Will Miss #464 - "simple is best"

One of the reasons Japanese characters are seen as cute is that they are rendered very simply. Minimalism, which Japan is often over-credited for, is also about simplicity. Japanese food is often about simple tastes and keeping flavors clean and separated. Culture-wide, Japanese love simplicity. It's an aesthetic which isn't always followed, but tends to permeate the culture in pleasant and unique ways.

Frankly speaking, it's a lot of what makes the vibe in Japan "Japanese", and I will miss it. 

Won't Miss #464 - fear of being trapped on trains

It's higher than it looks here. 

When you live in Tokyo, you spend a fair amount of your life on trains. This is what happens when you live in a place with a very convenient, efficient, and punctual public transport system and very expensive parking. After the March 11, 2011 earthquake, my feeling about stepping onto a train changed. The trains automatically stop when a strong quake happens. If you are stuck on one between stations when one hits, it could be hours before you get out. They can't exactly open the doors in the middle of nowhere and have you disembark because the train platforms are very high (4.5-5.5 ft.) and there's no way to get down when you're not at a station short of a special ladder. In California, you go up steps to get on the train. In Japan, not so much. I talked to some people who were trapped on trains for as long as three hours during the quake and the answer to "what happens if you have to go to the bathroom" (as there are none on standard trains and subways). The answer was a shoulder shrug.

After the big quake, I was always afraid of being trapped for hours on a train or subway after a big quake and ending up soiling myself and I won't miss that paranoia.

Will Miss #463 - paying to pick fruit

A fairly typical in-season price for berries is 350-500 yen ($4.36-$6.24). Why pay less and get them the easy way?

When I was a child, I used to go strawberry picking with my grandmother. The purpose of this was to make a little extra cash because we were paid 25 cents a pint to pick them. It was hot, back-breaking work, but we did it for several summers because it was one of the few ways for a kid under 15 to make a little money. In Japan, my students told me that they sometimes went to farms to pick cherries, strawberries, etc. I asked them why they did this when they had jobs and they said because they were allowed to eat as much as they wanted when they did this. They generally paid between 2000-3000 yen ($25-$37) for the opportunity to do no more than pick their own fruit and consume it on site. They were not allowed to take any fruit home, but essentially were engaged in an all-you-can-eat single fruit buffet for a price that far exceeded buying that same amount of fruit at a fruit stand.

In the U.S., people sometimes pick their own fruit to get a reduced price on what they take home or to ensure that they have the freshest fruit, but they'd never pay a lot more to just stand around in a grove and eat fruit. It always amused me when students told me they paid someone else to have a chance to do what I was once paid to do.

Won't Miss #463 - baker unfriendly butter

Image from Meg Milk's Snow Brand butter page. 

This is one of those dumb little things that probably matters more to me than nearly anyone else for a variety of reasons, but it remains a personal point nonetheless. I lived in Japan long enough to leave extended tourist mode and live a normal life. Part of normal life for me is cooking and baking for myself. One of the things about butter sold in Japan is that it is sold in big foil-wrapped 200 gram (1 cup) blocks. Sometimes you could buy a variety with some markings on the foil to allow you to awkwardly cut a tablespoon out, but most of the time there was nothing at all. I had forgotten that butter in America comes in stick and half-stick sizes with clear tablespoon markings along the package to make it quick and easy to measure for baking. Even if you bake by weight, it's still easier to manage sticks than one large wad. Also, if you use butter as a spread, you don't have to handle a large amount or leave it out in the butter dish all at once if you have small individually wrapped portions. In fact, given what fans the Japanese are of wrapping small amounts, this remained on of the few things which did not come in convenient smaller sizes.  

Though many things in Japan are arranged for maximum consumer convenience, the lack of a strong baking culture meant the butter wasn't one of them and I won't miss it. 

Will Miss #462 - the blending of the old and new

Tatami beds, an interesting blend of the old with the new. 

Photo courtesy of Luis Poza at BlogD (used with permission). 

I used to do desktop publishing, editing, and writing of textbooks that included CDs with dialogues for people studying English. One of the questions related to a portion of the dialogue which asked a foreign visitor about a notable point about Japan and the answer was something about how the Japanese blend the old and the new. In the dialogue, they were talking about how ancient temples are sitting next to skyscrapers, or little rickety sweet potato stands selling roasted spuds made by hand are parked in front of gleaming supermarkets. The truth is that you see, but don't necessarily process this sort of mixing at many levels in Japanese culture. There may be a little design element that dates back centuries as part of a modern building, or you see "Hello Kitty" wearing some sort of traditional dress. Part of what makes Japan such an interesting place is how often you see bits of its ancient culture seamlessly interwoven with modern elements. It's the sort of thing you not only don't often see in my home country, but you actually can't since the culture is too relatively new to even possess such old culture.

I miss seeing the way in which the old and the new are woven into daily life in Japan. 

Won't Miss #462 - "kusai mono ni wa futa o shiro"

I guess covering your nose might also keep the smell out, but it doesn't quite accomplish the same goal. 

The Japanese have a saying (kusai mono ni wa futa o shiro) which means "if it smells bad, cover it up/put a lid on it." This goes beyond common attempts to cover up ones mistakes or to turn a blind eye to bad behavior as it commonly and casually occurs in American culture. It's about not facing hard truths, discussing serious problems, and willfully remaining oblivious to things which desperately need to be faced. It is not necessarily linked to morality, though it can be, but is a culture-wide squeamishness about confronting unpleasantness on multiple levels. It keeps serious social, economic and political issues from being dealt with and contributes to interpersonal distance between people who have problems, but do no face them. 

The culture of "kusai mono ni wa futa o shiro" stands in the way of improving situations and is a roadblock to communication and I won't miss it. 

Will Miss #461 - great money design

I'm annoyed that I didn't have any other bills to show (because this was all I had left from my Japaense cash), but you can see more of them here. 

My in-laws recently returned from a trip to Spain and showed me the design of the Euro. It's pretty good because each bill is a different size and appeared to have various colors. This is compared to American cash which is all pretty much the same size and color. Japanese cash goes a step further than European money. Each bill is a different size and also has tactile dots to help the blind distinguish them (which may or may not be braille as I can't read it and verify that). The coins have different sizes, weights, and holes to help them further be more easily identified. American money must be a big pain for the blind because they have to rely on others honesty or have a trusted person sort out their cash.

My mother is blind, and I often appreciated the effort that was made into designing Japanese money such that it was easier to use for people with such a disability as well as harder to confuse for even sighted people. I will miss this daily reminder of consideration for those with this particular hardship. 

Won't Miss #461 - speaking English to each other

I didn't mind it when Japanese people who were trying to help me for whatever reason spoke English to me. It may have been slightly presumptuous of them to assume that I spoke English, but their intentions were always kind. I did mind it when one of a pair of random strangers who were both Japanese and speaking Japanese to each other suddenly started to speak English at the sight of me. I'm not sure what the motivation was as I'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with "helping" me by making sure I understood any overheard conversation. It seemed to me just another variation on "gaijin da!" and it was meant to make sure they knew I recognized my own foreignness. Frankly, it really felt like a way of mocking me and I found it quite rude.

I could be wrong about the motives of such people. Perhaps they were insufferable show-offs who were waiting for a chance to demonstrate their dubious English skills to someone who they believed would appreciate them, but I will not miss Japanese people who speak English to one another upon seeing me. 

Will Miss #460 - lack of prudishness

One of the first things I learned about Japan was that their regard for sexual behavior is quite different from that of Westerners. I was told, and this was a notion that was reinforced as the years went by, that sexual acts were regarded as a biological necessity, much like the need to urinate or eat. This was offered as an explanation as to why some Japanese women would tell their husbands or boyfriends that they understood if they strayed, but they simply never wanted to know about it. Cheating is tolerated to a greater extent because it is seen as a release, not as a threat to relationships. While some foreigners, especially men, view this as a superior and enlightened attitude toward sex, I simply see it as a different way of looking at things  based on cultural differences. And while the Japanese do practice more censorship of pornography (laws made in 1907 that were never altered) than Western countries do, they don't have laws in place to restrict private behavior (such as ridiculous sodomy laws that say what you can and can't do in your own home). I have no idea why the censorship laws were never changed, but I think it has more to do with inertia than prudishness.

To me, the aspect of this that I will miss is the lack of prudishness that accompanies such a frank and utilitarian attitude toward sex.

Won't Miss #460 - contracts not being followed

In America, where people do what is required by law rather than what is reasonable or best, we have a culture in which contracts are specific and followed to the letter. This provides a sense of comfort since it stops people from being taken advantage of, especially in the workplace and in business transactions. In Japan, contracts are not seen as concrete. They are seen as the beginning of a process and often the terms that are spelled out in them are disregarded when they become inconvenient for the more powerful entity signing the document. Many English teachers who are hired abroad sign contracts stating working hours, duties, and conditions and upon arriving in Japan discover that they are expected to work overtime, perform mundane cleaning duties, or work on days not specified in the contract they signed. The Japanese themselves take it for granted that employees will do whatever is asked no matter how outside of the original terms of employment such requests are. Unfortunately, the contract flakiness doesn't only apply to employees. It can also apply to purchases, services, or renting an apartment. Though it happens less often when one is a customer, it did happen to me in regards to cable services.

I realize that this is a cultural difference and my objection to this is completely ethnocentric, but I will not miss being taken advantage of or being treated like a huge problem if I refuse to let it be done to me because employee contracts aren't worth the paper they're printed on in many cases.

Will Miss #459 - feeling smarter than I am

One of the aspects of living in a foreign country and Japan in particular is that you have the chance to present yourself as an authority on whatever you choose to expound upon. When teaching, I overheard plenty of gas bags who loved nothing more than to "teach" by telling students "the truth" about whatever. Sometimes, the things I heard people say were so ridiculously wrong that it made me cringe, but students never challenged the assertions that their idiot teachers made. The largest part of the reason they did this is likely that they felt that they couldn't speak with authority on the topics the teacher pretended to know so well. Another large part is that the students are always at a disadvantage linguistically and can't express sophisticated notions well. And, yet another is that Japanese people don't operate under the misguided notion that their opinions are equivalent to facts as many Americans (and other Westerners) do. Finally, Japanese people out of modesty, politeness, and a higher concern for safe-guarding the relationships they have with people will often opt not to argue counterpoints.

It is easy in Japan to feel like you are smarter than you really are because you can say pretty much anything and have your ideas validated with a nodding head. It can be immensely gratifying to the ego to feel like you're an authority on anything of which you speak because you are dealing with people who either can't disagree due to lack of cultural experience or won't because of their cultural inhibitions about doing so and I will miss that sweet illusion. 

Won't Miss #459 - organ donation hypocrisy

There was a television show called "L.A. Law" back in the mid 80's to early 90's which had an episode about kidney transplants. In the story, a wealthy Japanese businessman essentially "bought" an organ and a dying woman of more modest means who was higher on the donation recipients list was contesting his right to do so. At the time, I thought no further than the notion that a Japanese man was chosen because it was feared that Japan would take over the world with its economic might. That was probably the writer's motivation in making the character Japanese, but the truth is that there is a deeper issue about organ donation and Japan. Many Japanese have to go abroad to get organ transplants because they can't get organs back home. The Japanese overwhelmingly do not donate organs, but they will accept transplants without hesitation. This hypocrisy is fueled by Buddhist beliefs about remaining intact when you cross the river to the next life, but also by irrational fears that doctors are going to carve them up for their organs at the first opportunity and rational fears about the pain of surrendering an organ.

When discussing this topic with Japanese people, I was always frustrated by the hypocrisy and selfishness inherent in such thinking and I won't miss it.