OPEN UNIVERSITY

9168 OU8 - Socialising in Tokyo

In Tokyo, we got on very well with the Japanese crew and, on behalf of the Foreign Ministry, they took us out for our last evening. As you can see, from the photograph below there were 10 of us in total (if you add me in, where I was taking the picture). Apart from the two interpreters, and two OU academics rather than the usual one, this was fairly typical of a BBC documentary crew; which typically runs to six or more members behind the camera!

 Our crew in Tokyo (from left to right, our driver, the assistant cameraman, the cameraman, Richard – my colleague from the OU, the sound man, Hugh – the BBC producer, our two interpreters, and Tricia the BBC Production Assistant)

This evening was spectacular, not least for our producer getting very drunk.  He had been drinking saki, which is served hot and tasted a little bit like cider.  He just hadn't realised that it was so strong.

Thus, we were in one of the best restaurants in Tokyo.  When we first went into the restaurant we had to take the shoes off and continue in our bare feet.  However, when you went to the loo, of course, you needed to put something on your bare feet, so there were wooden sandals provided within the loo.  Hugh, the producer, who had already managed to put his hands through one of the paper screens surrounding the tables, decided he wanted to go to the loo. We were all sitting at the table, toasting each other, when we suddenly heard this clip-clop, clip-clop, coming towards us. We all looked around in horror to see Hugh walking back down the gangway with these wooden clogs still on.  Of course this was horrendous for the Japanese.  So we all desperately gestured, at which point Hugh, who was already quite drunk, said "oh shit" and  turned around to clip-clop all the way back to the loo again.

We then went on to a karaoke club.  I hadn't sung for some for years, not since I left school, but I still thought I had a reasonable voice.  I was horribly disabused of this, when I had to take my turn, and discovered I had an absolutely awful voice. It was so embarrassing, but it was not as embarrassing as Hugh for, when it was his turn, he managed to knock over the neighbouring people's tables.  Surprisingly, the Japanese love drunks. It is part of their culture that drunks are not just accepted but are welcomed.  It's their way of letting off steam.  Thus, while horrendous to us in the West, at the end of the evening we would see many people staggering down the street and, worst of all, (in those days, at least) there were women among them. 

On the other hand, Japan is a very safe place to be. I was so thirsty after my flight that I went out to get a drink from one of the machines they have – serving everything you might want – on the streets. Everything went well, until – as I was walking away from the machine – I heard footsteps running towards me. In London I would have been frightened that I was about to be mugged, but it turned out to be a teenage Japanese girl who handed me the change I had mistakenly left in the machine.

Despite all the stories about their impenetrable culture, the Japanese youth – at least – desperately wanted to be American. All the women’s clothes were Western, and even the dress dummies in the store windows were Western; which was silly, since the Japanese women literally are a different shape - not least they are shorter. However, their men have put on almost a foot in height since the war. Thus it is strange, as a 5’8” Westerner in their underground, having to stoop to go through the connecting tunnels.

I later found that the Hugh, when my compatriots had got him back to his room, had managed to pull down the shower screen while attempting to shower.

I regret Hugh had drunk so much that he was still drunk the following morning.  We had all been given presents by the Japanese crew.  Hugh was presented with a bright purple sash on which was written, in Japanese of course, "I apologise for my dreadful behaviour". Hugh, in his drunken state, insisted on putting it on again the following morning; and nothing we said could persuade him to abandon it!  We first went to MITI, where we did an interview with one of its leading managers. Somehow or other we managed to keep Hugh's purple sash hidden underneath his jacket circuit so it didn't show.  

In terms of the interview itself, this was where our two interpreters came into their own. Thus, we were able to have one interpreter sitting in on the conversation between the MITI manager and Richard -- my compatriot who was doing the interview – to translate for the MITI manager.  The other sat outside the room to listen, and feed back, the complementary translation to Richard.  Thus we were able to record a complete conversation without having to stop for the translations.  This gave it a very natural flow, and I would recommend it as the best approach if you can afford it.

We then went to the headquarters of the leading party in the Japanese government.  We were there to interview one of the government’s leading ministers.  Again we used the same double interpreter process and again it worked very well. In the meantime, though, we were having kittens in case the purple sash poked out from underneath Hugh's jacket. Fortunately it didn't.

Our final meeting of was at the Foreign Ministry, with the leading civil servant who organised the trip.  To my horror, at that stage Hugh did pull out his purple sash and waved it around and said “look what they gave me”. Fortunately the civil servant thought it was British humour, he apparently was a great fan of Monty Python's Flying Circus, so he roared with laughter and joined in the joke.  The rest of us were simply very relieved.

That evening we waved off the group who were going on to look at the possibility of filming in Korea.  It was a very merry occasion, and we all lined up outside the hotel waving to the people in the minibus going to the airport.  I don't know what the Japanese thought of us, but they also probably put us down as English eccentrics.

The following morning I went, with the cameraman, on our one day of sightseeing; to the only substantial temple complex in Tokyo.

Mind you, it was sightseeing in style, with an interpreter and driver – and a cameraman taking my holiday shots on 16mm film!

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