experiences – Page 34 – goinggaijin.com

Going Out

Ever since I started my company, I have been teaching English to two retired ladies in their early 60s. Most of the times we just meet in the shopping mall nearby my place (because it has free parking), but sometimes we go out and do something special.

Like today. A common friend of ours is an artist. He makes shin-hanga woodblock prints, and this week he has an exhibition of his prints of spring flowers. Most of his pieces are flowers, actually, and he has a very distinctive style, not really naive, but not realistic either. I had seen much of his work – so I thought – and I was surprised that I could find something totally new to me. The picture below consists of four single prints, close-ups of seasonal flowers, from spring at the left to winter at the right. The coloring is interesting – the warm colors for spring and winter, and the coldest blue for summer.

After visiting his exhibition, we went to a nearby cafe. We wanted to go to the cafe “Independant” in the basement of an old, Western style house that was built in 1928 and is still used today. Unfortunately, that cafe is closed in the afternoon for some reason, but we could at least go downstairs and admire the lovely mosaic staircase. The basement itself is a single room with very high ceilings, heavy pillars, and typical vault architecture – it is definitely worth going there.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in another cafe on the second floor of the same building, eating chocolate cake and iced creme brulee and drinking tea and coffee. We were chatting about this and that – just like old ladies like me enjoy doing. I had a great afternoon!

Addiction

Today, I was on busy Tuesday schedule, and on top of everything it was raining. That means that I have to take the bus – and plan in extra time for that. I left lunch earlier than usual to take the bus to my afternoon appointment and got off the usual stop. And then and there I stood before a brand new Lindt chocolate shop!

Apparently they just opened a few days ago, and I had to stumble upon them immediately. There is a little cafe attached where you can have both hot and cold chocolate drinks and coffee, but mostly it’s the shop that’s interesting. They don’t have a large variety of chocolate types, but now of course it’s all about the little rabbits for Easter. But, what they do have, right in the center of the shop is a huge selection of Lindor balls, probably some 20 different flavours.

I love Lindor! And of course, I just had to go in there and shop – 8 different kinds today (among them orange, lemon, mint, and coconut) with more to come. Great, exactly what I needed: yet another way to fuel my chocolate addiction…

PS: Of course I ended up being late for my meeting, 3 minutes late to be precise. People were worried already: “But you are ALWAYS on time!”. Not sure if that’s a good thing?

Cold

I’m having a cold. Since last Monday I’ve had the sniffles, with a bit of temperature even in the evening. I know exactly what caused it, and looking back: It was worth it!

Last Sunday I spent 7 hours sitting in a rather unheated event hall in Osaka watching the first day of this year’s Spring Tournament of Sumo. It was rather unplanned, a friend of a friend bought the wrong tickets and couldn’t find anyone else to go with her, so we were four girls sitting high up there above the ring to watch sumo. Before entering the hall at about 11 in the morning, we bought food and drinks to last all day, and then we hunkered down and enjoyed the show.

A sumo tournament lasts for two weeks, and every rikishi or sumo ringer has one match a day. The ranking after the tournament is determined by the number of wins each rikishi could score, and there are very complicated rules as to how and when to move up to the next level. I guess I’ll write about sumo in more depth in a Sunday post some day.

This was my second sumo event (I saw one in Nagoya some 8 years ago or so), and there were essentially three parts to the whole day. The lowest ranking rikishi start wrestling in the morning – the tournament was well under way when we arrived – and the last match of the day in the late afternoon is always the one of the yokozuna, the top ranked rikishi.

It may sound a bit funny, but you can actually notice a difference in the matches. The lower ranks seem to be more different in fighting strength, so many of the early matches are over very quickly, with one rikishi clearly dominant. The higher the rank, the more even the pairs, and a match takes much longer, including of course the going into the ring and clearing it with salt, the foot stamping etc. which is sometimes repeated several times before the match really starts.

It’s also not always true that the bigger fighter with more fat wins, often the not so fat ones are more muscular or agile and can thus make up for a lack of sheer body mass. Nevertheless, no matter what their size, sumo wrestlers are in a very good shape – or could you lift your foot over your head like the two guys in the picture above?

Altogether, I had a fun day last Sunday, and I gladly paid for it with the cold I caught (even though I could use a good night’s sleep by now).The greatest bit happened at the very last match when the yokozuna lost… This is always a big disappointment for the spectators, and they show it. Enjoy!

(This 2013 video is a bit loud in the beginning, but sound is not necessary for the fun part. In January 2017, Kisenosato became the first Japanese yokozuna in 19 years. He’s the one winning the fight in the video.)

White Day

Today is March 14th, and the Japanese celebrate White Day. It is the day when guys are supposed to “pay back” the chocolate they received a month ago on Valentine’s Day. Of course, just as I thought a month ago already, there are no especially nice chocolates around this time, but White Day gifts still appear to be quite difficult…

The thing today is that men are allowed to make differences in the gifts they buy according to recipient: If he just has to reciprocate for what is called giri choco, obligation chocolate, from coworkers for example, simple sweets in return are fine. A favourite one in this case are marshmallows for some reason, probably because they are (mostly) white?

Girlfriends get special treatment, the present may be more expensive, luxury handbags and expensive jewellery are not unheard of. Once you are married however, there’s no need to worry about gifts any longer: After all, your wife has access to your bank account and will simply go out and buy herself a present – and deduct the price from your monthly allowance. Yes, at least the first part of this sentence is still true in some households!

The above information I have gathered from a friend of mine, and she said that in her youth, a boy was supposed to reciprocate with a present that was about 10 times as expensive as the one he received! Of course, this was back during the bubbly economy, nowadays this number has gone down considerably – to about 3.

Still, I cannot understand why there’s not more exciting chocolate around on White Day. The displays have shrunken a great deal and it’s more of the standard fare this time – maybe guys aren’t as picky as girls? My friend assures me though that the 3 times as expensive holds for giri choco as well. I don’t think I’ll ever understand the Japanese ways…

Spring Fortunes

Last week I went to Ichihime shrine for the hina matsuri (doll festival). Besides the usual hinadan doll displays, there was a special event in a nearby community center: the setup of a life-size hinadan with real people instead of dolls.

The interesting part about this was the clothing of the two main people representing the court nobles, since both of them were dressed in clothing as it was worn 1000 years ago in the Heian era, notably the famed juni-hitoe (12 layer robe) for the lady. Dressing both took a whole hour, and I will write about in detail in a weekend post to come – of course I took pictures of each and every single layer and step in the process!

Included in the ticket price was a cup of green tea with an appropriate sweet for the day, a demonstration of games played at the Heian court (also worthy of a weekend post), and a special type of charm. It is called momokazashi mamori and it is made of two little branches of a peach tree, just about to blossom. It is the most elaborate omamori charm I have yet bought, and it does look really pretty.

I wonder what it is good for – other to ward off evil or bring luck like all the charms, and where the best place is to put it. Obviously it has a meaning that is somewhat related to spring, but in any case, I like it very much, pretty in pink…

Year End

Today is the last day of the second fiscal year of my company. The detailed numbers are not in yet, but as far as I can tell, I have made a little profit – I hope my accountant agrees! That’s very good news because it means that my next visa renewal (due in July) should go much, much smoother than any I have done so far. In fact, this time celebrations are certainly in order, but I better wait for the final verdict of my accountant, due in some two months’ time.

Although the above sounds all nice and rosy, being self-employed is really hard work! It’s not so much the work that you actually end up doing (although I could certainly do without all the overhead on paperwork). The most difficult thing for me is getting customers in the first place. Word of mouth can only get you so far, and even then you still have to sell yourself. And that’s something I always had problems with.

I mean, I am very confident in what I know and what I can do, but standing there and telling people that I am great indeed is something that’s beyond me. Part of it is surely because I am a nerdy introvert; another part may be that if I am not absolutely convinced of something myself, it is neigh impossible for me to sell it.

There are people who could sell sand in the desert. While it would be interesting to find out how they do that, I’m not even sure I’d want to go down that path. On the other hand, being at least able to sell water in the desert should not be that difficult to learn, no?

Anyway, on to the next year – it can only get better!

Precision

Last week I visited a friend I hadn’t seen since Christmas. We usually meet twice a month, but because we both were sick during the last months and because of other circumstances, we had a six week break.

In that time I sent her a letter, which she showed me at my last visit: A strip of paper was glued onto the envelope, informing us that the envelope did not meet the specifications since it was smaller than the required size of at least 9 x 14 cm.

My friend and I couldn’t believe it, especially since I had sent her letters with that type of envelope before, and there had been no problems with it. Interesting also that the size did not get any mention by the clerk when I posted it in person at my post office. So we measured the envelope, and indeed: it had a size of only 10 x 13,5 cm…

Even my friend – an otherwise extremely proper Japanese woman – found that ridiculous. I can see that too small envelopes may wreak havoc with the modern machines used for sorting mail these days, but since I wrote the address in Western alphabet, it was very likely that a real person had to handle the letter anyway. A real person with obviously too much time on their hands…

By the way, the little note also said that “as a courtesy, we forwarded this letter regardless of the size issue”. Sorry guys, but I call bullshit on that one: The only reason you had to forward the letter instead of returning it to me was that I didn’t include a return address…

Customer Service

It’s that time of the year again where I go shopping for a new diary. I have found a very particular one that I like (lots of space for each day, small size, and cheap to boot), but it is not always available at the stores I go to, so this year once again I had to order it.

Since I’m in town on Tuesdays anyway, I went to Tokyu Hands to order the diary. I received a phone call on Sunday telling me – in perfect English! – that it had arrived and that I could come and pick it up any time. I made sure to compliment the young lady on the phone on her perfect English and this Tuesday, I went to the store again.

The clerk there looked for his copy of the order sheet and there the mystery of the perfect English phone call otherwise so uncommon in Japan was revealed: A piece of paper attached to the order sheet spelling out exactly what to say on the phone in English! This means that the young lady who did phone me in the weekend just had to read the words, no understanding necessary… Honestly, I don’t mind that at all, I find it rather cute, actually. That’s what customer service means, after all. I love Japan!

Valentine’s Day

Today is Valentine’s Day and depending on where you live, you will get your loves ones Valentine’s cards (US), flowers (Austria) or chocolates (Japan). Obviously, I prefer the Japanese type of gift to all the others, but then again: I will not receive one. That’s not because I’m single, mind you, no woman in Japan will receive any Valentine’s gift today.

That’s because in Japan, Valentine’s Day is an occasion for women to buy chocolate for men. And not the other way around. Also, it’s “men” in general, not just lovers or husbands. So, today many Japanese girls bring chocolates for their colleagues and bosses as well; and, given that many more men are in the workforce than women, especially in traditional companies, this can become very expensive.

Surely this is the reason why many supermarkets have had standard chocolate products for sale for weeks already, and mine even allocated extra space for a special display of Valentine’s chocolates – from cheap single pieces to very expensive family size boxes.

Anyway, I thought I could easily get over the fact that I won’t get any chocolates today, but then I found this: An exquisite “galaxy” chocolate box containing six planets of our solar system:

Isn’t that the perfect gift for any nerd? I’m seriously jealous! Not because I had to buy them myself, but because by the time it is White Day – March 14th – where men should reciprocate and buy chocolates for women, the only thing to be had then will be hearts and flowers and Hello Kitty shaped stuff, all in pink and cute and boring. Why would I want that?

Bureaucracy Unlimited

The following is a foaf tale, a friend-of-a-friend tale that didn’t happen to me, but rather to a friend’s mother. I am retelling it here because my friend is trustworthy, and because the story is a prime example of Japanese bureaucracy, which expects people not to think, but to do. The story goes as follows:

My friend helped his mother move out from a rented apartment she had lived in for some 15 years. The apartment block belonged – or at least was managed – by the local university, and mostly university personnel were living there. The rent was cheap because it was an old building, but even so, the contract stated that when you moved out, you had to refurbish the apartment with new tatami, get the fusuma and shoji repaired if damaged, and give the whole thing a new coat of paint.

For a very special and exceptional reason (I’ll tell you in a moment) my friend’s mother asked to be exempt from the renovation of the apartment. However, the university housing office had none of that and insisted on new tatami. So, my friend took it upon himself to phone half the town’s tatami vendors to find the cheapest one and in the end the price was something around 70.000 YEN. My friend’s mother grudgingly paid, but at least she passed the final inspection and could leave in the knowledge of having made university administration happy a final time.

Now, what do you think was this special and exceptional reason that made my friend’s mother make the request in the first place? Obviously, the whole renovation was meant to give the next tenant a nice and clean place to move into. However, there would be no new tenant in that particular apartment. How they’d know? Well, the whole apartment complex was slated for demolition…

In fact, my friend’s mother was one of the last tenants to move out of the building. And it is very likely that all the other apartments had been renovated as well by their last occupants, just so that the construction workers could enjoy stripping nice and clean apartments of their nice and new tatami.

So far the story. Every time I hear of things like that I am reminded of my own experience with Japanese bureaucracy, especially about all the fun I had with the immigration office so far (and until I get permanent residency, it will not be over…) And then I think of a compatriot of mine and I want to tell these bureaucrats something like: Guys, it’s really nice that you’ve heard of Kafka. But, you know, he wrote novels and not manuals…