The vending machine which sells happiness
Apr 19th 2010 08:46
happy
japan
era
I lately talked with my Aussie friend about the concept of happiness in Japan, seemingly made him confused. I read a short story on a vending machine which sells happiness in a nouvelle when I was a kid. I think this story is a perfect example to explain the concept of Japanese happiness. I'll open a drawer of the memory in brain and get it;
--
Somebody(vaguely remember, probably god) presented a vending machine which sells happiness to a town. People in the town were grateful for it for the initial period of time. Before long, they noticed that no symptom that their daily life would become happier had taken place and were increasingly skeptical about its effect. Some people then got angry about being cheated and vandalised the machine. Eventually, they will notice the vending machine's having been offering happiness by preventing them from misfortunes because of being suddenly suffering from epidemic, deterioration of public safety and deaths of their friends and relatives.
--
*not sure which(present/ past) tense I should use in this story.
What did you learn from this? Well, I think this story represents Japanese traditional and unrevealed concept of happiness where nothing bad happens is happy whereas I assume you find happiness the moment when, say example, you are dancing with your friends in a club, win a lottery and by partner's saying loving you ... something makes you be in seventh heaven.
This concept expose itself in a name of the current era name in Japan, "平成" Hei-sei. Here, 平[hei] means flat and 成[sei] means being accomplished(it's probably in contrast to what happened in previous era "昭和" Sho-wa).
This concept is currently fading and perhaps no longer can be shared by majority and have difficulty being mutually understood. Ask whether, if you have a Japanese friend.
--
Somebody(vaguely remember, probably god) presented a vending machine which sells happiness to a town. People in the town were grateful for it for the initial period of time. Before long, they noticed that no symptom that their daily life would become happier had taken place and were increasingly skeptical about its effect. Some people then got angry about being cheated and vandalised the machine. Eventually, they will notice the vending machine's having been offering happiness by preventing them from misfortunes because of being suddenly suffering from epidemic, deterioration of public safety and deaths of their friends and relatives.
--
*not sure which(present/ past) tense I should use in this story.
What did you learn from this? Well, I think this story represents Japanese traditional and unrevealed concept of happiness where nothing bad happens is happy whereas I assume you find happiness the moment when, say example, you are dancing with your friends in a club, win a lottery and by partner's saying loving you ... something makes you be in seventh heaven.
This concept expose itself in a name of the current era name in Japan, "平成" Hei-sei. Here, 平[hei] means flat and 成[sei] means being accomplished(it's probably in contrast to what happened in previous era "昭和" Sho-wa).
This concept is currently fading and perhaps no longer can be shared by majority and have difficulty being mutually understood. Ask whether, if you have a Japanese friend.
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I recently talked with my Aussie friend about the concept of happiness in Japan, which seemingly made him confused.
I read a short story on a vending machine which sells happiness in a novella when I was a kid. Do you mean "novella" which is a short novel? I wasn't sure.
I'll open a drawer of the memory in my brain and get it: I really like this sentence.
Somebody (vaguely remember, probably god) presented a vending machine which sells happiness to a town.
People in the town were initially grateful for it for the initial period of time.
Before long, they noticed that no sign of their daily life becoming happier had taken place and were increasingly skeptical about its effect.
Eventually, they will noticed the vending machine's having been offered happiness by preventing them from misfortunes such as suddenly suffering from epidemics, deterioration of public safety and deaths of their friends and relatives.
*not sure which(present/ past) tense I should use in this story. Either is fine so long as you use it consistently, although past tense would sound better as the story sounds like something that happened in the past.
Well, I think this story represents the Japanese traditional and unrevealed concept of happiness where nothing bad happening means happy whereas I assume you find happiness the moment when, for example, you are dancing with your friends in a club, win a lottery or by partner's saying "I love you" ...
This concept exposes itself in a name of the current era name in Japan, "平成" Hei-sei.
This concept is currently fading and perhaps no longer can be shared by the majority and has difficulty being mutually understood.
Thank you for the comment. I thought 'novella' was a word for physical book (and it must be wrong). The expession you liked "getting memory from drawer in my brain" was actually a literal translation of Japanese expression. I wanted put enphasis on the motion to look for the story then found the expression suitable to this case.
Anyhow, thank you for the interestingly reading this article.