Observations on Japanese culture...

A few months ago my friend Emma was doing a school assignment on Japanese culture and asked me to share my thoughts on the subject. As I wrap up my first year teaching in Japan, I thought I'd share some of that email here, updated for your enjoyment:

• Japanese people work and study very very hard. Kids go to school and then they go to school after school and then they go to another school until late at night everyday, it seems. They wear horrid uniforms and have strict rules about haircuts and makeup and they just study study study. Then they get into university and they don't have to study anymore. Apparently Japanese universities are very lax and students are not really expected to do anything. They just party party party. And suddenly become very fashion-conscious. Then after university they get jobs and work very hard again, but continue to party and drink a lot with their work colleagues after work. Unless they are women. Then they get jobs and must also work very hard taking care of their families. I am generalizing, of course, but it is striking to me how different the gender roles are in Japan compared to in America, or Portland, at least.
  
• Japan is very safe. It was very strange to me that they don't use credit cards or even have ATMs open all hours, so one is expected to carry around huge wads of cash at all times. Very twentieth-century. And yet very safe. I will leave hundreds of dollars of yen in my wallet on my desk at school or in my purse on my table at a coffee shop and leave it without any worry.
• Japan has some very high tech things but is also way behind the states. I have not encountered public wi-fi anywhere. People are addicted to their cell phones but the Starbucks is virtually laptop-free. Cell phones are equipped with special scanners so you can get contact information from your friends' phones or directions to businesses that include bar codes on their advertisements.
• There are no garbage cans in Japan, it seems. But there is also very little litter on the streets. Another paradox of Japanese living...
• Everything is wrapped in plastic. If you buy a plastic bag full of snacks, the snacks are also individually wrapped in plastic. It is way too much plastic for me, and it is incinerated with other combustible trash to produce energy for the city. I don't know how that works, but this is how someone explained the waste management system to me.
• Japanese people are very kind and will go out of their way to help you. But they are also very shy and will not speak English to you unless they are super-confident, even though every one has studied English in school. Drunk old men will suddenly remember how to speak English, though.
• People don't seem especially interested in politics, perhaps because the society functions pretty well without any major controversial issues. So a few corrupt politicians seem to run the country and there is a new prime minister every year. The only young people who seem interested in politics are the mysterious members of right-wing nationalist cults, who sometimes parade around town marching with giant flags.
  
• Japanese people are super-polite, except when they are protected by the anonymity of the driver's seat. Even though half the population seems to commute by bicycle, cars will often pull into the crosswalk right in front of cyclists. I'm surprised I don't see more accidents. There doesn't seem to be any organization to sidewalk traffic, either. Cars here drive on the left side of the road, but cyclists ride all over the sidewalk, weaving through pedestrians. Cyclists can carry umbrellas, cigarettes, and/or cell phones in one hand which navigating through pedestrians with the other.
  
• Not all buildings are equipped with wheelchair access, but the entire city is laced with bumpy sidewalk-braille for the blind.
• Forms must be filled out properly. They seem more anal about this than in the States. Black pen only. No crossed-out mistakes. And your signature must be the same, always. It is your seal, unless you have an official stamp seal.
  
• Vending machines are ubiquitous.
• One is expected to bring back souvenirs from vacations and weekend excursions, usually a box of treats of some local specialty. On many Mondays there will be a box of such treats (wrapped individually in plastic, of course) on the table in the staff lounge at school. I need to pick up this generous habit next year.
  
• 95% of meals out are eaten with disposable wooden chopsticks.
• Teachers in Japanese public schools miss one of the greatest pleasures of teaching (in my opinion): vacation. Seriously, they never take vacation. The school year begins in April and I think they only get national holidays off plus a brief break from kids in March. Apparently there is pressure to work through this break and any other non-school days. They work super-long hours, too, often visiting their students' families in the evenings. I love teaching, but I don't think I could do it with the much-needed breaks!
  
• Baseball is practically a national religion here. Every boy plays baseball, every mom spends each weekend attending their sons' baseball games, and everyone loves going to the professional games, it seems.
• Speaking of sports teams, when the students at the junior high next to my school aren't playing baseball outside, they are marching and/or chanting. There is something creepy about this military-style activity.
  
• The Japanese women I know will not drive if they have had even one sip of alcohol.
• Most Japanese people I know have never traveled to China, but nearly all of them have been to Hawaii.
• Many businesses advertise by paying people to hand out free tissue packets stamped with their logo on the street. If you need tissues for your purse, just walk along the sidewalk downtown.
• To express surprise, people make a noise that sounds like Scooby Doo. I cannot type this sound for you, but it is one of the only things I can "say" in Japanese.
• Traveling in Japan can be very expensive, and there are hardly any budget flights, except for your birthday, when you and 3 friends can take a one-way flight anywhere in Japan for about $100 each.