Japanese Toilets

  

basic information

There are two types of toilets in Japan: "Japanese style" and "Western style".

Public washrooms are usually equipped with Japanese style toilets, but the number of public washrooms with Western style toilets has increased significantly, especially in tourist areas. Public washrooms with both Japanese and Western style toilets are also common.

Because toilet paper is sometimes not provided in public washrooms, it is recommended to always carry a small package of tissues with you. Similarly, because paper towels or dryers are not always provided, it is recommended to carry a handkerchief.

Toilets in private homes are mostly Western style. Many modern toilets feature luxury options such as a heated seat, a built-in shower and dryer and an automatic lid opener.

Usual Japanese style

Elevated Japanese style

How to use Japanese style toilets:

1)	Face the hood of the toilet.
2)	Pull down your trousers completely below your knees.
3)	Squat down as closely to the hood as possible. In case of elevated toilets (see picture), you need to stand on the raised platform while squatting.

When using the washroom in a private home, minshuku or ryokan, you will find toiletslippers for exclusive usage inside the washroom. Leave your usual slippers outside the washroom, and do not forget to change back into them, afterwards.

Japanese Bathrooms

  

basic information

In Japan the main purpose of taking a bath, besides cleaning your body, is relaxation at the end of the day.

The typical Japanese bathroom consists of two rooms, an entrance room where you undress and which is equipped with a sink, and the actual bathroom which is equipped with a shower and a deep bath tub. The toilet is almost always located in an entirely separate room.

When bathing Japanese style, you are supposed to first rinse your body outside the bath tub with a washbowl. Afterwards, you enter the tub, which is used for soaking only. The bath water tends to be relatively hot for Western bathing standards.

After soaking, leave the tub and clean your body with soap. Make sure that no soap gets into the bathing water. Once you finished cleaning and have rinsed all the soap off your body, enter the bath tub once more for a final soaking.

After leaving the tub, the water is usually left for the next member of the house. It is to keep the bath water clean for all members of the house that washing and rinsing is done outside of the actual bathtub.

Modern bath tubs can be programmed to be automatically filled with water of a given temperature at a given time, or to heat up the water to a preferred temperature.

 

 

Talking About Love

 

Part 1: "I love you" in Japanese

 

One of the most popular phrases in any language is probably "I love you." In Japanese, "love" is "ai （愛）," and the verb form "to love" is "aisuru （愛する）." "I love you" can be literally translated as "aishite imasu （愛しています）". "Aishiteru （愛してる）," "aishiteru yo （愛してるよ）" or "aishiteru wa (愛してるわ,female speech)" is normally used in conversation. However, the Japanese don't say "I love you" as often as Western people do, because of cultural differences. I am not surprised if some Japanese say that they have never used these expressions in their life.

 

The Japanese generally don't express their love openly. They believe that love can be expressed by manners. When they put their feelings into words, it is preferred to use the phrase "suki desu （好きです）". It literally means, "to like." "Suki da （好きだ）," "suki dayo" (好きだよ, male speech) or "suki yo (好きよ, female speech)" are more colloquial expressions. There are many variations of this phrase, including regional dialects (hogen). "Suki yanen （好きやねん）" is one of the versions in Kansai-ben (the Kansai dialect). Since the phrase can also mean "I love it," and because of the popularity of Kansai-ben, it is used as the name of an instant noodle soup product (See the picture below).

If you like somebody or something very much, "dai (literally means, big)" can be added as the prefix, and say "daisuki desu （大好きです）."

There is another word to describe "love" which is "koi（恋）." The kanji character for "kokoro (心, heart)" is included as part of both kanji characters. Compare the kanji characters below (From left "kokoro," "ai" and "koi").

Both "ai （愛）" and "koi（恋）" can roughly be translated as "love" in English. However, they have a slightly different nuance. To find out about it, we will take a look at the words including "ai" or "koi" 

 

 

Talking About Love

 

Part 2: Ai and Koi

 

Here are some words including "ai （愛）" or "koi （恋）."

The words including "ai"	The words including "koi"
aidokusho  愛読書 (one's favorite book)	hatsukoi  初恋 (first love)
aijin  愛人  (lover)	hiren  悲恋 (sad love)
aijou  愛情 (love, affection)	koibito  恋人 (one's boyfriend/girlfriend)
aikenka  愛犬家 (a dog lover)	koibumi  恋文 (love letter)
aikokushin  愛国心 (patriotism)	koigataki  恋敵 (a rival in love)
aisha  愛車 (one's cherished car)	koi ni ochiru  恋に落ちる (to fall in love with)
aiyousuru  愛用する (to use habitually)	koisuru 恋する (to be in love with)
boseiai  母性愛 (mother's love, maternal affection)	renai  恋愛 (love)
hakuai 博愛 (philanthropy)	shitsuren  失恋 (disappointed love)

"Koi" is a love for the opposite sex, or a longing feeling for a specific person. It can be described as "romantic love" or "passionate love." While "ai" has the same meaning as "koi," it also has a definition of a general feeling of love. "Koi" can be selfish, but "ai" is a real love. Here are some lines that explain them well:

Koi is always wanting. Ai is always giving.

"Renai （恋愛）" is written with the kanji characters of both "koi" and "ai." This word means, "romantic love." "Renai-kekkon （恋愛結婚）" is a "love marriage," which is the opposite of "miai-kekkon (見合い結婚, arranged marriage)." "Renai-shousetsu （恋愛小説）" is "a love story" or "a romance novel." The title of the movie, "As Good As It Gets" was translated as "Renai-shousetuska (恋愛小説家, A Romance Novel Writer)." 

Talking About Love

 

Part 3: More Expressions

Here are some proverbs that include "koi."

Koi ni shishou nashi. 恋に師匠なし。	Love needs no teaching.
Koi ni jouge no hedate nashi. 恋に上下の隔てなし。	Love makes all men equal.
Koi wa shian no hoka. 恋は思案のほか。	Love is without reason.
koi wa moumoku. 恋は盲目。	Love is blind.
Koi wa nesshi yasuku  same yasui. 恋は熱しやすく冷めやすい。	Love becomes deep easily,  but cools down soon.

"Soushi-souai （相思相愛）" is one of the yoji-jukugo （四字熟語）. It means, "to be in love with one another."

The Japanese sometimes use the English word "love" as well, though it is pronounced as "rabu （ラブ）" (since there is no "L" or "V" sound in Japanese). "A love letter" is usually called "rabu retaa （ラブレター）." "Koibumi （恋文）" sounds a bit dated, and it is more a literary word than a conversational word. "Rabu shiin （ラブシーン）" is "a love scene". Young people say "rabu rabu (ラブラブ, love love)" when they are very much in love.

"Ai（愛）" can be used as a female name. Japan's new royal baby was named Princess Aiko, which is written with the kanji characters for "love（愛）" and "child （子）." However, "koi（恋）" is rarely used as a name.

There is another word pronounced the same as "ai" and "koi". Since their meanings are distinctly different, I don't think there is any confusion between them when used in the proper context. With different kanji characters, "ai（藍）" means, "indigo blue," and "koi（鯉）" means, "carp."　Carp streamers that are decorated on Children's Day (May 5th) are called "koi-nobori（鯉のぼり）."

 

Surprise…..

 

International market is fraught with surprises…….here is some thing to read and enjoy.

 

In India, when Proctor & Gamble introduced Vicks Vapour up in India. It caught with a surprise. South Indian are accustomed of rubbing something on their body and not the North Indians. So, P & G had come up with syrup for the North Indians.

 

A famous American feminine sanitary napkins was surprised with sales figures of its South American subsidiary. A major surge in sales. The company was delighted and little startled. The reason for the surge was the local farmers used it as dust masks!!.

 

Colgate is in surprise in Vietnam and Cambodia. The tooth brush is used to clean the guns.

 

When Kellogg’s was first introduced, add cold milk and eat with spoon. Chinese and Koreans are anathema with milk. Japanese find it difficult to drop the chop stick and take the spoons. Indians are used with hot milk.

 

In America, at the time of meeting, shake hands, look eye to eye and speak. The eye to eye contact means “trust”. In Japan, eye to eye contact means “impolite” and should be avoided look at his neck tie and speak. If the American says ‘yes’ it means he agree to your point. In Japan ‘yes’ means he is listening to you. It did not means Japanese are in agreement with you.

 

The common OK hand sign is commonly used in America. In Japan it signifies money and in France it is a symbol of money. However, in parts of South America, it a sign of vulgar gesture.

 

 

….to be continued….

WILL THE LADY ‘LUCK’ SMILE AT ME.

 

I am the most ineligible bachelor in this country. I am a professional trainer in the field of Cross-Cultural Management. I train people on how to change themselves when going from one cultural to another culture. Don’t interpret and see all the things from your point of view. What is right for you may not be right for the other person. See how the process is going on to get the right result… adaptability…shift in the mind set to see the things in a new way…and so on and so forth. All the high funda stuff. I am successful in my business venture also, but I have horrible gone wrong in my personal life. I failed to change when the time comes.

 

I always find it difficult to move with my female counterpart. It is true I am more of masculine side. I always believe and say ,”A lion is a lion and it must roar”. It should not change its colour. I am more of raw, blunt and original side. First of all, I never have a good female friend so far in my life. Even in my college days and University days I did hate the way some of friends are so flexible to maintain their girl friends. In Management schools almost all of them have girl friends. I may be an exception and idiot. Some of the friends were to an extend of bunking the classes and even their seminar presentations. They were always under the trees cool and comfortable from morning to evening. I am not expandable and I stick to my time table and so the best place to park myself is the library. We are eight in our group, except myself, all of them had girl friend and some of them got married too.

 

Now, I look back, I remember my college days and University days, I don’t have any memorable memories to talk about or cherish like some of my friends do have.

 

Some body has recommended the book “Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus”. I read the book. It is good. It is of little use to me. I don’t have the patience, energy and time to understand this complex female creature. But on the other side I am also a ordinary human being to like to have and cherish female companion. Do I have a luck?. Will the ‘luck’ lady will smile me at last. Only the time will give the answer. So far it’s me and my ambition and my journey…

The law of Nature.

 

My mother was a great devote of all Gods. She used to go to temples regularly. When I was young, she used to take me along with her. After some time I had quarrel with God. I stopped going to temple and started arguing God is nowhere and does not exist. I think when we were in the worst part of our life. We detest God. I believed in Physical Science. I am a Science student. Once I was a non-believer. Usually, when the argument came, ‘do you believe in God or not’, I was smart enough to answer, “I don’t even think of God” so there is no need to come to point weather God is there or not.

 

Now I pray to God daily. It may be because, I have seen so many people in my life, I travelled a lot, the life has taught me so many things. I am more matured. In the morning daily prayer to God has the science behind it. Stand before the God close your eyes, bring peace to your mind for a couple of minutes and think of what you want to achieve in your life. Think of the well being of your family, dependent and friends. Reassure what you want to do today, your short term goal and long term achievement. If you keep on thinking your goals and started working towards it, that is the way of success.

 

The second important turning point is, I have reed the biography of Dr. Albert Einstein. In fact, two books about him. I have reed the ‘Special Theory of Relativity’ and ‘General Theory of Relativity’ and History of Time by Stephen Hawkins. The Theory of Relativity has shaken the fundamentals of Newton Physics. It answered the unknown things. Physical science has been changed never before. It has answer about the mysteries of atomic particles behaviours and answered about the mysteries of the Universe.  Einstein brought the entire concept of the universe on a piece of paper.

 

Some of the notable paradox about the universe are, If you look at the Universe at any direction, it looks same !!. The gravitational pull of the stars are very very high. Any object that goes near will be sucked inside. Some times the gravitational force has reached a level, the star itself will collapse. It is called Black Hole. It is happening in the universe regularly. Then you may imagine ‘how the solar system exists’. The universe has to collapse with the gravitational pull of the stars. But it is stable. One more paradox is there is also repulsive force between the objects. It is the law of nature. It is the law that balance the forces. It is for the stability and sustainability.

 

The famous Einstein word that hit my mind and heart is, “God will not role the dice, if the out come is uncertain”. Although Einstein revolutionized the Modern Physics he was not awarded Nobel Prize for ‘Relativity Theory’.

 

Take the example of Earth. It is the only known planet on the Universe to sustain the life. It is the balancing act of the law of nature to make this earth and atmosphere suitable for the life. It is the law of nature that place the water on the Earth and Oxygen in the atmosphere to sustain the life. The trees, forest, rivers, ocean it is all Governed by law of nature. The stability will be disturbed if someone interferes and if the interference exceeds limit.

 

Take the example of male and female. Both of them are different. They are different in the way they think, interpret and do things. But it the law of nature that forces then to live together. This is law of nature. It is not wise to change it. It is for the sustainability of the nature and the human beings. Imagine a world with full of men only. The world will become  blood soaked battle field, because that is the thing men will do well. Now Imagine a world only with women. It is witch world, worse, better not to exist.

 

The eating habits of the people has to be seen from the context of the law of nature. If we imagine, every body is eating meats all day. This world would have been different. If every body is eating only vegetables, the balance would have been different. I think it is the wish of the God to have both vegetarian and non-vegetarian. This balance is a law of nature.