A Guitarist and A Mathematician

I always think that Rana resembles me when I was a kid in a lot of ways - his preference of toys, his fascination in stairs despite his fear of height :-) - reminds me of my childhood. That’s why when I play Lego with him, I usually also build things that I liked when I was a kid, like ships, robots, and jet fighters. But one day, when he played Lego, I saw him constructed something that I never saw before. A guitar. The guitar was small, that’s why I then made a bigger version for him (I was thinking of buying him a guitar toy - I saw some in 100 yen shop :-) - but then I remember that when I was a kid I also didn’t have all the toys that I wanted, but I was always able to make a makeshift from Lego and it was a lot of fun. I don’t want to steal that kind of exciting experience from him, that’s why I didn’t buy him a guitar toy).

It’s not the fact that he was able to make his own guitar that surprised me, it was the fact that he was thinking about making guitar. When I was a kid, I often saw guitars and guitarists, but I never thought to make one with Lego. I made telephones, cameras, jet fighters, robots, even space shuttles, but never guitar. While on the other hand, Rana rarely saw guitar here, but still, he built his own Lego guitar. Is this what it’s called by talent? Well, I am not a believer in the concept of passion (any skill or activity that you are willing to invest on for a certain amount of time will become your ‘passion’ eventually), but I do believe that each of us was born with multiple talents that can always be leveled up throughout our lifetime. Maybe one of Rana’s talents is music, or even mathematics (studies showed that the brain area that we use for playing music is the same as that for math thinking), I don’t know. But if one day he comes to me and says, ‘I want to be a guitarist!’, I will let him choose the road that he will embark forward (of course after he finishes his compulsory education). The same will apply if he says that he wants to be a mathematician. (Well, if I ask him now, I think he will say that he wants to be a train driver, which would also be superb :-) ).

But of course I don’t want him to be just another guitarist, or just another mathematician. If he chooses to be a guitarist, I will show him how good Eddie Van Halen with his guitar techniques (both in the sense of proficiency and mechanical: he’s a damn excellent guitarist, and his idea of using power drill to play guitar or his experiment with changing guitar’s stem and body made him more than just a great guitarist). Or, if I wanna nudge him to a higher education, I can also mention that Bryan May holds a Ph.D in Astrophysics. If he chooses to become a mathematician, I can introduce him to Leibniz, who was also well versed in theory of music. Or maybe the fact that Einstein was also good at playing violin will be enough to make him realize that there is no harm in excelling at multiple fields.

And Rana, if you’re already big enough when you read this stuff and still not certain which path to choose, just come to me. I might not have all the answers that you need, but I still can tell you the story of a farmer and a consultant (you know my son, perhaps it would be hard to believe, but once upon a time, a long long time ago, your father was a management consultant :-) ). I believe that the story would chase all your worries away :-).

Another lesson from toilet

It's 3 o'clock in the morning and I'm still wide awake, backing up my old data and pictures to blu-ray disks. I've been thinking about doing this since ages, but the sight of piles of files was always able to make me figure out some excuses to 'reschedule' it on some other times :-). Well, anyways, now that I finally got myself together and started the file grouping and burning, I absentmindedly browsed through my old pictures and stumbled on this particular shot form inside a toilet in Yamagata (yeah, toilet is my favorite picture hunting spot :-) ). Because I think the content is deep enough to ponder over, not only while you're sitting there in a toilet :-), I'd like to share it here.

The title is 五戒 - loosely translated into "Five Lessons" - similar to Japanese version of Buddhism teaching, however, the contents is different. I loosely translated them below. As usual, take it if you think it's good, and just leave it if not.

If you feel that life is too painful, it means that you still don’t know how to be grateful.
If you feel that life is too hard, it means that you are overindulged.
If you feel that life is too sad, it means that you only think about yourself.
If you feel that life is too daunting, it means that you do not live to the fullest.
If you feel that life always holds you back, it mean that you are still not true to yourself.

Villain's Fangirl

 

(Partly for Rana, when he grows up :-) )

Finally Rana became an ordinary Japanese child. No, we didn’t turn his nationality to Japanese :-), we said so just because he started to like Anpanman :-). I remember when Farah was expecting Rana, Matsuda-san give us baby’s record book bag portraying characters from Anpanman series, and she said that every Japanese babies grew up to like Anpanman. I’ve seen a lot of kids’ merchandise with Anpanman character on them which basically support that assertion, however, even though I’ve seen the anime myself couple of times, I still couldn’t understand why the anime so popular with the children. The characters’ drawing was doraemon-level simple and the story was even more simpler - but maybe it was the simplicity that make it a hit among children. Anyway, now with Rana adored it, and Farah said that she couldn’t get the Anpaman theme song out of her head (she accompanied Rana watching it :-) ), I got a real life evidences about how enchanting Anpanman is.

While I watched Rana sang along the closing theme of Anpanman - only partly - with his often out of tune cute voice (I think he inherited my tone deafness :-) ), I started to realized that he preferred Baikinman - the villain - rather than Anpanman himself. Like, he was able to sing Baikinman’s part in the song before the Anpanman’s part. Moreover, he looked more excited while watching Baikinman on action rather than Anpanman. Well, I and Farah didn’t mind at all about that, since we ourselves often fall for the villain rather than the hero of a story (like, if you take Harry Potter for example, I already liked Snape before it was known that he was innocent, and Farah was also always rooting for Malfoy :-) ). And as I also often got stuck in front of the TV when the Anpanman show was aired (and yes, I couldn’t get the theme song out of my head now :-) ), I started to know the story, and I also started to learn the other side of Baikinman character.

The relation of Baikinman to Anpanman was more or less similar to the relation between Lex Luthor and Superman. Like Superman, Anpanman is the mightiest man (cake? :-) ) in his universe, well beyond Baikinman, and of course like any other classic superhero, he used it for the good. On the other hand, Baikinman knew that only with his power he wouldn’t be able to win against Anpanman, so he did all he could to be able to beat Anpanman. He devised some machine, schemed some strategy - all to beat Anpanman, and of course he always failed in the end. I knew Baikinman is a bad guy, but seeing how hard he tried, actually I started to feel that he was too good to always end up in failure. Moreover, seeing how he constructed his machinery, he must be a great engineer - and for someone who got engineering background like me, it was easy to fall for him :-).

I wish I can said that Rana liked Baikinman because of his hard work, or because of his engineering prowess, but it would be a lie (I think he liked him because he was a bit mischievous, or even simpler, just because of his color :-) ). But that’s okay. One day when he grow up and look back and find that he once like Baikinman, instead of turn to hate him, I hope he will be able to focus on his good traits and learn from them. Anyway, in some of the episodes, it was revealed that Baikinman sometimes helped others when Anpanman was not around, and even turned down an invitation of a princess that accidentally being helped by him by saying “I’m the villain here, I cannot accept it.” (Really cool line indeed. Specially when you consider that it came from an anime intended for toddlers :-) )

All in all, maybe sometimes it is easier to be a villain. As a hero, there will be a lot of expectation from around you, some sort of decorum that would bind your behavior. On the other hand, there are no rules for villain, you can do as you please, even helping others like what a hero supposes to do. The difference is that people around you won’t care about the good that you did. But that’s should be okay, isn’t it? For we do the good deeds because they need to be done, not just to please those who try to judge us.

Third Time Lucky

Do you notice that there are some people around you that really care about you? Well, I do notice. They really make my day enjoyable, and even those hard days would feel tolerable with their help. Some (or most? :-) ) of them are even care about my relationship status, and was eager to become matchmaker when they found out that I was still single :-). One of them was Mr. K, who played that role for me several times.

The first ‘encounter’ happened several months leading to my departure to Japan. I was helping Mr. K with a project, and we spent quite a time together, tried to complete it on time with ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ played at the background (we prefer to called the song ‘Parking Lot’, though :-), and it was supplied by G who also worked in the project). It was then that out of the blue he asked me the million dollar question :-): ”Awan, sorry if I’m asking you this, but do you have girlfriend?”
I was in a relationship at that time, so my reply was, “Yes. Why is it, sir?”
“Well, actually I’m thinking about introducing you to a girl. She’s the Al Quran reading teacher of my daughters. She’s a fine girl...”

As surprised as I was to hear the question, you can guess that the topic didn’t go far from that. Later Mr. K informed me that the girl actually already had someone, and I remember Mrs. E (Mr. K’s wife) commented, “You should have been able to tell that both of them are already not available...” :-)

Moving forward 5 years later, the second ‘encounter’ occurred, this time I was already in Japan. Out of the blue (again :-) ) we received email from Mr. K. What I meant by ‘we’ here were A, M, Z and me, the member of FPE group, a research group under Mr. K back in my undergraduate days. Mr. K asked us whether we know someone that could be introduced to a girl and willing to explore the possibility on having serious relationship that hopefully would last for all eternity..., or to make it sort: someone who is interested in matchmaking :-). A quickly mentioned me and B (quasi-member of FPE :-) ) as candidates. At that time I was still not thinking about marriage, but I said I wouldn’t refuse because it’s a good chance to make new acquaintance, and Mr. K was okay with that.
“Good then”, he replied. ”Do you have facebook account? I think it will be easier to do it via facebook.”

And by this, now you know why I have a facebook account... :-) 

Similar to the first one, this encounter didn’t progress further. I did open a facebook account, however, I was busy finishing my doctoral curse, oops, course, I meant :-), and preparing for work, so I didn’t take any follow up on the talk. I even didn’t do much on facebook, didn’t put any profile picture and other detail for several months. When finally the dust from my doctoral defense and newcomer training had settled and I got a chance to take a breath, I completely forgot about the whole matchmaking talk - until along came that historic day :-).

This time I already work in a University in Japan, and I got a chance to visit my former university for a business trip. It’s been a while that I didn’t meet the professors, so when there was a chance I slipped out of the meeting room and visit Mr. B, my thesis advisor, who later brought me to Mr. K room. Mr. K looked glad to meet me again, and after some small talk, he proceeded to ask me, this time with the million and one dollar question :-): “Have you married?”
“I simply replied, “Not yet.”
“That’s okay. I’ll introduce you to someone”, he looked around his room, stopped his stare at F who by fate :-) was there, and then continued, “First, I would like to introduce you to F.”

We greeted each other, but again, no magic seemed to happen. We continued our conversation and that was it. A couple of weeks past, and when I thought that the matchmaking talk would again dissolve into thin air, I got a message from Mr. K.
“Awan, do you remember F that I introduced to you the other day? Don’t you want to know about her a bit more? I asked her about you just now, and she just smiled, so I think she’s not refusing.”

I really didn’t know what made Mr. K really wanted to pair me with F, but I thought F was a fine girl, so I didn’t mind to give it a try. Later I knew from F that actually Mrs. E was the one who told Mr. K to let me start the contact. When Mr. K was busy asking F about what she’d think about me (and F was busy pretended to ignore :-) ), Mrs. E told him to send me a message instead and let me start the connection. And fast forwarding several months into the future (exactly 2 years ago :-) ), we took the picture above.
(Actually, a lot of things happened during that ‘several months’, but it can fill another note, so I won’t write it here :-) )

From this whole matchmaking process, I realized how important the combination of chance and preparedness - or I prefer to call ‘luck’ here. I could have entered Mr. K room one or two years earlier, and I might still found F sitting there, but there was no guarantee that our story would unfold as smooth as this. One or two years earlier, I or F might still not thinking about getting married, and the matchmaking talk could end up like the previous two. I think it was because both of us were ‘ready’ when we got the ‘chance’ to meet - or simply said because we were ‘lucky’ - that finally we decided to bring it on only in a matter of months.
(Anyway, both I and F have some experiences before our meeting that made us feel like we were prepared for our encounter. Whether that was real or just our feeling, only God knows.)

And I don’t mind at all that we were just ‘lucky’ to have found each other. I believe God never plays dice on us (yeah, I know Einstein possibly didn’t tell the quote for this meaning, but I like to use it that way anyway :-) ). I believe there should be some reason behind the luck that was bestowed to us. So if you want a piece of advice from me: just prepare for it if you want something, I believe that the chance will spring up in front of you by the time you are ready.

And for Mr. K and Mrs. E: Thank you very much for never give up on me :-).

Universal Communication Device

When I was in Charleston 7 years ago, on my way to the grocery I saw this big man carrying his small daughter. Our eyes met (the child I meant :-) ), and she smiled spontaneously. It’s really hard to resist a beam from an angel like that :-), so my lips automatically formed a grin. The father who saw me smiling looked at his daughter, and when he found that she smiled, he also smiled at me. The mother that followed behind him also smiled, and the grandmother even took the time to stop and chat about how fine the weather that day was with me.

Now, it was in Pursat, and the ‘angel’ was a boy. I saw him standing with his father when I went to a market, and after looked at each other several times, we just start smiled at each other. The father who saw that also smiled at me, and later we were even waving at each other. We stood quite far from each other, so we didn’t have the time to hold a conversation - well, even if we were standing close enough, I think we still wouldn’t talk because of my Khmer lexicon that was limited to words such as fish, delicious, and thank you :-) - anyway, the smiling and waving really made me feel welcomed.

Regardless the culture, a smile, especially from a child, can almost always melt a heart. Maybe because they do it so sincerely, so it blows away all the suspicions. Even though it is one of the most primitive way of communicating, as long as it works, I don’t mind at all to always use it, because it can represent thousands of cordial words. The most sophisticated communication device could sometimes get in the way and ruin our communication anyway, so the trendy stuffs are not always the best :-). Moreover, Rana was really good at communicating using smile to me and Farah. He often used it after he did mischievous things such as emptying the box of tissue or tearing off a page from a book :-), and we usually just forgot about what he had done. Well, with a cherubic smile like that, who can hold a grudge against him for a long time? :-)

(Now I really miss Rana (and Farah too... :-) ) )

Metal Bonding

(Well, the content of this note is not related to the type of bonding that responsible for the ability of some materials to conduct electricity (even though I do have some educational background in chemistry and engineering), nor it is related to the type of music that heavily uses electric guitar and drum (even though all the 6 music groups on my favorite list in Facebook play this kind of music, including the idol one). Anyways, if you notice the picture of the post and happen to have some knowledge in RPG, you might be able to guess where this post heading to :-). )

Having too many stuffs in your storage box often made you lose count of what you have there. And because Farah read some books by Mari Kondo recently (do some googling if you want to know who is she), we decided to follow the advice and do some cleaning of the storage. And indeed, I found tons of stuffs that I’ve already forgot I have them (like: “why did I keep this cat ears band?” or “so there where the other half of my socks went” :-) ).

It was then when I stumbled on the Nintendo DS that had been covered by dust for several centuries (Exaggeration of course. We had just moved to this apartment less than a year :-) ). Long time ago, when I was still young (oops!), I used to play dragon quest in that Nintendo DS. I was wondering whether Farah ever play such games, so I showed her the DS.
“Have you ever played dragon quest?”
“I’ve never played RPG at all.”
“Then you should try this. This is fun!”

I still kept some of the game ROMs, so we played. We were into it, therefore later we searched the net for a decent used Nintendo DS and bought it, so we could play Dragon Quest IX multiplayer together.

Some of you might think that our home would fall silent after that, because both of us too busy with our game to hold any conversation. But it was not. We still talked as usual, but now some of the conversation was altered to stuffs from another dimension :-).
 
If you ever played RPG, you might have known that you need to increase your level in order to gain strength and more ability such as spells. This level gain can be achieved by battling monsters and accumulating experience. In dragon quest series, the best way to level up is by battling metal monsters such as metal slimes, since they will grant you loads of experience points. However, the trouble with them is that they are very hard to find, and it requires some decent strategy to beat them efficiently. In dragon quest IX, since a player can travel to other player’s game, we often visited each other world and did metal hunting together. It’s basically a more efficient way, because by doing it together, the area that could be covered to find those metals will be wider, and of course it was easier to beat the monsters together.

So, during the metal hunting, it was normal to hear us call to each other like “come to the upper left corner, I stumped on a metal here” or “where are you? I found two of them here.” :-)

And since the places where the metal monsters exist usually also be inhabited by strong creatures, the calls sometimes turned into distress calls like “come here quickly, I’m cornered by Earthenwarriors!” or “help, I almost got stomped by living statue!” That’s why we need also to watch each other back there, providing each other with medicinal herbs or magic water if the HP and MP are already low.

And suddenly we realized that playing this game could turn into another way of bonding.
 
In contrary to conventional believe that suggests playing electronic game will diminish communication, it can also be used for bonding to make the players get close to each other. I’m not by any way trying to promote dragon quest here :-), I just want to mention that sometimes games can also give us benefit if we use it the right way. (And I recommend Dragon Quest IV or V if you’re looking for good story :-) ).
 
Now I am thinking to introduce the game to our children too (if we bless with some) when we think the time is already right for them to play it. Rather than forbid them to play a decent game and then have them play behind our back, I prefer to let them play, thus we will still be able to give some guidance. Moreover, by doing so, I could show up by demonstrating how to blow a liquid metal slime with thunder thrust, or perhaps they could also watch their mother sweeps king metal slime with hatchet man (I used spear when I hunt metal, while Farah use axe :-) ).
 
One thing for sure, the game definitely added to the memory share by me and Farah. So, when one day you heard us having an absurd conversation like the following, you would be able to guess why. 
“Do you remember the time when we visit Bowhole, love? The one near the Wormwood Creek.”
“Was it when we almost be swept by Dracularge, dear?”
“Yes, it was. And the Harmours were also hard to beat...”
:-)

Stamp Saga Sequel

I first came to Japan in 2003, and the first 年賀状 (Japanese new year card) that I received was for the year of 2004 - the year of monkey. Since 2016 is another year of monkey, I came to realize that 12 years had passed since the time I received those cards with monkey bathing on an 温泉 (Japanese hot spring spa), or was it a 銭湯 (Japanese public bathhouse)?, anyway, they used the monkey to decorate the stamp.
 
And guess what, not only Star Wars saga that got a new sequel recently - it looked like the monkey also got a sequel in his bathing saga :-). If you compare the stamp of this year 年賀状 to that of 12 years ago, you’d see the monkey was no longer alone. An infant bathed alongside him. Japan post office left the explanation about the relation between the monkey and the infant to our imagination, but for me it looked like they are parent and child. Twelve years is a long period of time, and a lot of things must have happened on the monkey - including having an offspring :-).
 
Life is full of lessons, and if you ask me what can be learn from those monkeys on the stamp, I’d say it is the fact that life always changes, and you need to change for the better as time pass by. Come to think about it, I changed a lot compared to the boy that came to Japan 12 years ago - and I hope it was for the good :-). Well, unlike the monkey, I still don’t have an infant bathing together with me right now :-), but at least I’m not alone in my recipient address of this year 年賀状 - Farah is here now. But similar to the monkey, a lot of happen in the last 12 years span, both good and bad. I couldn’t control what happen to me, but at least I can choose what kind of impact it has on me, so I hope I was able to make use good of them – either the good things or bad things, I hope they were all left a good mark on me.
 
By the way, the 2004 new year card in the picture above was from Yanagida, and this year we were still exchanging new year card. The way to see it, how we change from complete strangers more than 12 years ago to a good friends like now, I amazed on how big the power of time - it can make you strengthen thing, or make it worse. Again, it is all up to us. And I’m glad I used the time to strengthen the friendship :-).

Rose by any other name

(I wrote posts on my father’s birthday and also on my mother’s birthday before, so today, I’d like to write one on my wife’s birthday - which actually the same day as my father’s :-) )

I think many already know that Farah and I met for the first time only around 6 months before our wedding day - and over that 6-months span we only met for 4 times. Her parents even just met me once, and that was one day before our wedding. Thus, no surprise that lots of my friends - and Farah’s too, I suppose - were a bit amazed and began mass interrogations on me :-), on why we were so bold to get married in such an ‘express’ manner :-), and also wonder why our parents let us married without taking much time to know each other (well, specially her parents: how come they let their only daughter being ‘kidnapped’ by a stranger live in a galaxy far far away... oops, a country far far away, I meant :-) ). Now that we’ve got married and got a bit settled, we were able to start thinking about it more clearly and be objective, and to be honest, I got quite intimidated on how fast everything proceeded during those days, and so did Farah :-). But if you ask me whether I regret my decision, I will certainly say no (and I hope Farah feel the same :-) ). Like, of course we had some arguments after we got married, but we also argued several times before, so there were no change in that respect. Moreover, there are several things that we could learn about each other only after we got married and live together like now, so even if we were postponing our wedding for several months or even years in order to know each other better, I think we wouldn’t be able to know each other the way we are right now.

Well, back to the mass interrogation then :-) 

If I were asked why I was dare to get married in such a speedy way, I think that’s because both of us concern more about the essence rather than the superficial thing. That 6-months span between first meeting and wedding day might be short, but it was not hollow - we were talking a lot about each other, almost on daily basis. The fact that she was open about herself - to the level that even Farah herself was surprised about it  :-) - really help me to know her better. It would be a lie if I say that I knew all about her within that short period of time, but it was enough to make me believe that I would be able to hold on if she was the one. To know all about her would need more than a lifetime - and that’s why I decided to spend the rest of my life with her.

Even though Farah (often? :-) ) like to chat about random (trifling) things from time to time, on fundamental matters, she really seeks for the essentials. For example, when I asked her whether we should make our relation ‘official’ by being boyfriend-girlfriend, she just said that she didn’t need such kind of things. She said that as long as I was really serious about bringing our relation to the next level, she did not need that kind of pseudo social status.

Likewise, I try to see her essentially as she is now, not like the way she said she was. Several times she said that she was not good enough and that she was afraid she would let me down, but still, I like her the way she is. She’s not perfect - she might have flaws, she might have past - but all of her positive characters are far better, outshining those weaknesses. Quoting loosely from Shakespeare, even though we call rose by any other name, it will smell as sweet - so do her, how many time she try to be humble by mentioning her own weakness, her charms will be felt even more, eclipsing everything. 

Therefore, for Farah: happy birthday, wish you always ‘smell as sweet’, literally and figuratively :-)

How to Be a Ninja

 

After visiting Naruto exhibition today, I just realized that even though the word ‘ninja’ or ‘shinobi’ had been known widely, I haven’t found a ninja definition based on the kanji meaning on the net. And since I’m a bit ‘free’ today, I’d like to write one here :-).

Ninja is written as 忍者, and the second kanji simply means a person – which emphasizes that ninja is just a normal human. What makes a ninja different is shown by the first kanji: it can be read as ‘nin’ or ‘shinobi’ (thus the term to say ninja in other way), and the meaning is to persevere, to have patience. The pictograph itself depicts a blade on a heart, and referring to kanji dictionary for elementary school :-), it symbolizes ‘the ability to hold on even though a blade being pressed against one chest’.

Based on the kanji definition above, it can be concluded that a ninja is just a normal human. He doesn’t need to be very strong, because the quality of a ninja is on the patience, on the ability to persevere. And of course it takes a lot of training to be a ninja, and to successfully complete the training, again, you’re gonna need a lot of patience.

Well, since my religion told me that God is with those who are patient, regardless you want to be a ninja or not, patience is a very valuable quality to have :-).

(And about the reason why I picked the picture above as cover picture despite there are countless pictures of ninja that I can use instead, well, I just would like to underline the fact that ninja is just human: they also need to eat :-) (the picture showed Chouji brings box of lunch for Shikamaru – check Naruto wiki if you would like to know about them :-) ). During battles, a ninja might get hurt and lose their appetite to eat, but again, they need to persevere and swallow all those food, so they’ll be able to finish what they are meant to do. So, please don't forget to eat if you want to be a shinobi :-).)

The Unchosen Hero

 

Alfred: Now, detective Gordon has promised you that he will find the person that killed your parents.

Bruce: Do you really believe he will?
Alfred: He will try. Of that I am certain.
(Gotham, The Balloonman)

I'm not following American TV drama recently, so I don't know what's up there, but on my flight last week I happened to see drama entitled 'Gotham' in the entertainment list, and, as a Batman fan, I automatically opted to watch it. And I wasn't disappointed at all. Well, it's not about Batman himself - Bruce Wayne was still the frail kid, and even Selina Kyle was still 13, even though she had been able to kick some asses :-). It portrayed many of the main characters in the series during their early days (well, once everyone were young, even Batman or Joker :-) ). Anyways, I won't spoil the fun for those of you who haven't watched it, I just want to tell you why I like it: it was filled with good messages. Like it can be seen from the quote above, it shows that Alfred decided to tell Bruce the truth rather than giving him a false hope, despite how he wanted to reassure the kid that the murderer of his parents would be brought to justice. Moreover, it conveyed the same message as the Batman trilogy by Christopher Nolan about the principle of a hero (it can also be inferred from the quote above): it is 'the efforts' that tells whether someone worth to be called 'hero' or not.

Other movie/drama on superhero usually give a 'standard message' on this: the hero is the chosen one (Superman return: "Even though you've been raised as a human being, you are not one of them."; Spiderman: "With great power comes great responsibility"; Green Lantern: "The ring, it chose you"; Flash: "I don't think that bolt of lightning struck you, Barry. I think it chose you."). Thus the logic was, you are chosen, so you are the hero. On the other hand, this drama used a different logic: you do heroic thing, so you are the hero. It is all up to us to start it, without the need to wait for some superpower to be bestowed upon us.

In a wider sense, it is also all up to us to be or to get what we want, without the need to wait for everything to be set ready for us. Anyways, opportunity comes to a ready mind, when we start to get moving, all the pieces will fall into their places, at the right moment. I don't tell you that it would be easy, the obstacles might make you grumbling and ranting (cough), but once it all passes, all that remains would be a fine memory to cherish.

So, master Bruce, 'wipe your tears' and get yourself ready for the battle ahead. I'll be here (to get all the grumbling and ranting :-) ).

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.