Japanese Life – Japan Episode 4

By C.I. Sivasubramanian
Aged 96, Retired Director, Ministry of Commerce, New Delhi

Introduction by Venkat
In this episode, Mr. Sivasubramanian covers the facets of Japanese culture which touch the daily lives such as the living space, food, clothing, shopping, family, language, arts and currency. This article is power-packed with information and details we may hardly find anywhere in one place. Japanese being easier to learn than English and how a family lives in such a small flat were interesting and surprising to me. As it is mentioned, the way Japanese have preserved old and traditional practices in modern day living resonates so much with many of us Indians, who continue to embed traditional customs in the modern age. Reading this episode brings out the Japanese life in excellent detail and imagery. As usual, looking forward to the next episode on Japan!

Japanese Life – Japan Episode 4

Language
People speak Japanese, called Nihongo locally. Although in the beginning it looks to be difficult to follow, it is said to be easy to learn Japanese than English! There are three scripts known as Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. Kanji is written vertically and from right to left and is considered to be more difficult than the others. The other two scripts are written from left to right. Each letter has a meaning by itself. The scripts borrow heavily from the Chinese language.

Family
In the good old days a Japanese family included parents, uncles and their families. The youngsters respected the elders. With the growth in population, urbanization and shortage of accommodation in cities, slowly the large families gave way to nuclei families, living in small apartments, called apatos, in the cities. The apartments are measured by ‘tatamis’ the measure of the Japanese mat. An apartment covers not more than 250-300 square feet! But within this short space they find space for all their modern gadgets, like washing machines, TV, Computer and others. What they do is to use paper screens to divide the rooms which can be removed as circumstances demand. They eat from low tables, sit on cushions and sleep on quilts (futons). The bedroom becomes the drawing room once the beds are stashed away. They remove the footwear at the door and use slippers inside. The footwears are carefully arranged to face the front door.

Food and drink
Rice is the main staple food. They take rice with pickled vegetables. Fish provides them with the required proteins. They take fish prepared in various forms, including raw! Soya beans are yet another food item to supplement proteins. Many of their dishes include soya paste (miso), soya curd cake (tofu). Soya sauce is added to flavor foods. Some of the popular Japanese food menus are: ‘Sushi’ (Rice with raw fish/shrimps); ‘Sashimi’ (Raw fish); ‘Sukiyaki’ (Beef with vegetable stew); Yakitori’ (Chicken, barbecued); and ‘Tempura’ (Vegetables with shellfish and daion sauce). ‘Soba’ (noodles) is a very common dish. Each dish is arranged in a colorful manner on the low table from which they eat, using chopsticks.

Tea without sugar and milk is their daily beverage. Sake, the rice wine is their national alcoholic drink. Nowadays food habits are changing and they go in for bread and milk products as also fast food items like pizza and burgers. Burger joints and McDonalds abound in Tokyo and other cities. Whisky and beer are also taken in abundant measure. In the vending machines one can see even pure spring water canned and sold at the same price as a can of coke!

Traditional arts
Puppet shows, kabuki theatre, showing historical and domestic events in the shape of drama (kabuki) and music, sumo wrestling, are some of the traditional arts and sports of Japan. The beauty of Japan is that they have imbibed western culture without giving up their own.

Clothing
The Japanese wear western clothes, except on holidays and festival days when they use their traditional dress Kimono. The men are always seen in immaculate suits, whether it is winter or summer, and the women in all sorts of dresses including minis, pants, long skirts, and a variety of dresses. The men are short while the women look tall comparatively (may be because of their high-heeled footwear). Cigarette smoking is common to both sexes. The world-wide exhortation for use of less tobacco seems to have had no effect on the Japanese men and women.

Shopping
OIOI, Isetan, Takashimaya, Mitsukoshi, Seibu are some of the famous Department stores catering to the rich and wealthy. There are also small super stores, like Marusho, Family mart, Farmland, etc. which cater to the everyday needs. All are very expensive markets. The food items are particularly expensive. You can imagine a banana being sold as a single piece for ¥ 30 and water melon cut into a small piece wrapped in a cellophane paper being sold for ¥ 1000! A single apple costs ¥ 120! Vegetables are very expensive.

There are of course special markets for vegetables (Okachimachi), daily ration (Ginza nine), electric and electronic bazaar (Akhihabara), Clothing (Nippori ), etc. There are of course certain localities where things are sold slightly cheaper. One should have the time and patience to look for such shops and make purchases. Nakano is such a centre. In Nakano, a shop offers a meter of cloth for ¥ l00 and l0 meters of cloth of your choice from a limited stock for ¥ l05 on the l0th of the following month! This is a bargain, which attracts quite a few people who throng there and make the best bargains. The only snag is that you have to wait for an hour or two before the shop opens as there are limited stocks which get exhausted within a short period of a couple of hours or so.

There are also flea markets where one can pick up some nice things, especially handicrafts and knickknacks but they sell mostly second hand things. One has to be very discriminating and knowledgeable to shop in such markets. We made some friendly enquiries and were informed that the shop keepers, as also those who were selling things on the pavements, had visited India more than once and brought things which were selling like hot cakes in Tokyo. There are travelers from France, Israel and far of places, who bring items from India, Nepal, Taiwan, etc. and sell them in Tokyo for good profit.

Japanese currency
Yen is the Japanese currency. There are no intermediary coins like nickels, dimes, quarters as in the US, or paise and rupee, as in India. All are yen. There are coins for 5 yen, l0 yen, 50 yen, l00 yen and 500 yen, and currencies of l000, 5000 and 10,000 yen. You have to carry a bag to keep the weighty change you get after shopping! Do you know that in Japan they do not use cheque books? All transactions take place through credit cards or cash! You have to keep your own account of the money received or spent, a function which the cheque book counterfoils do.

To be continued…

By C.I. Sivasubramanian
Aged 96, Retired Director, Ministry of Commerce, New Delhi

Mr. Sivasubramanian hails from Coimbatore. He has been living in Delhi throughout life. He was employed with the Government of India, Ministry of Commerce and retired as Director in 1986.

CULTURE Articles: Archives

Your Contributions Are Welcome