Because of the Chimes

I’d always wondered who invented car chimes. You know, the ones that just start beeping at you because you didn’t get into your car with your seatbelt already on and all of the doors shut. The thing that puzzles me regarding the inventor, is that at same stage they have decided, “Yeah, if I had this car, I’d want it to have this ‘feature’ because it’s just such a nice sound.” I still haven’t found out who the mastermind behind car chimes is, but I’m now quite confident they are Japanese.

Being a first time visitor to the land of the rising sun, I was expecting the unexpected. Surprisingly though, Osaka & Kyoto turned out to be completely different to what I had expected. I was expecting to have language difficulties and to unintentionally commit some sort of major faux pas. Instead it is the smaller, less obvious things that can really surprise you. In my head, walking the streets of Japan was going to be like partaking in an orderly stampede through a hospital – There were supposed to be people packt like sardines in a crushd tin box, the hygiene standards were supposed to be such that I could lick the pavement and it would be minty fresh, there was supposed to be a lot of noise whilst seemingly no one speaks.

Errantly wandering towards the Tsutenkaku Tower in search of our accommodation upon arrival, my preconceived dreams were shattered. Quiet, it was eerily quiet, although it was a Sunday night. And there was practically no one around. Next thing I notice is that they don’t actually scrub the city twice daily like brushing its teeth. Yes, there was no rubbish, and by any standards it is a clean place, but it’s no hospital ward. And there’s a smell, a smell that comes and goes, a smell that I’m sure locals don’t even know exists because it’s just the smell, and everywhere has its smell. Still, it was more than enough to put me off licking the footpath to see if it was actually minty fresh.

The next day something else shocks me. It was not the toilets, I could deal with them, it wasn’t even the shower which would periodically turn off after 20 seconds, it was the chimes and general electronic noisery. A word of advice, don’t walk into a Japanese games arcade unless you really, really, really want to play one of the games. It’s a full on assault on the ears, the mashing of upbeat electronic jingles, a few decibels up from a fighter jet taking off. Chimes are everywhere though, you can’t avoid them. Some of the ones at the train stations and subways were actually quite entertaining; they were just so silly in a place where everyone seems so serious. The main chimes I remember however, was the ‘crossing the street noise.’ You could hear it everywhere. You could be enjoying a Zen rock garden, over 500 years old, and the faint bip beep, bip beep, bip beep would still be seeping in through the temple walls.

The other odd thing I found in Japan, was that the people weren’t as quiet and reserved as you might imagine. At least a few complete strangers would walk up to us everyday just to practice their English. One thing I should mention is that it’s quite rare to see other westerners unless you’re in a ‘tourist central’ area. The funny thing is that every time you see another westerner there’s this look that goes on where you both effectively say to one another, “what are you doing here?” in an accusatory sort of way.

Luckily, the Japanese generally don’t give you such a frosty reception. They seem to be extraordinarily nice and helpful. In fact, we probably would have missed our flight to KL if it wasn’t for a benevolent individual at the train station who walked up to us, told us that the airport train had been cancelled, and that we could get there on a private railway two minutes walk away.

I guess that in some ways, I did get what I expected – Japan is a completely different place to Australia and well worth visiting. On the other hand, I now realise ‘expecting the unexpected’ is a stupid saying and I really should have just said that I didn’t know what to expect.

Skip to the end: Japan is a different culture to Australia

NEWS: Man and Doorway at an Impasse

A Ballarat man in his early twenties was found to be incompatible with a Japanese doorway earlier this month.

Upon arrival at his accommodation in Osaka, the man was shocked to discover that the doorway to his room would not allow for the top half of his head.

"I repeatedly tried to walk in, but every time I tried the doorway would not let my head past," said Lee Taylor.

After several hours of intense negotiations the impasse was resolved with a compromise reached.

"In the end the doorway let my whole body through under the condition that I bow to it every time I walk through," said Mr. Taylor.

Mr. Taylor made his way into the room safely. (Pictured)

The Departure Lounge

Technically it was going through customs at the arrival lounge of Christchurch airport, but unfortunately for one passenger on flight DJ62 it was the last place she saw. After collapsing next to the baggage carousel, my friend Adam (a final year med student I was traveling with) and a few others tried in vain to resuscitate her for about half an hour. As another friend, my girlfriend and I sat there, watching on, waiting, the reality of what we were witnessing began to sink in.

Whilst the majority of Australians have a religion to turn to when dealing with death, for the 18.7% (2006 Census) of us with ‘no religion’ it really is the great unknown. It seems to me that death is something that we’re shielded from in the Australian mainstream. No-one seems to talk about what actually happens after you die in the media, you never really see people actually die on the television, and if you do actually hear about someone dying they seem to become ‘top blokes’ after death. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I found watching this person die quite shocking.

But maybe I shouldn’t be so shocked. I remember last year Mitch, a friend from work, was showing a group of us some videos taken from US Air Force planes of ‘targets’ being ‘neutralized.’ Naturally at the time I was appalled and was slightly concerned that the man in the same room as me had the desire to seek out such footage. Looking back at it though, it wasn’t as though my friend was actually killing the people. Death happens all the time, and should be accepted as something natural, inevitable.

Even though death should be accepted and not turned into some sort of myth, it should definitely still be feared. A recently made acquaintance, Tom, went to Vietnam before coming here to KL. He told me that whilst getting the taxi from the airport just after arriving in Hanoi he saw blood and bodies on the streets from road accidents. Whilst this might have desensitised him slightly, (although it probably just shocked him) he had every right to feel afraid, later on in his voyage, when the bus he was on was overtaking cars on the wrong side of the road, forcing the oncoming traffic off it. As an atheist I believe death is the ultimate fear, just as Muse says. It is an infinite abyss of nothing. All of your experiences, past, present and future, cease.

And this extreme ailment can come at any time. As Rimmer said in the Red Dwarf episode, The Last Day, the most warning most of us get about death is “Mind that bus! What bus? Splat.” With this in mind, I’m going to state the obvious that we should all make the most of our time as living terrestrial beings no matter what faith you are and no matter what views about death you have.

And thus, I’ve decided to travel to Malaysia to spend five of my valuable months. I am obviously hoping to have a great time but I think whatever happens, these months won’t exactly be going down the gurgler. Experiences and knowledge will be gained. My esteemed Yr. 12 maths teacher, Mr. Frost, once told me that knowledge never made anyone happy. This seems to be true but at the same time it does add interest to your life, a bit of colour. So that concludes the story of why I chose to go on exchange.

Oh, the other reason is that Monash gave us some money to do it.

Skip to the end: Life's short, make the most of it - travel.