the random oracle

One big contrast in the cultures I’ve seen this summer is the level of politeness among strangers.  People in Thailand and Japan are infinitely more polite than in China; you are greeted with a welcome whenever you enter a store and are thanked profusely for your patronage.  In China you sometimes feel like you’re bothering the store clerk when you check out!

On the other hand, this politeness comes from two different roots.  In Thailand it seems that people really are warm and friendly and go out of their way to help others, especially foreigners.  JJL made a whole bunch of friends (as did JM in her excursion out into the Thai Amazon), who all were genuinely nice and friendly, like OC.  But it seems that in Japan the politeness is much more reserved and formal.  I’ve heard many people complain that the Japanese are hard to get to know, and they keep their distance, often too much.  I personally like the fact that I’m not hassled in stores to buy things, but I could see how after living here too long you could feel very isolated from society.

The one instance in Japan where I saw someone lose their decorum was when I went with AD to an onsen (温泉) in Kyoto.  An onsen is a bath-house (a legitimate one, mind you!) where the water bubbles out from the ground and is pumped into various tubs for your soaking pleasure.  In the onsen I had to use the bathroom, and in the bathroom there was a pair of sandals.  So I stepped into the sandals in the bathroom, but forgot to take them out when I left.  I ended up inside the onsen with these slippers, and I realized that this was probably a no-no and I should return them.  Before I got the chance, the boss came through the onsen collecting trash and saw my crime.  And boy did she get pissed!  She said something to me in Japanese very angrily, something about a Toi-ru (toilet), and hussled out with the slippers.  Now if you paid attention you’ll notice also that I said “she”: the boss was a 60-year-old lady and she waltzed right into the men’s side where everyone was naked without even blinking an eye!  I guess no one else paid notice but both AD and I were kind of shocked that they wouldn’t send a male employee to take care of the men’s side.

Anyway, going back to the whole politeness thing, anyone who’s visited China will certainly agree with me that the Chinese are not very polite in public.  However, in their defense they are also much more curious and out-going than the Japanese.  People in China will stop foreigners and practice their English, or ask to take pictures, or compliment them on their Chinese, all without hesitation.  That’s something that people have told me never happens in Japan.