My fragile mind, not to mention the front yard, has been completely discombobulated...
Today is cleaning day. I woke up at 7 this morning so I could be outside at 8 to "beautify" the property that my apartment building sits on. Sure, I don't mind raking up dead leaves. I can understand pruning. But pruning flowers? The people in my complex must like their hedges nice and rectangular, because they cut up a beautiful blooming hedge in the parking lot just for sticking out a little. A sad pile of pretty pink flowers now adorns the drive. I thought, okay, I won't cause a fuss, I know the Japanese people like their "wa," their peace and harmony, so I'll try not to be confrontational. I went back to sweeping dirt (which we weren't allowed to pile up with the dirt already in the yard, we had to hide it underneath what little was left of the hedges). Then I decided to join the other tenants, who were cleaning up a small ditch which isn't even on the property. I was being nice and "wa-ish," throwing away whatever was being handed to me over the fence...until some small trees (they HAD been living) were thrust into my hands. Now why in the world would anyone cut down a living tree to beautify the yard? As they continued passing over small trees, I decided if I didn't return to sweeping dirt I wouldn't be able to remain non-confrontational. I swept for a couple more minutes, and then promptly ran away to the safety of my apartment, where I am now currently sitting here writing this. Why did I run away? Why can't I tell them how I feel? Because this is Japan, and until you've lived here you'll never fully understand the concept of society-pressured assimilation.
So now I sit here, boiling inside because I can neither keep them from cutting down trees nor I can I say anything about it. Japanese people are not happy unless they have something made of concrete to look at, or an empty space where something beautiful once was. Nature isn't beautiful, neither are hedges or trees. But concrete, now that's something. Once in a while I'm sad at the thought of leaving Japan, but then a bunch of clueless Japanese people come along and do something just mind-numbingly stupid and remind me it'll be good to get off the concrete island.
4 comments:
Shannon, Shannon, Shannon. *shakes head* My take on it is that Japanese people like nature, there is no doubt about it.. but, they like Nature /controlled/. They don't consider the flowers beautiful necessarily, but rather, the symmetry of the hedges to the fence and pavement that, at least from what I gather, is beautiful. Again, I could be completely wrong but meh, I'm not Japanese -- I don't care if I am.
My unwanted advice? Plan a weekend getaway whenever you have those apartment cleanup days! I've always been away for the weekend whenever those things are scheduled so, I haven't gone to one yet! :) That's too bad, eh?
And I thought Americans were the clueless ones... hopefully I'll make it to Bozeman this summer and I think it'll be sad to see all the development and brand-new bland houses.
Not all of the houses here in Bozeman are bland. There are some really nice and beautiful sub-divisions going in in which all the architecture varies.
But as I head to Japan to be on JET, I understand Shannon's aesthetic concerns. But there is lots of wilderness surrounding the dense cosmopolitan city scapes of Japan. I do agree, that from time to time it's nice to see a natural looking tree, one that's not spherical, a cube, rectangle, triangle, or some other geometric monstrosity.
Anyway, I didn't know that you were such a 'hippy' Shannon. Maybe you could chain yourself to a shrubbery and shout out... "Wa! Wa! Waaaa!" at the top of your lungs.
You know you've been in Japan too long when you're worried about hurting their 'wee little' feelings by standing out. I mean, if you're worried about standing out or being differe, just look in the mirror! They expect you to be at least a little confrontational -in that good old' red blooded American kinda way. It's scary when you talk like some humble little Japanese girl trying to spare everyone's feelings.
They are a small people... so they're feelings must be small too. Don't worry about the social pressure to fit in... that's the Japanese way. You are a big white girl. And that's just something you're going to have to live with. Hips and all.
I agree with you Shannon. Sometimes things go on in Japan which are pretty unfathomable! But, we are visitors here, so we should respect their way.
I think you did the right thing by keeping your frustrations to yourself. Complaining would have achieved nothing and only have made you look bad.
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