That's SO Japanese

There are characteristics that are simply SO Japanese. My very good friend J recently became engaged to R, a 4th generation Japanese American. You would think that after 4 generations, the Japaneseness would fade, but it doesn't. I really think that it might be something they are born with. It doesn't mean every Japanese person embodies all of the characteristics. But many of them do. Even the babies. I've been here two months and I swear I have not witnessed a SINGLE misbehaved child, other than one toddler that was making a fuss but when I turned around realized she was white. Japanese babies do not cry. They do not throw tantrums. They are well behaved and quiet on the subway. It boggles the mind. How do they get them to DO that??

It's something I wonder about the Japanese people everyday. How did someone/something convince this entire nation of people to go against their human nature to be selfish, self-centered and self-preserving to revere the group (i.e. Japanese society) rather than self, to obey the rules even when no one is looking, to be unfailingly polite when you know you will gain nothing from it? It's so freaking fascinating.

So the characteristics that I think are part of the essence of the Japanese people:

* attention to detail

* orderliness/organization at an OCD level

* politeness

* importance on the GROUP over the individual

* hypersensitivity to the collective social consciousness of Japanese society

* appreciation of detail

* appreciation of the beauty of minimalism

* unstated but everpresent feeling of superiority over other Asian races, especially Korea

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A Japanese singer/actress was recently arrested for drug possession - she had 0.008 grams on her. She was subsequently fired by her music production/entertainment company because the company claims: "Such an antisocial act is not tolerable."

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Recent survey found that 65.2% of Chinese had a "negative" impression of Japan while 73.2% of Japanese had a "negative" impression of China.

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I went to Kamakura today - my first trip out of Tokyo (in Japan) since moving here. Highlights were the Daibutsu (big Buddha) and shojin ryori (Japanese Buddhist cuisine). There are about a zillion temples in Kamakura - I visited two but became fatigued...honestly, whether it is a church, a temple or a mosque, after you see about two of them (in the same style) they all kind of look the same. I realize this makes me sounds uber-uncultured but frankly I don't care.

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There are so many yummy things to eat in Japan and simply not enough time to eat them all.