Sho mo nai!

Ketsu Eki Gata

Or Blood Types in English

This, as you may know, is a big thing in Japan. Decide what a person is like by the colour of their blood. Or rather, by the form of it. This is in my opinion as foolish and irrelevant as horroscopes, and does nothing to indicate what a person is like. Here's how it looks to me:

Type 1: Loves animals.

Type 2: Is interested in science.

Type 3: Likes to talk about themselves.

Type 4: Is short and to the point.

Person A: "Hi, my name is Bob. I have a pet cat. My university major was Biochemistry, and I like to read books."
Person B: "What's your blood type?"
Person A: "It's type one."
Person B: "Wow! It so is! you have a cat and everything! BIOchemistry too!"

or:

Person A: "It's type two."
Person B: "Wow! It so is! bioCHEMISTRY was your MAJOR?"

or:

Person A: "It's type three."
Person B: "Wow! It so is! You DO like to talk about yourself! A typical type three!"

or

Person A: "It's type four."
Person B: "Wow! It so is! Everything you just said was simple and direct! You are very type four! Oh my Gawwwwd, bloodtyping is wonderful, isn't it!"

And this is why I think it is stupid. Blood typing is like a special kind of tunnel vision.
But the Japanese love it. Or the majority do, at least.

I don't know what the various types mean, and having tried to look it up on the internet, I couldn't find two answers that agreed with eachother, which does little to win me over.

Anyway, what brings this up is that every year the graduating third year students make a compilation book of various things, including profiles of all the teachers. On the profile it asks what your blood type is. Not wanting to give the regular boring answer of "I don't know" but still not wanting to be put in a box because of whatever my personality happens to be, I decided to conduct a survey.

I have polled all the students and staff at the junior high, and have started polling my japanese friends and those of my foreign friends who might have some vague idea about what the types mean.

These are the results so far:

(out of 62 votes)
A: 19 (31%)
B: 16 (26%)
O: 16 (26%)
AB: 11 (18%)

1% margin of error

And that is what I put on the form.

(I'll update this as more votes come in.)

posted by Fletcher @ 11:50 p.m.