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Text, Editor/Xu Chenyuan's study
As one of the ancient civilizations in the world, the Chinese nation has nurtured a profound and long history and culture for thousands of years, while the history of Japan, as a neighboring island country, is significantly shorter, and everyone knows that the entanglement of grievances between China and Japan is also untidy and chaotic.
But each country has its own richness and uniqueness, and when we think of Japan, we think of some typical things, such as Mt. Fuji, cherry blossoms and sushi, and today we will introduce some more interesting and unexpected Japanese cultural Xi.
1. The view of nature and the absorption and improvement of Japanese culture
There are two key words in Japanese culture, one is nature, and the other is absorption and improvement, that is to say, Japanese culture is cultivated from its unique view of nature, so what exactly does the view of nature mean?
As an isolated island nation surrounded by oceans, Japan has developed a notion that it does not contradict nature and everything that is in it.
As early as the Jomon period, the ancestors of the Japanese people lived in nature in accordance with the environment, and in their opinion, the power of nature is far greater than that of humans, and every mountain, stone, grass and tree in nature is full of spirituality and spirituality, so it is necessary to maintain respect.
In addition, Japan's climate has four distinct seasons, so they are very sensitive to the changes of the seasons, and the corresponding culture will also follow the development of the four seasons.
In addition to the harmonious view of nature, Japanese culture also has a very important characteristic, that is, the absorption and improvement of foreign culture, we now travel to Japan, we will see many Chinese characters on the street, as Chinese who do not understand Japanese, you can guess the meaning, in fact, this is Japan's absorption and transformation of Chinese characters.
On the one hand, the influence of Chinese culture just mentioned, especially in the Tang Dynasty, with the arrival of Tang envoys to Japan, the Confucianism, absolute monarchy, and even clothing and tea in Tang culture have penetrated into traditional Japanese culture.
At that time, the banquet delicacies in the Japanese court had to use Chinese ingredients uniformly, and the dim sum that the aristocracy ate on weekdays also referred to the standards of the high-ranking officials and ministers of Chang'an City, such as wontons and pancakes, which were Tang food, and interestingly, Tang food also had medicinal effects in the eyes of the Japanese at that time, and when the minister was sick, if he received a box of dim sum from the emperor, it was a very glorious thing.
In Xi the seventies of the eighteenth century, the Japanese imperial court sent a large number of students to Europe and the United States to learn Xi Xi their systems, technologies and culture, which also made Japan gradually become a member of the world's advanced developed countries in the last century.
In fact, in Japanese cuisine, we can also get a glimpse of this kind of absorption and improvement, for example, Japanese ramen, curry rice, croquettes and other common foods, all of which are imported from overseas to Japan and then modified according to the taste of Japanese people.
Second, the Japanese have an almost impersonal view of time
Japanese people have a strong sense of time, punctuality is famous, for them, observance of time is a basic courtesy, but also a common sense known from an early age, in Japanese companies and schools, in fact, there are very few penalties for being late, because in their opinion, few people will be late often for no reason.
Even arriving early can be considered a kind of unpunctuality, and a few years ago, Japan's train company issued an apology statement because it left 20 seconds early, and this news shocked many foreigners.
In fact, Japanese people are sensitive to time, which can be seen from their TV schedules, on Japanese television, we will see strange times, such as 25:00, 26:00, etc., when there are only 24 hours in a day, why is there such time?
In fact, this is a way to prevent people from making mistakes, because if it is written as 2:00, the other party may mistakenly think that it is 2 p.m. instead of 2 a.m., so it will be deliberately written as 26:00.
The time management of transportation and some public facilities in Japan can be said to be impersonal, for example, the waiting time for the elevator will be clearly written for a few seconds, not for a second more, and if you listen to Japanese radio programs, there will often be a phenomenon that the host only says half of the time and ends it, which is ridiculous.
3. The ambiguous expressions of the Japanese are confusing
"Ambiguity" is also a key word in Japanese culture and Japanese character, which is not only "ambiguous" in love, but refers to a philosophy of survival in what Japanese people say and do, and it is also one of the famous characteristics of national character.
Foreigners will find that they rarely express rejection and denial directly, and even if they have a negative idea in their hearts, they will never say it, this is to avoid causing harm to the other party, and at the same time, they will feel that saying it directly will not have a bad impact on the other party, so they choose to express it tactfully to achieve a smooth ending.
This ambiguity is not only reflected in the Japanese language, but also in their expressions, and many times this is a rich and delicate feeling that only Japanese people understand, and they even call it "heart-to-heart" and "belly art", so if you live in Japan as a foreigner, it will take a long time to get used to and Xi learn their twists and turns.
For example, it is necessary to learn to distinguish between Japanese compliments and sincere words, because of their notoriously polite manners, the first rule is to always compliment and praise when dealing with people you don't know.
And when you want to separate, even if they don't have the idea of seeing each other again, they will say "see you next time", so don't take it for granted, wait or run to find someone, because if the Japanese really want to date you again, they will make an appointment with you on a specific free time.
Fourth, Japanese girls don't go out without makeup
In Japan, we will notice that Japanese girls rarely go out without makeup, even if they go downstairs to the convenience store, they have to put on makeup, in their culture, girls wear makeup on the street is a basic courtesy, if you don't wear makeup, you feel like walking on the street with only underwear, you will be very shy, even if you see some girls on the road who don't seem to have heavy makeup, in fact, almost all of them are pseudo-no-makeup with light makeup.
In Japan, women who wear makeup on their commute are seen on trains during the morning rush hour, and for most of us, if we are so busy, we will choose to dress up less elaborately and go straight to work, and for Japan, we will feel embarrassed to make a phone call on the train, so why do we put on makeup here?
This is because Japanese people think that when you ride a train, you are surrounded by strangers who you don't know at all, and it doesn't matter what you look like, but at school and at work, you see only acquaintances, and of course you want to put your best foot forward after putting on makeup.
In addition, if you go to the restroom of a station, shopping mall, or restaurant, you will also see a spectacular scene in addition to the train car, where the girls line up in the restroom for makeup, but they have to carefully touch up their makeup even several times a day.
5. There are no trash cans and vending machines everywhere on the streets of Japan
If you have traveled to Japan, you will definitely resonate with this, walking on the streets of Japan, you can't find garbage cans at all, only occasionally in the station or shopping mall, this is why, do Japanese people do not throw garbage when traveling?
The reason why garbage cans are not installed on the streets of Japan is because of the 1995 sarin gas incident in the Tokyo subway, when five cult members wrapped a container containing sarin liquid in a newspaper and threw it inside the Tokyo subway, causing harm to the people.
After the incident, which killed 13 people and injured more than 5,000 people, the Japanese people were overshadowed by the terrorist attack, and in order to ensure as much safety as possible, the Japanese government removed the garbage cans on the streets to prevent terrorists from hiding weapons inside.
Contrary to the number of trash cans, there are countless vending machines in Japan, and there are machines filled with various drinks, according to statistics, there are currently more than 2 million vending machines in Japan, so are Japanese people so thirsty?
There are many theories about this reason, such as the high quality of Japanese people, the good public security, no one will deliberately destroy it, and the high rent and wages of shops in Japan, vending machines can save a lot of costs, and the vending machine is not very demanding, as long as it passes the inspection, it can be installed on the street.
But in any case, the vending machines that can be seen everywhere do provide great convenience to people's lives, especially in summer, you can buy cold drinks in two steps, in addition to drinks, you will also sell cigarettes, ice cream, biscuits and other goods, the variety is very rich.
6. Occupy a seat with items for eating in a restaurant
When eating in cafes and restaurants with a lot of people, you will need to find a good place before ordering, if you are with family and friends, you can also sit alone to occupy a seat, and others will order, so what should you do when you are alone?
In Japan, everyone will put a piece of their own, as small as a stack of paper towels, a water cup to carry around, as large as a coat on the seat to indicate that the seat is already occupied, and this is also known as the "hegemonic culture", because the overall security in Japan is relatively good, so it will not be unsettling to temporarily let personal belongings out of their sight, but this behavior is actually very indecent in the eyes of many foreigners.
This phenomenon of occupying seats does not only occur in restaurants, but also in Japan's annual grand cherry blossom viewing season, in order to grab a good view of the cherry blossoms, Japanese people will take out mats and tape from their homes in advance to put them near the cherry blossom trees, and write their names to indicate that someone has occupied them.
In addition to the points introduced, there are many cultural Xi in Japan that are difficult for non-natives to understand and inquisitive, and if we travel to Japan, we should also follow the local customs, be respectful and polite about cultural differences, and be careful not to violate other people's taboos.