Mirrored with permission from Outpost Nine and Azrael
Oxymorons
I started collecting a list of oxymorons - things about this country that seemed to directly contradict themselves. I've been here for a year and a half, and while I've been able to learn the true face of Japan, there are still aspects that bug the hell out of me. I will probably never have answers to these questions. Mostly because I wasn't born Japanese, and I will never understand. But sometimes I think Japanese people don't get it either. Anyway, my list.
And to head all you Grammar Nazi's off at the pass, not all of these will be actual oxymorons. In fact, none of them may actually be oxymorons...
-- How is it that everyone works so late, yet everything closes so early? How do people ever go to the bank, supermarket, hospital, etc? And why do these things close so early if everyone is working so late?
I especially like the hospitals, which close at 12. 12PM that is. Or you can find one with "evening hours" that may close around 6PM. Apparently, people who have jobs just aren't allowed to get sick. I have also concluded that being a doctor in Japan must be the easiest job EVER. Come in in the morning, see a few old folks, close up shop at NOON, then GO HOME. Holy shit did I ever go into the wrong profession! Show me the "Japan Exchange and Doctoring" program and I'll be all over that shit like a crack fiend.
-- There are at least five ways I can think of to say "My true feelings" in Japanese, but Japanese people are far too indirect to ever actually tell you their true feelings.
This results in a lot of guesswork from the Japanese, because apparently actually saying what you want is just wrong. Shame on you. But it does make the drive-thru at McDonalds an interesting experience...
Clerk: Welcome! How may I help you?
Man: Ah, today is a lovely day, isn't it? And I'm really hungry.
Clerk: How many?
Man: Well, there are four people in my car...but my wife is kind of small and kids are too young to be ingesting so much grease.
Clerk: Right. So that'll be one Big Mac set, one Double Cheeseburger set, and two kids meals, with one oolong tea, one Hi-C, and two Orange Juices, one without ice.
Kid: Dad, he forgot!
Man: Ah, I see. So, I was thinking about Plato the other day...
Clerk: I'm so sorry! And two Apple Pies. To go. Please drive to the window.
Note that this doesn't actually happen. But it could.
-- You will never find a trash can anywhere, but you won't find litter either. Apparently, people just carry around their trash all day until they get to the one (yes, the ONE) trash can. We kind of think that each prefecture gets one and only one trash can. I have yet to find the Kyoto Trashcan, but I am detemined to before I leave this country.
-- Japanese people will tell you this nation is cramped for space. But there sure are an abundance of golf courses.
-- This is a nation that prides itself on it's almost suicidal work ethic. They work until late at night, then go in early in the morning. They work on Satudays. Sometimes Sundays too. Even holidays. Despite all this working, they're not actually doing much. I can say that when the guy next to me has taken his 10th cigarette break...and it's only 11AM! Hey buddy, maybe if you laid off the menthols you could actually go home *on time*.
Sure, they are legitimately busy from time to time, but a great deal of time is spent making it look like they're busy, or on tea/coffee/cigarette breaks. Yet, if someone actually skipped the cig breaks and finished his work around 4-5PM and, oh my God!, left, they would be a slacker, an embarrasement to the company.
Ride any train around 8PM, and you'll find tired and weary salarymen on their way home. Even as late as 11PM. To catch a late dinner, maybe see the wife and kids briefly, go to sleep, wake up, and do it again.
And while I'm thinking of salarymen on trains, here's another thing I don't understand. My friends and I will see businessmen absolutely passed out on the train. Some of them are exhausted from work - some of them have been drinking too much. But no matter what state of peaced-out they're in, they *always* manage to wake up just before the train gets to their stop.
This isn't limited to salarymen - anyone who is knocked out asleep on their train will somehow, magically, just wake up before they reach their stop. My friends and I are always amazed. How do they do that? It must be another thing you'd have to be Japanese for in order to understand.
-- It would be shameful for a Japanese person to directly complain about something to you. But they sure can comment on how big your foreign dick/boobs are.
Personally, I'd think something like "Hey, would you mind turning your stereo down?" would be slightly less embarrassing than "Hey, you've got a huge dick, huh?" but I guess this is one of those cultural differences I have yet to understand.
-- How is it that Japanese women are somewhat promiscious and have bad habits about using condoms (and very few are on the pill), yet the population rate in this country is actually going down. This I really don't understand. I suppose it's a good thing, but what the hell?
Back in America, there's some people we can't stop from having kids. These are usually, unfortunately, the last people you want to have kids. And yet they're popping them out like Pez Dispensers. I used to theorize that the amount of issues a girl had was directly proportional to how fertile she was, with more issues = more fertility. So if you see a girl who is not at all well-adjusted and you think she'd be the last person on Earth fit to have a kid, she's probably as fertile as the supple plains of Idaho. You may not even have to have sex with her, just wave your sperm in her general direction, that should do it.
That's not to say Japanese women are well-adjusted. According to my old theory, given how fucked up the lot of them are there should be babies popping out of rice cookers and zen rock gardens. And yet, they're not. I don't get it.
-- How is it that this country can make cell phones more advanced than some of your personal computers, cameras the size of Kit Kat bars, and GPS systems in every car, yet they've failed to grasp the miraculous wonder that is the drying machine, or a centralized ventillation system?
Especially the vent system thing, that really kills me. The Japanese have a thing called a kotatsu, which is a table with a small heater underneath. You can put a large blanket over the kotatsu, so everyone can sit around it, put their legs under the blanket, and share the warmth. Well, that's nice, right? Families spending time together and bonding around the kotatsu? You'd think, wouldn't you? But I can guaran-damn-tee you, the only conversation around that kotatsu is "It's really cold today, isn't it?" In America, sure, we'd all be in separate rooms watching our own separate TV, but at least we'd be warm. And later on, we may actually talk about what we saw on TV to the other members of our family.
-- Japanese people always seem to be in a hurry...but they're not going anywhere in particular. To their jobs...why hurry for that? To school? Again, what's the rush? Home? Where exactly is the fire?
The rushing problem is so bad, it's made a mockery of Japanese traffic lights. Here in Japan, green means "Go", yellow means "Go faster", and red means "Two more cars". Most of the time, it's not even close - the light's been red for 3-4 seconds and a car will still come barrelling through the intersection. The Japanese government would be so filthy rich if they installed those red light cameras at every intersection and charged about $200 a ticket.
-- The Japanese economy is apparently pretty bad right now. But, I have yet to enter a house/apartment/love shack/cardboard box that didn't have a plasma/HD TV. This is an economy in shambles? What was it like when it was good? *Two* plasma TV's? Man, I wish I could say that kind of thing! "Well, I wanted to buy the summer home in Lexington and Sri Lanka, but with the economy the way it is now, I could only afford the Lexington one. It's terrible. I'm thinking of applying for welfare."
And come to think of it, that's another (sort of) oxymoron - everyone here has nice TV's. But the television here absolutely sucks. Save a few good shows, I'd much rather watch evolution - literally stare at a monkey and wait for it to start becoming human (here come the anti-Darwin emails...) than watch Japanese TV. I can promise you, the monkey would be 100x more entertaining. Even if it were dead.
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