What Boston Has That Tokyo Doesn’t

I have talked about the culture shocks I have encountered in Boston. I guess people will agree with me that Tokyo is technologically more advanced than Boston if you have been there. Tokyo has a more efficient transportation system, clean bathrooms and never sleeps. But Boston does have something Tokyo does not have. People in Boston are more open-minded and talk with strangers more casually. Of course, part of the reason is the difference between Western culture and Eastern culture, but this is not the only reason.

Tokyo is convenient. But Tokyo is so convenient that it is hard to interact with others. The subway in Tokyo is so punctual that you don’t have too many chance to share complaints with others. The T sucks, so I can enjoy making a sarcastic joke about it. In Tokyo,the bathrooms are so clean that sometimes you will forget to thank people who clean it. Bathrooms in Boston are dirty, but this makes me appreciate the work the cleaner did. Tokyo is so safe that you don’t have to worry that someone might steal your bag in the library. Boston might not be that safe, but people are willing to watch a bag for others. In Tokyo, there are so many automatic doors that nobody will hold a door for you, although sometimes people do, most people won’t say “thank you.” I haven’t seen many automatic doors in Boston, but I found the joy to hold the door for others and really appreciate the strangers that will even hold the door for you for several seconds.

Japan, especially Tokyo, tried so hard to develop. But at the cost of its development, it lost flexibility and communication. People are always bound by schedule and common senses, too busy to talk with others. Tokyo is a perfect city. But because of that, Tokyo is too perfect, people are not tolerant to little mistakes by others. Boston is imperfect. But because of that, people are more flexible and know how to help each other in their daily lives. Although I prefer Tokyo to Boston as a place to live, Boston has shown me something important that I overlooked in Tokyo. When I go back to Tokyo, I still want to be a person who smiles to others while holding a door for them.

Bad Service Cost Much Than Good Service

Another thing that is hard for me to get used to is tipping and the service in restaurants. This might be the most frustrating thing next to the T. First, there is usually not such a culture for tipping in Japan and other Asian countries. I have already lived in Boston for more than six months, but  I am still not sure if I am tipping too much or too little sometimes. Or do I even need to give a tip when the service is incredibly  terrible? Many times, the waiter seems indifferent to their customers. Another thing is that I don’t know how to call the waiter in the U.S. Someone told me that it is rude to raise your hand to call the waiter and I should wait till someone comes. But that’s totally inefficient. What should I do if I happen to have some thing extremely spicy and want another glass of water? Should I sit there and wait till my tongue burns off?

Compared to the U.S. the service in Japan couldn’t be better. I can raise my hand and call the waiter whenever I want and they will come to you immediately with a great smile. In addition, many restaurants have a wireless bell on each table so all you have to do is ring the bell to call the waiter. In addition, in more advanced restaurants you don’t even need to call a waiter. Recently, many restaurants equip a Liquid Crystal Display on each table so that you can order the food by touching the picture displayed on the screen like using an iPad. How convenient Japan is!

It says “when you have ordered, please push this button to let us know.”

You don’t need to fill up a sheet to order sushi in Japan!

Oh…! But if you are a waiter in Boston and reading this blog, I just want to tell you that I don’t really think that your service is terrible or inefficient. So please don’t spit in my food!

 

Dear John

I used to have a good old friend in Japan named John. We used to hang out everyday.
He was nice and clean. I didn’t even realize how nice he really was until I came to the U.S.
By total coincidence, I got to know a John in the U.S. too.
For some personal reasons, I also have to meet him everyday.
But he is dirty and mean. I tried so hard to get along with him, but… I just can’t.

Oh, by the way, this post is about the bathroom (For all the international fans of my blog, John is a euphemism or slang for bathroom in the U.S.). Highly recommend to avoid reading this post while eating foods. Some improper expressions may be contained.

Anyway, I am a person who believes that the bathroom is one of the comfortable places in the world. The little small space really makes me feel relaxed. I won’t be bothered by anybody in there. It’s my own world. Sometimes, I can think up a really good idea there. In fact, I came up with the fake tweet idea in the bathroom. But, of course I only like nice and clean bathrooms.

In this sense, I am really glad that I live in Japan, a toilet developed country. Although there are a few exceptions, the public bathrooms are kept very clean. In addition, “Washlet” is such a wonderful invention by Japan. “Washlet”,  comes from the reverse of “let wash,” refers to electric toilet seats with a water spray feature for washing one of the most delicate parts of your body, If you allow me to be more specific, the washing feature includes anal and genital cleansing. “Washlet” also has an electric seat heating feature so that you don’t have to sit on a cold toilet seat during the winter.

Only in case you are interested, here is a video that demonstrates how “Washlet” works…

However, compared to the prime bathroom situation in Japan, public bathrooms in the U.S. are really terrible. First, I can barely find public bathrooms in the downtown Boston. Although I would use it when I am in emergency situation, basically all cafe shops and restaurants say that their bathroom is only for their customers. Especially, some Starbucks in Boston even require a password, which is attached on the receipt, to use their the bathroom. Hey, Mr. Schultz! If one of your company’s missions is to bring positive change to a community, could you please show me some mercy and let me use your bathroom. I won’t occupy it like the Wall Street and I am sure I won’t feel positive with my pants wet. Or is this your strategy to force whoever wants to go to the bathroom to buy your coffee first and then let them go to the bathroom, and after a while, they might want to go to bathroom again so that you can sell anther cup of coffee? That’s why there are so many Starbucks in this small city, huh? You are such a smart guy, man!

Second, since I am a man this doesn’t apply to women’s bathrooms, but I felt like I was struck by lightning when the first time I found that some people don’t lift up the toilet seat when they are peeing. As a result, you can find many yellow liquid spots left on the toilet seat cover. It’s absolutely disgusting!!! Hey, did you know that sometimes someone needs to sit on the exactly same toilet seat to poo? Well, thank you for making pooing be such a thrilling experience! Don’t need to go to Six Flags anymore! In addition, there is always some mysterious wet messy toilet paper left on the ground in the bathroom.

If you are an American and reading this blog, please PLEASE tell me why your people do this! I don’t get it!

What Americans Think of Japan

Last time, I posted about the stereotype that Japanese people have about American. This time, I want to do the reverse. I just found video about what Americans think of Japan. Check it out.

What do you this about this video? This is almost culture shock for me. Do you think these people on this video represent standard American people? What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think about Japan?

Even though this video looks stupid, the only hope is that it seems American people  have a relatively good impression about Japan and Japanese people, because they think Japanese people’s eyes are happier.

What Stereotypes Do Japanese People Have About Americans?

The world gets smaller and smaller,  but we still don’t know a lot about people who live in someplace far away. Although its movies, songs and culture are very popular in the world, America is not an exception. Japanese people don’t know about America culture as much as others think. That’s why many people experienced intense culture shock when they visit Boston or any other city in the U.S. So this time, I will write about the stereotypes that Japanese people have about Americans based on the information on a couple Japanese websites. Actually, some are really stupid but please don’t get offend because this is what stereotypes are.

• Americans only eat BBQ, corn flakes and hamburgers.
• Every family has a gun under the pillow. (Actually I had this stereotype too…)
• Don’t take off shoes in the house.
• Smell of very strong perfume.
• Don’t have interest in other languages.
• Love surprise parties.
• Tend to sue others very easily.
• Everybody has Blonde hair, blue eyes and big noses.
• Everybody loves Jeans.
• Everybody loves Coca Cola.
• Everybody loves Baseball.
• Using the world “Love”, “Awesome”and “Oh my god” too often. (Ex. Oh my god, this sushi is awesome! I love it!)
• Everybody is Catholic/Christian.
• Love wars.
• Strong against cold.
• Always using swear words.
• Watch movies too often. Probably twice a day.
• Change job very often.
• Always laugh loudly like “AHAHAHAHAHAHA”
• Using roller skate and skateboard as a transportation system.

These are some of the most common stereotypes that Japanese people have about Americans. I know that many of them sound stupid but do you think some of them are true? Or which ones do you think are far from true? Tell me, what do you think?

Cool Japan: The Only Thing You Need to Know to Shoot Kamehameha

This is the last chapter of my Japanese manga trilogy. So far I have introduced five manga you must read and a funny Japanese cartoon.

I assume that if you are around 16 years old to 30 years old, no matter which country you came from, you must know Dragon Ball (Maybe I am exaggerating a little bit…but I think you know what I mean. Dragon Ball is just that famous). When I was little, I used to make believe I was some of the characters from Dragon Ball and played around with my friends. Thanks to the development of technology, you can actually shoot your own Kamehameha today. In this last post about Japanese manga and anime, I will tell you how to do that.

But before that, just in case you don’t know about the Kamehameha please watch this clip (Please watch from 1:20.)

Now, I will teach you how to shoot it!

Well…actually it’s just an iPhone/iPad App ( The website is Japanese, but it works the same way with English App Store, so you will figure out how to download the app).

This may seem cheesy, but it’s quite fun when you do this with your friends. For example, here is a video of me using this app to demonstrate Kamehameha in front of many people as a punishment because I lost a game of cards (Please watch from 0:35). It was embarrassing, but it wasn’t as bad as I expected.

Now you kinda wanna try this, don’t you? Download the app now!

MFA, Where You Can Meet Japanese Spirit

As a Boston University student, one privilege is that I can enjoy the great arts in Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston for free. The MFA has the largest Japanese fine arts collection outside Japan.The MFA owns thousands of Japanese paintings, more than one hundred samurai swords, several suits of samurai armors, Japanese modern art and photographs from the Meiji era.

My favorite spot is the Japanese rock garden outside the museum, Tenshi-En.
Tenshi-En is named after the former Asiatic curator of the MFA, Okakura Tenshin, which also means “Garden of the Heart of Heaven”. The garden was inspired by the Zen temple gardens of the 15th century. Over 150 stones gathered from Boston’s North Shore are placed in the garden according to ancient Japanese traditions.In order to fitting into the design as a whole, each stone grouping had to be balanced in its own right. The roofed gate was built in Kyoto and was reconstructed by carpenters from Japan onsite. Tenshi-En represents “calmness.” Unlike some Europe medieval gardens, Tenshi-En is not gorgeous but it makes you feel at ease. If you have some concerns, here is the best place for meditating and submerging yourself in self reflection.

Besides these exhibitions, the MFA also offers gallery talks related to Japanese arts and  culture. The upcoming one is about new items on display in the new Arts of Japan Gallery on April 20th.

Golden Eggs – Japanese Funny Cartoon

This is the second chapter of my Japanese manga culture trilogy. Last time I introduced five Japanese manga you must read. This time, I want to show you some Japanese anime. Actually, one thing that I am struggling with is getting used to the American sense of humor.  In general, it is believed that Japanese jokes and American jokes don’t have a lot in common, but once I happened to find that one of my American friends also appreciated the humor in this Japanese cartoon video. I was very happy about this because there is no better way to get along with others than sharing a laugh. So please take a look and tell me if you like it.

Five Japanese Manga You Must Read

When I go out in Boston, I can find people with Japanese cartoon T-shirts very frequently. I have also heard that many people started to learn Japanese because they love Japanese manga culture. So here I decided to write another trilogy about Japanese manga culture in addition to my Japanese food trilogy. I just love the word “trilogy” so much. It sounds so cool to me.

In this entry, I want to introduce five well-known Japanese manga. This five manga are not my top five, but the standard I choose these five is that although they are famous in Japan, they might not be the type of Japanese manga that are popular in the U.S. So, this is not a ranking. It’s just a list. I know that Naruto, One Piece and Dragon Ball are popular in America, but I just want you know that there are many excellent Japanese manga with different style.  And of course, all of these five manga are available in English.

• Boy Over Flowers

Just in the case you didn’t know, manga is not only for boys. On the other hand, there are a lot of manga for girls (we call it Shōjo manga in Japanese) and even some boys prefer to read these recently. Among thousands of shojo manga, Boy Over Flowers is the most famous one.  The story is set in Eitoku Academy, an elite school for children from rich families. It’s a love comedy with a focus on the heroine Tsukushi Makino, a student from a working-class family, and four guys of Eitoku Academy’s elite Flower Four, commonly known as the “F4”. This manga had been adapted into television dramas and movie in three different countries and region.

• Case Closed 

Boy’s manga are not always about fighting. Case Closed is a detective manga and has already been collected in 78 volumes. The story follows the adventures of Jimmy Kudo also known as Shinichi Kudo in Japanese, a talented young detective who was inadvertently transformed into a 1st grade student after being poisoned. Not only in Japan, this manga is quite popular in China. Most of young Chinese know how to say “I am Jimmy Kudo” in Japanese. Also, one funny thing is that although Case Closed has been serialized for nealy 20 years, Jimmy Kudo is still in his 1st grade.

• Vagabond

Based on the novel Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa, Vagabond is a fictional retelling of the lifetime of the most famous samurai Miyamoto Musashi, often described as the “Sword Saint”. Based on this fact, you can tell that manga is not only for kids but also for adult in Japan. Also, unlike other battle manga, Vagabond does not only focus on sword fighting but also on the philosophy of life, sword technique and the way of the samurai. One unique thing about this manga is that it is drawn by writing brush from the middle because the author thought it is better to express atmosphere in this way. Here is an article by CNN on how the author of Vagabond brings characters to life.

•  Real

In nowadays, manga is more than entertainment or subculture. More and more people in Japan start to accept this notion. Real is drawn by the same author of Vagabond, Takehiko Inoue, which deals with wheelchair basketball. Takehiko Inoue resounded for his super popular manga, Slam Dunk. Although not as popular as Slam Dunk, Real is a more serious work which is focused on handicap, and how to face and overcome difficulty in the life with in a more realistic plot and serious tone. As a result, some business magazine have quoted some line from Real on their articles. 

•  JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure

The story of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure also known as JoJo, centers around the misadventures of the Joestars family.  JoJo is well-known for its own world view and grandeur scale.The series spans several generations, with each part featuring a descendant of the Joestars as the main hero along with a large cast of characters. The author created a lot of his original imitation sounds and posing in this manga. The legacy of JoJo is that it is the first manga adapted supernatural power and special ability, and influenced many works such as Naruto, One Piece, Shaman King and so on.

As you can see, manga is an important culture in Japan right now. Reading manga is not only fun, but will also give you a lot of information about Japanese tradition, habit and way of thinking. Hope this entry could be an opportunity for you to have interest in Japan. Many manga are also available in Boston local bookstore such as Newbury Comics or New England Comics.

And I know that there are many passionate Japanese manga fans who knows much more about manga than me. If you are one of them, please tell me what is your favorite manga!

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Another shocking experience in Boston! Culture shock is something really interesting. Whenever you think you are starting to get used to the environment, reality hits you.

A couple days ago, I was in a supermarket and waiting in the line to pay. There are three or four people in front of me. So far so good. Nothing different with Japan. But suddenly the man right in front of me took  the chips out of his basket, opened them and started eating. That series of actions was so natural and it took me a few seconds to find out what was wrong. The guy in front of me was eating something he has not paid for yet! Although he paid the money for the chips afterward, technically, this was almost stealing! But what surprised me more is that when he was paying the money, the cashier didn’t say anything to him! It seemed like there was nothing wrong there, like “ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT.” This could never happen in Japan!

What I have seen is not this cute, because he was a grow up man!

Is this normal in the U.S. or in Boston? Am I over reacting!? Somebody please tell me!.

 

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