I, we, and you

If we try to fit in a multi-cultural society, who we have to know about is not only people from different backgrounds.
There are something I needed to be aware about people from my home country(!). If a Japanese born in US is called Japanese American, Japanese from Japan living in US could be called "Just-a-little-bit-American Japanese". And to what extend s/he is american depends on individuals. So what I need to see is "To what extent is s/he US person?". For example, let's see I sent an e-mail to somebody and I made a phone call to make sure if the e-mail was actually sent. A Japanese would say thank you for the phone call in this case. But (I feel) I should not make this kind of phone call to people from US, because it sounds like I am proding him/her to do something.

Sometime, it's hard to assume what people in the same origin are like. The grayzone of "Who are you?" is sometime tricky to handle.

Time management

I feel time management people here have is different from Japanese. Often, they say that people here are good at indivudual work, and Japanese are good at working in group. So I Japanese need to have different awareness about how to manage time and how to hang out people. When I see somebody who is alone, what I need to see is "Is s/he at indivudual mode, or hanging out mode?" I think it mostly works.

Korea & Japan

The immigrant issue reminded me the relationship between Japan and Korea. Though Korean pop culture is popular lately in Japan, my Korean-Japanese friend were talking about a best-seller book called "Anti-Korean", which made her uncomfortable. The problem is those book which claims facts to be true with nobody-knows resources become a best seller. This time, I really think Japanese education should emphasize finding out the primary resources like US.

The new law

Can't they go to the hospital??? It means they can't even survive!
Immigrants' situation is not good in Japan, either. If they are illegal, they just send them back to their home country. There is a law suits that a Japan-born female Korean worker protested. Even though she has worked almost 30 years as a public servant, the officials denied her to rise some higher position. And the judge either. There are always stupid politicians anywhere.

A news

Karoushi (death from overwork), which is a pronoun of Japanese society, is not yet a legend.
Some companies have not paid to the workers' families (news, MSN Japan). This awaked the Japanese version of myself.
I think, to know social problems in the society of both of one's origin and new culture. I think this is how we establish our identity.
P.S. I added some points on the past posting on wedding.

Intercultural medical information

Some of Japanese websites about scientific information is not really credible, I think. In the sense that they use language like, "There is little possibility to transmit the virus/to suffer from the disease" (translated from Japanese). What does "little" mean??? People tend to translate these words in the way they like... In contrast, US documents use numbers such as "--% of the carriers have the possibility to transmit the virus""--% of the carriers have had the disease per year." This was a culture shock about my own culture.

transition to what??

In Japan, there was a social problem that divorced women could not have sufficient financial support, even though they did all housework and parenting for their husband. It is because men usually take legal ownership on properties. But the low changed and women also have the rights for the property. Though I won't be a house wife, it is a good news because it's sad to see old ladies in tragedies and could be a bad news for men, if they get lazy wives. In Japan, relationships between husband and wife used to be more clear-cut. After the change of the low, I guess situations will be more complicated and the divorce rate will increase. Men might want women to share more costs to support their family (As a background knowledge, it was common that men pay everything if the wife is a housewife). But some people say if a woman was financially more independent, there might be less reasons for her to look for a husband hard... Women might become to care not only husbands' financial power but also appearance, etc. (?), though there were old saying means "A husband does not have to have good appearance". Also, we could say if a woman doesn't work hard or make money, it's gonna be hard for her to have a husband. Would this situation make men and women fair? Or does any woman still love to be a bird in a cage?

Anthropology 001

Though I am not sure there is a class called that,
What I'm lately trying is to be an anthropologist in everyday life, though sometime I react like, "What the hell???" Whatever happens, I would react like, "Oh really? ...OK....(?)...Alright.........................That might be cool!"

Miso soup

My apology, I'm always complain about things... So, today, let me write about how to make miso soup.
1. Put a piece of kelp (konbu) into the water in the pot. (for 3-4 serving)
2. Just before the water boils, take the kelp off from the water.
3. Put a fistful of dried and sliced bonito (katsuobushi) into the water and take it off after 1 min.
4. Add vegitable, tofu, or whatever you like into the pot and boil a little while.
5. Add 3-4 spoon of miso (soy bean paste), and taste it. If you need more, add more.
If you have more question about Japanese food, let me know! I know how to cook traditional foods!