What my friend Shunsuke and I have done instead basically taking some portrait pictures and I am going to try to explain more or less accurately what was happening at that moment. Readers may think that my descriptions are not very realistic, but overinterpretating a little bit the reality adding some humoristic spice does not harm anybody, right? Here we go!
We were studying in Gusto (funnily written ガスト in katakana, the English pronounciation for an Spanish word) because they open 24h and a very good deal for unlimited soft drinks, coffee, juices, tea, 飲み放題 (All you can drink). This is not a commercial, my intention is not in any case to promote the place, but it is a nice spot considering that Kansai Gaidai's library closes at 19h, the terrible-cheap-coffee vending machines are far away from the CIE/library and Seattle's Best Coffee cafeteria is quite expensive. Shun had an exam on the next day and happily started studying.
Ganbatte, Shun!When he discovered that trying to learn a whole book by heart in less than 24 hours is like crashing into a solid wall, he started to see things from another point of view.
We cannot say he didn't try hard!
In a few minutes, there was a clear winner in this war, human vs. book, and unfortunately was not Shunsuke.
“A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?” - Albert Einstein
We cannot say he didn't try hard!In a few minutes, there was a clear winner in this war, human vs. book, and unfortunately was not Shunsuke.
“A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?” - Albert EinsteinAt this point, Shun started to sing in lost ancient languages, dancing weird dances and finally said: "そろそろ、寝ていくね！お休み！"(Well, I go to sleep! Good night!)
zZzzZzzzZzz....
zZzzZzzzZzz....
Back to reality, Shun was really tired and soon after taking these portraits went back home. I don't know how was the exam next day because I have not met him yet, but I hope it was good. Some of his classmates told me it wasn't that hard. Taking pictures of a friend may not be a great adventure, the kind of experience that makes you grow an urge to write a post about - I see this guy almost every day - but that precise reason brought us to discuss what could we tell with the portraits. We were there, tired of studying and doing howework, and the idea of taking these sequential pictures to tell the mood we were into, popped up in our minds. Even without text, anybody could guess what was going on in the café.
But that wasn't all, I would like to share an anecdote about something that also happened in ガスト that day, an experience hard to forget for a gaijin (foreigner) like me. I met another kind of Japanese people, as the tittle says. I HAD MY FIRST CONTACT WITH THE YAKUZA! An hour after taking these pictures, when Shun and some others had already went back home, we were only 3 people left in the table. Allan (Australia), Thomas (Netherlands) and me, ergo gaijin, gaijin and gaijin. It was pretty late and the place was almost empty and quiet, but everybody could hear the voices of two guys sitting two tables away from us. They were speaking rude Japanese quite out loud and drinking some beers. One of them was in a shirt and suit trousers and the other was wearing a sport tracksuit, hiding one bandaged arm. Suddenly, I heard they were talking about us and one of them came to our table:
- "Hello, how are you"
- "Fine, thanks!"
- "国は何ですか？" (what is your country?)
Bla, bla, bla..
The guy sat in our table and the other came, but stood stand behind him. At this point, I didn't notice what kind of people were they, I thought they were just random guys that wanted to practise some english with the foreigners as he was mixing some English and Japanese. After burning all his basic greetings, we followed the conversation in Japanese. It was nice a friendly talk, so I started to speak using short forms and informal tone, even though he kept the formal tone. But he asked:
- Is there people interested in tattoos in Spain?
- Yes, actually a lot of people have tattoos, some of my friends do.
- Do you have any?
At this point the standing guy got closer and rolled up one sleeve revealing a big japanese style tattoo that covered his entire arm, I could distinguish some Kanji and sakura flowers, but it was just a glimpse because he quickly hid it again. I thought: OOPS, got it! And inmediately went back to the formal style, just in case. While talking, I also noticed all the scars he had on his face, the hard look of the other guy, I remembered the way they broke the ice with us... they still got all their fingers, but everything matched perfectly with those tattoos - they were yakuza!, 99.9% sure. I was not scared but frankly a little bit shocked, so soon started to say "I'm sorry, I don't understand" to his questions to try finish the conversation.
Honestly, they were really nice guys. They were polite and nice all the time, nothing to be scared of. They just came to ask some friendly questions and then went back to their business when I started to not understand, encouraging us to study hard, with a "日本語頑張ってね". I have been told that yakuza are usually friendly with foreigners and frequently ask about tatoos because they know we do have them quite often, they just want to share their interest in the tattoo culture but in this country they are basically alone with that because tattoos have bad reputation.
I had seen some yakuza since I came to Japan, but this was the first time I had the oportunity to talk to them, and it was great! Nice people, these gangsters!
But that wasn't all, I would like to share an anecdote about something that also happened in ガスト that day, an experience hard to forget for a gaijin (foreigner) like me. I met another kind of Japanese people, as the tittle says. I HAD MY FIRST CONTACT WITH THE YAKUZA! An hour after taking these pictures, when Shun and some others had already went back home, we were only 3 people left in the table. Allan (Australia), Thomas (Netherlands) and me, ergo gaijin, gaijin and gaijin. It was pretty late and the place was almost empty and quiet, but everybody could hear the voices of two guys sitting two tables away from us. They were speaking rude Japanese quite out loud and drinking some beers. One of them was in a shirt and suit trousers and the other was wearing a sport tracksuit, hiding one bandaged arm. Suddenly, I heard they were talking about us and one of them came to our table:
- "Hello, how are you"
- "Fine, thanks!"
- "国は何ですか？" (what is your country?)
Bla, bla, bla..
The guy sat in our table and the other came, but stood stand behind him. At this point, I didn't notice what kind of people were they, I thought they were just random guys that wanted to practise some english with the foreigners as he was mixing some English and Japanese. After burning all his basic greetings, we followed the conversation in Japanese. It was nice a friendly talk, so I started to speak using short forms and informal tone, even though he kept the formal tone. But he asked:
- Is there people interested in tattoos in Spain?
- Yes, actually a lot of people have tattoos, some of my friends do.
- Do you have any?
At this point the standing guy got closer and rolled up one sleeve revealing a big japanese style tattoo that covered his entire arm, I could distinguish some Kanji and sakura flowers, but it was just a glimpse because he quickly hid it again. I thought: OOPS, got it! And inmediately went back to the formal style, just in case. While talking, I also noticed all the scars he had on his face, the hard look of the other guy, I remembered the way they broke the ice with us... they still got all their fingers, but everything matched perfectly with those tattoos - they were yakuza!, 99.9% sure. I was not scared but frankly a little bit shocked, so soon started to say "I'm sorry, I don't understand" to his questions to try finish the conversation.
Honestly, they were really nice guys. They were polite and nice all the time, nothing to be scared of. They just came to ask some friendly questions and then went back to their business when I started to not understand, encouraging us to study hard, with a "日本語頑張ってね". I have been told that yakuza are usually friendly with foreigners and frequently ask about tatoos because they know we do have them quite often, they just want to share their interest in the tattoo culture but in this country they are basically alone with that because tattoos have bad reputation.
I had seen some yakuza since I came to Japan, but this was the first time I had the oportunity to talk to them, and it was great! Nice people, these gangsters!
Of course the assignment is ambitious and the idea is that you won't accomplish it by yourself. You provide one specific case study as do all of your classmates - putting them all together might reveal some patterns.
ReplyDelete"Readers may think that my descriptions are not very realistic, but overinterpretating a little bit the reality adding some humoristic spice does not harm anybody, right? " I think this is a complex question and perhaps you should ask Shun how he feels about this representation.
The yakuza story is interesting - perhaps you could have put it in an extra separate post so as not to take the attention away from Shun and the assignment. You tell the story well and certainly illustrate that stereotypes aren't always true and that relationships with all kinds of people depend upon context.
We both made up this representation talking about this post as we were taking the pictures, so he feels good about it.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the yakuza story maybe should be in a separate post, if you agree with editing it now I will do it. Thank you for your comments!