Today, the Japanese islands have become one of the most popular tourist destinations. The state surprises and beckons with its cultural traditions, way of life, nature, historical monuments and great modernity. At the same time, Japan remains something outlandish and little-known, and therefore surrounded by dozens of myths of varying degrees of truthfulness and reliability. We'll talk about some of them right now.
In Japan, everyone speaks a little English
It is generally accepted that the Japanese speak English well, but this is not so: the level of globalization even in Tokyo is very low, the inhabitants of the Land of the Rising Sun prefer their native language to universal English. At best, they can understand a few dozen phrases from the tourist dictionary for any occasion.
In fact, in terms of foreign language proficiency, despite hospitality and goodwill, Japan is in one of the last places. Although young people in large cities are likely to be able to connect more than a couple of words in the language of Byron and Shakespeare.
In Japan, they sleep and eat on the floor
Life in traditional Japanese dwellings for the most part is a thing of the past, it has remained the lot of a few conservatives and is much more common in movies than in reality. The places of futon and low heated tables have long been occupied by comfortable sofas and beds, and chairs have firmly taken the place of reed mats.
However, if you wish, you can always go to a deep province or look for an ethnic village, where for a lot of money you will get the opportunity to spend the night as a medieval Japanese.
Tokyo is the largest city in the world
The metropolitan area of greater Tokyo includes several dozen cities around the capital and has almost 40 million inhabitants. If we limit ourselves to the concept of Tokyo as an administrative unit, their number will be reduced to 15 million people. At the same time, Tokyo is not only the largest, but also the safest, and more importantly, the city of the world that is expensive in terms of life and recreation.
Japanese script - Chinese
Strictly speaking, the Japanese alphabet does derive from Chinese; however, this separation happened several hundred years ago, and since then languages have undergone a serious evolution, both natural and imposed from the outside, by administrative methods (in China, for example, in the mid-50s of the XX century, the writing reform took place).
In addition, the symbols of the alphabets have, with similar graphics, different sounds.
In fact, the Japanese alphabet consists of three sets of characters - katakana, hiragana and kanji. The first two were created right there, and only the last one was brought from China. Interestingly, a Japanese language learner cannot limit himself to one or two: to read in this language, you need to learn all three.
Japan is an expensive country
Price tags in stores will not let you lie: living in Japan is very expensive, even despite the many options to save on overhead costs or food, it will not work here for a long time with a modest budget. This is due to the fact that Japan is a paradise of overconsumption, and temptations await residents and visitors of the country at every turn.
Although the salary here is also not bad, and a person who has done a nice job is unlikely to experience difficulties with the quality and cost of living.
Japan is a safe country
This is true: Tokyo is located on the 3-4th line in the list of the safest megacities in the world, and Osaka is located on the line above. There is still crime here, but its background level is much less than the European and even more so American, and adjusted for population density, violators of the law are extremely rare. In addition to the traditions of law-abidingness, scientific and technological progress is to blame: countless video surveillance and security systems, alarm systems, complete with fifty thousand kobans (miniature police stations) make it possible for women to walk after sunset and children's games in the open yard.
In Japan, they eat raw fish and some strange things
Of course, cockroaches and bugs, snakes and other flying insects are not eaten here, but in terms of the strange menu, Japan can give anyone five hundred handicap points. Here they eat raw and even almost live fish, as well as products that have undergone fermentation (something that we would have thrown away without talking as hopelessly lost).
On the other hand, it is not necessary to pay tribute to the national cuisine: in our time of universalism and globalization, you can find a restaurant with Italian, French or less shocking Pan-Asian cuisine - and eat exclusively there. No one will judge, especially since it is quite affordable and inexpensive.
The Japanese are racists
It is certainly not customary to talk about this, but foreigners in the Land of the Rising Sun will always remain strangers, even if they learn Japanese at least twenty times and get a local wife. All the same: you need to be prepared for uncomfortable questions about the place of origin, the reasons for staying here, as well as the constant enthusiasm about how you - gaijin - managed to learn such a complex language so well.
There are also examples of reverse discrimination. So, Europeans are much more willing to take teachers of foreign languages in Japan than their fellow tribesmen or Koreans, Chinese and inhabitants of other South Asian countries. It is believed (and not without reason, at least judging by China) that it is almost pointless to learn English or French from the locals.
At the same time, there is no analogue of our skinheads or European fascists here, the most radical manifestation of political nationalism is reduced only to demands to return the disputed territories (Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, some islands controlled by the United States and China).
There are always earthquakes in Japan
This thesis is rather true - every year in the country there are hundreds, if not thousands of tremors. However, most of it you will never feel, so small is the amplitude of oscillations and the strength of the shocks.
On the other hand, 2-3 times a year it shakes quite noticeably, and there are also strong and powerful earthquakes with human casualties. At the same time, natural disasters should not scare you away and force you to abandon the idea of visiting Japan: everything here is equipped in case of the possibility of a push, the inhabitants of the country know how to behave from a young age, and all houses in large cities are protected from seismic activity.
Japan is at the forefront of technology
This is true, but one should not be deceived by the fact that robots walk the streets of Japanese cities, and the pockets of the average inhabitant of Tokyo, Kyoto or Osaka are full of strange devices with amazing functionality. Rather, they may be there, but this happens no more often than among Europeans or Americans.
Innovations here do not interfere with preserving traditions and living according to the algorithms laid down in the 80s of the last century, or even much earlier.
The Japanese work too hard
Japan has a fairly high unemployment rate, so the average Japanese is very loyal to his firm; There is even a stable expression "corporate samurai". At the same time, complex hierarchical structures, slow career advancement and systemic processing make the inhabitants of the Japanese islands not the most successful and effective employees.
While for many, work plays an extremely important role, often replacing family and home, so white-collar office workers are often overworked, staying at the workplace to finish something, as well as sitting with colleagues after a hard day - and yes, talking about how well they work and what they have to do tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, that week ...
All this comes at a price. Many office workers suffer from stress, they are unhappy, because they see that life passes by. Therefore, Japan has a very high suicide rate among people of working age.
