How universities work in Japan, my fond memories as an ESL teacher, and battle of the sexes, Japan style

Some of the biggest differences between Japan and the U.S. can be seen in higher education. Japan has an extensive system of public and private universities which educate 44% of graduating high school students. In the U.S. the top universities are private schools like Harvard, Princeton and MIT, while State schools are lower in the rankings. In Japan this is reversed: the public universities are where everyone wants to go, in large part because they're much cheaper than their private counterparts like Waseda or Keio. Students study hard to get into top-ranked national institutions like Tokyo University at least in small part to lessen the financial burden on their parents and show oya koko (filial piety, e.g. thanks and respect to their parents for raising them). While Japan's national universities might offer a good education, they're dependent on the public purse for their operations and are generally running out of money all the time. A visit to some of these campuses with their drab brown concrete buildings built in the "Late Contemporary Chernobyl" style can make you think you've been transported to the old Soviet Union. The money problem has gotten so bad that some schools have started licensing their name -- if you want to try a Kobe University- brand steak, you can find them for sale in finer shops. One of the biggest problems with Japanese universities is that students must work so hard to pass the entrance exams that it's generally expected that they'll goof off once they get admitted. This makes me sad, considering all the ways my mind was challenged during my own time at college. Another problem: too many universities. Despite the sagging Japanese population and dearth of students, new universities continue to be built every year. I really enjoyed my career as an ESL teacher, and during that time I came into contact with many different kinds of Japanese people, from kids who were being exposed to English for the first time to high school students who wanted to learn how to actually use the language they'd spend six years learning the grammar and vocabulary of. I always tried to show a positive, cheerful face to my students (Japanese people expect Americans to be "cheerful" at all times, I've learned), and let them know how great it is to learn English, since it allows you to make friends all over the world. I've met interested students, bored students, and housewives who thought that studying English was the most thrilling thing in their lives (clearly they needed to get out more). I'll never forget one student I had who drove a tanker truck delivering white kerosene to gas stations. Whenever he couldn't communicate something in English, he's try saying it in Japanese with an outrageous American accent. It's not considered good form for the teacher to laugh himself into a ball during class, but it was difficult keeping my amusement bottled up sometimes. The subject of how men and women interact in Japan is a complex one, and I've come to realize how closely related it all is to language, despite the obvious "which came first, the social attitude or the linguistic term" question. For the most part, English is largely unisex, with the same words being used by both men and women, with a few exceptions (like profanity). Japan is quite different, and much of the language is "hard wired" for use by women or men only. For starters, there are different pronouns for boys and girls to use. Guys generally use the polite "boku" or the manly-sounding ore (OH-ray) to refer to themselves, but girls get the more feminine watashi or atashi (or if they're trying to be annoyingly cute, they refer to themselves in the third person, like characters sometimes do in anime). For the second person pronoun, men often use masculine omae (OH-mah-aye) or the slightly condescending kimi, both of which contain an element of talking to someone at a lower social level, like an underclassman. Women usually use the neutral anata, and both sexes will often substitute a name, e.g. Fujita-san, in place of a second-person pronoun. There are quite a few words which the Japanese use every day but which sound incredibly sexist if you analyze their actual meanings. The most common word for husband is shujin, which really means "master" if you look at its kanji. Two words for wife used by older Japanese are kanai (lit. "in the house") and okusan ("Mrs. Interior"), implicitly stating that wives never leave the home. Of course, these are just words and no one considers their meanings all that deeply, just as we don't tear English words apart for their Greek and Latin origins that much, but it's interesting what you can uncover when you dig deep into a language. J-List loves to bring you the best PC dating-sim games from Japan, translated into English. We've got dozens of great CD-ROM and download games for all tastes, with hilarious stories, extremely dramatic love themes and all manner of cute characters. Our latest game is Doushin - Same Heart, a fascinating title in which you play from the viewpoint of the three Suruga Sisters, Ryoko, Maki and Miho. At any time in the game you can "zap" from one character to another and continue the story from their point of view, which adds an incredible element of depth to the story. A great game by Crowd, the company that brought us X-Change, X-Change 2 and Tokimeki Check in!, so we know it'll bring you many hours of enjoyment (and lots of in-jokes from the other games). It's being duplicated right now, but you can still order now and get free shipping on it! Here are today's "really cool products" that I thought were especially noteworthy. Note: the J-List links below may be for adult products and should probably be considered "not safe for work." To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link.

	Lilac Time Harajuku -- Aya Seto. I like this approach a lot -- a magazine devoted to one girl, organized in a "virtual date" format in which you go on a date with her in Tokyo. It's got its wabi and sabi thing going.
	Dolly Dolly vol. 9. I am not into dolls at all, and yet, and yet...this book is so cool to thumb through. Filled with tons of pictures of Japan's most avante garde doll culture.
	Kera vol. 90 Feb 2006. A new issue of Kera is always welcome on J-List. This issue is filled with gothic & lolita shots, accessories, hair pictures, you name it.
	ism vol. 005. For yaoi fans, we bring you a new issue of Ism, a popular anthology manga series.
	Goukakudekiru Nihongo Nouryoku Shiken 3, 4 Kyu ~ You Can Pass the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, Levels 3 & 4. For students studying for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, this is the actual test for levels 4 & 3 (the two easiest levels).
	Shima Katase Extra Story Image Figure -- Stellvia. I am so taken with way this figure looks, it's just incredible. We only have three in stock though, so hurry if you like it as much as I do.
	Neko Bus Finger Puppet. A cute new finger puppet featuring Neko Bus, aka Cat Bus.
	Lovers Soul. A very nicely stylized "H" manga about love and sex in contemprary, urban Tokyo. Very clean art and beautiful characters.
	Asakusa T-shirt ~ "Bu" (Fighting). A beautiful T-shirt that's made right here in Japan, this is a very rare shirt that shows Japan's various martial arts on the back, along with the kanji for "fight" ("bu") on the front.
	Manga Bible 1 ~ Light and Shading. A nice book about manga, art and character design. In Japanese, but featuring lots of images and information that would be of use to any budding artist.
	Rilakkuma Chara SP -- Relax Bear Audio Speaker. It's cute "Relax Bear" that plays music from your iPod!
	Hello Kitty Oyatsu Box -- Snack Case. A cute Hello Kitty Otaku (snack) box, which you can take on picnics, to school, anywhere.
	Snoopy Gamaguchi Purse -- Light Blue ~ Japanese Style.
	Welcome To Pia Carrot One - 3 Disc Box Set.
	Full Set of Tea Dog "Uchciwa (Fan)" Strap w/Ramune. Here's a cute set of Tea Dog Mascots, which you can hang from your window, use as phone straps, or do anything. Full sets or random individuals both in stock.
	Lotte Fusen no Mi Gum -- Tropical Fruits. Famous bubblegum from Lotte. You never know what flavor you'll get. Yum!
	Morinaga Uji Green Tea Cookie. You can't have enough green tea, and these new green tea cookies, made with Uji Cha (green tea from the town of Uji, near Nara) are just delicious.
	Japanese Sake Serving Bottle & Cups -- Mum. Japan wouldn't be Japan without sake. Here's a fun sake bottle with matching sake cups.

The Japanese eat a lot of noodles, and we are no exception. This is a meal from our favorite udon/soba restaurant. Today I got the udon with the mini-bowl of curry that was delicious.

My daughter got Curry Udon, a delicacy of Nagoya, and we kept raiding her bowl because it was so good. It's basically a giant bowl of curry soup with udon boiled in, mmmmm!

It's nice to have a beer after a hard day's work (especially on update days). This is Asahi's invention, a one-serving "Steiny Bottle" with a pull top, a way to sell more beer to consumers.

These are a local famous food called sansai, a kind of edible wild plant found up in the mountains, and since we've got mountains coming out of our ears here, there are a lot of sansai. They are frankly delicious, although it took me a while to come to terms with them. If you've ever played the classic bishoujo game Season of the Sakura, Mio was going to the mountains to pick sansai, but since I didn' thave space to explain what the heck this was, I changed it to mushrooms.