Yesterday was St. Patrick’s Day, a celebration of all things Irish in the U.S. and, presumeably, Ireland. As you might imagine, there isn’t a lot of awareness of this day in a place like Japan, which knows nothing of shamrocks or leprechauns or pots of gold buried at the end of the rainbow. However, we managed to have our own little Irish Experience nevertheless. While taking our customary weekend drive up the mountains around the resort town of Karuizawa, we came across an interesting-looking restaurant that served wood-fired pizza and home-brewed beer, a rarity in a country that favors large, easily-taxable industries. Among the beers they offered was an authentic Irish Stout, and I was so shocked at the concept of drinking a rare and delicious brew on a mountain in an extremely rural corner of Japan that I had to have three of them. One thing you can say about Japan is, you never know what it’s got in store for you next.
The subject of Japan’s compulsory educational system is a complex and interesting one. Officially begun as part of the modernization program of the 1870s, Japan’s schools are responsible for teaching young people everything they need to function in life, from reading and writing of kanji to math and science to social skills suitable for Japan’s group-oriented culture and being able to say “Fine thanks, and you?” when you ask them how they are in English (a very important skill, to be sure). Public schools are extremely conservative and resistant to change, and it’s amazing how much is the same at my daughter’s elementary school compared with when her mother went there 25 years ago…or her grandmother, who attended the same school 50 years ago. This is good on the one hand because it creates a continuum of experiences that crosses generations, such as playing the Japanese educational game “Karuta” that teaches respect for local culture — even something like Japanese school lunches have cultural threads that we foreigners can never comprehend. On the other hand, Japanese public schools seem trapped in a time-warp without any significant plan for the changes students will face this century, including fierce competition from every country in Asia. I sometimes wonder if Japan’s educational system can go on changing so little.
Japan can be a very style-oriented place at times, and it seems that everyone is concerned about looking good. The universal word for “cool” in Japanese is kakko ii (KAH-koe ee, lit. “good style”), while the opposite is kakko warui (KAH-koe wa-roo-EE, “bad style,” e.g. dorky). Another word that describes an absence of coolness is dasai (dah-SAI, out of fashion, uncool, n00b), which supposedly started out as a derogatory word for people from half-rural, half-urban Saitama Prefecture, just north of Tokyo, essentially to Japan’s capital what Orange County is to Los Angeles. Many Japanese also have a great appreciation for what’s known as dasa-kakko ii, or something that’s both lame and cool at the same time, or perhaps cool specifically because it’s out of sync with current mores. Some examples of dasa-kakko ii might include the hair styles or fashions from the 1970s, that scene from Mobile Suit Gundam when Amuro sits in the cockpit desperately reading through the manual as he trying to find the mecha’s weapons, the movie Willow, anything featuring Vin Diesel, and the artist formerly and currently known as Prince.
Remember that J-List carries cool computer peripheral and iPod products by Japan’s leading company, Elecom. From stylin’ USB computer mice to their trademark katakana mouse pads and keyboards to stylish speakers for your iPod, Mac or PC, Elecom has great stuff for you. We also carry the bizarre-but-cute Mogmo Kun, a push little monster that “eats” your USB flash drive or similar shaped device in order to protect it. So cute! All products are fully compatible with computers and iPod products around the world.
