Yesterday, there was announcement that TV Asahi and TBS are going to YouTube to stream their video content to users. They are wanting to use the popularity and the backbone of YouTube to offer quality service to viewers. However, I am not sure if something is getting lost in translation or not because what I am reading is “Streaming” and what I am seeing on their pages is news segments. Granted they are technically streaming its not a true live stream, anyway.

This is a great opportunity to get some real world content almost live since they seem be posting it the same day the news segments happen.

TBS

TBS is joining with just its news content, but as read while reading up it is free for now there are reports that they want to monetize on it later. Here is a link to their Channel on youtube and a video too.

TBS Youtube Channel

TV Asahi

TV Asahi too is adding their news stuff too, but it seems they are going to be going a step further and offering non-news content eventually too. I am definitely going to keep an eye on the non-news channel for sure.

ANN News – TV Asahi News Channel
TV Asahi – Non-News Channel

This is exciting, at least for me, because it is an opportunity to watch news broadcasts in decent quality and kind of stay up with everything, and actually know how to control what I am watching. I have tried to visit Japanese news sites before and get lost trying to watch stuff. I recommend watching stuff on these channels to take advantage of learning more about Japan and working on Japanese comprehension.

News Sources:
YouTube Streams TV Asahi, TBS – The Japan Times Online
Japan YouTube Blog

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The title is a bit misleading, but serves our purposes as a starting point. First I want to bring up that I am an Eagle Scout in the “Boy Scouts of America” and strongly believe in the values, skills and life lessons I have learned in Boy Scouts having been in it for almost 20 years now. Now that you have a bit of perspective of why I am writing this lets look a bit into “what” scouting is about.

What is Scouting

If scouts could be summed up in a couple a few sentences I would have to say it is a program that offers youth an opportunity to learn about the world and interact with others from people their own age to adults. Skills in outdoors, communications, and leadership are developed over several years of interaction with all types of people and through the school of hard knocks. It helps prepare young people to better prepare themselves for the future by presenting similar situations to them that they would come up against later in life.

To illustrate how Scouting can better prepare you for the future i’d like to call on a personal example instead of trying to rely on some abstract explanation. In scouting you must serve in a leadership role be-it a small group or the whole group. I served a few terms as the senior youth leader in which I had to plan and run the meetings and delegate accordingly. This involved more paper work and co-ordination than anything else. I had to make sure I found who could do what and helped to co-ordinate so they could do what they needed, usually teaching something. This is not unlike running a company you spend more time doing administrative tasks over what your business actually does.

So how has this helped me for the future. Well the easiest example would be that I am currently helping to start a Japanese Language Club at my local college and it is mostly paperwork and coordinating with people to make sure we are doing things right. I can easily step into this role and fulfill it because of the direct benefits of Scouting.

Hopefully that helps you gauge an idea of the benefits of scouting. So lets move on.

History of Scouting in Japan

Pre-World War II

The first Boy Scout Troop was formed in Japan in 1909 at a school, but quickly disappeared when the teacher left that school. Many more troops sprang up here and there accross japan for the next 13 years, but there was no real guiding force behind them. In 1922 Boy Scouts of Japan was officially formed and became a true organization. Scouting in Japan came to be noticed by the public after the Great Kanto earthquake in 1923 when Scouts help to rebuild, and the statesman who was incharge of the rebuilding process was able to bring word of Boy Scouts to the general public during his travels around Japan.

World War II

Scouting almost died during World War II and shortly there after during the occupation as former military personal were scrutinzed and not given much lee-way in what they could do. Later though things relaxed and Scouting flourished in Japan once more with membership growing to 80,000 members in only a few short years.

Today

SAJ celebrated its 75th Anniversary of founding of the National Scout Association in 1997, and hosted the second Asia-Pacific Regional Top Leaders’ Summit Conference in Gotemba and Tokyo.

Scouting in Japan has grown steadily and established an eminent place for itself in social education for young people. The aim of the Scout Association of Japan is to help young people become responsible humanitarian citizens, who can appreciate and practice loyalty, courage and self-respect in an international perspective. With the support of volunteer leaders, the Scout movement in Japan provides fun filled, challenging programs, with an emphasis on developing each young person’s character, health, abilities and sense of service to others.

The Scout Association of Japan is a non-political, voluntary movement, with open subscription. The geographic structure of Japanese Scouting is the Council, generally conforming to prefecture boundaries. Japanese Scouting also exists abroad, in communities with large native Japanese populations, such as Amsterdam, Netherlands and Singapore.

Earlier I said the title was a bit misleading. I say that because Boy Scouts of Japan re-named to Scout Association of Japan, and abbreviated as SAJ. SAJ then opened the doors to the girls/female youth in all Sections in 1995.

Structure of Scouting Program in Japan

The United States as 3 sections to it. Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Venturing, with venturing being a bit of a side thing more than an integral part. However the SAJ has 5 parts to it.

Beaver Scouts
This is for the youngest group. It mostly exists to form new relationships with others and have fun learning basic skills and team work. A couple of activities might be basic arts and crafts to visiting the zoo with fellow Beaver’s.

Cub Scouts
Cub Scouts is for the bit more mature so might extend activities to include more complex arts and crafts along with camping skills at a basic level and start to introduce them to things they will come accross in Boy Scouts.

Boy Scouts
At this point the scout has a basic understanding of camping skills and other related skills along with the ability to participate and accomplish things with others. So now starts the path of learning leadership and further develop camping skills beyond setting up a tent and eating.

Venture
This is more advanced part of scouting where you will take everything you have learned and usually start to lead larger groups of people in various activities as you work towards Fuji Scout. You learn to deal with all kinds of people as by this age many people have matured to a point where attitudes are easily distinguishable. Along with all this you will probably start participating in activities going beyond just camping in the woods from white watering kayaking to Extended Backpacking trips, or even Mountain Climbing, via cliff faces.

At this level you work towards Fuji Scout which is the highest rank in SAJ equivalent to Eagle Scout in the United States. As I understand it not many Scouters are able to earn the rank of Fuji Scout much like the rank of Eagle where only 2% of all total scouts earn Eagle Scout. I read somewhere that as of 1998 only 3000 people had earned Fuji Scout. I was unable to find information that I could read regarding total numbers of scouts in Japan.

Rover
This level is a personal growth section where one grows through service to scouting, their family, and their community.

Scout Motto, Promise/Oath, and laws

The scouting program in Japan is broken up into 2 distinct parts. Cub Scouts and “Regular Scouts”. Cub scouts are your elementary age kids (Beaver and Cub) while Regular Scouts are Middle School to High School aged (Scout, Venture and Rover). Each level has a motto which is something that is quick and meaningful that you should try to do everyday. The promise, or oath, which is something that you will strive to do in life. And laws which you should follow to be the best you can. I’ll list these now.

Scouts

Motto

• Be prepared

Promise

• On my honor, I promise I will do my best to do my duty to God/Buddha and the country, and to obey the Scout Laws, to help other people at all times, and to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.

Laws

• A Scout is
  1. Faithful
  2. Friendly
  3. Courteous
  4. Kind
  5. Cheerful
  6. Thrifty
  7. Courageous
  8. Thankful

Cub Scouts

Motto

• Always, Be in High Spirits

Promise

• I promise to behave honestly and steadily, and to follow the pack laws

Pack Laws

• Cub Scouts
  1. Obey
  2. Look After Themselves
  3. Work Together
  4. Help Younger Ones
  5. Do Good Deeds

Ranks

Each rank builds on each other and are merit based. You must earn the ranks they are not awarded based on age. Here they are in order.

1. Tenderfoot (Tenderfoot)
2. 2nd Class (Ni-kyu)
3. 1st Class (Ikkyu)
4. Chrysanthemum (kiku)
5. Fuji Scout (Comparable to Eagle Scout)

Noteable Scouts

• Ryutaro Hashimoto, the 82nd and 83rd Prime Minister of Japan
• Yukio Hattori, the fifth president of the Hattori Nutrition College, commentator on the Japanese cooking competition program Iron Chef
• Soichi Noguchi, Japanese astronaut
• Makoto Raiku, mangaka (Zatch Bell!)

Conclusion

There is much much much more detail I could go into, but I think this is a good overview to go beyond the general boy scouting is for youth explanation. The basic structure and purpose is important to understand to really understand what scouting is about. There is one thing to remember though, at the end of the day beyond all the politics beyond all the bickering that may happen; at the end of they Scouting is about one thing and one thing only helping the youth of today become good responsible adults in the future. That is a truly noble and great goal for all.

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To get started with J-Pop you first need to actually do some listening to j-pop. Visit my post on “Online Japanese Music Radio Stations” to get started listening right now.

Next is to get started listening and finding artists you like. I asked on twitter if people had any suggestions on what they like J-Pop wise. Here are their replies.

So lets list them all here to remove duplicates. As a note some of these artists are pop-rock. I took out the pure rock ones.

Arashi
M-flo
Monkey Majik
Girl Next Door
l’arc~en~ciel
halcali
Greeeen
Leo Imai
Janne da arc
Perfume
Buono!
Hikaru Utada
Nichika
Yui

As you can probably see there are quite a few and this is a great set to start with and have something in common with others to talk about. So now we have a list of artists lets take a listen to some of their music. Below are you tube videos of some of their music to get started with so you can know how they sound.

Arashi

M-flo

Monkey Majik

Girl Next Door

l’arc~en~ciel

halcali

Greeeen

Leo Imai

Janne da arc

Perfume (Because I like Perfume the most here are 2 songs )

Buono!

Hikaru Utada

Nichika

Yui

There are some songs and bands for you. The next step is to get the CD/Album whatever and listen and learn more about them to start branching out beyond those to really start reaching into JPop. Hopefully, this is a good primer to get you more into J-Pop.

I want to give a special thanks to the following people for there suggestions
MagicalEmi (http://shoujo-manga.com/)
Yonasu (http://yonasu.com)
rjhoolan
turhangross (http://omgitsturhan.com/)

Please if you have others you suggest leave them in the comments and have fun with the music.

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There are a lot of different resources I use to listen to japanese audio.  One of them is streaming online stations.  Here are a few I listen to.

Kawaii-Radio:
This is my favorite station as it plays mostly anime soundtracks and that tends to be more of the Japanese music I like since I watch so much anime.  This one is completely free, but they do wish for you to make a donation.  I have a couple of times since I like it so much. I am a daily listener.

Armitage’s Dimension:
If i had to choose my second most listened to station it would be this one, but compared to Kawaii-radio not a whole lot.  It is also very good, but i just prefer kawaii-radio.  Definitely check it out for a while and see if you like it.

Japan A Radio:
This is another station I like they play a good variety and are a more full fledged actual radio station. It is “free”, but to get the most out of it I recommend paying for it.

JRockRadio:
If you like JRock then this station is for you.  I don’t tune in a lot, maybe once a week.  From what I have seen they have pretty much everything you need or would want, but then I am not a JRock expert at all.

JShoxx:
Another JRock, all JRock, station I don’t listen to this one much, but thought I would mention it since it was referred to me by several other people.

Here are some others I know of, but have never actually listened to or looked at very much.

Hard Core J
Keiichi Extreme Anime Radio
Shinsen Radio
Sars-Fansub Radio
Hardrave

And finally here is a Japanese site with Radio Stations listed. Just click around the map at the top and find a station to listen to.
Simulradio

Updated: (these are radio stations added after the initial post)
91.8 The Fan

What are some radio stations you listen to, or how do you get your Japanese music?

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It seems that in every society there is a set of rules which need to be followed day-to-day which are intuitive to all.  No one speaks of these rules except if a group is doing introspection on society.  If someone were to break one of these rules it can be embarrassing or uncomfortable for the person who knows and understands the rule.

An example of the above is ending a conversation.  In America, at least where I am from, just by changing the inflection you can signal the end of a conversation.  One such way to do this is in passing when you stop to talk to a person for a second and get some information.  Normally, you would just say okay with a bit of a higher tone and force than normal, generally this is the sign of we are done I need to go.  However, there are people that do not catch this social queue and keep talking.  It can be awkward to some degree to say “hey I have to go” as it might seem rude.

Japan is no different there are unwritten social rules people are expected to follow, but may not necessarily ever be written down or discussed explicitly, especially if you are foreign.  Some of what I learned in this research on unspoken culture has really opened up a whole new understanding of what I see in anime, manga, and live action, or read about in news articles.  To some degree it will change the way you think about certain things.  Some of this information is intuitive and after watching enough anime, live action, and/or Japanese news you can pick up on it, but to be explicitly made aware of it could save you some pitfalls with interaction as you can keep it on your mind.

To start most of my information came from At Home in Japan.  The site is a very long read, well thought out and very informative.  I am going to provide my understanding of the site and a summary of what I read.  This post is a bit long, but please read it as it might be very informative and helpful to you.

We are going to talk about Tatemae and Honne first then Uchi and Soto.  Both are key to really understand the layers or wrapping of Japanese social society.

Lets Get Started:
The first thing to understand is everything in Japan is wrapped up.  Whether it be physical, mental, or theoretical everything exists inside of something else, like an onion.  Some key things to note you can physically see are food(obento), houses (usually inside gate), construction sites, and not physical is language.  These all have layers to them from sugar packets which are individual to a bigger box.  Houses usually have gates around them, then the front door, and even then the entry way, it is layered toward you getting to the main subjects of the house.  Then you have the language with multiple layers of formality that if broken lead to some pretty awkward situations.  Keep wrapping in mind when reading this and as you watch or view things in and from Japan.

Tatemae and Honne:
There are two key words to know to start with Tatemae and Honne. Tatemae is a social wrapping put in to make things seem as nice as possible where they do not see any problems no matter what the situation. Honne is what the hosts really feel, but never directly say as it might create problems.  Honne is a term the to define the type of a feeling.  Imagine Tatemae as a fine restaurant where you walk in and see waiters and waitresses serving people being happy and everyone eating, but know nothing about what is going on in the kitchen.  Honne is where the there is 100 customers and only 1 of the 4 grills work plus they are short of staff for the evening.  Basically there are problems all over the place words are exchanged behind the scenes yet the customer never knows about, this is Honne.

Tatemae and Honne are important to recognize because through your interactions with other people you could be causing a social disconnect and not be aware because you are seeing the Tatemae and will not be privy to the Honne.  However, there is hope because there are ways to see or find out about the Honne if you pay attention to the social queues that are available.  If a Japanese person makes a simple “suggestion” or “request” in a seemingly innocuous manner it could be they are trying resolve a big problem in the Honne(again unexpressed frustration).  The key thing is to be aware in most society, outside of the personal, you are being presented with a Tatemae just remember the Honne does exist. (An assertion on my part I would take it that foreigners, like Americans or Europeans, are more likely to see the Tatamae longer than any other foreigners or locals.)

As an aside on the communication – During my reading of this article it hinted at something that I have seen for a while in Japanese shows I watch. That is specific sounds that Japanese make which aren’t words, but carry a lot of meaning along with gestures.  Going on a limb one such one is closing the teeth and inhaling while moving the head back slightly is sign of “I don’t really know what or how to answer”.  There are many more, but this article confirmed these are very very prominent and not just my imagination.  So be sure to pay attention to them and figure out what they might mean.

Uchi and Soto:
The uchi is similar to the “I” except it has a broader meaning to mean more of the family, company, or group you are with.  When talking or referencing yourself you would normally put the uchi first then your name.  So it would be something like “I am from the ABC company my name is Buddy”.  The uchi is important because it is the unit that will have a Tatemae and a Honne.  The uchi will discuss the Honne and present the Tatemae.  The soto is the outsider that will be seeing the Tatemae and not be able to see the the Honne inside the uchi.  Think of it as a foreign exchange student doing a home-stay in Japan.  The student is the soto coming to live with the uchi, or family unit.  He will see the Tatemae, but not necessarily see the Honne

It is worth noting once you become part of the uchi and are no longer the soto it isn’t automatically an intimate situation where all the rules go out the window and social rules no longer exist.  In fact you are presented with another set of uchi soto relationships just on a more intimate not so formal level.  Quickest example I can see for this is you are part of an uchi which is your company and are you are looking at a new recruit they are the soto. Well once the soto is hired they are part of the uchi now and no longer a soto in the sense he is part of the company, but he must still act in accordance to the rules and structure of his new uchi(company).

Generally uchi and soto are based on an anchor point of you or your group depending on now far away from that anchor point a person falls depends on the formality shown.  If a person you have never talked to or seen in your life shows up then you are usually very formal and respectful.  However, if your neighbor comes over whom you see weekly, while they too are a soto, you will not be as formal with them as the person you have never seen in your life.  Basically this is like all relationships as you get to know a person more and more they come closer to the uchi, but remember you can be very very close and still be a soto and therefore there is a Tatemae that you are shown.  Just note that you will not always be presented with a Tatemae, but to be safe assume one is there.

Conclusion:
To better understand the language and the people we must understand what lies in the background of the culture or we might not understand the subtleties that lie in what we watch, read, or hear.  Understanding the structure of the Japanese culture that is normally not spoken of can help us to better understand and avoid potential pitfalls when communicating with others.  To be aware of problems and how problems can arise is another important step.  One of the most important aspects we can learn is to listen to what people say and how they say it because it can tell you a lot about the situation.  Someone might be telling you it is very taboo to do this but say it like “Well we don’t normally do that” which isn’t harmful and leads one to think it is okay. So the key is listen, be aware, and pay attention to what is around you.

またね

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