Some Days

Today I stayed an hour late at school to translate into Japanese a letter from Santa to a ten year old Japanese boy.  With the help of my favorite tea lady, I think I pulled it off.  I was rewarded on my way home with this, Iimori-yama–the icon of my village–at sunset:

Some days, everything feels right.

Kyoto Station, 5 a.m.

Since I still can’t find the motivation to organize all my photos and put them up in Picasa or Flickr, I will continue my recent trend of posting one photo at a time, whenever I want, because I can.

This was taken on the last day of my trip to Nagasaki from Tokyo using the ju-hachi kippu, a ridiculously cheap way to travel on the trains here during holiday periods.  16 hours later, the first train out of Kyoto became the last train in to Nagasaki, and I had made it.

Is Science About To Explain Culture?

I came across this today and found it utterly fascinating:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/opinion/13brooks.html

Particularly this nugget, considering I live in Japan:

Jonathan B. Freeman of Tufts and others peered into the reward centers of the brain such as the caudate nucleus. They found that among Americans, that region was likely to be activated by dominant behavior, whereas among Japanese, it was more likely to be activated by subordinate behavior — the same region rewarding different patterns of behavior depending on culture.

Science may be about to explain what ambiguous words like “culture” actually mean, or better yet it may be about to discover a whole new vocabulary for talking about these things.  Some of the previously unanswerable questions that this kind of work might uncover:

• Are some cultural characteristics caused by biological differences in the brain?
• If so, which ones?
• Are these biological differences the result of genetics, or environment?  In other words, did the                         culture cause the biological difference, or did the biological difference cause the culture?
• If a big portion of “culture” is caused by concrete biological factors, are some groups actually smarter          than others?  Meaner?  More sympathetic?  More willing to compromise?  Happier?  Sadder?  Hornier?
• What does all of this mean for free will?

What’s amazing is not that we can ask these questions–we have always been able to.  What’s amazing is the possibility that in the near future we may be able to definitively answer some of them.   And the implications are stunning, beautiful, and at the same time a little scary.  For example, consider the following study, also in the above article:

Reem Yahya and a team from the University of Haifa studied Arabs and Jews while showing them images of hands and feet in painful situations. The two cultures perceived pain differently. The Arabs perceived higher levels of pain over all while the Jews were more sensitive to pain suffered by members of a group other than their own.

Could it be that Arabs feel more pain and are less sensitive to other groups than Jews are?  Feeling pain and being less sensitive seems like a recipe for outrage.  There is a distinct implication that Arabs might be more violent than Jews.  Is that true?  I have no idea and wouldn’t posit the guess.  I would also have to be assured that the science behind such a conclusion is very hard before I could accept the conclusion.  But this kind of conclusion–and really, all conclusions resulting from brain studies on culture–are perfect cannon fodder for racists, xenophobes, and essentially anyone who wants to exploit differences.  It gives the race card a whole new meaning and reeks of eugenics.

But here’s the scariest thought:  What if it’s true?  As I said before, that’s not a given.  But, what if?  Living in Japan, I am always on the lookout for ways to better adapt myself to the culture here, and I am always noticing similarities and differences between Japanese culture and my own.  I am also aware of legions of non-Japanese who throw around cultural pronouncements like “The Japanese are obedient to authority.”  Could this actually be true, and could it be because the chemicals in their brains reward them with happiness for their obedience?

Finally, the implications are equally stunning for the opposite side of the coin:

But a study by Saaid A. Mendoza and David M. Amodio of New York University showed that if you give people a strategy, such as reminding them to be racially fair, it is possible to counteract those perceptions. People feel disgust toward dehumanized groups, but a study by Claire Hoogendoorn, Elizabeth Phelps and others at N.Y.U. suggests it is possible to lower disgust and the accompanying insula activity through cognitive behavioral therapy.

This suggests that nurture can overcome nature to some degree.  It seems to me that more extensive studies on the most effective methods of training the brain to be more sympathetic, kind, loving, etc., could completely revolutionize how we fight prejudice, pursue political causes, negotiate, and even how we raise our kids.  Hell, maybe one of these scientists can figure out a way to train people to stop treating politics like a football game where you just pick a side and root for it, instead of thinking.

In any case, I think this stuff is incredibly exciting.

…And A Good Weekend

My cold has finally tapered off, leaving just a little wheezing and sore throat behind.  But this weekend has been great.  Went to the Kunchi festival in Nagasaki on Friday, and hung out all day with some good friends I haven’t seen in quite a while.  It was the first time in weeks that I’ve hung out with Japanese friends my age and spoken mostly Japanese all day.  It’s a great feeling.  I am convinced that conversing with native speakers has a multiplier effect:  every hour that goes by you learn twice as much as the previous hour.  When my mind shuts off and Japanese is flowing out without thinking, it’s an amazing rush.

Other than that, I’m just enjoying the last hints of warm afternoons before it gets cold for the winter and starts snowing on the palm trees…

Pic of the day, me and the guys on the ferry from Nagasaki to Iojima:

Long Week

A week of being sick capped off with a weird misunderstanding with the supervisor…all in all just an odd week that I am very glad is over.  Although because of the number of teachers forced to spend their time calling parents and telling them their kids won’t be coming to school for a few days–the swine flu is big in these parts–I taught my first solo classes at both an elementary and a junior high school.  This was a very exciting, empowering, and most of all humbling experience.

I’m trying, as always, to find the right balance for my daily life that allows me to perform well at school, study Japanese enough and effectively, eat well, exercise, see existing friends I want to see more, meet new friends, and take care of various other daily tasks.  I never thought that I would fill up my schedule so much when I’m on a job that is comparatively not all that taxing.  But I guess that’s just who I am.  In any case, losing a week is losing a week, and I’m anxious to get back to work.

In the new tradition of posting one random picture at a time, I leave you with the bridge at Nikko.  Generic, yes, but still beautiful:

Gunkanjima

A teaser, with more to come.   The direct translation of “Gunkanjima” is “Battleship Island”, because, well, that’s what it looks like.  At one point the most densely populated place on earth, it is now abandoned and left to horror film directors and tours that run from March to October.  About 30 minutes southwest of Nagasaki city.

だんだん秋らしくなっています。。。

Summer is quickly turning into fall here in Nagasaki.  The temperature dropped significantly in the last few days, and I used a real blanket for the first time in months.  The last few weeks have been a blur of teaching, more teaching, studying Japanese, a peiron boating practice, and several fun but taxing get-togethers with work, other ALTs, and my schools.  One of my junior high schools had their sports festival last weekend, and it was a blast.

Everything is better the second year.  Everything that happened for the first year for the first time that was confusing and thus stress-inducing is no longer new, but comfortable.  I’ve gained a real sense about how things go down around here, from my schools and my lessons, to meeting new Japanese friends my age, to traveling on the cheap, to how to pick and choose when and where to spend time with other ALTs.  The extreme reduction in stress frees up time and energy to pursue my hobbies even more, including taiko, hiking, learning Japanese, reading/researching, and exploring Japan.

I’ve just started my second year here, but because of the horrible job situation in the US, and because of how great this job has become for me,  I’m already thinking about the third, and it’s becoming more and more likely that I will want to continue here for another year.

Isahaya Nonnoko Festival

This weekend was the Isahaya Nonnoko festival.  On Saturday most of us ALTs did the traditional town dance through Isahaya, which involves clapping soy-sauce plates together in each hand.  On Sunday my taiko group performed in front of the “Spectacles Bridge,” the main landmark of my city.  While far from perfect, I think it was my best performance yet.  My friend Derek took very good quality of the whole show and I uploaded it to Picasa, but for some reason uploading it caused the quality to diminish quite a bit.  I’ll work on fixing that.  The third song is about the flood in 1955 that knocked down the bridge (you can make out the bridge behind us in the video).  The solo that two guys do on the big sideways drum represents the bridge crashing down, and the remainder of the song is us rebuilding it.  Check it out here.

The whole festival was a great time.  The weather was perfect, unlike last year when it was  ridiculously hot and muggy.  I also knew what I was doing better because I had by that point done it before.  I made some new friends and met a lot of my students.  This last part was great because since I live so far from where I teach and hence almost never see them outside of school.  And they are so much fun outside of school.

Back in Action

After about nine months of not posting, I have decided to kickstart the blog again.

The biggest question one might have is why did I stop posting in the first place?  That’s an easy one to answer.  Life was taken over by Japan.  My schedule became full.  My spare time was spent catching much-needed rest, not posting online.  Also, the election ended, and with it the main topic of my posts ceased to exist.  It was a good time for a break.

But now, it is a good time to start posting again.  Several reasons come to mind.   First, a year has passed and so I am, naturally, reflecting on my first year as an ALT on the JET Program.  Second, after reading through my past posts, I have realized what a good record a blog can be of one’s life.  In that way, I hope it will function as a sort of public journal.   Third, I want to be able to share stories, reflections, and pictures of Japan with friends and family.  Finally, I have not written in English in any extensive way in the past year, and I want to keep my English writing sharp.  In doing so, I am following the advice of one of my role models and a very smart man.  I once asked him what one should do if one wants to get into the writing business.  His reply?

“Start writing.”

And there we are then.

While You Wait

I am long back from my trip and have been very, very busy since my return.  I will post about it this weekend when I finally take some free time for myself.  In case you’re wondering how I’m doing, this picture pretty much sums it up.  Until next time,

mmm…mikan