>>8023579I've never been to the US and am a euroman, so can't say what it's like from your perspective, but as much as I like my own very old culture, Japan has this whole thing with keeing the tradition without shirking away from progress
I guess I'll list a few things
- people's politeness/Consideration for others
Try to find people queuing to enter a train during the holidays here, french people crowd in front of the doors like retards and you have to play elbows and shoulders to go through, even when getting out
its the same when going shopping, a cash-out lane opens? people rush to it without caring for who was before; in Japan they just shift the queue without having to be asked, for trains, same thing, you know where the doors gonna be so you stand there and form a queue, train arrives, you get in, if it's incredibly full, people dont panick and rush in, the staff helps tetris you in there
- Preservation of national treasures
It is common to find shrines, temples, forests, gardens, that have been taken care of for 500 or 1300 years
I know of churches that old in France, visited a few, I love the stuff, but they're not respected and taken care of on the same level as the japanese's spiritual places are
The whole feel of those places is simply magical, they speak to me, and I want to see and photograph more.
- Food
Pretty much all my favourite food comes from Japan, if I had to live there I'd miss good pizza and tartiflette and other cheeses, but they make up for it in plenty of other areas, notably local specialties, every region if not every town has one, and it's always great
It's also one of the few countries where normal working people can save up enough to buy a house, that hope is dead for me in France, at least not without a hefty loan I'd rather not take
To make it short, I feel comfortable there.
Maybe it's the 'tism I may or may not have, maybe it's what I listed, but the result is that I always want to go back.
