June 29, 2010   Ceremonies or Gishiki

I think Japanese people or organizations especially bureaucrats love ceremonies.  In all kinds of meetings, they arrange so called opening ceremony and closing ceremony.  Even at the time of cleaning activities done by PTA!  And at each opening ceremony and closing ceremony, somebody have to say such as an opening remarks and closing remarks.  All what they say are saying that ‘From now on, we will start the opening ceremony’ or ‘Now closing ceremony is over.  Thank you for your cooperation.’ 
The other day, I have attended an welcoming dinner party for musicians organized by a committee as a volunteer interpreter.  The nice smelling foods are all ready for guests to eat and we were all hungry.  But it got cool when we finally started to eat because there was an opening ceremony for the dinner party.  First, a MC said something and introduced town mayor to give a short speech.  And then MC introduced a committee chairman to say something.  And with each speech, interpreter had to say it in other language.  So the time took double.  After the dinner, I thought the program was over because the musicians sang an extra song for the guests and they said thank you and left.  I was wrong.  When we came back to pick up our belongings, some of the left over food was still there.  The very kind committee chairman told us to eat more.  And when we were all full, he started to give a speech. 
Yesterday I visited a school to meet all the teachers there.  The program was handed out and it listed 3 persons speeches before the main meeting topic started to be discussed and at the end 1 person had to say something like, it was a nice meeting…and so on. 
Why do Japanese people like those ceremonies?  Do they enjoy it?  I don’t think so.  I think it was wasting of the precious time.  If Japanese are good at making speeches with some humors or informative tips or good jokes, we might enjoy attending to it, yet I cannot say that they are.  Very much boring, simple, meaningless remarks can only thirst our throat.  That might make the beer or water taste better afterward. 
Who can change this boring habit?  Maybe only those ones who think the ceremonies are boring.  Maybe government officials has to say ‘No more ceremony rules to save energy’  Just like announcing the cherry blossom blooming announcement, or Tsuyuiri—raining season start—announcement.  Those are also unusual and unnecessary ceremony, I would like to say.  Why does somebody have to announce whether the cherry trees are in bloom or not?  We can tell by seeing them. 
Did I write similar things before?  Maybe I did, but forgive me.  I just wanted to write again.