JEFF MILLER

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Posted 5 days ago on August 15 2008

In light of Japan’s neon signs, giant television billboards, and high-tech gadgetry, perhaps it is a bit surprising that the politeness of the Japanese people left the most overwhelming sensory impression upon me. Although I loved much about the country, this courtesy was by far my favorite thing about Japan.
Here are some examples of the courtesy we witnessed:
If these minor examples can’t convey just how polite the Japanese people were, maybe this can: We went to a few fast food restaurants during our trip (Wendy’s and some local chains too). The people behind the counter were professional and competent and friendly and smiling. They all acted as if they enjoy their jobs. I don’t believe for a second that they all actually do enjoy their jobs, but they acted like it. They were pleasant and courteous and helpful. They—indeed, almost everyone—acted as if they were being filmed for an employee training video. That sounds like it could be creepy, but it wasn’t at all creepy. It was really, really nice.[1]
Imagine if you could go to movies without having to worry about noisy people; if you could go to restaurants without having to worry about surly service; if you could take a cab without worrying the driver was trying to cheat you. All of these things make everyday live MUCH more pleasant.[2] Since the common courtesy practiced in Japan is a significant enhancement to the quality of one’s life, it’s worth questioning why the Japanese practice this courtesy, and why, too often, we Americans don’t. I have some thoughts on this, but I’ll save them for another post down the road.
——
[1] Maybe this is one of the reasons that McDonald’s has a low-end stigma in the United States, but is still a symbol of quality in Japan. When a McDonald’s is clean, its employees are friendly, and its food is prepared properly, it is a much better restaurant than the McDonald’s we know in America.
[2] Now, I should add that people in Nagoya (aside from the taxi driver) were less overtly polite and helpful to us than those in Tokyo and Kyoto. That’s certainly due in part to the fact that Kyoto and Tokyo more commonly tourist destinations. But Nagoya was still a far more polite and courteous place than most American cities; only in comparison to Tokyo and Kyoto did it seem to pale.

We’re back from Japan. It was an incredible trip. While I was there, my mind was swimming with thoughts and observations that I wanted to blog about … not because these thoughts are certain to be interesting to others, but because I want to preserve my impressions for myself. But maybe these thoughts will be interesting to you, so first, I’d like to state some caveats.
There are many reasons that my observations and conclusions could be wrong. First, I was in Japan for only 8 days. That’s hardly long enough to make sweeping conclusions about a country and a culture. Second, I don’t speak Japanese. That means I couldn’t read most of the signs or understand most of the conversations around me. This means I was often left completely ignorant of context—which is troubling when you want to analyze and conclude. Third, we went to Japan as tourists. What we saw is surely not a good representation of all of Japan. We saw a simplistic geographic and socio-economic sliver of a complicated country.
Having stated these caveats (and there are certainly more), let me backtrack just a bit. I’m not a good tourist. I have little interest in historic sites or modern monuments. My interest is more anthropological. I like to see how people live. This means I’d rather visit 10 groceries than 1 temple. That’s not to say we didn’t visit temples … we did. But we visited more groceries. We watched a movie in a theater. We ate in lots of restaurants and went to lots of stores. And we spent most of our time walking the streets … looking at neighborhoods and gas stations and dry cleaners and restrooms and office buildings.
You can’t help but challenge your beliefs (cultural and political) when you visit a foreign country. There were things that were better in Japan than here, and all of these things have been forcing me to consider “why?” This leads to big, ideological questions, as in, “why are they better?” and “why are we worse?” . . and to more personal, introspective questions, like “why do I like these things more?”
It’s easy to pontificate on all things political and social from inside the comfort of one’s home, but visiting another country lets you look at and analyze things not easily represented by data. It also does something else—it reminds you of the vastness of humanity. When you ride the subway in Tokyo and see a group young girls giggling over something they just read on their cell phone, you begin to think about their social circle … and their schools … and their families, and you start to see all these personal connections that they have—these very full lives—and you can’t help but think how amazing it is that halfway across the world people live lives just as full and fulfilling and complex as we do. I know that this is an obvious point—and don’t misunderstand me, I’m not claiming that this was in any way revelatory. But it is one thing to know this in theory and another thing to see it in practice. When you walk through the Shinjuku Station and you’re surrounded by tens of thousands of commuters on their way to jobs or to home or to visit friends, you can’t help but feel smaller; you can’t help but realize that you don’t exist to these people … that your life and family and social circle is completely irrelevant to them, just as they’ve been all their lives to you. It is, in fact, more than a bit disconcerting. So when we met up with one of my wife’s old friends and her husband in Kyoto, it seemed like all the more magical an experience … suddenly we were relevant to someone in Japan; somehow, we’d bridged the divide of geography and culture.
I don’t expect any of my blog posts on Japan to similarly “bridge the divide of geography and culture,” but I hope they make me feel a little closer to a place that I loved. Expect posts on Japan to stretch out over the next few weeks.



Posted 5 days ago on August 14 2008


Posted 1 week ago on August 13 2008

Posted 1 week ago on August 12 2008
Mostly as a note to myself, here are things I want to blog about:
1. Tokyo subway (can government actually work?)
2. Bathrooms (public, hotel—amenities, toilets)
3. Department stores
4. Juggling/Magic/Electronics/Nerds
5. Taking the bus in Kyoto (just take a cab)
6. Men and Women (menu, subway cars, prices for buffet)
7. Tipping, Politeness, and Tax Included
8. Vending Machines
9. Height (seeing the top shelf at stores)
10. Fruit
11. Bakeries
12. Lunch and Morning Setto
13. Karaoke
14. Hotels (don’t touch my bags, just give me a plasma)
15. Architecture and Design
16. Burgers
17. Pizza
18. Why is English everywhere (including on the radio)
19. An encounter with a Japanese celebrity
20. Why the Yen is better than the Dollar (maybe)
21. The Honeymoon Upgrade (20% success rate)
22. 1F, 2F, 3F, more
23. United Airlines meals
24. Healthy, Unabashed Consumerism
25. Cell phones and sleeping everywhere
26. Lost in Translation (why can’t I tell why things are funny here?)
27. Japanese Television (it’s not good)



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