Things my brother pointed out about Japan, part IV. You'd think that I would come up with the interesting insights, but dude is here 2 weeks and he gets some zingers. Maybe things I've noticed without really noticing.
Let's review D's observations: 1 Not a lot of public seating 2 Difficult to eat vegeterian 3 They don't say no.
And now: 4 Cute sells.
I was trying to explain the difference between American advertizing and Japanese, and it took me about a 5 minutes.
Me:"You know in America there is always some half dressed model who is trying to look angry and important, and that's supposed to be sexy, but really it makes me want to leave. Well, in Japan it's different. There are girls in ads, but never sexy-like. And there are tons of cartoon characters everywhere... blah blah blah."
Daniel:"Cute Sells."
Me: "Oh. Right. That's it."
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A few photos to illustrate.
There are three main currier companies. "Black Cat" seems to be everywhere.
Detail.
The other currier company has the helpful ant as their symbol. Detail.
The symbol for the police here is the owl. Cute. Push his beak to cross the street! Pharmacy Logo.
And which American company (at least I think it's American), offering supplemental insurance do you think had the advertizing cuteness built-in?
There are a lot more. But every time I upload a photo, I get the "Explorer Must Quit" With the Send Report or Don't Send. I was hitting the "Send Report" button, but Bill Gates hasn't called yet to see what's wrong. So I'm going to give up for tonight.
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Mata Ashta.
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Monday, March 26, 2007
Photos from Nikko.
No particular order.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
More about Daniel's visit.
He pointed out things that I hadn't noticed. The last I reported on was lack of public seating. I didn't mention this even to him at the time, but it is very rare to have a bench even at a bus stop. In my part of town, there are none. In the heart of the city, there are a few, but not everywhere.
Another thing we discovered when he was here is that it's difficult to be a vegetarian in Japan. Daniel is mostly a vegan (though he did make an exception for sushi for breakfast and of course octopus balls). It's difficult to be mostly a vegan here. Everything has a bit of meat here or there in it.
The other thing that was pointed out to us about Japanese is that they don't like saying "no". It's a great cultural attribute they have.
At the train station heading to Tokyo, we wanted to buy a boxed lunch for the ride. (Ekiben, or station box lunches are a treat, and widely adored.)
We stopped by a few stands to see what they had. I asked in my broken Japanese if they had any vegetarian box lunches. The response was never 'no'. It was "Hmmm. Vegetarian. Well. Let me see. Golly. Vegetarian was it? Hmmm. That might be difficult...."
All the while the employee is making an effort to look like they are making an effort to look though what they have. Of course they know full well that they don't have anything without meat.
Here's a quote from Dave Barry Does Japan (thanks to neice H. for the gift.)
Japanese person says: I see Actual meaning in American: No
Japanese person says: Ah. Actual meaning in American: No
Japanese person says: Ah-hah Actual meaning in American: No
Japanese person says: Yes Actual meaning in American: No
Japanese person says: That is difficult Actual meaning in American: That is completely impossible
Japanese person says: This is very interesting. Actual meaning in American: That is the stupidest thing I ever heard
Japanese person says: We will study your proposal. Actual meaning in American: We will feed your proposal to a goat.
Back to the topic at hand. We did find a way to eat very well, and mostly vegetarian while here. They have very good itailan food that's pretty reasonable here, for example. And it was easy to go veggie with that.
The crowning glory of our vegetable eating experience was the last night in Tokyo. We were in Shinjuku, my new favorite neighborhood in Tokyo, looking for food, and not finding great digs. I happened to see a sign that said "Yasaya", or "Vegetable place" in an alphabet I could understand. It was a teppan yaki restaurant. Teppanyaki's closest cousin in America is the Benihana chain, but most teppanyaki is not showy or flashy, but delicious. This place specialized in vegetables. It was all cooked in front of us, and completely delicious.
Proof
Have you ever seen someone take such care with vegetables? It's part of the beauty of teppanyaki. You assume the chef has incredible skill because of how careful and precise he is. (Or at Benihana in the US, you assume great skill because the chef can throw a live shrimp 12 feet in the air and have it land on your plate, fully prepared, cooked and sliced.)
**** Mata Ashta ****
If I'm allowed to generalize (and I have decided that I am), Japanese people are attractive. Though it's not perfectly easy to tell at first.
The reason it's not easy is that nobody is overweight here, and everybody dresses well. For example, in public, grown men do not wear shorts. Shorts are for boys. Maybe at a park or something you will see a man in shorts, but it's very rare. Even jeans are rare.
There are 3 luxury foreign hotels in Nagoya: the Hilton, Wesitn and the Marriott. Go through the lobby on a weekend and it's astounding. The Japanese people coming in there for lunch or a wedding or whatever are dressed impeccably. Then there are foreign business people with the weekend off, heading out to do some sightseeing around town.
It's embarrassing. (Paraphrased from David Sedaris.) The Americans look as if they've come to mow the lawn in this foreign country.
Americans have the image of having an undeservedly high standard of living, and of living wastefully.
To see the large American body in large shabby clothes in a luxury hotel, the Japanese person must conclude that we are spending our money on lasagna and fettuccine, rather than Dolce and Gabana.
