Roach Hotel
One of the things we are learning about the Japanese is that they seem to enjoy making things cute. We have often noticed signs and food packages “made cute” with various pictures of cartoon animals, hearts, stars, etc. Hello Kitty, one of Japan’s largest “cute” industries, is still quite popular even years after it was first created. Probably many of you have heard of manga, a type of comic book here in Japan in which the characters are often featured with large, round eyes. Even each of the 47 prefectures has its own cute mascot – Yamaguchi Prefecture’s happens to be a puffer fish.
One of the effects of this cuteness is that it helps to make difficult or unpleasant things a bit more tolerable. For example, a couple of weeks ago when we were at the English camp, the camp instructor had to explain to the kids how they needed to put their beds away at the end of their stay. Because kids don’t normally enjoy being told rules and regulations, the instructor made it more fun (aka – cute) by demonstrating bed-making with a stuffed animal and a tiny futon. And yes, it actually was rather cute!
Another unpleasant thing is having bugs in your house. Since we found a cockroach downstairs in the church, Colby and I wanted to set some traps in our kitchen as a preventative measure. Well, come to find out, the Japanese don’t just have traps for cockroaches – they have hotels for them! Of course it is still a trap and will still kill the cockroach, but the outside of the cardboard box is decorated like a hotel. As I was setting ours up, I could imagine the fun that Japanese families probably have as parent and child work together to “build” a hotel for the little critters. And thus, an unpleasant project is turned into fun all because of cute!
The Cockroach Hotel - come once and never leave!
Please continue to pray for Colby and Theresa as they adjust to Japan and its “cute”-ness. Pray that they would be careful to interact with the Japanese in culturally sensitive ways.