Japanese Housewives

So I think I'm going to briefly postpone my post about "Heart of Darkness" until I get done completely re-reading it. But until then...


Here's an article that struck my interest.

Now yesterday I had just met with the japanese women at my old church for a going away party. I hadn't seen these women in over a year and was delighted to see new faces. My mom and a couple other women from the church meet weekly with a group of japanese ladies to work on their conversational English skills. My mom doesn't know japanese but these ladies are already pretty proficient with english words but lacking the space to put them into context. Yesterday was so much fun. They are all very friendly and so polite and some that I pegged as mid 20's turned out to be mid-30's, they were so bubbly. It's just a space and a time that they can have conversations in english and feel comfortable, opposed to a busy superstore or over the phone with a stranger. All of the women have come here with their husbands who work for japanese corporations and spend most of their days alone with their children. They meet alot with other japanese women for camaraderie and then see their husbands for only a few hours every evening as they all work close to 12 hour days. It is so far off from my perception of family life, the kind that I was raised with, that it's jolting to the mind. I was raised with a working father and a stay at home mom with a part time job. She was always available and I saw my dad when he came home around 5 every night. For them though, they say goodbye to their husbands in the morning, take their kids to school and then....I don't know. They run errands, meet with other women, clean, get the kids from school, make dinner, etc. Then their kids don't see their father unless they wake up early enough in the morning. Their long work days seem like a point of pride for their wives, and as they went around the table comparing how much their husbands worked, one seemed almost bashful when she shared that her husband was home around five on the weekdays. When we asked why they work such long hours they explained that it's just customary to stay until the job is finished and that it's rude to just leave if someone asks something of them.


I admire these women greatly as they all seem to go through so much on their own in a foreign country and yet are still so excited and joyful. When I was talking with them, slowly, which was difficult because I tend to ramble, they just seemed so genuinely interested in what I was saying that I almost had a hard time focusing on where I was going with my thought. They enthusiastically nod and "Mmhmm....mmm....uh huh" and then wait until you're clearly done speaking before they add onto it. I couldn't get over their degree of politeness and it made me feel almost self conscious as I didn't want to offend them in any way. But mostly I just couldn't get over how friendly they all were. Once again, much respect to these women.

But I think the article above emphasizes that they might be more than just housewives.

Another interesting article.