I saw a man at the train station bow to his boss

I’ve been thinking a lot about Japanese society and the way the social structure is set up. Once again I’m really thankful that I’m living with a host family. The opportunities to learn about a culture are much more plentiful when living with people of that culture. I’ve been here for eight months plus and Japan continues to throw curveballs at me. I’m struck again and again at the reasons people do things. Like while I was waiting for my train to school last week I saw a young man in a suit walk to the front of the line (trains not only come exactly on time but always stop in the same place so people line up where the doors stop) and bow deeply to an older man in a suit. I assume he was this man’s boss. The older guy acknowledged the bow with a slight nod of the head and turned back to his newspaper. The younger guy the returned to the back of the line with more than a hint of a smile on his face. Not five minutes later another dude did the same thing. That’s something you would never see in the states. Respect for superiors is ingrained deep deep down in this culture.

At first this puzzled me. I wondered why people below didn’t chafe under the pressure of literally bowing to those above them. It just seemed so archaic to me. It wasn’t until new freshman showed up on the track team that I understood the intoxicating power it holds. In the U.S. I’ve held leadership positions in Boy Scouts and have been looked up to in church, track, and my family. But it doesn't quite compare to being bowed to. When I first arrived here my position was rather unclear. I was a first year in school but eighteen, older than all the kids in the school. It was a strange middle ground. But now that I’ve become a second year my position has been solidified. The freshmen on track call me “senpai” which means elder. The address me in polite Japanese bow deeply and are generally extremely respectful. All this just because I’m a year older in school. I have to say it’s a bit of a power trip being called elder(先輩 for those of you who read kanji). The closest experience I can think of in the states is scouts where as a middle schooler I was affectionately referred to as a scrubby for my after dinner chores. But if you stick with it you get to ascend the ranks and be able to assign pushups. That’s the whole point and it’s why the power remains.

It’s much more than that here though. We scrubbies had very little problem defying authority. That’s why pushups were necessary. Swearing: 10 pushups. Playing pirate with canoes: 20 pushups. Not waking up the SPL for breakfast: 100 pushups. None of that is needed here. People follow orders because that’s what they do. Japanese people in general are very apathetic when it comes to politics. Most people just let the politicians decide things and don’t particularly care who is in charge. Uniting from the ground up is not part of the culture. The Meiji Restoration (1868 when a group of elites overthrew the Tokugawa bakufu and quickly brought Japan from a feudal backwater to a modern state) was organized by the upper crust of society. There was no peasant uprising, no stirring revolution like Americans cling to. And after the Meiji Restoration came another seize of power by a different set of elites, this time in the military. We all know where that went. Japan is a very top-down society. Things are directed from above and everyone belongs to a group.

The group mentality is expressed in many ways. When you belong to something you belong to it all the way. Like this trip I’m taking to Osaka. I mentioned that I wanted to travel a bit over Golden Week to my homeroom/ English teacher. (During the first week of may the holidays Honor the Emperor Day, Green Day, and Children’s Day, are consecutive holidays and the period is called Golden Week.) The next day she had papers for me to fill out. I had to fill out my travel itinerary including lodging, transportation, and contact numbers. The school has to approve my trip before I can go. When I asked why they needed it she got a little offended.
“Everyone fills this out. It's the way things are done.”
“No, no, I’m not resisting. I’ll fill out the paperwork. I’m just curious why because we don’t have to do this in the states.”
“Well, you're part of this school and we want to know where you are and make sure you’re safe.”
Isn’t that why I have parents? Or host parents? It’s also extremely annoying when people get offended when I ask questions about why things work the way they do. Doesn’t anyone understand that I find differences between Japan and America fascinating? You’d think they’d get the message after eight months. So I filled out the paperwork and turned it in. There’s no problem with letting my school know where I am. It's probably a good idea as long as they don’t try to stop me. Then there will be a problem. Not like I’m anticipating anything.

Time to switch gears. Here’s a question I’ve been pondering lately. Why do Japanese teachers insist on teaching in the most boring way possible? School isn’t excruciatingly boring but it’s pretty close. It wouldn’t be so bad if teachers made any effort to engage the class. I can see why Hassan was overjoyed with Evanston. Projects, discussions, debates, presentations, group activities, labs, all strangely absent. Actually that’s not quite fair. We do get more lab time this year in bio. But for the most part teachers write on the board and students copy it down and memorize it. What a wonderful way to teach. The only teacher who is significantly different is Ishy but Ishy feels more American than Japanese. There’s a running joke that he’s from Mongolia. With the exception of his class and gym the whole day is one long lecture. It’s strange but I’m used to it by now. At first it really bothered me and I had to move a lot between periods. Now sitting in the same seat copying the blackboard for four hours doesn’t phase me. Still, I’ll be very glad when I’m done with school. I counted the days left. Just thirty more days of classes, a scant seven weeks.

I made lunch for my family today. We had tacos. I know that’s not typical lunch food but Megumi’s friends came over and they wanted to have some too. I found everything I needed for tacos and guacamole (except cilantro) and they were a big hit. A real taste of America, or Mexico as it might be. Speaking of Mexico my host mother is terrified of swine flu. We watch a lot of TV in this house and swine flu is all over the news. They are freaking out here in Japan. Everyone is stocking up on masks and antibacterial soap. She was so worried that she had me ask my parents if they needed masks and offered to ship them a box. I guess it wasn’t very polite to laugh.

There’s a lot coming up in the few weeks before I leave that I’m very excited about. First is my trip to Osaka next week. I’ve never been to Osaka before and I’m looking forward to it very much. It’ll be only the second time that I’ve stayed somewhere other than my host house. The first time being my school ski trip. I’m going by myself for two nights and it should be a blast. I won’t bring my computer so no blog posts from Osaka but I’ll take lots of pictures. After Osaka come the Ibaraki prefecture track meet. I qualified for the 800m and the mile relay. I had a fairly awful 800 race but the bar was set low. That’s a four day meet from the 13th to the 16th. If I don’t run on the 16th then I’m going to go on a tour of Tokyo with some other exchange students. My city Toride is sister cities with some place in California. Ten students and ten adults from that city are coming for a week in May from the 14th to the 21st. One of the students has stayed with my family before but can’t this time because I am occupying her room. That and she can’t go to school with my host sister because her principal is crazy. My host mom tells me that almost no one on the trip speaks Japanese and I’ve been enlisted to act as a translator fro a few days. She didn't have to ask me twice. I’m thrilled to pass on knowledge I’ve been acquiring for eight months. It’ll be great practice for when my family gets here. The next item coming up is my school’s festival in early June and then my brother gets here just a week after that. So it looks to be a busy and eventful last few weeks in Japan.