1.) While In Japan, I learned about a wide array of things that are different from the way we do things in America. Aside from the obvious, that being the public transportation system, the different cuisines and cultural norms, there was one thing that stood out to me the most. The sense of community, for better and for worse. Being in Japan, there are a lot of customs not necessarily communicated to foreigners, who are seen as unruly and sometimes even uneducated. This stems from the isolation Japan has been experiencing since it became a nation, and is mostly felt among the older population, who did not grow up with the “large” diversity now felt in some of Japan’s major cities. To highlight the difference in globalization that I felt while I was over there I will tell you about an experience I had that really left me dumbfounded. A friend I had made there, his name Morimoto, started talking to me one day, curious about why an American was at the train station. We communicated using Google Translate, and he explained to me that I was the first American he had seen at this gym in his entire life. While that was surprising, what came next really left me scratching my head. He asked about my genealogy, and where my ancestors were originally come from. I told him they were from Germany, Poland, and Britain, to which he asked if there were a lot of Jews in Germany, and if I was Jewish. I was a little confused, and so I asked him again what he meant by that and he clarified, stating that he thought Germany was mostly Jews. I corrected him, telling him that they are a minority in the country, and started wondering where he had gotten this information from. This incident really led me to understand just how isolated Japan and its people are from the rest of the outside world, and while this is getting better with the younger generation, highlights the old Japan that has been forgotten by the rest of the world.
2.) This experience is something that I think people in America would find hard to believe, as did I when first encountering it. As a very globalized and diverse society, we often are exposed to different cultures and national experiences, in a way that primes us to go abroad and experience new cultures and attitudes towards life. I was taken aback that someone could know so little about the outside world, but after more talking to him, I discovered he had lived in the prefecture of Hirakata for his entire life, something not uncommon for most people who have lived and grown up in Japan.
3.) Throughout my time in Japan, I met many different ages of people, and the gap between generations, from their knowledge to their height to even the way they speak. Looking at it now, I can understand the disconnect, as I understand the difference in experiences between the average Japanese person growing up in the 70’s and 80’s and the average American person growing up in that time.
4.) This helps me deepen my understanding of the world and its different knowledge bases from the point of approaching any situation with the fact in mind that many people do not come from the same background and thus will have a different level of knowledge entering any foreign situation.