Cultures of Sydney
Understanding the Japanese Culture better
Sunday, November 9th, 2008 | Cultures of Sydney, Japan, Life | No Comments
I’ll write on the following customs/habits, in this entry I’ll mention the first 5.
- Asking about your blood type
- Wearing Yukata
- O-bon
- Cleanliness
- Why Japanese things are very compact
- Kaizen - continuous improvement
- Mochi
- Behaviour in Public
1) Blood type - Some people may feel a bit strange when they first meet a Japanese person by some of the questions that may be asked. One question may be “What is your blood type”. Firstly, don’t think this is strange, as for Japanese it may be just the same as others asking what you star sign is.
Japanese TV and newspapers/magazines etc, provide daily readings as to what things will be like for that particular blood type, 0, A, B, AB etc. it would be quite interesting esp, if you are interested in star signs.
2) Yukata - The Yukata is a kind of Kimono, in recent times the yukata is becoming more popular than in the past, the most likely reason being that Kimono’s are labourious to put on. The Yukata used to only be worn as night wear, however these days people tend to wear them outdoors mainly during Summer festivals, as can be seen in the photo below.
3) Obon - Obon is one of the largest family gatherings of the year. It’s when people respect their ancestors, and visit their grave sites, to pay respect and clean the area. Obon is also like a Japanese version of Halloween, as it’s when spirits of the dead are meant to come back and roam the earth.
There are a number of traditional events, such as lighting a candle and floating it down a river on a boat to symbolise the souls returning back home. There is also an organised dance called Bon Odori, which many towns partake in. At the end of Obon, there are 5 large fires lit around Kyoto, “Gozan no okuribi” which represent 5 spirits that can be seen in heaven and on earth. O’bon is a Buddhist festival with roots supposedly from India.
4) Cleanliness - In general Japanese people are very clean. Like every country there are differences between families.. however the really clean here… go over the top. One friend stayed with a family in Shikoku, who were extra clean.. They wash their wooden floor every morning, and before you enter their house, you need to take off your shoes, your feet will be washed! then you wear slippers indoors. Luckily that’s only in extreme cases. However you do need to take your shoes off at the “Genkan” before entering almost all Japanese houses, then it depends on the custom of the house, they either have slippers or you can just wear socks around. Most Japanese slippers are a bit small for my size 11 (~30cm) foot. So socks are fine for me 
5) Compactness - Japanese have an art for fitting things in. If you look around Japanese houses, you may sometimes be amazed with how well things are stored, with very few spaces left unused. In apartments, you will often see garages with a rotating lift so you can store 6 or more cars, with an entrance for just 2. You’ll see many bicycles that can be folded in half 
and the average width of cars is less than in most western countries.
-Lindsay (currently in Osaka)
www.sydney-friends.com
Here is a link to my Japan Buying Service:
Rinkai - Japan Shopping Service
Differences and similarities of Byron Bay and Sydney
Monday, October 13th, 2008 | Cultures of Sydney, Life | No Comments
As I grew up in Byron Bay and have lived in Sydney for the past 3 years (and 1 year 14 years ago) I thought I’d write about the differences and similarities of the two places.
Firstly both places are growing very fast.. when I was a child Byron Bay’s population was about 6000 people, now it must be around 20,000 or more and tripling in holiday season, however due to land and building restrictions, the population of the town can’t increase too much more unless there are major building changes - at the moment the council has restricted the height of buildings to be no higher than about 4 stories. Byron Bay’s house prices are among the most expensive in Australia in particular from about 2004 house prices went through the roof with some house prices tripling in a matter of weeks.
Sydney’s population is growing all the time, and the population is spreading out through the suburbs, at least the houses can go upwards in Sydney with taller buildings being built all the time. House prices are also very expensive in most suburbs of Sydney and finding a place to rent in ‘07, ‘08 is a difficult task indeed, with usually over 50 coming to inspect a place at the one time.
Some people say Sydney is like a big Byron Bay, as Sydney also has beautiful beaches, and good pubs and shopping, just go to places like Newtown for the hippies :). . I can see what they mean, as there are many beautiful places in Sydney, the headlands around the Harbour, the beautiful bushland walkways around Manly, Lane Cove etc. the excellent restaurants and entertainment of the city. For me Sydney is like a bigger version of Byron Bay, however bigger isn’t always better. As the uniqueness and petiteness of Byron Bay is that you can see all of the town and most beaches in one big walk, however in Sydney you could spend days just going to all the beaches.
Sydney has a lot of great places, however they aren’t as accessible as places in a small town like Byron Bay, I guess you could make a place like Byron Bay if you mix, i.e. Dee Why with Palm Beach and Newtown with Lane Cove, however that’s silly and it may also be an insult to those unique places. Byron Bay is unique and so are those suburbs….. there’s not much point in saying you can make Byron Bay in Sydney.
Some people say Sydney is boring, well Byron Bay can also be boring, any place can be boring if you let yourself be bored. Some say Sydney is an exciting place, and it can be if you allow yourself to get excited and put yourself in the right situations. Byron Bay can also be a fun place.
Sydney beats Byron Bay for jobs… more jobs there, that’s one of the reasons I moved there. There are more people in Sydney, but that doesn’t mean you’ll have a better social life, it depends on who you spend your time with and who your circle of friends are. Cities can be a lonely place, if you don’t find people to mingle with, it can be hard. Small towns are friendlier, maybe that’s why many people like Byron Bay… these days it’s on the most part a backpacker town.. so you can play “spot the local” they are becoming a bit rarer to see.
The air is fresher in Byron Bay, water probably cleaner, night time much quieter.. however there are many tranquil places in Sydney, you just have to be lucky to live there.
I’m a bit of a city person myself..(even though I spent most of my life in a small town) there’s more to see in the city, more people to meet, (however more is not necessarily better), I like meeting people from Asia as I speak Japanese, and some of other Asian languages, so Sydney is a good place for me as there are many students studying English there. The population of Sydney city has a majority of Asians, however the ethnicities of the suburbs vary.. quite diversely. Byron Bay’s main ethnicity is Caucasian, with a wide variety of backpackers going through the town, most from Europe however it is slowly becoming more popular with Asian tourists, with Byron Bay now having it’s own language school.
Any facts welcome.. I’ll try and modify this blog from time to time.
-Lindsay
www.sydney-friends.com
Language Exchanges
Friday, September 5th, 2008 | Cultures of Sydney, Meeting people | No Comments
Have you ever heard of people having “Language Exchanges”, have you had many language exchanges yourself? Here I will look at some of the ways that may help you have a successful language exchange.
For me a language exchange, is a meeting between two or more people, for the main purpose of learning another language/helping a person learn a language.
The best way for a language exchange to occur is in person, however it is possible to have a language exchange as a pen-friend/via the Internet. (see the language exchange section of the “meet people online” page, at Sydney-friends.com.
There are many ways to find a language exchange partner, it really depends on where you live. When I lived in Japan, there were places called “International Centres” with noticeboards, where people placed ads for language exchanges. In Sydney, there are less noticeboards for just that purpose, however there are many places online where you can meet a person, to have an in-person language exchange. (see above).
There is varying demand for the language you speak/want to study, the most sought after language to learn is English, so it’s best to use those sites at www.sydney-friends.com/findafriendonline.phtml, there are sites on that page for other languages too, or you could do a particular search in your city for groups of certain langauges. For Sydney, particular language / language exchange sites include:
Japanese: Jams.tv or http://www.japan-guide.com (English is available for both sites)
Korean: hojunara.com (only in Korean at time of writing)
(please let me know in the comments for other languages)
For noticeboards… few people realise the amazing resouces universities have, although, university resources are only available for it’s students/staff it shouldn’t bother anyone if you visited the language centre to view the noticeboards to see if there are any students wanting a language exchange. The last one I visited (whilst a student) in Sydney, had people wanting to learn, English, Japanese, Chinese, French and Spanish.
Well I hope you get the idea, from the above sites and from various places, there are plenty of people looking for a language exchange.
So how to go about a language exchange?
I will only talk about meeting in person here…
de de de deeaaarrnn. (drum roll)… who will this person be? What will they look like? Will they be nice? Will they be helpful? Will they like you? Will you be able to help them?
Don’t worry.. just meet them, for example you may meet the person at a common meeting point in town, then walk to a cafe you both like. (You will have either called the person/have been called by a person from a noticeboard, or met the person online).
Just have a friendly chat when you first meet, get the pronunciation of your names right, recall where you are both from, general chat about the day, until you arrive at your study location. (speak slowly if you are speaking with a person with beginner level English)
At this point, for best results, it’s best to talk about how you want the language exchange to proceed. What has worked best for me is to divide the time of the meeting into two even parts, (eg. 1 hour - 30 minutes each). If you are for example wanting to study Japanese and have only a beginners level competency and your partner is quite fluent at English, you would spend 30 minutes, focussing on Japanese (proabably taught mostly in English, unless you have a skilled teacher that can teach only using Japanese), then 30 minutes only in English where you may help build your partners conversation skills or vocabulary.
Note: If you really feel uncomfortable around the person at the point of meeting, just say that you would like to try a short language exchange as you are a bit busy.. say 15 - 20 minutes each.
What you use for the language exchange is completely up to you, you may like to bring notebooks to write new vocabulary in, bring a dictionary/electronic dictionary, some material in both the language you want to learn and the language that you will teach.
Some of the best language exchanges I have, I only brought an electronic dictionary (so did the partner) and we did either 30mins - 1 hour each, in the particular language we were studying. I found doing role-plays very useful, such as role plays for an interview, or for some situation you would use your newly acquired language.
So there you have it.. your guide to a language exchange.. remember to keep it friendly, and try and respect the study needs of your partner. Sometimes people that are too demanding can be a turn off.. eg.”please meet me for 2 hours every afternoon, and make sure you do your homework that I give you”… On the other extreme, too casual is also a turn off, especially when they have no interest in helping you with your language. Meeting once a week works for me, if you become good friends all the better.
Enjoy your language exchange!
Lindsay
http://www.sydney-friends.com
ps. There are new language exchange sites popping up all the time, here are a few new ones on wordpress:
http://beefluent.wordpress.com/
http://erikspen.wordpress.com/2007/06/14/on-working-with-a-language-exchange-partner/
Aussie Culture
Saturday, August 30th, 2008 | Cultures of Sydney | 3 Comments
You may ask from time to time, “What is part of Australian Culture?”, here I will attempt to answer that question from my perspective.
Indigenous Australians
The original Australia, as seen by our indigenous Australians had and still has a unique and fascinating culture, with Aboriginals being very spiritual people being closely linked to the land they live on. Aboriginals not only brought with them interesting things like, the boomerang, the woomera, the didgeridoo and great art, but a unique way of living with the land, and connecting with each other. I have heard that if a member of an aboriginal tribe dies, friends/relatives living many kilometers away will know of the incident spiritually/telepathically, which is something new Australians could learn a lot from.
If you have ever thought Australians speak quite quickly, some say that aboriginals influenced the way we speak, as they speak their languages and English quite quickly.
Inventions
Some Australian culture can be seen from the kinds of Inventions that have come from this country such as:
The Ute - (designed by Lewis Brandt at the Ford Motor Company in Geelong, Victoria.1934)
The Electric Drill - (Patented by Melbourne inventor Arthur James in 1889)
Latex Gloves - (Developed in Australia in 1945)
The notepad - (Created In 1902 by J.A.Birchall of Launceston)
Aerogard Insect Repellent - (Invented by the entomologist Dr Doug Waterhouse at the CSIRO in 1963)
Pre-paid Postage - (the first system of pre-paid postage was instituted in New South Wales in 1838)
Vegemite - (Invented by Dr Cyril Callister and launched by the food entrepreneur, Fred Walker in 1923).
The Wine Cask - (Developed by Thomas Angove of South Australia in 1965).
The Bionic Ear - (Invented by a team led by Professor Graeme Clark at The University of Melbourne in 1978), which has brought hearing to more than 50,000 people in over 80 countries.
If you want more information on Australian inventions view this page.
If you saw the Sydney 2000 Olympics, you would have seen some aspects of Aussie culture in the opening ceremony and in the spirit of the competitors.
Some Australian icons that were seen in the opening ceremony include: The hills hoist (designed by Gilbert Toyne in Geelong in 1912), and the 2-stroke electric lawn mower (developed in Australia in 1930). The Hills Hoist and the electric lawn mower, are popular in Australia due to the size of our backyards.
The Aussie Backyard
The Australian backyard, is part of our culture. Some countries have backyards that are too small/dusty/concrete, however most Australians have large backyards, or at least one large paddock/yard/field in the neighborhood. As sports are very much entwined with Aussie culture, Australians play all kinds of sport in the backyard as a child, such as cricket/French cricket, soccer, football - AFL/rugby league/union, tips, hide and seek, red rover cross over, kite flying, and playing with whatever toys we could get our hands on.
In my street as a child, we had a large backyard, and a larger paddock nearby, where we sometimes met other children from the street to play combined games such as soccer/football.
The bush - if you are lucky enough to live near it, is also a popular place for children to play in, as there are plenty of places to build cubby houses, and to explore.
The Coast Connection
Most Australian live by the coast, so the sea is part of most Aussie’s culture. We have a great surf life saving club, which most people that have gone to the beach have come across in some way.
Other activities that Australians get involved with at the coast include, surfing, body surfing, body boarding, volleyball, medicine ball, kayaking, sailing, snorkeling, scuba-diving, fishing of all sorts, running, swimming, sun-bathing, and generally just having a fun time at the beach.
The competitions which the surf club has regularly, would have by no small amount helped to increase the competitive nature of Australians, Australians love their sport..
Sport
Whether you like sport or not, if you live in Australia, it’s hard to avoid it when you are growing up. My school had a variety of sports when I was in high school, as I was lucky enough to go to school at Byron Bay, we could even choose surfing as a school sport, we could chose others eg. Golf, volleyball, beach volleyball, cricket, baseball, softball, football, tennis, soccer, badminton, squash, and the list goes on.
Sport in Australia is nationally part of our culture, however, as Australia is such as large country there are definitely state/city differences, as I grew up in Byron Bay, I have never even seen a full AFL match, however it would be a totally different story if I lived in South Australia or Victoria (AFL central). Rugby league is most popular in Sydney, and games like cricket are pretty much popular nationwide, but are more popular in non-coastal areas I have noticed.
Influences From Other Countries
The Australian culture, like all newly settled counties (invaded countries some may say) has been influenced by many cultures… particularly the English, with their family roasts, and Christmas traditions, however there are other countries that are continuing to have a larger influence on how we live, eg. China, Japan, Germany, and Italy to name a few. China has given Australia not only a love for Chinese food, but an interest in the orient, phrases like “long time no see” are directly related to the settlement of the Chinese, as Chinese have a phrase (Hao jiu bu jian) (hao -> long, jiu -> time, bu ->no, jian -> meet). We accept accupuncture, many Australians help celebrate Chinese New Year, look at the Chinese horoscope and have learnt many trading skills from the Chinese. Japan has brought to Australia a love for sushi, a fascination with the beauty and styles of the country and we have learnt some skills from the Japanese, such as bonsai plants, certain cooking styles, (tempura), an awareness of cleanliness (some houses have sections for shoes at the door entrance, however this is something more Australian need to work on ), and a craving for modern technology. European countries have brought with them many great dishes that Australian enjoy, and our language is constantly evolving incorporating words from other cultures.
Food
The food culture of Australia is a difficult topic to write about, as it is constantly changing. The indigenous people were able to live completely from what the country naturally provided, however the European immigrants brought with them grazing animals, potatoes, and other European foods.
“Typical Aussie food” would include food such as meat and vegetables, vegimite, lamingtons, pavlova (made for the Russian gymnist, Anna Pavlova when she visitied Perth) and Arnotts biscuits such as Tim Tams. The rest really depends on your background English/Irish - Roasts, stews, shepards pie, meat pies. German - sausages Asian - stir fries, spring rolls. Italian - Pasta, pizza. Mexican - Tacos, corn chips. Most Australian would have a mixture of all those countries every week/month.
New Australian recipes are being developed all the time, soy prawns cooked on the barbie, and many other great recipes, which are incorporated to certain degrees into our staple diet. As Australian live mainly by the coast, seafood is enjoyed by most, even though nowadays most beaches require that the fishermen have licences to fish, seafood is still extremely popular.
In General
Australians are very interesting people (when they believe in themselves) and have a lot to offer the world, the Australian environment plays a large role in shaping people’s characters, and the multicultural cities play a large role in assimilating other cultures int o Australia. Australian are generally warm and accepting people, however that may not be seen in our past, as there have been some very racist policies by the government in our past, trying to keep the Australian population “white” which most Australians now are ashamed to think of, or motivated to make sure that kind of blind thinking never happens again.
If I would say some words on the shape of the Australian culture to come, I hope that it would continue to be one of striving for better knowledge, keeping our competitiveness in sport and business, a country with great innovations, strong work ethic, and people accepting of all cultures.
The image of a man sitting in a rocking chair wearing a navy blue singlet, a straw broad-rimmed hat, beer gut, sitting on his “Queenslander” balcony drinking a VB, still exists for many, however the new Australians making waves in new technology, sport, and in international business are also helping to impress upon the world that the Aussie culture is one that is outstanding and a model for other countries to follow.
- further note written a few weeks later:
I’d like to add a few more images of the Australian culture.. In the song “Common Ground” by Bruce Woodley and Terry McArthur, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vifBWg0m1IE
the last verse says:
So how do you tell an Australian?
Maybe part of the answer lies with the man
who came from a country
that doesn’t have the same freedoms we take for granted.
He said ‘Being Australians means
leaving all those ancient hatreds behind
and meeting as friends on common ground’.
We must also remember that this common ground that we stand on, this free country, is also
sacred ground to the original people of this land, and as new Australians we should respect the
culture of the native Australians as we still have lots we can learn from them.
-Lindsay
www.sydney-friends.com
Introduction to Japanese culture in Sydney
Sunday, August 24th, 2008 | Cultures of Sydney | No Comments
Like many unique cultures, the Japanese culture can be brought with Japanese people wherever they roam. There are many unique and beautiful aspects to the Japanese culture. I am not an expert however I have studied Japanese for over 7 years, and have lived there for almost 3 years.
When I say culture, I mean that which gives others the impression that they are from their country. Japanese culture can be seen in the way people interact with each other, delicious Japanese food, unique clothing, literature, movies, arts, music and in many other areas.
Sydney is very fortunate to have many fine Japanese restaurants including Tetsuya, however that is more of a once in a lifetime dining event for the average person. There are many more affordable and delicious Japanese restaurants around and even a few nice Izakaya’s eg. Fujiya.
In my opinion, I think Australian women could learn a lot from the way Japanese women act. They are generally much more well spoken, polite, and sweet toned than the average Auzzie gal, and I’m sure many agree with me.
Japanese people have great work ethics, and people of Japan are overall very trustworthy people.
In this blog I hope to share some further research into the Japanese culture and will include updates to my Japanese lessons. The first can be found on the language page of SydneyFriends.
Yonde kurete arigatou.- Thank you for reading.
burogu wo yomu no ga tanoshinde kudasai- Enjoy reading blogs.
Lindsay Woolcott
www.sydney-friends.com