there are 22 more days to enjoy my homeland.
i've noticed that i've been talking about how hot it is over here, how boring it is, and then it hit me. i have yet to tell you the best part of this place. i feel like i've not been doing it justice.
being born in japan is something that most others call "cool" or "interesting". i have always answered those remarks with "it's not THAT great..." but maybe it is. other asians go crazy over this place, and america imports SO many japan-originated things, namely cars and electronics. it is a small world, after all.
the roads are narrow and you can barely fit two cars side by side. one car has to stop and let the other pass before it can do the same. there are bicyclists riding down the middle of the road causing a traffic jam for those in vehicles. there are people walking in school uniforms that i once wore. gasoline stations are not self-serve; they do everything for you. they fill gas, wash the windows, wax them... and then they even excort you out on to the streets. they stop the cars that are coming so that the customer can easily pass. amazing, huh?
and talk about service. restaurants scream "customers are god" all over the place. one mistake and their boss yells until their throats go dry. if the customers aren't happy, the employees do their best to make them content. "thank you-- we appreciate you" is the motto.
an american came to japan once, and said that "the japanese are unfriendly." well, i guess, at a glance. most people you know will smile back if you smile, even if you don't know them. they are more willing to open up and talk to you. japanese people have the tendency to no accept people that easily. i've overcome this, of course, because i've lived in the states a longer period of time than in japan. but that's not the point. japanese people take a longer time to open up, therefore causing to build a barrier that we must break down for each other before our titles become acquaintances rather than complete stranger. but once that happens, we are friendly.
manners are enforced. some of the parents i know (my friends' parents and such) tell me (or i indirectly find out) that i am really polite. maybe. but i think of it more as practice. i've been told to be this way and that way for elders and i just know of no other way. even the way i call my parents is subconciously language that we'd call polite. it's like spanish (and other romance languages)-- there's a completely different way to say things to an elder. so i was just raised that way.
but i wouldn't have it any other way. there are things in japanese society that americans would call "absurd" and "unbelievable", but that's just how we are. and little me-- a japanese girl in america.
there's more of where this came from.
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