Back on the grid

Am very happy to report that I finally have real Internet access in my apartment. It's fast, it's reliable (well, I hope it will be!), and I can even sit in a comfortable position to use the Internet. I'm pretty chuffed that I was able to work out the Japanese directions. Right now I am listening to SAFM. The Pussycat Dolls' 'Buttons' has just come on. :)

I have lots of posts from my two weeks 'off the grid' but will just post some of it now.

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Jan 14

Today is Seijin no Hi, or Adult's Day, a day to celebrate people who turned 20 years old in the previous year - that is, come of age. Two of my students were due to celebrate today, somewhere. I don't know exactly how it is commemorated - different events around the country, according to the news - and various ceremonies. I saw lots of 20-year-old girls out and about in kimono lined with thick fur.

Someone told me about the biggest English second-hand bookstore in Japan. It's in Ebisu. I looked up the times in the Internet cafe to make sure it would be open, took the 25 minute train ride from Ueno to Ebisu. Then I walked to the bookstore. I found it. It was closed. I was confused. Mondays open until 8pm... then it twigged. It's a public holiday...

It's easy to forget it's a public holiday when every shop and restaurant is open...

Oh well, I didn't waste the trip, I bought a nice salad at Ebisu station. :)

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At Kawasaki station there is a big television screen that loops various commercials and miscellaneous footage. I know all the different background music and sound effects by now... One of the features that occasionally comes on is a music countdown - the top ten songs countdown. And let me tell you something - the boy band is not dead in Japan.

Currently on the screen are five boys wearing identical, very shiny leather costumes, singing a song called 'Dear Woman', and doing a slightly camp-looking choreographed dance routine. If these people were in an equivalent show in Australia, they would certainly be doing a parody of boy bands, but here, there is absolutely no indication that it's anything other than real!

That's another thing - obviously I'm not well-placed to tell, as I don't understand Japanese, but there seems to be less cynicism, irony and subtlety on TV and in acting. In Australia most programs are quite downbeat and sarcastic. The kind of commercials and dramas you see on TV in Japan have such over-the-top, earnest sincerity that if they were on TV in Australia, again, it would be on some kind of sketch show making fun of something...

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I got my first compliment about my use of chopsticks. Hahaha... If you didn't know, it's a bit of a stereotype that Japanese people will be impressed by foreigners displaying the most minute proficiency at anything Japanese. And it's another stereotype that any foreigner living in Japan will be praised for their use of chopsticks, even if they've been living in the country 10 years. (And let's face it, it's not the most difficult skill to acquire.)

Still, when he said it, I tuned into what I was doing, and realised that I was picking up small, individual cooked bean sprouts with my chopsticks, without even thinking about it. So probably I have actually improved since I first came here...

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My speech has changed a little since I came here; mostly due to consistently pitching my English at a simpler level in class. Sometimes I will use these 'simpler' grammatical forms in conversation with English speakers too. So hopefully by the time I am finished in Japan, I can still express myself in polysyllabic words... hahah...

The two main ones are using 'did you' questions instead of 'have you'...
Eg: 'Did you go to Hawaii before?' instead of 'Have you ever been to Hawaii?'
And, using 'maybe' instead of 'might' and other similar words...
Eg: 'Maybe I will go tomorrow' instead of 'I might go tomorrow'
Eg: 'Maybe it's okay' instead of 'it should be okay'

Another thing is I picked up the habit of saying 'etou...' instead of 'umm...' and using the exclamation 'ehhh?' when surprised.

The other thing I've found myself doing is sucking air through my teeth when I'm thinking. People do this when they're thinking of something that requires some thought, or when something is too difficult. (My students do this habit a lot when I ask them questions. I'll say something really challenging like 'what's your favourite movie?' and they'll go 'ehhh?' and suck air in sharply, before answering...)

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I am always very conscious of other gaijin (foreigners) I see about. I never speak to them but I always notice them and kind of tune into them, because I go most days without seeing any other foreigners. If I go into Tokyo I always see quite a few.

On the train home the other day there were a couple of Russian girls in my train carriage and I had the amusement of listening to a cute young Japanese guy trying to chat up one of the girls.
The first thing he said was: 'I'm sleepy!'
Girl (astutely): Why are you sleepy?
Boy: I was drinking... lots of alcohol!
Girl: You're drunk.
Boy: Drunk? Drink?
Girl: Drunk. It means you had too much alcohol.
Boy (completely uncomprehending): Drunk?... Drunk!
Girl: Drunk.
Boy: ... You're really pretty!

Virtually everyone you see on the last train of the night is four sheets to the wind. 'Going drinking' is a very popular Japanese pastime. Indeed most books on Japanese culture say it's an intrinsic part of Japanese culture - co-workers will often go drinking after work together - that allows people to shed their usually repressed social behaviour and relax, express themselves more freely. You certainly see people far more at their ease, laughing and hugging and singing karaoke, in izakayas and bars.

I've never seen any belligerent or obnoxious drunks though. Somehow I always feel totally safe in Japan, whereas if you encountered a group of drunk men in Australia you would probably give them a wide berth.

Sometimes when I ask students if they have plans for the weekend they will say 'I'm going drinking'. This turn of phrase always sounds kind of funny to me. In Australia, people will usually say 'I'm going to the pub' or 'I'm going out for drinks with the girls' or something. Somehow, just, 'I'm going drinking' sounds so blunt...