, Peace Park, the central train station, wherever.

Mind you, the streetcar system is over a century old. But it still works and apparently city planners regard it as a part of Nagasaki history they see no need to retire.

The message is this: You can leave your heart in San Francisco. No problem.

Just come to Nagasaki! They have streetcars, no homeless and nobody is packing a gun.

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

Life In Japan: Nagasaki Streetcars | John Rachel