POLESTAR
Volume 13 Issue 9
January 2016
Photo by Jordan Frazier
Nobody loves a creaking door, Oh but if you only knew me! Every time I see you I say hello, But you just walk right through me... - Christopher Santos
Photo by Graham Rix
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’m staring out the window at my base school and taking in the (decently thick) blanket of fresh snow that has fallen in the last day. There’s not nearly as much as last year at this time, but I’m still pretty confident there will be powder in abundance come January. It’s a strange feeling. Looking out at all this snow, wishing for more, and knowing that tomorrow I’ll be on a flight to Bangkok with basically just a couple of t-shirts and some flipflops (thongs for you Kiwis out there) shoved in my carry-on. It’s got me thinking about how transient this ALT/CIR life can be, and how glad I am that I have the opportunity to experience it. An appropriate thought for the end of the year, I suppose. In fact, a whole lot of us just had a mega-distillation of the ALT experience in the form of that time-honored tradition known as SDC. Nothing encapsulates this life like sitting in a suit all day, listening to and passionately debating the relative merits of the Japanese education system
San tos
Adam Gentle President | HAJET
with the relished knowledge that, at the end of this admittedly short business affair, you’re going to go out for an amazing Susukino tabinomihodai with friends from all over the world. t Plus, you will probably end up s hri C sneaking around your capsule by Photo hotel drunk at 3 A.M. taking pictures of everything, because you’re just so damn stoked that you got to have the experience of staying in one. Or maybe that’s just me.
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I’m guessing that by the time any of you actually read this, we’ll probably be well into 2016, but if you haven’t taken the opportunity to do so already, I would encourage you to take a couple of minutes to appreciate the last year and the opportunities you have had. It can be tough to appreciate these things properly in the moment, but judging from the shared recollections of those who have already gone back home this year, and in spite of the trials and tribulations, this whole deal seems to nearly always be remembered fondly. So, here’s to treasured memories and the passionate pursuit of new ones. Happy New Year, HAJET.
Dear Hokkaido ALTs, New year, new Polestar, same island. We’d like to thank Trenna Ahlstrom and Kate McMahan for their strong work over the past year in bringing Polestar to us all. We take seriously the honor/burden of upholding the magazine. Now on to the on-going effort to make it ever more of a monthly distraction. It would be a pity not making this distraction our own. And yours. Anyone can submit work to Polestar. Turn up your favorite Bowie album and channel, then Facebook message or email us at editor@hajet.org with any ideas, questions, or concerns. Thanks to the writers, photographers, and artist who made this first one memorable! Teach Your Children Well, Jack Powers, Editor Isabelle Legault, Designer
Photo by Jon Curry
Notes from the
First Year Rep. Jon Curry First Year Representative | HAJET
H
ey there! Jon Curry here, bringing you my first article as First Year Rep! This time around, I want to share a bit about my experience finding things to do in my small town.
For all my fellow first years stuck in the boonies, I feel your pain. It can be a real challenge to find fun, interesting,and fulfilling extracurricular hobbies around town - especially if you’re still new to speaking Japanese. Fortunately, I have a few years of study under my belt, but I still remember how tough communication was during my study abroad in Tokyo a couple years back. Even now, consistently studying up and practicing still proves to be super 大変 (taihen, difficult). That’s why I’m really happy that I was invited to join my town’s local calligraphy lessons. Kanji has always been my weakest point when it comes to studying Japanese, so being able to practice in a more tangibly rewarding way has been a godsend. I’ll be totally honest: I’m probably about a month behind on the CLAIR language courses, so it’s a great way to make me still feel like I’m still learning and being productive. I’ve learned a handful of kanji that aren’t particularly useful in everyday conversation, but provide some genuinely interesting cultural knowledge. For example, if you write the individual kanji for each of the four seasons in the correct order, their reading changes to しゅんかしゅうとう (shunkashuto). There’s also a much swankier way to say “Happy New Year!” than あけおめことよろ (akeomekotoyoru), and it seems to be much more sincere in the way of wishing someone good fortune in the coming year. The teacher herself was the one who invited me in the first place. It just so happens that she and I have a weekly eikaiwa, along with another woman in town
who also takes calligraphy and the man, the myth, the legend Sam Shuna, this year’s Hamatonbetsu High School assistant language teacher. The four of us hit it off pretty well, especially since this particular eikaiwa has become something of a tradition in Hamaton ever since a JET by the name of Danny started it several years back. I’m definitely lucky to be in a place that is already so welcoming to new ALTs. How have you all been doing in terms of connecting with your town and finding awesome stuff to do? Initially, I shouted out the other 田舎 (inaka, countryside) dwellers, but maybe I’m being unfair to the city slickers. Have you had any luck finding hobbies in the vast city sprawl? I imagine that if you happen to be less fortunate in this regard than Sam and I the task can be rather daunting. Which is why I want to end this article on a positive note with a challenge for those of you who may be struggling. If it weren’t for my predecessors’ efforts to establish lasting connections with my town, I know doing so on my own would have been rough. So here’s my challenge to you: if you aren’t already part of a local group or activity, find one to participate in and stick with it. Not only will it help you to get out of the house and maintain your sanity (especially with a harsh winter already on our hands), but it can be a great opportunity for you to learn a new skill, study Japanese, make new friends, and even create a lasting tradition in your town that will benefit generations of JETs to come. Also, shameless plug, I hear that the Polestar is always in need of writers. I urge you to submit pieces about taking on this challenge. Or about your experiences with activities if you happen to already be involved in your community. Or about anything, really. This publication is by us and for us, so get involved! It’s pretty quiet up here on the northeast coast, so I’ll always be looking forward to reading about the life and times of my fellow ALTs. Stay warm out there!
Lake Shikaribetsu Igloo Village (Shikaribetsuko Kotan)
Teresa Huynh Eastern Representative | HAJET
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n the snow covered mountains of the Daisetsuzan National Park hides one of Hokkaido’s most beautiful and serene lakes, Lake Shikaribetsu. At a high altitude and surrounded by mountains, the lake freezes over every winter from December to early May. The frozen ice becomes fresh ground for an otherworldly town. The Lake Shikaribetsu Igloo Village is built over the lake every year and open to the public from January 28th to March 21st. The tradition of building the igloo village first began over 30 years ago as a dream of the locals. After years of trial and error, the first official Lake Shikaribetsu Igloo Village was opened in 1986. With the help of volunteers, thousands of ice blocks are cut and used to build the village’s igloos and buildings. Although Japan has its own traditional snow huts called kamakura, the style and methods used to create the village come from the Inuit. The builders attempt to faithfully imitate Inuit craftsmanship and style by using the Inuit methods of creating ice blocks, piling the blocks, and building the igloos. They even follow the Inuit use of animal fur as furniture and decorations. The idea of using igloos instead of kamakuras stems
from the famous British-Swiss T.V. series, Pingu. At the time the first official igloo village was created, the famous T.V. series had just started to air. This created a sense of familiarity and sentimentality amongst the locals, and the makers have since continued to create that nostalgic feeling for visitors. Since its inception, the festival has continued to challenge its makers each year to build upon previous ideas with new improvements and activities. The ice village now includes some exclusive activities and attractions, such as the Hyojou Rotenburo, an open-air bath on the ice where one may enjoy the picturesque mountain view on the lake; a fine, delicate and yet beautifully constructed ice chapel, which is lit by candles during the nights in February; an ice lodge where one can stay the night in one of the many igloos (for a price) and spend the evening stargazing, an ice bar and cafe where the glasses are made from ice, and many others. The lake is fairly remote. it is most easily accessible by car. It is located about 1 hour and 20 minutes from Obihiro by car. A bus is also available from the Obihiro station and will take about 1 hour and 40 minutes. There will be something for everyone to experience and enjoy at the Lake Shikaribetsu Igloo Village.
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Photos by Teresa Huynh
The Worth of the Yen Jack Powers Editor | Polestar
I
t’s nice to look at all those zeros when opening the ol’ paycheck every month. Easy to feel like a rapper, too bad it’s better to think like an economist. As Assistant Language Teachers, we exist in a crossfire between two currencies and exchange rates rule everything around us. For many of us, the amount of yen we accrue largely matters in terms of how much of our home currency we can exchange it for. Whether paying back student loans or saving for graduate school or anything else that involves eventually leaving Japan, chances are you’re exchanging a sizeable part of your yen-denominated salary for your home currency every month. The everyday importance of the foreign exchange market is nothing new to ALTs, but its lessons have been rudely reinforced in recent years. The Bank of Japan has deliberately inflated the yen under the auspices of the economic program of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. One of the “three arrows” of Abe’s plan to revitalize a stagnant Japanese economy, inflationary monetary policies plunged the value of the yen beginning around 2012. The process left none unscathed but was especially painful for American ALTs as it coincided with a comparatively resurgent home economy and strong dollar. Think of August 2012. A fresh crop of Hokkaido ALTs had just arrived in their bright, sweltering towns, sounds of children playing in the streets. Frank Ocean had just released Channel Orange. And the yen was trading at around 78 to the U.S. dollar, 125 to the British pound, 79 to the Canadian dollar, 82 to the Australian dollar, and 64 to the New Zealand dollar. Just one year later, the value of the U.S. dollar had appreciated 25% against
the yen and the other currencies weren’t far behind. By the 2016 New Year, the yen is at around 120 to the U.S. dollar, 177 to the British pound, 76 to the New Zealand dollar, and still no new Frank Ocean music. The fall of the yen in late 2012 came after a 4-year surge following the U.S. Subprime Crash and the Great Recession. The relative insularity of the Japanese financial sector coupled with close economic ties to China, one of the few countries that kept growing in the wake of the crisis, ensured the yen traded near-record highs against depleted currencies like the U.S. dollar. However, what was good for ALTs was not necessarily good for the economy. Deflation helped price Japanese companies out of the international market. Abe, seeking to jumpstart the stagnant export industries, put inflation at the top of his priorities. The BoJ did his bidding, announcing ambitious target inflation rates, boosting stimulus, and increasing the money supply through aggressive government bond buying. The resulting inflation was severe on the average ALT salary in home currency terms. However, a broadened view of the yen’s recent depreciatory spiral should ease the pain. In 2007, right before the U.S. Subprime Crisis helped bring down several Western currencies, the U.S. dollar was valued at around 122 yen, eerily similar to the current exchange rate. The British Pound was valued at a whopping 246 yen at its highest point in 2007. Part of that reflects financial bubbles that were soon to burst; still the elliptical nature of bilateral exchange rates between major economies is clear. Basically, don’t take things too personally. It’s telling that JET Program applications have only grown in the wake of the yen’s depreciation. But now that the summer of 2012 is so far away can we expect that inflation has finally topped off? Maybe. Following a five-year decline of 37% against the U.S.
dollar, the yen has actually appreciated slightly against most foreign currencies over the past 3 months. Recent low global oil and other commodity prices have helped strengthen the yen and frustrate the loose-money policies of the Abe administration. Japan’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by a measly .3% this year, following a 2.7% climb in 2014. No doubt, a lot of old men in dark suits have been shaking their heads over this in Nagatacho, Tokyo. According to a Bloomberg gauge of consumer purchasing power parity released in December, the yen is currently undervalued by 39% percent. Similarly, the Economist’s Big Mac index from January 7 pegs the yen as undervalued by 36% versus the U.S. Dollar. Though these are obviously flawed metrics, they can be helpful in predicting long-term movements toward equilibrium rates in the foreign exchange market. They just can’t tell us too much about what to expect in the near term. More presciently, JP Morgan Chase & Co. predicts the yen gaining on the dollar up to 110 this year. These figures might seem pleasant to us. Then again, we’re not part of the BOJ, to whom “deflation” is a dark word. Whatever the yen’s actual theoretical equilibrium rate is against the dollar, Japan’s economic and business leaders will push for increased inflation. Haruhiko Kuroda, governor of the BoJ, and the Abe administration are hoping that wage increases will spur higher inflation and growth. However, newly released data from November signaled a dip in overall wages for that month. Yet again increasing the rate of quantitative easing may be tempting, but it would likely be unpopular ahead of the 2016 upper house elections
and, even, ineffective, as the BoJ already owns a large amount of the market for government bonds. That being said, the BoJ will not sit and watch the yen continue to deflate this year. The foreign exchange market can be pretty boring, sure. Maybe even not worth paying attention to if we didn’t live and work directly in its crosshairs. But we do. And it’s best to try to understand all those zeros you stare at every month. While pinpointing something as complex and arcane as exchange rate changes is delusional, broad-based expectations of future inflationary trends should factor into savings decisions now. All reasons to keep reading newspapers. After all, the most important questions remain. Will Japanese wages rise? Will the BoJ start hitting its price inflation targets? How much will investors flock to “safe” currencies like the yen and the dollar after the yuan’s recent nosedive (early indications say a lot)? Far from me to make any predictions on these things, though. I just made use of an internet connection over a boring day.
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A Word on Japanese Temples Bryan Cambell Member | HAJET
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uddhism in Japan is something of an odd duck. You’ve probably stumbled across several temples in your area, yet they seem closed off or not in use, a far cry from the grand temples of, say, Kyoto or Nara. Why is this? The answer is fairly simple, but it requires a bit of explanation. The role that Buddhism plays in Japan is very different from the role religions like Christianity play in the West, so it’s reasonable for temples to operate in a different way as well. Basically, you normally aren’t supposed to be visiting them at all. Unlike Christianity and many other religions, Buddhism isn’t exactly a participation sport. While Christianity is regularly observed throughout the year, Buddhism in Japan is associated largely with death and the afterlife, meaning that there is very little reason to visit a temple for religious reasons unless you are attending a funeral. Instead, temples are religious sites for dedicated practitioners, rather than the laity. Of the traditional Buddhist schools in Japan the most common are those of the Pure Land schools. Pure Land Buddhism is comparatively hands-off and very simple to practice. Practitioners are to deliver a certain chant at the time of death, and if performed correctly, Amitabha Buddha will allow the deceased to be reborn in the Pure Land, a realm with the perfect conditions to seek awakening. Since this is only something done at the time of death or in relation to the dead, there is little need for the routine organized worship we see in other schools or in religions like Christianity . Laypeople are simply not investing the hours-a-day of meditation, temple maintenance, chanting, and other practices that take place in most temples, meaning that temples aren’t regularly visited. Temples are generally used as religious residences, not places of communal worship.Monks and priests either live in the temple or reside there for long periods of time, meaning sections of them tend to be off limits. Those inside are conducting religious services which require concentration and training, and a revolving door of visitors who want to take pictures just isn’t conducive
to that. In fact, some Japanese schools, like Shingon Buddhism, are very cloistered and very little is known about them outside of their own practice. Temples are practical sites for practical worship . Although Japanese temples tend to be more opulent than those in other countries, they are still relatively subdued in comparison to the elaborate architecture, art, and decoration we see in, say, the Catholic Church. Now, that’s not to say that there aren’t temples you can visit, or that there aren’t opulent art pieces meant to be admired; paradoxically, the Zen schools have that in spades. But the temples that you see in places like Kyoto and Nara, the ones that charge admission and draw in tourists, are only the largest and most important of Japan’s temples. Many are historical sites, with as much cultural significance as spiritual and operate more like museums than normal temples.These kinds of temples are the exception to the rule, and serve far more elaborate roles than the small temple next to the kindergarten in your town. So the next time you walk past a small or local temple, make a note of it and appreciate it for what it is, but understand there may be someone meditating or conducting other services inside who wants to be left alone. And if you do get to enter the temple and look around, count yourself pretty lucky, because that’s not a commonplace occurrence. If you’d like more information about Buddhism, Wikipedia is actually a good (if overwhelming) place to start. Buddhanet.net is also a great resource, with FAQs and sutras, as well as a breakdown of Japanese Buddhism (http://www.buddhanet.net/nippon/nippon_toc.htm). And if you can get a hold of them, pretty much anything written by D.T. Suzuki is a great read, both from a religious and cultural standpoint. Lastly, most large Buddhist communities in the English-speaking world will have a website and some resources available,though most will probably focus on practice more than philosophy. Of course, because it’s impossible to sum up a 2500 year old religion with hundreds of different sects, you’ll find that the rabbit hole always seems to go deeper.
Photo by A.J. Kay
Finding Translations Translate:
douchebag
Lang:
English French 日本語
Douchebag (/ˈduːʃbag/) Noun Robert O’Neil Secretary | HAJET
O
ver a steaming tonkatsu dinner one night with the Editor, Jack, we decided someone needed to get to the bottom of this. And here we are: a deep dive on a slang term and an epic search for its Japanese equivalent. Douchebag is a remarkable word. Maybe odd to write about, sure, but something to be appreciated. It’s incredibly versatile, as any person can be a douche, doucher, douchenozzle, or just sort of douchey. Frankly, as douchebags themselves are fairly common, it makes sense that the word “douchebag” is common. The term as slang goes back decades, showing up in a recognizable (read: pejorative) form as early as the 1960’s. Early on, the word only appears as a vulgar reference, an oblique way to refer to the female anatomy. However, the word slowly gained traction. Douchebag started to appear frequently in films and literature, and by the 2000’s, we had iconic depictions of the word douchebag, immortalized in such works as South Park’s “Giant Douche vs Turd Sandwich” presidential debates. That time period has become embedded in the way we imagine the word. Its common use and its chop-andscrew-ability belie its evocativeness, and how deeply the post-millennial ideal of douchiness came to define the word. Think about the word douchebag. Let’s try to imagine: “douchebag”. Visualize it. Smell it. Taste it, or don’t. Fuse the chain between cockishness and white
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male entitlement and see where it leads you. Your quintessential douche, does he wear corporate casual? A knit sweater threaded around his shoulders? Does he belong to a fraternity? Play League of Legends? Perhaps he engages in acts of pharmaceutical robber barony or drops fat stacks on records by washed up New York City rap collectives. Yes, our prototypical metadouche could be all of these things and more! Problem is, I have trouble picturing him as a Japanese guy. That’s not to say there’s any shortage of male entitlement or arrogance among the Japanese populace, but there seems to be something uniquely Western about the douche image. Something about college fraternities and banking culture seems wrapped up in the word for me. Are douchebags only indigenous to America? If not, I had to know, what does a Japanese douche look like? As I do in all times of crisis, I turned to Google. A quick search for “Japanese douchebag” and a couple clicks later, and I was on an MMA blog staring at a picture of Japanese fighter Shinya Aoki posing for a photo shoot “engaged” at the waist with an “adult model” and making a “Who, me?” face at the camera. The blog tells me this photo is promotional material part of the hype cycle for his upcoming fight. So yes, with this information in hand, along with a reprimand from my supervisor for looking at porn on a work computer, I had shattered my Orientalist (Occidentalist?) notion that being douchey was a Western problem. Still, the issue of what to call a douchebag in Japanese remained. I returned to Google while consulting a dog-eared slang dictionary left to me
by my predecessor. Both options gave me the same results: “Baka. Uzai yatsu.” Really? “Idiot” and “annoying guy,” respectively? That’s the best those 1500 year old monks who invented Japanese had for me?? I had to go deeper. This couldn’t be the end. So I took it to the populace. Messages were exchanged, words explained in broken English and Japanese. A friend pointed me to the same website I had Googled earlier and I found a reddit post in which a user claimed his Japanese friend’s favorite untranslatable English word was douchebag. Not very helpful. The closest I came was when a female acquaintance, who after what seemed like an hour of racking her brain, came up with “charai”. The JED app on my phone defined it as “flashy, gaudy and wrapped in cheap flattery”. Now that was getting somewhere. Google Images is rife with examples for charai, and at first glance these young japanese men looked like pretty solid dudes for douche candidacy. As a backup, charai hits the same notes as douchebag, so if you’re describing this douchey guy you met at A-Life last week, go crazy. But for me, it was still missing that juicy, yonic imagery that douchebag so readily provides. My JTE was helpful initially, but when I kept expounding on the context of the word, and thus elaborated about vaginas and fluids introduced by external apparatuses, he replied, embarrassed, that his girlfriend was visiting and didn’t want any of that shit in his search history. Fair enough, I supposed, but to me that context is vital to understanding the word.
go, this made it a poor one on multiple levels, not only for perceived misogyny. I related this to a roommate once, and she changed my perception. Fresh baked pie in one hand, bong in the other 4 (our third roommate was a drug dealer who loved to bake, bless his soul) she explained to me that part of the power of douchebag was that it was explicitly feminist. Consider the douche, introduced in the early 20th century as another way to sell beauty products to women. Men certainly hadn’t minded for thousands of years, but suddenly, the vagina was dirty. Never mind that doctors insisted it was self-cleaning, never mind that in many cases douching would actually increase the risk of vaginal infection. Fuck that shit, you needed to make your vagina smell like a goddamn tropical breeze to please your man. Thus, if the douche is a useless invention of the patriarchy, what better way to lash out at selfabsorbed dudebros? It’s like a form of weird synecdoche: referring to a larger whole by the name of one of its parts. By equating douchebag bros to actual douchebags, you emasculated the whole damn system. Besides, yelling “douchebag” was often more satisfying than engaging in a lecture about privilege.
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You see, I used to have a problem with the word “douchebag.” It seems a bit misogynistic and, in that way, pretty douchey. Where’s the insult in likening someone to a vaginal cleaning product? As far as insults
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Perhaps that explanation is why I’m still so perplexed by this issue. It seems clear that there is no direct translation, in meaning or spirit, of douchebag into Japanese. That’s fine. Not all languages are the same. Japanese is filled with words like “ganbare” that pose a similarly difficult problem in translation. The only problem is that. with everything going on in Japan today, from rebuttals against same-sex marriage, women seeking rights to their own names, and the facile language used in the “Comfort Women” accords reached with South Korea, couldn’t Japanese use a word like douchebag?
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