So this is an electric construction flag guy that takes the place of the guy directing traffic around construction -- pretty funny! We actually saw several versions of it on a recent road trip: some were similar to this one, others were just a picture of a man holding a flag in blinking lights on a flat sign. Here's another one, though a little fuzzy:
And here is the sign -- "translated"--warning us about all the construction:
For those who don't speak Japanglish, it reads "It is taking a rest constructing." Signs like this exist all over the place, leading to much confusion and laughter. I wouldn't laugh so much (because my Japanese is pretty non-existent) except that the signs are often permanent, written in neon even. This one wasn't permanent, but it was replicated --about 2 dozen times.We also passed a few signs warning us of various animal crossings. In the photo up top you can kind of make out a sign in the background warning drivers about crossings of what looks to be like teddy bears -- isn't he cute? And here's one for some mystery rodent:
No one quite knows what this animal is but I sure hope to never run into one (you can't really see from the photo which was taken at 80kilometer/hr --whatever that is--but the thing has teeth and appears to be snarling and laughing at the same time)
OK, moving indoors now on, here is the fancy potty I referred to in an earlier blog:
This is just the electrical part that makes it fancy (pay attention if you're planning to visit -- when you land in Tokyo, you won't know how to flush your hotel toilet otherwise, and you may even do yourself harm!). Not only is it heated (as most Japanese toilets are, public and private), but it's equipped with the technology to wash your different parts different ways! Now, looking at all the different buttons, you might just try one in hopes that it just flushes the toilet. But you'll be surprised! You might get hit in the eye with a spray of water. The flushing mechanism seems to be different on every toilet, so you just have to hunt 'til you find it. Sometimes it's on the floor, sometimes the wall. Sometimes it's actually ON the toilet itself, but there will be different ways to move the switch according to HOW you want to flush (lightly, heavier) which will be CLEARLY marked in kanji somewhere in the vicinity of the switch (I have yet to figure this out even on ours which was designed for the idiot American).
Both of these things makes me think of David Letterman's joke about such Japanese inventions: "Ah, the Japanese: So much technology, so little normalcy...."
Now this next thing isn't a weird Japanese thing as much as it is just not something you see much of back home.
And that's because we don't have too many active volcanoes back home. They have enough around here that the Japanese think nothing of it to go hike them, which they do with zeal in the autumn, potentially hazardous fumes or not. Being nature girl I dragged Rick out one Saturday (leaving Hannah Jane with a babysitter) to hike Hokkoda Mountain which I read on the way there is actually an active volcano that spews gaseous sulphuric acid to its visitors as they make their way up the mountain. Sometimes these fumes can be dangerous, the literature warns, so we should be careful not to linger anywhere "where vegetation is not growing." This turned out to be large swaths of black smoldering dirt that smelled heavily of rotten eggs, which the large parties of Japanese tour hikers lopped merrily around.Now here perhaps is the weirdest Japanese thing of all:
Sorry, I couldn't help myself -- it's just Hannah Jane in her "scary lion" Halloween costume, as she called it. But it does remind me of one weird Japanese occurrence that happened around here on Halloween. Around 2pm, in broad daylight, the doorbell rings -- it's two 6 or 7-year old Japanese kids, trick-or-treating, alone, without a costume, holding what looks like the travel bag I keep my toiletries in. At first I wasn't sure what they wanted, as there was no sign they were trick-or-treating, not to mention the fact that the Japanese HAVE NO HALLOWEEN. But these kids were no dummies. We figured that hearing about this trick-or-treating thing (which the Japanese are actually allowed to do on base), that when their parents weren't looking, they snuck out of their house with their mother's cosmetic bags for candy and headed for the nearest clump of American-looking houses and started ringing doorbells. The only thing is that they didn't know the English wording for "trick-or-treat" so when it came out in Japanese, it was too unclear to most of my neighbors, it turns out, to know what they wanted. I wouldn't have known either except that the last part of the phrase uttered when I opened the door sounded something like "twleetOH", and I only got this after I made them repeat themselves several times (asking them back, "you mean, 'trick-or-treat'?" only resulted in them staring at each other in puzzlement, like "what's wrong with this lady?") I was happy to get it eventually and actually produce candy which I pilfered from a napping Hannah Jane's early stash, as we hadn't bought any candy to hand out, knowing that the Japanese don't do Halloween (except, apparently, when there are crazy Americans around).
There are plenty of "weird" things that I keep seeing and either don't have a camera for or that I have become somewhat inured to now that I don't think they're that weird. Many customs are becoming like that to me already:
- Bowing in the car to the guy in front of you to let him know it's OK for him to go, instead of motioning or pointing with your hands,
- hearing "IRASHEMASEH!!!!" shouted out at you whenever you walk into an establishment, which means something like "YOU ARE HERE!!!! welcome." I now catch myself thinking, "YES! I AM here!..."
-taking your shoes off when entering a restaurant...because that's FAR more hygienic then leaving them on....
-using the special "bathroom slippers" at said restaurant because putting your (often bare) feet into slippers used by every diner is again, just more hygienic....
-making steamed rice in the morning for my 2-year-old's preschool lunch, instead of just a plain ol' peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich....
-backing into parking spaces instead of pulling forward into them (not all that easy for Americans with their comparatively large cars given the tiny Japanese parking spaces and lots)...
-carrying yen everywhere because credit cards aren't used out in town....
And more.....will save some for another ramble, another time. Thanks for tuning in!
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