So, a foreigner walks into a store...

2008-July-16

The Sheet

Since coming to Japan, I've noticed that my pretense in any business or government office causes an uproar of panic. Most Japanese have no idea what to do when a foreigner customer comes in the door. Generally, the entire office stops operating and falls into utter confusion consisting of four main activities: 1) Running around aimlessly. 2) Making phone calls to who-knows-where. 3) Staring at the foreigner. 4) Trying to help the foreigner.

I have recently discovered that these activities are neither random nor unplanned, especially numbers 1 and 2. In actuality, every major or corporate business has a sheet of paper about protocol for when a foreigner enters, henceforth referred to as the Sheet. This is a page or two that briefly describes what employees of a shop should do when encountered with a foreign customer. In places like Tokyo, employees are well-accustomed to using the Sheet. They do fine when a foreigner comes in, because they're familiar with the process and the Sheet is usually hung conveniently in a break room. However, when you live in the inaka (Japanese for “boonies”), like I do, the Sheet is usually in the bottom of a drawer or hidden in the plumbing. Because of this, when foreigners walk into a store, usually one employee gets stuck dealing with them while everyone tries to find the Sheet. Some run in circles looking for it, some make phone calls to contact someone who may know where it is, and some just stare at the foreigners, fixing this historic event in their minds.

Of course, local mom-and-pop stores don't have the Sheet. They just stare at foreigners and use hand motions to indicate payment and price, and they keep staring long after the foreigners have left their store: the shock value is too much. However, when a foreigner encounters a more sophisticated business, say a car dealership or a cell phone company, the corporate office has provided the Sheet for the good of their employees. In city offices, the Sheet is provided by the prefectural government.

Some things are written on the Sheet, and some are common practice to all Japanese. A common practice is an inherent knowledge of who deals with foreigners. All Japanese have this sense: it's taught in the second year of middle school. The hierarchy goes something like this: The person with the best English gets foreigners passed to them. Sometimes, this person doesn't actually have the best English, they're just more excited than everyone else to practice their English. If no one speaks English in the store, then the most senior employee comes out to deal with the foreigners. Whoever comes, they usually have two or three other employees standing behind them and whispering “ganbarre” (hang in there), or maybe just staring at the foreigners.

As for the content of the Sheet itself, less sophisticated Sheets just have simple advice like, “Speak loudly and slowly. If they don't understand you, keep speaking louder and slower till they do understand you.” Another common piece of advice on a less-sophisticated sheet is, “Panic utterly.” More sophisticated sheets (for companies like DoCoMo and other large, corporate giants) have information about calling the corporate hot-line where someone on the phone can speak in fluent English to the foreign customers.*

One of the most key pieces of advice universal to all Sheets is this: never communicate with the foreign customer in Japanese. No matter how good a customer's Japanese seems to be, always try to communicate in English. If you know any English, use it: even a simple word like “five” will make the visit less painful. Don't let the foreigner fool you: they can't speak Japanese, so don't let them, and whatever you do, don't speak Japanese to them. A corollary to this is that if an employee does not speak English and must communicate in Japanese, they must use the most polite forms of Japanese, something that even most Japanese have a hard time understanding. For example, in normal Japanese, the phrase “this is a pen” is said, “kore wa pen desu.” In tera-polite Japanese, this is said, “kotchirawamawa open-sama desu-gozaimasu-itadakimasu-kudaonegaishimau-gozaimasu.” No matter how much the foreigner asks Japanese to speak in casual Japanese, they will be instantly fired if they waver for a moment from tera-polite Japanese.

It's not uncommon for stores and government offices to make mistakes. Under-trained employees often lead to this. When I first opened my Japanese bank account, the bank illegally allowed me to open the account without seeing my “foreign devil card,” or “gaijin kaado.” They called after a few days and asked to see it. When I finally came in after getting the card two weeks later, the girl who opened the account ran to me, sped me to the front of the line, and made the necessary copies of my card. I received a small towel as consolation for the mistake.* Illegal extensions on tourist visas have been issued in the past, as well.* One would think immigration would know how to deal with foreigners.

Personally, I am glad for the Sheet. Without it, Japanese employees would be incredibly uncomfortable and nervous when foreigners entered their shops and offices. That, in turn, would make the process more difficult for the foreigner, too. However, because of the sheet, foreigners can be assured that the entire office will pour 100% of their resources into helping them, whatever that takes, be that finding someone who speaks English, calling a friend who speaks English, or just gesturing till the point gets across, the Japanese employees will do everything they can to help. In America, most offices would give up at the language barrier and send you away disappointed. In Japan, not only will they do everything they can to help you and make sure that you walk away happy (and there is no escape once the foreigner-protocol has been engaged, so don't even try), but you get some good entertainment out of it, on top of great service. There ARE perks to being a foreigner in Japan.**

*True story that happened to me or someone I know.

**This last paragraph isn't sarcastic. Well, maybe just the first three sentences are sarcastic.

In a parking lot of Zentsuji city hall, waiting for Dawn to return

There are things I can bear and things I cannot bear. I can bear many types of suffering: heat, sickness, etc. Physical suffering is often not so bad. I didn't used to be able to bear sleeplessness, but I'm learning to. I'm learning to spend time with God when I'm short on sleep. I'm learning to get up earlier. Two things I cannot yet bear are lonliness and learning Japanese. When I can bear these things, it's easy for me to praise God in them. When I cannot bear them, I think that I must escape them, and I cannot very well praise God in them. Some outreach-type stuff I also cannot cope with. It's these things that I can't cope with that I haven't learned to count as joyful trials. We are to praise God in our trials and glorify Him in our suffering. As of yet, those are sufferings where I can't seem to praise Him and gain the peace that surpasses all understanding. Shame and embarassment are still too much for me. 

Often, the things I can bear are those where I can do nothing: like sickness, because I can't make choices to make that go away. The only relief is through endurance. But if I can make choices to react morally better to a situation, or if I can, by my choices, make the situation itself better, I feel a sense of responsibility, and it is harder for me to bear up under the weight. Those things, like language learning, are hard for me to bear, because I feel like I could be reacting better. Not just in praising God, but in actually learning and using Japanese. I can beat myself up some when searching for a better way.

The Black Ships of God's Love

6-25-08

The Black Ships of God's Love

In 1852, Commodore Matthew Perry of the US Navy sailed into Tokyo Bay with four US battleships. For the last 260 years, Japan had completely isolated itself from the outside world. Commodore Perry came with the demand that Japan open up. Under the threat of naval bombardment by new, fearsome, modern weaponry, Japan capitulated, and it opened itself to the west. Japan remembered the existence of the outside world and realized that it was very relevant. This event, the sailing of black ships into Tokyo Bay, shaped Japan's history. Truly, it began the modern history of Japan and remains a strong national memory.

Since the opening of Japan, missionaries have come to this land, and I am but the smallest and most recent of centuries of Christians who have given themselves that the Japanese people might know Christ. However, even after so long, the work here is still in its infancy: a scant 1% of Japan (if that) has eternal life. Our work is so far from completion, and the darkness lies heavy on this land.

However, just today I was realizing just how much I stick out as a foreigner, and in the back of my mind, these thoughts came to fruition: foreigners are black ships in Japan. In most of this country (once you leave the big cities), foreigners are a rare sight. I attract dozens of stares just walking down the streets of rural Japan. When foreigners show up, ignorant and incompetent in the Japanese language and culture, it is a sight to see. I daresay that my visit to the bank today created scarcely less commotion than Matthew Perry sailing into Tokyo bay so long ago.

Because we stick out so much, foreigners constantly remind Japan of the existence of the outside, non-Japanese world. On the one hand, some of Japan remains very traditional and nationalistic, but on the other, the government sees the need to “internationalize” Japan. The reason is that the foreign world is vital to Japan: this country would be bankrupt and starving without international trade. For economic reasons (among others), Japan needs its share of foreigners in order to understand the rest of the world.

As I ponder the role of missionaries in Japan, we are black ships in an even deeper way. We come to Japan to say that there is an outside world and that it is relevant. Most Japanese believe in some form of spirituality, but they do not believe it matters. Religion here, even Buddhism and Shinto, does not play a major part in the lives of most Japanese. It's the here and now, money and industry, that propel Japan. If there is an afterlife, worry about it when you get there.

However, Christians declare that this is utter folly. We say that not only does the afterlife most certainly exist, but that heaven and hell are more intensely real than anything we can imagine. Furthermore, in this life, we find a meaning and purpose in God's love. The Lord is real, and He is Lord of the universe now, not just after death. Missionaries come in ships that the Japanese have never seen to declare these things to a nation that denies them.

However, the black ships that Commodore Perry came with were feared. They were a sign of western power, and they resulted in the dishonor of Japan, causing Japan to look like a little child next to the west. We are not such black ships. We are the Black Ships of God's Love. We do not come for the good of an earthly nation but the Heavenly one. And the good of the Heavenly nation IS the good of Japan. They are one and the same. We come bearing the love of God, a love that Japan needs more than we can even imagine.

I must pause to give credit to the Japanese believers who are faithful to declare the gospel in their own country. They are no less black ships than we foreign missionaries, and in some ways, they suffer more for it, because black ships are not loved in Japan.

So, here I live as a black ship, sticking out as foreign so that the Japanese might open to a world they have long ignored. Didn't Christ say something about this? How did it go?

“You are the Black Ships of God's Love. A black ship in a harbor cannot be hidden. Neither do people dispatch a navy without cause. Instead, they sail it straight into Tokyo Bay, and Japan is opened to the outside world. In the same way, sail out to men...”

Yes, now I remember it: “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Matt. 5:14-16)