Cherry blossom! When Sakura flowers perfume the morning sun

For many days I have been thinking of making a post on cherry blossom and the O-hanami festival. At Tokyo part of Japan, the Sakura flowers started blossoming during the early days of April. We were invited to join the O-hanami party that was held at the sakura garden in front of the Yasukuni shrine with the whole family. That was an enlivening event for all of us to socialize with Japanese people.

O-hanami party is conducted at the cherry blossom occasion in Japan. Look at the flowers, drink O-sake (Japanese alcohol), eat and praise the beauty of Sakura flowers are the general activities being done during the O-hanami party. There may be variations in the mode of the parties being conducted. The concept is to praise the magnificence of Sakura flowers. The view of Sakura trees with full of light pink Sakura flowers is really a feast to the eyes. So appealing are the views that even while rushing to the office, it is hard to avoid taking a moment and look at those glamorous bunches of flowers.

Why, even this post is motivated by the alluring sceneries that had caught in the eyes after the start of cherry blossom in Tokyo. The period of end of winter season and the start of spring is marked with the blossoming of sakura flowers. Sakura flower is synonymous to the Japan in one sense. For an outsider like me, Japan could be symbolized to Mount Fuji, Sakura, and Hiroshima-Nagasaki – the three most striking things that come to the mind at first while referring to Japan.

For ages unknown, the sakura has been the most affectionate and adorable for Japanese people. Let me borrow from Nitobe Inazo-san’s ‘Bushido’, to best represent the feelings of Japanese people towards Sakura flowers; “The Yamato spirit is not a tame, tender plant, but a wild – in the sense of natural – growth; it is indigenous to the soil’

The Sakura trees in Komatsugawa garden near to our apartment were leafless till the end of March. Now all of them have turned to look like light pink clouds hanging from the branches. People started come out of the home and spend their leisure at the garden. Children play with the falling flower petals. The chirping sounds of birds are back to the garden.

The most thrilling experience after the O-hanami party was to meet Mrs. Akie Abe, the former first lady of Japan (2006-2007), who is a popular and prominent figure in Japanese political and public life. We were really lucky to have a group family photo with Abe-san. I do not intend to post the group photo before getting her written permission to do so. We were wondering, compared to India, how freely a known personality like Mrs. Abe could walk on the road in Tokyo!

This post may be incomplete without the following lines (again excerpts from ‘Bushido’) by Motoori Norinaga, the famous poet of Edo period;

                                    Isles of blest Japan!

                                            Should your Yamato spirit

                                    Strangers seek to scan,

                                           Say-scenting morn’s sunlit air,

                                           Blows the cherry wild and fair!

Thy spirit walks abroad and turns our swords in our own proper entrails

Suicide is a cry for help. When one feels that the door of the last hope is also closed, and there is nothing left with for them to live in this earth, they, being carried away with uncontrolled emotions may decide to say goodbye to this world. This is how almost all of the suicides happen in Japan too as in any other parts of the world. Academically, this explanation may be enough to start the answer to the related question. In the real world, individual life situations and complex mental processes changes from country to country.

When I read the report on CNN.com on March 2009, "Desperate Japanese head to 'suicide forest'", I related the phenomenon as part of the existing Japanese psyche. In fact, I was reading the book, Bushido at that time and was on an impression that the news appeared in CNN.com/asia is not a new social issue to be discussed with much importance this year only.

For sure, the ever increasing rate of suicide is a social issue in Japan, which needs to be thoroughly analyzed and prevented. Some people in every country may commit suicide and the social and personal reasons behind those acts of self killings changes according to the country. The last two years, we have enough reasons while reading the increased number of suicides.

I read somewhere in the middle of December 2009, that the suicide deaths in Japan has reached around 30198 by the end of November 2009 itself. That is pretty much a huge figure and a figure of concern for the social scientists. Since, 1997, the suicide deaths have crossed the border of 22,000 suicide deaths per year. Since then it has been continuing with a figure some thing around 30,000. It was horrible to hear that the death rate has crossed the 30,000 limit also.

I would like to recollect, some of my life experiences connected with the suicide in Japan. When I was waiting for the train in the morning to head towards the work place, I heard some strange announcements in Japanese language and on those days, the train comes too late, sometimes more than half an hour. Without knowing the actual reasons for the delay of trains, in order to reach the office I would choose to walk from the nearest exit of the station. As I could not understand the full meaning of the announcement in Japanese, some of my friends advised me to look into the display board where the message for the reason of delay will be displayed. If the kanji for personal accident is displayed, it might be a suicide case, and the train will be delayed more. Last year, I have walked at least 4 times as I have seen that message in the display board.

Every time I walk I used to remember the book ‘Bushido’ written by Inazo Nitobe-san. Suicide is institutionalized in Japan! Those institutionalized suicides known as Seppuku or Kappuku commonly called Hara-kiri were different from the ones happening now a days. Still the suicide rate in Japan is one of the highest in the world. For Japan, a country having almost everything to identify with a self pride, a country with the second strongest economy in the world, a country, which is a model to other nations on how to protect citizens rights, a country having a fairly good distribution of wealth system, suicide remains a scar, we need to agree.

I am not competitive at this stage to write analytical reasons behind this tendency of self killing. But one thing is sure that suicide is neither a matter of pride nor a way to escape from the personal defeats as observed in the Samurai period. In all countries, suicides happen, but when it happens more in a country like Japan, there may be reasons apart from merely economical as that mentioned in CNN.com/asia and it becomes a matter of concern.

It may not be the spirits walking around and turns the swords to their own proper entrails. There may be reasons that spread to the victim’s helplessness to deal with minute fluctuations in the external world that affect the internal world too. Education that focus on self manifestation, apart from simple school syllabus will help to a good extent to reinforce the positive life motivating elements in new generation. That will help to realize when the spirits start walking abroad and turns the sword to one’s own bowels.

Thoughts on Japan, society and Japanese people

Walking down the street, we had an interesting discussion with us. How came the Japanese so different from other East Asians? Discussed in many social forums may be thousands of times by veterans, these topics are still alive, but I particularly had nothing new to add to my opinion. Choi bun-san had something new to tell me.

Being from Korea, he knows well that the physical difference between most of the East Asians and Japanese is almost zero, especially with the northern Chinese and Koreans. The looks are similar, but when he says the attitude and behavior is different I had to agree. How can I, better than him be able to differentiate similar looking people. The race is same, the physical appearances are same, but there are still elements that separate Japanese people from others.

The culture, the language, the behavior, the response towards events etc are different. This does not mean that Japanese people are free from all kinds of bad manners or they are extra ordinarily obedient or disciplined. When I say from my own experience that Japan is clean, people are disciplined, law obedient, well-mannered, free from social crimes, I never mean that Japanese society is one hundred percent free from all kinds of dirt, indiscipline, law breakings, ill-manners, anti-social activities etc.

There may be bad people in Japan as it is with any society. There are dirty things, there are unclean areas, there are violations of law and rules, there are aggression in the public places, there are murders, rape, child abuse, there are drunken people shouting in public places, hundreds of cases of anti-social activities reported from Japan and thus goes the list of all bad things in society just the same way like in any other society. Japanese people are not extra-ordinary people in the sense that they are just like the same kind of human race as is with any other human population. Japanese people are extra-ordinary in their attitude to eliminate or free themselves from many of the evils in our societies. That attitude makes the difference. That attitude of Japanese people reflects in their whole education system and social fabric.

It is just that! But this is the great thing with any human population. The attitude and nature of majority of Japanese people are warm, welcome, pleasant and optimistic towards others and their own life. Is it not the same with other east Asians? Are they not warm and pleasant? Of course, Yes. They are also good and their societies are also warm. Just the percent of that elevated class of human beings are more in Japan. This makes the difference and projects Japan in a well frame to the rest of the world.

Choi bun-san had his own versions to justify his observations. I have very few opportunities to know more deep about the real Japanese psyche.

Who is bad and who is right? How can we judge people without any prejudice? When we make standards for measuring or observing or judging other characters, always those standards will be affected by our own views. Then those standards cease to be neutral. In fact, there may not be any neutral standards by which we can measure human beings and their behavior. We are not better judges of anybody.

It is heavily raining outside as I started recollecting the conversations with Choi bun-san. Today’s News paper head lines carry the news of war planes reached from America to Japan.

Japanese society has been peaceful and quiet for many years. The life here is also peaceful and calm. Japanese society is well taught to respect each other and respect strangers. The Bushido culture teaches to respect the enemy too. Historical evidences shows the fighting communities within Japan respected each other in war.

Napoleon Bonaparte, after capturing Russia, decided to return back without touching China. The reason he told to his military was that it is a sleeping monster. Sleeping does not mean weakness. Japan is not weak only because Japanese people love peace.

Japanese discipline – obedience to the law and order in Japan

Discipline is part of Japanese culture. It is neatly interwoven to the psyche of each Japanese citizen. It won’t be much exaggerating if I say Japanese people are obsessed with discipline.

There was an interview for foreign staff at the work place last year and I was being asked by the interviewer ‘what is your impression about Japan and its people?’

Well, that was an interesting question to answer. Almost naturally, without thinking I answered ‘Discipline of Japanese people’. The interview board was interested to know more about my impression on the discipline of Japanese society. One of the members asked me the spelling of the word discipline. He wanted to check the exact meaning of discipline in his language translator device. He asked me and I spelled D-I-S-C-I-P-L-I-N-E.

Probably ‘discipline’ is a bit difficult word for many Japanese people to pronounce. Most of them make mistake in writing discipline and they may write it as ‘disipirin’. The L and R confusion of Japanese people is very well known to them as well as to the foreigners in Japan. Japanese language has only one sound for R and L, the sound of which is in between RA and LA. Then, to many Japanese people, the ‘Light’ will be the ‘Right’ and ‘Law obedient’ will be the ‘Raw obedient’. I remember reading a site ‘Old brains learn New tricks’ in which the difficulty of Japanese military to distinguish L and R is expressed though an example when the GIs in the Pacific theater chose passwords overrun with R's , words like "rabble-rouser" or "rubbernecker." The reason was the Japanese people have a 'ell of a time with R, which they often pronounce as "ell."

He got the meaning of discipline in Japanese and we discussed the discipline and culture of Japanese society. The culture of a well disciplined Japanese society is known throughout the world. In school, the teachers used to tell us about the Japanese discipline and the benefits the Japanese society derived out of their discipline. Getting inside the train, getting out of the train, walking to the escalator (Eskureta in Japanese is modified form of escalator) are some of the occasions we encounter the discipline of Japanese people. I expressed my good feelings on the discipline of Japanese society to the interviewers.

By definition, the discipline is the training and control of oneself and one's conduct, usually for personal improvement. Since long, Japanese society had implemented discipline to its social structure as one of its essential constituent element. The Japanese Kanji character for discipline is 訓練. The Japanese samurai culture was based on discipline as the word indicates. Discipline refers to systematic instruction given to a disciple. In one sense the Bushido culture was programmed or instructed social system. Of course those instructions have been proved good to the present day Japanese society.

The obedience of Japanese people has its origin in the disciplined behavior which was instructed from childhood. Small kids will be trained by parents for good public behavior. The obedience to the law, the obedience to the system, the good manners in public behavior etc will be continued and reinforced through teaching in schools.

The culture of Bushido stressed on the importance of discipline. Discipline in English means ‘to instruct a person to follow particular rule, or ‘to adhere to a certain "order." This adherence to the order and the obedience to the order from higher ranking officers made the Japanese military one of the significant forces during World War II. I don’t want to enter into a controversy whether Japanese military was right or wrong during Second World War.

Coming to daily life experience in Japan, I have been observing the public discipline of Japanese people especially in railway stations. The pin-drop silence in railway stations in Tokyo is a live example of the discipline and good manners of Japanese people. The discipline may not be always corresponds to the education only. It depends on many factors one of which may be the level of education. Education does not mean simply holding a university degree, but with a more meaningful explanation, manifestation of the self as 'Swami Vivekananda' emphasized. When the education arms an individual with a powerful social tool ‘Empathy’, the entire society and nation become its beneficiary. Empathy is what many of us lack.

The discipline of Japanese children is incredible! Children too are learned to obey public behavior and rules. Learned from elders, they are not behind any of the adults and on many occasions better than the adults in observing obedience and discipline.

‘Discipline’ is one of the best characteristics of Japanese society, which I admire and would like to proclaim to the rest of the world.

BUSHIDO – an expedition to the enigmatic twirls of Japanese psyche

I have been reading through the book Bushido written by Inazo Nitobe. First published in 1900 written originally in English, the author of Bushido was Under Secretary General of the League of Nations.

One of my Japanese friends Mr. Hiranuma Yoshiaki suggested this book for reading, when I expressed my desire to learn more about the history of Japanese culture, mind and behavior. Mr. Yoshi is a nice gentleman working in firm engaged in education planning and research.

I have been almost with full admiration and surprise ever since I heard of Japan and the nature of Japanese people from a friend in my native village who was working with a Japanese bank at New Delhi. It is a coincidence that I got a chance to live in Japan.

My first encounter with a Japanese dates back to 12 April 1996, when I visited UN headquarters at Geneva. I was in Switzerland to visit a fiber optic cable production machine manufacturer at Lousanne, 100 km away from Geneva. The Japanese national was very happy to meet an Asian at Geneva. We became friends easily and talked about the culture and society of India and Japan. She was alone on her travel to Europe. That also excited me as generally even the highly educated Indian women are very conservative in nature and would not dare to explore the world alone.

It all surprised me to think what is special with Japanese people? Who taught them to become self disciplined? Japanese people are so disciplined by themselves that they do not need many of the external policing or separate rules to keep the society and environment clean. Majority of Japanese people are self ruled with high morals. There may be few exceptions as is with every culture and society. But the percentage of good people – that makes the difference to a society.

Majority of the Japanese people are not seriously religious. Religion has taken a third or fourth place to many of the Japanese. God is not a great thing in Japan. Still Japan has the lowest crime rate. Low records of violence. High morals at public places and high levels of self discipline are observed in Japan. Japan prompts to think: Is religion a necessity to make a good society? No! my experience in Japan tempts me to say this.

Coming back to Bushido, the book has good forward by Yoshio Hatano who was former Ambassador to the UN. The book is titled as BUSHIDO – The soul of Japan – An exposition of Japanese thought. My friend recommended a bilingual version of the book. The Japanese translation is done by Tokuhei Suchi.

It is interesting to mention how excited the author himself was when he travelled through the history of Japan and explored fine reasons to justify many of the present day Japanese behavior. Though it may seems his over anxiousness to prove his nation and people extra ordinarily, whoever lived in Japan and have chances to interact with Japanese people can not possess much different concepts as expressed in Bushido.

Woven with the history, psychology, culture and social systems Bushido is more or equally beautiful like a Japanese kimono. If borrowed from Bushido, Japanese psyche is represented by Sakura flowers!

I could complete reading the 299 page book. Now reading it once more gives more insight to minute details of reason. Bushido is interesting and a must read book. I may explore more on the Japanese psyche by reading Bushido once more.

J-pop music performance at Funabashi by MYST

Funabashi is a lively city, which I realized when I used to travel between Sakura and Kiba. Sometimes I get down at Funabashi and change the train to Nishi Funabashi on the way to Kiba.

Today, for purchasing along with a friend from Singapore, we chose Funabashi. From Higashi Ojima I travelled to Motoyawata in Shinjuku line. From there changing to JR Sobu line, reached to Funabashi. I had to wait 5 minutes for my friend. Just coming out of the Funabashi station’s exit, I could see a group of young Japanese men clad in traditional samurai kimono, singing and telling stories in Japanese. At first I could not understand the subject, but the whole scene was interesting as it was very new to me.

The main actor wearing the Samurai cloths had one sword at one side. While telling story he used to take out the sword and flashed for a while on air. It created a scene of Japanese feudal period and I was totally immersed in their activities. The visual images of feudal Japan that I got while reading the book Bushido written by Nitobe Inazo came out to mind again by seeing the group’s acting.

One girl distributed a notice of the event. It is written MYST on the top of the notice which also looked exactly like a Kanji letters. I could take some snaps of them. The main actor turned a singer suddenly. I thought of J-Pop music by hearing his songs.

Probably that was the fusion music. The group wanted to mix the pop music with the traditional Japanese way. It was very nice a samurai turned into a pop singer! The concept is excellent, though some tradition lovers won’t like the idea. I guess (I can only guess at present) the whole show was a promotion of their music CDs.

The whole show evoked feelings of Samurai Japan transforming to a westernized society by absorbing western music and culture in to theirs. This transformation was not a blind mimic of western culture. Japan by absorbing the western styles made their own style suitable to the land of sun and its people. J-pop is the best example of such fusion of west and east.

The MYST group can be accessible through this link; http://www.kagami.tv/

Till my friend reached, I enjoyed their performance. Right at the station exit, the map of Funabashi city is displayed which is convenient for new people to plan and locate their destinations before starting for a tour in Funabashi. Such guide maps are available in all Japanese cities which make the life easier in Japan especially for foreigners.