goinggaijin.com – Page 108 – A European's move towards Japan

Anticipation

It was very cold today. Although it was sunny throughout the day, the temperatures did not rise much beyond 4 degrees, the wind was so heavy. The house is old and the windows don’t close properly, and together with the cracks in my walls, it is rather draughty in my room.

So, I have rearranged my little bit of furniture a little, essentially I have put my table away from the window and in front of my futon, so I can sit all day in front of my computer wrapped into my futon, and thus stay warm. This is what I did all through last winter, I hope it will work a second time. I have also placed the little electric heater on top of the table so my hands will stay warm while typing. It’s an experiment, I’m not sure it will work.

In the north-western parts of Japan it is snowing. It is very early this winter, but the forecast for tomorrow is predicting snow also for Kyoto. On the one hand I know that it will become very, very cold in the house, but on the other hand, I prefer a winter – especially around Christmas – with snow. I have already set my alarm clock for 7 in the morning tomorrow, just in case everything will be white and I’ll need to go out and shoot pictures. And maybe build a snowman.

Say hello to my inner child… And wish me luck!

Majority

Yesterday the latest elections for the Japanese Lower House took place, after barely one month of election campaigns. As I cannot read Japanese newspapers, I cannot tell in detail what a Japanese election campaign entails. Part of it are posters of the people campaigning for any given party, either posted singly at will in windows of shops or even normal houses, or in groups on large signs, strictly ordered by … well, I guess by their rank on the ballot:

Another part of campaigning in Japan is the dressing up in the party’s colours and standing at crossings and waving at the people driving by. Sometimes, the candidate himself will stand there, brandishing a microphone and asking people for support. Often, they are driving through the small neighborhoods in a van equipped with loudspeakers and do the same, the car is full with people waving and shouting at people.

Last week I was waiting at a pedestrian crossing, and such a van arrived. Inside, everybody was dressed in blue and they were waving and shouting – at me, the obvious foreigner who is not (and will never) be allowed to vote in Japan. The loudspeakers were droning an endless row of Please and Thank you!, making you wonder if there is any sort of political program at all. It was hilarious.

The outcome? Same old, same old: More Shinzo Abe for the next four years. The people are not happy with his politics – he wants to turn the nuclear plants back on, has plans to abolish the non-attack parts of the constitution, and is generally considered a political hawk – and the turnout showed that, with only 52.66% of all voters taking part in the elections, a record low.

Sometimes I think it would be better if voting were mandatory, but then there should be an option “NO – I don’t want any of those parties”, and the seats should be divided according to the outcome, with the NO votes represented by empty seats in the parliament. I wonder if this would change politics? Looking around at various countries, it seems that the only option you have these days, no matter where you live, is the choice between pestilence, cholera, and a bit of Aids…

Housing

I have decided to move out. As soon as possible. I was planning to move out of Ebisu’s some time next year anyway, so the thought is not completely new, although I was not planning on doing it quite so quickly.

The main reason is that the house has turned (almost) into student’s dorm central… Of the six rooms that are occupied right now, five of them belong to students in their early 20s. Not that they are partying all the time, not at all (and I am rather surprised by that), and they are all very nice and considerate. It’s just that they sit and talk for hours on end. Which is not a problem as such, had they not chosen as their favourite discussion forum the room just underneath mine – and I think I have made ample remarks about the thin walls and ceilings of the house already… As I said, they are not deliberately noisy, they are just talking, so there’s nothing I can say, that would be unfair. However, it sounds like there is a TV running in the background all the time, and I really don’t want to have that in my own home.

Solution: fast track the moving plans. I am looking for something with at least two bedrooms, and there are sufficiently many places to choose from, if not necessarily in my neighborhood. It seems even possible to rent a whole – older – house for the price of a similarly sized but newer apartment, and to be honest, I am leaning towards this, as I have always lived in a house and like the simple fact that there is an “upstairs”.

I have already asked my tandem partner for a few phrases that may come handy when looking for or at a house or apartment. There are also a number of very small rental agencies in my neighborhood where I can go to and see what’s on offer.

In a way I have started the process two weeks ago already… On the other side of the hill, there is this wonderful strange old house in this beautiful garden. It is strange because it is old – and it consists of a Western part in front and a Japanese part in the back. I first saw it about half a year ago I guess – and fell madly in love with it. I have always liked old houses, and this one fits virtually every of my bills… Several weeks ago, when I passed by the house again – there was a sign “For Sale”.

Immediately, I put all of my friends and acquaintances to work to help me contact the agent – I just had to see this house. It is very old and – almost the standard in Japan – in a very bad state, and I was afraid that it would be sold to one of those awful developers who would tear it down and build a mansion instead of it or something equally ugly, before I had seen it.

And this morning, I had an appointment with the agent to see the house! I was very excited to finally be able to get in and check it out. It is as I had expected: absolutely gorgeous and wonderful – and huge! The house has two floors, the Western part has two rooms on each floor which are bright with large windows and high ceilings with stucco; and there are even fireplaces in the rooms upstairs and something that looks like a tiled stove on the ground floor. The Japanese part is very traditional – low ceilings, dark wood and shoji, tokonoma and tatami everywhere. Altogether there are three bathrooms and two kitchens in the house, and around 15 rooms in the Japanese part if I remember correctly.

The house is about 100 years old, and was apparently built by a medical doctor who was working at Kyoto University. It is even possible that the university had financed the building of the house, and at that time having Western style rooms was very hip. It seems that the house was used both as living space and as practice – in the front room on the second floor there is something in a corner that looks like a washbasin. Another reason for the size of the house is, that the professor’s students were living there as well – something completely normal in that era.

I absolutely love that house, and the garden – about 1200 square metres – is equally gorgeous with old trees and lilies growing wild… Unfortunately, as I said, the house is in a very sad state – I will add some pictures tomorrow – and I think that besides the price of the house (which is actually the price of the land) one would have to spend an equal amount on renovations…

It’s such a pity I cannot buy it and renovate it, it would be wonderful. But, it’s out of my budget, by about a factor of 15. Not counting any renovations here… No, I have not yet made my peace with it, but I will eventually, I am sure. And maybe, I will find another old house somewhere that I can personally save from the rampant “mansionitis”…

Kicks

Language is a minefield, even if you’re working with people who you think are great foreign-language speakers…

Last Thursday, at the end of my soroban class – we were running a little late – I wanted to finish the last of my addition exercises. No, sensei said, we’re past 8 already, please go and check your results. Oh, you’re kicking me out?! I replied and started to wrap up.

I should not have said that. Sensei’s reaction was straightforward: Within an instant he got really, really pissed. This simple sentence, jokingly used in English (we say something similar in German even) triggered an angry response as I have not thought a Japanese being capable of. At first he didn’t want to talk to me at all, then he was accusing me of thinking him rude (How can you think that, I never kicked you out) and then he said that he would not help me again.

It took me almost half an hour to smooth the waves, and I am still not sure whether I really understood why he became so angry, other than: well, it’s a language problem. The English phrase “You’re kicking me out?” can be used for example in a bar, when the bartender starts to clean the place, putting up chairs and such, without really asking you to leave. It’s used in a joking way, neither meant to express nor to cause offense, and as such it is understood in the situation at hand.

However, yet again, Japan is different. Apparently, just using the word “kick” in Japanese would be a rather rude thing to do. Add the implication that you as the host are kicking a guest out of your house… And finally, consider the fact that Kyoto is the last enclave of court-derived, serious politeness in all Japan, and there we are…

In the end, I think we’re okay again. I had to explain that we’re essentially navigating three languages, my German, his Japanese, and the English where we meet in the middle, and that of all of those the German is the most straightforward and the Japanese the most turning in circles. I hope I will not make such a mistake again – although, how could I possibly avoid that?

Thai Rice

We have a new housemate since last weekend. He will be here for one month and will work in that time as an intern at the University Hospital, which is just 10 minutes away from the house. I happened to be there when he came to Ebisu’s, and when he climbed the steps, I noticed his luggage: He carried – or rather, hardly carried – a large suitcase and a huge backpack, and I already wondered how much stuff a guy can possibly need in a single month.

Well, I watched him prepare dinner one evening, and now I know what he’s been lugging around: It’s food. Don’t get me wrong, we all have our special needs when it comes to food, and we all like to have familiar stuff, even on vacation. A Finnish houseguest filled half the freezer with dark bread, Koreans take their kimchi everywhere (it’s even available at every Korean airport in the duty-free section), Australians are rumoured to bring their Vegemite wherever they go, and I have to admit that when I was in Europe the last time, I stuffed my suitcase with bread and special Austrian sweets (Punschkrapferl, Mohnstrudel, Nusskipferl,…) as well. And with Nutella, of course.

But I think that our new guest lifted the whole thing to a totally new level. When he made a curry dish the other evening, he used a special kind of spicy Thai-sauce, a bag of curry made with some meat, and: two cans of pre-cooked rice, everything brought over from Thailand…

I can understand the sauce, and even the curry – but the rice? Seriously? Japan produces about 120% of their national rice-consumption, and even so, I am sure there is Thai rice to be found somewhere. Bringing staples like this with you is just odd… At least, there will be lots of empty space in his bags that he can fill up with souvenirs when he’s leaving.

Headache

Sorry guys, no big post here today. I had an appointment in Osaka and came home dead tired and with a headache… Now that I have finished all my emails, I’m off to bed. It’s getting colder too this week – I have seen some days reaching the zero degrees – but I still have a few blankets to throw on the bed if need be. Good night!

Mints

I went to see Katsura Imperial Villa today, I will write a detailed post once I have sorted through all my photos… It is quite far from my house, it took me about one hour to get there, taking two buses. The first one got quite crowded and at some bus stop, I offered my seat to an elderly lady. She was not really ancient, but still obviously happy to be able to sit down. Then, she started rummaging in her bag and after a while she touched my hand – and offered me a mint bonbon… She did not eat any, so I guess it was her way of saying “Thanks”. What a nice thing to do!

Bureaucracy

In Asia, many large, legally binding transactions, whether business (buying a house or car) or private (getting married) still require the involved parties to use personal seals rather than signatures. Many people use different seals for different purposes, the more important the business, the more important the seal. The transactions mentioned above require a personal seal that is registered with the local ward the person lives in, and is thus of the highest level. These seals – in Japan they are generally called inkan or hanko – are often elaborately carved, unique pieces that can be very expensive and usually accompany a person throughout their (adult) life.

For practical reasons, and in view of a few important things coming up, I have decided to get my own registered seal or jitsuin, and, armed with my own elaborate design based on my last name, I went to a hanko-ya, a seal-carving shop last week. I must have chosen the most uninspired seal makers of town, because there my problems started…

First of all, they could not tell me whether my design would be acceptable by law. This makes sense, as for foreigners, there are strict rules a jitsuin has to adhere to, and apparently, they even differ from one town to the next. So, I went to city hall (which, thankfully, was not far from the shop) and I spent about one hour discussing with a very friendly young staff member which type of seal would be permissible for me. It seems that in Kyoto (and she stressed that emphatically), I can have a seal containing my last name, my first name, or both in either romaji, roman alphabet, or in katakana. I am not allowed an abbreviation of (parts of) the name, for example initials only, and: The thing must be recognisable as my name! This surprised me quite a bit, because I know that these seals for Japanese often contain very old-fashioned kanji that the modern Japanese probably would not recognise. Also, whenever such a seal is used, it must be accompanied with proof of its registration anyway – which you only get with proper identification…

In any case, she was not swayed, so my beautiful self-designed idea based on my last name with lots of flourishes and hidden letters (although all of them were there, I swear!) was out. So, I asked about katakana on my seal and made a quick, improvised sketch of something. After going back to check with somebody in the know, she returned and said: “Yes, this is possible, and it’s very nice, but you first have to register a heikimei.” Excuse me, a what? We could not quite find common ground on this one. Only at home, when checking the kanji she wrote down for me (併記名) it turned out that it literally means “also shown name”, the Japanese translate it as “pronunciation name”, essentially a way of writing your (foreign) name in katakana. So, in order to be allowed to use a seal with katakana, I first have to register those katakana as equivalent with my name. While it sounds a bit odd, it does make sense from a legal point of view. I guess. In any case, after we both had confirmed that I can register both the heikimei and the seal at the same ward office on the same day, I thanked her profusely and went back to the hanko-ya.

There, my problems went from bad to worse. Now they informed me that there was no way they could possibly furnish me with a seal carved in romaji, as this is nothing they are capable of. Then I said, okay, good, here is an easy design of my first name in katakana, with the syllables nicely flowing together. Oh, no, this was not something they could possibly do either, after all there is a machine doing the carving and the machine cannot possibly be told to move that one kana a bit to the left and the other a bit to the right and besides and anyway…

As I did not know any other hanko-ya to go to, I relented, and they took three days to tell that ominous machine in their backyard to carve the most uninspired and most ugly seal they ever made. I showed it to my friends for commiseration, but interestingly they found it cute – they had never seen a katakana seal before. Well, I thought, as long as it does the trick for registration…

This afternoon, I went to my ward office to register my heikimei and the seal, and to get a seal certificate as proof that the seal is really my official seal. I braced myself for severe difficulties again, but everything went smoothly. An assistant who is only there to assist people – Japanese and foreign alike – to fill out forms and put them on the right chair, filled out all the forms I needed. For the seal registration, I had to put the seal on the registration form and on a small extra slip of paper – the clerk explained that I should make an extra effort there because this imprint would be scanned and thus entered into the database. After maybe 15 minutes time in total and after paying 350 YEN, I received a registration confirmation and the registration card pictured above. If ever I need a new proof of registration, I’ll only need to show this card and a new document will be issued promptly.

Japanese bureaucracy does not cease to amaze me. Some things take ages and lots of “it can’t be done” interjections – those are the ones the typical foreigner thinks they should be straightforward – and other things – where you think they are virtually impossible – they have pat down and systemized and everything is finished within five minutes…

Cute anecdote on the side: I was called to the payment counter by name by an older man, whose first question was – in perfect German: “Sprechen Sie Englisch?” “Ich kann das auch auf Deutsch”, I replied and we then proceeded in English after all. I guess he saw my nationality in the paperwork, but I was indeed surprised – you don’t find that many Japanese who speak German.

Kyodai-matsuri

For the last few days it has been rather noisy in my neighborhood. The main campus of Kyoto university is nearby and currently, the yearly university festival is taking place. Throughout the day, especially in early afternoon, you can hear bands playing and announcements of stuff I cannot quite make out…

This seems to be a time when all the university clubs put on a great show. For example, there are groups devoting themselves to learning traditional dances – Western traditional dances, mind you, and they are even taking the time to make their own costumes. According to a friend of mine who is Bulgarian, they do Bulgarian dances as well, and the costumes they make look even better than the real thing.

Foodstalls are present as well of course, and there are people – mostly girls, dressed in surprisingly scanty clothing for November – who hand out little flyers to draw people to other places and performances that do not take place outdoors. Yesterday evening there was apparently even a fire-performance, but I did not go there after all.

Besides all the students on and around campus, this weekend there are many tourists walking through the neighborhood chasing the momiji equipped with little maps. I hope there will be something left to see when I go to the imperial villa next Friday…

Busy!

This week, I have been running around like crazy, organising lots of little things and going here and there – and still I have the impression I did not accomplish anything at all…

I have decided to get a Japanese Hanko or Inkan, the seal that is used in Asia in lieu of a signature. I have ordered one and should get it tomorrow, next week I will have to register it at my ward office.

There are also still some things I need to consolidate in Europe – at least everything can be settled via emails and maybe a short phone call or two.

In view of approaching Christmas (in less than 5 weeks!) I have bought a stack of Christmas cards, which I will have to write over the next two weeks, since they take about a week to reach Europe. It was surprisingly difficult to get Christmas cards that do not feature Santa Claus or Mickey Mouse or the characters of Frozen… In any case, I am very glad I don’t have to buy any presents except those for myself, that makes my life easier, especially as I am not sure there will be any this year.

As a way to balance things, I have been walking through my neighborhood to see how far the momiji are. It will take one more week for them to be perfect I think. A friend of mine recommended one of the Imperial Villas (allegedly with the best garden in Japan) to go during the momiji, so I went to the Imperial Household Agency to make a reservation for a tour. The tours are free, but limited to a small number of people, and you have to register with your passport number. I am proud to say that I did (almost) all of it in Japanese, even though the lady at the counter spoke excellent English. On some days I actually think I might be getting there.

Besides that, there was a movie afternoon at the Kyoto International House on Tuesday; it was a Japanese movie from last year with subtitles in English. As subtitles are usually non-existent, I am always happy to go to such special events.

And amidst all this I am trying to keep my soroban studies up and my Japanese studies as well. Well, it’s just the crest of the wave right now, the through – with nothing happening – will come around soon enough again.