2 posts tagged “sake dojo alumni”

Federal holiday today of course. When working I looked forward to these days, not that I too had the day off, I didn't, but with the Feds off, the commute in and out was actually pleasant: I could even drive the speed limit in some places! (that says a lot for the normal traffic patterns here!)

But son has school and is grumbling.  A new Xbox game is scheduled for release today too, a variation of a game out for a while and guess who must get it today? 

The photos below are not mine or  even taken in this area. One of the Sake Dojo Alumini lives around Knoxville, Tenn., is a hiker and a  decent amateur photographer.  He sent these along for my and others on his mailing list's enjoyment, so for the enjoyment of others......

Had an e-mail exchange with one of the Sake Dojo Alumni, during which, ’Oh yeah, whatever happened to______?’ came up.  Turns out this person, an Anglo, stayed on for a while, studied Shakuhachi, was bestowed by his sensei, a Japanese 芸名 (?), which I was told he now prefers being addressed as even though he still has his western given names and lives in the U.S.

I’ve always shaken my head when I hear of or read about something like this.  ‘Going native’ here as opposed to ‘going native’ Japan is very different.  Here one can be ‘American’ but still also be, and most importantly accepted as, Raoul, Ahmed, Jacques, Ravi, Dieter, etc., along with the cultural heritage you have.  Becoming Japanese means first off, having to jettison your western name for a Japanese name.  A small thing perhaps, but the implications are large to me for it means subscribing to mores, values, culture, a ‘system’, what have you, that means to ‘become’ one must also exclude everything else.  This was I think, one reason behind the decision to bring our son here to grow up. 

Here, he can be what he is, part Japanese (his first name is a Japanese name) and part western. He is aware of his dual heritage and the gratifying part for me is that he does not feel the need to suppress or hide either part of what/who he is.   Had we chosen to remain in Japan, I think he would be under a great deal of pressure to downplay his western, American part of who he is.