I did it again!
My gosh how many times does that make it now?
Every time I do it, or some kind of similar “Ugh! what a dumb ass cultural blunder that was!” move, I can’t help but think of a friend who visited during my first year in Japan and laugh. I don’t even remember exactly what it was he did when we went to the A-bomb museum in Hiroshima, just him telling that he did some kind of bonehead tourist move only to have the staff point it out to him and, in telling me about it once outside the museum he said:
“They’re probably wondering, ‘How’d we lose the war against these people?’”
That was a good visit. We traveled all over this land and laughed a lot.
In any event I recalled that time while laughing at myself when walking back to my car this morning. I pictured the staff at the door shaking their heads as they watched me go:
“He forgot to take off the toilet slippers when he left the toilet? What a dumbass! How did we lose the war to those people?!”
When I was all finished I went to leave and the lady said "You forgot your slippers"
"No, those aren't mine" I replied, only to notice... "Ah shit!"
Then have to explain (in Japanese of course) that I'd forgotten to take off the toilet slippers when I went there to do the urine sample.
I asked my wife about it this evening. Have you ever forgotten to take off the toilet slippers when you left the toilet? I could tell by the “What’ya think I’m some kinda dumbass?” look in her eyes that she hadn’t before she even replied. So apparently it’s not something the Japanese do. But me? Well, yeah.
This morning it was at my yearly physical, which was held in the building that houses the public health department offices. The town I’m in, like most other’s in Japan I’m guessing, mails health check packets out to its citizens around their birthday every year. The packet is basically a “Time for your yearly physical” kinda thing. It’s got all the info on how to sign up or when and where they’re being held. It’s a fantastic system and $20 for a full on medical check is a small price to pay for peace of mind.
There's plenty I think they could do better in this land I'm in, but gotta give credit where credit’s due and they’ve got affordable, annual medical checkups for every citizen down to a fine science. Since turning forty I've gone to my regular doc to get it done maybe once every three to five years. You can do that to get a more thorough physical, like last year I went to Dr. Takahashi so I could get the up the butt and down the throat cameras. (hopefully different cameras or not in that order!) but so far everything’s checked out fine so most years I opt for a big exam test site. You can't get a butt cam there, but still they take a look inside your guts via the barium drinking belly x-ray test. They have trucks set up outside the building—a couple for that and one for chest x-rays—then the blood drawing, pee in a cup, blood pressure and physical exam by doc and all take place inside the building.
The pee in a cup part was right at the beginning. I went in came out with my little sealed vile full of pee, handed it to the lady at the next desk then went through the next half dozen or so sections completely oblivious to the fact that I’d forgotten to change out of the toilet slippers.
Depending on the type of place you’re at here there might be slippers to change into at the entrance then others to wear in your room (like in a hotel) or still others to wear if you step out on a patio and of course then there are the toilet slippers. I’d just as soon go barefoot or in socks and often do in places like a hotel or spa, but when handed slippers by someone at the door I just think “when in Rome” and put them on. I just wish there was a flashing sign outside the toilet that said “TAKE OFF TOILET SLIPPERS HERE!” though. That’d be helpful.
But there’s not, so I did it again, and yet again a small group of Japanese probably looked on in amazement at how anyone could do such a bonehead thing, all the while wondering to themselves... .
“OMG! How did we lose the war to those people?”
Oh well, medical check done for another year at least.
Grateful for that I am.
I guess I should be grateful that knowing slipper etiquette is not necessary for winning wars as well.
