OVER THE ANGLO-NIPPON BRIDGE
Your author has always had a strong karmic connection to Japan – and later to its people. As a small child during World War 11, I lived in a cauldron of fear, kept simmering by wild speculation of an impending Japanese invasion.
I however redeemed by Nipon-phobia by being the very first Steiner teacher, in Lorien Novalis, the school my wife and I founded, to have Japanese taught as the obligatory primary school second language. This was 1972. Detail on teaching Foreign Language, Class 1 to 7, can be found in my book Genii of Language.
In a continuing quest to deepen my understanding of Asian spirituality, my wife Susan and myself made our first visit to The Land of the Rising Sun in 1986. Our second was ten years later; this time to conduct a seminar on Steiner Education. We must have done something right, as we have been invited back every year since (our first 3rd Millennium odyssey begins in July 2000).
The courses have been given in many cities, including Hiroshima, Osaka, Hitachi, Matsui and others. The on-going imperative has been to interpret the results of a hitherto European-dominant Spiritual Science for an Oriental audience. This is especially the case in relation to the five post-Atlantean ‘civilization’, from Etheric Body Ancient India to the current Consciousness Soul Anglo-Nippon.
The following light article is meant to highlight this (hopefully cultural) meeting of East and West – a demand of the time according to Rudolf Steiner. It is an account of an incident which took place during a four month visit to Osaka, where Susan and I were required to lay the foundations of Steiner Homeschooling in Japan. I also thought that, in some obscure way, the article had something to do with teaching Japanese; a completion of the cycle as it were:
MY JUST DESSERTS
I’m not sure whether it was one of those wonderful big, pink Japanese apples, or an hour of relief in the air-conditioning, which turned by idle steps into the local suburban supermarket.
“Such a tantalizing array – and so cool!” I mused as I strolled among the confection refrigerators. Then I saw her – an attractive 20s-something girl in a pink uniform smilingly extending to me a tray of delicious sample desserts. Her dentile welcome gave me courage to practice my entire Japanese vocabulary in one delightful, meeting-of-cultures experience.
“Konnichiwa” I said as I approached the tender trap.
“Arigato.” I said as I took the proffered delicacy.
“Oishee.” I said as I tasted it.
“Sayonara.” I concluded; before wandering off to the meat refrigerators.
Here I would routinely stop to allow the cold air to find its way up the legs of my smart K-Mart shorts. This was an irregular practice no doubt, judging by the looks askance of my fellow shoppers. But a middle-aged jaijin can be forgiven just about any social defect in this Empire of Politeness – or so I hoped. Then somehow my feet carried me, unprotestingly, round to the dessert girl again.
“konnichiwa!” I said with higher inflection than before… “Arigato!”… “Oishee!”… “Sayonara”. On my next circuit of the sanitized aisles, I feigned interest in the innumerable – pink again – “Hello Kitty” products crowding the shelves in the mercenary department. Then, to my surprise, I had completed the cycle once again!
“Konnichiwa!!” I beamed…and you know the rest. My conversational confidence was rising in direct proportion to Dessert Girl’s smile. Then back to the cornucopia of consumerism. This time I stood for some time in a line of seemingly hypnotized high school girls (they were all browsing through a pint (yet again?) haze of comics and toothy teen mags, before…
“Konnichiwa!!!” etc. etc., But this time was different, I felt my new friend had earned a sale (from my observations, the only one in about an hour). So wedged between the Oishee and the Sayonara, I bravely took my Japanese a step further. “Kore.” I said; then “Kore.” Again – and several more times as I remembered the number of people having dinner at home that evening. Heavy of basket, but light of heart, I said a last warm “Sayonara.” To a dessert smile wider than a Samurai sword. My plentitude of “Special Selected Egg Baked Pudding” was popularly received that night.
“Arigato goziamashte.” Enthused my grateful hots.
“doitashimashite” I casually replied…?! Now why didn’t I remember that one down at the supermarket?! It would have been worth another couple of free samples at least!
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