Nagoya

Before my first flight to Japan, I had to study Japanese culture. Until recently, no one in Etihad was able to fly to Japan who did not pass our special training. However, cabin crew for training was assigned randomly. Just recently was this procedure canceled. Training is not required anymore nowadays, everyone can fly to Japan. However, I am glad that my application finally got into the right hands and I could join one of the last Japanese trainings in our Academy. It was very interesting, because Japanese are really special people…

 

Loyalty is everything

Apart from the fact that many young Japanese have really specific fashion tastes, they do not like to be different than the crowd. They respect all the rules in a very pedantic way and with excessive respect. On the board, they put on their seat belts, as soon as the captain turns on the seat belt sign and before landing they automatically open the window blinds and put back their seat-backs before being alerted by flight attendants. They are strict on others, especially on themselves. Order, obedience and loyalty are among their highest values. Children in school spend whole days until late evening hours and work really hard. Adults consider the working overtime as a act of loyalty to their employer and would never ask for extra money. They do not change jobs as often as we do, but they remain in the same company for decades. Only those who show loyalty to their employers are entitled to promotion. Therefore, only hard working seniors usually work in higher positions. They don’t even take the tips from you in Japan! After all, why should the customer pay them for the service if they are already paid for their work by the employer?

Strict Japanese world

It is said that the most of suicides in the world are committed in Japan. Although the standard of living in the country of the rising sun is quite high, not all Japanese manage so well the high workload and strong pressure from both the authorities and the family. There is not much time left for personal interests. If they steal a little for themselves, they run to lost childhood. They adore comics and animated characters. Many girls do not look like more than 13 years old with their teenage make-up and clothing. Otherwise, they have a really fined taste and a sense for  modern art. Older generations hold sacred respect for traditions and rituals. Sayuri in the movie Memoirs of Geisha says: “The ritual promote daily activities to a pleasant pleasure,” and therefore even ordinary drinking of tea becomes an experience in Japan. The Japanese are very nice, helpful, humble and always willing to help, but they can also be very aggressive if they get angry.

Vending machines for everything

Japanese do not like to stand out from the crowd or to bother others, so it is quite possible that if they are sitting on a plane in the middle row, they will rather hold their need for restroom than wake up the passenger sitting next to them. Since many people travel for hours on a daily basis with their high-speed trains for work in large cities, it is essential to avoid making phone calls or talking loud in trains. Someone can be sleeping before/after hard working day. And maybe because they don’t like to bother others, at every corner, there is some vending machine, almost for everything, not just coffee and tea… I guess, that’s all from my pre-flight preparation, let’s see how the reality will look like…

Time for sushi

We arrive to Nagoya in the evening after the transit flight through Beijing. We stay in the center of everything. From the room, I have an amazing view of skyscrapers in the setting sun. An hour later, as soon as we all take away our uniforms, we meet in the hotel lobby. The Captain takes us to some nice place for dinner. Many of us go for seafood in interesting style, but I prefer to stay with sushi. All day long, I was struggling with headache and don’t want to add stomach-ache to it.

Red means stop!

The next morning I wake up pretty early to see as much as possible. The weather is beautiful and sunny, nothing reminds me our foggy late autumns, only if the bare branches of some trees. At the reception, I get the city map and head to the most famous building in the city – the Nagoya Palace. I could go there by metro, but I still don’t feel courageous enough for this underground maze. And outside is so beautiful! Some of the streets are pretty empty, many Japanese are probably sitting in their offices. The highways lead over the overpasses above our heads. Down at the “roots” of the skyscrapers is quiet. First experience with the Japanese culture come at the crosswalk. All roads are completely empty, but the red light is shining on the semaphore. Normally, I would ignore it, because I don’t see any car in the distance, but one young Japanese couple obediently stops and waits. So I have to go back and wait for the green. I don’t want to behave like a tourist! 🙂

Nagoya Palace and Matcha Diet

After less than hour of walk, I reach the palace surrounded by the large park. Inside the former palace is nowadays a museum of Japanese history – weapons, farm tools, fishing nets, kimonos and traditional Japanese houses “minka” built of wood and paper (!) with their typical sliding doors. Later in the park, I finally get to know the taste of the well known Japanese matcha ice cream. Matcha is a kind of green tea leaves that are grown in the shade, so they contain far more chlorophyll than other green tea leaves and are apparently very healthy. But Japanese drink green tea differently than we do. The green leaves are crushed into a powder that completely dissolves in the water and so, much more vitamins are absorbed by human body than while drinking just tea infusions. Although Matcha tea has a very distinctive and specific taste, I immediately fell in love with it at the first sip. Japanese like to add matcha flavor almost to everything, especially to sweets – they make green cakes, chocolates, milkshakes, frappucinos, latte, biscuits and cookies. Seems like I’m on the matcha diet today: ice cream for breakfast, ice cream for lunch, ice cream for dinner!

Japanese gadgets

On the way back to the hotel, I take a walk around the main square, where the TV tower and the interesting Oasis 21 Sakae building full of shops and restaurants in the shape of a flying disk is. At Starbucks I still want to try one matcha frappucino and matcha cheesecake. When I pay, I forgot about the tips rule, and I’m trying to convince the staff to keep the change. However, waitress shakes her head as a sign of disapproval, forcing me to take all my coins back. From the coffeeshop, I continue to the street that leads me to the Planetarium and Nagoya City Science Museum. It has a funny shape of the planet Earth trapped between two buildings. The robot mania of the country is seen in the park, where robots dance for the money from audience. Before returning to the hotel and getting ready for a flight back to Beijing, I stop at one of the many tax-free shops whit miraculous Japanese creams, face masks, shampoos, whitening toothpastes, collagen drinks and other gadgets which other flight attendants are obsessed with. The only problem is that many products have only Japanese inscriptions on their packaging, so you have to rely on your intuition or pictures. And maybe you’ll be lucky enough to meet a salesman who speaks a little English! 🙂