Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Tokyoite Urban Anthropology lesson: What is an "Obatarian"? Answer: This combines "oba-san" (older woman or aunt) and the suffix "-genarian". They are known for shouldering their way into buses and trains, generally getting their way and even terrorizing shop assistants. The male equivalent is "ojitarian" (oji-san is uncle or older man). They are generally sour and uncommunicative, pick their teeth in public and wear unfashionable clothes.
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I think that once, these obatarians must have been sweet, young girls, trying to look as pretty as they could, delicate flowers playing the coquette. And their young men eagerly admired them. But as time went by, those same young men became their husbands, stopped admiring, and paid less attention to them. How shocking to those women, not to be paid attention to, to be reminded of getting old. Living in a man's world, with little opportunity to do what they wanted, always restricted. But now, in the obatarian age, they have some extra money and more free time. Their children have grown up, their husbands come home late... Now, at last, they have a chance to make up for their lost freedom and youth.
ReplyDeletejust copy this article cat.meron pa kayang katulad nila sa Japan? very interesting!!
thats a good point of view Kuya Rom...
ReplyDeletesometimes nga in the face of "annoying" people we forget that once they were young too (although some nasty people might say "ganon na yon talaga bata pa sya" hehehe)...
until you wrote your comment above, I confess I haven't even thought of that aspect...