In some ways my experience living in Japan prepared me well for Thailand. Through Japan I have come to understand ideas of hierarchal relationships, group-orientated behavior and filial piety (meaning I can live with my parents until the ripe-old-age of whenever they die). On the other hand, Japan has actually stunted my ability to deal with Thailand in certain respects. I would have done better to come straight from the US to Thailand when it comes to some practices.
Japan is the ultimate tape-on-the-floor society. Whenever I entered a business, store or governmental office I had but to look at my feet to know where to go. At first the hapless gaijin ignores such boundaries, but with time and reprimands I came to see the wisdom of staying within the lines. The lines are our friends. The lines are here to help us. Why would you want to step out of the lines? Everywhere in Japan there are signs when there are not lines, or sometimes both – that’s when I feel the most secure. The sign reads wait here and is accompanied by a marker on the floor, I can be at ease. Here is one of those nasty deictic (pointing) words that is actually quite ambiguous, but coupled with the tape on the floor I know exactly where here is. Sometimes, like in banks, there is a person, floor markers and signs. It’s like entering temple; you can let go of all conscious thought. The ‘queue’ is also quite important in Japan. Japanese people are natural liner-uppers. The first thing that any Japanese person does upon encountering a gathering of people is to figure out where to line up. It is for that reason that concert promoters have such difficulty in the Land of the Rising Sun. I am getting off track. So, my years in Japan taught me to keep my head down and find the back of the line. This is now my downfall…
In Thailand there are no boundaries. It’s not the same rebellious American attitude of ‘fuck the line – you can't box me in dude, I gotta be me’. It is just that no one ever bothered with lines (or often signs) in the first place. Moreover, the Thai don’t believe in that most Western, linear of concepts – first come, first serve. In order that no one loses face the Thai approach is to serve everyone who appears at the same time. No need to bother with a progressive order – do everything at once. It is not an idea that is going to revolutionize mechanized industry, information technology or the tying of a shoe; nonetheless it’s what goes down when approaching a cash register in Thailand. I am not to sure, but I believe that physicists studying chaos theory might do well to observe the Thai 7/11 staff if they wish a working model.
And there I am looking at the floor and then at the signs, which I can not read, then towards a member of the personnel on premise, hoping against hope that s/he will be wearing a white glove and will point me where to go so that I can find the end of the line, so that I can safely ‘queue’ thereby relieving the terrible anxiety I feel. Whoa is me, there exists not gloved angel to show me the garden gate. I am left to my own device until the latent American in me awakes, pushes to the front and demands service, at which point I am greeted with a smile by the wait staff and the other patrons. Cursed Japan! God Bless the USA!