First of all, on the airplane, people enjoyed talking with the cabin attendants. The attendants also seemed to enjoy talking with the guests like they were friends. It was a nice and unusual scene for me because in Japan the relationship between guests and clerks is like masters and servants, not like friends. In old days, the phrase "guests are the gods" existed among merchants. Even now, when some people are guests they are arrogant toward shop assistants. I like a society in which people are on the same level everywhere.
Second, people are so big: taller and wider. All US people who visit Japan may see Japan as a country of gnomes. In Japan, it is not common to find overweight ladies even in a big city with a lot of pedestrians, but in the US, it is easy. On the other hand, there are rarely smokers. I hate smoke very much, so I really envy this condition. Japanese society is more tolerant of smokers. For instance, many smokers walk down any street, a lot of offices are equipped with smokers' rooms in the buildings (In the early 1990s, in my office, co-workers who were smokers often enjoyed smoking at their own desks next to non-smokers.). Maybe both the US people and Japanese people are conscious of their health, but their approaches are different.
Third, on the airplane again, I found other difference between American and Japanese society. I sat in my seat, on aisle seat. In front of my seat, sat a three-year-old girl sat in her seat. On the right side of her, sat her mother and her one-year-old sister. At first, the one-year-old baby screamed for over ten minutes, but her mother did nothing. Nobody else did either. In Japan, in the same situation, a mother may be conscious of her baby annoying other people, so she will try to control her baby. If a mother doesn't do anything, other guests will ask her to control her baby. I cannot form a clear conclusion from only one sample, but I was surprised to find such severe individualism in US society.
2 comments:
Yes, very severe individualism in USA, I found the opposite the case when I lived in Japan. In that sense, Japan is very civilized because they respect others. In America, respect in that sense doesn't exist, and is tolerated. Trust me, other people are bothered that the baby is crying too, but they will not approach the mother because it's rude to say anything to the mother. I do not understand why the mother didn't take the baby in a different area to soothe her. I find that is lacking a lot of common sense too. Thank you for your observations.
Dear Grace, I'm glad to read your comment about Japanese people's attitude.
Meanwhile, this is also Japanese people's weak point,I think.Conformity is an essential element of our community and it is sometimes public pressure against speaking out minorities' voices. I wish I took attitude and action which I think it is proper on each case.
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