If you’ve spent time in Japan, you’ll probably know what I’m referring to – the semi-running-but-not-really (because they usually have unsuitable shoes) shuffle that (mostly) younger Japanese women seem to regularly engage in on the streets, etc.
Why, and where do they learn it? I know train schedules can be tight, and being on time is important, so I’ll stipulate that people are often in a hurry in Japan. But I never see older women, or men of any description, doing the shuffle as I do the younger women. And given that it’s not a particularly fast shuffle, I wonder how much sooner they get to their destinations.
I have not really observed this behavior on the street, but I’m in Tokyo this week and I’ll keep my eyes open tomorrow on my way to work.
I do know a trot similar to the one you describe, but I’ve only witnessed it in young female secretaries in the office. They trot to emphasize importance and respect to the particular task they are engaging in. For example, fetching something for a high-rank executive. Japanese men have their own “must act quickly to show respect” shuffle, but it’s not really a trot as much as a set of poorly calculated darts and an outward presentation of a sense of complete befuddlement.
It’s a combination of unsuitable shoes (as you said in the OP) and attempting to look like they’re in a hurry. One of the cultural things that bugs me from time to time is that you don’t actually have to hurry, but form requires that you put on a performance of an attempt to hurry. Plus, a lot of them do an awkward knees-turned-in duck walk because it’s かわいい！(cute) which makes it almost impossible to walk, much less run. My guess as to the origins of the walk is that it’s probably done because it’s extremely childish, like a kid playing dress-up, but that’s just a guess. (A slightly similar walk is forced on women wearing kimono due to leg restriction, but the similarity is fairly superficial.)
Aside from the ones who have had dance training, or who gained some polish through other means, most young Japanese women don’t know how to walk in heels. Instead of standing up straight and going heel-to-toe, they slouch and drag their feet. There’s no connotation of sullenness in foot-dragging that I’m aware of in Japanese culture, so kids aren’t told not to shuffle, and even in the tight-assed schools I’ve been to most students aren’t told to stand up straight. The result is that—aside from some upper-class girls with exposure to the West—many of them walk like chimps with clogs on.
I swear that I’ve mentioned opening a deportment school dozens of times since I came to Japan. My wife (who is Japanese) spent a few years in the US, is a dancer, and comes from an upper-class background, so she also thinks the walk is distasteful. She and her sister have great posture and make walking in heels look the way it’s supposed to: sexy. In contrast, many girls wearing heels make me think of a profoundly retarded second cousin with Down’s syndrome I met when I visited a distant branch of the family. The difference is that it wasn’t her fault that her posture sucked; her bones and joints weren’t formed properly.
(On preview) Operation Ripper: That’s crap. Any groping (痴漢; chikan)would happen once they were actually on the train, in a confined and crowded place with plausible deniability. That’s something that definitely has been cracked down on lately. In any case, it has nothing to do with the silly little trotting performance some girls do.
I don’t see that many people sprinting anywhere in California, (cause you just get in your car and drive half a block, duh ) but I remember in Moscow women had absolutely no problem sprinting in heels or boots, unless you count broken heels as a ‘problem’.
I think it’s just a cultural issue – while relatively speaking I slouch when I am in the US, here in Tokyo my back starts hurting within days because the relative height of desks to minimum office chair height is ridiculous. I can’t even get my knees under some desks – and since all of us use laptops this is profoundly uncomfortable. I am pretty much forced to lean down and forward to be able to use the computer. Writing on paper is even more uncomfortable. Semi-institutionalized calisthenics or not, applied ergonomics and ideas about workplace health are either vastly different or non-existent here, because I’ve spent close to three months working in Tokyo in five different trips and I cannot get used to any of it (and I tried hard).
I disagree with the idea that there is any conscious intent behind the trot. I believe it is a case of unconscious social mimicry. There is no conscious mental process that goes: “I will trot this way because it makes me look childish and cute.” Or: “I will trot because it will make me look busy.”
The origin of the OL-trot certainly has to do with heels and busy schedules. While a man would have to get the paperwork done on time, a woman has to get the paperwork done on time and pick up the phone, and make tea. So women trot. Eventually, people who witness this behaviour unconsciously empathise with it and start mimicking it. At one point, people start doing it automatically regardless of whether they are busy or not. It’s very much like doing the head-bow on the phone, or pointing at your nose when you say “me” or scratching the back of your head when you don’t know what to say.
In the end, trotting may make you look busy or cute or stupid. That’s not the reason people do it – in my experience, many women aren’t even aware they’re doing it. Really, it all boils down to social mimicry.
I have no idea if this is relevant, but since you’ve proposed looking at it as a learned behavior I have to note that women wearing yukata who don’t know how to wear yukata move in a very similiar way when they’re trying to get somewhere quickly.
(Yukata are basically thin one-layer kimono which you wear in the evenings, at festivals, at certain upper-class inns and resorts, and a few other places. They’re worn by both genders, and since they’re tied quite tightly they tend to prevent you from taking a full, natural step. People who’ve been taught to wear kimono tend to have acquired the knack of rolling your hips in a kind of model strut to quickly cover distance without extending your legs, but inexperienced users tend to just shuffle really quickly.)
Hijack: I’ve wondered about this for a while. In Finland, there’s a rising subculture of young anime and J-rock fans who spend a great deal on their appearance. For some reason, most of the girls especially tend to stand with their feet turned inward, like so, or so or so. Is this an “emulating the Japanese style” thing too?
I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily emulating the Japanese trend. In all three of the pictures linked the teenage girls are wearing deliberately childish frocks, and to me look like they are striking that pose with their feet to appear ostentatiously coy. Isn’t it just part of the wider (and to me, creepy and rather vile) trend of infantilisation in young women’s fashion - Britney in her school uniform, the ‘School Disco’ retro nights, Hello Kitty merchandising etc - which has been around for some time? While there are well-known stories like the schoolgirl-knicker-vending-machine thing, it seems a bit harsh to blame the Japanese.
) but I remember in Moscow women had absolutely no problem sprinting in heels or boots, unless you count broken heels as a ‘problem’.