WANDERLUST

THIS & THAT   -   JAPAN

One of the main reasons why I like travelling so much is of course to experience something different. Sometimes these differences result in major culture clashes, something I have always learnt something from. However, at other times these differences are just small, everyday stuff that I stumble across. Apart from the incidents I have already written about, I’ll mention a few other things which caught my eye and made me start thinking ...

One of the things which really puzzled me was the way in which the seats in certain waiting rooms were arranged. I saw a few of these during my trip. The picture above is from the station at Kanazawa. Single seats with quite a distance between them, all facing the same way. They look as if they are meant for people suffering from social phobia. Maybe for the hikikomori if they ever do venture out into the surrounding world! If someone out there can explain this waiting room phenomenon to me, I’d be grateful.

The second picture shows a bench by the river in Hiroshima. Now, I doubt the partitions are there to separate the people sitting on the bench. Instead, I imagine they are there to prevent people from lying down. No loitering or sleeping out. And are these red things benches or tables? I think perhaps a little of each. These ‘tables’ were at the park surrounding the Kinkakuji at Kyoto.

I see heart starters more and more places, but back then not as many in Denmark as I spotted in Japan. I used to teach paramedics, so maybe I am more aware of such equipment and easily spot it when it’s there. I don’t know. At places frequented by many people, you usually found them in Japan, such as here, at a temple in Kyoto, when it’s right next to a Fuji film vending machine and a machine on which you can make a souvenir coin with your own name on it. Now, of course, the same is the case in Denmark.

In my country, if someone picks up a magazine in a shop and starts to leaf through it, I guess nine out of ten times, the shop assistant will tell you in no uncertain terms to either buy the magazine or put it down! But in Japan I saw lots of people, mainly younger men, not only leafing through the cartoon magazines, but taking their time and reading it carefully. It seemed to be OK. In one shop, when I wanted to buy some detergent I addressed a young man, who was standing right next to me reading a magazine, as I needed a little help deciphering the writing on the product I was holding. As I had begun talking to him, I suddenly realized he was actually reading a strip cartoon with strong pornographic contents, and I was trying to pretend not to ‘notice’. But he made no attempt to close the magazine or do anything else to indicate that what he was doing wasn’t OK in public, so I assumed even that might be perfectly acceptable(?) And he actually did help me find the right kind of detergent. Incidentally, he is not the man in my picture. That photo was taken in another shop.

I don’t want to seem too soft. My golden rule when I meet other cultures, other traditions and other rules is not to be judgemental. But sometimes the left side of my brains is powered down and the right (more emotional) side takes over completely. So pet shops full of puppies kept in ‘cages’ that resembled fish-tanks really broke my heart. I considered a Turtle-Diary-or-Free-Willy attempt, but I managed to control myself. Two years ago, in Turkey, we were having lunch opposite a pet shop, where they had a number of puppies in a cage out in the baking sun, with no shade. I actually walked over to the shop keeper and asked why the dogs didn’t have any water, ‘Oh, yes, water!’ he said and gave them a bowl of water which they fought over and finished in no time, so he had to fill it again. I think my life would be much simpler (and my blood pressure lower) if I could manage to just mind my own business. But it’s difficult for me not to interfere.

Other things seemed more similar to home. I saw a notice about dogs while I walked along the Philosopher’s Walk in Kyoto, and although I don’t understand what it says, I assume it must be the same general idea as the signs we have in our parks.

Sometimes when friends from abroad are visiting me, they comment on alcohol being displayed freely on the shelves in the super market. That would be the standard, at least when it comes to beer and wine. I suppose most of the time liquor is kept behind a counter. But in my local shop in Fukuoka I noticed that even some strong spirits were on display in child height.

I saw bottles of water outside many homes, such as this one in the Nagamachi Buke Yashiki District in Kanazawa, and I finally asked someone what they were for. My first guess had been that it was in connection with some sort of ritual. Like when you put out a bowl of rice for your ancestors. But no, no, that was not the case. I was told it helped keep cats away. But how?

Of course I have seen intersections like the one in this photo (taken in front of the main station in Kyoto), where pedestrians can cross in all directions at the same time, but I have mostly seen those in the States, and now in Japan. As I stood there, waiting for the light to turn green, I could not figure out what the advantage was of three-stage traffic lights. First stage: green light for motorists in one direction, second stage: green light for the motorists crossing the first direction, third stage: red light for all the motorists while it is green for all the pedestrians. True enough, if you are a pedestrian, you can get to the corner diagonally from where you are in one go, but won’t it mean that all the vehicles will have to wait even longer? And even the pedestrians, if they arrive when the light has just turned red. Embarrassingly, I’ll have to admit I am too stupid to understand why this is supposed to create a better traffic flow like they claim.

Generally, we like to think the Danes are very advanced when it comes to green energy and protecting the environment. Although this is true, especially concerning wind power, I saw lots of things in Japan that I found clever. Including street lights powered by solar cells. The sun would provide the light regardless if it was day or night. Great!

Another thing which was ‘great’ was the bamboo, of course. The bamboo in my family’s garden was maybe 6-8 feet tall. The grove I am standing in here has a sort of bamboo which gets … somewhat taller! I really like all the ways in which the bamboo sticks are used in traditional construction, such as for the gutter and drain of this house at the Shugakuin Imperial Villa. I always admire good craftsmanship.

Now that we seem to be playing ‘Where’s Wally’, here’s a picture of me with a cherry tree in Shinjuku Gyoen. Someone told me Europeans look so pink. I tried to prove that by blending in with the pink cherry blossoms.

I wonder if school uniforms were ever used in my country. I don’t think so. Japanese secondary school children all wore sailor suit style uniforms. I don’t think primary school children had uniforms, but I am not sure. I liked all the coloured caps kindergarten children wore.

If it rained, I would wear my rain jacket. I prefer to have my hands free, so I don’t use an umbrella very often. I didn’t see many other people wearing rain clothes there, though. I wonder if it is considered uncommon or un-cool, somehow. Instead, there seemed to be umbrellas everywhere. Literally: everywhere! I ended up buying two during my stay and just passed them on to someone else when I didn’t need them anymore. They were inexpensive, and you could buy them at every other corner, it seemed. Typically, it seemed people got caught in the rain and just bought another one and brought it home. I took this picture in the hall of a private home. They (a family of three) had more than twenty of them in their hall.

Something else I didn’t know from home: all the cords suspended over the streets. A rocky underground would make it difficult to dig them into the ground, I’m sure. Also, with frequent earth quakes and possible damages to these cords, it also makes good sense to have them in the air, so they can easily be repaired. So a street scene like this is part of the Japanese couleur locale for me.

I enjoyed the ability to find beauty and value in something, which not everyone can. We had a big garden, where I grew up, and my father had come across a some rocks while digging in the garden, and unlike most of our neighbours, who arranged for the rocks they found to be taken away, he kept a few of them on ‘display’ as he thought they were interesting. I saw that many places in Japan – and I am not talking about the big, symbolic rock gardens but just a few square feet of garden in front of a private home. I found that interesting. I wonder what age a rock like the red one in my picture has. I wouldn’t be surprised if dinosaurs had stepped on it.

Finally, why change the course of a path through a park just because there is a tree right in the middle of it?

End of Japan pages - To Japan page 1

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