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For the latest trip to my hometown, I took a plane. I used to fly frequently but that trip was my first flight in four years. The Tokyo International Airport that handles mainly Japanese domestic flights was an old, sterile airport when I last used it. But now, it’s a modern, gorgeous place with a lot of cool shops and restaurants. It looked more like a shopping mall than an airport. To my surprise, I didn’t even have to check in at the counter. An online travel agency gave me a reservation number when I booked the flight, and check-in was done only by typing the number on a machine. That also completed checking in for my return flight. Waiting in line at the counter has become a thing of the past there. The machine produced a receipt-like piece of paper on which a picture code was printed, and scanning it let me through the security gate and the boarding gate. I was amazed and bewildered at those futuristic systems. Once I got on board though, I saw a retrospective thing. The ceremonious service from Japanese flight attendants. They wore heavy makeup and a scarf in a decorative way, and were standing and walking as if they were models. They acted too girlie and sensual. That hasn’t changed since the time I got on a plane for the first time in my life. At that time, a flight attendant was called a stewardess and the only high-paying job for women. Stewardesses were regarded as the super-elite, and most girls’ dreams were to become one. The stewardess’s signature hat was an object of admiration. On my first ever flight, my mother asked a stewardess to borrow her hat and made me wear it to take a photograph. They have given up their hats but behave proudly as ever. Everything has changed except the position of women in Japanese society is so low that flight attendants are still the elite in Japan…
