Hi hi! Last weekend we had the opportunity to visit Oarai city's "Aqua World", a pleasant aquarium beside a beach located in Ibaraki prefecture. Like everyone mentioned, we were able to see a great variety of Ibaraki sea creatures, from tiny jellyfish to shark eggs, porpoises, and deep sea dwellers. I was surprised to see many vending machines, including ice cream vending machines in the aquarium. Although vending machines are abundant at every street corner here in Japan, I was not expecting to find so many within the aquarium.
The structure of the aquarium reminded me of a mall. While Sea World in San Diego is wide and requires much walking outside amongst the different venues, the Oarai aquarium was one entire building and visiting the different attractions required much stair-climbing. At the highest floor of the aquarium, after observing all the fish, I ate sashimi in the food court while observing people surfing at the beach below us. 
Also, at the gift shop, there was an overflowing abundance of phone straps. Phone straps are extremely popular, and many people carry cellphones with 4 or more colorful and decorative phone straps.
Convenience
The following picture was taken in Keisei, a very expensive Japanese department store. By looking at the brand names sold in Keisei, I believe it is the equivalent to America's Neiman Marcus.
Interestingly, in our pop culture class, we learned that this department store is owned by the major railway company, Keisei, so Keisei stores are strategically placed near train stations for people to shop as they travel. (Public transportation is an essential and expensive aspect of living in Japan, so if you plan on coming to Japan and traveling within Japan, prepare for most of your money to go to the bus and train expenses). In any case, I am mentioning the department store, because within this Keisei, each floor has two ascending and descending escalators on both sides so that you do not have to walk around to the other side if you would like to go down or up. This is another example of convenience in Japan.
Language
On another note, although I have never played basketball nor do I know how to play basketball, I was able to play a few rounds with one of the Sensei's from the Communications department here in Tokiwa as well as James, Kristine, and some of our friends from Fresno. At first, we spoke very formally with the Sensei, but during the game, all of us students found ourselves speaking to him informally because we were so out of breath and in the heat of the game that we did not have the brain energy or the time to speak in the formal tense. We students found ourselves correcting ourselves and apologizing for speaking informally, but the Sensei responded "Daijoubi, shiai da kara", letting us know that it was acceptable to speak informally during the basketball game. We appreciated his understanding and after the game ended and we rehydrated, we reverted to speaking to the Sensei in formal tense. Apparently, there are specific tenses that are acceptable only during sports games (and other similarly heated events such as police chases), which, if used in any other situations, could be considered rude and offending.
I have to say the most amazing thing about being in Japan is witnessing the language and its characteristics in varying societal contexts. In the example of the basketball game, the context of the basketball game overrode the hierarchical relationship between us students and the Sensei. As a foreigner, I feel that the hardest part about the societal contexts and hierarchy in Japan is finding out and understanding where you fit in each situation. For example, I felt awkward when my roommate who is younger than me called me Senpai. As another example, even amongst really close friends, younger students or students of a lower class level use formal tense when speaking to their friends who are older (even if the age difference is just 1 year) or if the friend is in a class year higher. Of course, since I did not grow up in Japan, for the most part, I am not expected to follow, let alone be aware of or understand, all the politeness levels within the Japanese language and their appropriate usages. Despite that, all of us exchange students try to exercise caution, since we do not want accidentally offend the people around us.
Till next time,
Germaine
No comments:
Post a Comment