Hanami II

More on hanami.

Some interesting cultural differences came to light during cherry blossom viewing. Americans and Japanese both use blankets or tarps when picnicking outdoors, but for Japanese a tarp or blanket functions in a sense like indoor space. While Americans wouldn't think twice about walking or sitting on the tarp with their shoes on, Japanese people consider this to be quite dirty and always remove their shoes before stepping onto the picnic surface. (It's probably also due to the fact that the tarp/blanket functions as the eating surface, and you wouldn't step on that.)

At a small hanami party or other picnic in Japan, both Americans and Japanese would sit while eating and talking. The more people involved, however, the more like a party it would seem to the Americans, and their years of party instincts would take over. In other words, they would stand. After a while, all of the Japanese would be sitting on the blankets and all of the Americans would be standing around talking.

There are other times, too, when Japanese take off their shoes when it would not occur to Americans to do so. When a Japanese person needs to stand on a chair to reach something high, they will remove their footwear -- whether its shoes at the office or slippers at home -- before standing on the chair. Also, Japanese parents make their children take off their shoes when they get a seat on the subway, since Japanese kids, like children everywhere, have a way of always putting their feet on the seats. Japanese doctors' offices, dentists' offices, some hospitals, and even hair salons are also places where you change into slippers before walking in. I even had to remove my shoes and change into slippers for a tour of one of Canon's factories.

Then there are all those oyaji (old farts) at the office who are so accustomed to taking off their shoes inside that they wear slippers or sandals at the office . . . .