Handkerchiefs

Handkerchiefs appear to be a necessity in the Japanese lifestyle. Hand towels are not provided in restrooms, dinner napkins don't exist, and in the summer it is so humid everyone is dripping with sweat, it turns out Handkerchiefs can help out in all of these situations. Until now, I haven't gotten into the handkerchief thing but, having won some at my team holiday party, I think today is as good a day as any to try it out.

Wash your hands and...

...Gargle. I just inadvertently got the story on the gargling that I witness going on in my office bathrooms everyday. Apparently from a young age children are asked, "did you wash your hands and gargle?" after emerging from the bathroom. It is a common Japanese belief that keeping your throat moist will help keep you healthy.

Men Carrying Women's Purses

Note: He is carrying her purse (and its not an unusual thing to see)

Sick Masks

It is common to see Japanese people wearing surgical masks when sick to prevent the spread of germs, Wikipedia even mentions this in their entry on surgical masks. In the office today I observed a major fault with this precaution. In my office each person doesn't have an individual desk phone, instead an extension is shared between several people. When a mask wearer answers the community phone they remove their mask in order to speak, is there an easier way to spread germs than with a phone receiver? A second problem I have with the sick masks is what overkill they seam to be, when from my observations hand washing isn't a common habit (reference 9-11-08 post).

Mouse Tapping

Mouse tapping, which I define as, repeatedly picking up and tapping back down ones mouse rather than moving it smoothly across the desk surface, is rapidly becoming my pet peeve. In a CAD room with 80 people all that tapping adds up quickly. To make things worse the factory next to the building that I work in is being demolished and late last week they finished taking down the structure and started with jackhammers on the foundation. I would like to wear headphones, but I haven't seen anyone else use them and I'm not brave enough to be that kind of a rebel yet.

"Bless You"

I've yet to get past my urge to say it when I hear someone sneeze or over feeling a bit wronged when no one says it to me. I think that one year is going to be too short for me to unlearn my American customary responses. In a related reoccurring situation, the exit from the ladies restroom is a blind corner that often results in near collisions, each time I want to immediately yell "Sorry"but end up speechless as I try to recall, sumimasen, the Japanese for 'excuse me'.

Ladies What's with the Gargling?

The bathroom hand washing situation in the office is outside my comfort zone. There is thin soap that doesn't require water to get it sudsy, and most people don't bother to use it (None of the Japanese homes I have visited have even had soap in the bathroom). After rinsing their hands many ladies splash some water in their mouths, gargle and spit, this seams to be repeated a few times to achieve a satisfactory result, whatever than may be.

I'm Old in Japan

Today I ate lunch with a different group of ladies, as one of my usual lunch companions was on vacation. I had met two of them before, but one only in a formal situation. The first English question she asked (I cant use chopsticks and try to understand Japanese at the same time) was in regard to my age. I answered in Japanese and received a shocked look in response (during which I wondered if I had misspoke)...followed by ''I thought you were my age! I'm 33.'' Boo to that!

The second topic of conversation that I was able to comprehend was in regard to TOEIC test scores. Apparently it is beneficial career wise for employees to score well on the TOEIC test. One of my coworkers, a Japanese man, who went to High School and College in the US scored a 980, while one of the assistants who learned English strictly in Japan scored a 985 (with the top score being a 990). They asked me how I thought I would score, based on this trend I'd probably score worse because I've had more education inside the US.

Fitting Room Etiquette

During Summer Vacation I did a lot of shopping, I found that it was an activity that required a safe amount of exploring with the added perk of air conditioning upon reaching the destination. In one of the malls I decided, on a whim, to go into what appeared to be a young woman's clothing store. I found that the store was having a summer sale sale so I selected this shirt. At just 1490 Yen it was much less expensive than I had expected clothing to be.
After choosing the shirt, I wanted to try it on. While it is loose fitting I've heard that Japanese woman's clothing can be restricting for Americans because of the differences in body build. It was easy enough to locate the fitting room, but as soon as I steeped in the young, overly made up, sales clerk became alarmed and started frantically trying to tell me something in Japanese. I was carrying a large purse, so I set it outside the fitting room curtain thinking she might be afraid that I was going to steal something, but that didn't calm her down. It wasn't until she started pointing at my shoes that I realized that like homes, restaurants, hotels and probably some other kinds of places I haven't been yet, I needed to take my shoes off before entering the fitting room. After asking a co-worker about the situation, I learned that removing your shoes in a fitting room only applies to the type of fitting room with a raised step to enter it, apparently if the fitting room floor is at the same level as the rest of the store the proper etiquette is to keep your shoes on. Are fitting rooms this difficult to decipher for foreigners living in America?