Tat Tat Tat it up

Here is something that pertains exactly not at all to myself, and yet still manages to infuriate me.
Tattoos.

I am not going to say I am for or against them because personally I don't really care. But what I can't stand is the blatant racism towards people that have them. Recently in Japan, a man employed by the city of Osaka showed his tattoo to a child. What the tattoo was, they never said, but what entailed...After hearing of this story, the Osaka mayor demanded to know who on his force, employed by the government anywhere, in any position in Osaka, who had body ink. Now this already infringes upon the rights of people. And to take it a step further the Osaka city mayor, Toru Hashimoto, just said they may as well quit now. It is currently implied that he is looking fire anyone with a tattoo, but of course there is a certain legal battle. How will he get his workers to survey as to whether they have tattoos or not? He is holding promotion above their heads. He states that anyone who fails to answer the survey will be withheld from all promotion possibilities.
Toru Hashimoto is probably the most active politician in Japan and does do some decent things for Osaka, and then apparently some radical things: tattoos, ending relations with the red cross which provides much of the disaster relief to many victims, such as for Fukushima last March. And additionally he is an advocate of dismantling the Tokyo government. He feels it holds too much power and that to dismantle it and start afresh would be in its best interest as it can't but last another 3-5 year (quote).

So what is next?
They have now put forth a motion where any teachers in the employment of Osaka government will have to answer if they have tattoos or not. Remember this does not affect me or my job. I am tattoo free. But the blatant criminalization for freedom of expression is so overwhelming that one cannot help but to be infuriated with the closed-mindedness of the Osaka government. The movement for teacher is luckily facing a lot of opposition from the board for good reason and is in an unpassing stalemate currently.

Tattoos have long been a source of stereotypes and even fear in Japan, as they have long been related to the yakuza, the gang population in Japan. I can't tell you much about gang related tattoos other than that apparently they exist. The situation is probably highly similar to tattoos in the American gang scenarios. Regardless, the yakuza inspire fear in much of the Japan population. And seeing tattoos only increases the knowledge of the person, the affiliation and that fear. And the best way to see tattoos? Get naked. No really. As people began to take notice of these tattoos at public bath houses and onsens, their clientele began to express their worries and take their patronage elsewhere. Action was taken, a rarity for Japan. The public naked places put a ban on anyone entering with tattoos. This means regular Joe with a MOM tattoo can't go either. Why? Because they had to make it fair. They cannot just ban the yakuza that is illegal and infringing upon rights, so they had to make it everybody to be politically correct. At least they got that bit right.

The above is an example of some Japanese yakuza body art. There isn't necessarily one image they stick to but more over a style of images.

AN UPDATE!
So 6 people who admitted that they had tattoos on the survey were recently fired from their positions.

For Rent

In America we rent DVDs. In Japan there seems to be no limit on things you can rent.

From any given DVD store where you rent the latest Harry Potter movie or what have you, you can also rent the latest CD's to burn and make copies of at your home, or the latest manga or a whole series of manga, and of course their infamous porn. To rent a DVD here it costs about 150 yen to rent a not so new release for about a week and twice that to rent a new one. I actually cant say how much it costs to rent CD's or manga, but I feel like the manga price might be a bit much either way since you can simply go to a good number of cafes and read the manga for free there. Of course you would have to show patronage in some other way, namely coffee. Interestingly Japan does have a bit of a problem with piracy, but it seems not to the degree of the united states...or Korea. The rental business, open 24-7, is still a well sought out place on any given Friday or Saturday night. They often have decently large stores for a place in Japan and I would even say larger than your local Blockbuster store. Their DVDs are largely Japanese as to be expected but there is a surprising amount of foreign films there, and not just American. I see a very good number of BBC originals and French and German ones as well. Korean ones are also present but a bit less popular (Asian competition and all). This is because Japanese rental businesses have to purchase the Japanese DVDs to rent them out. But they do not have to purchase a good number of the foreign films. It seems that the film industry, as least in America, will give them the films but in return they get to claim a certain amount of the profit from each rental.

One of the more gaijin related things that you can rent however is none of the above. A great many gaijins come to Japan and think of one thing (for girls): kimonos. You can rent kimonos. Of course they prices can still be pretty expensive, especially if you are looking in the wrong direction. It also depends where you rent it from.  If you rent it in the Gion district of Kyoto (the large traditional and shopping district) of course it will be more expensive. And sometimes you rent them and they are almost in equal price to one you can purchase and take home with you. Additionally people often rent ones that are extremely low quality, such are they are made of polyester and not silk or cotton. And face it if you rented a cotton one and it is not summer you are being equally ripped off. You will be looked at very strangely indeed. Of course you might be looked at strangely regardless, because after all you are still a gaijin in a kimono. These kimonos-for-rent are often much more colorful and flashy than one a Japanese person might own so as to cater to the western fashion of colors.
Personally, as much as I think it is amusing for gaijins to rent these kimonos (I probably find it amusing because no matter how hard I might try I will never look that part wearing one) and wear them about, I think this is a splendid business venture. It is really an excellent way to discover some traditional aspects and
culture of Japan.

Quake!

It takes exactly seconds for nearly every persons cell phone to go off in all manner of noise on any given railway car alerting them to a quake.
A rather unnerving thing to be sure. But a necessary one in Japan.

Living out in Kansai region, my experiences with such incidents are few and far between. I am relatively safe from the majority of earthquakes. But living in Japan all phones come with a handy little alert that notifies you of an earthquake so as you can take any necessary precautions. Sure you might think what good is a phone alert going to do if the focal point is right beneath you. Well not much. It will even probably be late. But for those who are city and prefectures away that will still feel it, albeit to a much lesser degree, it serves as a good warning.
These warning actually don't go off for every bump Japan has ever faced now, because really at that point phones would not stop ringing! Typically they will alert you to 5 or greater earthquakes, or if you have a more advanced warning system it might tell you any 3 or greater detection.

So now a little more about earthquakes.
Being in Japan I probably with in all reason should have experienced no less than 10 earthquakes. But it appears that I am especially deaf to the noise of their rumbling. No really, I have felt none save for one. This one had an epicenter in Nagoya and was probably a level 1.5 or 2 when it reached me out in Osaka. It all happened when I was at work and I only remember feeling dizzy and thinking man I should have had a bigger breakfast or man it is way too hot out if I am feeling like this. It was really nothing out of the ordinary. No desks shaking, papers falling, or even phone alerts. The only thing that was off was that everyone else had exactly the same sense. So we all looked around a bit and noticed that each other was looking around to see if the room was swaying or if it was our head. After we realized that we were all under the same dizzy spell, we turned on the TV and checked the recent news. Sure enough there was an earthquake a few hundred kilometers away. So for anyone who thinks the ground will rattle and crack...well maybe it will be that way for a greater earthquake, but to my experience it was just a slow gentle rocking or swaying that was unnoticeable until you realize that it wasn't really your head all along.

Grim news.
So of course after the great earthquake up north in 2011, they bolstered the earthquake programs and reinforced their buildings. When I came here all of the schools I taught at were under construction for additional earthquake support. What they also did was amp up their program for predictions and research. What they found was grim in the news for Tokyo. They have forecasted a great earthquake to strike Japan's capital in the next four years with a 7 or greater magnitude. This news brought a lot of hysteria and a bunch of people saying that it will happen tonight. Of course, it hasn't happened yet.

A week of Gold

Japan really likes their holidays. So much that they decided to have a bunch of them all at once and call it a week of holidays. This boon was like pure gold to the ordinary working class, who as we all know work crazy hours far into the night and don't understand the meaning of a 40 hour work week, and is thus called Golden Week. Real original right? Well at least that story was.

It is true that Golden week is a conglomeration of holidays the most prominent and known about is likely Childrens Day, which is held on May 5th. This day is celebrated by flying koi nobori which are koi (carp) windsock kites. These kites can actually get to be pretty expensive ( several thousand dollars) and the different fish along the pole each have different meanings. The largest of which is a rather recent addition and is a plan sea blue or deep blue windsock which represents the sea, descending along the pole are black red blue and green fish which in turn symbolize the father, mother, and their sons. I believe there are also a few more recent additions to represent daughters. The reason that daughters were not originally symbolized along this pole with everyone else in the family is that previously this day was known as Boys Day. Girls day was Hinamatsuri and boys day was Tango no Sekku (Feast of Banners...Feast of Crows? anyone?). On the current childrens' day, it is custom for parents or grandparents to gift their children, regardless of boy or girl.

Childrens day is considered the last holiday of Golden Week with the other holidays falling on the 29th of April, the 3rd and the 4th of May. The other holidays are seemingly less important and if you ask a normal Japanese they might have a hard time remembering the significance of all the days.

Today May 4th is known as Greenery Day. Though the day has been changed and moved about many times a fact remains that it has always been consistently held in the spring time to better commune with the growing of plants and the celebration of all the new green life. What do Japanese people do on this day? Absolutely nothing. Well a few traditional ones might tend to their garden or perhaps plant something and spruce of the life of their patios. It is a bit like Arbor Day in the States... only we really attempt to celebrate it with the young ones and will plant trees and such. However due to the hodge podge of holidays the significance of this one perhaps gets a bit jumbled and over looked.

May 3rd is now known as the constitution memorial day in Japan. To celebrate, what else, the constitution. Not much is done on this day either except to make the holi-week another day longer. Perhaps some might visit the museum which holds the constitution or some other equally important democracy inspiring sigil.

April 29th has been changed a few times and has finally settled on being known as the emperors birthday. The emperor for which this holiday stood is a few decades past, and the holiday is inconsistent with the current emperors birthday, but the day is more of a reflection of the emperor and his lengthy rule during the wide array of events that manifested and dignified his reign.

NOW WHAT REALLY HAPPENS
Most kids just hang out with their families for a week and might go and visit relatives. It is a big family oriented holiday. You will find many places that closed during this holiday, restaurants, shops, stores of all kinds. Though, in popular areas you will find some places open; for instance if you go and visit a very well known temple, many of the omiyagi shops will be open to make a quick yen. As it turns out, temple going is a very popular venture for most families during this holiday. Many will travel to places like Ise to pay homage to one of the greatest temples in Japan and the birth place of Amaterasu the sun Goddess as well as the sun itself.
This family practice of gathering during the holidays continues to when children are grown. A friend of mine, past her college years, went home to her family during Golden Week all of whom then went and visited Tottori together.

Suffer your Sickness

Something that I have found to be both true in Korea and Japan so far is that they will go to work even when they are dying. Or I can"t possibly think of another name to call it by from what I have seen of their symptoms.
So even though they are hacking and coughing every few minutes and sniffing (because blowing your nose makes you unpopular) every time they breathe, they deem themselves as work ready and suitable to interact with the exterior world. Do they hate man kind that much so as they want to infect every last one of them with what is clearly the plague? Possibly. Do they love their work that much that they find themselves drawn to it even from their deathbeds? Not really. But they find themselves in a position where they do not want to be weak when it is known that certain things are expected of them. They feel like they are the gears in the clockwork that keep the hands turning and you must not allow time to stop. Also they are afraid of being a disappointment.
So where does that lead us?
To several factors actually. For instance, doctors offices. No they don't really go to them. It seems that doctors offices are for the elderly an children and for struggling gaijins like myself. But then again you would never know. Because of the mentality of the typical Japanese white collar worker, doctors offices don't really receive much patronage during what we would consider normal hours of operation. So instead they have  adjusted their hours to accommodate night patrons who are too busy at work to go to the doctor during a sensible hour. Doctors office are normally open in the morning and will close around midday, let's say from noon to four, and will then again re-open from five to eight. So even a doctor visit is not even a good enough excuse to miss work for most Japanese workers.
So what do they do?
They suffer. And try to infect as many people as they possibly can. They continue to go to work and don on a little face mask to designate them among the ranks of the infested and continue to cough and hack and sniff much to the paranoia of their coworkers who could also risk infection. It seems it does not matter how bad the illness, they are always prepared to go to work. I even know some teachers who went to work when they had the flu. I stayed far away from them that day. As a result of their suffering they kind of expect you to suffer as well and think of you are near deaths door if you request a day off or a part day off or well anything. So get your facemask ready kids, to work you go!