Japanese Culture 101

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Sunday just didn’t start off how I anticipated.  I expected to sleep in till 8 or 9 since I’d been awake for so long, but ended waking up at about 4am.  There wasn’t a chance of getting back to sleep either, so after an hour of trying, I went up to the lounge to play around on the Internet.  Of course, at 5am everyone was still asleep, Andrew, the Aussie from the station was asleep on the couch, he hadn’t made a reservation, so there was no room for him to sleep except on the couch.  I thought I’d start getting ready for the day, take a shower and all, and noticed I’d forgotten my toothpaste.  I don’t think I forgot it though, I just can’t find where the hell I packed it.  So, a trip to the Mini Mart was in order.  Something so simple, now becomes a challenge with the language barrier.  I saw a few brands of toothpaste that were familiar, but really expensive.  So I found something that looked like toothpaste for only 100 yen, but there was no English to be found on it.  So I looked up the word for toothpaste, which is hamigaki ko and took it to the counter, pointed to it and asked hamigaki ko?  Looked like the guy that worked there didn’t know as he read just about everything on the package before nodding his head and saying “Hai, hamigaki”.  Phew… that was relatively painless.  Also saw they served food there, so I pointed to something, and got it.  Turns out that pointing, and learning, or at least saying one word goes a long way over here.  The Japanese love to talk it seems.  You go into a shop to buy something, and they are just talking away to you, even though it’s pretty obvious we’re totally clueless.  I’ve already become completely accustomed to just bowing my head and saying Arigato Gaziaimasu or just Arigato a few times, and you’re just fine.  You never count your change when buying something, they take that as an insult, and they’re not going to make a mistake.  Anyway, on with the day.  I just sat around the hostel, played on the net, watched TV and waited till about 9am to call Yoshi.  Calling a Japanese house where only one person speaks English, I was a little nervous, and had a whole script worked out about how to ask for him.  But when I called, I chocked, and just said Yoshi, which was all that was needed.  Thank god, I really do hate making a mess of a language.  Especially since I didn’t have a chance to study before I left.  I’d really like to take a class now, as I think I’ll be coming back again in the future.  



Anyway, I finally got to speak to Yoshi.  His English is very very good.  He was in the middle of sharpening one of his swords, then had to take his son shopping, but said he’d like to meet up at about noon.  He told me to meet him in Shibuya, at a statue of a dog called, Hachikou.  The train ride to Shibuya was pretty easy, and made even easier by the fact that Andrews sister Natalie planned my route for me, showed me where to get off and where to transfer, and I was set.  She’s been here for about 10 days in total, and seems to have everything pretty much figured out, or knows the best way to figure it out.  Seems that even the Japanese get very confused with the train system at times.  Most of the stations have signs and everything in English, but at some of the stations, where they have a map showing you how much your fare is going to be so you can figure out how much money to put in the machine, they don’t.  So basically, I’ve figured out that I have to remember the Kanji (Japanese characters) of where I’m trying to get to.  That way it’s like looking for a picture instead of a name.  Not really the easiest, but it works none the less.  So I made it to Shibuya, and walked aimlessly around the station trying to figure out how on earth to get out of it.  I did get to see some kind of promotion going on for Vodafone I think it was.  Lots of girls dressed in skimpy outfits, butt hanging out and all, dragging guys over to spin a wheel to win something.  I finally figured my way out of the station, and just picked a direction and started walking.  I was stopped by someone collecting money for a charity, he had a box around his neck with pictures of starving children, so I threw in a few spare yen I had in my pocket, which was received with a million Arigato’s.  I started to walk away, and realized I really had no idea where the hell I was going.  So I went back to the guy collecting money, he looked at me and smiled and asked “help?”.  Hai hai, Hachikou?  To which he simply responded “There there” pointing.  Turns out I was pretty much right in front of the statue.  I was early, and I had no idea who I was looking for, as he had joked with me saying he would look like a Japanese.  Hah  While I was waiting, I noticed there were designated smoking areas, and for the first time, I noticed the whole city was like that.  No one was smoking except in certain areas.  They have rather elegant ashtrays setup, with water in them and all.  I was wondering why I hadn’t seen many cigarette butts laying around or anything.  By all accounts, a police officer can stop you if you’re walking around with a cigarette, and give you a fine on the spot.  Very interesting.  Yoshi shows up right at Noon like he said he would, he managed to pick the gaijin out of the crowd, we stand around, have a smoke before moving on.  I had no idea what we would do, and I had no plans at all, so it was just a do whatever type day.  Had to find an electronics store, so I thought I’d take having Yoshi around to my advantage.  He took me to what he said was the best and cheapest electronic store in the area.  Glad he did too, otherwise I’d never known it was even an electronics store.  I needed an adapter to plug my laptop into.  After much conversation with about 4 of the girls that worked there about the best choice for me, I settled for a simple 900 yen adapter.  From there, we just walked around the whole area.  Lots of shops and strip clubs and massage parlors.  Then we found somewhere to eat and have a beer.  A small, traditional restaurant tucked away on a little back road.  One drink turned into about 6 drinks, and lots of conversation about politics, war, and economics.   Very interesting to see a Japanese view of things.  After drinking far too much for being so early in the day, we left, and walked around a bit more before Yoshi offered to take me to his house to see how the Japanese live.  



The train ride from Shibuya was about 30 minutes to Hirai, which is where he lives.  I guess the best way to describe his home is that it’s more of an apartment, or a block of flats, not what you’d expect in America.  We took the elevator to the 4th floor I think it was.  We walked in, took off our shoes (have more about this later) and went and sat down in the dining room.  The dining room, which is also his bedroom, and office, and pretty much everything else.  There wasn’t much personal furniture.  What I mean by that, is that there are no couches or anything.  There was a dining room table and chairs, but pretty much everything else were cabinets and shelves.  Sitting at the dining room table, Yoshi offers me some tea, and we sit down and talk some more.  Something funny came up.  His wife and kids weren’t there, and he wants to offer me something from the kitchen, but says he doesn’t know where anything is or what they have since the kitchen is his wife’s room.  He tells me that she takes care of anything that has to do with the kitchen, and that’s her responsibility, and he takes care of anything in the rest of the house.  Then he shows me around.  Which is funny because the whole place is pretty much just one room.  He points to the floor next to the dining room table and tells me that is where he sleeps.  Then points to the floor in what I can assume would be the living room area, and says his wife sleeps there, and his son sleeps next to her, and then his daughter sleeps in the only bedroom, which contains a bunk bed and a desk and a dresser, and that’s about it.  There is a balcony, but it seems that it’s used mainly for hanging laundry out to dry.  I would find out later that most Japanese would never dream of inviting a foreigner into their house, so I feel very honored to of gone.  After a little while, we sit down on the floor in the living room, and Yoshi shows me his sword.  He made it himself, and isn’t what you’d expect from a sword, more of a long dagger.  But it was beautiful, and very sturdy.  He made sure I didn’t touch the blade, I can only assume it’s sharper than anything I’ve ever seen before, and since he sharpened it himself I guess he’d know.  By all accounts, it’s illegal to make or own the large Samurai swords you think about from the movies, and also unnecessary as he showed me the proper way of committing Supuku, or ritual disembowelment.  Basically, you put the sword into you stomach area, and make a clear cut across.  He said there is no need to have a long sword, and that this is the perfect length.  Ok, interesting.  



We start talking again, about Japan, America, and the world, and have some conflicting ideas about the population of Japan.  For some reason, he thought that the population was about 1.5 billion people, to which I strongly disagreed.  I had to grab his laptop computer and bring up the CIA Factbook to show him that it was nowhere near that.  Then I proceeded to show him many of the pictures I have on my website from growing up, to my years in the military, to which he asked many questions.  He was fascinated by my time in the Air Force, and when his wife and kids came home, he made me recount my stories and experiences with the pictures to them, and he translated.  It was so funny to hear him translate my story… nothing like the translator in “Lost in Translation”.  He went on and on as I spoke in varying degrees of tone, enthusiasm, and somberness.  The emotion in how he spoke was overwhelming, and even though I didn’t understand what he was saying, I was correcting him as he spoke, almost like I understood but didn’t… and as I corrected him, I could hear in his tone how he went back to change what he’d said.  That was very strange.  His poor daughter I think was bored to tears, and I don’t think his son knew what to make of the big American.   Yoshi had me stand up in the living room, and he was talking away to his son, and pointing too me, and making references about my size obviously by putting his hand over my head, then over his head and then over his sons.  Then he had me hold out my arm, and told his son to try and pull down my arm.  He was laughing away, obviously finding this very amusing, so I picked him up and swung him around on my shoulders.  He was giggling away like crazy.  After that, we sat around and talked more, I showed him pictures of his “American Brother” Dean, to which he was very sad.  He really wants to come back to America to visit, and to live, and hopes that Dean will one day come to visit him.  Then it was time for me to leave.  Yoshi had offered for me to stay with them at their house, but I didn’t feel like I could impose like that, and all of my stuff was at the guest house.  So I said my goodbyes, and he took the train with me halfway back, found the rest of the way home, and crashed out for the night.

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Photos

Small shrine in Shibuya
Walking around Shibuya with Yoshi, we found a shrine or temple that even he didn't know existed.

Yoshi
This is Yoshi as we were walking around Shibuya. The buses in the background are spouting out polital messages for their respective parties.

Comments

[ruebella]

Sounds like you're having fun.
Hey Mark, Sounds like you're having fun over there soaking up all the culture and what not. Be safe, and continue to have fun.

[C]

Hello, I also stumbled upon this shrine when I was walking around Shibuya several years ago. I'm returning and would like to find it again. Do you remember what street you were on?