Sense and Sensibility ~ Making "Sense" of Japan: Summer Edition

So despite the heat we’ve been getting recently, it’s actually not quite summer here yet so that makes the title a little redundant. But coming from England where “real heat” only surfaces maybe around 25% or so of the year, I can happily say that I am indeed getting my “summer fix”.  That said however, with the emergence of the sun have come a whole new host of question marks that me, as the curious outsider, raise my eyebrows. After all, if you recall, I wrote this entry last year. I was the fresh-faced foreigner cocking my head to one side in confusion trying to piece together the differences between the status quo of my life in the UK and the habits or what have you of those around me in my life here in Japan. And even though I’ve passed the halfway mark, I still tilt my head and wonder to myself “how do they do?”

I mean it’s hot! And I love it. I like the fact that I can walk down the street in the daytime wearing just a t-shirt and I like the fact that I can walk home at night when it’s cooled down a bit wearing just a t-shirt. And sometimes I see the men adopting the same manner but the women simply confuse me. For you see, it is extremely common for me to see women wearing long-sleeved tops and jeans down to their shoes. In one extreme scenario, I once saw a woman wearing a scarf. I double-took because I couldn’t understand how the heat had not gotten to her. Now I know that the Japanese have a thing about modesty here; women do no wear low-cut tops, but once again they’re happy to show off their legs – and sometimes I do mean a lot of leg – whether their encased in tights or not. So for me, it does not compute. That said I once tried to conform to the standard actually and ended up passing out on a train so since then, I’ve decided that I will be exposing my arms for my own personal state if being, whether it fits in with society or not. As for Japanese woman…I solute your tolerance; I really do.

Still on the topic of women in the sun however, it is also very common to see women walking with umbrellas (I guess they’re really parasols) here…in pretty temperate weather. I already knew this would be an occurrence but for someone like me who adores the rays from the sun on her skin, it still seems a bit odd to me. This is because I equate an umbrella with rain and sometimes we do get a barrage of rain that cools us down after a heat wave, but I’ve never seen this kind of custom before and it leads me to wonder if they’re protecting themselves from UV rays, if the idea of tanning is really that taboo or whether its something else entirely. And while the day is pleasant, doesn’t it become annoying having to carry that extra item around with you? It just seems like an inconvenience. I’d rather bask in the day.

As an extension of the above nonetheless, in their apparent desperation to shield themselves from the sun, there seems to be an inconsistency. Now, I’m not sure if this is relevant to nowadays, but I’ve heard through the grapevine that most people don’t really wear sunglasses here. I’ve actually heard a plethora of reasons but the one that stood out to me the most was the one that detailed that Japanese people associate sunglasses with suspicious behaviour. After all, dark glasses hide your eyes and therefore hide your identity – funny how that works – and so you must be up to something screwy if you’re hiding behind a mask. But what doesn’t quite add up to me is that while sunglasses may not be acceptable, it’s perfectly fine to walk around wearing this:

W...T...F indeed

This is a visor. It’s basically the equivalent to this…only big enough to obscure your entire face. I double-took when I saw this for the first time because like the surgical mask in the dark, it looked a little frightening from a distance. In fact, it looks even more suspicious than a pair of sunglasses considering that, you know, it actually truly masks your identity.

Now this last one isn’t really a summer issue; it’s an all-year-round phenomena and it’s common place here in Japan if your face doesn’t fit the status quo. So as most of you are aware, all manner of foreigner or people who don’t quite look fully Japanese are stared at. As I’ve been here for a while, I’ve started to notice it less but if I cross into new territory for the first time, then all eyes are generally on me. Sometimes it can be annoying and on other occasions I don’t really care. I mean heck, if a three-eyed alien with green tentacles walked past, I’d probably stare too. What gets me however is that in Japan – like most places – it’s actually rude to stare. Now if something’s out of the ordinary, I’m gonna wonder about it as well so I understand really, but some people here are quite blatant with it. Their heads will crane a full seventy degrees as I walk past and on one occasion, a man spent the better part of 15 minutes just looking at me...and only me. I would move and so would his head. I would sit down and his head would peak over the banister just to look. Creepiest thing ever. So my gripe is, for a country that prides itself on its levels of politeness; where it tries to accommodate tourists by using English or asking if they’d prefer a fork instead, why can’t this be extended to staring? Where I’m from, if I’m looking at someone, I try not to make it obvious; I implement the “steal a glance” method so the individual isn’t aware that I’m looking. In Japan, however, this is often entirely lost complete with pointing, nudging and general astonishment.

So there you have it. I'm sure there are perfectly logical explanations for the above and as I've said before, I can only deal with it. After all, I'm not in Kansas anymore. But believe me when I say it's hot. And when I finally decide to head to a beach next week (I'm heading to Hagi in Yamaguchi Prefecture), it'll certainly be interesting to see how the Japanese behave in a location that I generally associate with sunbathing, swimming and partial nudity.

Japan ~ The Land of… (Part II)

So, as I was saying during my last entry, considering that Japan has so much that is different to what I’m accustomed to, I figured that this needed a second article. Because the longer I live here, the more things I discover and I simply can’t help but write about it.

Vending Machines

Decisions, decisions...

I’m sure this is no secret but Japan is full of vending machines. It is physically impossible to walk down a residential or communal street corner and not come across some manner of watering hole where for a couple hundred yen, you can grab yourself a quick pick me up on your way to work or what have you. I’m not sure why they’re so prevalent but I reckon it must come in handy during those hot humid summers when you’re gasping for a drink but don’t quite want to make the trek all the way to your local convenience store. Heck, there’s actually a machine downstairs not one minute from my front door so if you ever fancy something quick to wet your whistle, fret not – Japan has got you covered.

Mobile Phones

I kid you not; this is exactly what it looks like coming home from work

It’s contagious. Heck, I even noticed it before leaving the UK, but in Japan, the mobile phone is a necessity. And even I’m walking down the street at night with my nose in my phone. The iPhone and the Android are the way forward and even though we know that some big wig will come up with the next popularity boom sooner or later, people simply can’t help themselves. And with so many handy little applications, there’s something for everyone. I constantly see people using the internet, playing games, watching movies or listening to music. The mobile phone is no longer a source of communication for people; it’s a mini entertainment system in your hand. It’s also, a language translator, a shop and a GPS all in one. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve managed to find my way when I’ve been lost. 4G is the way forward. And I’m already aware that it’s hit the west too in full force. So join the epidemic! It’s catching.

Convenience

There have been many a time that I’ve discovered something about Japan that does exist in the UK that has made me exhale in pure ecstasy. And I know what you’re thinking so please take your head out of the gutter because I’m talking about how systematically clever things seem to be here; things that often make me think – why don’t we have those in the UK. My first discovery was how Japanese train carriages are almost always warm in the winter. I can’t tell you how pleasant it is to step out of the blistering cold and to park myself in a booth where there’s a heater underneath ready to warm up my tush. (I look forward to the summer when the trains will then sport air con; no more sweltering hot underground trains for me) Not to mention that more often than not, these seats are moveable meaning that you can angle the seat back into the designated direction of travel as and how you please. Trains aside though, even western-style public toilets are convenient from its seat warming properties to their in-cubicle sanitisers meaning that you can sanitise the seat before you do your business; no need for squatting here (unless you’re find yourself face to face with a Japanese style toilet but that’s another story).

Multi-Storey Entertainment

Where I’m from, a large department store like Debenhams or a Shopping Centre like Westfields with have multiple floors containing different shops, stalls and what have you trying to sell their wares on to the consuming public. What I’ve noticed about being in Japan however is that while this notion exists, shopping aside, multiple businesses will use the same address to sell slightly different services. All they have to do is pick a floor. For example, the ground floor (or the first floor as it’s known here) could contain a restaurant of some kind, but subsequent floors right the way up to sixth or seventh will contain karaoke bars, night clubs, eikaiwa and all manner of industry depending on where you look. And certainly, this does exist in the UK. I’ve worked in a training office where directly above me was a law firm, but in Japan, it seems that even their night life adopts this manner and I reckon it’s because everything here is much smaller and compact. Therefore, if you wanted, you could check out the jewellery shop on the ground floor and then after hours head up to that karaoke place on the third floor, have a meal on a fifth floor, grab some drinks at the pub on the fourth and then head down to the basement to dance the night away at a basement rave. Who says you need to travel from A to B to have a good time.

Courtesy

Remember that thing that I mentioned about politeness in an earlier article? Well it doesn’t just extend to verbal pleasantries but also to manner as well. For example, it’s sort of an unwritten rule here to queue and not just at convenience stores of ticket booths either. People will queue for public transport be it train, bus or taxi; it’s just the done thing here. People will also form a sort of queue at times when waiting to cross the road. I’ve seen people hang back a little bit when someone is in front of them whereas it’s always been my natural instinct to simply file into the gap that’s available at the crossing. What’s more (and it’s something that I discovered only today in fact) is that Japanese pavements come with these little textured portions that for the longest while I’d only considered were merely decoration (and also, an inconvenience when trying to walk in heels). Turns out, these portions of pavement are for blind people so they can navigate their way along the pavement. I thought this was quite brilliant actually until I discovered that it's actually old news and exists all over the world. What I can say however is that this "tactile paving" at least originates from Japan and complements this idea of consideration quite nicely.

~

As for me, I’m hoping they’ll be a Part III to this expedition as it seems that every day I’m discovering something new about this country – including the string of okonomiyaki restaurants that are within walking distance from my apartment.

How did I manage to miss those?

Japan ~ The Land of....

So in roughly six days, I will have spent one month Japan and I must say that I’ve had myself a handful of experiences and in such a short amount of time no less. There have been highs and lows – typical things that come with being a foreigner in a strange place. And I’ve had to navigate my way about quite a lot in these last few weeks. I wonder what I would have done had it not been for my maps and the wonderful Hyperdia. But while Japan does have a lot to offer in terms of splendour, beauty and other opposites from London town, some things just seem a little “standard procedure” even though for a foreigner like me, it’s a little different. But it wasn’t like I wasn’t expecting a complete overhaul. After all, I’ve heard from Japanese people in my own country that they could not believe how unclean it was. Culture shock for the win. But in the same way that my life back home had these typical characteristics, Japan has its very own version as well.

Train Lines

I can’t speak for the rest of England but in London, we utilise two systems – the underground (or the tube) and the overhead trains which frequently lead outside of the city and all over the UK. For someone coming in, it seems rather complicated. There are many lines on the underground and various service providers for the overhead crawlers. I’ve spent a fair amount of time in three cities already – Nagoya, Osaka and of course, Hiroshima – and it seems like every city has its own subway and overhead trains which lead into other cities with their own subways and overhead trains. Osaka was particularly chaotic for me (although I’ve heard Tokyo is worse). I’ve been very fortunate however in that most train lines and their stations provide information in English (I can’t fathom how people navigated the systems all those decades ago). But when a subway station has a Hankyu line and a Kintetsu line counterpart, both of which are called different names and you need to take this train to get on this line to get to Nara and then another line to get to Kyoto, it starts getting a bit hazy. And then of course, there are the famous JR lines which are not for the faint of heart.

In London, when a train is going to split and terminate at separate locations, the destinations of both stations will appear on the screen as well as an explanation both on screen and over tannoy. On the JR line, this was not the case for me. It only specified the furthest station so while all the signs were pointing at a specific platform, I was supremely baffled for a good twenty minutes, trying to figure out why platform 9 had seemingly no trains heading back to Osaka. It was only by chance that I heard “Osaka” (amongst other Japanese being spoken) over the tannoy that I hesitated a guess that the train was going to split (I’d nearly been caught out once before). So with limited Japanese, I asked someone if I was in the right place and low and behold, the first three coaches of a sixteen coach train would be travelling to my destination. Imagine that – I had a 13 in 16 chance of heading somewhere completely different.

That said, if I had to go back, I’m pretty sure that I’d be able to navigate the train lines a little better but for a first timer, it was a bit overwhelming.

But speaking of trains…

Sounds

In London, when a train is going to arrive, you can hear it approaching whether it’s meandering alone the tracks or zooming out of a tunnel. In Japan, when a train is about to arrive, you hear a sweet little jingle. And I think these jingles are different dependant on the station or area. I found these to be quite endearing.

What I also, found was that whenever you stand at a zebra crossing and the ‘green man’ appears indicating for you to cross, it also, plays a sound and more often than not, it sounds like some sort of bird or generic beeping noise. In London, the ‘green man’ is a silent emblem of safety. In Japan, it’s a mini fanfare singing your presence across the street.

Pachinko

His Highness lives about fifteen minutes from my apartment

When I first arrived in Japan, I adopted the ‘fly mentality’. What this means is that I reckoned that anything with bright lights must be interesting. And the bigger and bolder the lights, the more I was drawn to it as Japan has drummed up some interesting buildings. But what I’ve also, come to realise is that most buildings with fancy lights and extravagant structures usually only mean one thing, and this thing is called pachinko. Now in Japan, gambling is illegal. However, as a means of sort of undercutting the rule, pachinko was born and sort of represents what we westerners would call a slot machine. I’m not a gambler in my own country so I don’t understand the game well but from what I can understand, players have the chance to win balls. These balls can then be exchanged for prizes, which can then be taken offsite to be exchanged for money. I tend to find more men in there than women but I have seen to odd old-aged pensioner giving it a whirl. What’s more, they’re allowed to smoke inside and often when I walk passed one, I can smell the fumes five metres away. As I despise smoke with a passion, I think I’ve been giving pachinko a miss. Still makes for some interesting photos nonetheless.

Oh, and if it isn’t a pachinko parlour, it’s probably a karaoke joint. More often than not however, it’s pachinko.

But speaking of karaoke…

These places are just about everywhere too. There’s one not fifteen minutes from my front door but I’ve been discouraged from going there due to its limited music selection. I have been to a karaoke bar at least three times however and I’ve had a very good time. I believe they’re regularly used by young people and salarymen trying to blow off some steam. A lot of the karaoke places I went to offered an all-you-can-drink option for a select amount of time (also, known as a nomihodai) so you have the option of wetting your whistle, singing your lungs out, becoming roaringly drunk and drunkenly singing the night away. Unfortunately, however, not all karaoke bars cater to the incompetent-with-Japanese-English-foreigner so the first time I went, we spent twenty minutes of our allotted hour slot trying to figure out how to use the machine. Generally, however, it is true that you get what you pay for so the bigger the establishment, the wider the selection of songs, drinks, options and what have you. The most I’ve spent on karaoke is 1000 yen however for a couple of hours which I don’t think is all that bad…but then I’m not much of a drinker.

So would I go back?

In a heartbeat.

Recycling

In London, most if not all households will own one bin. They’ll layer it with bin liner, fill it to the brim with all their waste and then toss it into another bin outside which the bin men come and collect once or twice a week. In Japan, the waste system is a bit more intricate. You have to separate your plastics from your burnables and your burnables from your cardboard. If you don’t do it correctly, you can be fined which is a bit much for the foreigner who’s used to chucking things all together at once. So far so good for me however. If I’m unsure about something, I’ll put it on its owned or I’ll head to the local convenience store and chuck it there. What I also, find interesting about Japan is that despite being a relatively clean country, there are no bins on the street so I frequently have to wait to find a convenience store or a train station if I’m out and about, just to drop my trash off there. People don’t litter so much here either which is a good thing but I find the lack of bins a little annoying as who really likes walking with rubbish really? But I understand that the reason bins are few and far between is because they consider them an eyesore here. Understandable because in London, bins regularly become over-flown and someone else’s leavings spilling out onto the street is not attractive in the slightest.

Bikes

In London, I can comfortably say that more people own a car than a bike. In Japan, I can’t say for sure but I believe that a lot of people own bikes and if they own a car, they probably own a bike too…or at least they know someone who does. In my family, my mother is the only one who owns a bike and actively uses it. In Japan, bikes are everywhere. And instead of riding them in the road like they do back home, they ride them on the pavement - something which is frowned upon in London unless you’re a child. Over here, a bike is looked upon like a car. In the same way that people can be caught out for drink-driving, you can be caught out for drink-riding and the limit for alcohol consumption is much lower here than in the west so just a little food for thought. People are also  encouraged to register their bikes here as it’s not uncommon for bikes to get stolen. You are also, encouraged not to ride and chat on a phone but what you can do is hook an umbrella to your bike if it’s raining. In the UK, I think it would be considered a little odd but it actually makes a lot of sense. Who really likes riding home in the rain anyway?

~

So yes, just a few things that have stood out to me in particular since I arrived here. I'm sure I'll find a few more regular occurrences, especially in my own city that mightn't be typical of the rest of Japan.