What does "feeling of being in Japan" mean?
 

The other threads have been discussing this question obliquely, and it looks like it may need its own stream of thought. Here's a couple to get you started. As I think of other ones, I'll post them here also.

"Feeling of being in Japan" is the strange ritual that Honda-san, the 29 year-old chef of his own restaurant (called, with a flourish of originality, "Ristorante Honda"), two doors down from my apartment in Aoyama goes through every time we eat there. We are frequent patrons of his place, (which by the way, is excellent and very good value for money), and so every time we eat there, as soon as we ask for the check, one of the waiters will discreetly rush off into the kitchen to alert Honda-san that we are leaving. And then Honda-san will come out of the kitchen wearing his chef gear, and escort us to the door and bow multiple times thanking us for our continuous patronage. He doesn't do that for anybody else we've seen, and an "only in Japan" moment.

"Feeling of being in Japan" is when Sakamoto-san, owner and chef of the famous "Kifune" ryotei in Ginza (which by the way, is in the 8th floor of a non-descript building in Ginza, but it is always full), comes up to you and whispers in your ear to you (and nobody else) that they have fugu karaage or fugu sashimi or whatever that day, but it is not on the menu, but if you want some, he can arrange it.

"The sound of flint and metal being struck together and the shower of sparks at your back that accompany the goodbyes after visiting loved ones."

"Pushing your hands into a bowl of bubbling nuka, literally generations old, and smelling your fingers several hand washes later".

“Exchanging pleasantries with naked strangers (some of them octogenarians) at a neighbourhood Sento”.

"Watching a Go match on the TV and counting every time the expert (male)commentator manages to make 'eye contact' with the TV camera."

D@mn, you folks are poetic today.

Working off Pickles' idea, "feeling of being in Japan" is going to one of the many sake bars/shops I frequent, some more regularly than others, and having the owner greet me by name even if it's been a year since I've been there, and recommend a particular sake he's just got in, only has a few bottles of, and that he knows I'll like. And he's generally right.

Of course, I've also had that happen at the Starbucks branch nearest my Tokyo office--after a year away, I walked in for the second day in a row to have the barista ask me "The usual?"

Whereas the "feeling of being in NY" is having dinner (sakekasu-marinated salmon, yum) at a Japanese restaurant where your dining companion is the only person in the place who can't speak Japanese, then stopping on the way home at Moishe's Bakery to buy hamantaschen.

They're both good feelings.

Boy! You guys make me feel like a piker. I was going to say something about really good ramen or better yet, soba, or maybe the heavenly odor wafting from a good rice cracker shop in some back alley as the next batch comes out of the oven. Top-flight restaurants, very good sake, - out of my league. :p

JR

Finding a "Dai-Nippon" branded beer bottle from the 1930's in the Kyoto mountains while attending a "formal" bird spotting trip with a local social group. Who was this undisplicined fellow back then? ;)

Going to a secluded tea ceremony in Kyoto with all others being at least semi-professionals and seeing them joking and making fun of the whole thing...

A trip to Tokyo and a sympathetic kacho introducing the amazing tiny jazz clubs in the ghetto part of Kabukicho.

How about the slurping of noodles in an Italian restaurant.

Yes! Mrs. Pickles finds this both intensely funny and intensely annoying...

Just googled Ristorante Honda, and it does look quite nice--will have to check it out sometime. I note it's the same brilliant naming scheme as a favorite of mine in Azabu, Ristorante Terauchi. But his website says that Chef Honda was born in 1968, the same year as me--does that make me 29, too?

(God, I hope so.)

Honda-san is 38? Uzo-Kuuuuzo! He doesn't look a day older than 29! There you go, another "feeling of being in Japan" moment. Like that bent-over obaachan that got on the train elbowing everybody with the flexibility of a Cirque acrobat and the strength of a linebacker, who looks like she's 95 years, is really 157 years old, but she keeps in shape by drinking potato hooch and smoking sun-dried beetles wrapped in shiso leaves.

The smell of Natto from across the room is another feeling that one does not get in other countries.

"feeling of being in Japan"? Here it is,

When I
...discovered that pizza-traps on the street(in Shinjyuku/Shibuya)
...heard that one of my neighbors got cheated by "It's me! frauds"(Ore-Ore).
...found the signs of love-hotel on the road-side saying "the green-light".
...walking on the street, all of a sudden a Ko-Gyaru asked me cell-phone # and I lied to her I'm just 26! These are my "feeling of being in Japan" moment.

Found most of this hysterically funny, but I don't get the pizza trap bit... (if it's not PG-13, please PM me with an explanation!).

Working off this theme, "feeling of being in Japan" is sitting on a rather long Limousine Bus ride to Shinjuku (stupid me to take the bus in the snow) and spending much of the trip listening to the ko-gyaru across the aisle having a cell phone conversation with a friend discussing, in graphic detail, her, ahem, part-time job.

She was surrounded by us gaijin, so maybe she thought we couldn't understand, maybe she just didn't care. Educational in some ways, depressing in others (selling yourself for the key money on a 6-man a month apartment....).

Setting: Tiny little hot spring ryokan up in the Japan Alps. It was a balmy summer night, and after a beautiful day some clouds had gathered and it had started to rain. I watched the raindrops light up in the floodlighting as the nearby river roared past, and laid back in our private little tub, the Japanese girl on my left arm holding an umbrella over my head while the one on my right arm fed me chilled Himuro Daiginjo. :cool:

Having breakfast?
 

Neo..http://www.killsometime.com/Pictures/images/pic0766.jpg

I thought that this referred to 'pavement pizzas' - the classic accompaniament to any decent night out in Shinjuku. :( :)

And I'll add another "feeling of being in Japan" as that provided by Mr Toto whenever I encounter a warm toilet seat. And the low whirs and humms that precede a blissful feeling of personal freshness which I'm sure we all enjoy.