One day at Okawame Jr. High, Mr. Otsuki asked me to erase the blackboard.
So I wiped it in my usual crazy person way, with the eraser going in all directions on the board.
When I was finished, Mr. Otsuki turned to the class and said, "Based on the way Dana Sensei erased the board, what kind of blood does she have?" At this point I was thinking, "What??"
"Raise your hand if you think she has A blood."
No hands.
"B?" Still no hands.
"AB?" Still...no hands.
"O?" All hands shot up.
Wow. "Yeah," I said in absolute amazement.
They knew.
The only reason I knew about my O negative blood type is that back home, the Red Cross would regularly call and ask me to donate blood since O - can be received by anyone.
But it seems like everyone here knows their blood type. Not because the Red Cross is out for blood (hehe), but because blood type is important in Japan. Your blood type apparently determines your personality.
| Type A | |
|---|---|
| Best traits | Earnest, creative, sensible |
| Worst traits | Fastidious, overearnest |
| Type B | |
| Best traits | Wild, active, doer |
| Worst traits | Selfish, irresponsible |
| Type AB | |
| Best traits | Cool, controlled, rational |
| Worst traits | Critical, indecisive |
| Type O | |
| Best traits | Agreeable, sociable, optimistic |
| Worst traits | Vain, rude |
When I was searching the internet for a list of the characteristics for each blood type, I came upon this blog post. The author posts a chart like the one above, and then goes on to give his own interesting spin on blood types. Pretty funny.
I'm still not exactly sure how my students could tell my personality and blood type by the way I erased the board. I'd like to think that they don't see me as being vain and rude! Yikes!
Overall, I find the whole fascination for blood type very...well..fascinating.
3 comments:
It's the same here! Every time this comes up Koreans are shocked that my Western friends and I don't know our blood types!
Don't you think their system is convenient, since most Japanese people are A and foreigners O. Rude and vain gaijin, that fits, right?
For young Japanese people, Blood type and Horoscopes are one of the most important element to analyze that person. We know it is too strange that thousand of people with same blood type have same character, but we, aka herd of sheep, someone said, feel relieve that we are not alone. Well, or at least this is my theory as 100% Japanese...!
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