Drink Machines, Kleenexes, and Irony

There are two great sins in Japanese society.  If you fail to take your shoes off before entering someone's home, you will never be forgiven.  Less serious, but nearly as unappealing to the Japanese is blowing or wiping your nose in public (and most especially at the table).  And, the circumstances don't matter.  I ate lunch with a friend at the faculty and staff dining room at one of the universities here and her nose began to run.  She ate the entire meal snuffling and sniffling and trying to keep the snot out of her food. But...she did NOT wipe her nose.  Had the cafeteria had a bathroom, she would have excused herself to the privacy of the stall for a good blow. But, there was no bathroom and she did not violate the no wiping code. 

I'm not sure how the no blowing/wiping more came to be, but the great irony is that kleenexes are used as advertisements for everything from salons to restaurants to big events coming up.  Nearly everyday I am handed a small, pocket-sized packet of kleenexes.  People stand on streetcorners, at subway stations, on busy sidewalks handing out these kleenexes.  Why do I need a pocket or purse sized pack?  Why take kleenex with you at all since you can't use them in public?

Far less serious than blowing your nose is the unspoken rule that you don't eat or drink while walking or on the street.  I think I mentioned in an earlier blog that even in the dead heat of summer I never saw anyone pull out a bottle of water for a sip.  The Japanese walk miles a day and in the summer heat must get really thirsty. But, they don't walk and drink.  I think I did mention that, but did I mention the total proliferation of drink machines? About every 10-15 yards you encounter one or more drink machines with everything from orange juice (Yako percento--100%), soda, and coffee drinks to beer (usually Kiran).  But, basically if you want to use the machines you either put the drink in your bag until you get somewhere private or you hover by the machine trying to half-hide behind it as you guiltily down the drinks.

In a way, Japan is liking stepping back into America of the 1950s.  The men wear suits (usually navy blue, dark gray, or black) to work and the women wear pumps.  I wonder how the Japanese dressed for work before World War II. Did they wear traditional Japanese clothing?  Are these suits a hold over of American business dress from a long time ago? 

There are other things that are like a time gone by, too.  You really have to go shopping nearly everyday.  Things are made for single consumption--tiny packages of ground beef or chicken, tiny boxes of cereal, small, small, small.  And, the people you meet tend to all have a profession (not just a job until they get on to something better). There is the Isetan uniform lady with the measuring tape around her neck to figure out what size pants your child needs and to call in the measurements to the seamstress who hems the legs before the pants are delivered to your door in a box tied up with string by a tidy man in a little uniform.  There are the noodle makers at the numerous little ramen and udon restaurants and the ubiquitous little old ladies who carry the noodles to your table and, if you are a henna gaijin (crazy foreigner), instruct you in what sauce goes on what.  There are the grocery delivery people (not young men, by the way, but old, wrinkled guys who have delivered junk to peoples' doors for half a century or more) and the guys who clean streets.  Yes, you actually see guys with a bucket and sponge cleaning off the sidewalks and streets. Japan is very service oriented.

We are finally done with the rain today. It is typhoon season and it's been cold and wet. But today the sky is bright blue above the skyrises with big puffy clouds.  I figured out how to open some of our windows. Of course, the air comes in, but not much else. We are about three feet from the next big building with a cinder block wall in between. So, no view.  But, fall is nice all the same.