Culture Assesement

Today I was able to think long and hard about the first half of our study abroad trip here in Japan. Last night, in a classroom lecture, we were imposed a challenge. Our challenge is to focus on the elements that make up a piece of culture, and then to think about ways that it might be different if... (fill in the blank). To look at something from a broad perspective and question: "why is it like this?" or "what if it were different?" This type of questioning has opened my eyes to see culture from a newer perspective. Too often I would just accept something I see or hear, but questioning it is something that has helped me better understand the meaning behind that initial observation.

On our first night, all the way back to Monday ( it seems like such a long time ago and its has only been 8 days )  we went out for some dinner. While eating and having our meal I noticed across the room that there was a group of 8-10 people getting dinner, all men. I also noticed that there were only two of these people who were remotely young (my age). Japan is an aging population and their workforce has been decreasing for some time now.

The Japanese are very expressive in showing gratitude. When paying for a bill I have noticed that many cashiers are very respectable towards me, almost in an honoring way. I believe that there is a deeper root meaning for why the Japanese are so respectful towards their customers. Japan during WWII conditioned their people to go kamikaze which was straight up suicide in effort to serve their nation during war. The Japanese seem to always have had a serving mentality. Even today, while "some-what" lost in Hiroshima, I asked a woman for some direction with the use of a map. By the end of our conversation we had two other women (all three strangers to me and each other) join in to help ease my confusion. The Japanese culture is very helpful towards one another and this type of collectivism is very impressive.

Another thing that I would like to learn more about is what do the Japanese people value most? In America I think most people define success as having lots of money, while the Japanese do not seem to define success like this. In America I know that most businesses are in operations primarily to make profit. Here in Japan there are many local business where people are earning to make a living and doing the best to provide their best service. The Japanese culture and my culture in America differ in terms of being successful and I plan to devote more time and thought towards discovering the motive behind Japanese success.