Isogashii

Its been a more turbulent this week. quite literally. After getting drunk during a typhoon I have had to spend some time this week on some serious R and R. Have just bought an IPod and have spent the last 6 hours furiously downloading songs whilst listening to the latest offerings of J pop.

#982 Men and Women.

Its not Afganistan or the Sudan. But lets face it for one of the most developed countries, gender equality is disarmingly unbalanced. The woman has to stick up with a hell a lot of crap compared to western women. I have noticed that many of them lack confidence because they feel they are not valued, they do everything for their husband and get nothing in return. The Japanese husband meanwhile is the ultimate troglodyte, his emotions so buried beneath him and with so many faces that he probably doesnt even know his true self. Marriage therefore can be a bit of a farce over here. People often stay married to save face and they dont really ask why they are married. Cheating is rife.

#232 Self Awareness

In order to be self aware you have to have some kind of external perspective on yourself. That is why things like travelling, counselling etc facilitate self awareness. A lot of Japanese people have little experience of such things. They carry on with their daily lives in their Japanese bubble and they dont really ask serious introspective questions. As a gaijin I find my self to be relatively enlightened. Coming to provincial Japan in some aspects feels a bit like time travelling to Britain in the 1950s: The society is very "closed" and monocultural. Japan needs to catch up with the rest of the developing world and encourage a more open society.