Fear and Trembling

Occasionally I discover a writer I wish I could have included in my anthology, such as Belgian Amelie Nothomb. I just finished reading her darkly comic autobiographical novel Fear and Trembling, about a young Western woman who spends a year working in the accounting department of a large Japanese corporation. Early on, Amelie makes the mistake of showing initiative and is severely dressed down by her superior. I felt less bad about all those novels I read at my desk when I had no work to do.

The novel is less about being a foreigner in Japan than the relationship between Amelie and her beautiful but cold supervisor, Miss Fubuki Mori. However, Amelie scatters observations about the country throughout the 136 pages of the book. For example:

“Everyone knows that Japan has the highest suicide rate of any country in the world. What surprised me was that suicides were not more common.

“What awaited these poor number-crunchers outside The Company? The obligatory beer with colleagues undergoing the same kind of gradual lobotomy, hours spent stuffed into an overcrowded subway, a dozing wife, exhausted children, sleep that sucked them down into it like the vortex of a flushing toilet, the occasional day off they never too full advantage of. Nothing that deserved to be called a life.

“The worst part of it all was that they were considered lucky.”

This passage doesn’t strike me as particularly original. In fact, most of the Westerners I know in Japan have voiced similar opinions. I’m always going around saying that Japan is a stressful country and that Japanese people don’t know what it means to be happy, but maybe we’re all wrong. This book was first published in France seven years ago. Since then, women in this country have been delaying marriage (there’s no more talk of Christmas cakes), birth rates have declined, and the divorce rate has increased. I’d like to think that this indicates Japanese women, at least, are choosing happiness.

Junk Food for the Dead, part 2

A few weeks ago I mentioned a roadside shrine for someone who presumably died in a traffic accident. The weather has taken its toll, so it had been looking like nothing but a rice bowl full of rain and a bunch of beer cans standing on the corner. Like garbage, I mean. Today I noticed two fresh bouquets of cellophane-wrapped flowers, but I couldn’t help wondering when does something like this cease to be a monument and begin to be trash?

Big Brother is Watching

A few days ago I had my semi-annual scheduled chat with the head of the Deaf School Kindergarten where we talked about my daughter’s future education, etc. M.-Sensei said that she felt I was holding back, and that if there was anything I wanted to complain about, I should go right ahead. Well, she didn’t say it exactly like that, but it’s true that the other mothers complain much more than I do and she’s right in thinking that I am rather reserved. At any rate, I thought I’d throw her a bone, so I said that I thought the school memos pertaining to homelife were intrusive and unnecessary. I’m talking about the memos the teachers send home telling us to put our children to bed early and wake them up early, even during summer vacation, or to make sure our children wash their hands before eating and gargle with water after playing outside. I also don’t like it when the teachers ask me to write down what my daughter does from the time she gets up in the morning till she goes to bed at night. And I don’t like it when the teachers tell me to take my daughter to the doctor to get medicine when she has a runny nose. It’s none of their business. Yet, in Japan, schools seem to feel that they are the directors of our children’s lives. M.-Sensei thanked me for sharing and told me that probably nothing will change. I told her that I would just have to get used to this way of thinking and learn to ignore it.

Today there was a meeting for the parents of upcoming first graders at the Deaf School. We mothers were told to get our kids used to waking up early and going to bed early, to make sure our kids brush their teeth and wash their faces and eat three meals a day. I seem to have made some progress because for once, I wasn’t irritated at all.

"Pregnancy Diary"

It has always seemed to me that while harping about Japanese trade restrictions, American farmers and policy-makers have failed to understand Japanese consumers’ very real concern with food safety. Even characters in Japanese fiction show an awareness of the dangers of pesticides and preservatives. In the story “Pregnancy Diary” by Yoko Ogawa, a woman tries to destroy her sister’s unborn baby by feeding her jam made from American grapefruits. She gets this idea after learning that imported fruit is treated with the highly carcinogenic antifungal agent P.W.H., which is known to be harmful to human chromosomes.

Perhaps American agriculturists should do less lobbying and more reading.

Scarlet Fever

Last night Jio was really itchy, so I took him to another doctor today, one in the town where we used to live whom I basically respect. She did a proper throat culture and diagnosed my boy with scarlet fever. She also pointed out that he would need to take antibiotics for ten to twelve days. Now I’ve pretty much lost my faith in the doctor we went to yesterday, which is a shame since it’s only five minutes away. Also, he has a really nice waiting room with a grand piano and a coffee table book on the films of Woody Allen in English. And the nurses make tea for you while you are waiting for test results! I don’t understand why he couldn’t be bothered to do a throat culture when I’d suggested my son might have scarlet fever. Didn’t he believe me? Would he have lost face if two tests turned out negative? At any rate, I am glad that I went in for that second opinion.

Japanese Doctors

I’m feeling confused and frustrated due to my inability to trust Japanese doctors. Last night, my son was feeling achey and tired and came down with a fever early this morning. Sounds like the flu, right? But he was also itchy, and he seems to have a rash all over his body. He had a flu shot and when I took him to a doctor near our house, he tested negative for influenza. The doctor said that it might still be influenza, but it was too early to tell. I mentioned that a kid at Jio’s kindergarten had scarlet fever last week, so the doctor said he’d prescribe antiobiotics for that. The thing is, I couldn’t tell if he was just humoring me or not. Apparently there is a test for scarlet fever, but he didn’t conduct any tests beyond the flu one. Also, he only gave us antiobiotics for four days, but according to the information I have in English, one should take antibiotics for two weeks.

Figure Skating

The husband, who is all about sports, being a baseball coach and all, is very worried because so far the Japanese have won no medals in the Turin Olympic games. He woke up at 5a.m. to watch the short program of women’s figure skating. I heard him exclaiming to himself, so I knew that Japan’s great hope, Shizuka Arakawa, had done well. She’s now in contention for a medal.

Yoshi woke me up to see Sasha Cohen. A bit of trivia: At one time, Sasha and I had the same literary agent. Her book sold, mine didn’t. But I guess it makes sense. Sasha is an Olympic skater, going for the gold, while I am a university educated housewife. Anyway, I was glad to see her stunning performance.

Noriko Ibaragi

Renowned Japanese poet Noriko Ibaragi died on Sunday at the age of 79. By way of tribute, check out her poem “A University Graduate Housewife.” I don’t know about you, but I can certainly relate to this one.

Ceremony Suits

I’ve been wearing the same suit to ceremonies over the past seven years. With four major ceremonies coming up (graduation from kindergarten, entrance ceremony for elementary school, two each) and a possible job interview, I figured it was time for a new suit. I hopped over to Ebay to check out the selection and got carried away. I bid on a gorgeous black silk cocktail dress that I have no occasion to wear and won! Luckily for me, the seller reneged and I kept my money. I didn’t get the cashmere Chanel outfit either, but I did manage to buy a couple of Armani suits for less than the price of one teeny tiny jacket at Sogo. I’m not huge or anything, but Japanese women are very small and it’s hard to find clothes that fit well here. Anyway, after I bought the suits I thought, I need new shoes! Then I remembered that everyone will be leaving their shoes at the door and shuffling around in vinyl slippers.

Murderer Mother

A few weeks ago I suggested that it was a not a good idea for small children to walk to and from school alone. It appears that it’s also not a good idea to carpool with mentally unstable mothers.