Shocking Therapy in Japan

Japan appeared under our airplane with its special charm, as if hiding in the curly clouds… Leaving the plane - the only connection with my last life in the other world of frosty Russian winters and cool white-nights St-Petersburg’s summers, I found myself in a yet sleepy and slowly but always systematically working Japan. The country of my dreams opens its warm embrace to me and…

Shock № 1: 内と外の人々

…and the crumpled and Japanese travelers have been separated into two groups – the gaijins (外国人 – strangers, foreigners, people coming outside) and the Japanese: different lines, entrances, windows, places in the society. That moment one bitter thought sneaked into my head – I would always be here an odd man out… And the wave of the first cultural shock rose and swamped me.

For quite a long time Kansai Airport was chewing its new guests in its halls and it took me some time to prove that I came to a customer’s motherland with extremely positive intentions.

Shock №2：the Japanese masterpiece

My first acquaintance with it happened during my first minutes on the ground of Japan. The doors of the place were reasonably coloured pink and blue according to the gender of the guests and inside… - oh, inside the pink one it smelled (don’t ask me why^^) kids’ bubble gum and the seat was soooo warm, that you would forget about all your troubles and stresses on it. Moreover there are lots of various buttons with the most unexpected purposes sometimes – wow!:) And if you’re too shy to demonstrate what you’re doing there to everybody outside your little private space, be sure to touch a special button to turn the sound of the pouring water on, so that to feel peacefully while doing your dark business. By the way – just to know for you, guys, remember that many doors are opened inside not to take extra space in this tiny paradise.

Shock № 3, or the 1^st Red Flag: “They’re strange!”

Soon after my coming to Hirakata, Osaka, I with all new international students had to make a Japanese banking card – just to be able to get the scholarship on it. So we prepared it and in some days we should have got the very cards – but of course I forgot my password and had to get to the bank by myself. Having just entered the bank I was met by a pretty old gentleman, who was bowing(!) to me. I asked my self – where should he hide his pride to bow every random man coming in? And I tried to explain it to myself – it’s so called “TEAM WORK”, when one doesn’t have any individuality while helping out one’s team to achieve its goal. That old guy plays a role of a “carpet road” inside the company, the representatives of which are the young ladies just out of their colleges’ desks. And it struck me how an old man can work just “a bower” for years in the country where the age is respected most of all… However as it turned out – the age doesn’t ha anything in common with a social structure over here – it’s his “giri” (duty) to present his team, he’s a little wheel in a big, powerful and astonishing mechanism called “Japanese society”. So, I got my number in the line (thank you for a system in everything, my Japan!) and when it was my turn – a young woman, neglecting my broken Japanese, hasn’t changed it to English – what made me really proud of being able to support a conversation by myself. And then asking me to show her my passport and a card, she gave me a plastic plate, which purpose even my Japanese friends can’t explain exactly, but maybe it’s about privacy and respect towards a guest’s things – so that not to touch it with your indecent palms… So, having heard as much keigo (super polite speech) as it could be possibly used for 15 minutes, and sweating while trying to find that forgotten word I needed most of all, I left.

Shock № 4: Exotic nature shows itself

And then a real fall began. No-no, not according to our European or Western Russian measures – it’s more like the second half of our hottest summer, that what they have in October -.-. Humidity, warm rains, of course sun (of which we used to dream for 8 month in a year:), and the leaves, as far as I got it, are not going to change their colour or place. And sometimes, you know, you’ll look out of the window in the time of a shining sunset and you could possibly see some strange “birds” almost the same size as a Calibri but with incredibly big wings and weird sounds coming from their fluffy tiny bodies, which sometimes hang on the trees upside-down, making a pioneer-gaijin tremble by their twittering. It took me some time to get used to their daffy flies just a little over the top of my head in those nice summer’s nights…

Shock № 5: Is the grass on the other side really greener?

No doubts, the concept of beauty differs with every culture, what could be observed in native arts and traditions of any country. And isn’t it wonderful that in different corners of the world we are attracted the way we used to consider according to the historically and culturally formed ideas of what is pretty and what’s ugly? I guess – yeah, it’s cool. But Japanese guys and girls don’t think that their ancestors were fair enough chanting geisha’s raven black wonderful hair and willow like body… More often I can hear Japanese girls almost crying because of jealousy about my friend’s blue eyes or my blonde hair, or guys on the streets staring at us as if we’re goddesses. I know it might sound cocky, but I don’t really like the way they praise our Western appearance – it’s silly not to notice how charming their own girls, who’d better not to dye their hair blonde – it looks really odd and even frightful sometimes. And being in the shoes of the trade companies in Japan I would promote their own ideals, while the whole cosmetics market is occupied by long artificially made eye-lashes, blonde wigs, blue and green eye lenses and white powder - which is actually sad for me who values natural beauty best of all. Especially in Japan.

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I've been studying here in Japan for almost half a year already, but every day I still have a little cultural shock of various kind. And you kno what? I enjoy it with all my heart, as it means that I'm still curious and interested enough to be surprised every other day. Love you, Japan!