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Asian attitude towards hugging

Hugs, kisses, holding hands....did them all with my husband in Japan. What got the most looks of shock is when I started crying. I guess anything too emotional is supposed to be hidden, behind closed doors, so to speak. I am emotional and physical...I cried and hugged everybody when I left Japan.
 
Goldiegirl said:
Hugs, kisses, holding hands....did them all with my husband in Japan. What got the most looks of shock is when I started crying. I guess anything too emotional is supposed to be hidden, behind closed doors, so to speak.
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Gee, I can't see why a non-Japanese girl going "Waaaaaaaaahhhh!" in such a quiet country would cause looks of shock. It boggles the mind.
 
Isn't it said that the nail that sticks up gets hammered down?
 
OH NO not a Fast n Furious quote.

Maybe it was the crying bit that sparked to commotion. BTW this was in the downtown area of Fukuoka, quite a busy section and during the music festival. O_O
 
Is that a Japanese saying? I suppose with such "paper" thin walls....
 
ArmandV said:
Maybe that's where "put a sock in it" came from?
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That phrase basically means shut up and stop talking. In the old days socks were used as gags and placed in peoples mouths in order to stop them saying anything at all.

You may see the practice carried out if you watch any old black and white films.
 
Hehehee! I suppose socks are quieter than bare feet. You don't want to get noticed.....
 
Dont know about that, Im just waiting for the day when someone brings out musical socks.........
 
Recently in Tokyo every weekend near Harajuku station there are a group of young Japanese women and men holding up 'free hugs' signs (usually in both English and Japanese). I was very tempted to just bearhug 2 or 3 of them at the same time!!

Maybe it's a hug club?
 

You should have! It's another pacifist movement that young urban Japanese have caught on.
Free Hug Campaign
Free Hugs in Japan 2007
 
i am asian and i love hugss, from any one that do it by heart. and i hug people too!
 
Man, I haven't been to Japan yet. So I really don't know anything about the hugging "taboo". But it's funny to heir the difference from Europe and Japan. We do nothing but hug each other hehe... Sometimes even in school, when we say hello to a friend, they'll get a big hug. Maybe it's just us Danish people, hehe.. But there is nothing better, than giving friends a big hug
But what do japanese people say about nudeswimming?
 
Philip said:
But what do japanese people say about nudeswimming?
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I think that act would be highly taboo, just like in the majority of countries, and could even get you arrested and charged with Indecency by the Police.
 
The free hug campaign was started by an Australian who toured the world wasn't it? Saw something about it on Oprah (theres nothing better on telly at lunchtime).
 
It's not a bad idea, and I would have gone and scrunched the young ladies, but my wife was giving me the evil eye!
 
I find it very weird that in some countries hugging is in some way frowned upon. To me its very natural to hug someone, its just an emotional response you can give to another human being.

Or do people have a problem showing that they have an emotional side to their nature?
 
I think it's a good idea, for the most part. This tendency can be said to be from the same type of thing that we can see in the great apes--especially the bonobos. (who make love, not war, quite literally)

It would make a good subject of research on why some social groups have strayed away from that very possibly innate tendency for philos--or skinship. Here in Japan, I would take an guess at it and say that the strict social hierarchical structuring of old that somehow developed, made it taboo.

I would tend to see any taboo against hugging, to be social construct only. Skinship is most surely the original nature of the animal--Homo sapien.
 
MM the Bonobo chimp is well known for its sexual activity. British Television did show a documentary about them and how they bond as a group of chimps.It was fascinating to watch and if you believe that we are decsended from the Apes, as I do, then you can slightly understand our Human nature, in a different light. After all there are scientists who say that the Chimpanzee's are our closest relatives in terms of DNA.

If Hugging is taboo, then my question is why? In Britain, its not regarded as too Taboo if you hug someone, even if you are a man and its another man you are hugging.
 
Yes, I agree, although I think--if my memory serves me well enough at the moment--that it would be better qualified to say that the Homo sapien has come down, not 'from the great apes' (as in those exact species), in a parallel line of species.

Regarding the matter of being taboo, I think it's just a social construct, nothing more, nothing less.
 
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