We had to do almost all daily business in Japanese including shopping for groceries, navigating a city of over 2 ¼ million people, using public transportation almost daily, arranging for week-end travel on trains and busses, eating in restaurants when away from International House, arranging for accommodation at ryokans (Japanese hotels), communicating with the International House manager and his family, banking, and then there was the ultimate challenge of arranging Christmas holiday in Beijing, including working with a Japanese travel agent to arrange the international travel and visas—all in Japanese. All regular programming on TV was in Japanese except for 30 minutes of the BBC news each evening. We were successful. We could travel, get food, and get back home when we were suppose to. We could get basic needs met and the Japanese were always patient, helpful, and grateful for our efforts to respect and engage their culture.
Japan, I suppose like America, as experienced by us, is a culture with many contradictions. As foreigners (gaijin) in Japan the contradictions may have been more obvious to us than to a Japanese. The Japanese prize natural beauty and yet we often observed piles of trash on the streets for long periods. The Japanese are very polite with rigid social rules reflected in language and social interaction, but their teenagers could be fresh, rude, and self-possessed. The Japanese honor age and longevity, but a sixty-year-old woman is expected to give up her seat on public transportation to a thirty-year-old man. The Japanese will honor a two-hundred- year-old object that has aesthetic or natural beauty, but last year’s technology might be chucked on the street. The Japanese preserve the beautiful tradition of kimonos for important life events like the ideal wedding, but the bride will also have a clothing change during the reception into a very expensive western-style wedding dress and then into a Barbie-doll/Scarlet O’Hara Gone with the Wind kind of dress that has a hoop skirt and enough yards of taffeta, ruffles, and gathers to make a Southern boy wince because of the assault on a Southern icon as a result of the over-the-top interpretation. We later learned that the high prices we saw on the Wind dresses in the department stores was the rental charge not the purchase price. By the way, Gone with the Wind was very popular in Japan, often rerunning on TV. I have also seen Mammy dubbed in Italian or should I say that drawl-like Sicilian dialect that is intended to reflect the stereotype of the role. Well, it is even more amazing dubbed in Japanese although my ear was not experienced enough in the subtleties to determine if any Japanese tricks were done with the dialects, but I’d bet they did. The Japanese women, and sometimes the men, continue to wear the traditional Japanese kimono for events like temple viewing, historic site visitation, or Coming of Age Day.
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The cultural contradictions aside, I feel certain the Japanese would not put the trash out at one of those spots that has received acclaim as a site of natural or man-made beauty like the cliffs of the Isu Peninsula or the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto.
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The Japanese demonstrate in so many pronounced and subtle ways the high value placed on aesthetics and appreciation of an attention to detail. The Japanese sometimes will empower objects or sites with an inner personality sometimes indicated by the addition of the honorific title of …san usually associated with humans. Whereas we might refer to Mt. Fuji, the Japanese would refer to Fujisan.
It is not surprising as the indigenous religion of Japan is Shinto, which evolved from the relationship of man to nature and often manifests itself as shrines to honor living things, sometimes botanical and sometimes zoological. In fact, note that the lighting bolt hanging from the rope is used to sanctify and enshrine the great and ancient tree and also used as part of the traditional sumo belt to impart power to the wrestler.
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The sacredness of attitude toward nature has led to traditional activities like leaf viewing in the fall, moon gazing at the time of the autunimal equinox, or traveling to famous sites for the blooming of the cherry trees in the spring.
The Japanese shops, whether part of a large chain or owned by an independent entrepreneur often expend a great deal of effort to make the display of the merchandise possessing great beauty so that the experience of shopping is often an aesthetic experience rather than just a quest for the material.
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The Japanese also have a special ability to appreciate and value the ephemeral and the permanent. They value the transient and the perfection of nature under complete control. They seem to keenly appreciate the short-term opportunity to view a competition of ice sculptures displayed in full sun and they will stand in line for hours to view an ikebana exhibition of flower arrangements by local experts at a department store available for view for only one day.
They will also spend many years devoted to the growing of a fully formed tree in miniature scale practicing the artistry of bonsai or admire those that do or the product of their labors.
The garden is often seen as a microcosm of the universe in Japan with a stone lantern to remind us that even in darkness, there is light.
A stone seat or a bench is often used to remind us to pause and reflect on the beauty of the place. Rocks can be used to represent islands and grass or moss to represent the oceans. A small garden can represent the entire universe.
In the famous Zen garden at Rioji Temple in Kyoto, raked gravel represents the oceans while the carefully placed 15 rocks embody a truncated hai ku poem about the essential of the islands or continents. By contemplating the universe within the walled garden at Ryoan-ji, we can gain an understanding of the universe outside the wall.
We obeyed all cultural practices, even in our own apartment. We rarely prepared American meals or sought imported items. (The one exception being peanut butter—we could get Extra Crunchy Jiff from a small market that specialized in imported foods—imagine Jiff an imported food.) We quickly learned to love tofu prepared many different ways and all kinds of noodles. We found many of the nabe-mono (one-pot) dishes that were a specialility in the Nagoya region, to be especially enjoyable. We slowly learned the joy of sashimi (raw fish). We obeyed, albeit in modified form, Japanese bathing practices. We always had the Japanese hot soaking at night but also had the American shower in the morning, something the Japanese did not quite understand. We obeyed all foot-ware rules, quickly becoming proficient getting in and out of shoes quickly and checking shoes at the door in most places.
We attempted to experience as much of the culture as possible. We quickly learned the cultural value of traveling with a small, and may I say very cute, child as it was like having a cultural passport to open communication and dialogue routinely in any and all public places.
She actually came to believe that kawai-ne was her Japanese name. Kawai-ne means “Isn’t she cute?” We learned how to reverently clap and bow at Shinto shrines before tossing coins (little Singleton particularly liked to do this)
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and how to recognize, and appreciate, a sacred tree or venerated rock. We were taken at our request by Japanese friends to an onsen, a hot bath spa fed by volcanic waters in the mountains where we became “skin” friends.
I also visited a public sento in Kyoto with the manager of the ryokan in which we were staying, trying almost all of the varietal soaking tubs of various imported water from famous onsens (some of the waters had color: yellow for high sulfur content, brown for iron, etc.). My desire to experience all of the culture even led me to try the one in which an electrical current is passed through the water. I don’t plan on doing that again. We embraced any opportunity to participate in a tea ceremony
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or any cultural or historic festival.
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I learned to enjoy and would frequently watch the important sumo matches on TV and came to know all of the stars.
I asked a converted Zen Buddhist literature teacher at the University who is married to a Japanese Zen Buddhist to take me to his temple and tell me about the sect and their practices.
I specifically told him that I really did not want to get the full treatment including the sitting for hours in the proper contemplative position. I just wanted some passive acquaintance and knowledge with the monastic culture. Well, I got exactly what I said I did not want. The experience is still completely vivid. The monks at the monastery had had years of practice, I about 15 minutes of instruction prior to a 1-hour session. I elected the minimum (1-hour) rather than the full 2-hour event. The first hour I spent in a “practice” or “preparation” room, mostly alone, sitting on the floor in the prescribed position (sort of) striving to appear in deep contemplation. Every so often a few members, arriving late, would come in, spend a few minutes in meditative sitting, tell me I was doing it wrong, and then disappear into the night to join the congregation. I joined the group at the mid-point break. It was dark, cold, and everyone had bare feet. There were about 50 monks and 25 followers who knew the drill. I had no idea what was coming next. It was rather frightening because of the not knowing exactly what was to happen next and the assault on all the senses—the cold, the dark, the feel of the tatami (woven rice straw matting) on the floor, and most importantly the self-deprivation and self-induced discomfort approaching real pain fully integrated into the ritual. The only concession to comfort, and perhaps a medical necessity, was a thin cushion that could be folded under you to try to keep the circulation in the legs from completed clogging up while sitting absolutely rigid in full lotus position. The ultimate goal of mentally and spiritually rising above these earthly concerns must surely require a lifetime of practice. I was granted the privilege, as a visitor, of not risking being caned to help me better focus on the chanting, the meditation, and the sitting. After one receives a couple of very strong whacks on the shoulders with the rigid cane stick, you would first express forgiveness and then gratitude to the caner for his service. The sound of the dried cane striking flesh was a piercing sound in the cold night air. At the end of the sitting, the monks suddenly flung themselves into the task of slamming shut all of the shutters. The action was as if someone had just suddenly commanded that the room must be instantly protected, as there was an attack imminent. The entire sitting room had been completely open to the December night with no sashes or glass in the openings, only the shutters open throughout and then slamming shut when done. I am grateful for the experience and I am grateful for the friend who seemed oblivious to the fact that I had not planned on having this experience. I think once in a lifetime will be enough for me, however.
Another of the “must dos” to experience the Japanese culture was to attend the Kabuki. Kabuki is the relatively modern form of theater, which is now old enough to be considered by the Japanese as traditional.
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