🇯🇵 The Japanese habits we all should apply
I checked off one thing from my bucket list this year: a trip to Japan. There are some deeply rooted attitudes that I miss sincerely since I came home. A call to be more Japanese at times.
Japan. The remote country is a dream destination for many Europeans, including me. I wanted to go to Japan so severely due to my expectation of the fascinating tension between its similarities and differences to Western countries. Japan exceeded my expectations: there are so many traits the world should learn to follow. And some that it should ignore.
As a bonus, at the end, there’s a list of seven things you must see, visit, or experience.
Introduction
Japan was on my bucket list for a long time. I channelled my inner Tim Ferriss, so my girlfriend Anna and I planned our Japan trip earlier this year instead of waiting for a few more years. Yes, we robbed our bank accounts, and that’s ok.
Our goals were
exploring as much as possible,
visit the cities, and go see the mountains,
and eat Japanese pancakes.
We went for 20 days from Tokyo to Takayama, Hiroshima, Kyoto, and Osaka. Since we needed to gain more knowledge of Japan, we booked our trip through Tourlane (which is a travel agency that plans entire trips for you, including hotels and activities, if needed).
Our hotels were nice 3-star hotels, and we travelled solely by train and public transportation.
Japan itself was beautiful and weird at times. Some Japanese traits made our trip so memorable and that I miss just being in Berlin for roughly a week. I want to share them with you since I believe there’s much to learn.
Surprising positive habits uncommon in the west
1. Unmatched hospitality
The Japanese do everything to make us feel welcomed wherever we go.
The personnel is friendly, smiling, and welcoming in every type of restaurant and hotel. It seems that nothing can tire the Japanese. Without hesitation, we were welcomed warmly, even if we were clearly the only non-Japanese people in the place.
They go above and beyond to make the best of your experience. Anticipation is huge. They explain how to eat certain dishes or hand you more informative materials about where to go and what to do before you can even ask.
Staff accompanies you to the door when leaving, ensuring you have everything you need. They open the elevator doors for you, saying goodbye ten more times smiling on your way out.
Once, we were at a place where a particular dish was sold out for the day. So instead, the chefs provided us with alternatives they did not charge us for. While serving, they excused over and over again how sorry they were that the dish was sold out. Incredible.
I often felt terrible, knowing that when the Japanese visited Europe, nothing even remotely close would happen to them.
2. Gratitude and politeness
You will hear “Arigatō Gozaimasu” (sounds like “arigato zaimaaas” since most Japanese swallow vocals) the most. It translates well to “thank you”.
They thank you for being there for breakfast, and they thank you for going to your table. They thank you for entering their cab, and they thank you for everything with a smile. It’s a beautiful feeling to confront that much politeness and gratitude as a foreigner.
3. Passion and pride in everything
Cab drivers use gloves to keep their hands and car clean. The interior is clean, and the seats are covered in white seat covers. The driving style is calm and restrained. Something unimaginable in Berlin. In Japan, you actually like taking cabs.
While waiting at a bus stop to return to Katayama, the bus driver kneeled beside his vehicle and cleaned the rims even though he did not own it.
Cab and bus drivers are examples of the Japanese passion for everything they do.
Every profession or art is pursued with passion for what it is. No matter what they did, they dedicated their entire awareness to doing it correctly. It takes more time that way, but quality is always prioritised.
4. Clean cities, thanks to taking care of your own trash
Japanese cities barely have public trash bins, which takes time to get used to. You only find them next to vending machines, in some mini-marts, or public bathrooms. Instead, people carry trash around in small bags until they get home.
People look after themselves and barely leave anything behind. This leads to clean streets and cities. You have heard of the stories where the Japanese cleaned sports stadiums after events, and I can confirm that this is true for Japan.
Just be aware that when you leave your apartment or hotel, you carry a bag for trash. Otherwise, you will carry your coffee-to-go cup for 2 hours or more (yes, I did this multiple times).
5. Aesthetics, eye for detail, and structured flow
Visuals, in general, is a prominent Japanese topic. Cities are functional and aesthetically pleasing. This includes buildings, stores, fire escapes, food menus, people, how people dress, infrastructure, and more.
It’s different than what, for example, the Italians do. Whereas Italians love romantic and bold aesthetics, the Japanese are subtle, elegant, and clean. Don’t get it confused with “minimal”.
Japanese have an eye for detail. They know how to combine materials, textures, and colours very pleasantly. At the same time, it feels a lot being in a flow and less in a structure.
For example, in Europe, public gardens are often highly structured, with squared elements and straight pathways. In contrast, in Japan, pathways in public gardens were primarily curvy, not in a straight line, following no apparent logic. Still, it did not seem chaotic, just different. The public gardens were beautiful, cleanly structured and well-designed.
It’s best explained when European and Japanese examples are put aside:
Above: Highly non-academic and statistically irrelevant comparison of public gardens for the sake of argument. Japanese images taken by myself, European example from googling “European public garden”.
6. A soul can be found in everything: people, plants, objects and materials
In Tokyo, we visited an exhibition just about materials. At 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, “Material, or” was all about different types of materials, what they are being turned into, and how this alters an object’s characteristics and purpose, even though the material remains unaltered.
A process assigns a raw material with a new meaning through an object, which then becomes a medium through its relationship to people or other living things.
It’s a symptom of how Japan generally looks at objects and materials. In general, the appreciation is for the living systems, such as people, plants, or animals, as well as objects and “lifeless” constructs, such as buildings or cars.
This behaviour may be traced back to Shinto (“the way of the gods”), the leading spiritual movement before Buddhism was introduced in the 6th century C.E. It stems from a fascination with nature. Shinto implied that every mountain, stream, and impressive tree has a spirit. These kami were considered cheerful and friendly to humans. If kept satisfied, they then refrain from causing natural disasters.
This makes everyday life more enjoyable since everything has a soul and is being cared for.
More positive observations (7.-12.)
More positive traits are sufficient in mentioning them in a bullet list:
Large cities are surprisingly quiet and calm despite the vast amount of people.
People are precise.
People are honest: if you book a 60min massage, you get 60 minutes on the clock, not 50 minutes with 10 minutes of slacking.
You can wear anything you like and that’s ok; even a Pikachu costume.
Anything can be explained using animes.
Not speaking English does not stop people from helping you.
Surprising negative habits
Some Japanese behavior surprised as well in a negative way. Obviously, all these positive and negative ways are woven together. One may not work properly without the other.
That’s why it is important to know about them when discussing the positive traits. If being applied, they may come with negative consequences that one should be aware of.
1. Rules over reason
Japan has a particular way of doing things, and that’s the way it is. This may cause the Japanese to be in their own way sometimes.
Japanese stick to what they know is right even if more reasonable alternatives exist until a higher power (such as a more senior executive or a policeman) tells otherwise.
This results in a waste of time due to overcomplicated and interrupted processes.
For example, we took a bus back to our hotel when our bus driver got into an accident. We got an alternative bus to continue our journey, but we could only leave once someone let us go, even though there was no reason to stay.
The bus driver could not leave until his superior let him…
…the superior did not let the bus driver go because the police did not…
…and police did not know what to do since they were awaiting an order update.
Even though everything was cleared (the road was clean, police recorded the accident, ambulances had provided first aid to injured passengers), we sat for hours before the bus was let go.
There were several occasions where everybody would have been better off applying an alternative to the standard process, but this is something the Japanese don’t do.
2. Hypocrisy of appreciating and mutilating nature
There is a Japanese hypocrisy in respecting nature while mutilating it.
For one, the protection of and gratitude for nature is embedded in culture and religion.
Also, Japan runs 5.5 million vending machines in public that heat and cool drinks simultaneously, requiring vast amounts of energy. That makes one vending machine for 23 people living in Japan. I’m no expert in people-vending-machine-ratios, but that seems a lot close to the border of unnecessary, nonetheless.
Scenic views are utterly disturbed by large concrete buildings built into hills where there should be nothing but trees. Some beaches and seasides are plastered with concrete high-rise buildings.
For example, you will see a sizable disturbing building on the other side of the water when you visit the Itsukushima Shinto shrine in Hiroshima. It’s one of Japan’s most impressive sights to visit, and in the background, there’s this vast and undoubting ugly building (the Umi-Mori Art Museum). It’s mind-boggling how any administrator has ever signed off on this design.
View from the Itsukushima Shinto shrine with the Umi-Mori museum in the background, plus selected hilarious comments from people on Google who never visited the museum but are just outraged by its presence.
It’s a symptom, with no apparent trace of origin reasons that I know of.
More negative traits (3.-7.)
More negative traits are sufficient in mentioning them in a bullet list:
Every space is low and small.
People like to queue up.
The emphasis on consumerism is insane.
While being pioneers in hybrid cars, the electrification of transportation came to a halt after the Toyota Prius.
Adaptation of paying by phone is surprisingly low.
There is a surprising need for more activities available in nature.
Some takeaways I will apply in the future
Our Japan trip has been impressive on many levels. I want to apply some traits in my daily life after returning to Germany.
Be friendly and gentle everywhere, to everyone
It’s such a great feeling to be treated nicely with a smile on your face, no matter who you are. I will also try to bring this feeling to others wherever I go because it takes little effort.Show appreciation for more than just people
It was inspiring to see how the Japanese treated all of their possessions. They took responsibility for everything they owned and interacted with. I want to do more of that and appreciate things more profoundly than I did before.Care more for details
The value can be in the small things. Those that others may overlook and that are potentially realised on a subconscious level. Small details can be as impressive as the more significant, flashy things.Go with passion and let go of expectations
I will start doing everything I do with more passion if I do it. I was impressed by the Japanese’s passion for what they did, even for the more minor things. They did not do it to become famous or rich. It felt that they did it for themselves, that the passion and results were sufficiently satisfying.
The bonus
Yes, go book a trip to Japan. Here are some tips on where to go:
Mixology Salon in Tokyo - best bar I’ve ever been
Get an egg sandwich at any Family Mart or 7-Eleven
Have dinner at Uyū Restaurant in Tokyo
Hike (parts of) the Kyoto trail outside of Kyoto without tourists and appreciate the undisturbed views
After, visit the Kyoto Gion Saryo Café in Kyoto
Visit the Super Nintendo World in Universal Studios, Japan
And a final unannounced bonus: some more pictures from our trip.
