A blog about adventures, academia, adoption and other things starting with the letter 'A'. I'm a geek, a metal head, a shiba inu wrangler and a vegetarian, and I write about all of the above. You have been warned!
I unintentionally made a bunch of people very angry when I commented elsewhere that either of my dogs is more a "person" than an embryo is. On reflection it was kind of predictable, but to me personhood has nothing to do with abortion laws so it didn't immediately register that I was about to get whacked with a 'pro-life' hammer. I'm just really impressed by my dogs f(^_^; I wondered afterwards if some of the ire directed toward me was caused by the negative use of dogs in English: "I wouldn't treat a dog like that/
treated worse than a dog/ not fit for a dog."
We have many dog-related idioms, most of which don't give dogs a great deal of respect: bitch fight, work like a dog, dog's life, in the dog house,
treated like a dog, every dog has his day, sick as a dog, hair of the dog, dog tired, dog eat dog, dog's breakfast, fight like cats and dogs, raining cats and dogs, see a man about a dog, wag the dog, the dog days of summer, let sleeping dogs lie, dog day afternoon, like a dog with its tail between its legs, and like a dog with a bone.
In Japanese idioms, dogs get a mostly negative treatment as well: 犬も食わない (not even a dog would eat it), 犬と猿/犬猿の仲 (dogs and monkeys, basically the same as cats and dogs in English), 負け犬 (a looser), 犬死する (die in vein), and 犬も歩けば棒に当たる (similar to every dog has his day but with more of a connotation that good things will come if you take action).
I'd love to hear from speakers of other languages. How do dogs fare in idioms around the world?
Obedience training is vital to maintaining a happy home life, and anyone can do it~ all you need is patience and consistency. The most important thing to remember, though, is that no matter how intelligent your human may seem, he or she does not innately know what you expect of him/her, and you must explicitly teach any skill you want the human to master. Before we go into specific commands, I need to mention hierarchies. Human society is deeply stratified, and your human will feel happier and more secure knowing that YOU are in charge. Humans generally display their social status by exchanging small rectangles of cardboard, and consequently it is vital that you immediately destroy any cardboard you find the human bringing into the house. This lets them know that you are the head of the household.
This is what the hierarchy looks like
Fetch
Choosing a good time is important- set your human up for success! Ideal times are when the baby has just gone to sleep, during a work related phone call or while they are watching a movie with a complex plot. First, make it clear to your human that you are interested in playing with something. It works best if the item is heavy or rattles or is in some other way loud and annoying. Drop the item near your human, loudly. Then stare intently at the item and bark furiously. If your human ignores you you may need to repeat the dropping a few times. It works well to drop something from an elevated position like over the back of the couch to maximize noise. When your human eventually retrieves the item and hands it to you, reward them by blanking them and licking your bum. Then repeat again from the beginning.
I'm gonna wake this baby, oooohhh yes I am
Open the Door
Again, timing is important. When a heater or air conditioner is running is ideal. Find a closed door and bark at it. If barking doesn't work, remind your human it is a rental and then scratch it violently. When your human opens the door you have two options- ignore the open door and settle in for a nap, or, walk through the door and once it is closed repeat the process from the other side of the door. Do whichever takes your fancy, or switch between both throughout the day.
Mastering these basics will give both you and your human extra confidence. Have a shiba day!
I ran into an elderly neighbour at the bus stop the other day. He was on his way to a junior high school reunion. "We're in our seventies now though," he said, "so there might only be twelve or fifteen of us." My first though was how wonderful that was. Can you imagine in your seventies still being in touch with that many people from when you were thirteen?! And for most of you to still be living in the same town? I imagined them all, the 74 year olds calling the 76 year olds "sempai". The class clown will still be the one cracking jokes, the smart kid will still be the one everyone asks for advice... and there my second thought hit. These things, the things I love about Japan, are the reasons we have to get Tiger out of here. Because he was the weird kid, and so he will forever be the weird kid.
When he first came to live with us he had never been to a friend's house to play, or had a friend over. Play dates are too hard to organise if you are running an orphanage with a hundred kids, I guess. We worked on social skills intensively for a while and he's fine now, but after a few bumpy visits word got around that he was weird and kids stopped coming over to play. He'd never ridden in a car (the orphanage had a bus, of course) and raved to the other kids about these amazing buttons that made the widows open. The other kids laughed; it was like he came from another planet. First exclusion, then bullying. You wouldn't pick him from a group of "regular" kids these days, but it doesn't matter. His role has been determined. We've sent him to Scouts and he's in a sports club not affiliated with school, but neither has been the source of socialisation we'd hoped for. Everything here is centered on school life, and the scouts never hang out once the meetings are over.
School. I love love love Japanese preschools and elementary schools (junior high I feel is 80% focused on crushing kids' souls, on the other hand). I'm still learning a lot about the system, however, and one thing I am learning is that the system has no safety net for kids who are too far outside 'normal'. Our local school has been accommodating and creative, but we're at the end of the options available within the system and at this point it would be hard to describe our situation as anything other than "the system has given up on our child". It turns out not to be an uncommon situation:
Sayoko and her husband, both Japanese, are the parents of an
eighth-grader with autism. The family recently returned to Japan after
spending five years in the U.S. During his time abroad, their son was
able to transition from special education to a mainstream classroom,
where he was a straight-A student in his last year and had teachers
enthusiastically recommending college in the future.
Despite this stellar record, his autism and its attendant issues with
communication mean that Sayako’s son would land squarely back in the
“special education” track in the Japanese system. He is currently
attending international school, where is he in a mainstream classroom
but receives little tangible support for his autism.
“In the Japanese system we are told that even many highly educated,
‘high-functioning’ persons with disabilities can’t get jobs, so it is
better for them to attend a vocational high school and gain employment
under the ‘disabled persons’ scheme,” Sayoko says, referring to the
quota system that exists at big companies. “This idea is instilled into
parents of children with disabilities right from elementary school. The
path ahead for our son is far from clear.”
The irony of leaving Japan before we're ready because that's what the only Japanese member of our family needs is not lost on us, but that's where we are right now.
You’re walking your dog too, but you’re not really there.
Your dog knows it. I see them looking at me and I smile at them,
hoping you’ll notice me noticing them and then realize that at the end
of your arm is a leash attached to everything you’re busy chasing
somewhere else. You really matter to your dog, you know. If you
pay attention, you might feel how important and appreciated you are. It
feels real good.
I see you with your head down, eyes fixed on your phone’s screen,
one arm fully extended behind you. You’re not aware that you’re dragging
your dog along who is trying to sniff something very important. When
you get home, maybe you realize that you forgot to pay attention to
your dog the whole time you were out. It’s almost as if that walk never
happened.
Some time ago, when researching how young adults cope with life after institutionalisation, I watched an interview with a woman who had become a prostitute after leaving the orphanage and struggling to live alone. "I enjoy feeling like someone wants to be together with me," she said, "even if it's just clients."* it affected me greatly and I still haven't written up the post I'd planned, several years on. I'm writing about the young woman now because I recently watched another video that reminded me of her comment. I'm sharing it below, but it's only available in Japanese:
The documentary above features a 23 year old woman named Chihiro who is facing an unwanted pregnancy resulting from "dangerous" work she is required to do in the brothel where she is, in effect, an indentured labourer. Like many young women, she became caught up in a situation where she was told she had a large debt that she could only afford to pay off by working in the associated brothel. By the time she realised she was pregnant the possibility of an abortion had passed. Unable to end the pregnancy but also unable to work, she relies on Baby Pocket, an NPO that provides housing and food for women who agree to have their babies adopted through the organisation. Raised by a single mother, who worked "without a break" to support three
children, Chihiro always looked after her little sister and they would
think of excuses to visit the supermarket where their mother worked and
cue at her register just to get the chance to see her. With a debt of 20,000,000 yen waiting for her, all Chihiro wants to do is have the baby quickly and get back to work. She thinks she'll be able to work again within "two months" of an unmedicated vaginal birth.
We're getting to the part of the documentary I found really traumatic, just so you are warned. Following the birth of her son, Chihiro is not permitted to hold him. She is briefly allowed to see him through the glass window on the nursery before being wheeled away. The agency staff member is coming the other way with a camera to record the baby for his adoption profile and quickly ducks into a doorway to hide as the documentary follows Chihiro's disappearing figure. Baby Pocket say it is "too hard" for mothers to bond with their babies before giving them up for adoption. They, of course, get to decide because these women are utterly powerless and alone. Mothers are allowed to hold their babies once, AFTER signing the adoption paperwork. From about 33 minutes into the video it's just awful. I don't know what the exact details of the agreement are but Hayes and Habu's Adoption in Japan: Comparing Policies for Children in Need similar arrangements with an unnamed agency are described. The agency in the book uses the housing and food provided during pregnancy as a tool to enforce the surrender of babies, insisting on an instant repayment of all the provided costs if the mother changes her mind. For a woman like Chihiro, already burdened with a massive debt and no access to legal help (both this insistence on immediate repayment and the debt that landed her in the brothel in the first place are almost certainly illegal), this would probably seem insurmountable. Please let me say again, I do not know what Baby Pocket's policy is regarding mothers who want to keep their babies.
Unable to nurse, cuddle or interact at all with her son during her hospital stay (usually a week in Japan), Chihiro talks to him through the glass at night when no one else is around. She apologises to him because all the other babies are with their mothers and only he remains in the nursery alone. When the paper work is signed and she gets to hold him he settles into sleep immediately and smiles. Chihiro breaks down. It took me three views to get through because I couldn't keep watching and I'm crying now having to think about it. She holds him until she has to let him go. This woman's body has been used by others for her entire adult life. Her baby was the result of her use by others, and then his existence too became a way of using her. Although technically adoption for profit is illegal in Japan, there are plenty of loop holes including NPOs "hiring" child care companies to look after babies between their birth and adoption. Money paid to these companies (registered to the same address and with the same director as the NPO) is then outside of the financial regulations the NPO faces and the cost can be passed to the adoptive parents with a profit resulting for the agency (I mean, ahem, the TOTALLY UNRELATED COMPANY). You can read more about dubious adoption agency practices by clicking here.
Chihiro says at the end of the documentary that she wants to quit working as a prostitute. "It'll be painful," she says, "but nothing could be more painful than this." Realistically, with no support or back up, will she be able to escape? I'm hopeful but not optimistic.
The Yomiuri Shimbun did some reporting about agencies using adoption to turn a profit and the response from international adoptive parents was disappointing to say the least. Unsurprisingly, the most "profitable" agency is one which sends babies to North America. The routine institutionalisation of children in Japan is unacceptable and adoption is part of the solution, but it is a very small part and must never, ever be at the expense of vulnerable women who are given no advice about other options.
*I can't remember where I saw the interview, unfortunately I just closed the window in a mood of horror without
recording the location. If anyone is familiar with the interview I would
like to be able to properly link to it, so please let me know.
Chikako Kobayashi shared this image to facebook
Left, from top: Asahi, Mainichi, and Tokyo newspapers Right, from top: Yomiuri, Sankei, and Nikkei newspapers
You probably saw images from the August 1st protests in Tokyo
(unless, of course, you read Japan’s more pro-government papers, which had
strikingly different front pages the next day). It was actually a national day
of action, and Tiger had wanted to attend our local protest. After a very
upsetting “peace education” experience last year (he came home having learned
that Japan was just sitting around peacefully minding its own business when America
suddenly dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, and therefore Japan should kill
all Americans. None of which was specifically said by his teacher, but she
didn’t interject when children made these statements in presentations to the class)
we talked a lot about war. We talked about what happened in Okinawa, in
particular, and about how the people who decide to start wars are rarely the
ones who actually suffer and die in them. He got very excited about signing a
petition against constitutional revision, and then wanted to attend the rally
as well. I was very happy to take him, until…
Until I heard about the
intimidation and harassment of protesters at previous rallies. I work at a
university, and I hear things that aren’t getting reported on the nightly news
or discussed in the newspapers. Students talk about police photographing them
at rallies, then calling their parents: “Did you know your child was
creating a public nuisance? Who is paying for their education? Is this the lifestyle
you planned to fund?” Others had their landlord called by police as part of
“routine inquiries”: “Do many radicals gather at the building you own? Do you
rent to any foreigners? Do you know if political meetings are being held on
your premises?”
My visa was up for renewal two days after the protest. As a foreigner, attending a political rally is a valid reason for my visa renewal to be refused. I
thought about the consequences if it was declined before we had a valid visa to
take Tiger to Australia. In fact, I was even cautious about publishing this post, which is why it is appearing so late. I told him that we couldn’t go to the protest. This is,
of course, the exact response the intimidation aims to elicit. Every person who
attended was risking something. A promotion, their living allowance, getting into the university of their choice, something important. That might be hard to grasp for readers for
whom political engagement is a natural part of democracy, but it’s just the
reality in “democratic” Japan. Yet, tens of thousands took the risk.
The Education Ministry on October 5 announced its plan to issue a notice
putting restrictions on high school students’ political activities as a
measure to respond to the implementation of the 18-year-old suffrage.
The planned notice will impose a ban or restrictions on political
activities which senior high school students are engaged in outside of
school. Students will be prohibited or constrained from demonstrating in
political movements within school-bounds even on holidays and after
school. In addition, any such action will not also be allowed in student
councils and school club activities.
This notice will not only cause students to hesitate to take part in
political activities, but also restrain students from even thinking
about and discussing political matters.
A controversial new Japanese personal identification system came
into effect on Monday. My Number IDs will unite personal tax
information, social security and disaster relief benefits, but critics
worry about possible leaks and invasions of privacy.
...
Protester Hitoshi Ogawa said he is concerned My Number might be abused
by the government to collect the most sensitive details of citizens’
lives, from health records to political ideology.
When an owner brings in a pet, they don’t take it in easily like most
centres. They ask them to remember the time they’ve spent with their
dog or cat, and ask them if they’ve really tried seriously to find a new
owner. One staff member explains, “We don’t want to give local people a
bad impression. But we do want the people who come to us to get rid of
their animals to leave feeling bad about it. Sometimes we might even be
able to change their minds.
“We don’t mind being hated. Even if it comes to tears, we need to ask
the owners to think about what they are doing.” Sometimes there are
disputes, but if the staff persevere they’re sometimes successful at
persuading the owner to take their pet back home with them and give them
another chance.
One time a man in his 60s brought in his corgi, saying, “He chews
everything, I can’t keep him.” The dog’s original owner, his son, had
moved abroad and the dog was nothing but a nuisance to his new guardian.
The man was of the opinion that “if the dog does something bad, it’s
natural to punish him.” In response, the staff asked him, “Isn’t it your
son who’s taught him it’s OK to chew things? If it’s your son’s fault,
why should this dog pay for it with his life?”
This post has been sitting in my draft folder for nearly two
years. I don't know what to conclude about the topic and didn't want to
do ANOTHER post that just trailed off. In the end, though, I realised I
may never figure out how to "conclude", so I'm just going to leave it
here and back away slowly.
Posts
