Juxtapositions

This morning I asked Hiromi what Japan's major newspapers are.  His answer?  Asahi and Mainichi or Yoamiyori.  I was familiar only with the first one.  

I asked several more questions.  "Is there an English version of either of those newspapers?"

"No.  I don't think so."  

"When you read the news on Japan Yahoo, does it come from any of those newspapers?"

"All over the place.  Lots of different sources."

Hiromi again.  "Before I came to the states, I used to read an English newspaper.  It's funny.  When I was in Japan, I read English newspapers.  Now, after 50 years in the US, I'm reading the news again in Japanese."

"I used to read the English newspaper on the train, usually on my way to or from work.  That probably made me look educated.  The thing is, I was almost always wearing jikatabi, the kind of shoes that manual laborers usually wear.  I enjoyed that combination.  I even wore those shoes when I went to the American embassy to apply for a visa to come to the US.  The lady there told me I spoke good English."  Hiromi snorted after the last sentence.

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Here's a picture from the Wikipedia article on jikatabi:

Hiromi brought several pairs of these shoes with him when he first left Japan.  His were black and had the same metal tab closure, fabric upper, and divided-toe style.  I'm  not sure that he ever wore them in the US except when he was working on a roof.  The thin, flexible sole with excellent grip is perfect for such work.  The cloth upper feels more like wearing a sock than wearing a high shoe.  

According to Wikipedia, "Jika-tabi are known as footwear commonly used by construction workers, farmers, gardeners, rickshaw-pullers and other labourers, due to the tough material and heavy-duty but flexible rubber soles they are made from. In America and in other places outside Japan, jikatabi are primarily marketed to practitioners of certain martial arts or to people doing exercises like cross-country running, walking, and climbing.  

Because the sole is so thin and strong and flexible, I believe that wearing jikatabi is as close as possible to duplicating all the advantages of being barefoot, while avoiding the disadvantages.  The " grounding" benefit is sacrificed, of course, but keeping the bone and muscle structure of the foot strong and healthy is possible with jikatabi just as is possible while walking over uneven terrain with bare feet.  Injury from stepping on sharp objects is far less likely with jikatabi than with bare feet.  

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It's a good thing that Hiromi got comfortable early in life with unusual juxtapositions in his persona.  Reading English newspapers on the train in Japan while wearing jikatabi may not have been the first such incongruity, and it most certainly was not the last.  

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Hiromi reports that he looked online and learned that all those major Japanese newspapers he named from memory now have an English version.  Japan Times is another English newspaper available now.

While I can't do much to check on the sources for the information that he gets from Japan Yahoo News, my sense is that the news sources are far more reliable and even-handed (and mainstream) than some of the American alternative media sources that he has often been exposed to in recent years.  I'm favorably impressed with the tone and timbre of what he shares with me from Japan Yahoo News. I take it to be akin to what I read in The Guardian, a British newspaper.