After
living for a while in Japan, I found that most of my Japanese friends like to
decorate their toilet - just like any other rooms. I don’t know how
about other Indonesian, but my family doesn’t have the habit of
decorating toilet :-), that’s why at first I was a bit amazed with my finding. When my mother visited me here and stayed in one of my
Japanese friends’ house - and thus had the chance to use the
decorated toilet, she commented, “your sisters will stay there for
hours if they were to use that toilet” :-)
(My
sisters like to spend long times in toilet, even in our plain,
unadorned toilet. Sometimes they even bring book inside to kill the
time.)
And
since I had visited many toilets around Japan (well, that’s just
natural, because the number of time you spend in toilet should be
proportional to the length of time you spend in a country :-) ), I
realized that one of the typical decorations used for toilets here is
a maxim, saying, or poet, like the one shown in the picture. I took
it from Kondo family’s toilet when I visited them. For those of you
who would like to know the meaning, it was about child raising. I put
the translation below (it’s just a loose translation, I didn’t
mean to do it strictly word by word). And about the content, don't ask me if it is right or wrong, since I still don't have the experience of raising a child :-). However, like any
other wisdom by human, it may contain some truths and mistakes, so
just take the one that you think is right.
Thoughts
on Child Raising
A
child raised among people with gracious heart will be able to
persevere,
while a child raised with lots of encouragement will grow
up to have self-confidence.
A
child raised with praising will know how to be grateful,
and a child
raised in a fair environment will have a sense of justice.
A
child raised with compassion will have a good devotion,
while a child
raised in the environment that acknowledge him will be able to treat
himself right.
A
child raised with the love of his peers will be able to find love in
the world.
