Vicarious Trip to Japan

Thursday, June 18, 2009--Bangkok

I am a bit worried about my hotel here. Today, they changed breakfast from a buffet to serving plates of food as people entered. Apparently there are not enough guests to justify the buffet. They told me when I checked in that their newly remodeled tower would be opening next month, and they sounded positive as if it would mean more business. But things are really slow now. I have a reservation for 4 more days when I return from Cambodia week-after-next. I hope they will still be open for business then! And the future doesn't seem to bode well for them. I've discovered that the construction site across the street where the fish market and surrounding shops were torn down is for a new Novotel to give them competition.

I went to several of the airline offices this morning to check on my seat assignments. Fortunately, my travel agency had already made them for me. That has not happened when Thai Airways has sold me the ticket directly; I've had to go to each office and ask for seats. The only ones that were unacceptable were on United where I had been given window seats. I prefer aisle seats so, they quickly made the change.

From there, I walked to the shopping district. I went through two of the malls that have floors with contemporary furniture stores. I didn't see anything that I liked better than what I already have. I tried to look at light fixtures, but none of the stores had much on display. While there at the mall, I went through the Gourmet Market at Paragon. It is such a wonderful place--much nicer than Central Market or Whole Foods. There are so many delicacies of all kinds to see and buy.

For the past 40 years or so it has been traditional for universities to have a multicultural course which is required of all students. The courses usually have a poor reputation. Students tend to select an ethnic group and do research and a class presentation. In some areas, too much emphasis is put on the subcultural group that is predominant in that area in an apparent attempt to try to force understanding of their suffering through the years at the hands of the majority. I've always felt that a better way to organize a multicultural course would be around selected scenes from films representing events in various cultures--births, cooking and consuming food, coming-of-age ceremonies, school activities, weddings, funerals, etc. Using selections from various films for each category, students could watch the films, discuss what they observed as differences and similaries between cultures, and then discuss how such things in their lives would be similar or different. To me, it seems a much better way to learn about cultural differences, to learn tolerance for others, to grow in understanding. That's one of the reasons I have always enjoyed seeing foreign films. The right film can take a person into the culture of the society where it was made, teach about that society, cause reflection on likes and differences between that society and our own, etc.

Today, I made such a vicarious journey into a culture I did not know--the procedures involving the treatment of the body after death in Japan--by seeing the Japanese film Departures which won the Academy Award as the best foreign language film last year. It was fascinating. And it is one of the best films I have seen in a year or so. It's guaranteed to be a tear-jerker, too. But the film is much more than just the treatment of the dead. It also has scenes in a traditional Japanese bath house, deals with the topic of absent parents, shows traditional ways of living in Japan, deals with the stigma attached to certain occupations, etc. I highly recommend the film to anyone. And if it is too late to see it in the cinema where you live, you can go to Netflix and SAVE it so that it will go into your queue when it is released on DVD.

I will depart for Cambodia tomorrow. It is the just about the only country in Southeast Asia that I have not yet visited. (The only other one I can recall now is Papua New Guinea which is very difficult to visit due to the fact that few airlines go there.) I will be there until a week from Monday when I will return to Bangkok.