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The Beauty Theorem

Friday, May 18, 2012

(Just wanna post it for my mother birthday :-) )

I traveled to the northern part of Tohoku last winter holiday. The original plan was to use 18 kippu (JR all-you-can-ride local train ticket), but since I had something to do in Tokyo before departing, I would arrive late at Akita - my first stop, that’s why I switched to Akita-Komachi at Sendai station. It looked like there were not so many people traveled north during winter holiday, because I still could get a seat, even though it was an aisle seat. However, when the train finally departed from Sendai, the window seat next to me was still empty. I wondered whether I could use it instead, but when the train made a brief stop at Ichinoseki, an elderly lady - about the same age as my mother - got in the train and headed for the seat. The lady was beautiful. It's not like some people used to say about an elderly lady: 'She should be beautiful when she was young' - it's not like that - she was beautiful, period. There was no need for additional 'when' or 'if' clauses. I mean, you could see the years that she have been through from the lines on her face, but there was some charm and grace radiated from her that emphasized her physical beauty, and simply nullify any adverse effect of those lines - if there's any.
The lady brought a big suitcase with her, so I stood up and offered her to put the suitcase on the rack above passenger seat, but she declined.
“Thanks, but this suitcase is heavy, so I think it will be dangerous to put it above. But would you mind to use the window seat, so I can sit here and don't need to drag this bag to the window side?”
Of course there's no problem with that, and moreover, I wanted the window seat anyway :-), so I shifted as she had asked. The lady sat, turned to me, and about to extended her gratitude, while she finally realized that I was not Japanese. Well, I wore a knit hat that I pulled covering my ears, so I guessed she didn't recognize it before.
“Excuse me, but you're not from around here, right?”
I smiled, nodded, and pulled off my hat.
“May I asked where are you from?”
“I'm from Indonesia.”
“Hmm, such a warm country. So, what make you come to Akita in a cold winter day like this?”
And that's how the conversation started. I later learned that Kamidate-san - that's her name - was going to visit her son's family in Akita to spend the new year holiday there, and that she had used the train for countless of time. That's why in between the conversation, she could tell me interesting small details, such as 'the snow will be thicker after we pass this tunnel', or 'after the next station, the train will move backward', and it's a bit exciting to find that all that she said were turned out that way. Anyway, Akita was an uncharted territory for me, so it was like having a experienced personal guide accompanied me for Akita-Komachi trip :-).
And as the conversation went, suddenly I saw a flicker of prank look in her eyes, and she went to ask the 'standard question' many Japanese had asked me before :-).
“Do you think Japanese girls are pretty? Which do you prefer, Indonesian girl, or Japanese girl?”
I've been through 'interrogation' like this so many times before :-), so I've well trained to reply with 'politically' save answer :-).
“Both Indonesian girls and Japanese girls are beautiful in their own ways, so there's no way for me to compare in general. But I prefer cute girls instead of beautiful girls, because I won't get bored easily with them. And yes, I think there's a lot of cute girls in Japan, so to make it short, I enjoyed my stay here.”
She laughed. “Well, I'm pretty sure you will enjoy your stay in Akita, too.”
I know what she meant with that. Akita is famous for it's beautiful girl, to the level that they coined the term 秋田美人 (Akita bijin - beautiful woman from Akita), which together with 京美人 (Miyako bijin - beautiful woman from Kyoto) and 博多美人 (Hakata bijin - beautiful woman from Hakata (Fukuoka)) makes up for 日本三大美人 (loosely translated: Japan three beautiful women).
You can google the net and find lots of explanations about why these three areas are famous for beautiful girls, but so far, I cannot find a better explanation than the one that prof. Hirose, one of my research advisers, gave me when we're having a trip to Nagano. That's why I will used his explanation here, instead of those from the net.
(And additional advice, getting close personally to your advisers or lecturers would allow you to tap much more knowledge than you could acquire solely from the laboratory discussion :-). Like, your professor won't offer you this kind of 'wisdom on beauty' during research discussions, and trust me, discussing about beautiful girl is much more fun than regular research consultation :-). I sometimes wonder whether prof. Hirose actually got his professorship in beauty science... :-) )
And here's the explanation for Japan three beautiful women...
First, Akita bijin. Akita is known in Japan as the place with the least number of sunny day. During my stay in Akita, I never saw the sun (it was behind the clouds all the time), and still, my friend's mother said that it was a 'sunny day' (how can it be 'sun'ny when I can't see the 'sun'? :-) Well, actually the Japanese way of saying 'sunny' is 晴れ, which literally means fine weather, so she didn't completely tell a lie, but I'm sure our definition of fine weather was a bit different :-) ). This small amount of sunshine makes the people of Akita having white complexion, and as my sisters often said, people with fair complexion tend to look cuter, and that is the secret of Akita bijin.
Anyway, don't quickly thinking about moving to Akita to get a whiter skin :-). Akita, like any other places in northern Tohoku, is also famous for their harsh environment, specially during winter. Generally I was only roaming around the city during my stay there, and in most cases I had to thread through a knee-high snow. You will find more snow, and have to battle harder to walk :-), in the town's outskirt. Anyway, a place like this will train their dwellers to be a hard worker, and indeed, people from northern part of Tohoku is famous in Japan for their never-say-die attitude. (And since people around the world regards Japanese as hard workers, and Japanese themselves consider people from northern Tohoku as hard workers, you can imagine how 'hard-worker' they are :-) ).
Second, Miyako bijin. Kyoto was the capital of Japan before it was moved to Edo (Tokyo), and the secret of Miyako bijin lies in the royal family. You might just think that royal families with beautiful members only exist in the fairy tales. Well, actually it can be scientifically explained :-). Just picture this: a king can choose the most beautiful girl in his kingdom as his queen, and this happens for several generations. As a result, the royal family will accumulate the beauty traits of the prettiest girls in the kingdom for several generations, and that's where the beautiful royal family 'myth' comes from :-). Back to the Miyako bijin, since Kyoto was the capital of Japan for several centuries (even now some people still believe that Kyoto is Japan's capital :-) ), Japanese beauty traits accumulated there and become the foundation for Miyako bijin. And actually not just the physical traits, lots of Kyoto people also have the personality of a noble: self-confidence and pride. Unfortunately, some people have this traits so strong that some can even see it as an arrogance.
Third, Hakata bijin. Fukuoka was a port city, and it was close to foreign land, such as Korea and China, thus it got lots of influences from abroad. Even during Sakoku period when Japan closed themselves from outer world, Fukuoka still could get influence from outside due to it's proximity to Nagasaki, the only open port in that era. Once Makii, my friend from Hakata, told me that there's a theory said that the name 'Hakata' (博多) originated from the fact that there are lots of people from foreign land come there, which in turn make a lot of wisdom gather in the area ( can means knowledge, while means plenty). Likewise, since a lot of races came and mixed in Hakata, Hakata bijin was a combination of beauty from races of distant lands.
(Well, when Makii was telling me about the theory, perhaps she just wanted to tell that Hakata people are not just beautiful, but also wise :-) ).
From the explanation above, all 日本三大美人 are distinguished not only by their physical traits, but also by their strong characters. That's probably their real secrets, it's not just the fair skin of Akita bijin, royal grace of Miyako bijin, and multicultural beauty of Hakata bijin, but it's more to the strong will of Akita bijin, self confidence of Miyako bijin, and universal wisdom of Hakata bijin that make them look attractive, much more enchanting than what a skin-deep beauty can give.
This reminds me again about Kamidate-san. It's not just the physical appearance, but I think it was her strong characters, her wisdom, and he sense of humor that make her looks so graceful despite her age. And moreover, it's not her physical appearance that made her company during Akita-Komachi trip a pleasant encounter, but it's the lively conversation - which brought by her strong characters - that made it a memorable one.
I think you can conclude it yourself, but if I have to say it all in one line, it would be: be more aware with your inner beauty rather than your outer beauty. And if someone says that you're ugly and you don't like it, you can always follow miss Piggy advice: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye” :-).