(continued from last week)

Alternatively, Japanese sports education and culture has quite a long history of basketball. In 1917, Japan entered a basketball team in the Olympic games for the first time. When I first came to Japan to teach English, I was so jealous to realize that much like American children, Japanese children have grown up for generations learning the game that I had grown to love.

In my middle school’s changing rooms, our sports teachers decorated the walls with posters of various famous sports stars. I knew a lot of those faces from watching TV, but there was one poster in particular that caught my attention. It was a photo taken from above the basketball ring, looking down. There was a tall handsome man training on his own, jumping high into the air with a basketball in one hand. In the bottom left corner of the poster was a small red box with the word ‘Nike’ in it. I didn’t know who he was then, but that is my first clear memory of seeing the world-famous Michael Jordan. I wanted to know more.

A few years later at high school, I got my first chance to learn how to play. The school had an old indoor court that had no 3-point line, and three larger spaces in a building that we nicknamed ‘the shed’. I made new friends with other boys and girls, some who knew more about basketball than me, and we began to practice and teach each other. Although the high school had a team, it was nothing like a Japanese school’s sports clubs. Practice was only once a week. Some of the older students told us about a private club that was being run at evenings and weekends by a professional player in the neighboring town called Gateshead. We nervously made the journey over there to see if we could take part. I remember walking onto my first proper basketball court and being amazed by the speed and intensity of the game and the players. I was hooked. I must have played, watched, and talked about basketball every day between the ages of 15 to 22. I was never a great player, but I loved the game and I still do now.

Photo Credit: Markus Spiske@pexels.com

Blog Quiz

1. When did Japan first enter a basketball team into the Olympic games?

2. What famous sport star did the author become interested in as a middle school student?

3. How often did the author’s high school basketball team practice?

Scroll down ↓ for the answers to the quiz.

Quiz Answers

1. 1917

2. Michael Jordan

3. Once a week

Football (soccer), as it is called in my native country, is by far and away the most popular sport in the UK, and like other hugely popular sports, football culture is ‘not just a sport’ to those who love it, it is a way of life. The north east of England has a long history of football culture. My hometown of Newcastle upon Tyne, much like many other cities and towns throughout the UK, has thousands of people who loyally follow the various local football clubs, from school teams, to amateur teams, to the big-money big-business teams of the premiere leagues. Of course, there are people who actively dislike football and the culture surrounding it, so when the larger culture is not appealing, subcultures emerge from groups of people who have different beliefs and interests. These days, basketball is a globally popular sport thanks to the NBA, its amazing athletes, and the Internet. However, in 1990’s England, being a basketball fan meant that you were part of a subculture.

I started first (elementary) school in 1985 and I was never very good at playing football. I didn’t understand why so many boys wanted to play it. Equality in sports was still an underdeveloped idea, so in those days, it was very rare to see girls playing football, and even rarer for a school to have a girls’ football club.

At middle (junior high) school, I found out in P.E. class that I enjoyed athletics the most, especially the high jump and the long jump. It was exhilarating to throw myself as high and as far through the air as I could. The school had a football team for which many boys were very keen to play. My teachers suggested that I take part in athletics competitions. However, P.E. classes and serious competitions are two different worlds. It was so boring to sit and wait for my event in the day’s long schedule.

European or American basketball game highlights were only very rarely shown on British TV. I was intrigued by this strange looking game that was played in a small space with only ten people on the court. I didn’t know until I was much older that there was a small but loyally followed English professional basketball league. Also, like many other schools across the UK, my middle school had a very large grassy field with a football and rugby pitch, but it didn’t have a basketball court.

(To be continued next week)

Photo Credit: Markus Spiske@pexels.com

Blog Quiz

1. What is the most popular sport in The United Kingdom?

2. What sport did the author enjoy playing most in junior high school?

3. How often did the author see basketball on TV when he was in junior high school? 

Scroll down ↓ for the answers to the quiz.

Quiz Answers

1. Soccer (football)

2. Athletics (long jump and high jump)

3. Rarely

The Philippines has many young people with passion and enthusiasm to work for their people. In the summer of 2017, I joined a study tour led by an NGO in Kyoto to visit several places in the Philippines to meet local people and to learn about their life under difficult conditions. The NGO has been supporting the local people in the Philippines for more than 20 years and gave us an opportunity to meet them. The average age of the country’s citizens was 23 years old, much younger than Japan. We saw many ambitious young people, and I would like to introduce some of them.    

When we visited the largest disadvantaged area, Tondo District in Manila, we met Jel, one of the energetic young people who came to talk to us about their life. She was a twenty-year-old mother with a two-year-old son. Jel, her son, and her husband were living in Tondo District, close to Smokey Mountain. In the district, many people were making a living by collecting recyclable garbage and selling it. Jel and her younger siblings were raised by their grandmother there. Their life was hard; however, she never gave up learning. She became the best student in the sixth grade and got 13 medals. In junior high school, she worked as a babysitter to support her family. She went to school from seven in the morning to four in the afternoon. After school, she baby-sat four children until eleven o’clock at night. Even though she was very busy, she studied hard and became the second-best student. When she was sixteen, she joined the NGO youth group. She experienced a variety of activities, such as playing sports in a team and working as a volunteer. She learned the importance of human relationships like family and friends and also wanted to support other young people. She said to us, “I want to be a president of this country in the future and help the people in need.” We were quite impressed by her strong will and big smile.

Another ambitious young person was Rommel in Perez, Alabat Island, about five hours from Manila by bus and boat. He was a seventeen-year-old high school student and a youth group leader in the district. The NGO has been working for young students to finish elementary education in the district for about twenty years. In Perez, many fathers are low-income farmers or fishermen who work for long hours, and many mothers are busy working at home and taking care of five or six children. They have a severe financial situation and some of their kids cannot even finish elementary school. The NGO helps them financially with scholarships and also encourages them to engage in learning together through after school activities. Rommel used to be one of the scholars and has been supported by the NGO. Later, he joined the NGO youth group and became a leader of the group. He was taking care of younger members and planning some activities for their physical and mental health. He wanted to go to college and study to be a police officer to protect vulnerable people. We admired his action and friendly smile.

Before visiting the Philippines, I was not sure what to talk about or what kind of questions to ask even though I really wanted to communicate with the local people. However, their heartwarming welcome helped all of the participants, including me, to relax and get to know them. We spent time together and were able to become friends. They were very energetic and full of hope and inspired us to take action to extend our friendship. I want to keep my eye on future young leaders who are determined to contribute to their communities and their country.

Photo Credit: The Author

Blog Quiz

1. Which of these didn’t Jel do?

A.   Earn awards for academic success.

B.   Become a politician.

C.   Work taking care of children.

D.   Volunteer for an NGO.

2. Which of these describes Rommel?

A.   He is a youth group leader.

B.   He supports the health of others.

C.   He wants to study at a university.

D.   All of the above.

3. What is the main idea of the story?

A.   How a young mother overcame difficulties.

B.   What happens on an NGO tour.

C.   How a young man became a policeman.

D.   How people in the Philippines inspired the author.

Scroll down ↓ for the answers to the quiz.

Quiz Answers

1. B

2. D

Is the Color “Blue” or “Green” on a Traffic Light?

Before the invention of the blue light emitting diode, which made the “blue” on a traffic light look much more blue, the color on the traffic light was “green”. In most western countries today, such as the U.S.A., the traffic light meaning “go” is called “a green light”. Today, I’m going to talk about “colors”. There are some interesting differences in the way colors are thought of by Japanese and Westerners.

Let’s start with filling in the blanks with the name of a color:

1. I am healthy = I am in the ____.

2. He isn’t mature enough = He is _____.

3. She is good at gardening= She has a _____ thumb.

4. They are cowards= They are ______.

5. He has bruise around his eye= He has a _____ eye.

Check your answers at the bottom of this page. How many did you get right? I thought number 2’s answer was blue because of “Aonisai（青二才）” in Japanese and that number 5’s answer was blue or purple because of “Aoaza（青あざ） in Japanese. It is a well known fact that the Japanese sense of color differs from that of people overseas. Some say the differences can be attributed to cultural issues, genetic factors such as the performance of photoreceptors inside the eyes or even the climate. Acquiring a certain country's ideology regarding colors can be difficult unless you are a native to that specific country.

There are also cultural differences in the way countries think of numbers. The numbers 4 and 9 are considered bad luck by the Japanese. In the western mind, the numbers 13 and 666 are bad luck or carry a negative image. I hope you have a chance to discover and experience these interesting differences in culture and ways of thinking.

1. pink   2. green   3. green   4. yellow   5. black

Photo Credit: JESHOOTS.com@pexels.com

Blog Quiz

1. In the United States, what color do they call the traffic light that means “go”?

A.   blue

B.   green

C.    yellow

2. What color represents a person who is not brave?

A.   yellow

B.    pink

C.    green

3. What numbers have bad images in many western countries?

A.    4 & 9

B.    666 & 13

C.    2 & 5

Scroll down ↓ for the answers to the quiz.

Quiz Answers

1. B

2. A

3. B

Have you ever done yoga before? It is said that more than 300 million people in the world do yoga these days. I started doing yoga 12 years ago and my first impression of yoga was “NOT EASY” mostly because I imagined that yoga was all about taking a yoga pose beautifully. However, my image of yoga was completely changed after I realized that yoga is more about breathing than striking a pose. More importantly, I feel that the longer I continue doing yoga, the healthier I become both physically and mentally.

So, what is yoga then? The Yoga Therapist Association [https://www.yogatherapist-association.com/column/1934/] explains that the main purpose of doing yoga is to arrange both your physical and mental condition by stretching your body and keeping specific postures. The word YOGA means a connection of your body and mind in Sanskrit. The origin of yoga goes back to about 5,000 years ago in India. Yoga was originally done as religious training but today the religious meaning has weakened, and yoga has become more for the promotion of health especially after it was introduced in Europe and North America. Did you know that ZAZEN in Buddhism originally takes a part of yoga style? As far as the connection between yoga and Buddhism is concerned, it is said that ZAZEN spread when Buddhism was introduced from India to China and Japan.

Anyway, what is good about doing yoga? The Yoga Therapist Association [https://www.yogatherapist-association.com/column/1934/] emphasizes three benefits which can be brought about through yoga;

1. Change of your Breathing

The strongest point of doing yoga can be about changing how you breathe. We naturally breathe in our everyday lives and this breathing usually tends to become shallow. However, you will be required to control your breathing deliberately along with your body movement while you do yoga. It is said that our brain especially needs a lot of oxygen and this intentional control of your breathing will make it possible to bring oxygen into your brain so that your mind will be clearer.

2. Recovery from Pain

Many people say that they started doing yoga due to their bad physical condition such as weakened muscular strength or inflexibility. Yoga originally includes poses which increase your flexibility. In other words, doing yoga is fixing your body’s distortion and straightening your posture. As a result, people can recover from the chronic body pain such as stiff shoulders and lower-back muscle pain.

3. Free from Stress

One of the reasons why yoga is accepted by so many people in the world is probably because people live in modern stressful society. Since yoga not only stretches your body but also includes self-meditation, it can help you reduce or get rid of psychological stress. Doing yoga will be able to give you the power of concentration as well as the ability to control your emotions.

Now, yoga is known globally. The United Nations [https://www.un.org/en/events/yogaday/index.shtml] established June 21 as International Day of Yoga in 2014 for introducing the advantage of doing yoga internationally. Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi said in his speech at the 69th session of the General Assembly, “ Yoga is not just about exercise; it is about a way to discover the sense of oneness with yourself, the world and the nation.”

Photo Credit: Prasanth Inturi@pexels.com

Blog Quiz

1. Which best describes yoga?

A.   It is physical exercise.

B.    It is mental exercise.

C.    It is both mental and physical exercise.

2. How should a person breath when doing yoga?

A.   Fast breathing

B.    Deep breathing

C.    Shallow breathing

3. What are the psychological benefits of doing yoga?

A.   It can lessen stress.

B.    It can improve ability to focus.

C.    It can aid self-control.

D.  All of the above.

Scroll down ↓ for the answers to the quiz.

Quiz Answers

1. C

2. B

3. D

Mt Omine is one of the most sacred places in Japan. It is located in the Yoshino-Kumano National Park which covers Mie, Nara and Wakayama Prefectures. The mountain is on the Yoshino-Kumano pilgrimage route. The highest peak is Mount Sanjou (1719m) which is the location of the Ominesan-ji temple, the headquarters of the Shugendo sect of Japanese buddhism. It is also the training ground of the mysterious Yamabushi monks.

The mountain has been a training ground for the Yamabushi for over 1300 years. These ascetic hermits reach spiritual enlightenment through acts of physical endurance, such as fasting, seclusion, meditating under cold waterfalls, and repeatedly walking the mountain paths. In the past the Yamabushi were considered to have supernatural powers, and could be found fighting alongside samurai in battle. The Yamabushi continue to train here today.

For hikers the mountain offers some stunning views and can easily be climbed in a day. There are four possible routes. However, for day hikers, starting at Omine Ohashi is the best option. Allow 6-7 hours for a moderate to easy hike on well maintained paths. This route will take you past the 3 tests of courage, one of which you are able to try.

Hiking Ominesan with its breathtaking views, pristine forest and intriguing history offers an almost mystical experience. However, the mountain is not without controversy. In 2004 the Ominesan was designated as a world heritage site by UNESCO. This was in spite of a ban on female walkers hiking on the mountain. This ban, which is said to be for historical and religious reasons, continues today.

Photo Credit: the author

Blog Quiz

1. Where is Ominesan?

2. How do the monks train?

3. Why is it a controversial place?

Scroll down ↓ for the answers to the quiz.

Quiz Answers

1. in Yoshino-Kumano National Park

2. fasting, seclusion, meditating under cold waterfalls, and walking

3. female walkers are not allowed on the mountain

In Japan, curry rice is regularly found by surveys to be the most popular dish. Even more popular than ramen and miso soup! To foreign visitors it may be surprising because Japan is not traditionally world-famous for its spices. Actually, Japanese food is famous for avoiding strong flavours. So how did Japan fall in love with curry?

The story begins soon after the Meiji Restoration (明治維新) around 150 years ago when Japan began to rapidly modernise and change. Before that, Japan was a very isolated country. In a very short period of time Japan became a very modern country and made alliances with lots of other countries. In 1902 Japan and the United Kingdom became allies. A big part of this partnership included the British Royal Navy and the Japanese Navy (海上自衛隊) sharing weapons and military advice with each other.

Japan had a big problem with their Navy during this period. The young Japanese men in the Navy often had Beri-beri disease (脚気) and nobody knew why. However, Mr. Takaki Kanehiro, who was a naval doctor and went to university in England, discovered that the reason so many Japanese sailors got sick was because the young men only ate white rice and nothing else. These young men were not getting enough Vitamin B1 and were often dying very young.

The Japanese government needed to find a cheap way to give their men Vitamin B1, so they asked the British Royal Navy for advice. One of the foods served on British ships was curry, so they introduced curry to the Japanese Navy to see if this would help stop Beri-beri. The British Navy had been controlling India as a colony for over 100 years and had adopted the Indian national dish. The British Navy never suffered from Beri-beri, so they recommended curry to the Japanese Navy and it worked very successfully. Mr Kanehiro was given the Order of the Rising Sun (旭日章) for saving many Japanese lives.

After the British Navy shared the curry recipe with the Japanese Navy, the Japanese young men took the recipe back to Japan to eat at home. The Indian spices were imported from the UK in exchange for Japanese silk. But in 1931, there was a big scandal. Some Japanese shop owners were arrested by police for selling cheap Japanese curry powder but pretending it was expensive UK curry powder! Actually, it was good news for Japan because people couldn’t taste the difference between the UK version and the Japanese version. Then Japanese spice companies like S&B became very popular with their domestic curry and British spices stopped being imported.

The Japanese then added their own white rice to the curry and also adapted the recipe to suit the Japanese. For example, yuzu was sometimes used in Japanese curry instead of lemon to make Japanese curry a little sweeter. In more recent years, Japan has created its own unique styles of curry, including curry-pan, curry-udon, curry-nanban and the very popular instant curry blocks. The Japanese Navy still eat curry rice to this day – every Friday. Each Naval ship has its own unique recipe!

Photo Credit: Buenosia Carol@pexels.com

Blog Quiz

1. What is an alliance?

A.   An enemy

B.    A partnership

2. Which fruit is sometimes added to Japanese curry instead of lemon?

A.   Yuzu

B.    Mikan

3. Which country did the British adopt the curry dish from?

A.   India

B.    Nepal

Scroll down ↓ for the answers to the quiz.

Quiz Answers

1. B

2. A

3. A

Some of you may have heard people say that English food isn’t very delicious. You may have heard that it has no taste and is rather bland. Well, one of the reasons for this is that British food is often eaten with sauces and other condiments to give it taste. Those of you unfamiliar with England may be unaware of the wide range of traditional sauces and condiments that can be found in a typical British household. It is not unusual for condiments to be put out at most mealtimes. There are so many that it is difficult to tell you about them here. So today I am going to introduce what I think are the top 5 essential British condiments.

Branston Pickle

Branston pickle is a pickled chutney first made in the village of Branston in Staffordshire in 1922. It is made from a variety of diced vegetables, including swede, carrots, onions and cauliflower, pickled in a sauce made from vinegar, tomato, apple and spices. It is sweet and spicy containing large chunks of vegetables in a thick brown sticky sauce. It is often served as part of a ploughman’s lunch, a popular food served in British pubs. It is also often eaten with cheddar cheese in sandwiches. The Branston brand was sold to the Japanese company Mizkan in 2012.

Mint Sauce

Mint Sauce is a condiment made from finely chopped peppermint leaves. The chopped leaves are mixed with vinegar and sugar. In British cooking it is usually only served with roast lamb.

Golden Syrup

This is a thick amber coloured syrup made from sugar. Its appearance and consistency is similar to honey. It tastes very sweet and is used in a lot of British baking; for example, cakes and flapjacks. The first can of Golden Syrup was sold in 1885. Interestingly, it is recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as having the world’s oldest brand and packing. The label is very unusual and shows the rotting carcass of a lion surrounded by flies. This comes from an old biblical story. The motto is ‘out of the strong comes sweetness.’

Worcester Sauce

The history of Worcester Sauce is an interesting story. Apparently the idea originated from Sir Charles, the Chief Justice of India, who sent the secret recipe he had found in India to Lady Sandys in Worcester. It consisted of an unusual mixture of anchovies, brine, molasses, vinegar and spices. Lady Sandys asked a local chemical company, Lea and Perrin, to make it. Unfortunately the resulting sauce was found to be inedible, so it was never used. Some years later one of the workers in the factory found an old barrel of the original mixture in the basement. The chemists decided to try it and found that the taste had mellowed with age. In 1837 the company started producing bottles of Worcester Sauce and it is still popular today.

Bovril

This is a dark paste made from beef extract. It was originally a war food designed to provide nutrition to the British soldiers fighting in the Franco Prussian War (1870). It was first sold to the public in 1888. Nowadays it is eaten spread on toast or mixed with water as a hot drink. It is a little similar in looks and consistency to Marmite and Vegemite which are made from yeast extract.

So there you have it. Five delicious British sauces to add a little spice to your meals!

Photo Credit (Dominika Gregušová@Pexels.com)

In the previous post, we highlighted the plights of sexual, gender, racial, and ethnic minorities in Japan. There may be a veil of illusion over Japan’s society to both its own citizens and people abroad that masks what these minorities are facing. Agency is, of course, a powerful act and while the marginalized have limited agency, they should be empowered to tell their own stories from their point of view and define these terms according to their most authentic emotions. Creating discourse within the society is an important tool for social change. Japan’s historical construction of identity as a nation, what this implies in regards to Japanese mainstream and minority identities alike, and what kind of position it has put Japanese society in the context of international relations, entailed fruitful discussions and discourses concerning Japan’s introspection, essentialism of cultures, be it of Japan’s or otherwise, civil societies, diasporic identities, and defining the center and periphery. Regardless of spatial and temporal boundaries, resisting constraints, seeking identities, claiming agency, and initiating movements involved decentering the center to make way for the periphery. The many actors within Japan’s periphery and its center demonstrated that differences will always exist between and amongst individuals. Even more significantly, differences remain even amongst those that, in theory, are supposed to belong to the same peripheral group. In other words, a periphery and a center will always exist in some form or another since without one the other cannot exist. This can be challenging at times, and in many societies, it is precisely these differences that generate segregation, discrimination, and hardship. Yet it is clear that without differences, little space would be left for individuals to learn and grow.

Identity cannot be explained by a single word or two. Identity and all of its concepts is an attempt to explain how humans yearn to make sense of this world and ways in which our existence is truly interconnected. In our current world, are many of us not diasporic people in one sense or another regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and social class, intimidated to a certain extent by the uncertainties of our own being and belonging? The dilemma of questioning one’s uniqueness is not only the case for the Japanese but also the world’s population as a whole. The mixtures of cultures, upbringing and even the traces of locations where the individual has been to, can truly separate them even from their own supposed place of “belonging” in other groups. However, it also signifies the possibility of that individual to connect with a wider range and variety of people from different constructions of identity as well. After all, the line between segregation and inclusion of individuals is extremely thin. The fluidity of the human body, mind, and soul is truly breathtaking to the extent that it enables its possessor to be segregated from yet also integrated into multiple forms of culture, society, and even class, whether it might be based on an empirical reality or even an imagined community.

Photo Credit: (fauxels@pexels.com)

Discovering a sense of self and belonging, allowing social forces to take hold, is through the humanistic emotion of what every person has felt at one time or another – love. Love is a very complex thing and it can happen to anyone at any point in time. Love, for example, for an elderly woman, is coming back home and seeing her grandchildren happy, and love for a young man is riding his motorbike. People feel something beautiful when they talk about something or someone they love, and love is the thing that binds social beings and forces together.

On the other hand; however, we form communities and seek a sense of belonging due to the underlying driving force of fear. People are afraid of being social outcasts and feel helpless in a growing disconnected society. Furthermore, we construct identity in response to challenges. Natural disaster, for example, served as a driving force to unite people together through the construction of “victim” identity. There can also be cultural challenges, such as foreign economic and cultural domination. It seems that people can also use and manipulate identities for securing social well-being. In the process of modernization and the making of nations and ethnicities, it is clear that the construction of shared identity helps to unify people. However, this is only one side of the picture. It is dangerous to think that all people have an equal level of agency in constructing their preferred identity. In many cases, people fall victim of other people’s construction of their “superior identity.” In the modernization process, the making of “us” is inevitably accompanied by the construction of “other.” While sometimes the “other” is the powerful West, there are cases in which the domestic “other” – the minority groups in a nation state – becomes the victim of discrimination and suppression. To put it differently, when the majority group builds the ideology of superiority, the minority group automatically becomes the victim whose identity is categorized as inferior.

However, identity is a fluid concept. If we take a thorough observation of identity formation in different generations, we can see different reasons for constructing an identity. In the case of Zainichi Koreans or Nikkeijin, some in the later generations have chosen to retain their “roots” and identity and prefer not to assimilate into the “homogeneous” Japanese society. It can be argued that their cultural roots offer them shelter and a signifier in which they can find a sense of belonging as they pursue a society that recognizes and respects the difference.

Minorities in Japan such as the Nikkeijin, Zainichi Koreans, Muslims, and also Japanese minorities such as day laborers, women, and LGBT people and their activism reveal Japan’s transition into a multicultural society that aims to create an environment more open to change and accepting of differences. It is clear that learning about the existence of this growing diversity through education will help start that shift to making Japan a comfortable living environment for everyone. Even if minorities feel integrated in society, it will not work unless the Japanese people also feel comfortable with minorities and foreigners in their midst. People fear what is perceived as “different.” But if the consciousness that we are all people and we should not be segregated or discriminated against is nurtured through education, it will create a society where marginalized individuals will no longer feel unwelcome due to “difference.” Does the term/category “Japanese” even hold any meaning anymore? Multicultural theorist Bhikhu Parekh writes that a multicultural society cannot be connected by ethnicity, race, religion, etc. because the society is simply too diverse. Instead, it must be connected by a common political agenda. This entails having shared political goals and forming a political community. What are some concrete political goals? One could be changing the existing system to create a more tolerant and accepting society by accommodating ethnicities and cultures of the “others.” It can also mean that true acceptance of diversity entails an understanding that people relate to others who stem from similar life experiences and those who are different can more easily discover that sense of empathy with other people who are different.

To be continued next week.

Photo Credit: (fauxels@pexels.com)