Thoughts on Japanese Culture

 The country if full of beautiful temples (Buddhist) and shrines (Shinto). 

This is a statue at Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima Island.

Japan is an extremely efficient, modern nation, and I was honestly amazed at all of the things they do exceedingly well, with seemingly no effort.
 
Walking through the congested areas of Tokyo, there are hundreds of people within a small space, all going different directions, and no one is running into someone else.  No one is stopping in the middle, backing up others (except for foreigners with luggage, of course :)).  Everyone goes where they need to without getting in someone else's way.  Everyone is accutely aware of others and does their best to not hinder anyone else.

Downtown Tokyo is alive and full of people.

Trains are almost always on time.  Someone told me that if a train is 30 seconds late, people start to get really nervous.  If people tell you that they'll do something at a certain time in Japan, you can take them at their word.

The Japanese do a lot of walking and also practice a longstanding tradition of self moderation in all areas of life.  As a result, you will immediately notice how skinny everyone is.  They teach that you should only eat until you are 80% full and never over-consume or be wasteful.

Kinkakuji, the golden pavilion.  A beautiful temple in Kyoto.

The Japanese are a very modest culture and I think I saw maybe one or two women wearing shorts without leggings underneath the entire trip.  You will see a few short skirts, but they stand out a lot because they make up perhaps 0.01% of the population.  It was kind of nice to not have to see anyone's cleavage, mid-drift, plumber's behind, or butt cheeks for two weeks!  In addition to dressing very modestly, they also go to great lengths to avoid UV exposure by wearing arm coverings, loose fitting long sleeves, and carrying UV protecting umbrellas.

Every bit of space is used efficiently.  

If you live in Japan and want a garden, this is probably how you'll have to do it. 

They are also very conscientious about others around them and go to great lengths to avoid impeding anyone else in any way.  Just a day after our return, Matt and I were out running errands and caught ourselves sharply criticizing the apparent lack of self awareness displayed by our fellow Americans.  At Lowe's, one lady stood silently and happily watched as her children got in people's way and pulled one another in the car in the middle of the entrance to the store, blocking anyone from entering or leaving.  At a clothing store, the family in line before us waited until they got to the cash register before deciding to trade sizes for one of their items.  The father began checking out and paid the cashier before the mother and son returned with the exchanged item.  Instead of getting into the back of the line, she stepped up to the register with her extra item, looked at us and said, "Do you mind?", as if it were perfectly okay to make us wait on them.  The Japanese always put everyone else ahead of themselves in this manner while Americans are overall a very self-absorbed, me-first culture.

Of course, on the flip side, there are some consequences of being an extremely efficient, others-prioritized nation.  I spent some time talking with our friends and missionaries, the Wilsons, about this.  The Japanese are expected to always be on top of everything, to perform to the highest expectations and quickly.  As a result, fathers often spend all week working themselves to death, hardly seeing their families, and sleeping all day Saturday to recover from 18 hour work days.  I noticed that you almost never saw working-aged couples together, especially during the week.  We saw a few complete families on the weekends at the parks, but overall, you only saw groups of females or males together.  I saw one or two retired-aged couples traveling together and lots of college-aged couples, but no one from our age up to 60.  No couples on date nights or doing the grocery shopping together.

The pressures and expectations of marriage on the wives has resulted in many women never getting married.  This, coupled with the Japanese's hard-working culture, has produced one of the highest abortion rates in the world.  People are not getting married and starting families, and the government has succumbed to bribing people to have children by giving out cash and other incentives to families with children.

Even in Japan, the gospel is present if you know where to look.

The sermon preached when we visited our old church, Senri Newtown Baptist, really hit home.  The Japanese pastor spoke of how the nation as a whole has no sense of self purpose and a lot of people have no joy.  With evolution taught as the unquestionable origin of our existence, people feel like they are here by accident, and without any reason.  Only after knowing Christ and learning that our gracious heavenly father designed us each specifically and with a purpose and that He loved us enough to send his only son to die in our place did Pastor Gorou find joy and direction in his life. Japan is not like the Deep South.  People don't know basic Bible stories, regardless of their religious views.  The Japanese Christians are a very small minority, and new Christians start out without any scriptural knowledge gained through general cultural exposure. 

So, I think I can learn a lot from the Japanese, especially putting others first in more aspects of my life, efficiency of time and efforts, and practicing moderation in lots of different things.  But, on the other hand, I'm also more thankful to have been born to a Christian family in a country with a long history of people striving to serve our Lord and to have had the opportunity to hear His Word from a very early age.