Settembre 2010 - Belluno Magazine

english?yes, please!
Belluno Magazine il periodico gratuito di informazione ed attualità della Provincia di Belluno
24
Fascinating
Japan part
di Nick Simcock
nick@nicksimcock.com
This year my wife and I went to Japan with
a group of seven friends. Our two week tour
included Tokyo, Hiroshima and its bay, Kyoto,
the area around Mount Fuji and various
temples.
Although we prepared well for the experience by reading guide
books we were still surprised and amazed by the people and
places of this fascinating country.
The Japanese look different
If you are used to living in the west, just walking
among the people of Japan is fascinating. It’s not
just their eye shape and skin colour that make
them look different, but also their physical build.
Human curiosity however is universal and I
was very surprised when a Japanese girl asked if
she could take a photograph of me. She said with
a smile in broken English, “you have such small
head, Japanese men have very big head!”
The clothes
The traditional Kimono http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Kimono must be the most famous Japanese
garment. For me the beauty is in the overall shape
and the small details. The sight of a Japanese man
or lady dressed in this way on a modern city street
or on a train is quite unique.
To the other extreme are the teenage girls who
model their style somewhere between Paris Hilton,
Madonna (from the 80’s) and Gwen Stefani. A
trip to the Shibuya109 shopping centre in Tokyo
where teenagers buy their clothes is a truly colourful
experience!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibuya,_Tokyo
The Japanese are very polite, respectful,
effi cient and punctual
We saw amazing examples of all these Japanese
characteristics at Shinagawa Station in Tokyo
when we caught the Shinkansen or Bullet train.
All passengers must wait in orderly queues on
the platform within colourful lines painted onto
the fl oor. Also shown at the edge of the platform
is the number of the train carriage, and yes it
stops at precisely that point! As our train arrived,
smartly uniformed cleaners appeared along the
edge of the platform. When the train doors ope-
1
Nick Simcock è nato a Stoke
on Trent in Inghilterra nel
1971. Vive e lavora a Belluno
dal 2002. I suoi programmi
radiofonici “The English
lesson” e “Good afternoon”
si possono ascoltare sulle
frequenze di Radio Belluno
www.radiobelluno.it
Il suo sito personale è www.nicksimcock.com
ned we continued to wait as the
cleaners entered the carriages with
a military precision. After about two
minutes they all exited the train at
exactly the same time and stood to
attention by the door. Then each
cleaner gave a bow to the fi rst passenger
boarding the train and thanked
him for giving him a job to do!
This bowing and level of respect is
very common and accompanies all
Japanese social interactions. The
trains illustrate another
important aspect of Japanese
life, punctuality. When
the train is scheduled to leave at
13.03 it leaves at 13.03! Whatever
you do don’t be late for anything in
Japan, it is a sign of gross disrespect.
Talking of respect, if you are noisy
by nature (or simply Italian!) then
you must remind yourself to lower
your volume! The Japanese are generally
very quite. They also work
very long hours and the train and
the metro seem to offer a welcome
opportunity to sleep.
The Japanese language
Apart from a few essential words
like “arigato” (meaning thank you)
the Japanese language is very different
from ours. It’s not just the
words and pronunciation, but also
the structure, tonality and overall
musicality that is very different. I
had presumed (like a classic Brit’)
that English would be the way to
communicate, and while this was
true in big hotels and some large shops,
there were other moments when even
hand gestures were useless! Fortunately
we had a Japanese speaker in our group
and without her it would have been quite
a challenge at times. Just to learn the
numeric system would take a huge effort
as the words for their numbers change
depending on what you are talking about.
Another element in the communication
problem comes from their culture. The
Japanese will never use the word “no”
when they reply to a question, because
it would sound disrespectful. At times in
restaurants or shops it is impossible to
understand whether the answer to your
question is yes or no. Even after speaking
to our Japanese friend about this cultural
difference I still fail to understand how
this system works - try taking “no” out
of your vocabulary even for fi ve minutes
and you will see what I mean!
Japan is a culinary adventure (as long as
you like fi sh!)
Most restaurants in Japan present their
menus in the window as photos or perfectly
waxed versions of the real thing.
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When the dish arrives it is amazing to
compare it to the photo or the wax model
as they are identical! Not knowing
the language means you end up choosing
your restaurant based on the quality of
the photos in the window. It was impossible
to know exactly what we were ordering.
Other than rice or noodles there
were numerous ingredients impossible
to identify. The main ingredient is fi sh,
but chicken and beef were also common.
There were things fl oating in bowls or
covered in sauce, things on sticks and
stuff on rice and most of it was wonderfully
tasty!
In some restaurants they even leave you
to do the cooking and in the middle of
the table you fi nd a boiling broth or a grill
with which to cook your fi sh or meat. The
general rule with eating utensils is that
you have to learn how to use chopsticks,
although other members of our group
managed to get a fork with the help of
our translator.
There is another important aspect if you
are at all concerned about the natural environment.
You should be aware that in
Japan you can end up eating endangered
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species of fi sh without realising. Red Tuna
Sushi sure are tasty, but we only realised
afterwards what we had eaten. Currently
WWF say Red Tuna stocks are dangerously
low and to avoid eating it, however
the Japanese seem completely oblivious.
You can smoke in bars or restaurants, but
not on the street!
Here in Italy and the UK even many smokers
would agree that the smoking ban
in bars and restaurants is a good thing.
The health risks of passive smoking are
obvious and it has become common to
see groups of smokers outside. In Japan it
is the exact opposite! Smoking is not
permitted anywhere outside, if
not for the designated smoking
areas, and yet it is allowed in bars
and restaurants. The interesting thing
is that the Japanese seem to be more
concerned in keeping Japan clean than
keeping it healthy. The no smoking signs
illustrate how much mess a discarded cigarette
can cause and don’t even mention
that smoking can kill you! This in a country
where many people choose to wear
medical face masks in public for fear of
becoming ill. Yet another example of the
many strange contradictions in this fascinating
country.
Next time in part 2 I will write about
beautiful Shinto and Buddhist temples,
Zen gardens and rice fi elds, karaoke, hot
baths, technology, manga and more about
the fascinating people of Japan! •
Il periodico gratuito di informazione
ed attualità della Provincia di Belluno
> english?yes, please!
Belluno Magazine il periodico gratuito di informazione ed attualità della Provincia di Belluno
25