Sumayaw Ka Sa Tugtog / Geraldine Limpo

“Sumayaw ka sa tugtog” goes one of our Filipino sayings. How many of us remember the adjustments we had to make to acclimatize to living in Japan?

1 Wearing the same type of clothing all year round in the tropical weather of the Philippines will not work here in Japan. Instead, we observe koromogae, or the seasonal changing of clothes traditionally on the first days of June and October. This calls for scheduling a weekend to bring out clothing items for the next season from cabinets and such storage places, and gathering clothing items of the past season to send to the cleaners and store them thereafter (often with moth repellents). Extra work for us, Mommies, but this also means we have different looks for different seasons (which is cool!)

2 Learning to bow, a local sign of respect, by bending from the waist (not just tilting the head forward). Sooner than later, don’t we notice how we bow too during telephone conversations?

3 Do we all remember instances of family members pounding on the bathroom door while we were bathing because they had to do a number 2 (on the toilet bowl) but cannot because most toilets in Philippine homes are inside the bathroom? This is no longer the case because the bathroom and the toilet are usually in different spaces within a Japanese home! Little wonder how we can now spend as much relax time as we need soaking in the ofuro in peace and quiet without anyone pounding on the door.

4 How many of us recall the nightmare of cleaning up after painting or carpentry work inside our homes in the Philippines? Reform in Japan is impressively efficient! Naglalatag ng plastic ang mga trabahante to protect living spaces before commencing work, and they clean up afterwards too! Gone are the days of Inday running the vacuum cleaner or basahan on every square inch of the house to rid it of debris and dust.

5 How many days did it take me to understand how to segregate waste and properly dispose each type? Let me be honest and say that it took my family three days and a trip to the municipal hall. While we instantly understood the difference from moeru gomi from moenai gomi, there were so many new habits to build! Milk cartons had to be emptied, washed and folded; their caps disposed separately. I took these cartons to the nearby su-pa together with cans, dead batteries, cleaned and dried plastic containers that were disposed per type in designated bins. My stressed-out Pinoy brain kept thinking then: bakit ako nag-aaksaya ng tubig at panahon sa paglilinis ng ibabasura ko lang? With time; however, we all got used to the waste disposal system and realized how this system shortens the recycling process.

Besides the language barrier that may be overcome with serious study of the Nihongo and shameless conversation practice, it’s relatively easy to adjust to daily lifestyle in Japan because Filipinos and Japanese share similar customs:

1 We take off our outdoor shoes and change into slippers or walk barefoot inside our homes in the Philippines, similar to genkan etiquette. The objective is the same: keep dirt and dust from entering the residence.

2 Our travel luggages, often overweight, are filled with omiyage.

3 Binalot is our local equivalent to obento.

4 Back home, we receive a gift by handing something back, a la okaeshi.

5 We have salutations to seniors and persons who we consider important (such as customers in shops). Tagalogs add po at the end of sentences. In Nihongo, we append the su x -san or -sama.

And the lists go on.

Living in a di erent country from our homeland is bittersweet. We shed some old habits and learn new ones so we can harmoniously coexist with neighbours and new friends. Fortunately, when we pay close attention, we notice many similarities. It can be fun learning new physical and social landscapes when we keep a healthy sense of humour, so then we can move according to the rhythm of this country we now call home.

Geraldine Limpo

Jeepney Press