To interview or not to interview

If the title of my previous post was referring to time as a peculiar thing, words can be even more peculiar. Communication is consists basically of one person sending a message to another. Simple, right? However, as we know, there are many obstructing factors in this process, such as outside factors. In addition to outside distractions, the prior understanding of both sender and receiver can cause misunderstanding of the message.

The pictures in this post are more or less irrelevant for the topic of interview.
They are snapshots from different activities, events and Yamamoto-related things. Here is the new year's first  inspection of local volunteer fire fighters (消防団, shouboudan).

A single word, such as interview, can have different connotations. The fieldwork guides suggest that the word interview (インタビュー, intaabyuu or 面接 mensetsu) might bring rigid and formal image to mind for many Japanese. If one wants unstructured theme interview spiced up with informal chatting, one should use the word お話 (ohanashi, talk, chat, conversation).

I have spent here few months already and tried first to familiarize myself to the situation of the town, chatted informally and at the same time make myself useful by trying to help in different activities. Moving on fully from this sort of hang-around-ask-stupid-questions-researcher's role to credible hey-let's-do-an-interview-researcher's role has not been completely straightforward.

Illumination at Kodaira, Yamamoto. Me and my husband participated in peparations.

Asking for ohanashi has worked quite well here. However, it is quite possible that the interviewee is expecting only a brief chat in case of ohanashi or, in contrast, strictly structured questions if participating to interview. In worst-case scenario, asking for any kind of chat is intrusive and scares the person away. For instance, there is this one professor from Tsukuba university coming to Yamamoto and doing a rather similar research than I am. He has officially looking interview request and interviews are made by either students or the professor himself. He might get more interviewees faster and more efficiently (being a professor and native in Japanese language is a benefit…) and I admit getting rather depressed as he got more contacts in five minutes than I did in five months - literally. However, I want to get to know my interviewees and their context first and learn what they are doing first and later apply relevant questions in formal interveiws. Despite of this, in order to get potential interviewees to understand that I really want an Interview, might require some formality. So, there is a kind of trade-off between formality and having tea and chatting -type of interview and I still have to learn define the best balance - and make sure that the person to be interviewed also shares that understanding. Well, this is a learning process after all. In this process, I need to learn to take more straightforward role.

Yamamoto is promoting it's strawberry farming and industry. One strawberry product is strawberry wine and
 there is also strawberry sparkling wine. 

Then there is the language. The Japanese, I mean - boy, these Japanese here are fluent in Japanese! Despite the fact that I have some what limited language skills and that I absolutely hate hearing my voice on record, I have found that I nowadays I can bear easier 1vs.1 interviews than social gatherings, events etc. The latter can be quite overwhelming and include lots of repetition of how Finland is full of Muumins and it is always cold. Gatherings are nice, but I might have used this year's reserve of socialization. Sorry friends, do not expect lot from me when I get home.

Then there are some practical challenges. Setting a time and place for ohanashi has been a bit challenging. Not so many elderly use e-mail and a short phone call with my prepaid-keitai can cost up to 10€. I know, this is why I get money for research, but it is still unreasonable. Everyone is always busy and asking time for meeting in events has not proven to be successful method. Furthermore and ironically, as I am interested in place research, I do not have good place for interviews. Those who are willing to invite me to their home, are okay, but for others I have limited selection of places. I have not yet figured a sustainable solution for this problem.

Sometimes you have to be prepared for unexpected.
I encountered this imperial guy in one of volunteer networking meetings in Yamamoto.
Got also a selfie with him. 

I have a bad tendency to speak about problems - or challenges, as they should be called, I heard - but there have been good times as well. Gradually, the amount of the conducted interviews is growing and I have heard interesting insights about local reconstruction. The next prob... challenge is transcribing all my recordings.