Tadaima!

I was in Japan for four weeks - and no woman barged into my room demanding her stockings be lipped. Which is a good thing, ofcourse :)

My visit was a good one, on both professional and personal fronts. It was a nice experience of a unique culture. One thing we Indians can learn from the Japanese is to have pride in our traditions, and our way of doing things. In our blind rush to emulate Western ways, we tend to ignore, or not pay the respect due to our traditions. I now think we've been bending over backwards too far, to please the West and make our ways easier for them. While the Japanese are extremely courteous, with so many occasional bows, I think what they've really achieved is to make the Western visitor bow to them and make efforts to understand, respect and admire their traditions.

I must say that I have now a new and refreshed sense of pride in my nation. I think it's time that we start respecting, promoting and cherishing our customs and ways of life. I realize that we often have an apologetic tone when we describe something unique to us to outsiders. That should change to a tone of self-respect and quiet pride. It took me a trip to Japan to think this way - I hope we can instill this sense in our people without requiring them to take this trip.

One other thing that I have learned from my visit to Japan is that I should stop being critical of our weaknesses in English. I was always wishing (to myself) that some of the folks I know would improve their grammar skills. I have even taken the extreme step of fully editing technical documents because the writer had tendencies to skip using articles, or had made similar trivial errors. Not that I am William Safire or anything close, but I sometimes tend to be obsessive. Anyway, after seeing the level of Japanese English, I realize that we are relatively excellent - and I should stop feeling pangs of despair. Never mind the spoken language, even a few public notices had errors, causing me to suppress urges to tell someone to correct them. One notice I saw at the Landmark Plaza: Be careful your child do not fall in the pond.

Some Japanese find English not easily learnable. One reason for this, I think, is that their language is technically inadequate to faithfully transliterate the sounds of English. One illustration - I was at a restaurant serving vegetarian garlic and jalapeno spaghetti (among other things). After I had placed my order, the waiter said something in Japanese - and when I couldn't figure out what he was saying, he repeated a key phrase over and over. It sounded like "saala dubba". I still couldn't get it. Then he said, "begetables". Then it suddenly flashed to me - he was saying "salad bar". This is a common problem. At a drug store, I requested the assistant to read out the ingredients for a cough syrup. These were English words, like 'Codeine Phosphate'. But it was sounding completely different when read in Japanese script - it required some rapid processing to understand what the words were in English. Just take my name, for instance. It can be written as Pramodo, or Pramoda - and not as Pramod in Japanese script. So my Japanese business card says Pramoda now. And oh, yes. They tend to switch L and R sounds (which is rather famously known). Less well known, at least to me, was that they also (like Bengalis?) switch the V sound with a B. So they have Bodafone instead of Vodafone, and ofcourse, begetables.

The great thing about the Japanese is that they can have conversations in pure Japanese without resorting to mixing in English like we do. This works fine when they are in Japan - but when they step out, they suddenly realize that English is a universally used language (well, almost). For instance, the plane I was returning from Japan in had all printed notices in English. I had a seat near the restrooms - and I was observing that many of the Japanese folks couldn't immediately figure out how to open the restroom door. It said 'Push' on it - but they obviously couldn't read it! And when someone was inside, the door would say 'Occupied', but people would still try the door... It was good to see some Japanese folks having culture shocks, for a change :)

Last week, I got an opportunity to travel on the Shinkansen (the "bullet train") to Kamisuwa, to meet with a client. This particular route was not very fast - slower than the Eurostar, I think. But the train itself is comfortable, and quiet. The countryside enroute was beautiful... very serene. I could even see snow-decked mountains in the distance - the Japanese Alps. Kamisuwa has an onsen (a natural hot-water spring bath) right at the train station. We had some time while waiting for our train getting us back home, so I stripped and jumped right in, joining some cute Japanese girls who were already in there. Erm, I should qualify that. I stripped just my feet - I was at a Foot Bath :) It was quite cool outside, but the water was delightfully hot - my feet really enjoyed the surprise treat.

What's a visit to Japan without committing a social gaffe? Mine came at a Japanese restaurant where I was invited to, for an office dinner. The custom here is to remove the shoes at the entrance to the restaurant, and walk in to the low tables. At this same entrance, they have sandals, meant to be worn for visits to the restrooms. I was following another Indian colleague into the restaurant - and he wore these sandals, and I followed suite. I went to my table, and no one had noticed my restroom sandals yet. The appetizers came - my share was some Japanese beans. The rest were food items from creatures that once swam, hopped or crawled. One item that looked like beetroot slices, was not. Anyway, after eating my beans, grasping each one tenderly with chop-sticks (which was another adventure), I walked over to talk to a colleague at an other desk. That's when one of the restaurant's vigilant staff politely walked over to me and pointed at my sandals. This table was full with my Japanese colleagues - and I asked one of them what this man wanted about my sandals. I wasn't ready to part with them easily. This colleague said something about this man wanting my sandals. I didn't understand - should I remove the sandals before stepping into the lower deck where the tables are? The other colleagues were busily looking nonchalant - I could imagine later what they were thinking :) Anyway, I reluctantly removed my sandals, and handed them over to the man - with the others looking on (some glaring, I now think).

So, there you go - my first social error. I had read about this custom with sandals in the Rough Guide to Japan, but this guide had said that one changes into sandals upon entering - and would use separate sandals for the restroom, placed at the restroom entrance. But this particular restaurant had placed it's restroom sandals at the main entrance - very cruel for unsuspecting 'gaijins' (Japanese for 'foreigners'). I left this restaurant without waiting for the main course. Not because I was humiliated or anything - I just could not stay there any longer inhaling the polluted cigarette-smoke filled air. This is one thing I have disliked about Japan - smoking is allowed in many restaurants and coffee houses. Some establishments have a separate smoking area - but, as I had read somewhere, it's like having a peeing area in a swimming pool - you wouldn't want to be in it.

Houses, flats and hotel rooms in Japan tend to be on the smaller side, and they are generally expensive too. My home for four weeks was in a "Weekly Mansion" - I think the "mansion" part is a joke. The total size of my home was around 10 feet x 20 feet. This included a single room with a bed, TV and a microwave oven, a bathroom, and a sink, stove, a tiny fridge, and a washing machine in the corridor from the main door to this single room. That's all there was to it. All utilities and internet connectivity was included in the rent. The rent was around 180,000 Yen per month, which converts to a little over 70,000 Rupees! The good thing is people staying in Japan for a longer term can get into longer leases in real (bigger) apartments, and at lower rents than what I was paying.

I think the Japanese are taking their golfing too seriously. In my four weeks there, I occasionally saw them practicing their swings in public places - like while waiting on railway platforms. And more recently, while waiting for the restroom on the plane.

All in all, it was a good trip - and now onto sorting out the 600+ photos and video clips I have taken over there...

PS. The title of this blog is supposed to mean "I'm back home!" - if it implies anything else, do let me know!