Hitomi's blog

Sexuality

2007-01-15T23:20:00.000-08:00

In Chapter7, Sexuality, White shows some differences between people’s view of sexuality in the US and that in Japan.

As White says in the book, compared with the US, Japanese tend to regard sexuality as ‘compartmentalized’ thing. In fact, I couldn’t understand the meaning of it at first, but I‘ve got some ideas about it. For example, in the US, politician’s private even their sexuality lives are often reported and attract public interest. On the other hand, Japanese don’t feel much interest in them. Even entertainers, their private lives are much less reported rather than in the US. I sometimes happen to see one entertainer goes together, got married, got divorced with someone through TV programs, magazines or newspapers. But I know little about their everyday life or every time dating, I don’t feel like to know much more about them.

The way I see it, this way of Japanese thinking is not bad, however, it leads some problems. In Japan, the average age of first experience of sex is falling to 16.8. This may result from Japanese ‘compartmentalized’ idea People think ‘family’ and ‘sex’ are different parts, and they don’t talk about sex with family. Children learn impractical knowledge in school, and get biased information by magazines and internet sites. Then many young people have sex without proper knowledge, and get venereal disease. The number of people getting the disease has been increasing, and it seems very serious problem in Japan now.

In order to prevent this serious problem, it is quite important that Japanese adults teach danger of sex to younger. I don’t know the lowness of sex experienced age is completely bad, however, adults should give enough support to ignorant children, and everyone should have responsibility for their own behavior.

Friendship

2006-12-14T19:11:00.000-08:00

As White says, Japanese girls often form groups. When I was a junior high school student, we formed groups. People in a same group were always together, even when they go to bathroom. Getting along with people in other groups was felt a bad thing for them. I didn’t like such a strange tie, because it bothered me. I wanted to be alone sometimes, but at the same time, I was afraid of being alone. Without joining any groups, school life seemed hard. In class or school events, we usually made groups, and it was almost same as the “usually groups”. Furthermore, a person who is always alone was easy to be the object of bullying.
In my school, bullying often happened. Some groups bullied even their group members. The target often changed, so many people, including me, have been bullied by turns. Usually, bullying was not so serious, like backbite or boycott when they play. However, it sometimes became more serious. For example, there was a girl’s photo broken to pieces in her shoes box. People ignored what she said, pretended as they didn’t notice her.
Now, bullying is very serious problem in Japan. This year, many children committed suicide, and it came up on news many times. The way I see it, Japanese dislike what is different from others, and they tend to avoid those who differs from others. Maybe, it leads good cooperation in some extent. But, being different is even more important in some cases, I think. I haven’t got the exactly solution about this serious problem, but we all need to think about that again at once.

Materialism

2006-12-13T20:29:00.000-08:00

As White says in Chapter5, there are many ways that companies are trying to make people buy. Especially, teenagers are quite important consumers for Japan’s marketing industry.
For example, there are several kinds of fashion magazine for teenagers, and not only fashion, but many other topics, such as love, sexuality or pop idols, are shown there. Then, they can see trend fashion, or what other teenagers are fond of. And they try to follow them. Also they often talk about those topics with friends, and they strengthen their ties of friendship.
In Japan, several events play important rolls for marketing industry. Now, Christmas is coming, so there are many magazines which show the best places for dating, or the best presents for their boyfriends or girlfriends. Many couples are now planning how to spend on Christmas day. For Japanese, Christmas is the event for couples rather than for families.
Japanese pop idols have big influences especially for young girls. As White mentions, many young girls do ”okkake” , it means that they follow the vehicles which idols are in, or wait in front of the buildings to see their favorite idols. However, there are more adult men than young girls are doing “okkake” in these days. They like young cute girls. There are many cafes where such girls entertain them, and men spend much money to play with those girls. It’s really crazy situation, I think, but it might be because of working too hard…

School

2006-11-09T19:41:00.000-08:00

Schools play a significant roll in children’s daily life. And I found lots of differences between schools in Japan and those in the US in this class. For example, in Japan, schools have many rules, and some of them sound very strange. But in my case, I didn’t have so many strict rules in junior high school and high school. I didn’t have school uniforms. I could have my hair permed or dye. This may be special case in Japan; however, I feel it was really good for me. I could know the difficulty to be independent, and responsibility for being free. Acting with common sense is very important in society, and I learned in schools.
In the discussion of the last class, it was said that Japanese teachers are strict and not like friend. But I don’t think that it is always true. When I was a junior high school student, my teachers were really friendly. I liked talking with them very much during lunch time, or after school. In addition to that, I went to have a meal with my teacher in high school a few times! I was on the committee of school festival. And after the school festival, I had a dinner and went karaoke with my teacher who was the adviser of the committee and the committee members. Also, I belonged badminton club in high school, and went out to have a dinner with teachers who took charge of the badminton club. They were very friendly usually, however, they were sometimes very scary, of course. I have been scold by them several times. But I liked them, because I could understand why they scolded me. Some teacher may be just strict and not friendly at all, but there are many other teachers, I think.
Japanese schools are changing little by little now.

Family

2006-10-26T20:04:00.000-07:00

When I read this White’s book, I was really surprised at the differences of the parents’ positions of their family in the U.S. and in Japan.
First, many girls tend to dislike their fathers in Japan. On the other hand, in the U.S., daughters love their fathers. I think the reason is the length of the time they spend together. In the U.S., fathers spend much more with their family than in Japan. they often go outside, and have meals together. However, in Japan, fathers work all day long, and when they are at home, they just want to relax. They rarely spend their weekends going out with their family. Because children see their father only being dull, children regard them as lazy. In addition to that, Japanese fathers tend not to interfere in their children’s education. They think that working hard and earn much money is their responsibility for their family. And they leave child raising their wives. Only mothers are earnest about their children’s education, so fathers do not have many opportunities to talk with their children, especially their daughters. Boys can share interesting with fathers, but, in most cases, girls can not. They like to go shopping rather than to play catch.
Also, mothers’ positions are different. In Japan, they are strict with their children in order to make children succeed in an entrance exam. They manage about most of household chores by themselves. They don’t ask children to help, because they want their children to study as much as possible. So, the relationship between them is not like friend, many children are afraid of their mothers. In contrast, children often help their mother with housework in the U.S. Mothers may scold their children for right reasons in sometimes, of course, but they are usually like friends.
Their positions are quite different; however, I cannot say which is better, because there are many background of this matter. What I can say is that both parents cherish their family; even the ways are totally different.

Self Introduction☆

2006-10-10T16:54:00.000-07:00

My name is Hitomi Tanaka.
I'm 18 years old, and born in Chiba, next to Tokyo. Now, I live in Tokyo with my family. I like listening music, and watching movies.
Also, I love talking with friends, so I would like to communicate with many of you a lot by this blog.
Nice to meet you!
　
　私の名前は田中ひとみです。
私は18歳で、東京のとなりの千葉生まれです。今は家族といっしょに東京に住んでいます。音楽を聴いたり、映画と見たりするのが好きです。友達とのおしゃべりも大好きなので、このブログを通してあなた方とたくさんお話したいと思っています。
　どうぞ、よろしく！