108 TAKING STOCK (Final Blog) Autumn Equinox, Sept. 25, 2026

ANNOUNCEMENT: This number 108 is my last blog. I went a little beyond 100 but I feel that 108, a very significant number in Buddhism, is the place to stop. I would like to thank those who have read this blog and enjoyed the website during the 7 or so years I have been responsible for it. I would also like to thank Shigeru Matsubara who very kindly and ably assisted me in setting up and maintaining this site.

I don’t know if I did this topic before, but I’d like, in this final blog, to list the advantages and disadvantages of life in this corner of Japan for me, now that I am getting older and probably will end my life here. I will list the advantages as I see them, with disadvantages appended.

I need to say that this applies to me personally, in this corner of Japan, and the way I manage daily with these people around me and this personality I have. I don’t need to hear that other foreigners have a swell time in their neighborhoods, that they get along well and are completely happy. This has not been my experience, and it is because of the mix of me and other people. There is no fault to be found on any side.

1. COUNTRYSIDE IS PEACEFUL AND QUIET. This is a great advantage especially as I get older. I seem to like “peace and quiet” above all things. I would like to get to know this corner of the planet, especially the natural world, better in the time I have left, and I like having peace and quiet to do this. Don’t forget darkness at night! This is very precious to me.

ISOLATION. This defeated other family members because it takes so long to get anywhere as we are not on a major train line etc. This adds to the P&Q factor, but it is a problem for various reasons which may become clear as I keep writing.

2. PEOPLE MIND THEIR OWN BUSINESS. This is important to me and I am glad that this seems to be a national trait in Japan. Generally speaking, foreigners don’t have to worry much about “how they are seen” because you will never know, because no one will tell you.

PEOPLE DON’T MIND THEIR OWN BUSINESS. Just because you don’t hear what is said about you, that doesn’t mean you aren’t a common topic for gossips. But no matter how much you try to do the needful things, you will always be an outsider and you won’t be understood. Generally speaking, people will tolerate you, as an oddity, and not much more, and listen to the (often wildly inaccurate) conclusions of the loudest people. That has been my experience anyway. Does anyone feel truly seen and understood here, or is this an unfortunate result of the clash of my personality and that of the social mores of this place?

3. YOU DON’T NEED TO CARE ABOUT POLITICS. I can’t vote with my Permanent Residence, and I am usually glad, because I wouldn’t want to vote for the people who run. I think politics is a game that some people like to play and others don’t, like eco0nomics etc., though it does impinge on one’s daily life.

YOU CAN’T CHANGE ANYTHING. I’m sure I’ve told this story before – once I was in a “How to Improve the Lives of the Citizens” group and the old men said “Put things back the way they were!” When they were young and the world made sense to them, that is. Many, many things about this society don’t sit well with me and no one will listen, because I am a foreigner and a woman. (Don’t get me started on gender.) Maybe it isn’t my job or my business to try and change people’s minds about things. But it is very difficult to “let well enough alone” when it is so obvious (to me) what would make things better. I was brought up in a “speak my mind, raise my voice” culture, which this one I find myself in definitely is not. Where, therefore, is the platform for change? And does it really matter?

4. HEALTH CARE IS GOOD AND READILY AVAILABLE. Yes, if you can afford it. I have become a person who has health care because I am in the system – I pay my taxes, have a pension, and have been in the health care system because of my husband’s company. The people that run health care are generally good people, nurses are sympathetic I have found, doctors usually know what they are talking about, they try really hard to keep you healthy and keep it affordable.

IS IT? If you don’t fit into the system, you are lost as far as medical care is concerned. (I know this is the case in other countries too) And a lot of the slack is taken up by (unpaid) people, who take care of their aged, demented or sick relatives (sometimes all three!) in the home. If it weren’t for the social imperatives to care for these family members, the health care system would be even more stretched than it is now.

5. THE DOCTRINE OF “IT CAN’T BE HELPED” IS PEACEFUL. Japanese have a saying, “Shi kata ga nai” (“Nothing can be done about it”). This is a reminder for people who don’t mind their own business or who want to change things (!). It’s very chastening to understand that there are things that can’t be helped, and to learn to leave these things alone to play out as they may.

THIS DOCTRINE CAN FOSTER LAZINESS AND MORE. People have a tendency to label everything they don’t want to deal with as “it can’t be helped” or “Too much trouble” (meiwaku), This naturally leads to things that could be changed or improved being overlooked semi-deliberately. We all know “public” servants who don’t do their job; in fact, the usual way (in my area at least) to deal with any elected office that comes around is to keep one’s head down and do absolutely nothing during one’s term. I expect this is often a way of not being noticed and having to deal with problems that inevitably arise when one sticks one’s neck out. Public-spiritedness, which often means dealing with the results of this, is much rarer in this society than in others, or takes a different form. It is usually reduced to a feeling of “if only everyone behaved well, society would be better,” Unfortunately “behaving well” is mainly a question of agreeing with the social mores of the strongest people. Maybe this is biological rather than social, it certainly may be found in every society and every group throughout history.

There is more, but I’m getting depressed. Are human beings the same all over, with only superficial differences that we call “culture”? Am I wrong to list these “negative” traits as disadvantages? They seem to be, for me. Are changes really not ok? But this society is changing almost faster than can be recorded or experienced already. And not because of me or anything I do

Maybe I’m the one that refuses to change.

This last blog ended up being rather down in tone; sorry about that. The fact is that age plus being misunderstood in this culture, through my own actions, is wearing me down. This blog is over; it’s time to do something else, put my money where my mouth is maybe. I’m sure that learning will be a large part of whatever comes next.

Thanks for reading.