japan: more snapshots

Here's a little something different to break up all the makeup posts: a continuation of my photos from Japan, this time with a little more focus on Osaka and Kyoto, where a great deal of my family lives!

Cute dog from when I visited my family in Osaka

Kyoto nature shots - such a beautiful place

祇園祭 - the famous Gion Festival

Pretty flowers from an arboretum in Nagoya

weekend fun: natsume soseki 夏目漱石 conference

A few weeks ago a friend and I made a split decision to attend a conference on Natsume Soseki - we both wanted to go really badly but for some reason the bus/train tickets for that particular weekend were so expensive! There was no way I was paying $80 for a bus ride that was only 4 hours. However, my boyfriend saw how disappointed I was that I couldn't go so he offered to pick my friend and I up and drive us back with him to the conference (which was luckily being held where he is studying). So thankful for such a sweet boyfriend! Entirely because of that single act of sweetness, my friend and I could attend the conference.

Alan Tansman of UC Berkley in the corner!

The conference itself was only over a single weekend but they managed to pack in so many panels during that time. It was a great learning experience because a lot of the big names in Japan studies were present, but also because there were a few panels that included graduate students. It was interesting to see how they structured their talks and to see what they are researching. The key themes over this weekend was a huge focus on 「心」(Kokoro) - which I wasn't too surprised about - but also on his more journalistic writing, especially 「満韓ところどころ」（Mankan tokorodokoro). I wasn't expecting there to be as much of a focus on the second piece but I believe that much of Japanese literature studies (focusing around the time of Soseki and through WWII) have to acknowledge Manchuria/Manchyuko, so a lot of scholarship is being done on that.

Another highlight of the conference was having Yoko Tawada (多和田葉子) as one of the keynote speakers - her talk was titled「漱石ってどんな石？自分ではないものになる方法」and it was an amazing talk. She is such a talented speaker and although I think some of her fiction writing is a little too surreal for me, I love her poetry. So glad I was able to hear her speak! Another speaker-highlight was of course seeing one of my very own professors present a paper and I continue to be amazed at how amazingly intelligent some people are in this world.

Otherwise, I was able to spend quite a bit of time with my friend and we had a few great heart-to-hearts :) I'm so glad I could attend the conference, even though I wasn't able to spend much time with my boyfriend since he was busy finishing up his work for graduation (which happened a few days ago!) and I was at the conference. 

 

japan: some snapshots

As I've mentioned elsewhere I am half-Japanese and was born in Japan, lived there for many years, moved to the USA, and was able to go back to Japan every year to see family. Due to the sheer number of trips I have taken over my lifetime, I have a huge pool of photos sitting in my hard drive. I thought it would be fun to feature of few Japan pictures since I know that Japan is a hot topic online! I will try to keep the images cohesive to year or location but, like I said, this is only a tiny sampling and I'll keep posting more if people enjoy seeing my take on Japan.

名古屋城 - Nagoya Castle (from afar)

Although my family is from Osaka, Japan (where I was born!) in later years they fanned out to other cities as well, such as Nagoya. Thus, I have spent the most time in Osaka and Nagoya, though I do have family in Tokyo who I visit on a regular basis.

There was a bonsai competition being held one year and I have to say, it was a stunning exhibition to walk through!

I am a huge fan of architecture in general - so happy to be dividing my time between two of the most architecturally gorgeous locations.

My grandparents live directly across from Nagoya University (名古屋大学) - as in, I can look out over campus from the room I stay in at their condo. There is a large clock on the campus building closest to us that is solar powered, which is how I always checked the time.

These were on the way to Mie Prefecture I believe? It has been a while so I am struggling to remember.

japan: my grandfather

I thought I'd post a little something different today and get a little more personal since this is a personal blog. I always enjoy when other bloggers talk about the elements that make up who they are as people, so I thought I'd start with some Japan posts, beginning with my family. People often ask who my inspirations in life are and I'll be the first to admit that my inspirations don't go far beyond the bounds of family but since I have found myself needing more and more inspiration these days, I thought I'd write about one: my grandfather. 

My grandfather worked for the Toyota company when it first began decades ago and was the first person from the company to go to New York in 1957 and open up shop, as it were. The first person. Ever. In the years after WWII, Japan’s economy was in shambles - like the rest of the country - so the only way to salvage it was to get foreign currency circulating within it. In this case, the US dollar. Problem was, basically no one on the international scene even wanted anything Japan had to offer (which, to be honest, wasn’t much). My grandfather described these early exports as primitive - ceramic plates, bowls, silk stockings, etc. So Toyota scraped up adequate funds, sent my grandfather over for six months with a few traveler’s checks and ordered him to try and get the Americans interested in Japanese exports. But this was a whole lot easier said than done because everything about Japanese exports was wrong. When my grandfather would bring samples to potential customers, they’d find something to pick at: the color was wrong, the shape was wrong and (in the case of fabrics) even the weave was wrong. All this time my grandfather was sending back reports to Toyota stating what the issues were and, over a good deal of time, the quality of Japanese goods improved to the point that Americas were buying. Thus, the Toyota Trading Company was born.

My grandfather worked with the international trade branch within the Toyota company, which includes the automobile branch but extends far beyond it. I always forget to distinguish between the two since, growing up, Toyota was always more or less a single entity in my mind consisting of both branches. However, I began realizing that to most people Toyota is merely the name of an automobile maker. So to clarify: my grandfather was the vice-president of Toyota North-America, but presided over international trade which naturally included cars but also fabrics, foodstuffs, etc etc etc. He is currently retired and has been for years though he is still marginally involved in the company. He is part of the Toyota Society, a group of retirees who meet a few times a month for business affairs as well as chummy fun - golf, ma-jung and luncheons. He also is the auditor for his friend’s engineering company, which keeps him busy. Sometimes I think he should take it easy, not to take on so much and to relax more. A big part of me is afraid of when my grandfather passes away and I don’t really want him to rush that day, though it will come when it wants to, I suppose. I don’t know, I can hear the voices of my mom and some friends telling me not to worry about it, about my grandfather’s inevitable death. And I don’t think about it often, obviously, just when I am reminded that he is getting old and that no one lives forever. I will admit that when he passes away, I will be crushed for a very long time.

My grandmother always called him katsuo, a kind of fish that is constantly moving because were it to stop moving it would die. There is a legend in Japan about the katsuo who constantly swim around the world, not because it was afraid it would die were it to stop - it kept swimming simply because it loved movement and didn’t want to stop. That describes my grandfather perfectly, he is always on the go, not egged on by a fear of death. He is always in a suit, no matter where we’re going, be it a quick run to the grocery store or to an orchestra concert in an upscale concert hall. In fact, I have never seen him not wearing a suit in public. A few years ago we went shopping together and came across the men’s jeans section of the store. He paused for a moment, hands clasped behind his back, dressed in a grey pin-stripe suit, black shoes polished and suddenly looks over at me and said, “Maybe I should start wearing jeans, wouldn’t that be different!” with a laugh. I laughed right along with him, trying to picture him in a pair of jeans. And you know what? I couldn’t do it. I am so used to seeing him in his suits, looking perfectly comfortable and casual just as I feel in my jeans and cardigans, that to picture him any other way was nigh impossible. Needless to say, he’s still sticking to the suits. He is a businessman at heart but also a businessman with a heart. Growing up as a teenager during WWII and the years following, he was confronted with the jarring reality of life in a country on the losing side of war (never a fun place to be). For years people were starving to death around him and there was never enough of anything. One thing I always admired about my grandfather was how human he is, how conscientious of others around him whether it was people he came across in business circles, societal circles or someone he passed in the grocery store. He was a very successful businessman, but the money never got to his head. Instead, the images of starvation and struggle remain firmly imbedded within him; his greatest joy comes from making other people happy. We were eating at a very fancy, delicious sushi shop one night and as I ate (with ‘child-like bliss’ my uncle later informed me) my grandfather watched me with such joy in his eyes. My uncle looks over and says with a grin, “Grandpa grew up in a time when everyone starved to death so his greatest joy is watching the people he loves eat good food”.

The war taught my grandfather and those in his generation to persevere and work themselves to the bone because there was no other alternative. He helped build one of the largest and most successful companies in the world, yet still remains incredibly down-to-earth. It’s insane. He is accepting, he is loving, he is understanding and compassionate. I wish that everyone had someone in their life like him, someone to look you square in the eye lovingly but firmly tell you to keep going, to keep on chugging away at life. Someone to whom you can look at and realize that yes, love does in fact cover a multitude of sins - including those that were inflicted upon you.

I hope that someday I can be like him. I don’t know how realistic that is, but there’s nothing wrong with having lofty goals, yes?

japan: all in the family

I was flipping through the channels a few days ago and happened upon a show called Who Do You Think You Are (which never fails to remind me of this song). The show chronicles celebrities' searches for their family histories and some find really interesting documents from over a century ago, if their family line extends back for ten or more generations. I joked with my mom that if I was on the show my investigations would end at my grandfather, since my family is Japanese and my grandfather was the first of us to come to the United States; he only came over for work and moved back before I was born, so even that line of inquiry would have made for a very short episode. That quip led to a lengthy conversation about my family history that fleshed out a story already knew a bit about.

As I became more interested in pursuing a graduate degree and more specifically, a degree in English Literature, my grandfather told me that I was following in the footsteps of my grandmother's family. It turns out that my great-grandfather (whose name, quite pleasingly is 八鳥 which literally translates as '8 Birds'), was a professor of English Literature. He taught at a prestigious university and published a few works that are unfortunately very hard to come by, especially being overseas. One year when I was visiting my family back in Nagoya, my grandfather gave me a few of my great-grandfather's worn books that were marked up with his own notes written in the margins and all over the page. It was an incredible feeling to know that my family has a history of scholarship that aligns with what deeply fascinates me some ninety years later.

I plan on uncovering more information about my great-grandfather since he died in 1952 before my mother was born, so even she doesn't know much about him. The time period in which he lived, taught, and loved literature is an inconceivably complex time for Japan as a country and I can't help but wonder how he was treated at the height of WWII, since he spent his life studying the language of "the enemy".

There are many questions I still have but it is wonderful knowing that the love of literature has long been ingrained in my family - hopefully I can do their memories justice in my own work!