What's Wendy been up to?

So, what’s been happening in our edge of ordinary? A few things!

It's hydrangea season. We get to look at
this every day outside our lounge window.

School finished

I guess that qualifies as interesting news? Our middle son graduated on Friday, so for the first time in many years we’ll have just one child at school, and he’s only got two years left. Empty nesting is just around the corner!

Our middle son isn’t sure what’s next, so we’ve also walked into a period that holds a lot of uncertainty. Over the last several months we’ve agonised over this, but I think we’re at a place now that we’re a bit more comfortable with the uncertainty.

Being married to a teacher, also means that from now he starts to wind down. Our family holidays start in just under four weeks, so the next few weeks I’ll be busy preparing to walk away from work for that time (it’s especially tricky taking holidays when you’re involved in time-sensitive work like social media, but I’m committed to taking a break).

Uncertainty in Japan

We sit, not just with personal uncertainty at this point, but societal uncertainty. Tokyo (as well as several other prefectures) are still under a state of emergency, at least until June 20. Who knows if that will continue? We've been under SOE since the start of the year, barring three weeks in spring. Additionally, there is the uncertainty surrounding the Tokyo Olympics. 

The former mostly affects us in terms of making summer plans. We’d love to book a camping trip or two, but facilities in Tokyo are closed and facilities outside of Tokyo are closed to those coming from Tokyo! We've got a couple of leads for private arrangements that might be doable, so watch this space :-)

The Olympics doesn’t affect us much, though we do still hold Paralympic tickets. It was very sad, however, to hear that the director of the accounting department of the Japan Olympic Committee jumped in front of a train the other day in an apparent suicide. Holding the Olympics is a contentious issue in Japan and those charged with making it go ahead are sadly saddled with a lot of stress.

Editing a novel

Yep, I've been copy editing a novel over the last four months. The only way I could fit that into my life was to do it on Saturdays, which wasn't ideal, and meant it took a long time. I estimate at least 60 hours. It's my first time to edit a long work of fiction (actually the first time to edit any lengthy book), so it took a while to find my feet. But I really did enjoy it. The author is a close friend and his reason for writing is similar to my reason for writing on this blog: to explain to others a less-than-common life experience that we've each lived. 

I think I also enjoyed having a long-term project during this pandemic that I could look forward to doing on weekends. When the state of emergency stretched on interminably and there wasn't much to look forward to on weekends, having a spare-time occupation like this was very therapeutic.

In some respects it was a lot easier than editing short, non-fiction articles, like I do at work. Because facts aren't set in stone, but also because a short article has to have a pretty tight structure and be a complete unit in itself. So I was able to edit much of it a lot faster in the end. Oh, and I had a very appreciative author, that always makes work much more enjoyable.

What's next? I don't think I'll be taking on another extra-curricular editing job for a while, I don't have a lot of spare time and editing once a week does tend to disrupt the flow, making it not the most efficient way of editing a longer work. But if someone had a paying job, I might consider it! 

However, it does open out the possibility of supplementing our income some time in the future, as editing is something that can be done part-time and from my dining room, wherever that is. Also writing coach is something else that is a possibility. It is good to have this experience under my belt now, and know that the skills I have gained from short-article fiction editing do transfer quite well, especially to copy editing. Developmental editing might be a bit more difficult (think: story arc, character development etc.)

As for long-term weekend projects? I'm thinking about maybe picking up a sewing project. We'll see.

Big stuff going on in Japan that you might not know about

I have been shocked a couple of times recently when I've realised that friends outside of Japan aren't aware of some of the big things happening in Japan this year. I guess I've gotten so immersed in being here that I'm not sure what it's like for those who aren't? Here are a few things going on in Japan that you may or may not be aware of:

• The emperor has abdicated and will step down from that role next Tuesday after 30 years of service. His eldest son will take up the role the next day. This is a big transition for this ceremonial role. It's the first abdication in over 200 years.
• Japan has a rather unique system (as far as I'm aware) of naming the period of the reign of an emperor before or as the new emperor takes up that role. That name is then used in the calendar system. So, this year is not just 2019, it is also "Heisei 31." The new era name was announced on April 1 and will be Reiwa.
• There is a one-off public holiday on May 1 to mark the occasion.
• That day is in the middle of a number of holidays collectively dubbed "Golden Week". So, there are an unprecedented 10-days of holidays starting Saturday. No one really knows what to expect. People have been told to check things like the schedules of doctors. 
• We've discovered that a 10-day holiday makes some Japanese people feel uncomfortable. They don't usually go away for lengthy holidays, it's not a part of the culture. There has been speculation as to why people are unhappy, but I'm not sure that our foreigners have a real understanding. This article cites a number of reasons why people might be unhappy. It concludes with this quote: 

Seishu Sato, a 31-year-old finance worker, told AFP: "To be honest, I don't know how to spend the time when we are suddenly given 10 days of holidays."

Another couple of things that you may or may not know is that Japan is also preparing to host some major sporting events in the next 16 months:

• 2019 Rugby World Cup
• 2020 Olympics and Paralympics

We've been seeing the impact of those two events on everyday life here. 

With pressure on restaurants to be non-smoking, one of the popular chains that we sometimes dine at has gone totally smoke-free. 

Not a great shot, but part of one platform
that has construction all over it, with the
accompanying stripes to warn of danger.

We're not near any venues, but as I've travelled about the city on trains, I've also seen a lot of construction on train stations. It seems they are especially working on accessibility. One station that I often use didn't have good wheelchair access at one entrance, I'm pleased to say that has now changed. That's also good news for anyone toting a heavy suitcase across town.

Our athletics season has also been impacted. Usually, many of the meets are at a Japanese venue near the bay, but this year, due to construction related to the Olympics, we've not been able to use that venue for most of the meets.

So there you go—a few "local" current events. Because of my work in publishing and social media, I've been quite immersed in thinking about these things. Researching, editing, and writing about these events means that they're very much in the forefront of my mind, hence my surprise when someone who's never been to Japan and doesn't have a big interest in the country doesn't know.

Excerpts from our April newsletter

Excerpts from our April prayer letter. Again, if you'd like the full version (which includes eight photos), please message or email me.

The beach where we camped last week.

End of an Era

This month marks a historic occasion in Japan. After 31 years, Japan’s 85-year-old emperor is stepping aside to allow his 59-year-old son Crown Prince Naruhito to take the throne. This is the first time in over 200 years (the last time was 1817).

In an address to the nation two years ago, Emperor Akihito said, “When I consider that my fitness level is gradually declining, I am worried that it may become difficult for me to carry out my duties as the symbol of the State with my whole being as I have done until now.” 

The role of the emperor in Japan is entirely representative and ceremonial, with no political power at all. However, he is held with a great deal of respect by the nation. Before WW2 the emperor was held to be divine, but the current constitution, written under Allied occupation, prohibited that practise.

The traditional Japanese calendar is tied to the reign period of the current emperor. Each time a new emperor begins to rule, a new counting of the years begins and the period acquires a new name. For example, 2019 has begun as Heisei 31, meaning the 31st year of the Heisei era. The new era will begin on May 1, and the name for that era, usually announced after the death of the emperor, was announced today: Reiwa.

A public holiday has been declared to celebrate the new emperor’s ascension. That means that there will be 10 public holidays in a row, as it’s in the middle of a collection of holidays dubbed “Golden week”. CAJ doesn’t take most of these, but services like doctors, gyms, and  the garbage collectors will take a number of them.

OMF Japan’s social media this month will focus on the changes that have happened in Japan over the last 31 years in relation to culture and mission work. It will be an illuminating journey. We’d love you to drop by our Facebook and Instragram pages and learn more about this fascinating country. 

Welcoming new people

We have many new students arriving at CAJ in the first week of April: 22 of them! That means that our community will be hard at work helping them to get used to way we do things. However, it will be a challenge, as we are only 11 weeks away from the end of the school year!

Why so many right now? Most of these families have waited until their children have finished their current year in Japanese schools—which start in April and finish in March. (For those teachers out there, that means only a two-week break between school years. It has pros and cons, but seems to work here. Their longer break is in August, at the height of summer.)

For younger students, it will be a time of getting to know their classmates, rather than trying to catch up on the work that the others have done. CAJ teachers try to only give them marks based on what they have done here. For older students, there will be an added burden of catching up small things here and there, usually a maths topic.

Please pray that our school community would welcome the new students and that they would find friends quickly. Pray, too, for their parents to get to know other parents and ask for help when they need it. 

Some prayer points:

• Continue to pray for new financial support pledges and one-off donations that add up to 100% support each month. Praise that thus far in 2019 we've received 105% of our support needs.
• For rest. We're feeling weary. David's had three colds since we returned and Wendy's struggled with stress-related symptoms.
• For the right person to be appointed high school principal of CAJ.
• For our Japanese church—that they will grow in enthusiasm for missions and for wisdom for the leaders encouraging involvement.
• Pray for new students (22) at CAJ in April.
• Praise for our camping trip and a week off school at the end of March.
• For our youngest boy as he celebrates another birthday this month.

Sleep deprived nation

Japan is a sleep deprived nation. If you live here and travel around on trains, there's no need to look at a study to know that. Morning or night, people fall asleep in all sorts of public places. I don't normally like to take photos of people sleeping in public, but in the last week I've had two opportunities to do so without embarrassing anyone.

People often stop their cars or trucks (especially work vehicles) and sleep in them, often with the engines running. This gentleman was in a work vehicle, stopped next to a local park with a cloth over his face. The time was 6pm.

This lady, I presume, was having a cat-nap. It was at a local food court at 10.30 on Monday morning.

Many people, especially men, come home very late from work (8 is early). School children also often are doing cram classes or sports training late into the evening. It isn't unusual to see kids on the trains after 9pm. Indeed it seems that many pre-school kids are kept up late too. Having a 7/7.30 bedtime for our young boys seemed extraordinarily early to my Japanese friends. So exhaustion seems pervasive in the whole lifestyle here. It's no surprise people are sleeping any time they get the chance.

Napping in public is actually a sign of diligence in Japan, this article says. Indeed it seems to be quite the acceptable thing, as long as you don't sprawl. It's not uncommon to see people asleep on the train falling to one side or other. That isn't so acceptable.

But apparently lost sleep is costing Japanese economy billions. I'm not sure how they figured this out. But this article says:

[the researchers] tapped into government and large company data sets on sleep duration to estimate defined costs. It also predicted the future economic effects if the trend continued. Absenteeism (people not showing up for work), employees not working (people taking breaks), and presenteeism (people being present but working at a sub-optimal level) were the reasons traced for the unproductivity.

It is a significant problem, obviously, and not just for economic reasons. This Japan Times article gives an example of someone who ended up with clinical depression due to overwork. Death by overwork is recognised by society and if it can be proven then employer is in trouble.

But why is this such an ingrained part of the culture, you may ask? Well, people have written whole books on this, so this little blog post is barely going to touch the surface. 

One theory is that the culture has been formed by the rice-growing past. Growing rice is not only requires constant attention, but it also requires collective work, hence we've got a hard-working culture where it's hard to change individual habits. It is frowned upon to leave many workplaces exactly when your shift is over, in fact, leaving before the boss is a no-no in an office environment. I've never worked in a Japanese office, but this is what I've heard and read. (One article about the "rice theory": rice paddies and culture).

In any case. It's difficult to change culture, and that seems especially the case in Japan. So, though the government is trying to make changes, I'm not sure that we'll be seeing less public sleeping any time soon.

Sexual assault in Japan

I found this sign in my favourite park last week. It looks bad, when I looked up the word, I knew it was bad. This is warning people to be careful about assault. My dictionary says literally "molester, pervert". 

I was there in the middle of the day, but I could see that in this rather isolated corner of the park, night time could be a problem. Most probably there had been one or more incidents in this area (there were two signs within 30m of one another, with the warning printed on both sides).

It's an unpleasant topic. But two other articles along the same line came to my attention last week.

The first one was about sexual assault on girls on trains and it is shocking, not just because it goes on, but because many girls don't realise that being fondled etc. is abuse.

The second is titled "Japan child abise, pornography cases hit record highs in 2016". Again, tragic.

Not a nice topic at all, but it's good to be aware and is definitely worthy as fuel for our prayers.

More news on dual citizenship in Japan

Today a follow-up article on dual citizenship appeared in the news as the Japanese politician I mentioned the other day admitted that she did indeed still have her Taiwanese citizenship. 

The law is that you are supposed to choose by the age of 22 and if you choose your Japanese citizenship you can't keep your other citizenship. Apparently, though, (and we have heard this) it is common to just not say anything about the other citizenship and it's fine. In 31 years of having this rule, there have been no penalties awarded (i.e. removal of Japanese citizenship).

But this is a real issue for many people we know. In CAJ's school profile it lists the number of nationalities as 35, with 34% of the student body (464 students) as having dual passports. Not all of these are Japanese-non Japanese families but a high percentage are.

Here is a telling portion of the article:

Accepting it [dual nationality] officially would be very difficult politically, as Kono [a politician who tried to introduce legislation allowing dual nationality] found out in 2008, and touch on lots of sensitive issues related to nationality identity. It is pretty much politically taboo at this time.

This isn't just an issue being discussed in Japan. As you know, globalisation is happening around the world:

Since 1960, the number of countries where citizenship is automatically lost after an individual chooses to acquire another nationality has halved to around 60 — or 30 percent of the nations on Earth — according to a recent Mexican study. At the same time, the number of dual citizens has risen dramatically in countries that collect data on this issue, on average doubling in the decade or so between censuses. 

Prime Minister Mario?

It was a surprise to see Japan's Prime minister participating in the closing ceremony in Rio posing as Mario. I didn't actually see the closing ceremony till hours after it happened, so I had some warning via social media. But I wasn't the only one surprised:

TOKYO — 

Japan on Monday reacted with a mix of surprise, delight and cynicism at the sight of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dressed up as video game icon Super Mario in a comical cameo at the close of the Rio Olympics.

Social media immediately lit up as scenes of Abe wearing a Super Mario costume proved jaw-dropping to Japanese watching the spectacle on television half a world away.

“I was impressed to see a national leader sacrificing his reputation and showing up in cosplay at this world event,” posted a Japanese-language Twitter user. “He is great.”

Most had apparently never conceived of the normally blue-suited and politically conservative Abe and the moustachioed Mario merging into one. 

“I never thought of having Prime Minister Abe play Mario, let alone him emerging from plumbing,” another Twitter user said. (see the rest of the article here)

Another article by the BBC gives various other perspectives, including Twitter requests for Pokemon to be a sport in 2020! But this article does highlight the clues we got as to how Japan might approach hosting the next Olympics. "full and shameless advantage of Japan's pop culture icons". 

But there was also an emphasis on technology, with the appearance of robot-dressed actors. Just like most well-known countries, Japan is known by various stereotypes, including robots, technology, anime, manga, and not to forget sushi. So I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it is these that are used to promote the country.

Surfing the net doing a little bit of research for this post, I came across a quote about Tokyo2020 from Hikariko Ono, a spokesperson from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Committee:

"Everybody can experience hypermodern living and respect for historic values in Tokyo" (from here).

Well, I don't know about hypermodern living. Perhaps some visitors in down-town hotels will see that. That wouldn't be typical Japan, though it is the image that they want to project to the world, but I guess the Olympics generally aren't about giving visitors a typical experience of the host country. 

From the same article it does sound like they have very grand, futuristic plans. We'll see how much of that actually happens:

"Japan is known internationally for its technological innovations, so Tokyo 2020 organizers are aiming to launch ambitious tech projects that will boost the economy and wow crowds."

In writing this, I found the Tokyo2020 website. Interesting, including where venues are planned. Many of them around the bay near and even on the artificial island we visited a few weeks ago. I've never been living in a city that has the Olympics coming. It will be an interesting four years! Already we're seeing lots of train stations undergoing renovation and renewal. I imagine we'll see a lot more of that in the coming years. 

We've enjoyed the Olympics for the most part. Though we did see some lamentable behaviour from coaches and athletes. (A bizarre one that I don't think has received much air time was a bronze medal wresting match where a Mongolian wrestler didn't wrestle to the end and was penalised so that he ended up losing. His coaches stripped to their underwear in protest. Hmmm. Bad sports!)

We enjoyed the wrestling generally, though. Did you see the plush toy that the coaches were using for signalling they wanted to protest a decision? 

I'm glad to have my life simplified again so that I'm not fighting between the desire to watch more Olympics and get work done. Though I must say I'm looking forward to seeing a bit of the Paralympics, I hope that Japan's national broadcaster is as liberal in their coverage of it as they were the Olympics.

Buying confusion

We aren't avid news watchers/readers. Not in Japan or in Australia. In fact most news we see these days comes via Facebook or email or blog threads (for example I get an email with news headlines from Brisbane's main newspaper but don't often close CAJ on them).

So I admit we're not necessarily up to date with what's going on. Frequently we look on as distant observers in confusion or amusement or with lack of interest. After all most has no daily relevance to us. 

I did "buy Australian" today, at least one of my grocery items. Rare Australian
seedless grapes. Usually the only affordable grapes we can buy are small
Delaware grapes, not the big juice seedless ones that are staple for many
months in Australia.

I have to admit that our experience with the media during Japan's triple disaster five years ago only added to my cynicism about the factuality of the news we see. And with the advent of so much news on the internet, many news sites have resorted to the tactic of exaggerating or pretty much lying about the content of the piece, just to get people to click on the link to the article.

One particular theme of news gives me mixed feelings, that is "what should responsible shoppers buy"?

The Australian press tells us many things (some of which change over time):

• buy certain brands
• buy Australian
• don't buy clothes made in Bangladesh/Vietnam etc.
• buy preservative-free
• buy local
• buy gluten-free
• buy artificial-colour-free
• don't buy MSG
• don't buy chemicals (this one gets my goat)
• only buy stuff that "remembers" where it came from
• don't buy food from Vietnam/China/Thailand etc.
• buy low-fat, don't buy low-fat
• buy margarine not butter, buy butter not margarine
• buy Fair Trade
• buy Halal/don't buy Halal
• buy low-sodium, don't...

etc.

The list goes on and on and it is thoroughly confusing. Even more so for someone who doesn't even live in the country. 

In Japan the labels are nowhere near as clear (even if I could read Japanese well). Labelling standards aren't so strict. Additionally choices for me are more limited, especially if I'm buying Western-style ingredients. Stores tend to be smaller (at least the ones where I shop are) than the giant grocery stores in Australia and other Western nations, so, for example, there are only two types of margarine in my regular shop. Buying butter has become unaffordable, so I generally don't except for special baking.

As for "buying Australian", well that's pretty difficult here, understandably. In fact Japanese are similarly urged to buy Japanese. I have particularly mixed feelings when I see "don't buy certain brands because they come from such and such a place where there's poor standards". I don't really know where most of my food comes from. 

When it comes down to it I buy what I can find for a reasonable price. As for health, our family is pretty healthy. We have no allergies or food sensitivities. So I don't pay much attention to the current trends in "what good or not good" food-wise because what we've been doing up till now seems to work. All of us are within good limits for weight etc. All the food fads in Australia just don't hit here at the same time, or never hit here, so I don't bother entertaining them.

As for the current discussion about "don't buy Coles or Woolworths cheap milk" debate. That's understandably an issue that seems a long way away from us. What shocks me, though, is that once again it seems as though we've been told a lie. This ABC documentary tells us that it doesn't matter which milk we buy, the dairy farmers get the same price? And once again, the news stories we've seen are incorrect, a whole lot of hype that's raised the issue of what our farmers are paid but not enabled consumers to do much about it.

The whole thing is difficult. What does a conscientious person do? A conscientious person who lives on a somewhat-tight budget?

I want quality food and clothes. But I also don't want to blow my budget paying for them. The way things stand, it doesn't seem clear that even if I pay more for my good and clothing that it goes to the right place. So what do I do?

This has been a bit of a rant and a rave. Can you see how being overseas  gives us a different slant on the news?

Frequently we also don't know what will be important to know or not to know when we get back to Australia. 

Will it be important to pay attention to the news on politics? I don't know, I tend not to, it is not in my face. I will not be voting (we've excused ourselves off the electoral role because we live overseas and it's harder to be up-to-date on what's the right local choice).

Even if there's important news that will impact our lives when we get back to Australia, we frequently don't pick up on that until later. Like the changeover of Brisbane trains from tickets to Go Cards. It wasn't till we got back that we realised it had happened and was important to figure out how and where to buy the cards, how to recharge them, then how to use them.

Ah, not a super cohesive post, but I hope it is somewhat understandable.

Japanese Stop Signs Changing?

Last month we heard that the Japanese authorities were considering changing the Japanese stop signs to a shape more internationally recognised prior to the Olympics.

Japanese stops signs look like this. Remarkably similar to Australian Give Way signs (see below).

Australian sign*

Give way or yield

Here's a Japanese Give Way sign, quite similar in shape, though the red is far less. But the similarity between it and the one below it is quite scary, in a flap it would be easy to miss the little black and white sign below the red triangle. WHAT? You never drive in a flap? Well you've probably never gotten lost in Japan with fractious children in the back seat...

Slow down

Here's the backstory: "In 2016, it was announced that the Japanese National Police Agency was considering changing the design of the "Stop" sign used on Japanese roads since 1963 from the inverted red triangle sign to an octagonal design more closely conforming to the recommendations of the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals. The inverted red triangle sign was introduced in 1963 ahead of the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, and replaced the earlier red octagonal sign used from 1960, which in turn had replaced the yellow octagonal sign used from 1950" (Wikipedia).

Australian stop sign

Australia's Stop signs are in line with the convention.

So my question is: "Will the influx of foreign visitors surrounding the Olympics be confused and thus cause many bad accidents?"

Then my question is: 
"Is the estimated ¥25.5 billion cost of replacing all the stop signs in the country worth it?" 

And even, "Aren't there better things to be spending money on?"

*Both Australian signs by Government of Queensland (Vector graphics design by Cassowary) (here) [CC BY 3.0 au (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons