Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Things I've learned in Japanese Culture

I know that Japanese people bow when they are going to greet you. But there is a deepest meaning of that. Bowing is a sign of respect and it is greetings too. The more you low in bowing to them, the more they feel that they respected their culture and traditions. Some Japanese people, I seen them when they bow and say good morning or any greetings and then after that they shake hands. They are also respecting your culture. So, it is a kind of double act of saying respects and greetings. That is pretty cool huh. People here honored or respected the old folks and I think I love this culture. This is really exciting in exploring and understand their culture.

Giving of Gifts - When you move in a Japanese neighborhood. We need to introduce ourselves and give them a little gift such as cookies or anything that it seems you think it is special. Bake cookies are one of the best gift to give it to them. Maybe on the next day, you hear a knock on the door and they give you gifts too. When they wrapped gifts, they spent lots of time in wrapping it so when you receive a gift from them. Don't open it right away because it is unmannered. Receive the gift and then put it away.

Road System, their vehicle is right hand drive and they drive in an opposite road in US. I think I do not have any problem in driving in here. Some people say, it is scary to drive in town but I run some people here and they said. I can drive in here but I need to be careful in driving because if you got an accident there is a big story in it. Eventhough it is not your fault, you are going to say apologies for interrupting their time and they are going to tell you too.

Dialing 911 in the USA, here in Japan you are going to dial 119 which is opposite to the US. This is really funny but that is what they are using in here.

Their faucet at sinks- it is opposite. It is really funny. Their faucet at the shower it looks also complicated.

I need to learn to speak and write Japanese. Living here for 3 years made me a big challenge in learning to speak and write Japanese. It is really cool to know that Japanese has three characters they used. The Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana. Learning to write is fun though...

Got to go.. CIAO

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