Trip to Japan, 1 — Smiles

After my father passed away, I visited Japan for the first time in 11 years. I can’t say, “I went home,” because it’s no longer my home. This was a new way of thinking for me, and it was quite effective in dealing with many issues I had with my family of origin, but I didn’t really expect to see and feel Japan as a foreigner would. It turned out I did experience Japan very differently from any other time in my life.

Granted, it was an extra short trip, and I might have hopped on the return flight before the Japan-ness sank into me. But I saw so many interesting things that I would have missed or gotten irritated by before. I think it was because I didn’t see it as my home, much like you enjoy the company of your quirky friend, but if he were related to you, you wouldn’t see his strangeness as charming and would try to avoid him by all means. Here are some of my observations:

Smiles

I quite forgot how polite Japanese people were! Dave and I flew a Japanese airline called All Nippon Airways. The Japan Airline, or JAL, had been the face of Japan to the world for as far back as I could remember, but recent financial troubles manifested in their service quality, and ANA seemed to have taken over the spot as Japan’s premier airline.

From the moment we boarded the plane, we were bombarded with friendly, genuine smiles throughout the flight. The flight attendants were all young and beautiful ladies, each of them with an egg-shaped face, porcelain skin, and black hair meticulously pulled back in tight bun and neat side-flowing bangs. Apparently, the hair coloring that has become exceedingly popular in the recent decade among Japanese youths isn’t allowed, because brown hair just ain’t Japanese. They were the embodiment of Yamato nadeshiko, the traditional demure and docile quality of Japanese women.

I used to hate this quality. I used to think that this was the very reason why the Japanese young women were often exploited or not taken seriously. But this time, this exact quality felt oddly refreshing. Which made me feel as if I had become a middle-aged salary man. Urgh. I shook that image off and replaced it with another of a foreigner who was visiting Japan for the first time. Yeah, that would work.

Every time they asked or offered something to us, the flight attendants smiled and tilted their heads slightly, and leaned toward us just enough to hear us but not too close to invade our space. I was skeptical of their smiles at first; I can’t remember a genuine smile on faces of any American airline flight attendants, and I assumed it would be the same, that their smiles would be dropped as soon as they move their eyes away from us. I watched them with utmost curiosity. Soon it became clear that their smiles were real, they never left their faces. They smiled as they come toward us, smiled while asking us something, smiled when serving us drinks and food, smiled when they bowed slightly to show they understood our wishes, and they were still smiling when they left us to work on our bidding or to go to tend to someone else. Just watching them filled me with calm happiness. It’s so nice to be served by people who really seem to care.

They even kneeled to take orders. I can’t recall ever seeing that on any other airlines.

Dave hoisted a small carry-on suitcase up in the overhead bin, and thinking there might be other passengers needing space, he set it perpendicular to the wall rather than parallel and sideways. When a flight attendant came and try to close the bin, it got in the way of the latch a little. Instead of banging harder and closing it by force, or going ahead and rearranging the contents of the bin, which is something we are used to seeing, she asked us very politely, “Excuse me, but could I please rotate your bag so it would fit better?” I almost fell out of my seat.

When two of them demonstrated the safety procedures on each aisle, their movements were perfectly synchronized. Then they gave the most flawless bow at the end. It was one of the best bows I have ever seen, with smooth movement, graceful hand positioning, just the right amount of time for staying bent, at 45 degrees exactly, and coming back up without slightest backlash. I wondered, how many hours do they practice that bow to get it so perfect?

The captain came on the PA system. After giving us the usual details of predicted flight conditions, he went on, “It is a humble aircraft and the cabin might be very cramped and miserable, but I would like to wish you a very pleasant flight.” It was one of the newer aircraft, Boeing 777-300ER. Not the newest model, they are introducing them in February 2010, but still, I wouldn’t have called it “humble.” And talking to a mainly Japanese crowd who are used to being packed tightly like sardines in everyday life, I thought calling it “miserable” was way too humble. I listened to his announcement in English that he gave next, and waited for that “humble, miserable” part, but it didn’t come. Very interesting…

On the return flight, another captain stated the following: “I expect some shaking when we cross the jet stream back and forth, but it won’t affect the plane’s ability to fly, so please do not worry.” Again, it didn’t come in English.

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