ikura desu ka?

My friend had a terrific question: "If you're at a market, point at a bunch of fish eggs, and say 'ikura desu ka', how will the salesperson know what you mean?"

For the Japanese Language-literate, I'm sure that they have aware of this pun/double meaning, as it is very (perhaps even painfully) obvious. For the Jap Lang-illiterate. The pun is off the word ikura, which as a noun refers to the delicious salmon roe commonly found in sushi bars, but as an.. adverb (?) refers to price. Basically saying 'ikura desu ka' can mean "are these fish eggs?" or "how much is this?". They sound pretty much identical.

Okay, perhaps the question wasn't that terrific, but it got me thinking about Japanese. Japanese is a very contextual language - depending on what you're doing, different meanings can be inferred from the same phrase. And since conjugation occurs mostly at the end of a verb and sentence, many things are understood before the sentence is finished. This contributes to the subtleties and indirectness of the language, which I have come to accept and appreciate. Therefore, while English and Chinese are far less subtle, native speakers of these languages are usually perceived as overly straight-forward or even crude when in Japan. This is definitely not news to anybody, since a prominent culture-shock routinely expressed by gaijin living in Japan is the frustration of having seemingly congenial Japanese people say one thing while doing another. On the flip side, "rowdy" behaviour (which in Western countries is tolerable and to a certain extent considered fun) and the straight-forwardness of language used by gaijin contributes to the high levels of prejudice doled out by natives.

Not so much on language, but relevant to my point is this article from Japan Probe detailing the storm of hate felt by some Japanese people for party-goers (many foreigners, but also some Japanese youngsters) throwing an unofficial party in a train-car of the Yamanote Line during Halloween. While holding a party on a public train poses a hindrance and nuisance for people using it as a transport system, I felt the intense reaction it gathered from Japan's digital public was far from proportional to the actual infraction; for foreigners, the torrent of unbridled hate would surely seem unwarranted and excessive. I admit that where I live (and have lived), the local reaction would definitely not be as vocal or ferocious, but it is understandable why it was. Again on the flip side, for some Japanese people this behaviour is extremely unacceptable. The party-goers audacity of "hijacking" a public transport vehicle for a party demonstrated a lack of respect for a country that is trying its best to assimilate them into its society, why shouldn't the Japanese people express their displeasure?

While this is a simplified generalization of a complex topic, under some of this mutual prejudice and dislike lies the differences in which Japanese and gaijin speak, act and react. Sometimes, perhaps straight-forward requests need to be more gentle, while subjugating opinion can be for the greater good, and maybe being a little rowdy might be fun. Everything is contextual isn't it? So, next time there is tension, maybe we can calm each other down by asking the simple question: 'ikura desu ka'?