Japan: a controlled substance?
Footwear is very important in Japan, as is when and where you take off said footwear and also where and when you put on other footwear. For example, the minimum requirement in terms of pairs of shoes that is required for public school (for both teachers and students) is three.
There are Outside Shoes, taken off as you enter the building (aka. dress shoes that match with one's suit). Next there are Indoor Shoes, which you promptly don after stowing the Outside Shoes in a little shoe locker which is located at the entrance of practically every building. Inside Shoes are invariably some form of sneaker or running shoe, and after a few months, one almost forgets how ridiculous everyone looks in a suit and running shoes all day........almost.
Last but not least, there are special, clean, non-marking squash shoes that are required for entrance to the auditorium (called the Arena in Japanese). The students have the same requirements for footwear as the teachers, but they all have exactly the same shoes in exactly the same colour. This goes well with their identical school uniforms and identical gym bags, and also matches with their identical atheletic suits (colour-coordinated by grade). It's really quite the scene to see 800 identically-clothed kids bowing at the exact same time with precisely the same colour of hair and repeating Japanese sayings with identical inflection.
I'm starting to absolutely love the Japanese style of discipline and their codes of formal behaviour...it's so awesome...formal events (this includes any and all ceremonies at school) are approached with an almost religious fervour, except that everyone in the entire society (save a few wretched outcasts, whoops, I mean foreigners) subscribes to it; it is a ubiquitous religion, worshipping the god of order and good bowing.
On the whole, the Japanese society, when coarsely compared with the West, has the discipline of an ant colony, the organisation of an Al Quaida jihad squad, and the fun factor of hallucinogenic mushrooms. Life in Japan is a real trip.
Like Dali, Japan doesn't (need to) do drugs...Japan is drugs.
There are Outside Shoes, taken off as you enter the building (aka. dress shoes that match with one's suit). Next there are Indoor Shoes, which you promptly don after stowing the Outside Shoes in a little shoe locker which is located at the entrance of practically every building. Inside Shoes are invariably some form of sneaker or running shoe, and after a few months, one almost forgets how ridiculous everyone looks in a suit and running shoes all day........almost.
Last but not least, there are special, clean, non-marking squash shoes that are required for entrance to the auditorium (called the Arena in Japanese). The students have the same requirements for footwear as the teachers, but they all have exactly the same shoes in exactly the same colour. This goes well with their identical school uniforms and identical gym bags, and also matches with their identical atheletic suits (colour-coordinated by grade). It's really quite the scene to see 800 identically-clothed kids bowing at the exact same time with precisely the same colour of hair and repeating Japanese sayings with identical inflection.
I'm starting to absolutely love the Japanese style of discipline and their codes of formal behaviour...it's so awesome...formal events (this includes any and all ceremonies at school) are approached with an almost religious fervour, except that everyone in the entire society (save a few wretched outcasts, whoops, I mean foreigners) subscribes to it; it is a ubiquitous religion, worshipping the god of order and good bowing.
On the whole, the Japanese society, when coarsely compared with the West, has the discipline of an ant colony, the organisation of an Al Quaida jihad squad, and the fun factor of hallucinogenic mushrooms. Life in Japan is a real trip.
Like Dali, Japan doesn't (need to) do drugs...Japan is drugs.
posted by -Jubei- at 9:17 PM
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