I was born and brought up in the Philippines, took the path of the software engineer, had the opportunity to work for long periods in Japan and up to now I've been here in the US for almost 5 years working with a temporary work visa.
Many times I've changed my opinions on what I think about people a lot because of all those trips. Thanks to the (US) popular media, before I left the Philippines for my first Japan trip I grew up with the stereo-typical view of what a 'typical' Japanese person is like: unintelligible, dumb, and always bowing. (Well, that was how it was depicted in the movies in the past. Now, probably because of the Internet, even people who don't have the chance to get out of the country to 'experience' another culture can, to some degree, get an accurate picture of a foreign culture.)
What the movies don't tell you is that the Japanese are nothing like what I expected. Well, maybe except for the bowing part but even I came away from those trips with nodding more than usual because of being exposed to the culture.
The impression I got from the Japanese is that they are very polite to everyone. Well, not everyone is like that. Some are 'forced' to be polite because of a 'heirarchical' system that is integral to their culture.
(side note: the total cumulative time I've spent is Japan is around 2 years with the longest stretch of contiguous time being 6 months)
**On Language
Looking at their language, they basically have two modes of speech: one polite, refined and honorific while the other is more crude, rough and can sometimes be disrespectful. Between those two extremes are varying levels of politeness (or impoliteness if 'the glass is half empty').
When students learning the Japanese language are taught, they are usually taught the polite form of speech. When the student sees that his Japanese friend is looking at him funny, he soon finds out that his 'politeness level' of his speech is tuned too high.
So how polite should one be? It depends on the difference between your 'rank' and the 'rank' of the person you are speaking to. If you are a blue collar worker speaking to the emperor of Japan, you would use the most honorific speech you know. If you were talking to your boss, you'd be speaking less polite than if you were speaking to the emperor but you'd still be above average polite. If you were speaking to a drinking buddy, you'd be using casual speech, a bit rough but it's speech between equals. If you were speaking to a waitress, you can get away with being a bit cruder because in that 'relationship', the waitress is serving you.
Of course there are exceptions who, even if they were ranked 'higher' than the person they were talking to, would still be more polite than the 'bare minimum'.
The culture is still patriarchal though it is changing little by little; you can see it in the differences in what they can now get away with on t.v. or in the movies. This is much like how the slow progression of skimpier outfiits and more exposed skin is the trend on t.v. and the movies if you look at the progression from decades past when even the slightest hint of exposed skin in the ankle area was already daring.
For a foreigner like myself that did not learn the language (yes, I regret it to this day), the complexity of rankings in relationships is still a bit vague to me. But this I did notice though: most Japanese are by default polite and coutrteous to all foreigners (with exceptions of course; some are just really rude with everyone).
**On Transportation
Unlike in the US where if you want to get around you need a car, in Japan (at least in Tokyo) they have a train system and people walk a lot and bike if it will take them too long to walk to-from the train station. Even the business equivalent of CEOs back then took the train to and from work. I think it's because of the hassles (economically and spatially; the government makes it very expensive to own a car and space in Japan is very limited) of owning a car make taking the train a very sound choice.
(Going off a tangent again: I also like the idea of trains because of the 'communistic' quality of it, as opposed to the 'capitalistic' quality of owning a car for transportation; take for example the last Batman movie, Batman Begins, (MINOR SPOILER) where the train line that was built by Bruce's father was built as a means of communal transport for the people)
**On Work Ethic
I have never seen it depicted in the movies but the work ethic in Japan is 'the company is your emperor'. At least that was what I saw in my line of work. The employees of the company work hard, work long hours, but even with seemingly 'harsh' conditions, do not complain, or not as much as you would expect.
On the one hand, it could seem that the company is similar to a US (capitalistic) company and is an entity itself and is sucking the life out of its peons and the peons have 'learned to like their servitude' but it seemed different in the company I worked for. I could not put my finger on it but working overtime in Japan has a much different flavor from working overtime in the US.
If I would venture a guess, I worked long and hard while in Japan because everyone else did it. There I learned to get the job done and get it done right and working as perfectly as possible. Here in the US, I still carry that work ethic with me but then I am the rare worker 'who wants to get the job done right' working with the rest of the people who've grown up here 'who just want to get the job done' or 'who works only until 5pm'.
Probably that's why the Dilbert comic strip took off like a rocket when it came out.
Actually, the working so long got so bad in Japan that the government stepped in and created 'holidays' to force the people to take a vacation. The 'holidays' are a week long and there is one for each season if I remember correctly.
**On Other Stuff I'll Lump Together As Miscellaneous
The other things I like about Japan are:
- 'Hana-mi' which translates to 'watching the flowers', which is the practice of sitting under the cherry blossom (sakura) trees when they are in bloom. The philosophy behind the practice is a reminder of the fleeting-ness of life. The sakura blossom blooms for only a week or so before the flowers fall off in a shower of pink petals.
The other side of the coin is that this practice has become a sort of 'commercial' enterprise where if you don't personally reserve a space the night before, people can do that for you for a price. Also alcohol (beer, sake) shoot up during this week and a lot of Japanese enjoy getting wasted under the trees.
- 'Hana-bi' which is the term for 'watching fireworks' (I think the direct translation is 'flower of fire'; fireworks in Japan are so beautiful and sometimes can look like beautiful flowers). I don't know the philosophy behind the practice but the fireworks I have watched there are unrivaled. But then again, I only have the Philippines and the US to comapre to. Maybe China has some good fireworks too.
The fireworks show there is not just a random firing of rockets but is an orchestrated event, not unlike the shooting water fountains of the Bellagio.
- The food. Though most countries do have their upscale restaurants featuring cuisine from around the world, I have yet to taste Japanese food not prepared in Japan that is as good as what I have tasted in even the modest restaurants in Japan. But then again, the same goes for Filipino food, the only other cultural cuisine I am very familiar with.
- The little conveniences like a 24-hour mini-mart that carries almost everything you might need (from socks, to underwear to makeup, CDs, needle and thread, bobby pins, quick meals) around almost every corner, vending machines that dispense drinks, cigarettes, beer, vending machines for train tickets (and can accept all paper and coin currency in Japan). I can go on for another two or three paragraphs but this post is already too long and I may have already lost most people who started reading this post.
Sadly, I am unable to comment about other cultural aspects or even politics in Japan because of the language barrier. I'm sure Japan also has its share of political controversies and scandals, pre-occupation with young girls, big boobs, prostitution (which is legal), quirky and weird but eclectic television shows, showbiz gossip, but all in all, if I were to choose a country to work and live in, Japan has even a disticnt advantage over the US and even a slight advantage over Philippines, where I was born and spent 5/6ths of my life.
Next time I get to visit, I should visit some temples and definitely take a ride on the 'bullet train' (the one that 'floats' on magnets). If time permits, I'd also like to hike Mount Fuji. My friend who's done it tells me that it takes almost a whole day and you start the hike at night so that when you get to one of the summits, you can catch a magnificent view of the sun rising.
Well, that's it for now. I'll try to do a write up on the Philippines next time.
Many times I've changed my opinions on what I think about people a lot because of all those trips. Thanks to the (US) popular media, before I left the Philippines for my first Japan trip I grew up with the stereo-typical view of what a 'typical' Japanese person is like: unintelligible, dumb, and always bowing. (Well, that was how it was depicted in the movies in the past. Now, probably because of the Internet, even people who don't have the chance to get out of the country to 'experience' another culture can, to some degree, get an accurate picture of a foreign culture.)
What the movies don't tell you is that the Japanese are nothing like what I expected. Well, maybe except for the bowing part but even I came away from those trips with nodding more than usual because of being exposed to the culture.
The impression I got from the Japanese is that they are very polite to everyone. Well, not everyone is like that. Some are 'forced' to be polite because of a 'heirarchical' system that is integral to their culture.
(side note: the total cumulative time I've spent is Japan is around 2 years with the longest stretch of contiguous time being 6 months)
**On Language
Looking at their language, they basically have two modes of speech: one polite, refined and honorific while the other is more crude, rough and can sometimes be disrespectful. Between those two extremes are varying levels of politeness (or impoliteness if 'the glass is half empty').
When students learning the Japanese language are taught, they are usually taught the polite form of speech. When the student sees that his Japanese friend is looking at him funny, he soon finds out that his 'politeness level' of his speech is tuned too high.
So how polite should one be? It depends on the difference between your 'rank' and the 'rank' of the person you are speaking to. If you are a blue collar worker speaking to the emperor of Japan, you would use the most honorific speech you know. If you were talking to your boss, you'd be speaking less polite than if you were speaking to the emperor but you'd still be above average polite. If you were speaking to a drinking buddy, you'd be using casual speech, a bit rough but it's speech between equals. If you were speaking to a waitress, you can get away with being a bit cruder because in that 'relationship', the waitress is serving you.
Of course there are exceptions who, even if they were ranked 'higher' than the person they were talking to, would still be more polite than the 'bare minimum'.
The culture is still patriarchal though it is changing little by little; you can see it in the differences in what they can now get away with on t.v. or in the movies. This is much like how the slow progression of skimpier outfiits and more exposed skin is the trend on t.v. and the movies if you look at the progression from decades past when even the slightest hint of exposed skin in the ankle area was already daring.
For a foreigner like myself that did not learn the language (yes, I regret it to this day), the complexity of rankings in relationships is still a bit vague to me. But this I did notice though: most Japanese are by default polite and coutrteous to all foreigners (with exceptions of course; some are just really rude with everyone).
**On Transportation
Unlike in the US where if you want to get around you need a car, in Japan (at least in Tokyo) they have a train system and people walk a lot and bike if it will take them too long to walk to-from the train station. Even the business equivalent of CEOs back then took the train to and from work. I think it's because of the hassles (economically and spatially; the government makes it very expensive to own a car and space in Japan is very limited) of owning a car make taking the train a very sound choice.
(Going off a tangent again: I also like the idea of trains because of the 'communistic' quality of it, as opposed to the 'capitalistic' quality of owning a car for transportation; take for example the last Batman movie, Batman Begins, (MINOR SPOILER) where the train line that was built by Bruce's father was built as a means of communal transport for the people)
**On Work Ethic
I have never seen it depicted in the movies but the work ethic in Japan is 'the company is your emperor'. At least that was what I saw in my line of work. The employees of the company work hard, work long hours, but even with seemingly 'harsh' conditions, do not complain, or not as much as you would expect.
On the one hand, it could seem that the company is similar to a US (capitalistic) company and is an entity itself and is sucking the life out of its peons and the peons have 'learned to like their servitude' but it seemed different in the company I worked for. I could not put my finger on it but working overtime in Japan has a much different flavor from working overtime in the US.
If I would venture a guess, I worked long and hard while in Japan because everyone else did it. There I learned to get the job done and get it done right and working as perfectly as possible. Here in the US, I still carry that work ethic with me but then I am the rare worker 'who wants to get the job done right' working with the rest of the people who've grown up here 'who just want to get the job done' or 'who works only until 5pm'.
Probably that's why the Dilbert comic strip took off like a rocket when it came out.
Actually, the working so long got so bad in Japan that the government stepped in and created 'holidays' to force the people to take a vacation. The 'holidays' are a week long and there is one for each season if I remember correctly.
**On Other Stuff I'll Lump Together As Miscellaneous
The other things I like about Japan are:
- 'Hana-mi' which translates to 'watching the flowers', which is the practice of sitting under the cherry blossom (sakura) trees when they are in bloom. The philosophy behind the practice is a reminder of the fleeting-ness of life. The sakura blossom blooms for only a week or so before the flowers fall off in a shower of pink petals.
The other side of the coin is that this practice has become a sort of 'commercial' enterprise where if you don't personally reserve a space the night before, people can do that for you for a price. Also alcohol (beer, sake) shoot up during this week and a lot of Japanese enjoy getting wasted under the trees.
- 'Hana-bi' which is the term for 'watching fireworks' (I think the direct translation is 'flower of fire'; fireworks in Japan are so beautiful and sometimes can look like beautiful flowers). I don't know the philosophy behind the practice but the fireworks I have watched there are unrivaled. But then again, I only have the Philippines and the US to comapre to. Maybe China has some good fireworks too.
The fireworks show there is not just a random firing of rockets but is an orchestrated event, not unlike the shooting water fountains of the Bellagio.
- The food. Though most countries do have their upscale restaurants featuring cuisine from around the world, I have yet to taste Japanese food not prepared in Japan that is as good as what I have tasted in even the modest restaurants in Japan. But then again, the same goes for Filipino food, the only other cultural cuisine I am very familiar with.
- The little conveniences like a 24-hour mini-mart that carries almost everything you might need (from socks, to underwear to makeup, CDs, needle and thread, bobby pins, quick meals) around almost every corner, vending machines that dispense drinks, cigarettes, beer, vending machines for train tickets (and can accept all paper and coin currency in Japan). I can go on for another two or three paragraphs but this post is already too long and I may have already lost most people who started reading this post.
Sadly, I am unable to comment about other cultural aspects or even politics in Japan because of the language barrier. I'm sure Japan also has its share of political controversies and scandals, pre-occupation with young girls, big boobs, prostitution (which is legal), quirky and weird but eclectic television shows, showbiz gossip, but all in all, if I were to choose a country to work and live in, Japan has even a disticnt advantage over the US and even a slight advantage over Philippines, where I was born and spent 5/6ths of my life.
Next time I get to visit, I should visit some temples and definitely take a ride on the 'bullet train' (the one that 'floats' on magnets). If time permits, I'd also like to hike Mount Fuji. My friend who's done it tells me that it takes almost a whole day and you start the hike at night so that when you get to one of the summits, you can catch a magnificent view of the sun rising.
Well, that's it for now. I'll try to do a write up on the Philippines next time.