First Contact: Arrival in Japan

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One difficulty that the average western traveler faces in Asian countries is that asian writing has absolutely no connection to western writing. Consequently, without significant training, it's impossible to read the signs. This has been eloquently pointed out by many writers such as Dave Barry. (See Dave Barry Does Japan.)

I was aware of this problem before arriving in Japan and we were fortunate enough to have a woman on the ship who spoke Japanese and who was willing to hold a few classes in potentially important Japanese phrases and symbols. Unfortunately, since Japan was our first destination, we only had time for a few classes and there is a lot of writing in Japan.

Although I diligently attended every class, I could only politely ask for beer and ice cream and say "thank you" by the time we arrived. I could also identify a couple of written city names by holding up the piece of paper I had them written on and carefully comparing what was was in my hand to what was on the sign. Needless to say, this was not a speedy process.

We disembarked in Kobe, Japan on a warm, muggy afternoon in September of 1984. The S.S. Universe was docked within walking distance of a mostly enclosed pedestrian mall and a train station. Several of us had arranged to take the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) to Tokyo later in the evening and we decided to walk around and explore a little bit in the time we had before leaving.

On this occasion, our entire group was present, me, Luke, Chris, and Jeff, as well as a couple of women. We passed pachinko parlors and the legendary vending machines with beer and condoms and marvelled. Once we reached the mall, the group dispersed a little. Small subgroups were distracted by things that caught their attention.

I ended up in a small clothing shop with Luke, Chris, and Jeff. Luke was excited about being in Japan and decided that he wanted to buy some piece of clothing to commemorate our arrival. He busily looked through the racks with sales women in tow. Chris also looked through the clothes but without any intention of buying and Jeff patiently waited for us to move on to the next point of interest. I was still trying to get a feeling for where we were and stood back to watch what was happening in the store.

The first thing I noticed was that the sales women seemed nervous. They smiled and covered their mouths to laugh often in a slightly embarrassed self-conscious way. I had heard that it was typical for Japanese women to cover their mouths and laugh. It's a gesture that is traditionally considered to convey cuteness. But these women seemed slightly more agitated than you would expect. I chalked it up to nervousness from having several young foriegn men invade their store.

Despite their disquiet, the sales women helped Luke as best they could. He carefully considered several different articles of clothing, holding them up in front of himself and sometimes walking over to a mirror to get a sense of how something he particularly liked might look. After a few minutes, he settled on a slightly unusual sweater with half-length sleeves and asked to try it on. This really caused a stir among the sales women. They looked somewhat shocked and talked and laughed among themselves. Nonetheless, after a brief pause, they dutifully led him to a fitting room.

Curious about the sales women's reaction, I decided to look more closely at our surroundings. Some of the clothes were clearly women's clothes, bright dresses and skirts. Others were more ambiguous. There were tops and shirts and pants that could have fit either sex. However, I noticed that all of the mannequins were female and all of the employees were female.

The sales women's reaction suddenly made sense. I called Chris over, quickly pointed out the things I had noticed, and told him my conclusion. By that time, Luke had come out of the dressing room and was calling us over to model the sweater for us. I took him aside and quietly told him where he was. He turned a bit red but decided that he would try to save face by quickly purchasing the sweater and pretending that he had known what he was doing all along. We left the store as quickly as we could. Once we left the store, Luke insisted on continuing to wear the sweater to reinforce the idea that he had intentionally gone into a women's store and bought a woman's sweater.

At this point, you might be wondering about Luke. Don't worry. He's okay. You'd be surprized at the unusual things people will do when they're removed from their familiar cultural context. Well-mannered, well-intentioned, rational people can do bizarre or even outright rude things when they don't clearly understand what's happening around them. Unfortunately, we were to experience this more than once during our travels. For another example which may not improve your opinion of Luke or me, see What's This?!?

Last modified: Tue Jul 25 16:57:18 CDT 2000