To start with, those of you who don't live here are probably unaware of this fact, but few if any Japanese homes are equipped with central heating or insulation. This translates to a whole lot of freezing-my-tush-off once the temperature goes below about 60 Fahrenheit. Furthermore, I am not now, nor have I ever been, a huge fan of scraping snow off of cars or shoveling out parking spaces. I see an abundance of both in my future. At any rate, enough whining about the weather. Hopefully I'll at least get to enjoy some good time at the ski-jo when I return from America with my equipment.
**ANNOUNCEMENT!!** For those who missed it, I will be visiting my hometown of Seattle from December 24th to January 2nd. If you want to see me please get in touch so we can lock something down!
Moving on from weather and travel nonsense. Today, I found myself further in the debt of the ever-wonderful Miss Ayako Sasaki. I was seriously stressing because Yashima Elementary (my least favorite school, if you'll recall from earlier posts/complaining...) wanted me to spend ten minutes each in three different classes talking about what Americans do for Christmas. There are two issues here. One, none of them speak any English worth mentioning, so anything I said would be a waste of air. Second, my Japanese (and more importantly my confidence in my Japanese) is nowhere near good enough to really explain Christmas. I have a serious aversion to promoting and enforcing stereotypes in Japan - though sometimes, it's the only route to take (see previous post regarding who my favorite singers are when I am on school premises...). But I have a much bigger issue selling the old tried-and-true expected explanation of Christmas. It leaves a sour taste in my mouth, as if I had just confirmed that black people only eat fried chicken and grits. I feel a strong desire to explain that not all Americans celebrate Christmas - some celebrate other holidays, like Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, and some celebrate nothing at all - and that among those who do celebrate, there are many different traditions.
I was getting pretty distressed at the idea of having no choice but to affirm Japanese stereotypes and pre-assumptions about American holidays, when Miss Sasaki flew to my rescue. Like the angel that she is, upon seeing my distress and asking me to explain the reason, she made a suggestion.
"How about you write down what you want to say, and I will translate it into Japanese so the homeroom teacher can explain to the children?"
God bless you, Ayako-sensei.
As a result of her generosity, I will now be able to explain at least to some extent the diversity of the holiday season in America to Yashima Elementary. How well it will go over and/or stick remains to be seen...but at least I won't go home feeling as if I've just been a willing participant in a minstrel show.
Hilarious sidenotes:
1) In my explanation of American Christmas, I did address the many people who celebrate a different holiday (Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc) and those who celebrate nothing at all. This produced shock and confusion in my Japanese coworkers, including the question "What is a Jewish?"
2) I described some classic Christmas traditions, including leaving milk and cookies out for Santa. Apparently, none of my coworkers have ever heard of this. They were all extremely puzzled. One of them asked me if Santa did not eat meat because all we fed him was cookies - evidently milk and cookies = vegetarian.
3) I described hanging stockings. One flabbergasted Japanese coworker asked me in shock, "So you put your socks on the stove?!?!"
4) I explained that my family does not do much to celebrate Christmas. My coworkers reacted with consternation and confusion. They were also surprised that most people in the US consider Christmas a time to visit family - apparently in Japan, Christmas is closer in spirit to Valentine's Day...as in, a holiday for lovers. Eek.
Clearly, one cannot make any assumptions regarding cross-cultural understanding. Of course, I am equally guilty; I have had enough preconceptions shattered here to know that my notions about Japan were nearly as misguided as Japanese preconceptions about America are.
As a wise man (Wayne Moyer!) once told me in a different context, "Where you stand depends on where you sit." Sitting here in Japan has certainly changed where I stand on many issues, including gender roles, sexual politics, religion, manners, and multiculturalism or diversity.
Stand where you may, forget not that others may sit elsewhere. Amen.
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