One behavior to sum up the Japanese?

[spud12345]

I noticed recently that, after getting a pizza delivered, the door is never shut properly by the delivery person. The door opens outward so the delivery person is the one in a position to shut it. The first couple of times it happened, and the door blew open again an hour or two later, I didn't think anything of it, but have now noticed it happens every time. No big deal in itself, but for me it nicely sums up the lack of decisiveness or complete passivity of the Japanese that I see in many activities all day every day (I'll think of some more in a bit). They don't even have the oomph to push the door shut, as they haven't specifically been given responsibility to do that and it might be a mistake or they might get told off. Grrrrrrrrrr

Anyone else think of anything similar, or that sums up the Japanese for them?

[Hijinx]

Knocking on my office door. Sometimes I hear a light tapping on the door and wonder if that's a real knock--sure enough, someone is really knocking. I used to yell out, but now if the knock ain't loud enough, I can't be bother to answer. In contrast--just to drive my colleagues crazy--I like to pound on their doors when knocking.

[twelvedown]

I noticed recently that, after getting a pizza delivered, the door is never shut properly by the delivery person. The door opens outward so the delivery person is the one in a position to shut it. The first couple of times it happened, and the door blew open again an hour or two later, I didn't think anything of it, but have now noticed it happens every time. No big deal in itself, but for me it nicely sums up the lack of decisiveness or complete passivity of the Japanese that I see in many activities all day every day (I'll think of some more in a bit). They don't even have the oomph to push the door shut, as they haven't specifically been given responsibility to do that and it might be a mistake or they might get told off. Grrrrrrrrrr

Anyone else think of anything similar, or that sums up the Japanese for them?

I remember being in New Orleans and having to order pizza through a bullet-proof window. Then they would take the money and slide your pizza out on a tray..
Anyhoo.. I would say the prevailing Japanese trait would be kindness as there have been so many occasions when the have gone above and beyond the call of duty for me...I'm thinking the information girl from a department store the other day who chased me 200 metres to pant out " I am so sorry.. I meant LEFT!" the salaryman taking me 3 bus routes out of his way to get me where I was going..."Starlight Suzuki", the coolest teenager ever who took time away from his buddies to help a sweaty, frustrated gaijin...

[twelvedown]

Knocking on my office door. Sometimes I hear a light tapping on the door and wonder if that's a real knock--sure enough, someone is really knocking. I used to yell out, but now if the knock ain't loud enough, I can't be bother to answer. In contrast--just to drive my colleagues crazy--I like to pound on their doors when knocking.

Maybe you should install a knocker.

[Hijinx]

Maybe you should install a knocker.

One of the cute teachers has a nice set of knockers.

[twelvedown]

One of the cute teachers has a nice set of knockers.

Maybe you should install her.

Actually, now that I have come down off me very brief cloud of love and benevolence towards the Japanese folk (It happens sometimes,
like a monthly thing...) I have to say, 'Utter disregard for the environment' would capture 80% of them quite well.

Here's my new textbook outline.

"Hey Kenji, What should we do with the broken T.V?"
"Eh.. lets take it up to the mountain near Grandma's grave and throw it in the waterfall."
"Can we go fishing after and then just leave the baby fish we catch out in the sun to die and then throw them away?"
"That's a great Idea Taro..we can get rid of all these old car batteries while we're there!"

[Hijinx]

Or, "It's Friday and I have a bag of nama gomi to throw out in the manshon gomi stashon, but nama gomi collection is on Mon.--that's very inconvenient for ME, so I will sneak out on Fri. night and leave it over the weekend for cats and crows to rip to shreds and strew the contents everywhere--this is the very convenient option for ME!"

[twelvedown]

Or, "It's Friday and I have a bag of nama gomi to throw out in the manshon gomi stashon, but nama gomi collection is on Mon.--that's very inconvenient for ME, so I will sneak out on Fri. night and leave it over the weekend for cats and crows to rip to shreds and strew the contents everywhere--this is the very convenient option for ME!"

But because we're now all ECO lets be sure to install energy efficient light bulbs so we can save energy as we put on our DAILY load of laundry (Like hey, it's 2 pairs of socks and a shirt but hey, that's what we do!)
Watching that lame solo windmill lethargically turning from Yokohama yesterday sums it all up.

[hennagaijin]

Ten people having a two hour meeting to discuss a project that will take 30 minutes to complete.

or

Buying a 50 yen candy.. refusing the plastic bag.. so getting the receipt AND a green sticker on the candy to show you didn't steal it.

or

baaaa.. never mind!

[wernst]

The lack of common sense.

Thats it basically, Japanese are great people. Just if they had some common sense they would be much better.

[TJrandom]

I noticed recently that, after getting a pizza delivered, the door is never shut properly by the delivery person. The door opens outward so the delivery person is the one in a position to shut it. The first couple of times it happened, and the door blew open again an hour or two later, I didn't think anything of it, but have now noticed it happens every time. No big deal in itself, but for me it nicely sums up the lack of decisiveness or complete passivity of the Japanese that I see in many activities all day every day (I'll think of some more in a bit). They don't even have the oomph to push the door shut, as they haven't specifically been given responsibility to do that and it might be a mistake or they might get told off. Grrrrrrrrrr

Anyone else think of anything similar, or that sums up the Japanese for them?

Since the door swings on hinges then fix your door latch – so that it closes automatically – a little bit of graphite powder should do the trick. Take responsibility for yourself and your safety… after it closes, lock it.

And – get a life while you are at it. I mean – who labels a whole culture and people by the inaction of a pizza delivery person? Live large – order some ramen sometime.

[Hijinx]

Ten people having a two hour meeting to discuss a project that will take 30 minutes to complete.

or...

Ten people having a two hour meeting to discuss the next meeting for a project that will take 30 minutes to complete.

[spud12345]

Since the door swings on hinges then fix your door latch – so that it closes automatically – a little bit of graphite powder should do the trick. Take responsibility for yourself and your safety… after it closes, lock it.

And – get a life while you are at it. I mean – who labels a whole culture and people by the inaction of a pizza delivery person? Live large – order some ramen sometime.

Lol. Sorry, I'll never order a pizza again!

[HarderFasterBaby]

I noticed recently that, after getting a pizza delivered, the door is never shut properly by the delivery person. The door opens outward so the delivery person is the one in a position to shut it. The first couple of times it happened, and the door blew open again an hour or two later, I didn't think anything of it, but have now noticed it happens every time. No big deal in itself, but for me it nicely sums up the lack of decisiveness or complete passivity of the Japanese that I see in many activities all day every day (I'll think of some more in a bit). They don't even have the oomph to push the door shut, as they haven't specifically been given responsibility to do that and it might be a mistake or they might get told off. Grrrrrrrrrr

Just wondering... Why is it the responsibility of the Pizza dude to close your door? Because it opens outwards? I think your over analyzing it.
But I hear what you're saying...

For me, it's having to guess what the client actually wants because most of the time they don't actually know as there is no real plan or strategy in place! Actually I learnt rather quickly that they just want to be sold on the fact you know what your doing and everything will be fine. All good as long at it's successful.

[edin日本]

Just go to Mt Fuji and you'll be hard pressed to see the nature for the garbage

http://gulfnews.com/news/world/other...-fuji-1.183518

[TJrandom]

Just go to Mt Fuji and you'll be hard pressed to see the nature for the garbage ...

Above the tree line – there is no nature on Mt. Fuji – unless you count the bums that are in front of you.

[Super Grover]

Maybe you should install her.

Actually, now that I have come down off me very brief cloud of love and benevolence towards the Japanese folk (It happens sometimes,
like a monthly thing...) I have to say, 'Utter disregard for the environment' would capture 80% of them quite well.

Here's my new textbook outline.

"Hey Kenji, What should we do with the broken T.V?"
"Eh.. lets take it up to the mountain near Grandma's grave and throw it in the waterfall."
"Can we go fishing after and then just leave the baby fish we catch out in the sun to die and then throw them away?"
"That's a great Idea Taro..we can get rid of all these old car batteries while we're there!"

As a textbook writer (sometimes), may I suggest that you need to make sure to have more consistency. So I would try to have a whole heap of phrasal verbs above.

My one word and behaviour would have to be follower.

[ozzijp]

I noticed recently that, after getting a pizza delivered, the door is never shut properly by the delivery person. The door opens outward so the delivery person is the one in a position to shut it. The first couple of times it happened, and the door blew open again an hour or two later, I didn't think anything of it, but have now noticed it happens every time. No big deal in itself, but for me it nicely sums up the lack of decisiveness or complete passivity of the Japanese that I see in many activities all day every day (I'll think of some more in a bit). They don't even have the oomph to push the door shut, as they haven't specifically been given responsibility to do that and it might be a mistake or they might get told off. Grrrrrrrrrr

Yeah, this seems like a real problem. I will be on the look-out for quiet door closers from now on. Let's eradicate this evil menace.

Pretty sure they expect you to lock the door after they leave unless you live in a village of 12. Thanks for the insight.

[Call_It_Like_Eye_See_It]

Anyone else think of anything similar, or that sums up the Japanese for them?

As an avid subway user, one can't help but notice how clueless the Japanese are at walking in stations. From walking into poles or trash cans while playing video games or texting on phones to walking into the people directly in front of them or next to them...

As I always say, "Move with a sense of purpose!"

[twelvedown]

As an avid subway user, one can't help but notice how clueless the Japanese are at walking in stations. From walking into poles or trash cans while playing video games or texting on phones to walking into the people directly in front of them or next to them...

As I always say, "Move with a sense of purpose!"

Don't get me started on pedestrians... The worst would have to be the '4-moms in a row with stollers' nightmare. They're like a slowly moving stormfront crushing all before them and blocking everything behind....

Oh..and the people who get to the top of escalators and then just stop and stand there looking around slowly trying to make a decision.

[Hijinx]

Oh..and the people who get to the top of escalators and then just stop and stand there looking around slowly trying to make a decision.

And ticket wickets.

Basically, the 900 pound golirra in the room is self-centeredness--jibunkate (自分勝手). Almost all annoying J-behavior stems from this. And they seem to raise it to an art form.

[twelvedown]

And ticket wickets.

Basically, the 900 pound golirra in the room is self-centeredness--jibunkate (自分勝手). Almost all annoying J-behavior stems from this. And they seem to raise it to an art form.

ticket wickets. I love that name.
I love the guys on trains who are standing right in front of the doors, usually absorbed in phone/game.
Rather than getting off and stepping to the side then re-boarding they they prefer to make 30 people push past them to get off.

[twelvedown]

I've been a ticket wicket offender from time to time ...
One time my Pasmo wasn't charged enough so I turned around at the ticket wicket only to stand on the toes of a guy hot on my heels.

Oh, I've done that a few times. Or I haven't put it in my passcase and I hold everyone up.
So embarrassing.
There's no doubt a Japanese forum conversation going on right now about gaijin who do that and how annoying they are..

[Hijinx]

I've been a ticket wicket offender from time to time ...
One time my Pasmo wasn't charged enough so I turned around at the ticket wicket only to stand on the toes of a guy hot on my heels.

Well, you sort of have an excuse. I'm talking about the folks who stop right on the other side of the gates.

[Agitator]

The lack of common sense.

It's not a lack of common sense, it's the herd mentality at work.

Thats it basically, Japanese are great people. Just if they had some common sense they would be much better.

I find the Japanese far more interesting, not to mention easy to deal with, on a truly individual basis. I guess that's the power of actually thinking for yourself -- or at least being willing/able to communicate your own thoughts.

Collectively,
A.

[Super Grover]

Don't get me started on pedestrians... The worst would have to be the '4-moms in a row with stollers' nightmare. They're like a slowly moving stormfront crushing all before them and blocking everything behind....

Oh..and the people who get to the top of escalators and then just stop and stand there looking around slowly trying to make a decision.

I walk through them. It is one of my big pet peeves here.

[kurogane]

The Japanese are disturbingly solicitous of undereducated dingwits that would try to sum them up an entire race according to one limited factor or variable, and even more aggravating, love to engage in the same sort of dimwitted plebian intellectualism themselves.


And there it is.

[Effected After]

or...

Ten people having a two hour meeting to discuss the next meeting for a project that will take 30 minutes to complete.

Classic. The whole 'let's have a meeting to plan the meeting' mentality always blows me away when I see it happen.

Just go to Mt Fuji and you'll be hard pressed to see the nature for the garbage

When I first claimed Fuji a decade ago, there was a lot of garbage. But when I climbed it last year, I saw very little. It's been cleaned up a lot.

[Super Grover]

The Japanese are disturbingly solicitous of undereducated dingwits that would try to sum them up an entire race according to one limited factor or variable, and even more aggravating, love to engage in the same sort of dimwitted plebian intellectualism themselves.


And there it is.

This is a fun thread, so you have to sum them up in one word even if it means that you, as an anthropologist, are put out of work by the succinct accuracy of our characterizations.

[ozzijp]

This is a fun thread, so you have to sum them up in one word even if it means that you, as an anthropologist, are put out of work by the succinct accuracy of our characterizations.

Fun...not sure about that word. This seems to be thread started by a pizza-loving control freak if i am not mistaken.

[Ninpo]

I knew a Japanese girl once... She'd been living in the UK for a number of years.
She went back to Japan to visit her Aunt who promptly informed her that the number of perverts on trains was on the rise.

A few days later she was on a busy subway train and felt someone grope her behind (And what a behind it is!)

Anyway, her Aunt had told her that if this happens then she's to get off at the next station and inform the police or something, instead she turned with a good mind to yell at the guy and slap him one, as she'd been studying Martial Arts while in the UK and had gotten quite fiesty, (she'd been living in the UK and had to deal with so much worse here, drunken louts and Jeremy Kyle I guess).

Instead as she spun around and saw the guy with his hand about 2 inches away from her behind, She just burst out into hysterical laughter, this obviously wasn't the reaction the guy was expecting as he solmly appologised and executed a 90 degree bow and shuffled off the train at the next stop bowing profusely and appolgising with quick Japanese.

[Super Grover]

Fun...not sure about that word. This seems to be thread started by a pizza-loving control freak if i am not mistaken.

Well, it is "fun" to me because as Kuro points out it is not possible or reasonable to sum up a culture in one word. Of course not. Therefore?? we can have fun trying to be pithy in a word. Follower, timid, proud, careful, detail oriented, and these days, lost -- each describes Japanese quite well. But I think that a lot of societies are lost and/or dysfunctional now.

[Piethrower]

I've been a ticket wicket offender from time to time ...
One time my Pasmo wasn't charged enough so I turned around at the ticket wicket only to stand on the toes of a guy hot on my heels.

OK, this is actually a good one, although unless you're Japanese you really shouldn't have mentioned it (unlike that of the OP who deserves to be smacked in the face with a mayo-soaked pizza pie)....Seriously, why do 70 % (somebody please wipe my arse for me while I finish this world-shattering post) of all Japs routinely get busted at the gates for failing to charge their cards? Nothing sh*ts me more than being forced to abort my swipe and try to horn in on the next gate, where I usually have to give way to self-centred people with crows perched on their shoulders who lack both common sense and love for this planet.

After reading this thread, I can't believe I made love to my evil, environmentally unfriendly wife AGAIN last night! Well, at least she had a full load of laundry to do this morning. Yup, rodeo sex.

[Andun]

But I think that a lot of societies are lost and/or dysfunctional now.

Were they ever not?

[Super Grover]

Were they ever not?

Dysfunctional to varying degrees, but I don't think always lost or to this degree.

[Tatsuo]

Were they ever not?

No, everything was better in the old days. Nowadays everything is just bad.

Europe was a much better place. No financial crises, more jobs. Well there have been times Europeans slaughtered each other and had to eat garbage to survive but in general everything was great in the past.

The same goes for Japan and its people. Bad times we have now. Hardest times ever !? Was a lot better in the past . Killing other Asians or each other, Atomic bombs and plugging 18 hours a day on rice fields. Great times. What has become of today's societies ? So disgustingly save and cooperative . . .

[TJrandom]

Just think – if we could just travel back in time to the good old days – we would then realize just how bad it was – and with that realization as the motivator, we would travel further back in time to the older good old days, and,,, and,,, until we reached a point back there where we couldn’t think because thinking hadn’t yet evolved – and there we would be stuck in the good old bad days. But somewhere down the line - in the future good days - someone would reminisce once more about the good old days.

[Super Grover]

No, everything was better in the old days. Nowadays everything is just bad.

Europe was a much better place. No financial crises, more jobs. Well there have been times Europeans slaughtered each other and had to eat garbage to survive but in general everything was great in the past.

The same goes for Japan and its people. Bad times we have now. Hardest times ever !? Was a lot better in the past . Killing other Asians or each other, Atomic bombs and plugging 18 hours a day on rice fields. Great times. What has become of today's societies ? So disgustingly save and cooperative . . .

Cooperative? Well, sometimes. I guess your City Hall is better than mine! At mine, you had better have no morning plans for anything slightly complicated -- why you could plant some rice in that time!

Europe was better. Americans were kinder. Wall Street was far less ruthless. American govt. was less bureaucratic. There was no oppressive security presence. There was less of an economic gap between rich and middle class. Americans were less in denial and there was no illegal drug epidemic. You could get on a plane and not be met with surly service. Throughout Canada and the USA people could and often did leave their doors open. There were no ridiculous human rights tribunals in Canada. Even lawyers were less despised. We believed we would be better off than our parents. No Simon Cowell!! And so on.

[Tatsuo]

Cooperative? Well, sometimes. I guess your City Hall is better than mine! At mine, you had better have no morning plans for anything slightly complicated -- why you could plant some rice in that time!

Europe was better. Americans were kinder. Wall Street was far less ruthless. American govt. was less bureaucratic. There was no oppressive security presence. There was less of an economic gap between rich and middle class. Americans were less in denial and there was no illegal drug epidemic. You could get on a plane and not be met with surly service. Throughout Canada and the USA people could and often did leave their doors open. There were no ridiculous human rights tribunals in Canada. Even lawyers were less despised. We believed we would be better off than our parents. No Simon Cowell!! And so on.

Yeah, we had wars that killed over 30 million people in a couple of years and situations that brought human kind nearly to its end but you could leave your door open and the check at airports was not as strict. Oh my . . .


Gap between rich an middle class ?

gapgraph.jpg


The only thing that is missing today is a tool that gets rid of all those whiners, doomsayers and left-wingers.

[Tatsuo]

Americans were kinder.

Sure ?



kim-phuc.jpg