Japanese politeness and discipline - How to distinguish Japanese people from other East Asians?

It was start of a debate when I declared that I can distinguish a Japanese person from other far east Asians. Probably I was little excited and exaggerated. But I had enough reasons to argue with my friends. The topic I started was interesting to many friends since they were from East Asian countries.

They wanted to know how I can differentiate Japanese people from other East Asian people. In fact, I used to observe the behavior pattern of Japanese people in public and their manners. The attitude of Japanese people to others, especially to people from India is totally different from the attitude of other East Asians towards Indian people. There is a great extent of positive patterns when Japanese people interact with Indians.

By observing East Asian people, I could guess to almost nearly accurately the country of east Asian people. I agree that it is difficult to distinguish Japanese and South Koreans, North Chinese and some Thai people. But most of the time, the behavior pattern helped me to differentiate other East Asians from Japanese.

One of the major characteristics with Japanese public behavior is Discipline. This is what I like to appreciate the whole system of bringing up a generation in Japan. Japanese people and education system has a vision to build future generation and they are well aware of the impacts of discipline in the society.

The robust and healthy Japanese society has been practicing an admirable system of discipline for many decades. History says the modern Japan became a self disciplined society from the time of Edo. I am not a scholar to comment on this. But I can say from my observation of Japanese people for the past one year that Japanese people are different.

There may be an argument when Japanese people say that they are a different human race. The secluded island culture for many centuries has resulted in a kind of oneness among Japanese people and similar cultural proximity among different regions of Japan. This may be the reason for Japanese people thinking that their race is different. By race they mean only the society, I believe.

Even though other East Asians looks like Japanese, they fail to behave like Japanese. In that sense, Japanese culture is different from other East Asian cultures though it is affected. The attitude of majority of people makes the society proud. In that sense Japan has got all to proud of her people. The aligned and programmed nature of behavior of Japanese people makes the things simple in every walk of life.

Airport is the most noticeable place for Japanese politeness. The moment I landed in Hong Kong Airport, I could experience the difference between Japanese and other East Asians, though they look same. The careless and arrogant nature of approach and attitude is missing in Japan Airports. Instead, people are warm and polite. They wish politely every traveler pass through. That is amazing. There are guides with smiling face in Tokyo Airport for any kind of help. Such a convenient and pleasant Airport I have never seen anywhere. Malaysian Airport is another place which reinforced my observation that Japanese people are different from other East Asians in behavior. The same arrogant nature as in Hong Kong I could watch in Kula lumpur airport also.

Why Japan is different? And who told them to behave good to strangers? Why most people at Hong Kong and Malaysia are arrogant?

The answer is in the culture. The cultural background makes the difference. Japan is a country with full fledged development. That development is not limited to the technological field, Japanese people are also developed much higher than other East Asians. That is the reason we miss to experience the politeness and pleasant experiences at Malaysia and other East Asian countries. I have no experience with Korea, but my interaction with Korean people says, they are also warm like Japanese.

Japan has an edge over others with their politeness, discipline and pleasant attitude. That makes life and society beautiful.

A Walk with the stars at Roppongi

There were stars in Roppongi much more than that were on the sky. The beautiful part of Tokyo, the dream of night life at Tokyo – Roppongi – excited and electrified life of Tokyo attracted foreigners living in Japan. The stars on the earth at Roppongi were going so up and up that the heavenly stars got jealous of them.

Roppongi was the center or activity in Tokyo. Roppongi was in heaven. Rich men at Roppongi were Gods of wealth. They created wealth, enjoyed the best of the world and lived to the fullest meaning of life.

Everything is a big ‘Was’. Today Roppongi is silent. The Mori building, one of the attractive skyscraper of Tokyo stood in the December cold virtually shivered this season. We could not see any charm what is described in many internet sites about Roppongi. The reason is we were late comers to see what Roppongi is.

‘The Lehman brothers’ welcomed us to the Mori building. There was a Christmas decoration at the front of the building. Inside just at the entrance, there is a model of Roppongi hills. Japanese people paused for photographs in front of the model Roppongi hills with their kids.

Life at Roppongi is at a pause it seems. We were hoping to see Japanese celebrities making their choices at Roppongi. The economic recession has created a big havoc to the heavenly life at Roppongi.

The economic disaster of this millennium started at United States and spread into Europe and Japan. The victims at Japan will not be limited to Roppongi night bars only. It is going to be a devastating figure of damage to the society as a whole.

The scene is much visible and distinguishable at Roppongi than anywhere in Japan. This was by a shop owner at Roppongi. His shop never displayed price as it was mostly decided by the demand.

There were Japanese beauties coming from different corners of Tokyo to enjoy the life at Roppongi. The European and US brothers left Roppongi and there is not much remaining for excitement. The wealth was created and destroyed at Roppongi itself.

Owners of unlimited wealth made the Roppongi a heaven. Still it is, but with less charm. It is known here that Roppongi is the place where J-girls look for foreign friends, mainly Europeans or Americans/Australians. Many of them turn into fruitful relationships.

It is December winter and Roppongi is still. Coming out of Roppongi hills, I could see many stars on the sky.

Yesterday was yesterday and Today is today in Japan

I have got more than 15 opportunities to participate in social gatherings of Japanese people including drinking party. Generally as per previous experience at my home country, we will share our good feelings about the last night’s party while meeting at next day morning. At least a word of exchange in the morning while we meet at the work place will be done.

But here in Japan, it is very surprising that nobody discuss about last night’s party. After having the very first party in Japan, the next morning, when I went to office, I expected somebody will ask my feelings about last night’s party. I could see people working as if nothing had happened!

This prompted me to compare the attitude of Japanese people with the people of my country. Both enjoy the party. We share the enjoyable moments by talking about it again. Japanese enjoy while having the party. The past is past and no more! Why to discuss about the past. We have to concentrate on the present.

That is a great ideology, even though Japanese people may do it unconsciously. They really don’t care much what happened in the past. Ofcourse, they learn from the past experience, but try not to repeat the past mistakes.

There may be a connection to the materialistic approach of Japanese people for this attitude. It is good to forget the past as soon as possible, whether it is good or bad. Living at the heart of this moment is important. Live in the past is not a good idea to make progress for individuals and for society.

The Japanese people have that good side of mind to forget the past fast. This is a quality which many of the other societies do not possess. Forgetting may not be a good idea, but not giving much importance to the past is important and this is what Japanese people do with the past.

Past is not in our control and we can not undo it. Whether the happened incident is good or bad, we are unable to change it as it is already done. What we can do and control is at the present. So, do that part of work at present good. Probably Japanese people also remember those good moments of the party, but they don’t want to bother about it much.

Yesterday was yesterday in every country as far as days are concerned, but while dealing with memories, other people may give much importance to what happened in the past. Japanese people are little bit different in dealing with the past and present.

That is why I gave this caption to this post ‘Yesterday was yesterday and Today is today in Japan’!

A Sunday tour to Tokyo Tower

We had a good Sunday out in Tokyo when we decided to visit Tokyo Tower with our guest Mustafa-san from Jordan. He came to Japan for a short stay, but within one week he was all praise to Japan. He is also with a wonderful note on the high degree of discipline of Japanese people in the public behavior.

This was my first trip to Tokyo Tower. Along with Kawano-san, Ienaka-san and Mustain-san I had a pleasure trip at night around the Tokyo Tower, but did not enter inside the Tower building. We took ticket to go up to the Main Observatory which has height of 150 meters. The ticket charge for an Adult entry is 820 Japanese Yen.

The Main observatory is an exciting place to have a 360 degree view of the Kanto region surrounding Tokyo. There are many coffee shops to take break. Guide boards are available on the Observatory in which the name of the buildings that can be viewed from four sides of the observatory are displayed in different languages. Set up on the four sides, these guide boards help to orient the city of Tokyo with explanation of the view from the Tower.

We could see many people offer prayers to the Great Shinto Shrine of the Tower. Located at the highest spot in all 23 wards of Tokyo, the Shinto shrine grant the faithful divine favors such as successful passing of academic examinations and traffic safety.

The Information counter is welcome to visitors with their doubts and I don’t need to repeat the Japanese way of welcoming visitors and guests with all regards and warmness. The staffs at the Information center are so polite and helping that even stranger would not feel awkward to approach in case of confusion.

The look down window is an exciting portion of the Tokyo Tower. We could see some children enjoy standing over the glass and look down. Looking down to the streets form the tower, I felt dizziness and could not stay there long, but managed to capture some shots in my mobile.

Due to time shortage, we decided not to proceed further go up. There are special observatory at 250 meter height. We could see Mount Fuji from the Main observatory, but the vision was not so clear. From the Special observatory the view of mount Fuji is clear. Mount Tsukuba is also visible from that height. The top of the Tokyo Tower is occupied by NHK General TV, NHK Education TV, TV Asahi, Fuji TV, TBS TV, NTV TV, TV Tokyo and the University of the Air TV. The topmost of the Tokyo Tower is a lightning rod at a height of 333 meters. That is the total height of Tokyo Tower – 333 meters.

There are game centers for children to enjoy, restaurants and food courts at the Foot Town. Guinness World Records Museum, Crystal Planet, Space Wax, Trick Art Gallery and Wax Museum are other major attractions inside the Tokyo Tower. We were little confused due to time shortage on which one to choose. Finally we decided to enter Wax Museum.

Wax Museum in Tokyo Tower was opened in 1970. The wax figures of prominent personalities of the world history are displayed in the museum. Wax figures exhibited were imported directly from the workshop in London, where they were made. Also added are the figures of great personalities who created major impact on the human history in 20th century and played an important role in the society.

We missed many things like Thrilling Economics House, Amusement Park, Aquarium Gallery, Tokyo Souvenir Shop Town etc, but to come back again to view Tokyo Tower ! Next time I will try to have a night view of Tokyo from the top of the Tokyo Tower.