The Person Behind the Free Tissues

My original purpose of this blog was to document my observations and emotions through the 4 or so months that I am living in Tokyo. I honestly have not had a lot of time to write thoughtful posts that really address what I am trying to. From now on I am going to try to comment on all the small notes that I have left for myself. Hopefully I will move this from what has been my superficial day to day activities to something deeper. We'll see. This is one of the more serious topics I have wanted to note for a while.

If you have ever been to Japan, you know that there are a countless number of people who hand out free things. Their job is to exhaust their boxes of advertising tissues, flyers, or whatever the item of the day happens to be. Japanese people are pretty good at hawking things. I did realize that till I came to Tokyo. Whether it is at Harajuku's small shops, getting people into restaurants, or selling products at their stores, they are not shy at advertising whatever they have to offer. Paid to do it in fact.

On the busy streets, people try to get rid of the free stuff their employer gives them. They speak to you in keigo (polite Japanese) and almost beg of you to take the freebie. I always feel bad for them. Sure it is a job, but not a great one. I am really sensitive to rejection, so there is no way I would be able to do what they do and keep my self-confidence. I already know I would rather be a janitor or garbage person, rather than loosing myself in rejection as a telemarketer or person who hands out things that people don't actually want.

Usually the people with these jobs are young. Like twenties or whatever. They will move on, they'll have better opportunities later. I have recently noticed that there are a surprising number of middle aged men that have that job as well. Specifically, on the first day of school, there was a balding man who was standing at the corner of Sophia university. As college students would pass, he tried to hand off fliers. Of course, most of the students were not interested. I don't know if he got rid of any of them...

What is like to be you? Here you are standing outside a private school watching girls with designer brand bags and guys wearing $200 jeans pass you everyday. You are halfway through your life and this is the position you are put in? I really felt bad.

I always wondered if people envied us. Even at SU I wonder. There are a good number of students who are well off and whose daddies were paying for them to go to private school. At the same time, it seems like everywhere (Sophia, SU, train stations) there are older people, who should be in their golden years, but instead they are cleaning the bathrooms and sweeping the steps. Really, truly I have seen grandparent aged people providing the menial labor and services in both the US and Japan.

I mean, lol my grandpa collects cardboard for crying out loud. He doesn't need to, but for some reason he does. So I'm not ruling out the chance that they are in the same situation. Perhaps they just want to. But at the same time, maybe they have work to support themselves. If the second option is the case, I could see how they would rightfully have a chip on their shoulder.

I really don't know what I'm exactly trying to say here. Just some thoughts. I've been dying to get these down so I don't forget.