Tuesday-Friday, August 5-8--ICR Class

We had our mandatory Intercultural Relations course this week. There were approximately 70 people in the class, and it was led by a Japanese woman, so she was able to answer most of our questions about language, rules, and customs.

We learned that Japan is about the size of California, but has half of the population of the U.S. Those 127.5 million people are crammed into only 19% of Japan’s land area—the rest is forest and farmland! We also got a brief lesson about the history of Japan, an amazing feat considering Japanese history spans 12,000 years.

We learned about food (not all sushi is seafood!), chopsticks (do not stand them upright in your rice bowl or pass food from your chopsticks to another person’s chopsticks—these imitate funeral rituals and are very offensive), gift-giving (if you are invited to open a gift while the giver is watching—this is unusual—don’t rip off the paper like a fiend), and shoes (take them off in the genkan before you step into someone’s house).

We learned how to get from point A to point B on the trains. Jim and I felt pretty comfortable with this already, since we used the trains exclusively while we were in Tokyo last summer, but we learned the advantages of buying a PASMO pass versus purchasing individual tickets for each trip. We were also warned to avoid rush hour, because there are men whose sole job is to push people onto the train. If you are on that train, you will not need to hold onto your bags—you are crammed so tightly next to the people around you that your belongings will remain suspended should you let go of them.

We learned about the three different forms of Japanese writing. Kanji is actually Chinese characters, while Hiragana is the phonetic spelling of native Japanese words, and Katakana is the phonetic spelling of foreign words that have been introduced into Japanese language. Japanese writing has a mixture of all three types of characters. I might get to the point where I have memorized the characters for some frequently used words, but I really doubt that I will be able to read or write Japanese before we leave. I would like to speak at least some though, and in our class we learned some useful phrases (and their correct pronunciation):
Pardon me. (Sumimasen.)
Where is the bathroom? (Toire wa dokodesuka?)
Thank you very much! (Doumo arigtou gozaimasu!)

Perhaps the most important thing we learned this week is that the Japanese realize we are Americans and don’t expect us to know everything about their culture and traditions. They appreciate our efforts to speak Japanese, and as long as we practice general courtesy and manners, they are more than happy to help us figure things out.

Friday was, for most, the pay dirt of this four-day class. We took our written driving test, the first step in getting a Japanese driver’s license. Even though the Japanese drive on the wrong, I mean left :-), side of the road, most of the rules are the same as home. Not all of the road signs are the same though, so that took some study, and the speed limits are in kilometers rather than miles per hour. The test was 50 questions, and you could only miss 10 to still pass. Over one-fourth of our class failed. Once we found out who passed, we were able to sign up for the driving portion of the test for the following week. I have never driven a right-hand drive car on the left side of the road, yet there will be absolutely zero opportunity to practice before my test next Thursday. Without a driver’s license, we can’t move into our house—no pressure!! Jim takes his test on Monday, so I will pick his brain about what to expect. Please let me not hit any pedestrians, bikes, or scooters…