Customs – COOPER GENERAL NEWS

Customs and manners are so important to Japanese culture that many travel websites have sections devoted to the subject.

Japan is currently closed to international travelers, but the country is looking for ways to safely reopen before the Tokyo Summer Olympics begin, which is slated for late July. Tourists are not expected to understand all of Japan’s complex social rules, but they can avoid the most common gaffe.

Here’s a guide on what to do – and what to avoid – based on advice from the Japanese government-affiliated tourism organizations.

Don’t touch the geisha

What many travelers call “geisha” is called “maiko” or “geiko” in Kyoto. This is considered to be one of the best places in Japan to see the decorated female entertainers.

If anyone is spotted, the Kyoto City Tourism Association (KCTA) travel website advises travelers not to stop or ask Maiko to pose for photos.

“Don’t bother her or grab her by the kimono sleeves,” the website said.

A maiko or appentice geisha walks in the snow in the Gion district of Kyoto, Japan.

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This is one of Kyoto’s Akimahen Manners, a list of 18 tips, recommendations, and warnings for those traveling in Japan’s Capital of Culture.

The list of “Akimahen” (which means “not” in the local dialect) ranges from tips on automatic taxi doors (“Make sure you stand far enough for the door to open without bumping into you”) to trash can result in a fine of 30,000 Japanese yen (US $ 280).

Emoticon ratings indicate the severity of each crime. Tipping, which is frowned upon in all of Japan instead of thanking people in the local dialect (“okini”), takes on a sad face. Riding a bike drunk gives you three angry faces – the worst rating – not to mention a possible prison sentence of up to five years.

Expect pushing but not talking on trains

Travelers should expect to push and push on crowded trains, according to Go Tokyo, the Tokyo Convention & Visitors Bureau’s travel guide website.

“But remember that this is not aggressive behavior, just the product of daily life in a metropolis,” the website says.

Japanese people rarely talk or eat on trains, especially when they are crowded.

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Videos of white-gloved train attendants cramming people into Japanese trains have delighted travelers for years. They also make it easy to understand one of the most important rules of Japanese public transport: no cell phone calls. In fact, travelers are advised not to even let them ring the doorbell.

“If you have a phone with you, leave it in silent mode,” the Go Tokyo website said.

“Etiquette in public places is serious business in Japan,” said the travel website of the government-affiliated Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO). “Public observance of these rules is probably the main reason a big city like Tokyo can function so smoothly.”

Eat sushi with your hands

Travelers unfamiliar with chopsticks can request cutlery, advises the JNTO travel website, although they “may not be available, especially in more traditional locations”.

Instead of fighting with chopsticks, the tourism organization recommends travelers to follow another local custom.

In Japan, it is common to eat sushi with your hands, especially nigiri sushi, which translates as “two fingers”.

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“If you came to Japan for sushi, remember that you can eat it with your hands,” the website says.

Shrines and temples

A tourist attraction for one person is a sacred place of worship for another person. According to the KCTA website, travelers should “be calm and respectful in shrines and temples”.

The Kyoto Tourism Association also asks visitors to remove hats and sunglasses in places of worship.

Dai Miyamoto, founder of Tokyo Localized Tour Company, said he often saw tourists “sitting all over the place … shrines and temples”, even in places “where there is no bank or place to rest.” He also sees tourists taking photos of Buddha statues and places where photography is prohibited.

Go Tokyo recommends travelers to enjoy the “full cultural experience” of the Shinto shrines by walking along the sides of the path leading to the shrine, as the center is “technically reserved for the anchored deity”.

At the entrance to the site, travelers can rinse their hands and mouth with “cleansing water” before approaching the main hall. There they can “bow slightly, ring the bells, put a small offer of money in the box, bow twice, clap twice, and bow again to complete the ritual,” according to the website.

The rules of the ryokan

Staying in a traditional inn or ryokan is a popular way to experience Japanese hospitality, but this involves more social rules than staying in a hotel.

Ryokans tend to be neither cheap nor exceptionally classy, which may surprise travelers who associate higher prices with sprawling suites and plush bedding. Ryokans are typically one-bedroom accommodations that are spartan and lined with straw tatami mats.

Ryokan prices are often quoted per person rather than per night.

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KCTA has a list of guidelines for ryokan guests, including changing into (provided) slippers before entering. Luggage wheels must not touch the inner floor. And bags should never be kept on the wall molding or the tokonoma where flowers and scrolls are displayed.

Meals are often served in rooms and visitors dress in casual kimonos called yukata to eat. After dinner, plates are cleared and futon-style mattresses are placed on the floor for sleeping.

Onsen etiquette

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s How to Enjoy Tokyo: Manners & Custom Handbook advises travelers to remove all clothing and use onsens, which are bathing areas associated with Japan’s natural hot springs.

As a volcanically active country, Japan has thousands of onsens, many of which are part of a hotel or ryokan and are segregated by gender.

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According to the government manual, bathers must rinse off before entering and not swim, jump, or dive into the water. Hair and towels must not touch the water.

People with tattoos may be denied access to more traditional onsens as tattoos are linked to Japan’s “yakuza” or organized crime groups, Miyamoto said. This is on the decline due to the popularity of tattoos among younger generations and foreign travelers.

Sightseeing and shopping

Cutting lines is banned in most countries, but in Japan, keeping a place for friends or family members is also considered inappropriate, according to Tokyo’s Manner Guide.

It also advises travelers not to go up or down escalators. If you are in a hurry, you should use the stairs.

Negotiating better prices is not common when shopping. And the clothing sizes differ from those in western countries. An oversized men’s shirt in Japan is similar to a medium-sized US men’s shirt.

Miyamoto, 5 feet 9 inches tall and 185 pounds, wears a Japanese size XL because “big is too small”. However, he said Americans who need larger sizes are out of luck.

“Uniqlo, the most famous casual brand in Japan, sells over XXL sizes … in online stores,” he said.

LONDON – A new era began without a fuss on Friday morning at the ports and terminals on Britain’s south east coast. Ferries and trains transporting goods from Dover and Folkestone to France ran on time, and the drivers snaked their trucks unloaded into the port.

Apparently little has changed on January 1st, the country’s first day outside the internal market and customs union of the European Union. It was a public holiday, after all, and there wasn’t much to do.

For the first time in over 25 years, goods moving between the UK and the European Union can no longer move freely, and goods entering the block will be subject to customs controls.

A trade agreement signed in the UK in the early hours of December 31st, less than 24 hours before it came into force, means that the country and the European Union will trade goods without tariffs. However, businesses will continue to face significant changes that they had to prepare for even during the lockdowns, closings, and other social restrictions imposed by the government to contain a growing pandemic.

The changes are sure to bring “bumpy moments,” a senior cabinet minister predicted this week. The government estimates that new customs papers alone will cost British companies £ 7 billion (about $ 9.6 billion) a year.

The UK has at least 150,000 exporters who, according to the country’s tax authority, have never shipped their goods beyond the block and are therefore required to file customs declarations for the first time. Border controls within the European Union were abolished in 1993.

This is a change that will be felt immediately in the UK ports, particularly the port of Dover and the Eurotunnel endpoint at Folkestone, which connect the country to France. But on Friday, New Year’s Day, the trains and ferries are said to have run smoothly. Eurotunnel reported that 200 trucks had already used their shuttle train by 8 a.m.

“It seems pretty quiet,” Elizabeth De Jong, the political director of Logistics UK, a trade group, told Sky News on Friday morning.

However, she added that companies are now facing “a new, different language of customs regulations” that need to be understood. She described the next few weeks as a live test, as companies have to ensure that they have the correct documentation for themselves and the goods on board, and traffic into the region has to be controlled.

In the most extreme circumstances, or according to the government, in the worst case, between 40 and 70 percent of trucks going into the European Union may not be ready for the new border controls. This would slow the flow of goods and could result in lines of up to 7,000 trucks driving to the border and delays of up to two days, according to a government report.

Britain has only recently removed a huge backlog of trucks from the border. On late December 20, the French government suddenly closed its border for 48 hours to stop the spread of a new variant of the coronavirus from England. Thousands of trucks and their drivers were stranded for days. Once the border reopened, they had to show a negative coronavirus test before they could enter France.

The delays in the normally fast-paced port have also raised concerns about the UK’s supply of fresh food, much of which is imported from Europe in winter. A fruit supplier urgently arranged for goods to be flown into the country. British fish and shellfish exporters had to mingle to ship their goods to France unaccompanied by drivers before spoiling them.

The spectacle heightened concerns about trading after December 31, the end of the Brexit transition period. Although goods are already moving more slowly because each driver must first take a negative coronavirus test, which can take around 40 minutes to produce results, trucks are unlikely to see thousands of trucks entering France due to the quieter holiday season Wait friday.

“We would expect the persistent disruption to worsen in the first two weeks as freight demand increases,” the government report said. This could take about three months.

Goods entering the European Union from England, Scotland or Wales now require customs controls, including security declarations, and truck drivers need an entry permit for Kent, the county of Dover and Folkestone to confirm they have the necessary documents .

Truck drivers who drive in the other direction initially have to make fewer demands. The UK government has relaxed the rules for goods coming into the country from the European Union for six months.