Japan the Strange

This past weekend we took a wander in our neighbourhood and came across the annual local music festival in all its glory.


This appeared to be some kind of woman on woman folk dancing. Everyone watching looked to be north of sixty, and the whole thing had a kind of local community class performs for local community feel. It is a city of almost half a million, but it usually feels like a very small town.

Further along the canal we came upon this picturesque scene:


The historic quarter of Kurashiki is indeed a beautiful spot, but look closer for the bonus. Those are community stalwarts dressed in traditional 'alpen' dress blowing away on their alp horns. The melodious mountain moans transport us to another place...like Switzerland.


The gentleman in the middle is none other than the VP of my school. Some years ago he traveled to Switzerland on behalf of the city to purchase the horns. It seems the city was looking for something special...or strange.

This past weekend was certainly not unique as our everyday life here has provided a veritable catalogue of the strange. I think it appropriate to note a couple of things that have become commonplace to me, but should be noted for posterity...or more likely, me looking back at this blog in the future.

The Foot Fetish:
I'm all for taking your shoes off when inside the house. It makes good cleanli-sense. It starts to wear after awhile though when so many other places require the removal of shoes often followed by the donning of ill-fitting, grandpa-style slippers. Understandable for temples, and the like. I prefer to avoid the slippers altogether in these cases, but understandable nonetheless. It's school that really irks. The entrance ways of the school have banks of cubby boxes, each with a name plate reminiscent of kindergarden. One for everyone; students and teachers. The exchange happens on arrival and departure. Indoor sandals for students. Indoor sandals, sandals with heels (best for men), sneakers, quasi-dress shoes or whatever for teachers as long as they're 'clean'. In point of fact, I think my outdoor shoes are cleaner. As I've noted before, the students clean the school here and do so in typical teenage manner; therefore, no cleaning. Anyway, this indoor/outdoor shoes is all symbolic anyway. The school has open air hallways and courtyards so one is always going outside. I even see teachers going to their cars wearing indoor shoes. People, those are your indoor shoes! Speaking of cars, some folks even take their shoes off in the car and store them away in a convenient tray that appears designed for this purpose. The car's an extension of home I guess. Still, it's a little awkward when a fellow teacher picks me up on the way to school and I have to scramble out of my shoes just to catch a ride.
This foot phenomenon reaches its strange peak during graduation ceremonies. Despite the fact that the gym floor is covered to protect its buffed finish, outdoor shoes are not permitted. Parents and guests bring their own slippers. The students are decked out in their uniforms with gym shoes (their indoor sandals not appropriate for the occasion), while the teachers sport black suits and white shirts with white ties for the guys, and pearls for the girls. On teachers' feet any 'indoor' footwear flies. The principal dons tails for this solemn occasion and cuts an imposing figure with white reeboks on his feet.
Strange indeed.
Miss Yaki's supervisor from last year was the best though. He took his shoes off in his car, but couldn't locate the necessary respect to do the same at school. He'd just roll in with outdoor shoes flying. Rebel.



The Uniform Fetish or Smell the Glove:
This is a nation of uniforms. School uniforms are not strange of course, but they serve a deeper purpose here as they ready the young for a life of uniforms. The salaryman wears the grey or blue suit. Formal occasions call for the black suit/white tie combo as noted above. Housewives wear bib-like aprons with floral patterns. Old ladies sport bonnets and long gardening gloves all over town. Grocery store employees wear full polyester uniforms from the paper hat down to knee high socks. Parking lot attendants stand at attention in uniforms that look like they may call for the rank of admiral. Then there's my favourite, the drivers. Bus drivers and taxi drivers in full uniform with name tags, conductor hats, and white gloves. Between them and the parking lot attendants, one can never be sure who the cops are.
As noted, with some of these uniforms come gloves. They're the hand equivalent to indoor shoes. They denote cleanliness. Campaigning politicians stand by the side of the road waving at passing cars with their white gloved hands. Regular people wear white gloves while driving (and probably remove their shoes.) Old ladies have gloves permanently attached to their bicycles to keep their hands warm and/or keep the sun's rays at bay.
And I call this strange place home...for now.

While I track down some photos of uniformed weirdness, enjoy this shot of a local eccentric's pad: