For me, there are a number of things which get under my skin, but the more likely source of most of them is the lack, and application of critical thinking. One area where it hits at home is, and some of you may recall this, the garbage collecting system. MM
Come to think of it, another irritating thing is the tendency to behave as though merely having a slogan is enough to remedy or prevent a problem. All that counts is that you have the slogan; acting in accordance with its goals isn't required. This country loooooves slogans.
Ah, yes....having rules for the sake of having rules, with no one being able to explain the reasoning behind them.
Come to think of it, another irritating thing is the tendency to behave as though merely having a slogan is enough to remedy or prevent a problem. All that counts is that you have the slogan; acting in accordance with its goals isn't required. This country loooooves slogans.
This reminds me of last month, when everyone in my school (teachers and students) received a "conservation journal," a 32 page B5 booklet with monthly calendars (so we can write how much we are conserving every day, of course), and about 8 pages of bus schedules and advertisements. Let's save the earth by wasting paper!
I think Japan is about rules, slogans and rituals. By rituals I mean the fact that people will do the motions, the same as everyone else, just because its what everyone else does, irregardless of meaning, feeling or beliefs.
Me on Usenet said:I had many occasions to benefit from the medical community in Japan,
and in general have respect for them. But.....hospitals in Japan are
some of the filthiest places I have ever been in in my life.
They are cleaned everyday, true. But they merely come in and clean the
exact same surfaces everyday, with no regard for where the dirt may
actually be. Everything is done by rote. I shocked my fellow patients
by taking a paper towel and running it along the upper part of the
frame for the sliding door to our room. I took away a dust bunny that
you would need both hands to hold. I did the same on several surfaces
in that hospital. I even have pictures of one particular one that was
above the door of the bathroom in my wife's room when she gave birth.
It hangs over the door frame by several inches, draping downward like
vines hanging from a windowbox. This bathroom was cleaned every day.
Cleaned quite robotically. The cleaning person was shown exactly how
to clean a bathroom. Unfortunately that training didn't include a
section on how to take the initiative to actually look for dirt,
rather than just run a sponge over the same surfaces every single day.
There are surfaces in that hospital (and many others, I am sure) which
have not been cleaned since the day it was built.
In the nursery they have oxygen hosed hanging ready for emergency use
directly over the infants' bassinets. The hoses are coiled. The more
horizontal portions of the coil are deeply covered in dust no one
notices because they are too busy looking at the babies. I only
noticed it after almost two weeks of staring through the glass. The
nurses in charge are meticulous about keeping that room clean. They
walk across special sticky mats designed to remove filth from the
bottom of their shoes so they don't track it in. Mats which are
changed so infrequently that their use loses all meaning, by the way.
The nurses require the mothers to scrub up and wear white lab coats
while nursing their infants (under the supervision of a nurse with the
temperament of a Parris Island drill sergeant, causing many mothers to
"dry up" under the strain). All of this cleanliness and sanitation by
the numbers causes a sense of complacency among the staff. No one
bothers to inspect or to look for dirt. God knows there was plenty to
be found. The ship I lived on in the Navy with 400 other men was
infinitely cleaner than the average Japanese hospital. We were taught
to seek out the dirt in its hiding places, not merely to give the same
surfaces a lick and promise and call it a day.
Examples include Valentines and White day gift giving, the celebration of Christmas, going to shrines on New Years (me to Christian girl - "but you don't have any shinto beliefs!" "yeah, but I'm Japanese" "....").
That would be my worry at work - in Australia we used a "paper-free" office approach - use emails as much as possible and avoid printing unless necessary. Usually I would print out my timesheet and use it during the week at a notepad, and at the end of the week it would be covered front and back in numbers and scribble, then chucked into the the shredder before being sent off to the recyclers.
But in Japan, you have a meeting and evvvvverything needs to be printed, and a copy for everyone. In a year I collected 30cm of A4 paper (and alot of A3 folded in half to fit the pile), none of it I used ever again bar 10 pieces of paper that I printed for my own use. On top of that the representatives for 2 insurance companies visit the office daily and give us "newsletters" (normally just sports news) which have been piling up and are about 10cm high now.
That's some serious paper wastage.
Using chopsticks in a restaurant and having complete strangers compliment you on it. @#$%^&*!!!
it is! (according to me)If that's really the most annoying thing about living in Japan, Japan must be like a heaven.
I've heard that most of the laws like that were put in place during the American occupation and now everyone insists on keeping them without really being able to explain why.I'm mostly annoyed by the hypocracy of the film industry in Japan. This is a pretty decadent place by western standards, seeing as how you can get a hand doogy in several parts of Tokyo w/ little effort and little money. So, I must ask this question: What is up w/ the mosaiced genetalia?
You better get used to it Goldie and don't take it so personally or you'll end up like alot of foreigner in coming to despise Japan just because you don't understand the underlying aspects of the culture and the way they think.Goldiegirl said:What bothers me, or makes me personally feel bad is how I am avoided by the Japanese. For instance, on the train morning or afternoon rush, if there is a spot available next to me, no one will sit there; they stand. Or, if I sit down next to someone and another seat at the next stop is available they will get up and move. It makes me feel alienated.
Please do not feel that way. Live long enough in Japan and you will have more friends than you can count and they will, for the most part, be loyal friends too. It just takes time and patience and an understanding that when Japanese avoid you it is mostly because they do not want to take a chance of you speaking to them. They fear that they cannot answer you and out in public they will feel humiliated and embarrassed in that everyone will be looking at them.It just makes me feel sad, and that I'll never have friends here outside of family, co-workers and perhaps other foreigners.
Alot of people refuse to sit next to foreigners on a train because they are deathly afraid the foreigner may speak to them in English or another language and they will not be able to speak to them or assist them.
I've often heard this 'afraid of being asked a question in English' excuse for this disagreeable behaviour. Even though I accept this probably is the case, it shows a lack of consideration for the feelings of the person who is being shunned. This lack of empathy shows up in many of the 'standard' Japanese behavioural traits towards foreigners. Sometimes it seems that as long as the Japanese person doesn't get embarrassed or lose face, whatever the foreigner feels is irrelevant.
Yes, I agree Pachipro's explanation is probably correct- I've heard it from other people too. Maybe 'shunning' wasn't the best word- but if the person doing the 'shunnng' does it unknowingly then it backs up my idea that they have no empathy.Hold on a second now, you are making an assumption that the person that is supposedly "shunning" the foreigner is knowingly doing it. I am more than willing to bet that is not the case. Pachipro's explanation fits to a "T".
It happens frequently to me as well. I will be sitting by someone on the train during rush, even reading a Japanese newspaper, completely minding my own business, and the other person still gets up to move at the next available seat. Not as frequently as if I were doing nothing or reading English, but it still occurs.I don't live in Japan yet, but have been here for about a month. What bothers me, or makes me personally feel bad is how I am avoided by the Japanese. For instance, on the train morning or afternoon rush, if there is a spot available next to me, no one will sit there; they stand. Or, if I sit down next to someone and another seat at the next stop is available they will get up and move. It makes me feel alienated.
I think they try to give them out first to people who look more like potential customers. I've never reached for them if that is the reason. Try approaching them or anyone who appears lost in their own world with a few words in Japanese when you feel more comfortable with it and their true personality will suddenly begin to show through the shyness. The kindness and quick responsiveness received in return will be overwhelming.Oh my favorite, we count who collects the most free tissues over the week end...husband 20 packets, me 2! So all in all I suppose these things aren't too big of a deal. It just makes me feel sad, and that I'll never have friends here outside of family, co-workers and perhaps other foreigners.