I realize there are people who stink everywhere in the world, but I encounter far more people with intense B.O. in Tokyo than I have anywhere else. The reason for this is that most Japanese assume they don't stink when they sweat and therefore do not need deodorant. In fact, many believe that only foreigners are capable of smelling bad when they sweat. There was once a sign near deodorant in a
mercredi 29 février 2012
Won't Miss #423 - non-deodorant wearers
Posted on 08:00 by Unknown
I realize there are people who stink everywhere in the world, but I encounter far more people with intense B.O. in Tokyo than I have anywhere else. The reason for this is that most Japanese assume they don't stink when they sweat and therefore do not need deodorant. In fact, many believe that only foreigners are capable of smelling bad when they sweat. There was once a sign near deodorant in a
mardi 28 février 2012
Will Miss #422 - "death by fan" warnings
Posted on 08:00 by Unknown
Definitely the wrong kind of fan and not about fun...
You can read all of the books and web sites you want about a foreign culture, but chances are that you'll find the reality will catch you off guard sooner rather than later. One day, you'll be talking about the summer heat and how to best cope with it and a student will say that it's just too cold using the air conditioner all night.
lundi 27 février 2012
Won't Miss #422 - Japanese fitting rooms
Posted on 08:00 by Unknown
I can't speak for every single fitting room in Japan, just the ones I've tried. Since clothes here aren't exactly made for my foreign body, I am not exactly the most experienced person in this regard. That being said, I can say that at least some of them require you to remove your shoes before entering them. In fact, that is the way in which you indicate the room is occupied in some cases.
vendredi 24 février 2012
Will Miss #421 - "analog" signs on T.V.
Posted on 08:00 by Unknown
Getting a picture of a television program showing a cardboard sign is much harder than it might seem.
Japan is undoubtedly one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world. In fact, I've seen computer chips embedded in traffic cones. Machinery is sometimes integrated at a level that would make a Borg mama proud. Given the deep level of technological sophistication that you see
jeudi 23 février 2012
Won't #421 - walking with my head down
Posted on 08:00 by Unknown
After my thyroid surgery, my doctor asked me how my neck mobility was coming along after several weeks of restricted movement. He asked me to look up and I apparently could not look up as far as I should have been able to. One thing I realized when this happened was that I wasn't so sure that I could really look up very well before the surgery because I constantly walk around Tokyo with my
mercredi 22 février 2012
Will Miss #420 - women who wear little make-up
Posted on 08:00 by Unknown
Few women use this power as much as the woman in this ad.
One thing that is the case by and large in Japan is that Japanese women don't wear much make-up. Occasionally, you see someone who is sporting enough maquillage to make a clown envious, but the general aesthetic is closer to looking natural. Most of my female students wear foundation and aside from those who go for spider lashes,
mardi 21 février 2012
Won't Miss #420 - talking to people in masks
Posted on 08:00 by Unknown
I think it's quaint and somewhat endearing that you see Japanese people running around wearing surgical masks. It speaks to a certain meticulousness, paranoia, and, yes, even consideration for others. It's also the only way people ever seem capable of covering their mouths when they cough and sneeze. On the flip side though, there is an issue when they keep wearing them even when they are
lundi 20 février 2012
Will Miss #419 - 108 bell chimes
Posted on 08:00 by Unknown
At or around midnight on New Year's Eve, temples in Japan ring a bell 108 times to rid themselves of their desires and "sins" from the previous year. It's symbolizes a sort of spiritual cleansing so people go into the next year purged of negativity. I think most Japanese people don't know what it means and few think deeply about the meaning. As a custom and a mindset, I like the idea that you
vendredi 17 février 2012
Won't Miss #419 - only 2 burners
Posted on 08:00 by Unknown
A lot of short-timers in Japan never really do much in the way of cooking. For them, a toaster oven and one lonely gas burner is more than enough to sustain them between "konbini" (convenience store) sandwiches and rice balls (onigiri) and dinners of UFO yakisoba and instant ramen. For me, as someone who cooks and cooks a lot, having a mere 2 burners on a gas table requires a lot of messing
jeudi 16 février 2012
Will Miss #418 - Japanese snowmen
Posted on 08:00 by Unknown
It may seem a strange thing, but, yes, even the snowmen in Japan are different. For reasons I am not entirely sure of, Japanese snowmen consist of two balls of snow (a head and a body) whereas American ones have three segments (head, torso, "legs"). I've talked to Japanese folks about this, and they believe it follows the general form of dolls in Japan such as kokeshi. I should note that
mercredi 15 février 2012
Won't Miss #418 - "Whiplash Wangs"
Posted on 08:00 by Unknown
I'm guessing that the people with filthier minds are going to be sorely disappointed by the content of this post because "Whiplash Wang" does not refer to a male appendage-related issue, but an episode of the old T.V. series M*A*S*H. On the show (and possibly in real life, I don't know), that was a term for a Korean person during the war who would jump in front of an army vehicle, sustain an
mardi 14 février 2012
Will Miss #417 - tsukemono
Posted on 08:00 by Unknown
Every time my husband and I go out to eat at a restaurant that serves any sort of Japanese food, I am pleased to receive a little side dish of pickles. When I get curry from Cocoichibanya, one of my great pleasures is taking the compartment full of pickles and mixing them with the spicy pork curry. The odd thing is that I never actually buy them myself despite having ample access to a great
lundi 13 février 2012
Won't Miss #417 - black sambo-style images
Posted on 08:00 by Unknown
I've said before that Japanese people aren't politically sensitive and that they also often do not realize when they are being racist (which is why activists are valuable as they can act to educate them on such matters). Nothing reminds me more of the cluelessness that Japanese people have about racism than seeing "Little Black Sambo" artwork (or similar types of drawings) around Tokyo. It's
vendredi 10 février 2012
Will Miss #416 - setsubun
Posted on 08:00 by Unknown
Most foreign folks tend to notice the big holidays (New Year's, Golden Week), and the transplanted ones like Christmas and Valentine's Day, the most. Setsubun is one of those holidays which foreigners rarely understand or pay attention to for a variety of reasons. One is that the Japanese don't talk about it much. This is because they don't get the day off and many will say it's not even a "
jeudi 9 février 2012
Won't Miss #416 - free-range children
Posted on 08:00 by Unknown
As I mentioned in the previous post, kids in Japan can run around by themselves and there are few cases in which it ends in tragedy. At this point in time, there just isn't much risk that kids will be abducted (fortunately). However, it is very common for parents to take their children's safety for granted, particularly when they are with them. I've seen uncountable numbers of parents with
mercredi 8 février 2012
Will Miss #415 - unescorted children
Posted on 08:00 by Unknown
The little boy pictured above got on the JR (Japan Railway) train when I was headed to work in the early afternoon one day. He bounced around the car a bit and I realized that he was all alone and that this was not a rare situation. Little kids in Tokyo ride the train alone as well as walk around various neighborhoods. Kids in Tokyo can do this because there is little fear of child abduction
mardi 7 février 2012
Won't Miss #415 - grizzled Japan veterans
Posted on 08:00 by Unknown
Clearly, these happy fellows are neither grizzled nor veterans, but they do appear to be non-Japanese.
Technically, I should be a "grizzled Japan vet", but I'm only so chronologically and in terms of sheer volume of experience. The "grizzled vets" of whom I speak are the people who have spent a fair amount of time here (often more than 10 years), who think they now know it "all". They are
lundi 6 février 2012
Will Miss #414 - Japanese construction workers
Posted on 08:00 by Unknown
They mean that literally, not figuratively. This was a site with a lot of wood lying around.
I've lived in Tokyo for 23 years, and I've seen a lot of buildings go up and down as this is a city that doesn't value age so much as newness (fortunately for us, that means earthquake-resistant structures). Construction workers are ever-present in my life with rarely a day going by in which I don't
vendredi 3 février 2012
Random Thoughts: Leaving On a Jet Plane
Posted on 08:00 by Unknown
The two faces of Japan. For that much, the same two faces are present in every country.
Some time ago, my husband and I started talking about leaving Japan. That was, to the best of my foggy recollection, at least six years ago. As I may have mentioned in one of the over 800 posts I've written for this blog so far, or in another personal blog some time ago, we knew we were never going to be
jeudi 2 février 2012
Won't Miss #414 - beating around the bush
Posted on 08:00 by Unknown
One of the difficult things about communication in Japan is its indirectness. In fact, the goal in Japan often seems to be sure that you take as long as possible to get to the point, and, if you are truly masterful, to never actually make the point. The goal seems to be to speak only of trivialities (like the weather) or to talk around it in enough circles for long enough that the other
mercredi 1 février 2012
Will Miss #413 - Akiho
Posted on 08:00 by Unknown
The experience of living anywhere is both small and big, personal and impersonal, and subjective with objective elements. People sometimes ask me why I write this blog and there are many reasons. One is to remember this time in my life with attention to my experiences and thoughts and feelings about them. That means that there are things which are unique to where I live that no one else will
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