Notes From Me

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Fire





Coming next month is the otomatsuri, Shingu's fire festival where participants (only men allowed) go to 

top of the ancient stone steps at one of the shrines near our house, drink enormous amounts of sake,

light huge torches, and then run down the nearly vertical steps. Our manager Yusui accompanies the

teachers who join this festival because the locals might try to attack if they see gaijins. I was thinking 

of going up there earlier in the day and hiding out among the trees on the mountain so I could watch at

close range, but the god of that shrine might get pissed off, or I might be seen and maimed (a woman 

gaijin at the ancient men-only festival?) But it's my favorite shrine and I go there a lot.

On customer service in Japan:

Employees are unfailingly polite, come running when you call, routinely go the extra-mile to help customers, and will give you the deepest, most respectful bows. If however, you define service as being knowledgeable about the products they sell, or as being capable of making sure that a customer goes home with the merchandise that is right for him or her, then you may be disappointed. Electronics store workers in particular are notorious for their lack of knowledge about the products they sell.

When I went to buy a tuning fork at a nearby music shop, the lady at the counter didn't know what I was talking about (I also gesticulated the motions of striking and listening and plucking guitar strings) but then she brightened and led me to the electronic tuners. I said, "Ah, chi gao" (different!) and was about to go through the whole fork routine again when I noticed they were in the same case with the electronic ones. I was just glad they had them.

DOOR TO DOOR MOP HEAD SALESMEN
I was just using the phone in the genkan and some man came and announced himself. He was giving a mop head replacement to her grandmother who had ordered one. Why hasn't the fact that people can buy these mop heads easily at any store made this useless job a thing of the past?

This reminds me of the bamboo rod sales trucks. They blast a recording of what sounds like a ghost song. Sometimes a man singing, sometimes a woman, the voice rising and spreading out over Shingu and becoming the wind. And it's all for some bamboo sticks, household use.

Do you wash your hands in the stream of water that comes out of the toilet tank (No, Japanese people don't wash their hands in the toilet bowl. The water comes out of the cistern at the top)?
Yes: 97
No: 36

But, why does water come out of the tank? You can even turn on the flow when the toilet isn't flushing. Sometimes the top of the tank, which is usually bowled, contains plastic flowers or plastic fruit or some kind of decor.

posted by lux at 6:02 PM
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