Hakone Japan and Mt Fiji
Trip Start
Jul 28, 2006
1
5
86
Trip End
Ongoing
Hakone,
Japan
Wednesday, August 2, 2006
We had a rather interesting tour guide, Harry, accompany us throughout the day. He told us some about the Japanese language which is really two languages: the formal, business language which is built on the characters of Mandarin Chinese and the informal language used to write friends and relatives. The two look entirely different-the informal language is very much like American cursive with its loops and swirls
ashi harbor hakone
. Apparently the informal language carries the emotion while the business language is devoid of it and there are very strict rules about the use of each.Harry also elaborated on the religious persuasions of the Japanese. Although most are Shinto or Buddhist, the Japanese are totally indifferent to religion and attend temples only on the occasion of baptism, christenings or weddings. In fact, the new trend in Japan is to have a Christian wedding because they are prettier and more elaborate. In order to have a Christian wedding church membership is required which attending a Christian church for two weeks fills. Her wedding is the highlight of every Japanese woman's life and usually costs 30% of the couple's salary. Traditionally weddings are relatively small affairs to which only family and closest friends are invited, not work colleagues or acquaintances. To offset the cost of the wedding, the guests are expected to give a large sum of cash (always odd numbers as even numbers are divisible by two and do not bode well for the couple's fate). Harry reports it is not a happy day when a wedding invitation is received. While the divorce rate in Japan is low apparently that is not an indication of long-lasting love, but rather indicative of the need to pretend to have a perfect marriage as well as the lack of rights for women divorcing.
With all of this information as well as my observations from yesterday, it came as no surprise that Japan has the seventh highest suicide rate in the world with more people dying at their own hands than at the wheel of a car. Suicide has been particularly rampant since Japan's recession, which is just now receding. Prior to the recession most Japanese held one job their entire lives and only a major error would lead to their dismissal. That is no longer true and demotions or firings have become more common. This is probably why most of the suicides in Japan occur on Mondays.
The highlight of the day for me was again the public baths, located both inside and out, filled with mineral water from hot springs. Although this bath was much more crowed with vacationing Japanese there is something calming about sitting in those baths with your fellow women.
