A few general observations from three weeks on vacation in Japan, in no particular order:
- Thirteen hours is a long goddamn time to spend on a plane.
- The Japanese can and will pickle damn near anything.
- The Japanese love paper. This is not an exotic-art-of-origami reference, either: every commercial transaction in the country generates at least two pieces of paper, often with multiple stamps applied to them.
- They also love packaging. If I didn't remember to tell her that it was ok to put all the croissants in the same bag, the clerk at the bakery in Yokohama would individually wrap each of the three or four croissants in my take-out breakfast order.
- An astonishing number of people in Japan are paid to stand around waiting for somebody to want something. The Royal Park Hotel employed a small army of bellhops to hang around the lobby waiting for a guest to wander in looking for something. After a while, when I went to drop off the (single, physical) room key in the morning, it became a game to see how close I could get to the front desk before somebody intercepted me and took the key.
- I am too old to sleep on the goddamn floor.
- That said, the sleeping on the floor thing probably explains both the national obsession with really hot baths, and the historical tendency toward an ill-tempered warrior class wandering around the country killing people.
- Thirteen hours is a long goddamn time to spend in an airplane.
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So you're, um, having fun??
From what I understand, the word for paper sounds pretty much identical to the word for spirit/god (kami); hence their reverence for paper both in everyday living as well as rituals. The obsession with packaging is also associated with this, somehow.
...and here I thought the post was going to be about height differences across nations.
Did you see the World Science Fiction Convention? Lots of American Sci Fi fans were there.
I agree, thirteen hours is a really long time to spend on an airplane. At least I am blessed with being relatively short, so I do not have to put up with my knees wrapped around the neck of the person in front of me like Chad does.
From what I understand, the word for paper sounds pretty much identical to the word for spirit/god (kami); hence their reverence for paper
I think that "hence" needs a little more explanation. I mean, I don't know English speaker, now matter how religious, who feels reverence for cod.
In the interest of cohesive style, may I playfully suggest the following changes?
Point 3: "every commercial transaction" --> "every damn commercial transaction"
Point 4: "would individually wrap each of the three or four croissants" --> "would individually wrap every damn croissant"
Point 5: "see how close I could get to the front desk" --> "see how close I could get to the damn front desk"
Point 7: "national obsession with really hot baths" --> "national obsession with damn hot baths"
Or maybe that'd just be overkill ;-)