Original link: https://sanguok.com/blog/squirming-in-tokyos-abdomen/
A friend told me, “Tokyo is a place to eat people”.
eat human. Indeed, there are places in Tokyo that make me suffocate.
I only studied abroad for one year . At that time, I went to school every day and was swallowed by the tram, and everyone’s expressions were deformed. Sometimes when the trolley’s mouth is not closed, people break in, and I hear people around me groaning and secret grievances.
Then the car was driving, suddenly stopped, and said “personal accident のため” (due to personal accident), “黢転見合わせ” (stop driving), blah blah blah. We squeezed each other, locked in the car, and could not get out. It was even more horrifying to be told what the general formula of “personal accident” is.
After getting off the bus and leaving the station, you will first pass a police box. The board will update every day how many people died in the country yesterday, and how many people died in the country. Then outside, the wind slapped hard on my face.
I don’t understand what Tokyo does to be so windy. I go through this every morning.
work to earn a living. I didn’t have a high-end job because they thought my stay was short. Only restaurants are thirsty for meat dry batteries.
During the induction, the trainer taught us how to set the plate. First divide the catering tray into two sides that are far or near to the guests. Miso soup should be placed on the right hand near the customer, because the right hand is the mainstream, so it is convenient for the customer to pick it up. The rice is placed on the left side of the miso soup, and on the side close to the guests; because rice is the staple food, it should be placed closer for the guests to eat; and the rice can be picked up by chopsticks, so it is not placed on the far right without hindering edible. The raw eggs and egg beater are placed on the right side away from the guests, which is convenient for the guests to pick up and beat eggs; but because its operation frequency is not as frequent as the drinking of miso soup, it is farther away from the guests than miso soup. If there are other side dishes, they should be placed on the side away from the guests and on the left side of the egg; because the frequency of the side dishes is not as high as that of rice, and the side dishes are not like raw eggs, they can be picked up with chopsticks, so they are not placed on the most The right side also does not hinder eating.
After the introduction by the trainer, how are we? Is the plate so arranged, as scattered as a Japanese flower arrangement, as beautiful and beautiful as a classical garden? Japanese people eat with their eyes. The pleasing arrangement of the plate, and the experience of the details, this is “おもてなし” (hospitality).
go to work. Abenzai who talk about マナー are used to bowing and nodding in front of people, and when they come to the dinner table, they reveal their true colors. When I was checking out, an old man saw that the brand name on me was not a Japanese-style name, and commented: “Japanese ニッポン人いないかよ.
(I didn’t say anything at the time. Two years later, when I chatted with a friend, he taught me about yin and yang: “Japanese の Fang 々 は お 客 で い ら っ し ゃ れ ば い い で す よ.” Of course, this way of replying is not enough to serve.)
So I was able to get a glimpse of the city’s most complete picture of dealing with people and things – serving others wholeheartedly at the work station, and then going to the consumer seat to accept the wholehearted service of others with peace of mind. . It’s as pleasing to the eye as the dishes on a dinner plate.
Waiters are faceless in front of customers. Appearing in front of customers, must have put away their hair and put on uniforms. Waiters in uniforms are not allowed to do things other than service in front of customers – such as eating work meals in the workplace, they can’t put the work meals on a plate and sit on the consumer table to eat, but ask the cat to stretch out before the customers. In the corner of the kitchen where the neck can’t be seen, he squatted down to eat. Inner urgency was helpless, so he had to bend over and apologetically go to the bathroom for a quick solution. The human faces of the waiters disappeared, hidden behind the huge brand of the restaurant.
The gentlemen outside have finished serving, and the waiters have an invisible relationship of superiority and inferiority because of the succession of entry. It was New Year’s Eve at that time, so there were no Japanese, but South Asians and Vietnamese working there, and the Japanese in particular was difficult to understand. They don’t seem to be able to pronounce the sounds like つ and す, and they will become し and ち. When they were slow to react in front of them, they scolded: “I used ちかえない! Japanese わからない?” (I really don’t use yùan! Can’t understand Japanese?) Maybe this is the language violence they once received from the Japanese. , Now let me learn by example.
The first time I went to work, the newborn calf was not afraid of tigers, so I talked back. When I got off work, the head of South Asia seemed to have made a mark on my assessment form. The creepiest thing is that while he looked at me and wrote, he smiled and said goodbye to me. Then I was transferred out of that branch.
In the future, I will neither bow nor retort to verbal violence, but no one actually treats me like that.
When working part-time, I often calculate in my mind how much time I put in and how much money I earn. At that time, when I was devoured by capitalism the most, I was squirming naked in its belly.
Talk about “Tokyo is a place to eat people”. I remembered these feelings.
But after all, during the period in Japan and Beijing, I still have a full sense of harvest. I met a lot of people, interesting people, amazing people. I read my favorite books like crazy. Every corner of Tokyo that I walk by is fresh every day. A flowing feast.
Of course, all of this seems to be critiqued as part of the cultural picture of consumerism. But no matter how much I play with these (commodified) avant-garde theories, I can’t forget the original jubilation in the face of this feast.
Maybe I can stay in China and Liben, but now I just miss it after a long absence. (Although after I went to Japan, I was not refined and changed to Europe XD)
I hope that no matter in this Beijing or that Beijing, whether it is me or you reading this essay, everyone can live well, be safe, and gain inner peace.
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