Yakudoshi

You know my company has an annoying habit of making you think that you are in for a nice and relaxing Wednesday filled with the joys of folding paper and stuffing it gently into little packages of tissue paper stamped with the company logo and then dashing this poorly formed fantasy against the ground minutes after you have found your personal paper folding rhythm. It is really annoying. But with this company that is all that you can expect from a Wednesday. Wednesday is the one day of the week when that the company has set aside to send me to whatever school I am needed in usually because a teacher has fallen "ill." Basically some bitch wanted a day off.

So I am currently sitting in a class giving a test. All I have to do to give this test is pass out a few papers, pop a tape into a tape player, and read a magazine for 70 minutes. I finished the magazine about 35 minutes ago. I even flipped through the back and found a few leads on some English-Japanese exchanges and some apartments that might be fun to go and look at. About 20 minutes after finishing the magazine I finally finished the test. I took it just for shits and giggles along with the students. Actually I blew passed them. The test is really easy... if you are a native speaker....

10 minutes. You know in the next ten minutes I expect my boredom and test induced drowsiness to peak sharply. Actually I think they peaked about 10 minutes ago when I was taking the test which would explain me writing this...

ha! I just stopped myself from waxing poetic about he therapeutic values of writing in my life. Lucky me.

My life. Perhaps i should wax poetic about that. ((I have always liked that expression: "wax poetic" or "wax lyrical." It almost seems like I'm about to say something meaningful even though we all know that that is seldom the case.))

Recently, I was informed by one of my students that 24 is is a "dangerous year." I asked him to explain further, but he wasn't able to really do it well so I decided to do some research. You see I'm 24 now and this last year has me more than a little curious.

Bad luck ages are referred to as yakudoshi, with yaku meaning “calamity” or “calamitous” and doshi signifying “year(s).” These years are considered critical or dangerous because they are believed to bring bad luck or disaster.

For men, the ages 24 and 41 (or 25 and 42 in Japan) are deemed critical years, with 41 being especially critical. It is customary in these unlucky years to visit temples and shrines to provide divine protection from harm. In Hawaii, it has become a widespread tradition among men of Japanese ancestry to celebrate the 41st birthday with a festive yakudoshi party or gathering to ward off the bad luck or disaster that may strike. The birthday person should wear red to bring good health, vitality and long life.

The equivalent yakudoshi ages for women are 18 and 32 (19 and 33 in Japan), with 32 thought to be a particularly hard, terrible or disastrous year. Like the age 41 for men, precautions are taken to ward off bad luck, and some women in Hawaii celebrate their 32nd birthday with a special yakudoshi party.

Notice how they keep saying "blah, blah, blah in Japan." I'm in fucking Japan and even though it is not my habit to apply special meaning to life's more precarious moments while in the heat... of... the... moment... I must say it is becoming my habit more and more to do so in retrospect.

This last year has been shit for me. About 18 days after turning 24 I lost my job and my apartment. I spent the following month sleeping on my friends floor while looking for new work. I found a part time job, but the pay was shitty and I had to leave quickly. That guy refused to pay me. I found a new job, but was so low on money that for the first month while waiting for pay day I lived off of ramen noodles mostly and don't even forget the fact that I didn't have the money to buy a bed, curtains, deodorant, towels, TOILET PAPER, etc. (Yes, you can live without toilet paper. You just have to organize your poops around your showers.) There have been other bad things this last year but there are simply to many things to list. Now don't get me wrong I've had a ton of good things. I've seen new places, got new jobs, made several good friends, ended my four year drought, and other things like that.

But that still doesn't take away from the fact that this has been a rough year. Because of all of these good things I am thinking about going to a temple somewhere and praying for some protection or something. I just have to get one of my students to teach me how to pray. Apparently their is some combination of clapping, bowing, ringing of bells, and throwing of money. I'll have to get someone to write it down for me. One thing is certain I will not be sad to see this year finally come to a close. Maybe I can begin 25 with something extremely positive like someone proposing to me.