The Restaurant of Many Orders

I recently had to read an old fairy tale for an advanced Japanese level class that I am taking here at IUS, and I found the moral of the story to be very interesting and unique. It did remind me of some of the fairy tales that I had read as a child, but this one still has a very distinct theme, in which was presented to me in a manner that I had not experienced before. This will now explain the story behind the old Japanese fairy tale The Restaurant of Many Orders, and of the theme embedded within the story.

The story starts off with two men that are being guided around the country side by a tour guide. The men are also occupied by their two dogs, and later become seperated from them and the tour guide. Hungry, the men start to panic and become lost. They later come across a restaurant in the middle of the forest. They think that it is really odd that a restaurant would be in the middle of the forest, but they still decide to enter. They are drawn in by a sign that mentions that they can eat for free, that they can even eat as much as they like. The men then decide to go inside the restaurant, and are later engaged by many odd signs inside the restaurant. These signs are posted on doors, and usually ask them to remove items such as their weapons and clothes. The men believe that this is because the restaurant hosts men of high status, and that this is a simply a security measure. Ultimately, they obey the signs, and the sign requests become stranger and stranger, with one sign even asking them to put butter all over their bodies. Later they discover that they are to be eaten by a giant cat, but their dogs come in at the last second and scare the cat away.

What one learns from this simple, yet unique fairy tale, is that if something is to good to be true, then maybe it really is too good to be true.

Disgustipated

This is a poem that I completed yesterday for a literature class that I am currently taking. The poem fits the theme of my blog, so I thought I would post it under this week's blog to see what you guys thought of it. It was supposed to be a modernist poem in which sought out to refrain from using the overused romantic and flowery language of the Victorian culture. I chose to model mine after T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land," in which makes a lot of references to history that are not very well known, and uses that of foreign language in his poem to convey emotion and meaning. The title of my poem is Disgustipated. Please see the footnotes for translations and and historical references. I am in no position to say what I think is positive and negative about my poem since I wrote it. With that being said, please leave some feedback, if possible, to let me know how you interpretted the poem, and of what you liked or did not like about it and why. Thanks.

Disgustipated

Infecting the masses,

Ordering You!

(1) Tatsu! And Pushing, and their shoving.

You are the chosen one

The one to bear the club,

Go! Beat your brother down!

Construed from greed and hate,

(2) Daihonei, you are the founding fathter.

(3) Okaasan, okaasan, who are they that come here?

What's going on? What's going on?

(4)Dare desu ka? Who are they?

1. Stand!

2. The Imperial General Headquarters of Japan, which was responsible for conducting the Japanese Army and Navy during wartime.

3. Mother

4. Who are you?

(5) Tokoro de,

There's got to be a way?

(6) Otoosan, otoosan,

(7) Mina sama, doko iku no?

(8) Yoshiko Uchida san,

Simply because our eyes are not the same.

Tokoro de,

There's got to be a way?

Dissociative identity is the damage.

My identity!

5. Well, you now; by the way

6. Father

7. Where is everyone going?

8. One of the Japanese American citizens that was forced into a concentration camp in America during the 1940's under Franklin D. Roosevelt's orders.

(9) Nanda kore!

Why don't you come and join us,

Come,

Come join (10) The Wired.

(11) Nani?

(12) Doushite konai no?

9. What the hell; what is this

10. A fictional computer network

11. Why?

12Why don't you come?

Ojigi

Ojigi, which is the Japanese bow, is the western equivalent of the handshake. This is a technique that Japanese people of all ages use to greet, depart, and express their gratitude to each other. There are differences in the way the males and females use ojigi. Males tend to leave their arms positioned to their sides, and bow at about a thirty degree angle. Females bend at about a thirty degree angle as well, but with their arms flat against their bodies in a "v" shape pattern in front of them. One's hands should cross one another as well when doing ojigi. The number of bows that are performed all depend on the situation and to who exactly you are using ojigi to. If it is to your friends or close family, a single bow will suffice. If to someone of a higher social staus than you, such as your boss, teacher, clients, or even the elderly, several bows should be performed, with the final bow being one at about fifty to sixty degrees. The final bow, to those of the higher social staus, should be held in position if they are departing, until the person has left your sight.

Using ojigi can be very complicated at first but anyone can master it, even foreigners. One might be surprised to know that most Japanese people will greet westerners with a handshake, but try a bow next time when you meet a Japanese person and you will be showered in compliments of being well-cultured about Japan. Do not worry about using ojigi incorrectly with a Japanese person, most of them will very happy to see that you are at least trying to be respectful, and they will truly see it that way. It is funny to look back to a few months ago when Obama visited the emperor and empress of Japan, in which they both have absolutley no sort of political power today, to the amount of uncultured remarks that many Americans made regarding Obama's ojigi towards the emperor and empress. They simply did not know that this was just a part of Japanese culture, and of the way that they greet one another. It was just a simple handshake, and Obama even shook hands at the same time while bowing to them. If you think about ojigi, it really is a more sanitary means of greeting one another, considering that one never really know where someone else's hands have been.

Japan-The Kotatsu

This is my first blog over Japan. What I plan to do on a weekly basis is to provide various aspects that I find interesting about its culture, people, and language. I am going to blog a little over something called a kotatsu. This is a type of table that is common in Japanese homes that does not require any chairs or seats. It is a table that is positioned very low to the ground, in which one can sit at the floor comofortably. Japanese homes usually have something called tatami mats as well, in which the kotatsu is positioned on. Think of it like carpet almost, but actually being more sanitary due to the fact that carpet holds lots of dust, dirt, and germs. These tables are like the dinner table because Japanese families usually eat together at these tables. In the winter time these tables can be equipped with blankets, and a heater, in which the heater is attached to the bottom of the table that plugs into an outlet. This is to keep the user warm, because Japanese homes usually do not have central air or heating. They use other types of heaters instead that run off of gasoline and require to be plugged into an outlet simultaneously.