Watering Kiss Mint and Other Japanese Verbal Delicacies

One of my immediate loves of the Japanese culture is the creative use of English on signs and advertising. In the past, I have read and heard the stories of many travelers who encountered ads proclaiming “I Feel Coke” or “An encounter with Tenderness” (cigarettes) and products such as Your Joyful Drink and Clean Life Please soap.

In one of my grad classes, I learned that the Japanese often employ metaphors of gentleness and emotion in their advertising by way of English language phrases to create an atmosphere of community (there’s your cultural rhetoric lesson for the day :) ). In my few days here, I have become a consumer of several uniquely titled products such as Watering Kiss Mint gum, Delightful Mango juice drink (“a friendly taste in every time”) and Water in Lip lip balm.

The other bits of English I have encountered range from the nonsensical to the possibly poetical and can be found on stationery, signage and printed on all sorts of items from mugs to t-shirts. Matt and I were both amused at the sign pictured above that we found on a futon in the Japanese mega-department store Jusco. Since the sign, I’ve taken to collecting examples of English expressions on Japanese products that have especially impressed me with their lyricism or just tickled me with their odd phrases or imperceptible meaning.

The 100 Yen store (think American dollar store or discount mart) was a gold mine of stationery and cards reading things like “The season....in which you’ll play the leading part” (ladybugs crawling on flowers) and “SweetHappy – The delightful expression fits you well” (puppies dancing on a cupcake in a field of rainbow hearts – did I mention cuteness is also a highly valued Japanese cultural trait?)

Perhaps my favorite is a card with a dog on the front that reads “I’m hungry! Give me foods!”. The occasion for sending this card is ambiguous enough, but the real gem is on the back of its cellophane wrapper. It reads: “WARNING: Please confirm postal costs before use – Store and keep out of reach of children to avoid them accidentally drinking this product – Please handle with care. Product is delicate due to its handmade nature.”

Love it!

Cupboard Calamity

On Monday, my first official day as an Okinawan housewife, I decided to clean and organize our new kitchen. We had just purchased a large amount of groceries during our ventures out on Sunday and all of our dishes and kitchenware were still sitting on the counters where the movers unpacked them. It seemed like a simple, but involved task – however, like all things Shannon that have polished end results, the process included at least one completely goofy incident the that belied the eventual flawless appearance of my attempted domesticity. I even have a nice round bruise on my forearm as evidence.

The kitchen in our apartment is gigantic and includes a large floor-to-ceiling cupboard next to the tiny leaf green refrigerator. I fell in love with this cupboard instantly for its size and honey colored wood and out of necessity because the metal cabinets above the sink and stove are far above my reach. The shelves are wide and evenly spaced so they can easily accomodate pretty much anything that you might want to store on them.

After lining the shelves with contact film, I began organizing our pantry groceries, dishes, pots and pans and my beloved Oreck vacuum cleaner inside the cupboard. Everything was looking worthy of Real Simple magazine when disaster befell my picture perfect display. Just after placing a bag of white rice on the top shelf with the pasta and other raw baking ingredients, the shelf tipped sending some of its goods cascading onto the shelf below and others out onto the kitchen floor. I put my arms out to catch some of the food, because at this point everything seemed in slow motion, but the avalanche that came next was full speed. Each consecutive shelf collapsed onto the next until all six shelves and their cans, bags, boxes, plates, bowls, glasses and pots came flying out of the cupboard at me and all over the kitchen. I had to run backwards a few steps to avoid getting knocked in the head with all of the stuff and still managed to take a hit to the arm from a jar of salsa.

The clatter this whole catastrophe made was impressive, but miraculously, when everything stopped falling, bouncing, crashing and rolling, there was not a single item broken or severely damaged. However, I did have to fix the faulty shelf before replacing the other shelves and putting everything back in the cupboard just so. I attribute my sense of humor and a good dose of Beck playing on iTunes for my general amusement of the situation and the half hour it took to get everything back together again. And the entire time, I could imagine how much Matt would laugh when I told him about the debacle when he got home. He’s no stranger to my capers since the day he walked into the kitchen after the better part of a box of cornstarch exploded covering me head-to-toe in white powder.

When he heard the story, Matt said I should have taken a picture of the mess and I agree, but the polished result will have to suffice and let the calamitous process go in to the annals of goofy Shannon history.

Back to the Regularly Scheduled Program

We finally have Internet access at our apartment, so I can readily resume posting pictures and stories on the blog. Believe me, I’ve been itching to share all that I’ve seen and experienced in the past five or six days. Those quick, directive or inquisitive emails composed during stolen moments at the Konnect Kafe weren’t quite enough.

My flight to Japan was without incident, which is an extraordinary accomplishment considering the emergency landing, missing flight crew and major delays that I have encountered this summer. My luggage was grossly overweight, but a sympathetic airline agent (they do exist!) let me slide when I told her I had just said goodbye to my mom for a year and my bags contained all of my worldly possessions. However, I think karma came ‘round the two times I had to heft both giant suitcases, my travel backpack and overstuffed computer bag onto luggage carts to push through the Tokyo and Okinawa airports.

The best part about the entire 24 hour, 40 minute journey was reuniting with Matt in the lobby of the Okinawa airport. We had been apart for almost a month, and I think in newlywed time that is approximately far too long. I was so caught up in basking in his presence that I practically forgot to look out the windows of our car at Okinawa as he drove back to our new apartment. Stay tuned for details about our new home and all other things Japan........

With this ring, I thee wed........

This is one of my favorite pictures from our wedding. I've always liked photographs where I cannot see my face, but I can see the reactions of the other people in the picture. These pictures are more apt to take me back to the moment they were taken. When I look at this photo, I feel the happiness that was surrounding me, Matt's hand in mine, the soft brush of my veil on my shoulders, the sound of my voice as I spoke my vows and the smile that was lighting up my face. That is what it felt like to be a bride.

Soon after I became engaged, I began to really think about what it would feel like to walk down the aisle of our church, stand at the altar, and pledge to love, honor and cherish Matt forever and always. Up until that point, when my engagement ring was on my finger and it was all very real, the idea of being a bride had been an abstract thought in my mind. Sure, I had played wedding and dress up and dreamed and talked over the details of the day since I was a little girl, but I had never actually thought about what it felt like to be a bride. One of the first things I remember realizing, almost instantly and almost (but maybe not) surprisingly to me, was that all of a sudden, the dress and the details and all of the planning faded in importance. What was so crystal clear in my thoughts was that I was about to enter into an amazing relationship, a spiritual relationship, transcending anything I had ever experienced before.

The morning of the wedding, when I woke up in the giant hotel bed, I started to giggle. "I'm getting married today, I'm getting married today!" I was like a little girl - bouncing and wriggling and hugging myself. I could barely contain my excitement as I sipped my chai, sat in the salon chair and put on my makeup. The initial glee transformed into stronger emotion that culminated as I stood in the church vestibule waiting to walk down the aisle. As I looked to the front of the sanctuary at Matt, I was overcome by a feeling so powerful and amazing, I cannot even find adjectives that begin to verbalize it. I started to well up with tears, but then I began to feel certain. And this certainty was every bit as powerful as the wave of strong emotion that had just overtaken me. When I got to the altar, I wanted to look into Matt's eyes and memorize every moment of my pledge to him and his to me. I wanted to feel the moment to its fullest, hold it in my heart and never let it go.

That is what it felt like to be a bride.