Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Since there weren’t any other important things scheduled for this morning, several of us decided to go to the cultural relations briefing. It was very interesting. They started by discussing religion and how religion is not a daily part of Japanese life. Although Shinto and Buddhism are the main religions, a typical person in Japan doesn’t choose one or the other. Many will have their wedding in a Shinto shrine, but be buried after a Buddhist funeral. These same people will often send their children to Christian pre-schools. After religion, they talked about Japanese history, government, emperors, and prime ministers.
Next we learned about kimonos. They used to wear up to 12 layers (about 60 pounds). A new silk kimono costs $3,000-$30,000! I guess I won’t be getting one of those anytime soon! Single women have long sleeves and married women have shorter sleeves. Most importantly, you ALWAYS have to put the left side over the right side, unless you are lying in a coffin.
The language portion of the brief was also very interesting. I’d like learn to speak some Japanese and supposedly it isn’t all that hard unless you want to learn to read it. We learned about bowing (always return a bow, never make eye contact while bowing, bow as low as the bow you were given or lower if the giver was an elder). Next was business card etiquette (give and take them with both hands, never write on the card, don’t bend them or put them in your pocket). We were also schooled in public transportation (never eat on a bus or train, don’t call out in public or wave to your friends, don’t use a cell phone). The whole class was very interesting and I was sad to miss the part after lunch.
Instead, I had to go to my Start Paperwork meeting. They had good news for me…my agent waived the agent fee because she is the owner and gets the owner’s fee. She also did not require a second security deposit even though she knows I will have a dog! Woohoo! I only have to pay three months of rent to move in…and my advance came today, so I am all set! I am signing the contract next Thursday and moving in on Friday. Of course, my stuff isn’t here so “moving in” won’t be too terribly difficult! They will be bringing me some loaner furniture, so the house won’t be empty. The guy who does sets up the loaner furniture kept calling my name and I didn’t realize it because he was saying, “Miss Lambertsan.” He must have called me about 7 times with me looking right at him before I figure out that he meant me! I guess it will take a while to get used to that whole respect thing!
After the meeting, I came back to meet with Josh, who of course wasn’t here. He’d left a note saying that he was in the Library working on Civics. When I got there he had his CD player on and was e-mailing his friends. Hmmm…I asked if he had done any and he had not. UGH! We walked over to the school to do math, since technically he can do Civics on his own. After that it was time for me to go to dinner. I left Josh working on the last part of the math assignment with strict instructions to finish that and the Civics test by 19:00 and meet me back in the room.
All of the new people and our sponsors met for Mongolian barbeque at the officers club. You go through this line with lots of veggies (my favorite) and then lots of meat. You choose what you want to throw in the bowl and they charge you based on how much it weighs. If you can guess the correct cost, within $.05, your dinner is free. After they weigh it, you can put on your own concoction of sauces and then they cook up the whole thing for you and bring it to your table. It was really good! Theresa, my sponsor, and I both only put in meat and then experimented with the marinades. We all tried out our next Japanese table manners and failed on pretty much every aspect! We didn’t match our eating pace and finish all at the same time. We didn’t take a bite of each kind of food in “triangle order.” We put soy sauce on the rice, even though it is only for dipping. We didn’t all finish every morsel of food. And some people even gave up on chopsticks entirely and used a fork! Oh well…it isn’t as if it isn’t obvious that we aren’t Japanese. Despite the horribly rude behavior at the table, I had a great time…until I got back to the room and found that Josh hadn’t finished ANYTHING he was supposed to do today! Oh joy!
Next we learned about kimonos. They used to wear up to 12 layers (about 60 pounds). A new silk kimono costs $3,000-$30,000! I guess I won’t be getting one of those anytime soon! Single women have long sleeves and married women have shorter sleeves. Most importantly, you ALWAYS have to put the left side over the right side, unless you are lying in a coffin.
The language portion of the brief was also very interesting. I’d like learn to speak some Japanese and supposedly it isn’t all that hard unless you want to learn to read it. We learned about bowing (always return a bow, never make eye contact while bowing, bow as low as the bow you were given or lower if the giver was an elder). Next was business card etiquette (give and take them with both hands, never write on the card, don’t bend them or put them in your pocket). We were also schooled in public transportation (never eat on a bus or train, don’t call out in public or wave to your friends, don’t use a cell phone). The whole class was very interesting and I was sad to miss the part after lunch.
Instead, I had to go to my Start Paperwork meeting. They had good news for me…my agent waived the agent fee because she is the owner and gets the owner’s fee. She also did not require a second security deposit even though she knows I will have a dog! Woohoo! I only have to pay three months of rent to move in…and my advance came today, so I am all set! I am signing the contract next Thursday and moving in on Friday. Of course, my stuff isn’t here so “moving in” won’t be too terribly difficult! They will be bringing me some loaner furniture, so the house won’t be empty. The guy who does sets up the loaner furniture kept calling my name and I didn’t realize it because he was saying, “Miss Lambertsan.” He must have called me about 7 times with me looking right at him before I figure out that he meant me! I guess it will take a while to get used to that whole respect thing!
After the meeting, I came back to meet with Josh, who of course wasn’t here. He’d left a note saying that he was in the Library working on Civics. When I got there he had his CD player on and was e-mailing his friends. Hmmm…I asked if he had done any and he had not. UGH! We walked over to the school to do math, since technically he can do Civics on his own. After that it was time for me to go to dinner. I left Josh working on the last part of the math assignment with strict instructions to finish that and the Civics test by 19:00 and meet me back in the room.
All of the new people and our sponsors met for Mongolian barbeque at the officers club. You go through this line with lots of veggies (my favorite) and then lots of meat. You choose what you want to throw in the bowl and they charge you based on how much it weighs. If you can guess the correct cost, within $.05, your dinner is free. After they weigh it, you can put on your own concoction of sauces and then they cook up the whole thing for you and bring it to your table. It was really good! Theresa, my sponsor, and I both only put in meat and then experimented with the marinades. We all tried out our next Japanese table manners and failed on pretty much every aspect! We didn’t match our eating pace and finish all at the same time. We didn’t take a bite of each kind of food in “triangle order.” We put soy sauce on the rice, even though it is only for dipping. We didn’t all finish every morsel of food. And some people even gave up on chopsticks entirely and used a fork! Oh well…it isn’t as if it isn’t obvious that we aren’t Japanese. Despite the horribly rude behavior at the table, I had a great time…until I got back to the room and found that Josh hadn’t finished ANYTHING he was supposed to do today! Oh joy!
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