"Tales from the Tokkyu" Part 2 by Marianne
What should you expect when you come to Japan for the first time? No matter how much studying I had done, or how many Japanese movies, stories and essays I had perused, or how much time we spent in class talking and discussing this custom or that custom-- where it came from? is it still done? how serious is it taken?-- the idea of Japan remained a black empty void in my imagination.
When you come to Japan for the first time, expect absolutely nothing. Because there's nothing about the islands of Japan or the Japanese lifestyle that is so universally practiced and so overstated that you just go "Ah! That's Japan!" as soon as you see it. In fact I find that more often than not, if I'm left alone to my thoughts on the train or bus I will completely forget that I am in Japan in the first place ... only to see a sign written in kanji or instinctively say something in English to a Japanese person that they clearly don't understand and realize at once that this is not America. There are no overwhelming contrasts that will keep you in a constant state of awareness about this being a 'foreign' place, only a few subtle quirks that will disrupt your expectations and make you smile a little at the perceived oddness of it all.
Which is why it's best in my opinion to give up as many of those expectations as possible and just take things as they come. It's impossible to string together a list of carefully defined flowery generalizations that will successfully pin down exactly what it's like. For every person the experience is somewhat different. But at the same time, if we did not make some generalizations, we would never be able to pass on even the slightest understanding of our own experiences. Therefore...
Welcome to Japan! The land where stores don't open until 11am and close at 3, where ATMs keep the same times as the banks!, where tofu is delicious and curry is dericious!, where a bicycle is the best way to travel and the cars are as boxy as the watermelons, where items in the 100 yen store actually cost only a 100 yen! While it is one of the safest countries in the world, and it would be pretty silly to pretend like living here might kill you, there are lots of hurdles to handle. It's not a matter of survival, come to Japan and you WILL survive (probably), but everyone survives, not everyone thrives here.
- Hurdle 1 : The Language
Compared to English, Japanese is a nice, orderly, straight forward language. But that is not the point! You SPEAK English already, you do not speak Japanese. You may think you do, but you probably don't .. not fluently at least. The first time someone asks you "zenzen wakarahenka?" it will probably occur to you just how "mada mada" your Japanese skills are. Learning is a long process, especially when you're talking about language. You never really stopped learning English, even today you encounter new words, terms and styles of speaking, why should Japanese be any different?
The problem is dealing with the level you have. See now, my Japanese was pathetic before I came here. Right now it's at a slightly higher level of pathetic than it was before, maybe even bordering on 'okay', but it's far from adequate for my liking. Generally people respond to the language problem in one of two ways, they either bunker down and commit themselves to studying, or they avoid every situation where they might fail to use the language correctly (which would be everything except perhaps shopping ... but really who can't handle korewa onegaishimasu?).
It may surprise you to know that there's a lot you can do on a pathetic level of Japanese with some help from hand gestures and a few well placed questions.
First off Language is all about anticipation. Lets say you walk into a McDonalds, well right off the bat you know three questions they're going to ask you and that you can probably identify without knowing a smidge of Japanese. "To stay or to go?", some indication of what flavor soda you would like and then of course "would you like fries with that?". You know the situation, you know what kinds of things they're going to ask you, so even if you don't know any of the fancy keigo they'll probably use, you can understand what they're asking and respond accurately. So pay attention. Keep your eyes and ears open, watch what they do and try to follow their line of thinking. Anticipate.
Believe it or not, the easiest language problem situation you'll find yourself in is one where you completely do not understand what has been said. There are three much more frustrating problems to deal with. One, knowing what has been asked or said but not being able to express your opinion or give an answer that best reflects your thoughts. Two, knowing what the words said mean but not understanding what has been asked. And three, when people speak to you in English that is either mispronounced or makes no sense. If you look obviously foreign you'll have to deal with this a lot, trust me. People naturally assume that they're making it easier for you by speaking English without understanding that since English has so many more sounds than Japanese, their English can come out too mumbled and slurred to be deciphered. Consider the following experience I had at the local (and rural) post office....
Postman: Eih?
Me: *blinks*..... Eih?
Postman: .... *meaningful look, points to package* Eih?
Me: ..... *is mentally skimming Japanese vocabulary memory trying to think of what 'Eih' means ... coming up blank ... beginning to panic* annnnooo.... sumimasen, zenzen wakaranain desukara....
Postman: ..... Eih! ....Hikouki?
Me: OH! AIR @_@ 'air mail' desuka? Iie fune de onegaishimasu
- Hurdle 2 : Not Killing Yourself
Or as we've come to refer to this "Japan's Frightening Disregard For Personal Safety". I suppose it's a bit more of culture shock Americans feel when coming from a country where people will sue for any reason at any time to one where law suits seem fairly uncommon. When you think about it, American institutions are so obsessed with 'safety' in order to protect themselves from lawsuits ... Japan is a different matter. For one we would never call two wooden planks stretched across and gorge a "bridge", yet go hiking in Heizan and you will probably have to cross one or two (frankly they're not nearly as bad as the hiking trails of Heizan which proceed at 70 degree drops). Streets that wouldn't even be wide enough to earn 'one way' status in the US (like if you parked a car on one side, and a motorcycle on the other side you have effectively blockaded the street) handle traffic from both directions. Cars pass you real close, cliffs lack fences, random blocks of concrete just sit in the middle of the road as if trying to make sure you're awake in the morning when you go to school.
You get used to it after a while, but it's scary to think how easy it would be to injure yourself if you were acting like the same dumbass you are in America. But you're not, you're a responsible study abroad student ... and stuff like that.
- Hurdle 3 : Bathrooms
You will certainly be informed of the notorious "Japanese toilets" before you leave (otherwise known as "squatty pottys" or "hey there's a hole in the floor..."), but you will probably won't be instructed on how to use them. Now it came as a big surprise for me that anyone would be baffled by the extremely complex hole-in-the-floor technology, but then again I practically grew up camping, where one learns to pee without messing oneself in much trickier situations.
I think it's safe it say that the infamous squatty potty makes girls more uncomfortable than guys, and certainly it's not something people like to talk about in detail. It never fails to amaze me how many times I've been out with a friend who has squeamishly and reluctantly admitted that she can't use the train station/restaurant/store bathroom because she isn't sure how to without ... humiliating herself. Although I admit I do not especially want to explain it either (it's kind of a gross thing to talk about frankly) I will impart a little simple wisdom to set your mind at ease for those of you with much more sophistication than me:
Gravity pulls things down
So unless your clothes are directly below you, you're not going to mess them. And when wearing pants, just a little goes a long way if you get my drift.
Still the bathroom hijinx does not stop at the Japanese toilet. Western toilets in Japan always seem to be equipped with any number of gadgets, buttons and functions. A word to the wise, do not press strange buttons on your toilet ... you can never be quite sure what they will do. By this point I have witnessed many post bathroom 'whoops I pushed the button and the toilet attacked me' incidents, if you're among foreigners you can take comfort in the fact that they will understand your pain and sympathize by pointing and laughing.
Generally your standard toilet gadgets range from a "masking noise" box which will play noise to cover up sounds you make as you take care of business (normally it's just toilet flushing noises, but some play songs!) to devices that will spray "cleansing water" at you when you're done. I've come to appreciate the heated toilet seat personally, and the sink on the back of the toilet so you can wash your hands while the tank refills is pure brilliance! Certainly America is decades behind in toilet technology.
- Hurdle 4 : Banking
When you come to Japan, no matter how long you plan to stay or where you are you will certainly learn that the post office is your friend! In fact the post office casts rays of light down from the heavens upon lowly foreigners for one simple reason: every single post office is equipped with a "Postal Savings" ATM which will happily accept most any American banking card and let you withdraw from foreign accounts. Yay!
You may think it will be easier to have a Japanese account for your money. The truth is, it is and it isn't depending on where you are and what you need the money for. I have both my American account and a Japanese account, in my experience it's been a whole lot easier to find a post office than it has been to find an ATM for my bank. Granted with a Japanese account you can probably use any Japanese ATM, but every ATM is somewhat different and sometimes (especially if you can't read the kanji) figuring out what you're doing can be tricky. As a general rule I don't like to play trial and error when it comes to my bank accounts, I think you'll agree this is one situation where you want to know what you're doing.
On the other hand, when it comes to paying school bills and receiving my scholarship money, a Japanese account is a must. Since the school has my account information I don't even have to worry about transferring money to pay bills on time.
Other than the post office, there are ATMs in Japan that will accept American cards if you need them. I've been told you look for a pink squirrel in a dress (not a squirrel in a pink dress mind you, a pink squirrel). There have been a couple sightings of such symbols among my friends, so I assume it's true, but generally I find it easier to look for a Visa/Mastercard logo.
The thing to be wary of though, is not finding a machine that will take your card, but finding one that is open. Unbelievably many ATMs keep the same hours as the bank itself. To me this makes absolutely no sense, isn't the ATM there to handle simple transactions that don't require bank officers? But that is the way it is, Tokyo may certainly be an exception just because it's Tokyo, but I'd advise keeping at least 15,000 in yen on you at all times ... more if you're traveling further than a 800 yen train ride away from your dorm or homestay and even more if you're traveling without friends to float you a quick loan.
- Hurdle 5 : American Food that You Probably Could Never Find in America
I have yet to figure out exactly what part of the country serves the best "traditional American corn soup", clearly it isn't New York because I have never ever heard of "corn soup" before coming to Japan ... I mean corn ... soup? But I don't doubt that it is somehow American because the people at Gaidai's Culture Fair assured me, it's an American tradition. Go figure.
There are lots of food and eating related hurdles to deal with living in Japan, although Japan is probably the easier than other Asian countries concerning food. If you don't know them, you'll probably be briefed on them by your school before you leave. So I'm not going to bother telling you never to leave your chopsticks sticking up in the bowl, or any of that. Instead I'm going to advise you about the horror that is pizza in Japan.
Do not eat pizza in Japan. Ever. Well, eat pizza in Japan if you're not especially hungry, have 20 bucks to blow and feel like a good laugh.
My first gripe with pizza in Japan is that it has no crust. It's like a tortilla shell, with none of that soft, slightly chewy puff of dough around the edge. The most glorious aspect of pizza is gone! GONE~~! Turns out this "thin crust" style is more popular in Japan so if you want a pie with actual crust-crust (if that's even available, and sometimes it's not) you have to ask for "fluffy crust" or "pan" (pan meaning "bread"). Even then what you get will not look like a pizza, instead pizza with "fluffy crust" is like all crust. Much closer to the Italian Focaccia bread if you've ever had that.
Toppings can be extremely strange as well, and not good strange either. Raw egg and ham is not my idea of good pizza eating personally, but to each his own I suppose. And you better like some toppings, because I have yet to see a plain cheese pizza on the menu in Japan either. I had a friend who in absolute desperation once asked a Dominoes guy if he would make her the bacon tomato basil pizza without the bacon, tomato or basil. She would pay the same price, she just wanted it plain. No go, the integrity of the pizza makers in Japan cannot be bought.
The major problem is that pizza is expensive in Japan. Like anywhere from 20 dollars to 50 dollars for a pie, depending how large it is and what you want on it. I remember when we visited a Japanese gradeschool to talk about life in our countries, how the children gaped when I explained that it America we sometimes eat pizza every day because a slice is so cheap ... only 1 dollar and change.
Everyday????.... That cheap!?!?! suddenly 20 something 4th grades were staring at me in awe with sparkles in their eyes. It was as if I had told them that the streets in America were paved in gold or something.
Incidentally if you're looking for a cheap meal in Japan there are any number of dishes to try. Just eat Japanese, because the sad truth is that foreign food of any sort is expensive here not just pizza (cereal is also absurdly expensive). Personal favorites in the cheap meal department: soba, most any kind of donburi but especially Tendon, Tamago Ramen, and Kaiten Sushi.
- Hurdle 6 : Laundry
Two things to remember when doing laundry in Japan: since laundry is typically done everyday in Japanese homes washer and dryers tend to reflect that in the amount of clothes they can handle at one time, two ... dryers suck. All dryers suck, they don't get your clothes dry ... they don't even get them slightly less wet. They just get them soggy and disturbingly warm. In general the best way to do clothes is wash them and then hang them to dry, however in the winter this is not especially practical (although there's nothing that will say "HELLO~~~~ ready for school??" better than slipping into an ice-cold pair of jeans in the morning). During these cold winter months I have been able to persuade the dryer to show mercy by feeding it an absurd amount of money, 300 to 400 yen per load, but I wouldn't recommend doing that in the warmer seasons. You'll come to appreciate being cheap in Japan when it means you get to travel somewhere and spend ridiculous amounts of money during your school vacations.
Hanging clothes to dry has two big drawbacks. One the sunlight will bleach your clothes, two people may in fact steal your clothes, especially if you happen to be female and happen to be leaving your underwear out (which is stupid who would do that anyway?). To slow the bleaching, turn shirts and cotton based clothes inside out and put them out to dry overnight instead of during the day
To prevent panty theft there is only one sure method .... wear really ugly, granny underwear!
- Hurdle 6 : Being in Touch and Staying in Touch
Get a cellphone. If you're there for the year, there's no reason not to. Japanese phone are high-tech little playgrounds, with bizillions of little accessories of all kinds to spice things up. Once you've had one for a month or so you will wonder how you ever survived without text messages, built in alarms, memos, calendars, cameras, Japanese/English dictionaries, etc. If you have an American cellphone, you probably know what I'm talking about already ... trust me when I say it's more so for Japanese phones.
If not for the social element alone, get a cellphone because sometimes public phones can be tricky to find in Japan and you never know when an emergency might come up.
However do not call home from your cellphone. Either have your folks call you in Japan, or pick up a prepaid convenience store ATT calling card. Calls from the US to Japan are much cheaper than calls from Japan to the US, international calls will rape your phone bill for certain. So will downloading things from the internet such as ringtones through your phone.
Prepaid cellphones are also available and might be more useful if you're staying less than a year and don't want to get hit with a cancellation fee. They work like this, you buy the phone, then you buy the cards, you feed your card's serial number and pin to the phone and your phone will register a certain number of minutes available to you. Ultimately this way is cheaper if you don't use your phone a lot, but at the same time it can be a hassle if you're in the middle of a conversation, run out of minutes and all the stores are closed.
Postcards are wonderful things in Japan. Somewhat more expensive than America at 150 yen a card, but worth it in my opinion. For one there's nothing quite as much fun as sending postcards to all those old friends you never really liked anyway. Give them a subtle "ha! ha! I'm in Japan having adventures and you're stuck at home working at Wallmart!" and it will brighten your day. But besides that Japan has such a wealth of strange, wacky and wonderful postcards, there's literally something for everyone out there.
- Hurdle 7 : Shopping
The first couple weeks of the semester are filled with any number of strange incidents related to people buying things that turned out to be not at all what they thought they were. Most common when food shopping, most disastrous when buying laundry supplies, I figure everyone does it at least once.
One of the guys in our dorm, shopping too fast and going for the cheapest stuff he could get, bought home "3.7" milk. The rest of us proceeded to sit around the kitchen table and try to figure out what the 3.7 meant, as a cup of it was passed around for taste test. The stuff smelled repulsive, but the kanji for "cow's milk" was in big bold letters on the carton. So if it's 3.7 something milk, what's the other 6.3 something?
Turns out he had bought coffee creamer .... yeah. I feel rather fortunate that I was one of the first people to get a taste since the top was watery and bland. Still, not something you want to put in your breakfast cereal I don't think.
If you can't read enough Japanese to know what your buying, it's safe to follow two rules when shopping. Look for pictures, especially on cooking directions, showing how to use the product and do not buy ridiculously cheap. Japan is practically covered in "Hyaku Yen" stores (Well Hyaku yen stores and Shinto shrines anyway) so there are lots of great deals, but keep your American sensibilities intact here. If it seems like it's too good a deal, then it probably is.
- Hurdle 8 : Experience Japan!
It's a sad sad thing, I've been here about five months now and it seems everyday I find out certain schoolmates have been missing out. Why just the other day a close friend of mine confessed that after five months here she still had yet to even see a temple. That's like crazy to me, how can you spend five months here and not go to one Buddhist temple or Shinto shrine? even if it is the really famous and touristy ones? Or last night we found out there's a girl in our dorm who has never eaten with chopsticks. She's spent the entire semester eating in school facilities where knives and forks are available, never ate out. Of course there is no shortage of people who have never been to an onsen, which to me is a crime although a bit more understandable given the circumstances. Public nudity and public bathing doesn't sit well with many foreigners....
But then at the same time, presumably you have come to Japan to experience life here. You don't achieve that by expecting to live your life exactly as you do back home. It can be fun, even therapeutic to sit back and complain about the silly things the Japanese do, to laugh about things that seem ridiculous and strange, to bitch about how different it is from the American way ... but that doesn't mean you shouldn't get out there and do them. After all, how else do you know what to complain about?
It seems the biggest hurdle foreign students face in Japan is simply being foreign. Your host family (if you have one) or Japanese friends (if you make some) may invite you to do cultural things with them, but they may not. Having a great time living here requires a little bit of gall and some personal initiative. You can't wait for someone to invite you to experience the country, you have to seek it out yourself.
And one of the great things that people seem not to realize is that mistakes are great social tools. Tripping over one of life's numerous hurdles and making a complete ass out of yourself is a great story to tell others, especially other foreigners in Japan. This can be a very isolating place, a lot of foreigners spend so much time living outside the circle that they are eager for any human contact (and if you happen to be in Harajuku or Shibuya this often takes the form of really cheesy, overdone pickup lines). When I look at my foreign friends here I realize that with some of them the only thing we have in common is being foreign in Japan, but that's more of a common ground than you may assume at first.