Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Japanese's Hospitality (Nihonjin no Omotenashi)

Are Osaka citizens more talkative and Tokyo citizens more individualist? Most people that have visited and stayed there for a period of time say yes. We won't make any conclusion but just sharing.


Our first meeting with Japanese was on Airasia airplane from Kuala Lumpur (KUL) to Kansai International Airport (KIX). They were old couple from Osaka that went to Malaysia for leisure. The old man was about 60 years old and still, Japanese looked healthy. He even explained to me where Hokkaido, Osaka, Tokyo and others were located. After the plane landed safely, we said goodbye to them, we thought that it was the end of our meeting. But no, they showed us the way to take a bus to the terminal, led our way to immigration section for foreigner. Then they went to the right side where immigration counter for Japanese was located. We didn’t have any baggage so we went to custom checking directly while they were still waiting for their baggages in the baggage belt. Custom officer told us to take out stuffs from our backpacks as their normal checking procedure. Afraid of something might happened to us, the old man approached us and asked the immigration officer. ‘No, Sir. Everything is OK’. After that, he went back to join his wife, waiting for their baggages. We waved our hands from far away, saying thank you and goodbye once again. For the whole story, you can read it here.

Just a while after our arrival at Sumiyoshi Taisha, Osaka in our first day of Japan trip, an aunt asked us where we came from. Maybe with DSLR camera on Foody and GoPro on Footy, we were so like 'tourist'. Hahaha....

In Osaka Castle, when we were looking and taking photographs of blossomed flower tree, an uncle suddenly told Footy that it wasn’t  sakura flower but peach flower. For the whole story, you can read it here.

We found a kind of strange situation while we were walking to Dotonbori. There was an old man, with body full of scratches, sitting on the ground. Nobody seemed to notice or help. We helped him to get up and to sit on the edge of flower box. He just smiled to us and didn't say any words. We felt that he wanted to talk because he opened his mouth but still, no words came out from him. We were so confused with this situation due to our status as ‘just-ordinary-tourists’ here. Luckily,  there was a Japanese man approched him and talked to him so we left over the old man to him. Sorry uncle, but we couldn't help more than that.

Then, after a long overnight bus trip from Umeda Sky Building, Osaka to Shinjuku, Tokyo......

In front of Tokyo Government Building, when we were looking at the map and waiting for the opening hour of the building, a businessman, about 40 years old, asked us if there was something that he could help. Actually, we had got all the informations before but he was so kind to inform us which floor we had to go and, awesomely, in a very good English.

Inside Tama Art University, we asked a college student where we could meet administration staff here in English. It was like he understand but he just nodded and called for the administration staff outside. This time, we met a young woman, maybe about twenty five years old. Actually, this was a request of Foody's friend that planned to take his master degree here. Here, we asked about studying system, enrollment fee, the scholarship for international student and others. Along our trip in Japan, her English was the best.

After our long search to find Odaiba Kaihin Koen Mae post office in Odaiba because google maps couldn't show us which floor and it was already 4.30PM (post office closed at 5PM), we finally tried to find and asked about it to Japanese. Luckily,  an executive woman was walking to our direction and we asked her directly. Her Japanese was so easy to be listened and she was so friendly too. She offered to take us there. Actually, the post office was on the left and her office was on the right after we went up the stairs, it’s in the same area (as google maps showed) but on the third floor (google maps couldn't show).

At least, all Japanese that we met were so kind and helpful. Individualist stamp on Tokyo citizens didn't make them not caring and helping other people. A lot of Japanese couldn't speak English well (especially old man and woman), but most of them will try to help the best they can.

Thanks for the help during our Japan trip, Japanese. Hope that we could treat you with that 'Omotenashi' (おもてなし hospitality) when you visit Indonesia. 

-Ask, then you'll get the answer-

We eat, we walk, we talk
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