The Japanese diplomat was standing two steps away from the Kazakh. Both looked at each other in silence. They had exactly the same slightly flattened faces, stiff mustaches, yellow patent leather, and eyes that were swollen and narrow. They would have passed for twins if the Kazakh had not been in a sheepskin coat belted with a calico sash, and the Japanese in a gray London suit, and if the Kazakh had not started reading only last year, and the Japanese had not graduated from two universities twenty years ago in Tokyo and Paris. The diplomat took a step back, bent his head to the mirror, and clicked the shutter. The Kazakh laughed, sat down on his rough horse, and moved into the steppe.
The authors of the Golden Calf knew for sure that the Japanese graduated from two universities, and the Kazakh himself probably told that he learned to read last year. The cultural revolution came to the steppe with the construction of the railway by Stalin. The Bolsheviks needed literate Kazakhs. I dont know why the shepherds need a letter in the bare steppe, probably so that they understand what is happening. But the Bolsheviks are the Bolsheviks. They said that they had come to enlighten the people, so they began to build schools and teach everyone to read and write.
However, if you put a Kazakh in front of a Japanese again, after fifty years, everyone would indicate who is who even in the 80s of the last century. First of all, by the Panasonic camera and other things and clothes. And an experienced person would hardly be mistaken who eats who even now. The Japanese are more experienced in urbanization. When the Kazakhs began to receive only with the collapse of the USSR, it was just that everyone received this highest education. And besides, the Japanese are more petite in terms of figures. It is unlikely that the Japanese would have so many sumo wrestlers. After all, these wrestlers were specially fattened in the Middle Ages to entertain samurai. The urban environment strongly influences the inner world of people. Makes them tolerant, and democratic. But it can not get rid of the ghosts of the past in the apt expression of Karl Marx.
Chapter 3
In what Kazakhs and Japanese are similar
This book will mainly show the difference between us. But this distinction will be shown for the learning. So that we can see the shortcomings. Moreover, there are some shortcomings among the Japanese who are successful in everything today. Its never a shame to make mistakes, the main thing is not to repeat someone elses. And its even better to learn from others in order to be proud of yourself later.
Despite the many differences between peoples so far apart, despite the fact that we are separated by many thousands of kilometers, there is a lot in common between Kazakhs and Japanese.
We are very similar in some manners. We are so similar that even a subtle connoisseur of people can get confused. Only the Kazakh himself or the Japanese himself will immediately tell who is who by the face and facial expressions. An ethnographer of another nation will have difficulties.
So, the first similar feature of the Japanese and Kazakhs is the Asian art of diplomacy.
Japanese are taught from childhood not to lose face. Therefore, the Japanese always retain dignity.
What does it mean?
This means never committing such an act that will cause the condemnation of others. Therefore, all life the Japanese follow this rule. They not only preserve their honor but also take care of someone elses honor in every possible way. This does not apply to the fact that the Japanese do not shake hands with each other in a European manner. They try not to even touch each other because its an insult (for a samurai. Here it is a legacy from the past. And samurai are not to be trifled with. In 1963, for example, a world-famous wrestler, Japanese celebrity Rikidozan, and Yakuza member Katsushi Murata quarreled with each other in a nightclub with a tragic outcome for the wrestler. Murata stepped on Rikidozans foot. It was a great insult)
A Japanese person will never tell you the word no. Although, even if a Japanese person says yes to you, it doesnt mean anything either. If a Japanese person says hai to you, it looks like yes, in fact, it rather means I understand. If a Japanese person answered hai to an appeal, this does not mean at all that he will fulfill your request. To answer you no, the Japanese will turn the situation so that you will never be able to do what he asks you. You need to know this when you sign a contract with them. Thus, the Japanese do not say no to you. It saves your face. He protects your self-esteem. First, the Japanese think about you.
Although we live far from each other, Kazakhs speak in such patterns that sometimes a non-Kazakh will never understand what the Kazakh said to him. What can I say, even a Kazakh needs to guess a crossword puzzle in his mind, which his interlocutor hinted at. Its good that we have lived next to the Russians for so many centuries, so, there are Kazakhs who speak directly and not so colorful. In the yard, after all, market relations. Time is money. But tradition is tradition.
This is a tradition -ymdau. When a Kazakh speaks by hints, he first wants to find out who he is talking to and in what manner to communicate with the interlocutor further.
If a person does not understand the hints, then he is either not a Kazakh, or a city Kazakh. Kazakhs have excellent, very accurate proverbs on this score. I sometimes wonder who came up with such proverbs. If we could implement these proverbs and follow them to life, then we would overtake even the Japanese. The Kazakh tradition of ymdau resembles the Kazakh game of cat and mouse, who is more cunning, who has a rich imagination. No one will lose face here, but everyone will remain with their conclusions.
(The way of allegory also arose for a reason. To inform Genghis Khan about the death of his son, the great akyn Ketbuga took a dombra and played the kui Aksak Kulan (Lame Kulan) and Genghis Khan began to cry).
The second similar feature between Kazakhs and Japanese.
Japanese cities today are all beautiful: they glow with neon advertising, which takes millions of money. The streets are clean, all the sidewalks are clean, well groomed green spaces grow all around its nice to the eyes. But not everywhere and not always. You can make up legends about Japanese home cleanliness. Even for the toilet, they keep a separate pair of slippers, not to mention slippers for the house.
The whole problem
That the Japanese cant keep clean everywhere. They cant walk in subway slippers, either. It comes out of their understanding of the world. In the subway, Japanese people walk in large shoes and white socks in order to quickly take off their shoes and put on their slippers again at home. Hence, the phenomenon of alienation: if its not his house, then he can throw a beer can everywhere.
In the cinema, in the car, in the office, people calmly throw cigarette butts, empty bottles, banana peels, candy wrappers, and other garbage on the floor. As far as neatness is inherent in Japanese housing, the Japanese office looks so sloppy.
Now lets talk about our problems
There is one central street in the city of Aktobe. Probably there are such central streets all over Kazakhstan. But I remember this street especially. Not the whole street, but its edge, which is adjacent to Sankibaya Avenue. Three hundred meters from the intersection, this part of the street was flooded with water all the time. In autumn and especially in spring there was a whole lake. Cars overcame this section at a first speed, the spectacle was literally like crossing a river into a ford. In the spring, when snow was just melting, thawed pits appeared, actually from pits and snow edges a real obstacle course turned out.