Moshi moshi
Trip Start
Apr 20, 2004
1
13
Trip End
Aug 28, 2005
Gifu,
Japan
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
April 21st 2004, the day I became termed a "Gaijin". Gaijin is the Japanese word for foreigner. The more time spent in Japan as a "Gaijin", the more you become familiar with the pros and cons of it. Gaijin are stared at, giggled at, sometimes blamed for this and that and sometimes avoided too- mostly if we try to ask a question to Japanese who do not speak any English or if there is a spare seat next to you on the train. On the flip side - Gaijin have power in numbers and its amazing that sometimes still claiming that you know no Japanese can get you away with a lot of things! These things are not really naughty, however, not the norm to the Japanese custom and possibly frowned upon by on-looking Japanese who just assume.... silly Gaijin, frown, laugh or smile and brush it off. My example that may sound silly to you, but a mate and I still giggle about it was set at a train station (eki) part way between Gifu and Nagoya. Being in such a hurry to get on the train in time and to the new shopping mall - Diamond City, I just bought the cheapest ticket with the idea of fare adjusting at the other end. Easily done most of the time except for this little local station with no fare adjusting machine and no station master to help me out. We noticed a wall with a help button, a speaker and a couple of slots. With my limited Japanese I pushed the button to which a little mans voice said Moshi moshi. Moshi moshi is like saying hello when you answer the phone. I said moshi moshi back but had no idea what to say back except kippu, which is the word for ticket. We tried the "u approach" which is just adding u sound to the end of words such as fareu adjustu kippu onegaishimasu. Sounds strange but its amazing how often your point gets accross by slowing your speech and adding the u or o sounds. Words such as Biru and Aisu kuriimu are actual spoken Japanese words! After a lot of moshi moshis were said plus a lot of Japanese by the little man inside the speaker, oh, and a lot of giggling, I finally understood kiiro, which is yellow. We saw a yellow slot in the wall and posted the kippu down it. The voice continued to natter 100 miles an hour of which nothing more was understood. We continued to giggle and in the end, just had to make a dash for it through the gate with no ticket to which the ding dong, ding dong sounded to say that no valid ticket was exchanged to get out of the station. Silly foreign girl! There are many other examples I have but for some reason this example sticks.
Now dont get me wrong about the attitude of Japanese people to foreigners. We have got ourselves into many a sticky situation only to find that lovely, kind Japanese people will go out of their way to help however they can even when they speak little or no English and my level of Japanese is that I cannot understand my 3 year old students nattering on to me - the kind Japanese man in Nara who spoke no English walked us round central Nara for about 20 minutes to show us an ATM and then the Okonomiyaki restaurant, the whole time he kept glancing at his watch like he was in a hurry but was going no where until he had helped us find this restaurant!
People here always want to know where you are from and what Japanese food you like! I still have not gained enough guts to try Natto!!! Its texture described to me as a mouthful of lumpy snott - oishiikunai = not tasty!
Well that is enough of a babble for now. My next mission is to get all of our trips and good times documented too. Here goes................ mata ne = see you!
