Bow

Yesterday was the Spring Equinox - that's a day off. Tuesday night I had a couple of people over to my house for drinks by way of a farewell event. I made spaghetti and garlic bread (found the aluminium foil up the back of the cupboard so it didn't burn this time!) and drank an entire bottle of Yellowstone Chardonnay... and a few other items too. But all things considered I was feeling pretty tops on Wednesday morning. Did some cleaning and reading and then in the arvo I had a siesta in the sun streaming in through my lounge window! A cat's life.

On Monday night I went with another CIR to his house for dinner and to play some game called Guitar Hero. It was heaps of fun but unfortunately I didn't really know many of the tunes on the game - the did have some Franz Ferdinand though. Anyway, on the way home we stopped at an optical store to purchase a pair of sunnies that R's girlfriend had coveted last time they were there. He knew which ones they were and we basically marched in, pointed at a pair of sunnies and said "These ones!". There were about 5 employees at this shop, all doing nothing, so they all jumped up and started running about looking after us. We got to sit down at a little table, R had to choose a case for the sunnies, decide about a warranty, whether he wanted gift wrapping, what colour gift box he wanted, they also wanted to fit the sunnies to his face (even though they were clearly women's style) and I had to point out that they were a gift which started the gift wrapping commotion. Then when we thought it was about to be wrapped up, so to speak, they brought out tea for us! They were still figuring out the warranty card so we had to wait a bit longer and they spent that time fussing about the bag to put it all in and sticking gold shiny labels with their shop name all over it. Finally they had everything sorted and we left to a chorus of ARIGATOGOZAIMASU! and some serious bowing action. They even followed us to the doors of the shop and stood there bowing some more as we walked out into the carpark. It was a HUGE fuss of the kind I imagine you never see in Adelaide shops unless you march into Max Mara and purchase the entire line.

In Japan there are lots of different bows. The most common, the one that happens in general conversation everywhere is the little head nod. The shoulders don't really move that much, it's just the head bobbing up and down. The next step would be a head and shoulder bob, but not leaning right over, just as though you have bad posture. That one happens when the school gets a random visitor, or you meet a kids parent outside of school. The next step is The Bow. That's when someone actually "important" comes along. That means you bow from the middle, your back stays straight, head down and you're really supposed to take your hands out of your pockets. You don't see this one very often. Sometimes in assembly, at the Board of Education, but even there they are pretty casual these days it would seem. At the glasses shop we got The Bow.