Gamanyowai (我慢弱い)

Well, after living in Japan a total of almost five years, yesterday was the first day that I actually went to the doctor. Heather and I both went, to try to have our illness diagnosed. Heather performed a prediagnosis with the aid of the Internet and concluded that what we had, in fact, was whooping cough. We listened to the samples on the website, and they did in fact sound very close to Heather's coughing pattern. She's been doing a lot of whoops after coughs particularly in the morning and evening. I haven't been doing so many, but Heather thinks it's only a matter of time until my illness progresses to that stage. In China, I am told, this illness is known as the hundred day cough. Great.

Fortunately, the doctor came to a different conclusion. He said it wasn't bacterial, and that it was just the last vestiges of a cold. He said that I had a touch of bronchitis, and that I would have to be careful because of my asthma, but that's it. He gave us medicine to relieve our symptoms, but nothing really to help us heal. Heather and I don't know whether to feel relieved or annoyed.

Yesterday also was the first time that I had ever purchased a face mask to contain any germs that I might emit. This is a common practice in Asia, and at first one thinks that people are overly terrified of catching anything. This misconception was often exploited by the American media to sensationalize outbreaks of SARS and Bird Flu. Photographs of people walking around wearing face masks accompanied the articles, and seemed to suggest, "This is the serious extent to which things have declined." The reality, in most cases, is that people just want to prevent their peers from also getting sick.

There is another, unspoken reason people wear these masks, though - at least in Japan. Yesterday I mentioned coworkers who came to work and toiled away wearing masks for weeks without taking any days off. The message is clear - look how dedicated I am to my job, and to the success of this organization. The more days worked, the more dedication is demonstrated. Sometimes this perseverance is punctuated with the presence of a fever-mask on the forehead.

There is a word for this behavior in Japan, and it is a very important word for understanding Japanese culture - gaman (我慢). Gaman is often translated as perseverance, endurance, or tolerance, and it is a fundamental characteristic of the ideal Japanese. Everyone is encouraged to gaman, and people strong in gaman - gamanzuyoi (我慢強い) people - are paragons of virtue. Unfortunately, gaman often manifests itself to such a ridiculous extent (to foreign eyes, at least) that more harm than good results. Because of this, I often detest gaman. Nevertheless, I will wear the mask today and see what happens.