日本游之随想（总） - in English & boring & 无图

My wife and I had recently visited Japan and spent 10 days there. Japan has always been a country that would stir up the most conflicting thoughts and debates among the Chinese. I wanted to say that China and Japan have had a love-hate relationship for a long while, but in recent years, I could not even find that 'e' in love between the two countires. I myself have had my personal share of insults towards Japan as a country and as a people. But seriously, those insults were mostly unwarranted, considering that I can use one hand to count the number of Japanese people I know personally and I had never been to Japan, before this recent visit. Now that I have actually been to Japan, I have found that my view of the country and its people have undergone subtle changes and become quite mixed. It is neither love or hate, but refreshing, at least to me ... I would like to share some of my random thoughts about Japan during the visit. A summary is given below, in no particular order.

(1) "麻雀虽小,五脏俱全" - this is almost self-explanatory

(2) "The gender divide" - this term is perhaps already overloaded. What I want to express here is that I observe some stark contrast between Japanese men and women.

(3) "Call them cute!" - it is said that Japanese girls would prefer them being called "cute" rather than "beautiful"; I find overall that Japanese people are quite fond of things that are catoonish.

(4) "Focused, delicated, and robotic" - I will say more later, including one of the most memorable scenes (lower your expectation now as this is *not* what you would think) we had witnessed in Japan.

(5) "English rules?" - A hypothesis is that the degree of friendliness a tourist receives in Japan might have a great deal to do with his/her looks and the language he/she speaks.

(6) "Attention to details" - What has impressed me the most about Japan is the attention to details; their striving for perfection and for things that are aesthetic can be witnessed everywhere, e.g., from a lunch box you pick up at the train station.

(7) "Japan's innovation" - Granted, they would often invent silly things, but the potential value of a piece of innovation is never easy to estimate by just looking at what it does.

What I need to emphasize here is that the thoughts expressed here come from a tourist and not someone who has lived in Japan for a substantial period of time. Natually, a tourist is limited by the places he goes to and the people he comes in contact with. Quite possibly, the many facets witnessed by a tourist, of a country and its people, would more likely reflect the prettier side of things rather than what happens in the dark allies.


本文摘自Outlier的博客：http://blog.wenxuecity.com/myblog.php?blogID=10995