[CLOSED] Another newbie reporter "discovers" Japan

[Mulboyne]

The Register-Guard: Traveling in Japan as easy as the code of the slipper
Now I know how Bill Murray must have felt...I tried to make sense of the vending machines, more common in Japan than Starbucks in Seattle and more confusing than the chaos theory... Consider this the goofy American male's guide to the Far East... For toilets, there are two options: The first requires a computer science degree[etc etc]... The second kind of toilet is a bit more basic [etc etc]... If you have any trouble in the ryokan, you can call the front desk for help. (Example: after punching in the correct sequence of toilet codes, you use the same handle you used to flush to wash your hands, via a spout on top of the toilet that drains into the basin to be used for the next flush. Because this water is used for filling the basin - to conserve water - and not just washing your hands, however, it does not stop pouring after you're finished washing your hands. If you keep jiggling the handle or flush the toilet a few more times, hoping that this will shut off the water, it will only prolong the endeavor.) If you do not speak Japanese, simply use the Japanese word for "help!" (found in the "emergency" section of your guidebook) which is "teskete!"
...Now perhaps you've finished dinner and are ready for a night out on the town. You could try clothes shopping, but many of the T-shirts you'll find have English written on them, and are rife with profanity arranged in unusual sentence structures... But the most sporting nighttime endeavor in all of Japan is geisha-hunting - and I do mean hunting. Because there are only 1,000 of the white-paint-faced female entertainers in the country, they are elevated to the status of American movie stars and hunted down in much the same manner as the papparazzi stalked Princess Di.
...One final way to experience "real Japan:" Get on the train at the wrong end, and then barrel your way to the car on which your seat is reserved as the train rumbles to a start. If you bring an expedition-sized mountaineering backpack from REI, you'll need to try to avoid decking people as you swing it side to side down the impossibly narrow aisles.

[Greji]

The Register-Guard: Traveling in Japan as easy as the code of the slipper -snip-
If you do not speak Japanese, simply use the Japanese word for "help!" (found in the "emergency" section of your guidebook) which is "teskete!"

This will be very helpful. Especially in its present perfect form,
which by his version, should come out to something like "testes tsukette"!

[Taro Toporific]

Gee what's this about Japan's recent "discovery" of coffee and "young Japanese in tea houses"?:rofl:

Australia taps into Japan's discovery of coffeeBy Deborah Cameron Herald Correspondent in Tokyo
October 10, 2005
Japan's tea ceremony, and the mystical aura that surrounds it, is giving way to the smell of fresh roasted beans and the mastery of the barista.
Young Japanese are choosing to retreat to coffee shops rather than tea houses....

[maraboutslim]

That article is, what, 40 years too late?

[Sarutaro]

In Ms Cameron's defence I must say that there are still MANY people out there in the world who think most Japanese still wear kimono, only eat rice and sleep on the floor. If they are going to learn about current Japan, journalists have to start from the basics. This article is not aimed at you or me who have lived here for a longer period of time.

[Greji]

In Ms Cameron's defence I must say that there are still MANY people out there in the world who think most Japanese still wear kimono, only eat rice and sleep on the floor.... -snip-

They don't? You mean my old lady's been shitting me all this time? Where's my pant's, I gotta get dressed again!

[maraboutslim]

I can't imagine why anyone in the world would think that Japanese live like they did in the 1800s. Everyone is aware that they are a technologically advanced industrial society since we buy their consumer products and drive their cars. Their manga and anime which are popular around the world show the people wearing the same kinds of clothes and doing the same sorts of things as europeans or americans or whatever. There have been many hollywood movies set in modern times through which people can get a glimse of japanese society these days.

In other words, I call "bogus" on your post and the need for stupid stories like the one above.

[Charles]

I can't imagine why anyone in the world would think that Japanese live like they did in the 1800s.

Maybe because many of them DO live in Meiji era conditions? When I first lived in Japan while going to school, I assure you my living conditions were straight out of the 1800s. Sure maybe the heater used kerosene instead of whale oil, but that's about it.

[Sarutaro]

Hey...when I go back my old friends sometimes ask me things like "Do people eat sushi in Japan?" I know that the awareness of actual conditions in Japan very low in some places. Yes, we know that Japanese are good at making robots and electronics but that is pretty old news too.

I know that some back home would be pretty shocked to find out that the average Seven-11 in downtown Tokyo can offer a better selection of cakes than the fancy department stores in Stockholm.
Or that you you can buy a glass of wine in a Tokyo restaurant for only 99 Yen (Seizeria). Or, as in this case, that Tokyo has more coffee shops that Seattle!

Inaka Japan is of course completely different. Now I am only talking about metropolitan Tokyo.

[Sarutaro]

In Ms Cameron's defence I must say that there are still MANY people out there in the world who think most Japanese still wear kimono, only eat rice and sleep on the floor.... -snip-

They don't? You mean my old lady's been shitting me all this time? Where's my pant's, I gotta get dressed again!

I know what you are saying. I myself sleep on tatami mats wearing a jimbei after a dinner that mostly involves rice.
Oh my God, I DO live in the Meiji era! Shit, I've got to get back to civilization...

[Mulboyne]

To be fair to the Herald correspondent, she is writing primarily about the impact on Australia's dairy industry which has been given a recent boost by the trend towards lattes.

Stereotypes die hard; coffee has been as big a part of a British morning or office break as tea for ages but these articles still appear:

WSJ via Post-Gazette: Starbucks lures Brits from tea to coffee
That is a momentous shift. After all, tea has been a British staple since the 1600s...Traditional Britons don't just drink tea for breakfast. They drink it before, during, after and in between meals. Strong and milky, the drink has long epitomized comfort in Britain's damp gray climate, with tea advertising often suggesting that the remedy for virtually all ailments is a "nice cuppa."

[Charles]

To be fair to the Herald correspondent, she is writing primarily about the impact on Australia's dairy industry which has been given a recent boost by the trend towards lattes.

I would think that the recent scandals involving Japanese dairies and their appalling standards of hygiene would have more to do with the boost in milk imports. I mean, even ozzie milk would seem more palatable than Snow Brand.

[Greji]

To be fair to the Herald correspondent, she is writing primarily about the impact on Australia's dairy industry which has been given a recent boost by the trend towards lattes.

I would think that the recent scandals involving Japanese dairies and their appalling standards of hygiene would have more to do with the boost in milk imports. I mean, even ozzie milk would seem more palatable than Snow Brand.

Holly Shit! The Japanese dairy industry must really be in bad shape if Charles is threatening to have an Aussie drink!

[GomiGirl]

I was having a chat with gomichild the other night and we were discussing a book by Peter Carey "Wrong about Japan" (book itself covered by Taro on this thread.

We were also talking about this thread and why it bothers people like us (ie long term residents of Japan) that newbies report such rubbish. We could let it go but rather than ridicule the reporters - but flaming is so much fun and makes for good conversation.

But many times through reading this book I have been frustrated by the author who keeps trying to find links to WWII and manga and anime.. he arrived in Japan with this opinion and instead of looking around with an open mind, he kept looking for evidence to support this opinion.

What I guess bothers me about newbie reporters when they get it wrong is that there is no right. It seems to me that newbie bloggers, short term visitors and reporters try to analyse Japan and wrap it up in a neat little box that explains "Japan" and why things are they way they that suits their own preconceived notions of another country or explains things in terms that they understand based on their own life experiences.

What are the reasons these newbies bother other people on this board?

Furthermore, what makes people like us stop trying to analyse our surroundings and compare them to where we grew up? Cos we know that it is not possible - eg apples and oranges? We are happy with the status quo and not wanting to try to change things?

For me, I just think I have adapted my own way of life and thinking to life in this city the same way I would have adapted if I had moved to a different city - I don't feel like a foreigner much anymore. I don't feel Japanese either. I just happen to live here. Maybe I am just content with how things are going for me - finally. It has taken a long time to get here with lots of mistakes along the way.

Anybody else care to share their thoughts on this subject.

(I think I spent way too much time drinking this weekend and now am suffering a muddled brain today.)

[Charles]

What I guess bothers me about newbie reporters when they get it wrong is that there is no right. It seems to me that newbie bloggers, short term visitors and reporters try to analyse Japan and wrap it up in a neat little box that explains "Japan" and why things are they way they that suits their own preconceived notions of another country or explains things in terms that they understand based on their own life experiences.

A long time ago, NYTimes writer Nicholas Kristoff (I think) was assigned to the Tokyo bureau, and wrote an essay upon his arrival that surprised me, I wish I'd saved a copy, but I still remember it vividly.
He said that Japan was, for westerners, sufficiently remote both in distance and in culture, that it served as a kind of Rorschach ink-blot test, everyone sees in Japan exactly what they are predisposed to see.
And I think that is pretty much the whole story. People are unable to interpret things except through their own experiences. The particularly narrowminded analyses irritate us because the people who write them are particularly narrowminded.

[Mulboyne]

We were also talking about this thread and why it bothers people like us (ie long term residents of Japan) that newbies report such rubbish.

"Newbie-style" seemed to proliferate from around the mid-90s. Journalists on the Japan beat found that their editors got tired of articles about Japan's decline or possible recovery because nothing tangible seemed to be happening either way. The only way they could get their byline in the paper/magazine more often was to come up with "wacky Japan" stories. About the same time, news agencies began to downsize their Tokyo bureaus - often covering Japan from Singapore or Hong Kong - so many writers had little in-country experience and ended up recycling the same stuff.

Certainly, there will always be "first impressions" pieces about any country but "newbie" reporting is frustrating because it is just lazy journalism. Editors may have been less interested in Japan but that put the onus on journalists to dig deeper. It was shocking, for instance, how little information there was about politics in Japan. The Economist magazine often went two or three weeks without a single article about the world's second-largest economy.

[Taro Toporific]

Police powers to smash sex slave trade
The - Times Online From Leo Lewis in Tokyo
....RISING TOLL
* Japan's underground sex trade is worth 43 billion
* In 2000, 120,000 foreign women worked in Japan's sex industry, of whom 75,000 were being held against their will
* Entertainer visas are a well known method of getting women in to Japan

This is a good report and good reporter but there's a weird error in saying that, "Entertainer visas are a well known method of getting women in to Japan". Since the change in visa regulations last April, "entertainer" visas are fairly rare and difficult to obtain in Japan. Several of my actor (guys) friends had to turn down jobs in Japan because Immigration just won't issue any entertainer visas even if a person meets the requirements (min. 2 years entertaining arts schooling and/or 5 years experience). New gaijin "entertainers" (hookers) are coming here without any visa other than that of a "tourist."

[FG Lurker]

I can't imagine why anyone in the world would think that Japanese live like they did in the 1800s. Everyone is aware that they are a technologically advanced industrial society since we buy their consumer products and drive their cars. Their manga and anime which are popular around the world show the people wearing the same kinds of clothes and doing the same sorts of things as europeans or americans or whatever. There have been many hollywood movies set in modern times through which people can get a glimse of japanese society these days.

In other words, I call "bogus" on your post and the need for stupid stories like the one above.

In 1994 I traveled by car across Canada from Vancouver, down the east coast of the US to Florida, across the southern states to California, and then back up the west coast. 25,000km of driving in total.

What does this have to do with your post? Once the distance from Canada became large, it was not that difficult to convince Americans that most Canadians lived in igloos and used dogsleds. Not all Americans were so clueless of course, but it was a lot more common than it should have been.

When I was in high school I worked summers in a large tourist attraction in southwestern Canada. Thousands of visitors daily, well over 10,000 on a peak day. The gift shop would regularly get Americans asking if they could buy the Canadian flag in different colours. They would literally hold up a Canadian flag and ask, "Can I get this in green?" They had no idea that it was a national flag.

I have no trouble believing that many Americans still expect to see Japanese running around in hakama/kimono and wearing katana.

[cstaylor]

"Can I get this in green?" They had no idea that it was a national flag.

Wait, Canada is a separate country? I thought it was a place where America imports their singers, actors, comedians, and news anchormen.

[FG Lurker]

"Can I get this in green?" They had no idea that it was a national flag.

Wait, Canada is a separate country? I thought it was a place where America imports their singers, actors, comedians, and news anchormen.

Yeap, we're a separate country. That's why nothing about Canada is taught in American schools.

[cstaylor]

"Can I get this in green?" They had no idea that it was a national flag.

Wait, Canada is a separate country? I thought it was a place where America imports their singers, actors, comedians, and news anchormen.

Yeap, we're a separate country. That's why nothing about Canada is taught in American schools. ]
But we let our cattle slum across the border to Canada so they can pick up nasties like BSE. Of course, no BSE is found in American cattle.

[cstaylor]

[quote="FG Lurker"]That's why nothing about Canada is taught in American schools. ]
That's not true. I learned that Canada is the only country to sack the American capitol.

[FG Lurker]

"Can I get this in green?" They had no idea that it was a national flag.

Wait, Canada is a separate country? I thought it was a place where America imports their singers, actors, comedians, and news anchormen.

Yeap, we're a separate country. That's why nothing about Canada is taught in American schools. ]
But we let our cattle slum across the border to Canada so they can pick up nasties like BSE. Of course, no BSE is found in American cattle.

Nope, no BSE in American cattle. None in Japanese either!

[Charles]

That's why nothing about Canada is taught in American schools. ]
That's not true. I learned that Canada is the only country to sack the American capitol.

That's not true either. It was the British Royal Marines that sacked the capitol.

[FG Lurker]

That's why nothing about Canada is taught in American schools. ]
That's not true. I learned that Canada is the only country to sack the American capitol.

That's not true either. It was the British Royal Marines that sacked the capitol.

The War of 1812. Canada didn't form until 1867, but the troops that sacked Washinton came from British Canada, later just Canada.

Interesting stuff: http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9809/pitch.html

I like the part about how they ate the President's dinner first.

[maraboutslim]

Once the distance from Canada became large, it was not that difficult to convince Americans that most Canadians lived in igloos and used dogsleds. Not all Americans were so clueless of course, but it was a lot more common than it should have been.

Two thoughts. First, the type of Americans that can be convinced of such things do not read newspapers and therefore the type of people who are reading the stories written by newbie reporters are surely more aware of Japan (and Canada) than the people you played with on your trip and the reporters should adjust the level of their stories to take this into consideration. Secondly, being a larger, hipper country, Japan's industrial and pop-culture output is vastly superior to Canada's and so the average American should be more aware of Japanese lifestyle than Canada's. Canada is barely on the world's radar screen while Japan is everywhere.

[FG Lurker]

Once the distance from Canada became large, it was not that difficult to convince Americans that most Canadians lived in igloos and used dogsleds. Not all Americans were so clueless of course, but it was a lot more common than it should have been.

Two thoughts. First, the type of Americans that can be convinced of such things do not read newspapers and therefore the type of people who are reading the stories written by newbie reporters are surely more aware of Japan (and Canada) than the people you played with on your trip and the reporters should adjust the level of their stories to take this into consideration. Secondly, being a larger, hipper country, Japan's industrial and pop-culture output is vastly superior to Canada's and so the average American should be more aware of Japanese lifestyle than Canada's. Canada is barely on the world's radar screen while Japan is everywhere.

The average American is just clueless. Outside of the otaku/anime world Canada has a far bigger influence on American pop-culture than Japan does. Canada also buys a lot more American products than Japan does...Maybe the Japanese are smarter that way.

So, maraboutslim, how does it feel to be an average American?

[maraboutslim]

The average American is just clueless. Outside of the otaku/anime world Canada has a far bigger influence on American pop-culture than Japan does.

Other than Hockey, I can't imagine what you are talking about. Anne of Green Gables? I admit there have been some great Canadian rock musicians (neil young for one), but that's not a "Candian" influence since they were practicing an art form created in America. You can't mean great scientific, economic or literature achievents, or if you are the Nobel committe hasn't noticed lately (hell, the gauchos of univ of cal santa barbara have 5 Nobel's since 2000 while Canada has none!).

Meanwhile, American and (Canadian) lives are filled with output of Japanese society. From our living rooms to our driveways. Do people think they wear Kimono when making anime or blue lazer dvd players and hybrid automobiles? Do they think the dozen famous Japanese major league baseball players walk to the stadium in geta? I don't think so.

So, maraboutslim, how does it feel to be an average American?

It feels warm. I thank my ancestors for being smart enough to immigrate to a place (California) with a great climate, a land blessed with natural resources and rich soil for our food and wine....and, well, you get the idea.

[FG Lurker]

The average American is just clueless. Outside of the otaku/anime world Canada has a far bigger influence on American pop-culture than Japan does.

Other than Hockey, I can't imagine what you are talking about.

My point exactly.

[maraboutslim]

The average American is just clueless. Outside of the otaku/anime world Canada has a far bigger influence on American pop-culture than Japan does.

Other than Hockey, I can't imagine what you are talking about.

My point exactly.

Your point is that Canada's influence is so great and yet a well educated news junky like myself can't think of anything influential that's (uniquely) Canadian? You may think it proves I'm clueless, but what it really proves is that Canadian influence is non-existant.