Good: Japanese people are very loyal. If they make plans to do something, it will happen rain or shine. All day it had been ugly and drizzly and overcast, but that evening there was no question whether the BBQ was still going to happen. Basically we sat in the drizzle/intermittent rain eating BBQ, shivering, and saying "samui yo!" (It's cold!). I think this has to do with the Japanese concept of ganbaru, which means "to perservere." Which means even further, "be strong and stick it out, even if it sucks and you hate it. No complaining." This is evident in lots of aspects of Japanese culture I noticed, not just braving the rain to have a barbecue, but also sitting seiza (on your feet) at school assemblies completely still and straight even though the feeling in your legs went away a long time ago, cleaning the school toilet because it's your cleaning assignment for the month, or sticking with the baseball team even though you hate it. Japanese people don't quit, and it's awesome, just wish I had the fortitude to be the same way. I was cold and totally wanted to go home, but the food was great and the company was fun, until they got trashed. Which brings me to the other thing I learned...
Bad: Some Japanese people can be absolutely obnoxious when they're drunk. I mean, well, people all over the world can potentially be obnoxious when they're drunk. If people can be categorized into what kind of "drunk" they are, such as sleepy, affectionate, belligerent, there is a particular kind of drunk unique to Japan known as the "I-think-I-can-speak-really-good-English drunk." A few of Naho's coworkers, once they were sloshed on the beer and shochu that is requisite for a barbecue (unless you're driving, like I was that night. Then you drink cold oolong tea), took the opportunity to practice their English with me more freely. Throughout the entire barbecue, I went around and talked to everyone at least for a little while, using a hybrid of Japanese and English, depending on each person's ability, and my own ability to say what I was thinking. Most Japanese people actually understand a lot of English, since they study it from elementary school onward. Most are just very shy about speaking. Anyway, this was fun until the people who were drunk decided to begin obnoxious drunk conversations with me and though I admired their efforts to speak English, the combination of being drunk and not being a fluent speaker made their utterances practically incomprehensible. I insisted they could say what they were thinking in Japanese because my comprehension is decent, but they insisted on saying it in English. It was fun at first, but as the night wore on, my patience wore thin. Especially since I wasn't expecting the barbecue to last more than an hour or two, and we were out there from 6 - 11 PM. On a Monday.
Anyway, on the whole it was a fun time. Apologies for the rant. It's just rare that I feel like my head is going to explode, so when it happens I have to vent. Or maybe it just sucks when everyone is drunk and you're not, haha. For the most part I enjoyed practicing Japanese and meeting new friends, though, don't get me wrong! The situation just reinforced something I noticed about Japanese culture. There is a distinction between one's public face and one's private face. In public, one should be mild-mannered, apologetic, passive, and stoic. But once one is behind closed doors or away from a professional situation, it's no holds bard. I can't even count the times I've seen typically focused coworkers go nuts at karaoke or at a school party, getting completely trashed, dancing around, or getting touchy-feely. And this is all just fine as long as they're back to normal when we return to work and we pretend like nothing happened. I feel like maybe there is so much pressure to conform and be obedient and act properly in public that they let go so much in private because it's their only outlet. Perhaps. I'm merely a foreigner and not a sociologist or anthropologist...but nonetheless seeing the contrast in demeanor is fascinating.
A few pictures from the barbecue:
This is a picture of the barbecue. I think the Japanese style of barbecuing is brilliant. There is a large concrete table with a hole in the middle to pile with charcoal, and then you put a screen on top to grill on. Everyone sits around the table and throws on the meat and vegetables they want to cook, and you cook and talk and drink beer in a communal setting. After the food is finished cooking, you can dip it in the teriyaki sauce provided for you in a separate bowl. Very different from American barbecuing, where a designated uncle will stand at the grill alone and everyone else waits around for the food to cook. And the meat is marinated in the sauce prior to cooking. I think Japanese barbecuing makes for a good party setting.
Me, Naho, and one of her coworkers whose name escapes me now...I think I was told to call her Miki-chan. Me with my oolong cha (tea), Naho with the teriyaki sauce, and Miki enjoying the food and beer.
The whole Ogawa City Office crew, ranging in age from 21 to 40.
I think when I get my own place (which might take awhile if I'm aspiring to be a high school Latin teacher or a letterpress printer...) I want to install a Japanese barbecue setup in my backyard. Party at Jo's house....in 20 years.
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