Transportation in Japan - Part One: Cars

Cars in Japan are crazy. As you who have been following me since the beginning should know, I was terrified by Okaasan Prime's driving. It was all I could do to keep my fingers from digging into the upholstery. And this wasn't just because of Okaasan Prime's driving--the roads are super narrow here and the corners are super tight. Bikes pay attention to no man and zoom around everywhere; not to mention the pedestrians! Sitting shotgun is almost as much as a heart attack as sitting in the driver's seat must be!

But Sarah, you gently say, surely someone of your dramatic status (you drama queen, you) must be exaggerating? It can't possibly be that bad.

I submit to you doubters, Exhibit A: Mirrors.

The streets are so narrow that they place large posts with curved mirrors on the top so you can see who's coming around the corner, because you can't see otherwise.

Still not convinced? Exhibit B: Stop lines

The stop lines are a full ten feet or so from the crosswalk--this is so that when large things (such as buses) make a turn, they don't accidentally crash into a close car and cause unseemly carnage.

And now the piece de résistance, Exhibit C: Video footage.

That, right there, is a two lane street with “sidewalks” on both sides. Never mind the chatter--Okaasan Prime and I were talking about what my friends and I were planning to do. What you hear is the sound of my incompetence--I couldn't understand what she was asking at the time. :(

And now about cars (written actually quite a while ago, but I wanted a major big post on cars):

Cars are different in Japan, at least compared to America. For one thing, they’re way more compact, and look kinda squished next to the cars I see in America. Another thing is that their side mirrors fold inward when the car is parked. This makes for more parking spaces, I think? Anyway, I think it’s pretty nifty! Also, the drivers are INSANE. But that’s okay, everyone else is too. I live in constant fear of getting smushed be it by car, bicycle, moped, or pedestrian. XD Also, when Okaasan Prime drives, she wears these long black gloves. It’s all very 1930sish.

One interesting thing about parking in Japan that I’ve noticed is that they park with the front end of the car pointing out. In America, we usually park with the trunk to the front, so if we have groceries we can put them in the trunk, etc. We also just drive into our garages; in Japan they back into them. I believe this is to compensate for the absolute lack of a driveway.

Also, for gas stops (at least the ones Okaasan Prime goes to), it’s like we’re still in the fifties! There’s people who fill up your gas for you, wash the car as you wait, and even take your credit card to the machine so you don’t have to get out (I’m a little wary of the last one, but I think that’ s just my paranoia kicking in)!

As I’ve said before the streets are very narrow here (especially for two-lane streets!) and sometimes it feels like there’s no sidewalks at all! To compensate for the very sharp turns, in Japan they have these curved mirrors that are at almost every intersection, so you can see the traffic coming. Again, isn’t it nifty!

And the stop signs are triangles. I think that was one of the biggest shocks. My friendly octagon was replaced by a triangle. Scary, man, scary.

 And the highways are pretty weird as well. They have walls around them. When I asked Okaasan Prime why, she told me it was for people's privacy. 

I'm not even joking!

Orientation Week Starts Again!

So today was the first day of Orientation week and I got everything I needed to done. I’ve filled out my forms, signed my papers, and paid my fees—I’m ready for the semester to start! After this was done, I took a bus down to downtown Hirakata and met up with Okaasan for some sushi. Okaasan has just come back from Thailand, and we had all of our “girl-time chat” like we usually did. It was really nice to see Okaasan again, and I hope we can keep in touch better than I did during winter break—but it’s been kinda a busy winter for me, so I’m sure I’ll have more time now! So, we went out for sushi, I gave Okaasan a sumi-e that I had done for her, she gave me some omiyage from Thailand, we gossiped, and then I headed back to the dorms where I celebrated getting everything done in one day.

After that, I went out to dinner with LA (one of my friends from Beloit who’s here for the spring semester) and one of my new friends from the dorm, Beth. We went to a nearby restaurant with lots of delicious, cheap food.

I don’t learn who my new host family is until Thursday (>.<), but I’m really excited. While I had a great time with Okaasan, it was a little lonely being the only other person in the house. I’ve requested kids this time and I’m really looking forward to this!

Photo Dump!

So, during the time period of B.C. (Broken Camera, and we're still in this era!), I used the camera attached to my phone to take some pictures. Of course, these pictures were stuck on my phone until I had the time to email them to my computer.

So, without further ado, please take a look at some of the adventures I went on with Okaasan!

First off, on November 26, Okaasan and I went to a nearish shrine that was famous for...healing cancer, I believe? Famous for cancer? I can't remember exactly what Okaasan told me, and I didn't quite understand it all when she told me. Anyways, here are some shots from the shrine. What I remember standing out the most to me was the turtle garden, filled with turtles.

The Main Entrance

The Shrine Bells--first you make a donation, then you ring the bell by shaking the rope, then you pray

It's the turtle garden!

The turtle garden is also a shrine to a Water God!

Then I got the opportunity to go to Osaka-jou (also known as Osaka Castle). I think Okaasan just wanted to drive (she likes driving around), because the park was absolutely too far to walk in the time limit I had, but I managed to take some far off pictures of the castle as well lots of pictures of the gorgeous leaves.

The building rising in the background is Osaka-jou

The ginko trees (called inchou in Japanese) were a delicious buttery yellow golden color that was a feast for the eyes

The setting sun highlighted the autumn leaves in a perfectly lovely way, I think

The colors were gorgeous. Some of the colors were highlighted by being taken though my rose-tinted glasses.

Sorry these are late, but I finally had time to load them all up! And can you believe that the Osaka-jou pictures are from December 4th?!

Kansai region...your seasons amaze this Wisconsinite.

Dorming Yet Again

Today I made my way from Okaasan's to the dorms of Seminar House Two. Surprisingly, despite shipping a fair amount of stuff back home, I still came out with more luggage than I started with. -_-;; Ugh. I wish I didn't collect stuff like a snowball, but I love what I have!

Surprisingly, Okaasan sent me off with a big bang--she packed me lunch and dinner along with a whole box of edible goodies!

All of this is edible and to be used in a kitchen--I'm practically set for a week!

Here's dinner--yakisoba and delicious!

And that's not including the haori and scarf (pictures finally taken!) that she got for me!

Details of the shibori

I'm all settled in now and I'm glad after the hecticness of the day. :)

O.O

Last night I received a surprise—Okaasan had a gift for me! And that is how I learned the payoffs of being a historical culture nerd. 

What did I get?

Okaasan bought me a NEW HAORI and SCARF in a shibori pattern (shibori is also known as “tie-dye”  in the West, but Japan’s style is so unique and quintessential “Japan” that they seem like different ways of cloth dying, in my mind). I was blown away. She told me I was the first student she had done this for because I had shown an interest in the culture.

This is the shibori dying pattern, not from my haori or scarf, unfortunately... Each of these little circles is created by tying a tiny rope around the fabric before dying...pretty intricate, ne?

I was blown away. The scarf is a gorgeous mix of pink, red, and orange, while the haori is a light red. I couldn’t stop smiling. I am bouncing off the walls. It is so pretty and I am so happy; I am basically incoherent with descriptive words to describe how I feel right now. Awestruck, bashful, cheery, delighted, elated…I could go on for the entire alphabet!

I don't have any pictures yet, but I will!

I spent most of today figuring how to pack all of my stuff (plus the stuff my family sent for winter) into two little suitcases....I think I accumulate waaaaay too much stuff way to quickly. -_-

The Definition of Family

(Can you tell I really don't want to start studying for exams yet? >.^ )

A while ago, an acquaintance and I were talking about our homestay life experiences and I mentioned that Okaasan was still feeding me meals that were disproportionate to what I had expected them to be. “Freakin’ huge,” I believe was the term I used. Anyways, that made her start laughing so hard.

“You’re still in the guest zone,” she told me. “You’re not considered family yet.”

Hearing that bothered me because I feel that the repertoire between Okaasan and I is going pretty well. When we skyped my parents, afterword, both parents commented on how well we seemed to get along together. Okaasan does feel a little bit like my family.

So I was thinking; mulling this over. Does Okaasan feel the same way? And you know what? I think she does, despite what that acquaintance did say. Most nights, I eat dinner alone, with Okaasan perusing the mail and or newspaper in front of me because she’s had a late lunch. Every day, Okaasan packs me an obento (adorable lunch box) to take to school. She’s told me that she does this so I can save money to go to the places I want to go, instead of having to worry about fees for school and other things (let me say this: everything I do inside Japan is mostly funded by me with all of my life savings. I am very, very thankful to my family for helping me with college tuition and plane tickets, so what I do in Japan, what I buy in Japan—this is all done under the assumption that I am drawing from my own bank account. Thus, I hope to learn how to budget in the best way possible—though experience!).

And then there’s the fact that in this house, there’s only Okaasan and I. I feel that that does change the “family” dynamics quite a bit, though I have no “family” experience to rely back on. But, at least in America, there’s the whole concept of not letting someone eat alone—especially if they’re a guest. Sometimes, Okaasan won’t even sit at the table with me when I eat as she tidies up the kitchen. I don’t feel that that is proper guest etiquette even in Japan. So I’m pretty certain I’m family. It’s just so hard to gage when I’m the only other person living in the house…

An Exploration of American Culture Through the Preparation of Japanese Food: My Observations

So, a while ago my dad asked me if I had gained any cultural insights onto my own culture after living in a totally different one or if I was still obsessing over the fact that the Japanese have no ovens.

(On the contrary, I have a right to be obsessed. Since my forte is baking, the lack of ovens shows that I cannot win over more followers and friends through baked goods. This makes it harder for me to gather souls, but I digress.)

I’m still fascinated by the fact that you can’t really bake big (read: Sarah-sized) batches of cookies in Japan. This probably shows the difference between consumerism in Japan (you can’t expect a whole Japanese family to devour 38 or so cookies in one night when they’re still fresh [though in my family, they’re gone like a snap. I now wonder whether I’m just that good or if we are being influenced by the American consumerism culture….] or even in a week or so.) The portions are extremely small here along with the fact that fresh food is bought every day for the daily meals instead of hoarding food to feed you for weeks like in American culture (and just to put this out there—I’m not really sure if this buy everything at once to feed you and your family for two or three weeks occurs elsewhere, so I’m generalizing.)

But back to the main subject!

I’m learning more about my culture through admonitions that Okaasan gives me when we’re cooking, than I have ever experienced in my twenty-so years of existence. And it’s kinda baffling to realize. Every single time I chop or cut something, I always hear the same thing: 「ちょっとうす、ちょっとうす」, which means “a little thinner, a little thinner.” I also hear a lot of what translates to “you’re cutting too much, just stop now and mince it.” While stirring, I am constantly being told to just do slow, little strokes so that the food doesn’t jump out of the pan (and to be fair, my dad tells me to do that as well…).

Let me tell you now: this advice goes against just about everything I’ve been taught and use for cooking.

The above statement also lets you know how many mistakes I have made so far (about once every six seconds or so).

And then today as I was mincing carrots, it hit me.  The Japanese care so much about presentation, that they even do it while preparing their meals. And let me tell you, this revelation shocked me.

I am one of the many followers of Julia Child and, like her, was raised to believe that while the final presentation of the food matters, if you make a mistake in the kitchen, no one will know (Note: I am also a learned follower of my father’s school of art of show cooking, which allows for your guests to be amazed by your cooking prowess in the kitchen [also getting them to help you with the dishes after the meal *wink*] but I realize now that the kitchen still gets pretty messy but you focus your guests’ attention on what you are cooking at the current moment). 

 

(You don't have to watch it all, just the first twenty-five seconds or so, to see what I'm talking about...)

The Japanese don’t do this. Ever. Every single aspect of the cooking process has to be neat and tidy. This revelation came around when Okaasan explained to me why I should cut less and immediately put it into the preferred holding bowl to make the cutting board “look pretty.”

I would like to state here that while I am a Japanese Language and Culture major, I’m sure that there are libraries filled with information that I do not know and that could totally take these theories and smash them into little bits. If you have a hold of any of these, please send them my way because I would really like to become enlightened. This is just from the knowledge I have now and what I have observed. I could be totally wrong on all parts and I am not an expert. Just putting this out there.

My hypothesis goes something like this: The American culture just doesn’t care how something is made, just as long as it looks pretty and benefits them somehow in the end (this explains many things from fast food to Julia Child to Walmart). The Japanese actually care about how it looks while it is being made. That is why there are so many food shops with glass windows so you can see your stuff being made and why the Japanese take such precision to everything. Because it matters to them that there was a sense of perfection in every aspect of a piece.

My secondary hypothesis is that this (my first hypothesis) is all (or at least a major part) because of space. Japan is an itty-bitty, cramped island where you all need to get along. Arguing with each other and maybe even starting a civil war is bound to end in bloodshed, death, and not enough people to continue on. There are not enough resources for all the people, which is why presentation and minimalism is very important. Prices are expensive because just about all the resources are imported into Japan (and even more so with the Fukushima crisis). But in America, we have so much land we’re putting good farmland under concrete. We destroy forests to put in shopping malls because we want to shop for things that make our life more comfortable (though I’m not saying that we alone do this—most every country that has enough time in their daily lives for free time and pleasure does this) and if we don’t get along with people? We can always move a town, county, or state away. The fact is, America is so large, we don’t need to all get along and focus on minimalism like the Japanese because we have all the space we could possibly want.

My sub-hypothesis is that this is also a factor to why Japan is so nationalistic—there’s not enough room for more people to move in, and not enough resources to share among the people already here—that’s why Japan is so inclusive and such (at least I feel this was the case in the beginning of Japanese history. I don’t feel up on politics and current history to speculate if that is still true today).

So yes, this is what the secrets of cooking have revealed to me so far. And I still can’t manage to get the hang instantly of using a Japanese knife (which is different at cutting than the ones I use in America).

‘Till the next time! Finals are coming up, but that means that break is as well!