Do Buddha and God quarrel?

Some say don’t buy a good-luck charm each time whenever you visit temples and Shinto shrines, because Buddha and Gods of the charms will start quarreling. Do Buddha and God quarrel or fight? Is this true?

↑

these are typical Japanese good-luck charms

Even if it is just a myth, I haven’t had any good-luck charms since I heard about the quarrel. If I were a God or a Buddha I would not be happy when people prayed to others. If they have the same spirit as human beings－ jealousy, disappointment, grudge, fear, anger… I think I can understand their feelings.

Here’s a token experience I’ve had. After a co-worker’s farewell party, one of our co-workers told us, “Let’s visit and pray to a Shinto shrine!” Our party was mainly for a lady quitting the company for childbirth, and near a famous Shinto shrine. Whether or not I was drunk, I didn’t want to do that. So I told some of them, “I am a Buddhist, so I can’t pray to the Shinto shrine. If I pray, Buddha will be angry.” They told me, “Shut up and come with us, drunkard!!” They must have believed that I refused to pray because I was drunk. They also said “Buddha doesn’t care about praying for our co-worker.” Finally I was taken by the hand to the Shinto shrine. If I were not drunk, would they have tried to understand what I was saying? I think not. Most Japanese people don’t care about deities’ feelings.

As you know, most Japanese people are not interested in religious faith. That’s why Japanese people celebrate any religious events. Some of my friends are not Christians, but they held their weddings at a church with Christian’s vow. Then they took their new-born babies to Shinto shrines or the temples to pray for baby’s healthy growth. In my family’s case, my brother entered a Buddhist kindergarten, but I entered a Christian kindergarten. While I was in the kindergarten, I went to the church on Sunday morning. I was also singing hymns and praying to God before lunch. How about now? － I only remember one song that was sung before lunch time.

During the holiday season, sometimes my friend tells me “I will visit a famous Shinto shrine, so I will get a good-luck charm for you. What kind of charm do you want?” At that time, I always decline it. Even though I am not a pious Buddhist, I usually don’t pray to Shinto shrines. If I need praying or a good-luck charm, I will visit Ikegami Honmonji temple and buy it there, which my family belongs to. I don’t want to offend Buddha, and I hope the Buddha of Ikegami Honmonji temple treat my ancestors － father, grand parents, aunt － favorably and carefully. It is like having a child who is living in a foreign country with a host family; I would be hoping for the homestay accommodation to treat my child very nicely.

Of course I know that God and Buddha are not human beings, when I think deeply. Therefore they are worshipped by many people and becomes the object of prayer. Maybe God never envies Buddha, and Buddha is also never jealous of God, however I still think about the feelings of God and Buddha at a human being level, then again, it is myself who can not buy a good-luck charm after all.

Blood type

"What is your blood type?" It is a common question to Japanese people, but I heard a rumor that foreigners just can’t understand why Japanese people want to know their blood type, even though they are not doctors.

●　People who are A-type blood tend to be sensitive, methodical, hard workers, perfectionists and realists.

●　People who are O-type blood tend to be generous, sociable, sloppy and take good care of people around them.

●　People who are B-type blood tend to go their own ways. They also tend to be moody people, selfish, full of curiosity, passionate and are doers.

●　People who are AB-type blood tend to be calm, have dual personalities, odd, rationalists, geniuses, sarcastic.

※　These are general theories about each blood type’s character in Japan.

What do you think about these theories? Do you think they are true?

Many Japanese people believe blood type can help them to understand other people’s personalities. However it seems to be such a mysterious question to foreigners, especially to European and American people.

I think, the characteristics of A-type blood people seem to express the Japanese stereotype, and if I could add “wearing glasses and having cameras” it would be perfect. Unfortunately it is not enough proof that character can be distinguished from someone’s blood type, because there is nothing scientific about a stereotypical image.

The graph above is from a website. It shows each country’s ratio of blood type in 2005. Whether I believe that people’s characters can be determined from their blood type as Japanese theorize, I am interested in the data above. There are different ratios depend on each country; Nicaragua has a noticeably big difference.

If a person’s characteristics were determined by their blood type, each country’s ratio of blood type would express each country’s national characteristic.

One of my friends discovered her true blood type after giving birth to a boy. Until that time, she had believed that she was B-type and spent her life as a B-type for 20 years, even though she was truly AB. She told me as soon as she saw me when I visited her hospital. “Can you believe this? My real blood type is AB. As you know, I had spent my whole life as a B-type until now. It’s too late to know I am AB-type.” To her, her real blood type was bigger news than childbirth. I am sure her character is expressed by B-type’s general theory; she goes her own way and she is moody, a little bit selfish, and passionate. However I am also sure her character is expressed by AB-type’s general theory; she is calm, dual personality, odd and sarcastic.

In my case, people who don’t know me very well guess my blood type, “Your blood type surely is B or O, isn’t it?” People who are getting to know me well ask me, “Is your blood type A?” Actually my blood type is AB, so I answer, “No. I have AB-type blood.” After they know my blood type, they change their guess, “Yes, you are absolutely AB, as I expected! I had thought you were a little bit strange.” or “Oh, really! You seem AB from your character.” What the hell was their guess before they knew the truth? If they believed I was AB, they should have asked me, “Is your blood AB-type?”

In short, we can’t rely on each blood type’s stereotype, it is just preconception.

People look for some expressions and try to fit in their character from some theories; birth place, the sign of zodiac and blood type. If I look at myself; born in Tokyo, AB-type and a Sagittarius, by using those theories, I would be impatient, warm hearted, calm, dual personalities, odd, a genius, loving freedom, very curious and a person of action.

It might be a good topic for discussion and help to make conversation with acquaintances, who likes to judge from birth place, blood type and the signs of the zodiac.

I think some of them might be true, but those are only statistical tendencies.

A Japanese folk remedy

Whether it works or not, there are many folk remedies in Japan. The following is some remedies for common health problems.

A stuffy nose & sore throat

When you catch a cold, wrap a barbecue naganegi (scallion) around your neck. It is good for a stuffy nose and sore throat. But sometimes the smell of scallion may make you worse.

Canker sore

When you get a canker sore, put the flesh of an umeboshi on it. Citric acid, which is contained in umeboshi and it has an antiseptic effect. But the umeboshi paste stings your mouth, so you must endure such a horrible pain.

If you can endure the pain, you can try it.

Stinky feet (or Stinky shoes)

When your feet are stinking, put 4-5 10 yen coins in your shoes. The 10 yen coin contains copper, which decomposes bacteria that is the cause of the bad smell. Whether it’s effective or not, you should stop putting 10 yen coins in your shoes while you are walking.

Sign language

“Is sign language common all over the world? If it is a common language what grammar is used; English or Japanese? Is the sign language expressing sounds: like A, I, U, E and O? Or is it expressing words?”

I didn’t know about sign language. So I had a lot of questions about it, so I checked it on the internet.

According to the Wikipedia, there is no common sign language in the world. Each country has their own sign language and their own dialect.

And people who use sign language are also using parts of their faces. The facial region becomes an important grammatical element － The eyes, the eyebrow, the cheek, the mouth, the tongue, and the neck are inclined and shake it, stick the chin out or not －. It expresses an order or an interrogative sentence by using them.

The Japanese sign language expresses both sounds and words. Actually, it’s sign language expresses only words. The sounds are expressed by finger spelling.

I think a talkative person might move very fast while a person with hot temper might move strongly. And a slow person must move slowly. Their movements might express their personal characters.

Anti-aging

“Roll, roll whir, whir roll, roll whir, whir.” I just believe the wonderful effect that it will bring. “Roll, roll whir, whir roll, roll whir, whir.”

These past several years, many cosmetic companies are putting a great deal of effort to sell “Anti-aging” products and those sales are on the increase in Japan because most Japanese women fear finding wrinkles and sagging on their faces. They hate aging as if that were evil. Is aging horrible? Is ‘youthful’ equal sign beautiful?

But some others hate to look younger than their actual age, because some people treat lightly those who look younger. So they try to make themselves look older. Occasionally looking younger is a disadvantage in their job. Looking young is not so good in this situation.

Some people are beautiful and attractive even if they don’t try hard to make them look youthful. As people have grown nature, they learn more things and have experiences, that make them change. For example, their minds, interests, bodies, fashion, and faces. Their spending a lot of time on those things makes them more charming. That’s why life is wonderful and interesting, I think.

Let’s enjoy getting old and not fear aging! In spite of saying that, I use a “Platinum Germa Roller” that’s a very popular anti-aging tool which works on wrinkles, sagging and more. I believe efficacy strongly and roll it on my face “Roll, roll whir, whir roll, roll whir, whir”.

ETO, the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac

　This year is the year of the ox. Rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and boar － these twelve animals refer to ETO. (Actually the dragon is a mystical beast, not an animal.) The ETO sign represents years in Japan.

　I was born in the year of the rooster. When we, Japanese meet someone who is 12 years older or younger, we usually say “There is a round difference in age between us.” If they are more than 12 years younger or older, we say “There is more than a round difference in age between us.” (A round = hitomawari)

　I don’t know why those particular animals were chosen from the many possibilities, but I had an experience making excuses using the ETO sign with my friends. “I’m sorry. My birth year is the rooster so I forgot about it like the roosters which forget everything after they walked 3 steps.” My friends were kind and forgave me but it was such a ridiculous excuse at that time.

　Many Japanese use the ETO sign when they write New Year’s Cards. Next year is the year of the tiger, so you will see many illustrations of tigers which are printed on New Year’s Cards at stationery stores in Japan. If you have a chance to use the ETO sign, I want you to use it for anything but making an excuse.

Hair Style

There are various hairstyles in the world. A crew cut, a bobbed hair and etc. Many Japanese people call them by a characteristic name in Japan.

In the early Showa era, most of the Japanese children had the same hair style. Many girls had bobbed hair, Okappa. The name of Okappa seems to come from the Kappa.

A crew cut, Sport gari was a standard hair style for boys in 80s. But boys higher than middle class in the city preferred Botchan gari to Sport gari. A Botcyan gari is a boy’s hair style, which has long hair but not longer than the ears. (Botchan means a rich boy in Japanese.)

The typical hair style of a salaryman is to part his hair on the side, which is called shichi sann (7:3) in Japan. We call the hair style Shichi sann because the ratio of right part hair to left part (or left to right) hair is 3 to 7.Incidentally, Mr. Kenichi Takemura, a Japanese political commentator is famous for his hair style, Ichi Kyuu (1:9). His part is unique and highly original to me.

A figurative expression and the proverbs

“The Grim Reaper just went past now!” When there is a sudden lull in the conversation, children usually say that.

“He has his feet on the ground”. It says that he is a realist. Are these understandable expressions for people who are not Japanese?

Japanese have a lot of proverbs. For example, “The walls have ears, the shoji have eyes”. (Shoji = traditional Japanese sliding doors which have Japanese paper pasted over a wooden latticework) It says that you shouldn’t speak and act carelessly.

“It’s like casting pearls before swine” and “It’s like giving koban to cats.” (Koban = an oval coin formerly used in Japan in the Edo period) These proverbs say the same thing. It is meaningless for them who can’t see the worth, even though they get something valuable.

“That’s the sleep laughing at the snot” is the meaning same as “That’s the pot calling the kettle black”. We use different words, but we mean same things.

I’m really interested in comparing proverbs because I can see the differences between Japanese and others by comparing then. Those differences may come from each culture and history. If we see such differences, we can get over the language barriers and understand much more, I think.