Tag Archives: passion

Japanese School

When I was younger, I attended school in Hiroshima, Japan briefly, and there is a strong contrast between American and Japanese school systems. Granted, I only attended pre-school and second grade, but even that alone was very different. For this blog post, I will be focusing on elementary education in Japan.

318484_1840661751252_670023003_nI remember several things from my experience in second grade. First, my family had to buy a school uniform and a randoseru, which is a traditional type of backpack. The picture on the left was taken during the first day of second grade. I am wearing the traditional uniform, and I am standing next to my cousin. The uniform has to be worn everyday, and each set is around 20,000 – 30,000 Yen ( $200 – $300). Girls wear a white collared shirt, a gray jacket, and a black/navy blue skirt. Boys wear the same thing except they wear long pants instead of a skirt. Regarding the randoseru, it is a stiff, leather backpack that elementary students must have, and it is typically an additional $200. Girls have a red backpack, and boys have a black one. There is also a hat that is occasionally worn as well (I am wearing it in the picture). After elementary school, the uniforms change slightly, but regardless of the school or location, a similar uniform will be worn by all students.

SchoolLunch10There are several differences within the school compared to American school systems. For example, when entering the school, Japanese students take off their outside shoes and put on indoor slipper-type shoes. Lunch is also served in the classroom, and I distinctly remember not being able to go to recess until I finished my meal. Lunch is typically a bowl of rice, soup, noodles, meat, and milk. Lunch is made from scratch and it is very tasty and healthy. Another major difference between an American and Japanese school is that students sometimes cleaned the school during recess instead. Children were delegated different tasks. I remember cleaning the hallways, classroom, and I remember for some reason, my favorite was cleaning the garden outside. This time used for cleaning is coordinated school wide, so all students would be cleaning at this time. Finally, another big difference is that there are no school buses. At 8 years old, I would walk with other classmates to and from school. It is common for children to walk to school, but usually students in the same neighborhood walk together. High school students may even have to take a train to get to school.

Regarding the classroom, they are fairly comparable to an American elementary school classroom. There are about 20 – 30 students in each room and one teacher that teaches all subjects. The school day is around the same duration starting around 8:30 – 9:00 and ending around 3:00. However, the school year is longer because the year starts in September and ends in July.

Outside of the classroom, a typical student is involved in academic extracurriculars. In second grade, I had an abacus class one a week and a calligraphy class twice a week. Additionally, and this may just be at the particular school I attended, but I felt that I had significantly more homework than in an American elementary school (I’ve gone to three, two in Pennsylvania and one in California).

Overall, the elementary school system in Japan is very different from America. In my opinion, it’s a little more intense and academically focused, where as America’s feels more well-rounded. In Japan, the school year is longer, the students are expected to be independent at a young age, and there is more work outside of the classroom.

Japanese Population Issue

On Sunday, my dad came to visit me, and we love to stay updated and talk about the current state of Japan. A topic that interested me was the decline in population because of the unique shift in society.

The rapid decline of the population in Japan has become a major problem in recent years, and it needs to be addressed quickly. The elderly are making up a large portion of the population, and not enough babies are being born to keep the population stable. According to the Japanese Statistics Bureau, 26.2% of the population is 65 years or older, which is more than twice as much as the percentage of youth. The fertility rate is also currently one of the lowest in the world at 1.39. A Japanese government report predicted that in 2060, the population will have dropped from 127 million to 87 million people, with around 40% of the population being at least 65 years old.04_01

What is causing this rapid decline in recent years? Regarding fertility, there has been a shift in society called “celibacy syndrome.” The young people of Japan have seemingly lost interest in sex. The Japan Family Planning Association reported that 45% of women and 25% of men aged 16-25 were “not interested in sexual contact.” There are several reasons that could contribute to this issue. Because Japan is still a mostly patriarchal society with conservative views, there is societal pressure to maintain the traditional family model, with the man as the breadwinner and the woman as a housewife. However, the economy has been stagnant for the past several years and people are growing increasingly pessimistic. It may be difficult for a man to want to have a family if he does not feel that he is able to singlehandedly provide for them, as the traditional family structure suggests. Along with that, more women are straying from wanting to be stay-at-home moms and are entering the workforce instead. However, the traditional nature of Japan makes it difficult for jobs to accommodate mothers. This leads to low job security as a pregnant woman, so many women have had to decide between a career and motherhood. So, for both men and women, societal pressures and the state of the economy have been major factors in the low birthrate.

How can this be fixed? It would be very difficult for the government to set a goal regarding increasing the birthrate, because that would suggest that they are pressuring people to have children. However, there have been several interesting suggestions for solutions that are less direct. According to the International Business Times, the Prime Minister has set aside over $29 million to a program to help increase birthrates by supporting fertility treatments and matchmaking services. Another solution would be to lessen the strict immigration policies and allow more foreigners. However, this is easier said than done in a country like Japan that is 98% Japanese. Another method would be to address the societal pressures and move them toward modern thought. For example, currenlty many citizens of Japan frown upon having children out of wedlock, which pressures people to have to commit before having children. Another approach would be to better accommodate women who wanted to pursue both a career and a family.

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Hopefully Japan will be able to turn things around. Otherwise, Japan as we know it may be significantly different in a few decades.

 

Tea Ceremony

My passion blog posts for this semester will be a continuation from last semester. My posts will focus on the various experiences I have as a Japanese-American at Penn State.

Last week, I went to the involvement fair, and I found a booth for the tea club. The members all told me that they just “sat around and drank tea,” but in my opinion, that was an understatement. I went to the first meeting yesterday with a friend, and I had a very pleasant experience! It was held in a tiny room with many Asian decorations. We drank tea while a tea institute member gave a very indepth presentation about the history of tea. It was fascinating and informative to hear about how it originated and was spread across the world. We also learned about several legends that involve tea. My favorite one is the legend of Bodhidharma. Apparently, he came to China to teach Buddhism, but one day fell asleep while meditating by a cave. Out of anger, he ripped off his eyelids so he would never fall asleep again and threw them to the ground. Then tea leaves grew where his eyelids landed. The legend says that is why tea has caffeine in it, to keep those who are meditating awake and alert.

Chinese tea

Chinese tea

After the presentation about the history, we had another presentation about the various preparation techniques. Tea leaves are picked, dried, then heated (amount of heat depends on the type of tea). We also talked about the different methods around the world of brewing tea, and we used the Chinese way for that day. We tried two different types of oolong tea that day.

Japanese tea ceremony

Japanese tea ceremony

Another thing that I found out from this club is that there is a program to learn the traditional Japanese tea ceremony! Making tea in this way is very intricate, delicate, and spiritual. In Japanese culture, this tradition is all about tranquility, peace, and putting your heart and soul into a single pot of green tea. It can be a bonding experience for someone to put so much effort into making this tea for someone else. It takes several minutes due to the extreme attention to detail and care by the brewer to make a single pot. This tradition is taken very seriously, and it can only be taught by people who are trained and qualified. My mother told me that my grandmother actually had a master license, and now that I think about it, I remember seeing a large display of tea utensils and cups at her house when I was young. I’ll be taking classes starting Tuesday in honor of her. My mother was also trained in Japan when she was younger, and when I told her I would be taking classes, she was very excited. She told me it’s a way to “share your feelings without words.” She said, “I don’t really know how to explain it, but I know what it feels like. It’s the Japanese spirit. It’s simple and beautiful. It’s not sad or happy. It’s just ‘I am here.'” I like that description a lot.

Overall, I had a great experience with the tea club and I’m excited for my classes. If anyone is interested in trying different types of tea, check out the Tea House in 34 Ritenour Wednesday through Friday from noon until 4 pm.

 

 

Public Controversy

For our public controversy group project, my group and I discussed several different topics. At one point, the topic of affirmative action came up (spoiler: we didn’t pick it), and it definitely brought up several opinions. As a minority in America, it’s simple for me to make an opinion about it since it is something that personally affects me.

I believe that affirmative action policies have good intentions, and they are by no means meant to add difficulty to others’ lives. However, by giving advantages to others solely based on race, even though it is an effort to lessen the hardship faced by groups in the past, it is discriminatory by nature. This is known as reverse discrimination. Affirmative action functions on the assumption that all people of a certain race have the same advantages, disadvantages, income, opportunities, etc., and that can’t possibly be true. Perhaps it would be more beneficial to consider things such as income instead, which I believe is a better representation of hardship than race. Honestly, I think it would be very progressive of our society to support race-blind applications and opportunities. This is not a topic that many organizations like to openly discuss because discrimination of any kind is strange to talk about. In fact, many organizations do the exact opposite and always add that they are an equal opportunity organization, which means that no one can be discriminated against due to gender, race, sexual orientation, etc. Penn State falls under this category, and they maintain that they do not consider race when looking at applications. However, I find it peculiar that there is always an optional area to mark your race on applications of any kind. It’s always for “statistic purposes” and I believe that,  but perhaps it would be better after the decision is made, or could be done with more anonmity just in case.

I have held this opinion regarding affirmative action since I first learned about it in my government class, and at this time, I was under the assumption that these types of programs helped all minorities alike. However, I actually found out that affirmative action policies put Asians at a disadvantage. For example, I have to score, on average, 140 points higher on my SATs to be given the same consideration as my white counterpart when applying to colleges. The fact that a group of people would have to score higher based on generalizations made about their race is just absurd.

Diversity is of course important, and it should be to any organization. Diversity of thought is necessary, and, as the melting pot, it is a great advantage for America to have. Penn State knows the benefits of diversity, and it also knows that it is lacking in it. I feel certain that this is something that they actively try to improve, but Penn State claims to not consider race in admissions. Instead, it just tries to recruit students from more diverse areas within the country and state. Penn State also tries to strengthen and create new ties with schools in other countries through exchanges or other methods. This encourages more international students to apply here. I’m supportive of these methods, because they are seem much more ethical and less controversial by far. There are several ways that we can improve our diversity without having to consider race in applications.

 

A Class Divided

In my freshman seminar class, we watched “A Class Divided” which was a short film about a teacher who performs a social experiment on her class of 3rd graders after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. Instead of just using words to describe what happened to her students, she decided to make them understand discrimination first hand. She told her students that blue eyed people were better, and she gave the students with brown eyes a collar. The teacher facillitated this experiment for the entire day, and it was not long before the students were bullying each other, both physically and emotionally. The next day, she switched it and said that brown eyed students were superior. The results were the same. After, she told the students about MLK and was able to tell them more about discrimination now that they experienced it to some extent.  She has performed this social experiment several times with students and even adults. It was suprising to see how similarly people reacted during this time, regardless of age.

Although this film is now a little outdated, I believe that the message still is relevant. We of course have made so many advances with women’s rights, gender equality, etc., but I still believe discrimination is still around. Perhaps it is not as blatant as before, but that doesn’t mean that people are no longer racist. In my first post, I mentioned how I am from an almost entirely white city, and as one of the only Asian-Americans, I definitely felt social discrimination to some extent. Some people called me “Asian” instead of my name, or sometimes people would make jokes or stereotypes because I am Japanese. When I got a good grade on a math test, it wasn’t because I studied, but because I was Asian. During the week that we were voting for senior class superlatives, people were trying to get others to vote for me and an Asian-American boy for best eyes, strictly because we were Asian. Eventually, I was voted most tech savvy. That has some basis (I hope) because I was president of my computer club and I also edited videos for my school’s broadcasting program, but I also heard that some voted for me because of a stereotype. When we learned about World War II in my high school classes, people would look back at me, as if I, a 19-year-old, was single-handedly responsible for bombing Pearl Harbor half a century before I even was born. If you think this only happens in Altoona, just spend 5 minutes on Yik Yak, and you will find a mean post about international students (usually those from Asian countries). Penn State is a predominantly white college, but it is certainly more diverse than Altoona, and at first, it was startling to read those posts. But it is important to keep in mind that the people who say these things represent an incredibly small percent of the population. For the most part, I would say that people are much more accepting now.

But if I’m being honest, I guess all of these things don’t bother me as much as they could or should, and I didn’t feel that it was a worthwhile fight because it wasn’t significantly impacting my quality of life. In the video, there was a boy that punched another boy that was discriminating against him, and the teacher asked if it made him feel better and if it solved the problem. He answered no to both. Also, what I felt were minor forms of discrimination compared to those during the 1960s, and they had a reason to protest and fight back.