Sleeping in Japan
Jan. 6th, 2006 03:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomusAll the Japanese people I've known love to sleep. They sleep differently. They treat sleep like a holiday or a hobby. 
They can sleep anywhere. I remember, before I ever came to Japan, seeing haunting images of sleeping Japanese commuters in Chris Marker's film Sans Soleil. Then, when I arrived here in the early 90s for rock tours, I found that sleep was one of the things that united me with the Japanese: totally jet-lagged, I too wanted to nod off at every possible opportunity. The Japanese, though, were better at it. They could fall asleep on a train (their heads often sinking down to the shoulder of the stranger next to them) and wake up without fail at the right station, whereas I'd invariably miss my stop.
Japanese friends could happily spend all their free time sleeping. Sleep seemed to be the main use of the tiny spaces Japanese called their homes. Songs were written about sleep, like the "Sleep Song" that opens Takako Minekawa's Roomic Cube album (the droning mantra "I can sleep, I can sleep, let me sleep, let me sleep" is backed up by Buffalo Daughter's buzzing, chugging Moogs).
My own sleep song for Kahimi Karie, "Mistaken Memories of Medieval Manhattan", cast sleep as a very active occupation, filled with dreams "one hundred times stronger than acid", but sleep for Japanese seems much more Buddhist; a happy void, a temporary non-being, a refreshing little death, a positive absence.
Two features of Japanese life facilitate easy sleep: safety and proximity to the floor. You can fall asleep in public here without worrying whether someone's going to steal your wallet or your camera. And you're always close to the floor. I spent New Year's day eating a prolonged lunch with Hisae's uncles and their families. Everyone sat on cushions on the floor around a kotatsu table, heated from within, canopied with a duvet. The TV was on, conversation ebbed and flowed, courses came and went. Hisae's uncle was lying on the floor. Sometimes he'd talk to us, at other times he went quiet, and I noticed he was
sleeping. He didn't have to change position to sleep; he was already reclining full-length on cushions. And nobody thought it was strange that he was sleeping through the family meal, sleeping in front of guests. There was no sleep taboo. Sleep didn't have to happen in private.
I did the same thing last night at the kabuki theatre. We took seats by the hanamichi or "flower path", the runway that actors use to make dramatic entrances and exits through the audience. Our seats were legless and collapsible; everything lay on the same level -- hanamichi, chair bottom, floor. So I stretched out, able to see the stage even while lying full-length on the floor. And soon I fell asleep. I wasn't the only one; Japanese nearby ate food or slept stretched out, for all the world as if they were in their pajamas.Of course, the actors noticed (they flirt with the audience, make eye-contact, move amongst us soliciting donations). But they didn't seem to think it was strange either. During a three-hour variety show (pop songs, intervals, play) it's expected that you'll spend a certain percentage in a delicious kabuki sleep, a sleep lapped in coloured lights and distant music, a sleep from which you'll awaken when something dramatic happens or the pace changes.
I've read that artist Takashi Murakami, despite now being very wealthy, still doesn't have a proper house with a bathroom and bedroom of his own. Instead, he sleeps where he's working, lying down on the floor wherever he is and falling instantly to sleep whenever he feels like it, while his assistants continue to work around him. When he's installing shows in foreign countries he sleeps in the gallery too, right there on the floor. I cited this to my gallerist when I had my own art show last year in New York; I'd begun to feel uncomfortable returning to my lodgings in Harlem late at night after hearing gunshots ring out one night. So Zach kindly agreed to let me sleep on the floor of the gallery... just like Takashi. It was wonderful; no more commuting!
Sleep fits perfectly into Slow Life (or LOHAS, as it's as often called; the acronym stands for "Lifestyles Of Health And Sustainability"), and Slow Life continues to gain ground in Japan. Yesterday I was browsing an attractive Magazine House bi-monthly publication called ku:nel. Sleep already appears in the title: ku means eating and neru means sleeping. So this is a lifestyle magazine about eating and sleeping. Instead of promoting a glitzy, difficult-to-achieve, consumerist lifestyle for the 30-something unmarried women who seem to be its target market, ku:nel celebrates craftwork, cookery and... sleep (preferably with a cat curled up beside you on the futon). The magazine's mascot, Kunel-kun, is seen sleeping in many of the animations you can see on the magazine's website. "It's delightful to make a trip with a friend, to grow plants, to cook or sew, to steam in the bath, to drink tea, to walk in the rain, to watching shooting stars, to feel empathy with animals," Kunel-kun seems to say to his tender-minded and wholesome readers. "Don't bother consuming all that gaudy trash other magazines talk endlessly about, just sleep instead! It's cheaper, better for the planet, and just as much fun!"
They can sleep anywhere. I remember, before I ever came to Japan, seeing haunting images of sleeping Japanese commuters in Chris Marker's film Sans Soleil. Then, when I arrived here in the early 90s for rock tours, I found that sleep was one of the things that united me with the Japanese: totally jet-lagged, I too wanted to nod off at every possible opportunity. The Japanese, though, were better at it. They could fall asleep on a train (their heads often sinking down to the shoulder of the stranger next to them) and wake up without fail at the right station, whereas I'd invariably miss my stop.Japanese friends could happily spend all their free time sleeping. Sleep seemed to be the main use of the tiny spaces Japanese called their homes. Songs were written about sleep, like the "Sleep Song" that opens Takako Minekawa's Roomic Cube album (the droning mantra "I can sleep, I can sleep, let me sleep, let me sleep" is backed up by Buffalo Daughter's buzzing, chugging Moogs).
My own sleep song for Kahimi Karie, "Mistaken Memories of Medieval Manhattan", cast sleep as a very active occupation, filled with dreams "one hundred times stronger than acid", but sleep for Japanese seems much more Buddhist; a happy void, a temporary non-being, a refreshing little death, a positive absence.Two features of Japanese life facilitate easy sleep: safety and proximity to the floor. You can fall asleep in public here without worrying whether someone's going to steal your wallet or your camera. And you're always close to the floor. I spent New Year's day eating a prolonged lunch with Hisae's uncles and their families. Everyone sat on cushions on the floor around a kotatsu table, heated from within, canopied with a duvet. The TV was on, conversation ebbed and flowed, courses came and went. Hisae's uncle was lying on the floor. Sometimes he'd talk to us, at other times he went quiet, and I noticed he was
sleeping. He didn't have to change position to sleep; he was already reclining full-length on cushions. And nobody thought it was strange that he was sleeping through the family meal, sleeping in front of guests. There was no sleep taboo. Sleep didn't have to happen in private.I did the same thing last night at the kabuki theatre. We took seats by the hanamichi or "flower path", the runway that actors use to make dramatic entrances and exits through the audience. Our seats were legless and collapsible; everything lay on the same level -- hanamichi, chair bottom, floor. So I stretched out, able to see the stage even while lying full-length on the floor. And soon I fell asleep. I wasn't the only one; Japanese nearby ate food or slept stretched out, for all the world as if they were in their pajamas.
Of course, the actors noticed (they flirt with the audience, make eye-contact, move amongst us soliciting donations). But they didn't seem to think it was strange either. During a three-hour variety show (pop songs, intervals, play) it's expected that you'll spend a certain percentage in a delicious kabuki sleep, a sleep lapped in coloured lights and distant music, a sleep from which you'll awaken when something dramatic happens or the pace changes.I've read that artist Takashi Murakami, despite now being very wealthy, still doesn't have a proper house with a bathroom and bedroom of his own. Instead, he sleeps where he's working, lying down on the floor wherever he is and falling instantly to sleep whenever he feels like it, while his assistants continue to work around him. When he's installing shows in foreign countries he sleeps in the gallery too, right there on the floor. I cited this to my gallerist when I had my own art show last year in New York; I'd begun to feel uncomfortable returning to my lodgings in Harlem late at night after hearing gunshots ring out one night. So Zach kindly agreed to let me sleep on the floor of the gallery... just like Takashi. It was wonderful; no more commuting!
Sleep fits perfectly into Slow Life (or LOHAS, as it's as often called; the acronym stands for "Lifestyles Of Health And Sustainability"), and Slow Life continues to gain ground in Japan. Yesterday I was browsing an attractive Magazine House bi-monthly publication called ku:nel. Sleep already appears in the title: ku means eating and neru means sleeping. So this is a lifestyle magazine about eating and sleeping. Instead of promoting a glitzy, difficult-to-achieve, consumerist lifestyle for the 30-something unmarried women who seem to be its target market, ku:nel celebrates craftwork, cookery and... sleep (preferably with a cat curled up beside you on the futon). The magazine's mascot, Kunel-kun, is seen sleeping in many of the animations you can see on the magazine's website. "It's delightful to make a trip with a friend, to grow plants, to cook or sew, to steam in the bath, to drink tea, to walk in the rain, to watching shooting stars, to feel empathy with animals," Kunel-kun seems to say to his tender-minded and wholesome readers. "Don't bother consuming all that gaudy trash other magazines talk endlessly about, just sleep instead! It's cheaper, better for the planet, and just as much fun!"![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
going gently into that good night...
Date: 2006-01-06 07:05 am (UTC)anyway, was reminded about chuang tsu as butterfly dreaming he was a man.
story related by cage via suzuki via you know who.
so many good sleep memes out there, no?
r.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 07:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 07:12 am (UTC)It seems like, if one is to reject keeping-up-with-the-joneses consumerism and endorse simple pleasures and a deeper experience of everyday living, then one might not have any need for magazines at all.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 07:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 02:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 07:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 07:25 am (UTC)One interesting thing is that in English we say "I had a dream", which is very property-minded of us. But the Japanese say "I saw a dream"... more like being a witness to a shooting star.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 07:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 07:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 10:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 01:25 pm (UTC)"I starred in a dream."
"I was subject to a dream."
One thing I've never been able to get my head around is the American expression:
"I'm going to take a piss."
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 02:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 09:35 pm (UTC)This is a very appropriate expression.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 07:33 am (UTC)Going over to a friend's house/apartment to take a nap is a valid activity in Japan. Here, you're seen as a slug or a killjoy...
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 07:43 am (UTC)in america naps are like totally unheard of
which is probably why there is road rage/and mad rushes of arguing people at stores..and to wake themselves up they drink tons and tons of coffee..which just makes everything even worse.
this is a very good post that intrests me
thank you
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 07:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 08:27 am (UTC)PS the library is currently building a cafe - we all know what people will drink there!
Losers
Date: 2006-01-13 02:54 pm (UTC)Sleeping
Date: 2006-01-06 08:20 am (UTC)You are right to a certain degree though. Sloth outside of organizational participation is not so much a sin in Japan. I personally find excess sleep to be highly unproductive, but I've got an innate protestant work ethic mixed with my Jewish craftiness. Confucian-Shintoism has no problem with sleep as long as it's on your time and not society's.
How do you reconsile that the #1 drug in Japan has always been crank? People like to sleep too much?
Marxy
Re: Sleeping
Date: 2006-01-06 08:40 am (UTC)Sleeping on the way to work is also a luxury afforded only to people in a city like Tokyo, where 78% of trips are made by public transport. American commuters obviously can't sleep in their cars.
Re: Sleeping
Date: 2006-01-06 06:33 pm (UTC)Sleep police today, thought police yesterday; this blog is starting to look like my favorite distopian novels.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 08:51 am (UTC)Sounds like nightmares while awake.
Date: 2006-01-13 05:26 am (UTC)Re: Sounds like nightmares while awake.
Date: 2006-01-13 02:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 09:49 am (UTC)For a few years now, I've been trying to track down Michel Krasna's stunning score for San Soleil, but to no avail.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-09 12:36 pm (UTC)Re: SleepingWelcome Marxy with a bit of social realism
Date: 2006-01-06 10:50 am (UTC)the medals would probably go:
gold: homeless people
silver: salariimans on holiday
bronze: working-holiday makers
having fully considered these more delicate factors one might arrive at something similar to Ango Sakaguchi's thesis that japanese people are inherently super-chilled , lacking aggressiveness and a vengeful spirit and it is exectly to compensate for this that hard social codes like bushido had to be invented but this here seems to be arriving at results via a shortcut.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 12:28 pm (UTC)Also, in Japan both school and work feel a lot more comfortable with disrupting your normal sleep patterns than they ever would in my neck of the woods.
it's not really a matter of more sleep so much as different sleep.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 12:36 pm (UTC)Good Karma
Date: 2006-01-06 12:49 pm (UTC)(Where did that idea come from anyway? It's in 'Macbeth' but I dunno if that's the origin).
If you've got good karma, then you're sure to sleep better. I for one have constant insomnia due to my web of deception and fraud.
Re: Good Karma
Date: 2006-01-06 12:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 05:04 pm (UTC)The place for you.
Date: 2006-01-06 08:22 pm (UTC)I am a big fan of napping under my desk. I used to do this all the time when I was working in a gigantic law firm in New York. I even had some bedding: some crumpled cardboard for a pillow, and the Metro Section of the Times as a sheet/blanket. My favorite thing was when people would come into my office looking for me and conclude that I wasn't there while all the while I was deliciously snoozing away under my desk.
I did always find it hard to wake up and go back to work.
cheers,
octopus grigori (http://octopusg.blogspot.com)
Re: The place for you.
Date: 2006-01-06 08:26 pm (UTC)I wouldn't have a problem getting up and going back, but my main issue is that I share my office with two other people. Boo.
sleep!
Date: 2006-01-06 05:39 pm (UTC)Right On!
In college, my roommate and I formed a Public Sleeping Club. Every Thursday afternoon we'd sit in my apartment and listen to either Ping Pong or Little Red Songbook and then head off to campus with blankets and pillows in tow. Then we'd lie on the couches in common areas across campus (library elevator lobbies, waiting areas, etc.) and nap for an hour or so.
Something very exciting about waking up and seeing strangers standing there, staring at you.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 09:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 09:29 pm (UTC)ku:nel -- wow -- this kind of magazine is needed here in the US and pronto.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 09:43 pm (UTC)That's all.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 10:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-06 10:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-07 12:45 am (UTC)sleep
Date: 2006-01-07 05:39 am (UTC)there are a couple songs about sleeping on my new album.
sometimes i like to take a nap before i sleep.
i wished i lived on the floor, so i could maybe be alseep, or awake.
but i don't. its not a possiblity currently. next apartment?
heated floors are super for sleeping on in the winter.
it is my favorite thing to do. sometimes even on the train. but you have to keep an eye out. it is nyc after all.
trevor.
pandatone.com
Japan most sleep-deprived nation on Earth
Date: 2006-01-07 05:25 pm (UTC)http://www.howardwfrench.com/archives/2005/04/17/dozy_japan_a_nation_asleep_at_the_wheel/
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-07 09:13 pm (UTC)Yeah, often girlfriends find it strange, but I ,by default, have my entire workspace built around my bed. A desk by my bed for scanner and computer, and a large bed that I fill helf with painting materials or whatnot when working on physical projects. When I get tired I just slide the computer back up onto the desk, or push my tools away from me, and sleep for a few hours/till I'm done, then wake up and continue.
I think regemented sleep cycles are an unnecissary framework and somewhat antagonistic to the body.
I used to have a Japanese coworker who's admitted hobby was sleeping. Whenever she had free time she'd sleep. She could sleep 16 or 20 hours regularly no problem. Not that she wasn't able to stay awake if needed.
At that point I think it's peaceful, but also doesn't allow you to do much with yout life. But I guess if that's not your goal...
sleeping crimes
Date: 2006-01-08 08:22 am (UTC)Sometimes I feel like the asia troll or sorry whatever particular country in asia your in troll when I post stuff like this, but pick pocketing does exist in Japan and businessmen who doze off or pass out in the streets are pick pocketed. I haven't looked at actual crime reports so I don't know if your more likely to be mugged asleep on the train in new york (although friends assure me you are more likely to be masutrbated in front on the train in nyc), but I'd imagine crime rates (which are now in their 15th year of decline in nyc)are safe enough in most major cities that you can sleep fairly safely. Now do the Japanese wake each other up is what I wanna know. Anyway, peace out. -a
Re: sleeping crimes
Date: 2006-01-09 02:30 pm (UTC)about where to wake you up:
http://www.popgadget.net/2006/01/wake_me_up_at_s.php
peace,
A
Power naps
Date: 2006-05-17 09:25 pm (UTC)Sleep
Date: 2008-10-01 01:55 am (UTC)I am a Japanese living in the States. When I worked for a Japanese company in New York, there was a sofa in a ladies room. Of course I took a nap every single day after lunch!
Yes, we can sleep in a train and wake up right before the station to get off come close. But of course, from time to time, we miss it.
Your post gave a very nice laugh!
Thank you!
noriko ludwig