Saturday, 31 July 2004

"Are you trying to learn Japanese?"

Well I had a great experience on the train this morning on the way to work! I was studying my Katakana and thinking how noone on the train is looking me in the eye, let alone talking to me, when the woman sitting next to me (who I had assumed was scared of me because of the way she was sitting) asked me in ENGLISH "Are you trying to learn Japanese?". I answered "Yes... you speak English?", showed her my flash cards (how I'm learning Katakana) and had a great conversation until she had to get off at her station (3 minutes later).

I was really buzzed after this. It's pretty much an "event" having a converstion in Japan. Actually I referenced this story later today in a Voice lesson when asked if I thought Japan was racist. I answered truthfully that almost every non-Japanese person in Japan experiences racism on a day to day basis, especially on the trains when noone will site within a 1 metre radius of you or even get up and move when you sit down.

It always amazes me how suprised the Japanese are when told that people think Japan is racist especially when they are all aware of the way they treat foreigners (most think it's common sense and not racism). One of the girls mentioned that some Japanese feel bad around foreigners because they don't know English. My rebutal was "noone ever even thinks to try JAPANESE". Most of the people in the room agreed with me on this point.

Something of interest today was the Asakusa fireworks..... but I didn't feel like going. I was told be a few people that it's REALLY crouded and not very enjoyable if you're not into fireworks. Don't get me wrong, I like fireworks but it's kind of like the temples and shrines, after the first few hundred the novelty starts to wear off (even though this would have been my first Japanese fireworks. I'm also really tired this afternoon so decided to head home after work (which took longer than I thought).

However when I got to Takesato (my home station if you're just joining me) I saw that tonight was the Takesato festival! Much smaller than the Sengendai one but there was some very interesting traditional performances going on which I filmed on my mobile phone and will upload to the site later.

While looking at the festival, I noticed that hundreds of birds were flying over the town! It looks like the come via Takesato before they land in Sengendai!