SEP 2022

Letter fromthe Editor
Dear Reader,
How have you been?
Your Answer:
It has always been hard to answer such a simple question sincerely, but it seems to be so much
more difficult to answer in these precarious times.
We could deceive ourselves by how we have learned
to live with the upheavals of the pandemic, or climate change, or political affairs over the past two
years, but the latest news would still throw us off
guard. Maybe one of the only constants these daysis polyphony, originally defined as a type of musicalcomposition with multiple voices or lines of music
playing at the same time. Polyphony is an apt word
to get us to think of how to navigate our times, andthis third issue of the Polyphony Student Journal confronts this challenge of making sense of both others’ voices and our own.
Our student-run literary journal was named
Polyphony to reflect the diversity in perspectives
and backgrounds of the students who make up
Okayama University’s Discovery Program for

ISSUE 3Global Learners. Each year, this name is more ofa challenge to the journal’s editorial team than asimple title. With the great talents and efforts ofour editors, writers, designers, and contributors,
we have tried to listen in a little more for this issue. We have features that celebrate the program’s
diversity beyond our usual cultural commentaries, alongside intriguing academic papers that dig
deeper into issues of poverty, immigration, andself. Personal essays and creative contributions,especially those by our “trapped students”1, speak
to the struggle of being amidst multiple voices, places… everythings.
The highlights of this issue are the conversations that invite you in. In an amazing first for bothof our publications, the editorial teams of Polyphony and The Komaba Times—the University of Tokyo’s
English-language student publication—collaborated on a joint article based on our roundtable discussion earlier this year. We talked about our work
as English-language publications in Japanese universities, in which we amusingly touched on ourdouble role as international-student-PR. Anotherconversation covers the self as it interacts with illness, and one other explores its entanglement in
the realities of social science research.
This print issue would not have come together
without the collective brains and sanities of a special team: Genki Hase, our ever-reliable assistant
editor-in-chief; Kayla Guevara, our layout editor;
Alyana Reina Q. Morales, Jia Xuan Chok, and Junayeed Matin, our editors-writers-managers-andmore in between; and the rest of the editorial team
who have worked on articles or the blog. Thank you
for bringing the Polyphony to life!
In reading the pieces within this issue, I hope
you can take some time to reflect on the Polyphonyof our Times (as the collaboration article is aptly titled). Maybe you can find your voice in how it resounds with, or rebounds off others. Maybe you’llhear your own answer as to how you’ve been.
Mattie Balagat
Polyphony Editor-in-Chief

1 A common label for the group of international students
who could not enter Japan on time because of COVID-19
visa and border restrictions.

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ISSUE 3

Table of Contents

04 A Polyphony of Our Times

26 テセウス / Theseus

09 Walking from Keage Incline
to Kyoto City Zoo

27 "________"

11

28 Suzu, Her 'Self', and Her
Illness

The Komaba Times & Polyphony

Genki Hase & Liu Qian

Visuals and Society: The
mind thinks what the eyessee
Le Ngan Ha Dieu

13

Fermented Cultural
Anthropology
Ayari Tanimoto

Kayla Guevara

Genki Hase

32 Struggling Along in Seattle[Part 1]
Forrest Maynock

35 A Recovering Perfectionist
Jia Xuan Chok

16 Life as Science Matching
Track Students

37 7 Days of Hanami

18 The Social Wasteland:
America’s Trailer Parks

38 Cheers to Our Graduates

21 Unbecoming

40 The Fight Surrounding
Immigration Policies at
Home

Alyana Reina Q. Morales & Jia Xuan Chok

Forrest Maynock

Chigaemezu Ibegwam

Mattie Balagat

Mattie Balagat & Alyana Reina Q. Morales

Jnifar Gillur Yumi

22 The Remains of the Day:
When A Person Strived To
Find His Own Past

44 Putting Yourself Out There[Part 1]24 At Akasaka-Mitsuke

48 Humans of GDP

Trung Nguyen
Yushi Song

2Taichi Inoue

Mattie Balagat & Haruna Miyagawa
Alyana Reina Q. Morales

SEP 2022

ISSUE 3The Staff
Editor-in-Chief: Mattie Balagat
Assistant Editor-in-Chief: Genki Hase
Layout Editor: Kayla Guevara
General Editors for the Issue:
Jia Xuan Chok
Olaedo Ibegwam Chigaemezu
Alyana Reina Q. Morales
Junayeed Matin
Polyphony Writers:
Forrest MaynockMạnh Quốc Trung
Yushi Song
Yuna Maejima
Kei Fukushima
Instagram Managers and Artists:
Kayla Guevara
Alyana Reina Q. Morales
Photos on the cover by Mattie Balagat, Alyana Morales,
Jia Xuan Chok, and Sonava Tadao
Doodle illustrations by Kayla GuevaraSpecial thanks to this issue’s contributors:
Articles:Le Ngan Ha Dieu
Liu Qian
Ayari Tanimoto
Li Chuang, Minkyung Jeong, Jeffrey Nguyen &Sukma Nuraga
Taichi Inoue
Jnifar Gillur Yumi
Haruna Miyagawa
Yuki Genko, Rosina Mothapo, & Hiina Shiota
Photos:Sonava Tadao
Susan LiArt:
Eirin Kiyota
Special thanks as well to our collaborators, theteam of The Komaba Times, especially editor-inchief Charisia Ong.

The Polyphony Student Journal is the first student-run literary platform
at Okayama University’s liberal arts program, the Discovery Program for
Global Learners (GDP).

Blog

Check out more content from us on our blog and Instagram account:discoverypolyphony.com

Instagram@polyphony_gdp
If you are a student of GDP or Okayama University, feel free to submit yourwork to be considered for publication at polyphonygdp@gmail.com.
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ISSUE 3

A Polyphony of
Our Times

Words by The Komaba Times & Polyphony
Illustrations by Yasha Lai & Kayla Guevara

The Polyphony and The Komaba Times get together to talk about
their work at their English-language Japanese university
publications, and their relationships with writing.
The Komaba Times is an English-language magazine at
the University of Tokyo, which aims to give students aspace to freely express their voices, opinions and experiences. The Komaba Times' editorial team comprises of thefollowing members:
Charisia Ong | General Editor
Vedant Agrawal | General Editor & Social Media Manager
Yasha Lai | Design Editor (Graphics)
Zefan Sramek | Design Editor (Layout)

4

The following Polyphony editorial staff members joined
the roundtable conversation:
Mattie Balagat | Editor-in-Chief
Genki Hase | Assistant Editor-in-Chief
Kayla Guevara | Layout Editor & Instagram Manager
Nguyen Manh Quoc Trung (Trung) | General Editor
Olaedo Ibegwam Chigaemezu (Chige) | General Editor

SEP 2022

ISSUE 3What is it like working for an English-language publication
in a Japanese university during the pandemic?
Genki: It’s difficult to reach out to potential readers. Before, for Polyphony, we placed the issue in a placecalled “D Lounge”, where students gather, talk, do their assignments and eat lunch together. We placed theissue in there so we can see people picking up the issues, which made it easy to imagine who the potential
readers are and what they are thinking; it got me motivated. It also allowed us to reach out to more potential
readers, unlike now.
Zefan: I guess it’s interesting to think about how some of these programmes like the Discovery Program, or like the PEAK Program at Todai – on the one hand, they’re trying to internationalise the university,
but on the other hand, you create this enclave within the university community that ends up being totally
separate. But I don’t know how you can navigate that, because the language issue itself is already a big question. Since you can’t expect people from all over the world to necessarily already know how to speak Japanese, I suppose.
Charisia: Yet, I feel like there is an unsaid expectation that people who choose to come to Japanese
universities are somehow interested in Japanese culture and therefore learning the Japanese language. So
there’s this expectation that you will just assimilate and make whatever efforts necessary to assimilate. And
that is something that you come to feel; no one really tells you but you realise that there is the weight of thisexpectation placed on you without even being told.
Mattie: I think I can relate to the expectation of assimilation – on one hand, we’re here, I don’t know, tobe the diversity token, but then you don’t know if they want your unique identity or want you to assimilate
more. I guess we’re caught in this liminality, to use that term.

What role do you see yourself playing in your publication?
What is the role of the publication?
Yasha: In thinking about the role of an English language publication... I guess the very cynical answer
is that it’s for the university’s PR, to show that, hey, there are international students that can speak English.
I know one of the ways The Komaba Times is distributed is because Todai brings them overseas, but I guess theissue is that it’s not fully representative of the student body, right? Because I think ultimately the people who
create these... As an editorial team, we are quite small. But in a less cynical way, I guess for students, it’s forthem to also know that there’s an international student community, and to know what people are thinking
about and what it’s like to be a student at Todai. And just to know that there are people out there who are also
sharing the international experience.
Zefan: Yeah, that’s true. I think, if nothing else, it sort of serves as a record of our existence, so to speak.
Mattie: I think Polyphony is also distributed in the same way when there are fairs abroad. I remember
our advisor reserving copies for that purpose? On the role of our publication, I also had this idea coming into
the team, similar to the idea of a record of our existence, to give students a platform for their voices or opinions to be heard and ensure that each issue is representative of the student body. But I think my challengewith that is... I wonder if it’s actually needed or if it is, is it the culture to actually have that kind of student
representation? So it feels like it’s breaking into new ground sometimes.
Yasha: Yeah, I guess there are other channels right for student voices, but maybe what makes our publications more interesting is the kind of work that goes into it, like the creative work. I was looking at yourlast issue and I really like the poems and insights. So I found that very interesting. Not just students voicing
their opinions, but doing it in different, creative ways like art pieces, photographs, or poems and prose too.

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ISSUE 3

Charisia: On this point... It is a bit sad that our legitimacy is based on the work of a few. I mean, thelegitimacy of international students and our existence and the way we are viewed hinges upon just 40 pagesof text or drawings or photographs or graphics...
Mattie: Suddenly, it feels like a really big responsibility. Although it really is, I think it’s our responsibility as a publication to recognise that we’re a student publication of our universities and programmes.

What drives or inspires our work and our creativity?
Mattie: Personal ego. Because I like to say I’m a writer, so I have to write.
Chige: I think for me, it’s basically to keep in touch with the creative side of myself. I used to write somuch when I was in high school and junior high. So I see Polyphony as a channel to keep up with my creativeside. I really don’t want to lose touch with my creative side, as it’s one of the things that make me who I am.
Zefan: Well, for me, I guess there’s a lot of personal reasons, like having something to express that’s
hard to express in other ways. I think one of the motivations for me working on a project like this is also
being able to connect with other people; when you’re collaborating, you’re always going to end up coming up
with ideas that you never would have thought about on your own. I think that’s always a really interesting
way to grow as an individual.
Trung: My reason to write is quite simple. I just want to share my thoughts with the world. I think a lot
and sometimes to make sense of my thinking, I just write them down into paragraphs, or passages. On the
Polyphony website, many of my posts are movie reviews, because when I watch a movie and have a lot to think
about, I don’t know what to do with my thoughts so I just write them down and store them away somewhere.
So in a way, Polyphony kind of fulfills this purpose for me – to serve as a platform for expressing myself in a
way that I know there will be readers and people who are interested.
Genki: I think, for me, there are two things that drive my motivation. One is the reason I’m now interested in cultural anthropology – I read one article in a book, and then I entirely changed my interest fromcomputer science to this field. So that small piece of work, well, not small for me, changed my entire life andworldview. I don’t think I’m confident enough to say that I can change people’s worldviews, but perhaps I
can first bring some small shocks to people, to let them realise that this exists and that people who think inthis way exist. So I want to create this “shock” that I experienced, for others. My second motivation is, thethoughts and opinions I have now are only of the contemporary Me, so I think it’s important to keep a recordof my thoughts as a publication.
Kayla: I create to keep myself sane, and also to challenge myself, and these kind of go against each other. But I really want to also keep in touch with my creative side, because if I focus too much on academics, I
tend to get really stressed. So the reason why I create is also to have that avenue to exercise my right brain,just to make sure that there’s something else other than school that I can do. And another thing is to challenge myself because I only got into this kind of design and creating visual stuff this year. I really enjoy it so
I want to push myself a little further to see what other fields I can go into and what other skills or talents I
can utilise as I grow older.

If you had 48 hours in a day only you what, what else would you create?
What else would you write about?
Charisia: Ever since my daughter was born, I’ve been keeping a daily kind of record of her growth,
what she does, the new things that she learns and the developments that she makes every day. But sometimes, I mean, I just tell myself that even if I write one sentence, it’s better than writing nothing. But if I had
48 hours a day, I’d want to write her a letter every day of her life, because I think that when she grows up and
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ISSUE 3

she’s able to read all of this, I hope that it will have a profound impact on her. I’m not doing it because I don’t
have the time. But it’s something that I would like to do because I think that when people especially close
to us write to us and create works for us, those are the things that make the most impact on us. Sometimes
you’re just so tired of writing that even one sentence seems so difficult. And I guess the days will just pass – Imean, for me, it’s like, okay, today, I’m going to skip my one sentence and another day comes and again, I skip
my one sentence. And before I know it, it’s been a year, and then two years and then five.
Mattie: Have you guys heard of the commonplace notebook? I think I read an article about it, whereartists and writers have this little book which they just carry with them everyday and everywhere. And ifthey have sudden ideas or things they want to record, they just write it down in this one notebook. I’ve hadsomething like that for like, more than two years now. And it’s actually a really good practice to have as acreative. Because, for example, when I finally get down and say, okay, I can actually write for myself now, I
can just go back to my notebook. And then pick up the pieces of the random ideas and fragments of writingthat I have, and then piece them together. For someone who forgets a lot of things, this is really helpful. I also
put stamps and stuff like that; stickers also, things I just doodle... It’s something I recommend.
Charisia: Actually Zefan, I have a question for you about music making... For musicians, when somemotif comes to their head, do they kind of just write it down, because it seems you might just forget if you let
it go? So how do you, I don’t know, keep a record of the inspiration that you get?
Zefan: It’s more like... feelings or images, or like, places or words. So I also have a notebook where I’ll
just jot random stuff like that down, if it gives me some sort of feeling. My music-making process itself isvery improvisational. Maybe then, those feelings or thoughts or whatever, can just sort of serve as a backdrop to that process, when it comes down to actually making music. But I guess, to tie that in with what we’rediscussing about time or doing things regularly, I do find that it’s important to actually put in the effort todo something. Because this process is less recordable. I can’t necessarily exactly write down the feeling that
I have at the time in a musical way; if I don’t actually make any music; there’s no record of those feelings
necessarily.

What are your hopes and aspirations for the upcoming publication?
Zefan: One thing I want to be able to do is create a very cohesive design language for the publicationthat is both interesting but also readable, since this will be the first time I’d be doing something that’s notjust a personal project where I can do absolutely anything I want.
Yasha: I guess it’s similar for me. For the design, I really want it to be something that I like and something that I would pick up from a shelf and buy, and not a random magazine that you get for free and you
throw away after a while. I hope it’s something people might want to keep, and even use for reference for inspiration. I also want to push myself with regards to experimenting with different styles, like layouts, which
isn’t something that I’ve done a lot. And also illustrating in different styles and thinking about other people’s
pieces and what kind of drawings or illustrations fit them.
Mattie: Kayla and I had the same idea, like, how can we make this into something people want to get
and keep?
Genki: Many of the articles in the current issue or the previous issue have been written by membersof the editorial team. So I want to try to publish someone who is yet to be a part of this; someone who hasn’t
presented their opinion. There are so many people with interesting opinions, but they’re not expressing it
because of the many hurdles they might face. So I want to break that hurdle.
Mattie: I want to allow students, whether in the GDP or not, to own Polyphony. And when I say “ownPolyphony”, it means thinking about it as a space where people can express themselves or relate to the things
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ISSUE 3that are published on this platform, or share it, or be part of it. One thing we tried to do was to have a creative
writing workshop. Personally, it’s something I really want to do, not just to write, but to encourage people
to use writing as a medium of expression. But I feel like it was too advanced. There’s still a lot of steps to betaken before a creative writing workshop is successful and we’ll try again in another format.
Chige: Aside from wanting them to take ownership of Polyphony as a platform, it’s also our responsibility to establish Polyphony as something that will have longevity. I feel like it’s our responsibility to market
it or establish it as something that we hope to continue in the future, and make it so that people will take usseriously.
Charisia: I would like to create a Komaba Times that serves as a natural form of recruitment for the next
editorial team – when they read it, they want to be part of it. I guess it’s related to the ownership point that
Mattie made as well. But yeah, I hope that reading our version of The Komaba Times will inspire others to wantto take that baton and run with it for the next year.
Vedant: One way to do that is also making people see themselves in the issue. Once you can resonate
with it, or really feel yourself there, you’re going to be motivated to take over for the next term. And I think
one more important thing in this is learning on the go. At least for me, personally, it’s a very different projectfrom what I’m generally involved in. So I think it’s about experiencing something new.
Kayla: Mattie and I talked about how it’s kind of difficult to get creative pieces, art works and visual elements. And I want to help make Polyphony a space where that’s very much welcome. I think that sometimes
people are just shy to put out their work because their work has a lot of emotion in it. I want to help make akind of space where expressing emotion and being vulnerable through art is fine.
Trung: For me, I guess, I want Polyphony to be a bridge between culture and students, especially theJapanese students and international students. Right now, we have predominantly international students,
but I have some Japanese friends in the GDP – I remember especially, some said that although they are
more interested in Japanese content, they are more motivated to read English content if it’s written byinternational students in the GDP. So, in a way there is a gap between April-entry and October-entry students; they don’t really interact with each other that much so I hope that Polyphony can be a space for themto interact, read each other’s work, and bridge the gap between the English-speaking and Japanese-speaking cultures.

This article was also published in The Komaba Times Issue 11 (April '22).
Check out The Komaba Times’ blog at https://www.komabatimes.com/

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SEP 2022

Walkingfrom Keage
Incline to
Kyoto City
Zoo

M

Words and Visuals by
Genki Hase & Liu Qianarch 30th was a perfect day to walk out
and see the beautifully bloomed sakura.
The weather was nice and the temperature spoke of the arrival of spring. This travelogue
describes our one day experience in Kyoto when we
randomly walked around—sometimes even deciding which path to go by flipping a coin—to see thesakura. What we got by sacrificing our feet was acolorful and fulfilling life experience.
1. Keage Incline (蹴上インクライン)
Keage Incline is famous for its sakura-namiki(cherry-tree-lined path). Many people visit here to
see the numerous sakura that paint the world pink.
This incline was built in 1891 as a transportationroute that connects Biwako Lake and Yodogawa
River, aiming to recover Kyoto’s declining economy. Although Keage Incline played a huge role inreconstructing Kyoto, it stopped its operation in1951 due to the emergence of alternative transportation routes. Now this location is registered as anindustrial heritage site.
The day before we came here, we visited the
Kyoto Municipal Museum of School History. The
thing we found in common is that the city of Kyoto
we are seeing right now—at least the tourist sites
we have visited—is the product of social/cultural
reconstruction that occurred during the Meiji era
when Edo changed its name to Tokyo. Industrial
heritage sites not only witness the past but also
shape the image of lives in the past, at the present.

ISSUE 3

2. Ikkyu-tei (一休亭)
When it comes to Kyoto, what food comes toyour mind? This city with its rich tradition may
suggest traditional Japanese cuisines such as soba,
sushi, and tofu cuisine, or you may think of snacks
like yatsuhashi and warabimochi. Compared to ourfirst trip to Kyoto, we chose to slow down and enjoy
the scenery. So this time, we were not obligated tostick with the schedule. Instead of choosing a place
to go, we let the city take us somewhere. On such awarm day in March, we walked to Nanzenji Temple
with empty stomachs, expecting to eat something
special. The long road in front of Nanzenji Temple
was full of restaurants. Since we already had thebest tofu cuisine the day before, we set out to look
for a different option, and this led us to Ikkyu-tei.
Even though the location of this restaurant
is not easy to find from the main road, Ikkyu-tei
was still very busy and there were many people

For more details, visit:https://biwakososui.city.kyoto.lg.jp/place/detail/23
http://kyo-gakurehaku.jp/9lining up. The interior of this small restaurant istraditionally decorated, as the seating is configured with the traditional tatami-style flooring.
We chose to sit at the counter which was close to
the entrance where we could see the ojiisan andobasan preparing the chopsticks and food. We ordered Yamakake soba and Niku udon. Qian is nota big fan of noodles, but she was deeply impressedby the Niku udon. Both the noodles and soup wereboth tasty and not greasy. Until now, we can still
remember the taste and the Kyoto dialect “おおきに” they spoke when saying farewell to customers.
We are waiting to hear it again one day.
http://kyo19.com/

3. Nanzenji Temple & Aqueduct
What makes the Nanzenji Temple stand out
is the Nanzenji Aqueduct constructed during the
Meiji Period. This Western-style architecture ofmasonry transporting water from Lake Biwa Canal for multiple purposes such as drinking, irrigation, and hydroelectric power generation playeda significant role in the prosperity of Kyoto City.
As we walked along the Aqueduct, the wind blew
on our faces and we were surrounded by trees onboth sides―natural scenery blurred the image ofthis architecture with modernity. At this moment,
this century-old architecture evoked nostalgia andpulled us to the past. Time passes slowly here, andwe were able to snatch a little leisure from our busy
life.
4. Kyoto City Zoo (京都市立動物園)
Initially, we were planning to walk throughTetsugaku no michi (哲学の道), but because wewere flipping coins to decide which direction to go,
we ended up strolling along a narrow street thatcarried us to Kyoto City Zoo.
Kyoto City Zoo is a progressive zoo that actively practices and promotes animal welfare. Instead of using the species name, this zoo uses the
personalized name of the animal (e.g. Momotaro) for the caption board and provides a brief description of the animal's life story. Visiting Kyoto
10

City Zoo was thought provoking as it allowed us
to think of the zoo animals' living environment,
human-nature relationships, and the existence ofthe zoo. If you are interested in animal welfare andmuseum studies, this place is a must-see.

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ISSUE 3Visuals and Society:

The mind thinks what the eyes see
Words by Le Ngan Ha Dieu
Photo by Genki HaseL

ong gone are the days when pictures weretaken with the purpose of being hung on
one’s wall for personal viewing, and occasional appreciation from guests/visitors. The ever-evolving boom of commercial businesses has
put in place numerous platforms where pictures
can be exhibited. Newspapers, as one of the first tofeature photographs, have also seen a rise in visual aid used in the process of marketing and advertising; such purposes have only strengthened theimportance of photographs in growing businesses,
resulting in more demand for visual-based publicity. Such publicity, from the early era of television and newspaper domination to the explosion ofsocial media, has had fundamental effects on theminds of mankind in terms of social consciousness
and emotions resulting from the mass socialization of pictures.
Picture publicity, as Berger illustrated,
played a big part in how consciousness of social
situations is internalized, at least in the Western
society. To Berger, publicity in Western countries
symbolized “The Free World” (Berger, 2008, p.131),
where businesses are free to produce and trade,customers are free to choose and buy, and the best
way to liquidize such processes is through pictures.
The flow of businesses is then a flood of pictures,of products and services; the more customers see,the more they are influenced by an image of anew, more modern self whom they imagine to beowning such products. Such imagination grows
continuously among the sea of publicity because
customers are well aware of their freedom ofpurchase. In this sense, publicity gives people thetaste of reality, where it is a free market, hence
should also be beneficial for anyone participatingin that market. Pictures not only speak for the
products, but also for the state of the present; themore they cover and the more people they exhibit
themselves to, the stronger this sense of freedom

is promoted, which is exactly what people want tobelieve about society.
Berger also pointed out another effect of publicity, which is envy. Relating to how publicity
makes people imagine the self that owns the advertised products, Berger argued that “Publicity
is always about the future buyer. It offers him an
image of himself made glamorous by the product or opportunity it is trying to sell. The image
then makes him envious of himself as he mightbe” (Berger, 2008, p.131). What is this envy that iscreated by the flood of publicity? When customers imagine themselves owning the products, they
envy their imagined selves because they knowhow products add to their social status, which thendrives them to the purchase. The envy for oneself
then becomes the need to be the envied/the envy
of others. If you are envied, you are standing on
higher grounds than those who envy you, and “youare observed with interest” (p.133). The desire to beenvied makes people dissatisfied with their present selves and yearn for the products that would
presumably fulfill such satisfaction. Hence, “thepublicity image steals her love of herself as she is,and offers it back to her for the price of the product”(p.134). However, such envy does not manifest itself
within publicity of the late 20th century. Envy now
manifests in the virtual world of publicity, where
millions of pictures are circulating/circulated onsocial media, advertising not only products but
also people’s lives. Instagram is an example of suchmedia. It is essentially a platform where pictures
come first, texts come later; more and more people
are publicizing their lives on this platform, making
them objects of envy. People are granted the freedom to “follow” anyone on Instagram, choosing
how many and what kind of pictures they want tosee on their timeline. This freedom comes with thepossibility that people are more envious towards
the “glamor” they see from those they follow. A
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study in 2015 by Katerina Lup et al. suggested that“at higher levels of strangers followed, greater Instagram use was associated with greater depressive
symptoms through social comparison as a mediator” (pp. 250-251). Similar to how customers envy
the image of themselves owning products of publicity, Instagram users envy the imagined versionof themselves that might lead the publicized livesof whom they see on the site. This envy is the “social comparison” that Lup et al. mentioned, whereusers constantly compare themselves to others dueto the excessive amounts of pictures being posted
every minute. The effect of such envy now elevatesto “depressive symptoms”, where people are nolonger satisfied with their lives and are surrounded by insecurity created by such online publicity. Now, the publicity still steals people’s love forthemselves, and possibly their lives, and offers itback in the price of psychological disdain that they
have to bear onto themselves. From my personal
experience of social media publicity, such mental
effects are affirmative. However, pictures cannot
always show every detail of whatever is publicized.
Sometimes, there are things that are not clearlyshown. For example, no one would have known my
own life problems from seeing my colorful traveling pictures. This notion means that publicity now
is sometimes only what we aspire/dream of, notentirely representing our reality.

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ISSUE 3

References
Berger, J. (2008). Chapter 7. In Ways of seeing, pp. 129-154.
Penguin UK.
Lup, K., Trub, L., & Rosenthal, L. (2015). "Instagram#instasad?: exploring associations among instagram use,
depressive symptoms, negative social comparison, andstrangers followed." Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social
Networking, 18(5), 247-252.
Essay for Visual Sociology (2021).

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ISSUE 3

Fermented Cultural
Anthropology

N

Words by Ayari Tanimoto

atto is one notable food within Japanesecuisine. The characteristics of natto are
its “rotten” smell and its stickiness; somepeople dislike Natto because of these characteristics, and my father is not an exception. Personally, I love Natto, and I eat at least one package everyday. Moreover, my “Japaneseness” feels stimulated when I eat it. Here, I would like to investigate
how Natto and the Japanese identity are related toeach other by using the knowledge I accumulated
through the course Anthropology of Food. I will startby reviewing the history and recipe of Natto andwill connect it to my findings. As for the definitionof “Japanese,” it will be a complex and lengthy discussion if I go through it seriously, so here I will define it as “those who regard themselves as Japaneseor have a Japanese passport.”
It is believed that the first Natto was produced
during the mid-Muromachi period (1335-1573), although there are still some arguments. In the present day, annual production is approximately 0.23
million tons (Koizumi, 2012). Natto has various
types of styles and flavors, and the “regular” ones
we see at the supermarkets are called Itohiki-Natto (糸引き納豆). Itohiki-Natto first clearly appearedin the story of “Shoujingyorui-monogatari (精進魚類物語)” (1470). In the Edo period, Natto wascalled “Edo-Natto,” or “Wara-Natto,” and people
enjoyed eating them. At that period, there werenumerous articles mentioning the Natto, such as a
cooking book “Okusake-ryorisho (大草家料理書)”(approximately 1600), a joke book “Seisuishou (醒睡笑)” (1623), and an encyclopedia compiled in Edo
period “Wakan-sansai-zue (和漢三才図絵)” (1722)(Umeda, 1954). Behind the rise of Natto, there is a
deep connection with Buddhism (Yokoyama, 2014).
Buddhists dislike killing animals—Sashou (殺傷),or “killing”—so the Japanese cuisine gradually
avoided using meat and replaced it with soybeans
and other proteins. To maintain the consumptionof such proteins during winter, people developed

fermentation and created not only Natto but also
Miso, soy sauce, and Tofu. To make Wara-Natto, people needed “tacit knowledge” ( Kan 勘, “intuition”) to get “synesthetic reason” ( Kotsu こつ,“tips”), fruitful experience, and practice (Umeda,
1954). After the 1920s, thanks to biological research, Jun Hanzawa succeeded in cultivating the
Bacillus Natto, allowing the mass production of
Natto (Yokoyama, 2014).
Natto is categorized into: straw-packaged(Wara-Natto) and plastic-packaged (Pura-Natto).
I have never eaten Wara-Natto, but according to
the internet, Wara-Natto is stickier but less pungent than Pura-Natto. To see the reason behindthese differences, I will briefly explain the recipe
for making Wara-Natto and Pura-Natto. The firststep is to select the soybeans - good soybeans canmake fabulous Natto, so selecting the soybeans isessential. There are three criterias for checking thequality of the beans. One of them is that the beans
are delicious even after steaming; Natto made fromthis kind of beans is better. Another one is the skinof the beans: soybeans with thin skins are considered better. Finally when it comes to the size,beans around the medium size are ideal. After selecting the soybeans, the next step is to wash andsoak them in water. By soaking, the tissue in thesoybeans gets softened, making steaming easy andmore stable. This step is influenced by the temperature, time, water temperature, hardness of the water, and the size of the soybeans, so producers haveto consider those elements when they soak them.
The washed beans are then ready to be steamed.
After steaming, it is time to attach the Bacillus
Natto to the soybeans. These processes above aredone in making both Pura-Natto and Wara-Natto.
Afterwards, in the case of Wara-Natto, clean up thestraw first and wrap the soybeans. The theory is touse more straws and fewer soybeans. After that, put
the Natto in a wooden box for warmth and fermentation. Surprisingly, you can use Kotatsu for this13

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ISSUE 3

Photo from Pexels

process. After 20 hours, the fermentation is completed. When the fermentation happens, the ideal
temperature is 43 degrees Celsius and the wooden
boxes can maintain the best humidity and ventilation. Finally, the Natto is left to cool down, after
which it can be eaten. When it comes to Pura-Natto, instead of straws, a culture solution of Bacillus
Natto is used. The culture solution is watered down
and is injected into the soybeans. In comparison
to Wara-Natto, the injected Bacillus Natto has lessrisk of ruining the natto. Apart from the “package”
in which they warm the beans up, the differencesin processes make the natto’s taste and smell different despite their similarity.
As we see, Pura-Natto is the result of industrialization. I will first examine the dimensions of theunfinished commodity and finished commodity toinvestigate industrialization. As I said, Wara-Natto relies on the Bacillus Natto attached to the straw
to ferment. So, the result of fermentation depends
on how this Bacillus Natto works. Furthermore, italso depends on how much straw is used, as theprocess before wrapping affects its taste and smell.
Indeed, people will make decisions and prepare forthe fermentation, impacting the results. However,the natural elements of the Bacillus Natto makethe soybeans Wara-Natto. Hence, this Wara-Nattolacks consistency and is unpredictable and unique.
Paxson (2013) said that “The unfinished characterof artisanal cheese as a commodity calls attention
to the instability, and hence open promise, of its
heterogeneous forms of value” (p.13). On the other hand, Pura-Natto is always under control in its
quality. The process before wrapping is the same as
Wara-Natto, but the trigger of fermentation is quite
different. Wara-Natto uses Bacillus Natto within14

the straw; however, for the Pura-Natto, Bacillus
Natto is added by human hand or by machines anddoes not use the natural Bacillus for fermentation.
Hence, Pura-Natto (like the name “plastic natto”
suggests) is a finished commodity compared toWara-Natto.
Wara-Natto is mostly preferred by non-Nattolovers since it doesn’t have a strong smell. However, the scent of Pura-Natto is fascinating for enthusiastic Natto lovers, including me. In other words,
the pungent smell of Pura-Natto makes it more
“Natto-ish.” Through this theory, I believe thatthe industrialized Pura-Natto has different values
from Wara-Natto. A friend of mine told me that“the scent of Natto reminds me of Japan. I know it isstinky for some people, but for me, this is certainly
one scent that defines my homeland.”Counihan (2013) succeeds in investigating therelationship between this person and the society
by conducting interviews on their food-centeredlife histories, so I want to use this method to understand the connection between my friend andNatto regarding her homeland. This friend had
spent 15 years outside of Japan. Her parents areboth Japanese, and her mother tried to make Japanese cuisine by using unfamiliar ingredients andexpensive Japanese seasonings and foods. Interestingly, this friend had a bad image of Japanesecuisine at first because Western thinking influenced her: Japanese cuisine eats raw fish while
many Western cultures don’t. For her, eating raw
fish used to be unbelievable, and this suspicion wasconnected to the awful image of Japanese cuisine.
Regarding Natto, she had few opportunities to try
them during her 15 years abroad because Natto was
expensive, and she could not enjoy the taste andSEP 2022

smell of it at the time. She temporarily returned toJapan when she was in Year 10 and spent one anda half years with her whole family at her grandmother’s house in Tokyo, Japan. Her mother loves
Natto, so she experienced eating Natto as a daily
meal. Her first encounter with Natto was when she
was six years old. Her first impression was “ew, thisis stinky and sticky!” or in Japanese 「ナニコレ、くっさ！ねばねば！」. So, her first impression of it was
terrible, but her encounter in Tokyo was different.
She looked back:I realized that I ate the part of Natto without thesauce; I technically ate only the beans. I don’t
think I tasted anything but the odor and slimy
texture. So, my first impression of Natto was anightmare. However, the experience of Natto in
Tokyo was quite different. I ate Hikiwari-Natto(chopped-natto). I found it fun to mix everything
together, and I didn't have to chew that much, so
it was not that bad. Then, I gradually overcame
eating Natto! Now I like it!

She got used to eating Natto, as she gained experience eating Natto in Tokyo. She used to have aweak relationship with Japanese culture because
she spent her childhood outside Japan. Now that
she has a relatively strong relationship, she said:“Natto, the so-called ‘disgusting, smelly food ofJapan. is now something I can eat. So, I feel like I
belong to this society more, and I have blended and“dyed” well into it. Natto was not the only reason
behind building my identity as a Japanese, but I’msure that being able to enjoy Natto is now a part of
my Japanese identity.”
Natto is a stinky food. I heard that some foreigners gave up eating it because of its strong odor.
Then, why are some people able to eat Natto withpleasure? To answer, Bourdieu (1977) insisted on
the term “habitus.” Lee (2000) introduces Bourdieu’s habitus in her article and says: “Habitus isbest understood as bi-directional, both affectedby external stimuli in the performance of bodily
practice and informing the ideology and social values generating human behavior” (Lee, 2000). Applying “habitus” to my friend’s case, she received
different stimuli from her family’s meal in Japan.
Then, her tongue reacted to these stimuli and gradually accepted Natto in her eating practice. Habitus includes three systems: physical disposition,sociocultural context, and aesthetic disposition. In
other words, the ability to eat, the environmentalpressure from the surroundings, and preferences, respectively. She gained the ability to eat it be-

ISSUE 3

cause her family often served Natto as a meal, andshe did not reject eating it. As you can see, threesystems coherently work well in her case. This accomplishment inside her contributes to creating
her new habitus with Natto. This new appearance
in her taste is the opposite flow of what Lee (2000)
introduced as “dys-appearing tongue.” The term“dys-appearance” is created by Drew Leder (1990)
and “[describes] the body as “being away” from its
ordinary or desired state” (Lee, 2000). My friend’s
case resulted in the opposite direction, as her body
had the taste“be implemented” to its “ordinary” ordesired state as a Japanese.
Natto is a unique smelly food produced in Japan. Some foreigners and even some Japanese still
struggle to eat them. Thanks to industrialization,
Natto (Pura-Natto) is now mass-produced, andpeople can enjoy the food with a more pungent
scent than the artisanal Wara-Natto. I investigated
how this distinctive food affects the identity of Japanese people. According to my friend, her identity,
which developed strongly during her stay in Tokyo, was greatly affected by eating Natto, as it contributed to the confirmation and strengthening ofher attachment to Japan. Her experience in Japan,
including the challenge of eating Natto, caused her
identity to change. As a result, the idiosyncraticnational dish is able to influence a person to attaina local identity. For the next challenge, I would liketo explore the opinions of those who dislike Nattoand find their commonalities and differences withfellow Japanese Natto lovers.
References
Koizumi. T. (2012). Science of Fermented Foods [発酵食品学]. Kodansha [講談社].
Umeda. S. (1954). How to make Natto [納豆のつくりかた].
Fuminsha [富民社].
Yokoyama. S. (2014). The Origin of Natto [納豆の起源].
NHK Books.
Selected Straw Natto Recommendations! Why is it instraw? Is there any difference in taste? [わら納豆のおす
すめを厳選！わらに入っている理由は？味に違いはある？]. (n.d.). https://gourmet-note.jp/posts/12862
Food Journal for Anthropology of Food (2021).

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ISSUE 3

Life as Science
Matching Track
Students

Feature by Alyana Reina Q. Morales &Jia Xuan Chok

Ever wondered what it’s like inthe labs? Let’s hear from somestudents in the Matching Track!

Jeffrey Nguyen
Minkyung Jeong
October 2019, 3rd year, MT - Faculty of Science
This experiment aims to immunostain various hormones using the pituitary gland of rats to deepen
the understanding of immunostaining techniquesand hormone production.

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October 2019, 3rd year, MT - Faculty of Agriculture
If I could describe the Faculty of Agriculture in one
word, that word would be 'satisfying'. Every week,
we conduct field work where we spend many hours
harvesting, planting, and taking care of various
vegetables and fruits all whilst under the hot sun.
It's hard work, it really is, but seeing the fruits ofyour labor (literally) has got to be one of the best
feelings there is. Not to mention sharing the bountiful harvest with friends, classmates, and family
brings me joy. Experiencing what kind of work is
required to produce the vegetables and fruits that
we enjoy everyday makes me appreciate thingseven more.

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ISSUE 3

Li Chuang
October 2018, 4th year, MT - Faculty ofEnvironmental Science
My experience in the Science Cluster was very
challenging and interesting. During my first andsecond year, it was all about learning the background knowledge on the things I was interested in.
However, after my third year, everything changed
because I had to concentrate on my research topic
and experiments in the lab classes. Yet, I thoughttalking to students from other clusters had also
helped me improve my interest in different fields aswell. In my final years of university, it was the time I
had to work harder on my research topic hands-on.
To me, the best part of doing my research is seeing
when my method works out as intended. After all,the GDP Science Cluster may sometimes be boringand difficult, but when you accomplish every class,
you will know it is worth it.

Sukma Nuraga
October 2018, 4th year, MT - Faculty of Agriculture
In my study, I learned about how to use compost effectively: I had to plant this Komatsuna in the green
house, taking care of them everyday by giving water, ant & cat repellent, and finally harvesting. After
1 month growing the plant, I continued doing another laboratory experiment for another 1 month. It
was a tiring and difficult process but I learned a lot
about farming and lab-work.

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SEP 2022

ISSUE 3The Social Wasteland:
America’s Trailer Parks

W

Words by Forrest Maynock

hat does one imagine life in a trailer park is like? Many people likely have an image in theirmind of what life in a trailer park is like based on the type of “trailer park related media” they
consume; if they watch the evening news then all they must imagine is a land of meth users andlabs in a state of constant turmoil, but on the other hand if they watch a show like Trailer Park Boys, a Canadian TV show depicting life in a trailer park, they may imagine a band of likable “white trash” idiots constantly
trying to “make it big,” but failing each time. Trailer parks in America like any other complex community
are filled with characters that encompass a wide variety of roles in the social structure. As Rupert Neatefrom The Guardian points out, the US Census has indicated that “more than 20 million people, or 6% of the
population, live in trailer parks” (Rupert, 2015). This is a significant part of the American population thatare often being stereotyped as either rampant drug users or “dumb white trash.” In this paper I would like toexplore trailer parks in the United States using the lens of community and diversity, and find their space in
the American urban landscape.
So what exactly is a trailer park? Trailer parks are plots of privately owned land that are then allocatedinto much smaller plots that are rented and where affordable mobile homes are then parked. The key factor
is that living in a trailer park is generally inexpensive even for those without stable employment; one of theprevailing stereotypes in the American experience is that trailer parks are the home of the “white trash”
social deviants of society that dwell on the edges (Gary, 2016; Rupert, 2015). As Nina Renata Aaron statesin her article titled Downwardly mobile: how trailer living became an inescapable marker of class, “trailers became
the province of the have-nots, and along the way, the pernicious myth of ‘trailer park trash’ became core
to a set of stereotypes about lower-class white people” (Aaron, 2018). Richard Florida in his book Rise of theCreative Class (2004) indicates that the working class has gone from the most dominant class in American
society to a shrinking class that is being overtaken by the Creative and Services classes (Florida, 2004, p.167);
this shrinking of the working class can be seen in trailer parks. The image of trailer parks has shifted fromone of middle/working class, 1950’s style communities, to economic wastelands filled with unemployed or
low wage workers (Aaron, 2018). In many ways these trailer parks mirror the downward spiral of the innercity neighborhoods; where American ghettos may be heavily affected by “white flight,” American trailer

Photo by Maryna Nikolaieva / Unsplash

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ISSUE 3

Photo by Akos Helgert / Pexels

parks seem to act as the receptacle for America’s poor, (generally) white, service/working class population,
and where ghettos can be affected by the outside forces of gentrification penetrating the community, trailerparks are pushed to the margins to be ignored by all (Gary, 2016).
In popular culture and the eyes of the general public, trailer parks are not very diverse places, and aremostly dominated by white people. This image carries a lot of weight, but depending on the location of thetrailer park, the population may vary from being predominantly white to being heavily mixed racially.
Trailer parks are also diverse in class, though classes mostly seem to be segregated to their own parks (Aaron, 2018; Gary, 2016; Rupert, 2015). Why does this sort of class segregation exist? When viewing the ghettosof large cities we can see cases of gentrification manifesting and creating problems for the poor residents, so
why does this not happen in trailer parks? The short answer is that there are no historical buildings to buy
up, and that trailer parks are usually far removed from the city centre. In her book titled The Cultures of Cities(1995), Sharon Zukin states that “[t]he symbolic economy recycles real estate as it does designer clothes. Visual display matters in American and European cities today, because the identities of places are establishedby sites of delectation” (p. 352). Trailer parks, particularly the poorer ones, are not designed to be visually appealing, and in fact they seem to be designed to be efficient in space allotment (Rupert, 2015), so they lack the“symbolic economy” that Zukin discusses. As for the parks inhabited by the middle class retirees, one canusually find a gate blocking outsiders from entering, and trailer spaces or trailers that are much larger and“cleaner” looking than those in the “poor” parks (Gary, 2016). Instead of “omnivores” or “pioneers” from the
middle class entering existing parks to gentrify (Tissot, 2015, p.1), the middle class trailer park residents have
simply created their own private spaces completely separated from the “others.” In her book Good Neighbors:
Gentrifying Diversity in Boston's South End, Sylvie Tissot addresses this style of “diversity” saying that “[t]he enthusiasm for diversity ultimately translates into a form of power that operates on a particular combinationof inclusion and exclusion” (Tissot, 2015, p.149). Here the diversity is not in the physical location, but insteadin the “imitation” by the middle class of the denizens of non-middle class trailer parks; so trailer parks arevery diverse as a population, but individually are (generally) segregated by class.
Ghettos and trailer parks also share many similarities in terms of community; more specifically there
are two strong connections in terms of social capital and a heavy reliance on government aid (Rupert, 2015).
In her book The Hero's Fight: African Americans in West Baltimore and the Shadow of the State, Patricia Fernández-Kelly addresses how government agencies in the United States infiltrate the daily lives of the poor population, and how that negatively affects those communities (Fernández-Kelly, 2015, p.145). Fernández-Kelly
was specifically speaking of West Baltimore where she conducted her study, in her book, but much of thiscan be applied to trailer parks where many of these same issues apply. Fernández-Kelly goes on to say thatgovernment has,“[B]ecome a key factor eroding the capacity of inner-city residents to mobilize resources and create alternativemeans of subsistence or defense. In tandem with capital retrogression and the workings of predatory drug merchants, state programs for the poor exacerbate social fracture and economic stagnation” (Fernández-Kelly, 2015, p.
145).

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ISSUE 3This is also the case in trailer parks; within trailer parks many residents are put in a position where theycannot afford to live without the aid of government programs such as unemployment, disability, and foodstamps to name a few (Rupert, 2015). Trailer parks also have a similar social capital to that of ghettos; trailerparks, like ghettos, are not viewed by the public as a positive aspect of society, and in turn fail to develop “extensive” social networks (Aaron, 2018). This idea is expanded upon more by Fernández-Kelly who discusses
Mark Granovetter’s idea of strong and weak ties between social actors (Fernández-Kelly, 2015, p.242). In thistheory strong ties are those shared with family or close friends, and weak ties are those of the individual toexternal actors such as a teacher or boss. Fernández-Kelly goes on to say that “[p]oor people tend to have aplurality of strong ties, but they lack weak ties joining them to groups and resources outside their immediate environment” (p.242). Trailer parks on their surface have a very tight knit community with a disdain for“outsiders;” this creates a limited social network that will prioritise the ingroup and create strong ties withinthat community, and on the other end there is a general lack of weak ties to create opportunities.
Trailer parks in America exist on a strange axis. They share many of the same “issues” that inner citycommunities face, but lack the same level of public scrutiny. Movies about inner city violence are very dramatic and serious, movies about trailer parks are either nonexistent or filled with stereotypes and belittlement. Even the academic literature seems dismissive:“Indeed, the urban black poor of today differ both from their counterparts of earlier years and from the white poorin that they are becoming increasingly concentrated in dilapidated territorial enclaves that epitomize acute socialand economic marginalization” (Wacquant and Wilson, p.9).

What are trailer parks but “dilapidated territorial enclaves?” It is almost like trailer parks are phantom
communities in the American landscape; too “stupid” to save, too socially isolated to care about, and something for the middle class “pioneers” to imitate, but not “restore” like they do the ghettos that they gentrify.
As illustrated in the video titled “Portrait of a Family” from The Carlos Watson Show (YouTube channel), this“social exilement” is not lost on the residents of these parks; as John Richmond from the video indicates heand his children are stereotyped because of where they live, so he buys land to escape, but escaping is notalways an option. As is the same for many inner city residents, there is no real option for moving or betterment of life by using conventional means. I don’t know the answer, but as Nolan Gary suggests: “When westop treating low-income communities as objects of scorn, to be subjected to top-down, paternalistic planning, we might find that we have a lot to learn from them” (Gary, 2016).
References
Aaron, N. (2018, March 13). Downwardly mobile: how trailer living became an inescapable marker of class. Timeline. https://timeline.com/history-trailer-part-mobile-home-poverty-74bb8a7c44be
Fernández-Kelly, P. (2015). The Hero's Fight. Princeton University Press.
Gray, Nolan (2016, August 12). Reclaiming "Redneck" Urbanism: What Urban Planners can Learn from Trailer Parks. Strong Towns.
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2016/8/11/reclaiming-redneck-urbanism-what-urban-planners-can-learn-fromtrailer-parks
Lin, J., & Mele, C. (Eds.). (2012). The urban sociology reader. “The Creative Class” from The Rise of the Creative Class and How It’s
Transforming Work, Leisure, Community Life, and Everyday Life (2004) by Richard Florida. Routledge.
Lin, J., & Mele, C. (Eds.). (2012). The urban sociology reader. “Whose Culture? Whose City?” from The Cultures of Cities (1995) by
Sharon Zukin. Routledge.
Rupert, N. (2015, May 3). America's trailer parks: the residents may be poor but the owners are getting rich. The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/may/03/owning-trailer-parks-mobile-home-university-investment
OZY. (2015, May 24). Portrait of a Family: Trailer Park Nation: OZY [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/xHsc_ljtO80
Tissot, S. (2015). Good Neighbors: Gentrifying Diversity in Boston's South End. Verso Books.
Wacquant, L. J., & Wilson, W. J. (1989). The cost of racial and class exclusion in the inner city. The Annals of the American Academyof Political and Social Science, 501(1), 8-25.
Essay for Urban Sociology (2021).

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ISSUE 3

Unbecoming
Words by Chigaemezu Ibegwam
Photos by Sonava Tadao

Breathe in, breathe out
His breath came in short bursts of excitement as
he took huge leaps towards the sled
Spasms of laughter shook his whole bodyHe was up to no good, some mischief that would
probably land him in trouble
Frostbites were nothing then; delight only lasted awhile after all.

His steps faltered and no longer came in leaps
His gait became slower, intentional and not so
carefreeHis back straighter as he ought not to be caught inany mischief
Shaved ice no longer brought excitement
And frostbites had become the enemy; mundaneness would last a while after all.

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SEP 2022

ISSUE 3The Remains of the Day:
When A Person Strived To Find His Own Past
Words by Trung Nguyen
Photo by Simon Godfrey / Unsplash

The Remains of the Day, by British novelist Kazuo
Ishiguro, is a book that has left a lasting impression on me, exactly because most of the
topics written in it are those I am not familiar with.
Indeed, the topic of memory always captured myinterest, but this is the third novel of Kazuo Ishiguro that I have read, and reading his works sometimes feels like watching a film; each event andeach character keeps unfolding and moving one
after another smoothly using only literary words.
Reading Ishiguro’s novels is the same as imagining
a moving picture inside your head, where even themost lifeless and inanimate subjects like a cassettetape or the countryside scenery have their own
unique characters and roles in the story, becoming“individuals” that can make the readers think noless than flesh-and-blood characters.
The Remains of the Day tells the story of Stevens,an aging butler, and his journey through the English countryside to visit an old work colleague, thewhole trip being a backdrop for his reminiscenceof events that happened in Darlington Hall, where
he had worked as head butler for the past thirty
years. Each sentence in the novel is written in avoice filled with politeness and courtesy, revealinga gentlemanly essence that can only be possessedby a butler who is trained in a manner of utmost
nobility, and who has become a truly dignified individual. At the same time, however, Stevens' manner of storytelling also lingers on a very personalsense of humor, with smart and occasionally witty
little jokes that, when uttered, can make the opposite person smile while still upholding the respectful and courteous demeanor of a loyal servant.
Truly so, in the novel there is a whole chapter discussing Steven’ own opinions about what itmeans to be a "proper" butler, and what traits, values, and personal qualities are necessary for an individual in the service industry to be seen as having

22

an outstanding level of integrity and self-respect.
At this point, I have to mention Ishiguro's Never Let
Me Go, a novel in which its science-fiction setting
gives ample opportunities to discuss the humanity
and human behavior of characters who are people but not yet human. If in Never Let Me Go, Kazuo
Ishiguro writes very candidly about adolescenceand childhood nostalgia through the eyes of botha child and an adult, then The Remains of The Day, abook that was published for the first time in 1989,
features an excellent and in-depth depiction of aman with both a behavior of great decency and arather philosophical way of making sense of theworld and what happens around him.
Despite his age, the way Steven talks and acts,
although might strike others around him as somewhat cold and cautious, has a very unique charm,making the novel a page-turner and the readers
eager to find out how he will react to the unfolding
events. Most characters in Kazuo Ishiguro's novels
are rather distinctive in such ways; not only canthey stand on their own feet to create their own
idiosyncratic features, they also act as a mirror forothers to look at and reflect on. As a person whostrongly dislikes the way some authors use theircharacters in the story only as a tool to express
their own personal views on things, it is of myhumble opinion that the characters in The Remainsof the Day and Never Let Me Go are some of the most"human" characters in all of the novels I have read
until now. The human-to-human interaction in The
Remains of the Day feels very natural and completely unrestrained, with the use of first-person narrative sounding so intimate that sometimes I feelthat it is Steven himself that had written the novel,
instead of an author with almost zero backgroundin the service industry, as Ishiguro himself hadconfessed. Because of its distinctive writing style,reading The Remains of the Day will require a great

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deal of knowledge of the English language fromreaders, especially formal English, and I am very
curious as to whether the novel’s translation into
other languages can really capture the exact essence of the original.
On the way to visit his old colleague, Stevens
was reminded of many episodes in his life, with
topics ranging from the nature of dignity, loyalty,
and decency, to politics, class, love, and relationships. But the most important and most noticeable theme of The Remains of the Day, and one that isfeatured in many other novels of Ishiguro, is still
memory, and in particular how to approach memory and how memories of the past can change theperson of the present. The whole structure of thenovel is built on Stevens’ recollection of his many
years working as a butler in a single mansion, andalthough the readers get access to his memories
through his own words, those are memories thatare very fragmented and subjective in nature, creating a past so patched-up that even Stevens himself wondered if he could be considered a reliablenarrator. The readers therefore get to experience
not only the stories on his work as a butler, but also
his life firsthand, and the man he has now become.
Stevens drove his car up the English countryside but at the same time underwent a trip back to
the past, to the source of his personal virtues, tothe memories and the people that have profoundly influenced his life. Stevens, who has been raised
as and has always worked as a butler, always prioritized dignity, with devotion and loyalty to hismaster invariably placed at the forefront, to thepoint that all personal feelings, if not helpful tothe job at hand, were all removed. It was only after he had stepped inside his master’s car, gripped
the steering wheel, and slowly moved through thequiet English countryside, alone with the endlessgreeneries, that the mask of a famously loyal anddedicated butler cracked, allowing an incessantstream of recollections to flood the mind. It would
be of no exaggeration to say that the first roadtrip
that Stevens had undertaken in his life, one that hehad to take forever to consider back and forth before finally deciding to depart, was actually a journey both to find and to rediscover his sense of self
through the endless nooks and crannies of memory, hidden inside the vast but now empty roomsof Darlington Hall. “What is the point of worrying
oneself too much about what one could or could
not have done to control the course one's life took?”
Stevens wondered, when looking back at his whole

ISSUE 3life dedicated to services of the highest standard.
“Surely it is enough that the likes of you and I at
least try to make our small contribution count forsomething true and worthy. And if some of us areprepared to sacrifice much in life in order to pursue such aspirations, surely that in itself, whatever
the outcome, cause for pride and contentment.”1
Kazuo Ishiguro himself has said that both thecharacter of Stevens and the mansion he worked
at are a metaphor of a bygone world, a world filledwith symbolism and nostalgia that those whohave never known or visited England often imagine what it would be like to live in an old English
mansion in the English countryside, or how an old
English butler would talk and act. “The Remains of
the Day is primarily a book about two things: it’s
about the fear of emotion, and it’s also about politically being a butler,” he shared in an interview2.
“Because I think, in a way, most of us politically are
butlers. We do our jobs, we serve some corporation, or a cause, or maybe a country. But most of us,
we just do our individual jobs, we offer up our little
contributions to somebody upstairs and we hopeit’s going to be used well, and we take our pride
from doing our little jobs to the best of our ability.”
And this I wholeheartedly agree. Perhaps the reason why Stevens, an aging butler, a symbol of thenoble life that is reserved for only the likes of Lords
and Ladies, can be so relatable, is perhaps because
each and everyone of us is also a butler, and is also
in service for someone else. Perhaps we are alltrapped in our own Darlington Hall somewhere,with rooms so large they are suffocating, trying tohide our true feelings on the way to find the past.
1 Ishiguro, K. (1990). The remains of the day, p.177. Vintage
Books.
2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pej2sk9oJbA

23

SEP 2022

ISSUE 3

At Akasaka-Mitsuke
Words and Photos by Yushi SongA

nother morning on the Sōbu Main Line
with the same rattling and shaking train.
Inside, it feels a bit meaningless trying tohold onto anything. Though the aircon is full on,
I could still hardly feel any ventilation with hundreds of people squishing onto this cabin. Just a
few moments ago, I was dashing to the station tocatch the train just to get to the office on time.
This has been the new normal for me for the
past few months. Though I believe I am severely inadequate when it comes to exercising, it seems likeI do sprint faster now in my derby shoes for trains–as a not-sure-if-I-should-be-proud salaryman.
It feels like just yesterday when I was laughing at
those pitiful salarymen with my friends biking inOkayama. “Do they even have a life?” My friend asked
while giggling. “God knows. I would kill myself if I were
one of them,” I answered.
And here we are in a fully packed train rushing underneath Tokyo’s center. I would never be tooTokyo Station. Escalator from B4F (Sōbu Line Platform) to B1F.

24

outstanding in my all-white shirt – at least ten other salarymen are wearing the same thing. Ignore
what I said in the past; I did pick up a new hobby on
the train of observing people. Gaming, drowsing
away, working on a laptop whilst standing, poringover comics on phones, or just sitting there. All in
their own little world.
The train brakes suddenly at Akasaka Mitsuke station. This is one of the business centers inTokyo, which means many of the salarymen would
get off here. This is also where my office is located.
I step out of the train, finally able to take a breath,getting out of the station by beeping my iPhone on
the ticket gate, all within seconds. The tunnel leading to Exit C of Akasaka Mitsuke station is a long
uphill with huge posters on the sides – Robert Walters, new ‘high-standard living’ real estate listings,
and hair loss treatment adverts. I am accustomed
to being all, quoting Barney from How I Met Your
Mother, ‘suited up’, but it still feels strange to walk inthose tight shirt and trousers, so does it for having
your own cubicle, your own work ID, work mobile.
I feel as if I were catapulted into a cloud of
dust of the ‘real world’ – misty, surreal, yet somehow smoky, with me barely keeping my eyes open.
I recalled those teenage sleepless nights, wondering what kind of person I want to become, whatkind of dream I should pursue, and how I wouldchange the world. Those questions remain unanswered, yet all of a sudden, I found myself in a rush
to figure out about myself, aka, knowing where theheck I would be after graduating. Like many others, the route to that answer is shūkatsu, an institutionalised job-hunting system that is branded ineveryone’s university experience. I start to keep inmind what are internships, what are SPIs, how todeal with interviews, and more importantly, how
to sell myself just like a commodity.
Everything comes with a price. Growing up in a
Chinese household, this was one of the credos of
my mother’s, though many times it seemed to bea tad rhetorical – since I am not sure if she is more
into bargains or high fashion brands. But out in the

SEP 2022

ISSUE 3so-called real world, I reckon that even though mymum may not be a professor in economics, she was
not wrong at the end of the day. Everything herecomes with a price. From those fancy handbags
displayed in the giant show windows, to packaged
bean sprouts in supermarkets, everything is merchandised with prices tagged to it. Yet something
I overlooked in this formula is that out in the realworld, I myself, also have a price. Skills, experiences, personalities, academic performance, or evenappearances, come with their own exchange values, and it seems like all I should do is to aim higher. Settling down on this familiar yet distant land,
I found myself asking more questions of how, what,
and more importantly, why.
I realised I was standing in the crowd at the
Akasaka Mitsuke crossing. Perhaps I was being a
迷惑 (meiwaku, nuisance) with the tide of people
moving forward on the ebb. Success, career, money, and all those 大層な (taisouna, thought-to-be"good") stuff started to appear on my mind, but I
don’t really know what they mean. The pedestrian
traffic signals play an eerie sound of Tōryanse all ofa sudden, unlike in Okayama with all the electronic chirping sounds of chicken and cuckoo. I started walking again towards my office, just when thesignals stopped beeping.

25

SEP 2022

ISSUE 3

テセウス / Theseus
Words by Taichi Inoue · Photo by Susan Li

北の海で船が沈んだ。

沈んでいくあなた、テセウスのあなた。

わたしたちはみな船のうえ。

わたしはあなたを見て泣いた。

波の荒さに耐えかねて、船は形を変えるという。

わたしはわたしを見て泣いた。

変わらないのはその旗だけ。

沈んでいくわたし、テセウスのあなた。

美しくて、懐かしい、愛おしくて、呪いの、旗。
北の海は冷たいから。その旗できっと暖めてね。
誰が船から降りられようか。
誰が船旗を手放せようか。

目を閉じた。あぶくが漏れた。
暗い海の底、牙を剥いていたのは。わたし。

みんな知っている。船はもう戻れない。
港にも。あの日にも。
わたしたちはみなテセウスの上。
冷たい北の海に沈んでいく。
変わらない旗を抱きしめて。
抱きしめられ、沈んでいく。

SEP 2022

ISSUE 3"________"
Words by Kayla Guevara

It's been more than a year. More than 365 days. More than 525,600 minutes. More than what my restless heart can bear.
More than what my tired shoulders can carry. More than what my words can express. More than what
I can accept.
In what feels like a blink of an eye, phases of life have said their warm hello, and swiftly waved goodbye.
In the past year, I have excitedly said my greetings to a stranger named Adulthood and her acquaintanceCollege. Yet, in another blink of an eye, my simple dream of becoming their friend is whisked away. My eyes
are still set on that dream, but truthfully, it is all a blur. I extend my arms and I stretch my tired legs, excited
to head out, but the four walls of a room get in my way—these four walls have never felt ever-so small andever-so restricting. My bedroom, which has always been my comfort zone and my favorite space, is what I
genuinely long to escape from. Each new morning is accompanied by the now familiar feeling of unending
repetition. Every day, I am softly touched by the sun, but never has it felt so dreary. I feel the comfort of its
warm rays, but never have I felt so numb. Could this be what it feels like to be trapped? Maybe.
Everyday, it is a battle with Frustration and Emotion. There are some days wherein it begins to feel like
I am settling into this new lifestyle. I think to myself, "Okay, this doesn't seem so bad." Yet, just as I start tothink that I am beginning to be fine... okay, that was a joke. To this day, many questions remain unanswered;
I wonder why the question marks never turn into periods. I pray to the heavens, and nothing. Why am I stillin the same place I've been? Why does it seem like I am never going to escape? Why do I take deep breaths, yet feel like I'mdrowning? Why do I walk on new paths, yet feel like I'm going in circles? What should I do? Everyday, it is a battle—abattle that seems unending, a battle where Loss is a friend.
One year ago, I had a dream of breathing in the fresh air, with my feet on the campus streets. I did notthink I would be living out that dream by watching Youtube videos titled "A week in my life as a college
student." I did not think that my experience would consist of conversations through a computer screen. Everything and everyone seems so distant. This reality, crippling and weighty, was unfathomable to me many
months ago. I did not think this would be it—I do not want this to be it. I do not want to wait, but that is all I
can do—and truthfully, it is exhausting.
And yet, sometimes, I am taken aback by my own strength. There come days where I feel incredibly
fortunate to be able to acknowledge my emotions. There come days when I get to recognize the privilege I
hold in my hands. In my weary hands, I hold the privilege of learning, of having a roof over my head, of nothaving to worry about what to eat tomorrow, and of freedom of speech. They are rare, but they come—and
I am thankful.
It's been more than a year. More than 365 days. More than 525,600 minutes. More than what my restless heart can bear. More than what my tired shoulders can carry. More than my words can express. Morethan what I can accept. All I long for is the key to this locked door, and everyday, I am waiting for it to behanded to me.
Cont.
Thirteen months have swiftly passed since I wrote down these words, yet I am all too familiar withthem still. Nothing has changed. I continue to wait. I continue to wrestle. I rest in the same bed and wake up
under the same window through which the sun’s rays say hello to me. The cycle continues. The only difference is that I have started to settle where I am—an emotion that I find to be both of strength and of weakness.
I start to ground my feet where I am because I have recognized that it is beyond my own power tochange the course of life. The what-could-have-beens are too far in the distance, so I have decided to focus
on what I can touch—because truthfully, that’s all I can do. Hope has become unfamiliar. The goals that I
set are no longer “goals”, but ambitious to-do’s to keep myself sane. Did I give up? Maybe. Am I still hoping? I
don’t know. What I do know is that the everyday battle where Loss is a friend is ever so real. My hand is still
stretched out, waiting for the key to be handed to me, but my head and heart are growing weary.
27

Suzu, Her 'Self'and Her Illness
Words by Genki Hase
Illustrations by Eirin Kiyota“I had a lot going on inhigh school….”

I

recalled this conversation when I started reading Vita: Life in a Zone of Social Abandonment, an
ethnography written by João Biehl (2013) that
depicts a complex of politics, economics, medicine,
biology, and family which results in the abandonment of people. In this ethnography, Biehl attempts
to examine the life of Catarina—a woman living
in a place where the sick, the homeless, and thementally ill are being abandoned—and explores
Catarina’s subjectivity through dialogue and hercollections of words stored in what she calls “dictionary.” Before reading this book, I had this vague
impression that the main subject of anthropological study should be people, not an individual
person. However, after reading it, I realized thatpeople are in a person, and the world is observablefrom holding a dialogue with a person. Thus, I decided to hold a dialogue with Suzu, an interesting
person who is brazen but sensitive, to know what
happened to her and how she re-narrated her ‘self.’
After obtaining consent from her, we decided totalk in a nearby park in Tokyo. The approach I took
is the mixture of life history and illness narrative.
However, this work does not aim to conclude Suzu’s narrative. Her life is ongoing. Therefore, I willkeep this piece incomplete and open-ended. In addition, since Suzu’s interpretation of her past was
explicit, I will not attempt to theorize her narrative
too much, but will try to underline the role of her
illness in the process of construction of her ‘self.’

28

About Suzu
Katherine P. Ewing (1990) argues that “individuals are continuously reconstituting themselves into new selves in response to internal andexternal stimuli” (p. 258); therefore, ‘self’ is a collection of context-dependent self-representations.
Although this point is made in the context of a dichotomy between the Western self and non-Western self, with this quote in mind, I started the interview by saying: “In order to make it easier to talk,I’m going from the far past to the present, and thenfuture. I assume that when you are talking there
might be inconsistencies and flaws, but I don’t careabout it, so talk about what you want to talk.” Theinterview is done in Japanese, and the translation
is mine.
--“What kind of person do you consider yourself to be?”“I’m multidimensional and insensitive, andalso I think I have guts. I constitute my ‘self’ in relation to the existence of others; thus, if others aredifferent, my ‘self’ is different as well.”“What made you start to see yourself and your‘self’ in that way?”“Being recognized by superiors is what drives
me, I guess. Studying for high school entrance
exams was exactly the case, and I think I have astrong tendency to seek approval from ‘adults.’”

SEP 2022“What is your definition of ‘adults?’”“Father and mother… people who I respect.”--What this initial conversation suggests is that
Suzu is seeing her ‘self’ as a flexible subject. This
seems to relate with the illusion of the whole ‘self’
discussed by Ewing (1990). For Suzu, the ‘self’ is interconnected with context-dependent self-representations so that the ‘self’ is versatile.
Although Suzu defines herself as “insensitive,”
I found her sensitivity towards people surrounding
her. Then, the emerging question is: How did she
come to this representation of the self? As I continued asking about her life history, I found someevents that helped narrate her ‘self.’ One of themis the experience of being surrounded by girls after it was found that Suzu and her childhood friend(who was popular among girls) conducted summer
vacation research (natsuyasumi jiyu kenkyu) together
during elementary school.
--“When I was in elementary school, I enjoyedthinking about what the other kids were thinking
right now. I was the one who knew what they werethinking.”“What made you realize that?”“I used to play with four childhood friends,
along with their families. We frequently hung out
and played together. But one day because of thisrelationship I was once questioned by girls in theclassroom. They asked me why are you having thesame research topic as him. I knew he was popularamong girls so now I can digest it, but at that time,
I got scared of girls. And then I realized that I don’t
prefer to behave like a ‘girl.’”

ISSUE 3that allowed her to realize that the relationship between herself and others is not limited to herself
and others, but extends to third parties.
Diagnosis and social clash“In high school, I was blessed with good classmates and there are no more girls who said nasty
things to me like in elementary and middle school,
so my mental load was reduced. But my high school
encouraged students to study hard for the university entrance exam (…) then I started to feel likestudying was really tough… becoming ill every
time I take exams.”“And then?”“One day, when I was taking the final exam forthe second year in the school infirmary, I fainted. I
don’t have a chronologically ordered memory evenwhen I tried to recall what happened at that time.
(…) After I got myself back, one teacher suspected
me of cheating on the exam. I was allowed to go to
the bathroom during the exam because they knew
I wasn’t feeling well so I think they thought I cheated in the bathroom, but I don’t have the memory.
And I don’t think I cheated.”“How did you feel at that time?”“I was completely confused. I was interrogated for a week, suspected of exam cheating, but I
have nothing to do with it (mini oboe ga nai).”
---

---

The Japanese phrase mini oboe ga nai is often
being translated to English as “have nothing to dowith it”, but if I directly translate the words usedin this phrase, it means “body does not remember
anything”. These two meanings that the phrase entails well suit the situation that Suzu is describing.
For Suzu, she cannot do anything with it because
she simply does not have a ‘coherent memory’—
which others seem to have—that can legitimize
her claim of having nothing to do with it.

It was right around this time that Suzu began
to be aware of how she would appear to others, andwhat ‘self’ should be represented according to who
is surrounding her. Suzu’s realization that she did
not like to be like a ‘girl’ could be thought of as arecognition of the gap between the projection of“girlishness” and her own projection, which may
have been the event that led her to establish her‘self’ in the presence of others, as seen in her later narrative. I think this became one of the events“After collapsing in the infirmary, my mothertook me to see a neurologist, who diagnosed me ashaving epilepsy. I brought that written diagnosis
to the teacher, but the suspicion never cleared…
resulting in all zeros for the final exam for second
year.”“When did you first recognize your healthproblem?”“I didn't know about it until I went to the hospital, so I didn't think it was a big problem.”
29

SEP 2022“Why did you think so?”“When I was very small, I told my mother that
“I have salt in my veins” to tell that my legs were
numb, but my mother told me that it is normal. After that I start to think most things happening tome are normal.”“How did you feel when you visited the neurologist and received a diagnosis?”“I felt relieved.”“Because you received a diagnosis?”“Actually not because of the diagnosis. Whatgave me relief is that people in the hospital werevery nice to me. The neurologist even wrote what
happened in the high school in the written diagnosis, so if I look back, I think I am still respecting ‘adults’ because the ‘adults’ in the hospital were
nice. If they were not, I might be disappointed
because the ‘adults’ in the school were the worst(saiaku). In terms of the diagnosis, rather than getting a diagnosis and calming down, I was thinking
about how I could use this diagnosis to clear thesuspicions of cheating. The social issue I was facing
was the primary concern.”“If you had to, how would you express yourillness?”“I’m unconscious, I don’t remember anything.
I feel like I have amnesia, or a hangover and I don’t
remember anything, but I’m not feeling like I’m ill
because I have epilepsy.”“How did your people surrounding you, suchas parents and friends, respond to you regarding
your health condition?”“I never told friends, but I think they knewthat my body is weak since they frequently careabout me when I was severely ill, but they never
knew that I have epilepsy. My mother became very
sensitive, and told me not to say that I have epilepsy to others.”"I constitute my ‘self’ inrelation to the existenceof others; thus, if others
are different, my ‘self’ isdifferent as well."30

ISSUE 3

“Because of the stigma that is attached to epilepsy?”“Yes. The doctor gave me a pamphlet showing
about the stigma attached to epilepsy. Being awareof that, my mother searched a lot about the issues
that epilepsy patients might face.”--After Suzu introduced her first encounter withher health condition, she introduced two episodes
that contrasted the difference between the students and teachers regarding the ‘adultness’. The
first shocking event for Suzu occurred at a bus stopnear the school. The teacher, who may or may nothave known Suzu was there, said at the bus stop,"Do you know? There is someone in your grade
who was cheating in the last exam," to Suzu’s classmates. Although Suzu became afraid, not knowing
how much people around her knew the issue she
was facing, as she saw the students respond to theteacher's words in an ‘adult’ way, meaning thatthey leniently responded to the teacher, she had
to be skeptical as to which of them was the ‘adult.’
Another episode happened during the graduation
ski trip. At first, she had no intention of going on a
ski trip, but she was being told that she needed to
go in order to graduate from high school. At thattime, she was feeling obligated to hide epilepsy
from others. At the same time, she wanted to end
her high school life as soon as possible, so she decided to join the trip. During the trip, she stayed in
the resting room most of the time because of her
health condition. However, on the last day of thetrip, she joined a specially prepared tour for the
injured and sick students. Suzu told me that somestudents who broke their bones before the ski trip
were joining that tour as well. According to Suzu,
the tour took them to dangerous places such as icy
mountain roads, so that Suzu became even more
suspicious of the teachers—the ‘adults’—who were
happy to offer this tour to the injured and sick.
--Suzu says that she is insensitive towards others and herself, but her narrative tells the opposite.
Suzu was always aware of the ‘adults’ who see her
and people who surround her, and she was trying
to adjust her self-representations according to thecontext she was located in. In this sense, in myview, she is sensitive to situations that surroundSEP 2022

her and of course what is happening to herself andher ‘self,’ but it seems like she is narrating herself as “insensitive” to construct a ‘self’ that is notcontext-dependent, which is not a whole ‘self’, butrather a reference point where she can come backto. Moreover, Suzu often used the phrase “I neededto (…)” and not “I wanted to (…).” This may suggestthat she is using others as a guiding light for her
narrative, and this connects to the point where she
said, “I constitute my ‘self’ in relation to the existence of others; thus, if others are different, my‘self’ is different as well.” When I first heard Suzu
saying this, first thing that came into my mind was
the quote by Frantz Fanon: “For not only must theblack man be black; he must be black in relation
to the white man” (Fanon, 1967, pp. 82-83). What I
imagined from these words is that the so-called“subjectivity” including the ‘self’ and selfhood does
not exist in the first place, but it is something thatis created through various dialogues. In this way,
perhaps, we can think of her illness as one of thecomparative materials and constituent materials
for defining her reality, just as she defines her ‘self’in relation to others. The fact that she consistently maintains an attitude of thinking and enforcing
tags and ideas for her own benefit suggests that she
recognizes herself as an aggregate composed ofsuch tags and forms a malleable self.
Epilogue
After listening to the whole story of her highschool years, I asked her about the effects of her illness and the changes that had occurred since then.

ISSUE 3

“Maybe it’s the pictures of me that my parents
keep in the house… My parents are so cute thatthey hang my perfect test scores in their room, but
I guess I’m more aware of and constituting my ‘self’
through their actions and my representations in
my parents.’”--“How was this experience of talking about
yourself and your ‘self?’”“I think I was in a strange place (tokoro), andI think I was able to cope with it and form a personality that is compatible with the society I am
placed in. Looking back, I feel like I don’t need to bewith other people, but I also feel like I want to be instep with them. Maybe this is a contradiction, but
I would like to continue to cherish the attitude ofhaving such contradictions and ultimately making
decisions on my own.”
References
Biehl, J. (2013). Vita: Life in a zone of social abandonment. University of California Press.
Ewing, K. P. (1990). The illusion of wholeness: Culture, self,
and the experience of inconsistency. In Ethos, 18 (3),251-278.
Fanon, F. (1967). Black skin white masks. Grove Press.
Foucault, M. (1988). Technologies of the self. In Technologiesof the Self (Ed. Luther Martin, Huck Gutman, Patrick
Hutton), 16-49. University of Massachusetts Press.
Illness Narrative for Anthropology of the Self (2021).

--“How has your illness changed the way you
feel and think?”“I no longer harbor suspicions about peopleor think consciously about what’s going on behind
their backs. Through volunteering activities inGreenpeace, I realized that it’s more important not
to lose sight of what attracts me and what ‘I’ possibly want to do. I invested my passion in thinking
about environmental protection, but at the sametime, I started to think of myself. I was able to takea positive view on my abilities.”“You know, there is a French philosopher
called Michael Foucault who argued that there aretechnologies such as diaries, pictures, and confession that cultivate the ‘self,’ but what do you think
are your technologies of the self?”31Struggling
Along in
Seattle Part 1
Words by Forrest Maynock

Streetwise Kids Trying to
Find ThemselvesT

he Seattle of the 1980’s as seen in Martin
Bell’s Streetwise (1984) is quite the colorfuland vibrant place. The documentary follows
street dwelling kids who traverse the streets trying to make a living, find happiness, and discoverthemselves. The film itself very much follows a “flyon the wall” documentary style, with the cameras
being placed in mostly static positions and simply
catching the natural flow of what everyone is saying as they say it. Streetwise follows many different
adolescent characters as they live their lives on
the streets of Seattle, but for this article I will only
focus on two: Dwayne and Rat. Two of the more
prominent adolescents in the film, their "story"arcs are quite different from one another and/asthey show the duality of living life on the streets.
First and foremost, both Rat and Dwayne actually live on the streets as some of the charactersin Streetwise have government housing or relatives
that they spend some time with. Rat is seen living
in an abandoned hotel for most of the film, andDwayne describes his daily routine which includes“finding someone to sleep with for the night”. Bothof these kids also have a strong knack for street
hustling; Rat openly flaunts his different survival skills throughout the film which include a trick
for getting free pizzas, and tips for dumpster diving, and Dwayne is seen panhandling extensively.
In the Rat’s situation, there is a clear case of self
cultivation taking place where Rat uses the situa-

32

tion he is in to make himself stronger to the world
around him; in many ways, this connects with Michel Foucault’s concept of Technologies of the Self,from his paper of the same name (Foucault, 1988),
in that kids like Rat actively use the cultural tools
around them to build themselves as individuals. In
this case, the cultural tools are the survival skills
and dialect of the streets. These sorts of examples of self-reliance are seen throughout the film
and while some tactics are clever, others are simply sad; one kid donates blood in order to eat, andmany of the female characters in the film (all underage) prostitute themselves to make money.
Life on the streets is not an easy one. As Robert Desjarlais says in his article titled Struggling
Along: The Possibilities for Experience among the Homeless Mentally Ill (2010), “[g]iven the basic conditionsof life on the streets, finding a smooth day wherenothing much happens has its value” (Dejarlais,
2010, pp. 170); there are no slow days really shown
during Streetwise, almost every frame has someform of action going on, and the streets of 1980’s
Seattle seem very lively. Yet many of the adolescents presented in the film seem to value momentsof quiet and introspection on the lively streets of1980 Seattle. In these cases of action, the adolescents are engaging in activities that they would
normally not be exposed to, and are therefore experiencing things outside of the “normal” scopeof understanding for kids their age (early to late

SEP 2022

Left: Still from Streetwise (1984). | Right: Theatrical poster

teens). However, the cases of introspection included are often a recalling of their lives with family,or wishes for a “normal” future. This all results in acase of fractured self, where underage children live
and act as adults, but are also children who alter
themselves to fit in and survive. This idea can benicely summed up by Katherine Ewing who says inher paper titled The Illusion of Wholeness: Culture, Self,
and the Experience of Inconsistency (1990) that:“When we consider the temporal flow of experience, we can observe that individuals are continuously reconstituting themselves into new selvesin response to internal and external stimuli. They
construct these new selves from their available
set of self-representations, which are based on
cultural constructs. The particular developmental histories of these self-representations areshaped by the psychological processes of the individual” (Ewing, 1990, p. 258).

This shows how the kids of Streetwise may use
their existing cultural knowledge to build a new
self-representation for themselves that is street
savvy and fiercely independent from their “old”
lives with family and structure, but also longing
for some form of normalcy.
Beyond basic street life comparisons, Rat andDwayne, like many of the adolescents introduced
throughout the film, share what could be described
as a broken or dysfunctional home. Dwayne visits
his father who is in prison for arson, and after go-

ISSUE 3ing over future plans, his father berates him for his
life choices and tries to make sure he is “on the rightpath.” It is clear from Dwayne’s body language that
he feels abandoned and neglected. Rat on the other hand seems to repress whatever feelings he hasfor his family as indicated in a scene where he describes calling his mother, and essentially hanging
up on her after hearing her start to cry. Along with
this, Rat tries to blend in with the crowd; Rat does
not want to stand out, and he makes this clear atseveral points through the film. Here we can see
two divergent paths: Rat takes the path of independence by simply wanting “to be a man among othermen” (Fanon, 1952, p. 85), or a cosmopolitan hiding
among other individuals. Dwayne needs a guiding
figure as he cannot do everything on his own, andas evidenced by the conversation with his father,he feels alone and dejected. Where Rat rejects theneed or want for a family structure and strives tobe an independent individual, Dwayne seems lost
without some kind of structure to his life which
tragically culminates in his death by suicide. Whilein custody after being detailed by juvenile services,
Dwayne takes his own life by hanging; the only
attendees to his funeral are his father, some of his
father’s prison guards, and the social workers who
tried to work with Dwayne as best as they could.
This tragic end can be contrasted with Joao Biehl’sbook Vita: Life in a Zone of Social Abandonment (2013);
the book explores Vita, a place for the mentally ill
and unwanted to be sent to live out their lives. The
book states that “life that no longer has any value
for society is hardly synonymous with a life thatno longer has any value for the person living it”(Biehl, 2013, p. 366); this sentiment is contrasted
by Dwayne who is seemingly in quite the opposite
mindset in terms of his life’s own value. He is notvalued by society, and is essentially abandoned in
the care of the state, and he also does not have value
for his own life, or rather, he gave up on his life dueto the prevailing circumstances of his own case.
Dwayne also was in a disciplinary institution thatpulled him away from his father’s plans; this situation reminds me of Gilles Deleuze who discusses
the concept of “disciplinary societies” and “societies of control” in his paper titled Postscript on the Societies of Control (1992). In this instance, Dwayne wasin a disciplinary institution that essentially resetand further warped his life from that of a young
teenager into a hardened member of the criminal
justice system. As his social worker states in thefilm, “[Dwayne] just wanted to grow up as what he
33

SEP 2022

saw as a normal kid”.
The kids shown in this movie have not only
been affected by the world around them, but havesimultaneously altered their "selves" to fit in theculture of the street. They survive by cultivating
themselves to become more accustomed to theway of street life, and altering their “inner self” tobecome a stronger person. This can be seen withmany of the kids who mention the sort of life theywould want in the future with many wishing fora more simple and “normal” life, and one not on
the streets. They cannot develop as “normal” kids,
but instead must adjust their lives to fit within therules of the street. In the case of Dwayne, the lackof “normal” experiences, and being a victim of “disciplinary society” seem to have been the contributing factors in his self demise. On the other hand,instead of becoming a victim, Rat only used his acquired knowledge of the streets to harden and remake himself from a “helpless child” into anotherdenizen of the streets. These kids are colorful individuals who have a sense of wholeness that is like afractured mirror or kaleidoscope; some wish to remain kids, and others adapt and mold themselves.
They lose their “innocent child self” in the broken
home and, like Rat, build and cultivate a new self
on the streets, but for some, like Dwayne, this is no
substitute for the life lost. As time moves on, so do
the residents of the street. The picture of streetlife
in 1984 is downright quaint when juxtaposed withlife on the streets in 2020.

ISSUE 3

These kids are colorful
individuals who havea sense of wholenessthat is like afractured mirror
or kaleidoscope;some wish toremain kids,
and others
adapt andmoldthemselves.

References
Bell, M. (1984). Streetwise. Bear Creek.
Bell, M. (2021). Streetwise Revisited: Rat. The Criterion
Collection.
Biehl, J. (2013). Vita: Life in a zone of social abandonment.
University of California Press.
Desjarlais, R. (1994). Struggling along: the possibilities forexperience among the homeless mentally ill. In American Anthropologist, 96(4), 886-901.
Deleuze, G. (1992). Postscript on the Societies of Control.
In Cultural Theory: An Anthology, 139-142.
Ewing, K. P. (1990). The illusion of wholeness: Culture,
self and the experience of inconsistency. In Ethos, 18(3),251-278.
Fanon, F. (1952). Black skin, white masks. Grove press.
Foucault, M. (1988). Technologies of the self. In Technologiesof the Self, edited by Luther Martin, Huck Gutman and
Patrick Hutton, pp. 16-49. University of Massachusetts
Press.
Essay for Anthropology of the Self (2021)
Read Parts 2 and 3 of this essay on the blog.

Still from Streetwise (1984).

34

A Recovering
Perfectionist
Words and visuals by Jia Xuan Chok
“First, achievement-striving people hate to fail, so they escalate their commitment, hoping to forestall failure. Second, achievement-striving individuals appear more susceptible to hindsight bias, perhaps because they have aneed to justify their actions."— from Organizational Behavior Seventeenth Edition
by Stephen P. Robins and Timothy A. JudgeI

was one of those achievement-striving people, always in a race with myself.
My parents would say I have always been the only supporter in this oneman race because they have never put pressure on me. “You cry and worry
so much because you put too much pressure on yourself,” they asserted, time andtime again. But it was the seemingly insignificant remarks and comparisons they
made that gave me the impression that I needed to excel at everything in order tostand out in each and every comparison they made. Explicit validation protected
my fragile self-esteem.
On the other hand, there was also the pressure to make the family proudas the eldest daughter and to be the model student because that was my image—it was part of my role to constantly appear as though I had my shit together. An internal battle raged but I was too hung up on trying to fulfill
people’s expectations of me to be conscious about it.
I’ve always kept a journal, and I still do. On top of writing about mycrush, I also used it to tally all the mistakes I made, the goals I failed toachieve, and the statuses I failed to maintain, like saying the wrong answer in front of the whole class, not receiving that grade I worked so
hard for, not being able to help my parents reconcile after
a fight, and a number of other issues that no longer
bother me as much. I wanted to be everything and took
every problem as my own. I set goals that were too highonly to hate myself when I couldn’t achieve them. I simply couldn’t bear the thought of being bad at anything.
I was obsessed with flawlessness and put too much
focus on the result but not enough on the process. Because
I was always so easily battered by minor mistakes, I unconsciously formed habits of self-sabotage and negative self-talk.
I let one failure define my self-worth and never had the courage to step out of my comfort zone because judgment from people was my greatest fear. I would cry over my mistakes, afraidthat the perfect image of myself would be tarnished because I had
always been told that blundering equals incompetency. I didn’t re35

SEP 2022

alize that competency was something you could
nurture.
Perfectionism did, in a sense, help me get what
I wanted, but every success I achieved became aflimsy disguise of my incompetence because I only
cared about how things appeared on the surface. I
feared that I would just expose myself as a fraud. I
had an ambition of becoming a vet because I adore
animals. But when it came time to choose between
the natural science and social science clusters as
my primary study area for senior high, I opted forthe latter because I’ve always scored higher in history, geography and all the language subjects compared to chemistry, biology, and physics. It wasn’t
that my grades were bad; I just knew that joining
the science cluster meant that my GPA would become highly dependent on all the subjects I wasn’t
confident in scoring well. I chose the social sciencecluster just so that I could maintain my outstanding academic record and position as one of the top
students in class. Instead of pursuing my dream, I
chose to preserve my self-esteem.
“Things outside you are projections of what’s
inside you, and what’s inside you is a projection ofwhat’s outside. So when you step into the labyrinth
outside you, at the same time you're stepping into thelabyrinth inside.”

ISSUE 3ing that negativity to brew doesn’t bring me any
closer to perfection; it merely saps me of the motivation and mental strength to become better. In
truth, there is no place to “arrive to” because you
are forever growing into a better version of yourself and you will never be satisfied. The only end
place in your life is death. The fear of failure will
only reinforce low self-esteem and shut out doors
for introspection because every time you turndown an opportunity to step out of your comfort
zone, you’re reinforcing the idea that you aren’t capable of doing what you wanted to do rather thantrying to find a way to become capable.
One mistake is not representative of your life
as a whole. People don’t care if you make mistakes
because everyone has their own lives to worry
about. If you don’t believe it, try to recall one timesomeone made an insignificant blunder. See, it really doesn’t matter.
Toxic perfectionism still gets to me sometimes but it’s important to know that healing is not
linear. It’s a curve.
p/s: You don’t have to be everything to everyone. Let the past be the past.

—from Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami(my favorite book since 19)
I can't recall exactly when or how it happened, but I believe that the positive influencesin my life—the affirmations on my social media
pages, the optimistic people I spent time with, andthe numerous self-help books my dad gave me as I
entered adulthood—helped me get out of the toxic mindset. Slowly, I became someone who sought
to emulate the positive traits of others instead offeeling inadequate for not being as good as them.
Those who were unbothered, carefree—those who
put themselves out there—were the kids I envied
the most in high school. They prioritized their own
needs rather than what others thought of them.
Those people were the ones who learned the most,and those people made me think differently about
perfectionism. Even when they made mistakes,
they were never discouraged to try again. That was
something I wanted to practice.
Shedding perfectionism made me realize thatbeating myself up for making mistakes and allow36

sky, branch, sakura:
petal and bright green
shrubbery atop soil. sarariiman,
bench, and passing dog:
we are learning arrangement,
relations. treading as lightly
as lilypads upon the pond;
still foreign to each other.

7Days ofHanami

Words and visuals by Mattie Balagat

Day 1• March 30, late afternoon to evening• By the pond, Undou-koen (Okayama
Prefectural Multipurpose Grounds)• Alone (but chatted with a friend who
passed by)

Day 2• March 31, afternoon• Korakuen + Okayama Castle area
• With two friends on a “work date”• Rejecting the manicured grove, only
assuming “work” as it involves thepleasure of watching dogs, sipping
overpriced drinks, imagining
strangers’ lives• Heron and wind. Inappropriate
clothing choices for the weather.

Day 3• April 1, late afternoon, golden hour
• By the pond, Undou-koen• First went with a friend, then anotherfriend came by• Wistfulness, womanhood: pains andthe yearning for beginnings unfettered

Day 4• April 2, nighttime• Tsuyama Castle• Group of friends and crowds• The rush of festival, an greater rush toown experience. An angle, a frame, apiece of the blossoms against night sky
to behold. Feeling a stray ghost. How
can these flowers be even more magnificent? It becomes easy to hope.

Day 5• April 3, late afternoon• Asahigawa + outside Korakuen• With a friend (our 3rd time out)
• The thrill of beer and a beautiful
world. Involuntary reactions in odd
coordination: hiccups, tearing up.
The stray song line that keeps being
repeated. A Wanting More. Ducks as
em dashes.

Day 6• April 4, dusk to early night• By the pond, Undou-koen• Alone• A no-one settling in despite it
being a little too chilly. Shadow,
petal drawing the night. In
silence, you know that you
know—but are less sure of what
you know.

Day 7• April 7, late afternoon toevening• By the pond, Undou-koen• Picnic with three friends• The last of it, the incongruenceof a rainshower and a brightlate afternoon. I have imbibedthe spring flush, but I am also
letting it fade to my edges.
To let it get to the head isdangerous. Maybe that is
why the sakura only lasts
a week.

37

Cheers
to OurGraduates!
Words by Mattie Balagat
Photos by Alyana Reina Q. MoralesE

arly sakura blossoms greeted the 27 newgraduates of the Discovery Program for
Global Learners on March 25, 2022. Most of
the students entered GDP as the program’s first domestic admission batch back in April 2018. Manyof them completed their studies under the Matching Track, taking major courses with different faculties such as the Faculty of Letters or Faculty of
Economics.
Following the university-wide commencement ceremony at noon, a short recognition ceremony for the GDP graduates was held in the D
Building, hosted by Professor Eiko Ushida. Director Hitoshi Ueda gave the opening remarks. He imparted high hopes for the students to carry on theirlearning journeys and to “have confidence, pride,and most of all, responsibility” after graduation.
Awardees among the graduating batch were38

SEP 2022

also named. Miyu Inoue was awarded with the
Kokusho Award, an award given to one student
per faculty who has demonstrated excellent academic achievement and personal character. The
Director Award, which recognizes significant academic performance and contribution to local
communities, was given to four graduates: Masataka Ishida, Akane Tanaka, Misaki Nishimura, andKhaya Tsuyama. Tatsuki Urabe and Jae Eun Shinwere awarded with the Language Award for theiroutstanding achievement in language learning in
English and Japanese. Each student also received
their diploma and a farewell gift from the faculty.
Pictures were taken after the ceremony infront of the General Education C Building. “Howtime flies,” remarked one graduate. Another student thanked GDP for the opportunity to makemany friends from all over the world. All dressedin elegant suits and beautiful kimonos and gowns,
the graduates happily wished each other congratulations and took farewell pictures with GDP teachers and kouhai (lower-years). The spring air was
electric with both joy and bittersweet sorrow as
the graduates celebrated the closing of one chapter
and the opening of another.
Some March 2022 graduates gave inspiring
messages for kouhai in the younger batches. “I’ve

ISSUE 3

heard the younger batch are doing great, so justkeep it up.” “Challenge anything that you want,because you can do everything (nandemo dekiru).”“Don’t give up, just keep trying.”
Congratulations to our graduates, and best
wishes for your future endeavors!

The Polyphony Team would also like to congratulate
the soon-to-be September 2022 graduates! We
would especially like to send our well wishes
to former staff who set up the foundation of
Polyphony and have continued to guide its work:
Forrest Maynock, the first editor-in-chief; Trung
Nguyen, the blog manager and prolific writer ofbook and movie reviews; and Justine Villena, an
editor and writer. Your humor and talents will bedearly missed, but we know all of you will makewaves wherever you go from GDP!

The October 2018 seniors after the Senior Project presentations. Photo courtesy of Ryan Akbar.

39

The Fight
Surrounding
Immigration
Policies at Home
Words by Jnifar Gillur Yumi

S

ince 1990, Germany has been a popular
destination for immigrants globally, andstatistics by Statista (2021) states that Germany granted asylum to the highest number ofasylum-seekers in the European Union, especiallyto Syrian asylum-seekers. A country with the horrifying past of the Holocaust, Germany has now
become a country that is a popular station destination for immigrants. This journey of social change
has not been easy as one can anticipate. The hurdles that the government, society, and immigrants
have faced in efforts of integration via 'integration
projects' by the state are a worthwhile research
topic.
Current Chancellor Angela Merkel enacted
policies to welcome immigrants with open arms
and announced her legacy of Willkommenskultur(welcome culture) with the development of an integration policy, and the next Chancellor Olaf Scholz
is planning to carry on the legacy. Unfortunately,
despite the work of "Integration Projects', which
is a project that offers a vocational training program and a language course for immigrants, with aparticular focus on the Syrian community (Hindy,2018), some Germans still fail to accept immigrants
wholeheartedly. Later, we will touch upon the topic
of the anti-immigrant riots in the city of Bautzen
from the story of Abode Targi; and thus the effectiveness of integration projects often comes into
question. Nevertheless, even though Syrian refugees have been integrated quite quickly in Germany, social integration continues to be a challenge inthe labor market. Social policies that are inclusive

40

Photo by Markus Spiske | Unsplash

and applicable to all residents, regardless of ethnicity, are essential tools for governments to ease
the tension. We will first look into current policies
for refugees and asylum seekers in Germany andexplore how differential inclusion plays a role insociety and it will then provide an overview of theresearch done on the influence of integration projects alongside some interviews with asylum-seekers. Finally, it will consider which factors might behindering the goal of integration projects from asociological viewpoint of both parties.
An Attempt at Social Integration
This piece examines immigration policies
from the perspectives of both the host country,
Germany, as well as the immigrants and asylum
seekers from Syria who now belong to 'two' homes(countries) after migrating to Germany. People inGermany have become more tolerant towards immigrants, but polarization is on the rise (Bertelsmann Stiftung, 2021). On the other hand, Syrian
refugees and asylum seekers are attempting to fit
into German society while trying to maintain theirown culture. Studies have shown that Syrian refugees with high psychological strength and cultural
capability reported high levels of potential to integrate, as indicated by low levels of distress, andvice versa (Safdar, et al, 2021). So, what is the de-SEP 2022

sired social integration? According to Durkheim,"people's norms, beliefs, and values make up a collective consciousness, or a shared way of understanding and behaving in the world". He believedthat society exerted a powerful force on individuals, and the collective consciousness binds individuals together and creates social integration (2020).
Germany is facing a declining population
with a shrinking skilled workforce (The Economist,2021), and sources have stated how Angela Merkel
tried to handle this issue under the veil of managing the refugee crisis. However, a lack of German
language skills and an untrained labor force were
the reasons why many refugees in Germany wereunable to earn a position in the labor market (D.W.,
2020). That is also precisely why the ‘Integration
Project’ came into existence. However, it seemedthat some immigrants were still struggling to enter the labor market—here is where differential
inclusion comes into play. The concept of differential inclusion is used to describe the selective inclusion of migrants within the sphere of rights in
the receiving state. As Espiritu (2003) stated in her
book, refugees are trained to be integrated into society but are severely restricted in the labor market
based on their social standing and race. As a result,legal status, social rights, and differential inclusion
are all collections of different elements belonging
to a single group of study.
Influence of Integration Projects in Society
As mentioned above, the concept of “integrated but marginalized” is evident throughout Espiritu (2003)’s reading—it is seen that immigrants,
particularly Syrian immigrants, are trained as integral to the nation’s economy, culture, and identity through ‘Integration Projects’ in Germany, but
only as integral because of their “designated subordinate standing” (Espiritu, p. 47). Immigrants often
lose their individuality (and sometimes even theirlives) as a result of perilous journeys across the sea,
and are merely ‘resources’ for their host country.
To look into the influence of this ‘Integration Project’, we will take a glance into the lives of three asylum-seekers currently residing in Germany.
i) One of the interviews carried out by The
Century Foundation (2018) represents the story of
a 30-year-old Syrian hijabi who spoke about thechallenges female Muslim immigrants have faced
concerning their integration into German society
due to the country’s legal restrictions on head andfacial coverings. Even though they are given 'cul-

ISSUE 3ture training' in the 'Integration Project' centers,
this bias and other factors such as halal food andculture in the Muslim community make it slightly difficult for Muslim immigrants to fit into theGerman society and cultural norms. Her husband,
Abdulrahman, says, "...when the German people
think about the man who hits his wife—it's not
Islam, it's culture. They think all Muslims do thesame. And hijab, it's not culture, it's religion. Not
every Muslim woman wears a hijab… the people
here think we are all cousins of Osama bin Laden.” This misunderstanding of the Muslim culture
gives rise to not only xenophobia but Islamophobia as well. Moreover, one cannot possibly give up
their individuality in order to integrate into a foreign culture.
“As Germans, they do not want you to integrate withthem. They do not give you the opportunity to integratewith them. When you walk by a group of people andeveryone is looking at you in a way that is unwelcome,would this not impact you psychologically? There wasalso the issue of the hijab, this is a huge problem. Now,
they have acclimated a bit. But before, the way I would
be looked at would make me afraid.” —Abdulrahman’s
Wifeii) According to an interview by Observer
Research Foundation (Vohra, 2021), Tareq Alaows
is a Syrian who studied law and international affairs in Damascus and ended up as a refugee inGermany. Alaows became a member of the Green
Party in Germany and resolved to run as a candidate in the upcoming elections to represent a voice
for their community - but nationwide threats haveforced him to withdraw his candidacy. Refugees
like Alaows were broadly discriminated against
and seen simply as conservative Muslims and evenextremists, rather than highly educated professionals with an abundance of knowledge. Alaows
was forced to give up as a political candidate as far
right-wing Germans claimed to feel ‘threatened’
by his presence in politics. Thus, the ‘Integration
Project’ tried to integrate Alaows into German society and give him a voice to speak for his community. However, did the community as a whole try to
accept him?
“The great public interest generated by my candidacy
shows what we refugees can do. But unfortunately, oursociety lacks discrimination-free spaces in many areasof life. It’s up to all of us to actively deal with that in oursurroundings and to change things.” — Tareq Alaowsiii) Lastly, let us take a look at refugees from41

SEP 2022

another country, coming from the same 'Integration Project' centers. A short documentary by
The New York Times (2017) talked about a youngman, Abode Targi, from Libya seeking asylum inGermany. A picture of him holding guns circulated the media, and he was accused of being a riot
leader by German news outlets. The leader of thetheatre circle he joined insists that he is unguilty
and should be allowed into the Integration Project
center. However, because he is an undocumented
immigrant, he is forbidden to receive training orwork in Germany. In Bautzen, there were violent
clashes between Germans and immigrants, andAbode was seen during these riots (DW, 2016). The
police have started two dozen investigations into
Abode; none have led to charges while several havebeen dropped. Authorities called him a public safety risk, and he is now barred from entering Bautzen, where he is still waiting to be deported. The
Integration Project is clearly unable to assist in thiscase as it does not deal with unauthorized immigrants. So, would they never see the light of social
integration in the German society?
“[The Nazis] found a picture of me from 2012 with a gun.
Then it spread on Facebook and YouTube… the photo isfrom my neighbor’s wedding. We went out to celebrate.
Some of us fired guns, some of us had fireworks… nobody
can help me. I'm a young man and I don't know muchabout the world. I'm lost in it - lost.” — Abode Targi

Which Factors might be Hindering Social Integration in Germany?
The Integration Projects are handled and

ISSUE 3managed by the state, but it is up to the immigrants
as well as the German society to help each otherblend in for the real social integration. The projects carried out by the government are a systematic approach, and genuine integration into society
will only happen when the people themselves canaccept one another. As Abdulrahman mentioned
in the first interview above, the receiving country
should be able to differentiate between culture andreligion. Another obstacle to social integration is
the prevalent fear stimulated by politicians, themedia, and some terrorist attacks, which sowed
the seed of fear that there are extremists among
the refugees plotting attacks on the Germans. This
could help to promote the concept of ‘differential
inclusion’ and keep immigrants marginalized in
the society. Events of terrorism have definitely
built up Islamophobia in the heart of German society; however, as the idiom goes, not all the fingersof your hand measure the same. As for Abode, it isclear that his life was made miserable through themisleading news broadcasted by the media. Hence,
the media also plays a massive role in how immigrants are presented in the host country—it caneither help social integration flourish or ruin lives
as was in the case of Abode.
Closing remarks
Tareq Assad, who was preparing to apply
to the University of the Arts in Berlin, said thatproblems remain, and he still has a hard timemaking German friends, but he's optimistic about
the future of the Syrian community in Germany.

kein mensch ist illegal = No man is illegal
Photo by Markus Spiske | Unsplash

42

SEP 2022

Photo by Mika Baumeister | Unsplash

He said to The Century Foundation (2018), "Germany presents for us a lot of opportunities in life.
Of course it's home for us. The place where you
feel safe, and you eat. Arabs say when you eat withpeople for forty days, you become one of them."
One area of research cannot have only negative
aspects; it must have a balance of pros and cons.
Germany seems to be trapped in a liberal paradox,
needing to maintain sufficient supplies of foreignlabor (both skilled and unskilled) while struggling to maintain control of its borders, preserve
the social contract, as well as protect the rights ofimmigrants. It has been just a few years since thisexperiment of the workforce and societal integration in Germany has come into effect, and it is still
too early to draw conclusions from this project.
However, one thing is clear - the state alone will
not be able to successfully implement systematic
projects if the society fails to accept one another.
They must embrace each other’s culture while
maintaining their own.

ISSUE 3

References
Bertelsmann Stiftung (2021, June, 15). The German population is becoming more tolerant of diversity, but polarization is increasing. Bertelsmann Stiftung. https://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/en/our-projects/gesellschaftlicher-zusammenhalt/project-news/the-german-population-is-becoming-more-tolerant-of-diversity-but-polarization-is-increasing
Clark, D. (2021, June 29). Asylum grants in Europe 2020.
Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/293350/
asylum-grants-in-europe/
D. W. (2016, September 16). More police deployed to
Bautzen after riots: DW. D.W. https://www.dw.com/
en/more-police-deployed-to-bautzen-after-riots/a-19556044
D. W. (2020, August 31). 'We can do this!' - Merkel's famouswords five years on after refugee influx to Germany.
D. W. https://www.dw.com/en/merkel-germany-refugees/a-54769229
Espiritu, Y.L. (2003). Home bound: Filipino American lives
across cultures, communities, and countries. Berkeley, CA:
University of California Press.
Hindy, L., et al. (2021, July 8). Germany's Syrian Refugee
Integration Experiment. The Century Foundation.
https://tcf.org/content/report/germanys-syrian-refugee-integration-experiment
Libretexts. (2020, December 16). 1.2G: Durkheim and Social Integration. Social Sci LibreTexts.
Safdar, S., et al. (2021, October 1). Multidimensional individual difference acculturation (MIDA) model: Syrian
refugees' adaptation into Germany. International Journalof Intercultural Relations. https://www.sciencedirect.com/
science/article/abs/pii/S0147176721001498
Tiefenthäler, A., O'neill, S., & Ellis, A. M. (2017, September
22). Seeking asylum in Germany, and finding hatred.
The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/video/
world/europe/100000005090433/libyan-migrant-bautzen-germany.html
The Economist. (2021). Parts of Germany are desperate
for more people. The Economist. https://www.economist.
com/special-report/2021/09/20/parts-of-the-countryare-desperate-for-more-people
UN. (2016, June 20). One in every 113 people in world isdisplaced or a refugee. Euronews. https://www.euronews.
com/2016/06/20/1-in-every-113-people-in-world-isdisplaced-or-a-refugee-un
Vohra, A. (2021, April 19). An uphill battle: Syrian refugees
in Germany want citizenship and political representation. Observer Research Foundation. https://www.orfonline.
org/expert-speak/uphill-battle-syrian-refugees-germany-want-citizenship-political-representation/
Paper for Sociology of Migration 1 (2021).

43

SEP 2022

ISSUE 3

Putting Yourself
Out There
Part 1A conversation between Mattie Balagat and Haruna Miyagawa
Illustrations by Mattie Balagat
What could diving deep into ethnographic fieldwork, a key toolof social science research, look like? What to do with the academicpressure of “objectivity”, the baggage of bias and emotions, and the
responsibilities social science researchers carry in today’s world? Mattie
Balagat, a clueless GDP student interested in pursuing anthropologicalresearch, seeks answers to such questions [which may or may not beanswered] through conversations with Professor Haruna Miyagawa, whoteaches sociology courses in GDP, including DCUL 331: Logic and Methodsof Social Inquiry, a research method course. The following conversation
occurred in September 2021 and it has been cleaned and edited for clarity.

About us“Oh, this could be my space.”
Mattie Balagat studied in a science high schoolin the Philippines before coming to GDP, where shethought she would continue studying the environmental sciences. But after jumping between classes
and clusters, she is now cultivating an interest inenvironmental anthropology—a field she neverconsidered, or even knew about back then. Stepping into the social sciences is for her a dizzying
but strangely familiar journey, as someone who
has always wanted to write about people. She iscurrently thinking of doing fieldwork with coastal
communities in Manila.
“All these things, in hindsight, is sociology.”
Professor Haruna Miyagawa teaches sociology in GDP. She holds a PhD in Sociology from Arizona State University. “Sociology” was not a word
she knew until her third year of college, but she
had been training herself for the field much longer:
Her family moved to the southern state of Tennessee in the U.S. when she was in middle school; shewent on to spend four years there before returning to Japan. Then, as a young minority plunged
into a totally different environment, she not only
observed very “black-and-white” racial relations
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and other social divisions that cut across class andgender, but also experienced an “odd” place as an
expat daughter of a middle class family from “theland of raw fish, ninja, and geisha” (sushi hadn’t
arrived in the Appalachia; Karate Kid had a lasting
impact; Teenage Ninja Turtles was then the new fad;and Memoirs of a Geisha was on the horizon). Her
peers’ interest in her background was often mixed
with curiosity on the one hand and contempt on
the other. She traces her interest in sociology andmigration to such experiences, later on returning
to the U.S. to continue her research.

SEP 2022

An “instinct” for the social sciences?
Haruna Miyagawa: How I ended up at the
Discovery is also a result of the chains of coincidence. I am very happy and I feel very fortunatethat I ended up here, for now at least. But I was
pursuing things along the way that I felt were interesting for me, and they were often related to myexperience in early adolescence. Back then, I was
not able to speak English at all. For the very firstyear, I spoke no word of English—none. I neverspoke up and I was always constantly observing,probably, to understand what was going on, trying
to pick up people’s words, mannerism, their facial
expressions, you know, everything that you would
do as a researcher, being in the field. Fortunately or
unfortunately, I trained myself in that first year in
the US, not being able to understand the language,
not being able to speak my mind or speak back…
That has sort of become… I don’t know, what’s theword?
Mattie Balagat: Reflex? Instinct?
HM: Yeah, like instinct.
Whether I want to do it or not, I feel like I’m
24/7 fieldworking. *laughs*
MB: Yeah, I mean, that’s not a surprising thing.
It’s really an attitude you kind of… embody. It’s
not something you can turn off, and be like, okay,
I’m not going to pay attention to my surroundings
right now… I feel like you get built into it.

ISSUE 3to learn to live life and to learn how to observe.”
And that stuck with me. So for most of high school,
I was just basically trying to make the most of what
I could achieve there, and what I could experience
there. And a lot of my high school experiences, I
consistently translated it into writing, and that’s
how I also fell into poetry.
I feel like the discipline of social sciences is so
close to what I really wanted to achieve, even before I learned about all these disciplines—which isto understand people. So actually while I was taking Medical Anthropology1 — the earlier readings
were talking about psychoanalysis, and it becamevery philosophical and theoretical. I was just like:the process of trying to understand this readingis the process of writing also. And I felt that theway that it connected was so creepy, and I was
like: “This is not… that surprising to me. I’ve done
this before, but also I haven’t. So maybe, there’s
something here.”
On dealing with emotions and “objectivity”
HM: So you have multiple caps you would
wear in the field. As a fieldworker, you’re taking
on various roles in the site. Depending on the time,
the place, who you are interacting with, that, perhaps, changes in the course of the fieldwork… How
many caps do you think you would wear in thefield? How would you integrate or work with the

1 DCUL 330 Medical Anthropology, taught by Professor
Takeshi Uesugi

HM: Yeah, do you feel like that too?
MB: Yeah. I think another thing that drew me
to social sciences— I recalled this when you werebasically recounting your experiences of just observing why things are that way, what brings people to treat people differently. I think I also have akind of similar training. In high school, I was kindof the “writing person”. And even before—actually
I didn’t really want to go to a science high school
but the tuition was free— I really wanted to be awriter, that preceded all my other goals for life.
Even before high school, [I was saying] “I’m goingto publish a book, I’m going to write a lot, that’sme, that’s my identity.” So in the process, I picked
up what it really means to be a writer. I remember
one of my writing teachers telling me, “You need
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SEP 2022

ISSUE 3different caps?
MB: Oh, it’s so scary. I think this is a very
people skills question. Because when I think about
multiple caps, for some reason, I always think about
my mom. She occupies all these different positions
in life, daughter, mother, baker… And she’s really
good at conversation. Conversation and interactingwith different kinds of people. And I always think,
I wanna be like that. I wanna be that seamless andtry to, you know, open myself up, also talk to people at the very level they are comfortable with. So I
feel like it’s a very contextual question. How many
caps? Depending-on-who-I talk-to kind of deal.
But I’m trying to occupy a lot of spaces, I feellike that’s a lot of identities. Student, environmental advocate-slash-activist, NGO worker, youth,
Manila city girl, from a very upper-middle-classbackground, researcher, studies in Japan, probably
very “landed”… I know about all of those, but thesecond question… I don’t know! That is the question I wanted to ask you. Like how do you workwith all that!
Okay, example, I’m going to interview, ofcourse, I have to introduce myself as a researcher.
But I see myself during the interview, I’ll jump inand be like… ah, I know about that situation, I’mfrom this, bla bla. So, [this matter] really messes
with my brain, it calls this whole discussion about
distance and emotion. Because I know I’m just notable to like… compartmentalize. I can’t do that.
HM: Right, but then do you have to compartmentalize?—is my question. It seems the way you
pose it, you feel like you have to have a distancefrom the participants, but do you?
MB: I don’t know if this is just my assumption,
but is it really possible to do this fieldwork about
this environmental NGO stuff while I’m in it? I
think you have to put distance between what you
want to do and the whole position of a researcher.
There’s also the pressure of “objectivity”—I don’t
like that word anymore because I don’t know what
it means.*laughing*
HM: Well, I think anything that has to involve
human action, whether it’s social science, humanities, or natural science, or creative art, I think it
can never be purely objective, because you observe.
Of course, the process has to be somewhat systematic, to be somewhat objective. But there is a limit46

to objectivity, even in the natural sciences. Because
it’s in the eyes that you’re observing. And then ofcourse, you’re testing things, or using measurements, but who created those measurements,right? Humans, and humans exist in social relations. Objectivity, in the pure sense, is questionable from my perspective, in any sciences, social
sciences or natural sciences.
[On compartmentalizing:] If you didn’t havethe passion to begin with, how can you evenstart? You may be able to start because your advisor told you to do it, or because there is a grantthat will allow you to work on this project. But how
can you sustain the interest, and how can you bevery interested in the people you talk to, unless you
have some sort of passion that drives the research,
right? So I don’t know about compartmentalizing
things. And if there is the need to do so, I don’t necessarily agree. I think without passion, without
emotion… it won’t be fun and interesting to begin
with. Let alone to continue it would be torturous, I
think.
MB: Yeah… that’s a good word, torturous.
HM: And if the researcher himself or herself
feels torturous, what about the readers, right? Itshows.
MB: Even though we acknowledge that there
is really no objectivity in a pure sense, there arestill standards that your research or your observations will be measured against. How do you balance that kind of need to seek credibility andSEP 2022

your personal emotions? Like is it just in the writing? In the fieldwork, you can all be so engaged,
and in the writing, you kind of have to withhold…?
HM: Well, depends on the audience, I think.
Who would you like to “impress”? Who are you
writing for? And for what purpose? That depends
on how you write and how you present the samematerial that you have generated in conducting research. So if you were to be “well-respected” in theacademe, you have to present the data in the waythat is agreed upon in that community. But that’s
not the only way to go about in presenting yourfindings, even if you have the same material. Oneof the ways is writing about yourself clearly, where
you stand, upfront. So that the data that you present, in like the Findings section, is understood withthe presumption of that—where you stand politically. Of course, if you do that, people could argue,“okay this data was biased, or it speaks as such,
because the scholar or the researcher has a certain
perspective to begin with.” And that happens all
the time. Everything scholars produce is always
infused with their values, including their political position, whether it’s obvious or not. Thereis some level of subjectivity involved. Whether thereaders agree upon it or not, it’s good to debate. So
long as you make your position clear, you provide
your argument with the source that people can debate upon, and if they can refute your position bybringing another perspective and different typesof data, then that’s okay, right? Because of this,knowledge can continue to grow and expand andbe critiqued.

ISSUE 3

MB: This is more on the writing part. It depends on who you want to write for and how thosepeople would want it presented, but how do you
deal with these concerns of objectivity and bias
during your fieldwork, like what do you consider, what do you have to resolve when you do fieldwork?
HM: Right. You go in with who you are, andit’s a whole baggage that you carry—that’s been
influenced by your education, previous training,your previous experiences, very much your lifelong history, personal biography—to the field.
And then you interact with the event or the people
there. Based on your background, what you observe, or what catches your eyes is unavoidably influenced. In that sense there is a bias, because you
are selectively choosing to see something thoughunconsciously. That’s influenced by your biography. But try to make use of everything that you
have been exposed to… It’s related to your earlier point about being a writer, having experienced
everything you can when you are given the situation. Even then there is a limitation to the experience you can actually bring in. But try to haveas much things in your stuffed bag, so that once
you’re in the field you’ll be able to see more or as
widely as possible.
Another important thing I think is not tomake quick judgments. Because we are biased, or
tend to see or pay attention to certain things, wetend to check boxes—once that’s observed, we tend
to move on, and see something else that’s within
our scope. Try not to move on that quickly, try not
to make quick judgments that you have seen what
you have seen or heard what you think you haveheard. So I guess, [have] patience with yourself,
patience with what you hear from others, patience with what you can see… hmm…yes, patience. *laughs*
Read the continuation of this conversation on the Polyphony
blog, where the two talk about entering into fieldwork, dealing
with anxieties in building relationships with study participants, and having transformative fieldwork experiences.
DCUL 331: Logic and Methods of Social Inquiry is taught by Professor Haruna Miyagawa every Term 1 and 2.

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ISSUE 3

Humans ofGDP

Words by Alyana Reina Q. Morales

Humans of GDP is a student-run
Instagram account that features GDP
students from across all batches. We
believe that each student is uniquewith their own stories to tell. Witharound 60 new students coming ineach year, most of our classmates arestill strangers. They are only faces we
see around the hallway or names wehear in classes. Through interviewing
students, we learn that we are notat all that different from each otherdespite our cultural differences. We
hope that everyone who will read thestories of the students learn something new from each of them.

Hiina Shiota
My dream used to be becoming a veterinarian since I’ve always loved animals (even now). I have a dog named isRanmaru (蘭丸). He is a Shiba dog (柴犬). His name was given by my sister.
My family decided to adopt him after I graduated from high school. My
mother and I saw the flyers about the
adoption when we went shopping oneday. After a thorough discussion about
it, we decided to adopt him aroundJune. I think overall, the time spent
with Ranmaru will always be fun andmemorable. If I were to choose themost memorable moment with him,
perhaps it might be the first time hewent to a dog run (a place where dogs
can have fun running around andplaying). It was fun playing catch withhim. We also got to eat at a restaurant
afterwards, and took some pictures inthe backyard of the restaurant. However, I realized somewhere along theway that I was not good with Chemistry and Mathematics, meaning it
would be hard for me to achieve my
dream of being a veterinarian, which
was why I decided to give up on it.

Yuki Genko
The fact that I’m a 帰国子女 (kikokushijo), someone who grew up andstudied abroad, still put me in a place
where people treated me differently. I
had a lot of anger in me. People didn’t
understand or even try to understandthe difficulties people have when
they come from a different country.
Through those experiences, I started
drawing again to express myself until
I developed the idea of turning my illustrations into products. I had a popup store last year where I sold pins andother goods that had my illustrations
on them. Now, I work part-time jobs to
support myself and do the things that
I want to do like preparing for anotherpop-up store.

Rose Mothapo
It [my organization] was mainly inspired by my mother who lived a positive life with HIV. She was a humanitarian and an HIV activist. When she
passed on, I wanted to continue herlegacy. The organization is an NPO. Its
name is Tina Organization. I am constantly disheartened by the news inSouth Afrca of the high rape cases andgender-based violence in women so I
wante to do something to change that,even if it was not going to be overnight.
This organization serves to empower,
strengthen, enlighten, and bring hopeto the young women in South Africa.

Learn more about the
Humans of GDP on their
Instagram Page,@humansofgdp .

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