The Art Of Bowing

When you enter a shop, all of the workers shout:

“Irasshaimase” (welcome*)

I had heard and read about this before I came to Japan but unless you see it, it’s very hard to imagine. It is said to EVERY SINGLE PERSON that walks in. Could you picture walking into Woolworths and being greeted by each member of staff when they see you. Hey Martyn?! You’re lucky if you get a scowl. Sorry Martyn.

I still feel uncomfortable as it’s not expected of you to reply. In fact, there isn’t actually much you can say to the chorus of "welcome". Nevertheless, I find myself sometimes about to say it back to them, like an automatic reflex. Similar to your birthday, where you catch yourself about to say "happy birthday" back. Or is that just me?

Leaving, however, is a completely different ball game, as you get to play too. And it begins one of the greatest games you can play in Japan.

After you have paid and said “arigatou gozaimasu”, the person who serves you bows. You too bow**. Now, you can choose. Does the person look innocent or busy? If so, walk away. Or, you can bow again. Can you see where this is going?

Every time you bow, they bow a little bit lower. It’s cruel, but it’s fascinating. I haven’t gone over the top with the bowing; three or four will suffice. But…

It’s always fun to finish the bowing, walk towards the door and, just before you leave, turn and bow once more.

Oh, the power!

*Although it literally translates as “thank you for entering my place of work”.
**You bow, not the band. That would just be stupid.

NOVA Students Say The Sweetest Things #2

Student: I had a really good lesson. The most fun lesson.

Welcome To The Future

On my ‘Sunday’, I decided to contrast yesterday’s old and serene Tokyo with the most modern areas in the Japanese capital (as well as one VERY old area).

Jody and I headed to Ginza, the technological centre of Japan. There wasn’t loads to see, except for the Sony Building. This was full of the latest models of cars, cameras, televisions etc. However, the coolest thing was one of their sets of stairs, which are musical. Each one you jump on makes a different noise and lights up. On the hour, they do a show and ‘dong’ the respective number of times. They worked better than they look here.

After that we headed to Kabuki-cho, where the old Kabuki theatre is. It was a decent looking building, but hard to see as you can’t go in without a ticket (expensive and, from what I’ve heard, dull dull dull) and there is a busy road in front of it. But the art-work was beautiful, so I got close-ups of them.




Moving swiftly on, we entered the future! Underground plazas, Matrix-style buildings, escalators built into walls (look hard), and an unmanned monorail speeding behind open-air televisions. On top of that, outdoor escalators! How does that work?




And all that, just for a photocopier!

On the whole, a decent-ish day but nowhere near as great as Hama Rikyu/Asakusa the day before.

Image Of The Week #4

Well, I suppose that's close enough.

Any opinions, questions, suggestions?

I'm finding it quite hard to answer questions scattered around the blog, so can you direct all questions to the comments section on THIS entry, and make other comments relevant to their particular entry. It'll be easier for me to answer questions this way, as well as keeping other comment sections relevant. Thank you.

NOVA Students Say The Sweetest Things #1

Role-play on “when friends of friends meet each other”:

Phil: She’s told me so much about you.
Student: Same here. She told me you were handsome, and you are.

NOVA Students Say The Stupidest Things #2

Discussion about phobias:

Student: I’m ok with small spiders. I just have a fear of Tarantino.

Downtown Tokyo In Photos – Who Needs Imagination…

My first ‘weekend’ off! On Thursday I went to Hama Rikyu Garden in the South East corner of Tokyo. I fancied a day on my own, trying to speak no English and instead use as much broken Japanese as possible. The park was absolutely beautiful, and every turned corner was equally fascinating. One of the most fascinating things was how many skyscrapers dominated the background, yet how serene the garden was.



In the middle of the largest lake (the only remaining seawater pond within Tokyo) is a teahouse, built in 1704 and used by the Imperial nobles. The entire bridge is made from Japanese cedar. The first picture is my favourite of Tokyo so far.





Although I climbed these steps which suggested I could see Mt Fuji, I realised that each corner of the park was a mound named after the famous mountains. Silly me.



I boarded a boat from inside the Garden (how very touristy of me, I know) on the Sumida River. It was a forty minute relaxing, and pleasantly breezy, cruise North towards Asakusa.



Opposite the embarkation point, was Philippe Starck’s ‘Flamme d’Or’. Actually, it looks a little like a golden dog poo, but maybe that’s just me not appreciating good architecture. I’ll give it credit, it’s huge. As wide as the building behind it, if that helps to give it scale.



The map below shows Hama Rikyu bottom left (the tea house, on the lake). Past all the bridges somewhere in the middle (the red temple and pagoda) is Asakusa. Just so you know, the Eiffel Tower-like building near Hama Rikyu is Tokyo Tower, the green and white fish thing next to Rainbow Bridge which is connected near to Hama Rikyu is the fish market, and near the bottom right is Tokyo Disneyland.


In Asakusa, I headed towards the shrines and temples. The first thing of interest I came to was Kaminarimon. Not a pokemon, but the ‘thunder gate’; the thunder god is on the right and the wind god on the left.



Nakamise-dori took me past a pagoda and towards Asakusa Kannon Temple; Tokyo’s oldest, founded in 628 when two brothers found a golden image of Kannon, the deity of compassion, in their fishing nets. Strangely, I didn't take any photos of the actual temple!? It's a good excuse to go back. The hand washing feature was beautiful, however.



Behind the temple is a 17th Century Shinto shrine built in honour of the brothers. Strangely, there are swastika signs on many of the religious buildings; on maps, temples/churches are marked my swastikas. I guess it is true that the Nazis’ adopted this sign for their party. However, if you look closely, the image is reversed so that is a good indication that they take very different symbolic meanings now.



I wandered around a bit more before heading towards Sumida Park, which was heavily decorated with bright pink lanterns and the last of the cherry blossom.




The Park led me back to Asakusa Port/Station and I took the train home. The time alone was nice, but using no English was hard.

Ohayo Gozaimasu

Good morning! (Or, as I upload this while you sleep, good evening).

It is one month today since I arrived in Japan. I can’t believe how quickly it’s going. So much learnt, so much seen, so much written.

And so much more to come…

Japanese Lesson #1

Now that I’ve worked out how to get Japanese on my computer, I can start the Japanese lessons. Nice and easy to begin with, just a few basic greetings. If you speak to anyone else that reads this blog, try and use one of these phrases. Bi/Multi-lingualism is a beautiful thing.

In order is the English meaning, the word/phrase in Japanese and the pronunciation phonetically (small letters = soft, capitals = hard; ~ = hold the letter before for double the length), the hiragana and the katakana:

Good morning
Ohayo gozaimasu / o-high-O go-sigh-mass
おはよ ございます / オハヨ ゴザイマス

Good afternoon
Konnichiwa / Kon~EE-chEE-wa
こんにちは / コンニチハ

Good evening
Konbanwa / Kon-ban-wa
こんばんは / コンバンハ

Please
Onegai Shimasu / o-ne-guy shih-mass
おねがい します / オネガイ シマス

Thank you
Arigatou / a-rEE-ga-toe
ありがとう / アリガトウ

How are you? / Okay?
Genki desu ka / gen-kEE dess kah
げんきですか / ゲンキデスカ

I’m fine / Okay
Genki / gen-kEE
げんき / ゲンキ

Goodbye
Sayonara / sigh-o-nah-rah
さよなら / サヨナラ

A Taste Of Yokohama

On my first Tuesday (April 4th) of working, I was asked to work a late shift (17:40 – 21:00) instead of middle; which gave me part of the day to explore. So I thought I’d have a quick mooch around Yokohama.

First I had a look at the Chinatown, Motomachi Chukagai, the largest in Japan. Although some of it looked nice, it boiled down to being an expensive tourist trap. No different to most other Chinatowns.




I walked along to the river towards Minato Mirai. I didn’t get much time therebut Yokohama has an amazing park alongside the quay. In the background is the Minato Mirai area, with the Cosmo Clock Ferris Wheel and Sail Building.




I’ll go for a full day, and hopefully have more interesting stories to tell.