japan: culture

there were things about japanese culture that i'd forgotten about! and it was interesting going to japan after living in china and realizing how different they really are. very different. japanese people would probably think chinese people are quite rude. i don't find chinese people rude though (usually)--the languages and the way they do things are so different that you can't really compare and say one is the way you should do things and the other is not. they are just so different.

the extreme politeness in japan really struck me--all the polite phrases and the bowing and the service. i found myself self-concious that i didn't remember the right phrases to say when i entered a house or met someone, etc. i found myself bowing to people at appropriate times without realizing it, and i don't know if that was something that i ever actually did when i was a child in japan!

let's see what phrases i can remember that i learned/remembered in the past two weeks and i'll try to give really rough translations that may or may not be correct.

yoroshikuonegaeshimasu - "i request your friendship" (when meeting someone)
osashiburi - (when seeing someone after a long time)
ojamashimasu - (when coming into a store or restaurant)
etadakimasu - (before starting to eat a meal)
erashaimase - (said to you when you enter a store or restaurant)
tadaima - (when entering home after being gone)
okaerinasai - (said to you when you enter home after being gone)
gochisosamadeshita - (appreciation of a meal just eaten)
douzo - (to offer something to someone, or let them go ahead)
onegaeshimasu - (when receiving something, or requesting something)

wow, there are so many others that i can't think of, that is hardly any at all.

the service really struck me too. the bowing after they pump the gas for you, polite explanations and service in restaurants...etc.

one thing i noticed that may be new in the past 12 years is a few restaurants i went to have machines where you enter the name of your party and how many people and it will tell you how long to wait--you don't even have to talk to a person when you enter the restaurant. or there is a machine you use to order what you want--you look through the menu yourself and pick things, and then they bring it to you--you don't actually have to talk to a waiter. these things seem contradictory to the thought of good personal service...except not because they are more efficient.

the people i asked for help were very willing to help and were patient with my japanese. i realized that i think i do speak japanese better than i speak chinese though, mostly because japanese has been in my mind for so long, and my pronunciation of japanese is definitely much better than my chinese. i could hear the accent of other foreigners speaking japanese and it was funny to me. =) i can also hear the accent of foreigners speaking chinese and it bothers me!! but i know i have some of it myself. correct pronunciation is important to me, i really want to learn to speak chinese the way it sounds. but i'm starting to talk about language again now...see, language and culture are connected!!

anyway, i remembered how to kneel on the floor. i enjoyed sitting at kotatsus (tables on the floor that you put your legs under a blanket and there is a heater underneath--one of the best inventions ever!!). it's funny that now i feel like the way the japanese people i know in china walk and speak makes perfect sense to me now, because i started walking and moving like a japanese person sometimes while i was in japan. i'm not sure how to describe it. maybe i used to do that before when i lived in japan, i don't know. how does a chinese person move differently? i'm not entirely sure. there is much more to it than this, but chinese people sit in different ways, and they squat. japanese people kneel a certain way on the floor and sit in chairs in a different way.

one funny thing was when in a car, thinking that someone was always turning into the wrong lane because they drive on the left in japan. it took me to near the end of the time there to not thinking someone was making a turn incorrectly. =) and all the small cars--i love it. cars are built on purpose to be compact, so they all have a different look that looks so japanese.

i missed tatami mats, and paper doors. i love the way they look, and sitting on tatami.

in china, you take off your shoes before entering the house, but there is no real entryway. in japan there is the genkan where you leave your shoes and then you step up into the house. i apparently lost the ettiquette of the proper way to take of shoes and leave them in the genkan. =) you are supposed to take them off and leave them nicely next to each other facing towards the door so that you can step in the again when you leave the house.

well, in conclusion, i wish i could haven taken a kotatsu with me back to china, and i wish i could spend more time immersed in japanese culture and language.