Japan - A "Very Traditional" Culture

Days 1726 - 1732
Sunday, December 9 - Saturday, December 15, 2012    

Day 1726 ()
Sunday, December 9, 2012

Went to Tokyo today to collect an engine fan for my car back in Jamaica. My sister said it is acting up. A friend of mine has a decent link for car parts. So he brought me to the dealer today where he purchased it for me. I had a link when I was living in Okayama but that is way to far for me now.

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Day 1727 ( Japan - A "Very Traditional" Culture )
Monday, December 10, 2012

A good amount of my students today told me that they saw me on TV Last Friday. All the teachers were surprised. I think many Japanese teachers have no time to watch TV, as they are hyper-busy.

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Japan - A "Very Traditional" Culture


Quite a few persons who don't really know much about Japan, have asked me at some point, "what is the religion of the Japanese". The general view is that they are 80% Buddhist and 19% Shinto (Ancestral worshipers), 1% Christian. This might be in part true but generally, most Japanese people don't really subscribe to any religion. Almost everything is done out of tradition. They are doing what they do, because that is the norm and that was what they were taught to do. So they are mostly agnostics. Ask any Japanese what religion they belong to. Almost all will say none. Even if they said they belonged to one, only a few are committed any at all. They are however committed to the traditional way of doing things. And they still do a lot of Shinto and Buddhism looking stuff, heck they even drop Christmas, Valentines and Halloween into the mix as well. Because the business men make a lot of money from it.


With the exception of the Buddhist monks and the other hardcore dudes who take the religion thing seriously, Japanese are generally not a religious people. There is no set day of worship or any pray every Wednesday kinda thing going on here. The only thing that seem culturally mandatory is for persons to visit a shrine every single new years day to pray. I have no idea what or who they pray to. When I did karate, my main sensei wanted me to come with them in the blistering cold every year to go and pray. I of course refused every single time. Oh and work is also another thing that would seem like a religion to them.

We can't blame them though can we? Aren't we all pretty much victims to our culture, race, era and tradition? Its the same thing.

In any country, whatever religion they profess to be, some cultural thing is going to play a major role in how the people behave. The Orthodox Christians in Italy will do some stuff that the ones in Madagascar don't do.  The Buddhist in China will do some stuff that only Chinese Buddhist does. So there is nothing inherently wrong with the Japanese doing what they do, its all a part of how they grew up. even if some of the stuff are not to our liking as foreigners. Including the xenophobia. I don't think xenophobia is learnt though. This is a very natural thing if we can think outside the box. I'm not saying it is good, but its natural.

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Day 1728 (  )
Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Normal day at work today. But only had 4 classes so that was good. More students were telling me that they saw me on TV.

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Day 1729 ( )
Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Another normal day at work, nothing special.

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Day 1730 ( )
Thursday, December 13, 2012

Another boring work day at work. Then had my evening student. Even more students were telling me they saw me on TV. Every where I turn almost literally.

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Day 1731 ( On TV Again Today - Sekai Banzuke  )
Friday, December 14, 2012

Work ended a bit early today. I went back to my apartment for a little then to YMCA. When I finished at YMCA, I saw myself on TV live for the second or third time maybe. This was my 5th public television appearance. Surprisingly, 4 of them were this year. The other 1 was 2009 back in Okayama. The channels I have been on thus far are:

NHK

TBS

Nihon Terebi

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Day 1732 (  )
Saturday, December 15, 2012

Went to YMCA today and di 2 classes with the mostly rotten YMCA kids. Jeez. That was it for today.