Though I have a TV set in my room I have not plugged it in even once in the past six months. Japanese television in general scares me. A lot. Usually I only watch TV when I'm in the onsen - there's a TV set in the sauna, so I sit on the bench and wonder what the heck is going on in all those variety shows; although I understand the words I can't understand the meaning. I asked some of my Japanese friends and they also told me that they don't get it. It's just a bunch of people dressed like drag queens doing weird stuff on TV. Why? Nobody knows... And even if they have "variety" in the name they all look the same to me.
Two days ago I went to an onsen and as usual got out of the sauna quite puzzled - there was this guy named "Sakana-kun" (Mr. Fish) with a fish-shaped hat on his head, travelling though Japan in search for the perfect fish. His catchphrase was "gyogyo!" and he ended every second sentence with it. He even says "arigyoto" instead of "arigato". He had a cute voice and a very wide smile and was creepy.
The other show I saw was about a guy who traveled Japan (again, it seems that it's a popular theme) with a pet monkey named Sakura. It's a miracle that the monkey survived the journey, because he let her eat everything (to the point when she kept stealing his food too).
Monday, March 26, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
Japanese weddings
My boss's daughter is getting married today and I'm sitting alone at the office, answering phone calls. Not that I mind - this wedding will probably a very boring affair.
The family that I live with is very old - my boss is the 13th head of it - so they are very traditional and that is why this was an arranged marriage. "Omiai kekkon" - arranged marriage - is still very common in Japan (especially in old, rich families); after all they can't give their child away to just every family. During and omiai the smallest details are taken into consideration - family's status, wealth, history, medical records, etc - there are even special archives that you can check before marrying someone. I don't know the exact data, but I've heard that about 20-30% of marriages are arranged and they are considered to be more stable and lasting than "renai kekkon" - marriage for love - because there are no strong feelings involved; the whole thing is more like a business deal.
I can believe that there are some people who are okay with that - they don't want to risk emotional pain, family's rejection or just seem to not care much about who are they marrying (I have a strong suspicion that that's the case in my boss's daughter's case; plus, she probably wants to get out of her mother's clutches. My boss is a very interesting woman, but she can also be the most overbearing person in the world...) - but for me it would be not acceptable. Who knows, maybe I'm just too emotional or I've seen one too many romantic movies.
The other thing is that the couple usually doesn't have mutual friends and they don't hang out with each other - the husband is supposed to go drinking with his collegues and the wife goes shopping with her gilrfriends. Basically, they just meet from time to time at home - they are more roommates than a couple in my opinion. But most of the Japanese girls I've talked to seem to be okay with that - they don't want their husband to meddle with their personal life. I've never broached the subject with a guy; I wonder what are their thought on the matter.
The family that I live with is very old - my boss is the 13th head of it - so they are very traditional and that is why this was an arranged marriage. "Omiai kekkon" - arranged marriage - is still very common in Japan (especially in old, rich families); after all they can't give their child away to just every family. During and omiai the smallest details are taken into consideration - family's status, wealth, history, medical records, etc - there are even special archives that you can check before marrying someone. I don't know the exact data, but I've heard that about 20-30% of marriages are arranged and they are considered to be more stable and lasting than "renai kekkon" - marriage for love - because there are no strong feelings involved; the whole thing is more like a business deal.
I can believe that there are some people who are okay with that - they don't want to risk emotional pain, family's rejection or just seem to not care much about who are they marrying (I have a strong suspicion that that's the case in my boss's daughter's case; plus, she probably wants to get out of her mother's clutches. My boss is a very interesting woman, but she can also be the most overbearing person in the world...) - but for me it would be not acceptable. Who knows, maybe I'm just too emotional or I've seen one too many romantic movies.
The other thing is that the couple usually doesn't have mutual friends and they don't hang out with each other - the husband is supposed to go drinking with his collegues and the wife goes shopping with her gilrfriends. Basically, they just meet from time to time at home - they are more roommates than a couple in my opinion. But most of the Japanese girls I've talked to seem to be okay with that - they don't want their husband to meddle with their personal life. I've never broached the subject with a guy; I wonder what are their thought on the matter.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Osaka
Jarek has to e-mail me some photos, so sorry, you'll have to wait a bit for them.
For my birthday we went to Osaka, and it was a great choice, because I think this city is the entertainment center of Japan; hundreds of shops, bars, restaurants, shopping arcades... You can basically find anything you want there.
We heard that Osaka's love hotels are famous because of their general weirdness, so we decided to embark on a journey to find one (I've obviously never been in one before, and I could only find an opportunity to visit when Jarek was here). Contrary to popular belief it's not so easy to find it - you have to stray from the main streets and find more "discreet" places, but when you finally stumble upon one, there's usually a whole lot of them in one spot. The easy way to recognize them is that they usually don't have windows, the buildings are particulary ugly and there's a sign in front of them informing you about the prices.
This part of the story ends here for obvious reasons. :P
For lunch we decided to have okonomiyaki again - but those Osaka-style are very different from the ones we ate in Hiroshima. Plus the shop owner was kind enough to give us obanyaki (hot cake with sweet bean or custard filling) as a bonus. We walked around Nanba and Nihonbashi (I will have to visit Amerika-mura to find a present for my baby brother - the stuff you can find there...) districts and then we moved to see the Osaka castle, which is really impressive, but unfortunately it's a concrete replica, as the original was destroyed during the war.
I will write more when I have the photos!
For my birthday we went to Osaka, and it was a great choice, because I think this city is the entertainment center of Japan; hundreds of shops, bars, restaurants, shopping arcades... You can basically find anything you want there.
We heard that Osaka's love hotels are famous because of their general weirdness, so we decided to embark on a journey to find one (I've obviously never been in one before, and I could only find an opportunity to visit when Jarek was here). Contrary to popular belief it's not so easy to find it - you have to stray from the main streets and find more "discreet" places, but when you finally stumble upon one, there's usually a whole lot of them in one spot. The easy way to recognize them is that they usually don't have windows, the buildings are particulary ugly and there's a sign in front of them informing you about the prices.
This part of the story ends here for obvious reasons. :P
For lunch we decided to have okonomiyaki again - but those Osaka-style are very different from the ones we ate in Hiroshima. Plus the shop owner was kind enough to give us obanyaki (hot cake with sweet bean or custard filling) as a bonus. We walked around Nanba and Nihonbashi (I will have to visit Amerika-mura to find a present for my baby brother - the stuff you can find there...) districts and then we moved to see the Osaka castle, which is really impressive, but unfortunately it's a concrete replica, as the original was destroyed during the war.
I will write more when I have the photos!
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