Lance News
“I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.” - Voltaire
students who knew some Japanese
and had ridden their bicycles to the
grocery store to collect food for
dinner. They saw people parked
right in front of the store next to
a no parking sign, clearly labeled
with a picture of a bicycle circled in
red and crossed out, but they parked
there since they saw Japanese
people doing the same thing. They
were slightly surprised to come
out of the grocery store to see their
bikes with little tickets stuck to
the handle bars, like every other
bike in the row before them. The
policeman was still there, having
just ticketed their bikes and moving
down the row to the last few. As
they approached their bikes the man
looked at them for a moment, and
snatched back their tickets, ripping
them on the spot. They started to
point to where the tickets had been,
looking confused, but the officer
just said “no” and wandered away.
When something of this nature
occurs - when a foreigner gets away
with something that would, for any
normal Japanese person, result in
a reprimand if not a punishment,
it is customary for those who have
escaped punishment to say “gaijin
smash” in the same tone as one
would say cool. Gaijin Smash relates
to the fact that we can break minor
laws or social faux pas and not have
to worry about punishment or rude
glares. Though there are vending
machines everywhere in Japan it
is customary to either stand at the
machine and eat or drink whatever
was purchased or to stow it away and
eat it at home. When the Japanese
see a gaijin walking and consuming
something from a vending machine
they usually shrug it off as
- “oh, well, they’re a foreigner”
and go about their normal life.
Another case of the Gaijin
License in Japan is the bus system.
My friend Kim and I had gotten onto
the bus heading downtown in order
to apply for our Alien Registration
Certificates. We had traveled the
bus system before and knew that
unlike in America one pays as you
leave the bus instead of when you
get on, but we had always had the
correct change. Usually you drop
your money in the top of a clear
box, it drops to a conveyor beh, and
the bus driver makes sure you have
paid the right amount as you leave.
There are also change machines
on the buses, cormected to the part
with the conveyor belt. Kim only
had a bill, so as we were leaving,
she stuck her bill in, collected her
change, and walked off the bus. I
dropped my money in and was only
a step behind her as we exited, but
strangely the bus driver honked as
Kim stepped off. We didn’t think
Gay in License
((Continued from page 1)
much of it, and stood outside culture. Our guides had taken
the bus trying to figure out us to the Kiyomizu Temple
which direction city hall where there is a holy spring,
was in. As we stood with For a small fee one is able
our backs to the bus the bus to lean towards the spring
driver suddenly stood beside and fill up a water bottle as it
us, looking very official in his juts out in three arcs like rain
dark blue suit and hat, his face water from a roof into a pool
covered with a white mask below with some stepping
that many Japanese people stones across it. The water,
wear to prevent sickness. His originally coming straight
white gloved hand reached out of the rock, now comes
out palm up and with the through at the carved roof of
index finger of his other hand a small shrine where three
he tapped his open palm. It statues lurk beneath its haven
clicked in Kim’s head before watching the crowds. The last
mine that the change machine of our group had just arrived
she had put her bill in was at this holy spring where two
just a change machine, and Japanese women stood at the
did not take out the bus fare, edge of the pool trying to
She apologized profusely in reach their water bottle far
Japanese as she followed him enough out to fill it, but were
back to the bus and amended having some difficulty with
the situation, but spent a long the distance and one almost
moment afterwards feeling lost her balance. A boy from
quite embarrassed and is now Kansas had just arrived with
not very fond of bus drivers, the last of the group, and.
The last story I have to seeing these women “in
share is about my first trip distress” he immediately
to Kyoto. It was a guided walked forward to help them,
tour provided by Japanese even though he didn’t know
students fix)m school during any Japanese. For some
the first week of orientation, reason, he decided that if he
the main idea being to show was on the far side of them
us the train system, and some he would be able to reach the
spring better, but the only way
to get there was to step on the
stepping stone in the pool to
get around the women. As he
did so there was an audible
gasp from the Japanese who
stood nearby watching with
the gaijin college students,
most of whom were flashing
their cameras and talking in
various languages as they
watched Kansas and the
Japanese women. Kansas, as
he is now called, then tried
to reach the water bottle out
into the spring, but unable
to reach it, he stepped again
onto the stone in the pool, to
an even louder audible gasp
of the Japanese section of the
crowd. It was about this point
that a security officer working
at the temple came over
gesturing for him to get away
from the shrine. Apparently
one was only allowed to
step on the stepping stones
if ones shoes were removed,
but being unable to speak
Japanese he hadn’t been able
to understand this. The officer
only ensured that Kansas leflt
the pool and then retreated
shaking his head. This offence
would probably have resulted
in some sort of punishment if
he had not been a foreigner.
So, does this mean
that gaijin should use their
upper hand advantage to
see how far they can get
with breaking customs and
minor laws? I don’t think
so, because eventually the
balance will tip, and someone
will pull one too many Jenga
blocks out of the tower. As far
as I’m concerned I don’t plan
on poking sleeping dragons
in Japan, but I will certainly
use my Gaijin License to
walk past them sipping
Fanta Melon Sodas from the
vending machines and when I
return home I will have a bit
more patience for foreigners.
Kime Neal sight seeing. Picture
courtesy of Kime Neal.
Lecture By Father Bracken Presented At Religion And Science Roundtable
An ailment prevented guest
speaker Father JosephA. Bracken firom
delivering his address at this week’s
Religion and Science Roundtable at
St. Andrews Presbyterian College,
but his speech was ably presented
by Dr. Dan Ott, assistant professor
of religious studies at St. Andrews.
Bracken’s presentation
“Overcoming The Clash Of Two
Cultures” explored the relationship
between religion and natural
science as described by natural
scientists. Bracken advocates for
the view that things only exist and
flourish in mutual interdependence.
“One of the controversial
issues between natural scientists and
theologians is the relation between
matter and spirit,” said Bracken.
“Natural scientists tend to distrust
the notion of spirit as something
introduced by God or by some other
supernatural agency as an organizing
principle for material components.
“But philosophers and
theologians point out that, if
scientists do not admit the invisible
workings of spirit in this world,
nature is nothing more than a ‘cosmic
machine.’ Everything is programmed
in terms of mathematically
fixed laws and principles.”
More than 60 people turned
out for the first of two Religion and
Science roundtables this spring at St.
Andrews. Bracken serves as the chair
of the Theology Department at Xavier
University in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has
written or edited nine books and more
than75scholariyarticles.Hislatestbook
is Christianily and Process Thought:
Spirituality for a Changing World.
Dan Oil and Alan Dotson at the
Religion and Science Round Table. Picture
courtesy
Bracken explained how
natural scientists and theologians
can agree upon the same basic
terms - matter and spirit - with at
least somewhat the same meaning
within their respective disciplines.
“This may seem like a very
modest gain in terms of sustaining
the dialogue between the proponents
of religion and science, but it is a
necessary first step in constructing a
mutually satisfactory worid view,” said
Bracken. “What is clearly needed is a
new world view equally plausible to
both scientists and religious believers.
“Suchanewworldviewisslowly
taking place and it will presumably
be a relational ontology with heavy
emphasis on the interconnectedness
and interdependence of
everything on everything else.
“Moreover, in the hands of
Christian philosophers and theologians,
this new world view could well be
supported by a new vmderstanding of
the doctrine of the Trinity, the so-called
social model for the Trinity which
emphasizes the interdependence of the
divine persons both with one another
and with all their creatures. But for the
moment, we just have to wait and see.”
The next Religion and
Science Roundtable will be April 24
when Gary B. Femgren, professor
of ancient history at Oregon State
University, presents “Science and
Religion; Adversaries or Allies.”
The Religion and Science
roundtables are associated with the
annual John Calvin McNair Lecture
on Science and Theology. The
McNair Lecture was established by
his 1857 will that asked that “the
object of which lecture(s) shall be to
show the mutual bearing of Science
and Theology upon each other ...”