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