Hiroshima Flower Festival Yosakoi Dance Parade よさこい

Every year in Hiroshima city, a 3 day Flower festival is held which fills the city with hundreds of thousands of people enjoying the entertainment on different stages, parades on the first and last day and countless Japanese and international food stalls and game stalls.

Our family go every year and one of my favorite things to watch is the dance parade held on the 3rd day called "Yosakoi". Yosakoi dance groups all have to use some of the same techniques and dance moves, many of the troupes also use the Japanese clapper instrument and Japanese fans. 

This year (2013) it was amazing weather, sunny with blue skies all day. The parade started at midday and featured Yosakoi dance troupes from around Hiroshima and other regions throughout Japan.    

You can see in the pictures in the above slideshow and in the video below how much practice goes into these performances. It is also impressive to see how enthusiastic and full of energy the dancers are, it is impossible not to feel impressed and excited while watching.

Japanese New Year's Post Cards & Sending Etiquette

Now, it's the beginning of December, time to think of designing and writing out your New Year's cards!

If you make your order of New Year cards by December 10th, you can get a discount on the price of the cards. We usually order through our local photo lab and get half of them made with the stamp already on them, as well as the lottery code numbers, and half of them without the stamps that we send abroad to family and friends. It takes a week to 10 days to get personalized New Year cards made with your own photo on it. It usually costs about 10,000 yen for 100 postcards (including domestic stamp).

I made the mistake in years past of ordering the postcards from abroad but when they came, they are not standard size for Japan and I had to trim them or pay a higher price to send them. Also, people in Japan enjoy getting the lottery numbers on the cards as they can win prizes if the numbers are picked at the end of the year (apparently the lucky numbers are posted in the newspaper).

When you send them, the postboxes will soon have a side for new year's cards only and if you put them in that slot, they will be stored and sorted to be delivered on New Year's day. This is in line with the tradition and people are very impressed if you are able to get yours into this first delivery. Any cards posted after the 20th will be delivered on the days following New Year's.

If you receive a card from someone and forgot or didn't plan on sending one to them, it is good etiquette to send a card back. You can buy readymade New Year cards at supermarkets and convenience stores. Just write a quick message and your name and address and pop it in the postbox. The Japanese post is very efficient and it will only take a day or two at the most to be delivered, even during the holiday period!

Asian Studies Conference 2012

Like many, I have been teaching for many years now and the teaching seminars and lectures often offer a few interesting gems, but there is rarely anything groundbreaking happening at JALT and other ELT conferences in Japan. Then I heard about the Asian studies conference in Tokyo at the end of June and I was intrigued.

Rikkyo University, Ikebukuro (Tokyo) 

Although not a scholar of Asian studies myself, I was intrigued by the many topics looking closely at Art, Gender, Nutrition, Environment, History and Society in Japan and Asia. So I made my way to the beautiful campus of Rikkyo university in Ikebukuro, Tokyo early on a Saturday morning. I am often nervous heading through the labyrinth of shoots and tunnels big stations in Tokyo seem to excel in creating, but I was lucky to have many helpful people point me in the right direction. I took the first Shinkansen from Hiroshima (6am- is early, but at least Doutor coffee shop was open in the station) and arrived to Tokyo station just after 10am, transferred to the super-clean and efficient Yamanote-line and arrived at the Ikebukuro campus of Rikkyo University by 10:30. When I registered, I was impressed with the bargain price. This 2 day conference- hosting presentations from academics from across the globe only cost 5,000 yen for non-member registration on the day. (Compare this to JALT's PanSig 2 day at Hirodai for 10,000 at site, or JALT national conference's 20,000yen for a 2 day conference for members who pre-register)


The presentations were very interesting despite many presenters simply reading out their presentations from a sheet of paper without the benefit of any images or photos of reference for the audience. By the way, if any readers are interested in presenting well, Garr Reynolds is a guru of the perfect Presentation model, his website easily presents the good and bad of power-point and other presentation aspects. Unfortunately, although Garr is based in Japan, he was presenting at the TEDxTokyo conference on the same day.
However, I digress, despite the lack of bells and whistles, the research and information of the papers were still very interesting, informative and overall quite inspiring. The audience was also quite impressive, coming up with new anecdotes and other related research to add or contrast with ideas presented during the discussion period at the end of a session.

The full list of presentation topics and presenter's names and affiliations can be seen on the ASCJ website.

Gender, Family and Nutrition
Some of most impressive ideas that stayed with me were about Shokuiku and the female focused nutrition education of mothers in Japan to encourage family eating time and healthy, Japanese food choices. It seems, like many other aspects of family and child-raising in Japan to be another way to guilt women, especially working women, about not being perfect mothers. The presenters were doing PhD thesis' on the topic from the different angles, comparison of "family eating time" importance between Japan, Korea and Australia revealed a few interesting differences in attitude toward eating alone (Wakako Takeda, ANU). The next presenter built on the ideas that Takeda had presented, but added her research in supermarkets in Japan where she found that despite women not recognizing the term Shokuiku, they were already doing the practices recommended by the "experts" like Mr.Shokuiku, Hattori- author of the best-selling Japanese book [食いくのすすめ」"Recommendations for Nutritional education". However, his teachings are seriously biased as advice and criticisms are limited to women, mothers, wives and grandmothers without ever even mentioning men, fathers, husbands or grandfathers in the book. (Aiko Kojima, UofChicago).

There were another couple of interesting presentations on Gender and Media as two of the researchers had interviewed and observed popular Japanese talk shows. Typically a researcher of a Asa-bangumi found women to appear nameless on screen and treated with a lack of respect off screen, and hired for their ability to act (show expression) more than speak (Elizabeth Rodwell Marks, Rice University). In the Wide Show study women were often berated as horrid, jealous and emotionally out of control perpetrators of crime. And when when they were victims of crime, they were blamed and berated for being too weak or stupid to avoid the problem. (Michelle Hui Shan Ho, Tokyo university).

There were a few related themes to nutrition and social eating in Japan happening in other sessions. One presenter talked of the politics of "meat" in the missionary communities in Nagasaki. There was a lot of political propaganda surrounding the ousting of the Portuguese missionaries by portraying them as cannibals who ate the body parts of Lepers they took care of. He also discussed how the missionaries would also get locals to join their church by drawing them in with tales of eating "healthy" meat. Reminded me of the stories in the historically derived book about Nagasaki in those days written by David Mitchell. (Andres Perez Riobo, Ritsumeikan University).

Then a presenter doing her PhD at Harvard promoted the positive aspects of "Gakushoku" which included social bonding and maintaining of Japanese culture through shared school lunches. This presentation was frustrating because it never once mentioned any problems with this system. Of course there are good points to the system, but it is also very political and flawed when adjusting to change or individual need. After Fukushima, school-children in the area were still forced to eat the school lunch even if their parents wanted to send a bento for fear of food safety. Of course, some schools were testing food for safety of their own initiative, but not others. In my own personal interactions with the inflexible school lunch, we have battled with "untraditional" dishes like kitsune udon (usually vegetarian) with the unnecessary (and unconventional addition of meat) since our kids are vegetarians. We have also had to go back and forth with the teacher, and board of education that oversees school meals, over the school milk mandate post-Fukushima. I was also appalled when they insisted on serving whale to all students in Hiroshima public schools 6 mos after Fukushima without any indication of the whale meat's safety. It seemed like nothing other than a propaganda strategy to get kids to support a dying and unnecessary industry. Many public school policies, which function in the status quo, do not adjust well to change no matter how necessary. 

Pompidou

Modern Art in Japan & Japanese Art Abroad
I was impressed by the passion for art with this panel, there was a lively discussion about the legitimacy of all aspects of modern art including the controversial "Bye Bye Kitty" project to other Japanese artists who are becoming increasingly popular abroad in the "Japanica" boom. One artist that was often mentioned is Tabaimo as her work is creating quite a stir in Japan and abroad as she depicts Japanese cultural and traditional themes in dark and surreal ways. There was some discussion about reviewing what was legitimate art, the consensus being that judging modern art is very subject and attaching value extremely difficult since it is closely related to fashion, music and almost anything in modern culture. But keeping an eye on what the public is intrigued by is important for art reviewers, museum 'gate-keepers' and others in the art world to keep in mind.

Can I eat that? Attitudes toward food safety in Japan after Fukushima
On the last day, I made it in time for an interesting discussion on the safety issues of food in Japan post-Fukushima. There were three Anthropologists who had done interviews and research in the Tohoku areas since the disaster and were presenting their findings. A researcher from Princeton reflected on her experiences working with people in the fishing industry who did not want to leave the area despite the hardships and lack of public support in their products even when they were testing and found the contamination to be at safe levels. (Satsuki Takahashi, Princeton).
Another researcher told of his talks with people who had been organic farmers before the accident in the area. He also relayed experiences with those working in contaminated areas who were vigilant in  testing the safety of food and drink, but who were worried about other areas further away who were not being as serious about testing for food safety- despite having had significant exposure to radiation. (Nicolas Sternsdorff, Harvard).
In the discussion, a worried audience member who says she herself is from Fukushima was asking questions about the safety of eating contaminated food everyday and what exactly would happen. The panelists couldn't really answer her with any authority and we could all sympathize with her plight as there is so much misinformation and a basic lack of medical research in this area despite the history of nuclear accidents worldwide.

I noted that experts in Hiroshima, like Bo Jacobs, have argued from early on that consumers should not feel obliged to eat contaminated foods, nor should producers feel forced to stay and work in dangerous conditions. Indeed the government should offer a fair deal of compensation for residents, fisherpeople, farmers and others to be able to move and set-up their lives in safer parts of the country. A member of the audience who identified herself as a Biological anthropologist said she recently revisited Fukushima with her family and went armed with a geiger counter and was surprised at how low the readings were in the parks and areas she visited. Sternsdorff then commented on the radiation cleaning methods he saw in use on farms by blasting trees, building and anywhere affected with high powered water hoses.
Also, the issue was raised of external and internal exposure to radiation and the added danger for children to be exposed as their cells multiply faster than adults. The recently highlighted attitude of the elderly in the area to take on more dangerous jobs cleaning up radiation, working in the Fukushima plant, farming or even eating contaminated products has been in the news recently. This amazing attitude of self-sacrifice to spare the younger generation is honorable and an amazing part of the Japanese community.
The Discussant mentioned that many people were equating whether or not to evacuate the affected areas around Fukushima with the debate after Katrina about whether or not to re-populate New Orleans. I would argue that unless New Orleans was dangerous to resettle in for the next 30 years, then there isn't much of a comparison.

I hope if any of you have the chance, you'll also choose to attend this worthwhile Asian Studies conference in Japan or another country someday.

Redistribution of Radioactive Debris a Serious Risk

Families protest the acceptance of debris in Kokura (near Kitakyushu)

In a world that doesn't rely on common sense at times, we have seen a dangerously bad Japanese government policy snowball into an irrational national policy of redistribution of radioactive debris from Fukushima to other prefectures around the country. There have been protests and rallies against it, to no avail. According to our local nuclear expert, Bo Jacobs when I asked what the government could possibly be thinking: 

"I think that they believe that if it is all burned in Fukushima-ken then it will become even more of a no-go zone. They believe they can remediate the land, even though this has never been done before. Also there is some thought that if everyone learned to become accustomed to low levels of contamination the stigma would be removed from Fukushima....

Experts who work for industry tell them that there is no danger in low exposures, even though there is no science to back this up. Since they can't imagine abandoning a large area for decades, they believe the people who say that it "may" be possible to decontaminate.

These experts say that people just need to get over their fear, and this program, burning the debris in every prefecture, will help accomplish this."

It doesn't make any sense and although it is good to see locals protesting the trucks and boats bringing it to their areas, there seems little fighting it now that the decision has been made. According to the blog: cinemaforumfukushima.org the debris has reached and been burned at the Kitakyushu plant despite the protests. They offer a means of making your voice heard by calling or faxing the local government to let them know you disagree with the policy (if you are contacting them from within Japan, drop the 81 and add an 0 before the 93): 

**Please send your voice to the mayor of Kitakyushu, Kenji KITAHASHI , at the Mayor office phone number +81-93-582-2127 , or +81-93-582-2411.  Leave your comment to the Kitakyushu Mayor’s office website, and see English translated instruction. To fax the mayor  at +81-93‐562-0701 via internet free fax services!

A better solution would be to create huge, safe storage in the Fukushima no-go zone (where it is anyway) since no one is living there and will not be for a very long time. Burning it would send it to other areas and transporting it outside of Fukushima to burn it is definitely sending radioactivity where it doesn't need to be, affecting many more innocent people all over Japan.  It is one of the worst policies endangering human health made post-Fukushima. 

There is no evidence to prove that low levels of radiation are okay- so why is the government willing to put everyone at risk?

Sustainable Power Rights for Homeowners

Recently in the news in Japan, a homeowner who had installed solar panels was sued by two of his neighbor because the glare off the panels in the midday sun made it unpleasantly bright inside their house and they had to wear sunglasses when they hung the washing outside.

As we are heading into power shortages this summer in Japan since almost all nuclear power has been shut down, it seems more important than ever to secure sustainable power rights for homeowners.
It is unfortunate about the glare the neighbors suffer, but instead of winning financial compensation and forcing the panels to be taken off, isn't there another solution?
How about helping the neighbor pay for tinting on their windows or offering to build a wooden terrace on their balcony that would shield them from the panels reflection? It is important to start thinking outside the box. If the neighbor cannot be appeased, the solar owner should appeal as temporary inconvenience is outweighed by the long term benefits to all of his neighbors from his solar panels.

In Hawaii, solar panels were long banned by neighborhood townhouse associations (along with hanging washing outside or a towel on your balcony) because they were "unsightly". Owners have since taken the associations to court and had the ban lifted as creating sustainable power is for the greater good. There was a recent case in Nebraska where a homeowner was ordered to take down his panels by the Home Owners association because he hadn't asked permission first, seriously- that HOA president took "by the book" a little too literally.

There was a case last year of a home owner getting compensation from his new high-rise neighbor blocked his access to sun. Every home should have the "right" to sunshine to enhance their daily life as well as to cover their own energy needs in a safe and cost-effective way. California solar rights law protects homeowners who want to install solar on their homes from any community regulations and also protects their right to the sun and compensation if they are shaded from neighbor's homes or trees, etc. Japan needs to create similar protections for homeowners to make the right decisions on creating their own sustainable energy. Now that Softbank has led the way to Mega-solar power in Japan, there should also be options for homeowners with no access to personal solar energy (like mansion condo owners) to still be able to make good decisions by allowing individual choice on where your energy comes from. If consumers are allowed to purchase energy via sustainable power companies using wind, sun or geothermal instead of oil or nuclear, these new companies should be able to expand more readily across the country.

The Japanese government has allowed sustainable energy companies to sell their energy to the grid at a competitive price and have obligated energy monopolies across the country to buy at least a percentage of their energy from these companies. Here are details of the plan and locations for Mega-solar projects around Japan via gigaom.com. Kyocera, Panasonic and many of the country's leading solar manufacturers are seeing increases in customer interest as well as government support of larger projects.

Community responsibility should be taking on new meaning in light of clean energy demands, there needs to be compensation and ways to live peacefully in our community without compromising on doing the right thing for our energy needs.

Japan's Nuclear Decisions 13 months After Fukushima

Hanami parties carry on happily in near darkness

The Fukushima disaster is still ongoing, the reactors are not quite yet into cold shutdown as was the target for a year after they were hit by an earthquake and Tsunami that cut off the power and stopped cooling functions at the site. In fact, the TEPCO inspectors admitted they had "no idea what was going on." This came as a shock to the nation that was told by TEPCO that cold shutdown was achieved and the problem was basically under control at 10 months after the disaster. However, there have been intermittent reports of contaminated water leaks into the ocean and land from the plant, the most recent leak happened at the end of March, 2012.

One of the latest government safety reports states that the area should never be used again. The exclusion zone and new "buffer zone" around the plant is being extended and the area will not be able to be lived in or used in any way for our lifetime. Reconstruction minister, Hirano, has finally addressed the concern that decontamination may never be satisfactory enough for communities to rebuild in the area and the government needs to secure the area.

Despite all of this recent news showing the Fukushima nuclear problem is far from over, Kansai Electric Company (KEPCO) has been working hard to get government approval of its OI (Ohi) reactors in Fukui prefecture. The economy, trade and industry minister Edano stated in today's Yomiuri that the Oi reactors have "met the safety standards...the safety of the reactors is generally confirmed". Maybe Edano should sit down with Hirano and Prime Minister Noda to discuss whether the Japanese government should take on such a huge liability as "confirming safety" of nuclear power while the Fukushima nuclear disaster is still far from being resolved.

On a positive note, major drink manufacturers and ice-cream makers are taking measures to reduce consumption and ensure their own power in the event of a summer black-out. Updating equipment to use less power, installing solar panels and back up generators or natural gas electric grids for their "large lot user"factories are changes that all companies should be making now anyway. At least the ball has been set in motion for power conservation by the biggest consumers in the country by the Fukushima nuclear problems and shutting down of nuclear plants across the country.

The country survived some black-outs just after the Fukushima disaster, but I didn't see any black-outs reported last summer and there were no recorded problems in the winter months of 2011-2 that I can find, but now the papers are again warning of impending black-outs this summer since more nuclear power plants have been idled (shut down). In fact, Japan has gone from being the world's 3rd biggest user of nuclear power having 54 reactors before Fukushima, to having only 1 online in Hokkaido as of the end of March, 2012 according to this Reuters list.

The restart of the Oi (ohi) reactors for KEPCO could be a huge win for the Nuclear Power lobby who are hoping to restart more reactors across the country. Luckily, the communities are very outspoken on the subject and there have been many protests of a restart. With so many other, safer options that would be readily accepted by the Japanese population, it is political suicide for Noda to push through with a restart now while still cleaning up the Fukushima mess. It is a great time to encourage companies to reduce consumption and reward those creating sustainable alternatives at production. This is a great time to make steps for the future energy in Japan to be renewable, sustainable and safe.

When I first came to live in Japan in 1991, no one used air-conditioning in the schools, offices and even many of the stores kept their doors open, lights off and fans going during the mid-day heat. People in Japan are ready and willing to make personal sacrifices to survive the heat with less power or update appliances and install solar and energy saving equipment to help with the crisis, this is a perfect time to move forward with a new energy plan that makes sense.

Hiroshima Should Just Be Better

Hiroshima Peace Pagoda 

Here in Hiroshima, the people in this community have overcome so much over the years to build the city to be the great place that it is. It is a great city to call home, even if you are not Japanese. However, as is often the case, in striving to become a better, more modern international city some lose sight of things that are really important in life and community.

Working mother discrimination
I recently heard of young, female university job-seekers being told at job interviews that they will not be given any time off (despite the national regulations) if they get pregnant. Potential employers actually ask them (despite it now being illegal to do so) of their intentions to get married and have children in the future.
This discrimination against working women who strive to be working mothers in the future is sickening. This is an especially horrible state of affairs in light of the shrinking population and the national trend of women having less children. When I advise them that they should report these companies to the Career center, "Hello work" and even write to the government- they just look at me wearily. It's too much trouble and they still need to save their efforts to find a job.

Age discrimination
I have two good friends who despite being highly qualified and being a well-experienced, popular and highly conscientious teachers are having trouble finding full time work because of being over 40.

To be honest, the discrimination happens for young women too as it wasn't much better when I was in my 20's, I was asked to volunteer to "talk" to the Lions Club group and was astonished to find they all fell asleep during my presentation and then asked to go around and pour all of them drinks during the meal afterwards. Sexism and age discrimination are still alive and well in Japan.

Lack of Respect for History
As new developments are being created all over the city, there are many old buildings, restaurants and shopping areas being knocked down in the name of modernization. New, shiny and modern are more attractive to the masses, but why not offer older residents and shopkeepers who have been a part of Hiroshima's revival and are representatives of Hiroshima's history chances to continue?
The Wakakusa Shopping Center was an example of this lack of foresight by Hiroshima city. The city government ended up bailing out the bankrupt project, but still did not accommodate long-running businesses like the one depicted in this video interview, to continue running under the same subsidized rent. The fact that they hadn't raised prices in over 20 years was proof of their commitment to serving the community. The stories they could tell about Hiroshima's history and the trends of the okonomiyaki trade are now forever lost. The new development is now filled with offices and chain restaurants and stores - just like anywhere else in Japan- completely lacking of character.

Fukushima Evacuees told to say they are from "Tokyo"
In the wake of the Fukushima crisis, Hiroshima has accommodated many evacuees in our city in public housing and many children have come into our school system. However, due to fears of bullying and ostracism these kids have been told to lie about where they are really from. They have to be untrue to their new classmates about the reason they moved to Hiroshima.
As people in Hiroshima were ostracized and discriminated against for many years after the A-bomb was dropped on their city, I wouldn't expect lies to be necessary here.

The people who live here, work here and run the government here should just be better.