Well it really snowed hard Friday/Saturday, what was called a Ninja Cloud on the weather forecast sneaked in over the bay and dropped chaos onto the streets. The snow was cold and deep and just kept coming and coming. Finally by Sunday morning, early, it stopped and that was the moment the action really started.
From inside of the houses an army of people appeared wrapped in all sorts of specialist cold weather gear. Each had a shovel or a scoop and they set to work clearing the streets. By lunchtime there were clear paths everywhere.
I have to say that I was impressed, greatly impressed. This was a community action led by an unspoken understanding that it is everyone's duty to clear the snow in front of their houses. A Japanese way of doing things.
Every side street, every alley, all with clear paths for everyone's safety. All done within a matter of hours after the snow stopped falling. If you look at these pictures you will see these are really quite big piles of snow, this took a lot of moving. At the heart of this effort were the old bitches of Tokyo (OB's).
I want to make this very, very clear, OB is a term of great affection and deep respect and not to be confused with some pejorative intention. These are women who are over 75, many of them are in their late eighties and nineties. These are women not to be messed with, better to go and slap a wounded Cape Buffalo on the testicles; you will stand more of a chance of surviving than you would if you tangled with an OB. The word bitch is used much more in the New York Feminist sense, meaning a woman who takes no shit whatsoever.
They can be seen all over Tokyo and when they need the snow moved it gets moved. No argument. Unfortunately I was a little slow off the mark and was embarrassed by our own HMiL, who had swept down the landing and two flights of external stairs, which had been five inches deep with snow, before I had realised she was outside and had a chance to get my shoes on. Obviously by the time I joined her and told her to go inside she gave me a full broadside saying something along the lines of, "Don't you tell me what to do, I've been clearing snow since I was a child. Who do you think you are to tell me to go inside, where have you been, sitting in there drinking tea instead of doing a proper job and happy to let a vulnerable old lady clear snow...." etc., etc., etc..
Severely chastised I managed with only slight injury to get her back inside whilst I finished the job off. The OB's run Tokyo really, the men here know better than to back chat the senior matriarch in the family. They do it by applying a rigorous set of standards and they communicate any transgression, quickly and efficiently to the relative matriarch of the transgressor.
Our own HMiL has a sophisticated telephone system, as they all do, which would make a commercial call centre look like morse code tappers in a telegraph office. This is why Japan has very few cctv cameras. Why spend money on such systems when the OB's of Japan are on the case in seconds?
"What's that you say, a son-in-law not paying proper respect to his mother-in-law." A loud sigh. "We will need to do something about that."
Having then ascertained that the transgressor works in a bank the OB's combine to put pressure on the management with threats to withdraw their savings if the young man is not made aware his promotion prospects are limited unless he treats his mother-in-law with respect.
"What's that you say, you saw him in the street in scruffy clothes. His shoes had not been polished. Oh the shame of it. Don't worry Kako-san, a word with his wife is all that is needed."
Mother-in-law phones her daughter and gives her hell for allowing her man out not properly dressed. Man arrives home to get all sorts of verbal abuse from his honourable wife because he was spotted without properly polished shoes.
"I've had that OB on the phone to me all afternoon. What were you thinking of?"
No, nothing moves in Tokyo without an OB spotting it. Nothing except the snow that is, that gets moved double quick or your life can really turn ugly very quickly.
This was true of the UK when I was a young man. We still had community in the 1970's. Of course it was being eroded at that time, but it still had presence, and as such, we all knew that if we played up, a message would return to the family and we would be served.
ReplyDeleteYou've stuck upon a real theme of unity in this blog, perhaps discovering how togetherness is maintained by the whole and not an industry of paid watchers as we are destined here now.
It is, and has always been true imo, that societies are glued by the wise females. Men are often too readily distracted to cater for the details that enable a functioning harmony.
In the West, we have an odd stream of gender blending that is ultimately detaching us from each other. Some women in the West may be chasing what there counterparts already own in Japan, respect and power. I am a lucky fella, the women in my life remain strong and focused and this is too my benefit as they well know.
It strikes me that we used to behave more like the Japanese, as a unit, often held together by the senior women among us. My Nana was the key figure head in our family. Only when she passed did we all understand this completely.
In clearing the paths, the OB's maintain an open channel to harmony, from which we all gain and personally Jack, I never have a problem with people telling me I could and should be better :-)
Andy
I never have a problem with people telling me I could and should be better :-)
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more.