Temples

Mwaha, I return once again!  Sorry for the infrequent posts.  School has been a mite bit stressful lately, mostly because, while I love it, I am truly not very good at the Japanese language.  But, hey, that’s what school is for, right?

Anyway, this post is gonna be a short snippet about Buddhist temples in Japan.  Pictures will be added when I am on speaking terms with my camera again (the little bitch).

First, let me mention that there are a few different kinds of Buddhist sites you can find in Japan.  The truly most common one is graveyards.  Like the rest of Tokyo, they are very crowded, but with dead people instead of living ones.  You can’t actually really walk in them, you mostly do your business with the dear departed at the shrines outside the actual graveyard.  It really works out all the same, though.

The second kind of Buddhist site is a temple.  Temples are generally moderately-sized places.  They are the sites of many important ceremonies, and occasionally weddings.  They have a very distinctive style about them, which I would rather leave to the as-of-yet-not-uploaded pictures.  All the same, there is an aspect to both these sites that pictures (taken by a tourist as regular photos, not professional artistic photos) cannot convey.  These places are very serene and peaceful.  In the middle of a big city, with lots of traffic and people shouting on megaphones (one of my least favorite things about the place), Buddhist temples manage to be quiet places, with a still beauty.  In a big city like Tokyo, there will always be people when you go there.  But they’re quiet too.  Heck, the loudest people are usually tourists taking pictures (sorry, Japanese people, I tried to use manner mode when I could).  I’m not sure about religion, but I think it’s the only place you’ll really find peace and quiet in Tokyo unless you can manage to get a private bath.

There are also famous temples and sites, but I doubt they are very peaceful, being filled with tourists and probably surrounded by souvenir shops.  I think I’ll be seeing some this weekend, so we’ll see, maybe.

Not sure what my next post will be about.  I’ve got a couple drafts saved up, now, but I might want to write something new.  It’s a mystery!  You’ll have to keep up with the blog religiously to find out.

Kabuki

Wow, it’s been a while since I updated.  Part of that is because I’ve been kind of busy.  Part of that is because I’ve been kind of lazy.  Regardless, here’s an update, and hopefully, I’ll get back on a near-daily schedule.

So, on Saturday, I went to see a kabuki play.  It was pretty fun, even though I couldn’t understand the words much.  But that’s a short and boring summary, so I’ll give you the blow-by-blow.

The particular show I went to see was for people who hadn’t seen kabuki before (it’s not exactly modern entertainment).  There was a long section before the show explaining the origins of kabuki, the stage, and how to interpret things in a kabuki play.  It was done in a rather lighthearted, humorous fashion.  While I didn’t understand 99% of the words, my previous knowledge of kabuki allowed me to figure out at least that much.  According to the brochure we got, the pre-show was actually pretty popular.

The play itself was a short comedy (yes, there’s kabuki comedy, it’s not all drama).  The basic plot was a nobleman wanted to get out to see his mistress, but his wife would not leave his side.  Therefore, he insisted on doing some zen meditation in solitude, and secretly had his servant replace him (promising to return with tales of his wild night, I believe).  His wife, however, did not leave him in solitude, and after some hilarity, discovered the ruse.  She took the disguised servant’s place.  When the husband returned and told his disguised servant of his night of debauchery…yeah, the wife wasn’t happy.  More hilarity ensued.  And that’s where the play ends.  There’s a good deal of physical comedy (though you still miss out on a lot when you can’t understand the words).

Fun thing I noticed is that they often use somewhat archaic speech (imagine, in English, a play written in the 1900s using lots of “eth”s).  I couldn’t understand it, but I do know forms well enough to know that it contained no-longer-used language.  I found it somewhat interesting.

So was it fun?  Yes.  I would like to see more kabuki in the future.  However, I think I’d like to wait until I understand the language better.  My appetite has been whet, but I would quickly get bored with lots of noise interspersed with physical comedy.  Better to wait.

Later in the same day, I accidentally happened upon a Buddhist temple.  But that’s for another blog post.  Pray it comes soon!

Culture Shock

Thanks to the inclusion of the word “shock”, people often assume that culture shock is some horrifying, striking revelation that the culture you find yourself in is totally unfamiliar, that hits you very shortly after coming to a new country.  A well-informed traveler who stays in other countries for long periods of time will tell you this is wrong.  Real culture shock is very different.

Culture shock is the frustration and stress that arise from long-term exposure to new cultural living conditions.  This can happen as easily between towns as it can between countries.  When you have to change the way you sleep, the way you eat, the way you communicate…it’s something you can only handle for a certain amount of time.  After that, you’re pretty much at the end of your wit for a little while, until acclimation sets in.  This is culture shock.

Culture shock is often made worse by unfamiliarity or poor skill with the language.  Inability to communicate anything not communicable by hand gestures makes life harder in general, and in most developed countries, not being able to read the language will impress itself upon many aspects of your life (in Japan, it’s made a little easier by them putting English on a lot of stuff, but ‘a lot’ is not ‘a lot’ when you need it desperately).

Culture shock also doesn’t go well with other kinds of stress.  A long vacation in other countries is endurable, though I recommend not overextending it.  However, going abroad to study or work, well…it’s important to have some kind of nice, healthy method of coping.  Work stress plus culture stress is a pretty nasty combination.

Culture shock is a fact of life we all must live with.  It’s made more bearable by the support of friends and family, keeping ties to home, and, of course, having a really awesome culture to be in (one with lots of good curry, for example).  To all you Nihon!Abunai! readers thinking of traveling, good luck.

Stay tuned for another shocking blog post, which should start coming up more often once I’m out of MY culture shock.

The Gaijin Stare

You are probably already expecting it.  You’re blonde, skin white as the driven snow, have big green eyes, freckles, and are 6’3″.  Or maybe not.  You still look weird and foreign as all hell in the eyes of the comparatively homogeneous country of Japan.  So what’s gonna happen?  You’re gonna get stared at.  If you are, in fact, human, there’s only a certain level of staring you’re comfortable with, so here’s some tips on what makes you get it worse than you normally would.

1. Super Gaijin.  The more foreign-looking, the worse it is.  Long hair of a non-black or dark-brown color will garner attention, as will very light skin.  Japanese people aren’t that much shorter than anyone else (despite the fact that they make everything smaller, including doorways), but a towering disposition won’t keep attention away from you, that’s for sure.  There’s not much you can do to amend this.  Don’t worry, it’s the least of the factors.

2. Fashionista.  People dress differently in Japan.  If you don’t like the staring, try to blend in.  It’s hard to acquire extremely Japanese-looking clothes abroad, but avoid bright colors, and also, for the ladies, cover the girls.  The bosom is not normally put on display in Japan.  You can accentuate all your other attractive features with impunity, though (however, midriffs are very rare, so you may want to avoid that as well).  Well, mostly impunity.  Bringing me to the next point.

3. Hawtness.  That’s right, ladies and gentlemen.  Attractive foreigners won’t be able to peel Japanese eyes off them.  Honestly, you may be lucky if it’s only their eyes you’re trying to peel off.  There is little beauty that is exotic to the potluck of America, but the unfamiliar beauty is the most eye-catching, and that shows itself in Japan.  Bonus note, you’ll get more attention of the good kind too, and Japanese people will be much more friendly and ready to help you (not in the creepy way; attractiveness simply breeds goodwill).  Thus, if you’re grabbing the makeup kit and the short-shorts, think about what kind of balance between stares and friendliness you’re looking for here before you walk out that door and to the airport.

A side note that this can work the other way.  Looking ugly and/or scary will keep the stares away.  I’ve only ever gotten one stare, and I’m not even sure it was a stare after all.  A boon to the anxious, unattractive people, certainly.

4. Location, location…what was the third one?  Oh, yeah, location.  Places like Tokyo get gaijin all the time.  I once ran into more than ten gaijin while transferring between train lines, in at least 4 distinct groups, none of which I was with.  However, the smaller the location, the less used people are to seeing non-Japanese.  In some places, they will be unable to converse with even one who speaks good Japanese simply out of shock (I’m sure this is true in lots of countries, but being a Japanese student, I only here stories of Japan).

That’s what you need to know about the Gaijin Stare.  Keep your eyes on the blog for more posts!

Satan Excoriates Innocents with Zealous Ardor in Japan

If you are clever, and have ignored what seems to be a blatant and xenophobic claim, you may have already noticed that the first letter of the first five capitalized words of the title spell out “seiza” which is the romanization for a Japanese word which describes a peculiar method of sitting.  You may already be familiar with it.  What you do is get on both knees, point your toes behind you, laying one big toe on top of the other, and sit on your ankles.  It looks nice and formal and stiff.  Of course, it is also incredible painful.  Really, try it on a hard floor for five minutes.  If you haven’t practiced seiza, you’ll be in a lot of pain by that time.

While I do enjoy Japanese culture, I never really availed myself of the opportunity to practice seiza.  Unfortunately, this posture is necessary in formal rituals like the famed Japanese tea ceremony.

For those unfamiliar with Japanese tea ceremonies, the process is essentially a ritualized form of visiting someone and getting served a light snack.  One enters the room and ritually washes in a special basin.  Then one enters the actual chamber and sits.  Then wait.  After some time, small sweets will be brought out.  These are passed around, taken, and eaten in the most slow and deliberate manner possible.  After everyone involved has finished (in a group of 12, this is a long time), the tea is prepared.  Since it is cold tea, this does not involve the long process of heating water, but it is still also done in the most slow and deliberate manner possible.  The tea is then passed around and drunk in the most slow and deliberate manner possible.  The empty cups are then collected in the most slow and deliberate manner possible (which is mercifully rather hasty…only so much ceremony can surround taking a dirty dish).  Then the participants are relieved.

I, being still a bit sick at the time, and having no practice, was unable to endure 40 minutes of this.  I (as well as at least one other person) had to stay off my feet after about 25 minutes.  Maybe 30.  I didn’t look at my watch, and the pain was truly worse than the time I actually broke my leg.

As a matter of fact, this was over a day and a half ago, and my ankles and knees are still acting up.

At the end of it all, though, the lesson I took can, in truth, not be epitomized even with all that.  Nay, ’tis better to say in a simple phrase.  “No matter how awful, there is nothing that cannot be made more painful and embarrassing by the addition of one or more pretty girls watching it happen to you.”

There are not enough good words in English that begin with “z”.

Shopping 2

Sorry for not posting yesterday.  I got sick over the weekend.  It was very nasty.  But I’m all better now.

So, what is Japan like inside one of its many many stores?  Well, first off, there are no aisles more than one person wide, and stores are somewhat mazelike because of their size.  Thus, you’re constantly sidling past people going the other way and trying not to get lost.  On the plus side, thanks to the size and compactness, they have EVERYTHING.  If there’s any legal good that you can’t find in Tokyo, it’s probably because you’re not trying hard enough.  Another good thing about Tokyo is that it’s a bargain-hunter’s paradise.  While there’s a lot of expensive stuff, there’s also a lot of really cheap stuff.  With time and dedication, you can save a lot of money (unfortunately, I’m usually lacking one or the other, so my pockets empty fast).

So, you’ve picked out the goods you want to purchase.  Time to go to the cash register!  Despite the crowds, lines are usually pretty short, if there at all.  I am not yet sure why.  Anyway, you place your goods on the counter and they (usually) scan them.  After this, the cashier will list each item aloud with its price before giving you the total.  After you know how much money you owe, you are usually given a little basket to put it in.  This is also often where they leave your change (note ‘usually’ and ‘often’.  Lots of places don’t do one or both).  A bit of a warning: if you are like me and have bad hearing, or you are like me and you are bad at Japanese, you will have a hard time understanding cashiers, as they speak very quietly (albeit clearly) and rather quickly.  The latter I understand, but I am not sure why they insist on using a volume that one needs an earhorn to catch all of.

Didn’t find what you were looking for?  Maybe you didn’t check all the floors?  The floor map?  Did that?  It’s probably in the OTHER 8-floor store.  Or maybe the next one.  Or the next one.

Also, while I am horribly unqualified to talk about fashion, I do enjoy Japanese clothes so much more than American clothes.  “Plain” outfits don’t seem to exist here, at least, not what us gaijin think of as plain.  So I’m assuming that stores sell lots of nice fashions (and I know there are a lot of high-end stores here).  In conclusion, Tokyo is a real shopper’s paradise.

I do not know much about stores outside Tokyo, but I hear that many have an entrance shopping level and a basement shopping level.  I assume the aisle size is the same as well.  Hopefully some day I will get to know.

Akihabara 1 plus Shopping 1

Okay, so I’m going to have to keep my Akihabara bit short, as I hardly got to enjoy it.  By the time I got there, my fun new cold hit me and I had already been walking/standing for something like 3 hours.  Also, I didn’t run across anything really interesting.  Maybe the fun people come out on Sundays only?  Or on sunny days only?  Dunno.

I did, of course, see lots of girls in maid costumes (and a few in yukatas, which are a specific type of kimono), doing their usual fare of advertising by handing out fliers and packets of tissues advertising whatever place they were advertising for (often maid cafes, but the SEGA building I walked by had at least one maid, maybe two, and a duty-free store had two yukata girls, so it was pretty much everyone who could afford it).  I didn’t get any good pictures because of my weariness (and the fact that I didn’t remember how to say ‘is it alright if I take a picture’ until, like, an hour in).  However, do not worry, faithful readers, as I will be making another Akihabara post on my second trip, which I will be sure to do much better on!

To make up for lack of Akiba, here is a video to cheer you up.  Not all the awesomeness of Japan is in Tokyo! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHdEbRDdMiI

Since I’m leaving you all with nothing, I’m going to give you all a primer on the customer/merchant interaction in Japan (well, part of one, since there’s a LOT to know, so I’ll continue tomorrow).  It may help make the random maid girls seem less “WTF Japan Seriously”.

While Japanese interaction is slightly less confrontational than many other countries are used to, that doesn’t mean non-confrontational.  The Japanese merchant is expected to treat everyone within eyesight and earshot as a customer.  No, not a potential customer.  A customer.  They will shout “Irashaimase” (which cannot be truly translated, as it is an extremely direct form of an extremely polite word, but it’s close to “welcome thyself here!”) from across a small street.  Store workers stand a good 10 feet away from the store directing people inside.  You are treated to forms of polite language that pretty much only exist when one speaks to another whom that one intends to exalt, even if you ignore them (and most Japanese people do, even on the occasions where us Americans would find it rude to, like when paying for something).  I have yet to find a seller using impolite language (though they are not always as enthusiastic as their words imply…I passed by a maid who sounded bored to tears).  And why do they humble themselves so greatly?  Because you are giving them money.  You just don’t want to yet.  So, yes, Japanese merchants of all kinds of goods will do their damndest to make sure you see them and buy from them.  Because the guys next to them are too.

Please do not misinterpret the above as negative.  It is a comparison to how things are in America.  It is not worse, nor better, it is just different.  And while they may seem insistent, they pretty much expect to be brushed off and simply move on to the next person in the sea of people that is Japan, so you don’t have to ever worry about a merchant bothering you (unless you can’t stand cute girls trying to give you free tissues or coupons).  Once you get the hang of it, shopping in Japan is really fun!  Not a thing is done below the maximum level possible, which makes it a very invigorating (if occasionally overwhelming) experience.

Tomorrow, I talk about actually going inside a store.  There’s loads of fun to be had.

Mata irashite kudasai!