Hmm, this is the second post about my trip to Kyoto recently. You can read the first part of my Kyoto trip here. In this article, I’ll talk about various issues and thoughts I have about Kyouto. I’ll talk about the language, the people, and their culture of wanting everything fast. Also, I’m asking your opinion as a reader, whether I should pursue a relationship with a Japanese girl I met there.
Language
One of the thing my travel partner was worried about was language. She didn’t know a word of Japanese other than arigatou and sayon’nara. I wasn’t too worried, since my other friend who has absolutely no knowledge of Japanese went and survived Osaka alone for a week.

I could get by with very basic Japanese (thanks to the JLPT nonsense I prepared for loooong ago); and as such, I could understand basic conversations in Japanese. My vocabulary was severely missing in some places, but it was all right. However, things changed in Japan.

A typical conversation would begin with me asking some question quite confidently in Japanese, to which they would reply quite quickly. After that, I’ll ask them to slow down (’chotto yukuri onegai shimasu‘). They’ll speak slower, and my brain can process what they say. But it takes time, and I hesitate. So in the end, they’ll try to speak to me in broken English, while I reply them in broken Japanese. My travel partner says my nervousness in replying them transfers off to them when speaking, so they too get nervous and then a vicious cycle happens.

Its okay to not know Japanese at all in Japan. . Most Japanese actually speak English. So just ask them if they do (’eigo ga hanashimasuka?‘ or ‘eigo, OK?‘). But not knowing Japanese would be a great disadvantage at smaller roads. And also, you might be limited to lousy tourist trap foods, which is not the point.

On the topic of English in Japan, its also very hilarious to see English words in Japan. For example, you have “Air Fleshener” - one spray, and everything else turns into flesh.

People
This time last week, I was happily chatting away with a Japanese girl I met. Let’s call her Ms. Y. She is a smart girl, same age as me and is doing her masters bioscience. Our conversations were odd. She spoke Japanese most of the time, and I replied in English (most of the conversations with me in Japan often end up like this). We started by talking about stuff like the weather, then she asked me what I studied. I said, Economics, and then we started talking about economics.

She knew Japan’s economic policies well (do you know your own country’s economic policies?), but when I mentioned Aaron’s butter shortage crisis, she drew a blank. Hmm, I thought, must be a gaijin thing to eat butter. And then I discovered she was doing bioscience, and her major was in DNA. We chatted the night away, talking about stuff like polyamerase and DNA, and freezing samples with liquid N2; and her frustration with the poor sample sizes… Well, what do you expect… Chewxy goes to Japan and talks nerdy to a pretty girl.

Anyways, I got her email, and we’re continuing contact. Hah, maybe I could even start a relationship with her - my readers should know I have this thing for smart girls. LOL. But seriously… she is really smart (and could reply my retorts!), and cute (you should hear her say “Oh Really” - it sounds like “Oh leli?” in a very chibi, cute way), and pretty… what else can a guy ask for?

Japanese people on the whole, are bloody polite people. When my friend and I exited the haute cuisine restaurant in Kyoto, the staff repeatedly said ‘thank you’ to a grand total of 7 times…and that was during our exit alone. They’re also very helpful. When we got lost, and went into this convenience store to ask for directions, everyone put down what they were doing and immediately helped us.

Also, the Japanese people are very articulate in their dressing. There is an East Asian saying - “there are no ugly people, only lazy people”. But out of the three countries that has this phrase (that’d be Chinese, Korean and Japanese), its the Japanese people that stick to it most rigorously. Seriously. On a weekend, even the most casual clothes I saw in Kyoto station were quite uncasual by my standards. And on weekdays, most men and women were in suits. And all their suits looks very tailored, and neat. A new friend of mine whom I met at the ryokan also told me she constantly noticed men who have their eyebrows threaded. By Japanese standards, I dress extremely slovenly (and I consider myself okay already, compared to the way Aussies dress).

The only time I saw someone dressed like a bogan was in the airport on the last day.

On a more interesting note, I now know that Liss wasn’t dressing weird. She’s just dressing Japanese.

As such, you’ll notice beautiful people everywhere in Japan. From the young to the old, they all look very pretty. The older Japanese ladies move with effortless grace. You can find nary an obese person in Japan. It’s probably the food they eat. But people in Japan are really physically attractive.

Another thing you’ll immediately notice is that they have a lot of haste. Going everywhere, they seem to do it very quickly. I’ll expound more on it in the section below.

Instant Culture
While culture in Japan might come to a shock especially to those who stay under the influence of the Western Hemisphere, Japan has a culture that is quite prevalent in big cities like New York or London - the need for everything to be fast. In fact, they like everything to be fast that they have instant noodles, instant photos, and instant everything. Everything is in fast motion in Japan. Trains are ALWAYS ON TIME; as are buses.

Vending machines are fast, and Japanese people wholly adopt it. In Japan, you could walk into a food shop and get almost immediately greeted by a vending machine. You choose the food you want and pay the amount, then take the receipt to the person in charge. The food is almost immediately served. The reason is this. When you select the food you want, pressing the button automatically places an order into the kitchen, which by the time you pay, and bring the receipt to the counter, the food would have been prepared already. Suck on this, McDonald’s.

There is no point going to McDonald’s for fast food in Japan, because Japanese food is fast. The only time we had to wait was for some really really good ramen in the middle of the night. We had ventured out to the ramen stall and there was this nice lady who was preparing ramen. She also thought we were Thai people and tried to speak Thai to us.

Also, as Tyler mentioned, none of the taps make sense at first. I’ve been to many toilets (courtesy of the many bottles of great green tea available at any vending machine) and found that almost all toilets have different taps and they almost all have different methods of turning on and off.

And because of their culture of wanting everything instant, credit card usage is rare. In fact, I never used my credit card once at all in Japan, since most shops don’t accept it (those that do are big retail chains, not suitable for a backpacker). Instead, cash is king (I lost close to AUD 50 on service charges thanks to constant withdrawals from 7-11 ATMs)… and keitai denwa credits.

Ah, but that’s a thing for another day, ya? My next post will be about technology… In the mean time, tell me what you think - pursue a relationship with Ms. Y?

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