Wow, Japan.  Seriously, everyone must make a trip out here once.  I’ve been slacking on blogging because there is so much to write about and I wanted to use all of my time out here properly.  I never take any pictuers of anything, and I have already taken over a hundred pics around Japan in about 4 days.  I’m going to have to tell things out of order.  There are some really interesting sights and history, but what makes the trip worthwhile is studying the people.   There are a lot of things that stick out, so I’ll start with one for now:

Everything is orderly

-Much has been written about this, but seeing it first hand has really been interesting: I live in New York.  You can’t walk for one minute in New York without seeing someone jaywalk or jaywalking yourself.  The first day I was in Japan walking in some of the busiest intersections where sometimes no cars were even close, I may have seen one or two people jaywalk. 

-Hard to really give examples, but everything from the way food is displayed to the way people walk around, is neat and orderly.

-The biggest example for me came at the baseball game on Friday night.  I was lucky enough to score tickets to watch the Yomiuri Giants play against the Hiroshima Carp.  (The Giants are like the Yankees in Japan, and oddly enough, they use the SF Giants color scheme as the Carp use the Cincinnati Reds color scheme).  If you’ve been to a baseball game in the states before, you have probably seen: people heckling fans of opposing teams, shouting at players after bad plays, booing, a drunken brawl, making up signs and dancing around to corny stadium music.  None of this occurred on Friday night at the game. 

Instead, it was like attending an choreographed pep rally.   The outfield seats are called the standing section (I didn’t sit there, big mistake, a must do if you go) because fans are perpetually standing and cheering during the game.  But not just cheering, they are led in a coordinated cheer by these cheering section leaders who wear white gloves or red shirts.  They have about 10-15 different, seemingly rehearsed cheers and songs that they go through whenever their side is up.  I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it with my own eyes.  Even more amazing, when the visiting team bats, they sit there quietly and let the visitors do their own chanting.  No heckling.  If it wasn’t for constant hawking of (really expensive) beer, it would have felt like watching baseball in Disneyland.  The Yomiuri Giants won 3-0 by the way.  I’ve uploaded a couple of pics to give you a sense. 

Beer

Exhibit 2-$8 beers? At least some things never change.

Outside 

Exhibit 3-Outside of the “Big Egg” wearing my Giants colors. 

I have two videos that I will try to put here.  One more observation then I have to get going…

The complete (and nonsensical) paradox of English

People don’t really speak English that much in Japan.  Younger people (particularly women according to my guidebook) speak English a little, but its usually broken and spoken sheepishly.  This is completely understandable (as a sidenote the Japanese people have been so polite and nice, that this has not really caused me much trouble in my travels). 

But then why is there English everywhere?  All the department stores have tags and signs written in English.  Kids are wearing shirts with English inscriptions who don’t speak or understand a word of it.  When batters came up to the plate during the game, loud obnoxious rap would blare, including “I’m gonna knock you out” by LL Cool J.  A classy department store in Ebisu plays “Ms. New Booty.”  Some of the cheers from Giants fans were in English.  All the subway and bus signs (thank god) in Kyoto AND Tokyo have English subscripts below.  Sinatra music plays in restaurants.  

I know that this is a phenomenon that is not at all unique to Japan, but it is a very stark contrast with how little English is actually spoken here.