Planet of the Man-Purses

One thing which is more popular in Japan than America is the man-purse. I'm not sure if this is what it's really called, but if I remember correctly that's what they said on Seinfeld and that's good enough for me. Basically, I'm just talking about a small shoulder strap bag that men wear. Well, I've never gone in for these before. I mean, it's one step up from a fanny pack (but it definitely a step UP). All I ever used to carry around was my wallet and my keys and that's what pockets are for right?

But after getting here I soon found I needed more, beginning with my cell phone. Then of course, I had to start using a change purse. Yes, I have a change purse now. I have to. Otherwise the coins become too unwieldy. Back in the States I never carried change and it wasn't a problem since you never really deal with anything bigger than a quarter. But because they use 100 yen and 500 yen coins here not using change would be equivalent to never carrying anything smaller than a $10 bill, and that simply isn't feasible. Still, the wallet, change purse, cell phone, and keys were still doable with just pockets.

But then I also like to have my electronic Japanese dictionary with me since it is often handy. And it's nice to keep my digital camera on hand since you never know when you'll see something you'd like to take a picture of. Add to this the fact that when I go to Sendai I have an hour long train ride each way, so I like to bring a book, and the pockets weren't cutting it anymore. So, every time I headed to the city I was lugging around a backpack just to carry these three little items and it just seemed silly. So I broke down and got a man-purse.

Now, the one downside here is that it isn't that big so many books won't fit in it. The book I am mainly reading now is The Wars Against Saddam by John Simpson, which is all about the two Iraq wars and is written by a BBC journalist who has been there many times and has some pretty decent first-hand knowledge. It's fascinating, but as you can imagine that a heavy enough subject that it needs a big book to hold it. So, it doesn't fit in the man-purse. Last time I went into Sendai I discovered this, so instead I grabbed a much smaller book, Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle. I've always loved the original movies (I don't want to talk about that horrible Tim Burton travesty) but I've never read the book. It's really short, only about 120 pages, so between the ride in, reading while I ate lunch, and the ride back I was able to tear through quite a bit of it.

I haven't finished it yet so I can't compare endings but at least of what I've read so far BOTH movies were completely different. In this one, the apes do NOT speak English (since that is actually pretty goofy) so the human has to slowly earn the trust of one of them. Eventually she decides he is special and even takes him on walks to the park. Of course, he has to go in the nude since the bestial humans on this planet do not wear clothes. It makes him very uncomfortable and he keeps pleading to be dressed but she insists that it would draw too much attention. A nude human, regardless of how strange it makes him feel, is the norm there. If he were to act like an APE then heads would certainly begin turning. So, regardless of his true nature he has to force himself to fit the stereotype.

Why am I mentioning all of this? Well, I was reading this on a train to and from Sendai in the north of Japan and it began to hit a little too close to home. The main reason I came here was to become fluent in Japanese, to the point where I could converse comfortably and understand books, movies, and TV. This means truly becoming comfortable with everyday natural spoken Japanese, and becoming comfortable with it means practicing it. So, when I pick up something from TV or my students or a movie or wherever, I use it. And it never fails to turn heads. People laugh or seem shocked or simply don;t know what to do if I say something that actually sounds natural. For a while I would always ask what was so strange. Had I said it wrong? Was my timing off? No, it was perfectly natural and that's why it was odd.
And it's not just language. Even having the man-purse got some strange reactions because Americans don't use those. People always want to give me coffee (which I truly dislike) instead of green tea (which I love) because Americans don't drink green tea. Occasionally, someone will offer me a fork instead of chopsticks because... well, you get the idea.

So, yeah, I was identifying with the main character in Planet of the Apes and it was making me a tad bit uncomfortable. Like I said, I haven't finished the book and at this point there is the promise that he will eventually be able to prove his true nature and began acting like himself again. It won't be as dramatic for me (no huge scientific symposiums to make my debut at) but I can see that slowly the people in my town are coming to grips with the fact that I do like Japanese food and can handle learning the local dialect and that I don't care about sports (man that was a shocker!). Hope the book has a happy ending.