Final Thoughts

I wrote this a little while ago for a friend's work, so I thought I may as well post it on here too:

So, Japan eh? What is there to say about it that hasn't already been said? Everything and nothing. There is nothing left to say about it, but everything left to truly know. The truth is that any description of Japan will never give you any idea of what to expect. The eccentricities are exaggerated, the real nuances are copious and redundant, and the sense of unknown will always be just that. Japan is a bluff, and a double bluff, and that's what makes it so interesting.

I dare not make any all encompassing point, because there isn't one. A list of mentally noted, say for example, manners and etiquette fool you into thinking you know what Japanese culture is, but then something comes along that throws you, and you soon begin to realise that the only reference you have with western culture is that Japan is like the other outcome from the Chaos Theory, a place from the other side of the two faced coin, a parallel universe incarnated from our own.

As an example of this, take into account that in Japan you cannot pass food from chopsticks to chopsticks, eat in public, cross a clear road if the green man isn't lit, talk on your mobile on a train, wear a black tie, or even use the incorrect verb form without offending someone or accidentally asking for someone's hand in marriage. So the natural thought is to think Japan is an incredibly polite country, and it is. The point being that these etiquettes are relative to a different reference point, and not to any traceable, Western pattern. It is acceptable to let go of a door and allow it to fling back to whoever is behind you, cut your toenails or spit in public if you're elderly, and slurping food is encouraged. There's no homely syntax.

My advice is to forget what you know. Japan is a culture shock, but not in any way that you will ever begin to understand without going there yourself. I think anyone who has been will say the same, but like me they'll fall into the trap of trying to define it to others. Japan is no more or less quirky than Britain, it's just as much the similarities as the differences that will throw you. It's a wonderful, dull, fascinating, boring, friendly and incredibly surprising place. Even with this information, it's likely that your imagination will paint the grotesquely incorrect picture, and should you decide to go, it's that crudely misconceived caricature that will be the basis for just how much you'll undoubtedly fall in love with Japan.