The Topsy Turvy Upsidedown World of Japan

The first time I caught a bus from my home in Kyoto, I tried to get on at the front.

“No, that’s where you get off.”

“But how can I pay?”

“You don’t. You pay when you get off. At the front.”

“Oh” 

Welcome to the topsy turvy world of Japan - here I discovered Japanese mostly act the opposite of how I imagined. When I first tried to negotiate rent for a studio for my school in Ikebukuro, they told me the rent was 60,000yen. I thought it was a lot, so I offered 50,000. 

Their reply?

“The rent is 70,000.”

“Huh?!”

And I had to pay that. 

It was a painful lesson, and this tendency continued all through the 23 years I’ve been in Japan:

- Set A is the menu’s cheapest option;
- a red light on the rice cooker means it started;
- you use a saw to cut wood on the pull stroke, not the push stroke;
- magazines start from the back, and the writing goes up & down, not side to side.

And so on and so on…

The place where this assumed a real challenge as a Westerner was in the precise wording Alexander insisted upon for his directions. Alexander advocated something along the lines of: 

“Free my neck so my head can go forwards and up in order for my back to lengthen and widen so that my knees can go forward and away.”

Well. 

In Japanese, that gets roughly translated to:

“My knees go forward and away so that my back can lengthen and widen in order that my head goes forwards and up by freeing my neck.”

What do you do with that?!

Of course, the words are the tip of an iceberg - the challenge is to express the intention. And unlike Alexander’s days, today we have many breakthrough discoveries by neuroscientists in how motor control actually works. But, as it turns out, these insights closely align with Alexander’s observation. Therefore, your language can confidently adapt to instil an accurate description of what you are affecting with these words and how you can expect them to influence movement.

Accuracy is my ambition as I give individual turns - in English - during my practical workshop at the Berlin Congress…

https://now2022.de/events/jeremy-chance-practical-a/