Comments on: On Sneezing in Japan

By: Rosharuo

Rosharuo — Wed, 28 Aug 2013 20:10:53 +0000

In the context of a discussion of “Gesundheit vs. Bless you” (and in Spanish “¡Salud! vs ¡Jesús (mil veces)!”) on my FB page, I mentioned that I couldn’t recall the equivalent in Japanese (I was pretty fluent in Japanese 40 years ago but am totte mo rusty now). A friend posted a link hither. Now I know why I don’t recall the Japanese for “Gesundheit”. どうもありがとう！

By: Archana

Archana — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 08:39:52 +0000

I know what you mean. You must like the feeling behind saying bless you – after all, it’s hardly an awful thing to ay – you are wishing the other person well. I pray (although I don’t believe in god) because I know it’s good to pray.

My husband used to make fun of me when I would go to shrines and pray (we had just started dating then and the ease with which he made fun of religion, prayer and me for praying told me a lot about him and his prejudices)- making up a sort of ritual from the one I had already. I didn’t react and sometimes he would make little sarcastic comments about how people to donate to pray while i was praying.

One day, i think because he got tired of me not reacting, he made a comment as i asked him if he had any change for the shrine,”Oh, of course, we can’t pray without paying up.”

He is a nice guy but the jibes were getting annoying. So I smiled and said,” Have you ever wondered what I am praying for?”

His silence and quizzical look was evidence that he had not. So I explained, ” I know there is no god. But I often feel worried about my future so i say a prayer for the worried feelings and the disappear, temporarily. I also worry about us. I love you and want our relationship to be harmonious. So I pray for that. And finally, I pray for you. I worry about your health, safety and peace of mind.

He felt so humbled (because i was genuinely praying for him – and had not told him until i had had enough of his ridicule) and never made fun of me again. Now he prays for me. Neither of us believe in god but prayer works.

I hope you never stop saying bless you when someone sneezes. Did you manage to get your boyfriend to say it?

By: RevRuby

RevRuby — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 00:36:56 +0000

Love it! Funny and informative. ありがとう。

By: Megan

Megan — Sat, 26 May 2012 00:27:55 +0000

My boyfriend grew up in Canada and does not say bless you when I sneeze. I think this is just his thing and not Canada’s thing, or perhaps it’s regional. I’ll have to ask him more about it. It’s strange to talk about such a simple common thing, isn’t it? But back on topic, when we first got together I was confused as to why he did not say it. I have the quirk of saying it to myself when I’m alone or under my breath if there are people around and I’m not blessed. This is impossible on the phone so it does kind of bother me. I say it to him both unconsciously and in the hope one day it will rub off on him lol. I can’t imagine how weird it is when no one says anything, or expects you to say anything and the million other small differences between the cultures.

By: spartan2600

spartan2600 — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 00:31:43 +0000

Your understanding of Schrodinger’s cat is a little incomplete. The entire experiment, the cat, the device, hammer and poison are all contained within the box to start with. Only the observer exists outside the box. Its also important to stress that the radioactive substance exists to generate a truly *random* binary answer, zero or one, yes or no. Most things we assume are random aren’t actually random. If we had enough physical data on the exact locations of all the relevant atoms, we could know what the lottery drawing will be tonight. Assuming its the kind with the ping-pong balls, we need to know the locations of the balls, how the balls will be interacted with, and everything else is plugging in variables to physics equations. Radioactive decay is not like this, it is truly random in that even if we had perfect and total information, the quantum events occurring in the radioactive matter are still impossible to predict.

So now given that, it is impossible to predict if the cat is dead or alive, since the imaginary box does not allow any information to escape. We now have an uncollapsed probability- the cat is dead or the cat is alive. The very act of opening the box and *observing* the cat is what determines if the cat is dead or alive. The act of opening the box forced the probability to collapse into a certainty. It is this strange phenomenon, the fact that the mere *observation* of an event is what determines the reality about the event, that is important in the study of quantum mechanics.

By: cddmanful

cddmanful — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 08:13:28 +0000

Bing’s translate makes that, “Please do its best!” Is that something of a social imperative, in Japan’s culture? Or perhaps a mis-translation, since auto-translation like this has a hard time with the contextual understanding of Japanese, I think. Makes it scary to wish to learn Japanese, as I recently began to wish to do.

By: Kaori

Kaori — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 09:49:10 +0000

It’s really ridiculous when they get mad over something you weren’t taught…like we were suppose to know about it somehow before hand. Those that know the unknown often forget that it can still be an unknown unknown for others.
Oh and the sneezing? You don’t have to say anything expect maybe a random Daijobu? if it’s a friend. Sneezes in Japan mean that someone is gossiping about you. There’s a saying that goes something like 1 sneeze=bad gossip, 2 sneezes=good gossip, 3 sneezes=just a cold…or something like that. It varies depending on the region :)

By: owwls

owwls — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:49:53 +0000

Agreed, Ben. That’s the point of my post, really: It’s equally weird to say something to a sneeze or to stay silent. Just depends on what you usually see. Japan is no different. The problem is when you expect everyone to know what’s going on.

Anyway, for day-to-day weirdness, I found the Czech Republic stranger than Japan.

By: Ben

Ben — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 06:42:23 +0000

On the contrary, Japan is exactly like the rest of the world in that it has it’s unique differences. I’ve been living here for nearly four years and one thing I have discovered is that the world views Japan as being this crazy unique place that is out of this world, and the Japanese do a lot to reinforce this image. It’s not true, rather it’s all about perspective. I find things strange here just as Japanese would find things strange in my country. I don’t know that I’m supposed to order names in the CC:s just as much as a Japanese man would not know that to give a weak handshake to an Australian male is considered slightly insulting. These are social peculiarities and ALL countries have them.

By: Cat

Cat — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 21:45:02 +0000

It feels like Japan is a big closed box that has its own ways of doing everything. I would never have thought of asking in what order the names in the CC:s should be. I guess that the only way to learn is to make mistakes and ask people to point it out for you. Japan really isn’t like the rest of the world after all.