Reading the Air

The Japanese are a very homogeneous culture - in physical appearance and attitude. This means that they do not share our discomfort with nudity, and they often dis-robe at drinking parties or bathe naked together at public onsens or hot springs. There isn't the same mystery to nudity as there is in the States because there isn't such variety.

But this homogeneity also breeds somewhat of a group-think mentality. On our outing on Sunday (over breakfast at Denny's), Dr. G asked the resident Eri to explain the idea of kukioyamu to me.

She sighed, "It's very childish. It's like, if a group of friends are all going to dinner, and three people want to go to Chinese, but one friend says no, he wants sushi. That person... people will stop talking to him."

"For how long?"

"Months," came the unexpected answer.

"Maybe even until he finishes his residency," Dr. G adds.

"He is shunned," Eri continues. "That's kukioyamu," which literally translates as reading the air. "It's very childish," she repeats.

It certainly is. It reminds me of my friends in the States who learned not to be know-it-alls in elementary school if you wanted friends. But that was when we were kids, not adults. Plus, in America, even if you went against the grain, you could still hang out with the fat kid, or the boy with glasses, or the minority child, or the girl who's too tall. There is a frightening lack of oddballs here to keep you company. Kukioyamu is a powerful concept.

It encourages students who are good English speakers to keep quiet during English lessons so as not to show off. Residents are unwilling to criticize another's idea or they change their minds at the first word of dissent from a superior, rather than defending their idea, building on it, making it stronger. I haven't been able to engage someone in a good, solid philosophical argument here. As a former debater, it can be frustrating.

Even more maddening is how it affects morning rounds, which can go on for hours, often taking a rambling course and never coming to a consensus on what is the final diagnosis and the plan of action. Because it is uncouth to take credit for the best idea or criticize a poor idea, so the discussion just sort of peters out to a quiet, unsatisfying end.

But it would be unfair to not recognize also what society gains from this mentality. For instance, there is art everywhere here. It is in the ceramic tiling on their houses, the well-manicured gardens in the yards, the precise wrapping of a gift. Art, music, an appreciation of beauty, is a natural part of life that all share. In America, society tends to encourage us to drop out of activities when we don't possess "special talent". Rather than recognizing that, despite your level of talent, sketching a scene or playing an instrument can be an ordinary, but enriching part of everyday life.