Your Foot’s in the Door . . . : Now Will You Please Remove Your Shoes?
NAGANO, Japan — In an area as diverse as Southern California, cultural differences are pretty much taken in stride. With a little searching, you can find the ethnic food of your choice, or anyone else’s. Some stores brag about how many languages are spoken within. Chinatown, Koreatown, Little Tokyo--the Asian experience is only blocks away.
Still, a stroll through Little Tokyo is hardly preparation for Japanese culture as lived in Japan, especially for those who have been immersed in “the American way.”
Which is probably why there is a sign taped to the floor just inside the door of The Times’ apartment in the Olympic media village, requesting, “Please take off your shoes here!” With it is a circle-slashed picture of a pair of shoes. On the counter in the hallway are several pairs of slippers, and next to it a stool, making for easier off-and-on. In Japanese culture, shoes are for outdoors, a nicety Americans might very well overlook without a reminder.
And yet, in other ways, the Japanese out-America Americans. We, for instance, are accustomed to vending machines in public places. The Japanese, though, have vending machines anywhere and everywhere. A street corner here is a forlorn sight, indeed, without three or four vending machines--about twice the size of ours--dispensing water, soft drinks, juices, coffee, tea, soup, noodles and, in some cases, two-liter “kegs” of beer. Machine out of noodles? Oh, well. Have a beer.
For all of that, however, there is great concern for the environment here. Street trash is not a common sight but recycling bins are.
Part of that is because Japan is a small, crowded country and tidiness is a practical necessity. And part of it is because one of the concepts of the Nagano Olympics is that the competition will pay “homage to nature.”
At the Olympic venues, diners might be eating off plates made of one of Nagano’s main products, apples. Says the pitch: “The newly developed, environmentally friendly tableware makes use of apple pulp, a byproduct from making apple juice. The plates can be recycled as solid fuel or composted.”
Nothing written about whether the plates can be eaten as well.
Speaking of the written word, reporters were left with some of it in their lodgings, regarding treatment and usage of the furnishings.
Wondering how the phone works? Instructions for receiving a call suggest: (1) The telephone rings. (2) Respond by picking up the receiver.
Precautions for use of the furniture suggest a maintenance check: . . . Using the furniture while the screws are loose may cause the furniture to break, and you may be injured. . . . Re-tighten any loose screws.”
Noticing the loose knob on my wardrobe, I reached for my combination knife, flipped out the Phillips screwdriver and tightened the knob. Being a guest in another country is fraught with responsibility.
