Consensus and soccer.

It is often said that  Japan is a consensus nation.
After   28  minutes of NHK news dedicated to the topic of Japan's soccer team, the Samurai Blues, making it to the "Best 16" , I think it is fair to say, there is consensus in Japan, that it is a great thing. Consensus was reached after examining all possible angles that could lead to that conclusion.


NHK examined

• the fact that (TFT)  there were people that stayed up all night in central Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Shizuoka.
• TFT some bars made sleeping space for patrons so they could get a quick nap before heading off to work - some with dividing curtains..
• TFT water usage in Tokyo surged at the half time break and immediately after the game - evidently people can control their bladders when they need to.....
• TFT the primary school children at the primary schools attended by key players were rejoicing.
• TFT primary school children could be seen in the playground today playing soccer.
• TFT children stayed up to watch the match in the middle of the night (they filmed a 10 year old boy watching it at home)  (Probably not the same child who was running around with a soccer ball at lunch...)
• TFT  Japanese people had been pessimistic about the team's chances  -  there was a perception that the Japanese players were undisciplined, that they 'let it all hang out' and weren't working together.
• TFT  that the team has progressively developed solidarity and that the team worked together.  They even put their hands on each other's shoulders during the national anthem and made a circle of players before the game.
• TFT 1.. the captain and coach worked together, 2. that they were aggressive, and 3) they persisted.    (their list not mine....)
• TFT that each goal had key moves that led up to it - and a detailed analysis of each. 

After 18 minutes, the analysis of Paraguay began.
After 24 minutes,  analysis on other team's matches began.
After 29 minutes,   with a warm fuzzy feeling that we Japanese feel happy about the soccer, attention turned to G20 (with no mention that neither Julia or Kevin are going).

No doubt at 42 mins we'll have the sport report.....


PS... I should have known the news would be followed with a match replay...it's a good follow up to the highlights that went before the news...

(picture from yesasia.com)

Aussie English

Today I have been teaching a group of students who are going to Australia for homestay. Their school has an unwarranted preoccupation with with Australian English; I'm not convinced of the merits of teaching Strine  to kids that struggle to even introduce themselves....

In what is possibly a hangover from Crocodile Dundee,   Aus. English seems to be considered one of the less intelligible strains.   I've had university English teachers praise my English for being understandable....(unlike most Australians......???)   If I had five dollars for every time a Japanese person has told me emphatically about how  Australian English is so difficult because Australians say "to die" not not today, and then followed it with an annecdote about  "I'm going to the hospital to die ", I would have enough money for a plane ticket back.....

The particularly irritating thing about their annecdote is that it invariably comes from people who couldn't pick an East London accent from a Louisiana one....

I digress... back to the students....

They  had already had some preparation about "Aussie English" from their regular English teachers.  To see what they knew already,  I got them to make a list of Aussie English that they knew.   Some was reasonable - arvo, cuppa;   some marginal - g'day mate,  ta ;  some inane - yep, yuck;   some of it .... well .....

Going through the blackboard list.....
PIG?
"What do you mean by pig?"  (a little puzzled).
"The police"
"What!  Where did you learn that?"
"Our teacher" ...
"what?" student shows me a work sheet


Sure enough....... pigs = police......oh my.....I'd like to see them try that out on a man or woman in blue...

Three cheers for the manji!

What bad luck - my bike was stolen last month.
What good luck - Japan has a bike registration system
What bad luck - I didn't know the registration number
What good luck - the powers that be did and I got a post card yesterday to say it had been found.
What bad luck - The postcard says I have to pay a fine to get it back.
What good luck - If you file a police report you don't have to pay the fine.
What bad luck - I hadn't filed a police report.
What good luck - I had picked up the sheet to fill in to file a report.
What bad luck - the kanji was too difficult and I kept forgeting to ask Hiro.
What good luck - I went to Ikebukuro this morning to lodge the form.
What bad luck - the police said there is no point to lodge if your bike has been found and to go to Shinjuku to collect it.
What good luck - the place to collect the  bike was close to Shinjuku station.
What bad luck - they said I had to pay a fine.
What good luck - After begging and pleading and saying that I tried to fill in the form but couldn't read it properly and Hiro had been away on business trips and too busy to fill it in,  the manji kindly said, this time you don't have to pay.  But if there is a next time, please follow procedures properly.

Three cheers for the manji  :)




(Note manji is not real Japanese for this context).

Road rage

It was with some bemusement that I read on the Japan Today news site that a 49 year old office worker had been arrested for punching a fellow commuter in the face for having bad train manners.  The punchee had apparently been using his phone on the train in peak hour in central Tokyo.    

Punch in the face for phone use on the train, but the same man is probably oblivious to election vans, right wingers, and the sales staff with microphones outside electronic shops....... sometimes it doesn't make much sense.



http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/man-punched-in-the-face-by-fellow-train-commuter-over-bad-phone-manners