6-month update

Well, this is a little embarrassing because I’ve had a couple of drafts lined up that I’ve written over the past few months but never got around to finishing or publishing. But, I think a 6-month update is a good opportunity to take a moment to not confine myself to recounting things I’ve done with detail and accuracy (I don’t know why I felt the need to do that in the first place, and I suspect it’s one of the reasons why I struggle to publish posts), but rather reflect on my impressions of Japan and Japanese culture that have changed since I moved here, and more broadly the process of moving to a new country and also being (sort-of) unemployed.

The main thing that keeps popping into my head is that Japan is really good at marketing. I’m not referring to Japanese companies and their advertisements, I truly mean Japan as a country has managed to create a global image that it is an amazing place with delicious food, beautiful aesthetics, amazing infrastructure, etc. I’m not saying it’s not true, and as a caveat I know very little about luxury brands, but it does really remind me of a luxury brand. Luxury brands are typically developed through a combination of genuinely good design, craftsmanship, and marketing. But because they are luxury goods, they are not accessible to most people and thus tied closely with exclusivity. The brand’s loyal fans will consume and celebrate their products, typically because they are good, but even if another company were to create an identical product, people will prefer the brand they are loyal to and may even make justifications about why the brand’s product is superior (even if it isn’t). But it’s not necessarily performative, loyal fans do genuinely believe that their brand is superior, which colors their perspective on those products. This is very normal of course and doesn’t just apply to luxury brands, people have preferences and biases, that’s basic human psychology. But, due to the exclusive nature of luxury brands, people who do not consume it don’t actually have any way to verify claims made by existing fans, and thus an air of mystery is created. This mystery can lead to a strong desire (“I hope to save enough money to buy a [insert brand + item name here] one day”), and, once that life goal is achieved, even if the product itself wasn’t really worth many years of savings (it could be good, just not that good), the person in possession of this product is now encouraged to hype up the product and brand in order to justify their purchase. All this to say, luxury brands create impressions in people’s minds that are greater than the brand or its products.

I don’t know if this is an intentional strategy by Japan to attract more tourists, but Japan does have a lot of really nice things going for it. The food is great, daily life has a lot more conveniences compared to the US, and Japanese aesthetics (both traditional and modern) are really beautiful. And on top of that, it is pretty exclusive - it’s an island nation very far from the Western world, so you have to book a flight and take a long vacation just to make it here, making it financially inaccessible for the vast majority of people. Statistics indicate that only 2-8% of the population speaks English fluently, and the language that people do speak here isn’t spoken by anyone else in the world, so chances are that once you do get here, much of it will still be inaccessible and mysterious. Cultural differences are magnified and examples that reinforce people’s impressions of the country are further emphasized, widening the gap in people’s minds about their own culture versus Japanese culture.

Hi, it’s me. I’ve had a deep internalized positive impression (I wouldn’t go as far as to call it an unhealthy obsession) of the country, i.e. consider me a loyal fan of the luxury brand, Japan. There were so many things that drew me here initially (of course I also knew about things to be cautious of), and visit after visit kept confirming those impressions. Every time an experience didn’t live up to expectations, I’d even chalk it up to my own ignorance of the language or culture, or even beyond that, acknowledging that there will always be a layer of xenophobia and that Japanese people are able to live the nearly perfect life I’ve always envisioned.

What I’ve come to identify as wrong with my thought process is not that Japan is not perfect (I knew that it wasn’t, I wasn’t that delusional), but that I’ve been trying to separate Japan with other cultures too much in my mind. We’re all people, we all live in a society, and just like how there are more genetic differences within a race than between them, there is definitely a greater spectrum of personalities and beliefs in Japan than the average in Japan versus the average in the US. The average is different though, and you can definitely feel it - people on average are just a little bit more mindful of their surroundings, just shove a little bit less in crowds, are a little bit more polite to strangers, are a little bit quieter and cleaner. Japanese companies are a little bit less capitalistic (fewer sneaky marketing tactics) and tradition tends to trump innovation. And most of all, what made this realization so difficult, is that there are fewer exceptions to the norm, meaning the standard deviation within Japanese society is smaller than that of the US. Japan is very homogenous, whereas the US might be the most heterogeneous country in the world. So I got pretty used to the “average” behavior in Japan, whereas you can’t really do that in the US - the variance between people you might encounter is just so high you always have to be on guard for the extreme ends of the spectrum all the time. But, my mistake was being surprised by exceptions in Japan, and taking them really seriously. Experiences such as facing a grumpy service worker (they are usually over-the-top polite) or having an unpleasant encounter with a stranger would have cast severe concern initially, making me think, “I’m the odd one out here, what did I do wrong?” But now I’m more relaxed. Even if I am the odd one out, as long as I’m trying my best to be considerate, I don’t need to overthink it - there are always going to be exceptions and bad apples out there, and though it might make my day a bit worse, that’s their problem, not mine. I think I have a good enough grasp on the “average” behavior now that I know I fall within it, even if it isn’t necessarily spot on. I’ve been out with Japanese friends and they’ve been super loud - that doesn’t mean be suddenly you can be super loud all the time, but you don’t need to feel guilty for just being yourself as long as you are respectful of what the norm and expectations are.

I guess I ended up combining two thoughts into one here: one is that Japan is good but overhyped (e.g. Japanese food is delicious but mostly just normal good, not mind-blowing mouth-watering like I see in videos), and the second is more of a lesson for me in moving to Japan/a new country and the process of getting used to living here. I’ve got a lot more thoughts I want to share, but in the spirit of writing less and posting more, I’ll end this one here :)