a culture of waiting and point cards, pt. 1

Today, I decided that the title of my book (which has yet to be written) will be: “A Culture of Waiting and Point Cards: My Experience in Japan”.

Now, I know there are probably a lot of (legitimate) questions that come to mind with such a claim - the first being, why would I write a book, let alone a book about my experience in Japan? Well, the idea to write a book has always been something I’ve dreamed of - the kind of dream that falls under the same category as “someday I want to open a restaurant” or “someday I want to learn a foreign language” (at some point we probably all consider it, but rarely does it actually take on any real shape or form). However, the challenge for me lies not in the writing per se, but in finding what interesting thing(s) about my life that would actually be worth reading (although, if you’re reading this so far, you’re probably at least somewhat interested in what I have to say, so, that’s a start).

Which brings me to my next point: until now, perhaps the most interesting string of events in my life has stemmed from the decision to move half-way across the world to a culture so different, yet so similar to the one I know as my own, and re-establish a life of poverty, patience, and determination in hopes of a God-knows-what kind of future. Perhaps I’m mildly exaggerating here but that’s a blogger’s job right?

My current job in Japan is simple: I talk to Japanese people all day.* Actually, perhaps it’s more accurate to say that I listen to people all day. And, surprisingly or not, I learn some things about this society and culture when I listen to them give their opinions, insights, and ideas about Japan. Gradually, it’s these insider soundbites that slowly build upon themselves and start accumulating, eventually forming into one cohesive theory of Japan which then gets regurgitated onto this blog. Sure, if you want to know what’s going on in this country you could just as easily open a newspaper, click on one of the hundreds of Japan blogs, or study up and read scholarly material on why the Japanese birth rate is so low or why Japanese people love Hello Kitty. But when it comes down to it, nobody knows this better than the Japanese themselves; I just get the privilege of being able to share some of this knowledge at the source and then re-interpret it in my own way. Which is why, perhaps, there’s no 100% complete understanding of this country and its people. Yet, if you ask a group of people similar types of questions enough times, you can start to develop a general consensus about a culture or society that’s somehow deeply forged or embedded in that population’s consciousness - one that’s not easily or readily available on the surface, but that shows itself with a particular trigger or stimulus - kind of like a collective memory or secret. Now this is starting to sound a little like a scholarly paper: lofty and vague.

So, a culture of waiting and point cards? What does this mean?

Well, the latter point will come about in a future part of this entry, but as for the former, I found this article about a ramen shop in Shinagawa that’s closing its doors because it’s too popular. That’s right. It’s so popular that the shop is getting complaints from the neighbors about the congestion of ramen eaters that have descended upon this quiet neighborhood. Everyday, a queue of devoted noodle-lovers forms, sometimes so long that the loyal patrons have to wait up to two hours, all for a bowl of tsuke-men. Two hours for noodles that you could just as easily find on any other corner or alley in this city? There’s no way I would be caught dead waiting in this line for that long (seriously, I’d find a way to have a friend or someone haul my corpse away before the 2-hour mark simply out of common courtesy to the others that were waiting). And this is not the only place that has hour-long lines forming at its doors. Go to almost any notable restaurant in the city during a peak time (which in Tokyo happens surprisingly often) and you’ll find yourself caught up in a line not knowing what to do with yourself. So this got me to thinking, why do Japanese people like (or, at least, not dislike) lining up and waiting?

Now, there are any number of possible reasons or answers that instantly come to mind. It’s because the country is too crowded, so they have no choice. It’s because Japanese people are very patient and can endure long hardships. It’s because they like to follow the latest trends and do what everyone else is doing. It’s because they have well-developed internal clocks that allow them to effectively time-manage so that they know if they spend an extra 30 minutes in line here, they can make up for later it by taking the special rapid express train home, thus making up for any time lost waiting. I’m not sure that any particular answer is entirely correct or incorrect (or true even), but it does seem to open up to a whole wealth of possibilities, and it’s these possibilities that make me want to keep researching and learning about Japan.

Perhaps someone has already written on this subject (I’m currently searching for such a book or paper so if you find it, please post in the comments and let me know). My hope, however, is that by asking questions like these - including the one that I will address on point cards in a future entry - will lead to a much deeper and more intimate discussion about the Japanese people, society, and culture, and that it will also somehow further legitimize my time being spent here (in both Japan and on this blog).

I hope to continue my writings and discoveries as I develop this idea, but for now, it’s just food for thought.

* the ironic thing is that I’ve never been a particularly good talker which is maybe why I turn to writing.