Cultural Paradoxes in Enigmatic Japan

I did a definitely non-scientific, invalid, selfishly-conceived, cultural survey of not-much-meaning on my morning run today…

I counted the number of non-Japanese who were wearing face masks.

CONDITIONS
I only counted “Westerners” – people with a white face – because I can’t tell apart Japanese from Koreans or Chinese when they are wearing face masks.

CONTROL
Anyone else without a face mask. (Not many)

RESULT
Hmmm, this is the surprise.

I counted 13 Westerners over a total of 40 minutes while running along the Meguro river. Tokyo may be cosmopolitan, but it is still overwhelming monocultural.

How many Westerners can you guess were wearing face masks?

One.

And he had it pulled down!

So, none really.

This result led to think about another curious cultural paradox about the law in my home country – Australia – and my adopted home - Japan. 

Japan has had the same government almost continuously in power since it’s foundation in 1955. Only four years of an opposition government in power. In Australia, we alternate between socially-minded (left-wing) and conservative (right-wing) governments, much like the USA.

You’d think such a powerful Japanese government would take a stronghold over a somewhat indifferent electorate…

NOT with c19.

Here’s what I found interesting. 

In Australia, the government ordered its people to stay inside. If you were caught outside without a good reason - in Queensland, for example - police could issue an on-the-spot fine of $1,334.50.

Not so in Japan.

To my delight, I discovered that the government did not have the power to either ask businesses to close, or for people to stay at home. Even under legislation for an “Emergency Condition” by the Abe government.

No fines. No compulsion. 

You had to agree, and a lot of little owner-occupied businesses kept open. Most – not all - were wearing masks.

ANYWAY, all my rambling doesn’t really have a point, other than acknowledging that having personal freedom to choose your own path is a beautiful state of affairs for any person. And collecting information about the conditions around you is an art that every Alexscovery teachers needs to practise.

It’s what shifts our work from being some form of advance “postural adjustment” to a an unexpected transformational force in people’s lives.

When you feel uncomfortable with your students emotional needs – or stuck in your own practice - my two ThinkingBody courses lead you on an adventure of developing your “Alexander Technique” methodology to cope which just about any kind of student problem.

The art of doing that is what I p

When you have lost your freedom to develop, and you can’t explain why, ThinkingBody will refresh and “reinvent’ what you already know in ways that seem obvious once you experience them. 

Anyway, I only write because I like it. Same reason I put together my two ThinkingBody courses, which are on offer right now at a never-seen-before-discount. Not for long.

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