Newbie Reporter gets it RIGHT!!

[GomiGirl]

It is great when some people are just able to "get it" and then write about it..

Zen and the art of being Japanese

From fresh n juicy chunks of oyster :: RTW travel blog



It is my last day in Japan and as brief as our encounter was it has changed me more than anywhere else in the world. Japan has crept up on me - I barely noticed it amidst the flurry of confusion, excitement, isolation and peace - and today for the first time I felt its soul mingling with mine.

Before I arrived I thought that I knew Japan better than most places without ever having been there but the longer I stay the more I realise it is impossible to know Japan, ever. Japan defies comprehension and logic; all you can do is to start feeling it and listening for the vibrations that are around you everywhere, creating a symphony that initially appears to be devoid of all harmony.


It is a great read - check it out!!

[kamome]

I'm not so sure the writer really gets it:

In shintoism there is natural beauty in everything from the most unremarkable pebble to the most majestic mountains whose silhouettes often line Japan's horizons.
After my first couple of temple visits I would have been ready to 'convert' if I were a more spiritual person and spoke Japanese. But instead I started looking inside people on the street more and thought I was feeling everyone brimming with inner peace. I would trust almost every stranger here with my life - the kindness of people here doesn't cease to amaze me and in fact Japan may very well be the most peaceful nation in the world

This is the same tired idealistic view of Japan that other newbie reporters write about. Shintoism isn't a religion you convert to, and temples are not really places of worship to the average Japanese. And the idea of Japanese people "brimming with inner peace" is far-fetched. That kind of Buddhism exists in places like Thailand, not in Japan.

And then today, possibly induced by post Karaoke hang-over, I stopped feeling as isolated from everyone around me and I started bowing and smiling to random people in the street - and they bowed back! I actually felt that for the first time I was in some way part of it all, not a ghost anymore.

[Andocrates]

It's really hard to do a good gajin bow though.

When gaijin try to make a humble bow they falter at the moment of commitment and produce an awkward hunched over look.

[emperor]

It's really hard to do a good gajin bow though.
When gaijin try to make a humble bow they falter at the moment of commitment and produce an awkward hunched over look.

How to do it:


How not to do it:

[Steve Bildermann]

It's really hard to do a good Gajin bow though.

Close your feet.
Stiffen your arms and fingers by your side.
Keeping contact with your legs bring your hands around to the top of your legs.
Keep looking up and slide your arms down your legs until they touch your knees.

Voila - a perfect bow suitable for all occasions up to and including meeting the Emperor.

[Andocrates]

Is the picture of the guy in shorts doctored? That's disturbing.

[Socratesabroad]

I side with kamome. "Confusion, excitement, isolation and peace" - that means Kabukicho on a Friday night to me. Or any of those establishments in Yokohama catering to non-Japanese patrons. Woohoo! I feel "its soul mingling with mine."

Oh, sorry. As part of that "symphony that initially appears to be devoid of all harmony," I guess Soaplands and stripclubs, marginal at best given that the real Japan is somewhere near Kyoto, are just the guy at the back with the little triangle, right?

"I would trust almost every stranger here with my life - the kindness of people here doesn't cease to amaze me and in fact Japan may very well be the most peaceful nation in the world."

It's real easy to start waxing philosophical about the inner peace of the Japanese - until you ride the last train home on the Odakyu line and spend a good deal of time dodging salaryman/college punk projectile vomiting. Inner peace my ass...

[Socratesabroad]

Is the picture of the guy in shorts doctored? That's disturbing.

Something about an old quip - if I could something something, I'd never leave the house...

[kamome]

something something

"fellate myself"

[Big Booger]

something something

"fellate myself"

In Japanese: "serufu shakuhachi"

[kamome]

something something

"fellate myself"

In Japanese: "serufu shakuhachi"

Wouldn't that be "serufu sa-bisu"?

[naimless]

Teehee, you guys are funny!
And don't worry, there's enough space in Japan for a load more gaijin newbies, no need to be so protective... (nor to take everything so literally)
Keep rockin all, japanstyle.

[Taro Toporific]

Teehee, you guys are funny!
And don't worry, there's enough space in Japan for a load more gaijin newbies, no need to be so protective... (nor to take everything so literally) .

Hee, hee. I knew I had a reason for not dumpin' on ya 'bout the jokes like, "right in between red-light districts, shopping centres and neon lights sit countless shinto and buddhist shrines and temples - even with a multi-lane highway next to them these places exude calm and peace." Ahh yes, the "calm and peace" of abandonment.

KP: Oh, how I love my parents' banter... But yeah, it's a bitch that time is running out but what can you do...
*Q*: Whichever way you want to say it...he's just being his typical lazy self, not writing, not moving...he's only got 2 months left before he has to come back!
H: You mean he should move his a...?
S: Q you are right. He should move his bud.
*Q*: What is so normal about London? And stop chilling, its bad for you.
KP: Spice and deep stuff that confuses me always appreciated. But I'm not in hiding as much as I'm just lazily chilling in Japan. And I'm worried how I will deal with normal life so soon.

'Just chilling in Japan" the Land-of-the-stress-monkeys(tm). Oh, the schadenfreude .