It’s in Your Vein: The Influence of Blood Type Stereotyping on Japanese Pop Culture

(Even though the title and the structure of this post might give an impression of a scientific work, as a matter of fact, it isn’t :-). However, to give the illusion of reliability and traceability, I deliberately put some references, some of which unfortunately neither reliable nor traceable :-). Some other are legitimate sources, though…)

Disclaimer: read it when you really have nothing else to do :-) But if you decide to read it, please read it through until the end.

Introduction

It is a common knowledge that some people in Japan believe in blood type stereotyping, which is a tendency to guess people personality based on their blood type (It could be either Discipline-Orderly A, Highly focused-Do it my own way B, Cheerful-Carefree O, or Eccentric-Exotic AB). It went to the level that there were some TV stations that aired programs containing fortune telling using blood type[1]. This kind of fortune telling was not supported by any scientific background (well, I think ALL fortune telling are not supported by scientific background anyways :-) ), nonetheless some suggested that blood-type stereotyping can be scientifically explained, since blood contain hormones that are known to influence human behavior[2]. Some studies have also shown the relation between blood type and health (e.g. suitable diet based on blood type[3], health risk based on blood type[4]), thus some believe that it is highly possible that blood type also exerts influences on human’s personality. However, it proved that the verification of the actual relation between blood type and personality was a difficult task due to the many factors that contribute to the development of one’s personality[5].

Regardless of the debates, some Japanese manga, anime, and RPG are including the blood type in the introductory profile of the main characters. The reason behind this might be to provide further reality to the characters in the story, however, it might also because the author was influenced by blood type stereotyping during the development of the story’s characters. It is still unclear which one of the above mentioned reasons was the main reason, therefore it is necessary to perform a validation study (and I did it because I had some free time :-) ).

In this study, a method to validate whether blood type stereotyping was indeed giving influence on Japanese pop culture was proposed. The method was implemented, and the result of verification was discussed.

Methodology and Scope of Study

This study aimed to prove the influence of blood type stereotyping on Japanese pop culture. The validation method was done by listing the characters of certain blood type from various manga/anime/RPG and performed a crosscheck whether the personality of the characters fit well with blood type stereotyping. If the blood type stereotyping and the character’s personality match well with each other, then a conclusion could be drawn that there was indeed an influence of blood type stereotyping on Japanese pop culture.

To limit the scope of the study (because it’s tiring, you know :-) ), only characters of AB blood type were evaluated. The reason behind the selection of AB blood type is because it is an interesting subject of observation, shown by the following phenomena:

1. AB blood type has the least population among blood types in the world (5.1% of total population of the world[6]), while in manga/anime/RPG, the population is seemingly much higher than that. Quick survey of main characters from selected manga/anime/RPG showed that the population of AB blood type is around 27.6%, more than 5 times higher than reality. (What is meant by selected manga/anime/RPG here are the manga/anime/RPG that I selected in order to support my statement :-) ). The reason for this might be because every story need an eccentric-exotic character, and AB blood type fit well for that purpose.

2. AB blood type is often being connected to eccentric characters. There was even a tendency to set eccentric figures in history to have AB blood type. For example, it is rumored that both JFK and Marilyn Monroe were of AB blood type (Marilyn Monroe was an actual AB, however, record showed that JFK was an O, not an AB)[7, 8, 9]. The tendency to relate AB blood type with eccentric characters further justified the selection of AB blood type as the subject of observation, because it would be easier to locate eccentric characters in manga/anime/RPG compared to other type of characters.

(I could make up several more reasons to the list above (such as the rumor of 20% of the University of Tokyo’s students are of AB blood type), however, the actual reason why I chose AB was that I am an AB (yeah, I am exotic, that’s what I wanna say :-) ). And moreover, even though it is said that AB population is low, it seemed that there were lots of people of AB blood type around me (like, 2 of my close friends in high school were AB, as well as my 3 siblings). If you prefer to have your own blood type as the subject, please feel free to do this using your own blood type :-) ).

The following manga/anime/RPG were chosen as the subject of investigation: City Hunter, Chibi Maruko-chan, Kindaichi Case Files, Final Fantasy series, Mobile Suit Gundam, Hunter x Hunter, Keroro Gunso, Naruto, Nodame Cantabile, Samurai X (Rurouni Kenshin), Sailor Moon, and Saint Seiya. The list represents manga, anime, and RPG, and it also covers several genre such as fantasy, children’s story, teens’ story, history based fiction, mystery, and robot (well, Gundam fans would be mad at me with this notion. Let me correct it, Gundam is not a robot. It’s a mobile suit :-) ).

(You might ask why I didn’t use other classic manga such as Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Detective Conan/Case Closed, or why I didn’t list any of Takahashi Rumiko’s manga. Of course it would be nice to have them in the list and for example discuss why Piccolo and Haibara Ai are likely to have AB blood type :-), however, there were no official blood type list of the characters from those manga, which made them hard to be used as the subject of this study).

To simplify the analysis of character’s personality, we listed a probable AB character description based on the stereotyping. Since AB is stereotyped as eccentric-exotic, the character that will suit this stereotyping will be:
1. Eccentric/loner main character
2. Eccentric/loner villain
3. Loner/hostile/mysterious sidekick/friend (what is meant by hostile here is a sidekick/friend that often not get along well with the main character. By not get along well with the main character, it emphasizes the fact that he or she is ‘different’).
4. Ex-villain (Most of the times, ex-villain is an eccentric figure).

If the character with AB blood type from the manga/anime/RPG could be classified as one of the above mentioned characters, then the hypothesis of blood type stereotyping gave influence on Japanese pop culture is proven.

Result and Discussion

The discussion of characters from selected manga is presented below.

a. City Hunter
The AB blood type character from City Hunter is the main character, Saeba Ryo[10]. It is easily spotted that Saeba Ryo is a bit outlandish, so he could be easily categorized as eccentric main character (pervert main character would be more fitting, though :-) ).

b. Kindaichi Case Files
From this manga, the AB blood type character is Akechi Kengo[11]. As can be read from the story, the presence of Akechi in the story was as semi-rival for Kindaichi, even though sometimes they help each other to solve a mystery. From this description, it can be concluded that he is a hostile sidekick (because he also often makes fun of Kindaichi :-) ), thus fitting well with AB stereotyping.
As an additional information, Kindaichi Hajime’s blood type is B[11].

c. Final Fantasy Series
The AB blood typed character from Final fantasy VII, arguably the most famous RPG in the series, is the leading role, Cloud Strife[12]. A quick look at the character will show that Cloud is a loner main character, which again showed the conformity with blood type stereotyping.
The leading role in Final Fantasy VIII (Squall Leonhart) is an AB[13], and he has the same traits as Cloud. Furthermore, Cefca Palazzo, the eccentric main villain in Final Fantasy VI, is also an AB[14].

d. Hunter x Hunter
Kurapika portrayed a stereotypical AB[15], loner and mysterious. In addition, even the gender of the character often became the subject of arguments, which solidify the mysteriousness of the character.

e. Mobile Suit Gundam
Mobile Suit Gundam portrayed both the main character (Amuro Rei) and the main villain (Char Aznable) as AB[16, 17]. Amuro was descripted to have a little social interaction, which listed him as loner main character, while on the other hand Char can be viewed as an unconventional villain (since he also did several good deeds which is unconventional for a conservative villain), thus both fitted well with AB stereotyping.

f. Keroro Gunso
Even though including this manga to the list will raise some debates (can aliens have human’s blood type? - and yes, Keroro and his team are aliens, not frogs :-) ), I still put it on the list because it completely supports my hypothesis :-). The AB personality from this manga is Kururu[18]. Kururu fits well the AB image: eccentric, loner, and a bit hostile even toward his allies, that is why I am refusing from excluding him from the list :-).

g. Naruto
This is also a keep in the list because Sasuke, the AB character[19], is a perfect model for AB blood type: a loner, ex-villain, and occasionally quite hostile toward Naruto.

h. Samurai X (Rurouni Kenshin)
Himura Kenshin is definitely a typical AB main character[20]: eccentric and loner.
Additional fact: Kamiya Kaoru is an O[21], which might provide the explanation to their somewhat a bit ‘cat-and-dog-ish’ relation (according to blood type stereotyping, AB and O have the worst compatibility[22]).

i. Sailor Moon
Hino Rei (Sailor Mars), the AB character in this series[23], had crows as pet, which simply cannot be defined as ordinary. Moreover, her frequent argument with Usagi provided the base to categorize her as hostile sidekick.
Additional fact: The author of Sailor Moon (Takeuchi Naoko) is the wife of the author of Hunter x Hunter (Togashi Yoshiro)[24] and the manga of both are included in this list. However, it is unclear whether they influenced each other on using the blood type stereotyping or not (If you want to know, you can ask them directly :-) ).

j. Saint Seiya
Similar to Sasuke from Naruto, Ikki Phoenix also provide a typical AB character[25], a loner, ex-villain, and a bit hostile character. This provided another evidence on the influence of blood type stereotyping on Japanese pop culture.

Because I start to get tired here :-), I summarize the rest of the result in the following table (sorry for cutting short the discussion, but it’s really tiring. If you had written scientific journals before, I think you know the feeling :-) ). The table showed the close relationship between blood type stereotyping and selected manga/anime/RPG’s character.

Table 1. Summary of conformity of AB blood typed characters from various manga/anime/RPG to blood type stereotyping

No	Manga/Anime/RPG	AB blood typed Character	Personality	Applicability of Blood Type Stereotyping
1	City Hunter	Saeba Ryo	Eccentric Main Character	Yes
2	Chibi Maruko-chan	Noguchi Emiko[26]	Hostile Friend	Yes
3	Chibi Maruko-chan	Maruo Sueo[26]	Hostile Friend	Yes
4	Detective Kindaichi	Akechi Kengo	Hostile Sidekick	Yes
5	Final Fantasy VII	Cloud Strife	Loner Main Character	Yes
6	Final Fantasy VIII	Squall Leonhart	Loner Main Character	Yes
7	Final Fantasy VI	Cefca Palazzo	Eccentric Villain	Yes
8	Mobile Suit Gundam	Amuro Rei	Loner Main Character	Yes
9	Mobile Suit Gundam	Char Aznable	Eccentric Villain	Yes
10	Hunter x Hunter	Kurapika	Loner Sidekick	Yes
11	Keroro Gunso	Sergeant Major Kururu	Hostile Sidekick	Yes
12	Naruto	Uchiha Sasuke	Ex-villain, Hostile Sidekick	Yes
13	Nodame Cantabile	Okuyama Masumi[27]	Hostile Friend	Yes
14	Samurai X (Rurouni Kenshin)	Himura Kenshin	Loner Main Character	Yes
15	Sailor Moon	Hino Rei (Sailor Mars)	Hostile Sidekick	Yes
16	Saint Seiya	Ikki Phoenix	Ex-villain	Yes

Conclusion and Recommendation

The result above showed that there is indeed an influence of blood type stereotyping on Japanese pop culture. Of course there are also products of Japanese pop culture that did not get influence from blood type stereotyping (which I did not include in this study because it did not support my hypothesis :-) ).

Regardless the result above, the real influence of blood type on human personality is still open for debate.

The result of this study can be used to guess the blood type of characters from manga/anime/RPG that did not list blood type of the characters (e.g. it would be interesting to know the blood type of Doraemon or Pikachu, if it is possible for a robot and pocket monster to have human blood type :-) ). It can be expanded even wider, for example, it can be used to guess the blood type of characters from Harry Potter if J.K. Rowling were to develop the character based on blood type stereotyping (In my personal opinion, I think Snape (ex-vilain), Hermione (hostile sidekick), and Voldermort (loner villain) are likely to be AB typed. Rowling only mentioned about half-blood[28, 29] and mud-blood[30] in the books, though :-) ).

In the end, it is not important whether your blood type really give an influence on your personality or not. There are other important factors that influence your personality, such as your environment. Therefore, if you think you have a good personality, rather than connect it to the blood type, it is better to thank your family who had raised you well, or your friends who had given you good influences.

And quoting from what Rachel Dawes said to Bruce Wayne in ‘Batman Begin’, “But it’s not who you are underneath, it’s what you do that defines you” [31], it is really what we do that made us ourselves, and not our blood type.

(If you’re a Potter’s fan, you might prefer a quote from Dumbledore: “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities”[32]).

So the bottom line is, it is fun to read about blood type stereotyping from time to time, but don’t take it too seriously :-).

References

[1] “血液型占い” in Wikipedia, Retrieved January 17, 2015, http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%A1%80%E6%B6%B2%E5%9E%8B%E5%8D%A0%E3%81%84

[2] C. S. Carter, “Hormonal Influences on Human Behavior”, New Aspects of Human Ethology, pp 141-162, (1997)

[3] M. T. Jacobsen, MS, RD (reviewer), “The Blood Type Diet” in WebMD, Retrieved January 17, 2015, http://www.webmd.com/diet/blood-type-diet

[4] L. Geggel, “Your Blood Type May Put You at Risk for Heart Disease” in Yahoo News, Retrieved January 17, 2015, http://news.yahoo.com/blood-type-may-put-risk-heart-disease-154253164.html

[5] A. Caspi, B. W. Roberts, “Personality Development Across the Life Course: The Argument for Change and Continuity”, Vol. 12, pp 49-66 (2001)

[6] “Blood type distribution by country” in Wikipedia, Retrieved January 17, 2015, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_type_distribution_by_country

[7] “Health and Medical History of President John Kennedy” in Doctor Zebra, Retrieved January 17, 2015, http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/g35.htm

[8] “Ready Reference: Fast Facts about John F. Kennedy” in John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Retrieved January 17, 2015, http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Fast-Facts.aspx

[9] “AB Blood Type” in What’s My Blood Type, Retrieved January 17, 2015, http://whatsmybloodtype.org/type_ab.html

[10] “冴羽りょう” in Wikipedia, Retrieved January 17, 2015, http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%86%B4%E7%BE%BD%E3%82%8A%E3%82%87%E3%81%86

[11] “金田一少年の事件簿の登場人物” in Wikipedia, Retrieved January 17, 2015, http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%87%91%E7%94%B0%E4%B8%80%E5%B0%91%E5%B9%B4%E3%81%AE%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6%E7%B0%BF%E3%81%AE%E7%99%BB%E5%A0%B4%E4%BA%BA%E7%89%A9

[12] “クラウド・ストライフ” in Wikipedia, Retrieved January 17, 2015, http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%AF%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A6%E3%83%89%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4%E3%83%95

[13] “ファイナルファンタジーVIII” in Wikipedia, Retrieved January 17, 2015, http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%82%A4%E3%83%8A%E3%83%AB%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%83%B3%E3%82%BF%E3%82%B8%E3%83%BCVIII

[14] “ファイナルファンタジーVI” in Wikipedia, Retrieved January 17, 2015, http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%82%A4%E3%83%8A%E3%83%AB%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%83%B3%E3%82%BF%E3%82%B8%E3%83%BCVI

 [15] “HUNTER×HUNTERの登場人物” in Wikipedia, Retrieved January 17, 2015, http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/HUNTER%C3%97HUNTER%E3%81%AE%E7%99%BB%E5%A0%B4%E4%BA%BA%E7%89%A9

[16] “アムロ・レイ(0093)” in機動戦士ガンダム ガンダムVS.ガンダム原作ネタ用Wiki, Retrieved January 17, 2015, http://www41.atwiki.jp/gundam-vs-gnsk/pages/23.html

[17] “シャア・アズナブル” in Wikipedia, Retrieved January 17, 2015, http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A3%E3%82%A2%E3%83%BB%E3%82%A2%E3%82%BA%E3%83%8A%E3%83%96%E3%83%AB

[18] “Kururu” in Keroro Wiki, Retrieved January 17, 2015, http://keroro.wikia.com/wiki/Kururu

[19] “うちは一族” in NARUTO -ナルト-　キャラクターリスト, Retrieved January 17, 2015, http://naruto.noihjp.com/Character/Uchiha.php

[20] “緋村剣心” in Wikipedia, Retrieved January 17, 2015, http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%B7%8B%E6%9D%91%E5%89%A3%E5%BF%83

[21] “るろうに剣心 -明治剣客浪漫譚-の登場人物一覧” in Wikipedia, Retrieved January 17, 2015, http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%8B%E3%82%8D%E3%81%86%E3%81%AB%E5%89%A3%E5%BF%83_-%E6%98%8E%E6%B2%BB%E5%89%A3%E5%AE%A2%E6%B5%AA%E6%BC%AB%E8%AD%9A-%E3%81%AE%E7%99%BB%E5%A0%B4%E4%BA%BA%E7%89%A9%E4%B8%80%E8%A6%A7

[22] “O型女とAB型男について。 一般的に、この組合” in Yahoo Japan知恵袋, Retrieved January 17, 2015, http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1449897284

[23] “火野レイ” in Wikipedia, Retrieved January 17, 2015, http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%81%AB%E9%87%8E%E3%83%AC%E3%82%A4

[24] “Yoshihiro Togashi” in Wikipedia, Retrieved January 17, 2015, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshihiro_Togashi

[25] “鳳凰星座の一輝” in Wikipedia, Retrieved January 17, 2015, http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%B3%B3%E5%87%B0%E6%98%9F%E5%BA%A7%E3%81%AE%E4%B8%80%E8%BC%9D

[26] ちびまる登場人物, Retrieved January 17, 2015, http://www.geocities.jp/chibi_maruko_chan_room/character/ketsuekigata.htm

[27] “のだめカンタービレの登場人物” in Wikipedia, Retrieved January 17, 2015, http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%AE%E3%81%A0%E3%82%81%E3%82%AB%E3%83%B3%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%E3%83%93%E3%83%AC%E3%81%AE%E7%99%BB%E5%A0%B4%E4%BA%BA%E7%89%A9

[28] J. K. Rowling, “Chapter 28 Flight of the Prince” in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 2005.

[29] J. K. Rowling, “Chapter 13 The Very Secret Diary” in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 1998.

[30] J. K. Rowling, “Chapter 7 Mudbloods and Murmurs” in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 1998.

[31] Rachel Dawes in Batman Begin, 2005.

[32] J. K. Rowling, “Chapter 18 Dobby’s Reward” in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 1998.

ここで一句。。。

It was during Hippo Fukushima Camp I attended last weekend. Despite only had 2 hours of sleeping time the previous night, I didn’t feel sleepy at all after joining the morning exercise, that’s why I used the time to join the strolls outside. The sight was awesome - the veil of fog was hanging on the air, rendering a bit of unearthly touch to the field of view. And that’s how I took the picture above.

The scene reminded me of a 俳句 (haiku)by Watanabe Eri that I heard in one TV program. I really like the haiku, so I would like to introduce it here.

ようやくここは
秋の穂のなる
東北

(Some of you might notice that the 韻律 (inritsu)was 7-7-4 instead of 5-7-5 which often be used in a conventional haiku, but I won’t talk about the technical aspect now.)

For those of you who would like to know the meaning, the English translation would be more or less as follows:

At long last, it is autumn seeds bearing Tohoko, once again.

(I think everyone are well aware that it’s hard to make a translation of a prosaic work which can still convey the nuance and spirit of the original version,so it’s just natural that making a translation of a poetic work while keeping the nuance, literal meaning, and figurative meaning would be next to impossible.Therefore, my translation above is still far from perfect. For the same reason,I kept the title of this post in Japanese: because the translation in English would be either too long or losing the ‘punch’ that the Japanese title possesses.)

Back to the haiku, Watanabe Eri was a native Tohoku, and she participated in activities to support the disaster relief program in Tohoku.The haiku she wrote refers to the rice field in the tsunami hit area. The field was saturated with sea water, thus it was impossible to grow rice there anymore.It took around three years of rehabilitation process to return it to the original condition and start growing rice again. It should be felt long and difficult to recover back to normal life for those who live there, but I’ve seen lots of people facing hardship with unrelenting smile in the past 3 years, so I really glad they finally made it. And as in Japan the people of Tohoku is known for their patience and hard work spirit, this time once again they showed that the reputation didn’t come for nothing.

And the bottom line of what I want to say is, try to always be patient no matter how hard the problem that stand in your way.Anyway, God is with those who are patient.

Several Years Past the 'Crossroad'

This happened during open campus in my university several weeks ago. Like any other open campuses, there were lots of high school students and their parents came visiting us. I always like this kind of atmosphere: young people full of dreams trying to decide what they want to do with their future (hmm, I start to sound like I'm old now :-) ). Perhaps it’s because I always feel their dreams and energy are contagious and lift me up that I like being in this kind of atmosphere.

Anyway, I didn’t expect any of them to visit our lab, because our building didn’t open for public this year. That’s why, I was a bit surprised to see two high school students standing in the corridor leading to our lab. I was thinking that they were lost (and given that our building was in the far south corner of the campus, they must’ve been completely lost to be there :-) ), so I approached them and asked whether I could be of a help. They told me that they just wanted to know what kind of research being performed in this building.

“On what grade are you now?” I asked.

“We’re in our junior year.”

 It meant that they still had another one and half year to decide what they would like to do after high school. I continued, “Have you decide on what are you going to do in the future?”

“We’re thinking about studying chemistry.”

“Well, our laboratory is doing chemical engineering and applied chemistry. I can tell you some of the things that we’re doing here if you want.”

They said that they would like to, so I gave them a bit background about our laboratory. Since I had to prepare for other thing that day, I couldn’t explain long, and I told them to read the posters hanging on the corridor wall if they wanted to know more. I left them there for my preparation, and when I returned several minutes later, they were still there.

One of the students saw me, came, and asked, “By the way, do you know Chou Kai Ha?”

I have some Chinese friends named Chou, but I didn’t familiar with the name Chou Kai Ha. But came to think of it, I usually remember my Chinese friend’s full name with their Chinese pronunciation, while Chou Kai Ha was definitely a Japanese pronunciation. If the sound ‘Kai’ is represented by the kanji for ‘sea’, and the sound ‘Ha’ is represented by the kanji for ‘wave’, then the reading in Chinese will be Zhang Hai Bo, my batch mate during master course, who worked at DuPont after graduation.

I asked the student to make sure, “Do you meant Chou-san who works at DuPont?”

“Yes.”

“Of course I know him. We finished our master course together.”

“Actually, he is my father.”

What he just said struck me just like Dart Vader struck the audiences with his ‘I am your father’ line :-). My friend’s son is in high school now? Oh my goodness, am I that old? :-) (yeah, I can hear some of you say: “yes you are” :-) ).

Actually, after knowing that I was planning to go back to Indonesia to become lecturer there one day, some of my friends, both during school days and working days, told me - half joking of course - that they would send their kids to me to learn one day. “You know, like the thing that you often read in stories, the parents send the hero-will-be kid to be trained by their trusted friend...” (Training a hero-will-be? Who do they think I am? Obiwan Kenobi? :-) ). Anyway, of course that wouldn’t happen anytime soon, but in several years, it wouldn’t be a far fetch story. I could imagine that one day a student came to me revealing my 'old school days sins' such as, "my father told me that you and him once played fireworks in fire restricted area", or "my mother said that both of you triggered burglar alarm in chemical engineering building." (by the way, both of the ‘sins’ above are based on facts :-), however, the two of my friends who were involved in those incidents still don’t have any offspring now, so I think I’m still spared for at least another 18 years if that were meant to happen :-) ).

Well, that made me realized that the dreams that my friends and I had years ago, however crazy and far-fetched it seemed during those days, were one by one come into reality (of course not all, for example, no matter how hard I wish it to come true, I’m still not batman now :-) ). That’s why I often encourage people who are on the crossroad to their future - like those two high school students - to dream any dream that they want. There’s no dream too big, and of course there’s no dream too small, as long as they really wanted it. Anyways, the limit of what we can achieve is determined by the scope of our dream - if we are too afraid to dream (either because we think it is too big or too small) - then chances are we would never get what we want.

And now that I’m often in the position to give advice to people on the ‘crossroad’, it’s still fresh in my mind the days when I myself was on my own ‘crossroad’ - that finally led me to where I am now: the day when I talked to Mr. K when I was going to resigned from ‘the Firm’. That day he asked me about what I wanted to do next.

“Actually I still don’t know what kind of work that I want to do, but I think first I want to take master course”, I replied.

“Why is that?”

“Because after comparing these past several years, the days that I enjoyed the most were the days during my 4th year in the campus, when all I did was doing research, and sometimes teaching my juniors. I really love those days.”

Mr. K laughed. “You should continue until doctor then. If you really enjoyed those days, I think you will enjoy working as a lecturer. You even can try to return here when you finish.”

And even though I didn’t talk too much about it with my friends, some of them were able to see through me and knew that I wanted to be a lecturer. During days leading to my departure to Japan (I forgot the details, but I think it was either when I stayed at Ari’s house and played labyrinth with him or it was in his car when we went to airport), Ari said “don’t forget to return to GP soon.”

“Huh?”

“You’re going to be a lecturer right? Anyway, it will be much easier for us to drop by the campus from time to time if you are there.”

Well, I’m not sure whether GP will receive me when I return to Indonesia one day anyways, but hey, we all have the right to dream. Maybe I’m still not where I hope I would be, but I believe that I am where I am supposed to be right now. Perhaps it will take lots of detouring and getting lost on my way there, but I think I’ll just take Little My advice from Moomins, ‘what you need to do now is get lost the best that you can’ :-).

And back to the ‘training a hero’ stuff, if I really meant to be the one who's going to train the hero, I think I need to brush up some rusty techniques. Now, where did I keep my light-saber? Hope I haven't sold it to second hand market... :-)

Toilet Wisdom

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.

これって絆というものかな？

This happened several weeks ago: I cried. But it's not because someone stomped on my toe :-). There was something that touched my heart and moved me (to the extent that I couldn't hold back my tears). You might find the situation to be just ordinary though, but anyway, I want to share it here.

One of the visiting researchers in our lab would return to her country (I won't mention any name or country, but anybody in the lab should be able to guess who), and we needed to have a wrap-up meeting with JICA who provided the financial support for her stay here. She'd been working hard during her stay (and almost took no vacation at all), so basically my professor was glad to give a good report on her. Even the JICA person, a tough-looking lady in her mid-40s (I won't mention her name here, too), was also impressed with what she had done (and judging from how professional she was, I think it was quite an accomplishment to be able to impress her).

Anyway, to make it short, the wrap-up meeting was over, and we prepared to leave the room. Our visiting researcher took 10000 yen from her purse and handed it to the JICA lady and said, "Can you give this for donation for Fukushima (earthquake affected area)?"

I saw the JICA lady cried. I also found myself fighting back tears, and eventually I gave up and just let it flowed. I think that was the first time in years that I cried in front of people.

Well, even though I believe that most people would be touched if they were to witness the scene, I don't know how many would shed their tears. I cried myself, but I don't expect that everybody would cry like me. Like one of my friends once told me, 'a song will sound differently once you know the singer', the scene looked different for me (and the JICA lady) because we 'knew' the persons involved, not only the researcher, but also the people in earthquake affected area.

I talked with the researcher several times during her stay in our lab, so I knew about her living and how much she made every month in her country. Maybe for some of us, 10000 yen is not worth that much. But that amount of money would make a big chunk of the researcher's salary back in her country. Moreover, she could have used it to have some vacation to enjoy her stay in Japan even more, but instead, she chose to gave it to help someone she never met before in a place she'd never been before.

Well, I think the fact above would be enough to made us touched, but I think the main thing that pushed me and the JICA lady through the brink of tears was that both of us were connected to Tohoku. The JICA lady was a Tohoku native, and her hometown was one of the earthquake hardest hit area. The scene made me, who only spent around 4 years in Tohoku, to be touched that much, so I couldn't imagine how was the JICA lady, who was born and raised in the area, feeling at that moment.

I don't mean to be sarcastic, but I'm really grateful that I was given the chance to be in Fukushima during the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami, so that I could witness that humans are capable of selfless acts. I saw a man gave all of his clean water supply to another man because that man had a little kid (there was rumor of radioactive contaminated water at that time). A man who emptied his wallet for the donation of earthquake victims. And even there was a supermarket chain store that sold the whole of their inventory for only 100 yen the day after the earthquake, so that everybody have enough supply for that time of uncertainty. Maybe their reason was simply similar to the reason that made me and the JICA lady cried: they felt connected.

Back to the researcher, when she was asked why did she do that, she said that if she had not visited Japan and performed her research here, there was a possibility that she wouldn't be able to get her PhD, that's why she wanted to give back, even though it's just in a small thing. It made me started to ask myself, who literally earned from Tohoku for more than 4 years, had I done enough to help Tohoku? Perhaps the researcher didn't have a direct connection with Tohoku area, but she chose to be 'connected', and that's what made the difference.

More than 1000 days had past from the day of the disaster (December 5th was the 1000 days memorial for the 3/11 earthquake), however, the reconstruction project of the area is still far from over. And from time to time, I saw a person or groups of persons who, like the researcher I mentioned above, didn't have any direct connection with Tohoku, volunteered in many ways to help rebuild the area. There was a company that supplied bottled drinks to people lived in refugee camp monthly. There was a group that frequently visited the area for free concerts. There was even a manga series that donated one character to be used in reconstruction activity. You will have a hard time finding news about their activities in the newspapers or televisions (let alone gossip tabloids :-) ), because they didn't do it for publication. Perhaps they didn't have direct connection with Tohoku, but by doing that actions, they created a emotional bond with the area. It's not something visible, and we even can say that it's not real at all, but like most of the abstract concepts, it will be there, and we will be able to feel its warmth if we believe that it is there.

Maybe it doesn't sound rational at all, but I found now that I prefer to buy thing from supermarket chain who opted to sell all of their stock for 100 yen the day after the earthquake. I almost always put songs of the group that continuously visit earthquake affected area in my music playlist. I even started to read the manga series that donated their character for reconstruction activity again. Perhaps it was simply because I feel connected to Tohoku, and  thus to the groups of persons mentioned above.

You might wonder whether small things like donating an anime character for reconstruction activity would make a big difference. To be honest, my answer would be 'I don't know'. But as long as we never try it, we'll never know how it will be. And even small thing like that, which came out from an abstract concept of emotional bond, will matter and make difference, however small it is, compared to real bond or connection that is not put into action.