Singing Competition

On 12/31 every year, NHK airs "Kohaku Uta Gassen" (Singing competition between red and white teams) It showcases singers of almost every generation who have been very popular among the Japanese. So it's quite interesting to watch those different generations of songs, performers, costumes, and so forth, within the same program. They do carry different cultural idioms and histories of the supposedly single nation called Japan.

Libraries in Japan... Suck!

I went to Nagoya today to visit Toyota Museum. But, first I took a subway to check out the prefectural library in the same area. Well, it was closed! They didn't say anything about it on their web page. Since other prefectural employees were still at work today, I assumed that the library would be open.

In general, libraries in Japan are not as good as their counterparts in the U.S. They are smaller with fewer hours, books, and internet connections. (I think that most Japanese will be astonished to see the public libraries in Ann Arbor.) The Ministry of Education is aware of this, but they seem to be slow in implementing effective measures...

The More You Know, the Better You Like?

I've been thinking about the relationship between familiarity and favoritism. I took a look at a review article in psychology on the relationship between exposure and attitude; however, previous studies are inconclusive.

It's probably moderated by representations. If one is exposed to "negative representations" of a certain thing, person, or group, he or she may not develop favoritism. But can small kids understand what representations are positive and negative? It seems that kids think of representations in terms of intelligibility. They seem to negatively evaluate what is unintelligible or strange. So, maybe I also have to examine the relationship between intelligibility and attitude. Hey, wait, didn't I just come back to the problem of familiarity-favoritism?

Playing with Preschoolers

It's been 5 months since I started going to a local kindergarten. Gosh, kids grow up really fast. 4- and 5-year-olds have developed their speech tremendously and they look stronger now. They are heavier as well, and playing with them is definitely a good workout.

Writing for Newspaper

I am now writing a short editorial essay for Japanese newspaper. It's on nationalism. My essay aims to deconstruct the right-wing discourse to blame problems in Japan on lack of love for their own country among the Japanese (youth). I don't know whether they will accept my piece, but I feel like writing a non-academic piece and I hope I will be able to take a first step toward becoming a socially significant academician.

The Third Category

I finished entering data of college students today. Many college students seem to think that a person can have more than one national identity; for example, a certain person can be both Japanese and American. Preschoolers, elementary and junior high school students don't think that way: they think that a person can belong only to one national group. In other words, national identity becomes de-essentialized, inclusive, and perhaps ambiguous, as kids group up. Indeed, "dual citizenship" is very interesting in thinking about psychology of nationalism.

Transformative Encounters

The first transformative encounter in my life occurred at Haverford College. The second came in series at Michigan. The third has been taking place since I came to Japan for fieldwork.

Yesterday I went to the local teachers' college and attended a seminar where juniors who were majoring in history or social studies presented briefly proposals for their senior theses. Afterwards Prof. T, 8 of his students, and I went to Kanayama (near Nagoya) and talked over drinks and food.

What I realized is that education is one of the fields best-suited for attempts to integrate theory and practice. At Haverford, I studied social theory and philosophy exclusively inside the academia. After I came to Michigan, I gradually started orienting myself to the so-called real world, though I didn't spend much time outside of the university campus. Finally, during my fieldwork in Japan, I have been forced to confront the real world (though relatively limited to school) and develop skills to deal with both theory and practice. In this respect, I regard Prof. T at the local teachers' college as my role model who can engage in analytical thinking, practice (he was once a schoolteacher himself and now collaborates with schools), and management (next year the college will establish a new program that he proposed and designed). His students who have done practice teaching at local schools are also serious and enthusiastic about teaching and research. I have been learning a lot of things from Prof. T and his students, and I am grateful for these transformative encounters in Japan.

On Their own Terms

I gave an English lesson to 2nd graders. (This was my first experience of doing so.) It was a failure... It was easy for some students who were learning English. But it was difficult for others who were not. So I should have made the lesson more enjoyable for students who were new to English, that is, to include more games and songs. I'm afraid that I made some students fear English. Oh well, let's hope that I will have another opportunity to teach them English... and amend my mistake.

Riding Together

There is a TV program called "Riding Together." It's popular among young Japanese, including junior high school students. I watched it for the first time today. The basic structure of the program is like this: a groups of young men and women (in their early 2os) ride a car together and take road trips in foreign countries. During a road trip, they are supposed to develop love interests within the group. If it turns out that a man and a woman are in love with each other, they will fly back to Japan as a happy couple. If a person falls in love with someone and is rejected by his or her love interest, that person too will have to fly back to Japan. Then, the remaining group members continue their road trip, as new group members are added to maintain the size of the group (6?). They have to continue to travel either until they find their love interests reciprocated or until they are rejected by their love interests.

I suspect that this TV program is part of banal nationalism. While the program takes place in foreign countries, the car they ride is "Japan." While they travel among foreign peoples, they--Japanese--are absorbed in themselves without much contact with the world outside of their car. So, this TV program may reinforce among viewers the feeling that "only Japanese can understand each other"...

Play and Learn

I am wondering how I might be able to bring "play" into learning. I mean, I want to create the kind of educational environment where students play to learn (though they have to learn to play, too). A little more specifically, I want to incorporate games--be they on line or off line--into learning. So, I decided to learn to program video/computer games. (How simple-minded I am!)

The Best in the Field

A 15-year-old Japanese girl just won the figure skating competition called World Grand Prix. I can't help admiring athletes (or artists) like her who can execute their best performance at the time and place that demand it.

Driver's License

Tomorrow I will go take an exam to obtain a driver's license. Several people (both in Japan and the US) have told me that it should be easier and cheaper to get a driver's license. So true... there are many traffic laws that I have to memorize, without which I can't pass the exam. Not only that, it cost a lot of money to take lessons at the driving school... But it was fun, more or less.

I don't want to sound brainwashed, but I came to believe that driving safely is the best. Perhaps some people drive recklessly and break traffic laws, which may endanger my safety. In that case I need to be flexible--to the extent that I may have to break a certain law--to avoid accidents and to ensure my safety as well as other drivers'.

BTW, f I have enough money in the future, I will buy a hybrid car.

A Poor Kid

At the junior high school that I've been visiting weekly there is one troubled kid. (Of course, there are other troubled students, but he is the most troubled.) Today he asked me how he could move in the local orphanage; however, he does have parents. So it means that he hates his parents--his father in particular--to the extent that he wants to live without them. In fact, he used to tell me that he wants to shoot and kill his father, and I was getting tired of hearing that. I don't know what I can do for him, but I will keep listening to him patiently and giving him suggestions.

The So-called Chain Reaction

In the last 30 days, two 1st graders and one 6th grader were murdered in Japan. The first two girls were killed by strangers while walking back home, and the third one by her former tutor. Many people here are asking, "What is going on in Japan?!" But on TV there hasn't been much discussion on reasons for this chain of murders. I want to analyze them sociologically, but there are too many "variables" and their interactions to consider, so I only have speculations and conjectures rather than rigorous analysis.

It's challenging (and almost impossible) to analyze the social world in its totality, but it's very interesting... and we must grapple with it.

Revising...

Earlier this week I received an envelope from the US. It contained a letter from the editors of ST, comments from reviewers, and a photocopy of my paper on which one of the editors wrote down her comments in handwriting. At first I thought it would take a month to finish preparing the final version of my paper for publication. As I started revising my paper, however, it seems that I may be able to finish it tomorrow. Although I don't want to slack from my fieldwork, I hope to get my first publication soon.

But anyone can publish. The important question is whether one's published paper will be received as a significant contribution and be quoted by others.

The Teacher Runs

In Japanese "December" is written in two Chinese characters that mean "the teacher runs." It is supposed to mean that December is a busy month, so much so that even teachers (who used to be considered entitled to behave slowly) have to run. While I'm not a teacher, I am getting fairly busy: I have to take an exam to obtain a driver's lisence; I have to finish revising my paper for publication; I have to submit two papers to conferences next year; I have to continue to visit the kindergarten, elementary and junior high schools, and college every week. And so on.

But I shall juggle them all.

18 Years of "Imprisonment"

Today it was exposed that a 40-year-old mother had "imprisoned" her developmentally-challenged daughter in her apartment for 18 years since she was born... People from school and city hall had tried to contact the family before, but they never saw the girl nor stepped inside her house. Her mother was reported to say that she was ashamed of her daughter's disability...

I understand that it is tricky to decide how much power the State should have in intervening "private" affairs of the family. But I think governmental actors in Japan tend to shy away too much from getting inside the family when some threat to human and legal rights is suspected.

Club Activities

In my hometown, all students at elementary and junior high schools are required to belong to "club activities" offered from their schools. Unlike a typical American community, teachers here take care of students through club activities after school hours. Students practice pretty much everyday except for Sundays. Accordingly, teachers have to come to school pretty much everyday and coach students until the sunset. Many of the teachers actually lack expertise in activities (e.g., softball, baseball, soccer, tennis, etc.) that they have to coach students about. As a result, teachers get stressed out and students often hurt themselves by trainings that are not based on sports science. At present, club activities in my hometown is harmful for both teachers and students.

Criminology--No Empiricist Style

Yesterday I watched the TV program called "The Most Useful Lesson in the World" (or something like that). In that program one professor talked about the relationship between crime and place. According to him, there is a certain kind of space/place that structurally induces crimes. I liked his lecture a lot. Back in my university in the Midwest, criminology was almost all about survey data; however, last night I realzed that there was a different kind of criminology: it analyzes the relationship among psychological processes, semiotic landscapes, and material structures in such a way that results of research can become relevant to policy-making to prevent potential criminals from committing crimes. I would like that kind of criminology and, during my sparetime, I will read more about it.

Performance by Preschoolers

I went to the kindergarten to watch performcens by preschoolers. (They had been practicing for this festive occasion for two months or so.) The school building was full of parents, grand parents, and siblings of the preschoolers. (Most of the parents brought digital cameras and videos with them. ) The preschoolers performed short plays, sang songs, and played instruments. It was fun and funny to watch one/two-year-old kids participated in the performance, though they hardly executed what they were instructed to do. Some of 5/6-year-olds were pretty good at playing their parts.

I wonder whether this kind of event is unique to Japan. I mean, it's hard for me to imagine American preschoolers moving their bodies in unison. I think Japanese schoolchildren are often required to participate in collective "rituals" where they move their bodies together.

Another 1st-Grade Victim

Another 1st-grade girl was killed and found dead (without clothes) today. Oh, Japanese schools, take more appropriate security measures promptly!

Anyway, I went to the local teachers' college. I audited two classes by one social-studies professor, had lunch with him and his students, and participated in their senior-thesis seminar. Since I have been away from the atmosphere of academia for a while, it was particularly fun to have discussion with college students. (Besides, two of them agreed to be interviewed.) So I am planning to go there again next Friday.

Less than Four Months to Go

The Japanese school year ends by the third week of March. So this leaves me less than four months to collect data on preschoolers and elementary and junior high school students. But what I need now is more data on college students because unlike the kindergarten and the elementary and junior high schools, I don't meet with college students on a regular basis. Although I have done a survey with them, it will be better if I can coduct more interviews with them.

I will go to the local teachers' college tomorrow. I hope I can start going there weekly in January.