30. Tokyo at night

Tokyo by day is basically an eyesore, thanks to an abundance of functional rather than beautiful architecture, but by night it becomes a veritable fairyland of twinkling lights. Occasionally I have to drive through Tokyo at night, on the high speed road that is built completely above ground (no room on the ground for such a thing!) Tokyo stretches out as far as the eye can see in all directions, and takes about 30-45 minutes to drive through (longer if you encounter one of the frequent back-ups . . . ) At night all you see are the millions of lights and dim outlines of the buildings against the grey sky (the sky never gets really dark here). It’s a wonderful treat and I often wish I could stop somewhere and just take it all in.

25.-29. Aspects of the Public Bath

You’ve heard about it, I’d heard about it, I never thought I’d engage in it. But – when in Rome! And the public bath is one of the most relaxing and renewing activities I’ve ever done. Yes, we are all naked in there, but no, it’s not like the high school shower room, for some odd reason. People say that nobody looks and it’s true that you don’t see anyone staring, but come on – people are people and they look, especially at the foreigner. But it doesn’t bother me. A friend showed me the modest way to enter the bath, so I always assume they are looking because they are so taken in by that.

In Japan, it seems that if the front is covered, it’s modest. I mean, have you ever seen a sumo wrestler’s garb? Especially their ceremonial aprons – all in the front, virtually nothing in the back. I could hardly look at them when I first arrived, but time worked its wonders and I don’t even see anymore what used to stand out most. ANYway, the same principle applies in entering the public bath. You have your bath towel/washcloth combo – a very thin cloth that is longer than a standard American dishtowel, and not as wide, which you wash with and then dry with. (More on that in a second.) So if you drape said towel over your forearm, and gently cross said forearm over your chest at just the right spot, the draping towel goes down to your thighs and you are modest! Who has eyes in the back of their heads anyway?

Then, you have these little stations where you wash before entering the bath. Yes, that sounds weird, after all, isn’t a bath for washing? Well, it is in America, but in Japan it is for relaxing. So you sit on your little stool in front of a mirror, with a spigot/hand-held shower, and body soap and rinse-in-shampoo provided, and you soap up and scrub away, becoming less conscious of certain orifices with the passing years, and rinse, and you are clean enough to go relax.

26. My favorite pool at the public bath
The public bath that I frequent has several different pools. My favorite one has little silk fibers in it that gives it a milky appearance. These fibers act on your skin like the highest grade lotion imaginable; as you rub your hands over arms and legs you can almost feel them becoming soft and silky. I usually start and end with the silk pool. The effect lasts for about 24 hours.

27. Bathing outdoors
There are sitting and reclining jacuzzis too, but my other favorite thing is the outdoor part of the bath. The indoor part gets humid as you might imagine, but then to open the door and go outside is so refreshing. Never mind how close the bath is to a well trafficed road and all the attendant pollution. The outdoor part is fashioned with rocks and a waterfall, and a beautiful wood pavilion, sort of like a garden, planned for further relaxation.

28. The marble slab
Now, not every public bath has this particular marvel, but the one nearest my house has these marble slabs under the wood pavilion. You lie down on the slab, and rest your head on a marble pillow. Hot water then scoots under you across the slab, and you drape your towel modestly and just doze to the sound of tinkly music, and, in the summer, wind chimes, all while gazing at the beautiful wood ceiling (that is, when your eyes are open.) I know it doesn’t sound that comfortable, but I feel like I could sleep there all night. To be honest, it didn’t look that comfortable at first, but I have learned that my eyes are not always the best gauge, and gave it a try, and found a new favorite thing! And I can’t explain it, but it works even in the winter.

I will end by assuring you that there is a separate bath for men and women, although little boys bathe with their mothers. In fact, 29. I must include seeing wet, naked children as another favorite aspect of the experience (however, who is looking? . . . ) especially as I haven’t had any of my own. Glistening fat little Japanese cherubs. Of course, when they get fussy, there is absolutely nothing in the public bath that absorbs sound, so . . .

Oh, and about washing and drying with the same towel. I knew I had “been in Japan too long when” I found myself thinking one day “I can get drier with a wet towel.” But, the bath is hot, and as you wipe the excess water from your body, and continually wring out the towel, evaporation takes over, and your skin ends up feeling nice and moisterized. There is a sink area right by the exit for this procedure. Of course, many people keep actual bath towels in the changing room, but I think they are superfluous.

24. Persimmon Trees

Persimmon trees look awesome! Persimmons are a bright orange fruit that appears on the trees in the autumn after the leaves have fallen. So on the rare clear day you might get to see the bare branches adorned with the orange orbs against a background of blue sky, a beautiful visual metaphor for “bearing fruit in old age.”

23. Uniforms

If anything is the anathema of individualistic Americans it is wearing a uniform. But to Japanese people, a uniform helps to put you in the mood for whatever you are doing. So throughout society, you see uniforms. School uniforms, of course, starting in junior high, although elementary kids have their backpacks, as well as a gym uniform, a uniform for when it is their turn to serve lunch, and a colorful beanie type cap or helmet that is worn to and from school to make them more easily seen. In high school the uniform proclaims to all the world which high school you were able to get into, since high school is not compulsory, and only comes to those who pass a rigorous exam. Each company has a uniform, gas station attendants have a uniform, store clerks, tour guides on busses. Even housewives have a uniform although it mainly consists of wearing a chef’s apron, and when I first arrived in Japan it was not at all uncommon to see women in their aprons at the bank and post office.

So I’ve come to appreciate the uniform. It makes a clean demarcation between work and play, and makes those in service-oriented employment very easy to identify. Although the school uniform is tremendously expensive, it is all the students needs (well, a winter and a summer one), and eliminates all the flap about appropriateness of T-shirts, jeans, holes, etc., although some of the girls’ skirts are so short they must not be within the regulations. But nothing seems to happen so perhaps, since I see them outside of school, they are merely rolled up at the waist, which is a pity since otherwise I could wax on about modesty.

The only segment of society that does not seem to have a uniform are college kids. But then college is considered a rather free interlude between the rigors of the college entrance exam and the obligations of working for a company, because basically, if you get into college, the college then more or less has the obligation to graduate you, so in my experience as a freshman English teacher, large sections of it go by without much studying – and therefore with much freedom.

But I digress from my subject. Uniforms also fit the group nature of Japanese culture. In your uniform, you can really feel like part of the group, I suppose. I have come to like uniforms, but as an American I am still looking at them as an outsider and speculating on why they are so prevalent.

22. Elementary kids walking to school

In Japan, elementary school students must walk to school. They cannot be driven by parents, and there are no school buses for them. They cannot ride their bicycles; that is a privelege reserved for junior high. I knew some kids who lived too far from their school to walk the whole way; these kids were given leave to take the public bus as far as the train station, and they walked to school from there, which was about a kilometer each way (.6 of a mile).

Why do I like this? Built in exercise! Not only do they walk, but elementary kids carry these really heavy looking leather backpacks, in general red for girls and black for boys (although this is changing). So they get aerobic, weight-bearing exercise every day of a longer school year (at least three weeks longer than the American system.)

Still, I am appalled to see so many more overwieght Japanese kids now then when I first arrived in 1989, when I rarely saw one. But since that time there has been a proliferation of McDonalds and GameBoy and other video amusements that keep many kids indoors on their rumps when they could be out running around and socializing. The diet industry is also burgeoning here, no surprise. And all the while the traditional diet was healthy and there is still much exercise built into daily life. Fitness for modern people everywhere is a battle!

21. The Japanese sense of “cute”

Hello Kitty epitomizes the Japanese sense of “cute.” They love cute things, and my own sense of “cute” has changed with living here. For example, I used to think that the Pillsbury Dough Boy was really cute, but they didn’t, and I couldn’t understand it. But now, I can see that they mean. American attempts at “cute” or even “funny” don’t usually cut it for me anymore. The artwork in one of my ESL texts, for example, was on the grotesque side, and I’m sure counterproductive to the students. I mean, who wants to look at hideous charactures?

(Picture shows a happy Japanese family, Mom and Dad dressed for shopping with their little munchkin in her jumper in between them. This is on the outside wall of the Japanese “Dollar Store” – really 100 yen store.)

Cute Japanese lady on a candy box wrapper

I’m drawn to wonder what Americans have against cute. What is it in our national character that recoils at something precious, like Hello Kitty, or even a baby. Why do we call them “rug rats” and think that is funny? I recall a small American missionary kid here who told me that Hello Kitty was “too cute for her.” (Wonder where she heard that? It was far too precocious a statement to have originated with her . . . ) Too cute? I’ll take cute any day! I have come to really like cute! Give me Hello Kitty, or Muffy, a rabbit drawn by a European that is very popular here.

But there is one thing they have here that I don’t think is cute – these raccoon statues that sit outside many bars. Also, their gods and temple dogs – frightening and repulsively ugly. But basically what confronts a person living here day by day is cute, cute, cute, which is nice and endearing. I want to live in a cute world!

20. Toilet rooms

In a Japanese house, the toilet is always in its own little room, which makes for very convenient sharing with family members or roommates. Three different people can all be ensconced in the toilet, at the sink or in the bath – at the same time with no interference! Having the toilet in a separate room also keeps a nice atmosphere for the room that houses the bath, both figuratively and literally. No toilet in there to distract from the relaxation and pretty thoughts that one should enjoy when bathing. Altogether a great idea!

19. Little toilet sinks

We talk about “Yankee ingenuity” and I think of that phrase just about every time I see a little “toilet sink” – precisely because we Yankees didn’t invent them! Of course, necessity is the mother of invention, and the necessity was to have a sink in a toilet room, which usually does not have space for a sink. So, the back of many Japanese western-style toilets is not a place for lining up your powders and lotions, but is actually a little sink! It’s a very no-frills sink to be sure, with a very simple faucet and a small hole under the faucet that drains directly into the toilet tank. So, after you flush, you can rinse your hands off in the clean water that is rerouted through the faucet before it refills the tank. Very clever!