A Gaijin's Guide to Japan: An alternative look at Japanese life, history and culture. Ben Stevens
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Название: A Gaijin's Guide to Japan: An alternative look at Japanese life, history and culture
Автор: Ben Stevens
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Хобби, Ремесла
isbn: 9780007347421
isbn:
GAMBATTE
Beneath the polite, patient and often slightly reserved exterior of the ‘typical’ Japanese person there lurks a beast. This beast is at all times ready and alert for a challenge, although any outward indication will rarely be given.
This beast is the reason why Japanese students can get by on four hours’ sleep when studying for exams and why the typical Japanese sarariman thinks nothing of staying at the office till ten o’clock at night, only to then apologise for his rudeness should he leave before his colleagues.
This beast can trace its roots right back to the dawn of the samurai, and their code of bushidŦ . It has at its heart the samurai ‘do or die’ philosophy: to commit to something—anything—wholly, and to succeed in this field or else to die in the attempt.
All of the above and much, much more—entire books have been written about the ‘do or die’ factor—is contained within one single word: Gambatte.
‘Gambatte,’ says the midwife to the mother about to give birth.
‘Gambatte,’ says the mother to the child as it takes its first faltering steps.
‘Gambatte,’ says the father to the teenager, as he studies beyond the point of exhaustion for the all-important university entrance examinations.
‘Gambatte,’ says the employer to the young man, now working for a firm that must pull out all the stops—and work all the hours—in order to secure an important contract.
And so it goes on, through generations, until the word is effectively etched on the heart of every newborn Japanese child before he or she even utters their first cry.
‘Gambatte’: ‘do your best!’—and, by implication, never, ever give up, no matter how seemingly insurmountable the odds. Because to give up was a source of great shame to the samurai, and if you’ve read this far, you’ll know how they dealt with that…
GAME SHOWS, JAPANESE
Japanese game shows—of the physical rather than the mental variety—commonly involve four things: water (usually freezing), a number of contestants wearing silly costumes (who will invariably enter said water at some point), an audience of limited mental capability (who will act as though someone getting wet is the funniest thing they’ve ever seen) and a presenter (often male) who requires medication to control what is obviously a serious hyperactivity disorder.
It is interesting to note that Japanese game shows are never watched by small children, who find them tiresome in the extreme.
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