Japanarama

[Kaptin M]

It's okay JJ, my skin is thicker than a crocodile's!

Thank you for your concern, PoD.

Back to Japanarama. The idea of this thread is to try to allow some people, who are considering moving to here for work, the opportunity to look at issues other than what might appear to be a reasonable salary, and to give you some insight into the cultural differences that make living here "different" to what you may have been accustomed to.

I'll bet just about every gaijin has a gomi story - here's another one (or 2 ) to add to the above.
It was Recyclables day (here it's USUALLY every 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month, but occasionally that will change - for who knows what reason. The Japanese residents all generally seem aware of the change..again, JJ's ant nest analogy probably best explains HOW they get to find out!) and one of the Aussies took his cans* and bottles to the drop-off area - in our case it looks the same as the one in the photo, but THIS one is for recyclables only.
The rules are you put your recyclable aluminium, steel, and glass containers into a basket - separate baskets for each one. The trucks then come along, and the crew on them tip the baskets into crushers, which smash the bottles and compact the cans.
From there, they're taken to the recycling centre.
As he started unloading his empty wine bottles, one of the Gomi Nazis appeared and told him "Dame! (da-may)"..meaning "no, don't/don't do it".
He looked around at the plastic baskets that contained aluminium cans, tin cans, and bottles and then asked her why "Dame".
"Because you haven't washed them out - they are not clean!"
He has never forgotten that ill-fated day - the day his garbage was rejected for being dirty!!

Now I have a story not dissimilar to the first one related by Kay Itoi.
I wasn't long out of bed when the phone rang, and so I answered it.
A Japanese woman said, "May I speak to your wife please.", to which I replied "What is your name, please?"
"Mrs Teppanyaki from Block 8 (our apartments are numbered by Block)."
Realising that my wife didn't know any Mrs Teppanyaki from Blk 8, I asked her "What is it about, please?"
"It's your garbage - you have put out the wrong things."
Now I KNEW that she was shooting blind here, as it is ALWAYS me who puts the garbage out when I'm home on those days, and I hadn't been outside!!
"How do you know it's OUR garbage?" I asked her.
"Because it's a foreign brand packet." she replied.
"But Mrs Teppanyaki, Carrefour (which is just a 10 minute walk from here) opened only a week ago, and I have seen many Japanese coming back here with groceries and shopping from there. Besides that, our gomi has not been taken out yet. Good bye."

It's possible that it WAS a gaijin who made a mistake, and inadvertantly put the wrong gomi out that day. But if there IS a problem, then it is a knee-jerk reaction of the Japanese to try to pin it on a foreigner if one can be found.
They are quite tolerant of their own, who steal motor scooters or cars, and dump them along with other rubbish in the side streets.
And it's quite okay for the men to get out of their cars to urinate on the plants or fences on the roadside.
But if a gaijin mistakenly parks in the wrong place, then expect some form of retribution!!

* One "interesting" difference between Japan and Western countries, is the disposal of pressurised containers.
I have a (pressurised) can of deodorant that I purchased in Australia or New Zealand, and on that can is printed the following
CAUTION : Pressurised container. Protect from sunlight..... Do not pierce or burn, even after use.
However, it is the RULE here, that pressurised cans MUST be punctured before they are dumped.
Oh, and in case you hadn't already guessed, the collection day for pressurised containers is NOT the same as for other recyclables!!