Land of the Rising Sun Day #10 “A Cultural Experience”

I won’t bore you about breakfast again today (although it was quite wonderful) but rather discuss the cultural experience we have had on this trip. I am not talking about shrines, Buddhas, or castles but rather just everyday people. I also want to add some random thoughts and experiences. Sorry if they don’t all tie together but neither do I.

One thing that has been quite evident in our travels has been that the Japanese culture is very distinct from what we are used to in the USA.  I am not saying it is better (although many would say it is) I am just saying it is different.  

For example in general the people are incredibly polite.  We were at a train station and I saw a young girl drop something.  At first I thought it was a candy bar so I instinctively called out to her.  “Excuse me, excuse me!” (Sorry, my Japanese is a bit underdeveloped).  Luckily, this got her attention and she turned around. I pointed out the item to her.  She looked at me first then at the item then returned her glance to me with a look of horror.  She rushed to pick up what turned out to be a piece of trash and not a candy bar.  On her way to pick it up she said “Thank you, thank you” in English, realizing that I was not Japanese (Hmmm, I wonder what tipped her off?).  She returned to her friends and again thanked me, as did all three of her friends.  Since murder is rare in Japan I assume they treat littering as a heinous crime and I had just saved this young thing from a life of shame and despair.  I wonder how this same interaction would have played out in the United States? Possibly she would have said, “Kiss my A!”. Or maybe, “What do you want old man?”

Another curious activity that has repeatedly happened revolves around asking for directions.  In yesterday’s blog I told you about the two young women and a security guard who escorted us down the street looking for our restaurant. A similar thing happened yesterday. When we returned to Kyoto Station from our outing in Nara I suggested we locate the place we planned to have dinner so we would be more relaxed when it came time to go. First we needed to locate an elevator.  We asked a woman where we could find the elevator and instead of pointing us in the correct direction she reversed the way she was walking and took us to the elevator.  Later we found a bunch of restaurants but their names were not readily apparent. So we went into one and asked a host if this was the place we were looking for and he shook his head no. He then walked out of his restaurant looked back at us making me think we were supposed to follow him. He looked back at us one more time then made a turn, pointed to a restaurant and bowed his head.  I don’t think you would find either of these behaviors in the USA.  A person could get used to being treated this way.  They could also pay it forward and treat someone else in this manner.  Who knows what might develop.  Possibly people would stop disparaging others because of their race or religion.  Possibly people would stop inflicting physical harm on others.  Possibly people would stop stealing or cheating others.  Possibly we could have a kinder and gentler America (That’s from George H.W. Bush.  I was not a big fan of his but I really love that concept). 

Speaking of being kinder and gentler it was my idea to look for the restaurant while we were at the train station last night.   Since it was difficult to find the place and we were able to make a reservation while we were there, Patrice said, “That was a good idea.  You are full of good ideas.  Yes, Robert you really are full of it”.   Hmmm, I think that was a compliment.  Or maybe she needs some more time in Japan?

We had one other interesting interaction with a local. It involves Patrice and her attempt to use some Japanese phrases. When we came through airport security on arrival she tried to say thank you to the agent. He looked at us somewhat confused so I instinctively uttered, “Gracias” to which he immediately replied “¿Como estas?”

This has been a great trip with all sorts of fun things happening. Yesterday in Nara Park a deer nosed up to Patrice’s butt. She said “Robert, not here!” and started to swat me away when she realized the culprit walked on four legs not two.

I mentioned in one of my early Japan blog posts that part of our trip preparation was to read “Learning to Bow” (lent to us by our friends Ginger and Don). The book presents this interesting thought: “If you dream of a snake, it’s bad luck. A fish without scales is worse. But the best dream of all, is to catch sight of Mount Fuji.” I am happy to say we have done that.

The book also states that 80% of the Japanese are Shinto, 80% are Buddhist, and 80% have no religious affiliation. Please tell this to those idiots who assume someone is good in math just because they are Japanese.

Today we were driven to the Miho Museum. It is about 27 miles south of Kyoto but because much of the ride is on a long and narrow rode it took us close to an hour to get there. The museum is gorgeous. It was designed by I.M. Pei and is named after the founder of the museum, Mihoko Koyama. I was not able to find out much about the benefactor and our guide (Nobu) was either not knowledgeable about her or just hesitant to talk. I got the impression it was the latter because he seemed to imply that the money behind the facility was not hers and that she was not married to the man who was the donor.

The museum exhibits were okay. Nothing all that impressive to me. I am sure others who are into ancient art would have been jumping up and down but that just isn’t my thing. Below you will see the most interesting thing I saw at the museum.

Before I sign off I want to send my food lovers a picture of what I had to eat tonight. A traditional Japanese meal.

Ciao.