Dreams

Recently, I have been having funny dreams. I don’t remember the whole things but I remember only a few things really clearly.

Dream.1 — I am in a department store. There are two short escalators side by side at the center of the floor and no one is there. I am watching the escalators, but I don’t use them. I’m just watching. It seems like I am at a department store in a foreign country, not in Japan. There is no sure proof, but for some reason, I am sure that I am at the Bloomingdale’s in NYC in my dream. In the dream, I knew that it was Bloomingdale’s because of the escalators. I don’t know why. Next, I am running around the department store from the top floor to the ground floor. I seem to be looking for something hard, very hard.

Dream.2 — my eyes are wide open and I am shouting in my head, “Wow, what a big contact lens!” Then I’m excitedly staring into somebody’s eye, which has a huge contact lens. It’s the same size as a plate, about 20 cm in diameter. In my dream, I totally think for sure her contact lens is huge, even though her eye isn’t the same size. It’s a just regular sized eye. I am still taking a long look at her eye with great interest.

I don’t know why I was sure that I was at the Bloomingdale’s in NYC. I don’t know why I knew her contact was so big without any sign of the magnitude of the contact lens. Even though these paradoxical situations happen all the time in my dreams, I am interested in why I dreamed those kinds of strange stories. The first one is actually a recurring dream. Then I started checking an oneiromancy, dream interpretation, website. I entered some key words from my dream — “escalator,” “huge contact lens” and more… According to the website, these are the results:

Escalator — it’s a sign that the changes in circumstances surrounding you will come or it’s a sign of the aspiration to change your current situation. Stepping on an up escalator shows positive changes, on a down escalator shows negative changes.

 

 

Department store — it shows that you are making a choice now. If you can’t make a decision of what to buy or can’t find what you want at a department store that means you have doubts about your life or hesitate to keep doing the same things.

 

                                                                      

                                                                  

  

Foreign country — it shows that you are trying to do something new now.

 

Searching — it’s a sign that you are searching for your goal in life or want to find something to live for. Not knowing what you’re looking for in a dream means you’re trying to look into your heart.

Running around — it’s a sign of that you are having a difficult problem now and you are mentally on the run.

 

Huge contact lens — it’s a motif that mainly women often dream. It symbolized that you are pressed for time or you are not relaxed.

 

                                                     

 

 

Hmm… looks like I’m in a bit of a rut now. In fact, I feel like I’ve been at a crossroads in my life since about 15 months ago. But, I have been pretending not to notice it for a long time. Maybe it is time to accept what is happening to me now. The weird dreams are making me realize this.

Dreams — they seem so meaningless, but they’re truly amazing!

Friday the 13th

Today is Friday the 13th. It is called “A bad luck day”, in the world. Many paraskevidekatriaphobes, people who fear Friday the 13th, might not want to do anything new, different from the usual or to make a big decision, because they think that Friday the 13th has a power to make them unhappy.

In Japan, we have a famous fortune for the day called “Rokuyo(六曜).”It is often written on calendars. The Rokuyo consists of 6 kinds of fortunes: “Sensho or Senkachi(先勝)”, “Tomobiki(友引)”, “Senbu or Senmake(先負)”, “Butsumetsu(仏滅)”, “Taian or Daian(大安)”, “Shakku or Shakkou(赤口).” Each fortune has a different meaning. Many Japanese care about the Rokuyo when they arrange a date of a big event, such as a wedding ceremony, moving, a funeral or when they make a deal.

Weddings and funerals are very important dates in Japan. Many Japanese want to hold their wedding parties on a day of Taian, when they trust the best day to do everything. So, on Saturday and Sunday of the Taian day, wedding centers are fully booked up. On the contrary, on a day of Butsumetsu, people can hold a wedding much cheaper than usual since the day is believed to be an unlucky day. By the same token, we avoid having a funeral on a Tomobiki day. Tomobiki is trusted as a day where the same things will happen to their friends. In Japanese, Tomo(友) means a friend and biki(引) means dragging or pulling. We know it’s a superstition but just in case Japanese don’t have a funeral on Tomobiki day; if a friend will die after the funeral…no way!

In the world, there must be many evil days like Friday the 13th and Butsumetsu. We know those are superstitions but some of us can’t stop caring about them. However, we can’t do anything if we trust every bad luck day all around the world. So, I think that we creatively use those kinds of fortunes or superstitions as we like. We care about them when we can, and we try to forget about them when we can’t, like fortune telling.

In my case, I only care about them when I have to sign a very important contract or moving, visiting my ancestors’ grave — I try to sign a contract or moving on Taian day, and not to visit the grave on Butsumetsu day. Then, maybe I just want to use them as an excuse for when some bad things happen to me. I think there are many people in the world who have the same thinking like mine; we usually to try to find a cause of our mistakes or our bad situations outside of ourselves.

When a really bad thing will happen to me, maybe I can’t accept the truth at that moment because I might be too upset. I will be helped by thinking things like “What’s happened with me? I didn’t do anything wrong. I was OK. Maybe I was unlucky or that day just wasn’t my day!” From the beginning, I can’t think that a part of my attitude or behavior makes the cause of my bad situation, even though they made it. Yet, as time ticks away, I can find and acknowledge the real cause. Facing up to the fact is not the only way to recognize the current situation. Sometimes, escaping from reality and taking time out to get a grip on ourselves mentally help people to know the cause of the failure. It’s never too late, if I can know why the things happened and what the cause of that was, and I will make use of them next time.

Nobody is perfect. We can’t accept our weakness and faults at all times. Sometimes we want to refuse to face the reality, even though we admit our own faults. At such times, we need an excuse — “I made a mistake because today is a Butsumetsu day.” “Yesterday was Friday the 13th, that’s why I lost my cell phone. Not because I was drunk!” Depending on the situation, the evil days become an excuse to escape from a reality that is too tough, but it smells a bit fishy.

By some definition, it is strange that I can feel like Friday the 13th and Butsumetsu are lovely days. I noticed just now, today is Friday the 13th and also a Butsumetsu day… eeeeeeeeek!

Personal space

Generally it is said that the Japanese have less of a need of personal spaces than other countries’ people. Especially not many Japanese women have personal spaces issues. I agree with these ideas. As you know, Japan is an island country and there are large mountainous areas, so population density is high and people don’t have a lot of space. Has Japan’s geography made our personal spaces narrower?

Japanese women walk closely and sit at very close range with their friends, even though they have more space. Many of my friends also behave like this; walk very closely just like when they board on a crowded train. They are alright with this situation, but to me it is uncomfortable. However, I never noticed my need for personal space until some of my friends asked me, “Why do you always push me away while walking?” I seem to elbow my friends aside to get more space unconsciously when we are walking.

When I am on a train, sometimes people, usually women of all ages, stand very close to me even if there is more space. I always think to myself, “Please move 20cm more away from me.” I know that if I’m not comfortable I should be the one who moves because the train is not mine and she is just standing close to me, not touching me. I know she isn’t doing anything wrong, but why should I move, when I was there first? I also like to stand near a door or in a corner of the train. Furthermore there is more space. Why doesn’t she see that there is more space, and why doesn’t she notice that we are close enough to feel each other’s body heat? — “Look around you lady, there is more space! Please back off!” Maybe I have need more personal space than ordinary Japanese women.

Then, I think I found a connection between the amount of personal space and Japanese women’s behavior. If it is right, I think I can understand why many Japanese women don’t care and weren’t interested in strangers or people in general.

For example, many Japanese girls put on make up in public, on the train, unembarrassed. People who don’t embarrass easily. People who don’t care about social boundaries regarding what’s public and what’s private. These people may not notice other people’s presence around them, because they are present outside of their personal spaces, even if others are sitting next to them on a train. That’s why Japanese girls aren’t ashamed of their behavior. They think that people around them are completely nothing that they are like puppets, statues or nearly a background. It is more important to them to put on false eyelashes and make themselves the best looking on a train. They don’t care what people on the train think of them, because they are only thinking about themselves and the boyfriend they are going to meet. Depending on how I look at it, I could also say that the girls might simply be practical about their time management. It might not be about personal space.

Actually I don’t know how the amount of personal space differs between countries, but I know that I’ve never seen the same behavior outside of Japan. People avoided getting on a crowded train and tried to catch the next one. This was about 20 years ago in NYC — during Japan’s bubble economy — so now it might be a little bit different. New York City was the busiest city in the world at that time. Manhattan is just as dense as Tokyo. I’m not surprised if New Yorkers’ sense of personal space is becoming more like Tokyoites. After all, is this not a matter of geography? Or is it a matter of cultural difference?

 

So far, I can’t establish a connection between cultural difference and the sense of personal space. I don’t know why people have different sense of personal space. However, I trust many Japanese women have less a need of personal space for the reasons listed above. Bottom line, I want everyone to stay away at least 30cm more away from me on trains. Even though, I am a Japanese woman.

 

Power spots

Visiting “power spots” is starting a boom among the Japanese. The “power spots” are holy places where Gods are living, having healing power or giving additional energy to people. Some of them are temples or shrines, then some falls, mountains or anywhere having the special power to make people happy. Many Japanese visit power spots in Japan not only but all over the world. In general the Japanese are perceived by others as shallow in faith. However, I see the situation where power spots are fueling a craze in Japan; I think that the Japanese might be ‘potentially’ one of the most superstitious nations in the world.

Recently, Imado Shrine in Asakusa, famous for a god of marriage, has become especially popular among young women. “koi- mikuji, a paper love fortune” is famous as an accurate paper fortune among them. There are many young women visiting the shrine to get a chance to find a nice partner even on a weekday afternoon. Banryu Temple in Meguro is famous for Oshiroi-Jizou, a face powder Buddha statue. It is said that if people put face powder on the Oshiroi-Jizou then put the rest of the powder on their faces, they will be beautiful. According to rumors, some Kabuki artists had faith in the temple.

Other examples, Tomioka Hachiman Shrine in Monzen-Nakacho is famous for a god of games. Taisou Temple in Shinjuku is famous for the having benefit of stopping children from lying or becoming delinquent. This is because a statue of Yama, the lord of death, who is really strict for liars, lies in repose in the temple. Saiko Temple in Nerima is famous for Ibo-Tori Jizou, a wart removaling Buddha statue. There is a legend that when people pray to the Ibo-Tori Jizou their warts will be gone. Their troubles also will be gone the same as their warts. To be honest, benefits such as, stopping children from lying and wart removal are unbelievable for me because they are too concrete and niche.

In addition, it is usually said that there are many hot springs — having benefits for treatment, in Japan. Almost all hot springs have a diversity of healing effects for ailments such as women’s diseases, skin irritation, broken bones, burns, etc…

One of the most famous hot springs is Tamagawa Hot Spring in Akita. It is the strongest acidic hot spring in Japan, with a pH of about 1.2. Rumors are that the hot spring has a healing effect on cancer by sleeping on a rockbed made of hokutolite, a radiogenic mineral having Radium. That’s why it is difficult to get a reservation staying at inns near the Tamagawa Hot Spring.

Why do people visit such power spots and healing hot springs? Maybe people want to rely on Gods or something to replace Gods when they are on uncertain ground. Furthermore, people easily visit these kinds of holy places called power spots or hot springs as leisure, which are less religious atmosphere than praying to Gods.

I trust that they don’t quit believe in those kinds of powers: healing people, giving them more energy and curing patients. Yet, they want to believe in the powers and they are praying for miracles to happen. I would think that miracle will happen only for people believing in miraculous powers. When people have a strong hope for something they really want and a coincidence happens at the same time, they will think it is a miracle. Yes, it might not be a miracle, but I want to believe it is a miracle. If there is no strong hope I will think it is just a coincidence or I am lucky. Even if it is a completely coincidence I want to trust that I have the power to work wonders.

I think that if people visiting power spots can find rays of hope it is not a big deal even though it doesn’t have the intended effect. Maybe the most important effect is making people think positively with a glimmer of hope. I think that is the miracle. That’s why those places are called “power spots,” making people believe in some special powers and their capabilities, because miracles never happen without hope.

The Japanese toilet situation

Nowadays, Japan seems to be famous for high-tech toilets. Japan brought in “world’s best toilet” at the Shanghai Expo. The toilet has various high-performance functions, whether those functions are necessary or not. I also heard that many people visit there and wait in a queue to try the toilet.

And now, such Japan has two unique toilet situations. At the outset, at elementary schools, their toilet situations are troublesome.

When do you go to a toilet? I think almost all people go there to answer the call of nature. Everybody in a lavatory knows why they come here. However, some school children try to hide why they visit a toilet. What for?

For Japanese students pooing at school is a big serious problem. It’s because pooing at school is treated just like a felony among the students. There are some boys at school who break out in a nervous sweat because they can’t do their duty. So, a few schools are considering remodeling their toilets for boy students suffering. The idea is to switch from all urinals to only private rooms in boys’ toilet. If there are only private rooms people can’t guess if they are pooing or not. Then boys will have nothing fear about doing their business.

I understand that school officials have anxiety about boys’ health conditions, but is it a clean solution? I think they should teach children pooing at school is not a disgraceful deed first before renovation. Their idea has a risk of contributing to boys’ attitude and behavior that they are hesitant to poo at school or a public toilet.

The second one, is women’s toilets. In Japan, “otohime, imitative flush sound-generating device” are usually placed on the wall in ladies’ private rooms. The imitative sound helps to mask their noises. Otohime was developed to not waste water because many women flush several times to cover up their noise when they take care of business. The flush sound has been set to about 25 seconds, that time is the women’s average time to need sound.

Are there any special noises, which ladies have to cover up, in private rooms? Maybe I want to mask the sound if I make characteristic sound, something like an elephant call or the whistle of samba. However, I have never seen anybody who has such a problem with strange sounds and suffering about it, so far.

From when did the Japanese start feeling ashamed to do “business” — a physiological phenomenon of human nature? Our toilet situation is an envious dilemma as a developed nation. After people are filled with their desire they will demand more and more, because it’s human nature. Such a nature has helped our lives to become more comfortable. On the other hand it makes other worries which are not necessary.

I’m curious about that how the Japanese toilet situation will change from now. I’m also curious about what envious dilemmas are up-coming next.

Not a fox means …

What does come to your mind when you hear, “It is an animal, not a fox.”?

I usually don’t really feel I am Japanese in my daily life. Yet, on rare occasions, I unexpectedly recognize that I am Japanese. Take, for example — I can leave my bag when I leave my seat at a restaurant, I bow my head while I am talking on a phone, I feel nothing special when I board a crowded train, I wait for a cab’s door to be opened automatically, I nod my head more than necessary while I am listening to others, I feel happy and my taste buds light up when I eat Natto with raw egg and I describe a raccoon dog to not Japanese people.

One day, one of my English teachers asked me, “What is a Tanuki?” He read my electronic lesson record and found an enigmatic word, “Tanuki.” Tanuki is a raccoon dog in Japanese, but unfortunately I didn’t know the English nomenclature. If I had known the English word for Tanuki, I couldn’t have known a different way to explain Tanuki between the Japanese and foreigners. On the contrary, I never would have known that my explanation was a completely unique method and feeling for the Japanese.

Tanuki, raccoon dog and Kitsune, fox are familiar animals to the Japanese, however, it doesn’t mean that we usually see them in our daily life but you may see only in the countryside. I have seen real ones only a few times at zoos so far in my long life. To me, maybe to almost all Japanese, their illustrations are more familiar than the real ones. That is because Tanuki and Kitsune are common characters of Japanese folk stories and we have grown up reading the folk stories’ picture books, which have many illustrations drawn in them.

In the Japanese folk stories, they are written as clever characters. They can transform into anything, even human beings. Kitsune often transform into beautiful women. They try to cheat people or animals around them in stories. One of the differences between Tanuki and Kitsune is that Tanuki is a bit goofy.

Anyway, I tried to explain Tanuki in English. “It is an animal, not a fox!” After I told him I was waiting for his answer. It was because I had believed that I gave him a perfect clue, but he was waiting for my next explanation. After a short silence, I realized a very important thing. It would take an excessive amount of time if I continued to tell other animals’ names, because there are various animals in the world. Who could possibly know what a Tanuki is with such an awful clue, if they are not Japanese? Then, I decided to explain using how they look. At the same time, I kicked my brain computer into high gear to remind myself how they looked. There was no useful information in my head. I had only the clue which would never help him to get the answer, “Tanuki is a hairy animal, having 4 legs.”

In Japan, when people hear a color “Red”, almost all Japanese people might have “White” cross their minds — not “Blue”, “Green” or “Yellow.” Japanese usually make “Red team” and “White team” when we need to divide into teams. The most famous Japanese music program is “Kouhaku-Uta-Gassenn, called ‘Kouhaku’,” broadcasting on every New Year’s Eve. The show is a “Red and White teams’ song battle”; many popular artists of the year are divided into a ladies’ team, “Red team” and a men’s team, “White team” and compete. Many elementary and junior high schools hold athletic meetings with division red team and white team.

In another case “Edokko” — people who are born and raised in Tokyo. Their family are also born and raised in Tokyo over three generations — calls up an image of “Sekkachi, festinate person” to the Japanese. We associate Soba noodles with the Kanto area. Udon noodles, the Kansai area. In Japan, pink is used to describe sexual or erotic things; pink movies, which means blue movies in English.

Anyhow, unfortunately, he needed to check the word on the internet because I couldn’t tell him what a Tanuki was with my explanation.

If I say, “Not a fox,” it means “Raccoon dog.” “Not red” means “white.” “I am Edokko” means that I am a festinate person. It is like that when you hear “Not a dog,” “Cat” will come to your mind.

After all, what does come to your mind when you hear, “It is an animal, not a fox.”?

Japanese working conditions

A few days ago, I discussed the article, “Unpaid overtime is killing McDonald's managers”, from the website, Japan Today, with my teacher during an English lesson. The article was about “karoshi”, which means death from overwork.

http://japantoday.com/category/commentary/view/unpaid-overtime-is-killing-mcdonalds-managers/

According to the Japanese Labor Standards Law, employees are not supposed to work more than 8 hours a day. However many Japanese companies’ work time is still more than 8 hours, for example 9 to 6, because they don’t count the hour for lunch as work time, whether the employees take a full hour lunch break or not. In the same way, overtime work is a matter of course as well.

About 20 years ago, most Japanese had never thought overwork would kill people because working hard was treated as a virtue in Japan. We － companies, chief executive officers and employees － also believed working very hard was the nature of the Japanese character. Many Japanese worked without realizing that they were working too hard.

In my case, I usually worked from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. or 12 a.m., 6 days a week when I at a company in the music industry even though the company’s working hours were 10 to 7, 5 days a week. Almost all of the employees worked more than 100 hours a month on top of their regular monthly hours, which did not seem surprising to anyone. When the employees were late for work their salaries were cut, but overtime pay was never given to them. Many young workers slept in their sleeping bags on the company’s floor, because they didn’t want to waste any time for sleeping going home and back. While I was working at the company with these co-workers, I started to become numb to the working conditions there.

When I heard the word “karoshi” for the first time I really thought that one of us would be the next victim. Many Japanese might have been feeling just like I was － I would be killed by my company. Then I did a calculation converting my pay into hourly earnings, while looking at my time card. My hourly wage was an unbelievable and laughable figure － IT WAS LESS THAN 200 YEN.

After leaving that company, I still worked more than 8 hours a day, because it was my nature. I couldn’t stop working until I finished the job that I was handling at that time. Basically, I wanted to finish my work as soon as possible in case, be I got some urgent work the next day or became sick. I wanted to be prepared for the next job or coming situation. When I left a job halfway done I thought about it all night. When I had nothing to do or took a day off, I felt guilty. My entire schedule was built around my work. When I look back now, I enjoyed being busy with work. I liked being a hard working person. While I was working I felt I had a reason for living. I think I was a workaholic at that time.

Since “karoshi” became an issue in public, many companies have promoted their employees. The companies gave them higher position titles and base salaries which increased only a little, instead of disapproving their overtime allowance. However, their salaries were mostly formed by the overtime pay. That was why their take-home wages didn’t rise even if they got promotions. Not only that, in the worst case their take-home pay would go down, even though they worked as long as or longer than before.

Now Japanese working conditions are changing. Many Japanese workers are starting to think that overwork is not a virtue. They try to get better working conditions. Nevertheless, many companies still give their employees titles which are only names, and request unpaid overtime work. There are still many workaholics like I was before.

Both the companies and the employees have to think the working conditions over now. If such perverse working situations are not eliminated, unfortunately the same things like in the article, “Unpaid overtime is killing McDonald's managers”, will happen again.