What I've learned about Japan.
Hello again from a humid, rainy Tokyo. The weather outside is disgusting, but hopefully it will clear up next week when my friend from New Zealand comes to visit. Recently I've been working a bit of overtime and trying to avoid the heat, although it is starting to cool off a bit.
So after living in Japan for a year and a half, I've learned a fair bit about the people, the culture, and the language. Living in another country makes you look at things through a completely different lens and you can start to see how the culture shapes people's behaviours which I think is incredibly interesting, and it also changes your original perception of that country. It's not always what you see all over the internet and in TV shows and movies! Without further ado, let's get into a list of things I've learned about Japan.
1) Japan is a lot bigger than you think! When you think of Japan, you probably think of a small island country, and I will say that it is small in comparison to it's neighbour China, much like New Zealand is small in comparison to Australia. However, when you look at a map of Japan, and how long it takes to get around the country (by car that is, not by high speed trains) you realise that it's actually a lot bigger than you initially thought. When you include the islands of Kyushu, Hokkaido and Okinawa, the total size of Japan is 378000 km squared. That's pretty big! It's bigger than Germany, the UK, and probably a lot of other countries.
2) Japanese people are a bit naive and slightly uninformed when it comes to the world around them. To any of my Japanese friends reading this, I mean this in the nicest way possible. For example, world geography is not exactly a top priority at school here. There have been times when city names like Buenos Aires or Cairo have come up in lessons and students don't know where they are. World news and global issues such as climate change seem to go right over a lot of people's heads, and some of my students have never left Japan. Coming from New Zealand, having a good grasp of international geography, global issues, and experiencing new cultures are all critical parts of education and life experience, whereas in Japan, that doesn't seem to be the case. I don't mean to offend anyone, or say that Japanese are uneducated, because they are well educated in other ways (maths, sciences etc), this is just my opinion, and international understanding is an area which could do with some work.
3) Japanese culture is extremely multifaceted. You can find the most insane mix of the ultra modern and the traditional, and I love that about Japan. From anime, manga, kawaii fashion and pop culture, to old historic temples, shrines, castles and more, there really is such a huge range of things to experience here, you can't possibly do it all in one trip, and I think it's one thing that keeps drawing people back time after time. It's also a huge reason why more and more foreigners are coming to live and work in Japan, and experience it first hand.
4) Japanese people are very resilient in the face of disaster. Japan has to deal with a lot of natural disasters, and I feel like people here are very well-equipped for them and very well-versed in coping with the aftermath. It seems to take some areas no time at all to recover from a destructive typhoon, and once the storm has passed you don't see much news about the clean up. It seems to me that people just kind of get on with it, and deal with it pretty efficiently. In New Zealand, after a big storm or any other natural disaster, the clean up can take weeks or months, whereas here it seems that things are back to normal within a week, which is a testament to the Japanese work ethic.
5) Speaking of work ethic... The work culture here is insane! I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but the number of hours that a lot of people work in a week is beyond ridiculous. They are super committed to their companies and their jobs, and expectations are high. Work-life balance does not exist. I mean, a solid work ethic isn't a bad thing, but I think it's taken to the extreme in Japan, and it starts in schools. The students here have homework to do over summer break, they have to attend club activities after school most days, as well as cram school, and there's a lot of pressure to do well in university entrance exams. I've heard that once you're at university, the workload isn't actually too heavy, that is until you're released into the work force. I feel like the kids here learn a lot through rote learning and repetition, which then translates into their working life where hierarchy is important and everyone adheres to a strict set of rules and tasks. Having critical thinking skills and creativity is not seen as important, and there's a saying in Japan which is "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down". This implies that any kind of individuality or difference is bad and you need to stick to the status quo and do things how they've always been done. This is in complete contrast to Western working culture where individuality is valued and appreciated and people are always looking for new ideas.
So that concludes what I've learned about Japan so far. Hopefully this was interesting and informative, and gave you an insight into the Japanese way of thinking, the culture and my perspective as a foreigner living here. I think spending an extended period of time in another country gives you an opportunity to delve into the way people think and why they behave the way they do, and it's fascinating to compare cultures and lifestyles. We can all learn certain things from other cultures, which is why going abroad is so important, and getting to experience a culture as rich as Japan's has really opened up my eyes to a way of thinking and doing things that's the complete opposite to what I grew up with. Some things I like, some things I don't agree with, but nowhere is perfect. The next update will be a Sendai trip blog! I'm super excited to be seeing somewhere new, and being a tour guide is always entertaining.
Thanks for reading!
From Japan, with love,
Hannah. xx
So after living in Japan for a year and a half, I've learned a fair bit about the people, the culture, and the language. Living in another country makes you look at things through a completely different lens and you can start to see how the culture shapes people's behaviours which I think is incredibly interesting, and it also changes your original perception of that country. It's not always what you see all over the internet and in TV shows and movies! Without further ado, let's get into a list of things I've learned about Japan.
1) Japan is a lot bigger than you think! When you think of Japan, you probably think of a small island country, and I will say that it is small in comparison to it's neighbour China, much like New Zealand is small in comparison to Australia. However, when you look at a map of Japan, and how long it takes to get around the country (by car that is, not by high speed trains) you realise that it's actually a lot bigger than you initially thought. When you include the islands of Kyushu, Hokkaido and Okinawa, the total size of Japan is 378000 km squared. That's pretty big! It's bigger than Germany, the UK, and probably a lot of other countries.
2) Japanese people are a bit naive and slightly uninformed when it comes to the world around them. To any of my Japanese friends reading this, I mean this in the nicest way possible. For example, world geography is not exactly a top priority at school here. There have been times when city names like Buenos Aires or Cairo have come up in lessons and students don't know where they are. World news and global issues such as climate change seem to go right over a lot of people's heads, and some of my students have never left Japan. Coming from New Zealand, having a good grasp of international geography, global issues, and experiencing new cultures are all critical parts of education and life experience, whereas in Japan, that doesn't seem to be the case. I don't mean to offend anyone, or say that Japanese are uneducated, because they are well educated in other ways (maths, sciences etc), this is just my opinion, and international understanding is an area which could do with some work.
3) Japanese culture is extremely multifaceted. You can find the most insane mix of the ultra modern and the traditional, and I love that about Japan. From anime, manga, kawaii fashion and pop culture, to old historic temples, shrines, castles and more, there really is such a huge range of things to experience here, you can't possibly do it all in one trip, and I think it's one thing that keeps drawing people back time after time. It's also a huge reason why more and more foreigners are coming to live and work in Japan, and experience it first hand.
4) Japanese people are very resilient in the face of disaster. Japan has to deal with a lot of natural disasters, and I feel like people here are very well-equipped for them and very well-versed in coping with the aftermath. It seems to take some areas no time at all to recover from a destructive typhoon, and once the storm has passed you don't see much news about the clean up. It seems to me that people just kind of get on with it, and deal with it pretty efficiently. In New Zealand, after a big storm or any other natural disaster, the clean up can take weeks or months, whereas here it seems that things are back to normal within a week, which is a testament to the Japanese work ethic.
5) Speaking of work ethic... The work culture here is insane! I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but the number of hours that a lot of people work in a week is beyond ridiculous. They are super committed to their companies and their jobs, and expectations are high. Work-life balance does not exist. I mean, a solid work ethic isn't a bad thing, but I think it's taken to the extreme in Japan, and it starts in schools. The students here have homework to do over summer break, they have to attend club activities after school most days, as well as cram school, and there's a lot of pressure to do well in university entrance exams. I've heard that once you're at university, the workload isn't actually too heavy, that is until you're released into the work force. I feel like the kids here learn a lot through rote learning and repetition, which then translates into their working life where hierarchy is important and everyone adheres to a strict set of rules and tasks. Having critical thinking skills and creativity is not seen as important, and there's a saying in Japan which is "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down". This implies that any kind of individuality or difference is bad and you need to stick to the status quo and do things how they've always been done. This is in complete contrast to Western working culture where individuality is valued and appreciated and people are always looking for new ideas.
So that concludes what I've learned about Japan so far. Hopefully this was interesting and informative, and gave you an insight into the Japanese way of thinking, the culture and my perspective as a foreigner living here. I think spending an extended period of time in another country gives you an opportunity to delve into the way people think and why they behave the way they do, and it's fascinating to compare cultures and lifestyles. We can all learn certain things from other cultures, which is why going abroad is so important, and getting to experience a culture as rich as Japan's has really opened up my eyes to a way of thinking and doing things that's the complete opposite to what I grew up with. Some things I like, some things I don't agree with, but nowhere is perfect. The next update will be a Sendai trip blog! I'm super excited to be seeing somewhere new, and being a tour guide is always entertaining.
Thanks for reading!
From Japan, with love,
Hannah. xx
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