Why are Japanese kids cleaning toilets?
There's a rumor going around that if you visit Japanese elementary schools right now, you may find some of the kids cleaning toilets. Not as punishment, they're doing it on their own.
I'm not sure if the rumor is true or just an urban legend, but I know what's behind it. You see, there's a song with the title "To-i-re no kamisama." Kamisama is the very polite word for a god -- you might translate it as Lord God. And To-i-re (pronounced toy-ray) is the borrowed and slightly twisted word toilet. So the song is Lord God of the Toilet -- although I think the sense of the title is more like Lord God of the Toilet Bowl.
The song is a relatively long ballad, in what I think of as folk style. It's by 28-year-old singer/songwriter Kana Uemura, and basically tells the story of her grandmother. When I say long, it's at least eight minutes long -- that's the number people keep saying, although some sites seem to think it's 10 minutes long. It's relatively simple, and the singing is very clear and natural.
So why would a song start kids cleaning toilets?
Well, the core of the song -- the chorus -- is about her grandmother telling her that there is a goddess in the toilet, and if you clean the toilet really well, the goddess will make you beautiful.
The rest of the song? It's about the little girl who went to live with her grandmother next door, the things that they enjoyed together, and that the little girl didn't like cleaning the toilet. But her grandmother told her there was a goddess in the toilet... and time passes, there are arguments, the little girl grows up and goes to Tokyo to sing. Then she hurries home where Grandma dies. But the song thanks Grandmother for her advice.
Here, go over to http://www.jpopasia.com/lyrics/36791/kana-uemura/toire-no-kamisama-.html and you should be able to listen to the music, and take a look at the lyrics (with an English translation). There's another site http://www.nautiljon.com/paroles/kana+uemura/toilet+no+kami-sama.html that just has a translation. There's even a Wikipedia article about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_no_Kamisama
The song was given an award at the Japanese recording industry show just before New Year's, and it was performed live during the annual New Year's show on NHK -- four hours of music and performances that almost everyone in Japan watches. And then on January 5, there was a two-hour dramatization. Since we enjoyed the song, we watched the drama, too. I have to admit, it was a little too sentimental for my taste.
But sure enough, one of the early scenes is the little girl helping her grandmother clean the house, and wrinkling up her nose and backing away from cleaning the toilet. Her grandmother just smiles and cleans the toilet, and then tells the little girl about the goddess of the toilet bowl. And the little girl thinks about it, then cleans the toilet. Incidentally, the toilets in the drama are mostly the old Japanese toilets. Think of a ceramic slit trench. And at a number of important points in the drama, the little girl, then teenager, and then young lady cleans a toilet. Kind of a working meditation.
In any case, that's why Japanese kids are cleaning toilets.
We'll have to wait and see whether the next generation has a lot of beautiful girls...
I'm not sure if the rumor is true or just an urban legend, but I know what's behind it. You see, there's a song with the title "To-i-re no kamisama." Kamisama is the very polite word for a god -- you might translate it as Lord God. And To-i-re (pronounced toy-ray) is the borrowed and slightly twisted word toilet. So the song is Lord God of the Toilet -- although I think the sense of the title is more like Lord God of the Toilet Bowl.
The song is a relatively long ballad, in what I think of as folk style. It's by 28-year-old singer/songwriter Kana Uemura, and basically tells the story of her grandmother. When I say long, it's at least eight minutes long -- that's the number people keep saying, although some sites seem to think it's 10 minutes long. It's relatively simple, and the singing is very clear and natural.
So why would a song start kids cleaning toilets?
Well, the core of the song -- the chorus -- is about her grandmother telling her that there is a goddess in the toilet, and if you clean the toilet really well, the goddess will make you beautiful.
The rest of the song? It's about the little girl who went to live with her grandmother next door, the things that they enjoyed together, and that the little girl didn't like cleaning the toilet. But her grandmother told her there was a goddess in the toilet... and time passes, there are arguments, the little girl grows up and goes to Tokyo to sing. Then she hurries home where Grandma dies. But the song thanks Grandmother for her advice.
Here, go over to http://www.jpopasia.com/lyrics/36791/kana-uemura/toire-no-kamisama-.html and you should be able to listen to the music, and take a look at the lyrics (with an English translation). There's another site http://www.nautiljon.com/paroles/kana+uemura/toilet+no+kami-sama.html that just has a translation. There's even a Wikipedia article about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_no_Kamisama
The song was given an award at the Japanese recording industry show just before New Year's, and it was performed live during the annual New Year's show on NHK -- four hours of music and performances that almost everyone in Japan watches. And then on January 5, there was a two-hour dramatization. Since we enjoyed the song, we watched the drama, too. I have to admit, it was a little too sentimental for my taste.
But sure enough, one of the early scenes is the little girl helping her grandmother clean the house, and wrinkling up her nose and backing away from cleaning the toilet. Her grandmother just smiles and cleans the toilet, and then tells the little girl about the goddess of the toilet bowl. And the little girl thinks about it, then cleans the toilet. Incidentally, the toilets in the drama are mostly the old Japanese toilets. Think of a ceramic slit trench. And at a number of important points in the drama, the little girl, then teenager, and then young lady cleans a toilet. Kind of a working meditation.
In any case, that's why Japanese kids are cleaning toilets.
We'll have to wait and see whether the next generation has a lot of beautiful girls...