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| Shrine in Kyoto, Japan |
Let's talk about research for a second. We all know it's
important to do our homework when writing about other locations, times
in history, cultures, and people different from us. And Google is a
wonderful place, surely that gets me everything I need to know to write
an amazingly accurate book right?
Here's the thing, Google
is pretty awesome, and will get you a good chunk of the way there, but
if you want something accurate you need to go to a source. Here's why.
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| Kobe, Japan |
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I
expected a modern city, but I also expected cool temples, and shrines.
You see those in the movies all the time right? They must be every
where. Not so much. In fact the city I stayed in, Kobe, was more
industrial than anything. There were shrines but they were few and far
between, and often quite small. And that grand city I thought I'd see
wasn't really what I expected at all.
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| Kyoto Street Corner |
Sure when I went into
Kyoto on the weekend, I saw castles, temples, and shrines, but they
weren't on every corner there either. We walked about 10 miles toward
one temple without seeing any other shrines, castles, or temples. What
we did see, a modern city which was more of what I had expected to see
in Japan.
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| Kyoto street on the way to a temple |
Another surprise, cities in Japan don't
appear to have a beginning and end like they do in the US. When riding
the train, one city seemed to meld into the next with no apparent city
line or less populated area in between. Buildings and houses just seemed
to go on forever with no break. In the areas I visited, there didn't
seem to be any places where there were large fields and open spaces. In
fact space is a premium here. You will frequently see rice patties right
next to houses and other buildings. Not an inch of space is wasted.
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| Japanese Rice Patty |
And
the cosmetic differences were just the beginning of my adventure in
Japan. The more I explored, the more alienated I felt. I found myself in
a world where I didn't understand street signs, because not only were
they in Japanese, but they were in characters I didn't recognize. I
didn't understand the words being said to me on a regular basis.
Ordering in a restaurant often proved challenging and we frequently
resorted to pointing to pictures on a menu. We often passed by numerous
restaurants before stopping at one because we had no idea even from the
pictures what that place was serving. And with a seafood allergy, I had
to be extremely careful to make sure I wasn't getting things I shouldn't
be eating. On the flip side, in a lot of places, there was more English
than I expected. I was able to get by, but things were still
challenging.
Even the little things put me on my toes
at times I didn't expect. The Japanese drive on the other side of the
road, so that means looking the opposite direction when crossing a
street. You don't realize how much of a habit looking right is until you
almost get run over by a car. And that means the escalators are
backwards to, you go up on the left. I lost count of how many times I
tried to go up the down escalator in the hotel. Even just walking the
path around the edge of Rokko Island I was constantly playing chicken
with people and doing the back and forth dance because I'd move the wrong
way to allow them to pass.
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| Nijo-jo Castle - notice the people walking in on the left and exiting on the right. |
Even queuing up for the train was an
adventure. Yes, there's a line, and if you get in the wrong one, you
either aren't getting on the train or you're going to make people mad.
I'd like to blame some of my ineptitude on being a stupid American, but
after a while I just felt like a complete idiot. I started to wonder if
people here would hate me for being such a moron. But even that is hard
to believe, with how incredibly gracious, polite, and accommodating the
Japanese people are. They always say thank you, they speak quietly and
almost never raise their voices, and I can count on one hand the number
of times I heard a car honk it's horn while driving and walking around.
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| Rokuon-ji - The Golden Temple |
So
why do I make a big deal about all these seemingly inane details about
every day life? Because those are the details that can make all the
difference between writing a book, and writing a believable one that
your reader can get an immersive, true experience in. And because I
never would have known all these things without visiting Japan in
person.
So the next time you write about a place
you've never been, a culture you've never experienced, or people that
are different from you, stop for a minute and think about the ways you
can learn about the things you don't understand. Take a vacation to the
place you are writing about, interview people from the cultures you know
nothing about, find beta readers who understand the experiences you are
trying to portray.
While the internet is a wonderful place,
nothing can replace having lived the experience. If you can't live
it yourself, I implore you to find someone who has. Writing without having the source at hand, is the equivalent of using Google translate on another language, it generally gets the message across, but some things are lost in translation. And is that really how you want your book to be?
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| Translated sign in the restroom. Funny but somewhat lost in translation. |
