- First Impression of Japan -

The first impression from a foreign place is never the real one. We always arrive somewhere with some expectations, sometimes better than it is sometimes worse, but we just know after experiencing that.

For instance a foreigner who just moved to an oriental place, the culture shock, probably will be bigger than if he had just moved from some place which the culture is more similar as his culture, but at the same time he already knows that would be bigger shock, and so he would be expecting more differences from his country, but anyway he is not free from, maybe, get the first impressions wrong. Japan is for sure, one of the most interesting countries in the whole planet. The most fascinating culture, with the uncomprehended language and with the most traditional costoms, with the highest technology, and has made the adaptation here be really amusing and at the same time really hard.

The japanese people are really contradictory. They are always thinking highly of their “body” health and their preservation, like the way they use face mask to protect them from the pollution or against other sickness. They never think about their mental health. Wherever you go, you can see all the Japanese connected and obsessed about their electronic machines, for example their cellphones. They are always so connected with the unreal world, the visual pollution twenty four hours per day; in the subways, in the waiting lines, in the restaurants, in the amusement parks, in their ceremonies and in their schools. How healthy can they be, being like that?

They are also really contradictory because when you see a really advanced place, with the highest technology in the world, and people still live in so many traditional, rigid and old fashioned customs it is a huge shock. When you catch in the streets geishas with their traditional clothes with their high technology cellphones or you find a typical shop of traditional Japanese products handmade, with the owner on the cashier in the middle of a big commercial center with lots of eletronics billabongs and visual advertisements.

When we have chosen to live in a country like Japan, with such different customs , there are no doubts that we are going to gain so much life expirience and apprenticeship that we are going to take for the rest of our lives but we also need to be open minded since the real beginning, we need to be brave and we need to be bold.