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I was trained in cursive writing in elementary school, beginning in first grade.Penmanship is the proper name for that subject, which was graded by the teacher just like she did each other subject.As students we were to emulate the method of writing and shape of each letter in a precise manner.Sloppy writers were frequently called out by the teacher in class and openly ridiculed for their poor penmanship, which might occur during the teaching of any subject. This instructive technique worked well to restrain students from deviating too much from the approved penmanship methods; and conform with the official practice book’s examples and techniques for writing each upper and lower case letter.All students were required to wear white shirts, both boys and girls.We were next issued re-fillable fountain pens and required to use them in class. They would tend to drip the ink if carelessly handled.You were required to refill the reservoir of the pen from a glass jar of India Blue ink stored inside your desk. Some students usually left evidence of an ink refill, in the form of blue stains on fingers and hands, if not higher up.Most of us kept small glass bottles of bleach with glass applicator wands in our desks, too, for our penmanship purposes. You could remove drips on your papers, carefully correct misspellings, or attack stains on your shirt, by placing a drop or two of bleach on the ink spot.With the bleach you could touch up a sheet of paper, of course. This requires special finesse if the paper has been already graded for errors and you think for some reason there is cause for optimism that a grade improvement can be argued later.After the first time cleaning a cotton shirt in class with a touch of bleach, every student learned the indelible lesson to thereafter not attend class without a white undergarment beneath their shirt or blouse. Bleach on skin stings.You could also attempt removal of ink stains from your hands by rubbing them together with a few drops of bleach, but too frequent use of this technique could become more painful than stares of schoolmates noting your blue palms and fingers. Cracked skin on hands was a special problem for anyone with ambition to pitch in a little league game.The primary goal of the Penmanship course was to instruct all students to write each word rapidly and legibly, without once lifting the point of the pen from the paper; except to go back over each word after the final letter was complete, to cross the the T’s and dot the I’s that were lower case, before moving on to the following word.You younger readers may know the phrase “remember to cross your T’s and dot your I’s,” referring to a careful reading and spellcheck review of a draft composed on a PC, or final review for accuracy of all figures and visual aids in any assigned report or office project. That part of our old-style penmanship classes is where that phrase comes from.All students were taught there was only a single correct way to form and write each letter; the way it was illustrated in the school’s practice workbooks. No discussions in class concerned the fact that over the years multiple different lettering styles (fonts) had preceded the one in our guides, many with elaborate flourishes and differing designs. We were forbidden in early grades to employ other styles of cursive lettering.After advance to higher grades, there were no more penmanship courses. The burden of reading our essays and written answers became our new teachers’. Later teachers paid for the sins of lower grade teachers, if penmanship courses had been poorly taught.We continued writing in cursive, and some of us discovered alternate ways to form cursive lettering, which caught our personal fancy.It was common to practice one’s personal signature, adding flairs to exhibit a personal style. Coincidently this made forgeries of one’s name less likely to pass as your signature.As people in my generation aged, their cursive handwriting styles would subconsciously evolve as habit and choice continued to result in evolution of the writer’s style. Our earliest elementary school teachers would have cringed, but this was for some of us our first taste of rebelling against the establishment.Occupations that required frequent or extensive cursive writing favored writers’ evolution and refinement, while persons rarely called upon to write long letters or documents frequently had their handwriting deteriorate to a relatively illegible scrawl.Handwriting became a way to suggest social standing and class distinctions.Conformists generally never strayed far from the penmanship styles they had been taught in elementary school; while type “A” personalities more often varied their formation of letters more freely, particularly as to their own signatures.Signatures lawyers required to sign many documents rapidly would often change the most, reflecting haste and a lack of mental focus when signing. For some reason it seemed that doctors lack of focus extended to writing prescriptions, too.The ingrained concern about lifting a pen from a sheet of paper, and the penmanship books’ requirement to form certain letters with minute points, ovals and loops, now guides in deciphering the cursive writings of others.Usually, even rapidly scrawled cursive writing is legible despite variances in writing styles. Writing penned by lefties can be tricky, as they were forced to contort their grip on a pen to attempt to imitate standard letters intended to accommodate the right-handed.I am now going to use these experiences and expert knowledge to interpret the signature you refer to in your question.I concluded immediately that it was a signature, mostly because the writer stylized his letters as much as he dared, combining standard cursive formed letters with block letters in a manner not generally done in penning essays or letter content.First name is, to me, clearly : Steven.The first letter betrays this “S” formation because the writer clearly began by placing his pen at the upper right point, then the track shows two half circles follow, first (upper) looped to the left and the lower loop to the right;, with a final bend diagonally to the left as though to begin returning to the base line to begin the following letter, although in fact the writer momentarily lifts the pen from paper at conclusion of this capital in order to return the pen to form the downward vertical cross stroke of the second letter, forming a simplified “t” abandoning the traditional high loop of a style book, followed by another deviation, a quick cross horizontal stroke completing the “t”, emphasizing the letter by forming it similarly to a typewritten font. This “t” seems to break the rule of returning to insert the cross stroke after the word is otherwise complete, suggesting the “t” is a stylized element consistent with an individualized signature and a personalization deliberately inserted there.In this way his commonplace first name took on a personal style unique to this particular writer. It suggests he may have higher than average creative intelligence and his presumably higher social rank, or is merely a show-off.The remaining letters of the first name are rapidly formed without a lift of the pen, with the looped top of the “e” being hinted and instructing the eye to interpret the previous wavy letter as a “v” instead of the potential other interpretations. This leaves the following two humps to comprise an “n, ” because no other interpretation of then yields a logical consistent and no loop to suggest an “e” or any dot as required were an “i” intended.All of this I interpreted visually in a fraction of a second. This was in spite of the theoretical potential to see the pen marks another way. There are missing pen movements in any other interpretation.What is more, although the obviously weak formation of the “S” at the beginning of the word might for some leave the suggestion that a “G” was instead attempted, the writer has ended his signature with the flourish of a line below placed there after the signature was otherwise complete, and had the S been intended as a unusual use of a lower-case style “g” at the commencement of the signature, that line would have run through the tail of the “g” to illustrate that the writer intended the lower swoop to be a below-line tail instead of the letter being entirely above the imaginary line on which the signature was placed when writing it commenced.This is just an illustration of how we who were brought up writing in cursive were taught to think while learning our own penmanship and how individual letters are placed and usually drawn by their writers.The last name, without going through all the analysis explanations I gave to you above, appears to me to be: Peretz (the second “e”is a bit foggy, it lacks the dot required were it an “i,” and neither a “v” nor a “u” seems to be clearly formed).The final “t” and use of the “z” to double as the cross stroke of a “t”. This screams, “I am someone unique.” It also shouts the writer has a sense of style and recognizes artistic balance, with the two block letter style “t”’s framing the signature as the second and second-to-last letters in the signature. This is not the random jotting of a word on a scrap of paper.Peretz is not an uncommon last name, in fact there is a highly respected well-known attorney in South Florida named Steven Peretz, whose signature this may be.If I am wrong, my second-place guess would be “Peratz.”This interpretation assumes the writer generally forms his lower case letter “a” without closing the top, making it difficult to distinguish a lower case “a” from a “v” or even a “c.” I must mention that there are wobbles in the last apparent vowel of the name, that arguably suggest that my interpretation of it as an “e” may be wrong.“Steampunk” just fails the signature test, so I cannot swallow that interpretation. No matter how appealing that newly minted term might be, unless a stylized logo for a rock group, it just couldn’t be that. That interpretation made me remember the many telescope viewers who swore they could see the surface of Mars was covered in canals.Absent an example of a document written by a familiar person, identification of spellings in cursive can be more uncertain than we might wish, especially for signatures. Penmanship is, after all, an art form as much as it is intended to communicate.You can find similar ambiguities in Egyptian hieroglyphics and cuneiform tablets, too.Remember that the Japanese find exquisite beauty in objects betraying, with their imperfections, the hand of the artist in the medium of his creation.

“What’s life like working on a US Navy submarine boomer? I've heard the chow’s at least not bad! What's day to day life like?”The other answers are pretty good, not much more can be added about daily life.I can, however, expand on Bob Kelleher’s comment about turning a bunch of people into a crew. I was involved in doing just that, in the late ‘80s. I was assigned to the Pre-Commissioning Unit (PCU) of USS Henry M. Jackson (SSBN-730) at the Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, CT. Jackson was the fifth Ohio-class submarine to be built. Her motto at the time was “Fifth and Finest”. Somebody complained, and we had to change it to “Defender of Freedom”.I arrived six months before commissioning. The boat was in the water and most of the equipment had already been installed. Most people know that SSBNs have two crews (“Blue” and “Gold”) that rotate taking the boat to sea, to maximize strategic patrol time and crew training. A PCU has all of those people in one crew, until the day of commissioning.For us, 80% of the crew had never been to sea in their lifetimes. Some of that inexperience was compensated for by training in simulators. Of course, simulators aren’t the same as the real thing. During the last few months before commissioning, some of the rookies were temporarily detached, flown to the base in Bangor, WA, and sent on patrol aboard one of the previous four boats.Sonar Division is allotted 16 men per crew. 16, because one watch (shift) needs three console operators and a supervisor. Two operators on consoles, an “auxiliary” operator for miscellaneous duties, and a supervisor to make operation decisions, and filter, correlate and send the data to the OOD (Officer Of the Deck) in the Control Room. That function is critical, because if everybody (in addition to Sonar) gave everything to the OOD, he would be swamped by information overload. It’s his job to tell the crew what to do, it was my job to give him the information in a form that he could use.When I arrived, besides myself, there were four other experienced men; three Chiefs (E7), and another First Class (E-6). I was the senior First Class. Since we would be split into two crews eventually, we worked as if that split had already happened. The two Chiefs with the most seniority were the Leading Petty Officers. The other Chief and I were the Assistant Petty Officers. Everybody else was a bunch of Little Indians. Whenever work was assigned, two men were assigned to each task, to learn together. During this time, four of our sonarmen were on patrol, getting valuable experience.Most of the crew was so inexperienced, that we even had to do ship-wide phone-talker training on the training barge. Our IC-men set up phone stations in several rooms, to simulate places on the boat (Control Room, Maneuvering Room, etc.), set up various scenarios (Battle Stations, Maneuvering Watch, etc.) with scripts and cheat-sheets to practice proper terminology and procedures. I had to participate, to give them an example of proper techniques, and pause training to make corrections. One reason I got saddled with it was that our COB was my COB on a previous boat, and we had a lot of friction. He was a vengeful old coot. I’m glad he went to the other crew. In fact, funny thing, but from the Captain on down, nukes and forward pukes, the other (senior) crew got all the assholes. I once had the chance to overhear that CO get reamed by the Group Commodore for being a pretentious jerk. The CO had one of the senior enlisted (usually me) assigned as his personal aide (an errand-boy) standing at parade-rest outside the door to his cabin. The Commodore was livid! “You’re only a CAPTAIN! You don’t RATE a fu**ing aide!” I was dismissed about 30 seconds later.For every watch station, we were all provisionally qualified until we got underway on the first, “Alpha”, sea trials. Then, we were qualified, and could sign the qual cards for the next groups, on “Bravo”, Charlie” and “Delta” trials.By the end of “Delta” trials, everybody on the crew was fully qualified on at least one watch station. The experienced crew, like myself, were qualified on two or three, and had been re-qualified for Submarines. Meaning, we could sign non-qual’s qual cards. The crew was proficient, and turning into a team.But, not yet. It was time to split the crew. The Gold (senior) crew took the boat through commissioning and their Shakedown Cruise. The Blue Crew (us) had the option of attending the Commissioning Ceremony or, if they were married, were sent to our home port, four weeks before commissioning, to get their families settled.During the next several months, both crews made many trips underway. The last one was down to Florida, to shoot a missile. The Gold Crew had the opportunity to launch an actual telemetry missile, to prove that everything worked. Then, the Blue Crew was flown to Cape Canaveral to do everything EXCEPT shoot an actual missile, to prove that we knew what we were doing. Missiles are expensive. You don’t launch one just to test the crew. While we were doing that, the Blue Crew was flown back to Groton to fetch their families and move to Bangor.To compensate the Blue Crew for not getting to launch a missile, we had the opportunity to take the boat through the Panama Canal. During the transit from the Canal to Bangor, we were also given the opportunity to dip south of the Equator, so we crusty Shellbacks could turn the slimy Polliwogs into new Shellbacks, if they wanted. It’s all voluntary, but it goes in your Service Record, and you get a huge certificate on parchment paper, in color. This goes along with the other certificates you can earn during a career, such as First Dive (the first time a submarine ever dives), Plank Owner, (Part of the Commissioning Crew. You also get your name put on the bronze Plank Owner Plaque, mounted on a bulkhead in the boat’s Crew’s Mess. Our names will be there until the boat is recycled into razor blades, sometime around 2044. That’s right, the boat will see 50 years of service. She was refueled a few years ago.), Domain of the Golden Dragon (for crossing the International Date Line), Golden Shellback (Cross the Equator AT the International Date Line), Bluenose (Crossing the Arctic Circle), Order of the Ditch (Panama Canal), Emerald Shellback (Crossing the equator at the Greenwich Meridian), Order of the Rock (transit through Gibralter), and Rednose (Crossing the Antarctic circle).The next several months were spent doing things in the Pacific (lots of opportunities for ASW forces to try and find the quietest submarine in the world).Blue Crew was also the one tasked with loading 24 Trident missiles. By that time, we had been tested and tested, gone through lots of war games, and become a highly proficient Family (much closer than a Team). We were ready and raring to go out on Strategic Patrol. That’s what we were there for.Out of three years aboard, I only made three patrols, but I, like the rest of the 20%, was instrumental in forming a GREAT crew! And ours was measurably better than the Goldies (based on crew testing reports). Well they had the assholes to work through. Funny thing, three years later, after making Chief and being an Instructor teaching sonar tactics, I ended up back on the same boat (actually, I asked to go back), but with the Gold Crew. And they were STILL assholes.

No, it is not true ... but for the time being, very few.The following is a copy-paste, AND an update from my answer to a related question … Steve Martin (Steven Martin)'s answer to How are the homeless people treated by the general population in Japan?As Hide Izumi correctly pointed out, the in-group/out-group dynamics are such that panhandlers can not expect to get anything from strangers — particularly from the de-individuated masses of an uber-competitive metropolitan area such as Tokyo.After living on the outskirts of Tokyo for over half my life, I have only been approached two or three times by beggars, usually near the kiosks or gates of train stations where loose change might be expected to change hands. I think that being a slightly smaller than average foreigner (173 cm), relatively baby-faced for a 60 year old, and still keeping my rural American habit of greeting strangers with a twinkle in my eye ... all have contributed to me being an easy mark ;-), but regarding this topic, one that I don't mind.This being said, I am going to take this opportunity to go beyond simply answering the question. While acknowledging a variety of causes behind the need for begging, I would like to suggest a more positive, pro-active alternative to a typical tour of Japan which also helps address the problem of some of Japan's most marginalized.I sometimes join up with a loose band-of-brothers-and-sisters, an NPO called 'Soup no Kai', which is a kind of mobile soup kitchen serving the homeless of Shinjuku (one of, if not 'the' busiest of downtown Tokyo's major stations). They meet every Saturday at 7:00 pm near the west exit of Shinjuku station, close to the Big Eye. Although there is a core leadership of about a half dozen members who come every week, the remainder of the 10 to 20 people that show up are different each week, as it is a purely volunteer collaboration. Although I would not count on finding any high profile politicians or TV idol-talents, among the many that DO show up are parents with elementary school aged kids, foreign exchange students, teachers, social workers, researchers, housewives, salarymen, journalists, video documentary makers — you name it.When I go, depending on the season, I will stop off at a ¥100 shop and pick up some mikan (mandarin oranges), disposable heating pads, gloves, clean underwear, ear muffs, etc.Most people are welcome just to lend a hand or an ear. One of the big problems of being homeless in such an in-group society as Japan is suicide. Just squatting down and chatting is enough for some of them to keep-on keeping-on. When hope is completely gone, the will to live is soon to follow.We meet at the Big Eye with the regulars bringing Miso Soup, hence the name 'Soup no Kai'. The goods are stacked into groups of 4 corresponding to the 4 different routes we cover.As people begin to gather, one to one introductions are made, greetings between long time friends are made, and information about other NPOs, events, or otherwise useful information for the homeless is distributed.One of those is Tokyo Spring now being facilitated by my multi-lingual buddy, Sulejman Brkic (on the right in the pic below) — who is also a long time and frequent Soup no Kai supporter. He now has his own group similar to Soup No Kai, making the rounds along the Yamanote loop … Tokyo spring homeless patrol.Some of you Quora readers might recognize the guy on the left. Yep. Noam Chomsky was in Japan to give a speech at Keio University and dropped by Tokyo Spring. Small world.Immediately below, is a pic of a Soup no Kai gathering from a couple of weeks ago. The two girls are exchange students from Taiwan (now new Facebook friends), and the guy in the suit is a recent immigrant from Myanmar. We all communicated in a mix of Japanese and English ... and had lots to talk about during the course of the evening.On this particular evening, about 20 people came, including a 5 year old boy with his mother. After circling up and giving a quick one-sentence introduction, we split into 4 groups and headed out into the night.Our routes typically take between 90 minutes to a couple of hours to cover. We stop and talk to each person along the route who appears to be homeless, and there are quite a few regulars who expect us and look forward to the weekly meeting. The regulars usually offer information regarding housing, medical clinics, and work opportunities ... but the main thing is just to listen to them, see if they have a particular problem that we can help, and just chat with them to let them know they are not forgotten discards of society.Almost all of the homeless I've met have been friendly, curious (especially to see foreigners), grateful, and polite ... certainly by American standards. It is heartbreaking to see some young men still in the prime of youth who fall between the cracks because of insufficient education, family problems, or bullying in the workplace. The single biggest cause of death last year for males between the age of 20 and 44 (presumably overlapping with the work force) was suicide. Occasionally, I have seen women among those homeless.With the demographic shift now in favor of youth in the job applicant-to-position ratio, an increasing percentage of the homeless are the aged, and so they are also less likely to find enough work to pay the rent. But addressing this problem does not seem to be a priority in the current neo-lib bid for a 'strong Japan'. Indeed, the government run NHK news broadcast recently announced that even the young are suffering. As many of 1/6 of Japanese school kids live at or below the poverty level ... a future generation of the homeless in the making.Although there may be a budget from local governments allocated to deal with the problem, the larger governmental hierarchies tend to hide this 'dirty secret' from potential tourists. The latest gleaming 'Sky Tree' Tower-of-Babel was constructed after first dispersing the homeless from the area — not helping them. But to be fair, this seems to be a universal phenomenon of scaled-up, business as usual.The same thing happens when Tokyo has one of its marathons or ekiden running events ... the homeless and/or cardboard box homes are dispersed and hidden from the public until after the event is over. These high-profile sporting events or area 'renewal' projects usually shifts the heaviest burden to those least able to bear it — the homeless and those who try to help them out. Bread and Circuses. (sigh).Here is a pic of some of the winter 'mansions' the tourist bureau would rather you not see.And though it would be unforgivably rude to show a face without permission, one man allowed me to take a photo of his technique for keeping warm at night — folding a vinyl sheet to keep the cold air out and clamping it with large paper clips. (Will have to remember to bring some along the next time I join.) Tokyo winters are particularly problematic for those who take a swig from the bottle before falling asleep outdoors. A combination of freezing temperature and alcohol takes a yearly toll on some of the homeless, changing a couple of winks into a permanent sleep.At the end of our rounds, we meet at another place not far from the Big Eye, circle up again, and each of us has an opportunity to make a remark about our impression, give specific information about a specific person, and so on.Then, the younger people ... or those who live more than an hour's train ride from home, typically head home — while I usually join the regulars and occasional new face for an 'attitude adjustment session' over beer and shochu at a local Myanmar pub near Shinjuku station.After about an hour or so of philosophizing from a beer mug, swapping tales, and lots of laughing ... I have to catch the last train home, or risk an expensive taxi ride.Now THIS is an experience I would suggest makes a vacation-tour to Japan worth remembering. Almost everyone speaks a little English ... and with a little alcohol, it is amazing how little Japanese OR English you need. :-) Virgin cocktails (non-alcoholic) are available for the alcohol averse. This is the same kind of fellowship that has drawn me to rural Cambodia as well for several trips with Japanese college students and social activists ... hmm, I should just say 'friends'.Since first joining up with Soup no Kai a few years ago, I have now conjured up the courage so that if I do see an obviously struggling homeless person in downtown Tokyo ... especially on a winter night ... and especially a woman or the elderly, I will make a quick judgement call, and sometimes mentally put on my 'Soup no Kai hat' and approach that person, asking if they've eaten tonight, and place a few coins or a ¥1000 bill in their hands. Not always. I'm not THAT rich ;-) And if I'm preoccupied with thinking about my own problems, or if I am with someone, I am not likely to notice the marginalized and let that perfect opportunity pass me by. But I'm still a beginner at this. Got lots to learn.As much as I like Steven Pinker, I have to disagree with his dismissive assessment of Chomsky as a social critic. Chomsky is an intellectual force of nature to be reckoned with, and a moral giant as a consequence. I'd say he's pretty much got the handle on the big picture … ‘think global, act local’. Me? A very, teeny, tiny part. But not insignificant.But back to the question of begging in Japan. Although there are several organizations such as Soup no Kai (Soup Kitchen - Chabad Tokyo Japan, Onigiri (Japanese Soup Kitchen) Companions of Yotsuya, Volunteering at the Second Harvest Food Bank, Buddhist volunteers reaching out to the homeless of Tokyo, etc.), that is not nearly enough good will or manpower to eliminate the problem of the homeless in Tokyo, or the community-less in Tohoku.Many victims of the earthquake/tsunami/meltdown of 2011 are still living in 'temporary' shelters, still depending on volunteers for mental health care issues, and soon enough, the physical effects of the Fukushima fall-out will be showing up ... the first most visible sign will probably be thyroid cancer clusters in the populations, but to tell the truth, even the experts do not know what to expect.TEPCO, on the other hand, climbed out of the red last year. And the zero-sum game of dog-eat-dog, laissez-faire, neo-lib capitalism in a Kabuki mask continues; 'nothing personal — it's just business' — as usual ... Road-paving firms raided over suspected bid-rigging for Tohoku repairs | The Japan Times.Chomsky nailed it ... institutions thriving at the expense of the marginalized individual may be the greatest threat to humanity as a sustainable species.Another tact that has had some success has been borrowed from England, putting the jobless and/or homeless to work by selling a magazine ... Big Issue and its Japanese version What is the Big Issue Japan? Here is my copy of the latest issue.Quora members certainly have above-average literacy and writing skills, and there is plenty of positive social meaning in simply contributing to distributed education through Quora alone — otherwise I would not be proud to be a member. But 'The Big Issue' is yet another excellent opportunity to contribute to something more than a vanity press.For those of you coming to Japan, for anything from a working holiday, to a family tour, to attending/participating in one of those high-profile events such as the Tokyo Olympics, if you veer from your itinerary just long enough to approach some guy near the train station selling The Big Issue, and buy one ... especially with a 'keep the change' remark (just say 'daijobu desu') ... that might be just enough to provide him with a warm meal f0r the night, help preserve what little is left of human dignity for the down and out without resorting to begging or worse, and may even give you a pleasant surprise at hearing an English 'Thank you' and seeing a genuine smile of gratitude.Feeling all warm and fuzzy now? If you are in Japan or plan on visiting — and would like to join Soup no Kai for a 'volun-tour' evening worth remembering, drop me a line in Quora's messaging service and I'll be glad to fill you in on the details.Cheers from Japan! — Steve—————————————————————Update Sunday, June 12, 2016Currently recollecting the events of Soup no Kai last night, I hope my thoughts and feelings are not coming across to the reader as too moralist or strident. But I do have an excuse if I am coming across that way. A few hours earlier tonight, I saw the new movie directed by Jodie Foster … Money Monster (2016) Highly recommended, and I suspect, not so fictional as I wish. I think Chomsky and Yanis would give it a thumbs up.Yesterday, I took a short trip from my apartment to Temple University, Japan Campus to attend a graduate seminar which I thought would be connected to the above post about the homeless in Japan. The seminar topic concerned the social/sociological components of 2nd language teaching, and I mistakenly assumed it would involve more social activism, or at the very least, curriculum-wide, collaborative events, such as a speech contest, or academic presentations in a foreign language. Wrong.The course material was restricted to what could be accomplished within the 4 walls of a classroom in a 50 minute time span … and was mainly geared towards accomplishing what could be tested, eg. easily formalized into quantifiable terms (grammatical correctness, speed of response, increase in vocabulary, etc.).This convinces me more than ever, that in most ‘developed’ countries in the world, formal education (not just language teaching) tends to conflate ‘socialization’ with ‘institutionalization’ … the former term having wider implications including the growth and development of humans as socially responsible members of society, and the goal of the 21st century to solve 21st century problems … the latter term restricted to the compartmentalized, gate-keeping of matching the skill-sets of individuals with ‘appropriate’ institutions (academic, business, political, etc.).I had also worked at Temple University as an adjunct Professor for about 10 years, teaching everything from biology labs, to freshman writing, to public speaking … even got sent to teach at one of the the pre-Fukushima-meltdown nuclear reactors in Ibaraki. I remember mentioning to the former Dean, that as an undergrad back at UNC-W, I was a member of Alpha Phi Omega, a co-ed service fraternity which developed leadership skills through service to the community. I have fond memories of our yearly haunted house — even had a Hollywood make-up artist help out, holding rocking-chair-athons and similar events in shopping center parking lots … and donating all the raised funds to heart disease research. Since APO is international, I approached the then current Dean of TUJ suggesting we should start a branch in Japan. His expert opinion was that volunteerism does not ‘fit’ Japanese society. After all, he was the Dean, so that was that.My, my. After a only a few tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes and a nuclear meltdown or two … how things have … uh … ‘changed’.But back to the here and now, after observing the first 3 hours of the seminar, I left the TUJ campus and joined up with my buddies at Soup no Kai in Shinjuku.I was pleasantly surprised to see a contingent of about a dozen students from Meiji Gakuin University had shown up. They were led by a 3rd year student., who I promptly struck up a conversation with … even filmed a short interview of him on my camera. He said that although the school has a volunteer ‘division’, as most colleges have in Japan, volunteerism is not a part of any curriculum, and is more or less a copy-paste, after-thought to ‘education’.As a veteran college teacher in Japan of about 35 years, I confirmed his opinion, and indeed, the group he was introducing to Soup no Kai, was a group emerging from those students’ own sense of social responsibility … not at the introduction or request of a teacher or in accordance with some curricular standards. That makes them ‘heroes’ in my book … at the very least, among the very few on the right track to becoming socially mature members of society.But come to think of it, volunteerism was not part of my undergraduate curriculum either. I had also been a volunteer, perhaps out of natural temperament … or just the happenstance of hanging around friends that had ‘the right stuff’. At any rate, I was happy to have found a like-minded brother, here in Japan, and a third my age. For the record, community out reach work is a required part of the South Korean curriculum. But because it is not optional, can not really call it the ‘volunteer’ spirit. I don’t know which is better in the long run … leaving community activism up the individual’s choice, or requiring it while in school. But one troubling article about Japan’s social problems seems to hint that something is not quite right with Japan’s current model … Older Japanese have fewer friends than overseas peers, survey finds | The Japan TimesBack to last night, and Soup no Kai, as usual, we circled up at the meeting place, gave a one name introduction, and divided up into 4 groups covering 4 routes. Although I usually take the Toyama Koen route (near Takadanobaba station and Waseda University), last night, I took the Chuo Koen route … maybe only my 3rd or 4th time to take that route.The homeless people along that route, in their make-shift cardboard homes (actually the same route as the photos above in the original post) seem to cover a wider variety of individuals … a couple of whom were really well educated, philosophical, and seemingly happy, some who were gregarious and loved to laugh and chat up the co-ed college volunteer who was with our group, one who had recently had surgery - and was angry that the city office is refusing to give him any more money for living allowance.One had an encyclopedic memory regarding the station names in Tokyo, and entertained us with a kind of quiz show format. Another was well versed in the current scandal involving the governor of Tokyo — and the the implications of the Mayor’s possible replacements regarding policy towards the homeless …… especially (as I mentioned above in the original post) with Japan Inc.’s repeated behavior of hiding or dispersing the homeless (rather than aiding them) when a tourist-attracting event such as the Tokyo Ekiden (long distance relay race), marathon, or upcoming Olympics … or when a new money making Tower of Babel such as TOKYO SKYTREE is erected.Another was a woman who spoke in a hoarse whisper, peeking out of her neat and well-kept cardboard room. She gently refused miso soup or a sandwich … saying she had eaten for the day. But just the same, she put her hands together in prayer and bowed her head in gratitude several times. Although there is some doubt, she claims to be from Fukushima, now more internationally known as the site of the nuclear meltdown (much data of which is now officially classified as a ‘state secret’) Japan : Don’t mess with “state secrets” | Reporters without borders.But the last person we tried to support on our route for the night, was paradoxically, the happiest, and yet the most problematic. He was barely conversant, had probably not had a bath in months — if not years, was happy to eat out of garbage cans, and was now on medication. In the past, he had actually run away from Soup no Kai. But now medicated, he was polite and shy by American standards of ‘homelessness’ … and probably by limited self/other-awareness, the most ‘happy’ … a thought that hit me hard, at the most fundamental level of what it means to live a life worth living.Later that evening while returning to our post-event collective reflection/report on the night’s proceedings … I was chatting with the group leader, and the route leader mentioned that in the past, that man was one of the few panhandlers to frequent Shinjuku station, approaching foreigners who were purchasing tickets at the station. Suddenly, I realized that years before I had learned of Soup no Kai, that unkept man may have been the same man (or is doppleganger) that had once approached me at Shinjuku station, and to whom I had given some loose change.I felt that old, familiar chill of synchronicity run up my spine.Worn out by having earlier attending the seminar at TUJ that day, I did not opt for the drink and dinner with the other guys last night, but instead, headed for the station to take an express train home. Turned out that the student leader lived on the same line (Odakyu), but about a 90 minute ride from Shinjuku (Hadano). Until I got to my station, we talked about Chomsky, Yanis Varoufakis, Dunbar’s Number, the constant corporate and political corruption, etc.I gave him the Quora address, my e-mail, phone number, etc., and he asked if I might help out with the student-volunteers in my capacity as a language teacher and social educator/activist. I was ecstatic. Not a paying gig, but just being asked to be a ‘teacher-collaborator’ by one of the best and brightest of Japan’s rising generation was an honor. I hope the next update I post regarding this topic will be one of hope.