Some brief impressions at week 2, keep in mind I've only gotten to experience an tiny, tiny, sliver of the incredibly diverse Japanese culture and people. I don't mean this account to be authoritative or to really come off as knowledgable in any way. Just impressions thats all.
1. Everyone is very polite. I mean everyone, waiters, store clerks, mail men, even bouncers. When I'm out for a run in the morning, police officers will say "Ohiyo Gozaimasu" a polite good morning. My boss, an American who recently moved here told us a story, in which he stepped out of the way of an oncoming ambulance with it's sirens going and the driver of the ambulance thanked him as they went by. Maybe it's the Bostonian in me but it weirds me out a little bit when when people are overly nice back in the states, it's hard to not think that it's a front, are you really that excited to take my order? Not that I want to deal with Debby Downers either, but I generally prefer to deal with people who come off as genuine. The thing about Japan is that the politeness feels genuine, maybe I just can't pick up the subtle clues yet, or maybe I'm being treated a bit different because I'm a light skinned foreigner, but for some for some reason I don't think so.
2. Part of the reason I don't think so, is because everyone is so conscientious and diligent about their job. Like people at the McDonalds really care about getting the job done right. I think back to my days as a Best Buy employee where it was pretty much do the bare minimum amount of work not to get fired. The people at the local government office where I had to register when I got here were very concerned that I fill out everything properly and made sure everything was in order before I left. Anyone have that experience at a DMV at the states? Sometimes it almost feels like they take it too far, they are so concerned with getting things done properly that they aren't flexible.
3. Food is excellent across the board, which probably follows from #2. While technically it is true what they say about portion size here, it is smaller relative to standard American sizes. I think the portion sizes aren't that small, but you just don't have the option to go to something like Olive Garden and get a large portion of reasonably priced mediocre food. It's almost as if the size quantity trade off just doesn't exist here. That said, lunch specials are fairly standard here, you may pay like 10-12 dollars you usually get like a 4-5 course meal that usually include some primary meal of meat/fish/noodles along with rice, soup, salad, and coffee. Which all combined is a pretty good deal and filling. I've yet to really to really explore brunch here, and while I'm sure the food will be excellent that's the one meal I'm most expecting to be disappointed at, since brunch in the US is by far the most optimal solution to the quality/quantity/price problem. God I miss the Colossal Hungry Man Special...
4. Even the cheap beer here is good. Asahi - extra dry is actually really good and refreshing. It doesn't really bother me when I can't figure out how to order a more exotic brew. It's actually caused a bit of an identity crisis, in America I considered my self a bit of a beer snob, never caught dead in a bar with a Millar Light. How can I be a beer snob in a country with no bad beer? Maybe I'll have to become a shochu snob instead.
5. Definitely going to need to learn to speak Japanese. While I guess it would be possible to get by here without speaking it, I don't think you can really live here without engaging with the language. It's not just that lots of people don't speak English - although that's certainly part of it, you would shut yourself from meeting and interacting with a lot of people - there seems to be a whole rhythm to how people interact here that can't be translated into another language. I'm on the ice wearing sneakers, when everyone else has skates.
No comments:
Post a Comment