Chapter 31 Part 5 True Wisdom in Jokes-1

At the end of my year in Brazil, I received a letter from Professor Wheeler. He said that Japan will hold an international conference on theoretical physics and asked me if I would like to attend.Japan produced several famous physicists before the war, such as Nobel laureate Hideki Yukawa (1907-1981), Shinichiro Tomonaga (1906-1979), and Yoshio Nishina (1890-1951).But the holding of this conference was the first sign of the revival of life in postwar Japan; we all felt compelled to attend to help them move forward. Wheeler said in the letter that it would be better if we could learn a little Japanese first, and he also attached a reader of phrases used in the army.I got a Japanese woman to correct my pronunciation, practiced picking up scraps of paper with chopsticks, and read a lot of books about Japan.Japan was a mysterious country to me at the time, and I thought it would be interesting to go to a strange and wonderful country, so I worked very hard.

When we arrived in Japan, we were met at the airport and taken to a hotel in Tokyo designed by the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright.This is a European-style hotel, and their European style is so thorough that even the waiters wear a full set of Western uniforms.It doesn't feel like we are in Japan, but in Europe or America.The bellboy who took us to our room walked around pulling the blinds up and down and waiting for our tip - American style everywhere! Our hosts arranged everything.On the first night, we dined on the top floor of the hotel. We were greeted by a Japanese woman in a kimono, and the menu was still in English.I had a hard time picking up some Japanese, so towards the end of dinner I said to the waitress, "コ——ヒ——を持てきて下さぃ." She bowed and went out .

My friend Marshak asked repeatedly: "What? What?" "I'm speaking Japanese", I said. "Oh, you liar! You're kidding, Feynman." "What do you mean?" I said seriously. "Okay! What were you talking about?" he said. "I asked her to give us coffee." Marshak didn't believe it. "I bet you," he said, "if she comes in with coffee..." The waitress shows up with coffee, and Marshak loses. It turned out that I was the only one who had learned some Japanese. Even Professor Wheeler, who asked us to learn Japanese, didn't bother to learn it himself. I couldn't stand it.I've read a few things about Japanese hotels, Japanese style hotels are supposed to be quite different from the one we stayed in!

The next morning, I asked the Japanese guy who arranged for us to come to my room.I said, "I want to stay in a Japanese-style hotel." "Professor Feynman, this is probably impossible." I've read that the Japanese are very polite, but also very stubborn; you have to keep working hard.So I decided to be as stubborn as they were, and just as polite.It was a mental battle, and we went back and forth for half an hour. "Why did you change to a ryokan?" "Because in this hotel, I don't feel like I'm in Japan." “Ryokan is not good, you have to sleep on the floor.”

"That's what I want to do, I'm going to taste it and see what it's like." "And there are no chairs, you're supposed to sit on the floor directly in front of the desk." "It's okay, it's good, I'm just looking for a place like this." Finally, he confessed: "If you stay in another hotel, the bus will take you to the meeting by detour." "No! No!" I said, "I'll come to this hotel by myself in the morning for a lift." "Okay, okay, that's fine." It turned out to be that simple, except that it took half an hour to get to the real problem.

He was about to walk over to the phone and call another hotel when he suddenly remembered something and stopped.Things hit the rocks again.It took me another fifteen minutes to figure it out. This time the problem was with the email. What if there is any mail to be sent from the venue? They had already made proper arrangements for mail delivery at this hotel! "It doesn't matter," I said, "when I come to take the bus in the morning, I will go to the hotel first to see if there is my letter." "Okay, no problem then." He called and we were finally on our way to the ryokan.

As soon as I got to the hotel, I knew it was worth it: the hotel is so cute, there is a place in front of the gate where you let you take off your shoes, and then a girl in a traditional kimono with slippers on her feet comes out and picks up your shoes luggage.You have to follow her across the matted floor of the hallway and through the paper doors, only to hear her stepping "paint-paint-paint".Everything is wonderful! After entering my room, the Japanese who arranged things for me lay on the floor with her nose on the floor, and the waitress also knelt down and put her nose on the floor.I feel so overwhelmed, should I stick my nose to the floor too?

It turned out they were greeting each other and he accepted the room for me. What a great room.Today, everyone is familiar with the standard equipment of Japanese-style rooms, but at the time, everything was a new experience for me.A picture was hung in a small recess on the wall; willow branches were elegantly placed in a vase; a table was placed on the floor with chair cushions beside it; After opening, it directly faces the garden. The waitress who greeted me was a middle-aged woman.She helped me take off my coat and gave me a kimono—a simple blue and white robe—for me to wear in the hotel.

I pushed open the door to admire the loveliness of the garden, then sat down at the table to do something. Ten or twenty minutes later, something seemed to catch my eyes.I looked up towards the garden and saw a beautiful young Japanese woman in a lovely dress sitting on the porch. I've read a lot about Japanese customs and understand why she was sent to my room.I thought: "This could be fun!" She can speak a little English. "Do you like to walk in the garden?" she asked. I put on my shoes, put on my kimono and went out.She hooked my arm and showed me the view of the garden.

Later I found out that because she knew a little English, the hotel manager thought I might like her to take me to the garden, it was as simple as that.Of course, I'm a little disappointed, but I know that when East and West communicate, misunderstandings can easily happen. After a while, the waitress came in and said something in Japanese—something about taking a bath.I knew Japanese bathing was fun, and I was dying to try it out, so I said, "Yes!" The book says Japanese bathing is complicated, they put a lot of water in the bath and heat it from the outside.People can't put soap in the bath water and make the water dirty - the next person can't wash.

I went to the bathroom and the tub was over there.Although there was a door in the middle and it was closed, I could hear someone taking a shower next door.Suddenly the door opened and the man who was taking a shower came out to see who had broken in. "Professor!" He said to me in English: "When other people are taking a shower, it is a very bad mistake for you to go into the bathroom like this!" It turned out to be Professor Yukawa! He told me that, no doubt, the waitress was asking if I wanted a shower; if so, she would have it ready for me first and would let me know when it was free.When I made such a serious social mistake, I was really glad that it was Professor Yukawa and not someone else. This Japanese hotel is very pleasant and the service is especially good when I have other people visiting me.When people came to my room, we sat on the floor and talked. In less than 5 minutes, the waitress came in with a tea tray with tea and sweets on it, as if entertaining guests at home.In the US, if someone visits you in a hotel room, no one will answer you, you have to call someone to attend.Dining here is also different.The girl who brings in the food stays with you all the time while you eat, so you're not eating alone; although I can't get into a deep conversation with the girl, that's okay.The food is also very special. For example, the soup is served in a small bowl with a lid. After opening the lid, a beautiful picture is presented: little green onions floating on the delicious soup, which is really wonderful. For the Japanese, the appearance of food is also important. I decided to live as Japanese as possible, but it meant eating a lot of fish.I didn't like fish as a child, but I found it very childish not to eat fish in Japan, where I ate a lot of fish and couldn't get enough of it. (When I got back to the US, the first thing I did was run to the place where the fish was sold, but it was horrible - just like the old days, I couldn't bear it. Later I found out why: It turns out the fish has to be very, very fresh, otherwise it has some weird smell that I hate. ) Once, when I was eating at a ryokan, they brought a glass of yellow liquid containing a round, hard, egg yolk-sized thing.Up until that point, I ate everything, but this one freaked me out, it looked like a mess, like a brain.I asked the waitress what it was and she replied, "kuri." That didn't help me much, I guess it was octopus eggs or something like that.I ate it heartily because I wanted to be as Japanese as possible (for 30 years, I remember "Kuri" This word, as if something is life-threatening). The next day, I asked a Japanese at the venue what "Kuri" was. I told him I found it hard to swallow. "It's chestnuts," he replied. The Japanese I have learned has really played a great role in many cases. One time, the bus was delayed and a guy said, "Hey, Feynman! You know Japanese, tell them to move!" I just said, "はゃく, はゃく, ぃきましょぅ, ぃきましょぅ!" which means "Hurry up! Hurry up! Let's go! Let's go!" I immediately realized that my Japanese was probably not a common language.I learned these words from army phrasebooks, and they must have been very rude; for the people in the hotel were running away like rats, saying, "Yes! Yes!" And the car drove away immediately. The meeting in Japan was divided into two parts, one half in Tokyo and the other half in Kyoto.On the way to Kyoto, I told my friend Abraham Pais about the ryokan and he wanted to try it too.We stayed in a hotel called Miyako, which had both Japanese and American rooms, and Pais and I shared a Japanese room. The next morning the young maid who took care of our room had water ready for our shower and the tub was in the room.After a while, she came in with breakfast, and I was still undressed.She turned to me and said hello politely: "ぉはょぅござぃます (good morning)." Pais just came out of the bathroom, naked and dripping.She turned to Pais and said equally calmly, "ぉはょぅござぃます." Then put the breakfast plate down. Pais looked at me and said, "My God, we're so uncivilized." In the United States, when the waitress comes to deliver breakfast, if she sees the male tenant standing there naked, there will be screaming and trouble.But in Japan, they are totally used to it.We feel that they are more advanced and civilized than we are in these matters. During this time, I was working on the theory of liquid helium and discovered that the laws of quantum dynamics could be used to explain the phenomenon of "superfluidity".I am proud of this and will be presenting my research and findings at the Kyoto conference. The night before the presentation, sitting next to me at the dinner happened to be Professor Lars Onsager.He is the master of solid-state physics and liquid helium problems, and he is also the kind of scholar who makes a big splash without saying a word. "Feynman," he said in a hoarse voice, "I heard that you think you already know liquid helium." "Uh, yes..." "Hmph!" That was the only thing he said to me all night, and it wasn't very encouraging. The next day I gave a report explaining what I knew about the theory of liquid helium.At the end, I complain that I still don't understand something about liquid helium: after all, the phase transition of liquid helium - from one phase to another - belongs to the first order (for example, when a solid melts or What happens when a liquid boils, where the temperature is constant) or is it a phenomenon of the second order (such as something seen in magnets, where the temperature is constantly changing)? Professor Onsager stood up and said in his cold voice: "Professor Feynman is still a novice in our field, and I think he needs a little guidance. There are some things he should know, and we should teach him." I thought to myself, "My God! What have I done wrong?" "We should tell him that no one has ever worked out any order of magnitude for a phase transition from a basic theory," Onsarger said. Learn about other aspects of liquid helium." Turns out all he was going to say was flattery!But the tone of his speech at the beginning made me think that this time it will be repaired badly! Within a day, I was in my room when I got a call from Time magazine, and the caller said, "We're very interested in your research, can you send us a report?" I've never been in Time Magazine and I'm so excited.I was very proud of my research, and it was recognized at the conference, so I said, "Of course!" "Fine. Please send it to our office in Tokyo." He gave me the address, which I thought was great. I repeated the address, and the man said, "That's right. Thank you very much, Mr. Pais." "Oh no!" I said in shock. "I'm not Pais, is that what you're looking for? Sorry, I'll tell him you want to talk to him when he gets back." Pais came back a few hours later: "Hey Pais! Pais!" I said excitedly: "Time is calling! They want you to send in a copy of your just-published report." "Oh!" he said, "there's nothing good about showing off!" I was shocked. Later, I slowly found that Pais was right; but at the time, I thought it would be great to have my name in Time Magazine. That was my first time to Japan.I would love to go back again, and I told them I would go to any college that wanted me.So the Japanese arranged a series of places and asked me to stay in each place for a few days. By this time I was married to Marylou, and we were well received wherever we went.One place specially arranged a dance ceremony for us, usually they only perform for big groups.In another place, all the students came to meet us on the boat; in another place, even the mayor came to meet us in person. One place was very special, we lived in a modest hut in the woods where the Emperor came to live.The place is lovely, surrounded by woods, and has a quiet beauty about it.The emperor would come to this kind of place to live for a while, which means that his feelings for nature are much stronger than those of us Westerners. Everywhere, people who study physics tell me what they're doing, and I discuss it with them.They'd tell me the big picture they were working on, and then they'd start writing a bunch of equations. "Wait a minute," I said, "are there any examples of what you're talking about?" "Of course there is." "Fine, so here's an example." It's my style: I can't understand what they're saying unless I can get a concrete example in my head and work it out from that particular example.So a lot of people think I'm a bit slow at first and don't understand the problem because I'm asking a bunch of dumb questions like "Is the cathode positive or negative? Is the anion this way or that?" But after a while, when those guys had written a bunch of equations and stopped to explain something, I'd say, "Wait a minute! There's a mistake here! This can't be right! " The guy stared at his equations, and sure enough, after a while, he found the mistake, and then started to wonder how a guy who knew almost nothing to begin with, managed to find the mistake in this jumble of equations? He thought I followed his calculations step by step, but it was not the case.I had in mind a specific, actual example of the theory he was analyzing, the properties of which I knew well from past experience and intuition.So when the equation was supposed to be like that, I knew it was a wrong step, so I jumped up and said, "Wait a minute! There's a mistake!" So, when I was in Japan, I couldn't understand or discuss their research work unless they gave me a practical example, but most people can't bring up such an example.The examples that come up are often extremely weak, and other simpler methods can solve the problem. Since I always ask people to give me actual examples instead of asking them to write mathematical equations, there is a mimeographed publication circulating among scientists (it was a simple and effective way of disseminating information that they devised after the war), The title "Feynman's Bombing and Our Response" sums up my visits throughout Japan. After visiting several universities, I spent several months at Yukawa Research Institute in Kyoto.I really like working there, everything is so beautiful: you go to work in the morning, take off your shoes, and when you want tea, someone will come and bring you a cup of tea.What a delight! When I was in Kyoto, I studied Japanese as hard as I could, and I worked harder than before. Later, I improved to the point where I could take a taxi to run around and do errands.During that period, I learned Japanese from a Japanese for an hour a day. One day, he was teaching me the Japanese word for "see". "it is good," He said, "If you wanted to say 'May I see your garden?' what would you say?" I made up a sentence using the words I had just learned. "No, no!" he said, "When you say, 'Would you like to see my garden?', you use the first 'look,' but when you want to see someone else's garden, you must It is more polite to use the other word 'look'." Basically, the first statement means "Would you like to take a look at my crappy garden?" But when you want to see someone else's garden, you have to say something like "Can I visit your beautiful garden?" if.Because you have to use two different words. Then he asked another question: "You go to the temple and want to see the garden there..." I made up a sentence, this time I used the polite word "look". "No, no!" he said. "The gardens in the temple are more, more elegant. So you should speak like 'Can I keep my eyes on your very elegant garden?'" The same concept needs to be expressed in three or four different words, just because when I do it, it's bad, but when it's you, it's elegant. The main reason for me to learn Japanese is to discuss professional things, so I plan to see if the same problem also happens to scientists. The next day I asked my Japanese colleague in the research institute: "How do you say 'I solved the Dirac equation' in Japanese?" They taught me to say. "Okay. Now I'm going to say: 'Will you solve the Dirac equation, please?' What should I say? " "Well then, you'll have to use a different 'jie' word," they said. "Why?" I protested. "Whether I solve the equation or you solve the equation, we're doing the same damn thing!" "Yes, that's right, but with different words—it's more polite." I surrender.I felt that Japanese was not learned by people like me, so I stopped learning Japanese from then on.