Japanese society and culture

A down side to the strict culture/structure is the inability to deviate from what is the norm... A friend of mine works in the nuclear industry, his company donated a bunch of equipment to the Japanese to help them control what was happening to their reactors. The Japanese would not allow them to bring the equipment into the country without paying a tariff, because that's just the way things are done! Talk about a slap in the face, Thousands of dollars worth of equipment donated for free, and they wanted to charge a tariff! Sometime that culture can stand in the way of progress...

 

Thread resurrection.

Came across Why Japan's Rail Workers Can't Stop Pointing at Things - Atlas Obscura in my Facebook feed. They wrote "It's all part of a Japanese-innovated industrial safety method known as pointing-and-calling—a system that reduces workplace errors by up to 85 percent."

Interesting. I've visited Japan 5x for vacation and definitely noticed the pointing and gestures by train workers and didn't know why, until now.

Digging a bit on YouTube, I found videos like at

. The driver/engineer is pointing at parts of the control panel at 0:57 and speed checks at 2:47 and 2:50. At 7:17, the train reaches 270 km/h or ~168 mph. Man... I miss Japan.

edit: I found some more background info at JR gestures | The Japan Times.

 

With no steering wheel, you have to do something with your hands.

 

A colleague at work told me about this weird video. "Spare me my life"

After watching that, I stumbled across

.

Neither of us had any idea where it came from but I found Take Anything You Want | Know Your Meme. No idea how accurate it is.

 

btw, hideki has been a pro for 4 years now, and is currently ranked no. 4 in the world. not having a great masters this year, but he made the cut, and has something to build on.

 

Last night while browsing YouTube via videos regarding MREs (mostly people trying MRE-equivalents from other countries), I stumbled across some (amusing to me videos) by "Texan in Tokyo". For some reason, the videos and the "star's" husband are amusing.

I enjoyed these or at least found them interesting:

- the is the first time I'd heard of "bike jail" and I had no idea that umbrella theft was common in Japan

 

That's from Zuiikin' English on YouTube.

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Hmmm...
Interesting.

I.......LOVED Japan.....both times there. Or...was it three or four times?
Maybe the beer machines on street corners are affecting my memory, I do not know.
Only my meager income and the fact that there's no way to get to Japan that does not involve transcontinental air travel keeps me from returning frequently.

MRE's.
Three lies for the price of one, although unlike my contemporaries I actually enjoy the US examples.
One can get the GEN-U-WINE article, along with nearly everything else legal to own, at Amazon!
7-8 US bucks apiece is just about the price that I can buy one at a Commissary, and like the military, Amazon doesn't yoke me for sales tax.
I still have 8-9 in my office from Katrina....and yes! they're almost certainly still edible!
Like cockroaches, they will still be viable long after humans vanish from this corner of the universe.

The French (who almost always refuse US rations as "cat food") used to include concentrated wine or even brandy in theirs (called Ration de Combat Individuelle) which are, as one would expect and as national pride mandates.....quite good!

Many national stereotypes are fulfilled by examining combat rations.
Aussies really do have Vegemite in theirs - often used by their allies as improvised weapondry.
The ROKs (Koreans) really do have kimchi in some of theirs.

Only the Italians have a shot of 80-proof something or other in theirs - probably for use in their morning coffee, again.....as their culture encourages.

 

It's really important to realize (I do not think Americans quite realize) that different cultures have different strengths and weaknesses.

In America right now we are becoming very divisive and disrespectful of each other, and I attribute this in part due to our cultural heritage, in a way we Americans are automatically receptive to new ideas but sometimes that is still the "snake oil salesman" like the old days, just now it's a different snake oil. So in the age of social media we are getting carried away with acting out on ideas....allowing ourselves to be manipulated by others we agree with...we like the idea of hearing the opposing manipulation speeches and deciding which side we want to go with and help with the manipulation.

 

You mean like Prius Chat?

 

Sometimes...I'd say part of the reason I became more active on Prius chat ( a while back around 2010) was trying to understand EV technology and more generally beliefs on energy. I falsely thought I could strike a common ground, but it is very political with zero room for compromise or discussion other than advocacy of positons, for the most part.

 

that's pretty much the story of mankind.

 

The silent majority as opposed to the vocal minority, perhaps?

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Those are ye olde how to videos for Japanese tourists coming to America.
Gives you some insight about what they think about us.

Anyway...
If a Japanese woman is hit on by an American, she has to fake diarrhea and plead for her life. Or at least that’s what I gathered from the 4 part educational video.

 

doesn't seem to stop them from coming...

 

Go to any national park in the fall, they seem to appreciate them more than us

 

they're just used to crowds, i run from them. and don't get in the way of any important photography.

 

You can always offer to take a picture for Japanese tourists. They'll appreciate the kindness.

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