Cultural differences

Wednesday’s update: Nothing special. Had 2 courses, revised my blog entries a little. Oh, right, by the way, I noticed that the café-buffet below my favourite spot at campus to hang on my laptop was open, so I decided to try it out. An expresso (or long coffee) for €0,40. Now, this must be subsidised, too. I asked for an expresso and a caramel cookie and it cost me €1. Please, allow me to show you this one pic of my post tea time meal since I haven’t uploaded any food related pics recently.

Thursday’s update: At home I chatted with a half Japanese, half German girl (by the way, only to be clear, whenever I say that I chatted I mean that I chatted with someone in person. Come on guys, I would never write about some online chatting! Well, only if it’s really really really worth mentioning).

As she was cooking I initiated the topic of the behavioural and cultural differences between the Western world and Japan as I wanted to confirm things I have read in a book during writing my bachelor thesis (the topic was the capitalism model of Japan). Since she is half German she should have experienced the differences and this was indeed the case.

Some examples for the differences: It is considered a challenging act to constantly look into the eyes of the other person in Japan while in the West it is a way to express paying attention to the other person. In Japan having a big smile can mean being embarrassed about something while in the West it's an expression of happiness or pleasure. In Japan people sleep on mattresses that can be folded and stored away during the day to have room for other activities in the same room. The floor in those rooms is softer so the thin mattress is no hindrance to comfort. In the West people sleep on big mattresses on a bed frame. Those take up quite much place.

In the evening I met my student mentor. I haven’t really exhausted him by asking for his help yet (actually, I haven’t asked him anything) but at least I met him now. He’s celebrating his birthday tomorrow and he invited me to come over. Yay! I wonder what I should bring.