My trip to Japan was in November last year, though I still think about this country and her people every now and then. There are nearly 80 cities in about 50 countries that I’ve visited but Japan is one of the few that I have the very urge to write an article about.
My first stop was of course Tokyo. From there, I took Shinkansen to a small town called Hadano so I can get a taste of both the hustle and bustle of a big city and how it’s really like living in Japan.
If you grew up as a fan of Japanese animes, you’ll find every aspect of Japan fits right into the images in your memory. Remeber those small tidy streets where all the magic happens and those symbolic telephone poles with cute katakana and hiragana in Doraemon? Real life scenario is merely the difference in size. Walking down any street, I had this feeling Nobita Nobi would bump into me around the next corner.
Japanese people are known for being organized and perfectionists
Had I not been there, I would have had no idea what it means to be entitled as such. As a Chinese village girl born and raised in an area where everything was just a little lagging and more traditional, my only knowledge of Japan was from the animes, my grandpa’s stories of the 8 years’ China-Japan war and from our history book. So “brutal” and “short” was how I would describe Japanese people.
I was prepared for being treated badly.
And there had been a mixture of different cases since I set foot on the land of Tokyo. I was greeted “Welcome to Japan” by a taxi driver outside the airport who didn’t speak much English. He struggled to understand me but made an effort to know where I was going and drove me off to the hotel with a “Thank you” in the end. There were also other occasions where I walked into a bar with a fair amount of customers inside on a rainy night, and the owner chose me to be the unfortunate customer to hear: “Sorry. We are closed.”
As much as I hate this unnecessary hatred between us two countries, I have to admit my admiration towards the way Japanese people behave and handle things.
- Take crossing the street as an example.
I went to the busiest crossing in the world in Shibuya (supposedly 2,500 pedestrians crossing every time the signal changes), and as the green light illuminated, people walked across in a timely and calm manner. No pushing, no rushing, no car horn sound as what we usually expect at a busy crossing in China.
- Both Tokyo and Hadano are the most trash-free cities I’ve seen amongst the most developed cities in the world.
There is no trash can anywhere on the street, oddly enough the streets are very clean. The only times you see a trash can is when you go inside a building or go underground to the subway. Even then, you find hardly any trash in the can.
I was confused where all the public trash went until I saw in the early morning, there were trash bags tidily lined up outside every residential building. I suppose at first Japanese people don’t produce that much public trash. If they do, they take their own trash home(?) Anyone who’s traveled to China knows this is not the case on our land.
- During my one week stay there, I hadn’t seen one single person wasted his or her meal.
Japanese cuisine is a simple one compared to Chinese cuisine. Often you get served your own food in a restaurant, whether it’s a bowl of ramen noodles or rice don, it’s always the right portion so you can finish and be full. Whilst sharing food is a big part of our culture in China, and there are numerous local cuisines that I haven’t even tried, what happens sometimes in a Chinese restaurant is we end up ordering too many different dishes and waste most of them in the end.
I'm sure you've heard how good a Japanese toilet can make you feel. Now I’ll skip the part repeating how fancy the toilet sets are.
- Instead, I would like to address how unified the standard of restrooms is.
Almost all the toilet rolls have the same easy-to-disintegrate materials and all waste goes into the toilet bowl. Waste bins are usually very small and again, there is hardly any waste inside. I know this is how restrooms work in many western countries, but personally, Japan does it more thoroughly. As to the toilets we have in China, I’d like to just shut up and learn from the Japanese.
Speaking of being humble and polite
I’ve heard from foreigners who lived in Japan, even Japanese people themselves,
- that there is a “behind-your-back” culture there.
Some say people don’t always mean it when they smile at you and be nice to you. Others say pointing things out directly to your face can be very rare cases.
So to get around in Japan, you’d need to have great self-awareness when things go wrong. I guess it’s more common to have a “behind-your-back” culture in those major Asian countries. But my Chinese folks are improving on this. At least if we are unhappy about something, we show it and most likely it leads to a conversation later that we point things out to your face.
- It’s true that Japan has a very high suicide rate.
I could only imagine the amount of pressure and stress they built within themselves behind that disciplined manner to a point they have to kill themselves. I was never bothered by any systematic problems. Public transportation was efficient. Restaurants were organized and I was always satisfied with the food I paid for. The services were always to the point, and beyond sometimes. I had a great time as a traveler.
And I felt bad that there were pressure, stress, and suicides behind all these beautiful things. As a Chinese citizen, I can empathize on how it feels to be under the social pressure of seniority. Where do all these come from? Perhaps dating back to the emperor time in the history.
- There are good and bad parts of bearing everything inside I guess.
Look at Japan. The pressure creates an organized society and put the focus on developing in a way. And because Japanese people always present a nice side of themselves, it leaves a very good impression to the rest of the world. I don’t wish my Chinese folks to do such extreme as we’d have to kill ourselves, but I do hope we work on being more organized and leaving a good impression to the world. And at the same time, I hope more and more Japanese people can speak up and release their pressure.
The most active old people
I saw the most active old people in Japan than anywhere else.
They go hiking, they run on the street at night, they take subway trains to places without taking any seats offered by young people. They are confident, healthy and independent.
As a girl who is from a relatively poor area in China, what I’ve seen in my hometown is old people are very dependent on their kids. I’m not saying we shouldn’t take care of our parents after they worked their whole lives to support us. But there are perhaps things we can improve on to get our old people more confident, healthy and independent. A good diet? A good social system?
Quality of goods
I had bought a pair of hand-made leather shoes in Tokyo. They are so comfortable that I wear them throughout all seasons.
It’s the kind of things you wish to own for a life time. I’m proud that “Made in China” is a world label nowadays but I’m just waiting for the time to come where everyone would like to own good-quality Chinese products for a life time.
I don’t agree on Japan’s attitude towards the war happened between us. I don’t agree on many political things happening in today’s world. Countries make a point of their political stands depending on their national benefits. So in my opinion, there is no absolute black and white. Regardless of what happened in the past, it never hurts for us to look at the good things in Japan and learn from them.