Richard's blog

Well, I’ve been eyeing off the situation for awhile, but it finally happened yesterday. I’m referring to this country’s non-Western toilets, or squat toilets. Some places, such as certain train stations and restaurants only offer the squat variety, but up until now I’ve managed to survive without working out precisely how to keep your pants… out of the way. Yesterday, doing overtime in Kinshicho, I developed the urgent need to do a #2, with only a squatter in the building.

So, how embarrassment. Wearing my kind of expensive suit, I decided not to risk learning about aim the hard way, and basically took off all my clothes bar my shirt. Dang. I’m sure there’s a simple way to do this, but it’s not like you can go up to a Japanese person on the street and say “So, speaking of shitting in your squat toilets, exactly how do you avoid soiling your trousers?”. Not that my Japanese would get me past “So.”

So there’s my toilets story for your edification.

My second observation relates to Japanese “democracy,” or at least, the way in which theoretical equality is conveyed by the manners and mechanisms of Japanese society. Take the supermarket, for example. In Australia, it’s unheard of for a supermarket not to have an express lane. Here in Japan though, the only express lane I’ve seen was at the international supermarket National Azabu. Everywhere else, even if you have only one item, you must wait your turn in the same queues as everybody else. Similarly, on the trains, there’s a decidedly small effort to prioritise seating for the elderly or infirm. Although most trains have designated seats for these people, it’s quite common to see perfectly able-bodied teenagers sitting in them. Also, when the train is packed, it’s quite common to see very elderly people standing up, while very young people continue to sit. The old people generally don’t seem to mind. The only times I’ve seen people give up their seats is for people with “handicapped accessories” — crutches or blind sticks.

There seems to be a lot of people who are blind in Tokyo — but then again, it could just be that you are seeing many more people. I keep thinking there are a lot of babies here (cute! SOOO cute!!), because you do see a lot, but apparently the birthrate is way below back home. It must just be the volume of people you see. One thing I am sure you see more of is Down’s syndrome babies, although the popularity of later-age mothering is probably the reason for that.

Yesterday, in a deluge, I went to the Maruzen bookstore in Marunouchi. On its fourth floor, it has a foreign language section roughly the size of Readings. It’s truly impressive. It is a bit heavy on trashy popular fiction, but it has an incredible academic section (i.e. quite a bit of Derrida in the original French) and lots of stuff you wouldn’t expect to find — even French/English dictionaries. It’s hard to complain that foreigners aren’t provided for here, even if sometimes the toilets remind you of the privilege.

Current mood: this is OK I suppose
Current music: Uri Caine (and a lot of rap and groove that my new housemate is playing at me)
Current books: Glamorama by Bret Easton Ellis and La Curée by Emile Zola (in French.)