How to amaze a Japanese!

• 29/07/2008 - 00:00
• Author: Ryuichi
• Japan
• 0 Comments
• Read in IT

So, are you planning to go on a trip to Japan? Would you like to hear those delightful screams of admiration from the Japanese girls in their little school-uniforms? If yes, you just need to know the 20 things that a foreigner can do to amaze a Japanese.

    

According to a poll from the WhatJapanThinks website, based on a sample of 1072 Japanese people's opinions, these are the 20 things that will positively astonish the Japanese person that sees a stranger doing them. The partecipants of this poll are 50% male and 50% women. 5.7% were in their teens, 12.9% were in their 20s, 31.8% in their 30s, 27.5% in their 40s, 11.3% in the venerable age of 50s and the 10.8% left were Ninja Masters™ over 60.

Q: What behaviour by foreigners in Japan surprises you? (Sample size=1,072)

    1     Writing difficult kanji: 100
    2     Bowing on the telephone: 88.1
    3     Using dialect: 86.0
    4     Speaking Japanese fluently: 82.5
    5     Using proverbs, idioms: 77.1
    6     Eating natto: 74.1

    7     Habitually using chopsticks: 68.2
    8     Getting drunk with tie tied around head: 64.3
    9     Using Japanese era dates, not Western calendar: 62.9
    10     Singing enka, folk songs: 61.0
    11     Passing through crowds with a "suimasen" and the one-handed chop: 58.9
    12     Sitting "seiza": 56.1
    13     Slurping noodles: 54.0
    14     Dancing a bon dance: 37.6
    15     Using a toothpick: 31.8
    16     After a bath drinking fruity milk with one hand on hip: 26.6

    17     Sleeping on a futon on the floor: 25.2
    18     Taking off shoes before going indoors: 24.3
    19     Wearing a kimono, yukata: 22.7
    20     Queueing properly: 20.1

Let's explain some points:

6) Natto (�豆) is a traditional Japanese food made from fermented soybeans, popular especially for breakfast.

11) A Japanese habit of sticking a hand out in front to break through a crowd, often seen as someone tries to pass down a train for instance. However, some foreigners have found that a bicycle bell works just as well.

12) Seiza 正座, is the traditional formal way of sitting in Japan.

14) Obon (�盆) or just Bon (盆) is a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the departed (deceased) spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people return to ancestral family places and visit and clean their ancestors' graves, and when the spirits of ancestors are supposed to revisit the household altars. Also called the Feast of Lanterns, it has been celebrated in Japan for more than 500 years and traditionally includes a dance, known as Bon-Odori.