Once more no big news.
Once again on Saturday I was hosted by my host-family (oh, clever play on words) and on Monday I was invited for a little party among friends. Including the, for Japan customary, joint cooking, eating and drinking and the subsequent visit to a Karaoke-bar, which are really everywhere in this country.
For people, who haven't seen the movie "Lost in Translation" with Bill Murray, Karaoke in Japan is not like at home. In Austria (Europe respectively) there are hardly any real Karaoke-bars and thus almost only "Karaoke-Nights" in clubs where you have to sing before the whole audience. Yet in real Karaoke one only goes with his friends in a separate room with the device, where you only hear each other and don't need to make a monkey out of yourself before strangers (except naturally if it's following a business meeting).
Of course last week was the damned Valentine's Day as well. For all those who might have missed it: I HATE THIS DAY! An artificially created commercial celebratory day on which you have to buy stuff, just so you can prove your love ... Let's be honest if I really need an invented randomly picked day of the year to show my Love what she means to me, well forget it, then I don't even deserve her.
Why do men actually always have to do something fancy and throw away lots of money? And why do us guys always try to outdo each other in the things we buy our girls, are we really that competitive? And why do women, who themselves want nothing to do with that nonsense, have to suffer through their female friends telling them what great things they got and asking them if their boyfriend really loves them if he doesn't give them a present?
Best part though: You don't even get a day off for this "holiday"! A friend wrote a spot-on article, which truly catches what I think about it.
For Valentine's Day Japan has really only came up with one tradition: The girls give chocolate to the boys. Although some couples do special stuff, it is rather rare and more or less only done by ones newly in love. I like that, it is not that extravagant and you have to do nothing as a man. Besides, although normally Japan likes kitschy stuff, for this day there is very few decoration and the like, understandable for such a limited custom.
And I won't tell if I got chocolate on Thursday.
Interesting (and funny) facts/opinions about Japan:
Today, we answer questions from our readers:
Where/ how often do Japanese go on vacation?
Families mostly do 1-day trips and naturally stay in Japan, whereas these trips are undertaken on traditional holidays. The majority of the Japanese travel during the so-called "Golden Week" in April, when several public holidays are falling on one week and many companies give their employees the whole week off. Almost always they go to domestic destinations, foreign ones are primarily Korea and the larger South-east Asian countries (Thailand, Malaysia, etc.) and because of cultural aspects Europe respectively.
Why are Vienna/ Salzburg are so interesting to Japanese (one at least gets the impression)?
Vienna and Salzburg are THE embodiment of European culture to Japanese with their buildings from the Emperor's era, like as well Berlin and the historic centre of Paris and Versailles respectively. These buildings and museums with their exhibits from the Middle Ages, Renaissance etc. correspond to their image of (old) Europe. In addition Salzburg of course is the birth place of Mozart (one of the few personalities from Europe almost everyone knows) and Vienna, as city of the Emperor with the corresponding symbols, has a certain recognition value, according to the motto: Yes, we have an Emperor as well.
Why do so many Japanese wear ("surgical") masks over their mouths, are they really that scared of germs (like Michael Jackson)?
For some this might be true and respectively, they sometimes put it on their children but with this question the Japanese politeness gets forgotten. Most wear the masks not when they are healthy and want to protect themselves but rather when they are sick, for they try to prevent distributing the viruses and of course do not want to infect anyone else (I believe that was also the original reasoning of M. Jackson, he did not want to infect his children. Yet the cultural naive Americans of course interpreted it as another lunacy :)
How much tip/ beer money is appropriate in Japan, and how much do people give on average?
Nothing. In Japan there is no tip, since it is considered self-evident, first and foremost by the owners of the establishments themselves, to offer good service. On the contrary, it could be considered impolite, since one could give the impression, that one did not expect good service and was surprised by it (of course foreigners are being forgiven for such faux-pas). If one wants to reciprocate, one can use a certain phrase: "It has been a feast", and/ or say thanks a few times when leaving, or the best version: Just come again (and maybe bring someone else along).
That is it for today's issue.
There are still some unanswered questions left, but next time then.
And since we hardly had any photos today: Things I ate lately, squid cut in stripes and
monkey brain
No, of course it's not monkey brain, but a little scare (out of disgust) for some readers just had to be (don't be mad ;)
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