.com
I learnt a new expression on the weekend which sums up perfectly the effect of having stayed in Japan for too long - Heiwa Boke. Heiwa means peace and boke means feeble minded, in that living somewhere as safe and peaceful as Japan switches you off from the ‘real-world’ where you get used to a kind of idyllic society where nothing bad ever happens.
Nichibei Japanese Language School class of '02, 2007
The person who taught me this expression illustrated it with a story of when she was on the subway on the way to her high school in Tokyo. She said she noticed the man standing infront of her put down a small package wrapped in newspaper on the floor of the carriage, unwrap it to reveal a hospital drip bag full of liquid, and proceed to pierce the bag with his umbrella tip. The next thing she remembers was a strong smell like nail varnish remover, and finding her lungs refusing to open. The event was the 1995 Tokyo subway Sarin gas attacks.
Everyone else in her carriage noticed the smell, but unlike her, chose not to get off at the next stop, and instead no doubt assumed that nothing could possibly be wrong in their super-safe little worlds, and that the difficulty to breathe would pass. They all died from lung poisoning.
The girl went to a station attendant and explained what had happened, but was just told she must have been mistaken. Then at school later that day, her teachers thought that her complaints of breathing difficulty were just an excuse to get out of P.E., and only when at the end of the day the death toll had started and people were starting to realise what was happening, that the police came to the school to inquire into witnesses, and everyone finally listened to the little girl.
Before I heard this amazing story, I thought that sarin killed instantly upon inhalation, but infact, you can recognize your breathing getting harder, but just like when you hold your breath, you can move around as normal until you find somewhere easier to breathe. However, all the people in the carriage chose to believe that nothing could possibly be going wrong, and chose to stay on despite their breathing difficulty, making ultimately their final decision.
Hamamatsu Kite Festival 2003
Japan in many ways is a very naive society. For the first few years of living here I was so amazed by everyone’s kindness and almost child-like outlook on the world. Anyone young I talked to who hadn’t yet ventured out from their island home couldn’t grasp the concept that I came from a county where fights in pubs or on the street at night happen every week and no one even blinks an eye. I’ve been out here in Tokyo for 5 years and have only ever seen two fights...and I was involved in both of them! Going out once or twice a week at night in a major capital city and not seeing any violence, or never even feeling threatened is probably unique to Japan.
Hamamatsu Kite Festival 2003
Narita airport has possibly the most lax customs I’ve ever experienced. It’s almost like they have absolutely no comprehension that someone could be carrying anything illegal.
People walking in the street wearing mouth-masks are wearing them to stop spreading germs, not catching them such as in China.
I’ve heard lots of stories of people dropping their wallets in the street or on trains, only to find them handed in at the nearby police boxes the next day.
Occasionally, as of late, a crime occurs that is so morbid that it makes world-wide mass-media, and people are quick to label Japan as the home of gruesome rape-related crimes, whereas the truth is that in any other country with average (?) crime rates, many would never even fall on international ears.
I went to an open air festival last month with Mitsuo, Morito and Atsu, and on the reggae stage in between the MC shouting out things in Japanese such as “All the girls rub your nipples!”, he’d slip in “and remember, all you reggae boys and girls out there, put all your litter in the bins - let’s not pollute!”. I was expecting everyone to start jeering, but no one even batted an eyelid. Then at the end of the festival, the thousands of people who’d been dancing outside to trance, reggae, hip-hop or whatever, obediently obeyed the DJ’s final request that everyone take a plastic bag and start picking up all the dropped litter from the ground. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing - can you imagine them trying that at Glastonbury?!
Nagisa Music Festival 2007
As long as you never leave Japan, the society is in many ways idyllic, and you’d have very little to complain about. It’s just that when you decide that you’ve had enough of living in this hazy candid heiwa boke tat you find yourself totally unprepared for the rest of the ‘real-world’.
Hamamatsu Kite Festival 2003
Now you know why you always see Japanese tourists in London walking around with their brand-name wallets and mobile phones poking out of their back pockets, and why they’re always inevitably victim to pick-pockets, almost literally taking candy from a baby.
.com