A few observations
I have been out of commission these past few days because I have a seminar in Kobe tomorrow and I have been working on my slides.
Anyway, I just came back from lunch. I taught this morning then internet in the office wasn't working so I left. I walked to Roppongi Hills where I looked for a place to eat and then I found this cheap Indian buffet, not bad at all (1,200 yen or $12 for all you can eat daal with corn, mixed vegetables in some creamy sauce, chicken tikka masala, and rogan josh... oh, and salad. For once, I wasn't hungry after my meal! :)
The funny thing is that I had been wondering why I hadn't seen that many Indians around... I mean, after all India is a huge country, with so many people, and they are relatively close geographically to this other Asian superpower, Japan... it only made sense that some Indians would come here to work or for holidays or something, no?
Well, I hadn't found them... until today! They are all here, in this Indian restaurant! All the not-eating-with-the-left-hand thing, all the using-your-naan-to-clean-off-all-the-sauce-on-your-plate thing, all the head-shaking-while-talking thing, and all the grunting-to-signal-approval thing... they were all happening here. It reminded me of my days in India a few months back... except these were all super fresa Indian ex-pats, the guys wearing suits and collar shirts and showy rings, the wives looking very western, weating dressy pants, heels, and regular tops... no saris.
Then I decided that it must be decidedly hard for Indians to integrate into Japanese society. I mean, Japan was a very isolated society for the longest time, then it opened up and it's definitely embraced western values... but I guess that western doesn't include Indian, even though India is somewhere to the west of Japan. Then there's the potential racism thing... I don't know if a regular Japanese person would easily become friends with a brown person. Plus, both societies remain relatively closed to the rest of the world... and I guess it even shows on the use of terms like gora in Hindi and gaijin in Japanese to single-out whites or foreigners.
Other than that I have another observation. A LOT of people in Japan are sambos! And I mean A LOT. I don't know how to say this in English, but we call sambos those people who walk with their feet pointing inwards... I think they are called pigeon-toeds in English, but I'm not sure. Anyway, in Mexico whenever that happens to you, your parents usually take you to the doctor and they put these corrective orthopedic treatment thingies that fix your feet/legs and then you walk normally for the rest of your life.
Do people do this also in other countries? Please tell me!!
Because I haven't seen as many people with this problem in other parts of the world. Maybe there's a market opporunity here...!! I could become rich!! muaaaaahahahaha...
Anyway, I just came back from lunch. I taught this morning then internet in the office wasn't working so I left. I walked to Roppongi Hills where I looked for a place to eat and then I found this cheap Indian buffet, not bad at all (1,200 yen or $12 for all you can eat daal with corn, mixed vegetables in some creamy sauce, chicken tikka masala, and rogan josh... oh, and salad. For once, I wasn't hungry after my meal! :)
The funny thing is that I had been wondering why I hadn't seen that many Indians around... I mean, after all India is a huge country, with so many people, and they are relatively close geographically to this other Asian superpower, Japan... it only made sense that some Indians would come here to work or for holidays or something, no?
Well, I hadn't found them... until today! They are all here, in this Indian restaurant! All the not-eating-with-the-left-hand thing, all the using-your-naan-to-clean-off-all-the-sauce-on-your-plate thing, all the head-shaking-while-talking thing, and all the grunting-to-signal-approval thing... they were all happening here. It reminded me of my days in India a few months back... except these were all super fresa Indian ex-pats, the guys wearing suits and collar shirts and showy rings, the wives looking very western, weating dressy pants, heels, and regular tops... no saris.
Then I decided that it must be decidedly hard for Indians to integrate into Japanese society. I mean, Japan was a very isolated society for the longest time, then it opened up and it's definitely embraced western values... but I guess that western doesn't include Indian, even though India is somewhere to the west of Japan. Then there's the potential racism thing... I don't know if a regular Japanese person would easily become friends with a brown person. Plus, both societies remain relatively closed to the rest of the world... and I guess it even shows on the use of terms like gora in Hindi and gaijin in Japanese to single-out whites or foreigners.
Other than that I have another observation. A LOT of people in Japan are sambos! And I mean A LOT. I don't know how to say this in English, but we call sambos those people who walk with their feet pointing inwards... I think they are called pigeon-toeds in English, but I'm not sure. Anyway, in Mexico whenever that happens to you, your parents usually take you to the doctor and they put these corrective orthopedic treatment thingies that fix your feet/legs and then you walk normally for the rest of your life.
Do people do this also in other countries? Please tell me!!
Because I haven't seen as many people with this problem in other parts of the world. Maybe there's a market opporunity here...!! I could become rich!! muaaaaahahahaha...
posted by adrián at 01:04
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