Will Miss #292 - Meiji Shrine

You know the Japan that tourists and people who have never been here talk about? You know, the one which portrays Japan as a country which is full of reserved, polite, quiet, respectful people who have a lot of quaint and deeply spiritual traditions and who live in harmony with nature? I'm talking about the one in which there are rock gardens, minimalist homes of immaculate cleanliness, and a

Read More

Won't Miss #292 - blocked videos

Occasionally, one of my friends will send a link to video that they believe I'd be interested in. On more than one occasion, such videos are a dead end for me because I am told that they cannot be viewed from my particular country. For the odd video here and there, this isn't too great an issue, but a lot of entire sites or services are blocked for Japan (ABC television network on-line shows,

Read More

Will Miss #291 - massage culture

All humans have the same basic needs, and one of the more fascinating aspects of learning about other cultures is seeing how they adapt to meet common needs when their culture, by and large, does not practice the same type of expression that is common in one's own culture. The need to be touched is shared by all humans and many animals, but physical affection, particularly hugging and cuddling

Read More

Won't Miss #291 - empty university education

The Japanese are considered to be some of the most educated people in the world and are thought to study harder than anyone. The truth is quite a bit further from that. Japanese universities are widely known to be little more than playgrounds where people "rest" between the crush of studying for entrance exams in their lower education years and the oppressive days ahead as company drones. They

Read More

Will Miss #290 - tattoos on Japanese

Tattoos are nothing new in the world, nor are they new to Japan. Every exhibitionist and her brother in the west has sanskrit, Chinese characters, or "Hello Kitty" tattooed on their arms. It carries no (or very little) taboo, and rarely will get you denied access to anything. In Japan, tattoos are actually a real act of rebellion because they are associated with organized crime and people of

Read More

Won't Miss #290 -ignoring the inevitable

When I was working in a Japanese office, my (Australian) boss and I often cautioned the president or our coworkers about certain problems that were inevitably going to come up if we pursued a certain path. We weren't being unnecessarily pessimistic. We were pointing out what would definitely happen. Our concerns were always brushed aside or shrugged off. More often than not, we were told that

Read More

Will Miss #289 - swords for sale

I grew up in a rural area which was hunting country and almost everyone was a bit of a gun nut. There was a hunting club, and most men in particular enjoyed collecting guns. To me, they were always inelegant, dangerous, and troubling weapons. In Japan, guns are legal, but only hunting rifles and getting them is difficult, so I have never seen a real gun for sale here. I do, however, see swords

Read More

Won't Miss #289 - "shikataganai" (the bad)

The flip-side to the good aspects of "shikataganai" thinking (translated into "it can't be helped") is that sometimes people give up easily in situations in which their lot in life could be improved if they made an effort, sometimes just a small one. Since people rarely fight for what is their right or what is morally right, things rarely improve or change in Japan. This underlying cultural

Read More

Will Miss #288 - "shikataganai" (the good)

When faced with hardship or a difficult situation, the Japanese have an attitude of "shikataganai" (or "shoganai") or "it can't be helped". When translated into mere words, it comes across as passive acceptance of the inevitable, but the thinking is more pervasive and applied more subtly to experiences in life. It is about acceptance, but it is also about taking things as they come with

Read More

Won't Miss #288 - very expensive scented candles

I should clarify that there are actually two types of scented candles in Tokyo. There are those which are relatively cheap and smell like a cheap prostitute's boudoir and those which cost an arm and a leg. I really enjoy candles that smell like relatively natural scents like cinnamon, holly, pine trees, and vanilla, but I can't buy them in Japan because I won't pay 2000 yen (about $22) for one

Read More

Will Miss #287 - good quality secondhand goods

When I was growing up, my mother loved to drag my sister and I to yard and garage sales as well as Goodwill so that she could pick up second-hand crap to clutter our home. One thing I remember was that most of that stuff looked pretty well-used, and sometimes a bit grubby. In Japan, my experiences with secondhand goods has been markedly different. Japanese people are renowned for two things

Read More

Won't Miss #287 - otoshi/tsukidashi

Cultural customs and habits are a reflection of a country's culture. Even small things like the custom of tipping in the United States tell you something about the priorities and expectations of the people. In the U.S., tipping is the way of empowering the customer and giving more control over the meal's expense (often at the expense of the servers). In Japan, the custom of "otoshi" or a "forced

Read More

Will Miss #286 - well-traveled people

One of the things you often hear in the never ending comparisons between the U.S. and Japan is that Americans go abroad too little compared to people in Japan. This is true, but it's important to understand that the U.S. is a huge country with a diverse cultural base and Japan is a small island with a fairly homogeneous culture. Japanese people can't experience much cultural diversity at home,

Read More

Won't Miss #286 - one with the borg mentality

A sign encouraging everyone to carry their own bag rather than use plastic ones - note how they all follow each other, and look, and act the same.
There was a big flap several years ago about Brazilians living in a particular apartment building and their inability to get along with their Japanese neighbors. They weren't unfriendly. They didn't do anything criminal or fail to follow some rules.

Read More

Will Miss #285 - La Puta posters

There is a theater in my area which shows vintage Japanese movies. For some reason, they put up a poster on a back street which is the most common path for me to follow to get to local grocery shops. It's an odd place for a poster which advertises old Japanese movies because it would seem foot traffic would hardly bring in a substantial number of patrons, but I love the fact that they are there.

Read More

Won't Miss #285 - allergy issues

The cold and flu seasons and the allergy seasons are the times when you see the most mask wearing. This picture is from the former, but what the heck.
Before coming to Tokyo, I never had any allergies. I credit this partially to good genetics, but also to having grown up in a rural area with clean air. Living in a city with pollution tends to eventually cause some people to develop allergies. It

Read More

Will Miss #284 - women holding hands

One of the things which continues to catch my eye in Japan is the way in which adult women will hold each others hands in public. It gets my attention for a few reasons. First of all, physical displays of affection are relatively uncommon in public, even between children and parents, let alone other adults. Second, back home adult women do not hold each others hands because of the fear

Read More

Won't Miss #284 - spouse denigrating

The Japanese are generally a modest lot, sometimes, far too modest. When speaking of their spouses, they feel almost obliged to never "boast" about his or her positive attributes and to talk up negative qualities. You're far more likely to hear a woman talk about her lazy, selfish, childish husband and a man talk about his fat, incompetent, messy wife than hear even the slightest complimentary

Read More

Will Miss #283 - no big deal birthdays

In Japan, people don't make a big deal about birthdays, particularly when it comes to adults. Often, celebration extends only so far as taking a friend out to dinner and/or serving up a "surprise" cake. It's very rare for people to give each other actual gifts except perhaps something very modest like a bit of chocolate or a small cake from a designer shop. In America, adults often feel burdened

Read More

Won't Miss #283 - dry muffins and cakes

If you don't bake, you may not know what components make baked goods moist. Most people assume that it is the fat that makes things like a muffin moist. Well, it is, but it's only half of the equation. The other half is sugar and that is why most muffins and many (but not all!) cakes in Japan have poor texture. The Japanese are notorious for whining that everything in America is "too sweet" for

Read More