Request-o-Blog: Japanese uniforms & greetings

I have, so far, received two topic requests:
- from lörker: Japanese girlies in maiden uniforms.
- anonymous: Japanese-style greetings

Lörker, yes indeed these creatures exist, but not everywhere. If one is lucky, an encounter is possible along the streets of the busy Akihabara. Generally they can be seen distributing tissues. Yes small packets of neatly wrapped tissues. Japanese people have an attraction for the small and for the nicely wrapped. In shops you see items of all sorts individually wrapped and then again wrapped in some bigger container....wrap inside of wrap inside of wrap. It is a good thing that there is a carefully worked out system of garbage classification here in Japan. But back to Akihabara: Inside the small parcels there is a carefully folded piece of paper containing publicity of some sort. These apparitions, as I will call them, for obvious reasons, come in many different colours and styles. My suggestion...come and see for yourself! And if you are lucky, you will see that maiden uniforms are not the only ones used in this country.

And now a bit about Japanese-style greetings.

The manner and extent to which someone here is greeted, is a function of a myriad of factors. I have probably not yet discovered them all, but here are a few: rank,relationship, purpose, interest, curiosity.

If someone is higher in rank than yourself, you are expected to be very polite and bow and say thank you using the most polite formulation. An example: the word Otsukaresamadesu/Otsukaresamadeshita. The word is used when one leaves after the day's work and actually means you must be tired after the good work done today. With my fellow researchers I can use the expression Otsukare or Otsukaresama instead, an abbreviated form which however would be highly impolite should I use it with either the professor or with the technical assistant who is older than I. When I see someone who ranks higher than I, it is polite to greet and at least bow the head.

However when I go into a shop, I as customer need no longer do such things. The people behind the counter greet in unison. All the members of the shop greet you when you come in and thank themselves when you leave. It is really quite overwhelming to have 5 or more people saying "how may I help" or "thank you" all at once. The customer is however not expected to say or do anything. This I find very difficult. In Europe when you enter a shop or when you leave, you are, in most cases, ignored, and when spoken to, one naturally responds. So here I go, from shop to shop, saying thank you to all as I would otherwise feel I am being quite rude.

The most interesting is however seeing colleagues when they depart from one another in the evening on their way home. I have observed groups of well dressed men at street corners, bowing and responding to the bows several times, before they could continue on their merry way in separate directions. This we have experienced ourselves when we dealt with the letting agency. The man that showed us around the various flats, bowed very low, I would say, it was about a 90 degree bow and after we bowed back he repeated his bow. He did however not loose eye contact while bowing. This seems to be very important. Turning one's back when leaving a room seems to be another no-go and is to be done at the last possible point in time, having bowed once last time just before doing so.

And now to "curiosity". I have the impression that sometimes, I receive special greetings because of the fact that I am an unmistakable foreigner. There is a woman in a shop that I visit nearly everyday, that goes out of her way to wish me good morning: seemingly oblivious of the fact that there are other people in the shop, she either shouts across the entire shop, or peaks over shelves or around them. It is very nice of her, and I think I am going to miss this special treatment. On the other hand, I have impression, that we are sometimes ignored exactly for the same reason. As everywhere else, that which is new or different either arouses interest or the desire to stay away.

Only on very few occasions have we been offered to shake hands. I must say, I do not mind bowing, actually I like it. On the other hand, I feel it leaves some distance between the parties.

with the deepest of bows I wish you all a splendid day!