First off, let me start by saying that I wish not to offend anyone by this post. I am simply writing about cultural differences and my feelings as a westerner living in Japan. The Japanese culture is a very complex one. Even living here two seasons, I can honestly say I have only discovered a small layer in a multi-layered culture. As a westerner, I have had moments of love and hate with Japan. The love mostly outweighs the hate, but the moments of disappointment have been hurtful. I was advised not to write about my experiences because I might offend, but I think enough time passed by for me to look at them as lessons and not go on a hateful bashing rant. This week's news has shed new light on some of my low points with the Japanese culture and helped me open my eyes to a new cultural understanding. The news has been buzzing over a Japanese pop-star named Minegishi Minami, of the AKB48 group, and her "sex" scandal, that has caused her to shave her head in shame. This scandal included nothing more than sleeping over at her boyfriend's house and getting photographed leaving early in the morning. For Americans, just your typical walk of shame, but for the Japanese it's a huge media scandal that caused the girl to be demoted from the group. It's unbelievably amazing how different two cultures would have reacted to this. I think most of us wouldn't think anything of it and even calling it a scandal sounds a bit dramatic. I feel very sorry for her. Even though I don't speak Japanese, watching her public apology was very moving. Reading some of the articles associated with the scandal has lead me to finally understand a part of the Japanese culture that I previously was unaware of and helped explain why some sport teams don't include family members in their regular team events and dinners (note: some not all). I remember sitting in our tiny Japanese apartment on the verge of tears because I couldn't fathom the idea of family not being included. After all, we were there alone and leaving out a family member to make their husband seem available was beyond shocking and disrecpetful to me. I was so unbelievably hurt and if I heard one more person tell me that this was the "Japanese way" I would have punched them in the face. Truly. Reflecting on it now, I still have a hard time coming to terms with it, but seem to understand it just as a culutral difference. Pop-stars, sports figures, newscasters, actors and anyone in the public eye are told to refrain from relationships or to keep them a secret. Gosh forbid, you lose a couple of single fans! They say fans would feel less personally connected to the stars who they think might have romantic lives. This is so different than in the west! Family is treated equally and always included in activities. Family comes first, which I believe strongly. Now I look at it as an experience, an adventure, in a new culture and am beyond thankful to have experienced it, in a strange way. Japan is a unique country with so much to offer, yet for a Westerner it can be hard to understand. Life is one big adventure, no matter how we look at it..."it's 10% what happens and 90% how you react to it." One more lesson learned and one more cultural mystery solved! Oh Japan, why do you have to be so confusing at times? ;) On a related "head shaved" note, in Asia shaving your hair is a sign of remorse and redemption. Hmmm, is that what people are thinking of my new shaved haircut?! Oh no, I wasn't planning on making a cultural statement, just trying something new. I promise! ;)
As a general rule of thumb, I have always avoided getting my hair done overseas. I have always thought it would be one of those lost in translation moments where I come in for a little trim and come out with half of my head shaved, wondering what went wrong. Well this time, I just decided to take the plunge and actually shave half my head! Yup, only in Japan would I have enough courage to actually go from idolizing a haircut on TV to actually getting it done myself. So last week, one of my friends was going in for a touch up and invited me to come along. I have been going back and forth for weeks and finally mustered enough courage for a more edgy cut. We arrived at the hair salon where a staff of five greeted us, took our coats and pointed us in the direction of two chairs next to each other. A funky male hair dresser, dressed in tight pants, punk styled blonde hair and painted nails approached me....I thought if anyone was going to give me this haircut it was going to be this guy! With the help of my trusty translator and my Iphone filled with pictures, he got the idea and started cutting my hair. As I saw my long curly hair fall to the floor, my heart started pounding and my hands got sweaty. Eeek! Thankfully a hand massage lady approached me and gave me an awesome hand massage, which put my mind at ease. Minutes later half of my head was exposed while my funky hair dresser was cutting my hair shorter and shorter. All with scissors mind you, which I thought was very impressive! Then came the other side. I couldn't help but to think... "it's only hair, it will grow back! But.... people already stare at me here, what will they think if they see this weird American lady with half of her head shaved?! Will little kids run screaming to their moms?! Deep breathe...It's only hair....It's only hair...." It was too late and my doubts were actually starting to ease up. It's a funny feeling, it takes you 28 years to grow your hair that certain "perfect" length and only a couple of minutes to chop it all off. It was also interesting to observe how a salon operates in Japan. While I was getting my hair washed and styled, three different people worked on it. I was getting it dried by two different people at the same time and then two were combing out my locks. Everyone at the salon worked together in harmony instead of one person working with one client. I left the salon feeling all giddy and absolutely LOVED my new hair cut! Plus, the whole thing cost me 1,900 Yen! Amazing...that's a little more than $20. And you don't tip at hair salons! Say what?!
So thank you funky hair dresser for jazzing up my look and giving me an awesome first overseas hair salon experience! It’s official we live in the tundra. I was skeptical at first and wanted to give Akita the benefit of the doubt…after all, the city is located on the same latitude as Denver, Colorado (or for my Midwest peeps like Indianapolis) so my initial thought process was that it wouldn’t be terribly cold and snowy. Man, was I wrong! So now it is OFFICIAL that our little Japanese home is located in the frozen tundra. Being from the Midwest I thought I saw my fair share of snow. However, I wasn’t expecting this constant amount of snow. It has literally snowed EVERYDAY. So most days I just want to stay in the house and hide underneath a warm blanket with our hot water bottle (Thanks Shan!) I don't think I have ever seen so much snow (actually that is a lie, I did see more snow last season when we drove to Niigata. But seeing it and saying “oh my gosh, this is insane” and snapping a couple of pictures is much different than living in it day to day.) We were told that February is supposed to be THE snowy month. (Are you serious?! So this is just the snowy appetizer before the main blizzard?!) Deep breathe. I look forward to it. I look forward to it. I look forward to it. Maybe if I say it enough I will believe it. So I look forward to the snow and digging ourselves out of it…or maybe just looking forward to taking pictures of my neighbors shoveling snow. Speaking of our neighbors, they must hate me because anytime I see them shoveling our parking lot I just give them a nice little “konnichiwa” and keep walking. Then I hide behind the building and take their picture. And then take a picture of myself. Just in case you didn't believe how cold or snowy it is. People don’t shovel or plow the roads here. Well actually they do, but they can't keep up with the constant amount of snow. The snow keeps building up and then freezes, so essentially cars end up driving on a layer of ice! It’s the craziest thing! I was told that putting salt on the roads is too expensive so it’s only done on the highways. Wowza, we must really be spoiled in the States. I am still trying to figure out how these small Japanese cars don’t spin all over the roads. Even walking on the sidewalk is challenging…mounds and mounds of snow that are starting to turn into snowy tunnels. It's going to be interesting winter...bring on the blizzards February!
This morning I woke up to a strange loud buzzing noise. I checked the whole apartment and couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Since we live next door to a tractor dealership or tractor repair shop (Yup, I am not kidding!) I thought the noise was coming from there. I went back to bed and didn't think anything of it, until the noise started up again. Then the sirens started to blare in the distance and a medium sized fire truck pulled up to our apartment. Confused and flustered, I ran to the bathroom to brush my teeth...apparently that was my first reaction to a potential fire in our building. I heard the firefighters in our hallway and then a knock at our door. "Ohayou...something...something...sumimasen....something..." I just stared at him and gave him my "I don't speak Japanese" shrug and smile. Another firefighter came to the door and said "noise....buzzing." Yes, there was noise and buzzing so I just told them they could come in. I had no idea what they were saying and wanted to play it safe incase there was some kind of a gas leak in our apartment. Instead of barging through, they took off their shoes at the door and walked in to check the apartment. Seriously, how courteous!! In the States, they would just shove me aside. Apparently, there was nothing wrong with our apartment so they continued to check the building. I was left confused, should I be getting out? Is there a real fire? I figured if they were polite enough to take off their shoes then they would be polite enough to save me in case of a real fire! I still have no idea what happened...I am assuming it was a false alarm because our building manager and a couple of people stayed in the lobby long after the firefighters left, while the alarm continued to go off. For some reason these things tend to happen to me when Dan is away. In Argentina they shut off our power when the team went to Ecuador for five days. I was also left confused and shrugging my shoulders to our building manager, who came to warn me that our power is being shut off. Gotta love life overseas! At least I got my shrug and smile down ;)
The Happinets hosted a fan event at a big Aeon mall in Omagori City, which is located about an hour southeast of Akita City. (Oddly enough most malls in Japan are called Aeon, I am still not sure why that is.) The event took place right in the middle courtyard, where all fans gathered to meet the team. I have to admit, it was very neat to see! There must have been a couple hundred people there all patiently waiting to hear the players talk, shake their hands and get their autographs. There was a huge blue mat laid out on the floor where some fans were sitting. The fans occupying the mat all had their shoes off! Very interesting, you would never see that in the States or anywhere in Europe. Other fans and curious onlookers occupied the sides as well as the upper atrium of the mall. The first part of the program was hosted by the cheerleaders, who introduced the fans to what I like to call, the "towel cheer." In the second half of every home game all the fans take out their pink Happinets towels and do a chorographed cheer. Check it out! I love the music and hope to learn the cheer at the upcoming home game. After the whole team came out, each player introduction himself and talked a little about their intentions for the 2012-2013 season. Most players mentioned that their goal was to bring the championship to Akita this season. Wooohoo! Bring it, please! Then all the players paired up with a fan to do a free throw contest. Check out Dan and his partner square off against Anthony Kent and his partner. Dan said he didn't want to cheat and use the backboard....haha! Sure, sure...I am sure that was the case because he is great at free throws. ;) While the contest continued I snuck off to go to Kaldi Farms, an international store, to buy a $100 worth of salsa, jalepenos, canned beans, tortillas, and hot sauce. Yum! Have I mentioned how much we love Mexican food and miss it when we live abroad?! Overall, the event Aeon in Omagari City was absolutely great and we were both very thankful we could be apart of it. Go Go Happinets!
Spending holidays away from family is never easy. Since last year's Christmas proved to be disappointing we were not sure what to expect of our holiday celebration in Japan this year. Last season my cousin and I missed the last train from Tokyo to Sendai and had to sleep at the Tokyo train station on Christmas day. Plus to our surprise the train station closed down in the middle of the night and we spent the majority of our night at a 24 hour noodle shop, where we Skyped with family and ate noodles for 5 hours. So as you could imagine, it was a little disheartening but definitely a Christmas to remember! This year's celebrations were much more in the spirit of Christmas! No noodles, no sleeping at a train station, just Christmas trees, music and celebrating. On Sunday, right after the home victory against the Saitama Broncos, the team hosted a Christmas party for the boosters and fans. The event took place at a fancy hotel in Akita City and was very nicely organized. All the players were introduced, then mingled with fans, took lots of pictures, signed dozens of signatures and even played BINGO. I even won a t-shirt at BINGO! On Christmas Eve, along with the other Americans, we were invited to a Korean BBQ restaurant in the Kawabata district of Akita. Korean BBQ is very popular in Japan! Basically you order raw meat and vegetables and then grill it on a personal table grill. We love it and wish the US had similar restaurants. We ate so much food and by the end of Christmas Eve we had a major food coma. We are very thankful for the wonderful and memorable Christmas celebrations! ありがとうございます。 メーリークリスマス Meerii Kurisumasu from Japan!
We are very happy to be back in Japan for another season in the BJ League. Dan recently signed a contract with the Akita Northern Happinets in Akita, Japan. Akita City is located on the northwest part of the island, so this season we are preparing for lots of snow and a much colder winter. The town of Akita is smaller than Sendai but still has a fairly large population of around 300,000. For what it lacks in size it definitely makes up with basketball fans, as the support for the team here is unbelievable!! One explanation might be that the Happinets are the only professional team in Akita but the other, more probable one, is that Akita is known as the "Japanese Kingdom of Basketball." How cool is that?! The team, boosters, and fans have been extremely welcoming both to Dan and me. We are very excited to be back in Japan and can't wait to see Akita Northern Happinets raise the BJ League Championship trophy! Check out the cool Akita Happinets uniforms!
This is going to be Dan's first time wearing a pink uniform. We lived in Buenos Aires for six weeks and in those weeks we tried to fully emerged ourselves in the Argentine culture. Our fun facts are based on our experiences plus some cultural insight. They are in no way supposed to offend, only provide a funny take of a couple of gringos living in South America. Enjoy! FOOD & DRINK
TRANSPORTATION
SAFETY
CULTURE & MISCELLANEOUS
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