Firefly in Japan

Right now, I am sitting in a Starbucks in Roppongi, the same building as the now imploded(?) LiveDoor. There was recently a big scandal as the likable and affectionately named Horiemon was found to have manipulated stock and performed some rather underhanded things in order to make some cash.

This is not the point of my blog post, however. Right now, there is a young Japanese lady sitting to my right. She is drinking a Starbucks coffee, and writing something in her diary, which is covered in stickers and purikura (google it!). She just did something mindlessly that just reminded me of the cultural gap between Japan and other countries.

She stood up, leaving her purse/bag/private belongings on the table. She stepped away from her seat, and went on a walk, presumably to the toilet. She took her time, and returned after about 7 or 8 minutes. The possibility that me, a dodgy looking gaijin (in a suit, however) would take her stuff, and calmly walk off, never seemed to enter her head. Despite the fact that everyone around me would be too polite to stop me from stealing this lady's belongings, and it would be even easier than taking candy from a baby (since a baby holds on, right? er, not that I know), she was not even slightly concerned about losing her stuff.

This is a theme I see repeated all over the place. I remember one particularly memorable occasion, when another lady with a very nice shiny NEW red porsche stopped outside a convenience store on a street behind a main road. This was not a terribly busy street, but still many people were walking along it. Now - I guess in order to save a bit of time, this lady left the engine running, and got out of the car, and went into the shop. I could have very easily opened the car down, sat down and smoothly driven off with my brand new red shiny porsche. However after lurking for about 10 seconds in the shadows, I decided against it and kept walking. Still, the implications here blew me away.

Recently at the office, a delivery person arrived to find that no-one was around. This person then left an expensive piece of intricate equipment sitting outside the front door. This piece of equipment happened to cost $2,500, and was a brand new model. When someone came back to find this device, they were shocked, and put the piece of equipment inside immediately. This was pretty incredible, and an extension of these examples. I couldn't help but muse that if this happened in America, the equipment would already have been found, opened, re-packaged and sold before anyone even got back.

Such a fascinating country full of all sorts of paradoxes and contradictions, but thats why I love it. Many people express surprise and shock at the many 'different' parts of Japanese culture, and sometimes even implore Japanese to change - however a clever person mentioned to me once that if Japan changed to the way some Westerners perceived as ideal, we would no longer find it fascinating and enjoyable.