JAPANESE RES IPSA LOQUITOR
By: Iris P. Concepcion

"These levels of self-sacrifice, or suicidal behavior, are particularly eye-popping when seen from our eyes. We do have a capacity for self-sacrifice too. We do have a capacity to brave great dangers too, which is in fact what some of our OFWs are doing in volatile areas, but for family. We will risk everything for family, but not much else. The Japanese will do so for things that extend well beyond that. They will do it for the good of Japan and the Japanese people, a thing so ingrained in their psyche it no longer carries the aspect of duty or command, it is reflex action. You can’t get any deeper sense of country than that." -Conrad de Quiros

This is a timely call for writing after a powerful earthquake shook the country of Japan. It eventually exposed not how fragile it is but how the Japanese people are very resilient. As a nation, this explains much for their enormous psyche composition and strength.

Before going to mass yesterday, I passed by a quaint Japanese store.

I could not pinpoint exactly from where its serious comeuppance translate to its happily wicked commercial products. Their products posterously grin even without them embossed with smiley faces. Bright and in-your-face and eyebrows, I had to tell one of its vendors that it is such a very homey, hilarious and gleeful area. I figured, the Japanese's first impulse when they encounter things is to innovate. They see paper and they create food patterned after it. They are, to my recollection, the forerunners of Oriental crafsmanship. Even their films attract me like moth to, well, old clothes.

Channeling this energy of enthusiasm and hardwork to something happily soulful is what I look for in my streetside walks. I ate a chicken delicacy last night and was tempted to arrange it like a face. It is our privilege I suppose not only to be filled; we must also be allowed to elicit guffaws aside from excreting saliva when pacifying our palates.

I hopped to the nearby "mainstream" grocery/deli and met actual Japanese, sumo wrestler built and all. They were discussing about the parade of hotdogs. They are so huge I am reminded of the better other's armpits upon seeing it. Of course, I am naive. Japanese products there are likewise happily presented I need to pinch myself to return to normalcy.

If only we as a race can be as upbeat even with the mundane things in our midst.

Going on the same train of thread, I did catch a brass band after featuring Japanese arrangers. The first performer had a flute as he played "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" in a semi-cabaret mood; the second one had a monumental trumpet. I do not mind the soft and cozy emission of melody from the dainty flute. I was flabbergasted by the horns though. The soloist performer did it like Chuck Mangione would. He of the Munich Olympics theme song in the '70s. His piece is Sylvester Stallone's "Rocky" soundtrack and I was one with the two old men who nodded in agreement that it was the better rendition.

This is boxing at its best.

With that in mind, I do wonder if throwing babies in pools after delivered as is customary in Japan made them a race of historical experimentation.

You can just sense they soar from all sorts of tremblor.