Twenty five years ago this month I arrived in this country. Listen to my Japanese and you’d think it was 25 minutes, but that’s another story. In this short piece I’d just like to say a quick thank you to my host country and its people for giving me a pretty good life this last quarter of a century. A few examples.
I have been given employment here since I arrived, when my only qualification has been my ability to speak my own language! People have been endlessly kind and patient in helping me deal with language-related difficulties, when they probably should have told me that it was about time I dealt with these things myself! I’ve met a lot of nice people, and I’ve got used to feeling safe in a way that sadly I no longer do in London. And a lot more..
Of course there have been and are some negatives, as well as a few low points, as there are in any life, anywhere. The five-month sauna bath that you call ‘summer’ is certainly one, and the ultra-parochialism that is so prevalent here in various manifestations can at times be exasperating. Oh, and a night of mind-numbing boredom at a Hawks game also springs to mind!!
On balance though, my experience here has been an extremely positive one, and for that I thank you.
Ian
・・・・・・・年末年始休校日のお知らせ・・・・・・・・
・・・・2025年12月22日(月）～2026年1月5日(月）
・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・
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As I am going to Hokkaido soon, my wife showed me an article about a hiker on a mountain in Shiretoko who was killed in a bear attack. While trying to find this man, rescuers shot and killed three bears - a mother bear and her two cubs - who they deemed to be a possible danger to them.
While a hiker losing his life is undoubtedly tragic, I can’t help but feel sorry for these bears too. I fully understand that when they come into our towns, which are our territory (although bears obviously don’t understand this), we have to do what is necessary to protect ourselves and our children. This may unfortunately mean shooting these animals. But is it right that they should die when we are encroaching on their territory? And by all accounts it is very well known and very well signposted that this mountain is the habitat of many bears.
I am not an expert on bear behaviour, or that of any other animal, but I’m pretty sure that it is instinctive. They harm other creatures to protect their young, their territory or because they are hungry. They are not like nasty humans, who kill and hurt each other for any number of unpleasant reasons - anger, greed, jealousy, hurt pride, and so on. Do bears deserve to die when we invade their home and they react in the only way they are capable of reacting?
In my country we have a saying that goes as follows: My rights end where another person’s rights start . Could it also be said that our right to hike wherever we want ends where the rights of bears to live peacefully (or even stay alive) in their own home starts? I think it is a question worth considering.
Ian
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I’m writing this because I’m trying to find an answer to something that’s been puzzling me for a very long time. As you read on, you may think that I am not being serious and that this is some kind of a joke. But I am being serious. I have a question, and I am hoping someone can give me an answer to it.
Recently (it’s November), the weather has finally got a bit colder, and every year when this happens I receive lots of friendly comments on the unsuitability of my attire: ‘Aren’t you cold’? - that kind of thing. Of course, I don’t mind at all, but what these remarks seem to be suggesting is that my behaviour is a little strange. But is it? I’m not so sure, so if I may I’d like to put my side of the story.
Over the years, I have noticed that children here in Fukuoka - both boys and girls - are very much the same as kids back home in England. The colder weather does not seem to bother them particularly. I see them in their short pants and T Shirts at the kindergarten I work at; I see them in the local park and I see them around the housing estate near my school. In terms of what they wear, they are much the same as I was at their age, and they are much the same as I still am. If they cared to think about it - which obviously they don’t - I’m certain they would not think that what I was wearing was strange. Much more importantly, though, they are just the same as you were. In other words, you were the same as I have always been. So what has happened to you?
It seems to me that an extraordinary change takes place here. Kids who are completely untroubled by today’s 10 degrees, become teenagers and adults who are cold in temperatures twice as high. Many young ladies, especially, have a hyper-sensitivity to “cold” that is very hard to believe in a country that for some reason prides itself on having four distinct seasons. Because of my job, I see this all the time. The mercury may be in the low to mid-twenties, which I admit is on the chilly side for Sri Lankan students, but the locals are wrapped up in padded coats like a classroom full of Michelin Men.
So my question is a very simple one. What happens? How, or why, does this transformation take place? As I said, this is a serious question; it’s not a joke. I very much hope someone can give me an answer to it.
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While being served at a supermarket checkout recently, an elderly gentleman started talking to the clerk who was serving me. I asked him to wait (my Japanese is up to that). I did not understand his growled response; I just heard the word ‘foreigner’. But he was clearly not pleased. He thought I was being rude.
So I want to set the scene, or scenes, and then I’d like to ask you a question. Before you read on, I should say that the actions of the old man, the lady in the parked car and the light jumpers are not fictional but, in my experience, very common occurrences, especially number 3. It is only the second part, in which I challenge their behaviour, as I did in the supermarket, that is fictional.
1. An older man (it’s always an older man) hangs around the end of the swimming pool, offering unsolicited advice to strangers on their swimming technique. Those he approaches seem to tolerate him, but when he tries this with me, I tell him that I did not ask for his advice and would he please leave me alone.
2. A car pulls over on a busy two-lane street in the city centre. The driver chats away happily on her smartphone. A traffic jam is building up behind her because she has reduced the road to one lane. She seems oblivious to this, so I (a motorcyclist) tap on her window and point out to her the chaos she is causing.
3. At a busy crossroads the green filter light to turn right has finished. The next four or five cars ignore this fact completely and continue to turn right, often blocking the progress of cars that have received their green light. I (a driver whose path has been blocked) roll down my window and berate the light jumper for dangerous driving, breaking the law and causing a gridlock.
Ok, this is my question: In these situations, who, if anybody, is being rude? Well, I think I can guess your answer. It would be me. Why am I so sure? Because after 20 plus years here there is no doubt in my mind that the primary act of rudeness in Japan is confrontation. You may think someone is being impolite or anti-social, but to challenge them on it is the cardinal sin - the one that makes you the rude one. And ust as the man in the supermarket attributed my “rudeness” to me being a foreigner, more broadly I believe it is the more confrontational style of many foreign societies (I can’t think of a better term) that many Japanese people regard as rude.
Of course, the lack of confrontation in Japan is in some ways one of the good things about living here. If I make a bad mistake on the road, I don’t have to worry that someone might shoot me (the U.S.) or react very angrily - a real possibility back home. That said, I would argue that knowing you will not be confronted is actually a root cause of what outsiders like me would consider rudeness and often outright lawlessness - especially on the roads. A few more examples:
Every morning I drive down from my house to the main road. Cars are not supposed to drive up from the main road because it is closed to them between 7am to 9am, but this injunction is routinely ignored. Why do these drivers do this when they know full well they shouldn’t? In my opinion it is for exactly the same reason that the old man in the pool, the lady blocking the road and the light jumpers do what they do. They know they will not be confronted. They know that other drivers who actually have the right of way will reluctantly pull over for them and not get openly angry with them, despite the fact that they (the drivers going up) are the ones breaking the law.
Last week in the swimming pool I watched a young, attractive pool attendant bothered for more than 20 minutes by a man in the pool beneath her high lifeguard’s chair, who would not stop talking to her. Her smiles through gritted teeth made it crystal clear that she wanted him to go away, but he would not. Why did he do this? Again, I believe it is partly because at some level he knew that she would not - or could not in this case because he was a customer - challenge behaviour bordering on harassment.
Of course, it goes without saying that many people here do not take advantage of the knowledge that illegal, anti-social or impolite actions will not be challenged. It is equally true that where I come from just as many people will try to avoid any kind of confrontation if they possibly can, even though it is more acceptable in their society.
All I’m trying to say here is that there are other ways of looking at rudeness - there really are.
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In these blog entries (I have written quite a few now), I believe a good percentage of my observations/ opinions about Japan have been positive. Sure, I’ve criticized a few things, but as anyone with a lot of experience of living abroad can attest to, there is no perfect country, and as an outsider there will always be some things you don’t like or understand. That said, one thing I have always been unequivocal about is my praise for standards of customer service here. It is this marked contrast with my own country, recent experiences of “service” provided by a British company, and the fact that I am going home next week, that prompted me to write today’s blog entry.
When I was a teenager there was a very popular comedy program on TV called Candid Camera. This is the kind of thing that happened. A van from the telephone company (bogus) pulls up outside an unsuspecting person’s house, and workers start to make preparations to put a telephone box right in front of the driveway. The owner then rushes out and tells them that this cannot possibly be right. As the workmen continue to insist that they have their instructions, the homeowner moves from bewildered amusement to annoyance. Finally, as things are starting to get out of hand, the program’s presenter appears from behind a tree and says to the homeowner, “Smile you are on Candid Camera”. It was all just a practical joke.
I mention this because there really are some similarities here to the actual service one receives in the U.K. or from U.K. companies: like that homeowner, at first you think it’s so bad it must be some kind of joke or misunderstanding, but then you realize it isn’t. Unfortunately, though, unlike in Candid Camera there is no happy ending - no punchline when you find out that it actually is a big joke after all.
As I mentioned, recent dealings with a well-known British airline were a disaster from beginning to end: wrong name on the ticket, total chaos checking in, delayed flight and, finally, lost luggage (my daughter got her bag 36 hours later). There was one silver lining in all this in that it was a domestic terminal and a domestic flight within the U.K. Had it not been, her luggage could have ended up in Sydney. It may amaze Japanese readers that I consider this a positive, but to keep one’s sanity this is how you need to think in the U.K.!
I am still looking to forward to going home. I haven’t seen my family for a long time, and I love the English countryside: beautiful, unspoilt villages, each with an ancient gem of a church and a cozy pub. Oh, and the green! - the bright grass green that I associate with my homeland.
But I’m going to miss Japanese service!
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