Conspiracy of a Shrine

(The following story is a fiction based on what occurred in Country J.)

We arrived there at 6 a.m. The sky was still dark and the air was cold. It was the first time for us, me and my junior staff, to come to this country. A week earlier, the bureau chief had told us to investigate the cause of an unexplainable phenomenon happening in the premises of a shrine. A red dot had been on satellite image pictures since the bureau had started to take such pictures of the country over thirty years ago. But recently, the dot had been growing and it was no longer a dot, but a shorter version of the Great Wall of China. I knew that the bureau would decide whether to launch a new bureau-wide investigation or send the case to a storage room based on the results of our field trip. Once case files were sent to the room, they would have never been seen for more than a hundred years.

We started to climb a mountain behind the shrine at 7 a.m. The satellite images suggested that something red was located at the back of the shrine and extended toward north. The mountain path was not steep, but was lined with thousands of vermilion arches. Each arch was about three meters high and one meter wide and some were much larger, more than five meters high and one and a half meters wide. They were built along the path one meter apart and from where I stood, there seemed thousands of such arches through the top of the mountain. 

We nodded to each other. The satellite images must have been those of these arches. We were relieved and even slightly disappointed at this too easy answer and about to return when remembering that the strange thing was not only its presence, but its mysterious growth in recent years. “How many arches are supposed to be?” A Caucasian guy passing by me uttered this question, which also was popping up in my mind. It was no surprise that every visitor wondered how many arches there were and how many of them they had gone through. We were accustomed to see unusual local cultures, but even we could not help but ask ourselves seriously these questions. We should have brought a people counter to measure the number of these arches….

A few hours later, we saw a long line of people in front of a wooden building, halfway up the mountain. It was gigantic for a wooden building and seemed some kind of a shop. The shop was still closed, but it had a sign on the entrance reading “Open at 10 a.m.” I wondered what they wanted to buy so badly even if they had to wait in a long queue. I approached the store and snooped around it and found, although inside was dark and unclear, vermilion arches in various sizes being piled up. An Asian man, one of those waiting in the line, discussed with his wife the size of an arch they would buy, according to our translation machine. The wife was staring at her mobile phone to compare prices for each size. “This is too small, isn’t it?” “Yeah, why don’t you buy a larger one? The price isn't so different.” This led to a black woman telling her husband that she wanted two medium-sized arches, one each for their daughter and son. And then, a child asked her parents to get five arches for her birthday present. She would be five years old on the following day. We wondered how many arches were sold a day. Voices were heard from the left side of the building. A group of men wearing Buddhist robes got out from a backdoor with cement bags on their shoulders and some kind of machines. They were all young, maybe in their 20s, talking in a local language. These men were going toward the top of the mountain. Something made us follow them. It was easy to do so without causing suspicion as we all were heading toward the top.

We had walked for more than thirty minutes until they stopped and put the machine and bags on the ground. It was around the top of the mountain or might be a few hundred meters down from the top on the opposite side. We saw dozens of large vermilion arches laid in groups. The size of the arches varied between groups, ranging from a group of smaller ones, i.e., two-meter long and less than one meter wide, to a group of larger ones, i.e., seven meter long and two meter wide. But they all had one thing in common, the vermilion color. One of the men took out a piece of paper from his pocket and read it, "largest one." In response, four men approached the pile of the largest arches, took one, carried it one meter away from the last arch, further into the woods where two other men were drilling two holes using a land drilling machine. Then, the four men stuck the two legs of the arch into the two holes, pour cement into the holes, staked the arch, and went back to where the remaining arches were laid. They repeated these processes again and again.

In the following thirty minutes, six arches were erected. It was so efficient and quiet that the only thing we could hear was the sound of drilling. The men were sweating, but uttered no word. I had concluded by that time that they were employees of a construction company which had been hired by the shrine for this construction work and did not know anything about what they were doing. But the place of the work was just a few hundred meters away from the country border and if they kept working like this, the shrine would invade soon Country K, one of the most notoriously dangerous countries around the world. But why on earth did they have to care about it? They were hired to perform their duties for fee. Rather, I questioned myself how such a thing could be going on without being known by the local government.

We left the shrine immediately and filed a report to the bureau on that day. I knew that the case would be sent to the "solved" section of the storage room and would not be seen for the following hundred years. But again, this had nothing to do with our country and I was almost certain that Country J had known or might have intended this for a long time.

Machine Translation

Sachiko, one of my best friends, used to be a translator. For some reason, she still does translation, but her current main job is to teach English. So, it is very natural for her to think about machine translation.

She had thought until several years ago that the time when machine translation was useful would never come. The only good thing about it was that its translation was sometimes so hilarious, but otherwise, was hideous.

However, she tried it a few days ago, et voila! It was not so bad....

It made her think about what value a translator could add to.

She said that it was impossible for humans to compete with machines in terms of speed. Also, as to quality, the level of translation machines is currently the same as the TOEIC score of 900 according to some websites. Wow!! She is now seriously thinking that Japanese people no longer need to learn English and the Japanese government, which decided to provide English classes from the third grade, should stop such a waste of money and time.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Sachiko had to make a choice ten months ago of either becoming a “machine translator,” i.e., translating as a part-timer who is only evaluated based on the number of pages she translated, or a kind of legal consultant with experiences of translating a bunch of legal documents, although she is not a legal professional.

She still does not know which choice was right, but given such speedy and high-quality machine translation services, the right choice is obvious, isn’t it, whether she likes or not.

By the way, her purpose of learning English in the beginning was to make friends all over the world. Speaking English definitely increases the number of people you can closely communicate with. We can use a machine in business, but otherwise, at least she does not feel like using it, she said.

I saw Sachiko struggling and hurt terribly last year and it was so hard for me just to see her like that. I hope that she will find a new life in the new environment. I sincerely hope so.    

Different Way of Fighting

I had lunch with a neighbor a few days ago. She took over business from her father and now runs the restaurant in the neighborhood.  

Hang in There

I and my husband had dinner at a soba restaurant yesterday near Ginza, Tokyo. The restaurant is not fancy, but the owner and chefs are all very nice. It is getting increasingly difficult to find staff at restaurants or shops who speak using their brains without referring to manuals...

It had been two months before we went there last time and during the two-month period, the neighborhood had completely changed. The building in which the soba restaurant is located was surrounded by other taller buildings under construction.

The restaurant owner said that real estate value had been rising in Japan because of the Olympic bubble economy, so the area had been targeted by condo developers. He also said that he had been approached by a travel agent last year and asked if he was interested in serving soba courses for tourists from Asian countries. Although this would have brought him a quite amount of revenue for lunch, because the number of customers during the lunch time was guaranteed by the agent, he had said no. He was more interested in having more personal time and staying healthy.  

The owner said that one of the chefs, who had been his business partner for more than 30 years, had got sick and taken an operation two days earlier. He said that the chef would not come back.

Again, it is getting more and more difficult to find someone making decisions based on the idea that having money is useless unless you are in good health and spirit and have time to spend it!

When leaving the restaurant, we promised to celebrate in two and half years, that is, right after the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, that our prophecy, i.e., those benefiting from the bubble economy would all go to hell, had come true.

We all were aware that we might have gone there before they would....

But anyway, I want the owner and the chef to hang in there.

Loneliness

I had a sense of loneliness for the first time when I was four or five. Looking back, it was very natural for me to feel like this because at that time my mom was severely depressed. She had a difficulty to deal with new environments, which changed almost every year due to my dad’s business.

I felt acutely conscious that I was lonely again when I was a sixth grader. I had gone to four elementary schools. Until I made friends at each school, I had to spend time alone at school and after school. This loneliness changed my life. I became independent and introvert while being very good at pretending to be extrovert, cheerful and funny, because otherwise, I would have to eat lunch by myself or be bullied.

One day, one of my classmates gave me a book “Boujour Tristess” by Francoise Sagan. That was the last day for me to go to the school and I made a farewell speech at the end of classroom hours.

And this book and her other books changed my life, too. They told me that everyone was lonely and that “everyone is born and dies alone.” “Oh, I am not alone!” I said to myself.

I sometimes see people who seem to think that they are not alone or who depend on others (or even drugs!) to fill in emptiness or those who think that the idea that everyone is alone in itself is stupid or negative.

I don’t think so. Everyone is alone and this is a fact. And because of that, we can enjoy being with someone you like or love. 

Legacy That Needs to Be Passed on – Article 24 of Japanese Constitution

One of the recent hottest political issues in Japan is definitely the amendment of the Constitution proposed by the Liberal Democratic Party ("LDP") of Japan and people’s focus is mostly on Article 9. I completely agree with the “renunciation of war” and am against any amendments to the article. I cannot see any reason for the amendment no matter what other countries want Japan to do, even if they are our allies. I understand the historical uniqueness of the birth of the Constitution (some saying that it was forced by the U.S.), but we have to thank them for such peaceful constitution and determine whether to amend it based on not how it was established "back then," but what is in it and whether or not we "now" want to keep it.

Legacy That Needs to Be Passed on - Women’s Rights

One of my college friends once told me that “you can’t just ignore feminism just because you don’t understand it because at least you must have benefited from their legacy.”

Reason for Writing in English, My Second Language

Some may wonder why the author of this blog (hereinafter “I”), who is Japanese, writes posts of the blog not in Japanese, but English.

My first post, “Reason to Start Blog - De-Imprinting,” is about how I started to keep a distance from my parents because of the imposition of their values (about, for example, racial discrimination) and the marginalization of me due to my different opinions. But even when writing the post, I thought that the idea described in the post might not be supported by Japanese readers. When I talked with Japanese friends, coworkers and relatives about my relationship with my parents, most of them just said that “it cannot be helped,” meaning that children should do and accept whatever they are told to do by their parents, because parents are parents and otherwise, they would be ostracized by other family members.

My parents (and maybe many Asian people, including Japanese) think, consciously or unconsciously, that parents own children and that it is natural for children to follow parents' values. However, I believe that children are independent of parents after a certain age and because of that, it is inevitable that some children cease to have any relationship but blood one.

I have also other questions regarding family values, e.g., the definition of women's happiness (see "Responsibility of Parents"); the still prevalent patriarchy system in Japan (see "Money May Not Matter to You, but to Me" and "Money Does Not Matter - No.2"); the definition of work (see "Because I Work, I Don't Have to Do Labor Work") and other matters, such as the definition of Mottainai (see "Mottainai - Make it Work or Let it Go").

So, how are these my views considered in your country or culture? Are these minority opinions or wrong opinions or are they supported?

I write posts of this blog in English because I want to know how the majority opinion in Japan is viewed by those of other countries with diverse backgrounds because here in Japan, people with different views from the majority, like me, are often marginalized. I was marginalized during the almost entire childhood for a reason (which I may describe in another post) and no longer want to be marginalized.  

How Can Women SHINE?

There is an ongoing discussion in Japan of how to maximize women’s abilities in workplace while ensuring that they can raise children.

There was also an article on the Internet a few days ago about women who quit jobs to be dedicated homemakers but are now wondering if the decisions were right.

Another interesting thing is that a couple days later, a follow-up article saying that “dedicated homemakers can also ‘SHINE,’” i.e., realize themselves to the full extent, was posted.

It reminds Keiko of Sachiko. Sachiko has recently solved an old problem related to the definition of work. In brief, Sachiko’s mother, who has been a dedicated homemaker through her life, said that she no longer needed to do household chores as she “worked.” “Work” here means writing calligraphy and holding calligraphy classes, to which she has dedicated herself, but which has made no financial contribution to the household.

Keiko believes that the fundamental issue here is the same. They confuse the meaning of two different things, i.e., activities which need to be performed for biological necessities and activities which need to be performed for self-realization.   

Activities which need to be performed for biological necessities, such as doing household chores and earning a certain amount of money which supports one’s life, do not necessarily make them SHINE. They are requisites and that’s it. In other words, hataraku or shigoto in Japanese, when used to refer to these activities (or labor according to Hanna Arendt’s theory) is not supposed to provide the joy of life.

Some perform such labor activities to fulfill their biological necessities and by doing so, may be able to partially or fully realize themselves and feel the joy of life while others perform such activities only for money and may need to find such joy in other sphere.      

So, Keiko believes that if Japanese women want to SHINE or realize themselves, they need to know first what they want. The thing is that what you want is sometimes different from what others want. But convincing others that what you want should be right for others is waste of your time. People can lie to others, but cannot to themselves. If you figure out what you want, you just go ahead and never look back.  

Responsibility of Parents

Before taking college exams, Keiko was told by her mother that she should major in not law, but literature, because women who major in law were not considered feminine, could not marry someone successful and rich and unmarried women could never be happy.

Money Matters - No.2

In Japan, there was a legal system that the eldest son took care of his parents and other family members in exchange for inheriting all property. It is no longer legally provided and under the current law, property is equally divided between all heirs. However, this outdated system still exists and one of the most interesting legacies is that only the eldest son (if a son does not exist, the eldest daughter) and his spouse as well as his unmarried sisters who have never married may be buried in the family grave, but others have to procure their own graves.