Will Miss #396 - Rilakkuma

I appreciate simplicity. In fact, one of the reasons I set up this blog as a form of short form expression is that I want to try to minimize my verbiage. Sometimes things are better when you take things away from them. In Japan, nothing illustrates this better than some of their cuter cartoon characters like the mouthless cat. While I am sick of "Hello Kitty", because I can never escape her and she makes an appearance in my life everywhere I go and follows me to every nook and cranny of my life in Japan, I can say that I am not immune to the lure of minimalist cuteness. To that end, I like Rilakkuma. "Rilakkuma" as a name is a play on the word "relax" and "bear" in Japanese. 

While "Hello Kitty" has no mouth and seems to represent obedience and passive acceptance, Rilakkuma seems to represent a generation that values relaxation over being a company drone. I'll miss seeing its cute visage. 

Won't Miss #396 - up the down and down the up

I've written before that context really matters in digesting experiences in Japan and I find it incredibly irksome when people break rules in Japan compared to back home. Part of the reason for this is the insistence by both Japanese and foreigners that the Japanese are so lawful and obedient. Another reason is that I get called on any tiny infraction of the rules, spoken or otherwise. I once got attacked by an old man who tried to shove me off my bike and the excuse some apologist made was "maybe you were riding on the wrong side of the sidewalk". There isn't even a rule about which side to ride on (though left is generally preferred), but this absurd reason was offered. And, you know, physical violence is definitely the proper response if someone is on the "wrong side", right? So, when Japanese people blithely ignore a rule and it means I'm put out, it gets on my wick.

Nowhere is it more common for Japanese folks to ignore the written rules than on the steps leading to and from train platforms. There are always arrows on the steps telling you which side is for ascending and descending traffic (as well as signs like the one above), but people constantly ignore them and then stand there blocking me if I refuse to move and accommodate their going in through the out door. I guess I should knock them down the steps because that is what is to be done when people are on the side you don't like if I follow the logic of apologists, but that's really not my way.

 I won't miss the way people consistently ignore which way is up and which is down on the train and subway steps. 

Will Miss #395 - elevator girls

She turned her back because I was taking her picture.

Back when I first came to Japan, every department store had an elevator operator who pushed the buttons for you with her immaculate white gloved hands. She was polite and carried out her work as if she were shepherding small children safely to school through perilous lands rather than helping middle-aged housewives spend their husband's paychecks in overpriced shops. These days, there are far fewer of these women because of the economic downturn. Those that remain not only look after the elevator traffic, but stand outside and provide seminars on how to ride the elevators via microphone (as the woman pictured above is doing).

Though there are elevator operators in other countries (and possibly even young women in similar attire), I doubt I'll see ones like these in the U.S. when I go home, and I'm certain they won't be standing outside providing instructions for customers on how to operate something as simple as an elevator. I'll miss the particular manner in which elevator girls in Japan do their job.

Won't Miss #395 - the chop and/or wave

Walk through any busy, crowded street or station full of commuters attempting to dodge each other and you will sooner or later run across the "chopper". This is a man who thinks that by putting out his hand and chopping through the air that the crowds will part before him and let him through. In fact, he expects that you will facilitate his easy movement through the throng at your own expense because of his hand gesture. In addition to the chopppers, there are the "wavers". These are people (again, almost always men) who think they can break rules and even endanger others by simply waving to signal their intention to do something reckless. It's as if they believe the wave places responsibility for the outcome onto others. This is very common with cars that cut-off or illegally pass or go around other cars at red lights and sometimes results in tragic accidents.

I won't miss these men who are so arrogant and selfish that they think the world should accommodate them merely because of a hand gesture.

Will Miss #394 - respect for and modesty about intelligence

I've talked to quite a few Japanese folks about intelligence and there are two major differences between them and most Americans. First, they want their politicians to be smart and very preferably smarter than they perceive themselves to be. There isn't a thread of anti-intellectualism in political discourse in this country. Second, most Japanese people don't believe they are smarter than everyone else. In fact, because of a focus on modesty, even if they truly were smarter than others, they'd be unlikely to admit it.

The attitude shift in the U.S. over the last decade or so which views intelligence and being educated as the purview of elitists and "know-it-alls" frankly scares me, and I will miss living in a culture which has positive regard for both of these things. 

Won't Miss #394 - being followed in shops

At lunch recently with a new acquaintance, she remarked that she felt all Caucasians should spend some time in Japan to begin to get a clue of what it feels like to be a minority in their home countries. One of the experiences which certainly breeds empathy for black folks back home is not being picked up by cabs. Another is being followed around in stores. This generally happens in larger spaces, though not necessarily expensive shops (it happened to me in a Daiso 100 yen shop, among other places). I'm not sure what motivates it, but it has happened to me despite my feeling that I neither resemble a kleptomaniac granny nor a thieving hood. Usually, a plain-dressed man tries to surreptitiously case me as I browse the store looking at their goods. He could think he's going to catch a thieving foreigner stuffing goods in her pockets. He could be just rude and acting on curiosity.  He may simply be interested in exactly the same goods as me and coincidentally following the same meandering path throughout the store as I am and think that I'm reverse-following him and that's why he's glancing at me so often. He may find the upper-middle-aged foreign lady so hauntingly beautiful that he can't resist her charm. He might even be a salesman applying his trade in some bizarre stealth fashion and awaiting just the right moment to pounce. (Note how all of my theories become more and more bizarre as I carry on... this is called thinking like an apologist.)

Whatever the reason for this bad behavior, I won't miss being followed around in Japanese shops.

Will Miss #393 - "akapantsu"

I'm not a big subscriber to the "weird Japan" mentality. One of the reasons I don't get so into it is that so much of it is clearly manufactured to be novel (e.g., maid cafes) and is little different than similarly generated oddness in other cultures which links not to human nature, but calculated commercial interests. However, when the weirdness manifests as a small component of a larger "normal" aspect of culture, my interest is piqued, and that is where we arrive at "akapantsu" or "red underpants". Sugamo is an area of Tokyo with a shopping district, Jizo Dori, which is described as an old folks Harajuku. The shops carry items of interest to the grey-haired set, but they also sell red underwear which is popular because the color red has positive associations in Buddhism. In particular, it wards off disease. So, many elderly flock to the red undies store and purchase over a million of them a year in order to gird their loins with red hot undergarments.

I will miss this odd contradiction in the conservative nature of older Japanese people and the way they dress and behave with an attraction to buying colorful and flashy underwear.

Won't Miss #393 - using Japanese English

I don't mind if Japanese people use Japanese English (as opposed to "Engrish", which is a whole other kettle of fish) because it is understandable that they do. If I'm teaching them, I just point out that they shouldn't use it and tell them the correct words or phrases. Unfortunately, sometimes you find yourself being unable to make yourself understood unless you resort to using it yourself. At my former job, we used to ask people what their "outstanding feature" was in regards to their appearance. The Japanese translation that we were told to use, tokucho, was confusing because the students would answer about their personalities, not their countenance. The best way to get what you wanted was to ask the student what his or her "charm point" was because this was a Japanese English term that was popular at the time. Sometimes, when you've struggled to get your point across in English and then Japanese and have still failed, you find yourself resorting to using these terms and it always makes me feel bad for doing so. I'm supposed to be teaching proper English, not using weird phrases because it expedites understanding.

I won't miss how I feel like I've failed miserably when I resort to using Japanese English to make myself understood. 

Will Miss #392 - dads do the time if they do the crime

Many moons ago, I had an American co-worker with a Japanese boyfriend who was looking at a visa that was soon to expire and no full-time job to gain sponsorship from. The boyfriend wasn't ready to get married so a spouse visa looked rather out of bounds. Fortunately for her, she got pregnant. Voila, problem solved! Most Japanese men will marry a woman if she gets pregnant and wants to keep the baby. This is not because of some moralistic notion that god will smite them if they sinned outside of wedlock or an antiquated notion that a bastard child is a terrible thing. It's because they take responsibility for the consequences of their actions. Back home, we see that a lot of men will do everything in their power to escape this type of responsibility and it is definitely no longer the case that a pregnancy will result in a wedding.

I don't think people should marry merely because a baby is in the mix, but I do like the fact that the overwhelming majority of Japanese men put the welfare of the family before their own selfish needs and will tend to marry a woman if they get her pregnant. I will miss the way in which men take this responsibility seriously. 

Won't Miss #392 - need for kid gloves

Have you ever approached a strange cat to pet it and as you approach, it is eyeing you warily with muscles tensed such that you fear it will perceive you as a threat and bolt if you make just one tiny wrong move? Often, I feel that way when it comes to talking to Japanese people (the "cats"). Twice I've said things on FaceBook which were meant to be informational, but they ended up being confrontational in the eyes of the other parties. In one case, I commented on a video that had been posted stating that it was important to keep in mind that the English translations were somewhat misleading and that the video had been edited to put forth a particular viewpoint. The poster withdrew the video and apologized most humbly saying that she never should have posted it at all. In another case, someone posited that a particular food was healthy because the sign outside the restaurant said it was based on Japanese washoku and I said that I didn't know how healthy "it" (meaning the food I actually ate in that restaurant) was since it was all sweet and some of it was deep-fried or pasta-based, and therefore decidedly "un-washoku-ish". She deleted her comment after I said that. Both of my comments were providing information, but were received as admonishment and contradiction.

Sometimes I feel like it's far too easy to scare away or upset Japanese people and that I have to watch what I say to a ludicrous extent and reactions are unpredictable. The risk of offending them or sounding like I'm "disagreeing" with Japanese people when I'm not is something that I won't miss. 

Will Miss #391 - amashoku

Back in my early days in Japan, there were few foods that I liked and trusted not to present me with a filling of sweetened beans. At that time, I was pretty squeamish about any of "that Japanese stuff". One of the easily enjoyable and reliable treats is/was amashoku, a half-cookie/half cake sort of baked good which is lightly sweet and has enough dryness to give it a pleasant cookie texture and enough moisture to give a cakey density. It's sometimes referred to as a "sweet bun", but it is not bread. It is sometimes referred to as a cake, but it's more like a muffin top with a high egg content and a low sugar content.

I have a nostalgic feeling for amashoku, and enjoy its unique properties, and I will miss it. 

Won't Miss #391 - the smell of fish

Students often ask me about my first impression of Japan. I always give them an honest answer, and they really don't like it. The first thing I thought when I stepped off the plane in Narita was "I smell fish". When I sit at home teaching my students with the windows open, invariably, one of my neighbors will stink up the great outdoors with fish. Unfortunately, some of them seem to be horrible cooks who burn it or use old oil. One thing about living in Japan is that the odor of fish is much more present. This makes sense since this is a food culture which enjoys it some fish. Does anyone enjoy the smell of raw or burning fish? Even those who find it appetizing aren't lingering in the seafood sections, deeply inhaling and thinking, there's nothing better than this. Fresh baked bread scent, it certainly is not.

I won't miss the frequent experience of detecting the odor of fish in the air.