Recently at a traffic signal (where I had stopped for red) I saw a group of Japanese, all in black apparently departing after a good meal. What I really did see was a flurry of continously tilting bodies in the dark.Some 10 of them, each one bowing to everyone else - more than once. Requires a good head for maths (not mine) to figure how many bows might have been exchanged that night on that one patch of a Tokyo sidewalk before the light turned green!
So bowing in Japan is not just a cliche? Certainly not. The one thing you quickly get used to when you start living here. Just that coming from a place where a 'thank you' can be as rare as a well...masala sushi (in Mumbai for eg.) such heavy duty niceties can become deeply moving experiences !!
Its all in the angle of tilt.Small quick bows - for casual greetings, 20-30 degrees angle maybe to an aunt, 45 degrees to colleagues or business associates. Though my newspaperwala gives me the full tilt (90 full respectful degrees!) every month (visits to collect money) - an honour reserved only for the Emperor and God!! I have been the recipient of eitiquette variously from plumbers, dish washer repairmen, shopkeepers,fellow drivers on the road (the angles there would be sparing - thank god)...and so the Japanese experience flo
urishes..Scandals and mishaps break out regularly in Japan - surprising? The only difference is that you also see regularly, a clutch of bowing heads across newspapers and TV news - all penitent (apparently) for the 'wrong' they did! The Sony Chairman after a battery debacle,company executives after their water heaters exploded,even the poor Canadian airplane manufacturers after a plane mishap in Japan.Think- Laloo bowing at a press conference after a train accident or to rake up more recent wounds - Sharad Pawar bowing after India's World Cup loss and you just know the gravity of what I'm talking about!
Ja mata raishu....(until next week) :-)
Photo Source :Japan Today
