Japanese characteristics -1 (Lin Te Kuan)

Living in Japan for longer time, I start to find out some characteristics about
Japanese that I found really cool and interesting. And I believe there are some
important characteristics that foreigners should be care of in order to avoid some
unneeded troubles.

Japanese are generally small. This is not discrimination. I mean Japanese usually
have small bones and body shape. When I came to Japan, I was really surprised that
Japanese are in general smaller than other Asian people. I don’t mean they are
shorter, just smaller. So if anyone wants to buy pants in Japan, be aware of the size!
And as a consequence, I found it hard for me to buy shoes in Japan because my feet
are big but Japanese girls are tiny! Of course foreigners can still buy clothes and
shoes in Japan, but as a recommendation, if you need to wear big size things, bring
them to Japan at first. Because it really takes time to find suitable size for big people.
Not only for chubby people but also for tall people too!
Japanese are also traditional. They care about the way of treating people who
are older than you. Even in school this is important. So there are two types of
Japanese language also, one is polite form, the other is plain form. It is really vital to
use the right form in Japan. Though using it wrong Japanese won’t blame people
directly, they remember it in their minds. Despite the fact that more and more
people abandon the polite form in their languages, for example, there are a lot of
Chinese expressions not being used now because it is out of fashion and people
start to talk to everyone in the same way, it is still essential for Japanese. Thus if not
sure, use polite form to everyone is the safest way.
The other way of being traditional is that Japanese still take marriage as a plan
in their lives. There are a lot of women in Taiwan don’t want to get married or have
children. But in Japan, women still see marriage as a part of life that can’t be taken
off. A lot of Japanese friends of mine were really stoned when I told them I didn’t
want to get married. They couldn’t understand my thought because they thought
marriage was the most important thing in a woman’s life and having children was
really sweet and wonderful. They also thought that not getting married meant being
lonely for whole life. Nevertheless I don’t really agree with their idea, I understand
that is just traditional way of thinking. Though people say that in urban areas women
started to concentrate on work instead of marriage, the proportion of not wanting
marriage Japanese women is still less than people in other countries (Taiwan,
America, Italy for example.)
Japanese are really special and different from other people. So it is better know
more about Japan before coming!