...there's more about mochi and brows

Christina reminded me that I forgot to say something about mochi: last week teachers kept telling me its going to get colder this weekend. I assumed they'd been watching the weather report. But no. Instead, it turned out that the traditional day of making something that sounded like Muchi (a special kind of purple colored mochi wrapped in large, fragrant leaves and tied with string) was last weekend. And its supposed to get cold when you make Muchi. No one could explain why to me, just... that's how it goes. Above is a photo of the muchi Matsuda-sensei brought me from her family`s muchi-making revelries. Yvonne devoured it all while in a state of extremely high-anxiety. I don't think she even noticed she was eating.

I just asked the entire teacher`s room why they make muchi and no one knew. After a long discussion, about 5 of them together turned to me and translated this story:

Once, there was sister and younger brother. The brother like to eat people then, the sister was not happy the brother ate people. So, she made muchi. In brother`s muchi, she put metal and in her muchi there was none. The brother could not chew his muchi, but he sees that his big sister she can chew hers. My sister is stronger than me, AGH!!!!! he thinks. He so surprise, sister pushes him down the mountain. And he die.

I waited for a minute, but that seemed to be the end. Soooo, I ask delicately, why do you eat muchi? A second conference. So we will become strong. No one can come up with an answer for why it is wrapped in big leaves. Or why it should become cold when muchi is made. Lastly, no one can explain why muchi should make people strong if it didnt actually make the sister strong, she just fooled her bro into thinking it made her strong by putting bits of metal in his. Hm.

One forgotten word on eyebrows, that will spiral away into an entirely larger commentary on Japanese society: Japanese beauty standards are not the same as Western ones. Grope around in your mind for stereotypical things that one may instantly find attractive on a potential mate`s head... eyes, smile, hair. Well, the Japanese over-lap in hair. Except their idea of attractive hair-styles is far different than our own. Noooooo comment. But there are a few things that you just wouldn't ever think of looking for, that the Japanese notice right off the bat. Ready?

Chin and eyebrows. Here is how this came up in (two separate) conversations.

Shouko: XXX-sensei will be driving the car.
Joyce: Who is XXX-sensei, I cant remember.
Shouko: he`s the sensei with the really hot eyebrows!
Joyce: Im sorry, I cant identify anyone that way.


Joyce: do you think XXX actor is cute?
Kanako: hmmmm. Chotto... hes cute, but...
Joyce: but what?
Kanako: his chin.
Joyce: huh?
Kanako: he has... in Japanese, we call it a butt-chin. Very ugly, ne.

The hot-brows. The butt-chin. It took several minutes of confusion on both sides after the finish of the dialogue to sort out: 1. why I couldn't figure out who XXX-sensei was from Shouko`s description, 2. why I didn't find butt-chins to be extremely unpleasant. We might notice male eyebrows if they're weird in some way: a unibrow, tatoeba. But generally speaking there is no definition for what constitutes attractive male brows. Guys just have eyebrows. No one notices what they look like. Its only girls eyebrows that matter... and do those even matter so much for us? I don't know, Im not a guy. I want to say that they are not on the list of top 5 facial features though (unless there`s the unibrow factor, once again).

Second. After a minutes thought, I determined that Americans don't particularly notice whether someone has a cleft chin or not. But that if it had to signify anything, it would be a sign of masculinity and be considered attractive. Look at our cartoon superheros, I pointed out. They ALL have cleft chins. Once I checked out a book on drawing cartoons in middle school, and I specifically remember learning that every superhero should be drawn with a cleft-chin (among other things) to give them a sense of power and manliness.

Another thing is that everyone has busted up crooked teeth in Japan... at least in Okinawa. Barely no one has braces, and people are just missing teeth, have extra teeth sticking out of weird parts of their gums, have gaps between teeth the size of the grand canyon, have teeth crossing every which way... and thats cool! Though I havent brought it up with anyone, Im assuming that teeth do not constitute the same attractive-factor for Japanese as they do for Americans. Will get back to you if I figure out anything more.

The Art of Eyebrows

6 months here now, and there are many things I've gotten used to. One of them is people's physical appearances. I'm usually shocked to see myself in the mirror and realize I`m not Asian. If I see any non-Asian walking around my neighborhood I am apt to tail them suspiciously for several blocks, trying to figure out what they are doing there. I myself get looked at cross-ways by many neighborhood folk. Sometimes small children just stop whatever they're doing and stare at me open-mouthed when I walk into my apartment building. A foreigner on the streets is one thing, but a foreigner in your own neighborhood throws kids for a loop. Good Evening, i say to them in Japanese. Stare stare stare no answer. Ah, except for the one little 3 year old girl who lives upstairs from me. The first time she saw me getting out of my car (she was on the third floor dangling her feet through the balcony rails) her face lit up with joy, and she began waving frantically and peeping, `Hello! hello! hello! hello!` Clearly someone is getting an early start on English lessons! Now every time i see her its like this:
Child: hello!
Joyce: Hello!!
Child: hello!!!
Joyce: Hello!!!!
...until I am out of sight or her parents have shoved her into the car and locked the doors. She`s my best friend in the neighborhood, and I don't even know her name.

You're wondering what this has to do with eyebrows. Nothing, I just got off track. As I was saying, I have grown accustomed to people's appearances here. So much so that I have utterly failed to mention Japanese eyebrows on this blog.

Similar to the habits of mayoraa, the information I am about to divulge to you may blow your mind. Though it will not turn your stomach.

Let's start with some background. Japanese people really don't like body hair. They find dark arm hair, for instance, quite unattractive, and sometimes shave their arms. It is popular for females here to shave their entire faces. The hair removal/dying/shaving aisle at the store is the size of Tajikistan. Eyebrow hair has not escaped the fashion frenzy or the product rush:

MINI EYEBROW RAZORS!
Product Features

* Mini razors from Japan, made especially for eyebrow grooming for men and women

* Each long-lasting high quality stainless steel blade is a half-inch long, making it easy to reach even the smallest areas. Blade guards protect tender skin.
* Eliminate painful tweezing forever
* Shape eyebrows with greater precision on top and bottom
* Comes in a package of 3, each with a different handle color - share, take them with you, or keep one color for eyebrows and another for hairline and neck area

99% of people here clip their eyebrow hair to one half or one fourth its natural length. I used to think that Japanese people's eyebrow hair just didn't grow much compared to ours, but no, there is clippage occurring. Many take it further and shave off the hair entirely! Or, more popularly, they leave it a short razored stubble. Lots of girls paint in thin little fake brows over the stubble.

One of my students sporting the Stubble Brow

One of my students sporting the No Brow

Then there are the guys that shape their brows. The shaping of brows into thin lines and delicate arches doesn't really cross gender lines in America, and this is why Japanese males put foreigners off their gender-balance upon first sight. And the fact that most of them style their longish hair and some of them wear eyeliner might add to the effect. Gender-shmender! It's the word in Japan. Dudes are just as into hair styling, fashion, and eyebrow shaving/plucking/bleaching/arching/shaping as females in this here country. It's just COOL. Take a look at a Japanese fashion magazine. Besides the female models, every male model will have Brow Power happening. How about some more real life documentation?

One of my students sporting the ultimate thin arches, as well as some eyebrow paintage (this kid is really cool)

This kid is a very popular bad-ass. He has chosen a tougher thickness, but still shows signs of some serious brow design and shaving. Ah, note the white hand towel wrapped around his head. Guys like to wear those here.
Now this kid moves in brainier/less cool circles than the previous two, but he gets big points for being on the soccer team. He's got the start-big-go-little...aaaarch! thang goin' on.

I had a Q+A session with one of my third year classes, and somehow eyebrow fashion came up. I told them that people don't shave their eyebrows in America, and that only girls had shaped stuff going on. Furthermore, Americans would go so far as to think that Japanese people were "weird" if they saw, say, the kid in the above picture's brow walking down the street. They all just stared at me agog. They asked again and again.... really? people don't shave their eyebrows off???? Honto ni????? They couldn't believe it, I mean these kids looked like they'd just found out they were adopted. Don't they watch American movies all the time? Aren't they obsessed with MTV? Did they never see that Brad Pitt and Puff Daddy don't sport the Mt. Fugi-Arch???

Yes, I shook them to the core that day, and some of them may never recover.

My good friend Yvonne-sensei has reported an intriguing brow pattern from her own school, which does not seem to be present at Ginowan High. A small clique of boys are plucking their brows into a short, straight line. She's still trying to figure out the social significance of it all. I myself am trying to determine the meaning of eyebrows altogether. While I do that, take a look at this short newspaper article:

Shaved eyebrows banned
By Kjeld Duits, Monday May 16, 2005

The Mainichi Shinbun reports today that four new junior high school students were banned from attending an opening day ceremony at a school in Kagoshima in April because they had shaved their eyebrows.

Officials from the Hishikari Junior High School said the four girls were excluded from the ceremony because “We wanted to show them how important it is to stick to the rules.”

The officials decided that shaved or short eyebrows were unacceptable.

“In a pre-enrollment meeting, I explained the school’s requirements regarding appearance and uniforms, but they did not abide by these instructions, so I decided that it would be difficult for the four to take part,” principal Toshinori Hoka was quoted in the article.

The girls were made to wait outside during the ceremony. They were allowed to take part in all other events that day to mark their entrance into junior high school.

Well, I hadn't realized it was controversial. Imagine them trying to pull that at my school. All the teachers would have to go home too. Who would be left?

Joy-su:
the Lone Gaijin Warrior!