Saturday, March 27, 2004
Thursday, March 25, 2004
Railway stations, one of the single most important facilities in the country for transport, are very poorly equipped to handle any disabled people; only the very big ones have lifts, the moderately large ones have escalators, and most normal ones, let alone the small ones simply have stairs.
Public toilets big enough to fit a wheelchair through the door are found only in the largest of department stores.
Restaurants, coffee shops, you name it anywhere you go in to eat, its either upstairs, downstairs, or has three or four steps in front of it. Even McDonalds has steps in front of it. Nowhere in the entire country is life easy for any disabled people... or is it?
Milk cartons have a little notch cut into the top on the flappy thing where the use-by date is printed. Why? So blind people can tell which end says "to open" and which end says "open other end". This was told in the greatest seriousness by one of the students today, and I believe him. Partly because I have no reason whatsoever to disagree, and also because it strikes me as a perfect example of the illogicity of this place. As if it makes the slightest difference which end you open the milk carton from! Granny opened every single milk carton she ever used from the "open other end" side and it made not the slightest difference to the milk. Great effort is put into ensuring that everyone can open the milk cartons from the correct side (to do otherwise would of course be breaking the 'wa'), but no one seems to care that if your legs dont work then you basically cannot carry out any kind of normal life.
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Public toilets big enough to fit a wheelchair through the door are found only in the largest of department stores.
Restaurants, coffee shops, you name it anywhere you go in to eat, its either upstairs, downstairs, or has three or four steps in front of it. Even McDonalds has steps in front of it. Nowhere in the entire country is life easy for any disabled people... or is it?
Milk cartons have a little notch cut into the top on the flappy thing where the use-by date is printed. Why? So blind people can tell which end says "to open" and which end says "open other end". This was told in the greatest seriousness by one of the students today, and I believe him. Partly because I have no reason whatsoever to disagree, and also because it strikes me as a perfect example of the illogicity of this place. As if it makes the slightest difference which end you open the milk carton from! Granny opened every single milk carton she ever used from the "open other end" side and it made not the slightest difference to the milk. Great effort is put into ensuring that everyone can open the milk cartons from the correct side (to do otherwise would of course be breaking the 'wa'), but no one seems to care that if your legs dont work then you basically cannot carry out any kind of normal life.
105
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
I'm not normally in the habit of posting web sites, but this one is just so adorable.
http://www.travelindependent.info/wombat/
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http://www.travelindependent.info/wombat/
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Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Saturday was a public holiday in Japan - for a day of national significance and of course the utmost importance to the country at large.
The vernal equinox. The coming of spring. I know why it is a holiday, too: everyone has to spend a few hours packing up their kerosene heaters and kotatsus (coffee table heaters - a great invention), putting them in boxes and storing them away until next winter. This of course must be done precisely on this day, because to pack up beforehand would be extremely rebellious and foolhardy, while to leave heaters out after the equinox is simply lazy, and obviously silly because it has become spring, so no one would need to use the heaters anymore. This system was explained to me by my host family when I was here four years ago, but thankfully at RAYs we have reverse cycle air conditioners (and common sense).
Oh, yes, it snowed on Saturday too, for the first time in about a month - big fat snowflakes about the size of a 20 cent coin, and in big clumps. Temperature didnt get above 4｡ all day. Sunday was at least fine, but still cold, and all day yesterday it poured with rain and hovered around the 2｡ mark. Here at RAYs we smiled, and cranked the heaters up, while I am convinced there are millions of people across the country who are wearing five layers of clothes to keep warm, but physically unable to get their heaters back out and turn on, because 'its spring...'.
To their credit, young people are less fixed in this system and are actually likely to have a heater on today, given that its only slightly above freezing.
Its also raining right now, but drizzling slightly. The Japanese take a purely binary view of rain- it is either raining or it isnt. When their is no rain, no problem, but the moment a drop or two falls it is declared to be raining, and no amount of talking, pushing, encouraging, cajoling, forcing nor shoving will convince anyone to step outside without an umbrella. Right now, for instance, while it is technically raining, one would have to be outside for at least ten minutes before one became noticeably wet. There is a vending machine across the road from RAYs, a fifteen second round trip including time to stop and buy a coffee (or orange juice, or green tea, whatever cranks your tractor), so you would get only slightly splattered with water, and not enough to consider being wet. The simple act of my going out in the 'rain' to go to the vending machine without taking an umbrella with me almost caused four students here to retreat into a coma with shock.
The little bloke in the Tonkatsu shop (pork) down the street was similarly startled when I called in there to eat tonight (I was going to go into the busy area and find something, but it was cold and raining, so I went to tonkatsu because it was close). This time it was actually raining a considerable amount, but instead of an umbrella I was wearing a rain jacket. The poor little man couldnt believe I was outside without an umbrella, and the function of a rain jacket seemed a tad outside his sphere of reference.
Still not sure why it is snowing in Spring anyway... but it definitely caused severe concern for just about everyone I met since Saturday. But concern over their heaters, now sitting in boxes? No. Concern over their children's health and well being? No. The concern was about the cherry blossoms. The cherry blossoms here are expected to bloom two days after the equinox (companies and organisations plan for this months in advance) and people are supposed to be sitting under groves of cherry trees, sipping sake, taking photos, and looking at the cherry blossoms. That it has actually been too cold for the blossoms to .. er.. blossom, has caused stress across Tokyo, and forced countless organisations to re-schedule Cherry Blossom Viewing parties, which has sadly broken the 'wa'. Still, I have had just about every person Ive spoken to rave about how beautiful the cherry blossoms are here, and point out the best places to go and look at them. (Mind you, most of these places are either a couple of hours away on the shinkansen, or will be packed with more people than petals). I tell them that I was able to look out the window at home and see cherry blossoms in Australia, and I usually get one of two responses. The first, rarer response is utter disbelief: Cherry trees are apparently unique to Japan and do not exist anywhere else.... The other response is sheer wonderment and envy, usually followed up by asking if I go and sit underneath my cherry tree, drink sake, and take photos, while looking at the cherry blossoms.
Much as I would like to tell them that that is when we sacrifice water buffalo on the altar to Zeus, I generally just tell them 'no'.
107
The vernal equinox. The coming of spring. I know why it is a holiday, too: everyone has to spend a few hours packing up their kerosene heaters and kotatsus (coffee table heaters - a great invention), putting them in boxes and storing them away until next winter. This of course must be done precisely on this day, because to pack up beforehand would be extremely rebellious and foolhardy, while to leave heaters out after the equinox is simply lazy, and obviously silly because it has become spring, so no one would need to use the heaters anymore. This system was explained to me by my host family when I was here four years ago, but thankfully at RAYs we have reverse cycle air conditioners (and common sense).
Oh, yes, it snowed on Saturday too, for the first time in about a month - big fat snowflakes about the size of a 20 cent coin, and in big clumps. Temperature didnt get above 4｡ all day. Sunday was at least fine, but still cold, and all day yesterday it poured with rain and hovered around the 2｡ mark. Here at RAYs we smiled, and cranked the heaters up, while I am convinced there are millions of people across the country who are wearing five layers of clothes to keep warm, but physically unable to get their heaters back out and turn on, because 'its spring...'.
To their credit, young people are less fixed in this system and are actually likely to have a heater on today, given that its only slightly above freezing.
Its also raining right now, but drizzling slightly. The Japanese take a purely binary view of rain- it is either raining or it isnt. When their is no rain, no problem, but the moment a drop or two falls it is declared to be raining, and no amount of talking, pushing, encouraging, cajoling, forcing nor shoving will convince anyone to step outside without an umbrella. Right now, for instance, while it is technically raining, one would have to be outside for at least ten minutes before one became noticeably wet. There is a vending machine across the road from RAYs, a fifteen second round trip including time to stop and buy a coffee (or orange juice, or green tea, whatever cranks your tractor), so you would get only slightly splattered with water, and not enough to consider being wet. The simple act of my going out in the 'rain' to go to the vending machine without taking an umbrella with me almost caused four students here to retreat into a coma with shock.
The little bloke in the Tonkatsu shop (pork) down the street was similarly startled when I called in there to eat tonight (I was going to go into the busy area and find something, but it was cold and raining, so I went to tonkatsu because it was close). This time it was actually raining a considerable amount, but instead of an umbrella I was wearing a rain jacket. The poor little man couldnt believe I was outside without an umbrella, and the function of a rain jacket seemed a tad outside his sphere of reference.
Still not sure why it is snowing in Spring anyway... but it definitely caused severe concern for just about everyone I met since Saturday. But concern over their heaters, now sitting in boxes? No. Concern over their children's health and well being? No. The concern was about the cherry blossoms. The cherry blossoms here are expected to bloom two days after the equinox (companies and organisations plan for this months in advance) and people are supposed to be sitting under groves of cherry trees, sipping sake, taking photos, and looking at the cherry blossoms. That it has actually been too cold for the blossoms to .. er.. blossom, has caused stress across Tokyo, and forced countless organisations to re-schedule Cherry Blossom Viewing parties, which has sadly broken the 'wa'. Still, I have had just about every person Ive spoken to rave about how beautiful the cherry blossoms are here, and point out the best places to go and look at them. (Mind you, most of these places are either a couple of hours away on the shinkansen, or will be packed with more people than petals). I tell them that I was able to look out the window at home and see cherry blossoms in Australia, and I usually get one of two responses. The first, rarer response is utter disbelief: Cherry trees are apparently unique to Japan and do not exist anywhere else.... The other response is sheer wonderment and envy, usually followed up by asking if I go and sit underneath my cherry tree, drink sake, and take photos, while looking at the cherry blossoms.
Much as I would like to tell them that that is when we sacrifice water buffalo on the altar to Zeus, I generally just tell them 'no'.
107
Sunday, March 21, 2004
This wombat went and had lunch the other day with one of the students at RAY English Club, along with Larrythecanadian and Tomtheamerican, two other staff here. It was well and truly a fantastic meal, with plenty of real cow, real vegetables, and the occasional piece of sushi. We all ate until we couldnt possibly eat any more - I dont believe I have been this full since I left the Kawata's in Okazaki. There are some photos up on the photo pages (now under a cute wombat picture, see right) of the food and the company. Lots of fun. They did have a lovely house (but no carpet) and a nice little gravel garden, a la buddhist temples, and the entire garden was surrounded by a lovely little bamboo fence.
Or was it? On closer inspection (instructed to by Kikuko, the student), the bamboo was revealed to be polyvinylchloride: PVC plastic. Doing a remarkably well job of faking it, it actually looked like bamboo, but had the distinctive feel of PVC and makes the same sound as electrical tubing when you tap it.
Most of Japan has a distinctly artificial feel to it: when you go into any shop, the first shop assistant to see you will yell at the top of his lungs "IRASSHAIMASE!" (meaning, 'welcome'), and this is the trigger for every other shop assistant who hears this to repeat the yell at the top of their own lungs. On the surface, this is rather nice and welcoming, if a little disconcerting when trying to keep a low profile in the coffee shop and having twelve people scream welcomes at you - except no one actually puts any effort into doing anything beyond forming the words. No one bothers to even look up from whatever they are doing. Yesterday I noticed a little fellow in the supermarket whos entire job description seemed to be to rearrange the little polystyrene trays with meat in them so that there was no gap between packages. Having such an intellectually stimulating job, he was of course compelled to come up with ways to keep his brain occupied while shuffling trays of mince meat; his best effort was to yell "IRASSHAIMASE" and follow this up with a yell of "please take your time and thank you for doing us the courtesy of visiting our humble supermarket", after which he would pause long enough to breathe back in again, and start the whole spiel over again. It really did look like he was talking to the diced pork, welcoming that to the supermarket. And really, we arent at the supermarket as a service to the staff; we are at the supermarket to buy food to eat ourselves.
Houses here seem to be built according to one of two designs; the traditional wooden building, which is just about anything built before 1970, which tends to leak, have a wooden sliding door and a floor of tatami matting, and a wooden shingle roof. The other style is basically anything built since 1970, without exception built and fixtured by the company Sekisui House, is completely ferro-concrete (which they call "Western Style" - I wonder where else in the world is ferro-concrete used to build every single house? Not only apartment blocks, but individual houses!), with aluminium window sashes, aluminium door frames, aluminium doors, walls that are relatively solid but covered with a weird substance making the wall ever so slightly squishy, and the outside is textured to give the illusion that the place is made of brick. I dont think Ive seen a brick in this country yet! The one thing that sets expensive places apart from cheap places is the floor. The good places have faux- hardwood flooring (the japanese word for this is "FUROORINGU" - applied exclusively to squares of plasterboard about a metre square with the surface covered in a thin layer of wood, arranged to look like long thin floorboards, interlocking and covering entire rooms. The cheap places have lino.
On an unrelated topic, I managed to score a minor victory for the free world this evening in the ramen shop. I was sitting, calmly eating my ramen in peace, not disturbing anyone, as a good wombat should, when the fellow sitting beside me lit up a cigarette, resulting in a cloud of smoke. Well, what else could I do but erupt in a coughing fit, pick up the menu (A4 sized, too), and fan all the smoke back in his direction. Thus far, normal. What he did next completely floored me.. he extinguished his cigarette, smushed it into the ashtray, and actually apologised to me!! I was stunned...
110
Or was it? On closer inspection (instructed to by Kikuko, the student), the bamboo was revealed to be polyvinylchloride: PVC plastic. Doing a remarkably well job of faking it, it actually looked like bamboo, but had the distinctive feel of PVC and makes the same sound as electrical tubing when you tap it.
Most of Japan has a distinctly artificial feel to it: when you go into any shop, the first shop assistant to see you will yell at the top of his lungs "IRASSHAIMASE!" (meaning, 'welcome'), and this is the trigger for every other shop assistant who hears this to repeat the yell at the top of their own lungs. On the surface, this is rather nice and welcoming, if a little disconcerting when trying to keep a low profile in the coffee shop and having twelve people scream welcomes at you - except no one actually puts any effort into doing anything beyond forming the words. No one bothers to even look up from whatever they are doing. Yesterday I noticed a little fellow in the supermarket whos entire job description seemed to be to rearrange the little polystyrene trays with meat in them so that there was no gap between packages. Having such an intellectually stimulating job, he was of course compelled to come up with ways to keep his brain occupied while shuffling trays of mince meat; his best effort was to yell "IRASSHAIMASE" and follow this up with a yell of "please take your time and thank you for doing us the courtesy of visiting our humble supermarket", after which he would pause long enough to breathe back in again, and start the whole spiel over again. It really did look like he was talking to the diced pork, welcoming that to the supermarket. And really, we arent at the supermarket as a service to the staff; we are at the supermarket to buy food to eat ourselves.
Houses here seem to be built according to one of two designs; the traditional wooden building, which is just about anything built before 1970, which tends to leak, have a wooden sliding door and a floor of tatami matting, and a wooden shingle roof. The other style is basically anything built since 1970, without exception built and fixtured by the company Sekisui House, is completely ferro-concrete (which they call "Western Style" - I wonder where else in the world is ferro-concrete used to build every single house? Not only apartment blocks, but individual houses!), with aluminium window sashes, aluminium door frames, aluminium doors, walls that are relatively solid but covered with a weird substance making the wall ever so slightly squishy, and the outside is textured to give the illusion that the place is made of brick. I dont think Ive seen a brick in this country yet! The one thing that sets expensive places apart from cheap places is the floor. The good places have faux- hardwood flooring (the japanese word for this is "FUROORINGU" - applied exclusively to squares of plasterboard about a metre square with the surface covered in a thin layer of wood, arranged to look like long thin floorboards, interlocking and covering entire rooms. The cheap places have lino.
On an unrelated topic, I managed to score a minor victory for the free world this evening in the ramen shop. I was sitting, calmly eating my ramen in peace, not disturbing anyone, as a good wombat should, when the fellow sitting beside me lit up a cigarette, resulting in a cloud of smoke. Well, what else could I do but erupt in a coughing fit, pick up the menu (A4 sized, too), and fan all the smoke back in his direction. Thus far, normal. What he did next completely floored me.. he extinguished his cigarette, smushed it into the ashtray, and actually apologised to me!! I was stunned...
110
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